The Beach, Thursday Morning

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan had woken up with an almost overwhelming desire for space, air... something. Alone. He'd gotten out without as much as grabbing a sandwich and gone running along the island shore until he'd wound up here: the beach.

Where it was quiet, and he had the wind in his hair.

Truth be told? He hadn't done a terribly thorough job of finding out where he was, or how he could back. He didn't even know if he wanted to. Maybe escape-- going somewhere else, being on his own... maybe that was what he needed. Deserved.

Maybe everyone else was better off that way, too.

The skin in his hand started to prickle, and he glanced down. "Shit," he breathed, forcing the blue glow of the energy around his hand to seep back in, to stop.

He ran a hand through his hair, shaking a little. Okay. Maybe he did have some pent-up stuff that needed to come out. But was it safe here? The beach looked deserted, but... he didn't want to run the risk if...

"Shit," he muttered again, then shut his eyes.

Quiet. Completely quiet.

His body sparked blue again. Then it moved-- and he was amazed that now it did so smoothly, naturally, not as forced as it had been the first few times Vyrnnus had made him work for it, force it. Guess he did owe that to the man.

Shockwave.

Sand popped out and up into the sky, forced by a series of controlled biotic explosions, all in a straight line.

He was going to control it this time.

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

Yep, April was still exploring the island. She'd finish up eventually. Not now.

Huh. Explosion.

"If that was you, that was pretty cool," she observed, coming up from behind Kaidan.

[not_a_whiner]

"Don't do that," Kaidan said, tensing up and forcing his biotics to die back down.

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

"Don't do what?"

She was pretty sure it had to do with the coming-up-from-behind business, but there were only so many ways you could enter a beach.

[not_a_whiner]

"Sneaking up on me," Kaidan said, sounding tense. "It might not end well."

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

"Well, I wasn't gonna swim here." She didn't sound annoyed, though. Just stating a fact. "Didn't know there'd be anyone here."

[not_a_whiner]

"It's not about swimming, it's about me," Kaidan said. He rubbed at one hand.

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

She would've clarified that she'd meant swimming as a method of transportation to get here, which Kaidan presumably might have noticed ahead of time, but she didn't really care that much.

"Angst?"

[not_a_whiner]

"No," Kaidan said. "Just unsafe."

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

April just gave an 'mm' at that. It was possible that she thought she was above safety warnings.

"Well, I'm not doing a do-over," she said. "Can we move on?"

[not_a_whiner]

"Yeah, sure," Kaidan said, eyeing her warily. "Didn't mean to interrupt your walk."

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

"You're not the first this week," she said with a shrug. Ugh, this town. "Just did it in a more interesting way."

[not_a_whiner]

"You're welcome," Kaidan said dryly. "That's what I'm here for."

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

April gave another 'Mm' at that.

"April," she said by way of introduction after a moment.

[not_a_whiner]

"Kaidan," Kaidan said.

Terse was the way of it now, apparently. "I'm not really the best company."

In case she was wondering about that.

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

"Want privacy?" she offered. "Or you could blow up more sand and I can watch."

[not_a_whiner]

"If I say yes, will you actually go?" Kaidan wondered.

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, duh." Like she wanted to force being social. Please.

[not_a_whiner]

"Then yeah," Kaidan said. "Probably better on both of us if you do."

Issueeees.

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

April nodded, and turned back around to the mountain of stairs she'd just come from. "Later."

[not_a_whiner]

"Yeah."

And okay, maybe considering her curiosity, Kaidan could've waited a little longer with sending that next shockwave down the beach, but...

[ultron_junior]

It was too cold to be on a beach, but Victor suffered through it for some fresh air and ocean breeze every few days. Today was one of those days, so he had a nice view of the kid making stuff blow up.

His first comment was ... about the same as April's.

"Okay, that was pretty cool," he called. "You practicing out here?"

The guy didn't look particularly familiar, but he'd figured out from radio that that wasn't all that unusual for this week.

[not_a_whiner]

And once again, Kaidan saw himself forced to kill the biotics. At least this one hadn't snuck up on him... that much.

"I guess so," he called back. "Better stay out of the way."

[ultron_junior]

"That's why I asked," Victor returned easily, and now he did step a bit closer so he wouldn't be shouting. "Pretty much you don't want to jump in front of people who are blowing crap up, right? Anyhow, you picked a good place for it."

