Displeasure [Open]

[Autumn Buckland]

"- And they're all just freaks anyway. Eddie got attacked by one of them. Some stupid bitch punched him after he ragged on some weird guy making trees dance."

"I heard they're contagious, if you spend too much time with them you become a freak just like them."

Autumn's nose wrinkled up, freckles creasing in half as she listened in, one hand curled into a fist beside her. They had to be talking about Eric. She chewed on her lower lip a few times, remembering what James had told her about being too quick to act.

"Bet she's one of them. Who the hell doesn't wear shoes? Her feet look disgusting."

"Probably set fire to them or something. Dumb bitch."

The redhead counted to five, very slowly in her head, her green eyes fixed on her target. They continued to gossip and mock her even as they walked past, their voices rising over the steady count in her head. Her toes twitched against the cold mall floor, then she leapt up, stalking after the two girls in their pretty clothes she could never dream of affording. The girls that were now talking about another meta and laughing at how "pathetic" they all were.

Part of her knew the talk was based on fear - fear of what they didn't understand. The other part was thoroughly blazing, and the girl slipped through the crowds, ducking under an extended arm before pouncing, legs flailing into the two girls.

"You think I'm dumb?" She hissed, biting back on her tongue as she continued to hit mercilessly. "You think Eric deserved being hit? I hope a triffid grows out of the ground and eats you, slowly melting you in it's digestive juices as you scramble and try to get out." Autumn's voice was loud, and she continued to flail, only stopping when the security guard pulled her away.

A small lecture later, and she sat, face burning with anger by the mall's fountain, heart thudding in her head.

How dare they how dare they how dare they. Her thoughts whizzed angrily around in her head, expression grim. As she became more and more unhappy, one of the little decorative pot plants began to grow in monsterous size. Autumn was too angry to notice. All she could hear was those horrid, horrid girls chattering, and how much she'd like to pull their heads off like they probably pulled the heads off flowers.

[Jared Park]

The mall has always been a fun place for Jared. Sure it wasn’t as big as the ones he grew up with but they have that cozy, homey feel that large, urban-situated malls don’t so it’s a reasonable trade-off, at least in his opinion. And besides, the small size means less there are fewer shops, which means he won’t be spending much on clothes and anything relatively ‘non-valuable’ (at least in his thrifty budget-conscious siblings’ eyes). Heaven knows how much he’ll spend now that his older siblings aren’t around to nag him much.

And while budgeting was hard during the first few months, after a few flops here and there – there was a week when he had to rely on Robbie and Phoebe’s dorm-stock for meals, which was really embarrassing – he’s learned how to properly delegate his spending. With his brother’s help, he’s toned himself down to only two shopping sprees every month. And he was currently in one of his two splurges treats when he saw a familiar redhead being whisked away by a couple of mall guards.

Bugged by his conscience (seeing that it was a schoolmate they’re dragging away), he promptly followed the redhead (and her consorts), trying to be as stealthy as possible (while he could easily hide from the security cameras, he’s not sure his tall and lanky frame could be hidden as easily from human eyes). He waited until she was finally out of the mall’s office from a distance, and when he saw her downcast face, he just felt like he needed to do something. She was Eric’s girlfriend after all, he feels like he should do something.

“Autumn, am I right?” he asked, handing her a cone of ice cream. He wasn’t sure if he was allowed to call her ‘Autie’ – it may be Eric’s pet name for her and all that – so he just went with her full name, just to be safe. “You ok?” He laughed slightly when he realized that he might look a bit too creepy than usual. “I’m not sure if you know me, but I’m Eric’s friend, Jared. Hopefully they didn’t do anything bad to you.”

[Catherine Novella]

Cat was not a frequent person to attend the mall but on the rare occasions that she was there she could be found in the book store. She had made friends with the owner. It was not anything big like Barnes and Noble but it was small and privately owned. Just the sort of place Cat liked.

So it was that Cat had made her way to the mall that day as she needed to pick up some new books that she had ordered. They had finally come in and were waiting for her. Cat put on some jeans and a tee shirt and tied her hair back. Sticking on her glasses she made her way to the mall. Grabbing her wallet and her purse she finally got to the mall. She was on her way to the book store when she saw a small red haired, very angry person talking to the a security guard. She knew there must be a reason for her roommate to be talking to the security guards. She was a nice enough girl, Cat just had not gotten to know her all that well other then when Cat was moving some books around.

