Attempting to Relax [Open]

It was a nice sunny day outside. Not much was happening around the school except the typical things that happened around this sometimes aggravating place. A certain winter prefect was honestly getting feed up with everything. The whole Ed situation, the mission, his birthday being more terrible than he intended, honestly should have expected that, and then the whole thing he had going on with the cavern, plus school work. It was all just so much stress, and so much to deal with.. Mason decided he needed a break. At least a small one.. Hopefully with this small break, he could last until the summer when he could go back to Chicago and see Laine again.

The winter prefect grabbed the pack of cigarettes he had hidden in his room, and the lighter too, stuffed them in his pockets and then headed out. Magic didn't bother to stop to talk to anyone, he didn't even attempt to stop any drama that was happening if he ran into it, he just went straight into the forest, and over to the lake. He stopped, and sat down against some rocks near the shore of the body of water, taking the cigarettes and lighter from his pockets. He place the cigarette in his mouth, and lit it, looking around at the nature before him. Taking in the sounds, trying his best to just relax and take a few moments to clear his mind. No one needed him going crazy again, and this was his less violent way of getting rid of stress. And if someone ran into him out here he was hoping for not that much drama that came with this school.

The sound of a page turning would break the peace ever so slightly. The sound of paper on paper could barely be heard among the sound of all the life in and around the lake, but it was an audible sound nonetheless. Kasumi read another page, but her mind wasn't really on it. She leaned back against the rock, staring up at the great blue sky, where few clouds were visible. What was she to do in such a situation? The first day she'd arrived, some random boy who seemed to be obsessed with blue picked her up and started carrying her around. The very day after that, she'd managed to get into a confrontation with some girl who seemed to be dangerous, and was reprimanded by a prefect of her new house. Only a few days after that happened, she managed to annoy some Summer in the library.

Nope, things simply couldn't be better. Kasumi had no idea what her parents had been thinking, sending her out to some random school across the country when they knew how badly she did with other people. They knew how awkward she was, and how she could never fit in. Picking up a relatively flat stone, Kasumi stood, and skipped it across the surface of the lake. As the wind blew across, cooling her face, the Winter could feel herself slowly relaxing. The barest hint of a smile flickered across her face, and she moved to sit back down and read. No matter what that annoying Summer boy said, the Mariana Trench was interesting and she didn't care what he thought.

A moment later, an odd smell penetrated her nose, causing Kasumi to look up curiously. To her surprise, she could see a thin puff of smoke rising from some rocks close by. In a flash, Kasumi hurried over, worried hat a fire had started. However, what she saw couldn't have surprised her more. "A-ah-ahhh--" Kasumi stood, her mouth agape and heat rising in her cheeks. What was that Winter prefect from before doing here? And smoking, too! "W-well, u-um...sorry for disturbing you!" Kasumi yelped, and slowly began to back away,her cheeks burning.

Magic could have sworn he heard someone else in the area, but the only noises to confirm that was an occasional soft sound, though he didn't really care if someone else was out here, he would never truly find a solitary spot, unless he went to the cavern. He just kept the cigarette pressed to his lips, before removing it, and letting the smoke spill from his lips. He knew he shouldn't do this, but it was a stress reliever and one or two shouldn't hurt.

His eyes flicked up towards the rest of the beach when he heard someone approaching. His gray green eyes waited for someone to appear in his vision and soon enough someone did. And she apologized and backed away. Welp.. He should be used to this by now. He pulled the cigarette from his lips, and just let it sit between his fingers. "You're fine, not a bother, unless you start being loud." He said in a bit of an uncaring tone. If she was loud then he would instantly be out of here. One of his fingers flicked the cigarette discarding the ashes on the end of it. "Sides, this is a public place can't stop ya from coming here and hanging out if I wanted."

"You're fine, not a bother, unless you start being loud." the prefect said in a bored, uncaring tone, "Sides, this is a public place can't stop ya from coming here and hanging out if I wanted." Kasumi tilted her head to the side a little, somewhat surprised by his nonchalant tone, the quickly nodded, and clambered over a rock to settle back down with her book. It was kind of odd, however, to be sitting there reading a book while someone was smoking a rock away. The smell irritated Kasumi, but she was too polite to say so.

