Silence Is Disturbing Me (Open)

[Tamika Dombrovski]

It was quiet. Too quiet. In the evening, the common room was usually near enough packed, but tonight Tamika would be lucky if there was even a mouse in the walls. For a minute she panicked. Was there some important event she was missing? Meetings or something?
Nah, there'd be more noise if there was meetings.
After her initial suspicion she began to enjoy the silence, it wasn't often that she would get this peace, maybe now would be a good time to start a new book. She started feeling the seat beside her where she had set the book after coming in from the village. Picking it up, Tamika flicked to page one and settled down. By chapter two, something prodding her neck had irritated too much, so she turned round to find the source. Her nightly visitor.
"Dammit, I don't know where the bloody key is! I don't even know what key you mean!"
The man glared at her as if she was an imbecile and shouted at her in a thick Scottish accent, which for the life of her she couldn't understand. Waving her hand in a 'go away' motion she sighed at him, "Please, go away?"
Instead of leaving he sat down in front of her. Tamika was about to rant at him again about the key and him leaving but she heard footsteps on the hallway. Well, if someone came in and it looked like she was shouting at herself it wouldn't give a good impression, now would it?

[francis cohn]

“AHA!” Francis Cohn uttered out loud without realising as he rounded a corner and flung open the door of the room labelled Common Room. What mysteries could this room be hiding? He smiled to himself as he walked in. He was proud that he’d found his way here. It may have been a week, but somehow Francis still didn’t know his way around the school. He didn’t know what it had to offer in the way of fun.

The initial thing that caught Francis’ attention was the crackling fire, it made him sleepy and without thinking he stretched his arms into the air as far as he could and suppressed a yawn. He wrapped his arms around himself and was about to look for somewhere to sit when he realised he was not alone. Not in a sci-fi movie type of not alone, but more of a literal not alone. As in, there was someone in the room. He froze. He scarcely breathed.

Francis was especially glad he hadn’t done anything embarrassing up until now. He slowly turned around and saw a girl sitting on a sofa observing him. She had thick brown hair and kind brown eyes; there was a book beside her on the sofa. Francis liked her already. “Oh hi there,” he said easily recovering from his paralysis of fear, he rushed over to her sofa and sat beside her. “I didn’t realise you were in here. Otherwise I would have acknowledged your presence.” he grinned at her and then stuck out a hand, “I’m Francis. I’m pretty new. What’s your name?”

[/CENTER]

[Tamika Dombrovski]

Tamika jumped as the door to the common room flung in and some blonde dude came bounding in. She had a sort of amused/surprised smile as she watched him. It was pretty obvious he hadn't caught on she was sitting there yet, as he stretched and them hugged himself. After a minute of staring at the fire, he noticed she was sitting there and began babbling what she asumed to be greetings or something. She only really heard what he said when he came over to sit beside her. Tamika moved the book out of the way before he sat down.
He grinned. "I'm Francis. I'm pretty new. What's your name?"
Tamika had to surpress a small laugh and he stuck out his hand.
Well, isn't he excitable...
"Nice to meet you, newbie," she smiled, lightly taking his hand and shaking it, "I'm Tamika, or Tammy, whichever."
She glanced in front of her again and frowned. "Look, I don't know about the key. I barely understand what comes out of your d**n mouth. Now go away or so help me, I will send you over."
The old man glared and then disappeared. Tamika turned her body round so her back was in the corner of the sofa and smiled at a confused Francis. "Sorry, restless spirits."

[francis cohn]

Tamika or Tammy shook Francis’ hand and he couldn’t help but smile. “Which do you prefer to be called? Because I like being called Francis, and sometimes people call me Fran and it really annoys me. You know?” he gushed. He was in a very enthusiastic mood tonight and it showed by the speed of his speech. She suddenly frowned, her change in expression made Francis think he might have done something wrong. She was angry with someone, was it him? What had he done?

Francis bit his lip softly and tried to hide his confusion. “Sorry, restless spirits.” had been her explanation. This set Francis off on another excited rant. “Spirits? You can see spirits? Do they talk or do they just like moan? I always thought that spirits would be all see through and moany, a bit like ghosts but higher class. What is the actual difference between a spirit and a ghost? Are they the same thing? I don’t really understand how you can–” Francis stopped mid-sentence, his topic of conversation suddenly shifting. “You are really beautiful.”

