-With assistance from
@canaryrose-
Location: Metahuman Youth Center
Interaction: NPC
After spending some time venting about other people having the easy kind of powers with Raquel, Kassy realized that she was getting overheated. Even if the center had air conditioning, New Mexico’s dry heat seemed to be sucking the moisture straight from her skin. Dehydration could put her in jeopardy. Not to mention it would mean she’d ruin another mission. She politely excused herself and headed for the pool.
Once there, she removed and folded up the sweatshirt, careful to hide her shrunken staff, wiping a sheen of sweat from her forehead. She kicked off her shoes and dunked her legs into the cold pool with a sigh of relief. Out of the corner of her eye, she stopped Zachary’s blinding blonde head. He seemed to be making friends himself. Or boyfriends. It was hard to tell with Zach.
As Kassy took her dip into the pool, a whoop came from behind her and a boy entered her field of vision, dashing at the pool. He leapt in.
“CANNON-BALL!” A big splash followed his dramatic entrance, soaking Kassy from head to toe. As he surfaced, he opened his eyes- and widened them at the sight of the girl he had just soaked.
Fuck. He swam over, a guilty look on his face.
“Shit, I’m sorry,” he said. The boy was tall, with lean muscles and light brown skin. His dark hair was tied back into something between a man bun and a ponytail, and a light blush dotted his face along with a few stray freckles. His green eyes cast back and forth. Six slits on his neck- three on each side- flared as he spoke.
“I really should start looking before I jump. I’m Riley. Need me to grab you a towel?”Kassy stared at the offending boy through her dripping red hair, scowling faintly. But then, she realized she was actually a lot cooler this way and decided not to fuss.
“Hi Riley. I’m Eveline. Yes, a towel, please.” She hoped Viktor wouldn’t be too angry about his sweatshirt smelling like pool water.
Riley climbed out of the pool, still looking like a scolded puppy. He made a beeline for the towel rack and draped it over Kassy’s shoulders before getting back into the pool. He didn’t jump this time.
She tried not to look too curious, but she’d never seen a human with gills before. Her illusion deep-green eyes looked him over. Raquel hadn’t had much to say about missing kids. She said there were ‘too many people and she ignored most of them’, so using her for leads was out. Maybe this boy would know something of use.
Once she was handed her towel, she mopped off her wet face and body before he looked too closely at the way her skin was absorbing the water.
“So… assuming those gills work, I have a pretty good idea of your power.”Riley rubbed his gills, looking a little self conscious. He chuckled.
“Yeah man, they’re a little ugly, aren’t they? It’s not that cool. I just breathe underwater- I can’t even do magic like Aquaman or whatever. But it’s chill.” He hung his hands on the side of the pool, staring at ‘Eveline’.
“So, Evy, what’s your thing?”Evy? Kassy gave him a tilted look but decided to ignore the overly familiar nickname.
"My thing is… Hypnosis. And no, I will not demonstrate." She decided to head off that line of questioning before it could start. Trying to relax and play nice, she offered up a smile. At the very least, this boy was nice to look at, and friendly. It made things easier.
"I'm sure there's a lot you can do with being able to breathe underwater. Maybe marine biology or something?" She shrugged vaguely.
"You're not the only one who doesn't know what to do with their power." She trailed her hand loosely in the water.
"So, how long have you been here?"Riley also shrugged, almost in a playful imitation of her.
“Erm, I got here… Monday… so Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday…” he counted off the dates on his hand.
“Like, a week maybe. I’m from California. You think my thing would be useful out there, but it didn’t go over so well.”He decided to strategically ignore the hypnosis thing, instead hopping up on the side of the pool and taking a seat next to her.
“But you probably got here today, huh? You kind of have that look.”Darn. He'd only been here a week. Riley probably wouldn't know much of anything. Still, it would be strange to suddenly cut the conversation short. She continued on.
"Well, there isn't much water out here, so I would imagine it-" Kassy stopped mid sentence to gaze curiously at Riley.
"Wait. What look? I have a look?" “Oh, just the new look. I can’t really describe it, it’s just… the look. You stare at everything, you look kind of uncomfortable… not that you look uncomfortable. You look, um, nice. Not nice like pretty- I mean, you are pretty- not that I’m objectifying you- you look nice like, uh, not mean.” A blush climbed Riley’s cheeks.
“Sorry.”Kassy watched with some amusement as Riley fumbled through his sentences. There was a compliment in there somewhere, and she went a little red herself.
“I understand. And thank you. You… look nice as well.” She rubbed the back of her neck, her thumb brushing over her marking in a subconscious way. It was still weird to have conversations with strangers her own age, mission or no.
“Is there a lot of turnover here? People arriving, and leaving all the time? Or are we the first new people in a while?” “Hm?” Riley seemed briefly distracted but was brought back with Kassy’s question.
“Yeah, totally. This place isn’t really permanent for a lot of people as far as I can see. It’s somewhere we come when we first find our powers, or are having trouble with them… a lot of people just come here during the summer to chill. It’s like, uh, Camp Half Blood.” He looked away, looking embarrassed.
“Shit. You probably don’t know what that is. Never mind.” Kassy smiled a little bit.
“Those books about children of Greek gods? I’ve read a few. I do hope this place is a little less adventurous than that.” But of course, it wasn’t. Not with boys going missing.
“Have you made many friends?”He flashed a toothy grin.
“Yeah. There are a lot of cool people here. Have you?”“At the last place I was at, I thought I was making friends. Then my stupid power messed everything up.” A dimness crept into her eyes, and she quickly pushed it away.
“Perhaps I’ll have better luck here?”“I think you might.” Riley knew there the MYC was the only one of its kind, but he pushed that inquiry away.
“Everyone has stupid powers that fuck things up here. You’ll fit right in.” Kassy felt the sudden urge to snap at Riley. What would he and his gills know about it? As far as she was concerned, he’d won the jackpot!
“I-” She exhaled slowly.
“One can only hope.”Riley felt the aggression coming off of her and he shifted away ever so slightly.
“... Sorry.”Realizing that her anger might have been noticed after all, she smiled apologetically.
“I’m sorry as well. I’ve been through a lot lately.” “Oh. I’m sorry.” “It’s fine. You don’t have to apologize.” It was all her fault, anyhow. She looked back at the complex in a distant way.
“I suppose I should go mingle.” She stood up and flashed a smile at Riley.
“See you later.” And she walked off to go back inside.
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