Cat had seen the guard take the girl away.. Wait her name was Autumn right? She saw the two girls, who frankly looked like witches laughing as she was taken away. Cat walked up to them. Without a word she sat down at the table. “she’s right you know. You should not judge us until you know us.” with those simple words Cat got up and walked over to Autumn. It seems she was talking to someone else Cat did not know. Shaking her head cat went up to the counter and ordered some water. Oh well her books could wait for another time. Cat brought the water bottles over to the two people, “Autumn right? I’m your roommate, well one of them anyway. Catherine? I moved some books out of your room.”

Cat shook her head. People like that made her mad. They didn’t have to deal with the problems that came along with being a meta. Yet they judged them. Cat hated people who judged others. To her it was one of the worse things someone could do. She shook her head in frustration. “ You did not get into too much trouble did you?” Cat handed Autumn a water bottle and offered one to the other person standing there. “ You yourself were complete in the right. You did nothing wrong and should get in no trouble if anything those girls should be the ones getting in trouble.”

[Autumn Buckland]

Autumn was still steaming when she heard someone else's voice. Her eyes were fixed on the ground even as her name was called, and it was only when two people made their presence known that the redhead moved, blinking in surprise. An ice cream and a bottle of water? Taking the items slowly, she eyed the two with suspicion for just a moment, then stuck out a hand to shake awkwardly, a small smile on her face.

"Yes, I'm Autumn." She said, her voice warming quickly. "Where did you two spring from? It's like I watered a patch of grass and two flowers sprang up to fight off the weeds." Her eyes sparkled brightly, and she licked at the icecream with a little shiver. "I'm not entirely sure why I get icecream and water, but thank you." Running her hand through her messy bushel of hair, she shrugged her shoulders and patted the stone beside her.

"Jared." She repeated to herself thoughtfully, before looking over at Cat with a flicker of remembrance. "Oh yes! I know you. You have the large collection of dead trees with words on." She wrinkled her nose slightly, then swung her legs. She still wasn't entirely sure why the two fellow Hammelites had come over till Cat mentioned the girls. Her eyes narrowed sharply, and then she let out a triumphant smirk, rummaging in her dress pocket and pulling out a straggle of blonde weave. She dangled it between forefinger and thumb, before laughing a little.

"Just a telling off." The redhead reassured them both, tucking the hair back in her pocket. "They deserved it anyway, horrid little things." Her nose wrinkled again, then she lapped at the icecream, her mood clearly improved. "They were insulting Eric. And other metas. It was horrible, I had to do something and my body decided it would be a kicking." Autumn fidgeted a moment, if only because she knew what her mother would say. "They also said I had disgusting feet. I like my feet." She nodded assertively, before offering a bow of the head.

"Thank you for worrying though. And for the icecream and water."

[Jared Park]

Jared chuckled slightly at AutieAutumn’s analogy. It was a really unique one, something he’d never really think up on his own. (It took him a while to process her statement as a compliment; he accidentally interchanged flower and weed when he first heard it). He did blush a bit when asked about why he was suddenly giving her ice cream; at least he remembered to give her his name, else he would’ve looked like an absolute creeper. “Ice cream always makes me feel better,” he nodded, taking a lick off his own cone, “I just hope I got you the right flavor. Eric never really mentioned what your likes are.” Well, Eric hardly mentions anything about Autumn at all (except for the fact that she exists), and while he doesn’t blame the boy, he figured Autumn didn’t need to know that.

When the other girl came and gave him a bottle of water though, he felt a little embarrassed. He didn’t really know she was coming, so he only had his and Autumn’s cone. “Oh, I’m sorry, Catherine,” he asked meekly as he bit his lip, “Would you like me to buy you a cone too?”

The lone boy remained standing despite seeing Autumn pat the stone beside her. For all he knows, she may be sending that signal to Cat, not him. And besides, chivalry is one of the things his older brother tried hard to incorporate in his system. (He did raise an eyebrow at Cat, hoping she’d him telling her to go and sit beside the redhead).

He laughed a bit when Autie said something about dead trees with ink (he hoped he was right in assuming that was her way of saying ‘books’) but was a little shocked when he saw her holding a strand of hair on her fingers, with an incredibly amused facial expression to beat. Eric should be careful. Be very careful, thought the boy, and made a mental note to warn his friend about crossing his girlfriend.