[/CENTER]

[Tamika Dombrovski]

"Tammy will do fine, and I'll take a mental note about the Fran thing."
Tamika had to hold back from laughing again as Francis started gushing out another jumble of words that seemed to somehow form to ask about ghosts and then he suddenly stopped. She raised an eyebrow, that is, until his next sentence came out.
"You are really beautiful."
With all her might, Tamika tried not to blush, but unfortunately the familiar burning swept over her cheeks. "Um, thank you. I would say the same to you, but beautifuls not really a word you use for guys. Handsome maybe? Yeah, that'll do..."
She mentally slapped herself, and stopped staring at him.
d**nit, girl, get a grip!
"But, uh, the ghosts," Tamika said quickly, trying to change the subject, "Yes, I can see, talk to, and feel the feelings of spirits. Some moan, but usually only if they are in pain from their death, most talk normally. Ghosts and spirits are the same thing, but I always personally found spirits to be a more respectful and less cheesy word to describe them."

[francis cohn]

A gorgeous colouring swept over Tammy’s face when Francis told her she was beautiful. He loved it when girls blushed, it had to be the most amazing sight in the world – he knew that what he said was charming when they blushed. It made him feel like he was improving their existence a little bit, and although that is not his aim in life, he likes to think that he makes peoples lives a little bit better when he compliments them. He chuckled slightly, “I wasn’t fishing for compliments.” he told her, when she replied in a jumbled way that didn’t seem like the way she normally held conversation.

Then she returned the conversation to his questions about spirits and ghosts, “If they’re in pain from their death?” Francis repeated incredulously, “You can still feel pain after death?” he was panicked now. He was fearful enough of death as it was. “There is too much cheese in the world.” he nodded solemnly, “Spirits sounds very pretty and dignified and so on and so forth.” he smiled at her. He wanted to hug her, he had an overwhelming urge and internally he battled over whether or not to embrace her after such a short time of knowing her. Should he ask her if she would like a hug? Perhaps not. Maybe it was too early for all that tomfoolery. He wanted this girl to be his best friend in the whole world, no need to mess that up.

And so he launched himself at her and gave her the warmest hug he could.

[/CENTER]

[Tamika Dombrovski]

"You may not have been fishing, but the compliment was necessary, so nuh," Tamika grinned.
She then gave a bit of a shrug when Francis asked about the ghost and their pain. All that she could say on the matter was sort of assumed and what she picked up from their feelings. And of course what they told her.
"It all depends on what way you die. If you were to go peacefully in your sleep or have a heart attack or something, you'll be fine. Most spirits actually are recove..."
Before Tamika could finish her little explanation of, well, death, Francis had launched himself at her in what she assumed to be a hug. She laughed a little and returned his hug.
"You have to be the most excitable person I've met in a good while."

[francis cohn]

Francis listened to her explanation about ghosts or spirits in pain with interest, he knew that she knew what she was talking about but it scared him a little, the idea of pain after death. “So if I die in a battle then I’ll be in loads of pain as a ghost?” he asked, that was a worrying thought, if that was the case then he was screwed – being a warrior sure came with its down sides.

“You have to be the most excitable person I’ve met in a good while.” she told him, was that a compliment? He wasn’t sure, but she’d returned the hug so he can’t have been a terrible failure. He smiled at her. “Thanks, I think.” he said releasing her from the hug in case it made her uncomfortable. “I’m usually a bit more ‘Ooooh I’m so cool’ than this. But I’m a little bit hyper today.” he grinned at her. “It’s probably sleep deprivation.” that was a lie, all he’d really done since arriving was sleep. Going to class didn’t seem important to him.

[/CENTER]

[Tamika Dombrovski]

"Probably not. Everyone heals after death, it takes a while but it happens. Usually it's just the over dramatic spirits than moan, and unfortunately a lot that don't pass on are like that."
Tamika slouched back into the sofa after Francis pulled away from the hug and listened to his explanation of being over-excitable. She then gave a slight frown then reached into her pocket, throwing a little strip of pills at him. "Some sort of carer rule probably says I should share sleeping pills with whoever needs 'em. And you're still cool now, just in a sort of geeky way," she laughed.

