Needle in a haystack (open)

[emilie]

The huge semi pulled onto the side of the road. Emilie glanced out the window at this wide spot in the road Canadians called a town. Crazy Canadians, always making little things sound so much bigger.

The truck driver, who shared a startling resemblance to Jeff Bridges, turned to the purple-and-black-haired girl brooding in his passenger seat. "You sure you want out here, honey?"

"Yeah. Thanks for the ride." Emilie popped open the door and began sliding out.

"Well, whatever. Just don't get into too much trouble." He glanced around, as if someone were listening. "People 'round these parts can be a little tough, you know?" She figured he was hinting at something, but she had no idea what.

"Thanks for the advice," She replied in a voice barely above a whisper, shortly before slamming the door shut. She turned around, hearing the roar of the engine move slowly away just behind her. The whoosh of the back of the truck passing her by came just a few seconds after. She felt gravity begin to bend sideways, as if following it, and she had to focus.

'Stay down, you,' She thought. The feeling subsided, the gravity normalizing.

Then she looked around. She'd heard a few whispers about a haven for mutants being around here somewhere. But she'd never actually bothered to ask about its exact location. Nor had it been on a map anywhere. She rightly didn't know what she'd expected. A giant neon sign? Some mystical force yammering in her ear?

Then she remembered vague directions she'd overheard a guy talking about back in Chicago. What was it? Something about the third street on the left...

A quick glance around confirmed she was already there. As if kickstarted into action, she started speedwalking down the road. It twisted upward into a dense forest, and she wound her way along with it. And as she did, her thoughts caught the better of her. What would it be like? Would there be others? People who didn't yell at her, call her names, throw eggs at her...

Break up with her.

She paused for a moment, her head hanging downward a bit. Carl. She'd almost forgotten about him. The guy who'd completely broken her heart, just because she was a little more different than before. She shook those thoughts out of her head. She'd left him...them...long behind. It was time to move on.

Something snapped.

Emilie tensed up immediately, and though her hands were still in her pockets, she was nervously glancing in the general direction where it had come from.

She called out, her timid voice shaking in the dense wood. "Hello? Is...anyone there?"

[jacob]

Rinsing off the soap from his face, looking in the mirror of his 17th floor apartment washroom, gleaming into his foggy reflection as he grabs the towel and pats down his face, hearing his father’s statements in his thoughts; “Don’t ever look back…Stay focused…Go out there, Jacob. Explore your goals.”

“Dad, you were always so positive. Where are you?” Jacob whispered to himself as he finished, and walked out to his balcony. Thoughts of the past rushing through his mind, only trying to figure out what he was going to do next, looking down at the people in the streets walking by. A smile cracked upon his face as he channeled himself and slowly began to lift off the ground, causing the dirt around his feet to lift with him, spreading his hands around him formed an invisible gravitational force field, so he would wouldn’t rip to pieces at super flight speeds. Jacob lifted to a decent level of high above his apartment building, smelling the fresh air around him as he faced north, “Well, I wouldn’t want to go too far” he thought to himself, “Canada it is.” as Jacob charged the field around him and propelled himself forward at an astonishing speed, only feeling a slight breeze around him as he dashed across the country, the feeling of his gravity flight felt like he was floating still in the air and the world was quickly rotating around him, the clouds tailing him in a swirl behind his feet as he played through the air, shortly coming to a quick stop around a shroud of a tree’s with buildings not too far ahead, “I think I’ll rest here for a bit.” Jacob thought as he descended down to a tree, snapping the branch ever so slightly upon landing. Seconds later hearing a faint sound of woman’s voice calling “…anyone there?”

Jake quickly turned his head around and looked down, and saw a wandering individual facing his direction, adjusting his head to see a face through the branches covered with leaves and noticing a purple haired woman. Jumping down from the tree, and landing on the ground below, bending his knee’s and stumbling somewhat; trying not cause any sort of suspicious attention. Looking at woman ahead, “Yes, I was just up there viewing the area for a photography project. I didn’t mean to cause an alarm.”

[CHAOS]

In these woods, mutants were everywhere. Okay, maybe not everywhere, but you were more likely to run into a mutant then a human or a wild animal. Actually, even some of the 'wild animals' were mutants merely in hiding. Whether it was telepaths tricking your mind to see a deer rather then a person, or an actual shapeshifter, or an illusionist.... Overall, your eyes could be pretty deceiving.