“Is that what they did? They should’ve been the ones told off, not you.” Though he himself wouldn’t resort to such an action (he was just too frail and lanky to hurt anyone), he could somehow see why Autumn did such a thing. “Pfft. They’re probably just too jealous of your nails, that’s why. Betcha they have ginger-like fingers and all that underneath their shoes.”

[Catherine Novella]

Cat nodded when she heard the girl recognize her. She laughed a bit at the analogy the girl had used. It was certainty creative. Cat had not really gotten a chance to know Autumn, but she figured now would be as good a time as any. She nodded to the boy who had introduced himself as Jared. When Autumn compared her books to dead trees she was sort of lost for words. In a sense they were, but to her they were books. Not a dead tree with words on it. Cat shook her head slightly. “You get water from me cause you looked really red and water always clears ones brain.”

Cat heard the boy offer to buy her ice cream. Shaking her head with a smile she said “ I’m ok. Save your money. Besides. I have water I’m good.” It was nice of him to offer but Cat was ok. When she saw Autumn pat the seat she was not sure if she should sit there. After all Jared, that was his name, was there first. She was going to ask if he wanted to sit there but when she looked over he was raising an eyebrow at her and nodding towards the seat. Smiling Cat sat down next to Autumn.

Cat was a bit put off when Autumn pulled out a lock of one of the girls hair. Not that they did not deserve whatever horrid punishment Autumn would enact on them, but Cat felt she had a moral responsibility to tell Autumn not to be careful. “Have fun with that. Just be careful ok?” Cat smiled at autumn to show she meant no harm, just was warning her.

Cat waited and listened to Autumn’s side of the story. She did not want to make her own involvement known, but she listened to the girl anyways. “They don’t even know us yet they insult us. How hypocritical.” Cat shook her head with a frown. “ Your feet are fine. I don’t see anything wrong with them, besides with their feet shoved into those ridiculously high heels their feet will end up horrendous and will probably hurt like nothing else.” Cat smiled. “ don’t mention. That is what friends are for. Worrying and all that. Besides. Ice cream and Water is an excellent combination if I do say so myself.”

[Autumn Buckland]

Autumn blinked rather slowly as the pair of them dawdled over who was going to sit down. "Goodness, sit down, both of you!" She said huffily, nibbling the cone of the icecream and wiggling her toes. "I don't get icecream very often. I like all flavours." She added simply, thinking of the last time she had even had icecream. It had been when the Bucklands had been near the seaside for the summer, and her father had given her a treat for selling a large amount of bracelets. Just a single scoop of vanilla icecream in a cone with a flake sticking out. She'd loved it.

"Don't worry, I'm not in the habit of jumping into fights." The redhead declared, waving off any concern from both parties. "I just couldn't ignore them." She tutted, partly to herself, then stroked the bracelet on her wrist in thought. "Especially about Eric." She flushed a little. "No one speaks about Eric like that. Not even a five hundred year old oak!" Finishing off her cone of icecream with a smile of thanks to Jared, she leant back and dragged one hand through the water of the fountain, deep in thought.

"Ginger is far prettier than those horrible crows feet." She laughed. "All plants are pretty." As if by magic, one of the hedges nearby gave a nod of agreement. "Mr. Topiary thinks so too." The girl gestured at the hedge, before swinging round and dangling her feet in the cooling water. She gave a little shiver as the liquid chilled her toes, then shrugged once more. "I never get the idea behind high shoes. Shoes are for walking in, not for staggering in."

Finally, Autumn took a swig of the water and let out a gentle sigh, enjoying the refreshment. "I don't think I want to get in any more fights today." She finished, looking up to the glass ceiling and observing the clouds. "Say, don't you think that cloud looks a little like Dr. Neville?" Her voice sounded amused, and she pointed up, nudging both her newly collected friends in the arm. "I love clouds. They're like cotton buds stuck in the sky." And with that little nugget of information, she fell silent.

[Jared Park]

Jared simply stuck his tongue out – out of embarrassment, not anything else really – when Autumn called them both out for being so indecisive. “It’s a good thing you like it,” he said as he sat down beside Autumn (opposite Cat that is), trying to hide his embarrassment from earlier by taking more licks with his ice cream than before. “I personally don’t like strawberry. Or any artificial berry flavor for that matter.” While he likes strawberry as a fruit (especially with a jar of Nutella on the side), the boy finds the artificial flavoring manufacturers use to achieve that soury-sweety-salty flavor rather repulsive. Not to mention the shade of pink is sickening.