Leaning against the rock again, she barely suppressed a groan, still feeling somewhat guilty about the incident he other day, but also seriously wishing she could rip that cigarette away and stomp it into pieces under her foot. Slowly, she got back up, clambered back over to where the older Winter was, and apologized. "I'm very sorry for starting an argument a few days ago in the halls, I understand that I was being hasty and impulsive," she said solemnly, bowing her head. She had found, after a while, that apologizing was one of the best ways to stay out of trouble, even if it was awkward. Ssometimes it let her pave the way to mentioning something else...Hopefully this person wouldn't find apologies annoying like that Summer yesterday seemed to have had.

Magic shrugged. "You found me on bad day, and I was only looking out for ya. That girl is known for provoking people into fights. Other prefects have caught her a few times." The winter prefect brought the cigarette to his mouth again, taking a long drag before letting the smoke escape his mouth in a puff. "And I wasn't kidding when I said most people at this school can kill ya. I mean a kid had to get his arm cut off cause of a mishap with a gift." He placed the cigarette in his mouth again. "Ya just gotta be careful, rather not end up with a hurt student on my watch." The whole time he spoke his voice was a bit low and rumbly. He could only assume it was from being super tired. He never slept anymore. "So what brings ya out here?"

"Oh, I see..." Kasumi looked down at her shoes awkwardly, a person without any talent in socializing, "Thank you, then." She forced herself to keep from wrinkling her nose as smoke rose into the air again, and did her best to focus on the other smells around her. Then, the prefect mentioned something about how people's gifts could kill you. Kasumi nodded slightly. She had no doubt about that. Her grandmother had apparently been able to turn parts of her body into flames, and if that wasn't life-threatening, Kasumi didn't know what was.

"Thank you for the advice. It's a little hard to hurt me, though. Really, the only thing even remotely useful with my gift is that most weapons pass right through me. Otherwise, it just constantly puts my life in danger, " Kasumi said in response, thinking about her rather useless ability that put her in danger of everything with heat, but made her immune to attack by most everything else. After all, what could water vapor possibly fear more than fire?

"So what brings ya out here?" was the next thing the Winter said. Kasumi played awkwardly with the hem of her sleeve for a moment, then said, "I came out here to read, but I'm too busy worrying about everything here I guess I can't concentrate, huh..." Trailing off, the timid girl wondered if that was the right thing to say. The Summer in the library yesterday had said something about how open she was with her thoughts, and now Kasumi began wondering if that was true.

He didn't look a the girl as she spoke. He just kept his eyes trained to what was in front of him. "There isn't a need to thank me, just sort of doing my job." He wanted to point out how most gifts at this school didn't use weapons. He didn't exactly know what her gift was but he felt like his could effect it somehow.. Maybe.. He just shrugged it off. He would either find out what her gift was sometime during this conversation or he could always find it in the school files later.

"Yeah the school can be a bit troublesome sometimes, but ya get used to it." He removed the cigarette from his mouth once again, and puffed out some smoke. There was only a little bit left. Maybe one more good drag. "Don't worry 'bout it too much.. If you do you will be severely stressed out by the end of the day. Leave the worrying to me and the other prefects." It probably wouldn't help any, but he was attempting. "Also there are nice people at this school. Some of them might be willing to help you if you need it." It seemed as of late there have been a few people with bad attitudes. He supposed he could count himself among those.

Kasumi frowned slightly at Magic's comment being rather unsure that she could get used to this life. She knew she'd had it easy back in Oregon, but that didn't mean she could simply adjust and adapt just like that. Fiercely concentrating on not wrinkling her nose of covering it as the older boy blew out another puff of air, Kasumi stood, stiff as a board, feeling extremely awkward. She allowed herself a slight smile as he told her not to worry about it too much, and to let them prefects figure everything out. Here, Kasumi very nearly raised an unconvinced eyebrow, wondering what would happen if the prefects did indeed figure everything out.

If all were like this one, she felt that the school was doomed to an end. However, all she said was a polite, "Ah, I see..." with a respectful nod afterwards. She thought back to all the nicer people she'd met, Edward, the boy obsessed with blue, and possibly that Summer who thought the Mariana Trench was boring? She had no idea. Still, even if he did smoke, which could be potentially life-threatening to Kasumi in the right circumstances, the prefect slumped against the rocks seemed nice enough. "You sound as if you've been in Beata for quite a while, then," Kasumi commented.

