The Morning [Open]

The morning he woke up--the morning he knew something was missing.

For months he had sought out what he had forgotten. A cryptic message to himself, scribbled in the margins of an old notebook, leading him to a hidden notebook, in which everything was written, including a printed picture of himself next to a blond-haired blue-eyed teen. Both of them giving the camera a goofy smile.

He didn't know this boy but knew he was what was missing.

After many months of search and travel, Bently knew this was the place. Beata-- or as they called the city: River's Pointe. The moment he left the plane, he knew. It wasn't every day someone could make their backpack fly behind them. Nor was it every day a human turned into a cat, like something out of Harry Potter.

As Bently took a seat in the beautiful garden, he leaned back, covering his eyes. How would he find him in such a large city?

There was nothing better than when Kiera could escape the confines of the academy's ground and see Rivers' Pointe...And take time to enjoy the peaceful sights. A book was tucked under her arm as she slowly walked the paved paths, heading to her preferred spot of reading...Only to freeze when she realized that somebody was already there.

She stood there, frozen like a deer caught in headlights as she tried to figure out what to do. Certainly it wouldn't be a bother for her to just...Go find somewhere else to read but yet ruining her routine seemed...Wrong. Slowly, she looked around for perhaps another spot she could take...Then again, there was enough room for her to take a seat next to him but...

She groaned as she reached up, pulling the book from where it was resting in the crook of her arm and held it in front of her like a shield. She hated talking to people, she rarely knew what to say and had so much trouble reading social cues...But yet, talking to the boy instead of finding a new spot seemed like the lesser of two evils somehow. And so slowly, she worked her way forward.

Kiera came to a halt about a foot away, but yet he didn't stir. He was covering his eyes to block out the sun and her footsteps were naturally light, her parents would often call her a sneaking cat due to how quiet she was...She swallowed, clearing her throat lightly to catch his attention. "Um...Is...Is this spot taken?" she asked, motioning toward the empty spot with her book, doing her best to refrain from curling into a little ball at the sheer stress of talking to somebody she didn't recognize in the slightest - not from any of her classes at least.

Anguis was taking a stroll around, just to be alone with his thoughts. His mind was usually straight forward and perfectly organized, but since he had heard of Beata, that has changed. The mere thought that there's an entire campus of people with powers, it tangled up his brain, like a pair of earbuds after being shoved in a pocket. At least, that was the best way to describe the feeling. For his entire life, he believed he was the only one in the entire world with a strange ability. While at first that belief was lonely, that solitude was a sort of comfort to him. Knowing he was special, it made him get over fears and anxiety numerous times. Does that make him arrogant? Maybe so, but it was still a comfort. It doesn't really matter now, because that comfort is gone, regardless of whether or not it was like a high horse to have. He has no idea what kind of strengths the other students would have. What if his gift was a lower tier compared to the others? Is mimicking a voice that powerful?
    He immersed himself in these doubts for a few moments before shrugging it off. 'Come on, Anguis. You aren't the kind of guy to have anxiety. Just get your thoughts back in line and everything will be cool...' he thought to himself. He took a deep breath and slowly quelled his doubts until his soul was finally restored to his usual calm and collected state. 'Maybe I can go relax somewhere, that usually helps.' he thought, looking around. He spotted a bench with two people he hasn't seen before. He walked over towards them and raised his hand up in greeting. "Hey, I haven't seen you around here before." he said, "I was going to sit down somewhere around here if that's alright with you.". He put his hands in his jacket pockets and smiled slightly, "The name is Anguis by the way."

A soft voice caused Bently to remove his arm out of his vision. Blinking, he only managed to mutter "Huh? Uh, no--not taken, go ahead. I'm not gunna hog it or anything." The giftless teen offered the girl a welcoming smile, moving over to give her more space. Yet, before he knew it, another student appeared introducing himself. Brown eyes inspected the guy carefully--no, nothing like the picture. Despite his scrutinizing gaze, Bently gave the other the same smile.

"Go ahead. It's nice to meet you Anguis, my name is Bently." He paused to consider his next words. "Do you two live here?"

As the boy allowed her to take a seat, Kiera raised the book ever so slightly as she scooted in next to him, barely having time to sit down before another voice caused her to jump. Her eyes flashed upwards, a sinking feeling in her chest as she found another student had walked over. All she had wanted was to read - talking to one had been bad enough but...The grip tightened on the book, fretting over if she should try to back out of the conversation or not. What if she made a fool of herself, failing to understand something simple? Words could be so confusing to her, meaning behind them and...  She stared down at her book before a few seconds, listening to the two chat for a second before she took in a deep breath, resting the book against her stomach as she glanced up at the two.

"I'm Kiera," she said, figuring she would introduce herself as the two had already shared their names. However, Bently's question took her off guard. What did he mean by that? Where else would she be living? For a second, she could feel her heart flutter with panic. Was she taking it too literally? What if her answer was something he didn't mean at all, she didn't want to be a fool... Her mind raced to try to come up with what else he could mean, before realizing that...Well, she wasn't living in Rivers' Pointe proper upon second thought. "I...No...Not exactly. I'm boarding at Beata," she mumbled, although being careful to be loud enough for them both to hear as she ran a finger down the spine of her book. "...I'm not from Rivers' Pointe, I only moved her a few months ago like most..."

Anguis nodded and sat in a bench that stood a few feet nearby. "Ah, I'm boarding at Beata as well. I was just around here for a stroll, he explained. He then turned to Kiera. She seemed anxious, should he bring that up? Hmm... no, that would just make it worse. "So, what's your gift?" he turned towards the bench with a curious look in his eye.