A nervous smile crawled on his face as Autumn suddenly went on a little monologue defending her side. Was she a telepath, or was his surprise just a little too obvious? “They were talking about Eric?” Apparently he was a little lost in the conversation. He simply shook his head in disgust. He couldn’t even imagine such people exist until he heard it from Eric himself (which was a bit of a stretch to do, seeing that he doesn’t want talking about it too much). “That happened ages ago right? That’s just mean. Couldn’t they move on?” He could just assume that the tale was twisted to show Eric as the bad guy in their stories. The shame.

Ooops. Might’ve used the wrong analogy there. He forgot that Autumn’s a plant-manipulator, an extremely awesome and useful power if you ask him (then again, anything compared to his useless power is awesome and useful). “Woah, that’s awesome. Did you do that?” he asked with much glee as he saw the hedge-bushes move. Damn that’s cool. How he wishes his powers could do something as amazing as that. “Can you make vines grow enormously big and curl up around buildings like Poison Ivy? Or make trees move and bear fruit?” Now probably isn’t the time to fanboy about someone Jared.

He giggled slightly at the cotton bud analogy. “Now I can’t see clouds, or Doctor Neville for that matter, without thinking of earwax,” he chuckled as he leaned back and tilted his head, trying to look for that said cloud. His head high up in the clouds, he didn’t even notice that he’s leaning back a little too much until it was too late. With a relatively huge splash, he fell back first down the fountain, ice cream cone and all.

On the bright side, at least he didn’t bring his shopping bags with him.

[Catherine Novella]

Cat blushed a bit when Autumn called her and Jared out on them having trouble whom was going to sit. She watched as she was willing her toes with what cat could only assume was delight. Giggling Cat replied said, “I myself like Chocolate, Vanilla twist. You get both!” when Jared started talking about how he did not like artificial flavors she nodded. It is still not as good as the real thing.

Cat nodded slowly when she heard Autumn agree not to get into any fights. Cat had only Known Eric from Kara and her sleepover. She didn’t really know him but he seemed nice enough. Cat didn’t quite know how to respond other then with a “I may not know the whole situation but I do know that it is not acceptable to talk about people in any sort of mean spirited way.” Cat had no idea what they were talking about but she was sure those girls had put the blame on Eric for something he obviously did not do.

When Cat heard the two talk about powers and everything she sighed. In her mind having a plant manipulation power would be cool, you would not ever have weeds around and your garden would always win first place in the contest. “So you can control plants? Is that why you have all those plants in your room?” Cat laughed at the fact that Jared got really evicted about Autumn’s power. It was really cool actually. “Must be fun to control plants. Or it could be really hard. Depending on what was happening.”

When Autumn had turned around and put her feet into the fountain cat laughed a bit. “I totally agree with you on that. Shoes are meant to be for walking not for torture.” She was going to say something when Autumn said she did not want to get into any more fights. Nodding her head she leaned back and looked at the clouds. When she heard Autumns comment she began to giggle. It sort of really did look like him. Only stretched and white. “It really does look like him.” When she heard Jared’s comment however she burst out laughing. “That’s….. wow.”

Cat was going to Comment when she saw the boy fall back into the fountain. She tried to help him but it only ended up worse as she sort of pushed him in instead of pulling him out. Somehow, against all odds all of his bags were safe and dry. She really wanted to laugh but felt it would be extremely rude. Offering a hand out to the boy she said “Decide to go swimming?”

(( sorry bout the delay.))

[Autumn Buckland]

"Sometimes strawberries talk to me." Autumn said dreamily to Jared's comment, fiddling with the bottle of water in her lap. "They're very rude and quite flirtatious." She added, wiggling her toes in the fountain. The young red head couldn't imagine having icecream on a regular basis, her mind whirling with all the icecream related comments.

In response to Jared's question, she nodded, a small frown on her face. "I didn't want to fight, but no one speaks about meta humans like that." She said matter-of-factly, the hedge nearby nodding. She'd never come looking for a fight, least of all in a public place, but those girls... they were so unkind. They made her want to scream and shout. "Anyway." She waved a hand aimlessly, trying not to think about the girls for any longer. The more she did, the more active the plant life in the mall was getting, and she didn't think she needed any more negative attention.

