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Post by Beriadan on May 7, 2024 8:20:44 GMT
The gardens were full of life, flowers blooming and insects buzzing with a lazy certainty that came with an abundant multicoloured banquet. The air was cool, the sky a vivid blue, and sweet smells filled the air. Hope new growth, life in abundance.
Yet Parsley couldn't find herself enjoying it like usual. It had been a few days since she had played traunt with Femi. That had ended poorly, with Mr. Logan breaking up their pancake party and Femi ducking out of the bathroom window. Didn't even finish his pancake or say goodbye. Parsley hadn't seen him much since, only glimpses.
So she was sulking in the flower garden, specifically among the herbs and vegetables. A stalk of the plant that was her namesake was held between her finger and thumb, and she spun it around idly, frowing, staring at it with unfocused attention.
"Geeze... you idiot. Could have at least said a goodbye."
Parsley closed her eyes, feeling anger and pain swirl around her chest like Eddie's in a river. What right did he have to make her feel like that? She just wanted to get to know him. To make him feel like less of an outsider. She took a deep breath of the parsley stem before letting it fall. Keeping friends was hard. Hell, making friends was impossible. Parsley just wanted someone she felt connected to. She had been isolated most of her life, and it didn't seem to be getting any better.
"Ain't that the shit truth of it all."
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Post by DornKoon on May 7, 2024 10:03:33 GMT
"Uhm, excuse me..." came a slightly timid voice as a teenage boy approached Parsley; he had thick, curly brown hair, very bushy eyebrows, and brown eyes. He wore a light-blue button-up t-shirt, slightly baggy jeans, and a nice-looking digital camera attached to a strap around his neck. He also carried with him a backpack, a bag attached to his hip, and a third attached to his leg.
She might have seen him in classes, but they had not talked.
There was a natural serenity around the boy, like an emotional calmness, and he also had a few small birds sitting on his shoulders, chirping merrily. He did not seem to mind or pay them much attention; they were just there. "I don't mean to intrude, but I saw you sitting there and wondered if it would be okay if I took a picture of you?" He indicated to the camera before clearing his throat. "I just like to capture moments of people in nature for a photo book I'm making... of the mansion grounds and my fellow students. I won't if you don't want me to... did not want to be a creep and take a picture without asking."
The truth was that Cornelius had been sensing her intense frustration and pain. He approached Parsley because he was a little worried. But he wouldn't tell her that; this seemed a better way to make contact. If there was one thing Niels was good at, it was to come off as non-threatening.
"I'm Cornelius, but everyone calls me Niels. You're... Parsley... right? I recall your name from Professor Xavier's philosophy class."
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Post by Beriadan on May 7, 2024 17:41:22 GMT
Parsley looked up as a timid voice broke the silence of the bees and flies. Her eyes fell on his many bags, his non-threatening attitude, his face which reminded her of a young girl's doll. Exaggerated features, slightly feminine, a real cutie. She gave him a smile, slightly forced but elevated by his attitude. He piqued Parsley's interest.
She rose to her feet, wiping dirt from her legs as she did so, meeting his gaze with her own, one of intrigue that danced behind eyes so dark they were neatly black. Her own hair, wild and unruly curls, bounced as she cocked her head to one side. Parsley's lips twisted slightly, a twitch which signified a grin.
"A picture of little ol' me? You're a sweet young soul. Why, I'd be delighted."
Parsley laughed at his hesitation, his endearing nature. The polar opposite of Remi, yet still interesting in a different way. She put a hand on her hip, pointing a finger with the other, shutting one eye and poking out her tongue.
"Glad you remember me, sugar. My stars, I must have made an impression, even though I didn't think I said much! Nice to make your awuaintence, Cornelius Nicolaus Hausknecht."
Parsley paused after speaking his full name, then gave a slightly embarrassed grin.
"Sorry. Bad habit. You didn't introduce me with your full name... Nice to meet you, Niels. How do you want me?"
Parsley stuck the bit of Parsley back in her mouth, watching him with a look of expectation.
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Post by DornKoon on May 7, 2024 18:42:51 GMT
Well... she did not become upset, so that was a step in the right direction!
"Glad to hear it; I love taking photos. It's been my passion for years now." Niels said, returning the smile, his being much less forced. He proudly held up the camera, showing her how nice it was. "It is a real LexTech L9-III Digital Camera, one of the best cameras in the world. You can take pictures of the moon and get the most amazing images. I got it for my sweet 16. And... I'm being a total nerd about it, sorry..." He stopped himself before going into a tangent on all the amazing traits of the LexTech L9-III because... he did not want to scare her away with his nerdiness on camera.