Magic shrugged, taking the last drag of his cigarette before putting it out with his thumb which was protected by sound waves. This time he let the smoke come back out through his nose. It was a weird feeling but it had a pretty cool effect in his mind. "I have been here for a little over a year." He set the butt of the cigarette on the ground besides him making a mental not to pick it up later when he left the area. "The school does a pretty good job with teaching stuff about gifts, even though every student as a different gift. I still haven't been able to figure out how they do it." The winter wanted to pull out another cigarette and start smoking again, but he didn't know how the girl felt about it, and figured it would be pretty rude. With the last one she caught him in the middle of smoking.

Kasumi let loose an inward sigh of relief as the prefect finally finished his cigarette, and she could finally relax a bit. Listening to how long he'd been at Beata, Kasumi had to admit she was a little surprised. He seemed to fit in so smoothly with the school, as if he'd been here all his life. Could one really adapt to such a place so swiftly? "Wow, you seem as if you've be here longer than that..." the younger Winter said softly, thinking aloud.

Then, listening to what Magic said next, and he spirits rose a bit. "Really? That would be really useful to me... Back home, I usually freaked out any time the sun came out, since I had no control over my gift. It's better now, but..." Kasumi sighed softly, thinking about how she'd missed out on much because of her so-called gift. "See, my gift is mist physiology, meaning I can turn my body into water vapor. Basically, I end up with every characteristic of water vapor, meaning I could evaporate away if the sun's too bright or I'm near too much heat. My molecules would get scattered, and there would be near no chance of me ever becoming me again."

Magic nodded. "Yep. They teach the basics of gift stuff, and then over time they get into the more specific details of the gift. My gift is Audiokinesis, and they started me off with simply bending, and distorting music." He said recalling his first month at the school. "These days I'm practicing silencing sound waves, and levitating small objects with a standing wave." Those were the two things he couldn't really do all to well. Something he still struggled with. "I don't know what exactly they have planned for you, but I'm sure it will help you. You might not see results right away, but in the long run you will make amazing progress. That is if you stick with it." He had seen a few students give up before, some even loosing enough motivation to leave the school. His brother being one of those people, but the prefect was glad he was gone.

Kasumi listened to the prefect's explanation, nodding slightly every now and then. From what she'd heard, it seemed that Beata Academy would probably be a better experience then worse for her, overall. Who knew? If s'd thought of audiokineses at first, she never would have thought a gift like that much use at all, just like mist physiology. Who knew, maybe she'd find some use in her wayward gift after a few years. "Ah, I see! Beata sounds like a great place when you put it hat way, huh..." After listening to his last comment, Kasumi in waved her hand lightly, a rueful smile on her face. "Honestly, with a gift as stupidly uncontrollable and life-threatening as mine, I doubt I have a choice in whether to stick to it or not. It's either spending the rest of my life in a hole, or learning to control it." The girl paused for an awkwardly long time, before saying, "If you don't mind, what are you doing out here?"

"Well you already saw one of the reasons." The prefect said. "But I mostly came out here to take a break, and just relax for a bit. Being a prefect gives me a lot of stress. That plus the stress from school work, and what not, I really needed a break, and just get rid of all of this stress.." In a fairly non-violent way. Normally he would be punching a bag to take out stress, but he didn't feel like it today, and he needed to tone it done with being violent. He leaned back against the rocks more, and looked up at the girl he was speaking to. "I should probably introduce myself, I'm called Magic around here. It's a strange name I know."

Kasumi nodded at Magic's reply. From many of the psychology books she'd read, she knew that stress was indeed a very hard thing to manage. Not to mention she'd had her share of stress too, from having to be careful every time the sun came out to the bullying that happened at her old school. Grades, she could manage well enough, having been in a gifted program and still doing just as well. "I see..." she said quietly, then looked back up at the prefect as he introduced himself. "Magic... I suppose it is strange. Is it a nickname?" she asked, tilting her head to one side. "My name isn't exactly common, either. I'm Kasumi, since my parents decided not to choose English names for me or my brothers."

Magic brought up a hand and rubbed the back of his head before letting it fall to his side again. "Yeah it's a nickname. No, you can't know my real name." He wanted to get that answer out of the way before she asked. He was sort of used to instantly saying that when he introduced himself to others. His thoughts instantly went to Kyou, the time manipulator, after the girl mentioned not having an english name. "You have a nice name. There are a good many people here that don't exactly have English names, so you aren't entirely alone in that aspect." There was that Hungarian boy, the spring prefect, and his sister as well. There were a few more he couldn't think of at the moment.