Hanging Around [Open]

Magnolia smiled at the compliment, forgetting her dilemma for a moment. Small green leaves began to grow around the roses, stick up out of the girls hair like green flags. "It's just embarrassing because it happened on accident. My gift is very.... unpredictable." She concluded, trying to think of a word that didn't sound so much as an insult.
She plucked the rose from the left side of her head and handed it to Keira. The blood bender didn't understand that pretty was about as far as Magnolia's gift went. She couldn't really help anyone, not like Keira could. "My gift is pretty useless unless you want a quick arrangement of a piece of fresh fruit." Maggie smiled slightly, and let her hands fall to her side. She wanted her gift to be worth so much more, but for now it was just a pretty dinner trick.

Keira took the flower from the girl, then sat down on the ground leaning on the tree. "I wouldn't say it's useless. For one you could grow food, and stuff pretty easily, well you will once you train with it for a while. If there was ever a natural disaster or something you could provide food to people who need it." There was probably more that Maggie could do with her gift, but Keira couldn't exactly think of them right now.

Keira looked at the flower in her hands for a moment before placing it up in her hair. Well She didn't know if it would stay there or it would end up falling, but for now it was staying. The flower sat on the opposite side of her head that her flower pin sat on.

"Well thanks." the girl answered with a slight smile. She probably couldn't explain to Keira why she felt so useless. Everyone around her had amazing powers, that could save people's lives. All Maggie could do was grow them a meager apple from her head. The girl had thought about this for awhile, what it would finally be like to meet all her gifted classmates. It was like they were all going to grow up to be superheroes, like the kind in action adventure novels. Maggie had the powers of a lame sidekick, at best. The green haired girl had finally found the one place she belonged, and yet she still didn't fit in. The reality of her situation had just begun to sink in during that moment,  and a wave of sadness washed over her. Maybe her gift had a talent she hadn't discovered yet. Hopefully, that was the case.
Mags noticed Keira put the flower in her hair, jerking her attention away from her self-pit party. Almost parallel on the other side of her head was a barrette shaped like a flower. This sparked Magnolia's interest. "What kind of flower is that?" The inquisitive girl asked, tilting her head to the side as she nodded at Keira's flower accessory.

Instinctively a hand reached up and touched the flower pin that sat in her hair. "This? This is a Primrose. It's my favorite flower." Keira said. The winter removed the pin from her hair and held it in her hand. The pink with the yellow center replicated the primroses that she grew with her mother. It was something she got from her brother before he left to into the navy. It was rather nice of him to give it to her. Her brother was always the best. "You wanna look at it?"

Magnolia watched as the girl plucked the flower pin from and twiddle it in her fingers for a second. Keira identified the flower as a primrose. Magnolia remembered the rose, it had been a popular plant in her parents greenhouse, desired by many large estate owners. The girl offered the pin to Magnolia, and asked her if she wanted to look at it. "Of course." Maggie said, beaming at Keria. She gingerly took it from her hand, and twisted it in her own, looking at it from all angles that the filtered sunlight offered. It was beautifully crafted, a silver hair pin with a pink rose petals that faded to yellow, and an intricately made middle. She smiled, and handed the prized possession back over to Keira. "It's beautiful. I can understand why primroses are your favorite." Maggie said, smiling sweetly.

Well there were more reasons as to why the flower was her favorite other than it's appearance, but Keira wasn't going to bring that up because it involved parents, and she specifically told Maggie not to bring them up so.. yeah.. Keira took back the pin, and replaced it in her hair. Back to where it belonged. "So Maggie, how long have you been at this school?" She assumed it was alright to call the girl Maggie, if she didn't like it then she would probably correct the winter.

Magnolia could sense the girl's hestitation, but said nothing of it. If she wanted to talk about it, she would. Mags watched the girl put the pin back in her hair and grinned. "Oh not very long at all, I just arrived a few days ago.. What about you?" She questioned, looking genuinely interested.

"I have been here for about a month, or so. Kind of lost track." Keira said with a shrug. "What else can you do with your gift besides grow flowers out of your hair?" Keira asked. It was clear that Maggie's gift had to do with plants, there was probably a lot she could do with it.

