If you&#x27;re still bleeding, you&#x27;re the lucky ones

Lunch || David & Noelle

Noelle laughed again, relieved that David didn’t seem to be hurt. She supposed she could play along.

I’ve never actually had one of those, she wrote, referencing the snow-cones he’d joked about, Aren’t they just eating ice with like juice on top of it? Does that taste good?

He blinked, genuinely surprised. "You've never had a snow cone? I'm practically a recluse and I had them all the time when I was a kid... though, I mean... I did grow up in California, so maybe it's not like that everywhere else."

He rubbed the back of his neck and then picked up his butter knife, jabbing it carefully into the ice frozen on the tabletop. "Can you conjure up a paper cone?" he asked as he hacked away at the ice, creating a small pile of what looked almost like snow. "And a bottle of juice, whatever flavor you like the best."

Lunch || David & Noelle

Noelle glanced down at her food, focusing on it, trying not to look at David. He probably hated her now, thought she was some kind of sympathizer. And in a way, she supposed she was; she couldn’t shake, in her mind, the kind Dr Elswood, her saviour Dr Elswood, the only person besides her grandmother who she felt had ever cared about her. If Dr Elswood had done something bad, it was probably for their own good.

Wasn’t it?

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden chill. Realizing what was going on, Noelle jerked back suddenly, her hands flying up in surprise as her food froze over. Staring at it for a beat, she put down her hands and began to laugh. It wasn’t a mean laugh; not at David’s expense, just at the situation. Realizing, however, how he would probably take it—how weird a laugh sounded when it was almost completely silent—Noelle coughed and straightened up, breathing in and making her face neutral as best she could.

Sorry, she clarified in her notebook, I’m not laughing at you, I swear, you didn’t do anything wrong. It just struck me that now that you’ve frozen it, this food’s come completely full-circle.

She hoped he’d appreciate the joke. Then, she wrote out, I can conjure something to heat it up again, but only if I either find a plug or use something that doesn’t need electricity…

She hoped she wasn’t making him feel too nervous, but tried her best to push that thought to the back of her mind.

For a moment he had felt the urge to sink into the floor, but when she clarified the source of her laughter, it made him pause, staring at the sentence for a moment. Then, he said, "Yeah, I... I guess it has come completely full circle, e-except for the being alive part, I guess..."

A smile tugged at his lips despite his embarrassment. He couldn't help but think that the power to revive things-- that would have been so much better than what he suffered with. That thought on its own was surprising, since when he came here he'd only thought of all of these powers as a menace. He'd wanted so much to be normal... but maybe normal was a little more relative than he initially thought.

"I guess we could always make snow cones," he offered, scratching a fingernail against the icy tabletop.

the ooc blog won't let me in

keeps asking for username and password :/

pls contact me via ask for now

#ooc

Lunch || David & Noelle

Noelle nodded along with David’s comments as he nibbled at his food, venting his anxieties. It wasn’t something she minded; really, those things were all what she herself was feeling, too. The difference was that her fears were, by no small task, banished to the back of her mind. She wished she could do the same for David; she hated to see people bested by themselves. Especially people as sweet as him.

The only thing she couldn’t agree with was how he missed home; for her, that was Elswood, and it probably always would be. Dr Elswood was the first person to tell her she wasn’t a freak, and the first person to want her to succeed in life, left alone as she was. She understood the others not feeling the same way, but they hadn’t come willingly. David hadn’t come willingly.

Her head snapped up, mind suddenly clearing at his last question. A resistance?

Resisting what?

Grabbing her notebook, she wrote out quickly, I haven’t heard anything about that.

She felt nauseous all of a sudden, a deep sense of foreboding making her hands shake as she slid the paper over to David.

She couldn’t even look at her food.

#para #lunch #noelle keaton #thanks activity page for not telling me about any of my replies for the past few days #ugh sorry everyone

David watched her pale and wondered if maybe he shouldn't have said anything. He hadn't heard much-- whispers here and there, and they were always too fearful to go into detail, but it was still something he couldn't get out of his thoughts. He supposed he should have kept it to himself.

"I don't... I don't know anything about it," he qualified. "I just heard some people talking... It could've been a joke or something, I don't know..."

Suddenly he didn't feel so good either. He liked Noelle, and he was pretty sure she liked him too, but what if she didn't? What if she went to administration and told them that he was a part of this so-called resistance? He wasn't! He didn't even know where the meetings took place of if there even were meetings or if it was even a thing--

He lifted his hands off of the table with a jolt as the top of it turned to ice, freezing over their food. "I-- I'm sorry," he stammered.

Trouble || David and Este

estedowd

Este had been on enough of these camping trips to span a lifetime, and there were definitely more to come. So she’d given up any inkling of resistance and kept her discontent to minor bitching and various eye rolls. And she also ended up spending most of her time by herself. She thought roaming the trees so often would being to tire itself out, but she found it almost peaceful at times, even if this is the most freedom she’d ever get.

So it was no surprise that with another afternoon came another one of her blind strolls. She used to be wary of the tall trees and the way they never ended, but she always seemed to end up where she needed to be. By now, she was used to it but there was always that nagging worry, that something just wasn’t right, but Este was incredibly good at ignoring it.

Perhaps there would be some advantage to sticking with her group — long lasting bonds and all that — but this year’s was a tragedy and a half. The number of people in her group that she talked to while actually in school was practically zilch, and even during this exercise, it was mostly just her telling them what to do.

Which is why she didn’t feel very inclined to announce her presence to David as she came up behind him. She expected his general jumpiness, but the sudden chill in the air as his powers were directed toward the tree sent a shiver down her spine, and she put her hands atop her hips.