[not_a_whiner]

"I picked it because it was empty."

Yes, Kaidan. He probably got that.

"But I can drop it."

[ultron_junior]

"Or I can walk the other way," Victor shrugged. "It's an island, dude. There's more than a few feet of beach. Your range isn't going to hit buildings or anything, is it?"

If it would, he was seriously impressed. He couldn't hit a building from here.

[not_a_whiner]

"Not on a shockwave," Kaidan said, glancing back at Fandom's... well, what went for a skyline. "Could probably hit it with a warp or a pull, though."

[ultron_junior]

"I can guess that shockwave is what you were just doing," Victor remarked, impressed. "But what's warp and pull?"

[not_a_whiner]

"Pull yanks you off your feet," Kaidan said. "Warp... shreds you to pieces."

Be a little more cheerful, emo Kaidan.

[ultron_junior]

"... and suddenly I know I'm outclassed," Victor decided. "I have magnetic stuff. Nothing that shreds."

[not_a_whiner]

"It's not that much of a blessing."

Kaidan would've appreciated the part where nobody who'd seen him work so far had run off screaming, except it didn't really feel like he should. Or something.

Everything was confusing right now.

"You a biotic, then?"

[ultron_junior]

"Maybe not, but it depends on what kind of fight you're in." Though yeah, killing stuff wasn't as much fun in real life as it was in a game, so Victor kind of got where the guy was coming from. "And no. I'm .. something else."

The term biotic struck a memory, and suddenly Victor realized something that, if he'd realized it five minutes before, probably would have stopped him from starting the conversation. He tilted his head. "What's your name?"

[not_a_whiner]

"Kaidan," he said warily.

Looked it, too.

[ultron_junior]

"I'm Victor," Victor returned, also warily.

So Alenko had once been a kid, and a pretty emo kind of kid at that. Also, his powers were way more awesome than he let on in class.

Huh. Victor wasn't sure what to think about any of that, other than that he didn't want to pick a fight over the robot thing. So:

"So you're ... one of the ones not really from around here."

[not_a_whiner]

"I'm starting to get that impression, yeah," Kaidan said, throwing a quick glance over Victor's shoulder, just to make sure nobody else would come bursting in. "And I take it you're not."

[ultron_junior]

"I've been here about six months," Victor shared. "But I'm from L.A. It's a pretty good place."

[not_a_whiner]

"Warm," Kaidan said, because he was astute like that. "Must be having some trouble adjusting to the weather up here."

[ultron_junior]

"It's better when I don't think about it," Victor said, and did not roll his eyes. "It's not like I can fix it, you know? But yeah, winter sucks."

[not_a_whiner]

"As does everything else," Kaidan said. "I mean, if you've gotten this blasé about new people showing up on the island like this..."

Talking with Jono had kind of made him twig to the fact something strange was going on, yeah.

[ultron_junior]

An odd look crossed Victor's face. "Usually they don't stay all that long," he said. "Anyhow, you guys are easy. A while back it was kids. And then it was these weird dramatic people, like on a soap opera. It's never forever, so ... better to just be cool about it."

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan's eyebrows shot up (and they were quite formidable eyebrows, at that). "Okay," he said.

He didn't sound so sure about that.

[ultron_junior]

Victor shrugged apologetically. "It's a really weird place."

Which Kaidan might have gathered by then.

[not_a_whiner]

"Doesn't seem to have stopped you from sticking around," Kaidan said.

[ultron_junior]

"It's a good place to be weird," Victor told him lightly. "It's safe, school is free, people are mostly pretty nice. Why, are you thinking about heading home?"

[not_a_whiner]

"I just woke up here two days ago," Kaidan pointed out. "Didn't exactly plan to come here."

Which was not a yes.

Home... well, it was complicated and he didn't think his parents would quite understand.

[ultron_junior]

"Where are you supposed to be instead?"

Okay, so Victor was maybe a little nosy.

[not_a_whiner]

"Home," Kaidan said vaguely. "What do you think?"

[ultron_junior]

"That I should maybe quit asking questions."

And so curiosity was thwarted. Damn.

"But ... have fun while you're here."

[not_a_whiner]

"I don't think that's going to happen."

Kaidan half-turned, more out of some subconscious need to protect himself than anything else. "But thanks."