Magnolia nodded at the girl, who seemed to have settled into the school fairly well. "I can sorta talk to plants... Basically tell if they need more water or sunlight, if they're happy where they are, if they're sick... Things like that. Oh, and this..." The girl brushed the leaves aside on the ground, exposing the compacted dirt below them. After wiggling her fingers against the surface for a bit, she was able to slide them into the loose soil. Maggie closed her eyes, her brow furrowing together in concentration. She was searching, with a sort of echo-location. She sensed an acorn, buried maybe 6 inches under the soil. Concentrating with all her might, she pictured the acorn growing. Sure enough, after about 30 seconds of thinking hard, a small sapling grew out of the ground, spring up between Keira and herself. Mags opened her eyes with excitement at the little plant, and brushed her now dirty fingers across its leaves. As if her touch alone gave it life, the tree sprung up another foot and stopped, leaning its small twig-like branches towards the green-haired girl. Her eyes almost glowed with appreciation. "I can will thing to grow, in any weather. Made my parents greenhouse very successful." She said with a wink, leaning back on her hands to appreciate the work she'd done.

It was pretty neat, being able to grow plants on will like that. That was exactly was Keira was refering to about giving food to people in need. The small sapling that grew in a few seconds because of this girl, but if Maggie hadn't done that then it would have taken a few years to get it to the point it was at now. It was neat, but Keira was looking for offensive, and defensive techniques. "That's neat, but can you attack with it? Or Defend with it?"

Now Keira felt like showing off a bit. Using her gift she reopened the cut on her hand, and drew some blood out. She wasn't going to do her usual technique cause that made her hair messy, but she could make a shield. Keira held up her hand, the back of her hand was facing Maggie, the blood gathering in front of her hand, forming a large circle, then crystallized. Forming a red shield, that could decently withstand something. "I can use my gift for many aggressive purposes, there isn't many passive uses for it." She said with a slight shrug.

Magnolia had never really thought about using her gift to attack someone or defend herself. She thought for awhile, then looked around at the forest that enveloped them. Only a few feet away was a briar bush, thick and tangled. Magnolia stood and quickly closed the distance between herself and the bush. She reached her arm out, and a tangle of vines met her halfway, wrapping their thorns around her wrist, then building what harshly resembled a shield. She pulled her arm back, snapping the remaining few vines off the bush and walked back over to Keira plopping down in the seat she had been sitting in before. "Does this count?" Questioned Magnolia, her crude, but thick, shield standing between her and Keira.

Keira watched, as the girl made a shield. "Yeah that counts." Though it was kind of an awkward shield. Well Maggie wasn't that great with her gift yet and still had a good many things to learn. Keira still had a lot to learn about her own gift, but there was one aspect of her gift that scared her. It was the fact that Keira could take control of a person's motorskills just by manipulating the blood inside them. She never did it before.. Well at least not to a person.. and she didn't plan to unless she absolutely had to.. Her gift was scary enough as it was.

Having the shield up for as long as she did was tiring her. Soon Keira just let the shield return to liquid, and fall to the ground. She couldn't return it to her body now, and it wasn't that much anyway. Her body was use to have small amounts taken from it at a time. Her cut was already sealed again.

Magnolia looked at her puny shield and couldn't help but look down upon it. Compared to Keira's blood shield, hers wasn't anything to talk about. She shook her hand and watched as the vines withered and fell from her arm. "Eh, I'll have to work on it." The green hair girl retorted, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly. She knew there was so much more to her gift than what she could do now, and she was ready to explore that side of it.
Maggie watched as the shield that Keira had made suddenly become liquid and fall to the ground, which eagerly began to soak it up. Keira looked tired, as if she suddenly wanted to take a nap. Mags worried a tad, but figured that Keira could take care of herself. The girl raised and eyebrow and asked, "Do you have to wait until the blood is outside of the body to manipulate it?"

Keira blinked.. No.. It didn't have to be.. As long as the blood existed she could control it.. "No.." The winter answered softly. She discovered that a while ago. "I prefer to not use that aspect of my gift though. I would rather use it externally." Keira blinked away some tiredness. It was just an effect of her gift.. It took up a lot of her energy.

The brunette girl seemed sapped of energy, and Magnolia could tell. It was no wonder she didn't like using the blood inside a person, it would be like controlling a human weapon. She could harden all the blood inside someone and turn them into a statue... I wonder what that would feel like Maggie thought to herself, imagining what it would be like to have all your blood stiffen and stop flowing. The idea made the green haired girl cringe. "One can only assume that it would take a lot of energy to control that much blood."