|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2005 7:12 am
"Or at least the first person that you know of who has seen you." Zach corrected, folding his arms in front of him.
Daria, like so many of the other students, were unable to grasp the true power in her ability. Earth was the perfect planet for her, covered in water. Its inhabitants are made mostly of water; the air they breathed has water in it. If she wanted, she could drown some one with but a thought.
Because of that, Zach always felt uneasy around her. "Besides, even if Professor X did not tell you, you should have the foresight to think about the consequences, which I see that you do." Zach smiled and sat down beside Daria, gazing out at the pond.
Noticing her ice-cream cone, he suddenly wanted one as well. Subsequently, one appeared in his hand.
"I see why you come here all of the time. It is a lovely place, almost picturesque." He said, before taking a large bite out of the delicious strawberry ice-cream.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2005 10:41 am
"Or at least the first person that you know of that has seen you,"
He was correcting her, folding his arms like Mr.Summers did whenever a troublesome student was present.
"Besides, even if Professor X did not tell you, you should have the foresight to think about the consequences, which I see that you do."
He smiled as he sat beside her, and a strawberry ice cream appeared in his hand.
"I can see why you come here all of the time. It is a lovely place, almost picturesque." He took a bite of the ice cream, sending a chill down Daria's back. She couldn't understand how anyone could bite right into the freezing stuff, it made her teeth feel like they were on fire. Daria nearly laughed aloud at herself, no wonder she wasn't ever popular at her previuos school, she was just too...ecentric.
"Do you always speak without using contractions? Or just when you're scolding a stude.....how did you know I come here all the time?" Daria had been ready to change the subject, when something he'd said made her stop. She never told anyone but Mr. Alwood where she was going to go, and even he didn't know she always went to the fountain.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2005 11:10 am
"Simple," Zach said, ignoring her prior comment. "I come here all of the time as well." He turned his attention back to the pond, gazing out at the reflections on the water. "To be alone with my thoughts." Zach finished, after taking another bite out of the ice-cream. He loved making things that defied the laws of nature. For example, the ice-cream he was eating was not even cold. It was like he was eating Styrofoam that was flavored like frozen strawberries.
He laughed inwardly; remembering the time his mother told him that he had a very vivid imagination. Who else would think of warm ice cream and make it real?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2005 11:54 am
"Simple, I come here all the time myself..."
He'd answered her suspicious question but didn't even comment on her tease. It was rhetorical anyway, she didn't actually expect an answer.
He was staring at the water again, but it didn't seem as if he was looking at anything in particular while slowly eating his conjured dessert.
"To be alone with my thoughts."
Daria felt the same way, the fountain was almost as a refuge for her. The School was great, she actually felt like she belonged to something for a change, but maybe there was the problem. The only other place she'd ever flet like she belonged was the dance floor, so the school was almost overwhelming for her. She was sure the feeling would wear off after a while, she'd only been at the School a month after all, but in the mean time, she had somewhere to go.
" I've never seen you here before. Were you hiding?" She asked.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2005 6:36 pm
"No, you were just too absorbed to notice." Zach said, slowly shaking his head. "That is why I decided to warn you. Several times, you have barely noticed people and you were luckily not using your powers."
He took another bite out of the cone, thinking of a pad of paper and a pencil. It formed in his lap. Soon, he was quickly sketching down everything that he saw. In a matter of minutes, he would have the whole scene captured on paper...
Zach paused, and then looked up at Daria. She wasn't supposed to be here.
"Weren't you scheduled for the power games this morning?" He asked quizzically, setting down the pencil and looking her in the eye.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2005 7:13 pm
Daria watched the reflections in the water as she waited for his answer.
" No, you were just too absorbed to notice,"
Zach's reflection's head shook in negative slowly.
" That's why I decided to warn you. Several times you've barely noticed people and were luckily not using your powers."
Daria prepared to protest, but it would've been pointless. She'd seen the other people. And by the time they got close enough to see what she'd ben doing, she just looked like any other teenager watching the water. She'd still never seen Zach there.
Daria watched Zach as a sketch pad and pencil suddenly appeared and he began to draw. He stopped shortly after he'd begun and looked up at her.