For example, at this moment, both mutants would hear a rustling, as a fox leisurely wandered through the foliage before stepping out and into plain sight. It stopped, turning it's angular head to stare at the two with those large, intelligent eyes foxes were so well known for. The head tilted a little, continuing to stare at them in that calm calculating way. Finally though, it sniffed the air, before opening it's large mouth and letting out a yip.

With out any sign of fear, the fox approached, still watching in a mischievous sort of way. It stopped only a few feet from them, and yipped once more. After staring at them for just a few seconds longer of this intense staring and two more yips, the 'animal' turned and bolted off into the foliage, it's assessment of the strangers done.

A few moments passed, before it reappeared once more, farther up the old dirt road, and sat there, as if waiting for them. Finally though, it yipped, even louder. That wasn't the only thing they heard though, a voice was in both their heads as well.

Both welcome. Stay on the road, or you'll set off a trap.

Then, just like that, the fox... or mutant?... Was gone... And miraculously exposed both of them to the virus the mutant carried.

((Both of you, roll a dice. ( just type [dice= 100 with out the space at the bottom of your next posts). 1-50 means you caught it, 51-100 means you didn't.))

[/justify]

[emilie]

Emilie's first thought was that this other guy was rather attractive. Maybe not the most rational first impression of a guy jumping out of a tree. But hey, who said anything about emotions being rational? On the off chance she kind of liked him, she definitely didn't show any of it through. In fact, it helped that her second train of thought came crashing past.

He'd jumped out of a tree.

And then acted like nothing had happened.

What the hell was he? Another mutant? He seemed friendly enough. Bad guys don't apologize, right? Emilie stayed cold and unmoving, though she did begin uncoiling a little. "It's fine," she said, her soft voice barely carrying to the other guy. "Just...startled me is all."

Then she got a bright idea. Her eyes flicking between his eyes and his feet, she managed to say, "You wouldn't know anything about a mutant haven around here, would you? I'm kind of..."

A brief rustling interrupted her. She whipped around to stare at it sideways, ready to run at a seconds notice. Gravity flared up around her as she did, and a few leaves and dirt clods went flying upwards. And in her panic, she saw...a fox?

It yipped at them both, getting very close. Emilie panicked slightly, breathing fast and heavy as it approached. then it...spoke. Or something.

Stay on the road, or you'll set off a trap. The voice echoed around her head as much as the words themselves. Trap? By who? But before she could ask, the fox was gone.

She turned slowly to face the guy from before. In her soft, whispery voice, she asked, "Am I crazy, or did a fox seriously just talk to us?"

[dice=100][rand=4397446151243691321049901353985768838437418806717060604149971175]

[jacob]

By the way she responded, it sounded like she didn’t seem to notice him flying to the tree, he nodded as he said “This is a beautiful landscape; I just had to check it out from overhead.” Snickering in his thoughts to pun he just made, watching the interesting woman flicking her eyes at him. Her voice seemed calm and collective, yet she also sounded rather charming as she asked her question. Jacob paused for a moment as he felt a bit nervous and timid to answer, “Mutant haven? No, I’m not familiar with this area.” Wondering if she was a mutant herself as she paused in between her second statement.

Turning his head towards the approaching fox right after speaking his words, examining the strange creature, “Must be a pretty trained fox, I wonder who the owner is?” he thought in confusion as he watched the animal carefully.

Jacob chuckled slightly, “What a peculiar little thing.” He stated to woman in front of him as he felt the motion gravity shift as the leaves blew up near him, knowing for sure that something wasn’t right. “Was she like me…No, it couldn’t be.” He thought quickly as he gazed at her in her panic state. Jake looked back in the same direction and seeing it again.

Hearing the voice in his head caused him a small headache as he turned to the woman, “No, I heard it too.” quickly shifting himself front to back to look around for another person, looking back to the fox yet again, squinting his eyes at the furry little devil.

He quickly started walking towards the yipping fox, as he saw it disappear in front of his bare eyes, “ This can’t be…” he said nervously.

[dice=100][rand=81285811246708800654725708764136792122200505023085971310419059244]

[emilie]

"No, I heard it too." Which basically translated to: "Well, you're not crazy. On the other hand, a fox just freaking talked to you."

Which doesn't normally happen.

Not to normal people, and probably not to abnormal people either.

Emilie heard the other guy say something. she couldn't totally make out what it was, but it sounded a bit like a cliched one-liner from a horror film or something. He also sounded a bit nervous, which set her on edge.

"You think it was a mutant?" She asked quietly, still staring at the place where the fox used to be, as if by sheer willpower she could make it reappear.