"Really?" she simpered, kinking an eyebrow. "Control yourself."

#para #trouble #este dowd

David looked back at the tree and then back to the girl, feeling his face warm in embarrassment. "S-sorry," he said, even though he wasn't entirely sure why he was apologizing for something he couldn't necessarily help... He didn't know this girl. He'd seen her around campus, sure, but he was certain they hadn't met formally. He believed he remembered her name from role call... Esther? No... Este. It was something like that.

"Um... s-sorry," he said it again, "I was just a little umm... startled." He moved away from the tree to let it thaw, grateful that his feet hadn't frozen to the ground. "Um, can I uh... help you with something?"

Please say no, he thought. He knew they wanted the students to be involved in the trip, but he really wanted to avoid this whole teamwork thing as much as physically possible. He just didn't do well in groups.

Lunch || David & Noelle

Noelle shrugged non-commitally, picking at the… potato salad? on her plate.

Not really, she wrote out casually, Just kinda getting used to classes and everything. Just managing, like you. I don’t think we’re in anything together, though. Anyway I’ve basically done everything I’m being taught so far, so I don’t really understand why I’m being made to take them.

She passed her notebook out to David and waited for him to pick it up and read before scooping up the food she’d been playing with, suddenly aware of how much she wanted to eat the minute the food touched her tongue. That feeling was the one thing she could never get used to.

He read over her note, nibbling at his food while he did so. "Yeah," he agreed. "I did it too, back at home... but being here with all these strangers, wondering what happened to my family and worrying about my ice... well, it's hard to do well, I guess. My grades are okay, I guess, but one thing I was really good at back home was school. Now I just get so nervous about everything I can't focus."

He sighed, looking down at his plate. "I don't mean to complain, but you've probably figured out that's a distinct part of my personality... If only there was a way to get home..."

He fell quiet for a moment, glancing about the cafeteria for listening ears before whispering, "I've heard some stuff... I don't know how true it is... stuff about some sort of... resistance? Do you think it's real?"

azleahewitt-deactivated20150822

Well, you don’t actually have to camp, just, y’know, wait for the water, and then wait for the food.

#chat #azlea hewitt #ignore gif text #obvi #lol

Just... being around all these people... in the middle of the woods... It's troubling regardless of what we do.

I mean how many horror movies start out like this?

Lunch || David & Noelle

Noelle’s eyes flashed over to where David’s hands were moving his books aside, and she felt a flush of relief, taking it as a sign that she could sit down. She shrugged as he spoke and quickly sat down, pushing the tray in front of her.

It was then that she froze.

She hadn’t thought about eating in front of David. Although she supposed that if her hands were moving, she could stay occupied until he was busy reading her messages, and then steal food that way.

I’ve been really busy trying to catch up. I thought the school year had just started, but apparently you’re all halfway through everything? It’s weird.

Pausing for him to read her message, she flipped over a page and wrote in, So what have you been up to?

His head tilted slightly as he read her messages, glancing briefly back at her face. He couldn't help but notice the slight discomfort on her face, though he wasn't about to bring it up. He feared it might have something to do with the awkward way he'd left her at the nurse's office. He didn't exactly feel reliable.

"Oh, umm... not much, really. I mean... nothing more than usual. Just trying to get through it all as best as I can... trying to get some sort of control over my powers so that I can... I don't know... I guess just... manage."

He leaned his cheek onto his fist. "What about you? You've probably got more interesting stuff going on than I do."

angelie-zhou

Mr. Grant’s in charge of mine, so I think I got off pretty easy. I mean, he lets people skip class and he seems to not give a shit about most things.

#elswoodstarter #para #trouble #este dowd #my magnificent failure for para titles strikes again

Ms. Hansen doesn't care either... just in a more 'I'll rip your head off anyway' sort of way.

#chat #angelie zhou

Trouble || David and Este

This camping trip was shaping up to be fairly hellish, and it had only just started. David had spent most of his time off by himself, working on homework he'd brought with him or reading or pretending to do either of those things to look busy enough not to be bothered, but he knew he'd have to get involved in all of this nonsense at some point.

For now, however, he stayed poised away from the rest of the group, back pressed against a tree, watching the campfire burn. He couldn't help but feel an impending sense of dread... Sure, he'd felt a bit like that all the time, and it had increased when he'd wound up at Elswood, but tonight it seemed so much worse. He wanted to go home, or at the very least back to his dorm. He had somehow managed to make a couple of friends here despite everything, but none of them were really part of his group. Nellie had been nice to him so far, but he couldn't help but be a bit callous if only because he dealt with enough ice powers on his own.

He chewed on a fingernail, a habit he had managed to break a couple of years ago but had picked up again recently, and he wondered if maybe he could get away from here. The woman keeping watch over their group, Karen Hansen, didn't really seem to care what they did, but he doubted she'd let him slip away easily considering losing a student would be her head.

What to do? What to do? God, he hated this.

He was so caught up in his head that he didn't notice the approach of another student until she was right there, and he very nearly jumped out of his skin, sending ice swirling up the trunk of the tree behind him.

forgranted-eric-deactivated2014

I’m listening.

Well, maybe it's hard for me to be a good sport about all of this smiling teamwork bullshit because I was brought here entirely against my will.

#chat #eric grant

nelliebenz-blog

But you have to participate. Or else it’s no fun!

#chat #nellie bennett #ignore gif text pls

There is so much fun for me in not participating.

nelliebenz-blog

So, did you have anything in mind?