Mutation Malfunction | closed
Samantha Adams paused in midstride as her run was interrupted by… a momentary loss of gravity? Often she wasn’t exactly aware of her body in space, an unfortunate side effect of her rampant ADD, but this was just enough to be noticeable.
And she almost fell flat on her face because of it.
Manipulation of nonliving matter is completely not useful when you’re trying to stop yourself from smacking the concrete. As she pushed herself up she couldn’t help but get a brief glimpse of things thudding back to earth.
Shit, did I do that? She wondered uneasily. Looking around, she sees no one that would be the wiser, except for one young man nearby who looked as uncomfortable as she did. He also kind of looked like he needed a Claritin.
“You didn’t see that… did you?” She asked, blinking.
"ACHOO!"
The ground sunk under his feet this time, and he quickly yanked his feet from the sidewalk before it cracked beneath his increased weight, knowing the softer ground would be more forgiving to outward appearances. He mentally muttered a cuss word and glanced to the building he'd been heading to. Looks like he was missing that meeting with his professor. Oh well. His slacker reputation would remained, it seemed, untarnished.
Uneasily, his eyes flickered around, and the forward momentum of red hair caught his attention. She was saying something and looking at him. His eyes clouded in confusion for a moment--yeah he could read lips but distance didn't help, and he wasn't sure he'd caught everything--but what he caught made enough sense. She was asking if he'd seen...something. He could guess what that 'something' was, and successfully squashed the impulse to flinch. Best not to acknowledge, right? He could feign ignorance, buy himself time, but that perpetuated a picture he didn't care for, so a response was necessary.
It was lucky, he often thought (with no small amount of arrogance), that he could think quickly. Maybe she simply meant her tripping. He decided to go with that. It wasn't exactly nice to point out, particularly since he was well aware it wasn't her fault, but...well, he liked his place under the radar. Schooling his features into some approximation of innocent concern, he stepped towards her and offered a hand, signing with the other and forming the words with his mouth though soundlessly, See what?. His lips twisted sympathetically and he shrugged gently, and added, You trip? Yeah, hard to miss. His fingers in the proffered hand curled slightly in gentle invitation, eyebrows raising to ask, You OK?
Who else had seen? The hair on his neck prickled, heart pounding. Had anyone been looking out windows? Someone else called out that he hadn't noticed? It took more willpower than he thought capable to avoid looking uncomfortably around and over his shoulder and very purposefully smiled.
Nothing out of the ordinary here.