She stood there like that for several minutes, before it finally registered in her brain that the fox wasn't coming back. Slowly, she began to relax a little bit, a semblance of normalcy returning.to her mind. Then a thought hit her. It wasn't a sudden thought, but more like a gradual epiphany.

There are mutants at mutant havens.

Which implies that there are mutants around mutant havens as well.

That fox...mutant...thing...might've come from there.

Emilie began turning towards the guy next to her. "Well, I'm gonna go...I still have this place to find, after all..." AS she said this, she began slowly walking down the road, without waiting for an answer even though she was still facing him.

[jacob]

Jacob stood up and paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts of what just happened. It seemed strange to him that the telepathic creature would communicate with the both of them at once; it hinted a possible threat in his mind’s eye. Examining the scene around him carefully, Jacob closed his eyes for a moment and focused with his ability to sense any slight abnormal alterations around the area, scanning to see if he they were both being monitored; he quickly noticed an unusual flow; possibly a person watching them in a building in front of him not too far ahead, seconds later feeling a slight gravitational disturbance around the woman behind him, instantly realizing that she wasn’t human.

“Yes, it was a mutant, or something like it.” Jacob replied selectively, trying not to make it seem like he knew about her. Turning around to face her, looking at her eyes and thinking “She has a rough look to her, something similar to that of a criminal, could she be behind this?” though quickly ignored his rash judgment, “She is beautiful though.” He thought as he smiled.

She kept saying mutants as if she was looking one. It was ironic that one was standing right in front of her. She had mentioned earlier that she was looking for a haven of mutants, perhaps his speculations wasn’t as absurd as he thought “Are you looking for a specific mutant, Ms..?” he said, reminding himself that he completely forgot to ask her for her name.

He looked back to the tree from where he jumped, then back to the woman again to notice she was slowly walking away, clarifying her ‘Goodbye’ with a nod, a little upset that she was taking her leave. Thinking that the place he sensed earlier might have been a mutant haven, suggesting “I think the place you’re looking for is this way.” he pointed in the opposite direction.

[emilie]

"I think the place you're looking for is that way."

Naturally, he was pointing in the exact opposite direction she thought she was supposed to be going.

Exactly what was up with that? First, he goes on about how he doesn't know the area. Then a little Super-duper-fox-thing tells her to stay on the road. Then he's telling her to go the other direction. Ugh! So damn comfusing!

None of this rant was verbal, just like it wasn't portrayed at all on her face. The absolute minimum she physically did was press on her sinuses to try and relieve the headache she'd recently developed. Somehow, it wasn't working.

"I thought you said you didn't know the area," She said, louder than she usually did. She was starting to warm up to the idea of this guy being around. After all, he was probably the only one in this whole freaking town who knew what he was doing.

Ding! Hello.

"Well," she started, "Since you know what you're doing so well, I guess I'll stick with you a little ways. Looks like we're attached at the hip until we find the place."

She could be manipulative when she wanted to.

[jacob]

Smiling at the woman in front of him briefly, he found it interesting that she would follow him even though he himself didn’t know where he might lead the both of them, let alone not even knowing her name. He thought for a second before answering her question, “Well, since that…whatever it was that spoke to us said that we need to stay on the road, I’m assuming that it meant that way.” He pointed his thumb backwards leading towards the fox’s last known location.

He walked a few steps closer to her as he was explaining his theory, strangely feeling a slight push from her as if two magnets were rubbing against each other on the opposite ends, as he got closer the polarity changed again into a pull; it seemed he’d entered some sort of a bubble. Jacob quickly ‘grabbed’ the pull to keep himself steady with her, just before he blinked. He’d never had to control his gravitational pull with anyone, thinking if this was her doing. “I’m Jacob, nice to meet you, Ms..?” as he offered his hand to her, leaning back partially to keep a distance.

“This is the second time there has been a gravitational field disturbance around this girl. What sort of mutant is she? Maybe she could sense me as well or perhaps even read my thoughts. There is only one way to tell… ” he thought seconds after he raised his hand to her, looking into her dark mysterious eyes, within an instant later escaping into his mind and releasing a tiny spark of ability, leaning the grass to a spiral around her almost unnoticeably by the eye, and creating small blasts of force that passed by her, shaking the tree’s with every wind that blew by; trying to mix his doings with the weather, not to make it overly suspicious if she was just human after all.

[emilie]

“Well, since that…whatever it was that spoke to us said that we need to stay on the road, I’m assuming that it meant that way.”

She thought otherwise. Emilie sincerely believed he was wrong. On the other hand, she wasn't about to let on to the fact. She decided to humor him a little. Besides, it wasn't like she'd come back and it'd be gone.