"I tend to remember many people's names," Niels explained, and his eyes widened slightly when she said his name(s). How could she possibly know his full name like that? Her current emotional state showed no maliciousness, so he was not worried about it but more curious. "Yeah, that's my name...How did you know it? Like... the Nicolaus part, I never told anyone here that. I don't mind. I've been getting used to many things since I came here."
Niels looked around, his eyes scanning the beautiful garden, the greenery and the flowers. He could put her almost anywhere, and she would look great... but he was still a "semi-professional", or at least he was trying to be one. He wanted to capture the way she sat when he first saw her. "Well, I like how you were sitting just now, holding that parsley-like that... you looked-" What was a good word for it? He did not want to describe how she felt, more how she looked. "Like you were here but were also somewhere else. If that makes sense?"
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Post by Beriadan on May 8, 2024 11:09:44 GMT
Parsley cocked her head to the other side as Niels gushed about his camera. Her previous mood was basically forgotten, and a grin spread further across her face as he spoke.
"My stars, ain't you passionate, huh? Oh, please don't apologise, you've got some real contagious energy! I want to see some of these moon shots of yours."
Parsley didn't answer how she knew his name at first. She looked back at the herb garden, at her faint bum print in the soil, and shrugged. Without much care she dropped into position again, cross legged and still with the Parsley hanging from her lips.
"Guess I'm just lucky when it comes to guessin' names."
Parsley winked up at him, but after a few seconds she frowned, running a hand through her curls scratching at her head.
"Problem is you've taken me outta that moment, now. Don't it feel a bit... false, if I try to put myself back there? Why, I can't even remember what I was thinkin' about."
Her brow furrowed as she stared off into nothing, focusing on her line of thought that had held her so firmly before, but now seemed out of reach. Parsley's easily distracted mind had filed Femi away for future musings. She scrunched up her nose as she concentrated, moving the piece of parsley around in her mouth as she did so, chewing at the end in thought.
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Post by DornKoon on May 8, 2024 13:20:09 GMT
"Sure, I've put them in one of my scrapbooks," Niels said with a bright smile. "I'm most proud of a leaf I got as it was falling; I captured it at just the right angle."
Lucky? On top of that, she was not lying about it—it had just been guessing his name. That made Niels even more curious.
"Oh, well-" Niels tapped himself on the side of the cheek as he examined Parsley. "It'll be fine; maybe I should just have snapped one of you... but as I said, that would have been rude. Mama did not raise a creep, no sir." He raised the camera, looking at her through it as he adjusted the settings. He was watching the light to see where the best place to take pictures would be.
" Besides, that's the magic of photography and art in general, trying to capture what isn't there, what never was, or never will be. But most of all, what others fail to see themselves, about themselves." As he spoke, he snapped a picture of her before taking a few steps to the side to get another angel. Crouching down to get closer to the ground, he would lie down... but he did not want to get dirt on his pants... he had already changed clothes three times. Mostly from the birds pooping on him. "I take pictures like these of my fellow mutants to show them how beautiful they are; many never get to hear it." There was a pause before he snapped another picture. "Have you been here long?"
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Post by Beriadan on May 10, 2024 12:16:46 GMT
Parsley's attention came back as the shutter clicked, looking across at Niels and laughing. She leaned back, hands behind her, staring upwards at the sky above.
"You're a cute one... thinkin' of other people in such a fashion. I'm sure there's plenty of kids here that'd love to hear that they're beautiful."
It made her think of Femi again, which made her feel a pang of melancholy as the next photo was snapped. A perfect capture of how she felt about that situation. Parsley glanced over again, then smirked.
"I've been here just shy of a year. Ain't been makin' much of an effort to make myself known to everyone, though. I like it... it's a peaceful place, and the adults are nice. How about y'all? I see you around enough."
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Post by DornKoon on May 10, 2024 13:06:32 GMT
"I just think it's being a decent person; I don't think it makes me cuter than anyone else." Niels said; his cheeks burned slightly at Parsley's words, and he was thankful she looked up, giving himself time to hide behind the camera as he snapped another picture. "But... well, thanks anyways."
He sensed a similar wave of emotion coming from her; he could not tell what thoughts made her feel that way... only that she did. It made for a nice, honest, raw, and unfiltered photo. Niels paused, checking the image on the small screen, before nodding. "Yeah, this will do nicely. I think we got a keeper." He approached Parsley; crouching to show her the last picture. "About a few months now, give or take."
Niels let out a sound that was a mix between a sigh and a chuckle.
"I've got a limited capacity for crowds these days, so many expressions at once are difficult to filter out. But Professor Xavier has been helping me to block off myself, so it helps. One of the downsides with being a Psionic mutant, everyone around you can be so loud."