She did, however, giggle at Jared's eagerness. "I can do all of that." She said modestly, looking over to the carefully pruned hedge and smiling. "They talk to me. All plant life does. Flowers, vegetables, trees... sometimes it's a little confusing." She shrugged her shoulders and nodded at Cat. "My pitcher plant is my favourite. She's very gentle." As she spoke, the hedge seemed to grow larger, as though trying to impress her. It reached out with one branch and delicately tapped Cat on the shoulder, fluffing its leaves proudly. Blinking in surprise, Autumn laughed. "He wants your attention." She added, eyes sparkling. "He's a show off."

As the discussion turned to the clouds, Autumn giggled furiously at Jared's comment, then set out in peals of laughter when he fell into the fountain, leaping in with him and splashing him playfully. "If you wanted a bath you should have said!" She laughed, cheeks glowing. Helping Cat fish the soaked boy out, she couldn't stop smiling. "Now the fountain got free icecream too." She added, before looking back up to the sky. "Dr. Neville has turned into an octopus. How queer."

[Jared Park]

“Chocolate is yum!” Jared remarked, a huge smile suddenly planted on his face. A self-proclaimed chocoholic, the boy will devour most chocolate-flavored products, as long as they don’t have traces of berry or fruit in them. ‘Cause heaven knows chocolate only goes well with nuts, almonds to be exact. Nothing more, nothing less.

His enthusiasm only grew larger when Autumn said something about the strawberries talking to her. And having rather flirtatious personalities at that. “So plants aren’t just non-sentient things? Oh dear me,” he asked, extremely interested. “Are they like human beings too? You know, with all sorts of different personalities per plant? Or do they generally have a common trait, like bananas being mushy or something.” Not exactly the best characteristic he can think of, but his excitement is just blocking everything at the moment.

And when the hedge plant went nearer, tapping Catherine on the shoulder, he just went on and exploded, like a baby being tickled like crazy. “OH. MY. GAWD. THAT. IS. SO. AWESOME.” It was rather curious that he hasn’t encountered a plant manipulator in school until now, hence his perception of such a power still limited to Poison Ivy and Floronic Man. Which, them being villains, aren’t really that good. All those two did was to manipulate plants to their bidding, destroying entire cities and states. He wouldn’t really see plants as ‘adorable pets’ had Autie not told them about her pitcher plant, or about the hedge for that matter.


The young boy nearly turned into a tomato because of his blush. While the pool wasn’t really that deep, he was wet all over; even the hair he spent so much time on early in the morning ironing got soaked, which meant his curls will reveal themselves in a mere moment’s notice. He did appreciate the two girls’ effort in hauling him out; he just hopes he didn’t wet them accidentally in the process too.

“Haha. Guess the fountain knows I skipped bathing this morning,” he smiled, trying not to be embarrassed, despite feeling the piercing stares of the people around them. He tried to wring out as much liquid from his clothes as possible, but despite that, he’s still mighty damp. And the whole spring breeze isn’t helping one bit. “Homaygass,” muttered the boy as he shivered. “If you’re looking for an octopus, he’s just beside you, you know,” he chuckled, “Or maybe I’m more of a wet seal flopping ungracefully on land.”

“On the bright side, I finally have an excuse to shop for a new outfit, right?”

[Catherine Novella]

Cat just about jumped when she turned around to feel a topiary plant tap her on the shoulder. Luckily, she did not and just sat there for a minute with a soft smile on her face. Smiling to the topiary she bowed in an over exaggerated manner. “We can all be a little show-offish at times.” Turning back to the two sitting near her, she giggled when she heard Jared go a bit Fan-ish on Autumn, bombarding her with questions. She was about to continue talking to the two of them when she heard Jared yell in obvious excitement. This time Cat could not contain her laughter.

Cat looked to Jared as she tried to help him out. Then she heard Autumn’s comment. She laughed again letting her smile show. “An octopus huh?” Smiling Cat also looked up at the clouds. Stifling a laugh, she was able to successfully pull the other boy out of the fountain and offered her free hand to Autumn. “Coming princess?”

Once they were both out of the fountain Cat heard Jared’s comment and smiled. “Nah. Who cares? It’s just a little water.” Smiling Cat looked to Jared. Then she looked at his bags. “I’m sureeee you can find something within all of these shopping bags. “ Cat smiled to show she was just teasing It was not as if she was serious or anything but man did he have a ton of bags.

( ok is offically back.. Never taking this long to reply again. )