"Weren't you scheduled for the Power Games this morning?" He seemed curious, interested in her explanation as he set down the pencil and stared her right in the eyes.
Daria turned back to watch the water.
" My partner got sick, so I canceled; I haven't ever done the battles wihtout him. Besides, I would've been in the infirmary every few minutes bugging them if I'd stayed. Hey, you finally used a contraction." She pointed out.
Daria started playing with the water, making two crystal clear figures throw water bombs at each other. They were pretty comical, like the old silent movies.
The scene shifted under her gaze back to the dancers. This time there were two, - ballroom dancing - but since Daria had only watched ballroom, this also shifted, to just ballet once again.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2005 8:53 pm
Zach laughed at the comment, then reformed his composure and took up his pencil again. At least Darai knew what a contraction was in the more literal sense of the word.
It was amusing that they had both come here to be freed of others, but had wound up conversing themselves. Maybe it was just part of being human, but that did not answer why they were there.
Again, Zach put his drawing implements down and turned to Daria.
"Why are you out here when you have plenty of friends?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 8:02 am
Daria smiled, at least he'd laughed this time before she heard him pick up his pencil again.
He'd only been drawing for a second when she heard the small sound of a pencil being put down.
"Why are you out here when you have plenty of friends?"
Daria wondered if the boy could multitask, from what she'd seen so far, the answer was not a positive. She thought about his question for a minute, how did he know so much about her?
" I like to be alone. I never had many friends before I came to the School, so now...Even though I like hanging out with my friends, I like to have my moments alone."
The song in her head changed, as did the dancers, now only one graced the stage.
She turned to face him, the water ballet continuing.
"What about you? You've got friends, right?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 6:11 pm
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 9:29 pm
"I haven't a need for them."
Daria smiled, she'd noticed the emphasis in the sentence.
She continued to hear the pencil scratching against the paper for several more seconds before she heard the the nontepad being set down somewhere.
"Besides, who needs friends when you can do this?"
Turning around to watch, Daria kept her eyes on the paper. The park they were at seemed to materialize from the drawing, the grass, the trees, the fountain and pond, all detailed, minaturized replicas.
Even the face of the boy Zaach picked up was clearly defined, it was just the rest of him that was lacking. Zach laughed as he picked him up.
" I shall call him..Mini-Me!"
Zach picked up the entire park and flung it into the water, reshaping it as a flower instead. He seemed to speak more to himslef at first, before turning to Daria.
"Professor Xavier told me I should focus on creating a realistic replication of something. I don't think I quite have it...Any suggestions?"
Daria noticed that he chewed his lip, a sign of deep thought, remarkably similar to her telltales. She never would've been good at poker.
" That just means you need practice. I'm sure you've heard the saying, not that I actually think it applies one hundred percent of the time...anyway, a suggestion, hmm...
Try thinking about the way something feels when you make it. Include your emotions, then it'll seem more lifelike because it has a part of you in it."
Daria said, drawing the last bit of moisture from the waffle cone and crumbling it into the grass for whatever wanted it. It never occurred to her that she could do the same thing to a living entity, she just didn't think that way.
Daria thought over what Zach had said, maybe people like him didn't need friends, or maybe they were just afraid...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 3:20 pm
Zach shook his head and sighed. "I must just see things differently than others. When I do that, things come out too defined. The details catch the eye more than they should."
To make his point, Zach created an orange in front of Daria. It was perfectly rounded, intricate shading and color. Each of the pores stood out, drawing the eye to every one. It seemed covered in holes, evenly spaced and perfect in and of themselves. It should have looked the pinnacle of perfection, completely flawless. Surrealistically, it was too real, to smooth and defined. Nothing could ever exist in nature the way that orange did.
"See?" Zach said, almost smiling at crushing her idea.
I really should watch that, he thought to himself, immediately losing the smirk. "On the bright side, I am great at creating things that do not exist naturally." Zach said with a forced laugh.
But there was something to be said about that, though. He could think beyond the confines of reality, and make his own. He was a reality sculptor.
Yes, reality sculptor. Zach liked that title.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 5:35 pm
Daria watched Zach's head shake and heard a sigh preceeding his response.
"I must just see things differently than others. When I do that, things come out too defined, the details catch the eye more than they should."