"So you are students...too" Bently added after a slight pause. Yes-- he was a new student. Yes--he had magic powers. Totally. Seeing Anguis' gaze turning to him in regards to his power, Bently quickly turned his head toward Kiera expectantly "Yeah what are your powers?" He prompted, fingers feeling the wrinkles of his shirt.

Kiera completely froze when all attention turned onto her, completely missing Bently's pause and quick diverting of attention, fear leaping into her throat as she wasn't prepared for such a straightforward question. "I, uh, shadow clones," she gasped as she pulled her book even closer, the words just spilling from her without really a chance to...Think about it. She winced at her words, so hurried in her panic of being asked that she had just given the simple answer. She hated talking to people, she was so terrible with pressure and her words were so often a mess.

"I-I make shadow clones of myself," she explained, a tad slower as she tried to fully...Explain what she could. Part of her didn't want to, she wasn't very fond of her gift - she hated the events that led her to discover it but...She wasn't sure what else to do. She couldn't very well not answer, could she? It was to late now, anyways. She loosened the grip on her book so she could raise a hand, focusing the energy that she could into it. Waving her hand, she left a single after-image of it for all but a second...Before darkness consumed it and it simply faded from view. "Its...Not super impressive," she admitted as she glanced down at her book with a shrug. "I'm not sure what uses it really has in...Any situation, really as they can't do anything."

Anguis smiled at Kiera. "A human body is extremely complicated and hard to replicate. Making a perfect clone is impressive, even if it can't move or be touched," he calmly said. He sat up a bit straighter. "As for myself, I can replicate other's voices that I've heard before, for example... he trailed off before looking at Kiera. Focusing hard on keeping her voice fresh in his mind, he spoke again. "Yours?" he said in Kiera's voice, it wasn't a perfect replica, since he only heard it a couple of times, but you could still listen to it and think "Oh, that sounds like Kiera".

Wide eyes watched the two of them explain and demonstrate their abilities. Of course, Bently knew he had seen powers before, but couldn't remember seeing them. As soon as Anguis began to speak, Bently's mouth opened to a wide 'o', impressed with their abilities. Bently supposed his comment in his notebook about powers being jaw-dropping was accurate. He couldn't answer Anguis's question honestly. "I--" He closed his mouth, looking over at Kiera, imagining her being multiplied into a clone of herself. If he came up with an ability, he would have to demonstrate. Which, he couldn't do.

"--don't like to discuss my power." The lame answer passed his lips before he had time to truly think about it. If Bently was lucky, they wouldn't push. But knowing his luck streak, it wasn't always so.

Kiera jolted when Anguis' spoke in a near perfect replica of her voice, her eyes widening with amazement as she leaned forward in curiosity. "Amazing!" she gasped, for a second trying to put together a logical, scientific explanation for how the body could perform it...Before she shut herself down, shaking her head as she leaned backwards. No, no, there was no explanation for this - while there was some sort of genetic mutation certainly that allowed the Gifts, it defied all logic...And that made it all the more interesting.

Her eyes shifted over to Bently as he simply admitted not liking to discuss his, giving a soft nod of her head...Half annoyed at herself for doubting that such an answer would have been accepted if she had said it - of course she had more or less accidentally said hers in a moment of panic. "That's...Fair," she said, leaning back on the chair. Not everybody had good experiences with their Gifts, she had heard the whispers of horror stories. Tragic befalling those who were raised outside of Rivers' Pointe and didn't know what they could do. If she had a more destructive one, she was certain she would feel strongly.

Her gaze fell down to her book as she ran a finger along the spine, unsure of what else to say. If Bently didn't want to talk about his Gift, would it be wise to change the subject? Was there even anything more for them to talk about? Slowly, hoping that she wasn't appearing as rude, she creaked her book open to where her bookmark was and started to read the pages. Conversation had never come easily to her - understanding people in general was a tough thing for her to do. But she only got a few lines into her book before guilt ate away at her and she looked up at the two. "...Do you guys like to read?" she asked, suddenly looking for any common ground to keep the conversation going despite how...Strange it felt.

Anguis leaned back into the bench and smirked a little bit. "Heh, I suppose it is neat. I wouldn't call it the most amazing gift in Beata though. I'm not sure how you can save the world or something with good ventriloquism skills," he jested. Truth be told, he wasn't really that humble about his gift. He just believed people like a person who's modest. Was he wanting to make friends? Not really. He just liked it when people liked him, even if he was an inch past an acquantaince to them.
   Hearing Bently didn't want to talk about his gift was a bit disappointing, but that disappointment faded quickly. "I understand if you don't want to talk about it," he said. He tilted his head slightly up. "It's my apologies. That is a rather personal question, isn't it? It was a bit rude of me to ask something like that, though I was simply a bit excited to meet another student at Beata," he laughed a tiny bit.
Hearing Kiera ask about reading just had Anguis shrug a bit. "I do on occasion. I wouldn't call it a huge hobby of mine per se, but I still pick up a book every now and then," he stared off a tiny bit.

Bently visibly relaxed as the two didn't push any further. "Ah, Yeah!" The boy chirped in response, glad to have a change in subject. "I've read quite a few books. I really enjoy murder mysteries. If something is mysterious-- I'm all over it. Which is why I--" Bently was able to cut himself off before he went and spilled his entire reason for being there. Why he had gotten to Beata and his near-obsession with figuring everything out. The mystery of having a large sum of notes on Shepard, and what happened the day before his memories were erased were a gift. And it was how he managed to find Beata. Though, he knew well enough that it shouldn't be something he advertised to everyone.

Instead he just sheepishly looked back at the two of them with a heavy blush on his cheeks.