[francis cohn]

“I hope I die as peacefully as is humanly possible.” Francis smiled, his expression suddenly turned to a frown, “Are we still human?” he asked in a whisper, it was something he’d been wondering since he’d discovered his powers. It was really annoying him, not knowing. He was a boy of a million questions and this was the most nauseating at the moment. He needed this information like oxygen. But tomorrow there would be a new burning question. There was always something he was gagging to know.

Sleeping pills, ah those familiar friends. Back in the day, when Francis went to normal school and had a gazillion friends he used to pop those when they had no weed. But nowadays he took nothing, he didn’t understand it but suddenly he just didn’t care anymore. “Thanks for those.” he said with a smile, “So you’re a carer? That’s cool.” he commented but in reality he did not understand what the whole sections thing was about. He had heard there was some sort of war going on and although he dreaded to think about what this could possibly entail for the warriors, part of him wanted to know.

[/CENTER]

[Tamika Dombrovski]

Tamika drew in a breath to speak and then stopped. For the first time in a good while, there was a question about spirits she couldn't answer...
"I think..." She stopped and collected her thoughts for a moment, "I think that as soon as we die, and I mean we as in gifted people, then our spirits become human because our powers are usless in the afterlife. Alive though, we're supernatural phenomenons."
She stopped again and chewed her lip in a sort of thinking way. It was probably a rhetorical question he was asking, but hey, maybe he was asking a question. She then scowled a little at his next statement.
"Yeah, carer's, a barrel of fun... What're you in?"

[francis cohn]

Francis was unsure what to make of that reply. “So we aren’t human?” he confirmed with a short laugh. It was a nervous laugh; actually it was a terrified laugh. It was only recently that he’d begun to think that maybe this meant he wasn’t human, and now he was terrified by the implications it could have. He sighed slightly, but then smiled at Tammy; he loved how wise she was. She took his multitudes of questions in her stride. She didn’t seem to think he was an idiot.

Nor did Francis know what to make of her reaction to his reply about the carers. “I’m a warrior, apparently.” he added the apparently to show that he was relatively clueless about the whole war thing. Apparently someone(s) had it in for those at Orchid Hill and they were raging war on the school and every few months there was a battle. From what he’d heard there was one coming up soon. That knowledge scared him a little bit.

[/CENTER]

[Tamika Dombrovski]

As quickly as it came, Tamika had gotten rid of the worried look on her face. She knew the warriors was the toughest of all the groups, and she didn't like it that Francis was one. There was somewhat protective feeling coming over her, but she didn't let him know because he might find it, well, weird.
"Be careful, newb," she warned, "I don't want to end up healing you on the battlefield."
Tamika was quiet for a minute, watching the fire crackling and thinking about last years battle. She then shot a fireball at the base of the fire and giggled as it caused a small, sparkly explosion. As the remnants of the ball faded she turned her attention back to Francis.
"So where in the world are you from?"

[francis cohn]

Francis was slightly startled by the worried look that briefly flashed over Tammy’s face when he mentioned that he was a newbie. But it came and went so fast that he suspected that he may have imagined it. Francis slapped his hands onto his knees as a small release for the boundless energy that he was trying to contain. “Be careful, newb. I don’t want to end up healing you on the battlefield.” She said to him. This put Francis on red-alert. BATTLEFIELD? He was going to BATTLE? He’d only just got here. He hoped his alarm didn’t show on his face. He didn’t trust himself to speak.

There was a brief moment of silence and then Tammy shot a fireball at the fire causing an explosion. “Wow!” shouted Francis, sitting up on his knees and staring at the fire. “How did you do that?” he enthused, wondering if he could manage that sort of magic. “So where in the world are you from?” Tammy asked him. He placed a finger on his chin to form the cliché thinking pose and then smiled. “I’m from California.” he said, adopting a cheesier American accent. “Specifically the beautiful town of San Francisco.” he grinned and clapped his hands together, he just loved San Fran. “What about you?”

[/CENTER]

[Tamika Dombrovski]

"Fire power," Tamika smiled, shooting a couple of flames from her fingertips. This kind of made her assume that Francis didn't have an elemental power, or this was part of him being a hyperactive bugger. She grew kind of excited herself when she heard where he was from.
"San Fransisco? That is so cool! I always wanted to go there, but never could, what's it like?"
A little laugh escaped when she realised what fangirl or something she must have sounded like, so she moved onto answering his question. "I'm from Russia with love. Yekaterinburg and Moscow."