An orange appeared, theoretically, it was perfect, but Daria understood his point, it was disturbingly un-real. The curves at the corners of Daria's lips deepened ever so slightly, her eyes on the orange, Zach was a perfectionist.
"See?" He said. Daria's eyes moved quickly, managing to catch the expected smirk before it disappeared.
"On the bright side, I am great at creating things that do not exist naturally."
He laughed, but the effect created seemed unnatural, his perfectionism must have been killing him. Daria noticed that he'd lapsed back into the 'not using contractions' mode.
A few seconds of silence followed the forced laugh, and Daria was unsure of what she should say. She hated being the one to instigate a conversation.
"So...what clases do you take at the school? I hardly ever see you." She asked, glancing around the area they were in, and shaking her head a second later. Zach had made her paranoid, and that irritated her. If there was anything she disliked more than being the one to start a conversation, it was being manipulated.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 6:53 pm
Zach looked back at Daria out of the corner of his eye. He had expected a different response, particularly one relating to the topic, but if she felt awkward about his abilities, then that was her inhibition.
"I have more than twice the amount of credits to graduate than I need. I could be teaching classes if I wanted to." Zach stated, reforming his smirk into a more mild composure. Simply because he was smarter than everyone else was no reason to rub it in anyone's face, particularly to those he was on neutral to good terms with. "I spend a great deal of time helping Professor McCoy and Professor Xavier in their research and development."
He leaned back onto the grass, gazing at the treetops and sky. He had a song that would not stop repeating itself in his head, an odd mixture of industrial and a lullaby.
It made him think of many things, mostly involving spiked balloons and dancing birds.
Now, it was his time to change the subject. After the awkward silence, Zach sat back up and looked at Daria. "You know something interesting? I am very personable, except when I am around more than one person." Zach laughed, rather sorrowfully. "By definition, that is one of the most useless characteristics to have, considering the way the majority of people get to know you is from groups."
Similar to being invisible only when no one was watching. Then again, you could sneak past camera's completely undetected...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 8:20 am
Daria waited, perhaps the topic change was too sudden. Talking about someone's abilities who could probably squash you with an anvil if you said the wrong thing kinda made her uneasy.
"I have more than twice the amount of credits to gradutae than I need. I could be teaching classes if I wanted to." He stated matter of factly, a slight smirk on the edge of his voice.
Daria was about to ask why he didn't teach a class, but he pretty much answered it for her.
" I spend a great deal of time helping Professor McCoy and Professor Xavier in their research and development."
Daria didn't exactly know what to say, sure she was smart, she'd gotten straight A's in her old school and the progress hadn't stopped there. Considering that she'd been such a loner before, her people skills that had improved considerably still were pretty shot.
Daria was relieved when Zach broke the silence.
"You know something interesting? I am very personable, except when I am around more than one person." He laughed, that same forced, sad laugh that come out when something rather ironic about your person surfaces.
"By definition, that is one of the most useless characteristics to have, considering the way the majority of people get to know you is from groups."
Daria nodded in agreement.
"Unless, of course, you don't want to become widely known..."
That was Daria's problem. She'd seen what happened to the 'populars' at her old school, she didn't want to become like them. Becoming well known was seriously over-rated, look at all the movie stars. They probably are the most well known people on the globe, and according to all the magazines and tabloids, they're miserable...rich, but certainly not satisfied.
"How about it, do you want to become somebody famous?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 7:47 pm
"As much as I would like to be normal." Zach said with an honest laugh, a hint of his devilishness seeping into his voice. "I do what I do for myself, not because I follow a trend or a role-model. Popularity seems to have a nasty habit of only selecting the most perfect sheep to be it's little b***h. I do not even consider myself a sheep, so as you can see, I have no want for popularity."
Just by saying that, Zach felt arrogant. With good reason, too. He WAS better than most other people, despite what that most would like to believe. He was better than meager struggles for popularity. As Groucho Marx so perfectly put it, he would never join a club that would except him as a member.
Although over simplified, that fit rather well for Zach.
Reforming his composure, Zach finally replied to what Daria had actually asked.
"I see popularity only coming with what I might do. It is only a bi-product of what I might chose, but not the desired out come."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