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Post by Beriadan on May 12, 2024 9:46:53 GMT
At the sight of her face, Parsley couldn't help but laugh. She spent a lot of time looking in mirrors, making sure her appearance was exactly what she wanted... but she rarely had photos taken, and wasn't used to seeing her half-present expression, her slightly furrowed brow, eyes staring a million miles away.
"My stars, do I really frown like that? Oh, gosh, I'm gonna have to keep an eye on when I'm starin' off into space."
It was the first mention of his powers, and Parsley sat a bit more upright as she stared across at him. A Psionic Mutant, huh? She wondered how rude it would be to outright ask him. It interested her, after all, but many kids here took it in different ways. Parsley pondered for a second, and then had an idea. She pulled out a deck of cards from her bag, shuffling them in front of Niels so he could see.
"Wanna guess what my power is? Choose a card in your mind. Number and suite and all that. Got one? Now draw."
If he chose to, then Niels would draw the exact card he had been thinking of... and see Parsley's triumphant smile on the other side of the deck. Not that it was an amazing feat of luck, but she had plenty of other uses she could show him if he wanted.
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Post by DornKoon on May 12, 2024 11:46:45 GMT
"Yeah, I don't much like seeing myself in pictures," said Niels, flipping through the other images on the camera. "I prefer to be behind the camera, not in front of it."
He looked at her and smiled slightly as her feelings changed. "You want to ask me what my powers are." He commented on her unspoken question before letting the camera hang by the strap again. "I'm an empath, so I deal in emotions like Professor Xavier and Miss Frost, as telepaths, do thoughts. You display a combination of emotions that often comes with curiosity; there is no shame in being curious. If you're curious, ask away." He pulled a picnic blanket from one of his bags before fitting it down. He was NOT going to sit directly on the ground.
When Parsley asked if he wanted to guess her power, she seemed excited. "Sure, I'm game." He replied, looking at the deck of cards. He could not guess what the cards had anything to do with it unless she blew them up like Mr Gambit, but that would not require a card to be picked... so most likely not. " any card? Ok, let me see..." He started going over different cards in a deck... but maybe he was thinking about it the wrong way... she did say choose a card in his mind. He grinned a little before reaching out to draw a card. He looked at it and furrowed his brow. "Why is there a UNO reverse card inside your deck?" He asked, showing it to Parsley.
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Post by Beriadan on May 15, 2024 10:55:23 GMT
"Emotions?"
Parsley paused, suddenly feeling fairly exposed. She was a beehive of emotions at the best of times, buzzing away inside her mind like a busy swarm that appeared to have little focus. She looked at Niels, giving him a strangely bashful little grin.
"Do you feel it all the time? Or is it somethin' you can switch on and off? It must be hard to manage... sorry, I'm just thinking how my emotional state must be comin' across already!"
Parsley allowed him a moment to pull a card... then she was laughing, her worry turning into pure amusement. She took the card, turning it around to inspect it.
"My, how improbable! I've not seen that happen... usually, people go for a standard card."
Parsley pressed the Uno card to her forehead, letting it stick there. She leaned back on her hands again, entirely unworried about getting dirty or muddy, it seemed.
"My power is luck. I can make a real lucky aura around myself. All sorts of improbable things can happen... for better or worse!"
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Post by DornKoon on May 15, 2024 12:09:30 GMT
"I can lessen it to an extent," Niels replied. "But oftentimes I pick up on surface emotions, while thoughts stay inside the head; emotions are like radiation. And people at this place can be very loud, often broken, angry, sad, and let down."
He cleared his throat before digging inside his backpack. He was not looking for anything, but it felt good to do something with his hands, if only reorganising things inside... or checking if he needed to restock on something.
" Professor Xavier has been teaching me ways to centre myself and block much of it out, but it is not perfect. Especially in a place charged with much negativity and pain, it can become very uncomfortable in those cases. But, you need not worry." Niels looked up from the backpack, smiling at Parsley. "Your emotional state is perfectly fine and, at the moment, understandable."
Niels watched as she leaned back, unbothered by how dirty she was getting. He pulled out some wet wipes to clean his hands, doing so purely on reflex more than anything else. All that mud and germs. Still, it was her body, not his; she could do with it what she wanted. Thankfully, Niels's thoughts were interrupted when Parsley explained her power... and after a few moments of silence, Niels laughed.
"I'm sorry," he said, waving his hand as he tried to regain his breath. "I was just surprised, did not mean any harm. So, do you affect probability? You made it more likely that whatever card I was thinking about would have been in the deck. So, if you had just looked through the deck, would the UNO card still have been in it?"