As he got closer, she could feel her little bubble start acting up. Something to do with this guy was driving her power haywire. Was that part of his power? Or was that just some arbitrary thing? She kind of doubted the latter. Nonetheless, if it was going crazy with him just standing there, she didn't rightly want to know what would happen if they physically touched. She did the absolute best she could to hold it down, but it was still pressing against its bounds, hard. What was with this guy?

She rejected his hand, burying hers deeper into the pockets of her jeans. She still responded warmly enough to him. "I'm Emilie. That's my name." She hated the words the minute they came out. What in hell was wrong with her to think up something as stupid and pathetic as that!? Again, as always, the most she showed physically was the tiniest of winces and a glance down at the ground. And with said glance, she noticed something.

The grass....

Things were getting a little funky around her, now that she thought about it. She didn't really show through, but she was sure he was getting some serious vibes of her confused attitude. But what if he was a mutant? If he was...like her? She decided to let it go, just in case. But also just in case, she tilted the gravity just slightly to her right. It hit about a 45 degree angle before she agonizingly made the effort to stop it. She felt the necklace on her chest slide right, her clothes blow in that direction. Leaves, dirt, and even small sticks began rolling in the apparent downhill. If he was paying attention, he'd feel like he was standing on a steep slope.

'Just a small signal,' she thought as she forced gravity back to normal. If he wasn't human, he'd know beyond a shadow of a doubt. If he was, she could blame it on a freak gust.

"What about you?" she asked. "Your name, I mean."

[jacob]

Watching her slide her hands into her pockets, looking into her eyes and chuckling to himself briefly. “Emilie. That’s a pretty name.” He looked at his hand for a second and jokingly turned it around and waved instead.

What just happened there, maybe she doesn’t like touching people she doesn’t fully know. I can understand that, given the fact that all sorts of freaky things have been happening ever since he got here. She seemed rather shy as well; she tried not to fully express her emotions. He was confused, and didn’t really know how to fully reply to the rejection of his greeting.

“I might have spooked her, maybe the gravity games wasn’t such a good idea…” he noted for himself, shrugging at the thought. Moments later feeling the pull of gravity turn into a hill to his left, he spoke to soon, stumbling to the side, “Whoa!” he stuttered; trying to regain his balance. He hadn’t felt that off balance since he was a young man, still trying to understand his abilities. He looked at the direction of the pull, and looked back at Emilie. Feeling (almost seeing) the gravity waves vibrate off her and ripple passed him as if she was trying to adjust the force back to normal; he knew that feeling all too well. There was nothing to hide anymore; I’m guessing that was her signal back to me. He paused for a moment, “I’ve never met anyone like me before…Two gravity projectors, if we both concentrated we could create a…Does she know her true extent?” thinking excitedly while also jumping to conclusions.

“I almost fell there. I’m Jacob.” He was sure that he already stated his name, though didn’t think too much of it. “Well, Emilie. Should we get going?” he winked causing the gravity to pull in his direction, lifting her necklace straight at him, and dropping back to normal a couple of seconds later.

Walking a few steps back he turned back around and started walking forward slowly, trying to keep a slow pace for her to catch up.

[emilie]

Emilie forced a little half-smile. Okay, maybe it seemed a little cruel. But she had to admit, watching Mr. Suave stumble at her little stunt was pretty funny. Not enough to actually laugh at. Just a little bit funny.

"I'm Jacob."

So his name was Jacob. She caught a slight bit of feeling that she already knew that. Was she getting deja vu or something? Was that even how it's spelled?

"Well, Emilie. Should we get going?"

She almost responded. Seriously, she was just about to say something. But then she was interrupted by...something. It was the weirdest feeling, like feeling ripples move past her, toward this guy. Then she felt her necklace pull itself toward him, following the ripples. And then suddenly...it stopped.

Which left her thinking, "What in the living hell was that?"

She felt more than saw Jacob start walking away, and she mindlessly began to follow him. She was still lost in thought. That sensation...whatever it was...was almost totally new to her. She vaguely remembered feeling a tiny bit of it when the grass was acting up. And she remembered it once before, when her power was first starting to work, long before she was able to control it. Over time, it went away, and she'd just figured she'd gotten used to it. Until this Jacob guy showed his rather handsome face.

What was he even doing? Was he messing with the objects? Or the air?

Or...

In that single moment, everything became clear to her.

Turning her head sideways, she decided to press him a little bit. With her soft little voice, she said, "You know, I can't shake the feeling that we have a lot in common."