Welcome to Gaia! ::

The twins listened as Charles explained why they were all there and what the deal was about the lumps of coal. Neither boy kept up with the news (something they should probably change) and so each stared at his own lump for a long moment.

After Susan spoke, Kaden leaned closer to his twin. "You know, I'm not sure what the big deal is all about. If Susan says they're harmless, I believe her." The quieter twin was the first that Susan had gained the trust of. If she said something, he'd believe her. Keagan was most often inclined to believe as well, though he was not as easily swayed as his brother.

"I agree. Whoever this Robbie is... if he's a friend of Susan's, he's gotta be cool," Keagan muttered back as the twins migrated to the food table. They seemed to have an instinct on when food was around. Food plus two football players always resulted in... well, less food.

"Which name would you prefer that I use?" he said after skimming the text. "As to the cement, it's the standard variety used in pretty much all building materials." Again he was quoting Susan's lecture. Sometimes it honestly felt like he was becoming some bizarre mix of a geologist and architect rather than a superhero. "Now, if it were pure rock I'd be able to do just about anything with it."

When he received the notebook back he nodded. "Yeah, not a big believer in Santa or Christmas for that matter. I thought that Susan was trying to drop a subtle hint about how poorly practice went the other day."

He rolled the coal in his right hand and was sorely tempted to shift it's shape to something more pleasing to the eye. At the moment it looked as though the short bus had arrived in time for a barbecue. He would wait for her to reply and if he could tell she wanted to wrap things up and say hi to the others he'd let her slip off and do her thing.

"Just the typical little house wife, aren't ya?" Erol couldn't help ruffling Raleigh's hair with that comment before jumping out of the way of any attacks. Listening to his story brought some much needed grounding for Erol who seemed to always be on the move.

He was genuinely intrigued by Candice's side story about her life. It looked like she got a chance to move around a bit as well. He shrugged at telling his own story just mentioning the usual, training, gigs, more training, more gigs, some villains to thwart and so on, and so forth...

With Charles' annoucement he glared at the piece of coal in his hand shaking it rather violently. Hopefully the poor critter wouldn't go brain dead from such a shock but Erol didn't believe in most things until he saw the results. "Right. Like I have time to take care of some pet. Man this sucks." He groaned as he put the coal in his pocket once more. "I'm hungry, when can we eat?" And almost like clockwork the festivities had begun at the end of Charles' announcement. Making a B-line for the buffet table he hurriedly piled on the food making his way to some lonely corner to enjoy his meal.

Anyone was more than welcomed to join him, he wouldn't bite...much.

His eyes scanned the page and as he read the words she'd written ideas formulated back and forth across his mind like arc lightning. Could her sonic ability be recorded and have the same effect? Was she suseptable to her own powers? How loud could she scream? Had she ever considered making childrens bedtime stories for stressed out parents (an instant success)? Did she wonder about it's practical and unpractical uses like LoQuinn did with his? How could he defeat her? If he were to take out her voicebox (either surgically remove it or simply punch her in the throat) would her powers still work? What was it's range? Could it be exploited?

"Well thats a pretty bitchin' power you got there." he said plainly with a bob of his head as he handed the book back. He brushed his thoughts off to the side for later when he could pick them apart at his own liesure. He made a mental note to communicate with all the party's attendees for the similar purpose of getting to know their powers in addition to the Super. He would disect their abilities later in the privacy of his room. It never hurt to be prepared.

"I find that control, for me anyways, came fastest when I focused on perfecting one aspect. I'm not sure how you're training but perhaps if you focused on finding the right frequency for one sound the rest will fall into place easier. I don't mean to compare you to a child but simple sounds like 'Dad' are usually the first to be learned. Perhaps starting from square one will help you out." Hopefully she didn't think it too presumptuous that he was giving her advice on her powers. Then again he'd started with a pebble of pure stone and was using the same process for sythetics.

He couldn't help but remember a proverb from when he was younger. 'Little ant,' it read 'today you move a grain of sand. Tomorrow you will do the same. A thousand times a thousand. All mountains begin this way.'

((XD Foots in the mouth at first meeting. Really, it should be one of his secondary abilities.))

He'd done something wrong, said something off. His goggles hid the fact that he was searching her with his eyes. He wasn't quite as dense as the stone he manipulated but reading people wasn't exactly his forte so he remained clueless as to the what he'd done. The thought never occured to him that he'd been insensitive to her situation or that she hardly came here to be lectured by another trainee. He was likely to remain oblivious if she never corrected him. Such was life.

"Uh, yeah. You're welcome." he said trying to shift his mind away from the crashing and burning that had just commenced. Only distance would save him from additional embarrasment. "Well. I've got to go meander a bit, it was nice meeting you Echo." He almost ended with something along the lines of 'keep up the good work' or 'hopefully you'll be able to talk soon'. And somewhere deep, very deep he supressed the urge to invite her to start up a rock band. He was backing away by shifting his weight from foot to foot. Nonchalantly putting distance between himself and her allowing her to scribble out a quick farewell. He wondered if running away from a mute's sketchpad was like covering your mouth or putting you hands in your pockets when talking to a deaf person.

Yep, LoQuinn was going to hell.

A set of brown eyes scanned the room carefully, watching as each child conversed and mingled with others. Teeth digging into a tender morsel of chicken just as his eyes stopped on a kid with goggles. There was nothing of outward importance of the child but Erol knew better then to asume anything of a person. He watched the boy converse with the mute girl (or so it appeared) by way of her writing some sort of dialogue on the sketchpad she carried. He wondered about her as well, thinking over various possible abilities she could be "cursed" with.

When Raleigh had come over for a brief moment he knew what the other boy was up to as well. Both deciding it best to know one's competition (at least for Erol that's all the others were, Ra being the only one worthy of his respect... for now). Opening his mouth he continued to stuff his face with food, deciding he would follow Ra about like an irritating stray mutt. Erol joined Ra in greeting the other but his manners had a lot to be desired as he gave a belching, "S'uuuuuup?"