He found the idea of luck as a power fascinating, if not a little scary. At the same time, the possibilities with such a power were endless, not just from something as basic as winning the lottery but other aspects of life.
"So, you're a little like Gladstone Gander, Donald Duck's cousin. Not with the annoying personality, just the luck part."
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Post by Beriadan on Aug 3, 2024 18:46:15 GMT
Parsley allowed Niels to sit in the silence of his comment for a few beats, her head cocked, her eyes slightly narrowed, a smirk frozen to her lips. Then she too laughed. A real guffaw from the bottom of her belly, falling backwards in the flowerbed, rolling as she was reduced to tears that streamed down her face. It took her a moment to compose herself, wiping the back of her sleeve across her face, a few tremoring giggles rippling across her shoulders.
"Wow, y'all really know how to compliment a gal... Donald Duck's cousin! What a hoot."
Parsley rose back up into a sitting position, her eyes dancing with the lights of amusement. She took a deep breath, then placed a hand on the deck, two fingers pressed on the face-down top card.
"Well, an Uno card being pulled was improbable, but not impossible, right? I grabbed the deck from the rec room, but it ain't like I looked at every card, so anything is possible. Of course, it'd have to be the same size as the rest, and it wouldn't work if I laid them all out. Chances are high that some other student could have shuffled in an Uno card, or anythin' else for that matter!"
Parsley lifted her hand, shrugging as she continued to grin. Her feelings about Femi had all but evaporated at this point, replaced by Niels and his good company.
"Well, I sure am glad I'm not causin' you any sort of anxiety with my emotions. I can't say much for our fellow classmates though. Some of them are real emotional car crashes, I can tell you."
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Post by DornKoon on Aug 3, 2024 19:45:38 GMT
Niels was taken aback by the sudden burst of emotions accompanying the laugh. After a few seconds, he smiled. At least he accomplished something with the comment, but it was not how he had planned. Niels liked the way she laughed; the rawness was a good laugh.
"Was the first that came to mind," he commented sheepishly. "Not that I ever liked Gladstone, he's very much- an asshole. You seem a lot more fun than him."
The empath listened intently as Parsley explained more about the nature of her power; Niels was a very attentive listener. He tried to understand how the manipulation of luck would work. He rubbed his chin just as a small finch landed on his head, making itself comfortable in his curly hair, which Niels overlooked.
"It almost sounds like warping reality," Niels said slowly, "but... not. The Uno card was in the deck only because we had not checked. It would have eliminated the uncertainty if you had checked all the cards beforehand, but since it was left... unknown, the possibilities are endless. Your power is incredibly cool!"
Niels nodded slightly.
"This is understandable, as so many have only heard how monstrous, wrong, or unwanted they are. At least we can pass for ordinary humans at a glance; others are less lucky. Like Jason-" His mind went to the boy who looked like a bat. "Have you noticed how incredible everyone in this place is? I love it here- and weirdly enough, Papa also does."
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Post by Beriadan on Aug 3, 2024 21:03:04 GMT
Parsley grinned at Niels as he tried to dig himself out of an already considerably deep hole.
"You're a real doofus, you know that? I ain't never met another kid our age who has such strong opinions about a character like Donald Duck's extended family."
She wiped a tear from her eye, the last of her laughter escaping in less frequent bursts. Slowly she regained her composure, picking up the mystery deck and turning it over in her hand.
"I guess? Though I ain't tested that much. I know when I need somethin' to happen, it happens. When I need someone to have a string of bad luck in my favour, they do. I always think of it as Murphy's Law. Though, I guess, Schrodinger's cat also applies when it comes to shit I can't see."
Parsley shuffled the deck absently, watching Niels with a carefree gaze, a fanciful smirk across her lips. At the talk of the other Mutants, she looked upwards to the sky, squinting into the wild blue yonder.
"I ain't spoken much to anyone else, truth be told. I don't seem to be that popular. No filter, I guess. I just... talk an' talk, and most people wanna get away from me as soon as, after that. Jason... I mean, I know most of 'em by sight, at least the more unfortunate souls. But if y'all asked me their favourite sweets? Or what they enjoyed doing on a Sunday evening? Or even what their powers were... heck, I've been in this school for a couple of years now, but I'll be damned if I've ever made a proper connection."
Parsley paused, dropping her gaze to Niels, then giving him a lopsided grin. Yet beside her facade, he would be able to sense her sadness, her frustration at herself.
"See? How's that for oversharing? I know y'all got a power that can read my hearts and mind, and yet I'm still blabbin' away about how much of a sad sack I am. I wouldn't blame y'all for gettin' as far away from this emotional train wreck as you could."
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