Contemplation is my own worst enemy...

[Jade Delanvers]

The day was only half finished. It wasn’t a school day, though. Jade didn’t really have anything to do at the moment. She didn’t really have anything to keep her busy; she was just sort of being aimless. Though, Jade Delanvers really had a full time job keeping her under control. She had to be sure that she never blew things up at bad moments and whatnot. That was a full job, despite what people thought. Most people assumed that she had a stick up her ass and that she was just a bit old grouch, but there was more to her than that. Jade Emberly Delanvers was so much more complicated. She had layers to her, and she didn’t show anyone who she really was. She had to remain stoic and cold all of the time. Her emotions were connected directly to her powers and she couldn’t take the chance of making any mistakes.

Jade had grown up knowing what she was capable of and as a result she had grown up far too fast. She didn’t kid around, and she didn’t really ever have time to be any sort of kid. She was like an adult, and a boring one at that. Jade was rude and cynical, among other things, as a result of both her upbringing and the façade that she had to hide herself with. Jade had to control her emotions unless she wanted to blow someone up, which she didn’t. Despite how she acted, Jade was good deep down inside. She wasn’t always the horrible person that she seemed to be. Not many could realize that, though. She didn’t give people a chance. If someone tried to get close to her they could only end up hurt, but then again… She did have people around her that were strong. Her friends were often times similar to her in the fact that they had intelligence and realized when to talk to her, when to leave her alone, and all of that sort of thing.

The day wasn’t over by any means. It was afternoon. The sun was no longer in its zenith, but it was still out and Jade wasn’t inside. She didn’t want to be inside at a moment like this. The sun was washing beautiful colors all about and it painted a wonderful picture. Not that Jade would ever say something like that. She was stationary at the moment and she was not moving at all. Her back rested against a rather tall tree and her direction was facing the horizon. Maybe she was being painted with the sun as well? Who knew? Even if she were being painted with that bright, lovely illumination she wouldn’t have appealed to anyone. Jade was a gangly thing, though she had muscles and other things. Jade had been doing martial arts since she was younger. She was trained well enough. She was pretty enough, underneath that façade. She didn’t try to look nice or appealing though. Jade’s idea of herself was distorted and as a result she didn’t try to look nice at all. Some caked on eyeliner on the bottom of her lids that didn’t even help make her bright blue eyes pop was all she wore. She didn’t wear any real colors either. It was more out of habit than much else, though. Jade was a black kind of girl…

Jade was a bitch too. Though, most people saw the bitch side of her it wasn’t the only side of her. Jade wasn’t as mean as everyone thought. She had to have things a certain way, thought. She had to have that control; she had to have her emotions in check. Miss Delanvers couldn’t have it any other way. She had to be surly for reasons of her own. IT was a form of protection. It protected both her and others. She had reasons; it made sense to her well enough. Jade had her legs in an upright position and she pulled them to her chest quietly as she closed her eyes and began her quiet meditation. IF she suppressed and got rid of her emotions she would always be fine. She could be in control. Some say emotions are for the weak, but they aren’t really. Jade wasn’t weak. She was strong! She had to be with the way she had been raised, among other things.

Understanding is something that not all people have. Jade was sort of odd, yes. She wasn’t as horrible as people made her out to be, though. She was tolerable and she tolerated others usually too. There were just some things that sparked her the wrong way! She was always in control and sometimes it didn’t even seem that way. IT didn’t matter, though. Friends would come and go, but so would other things. Jade would more than likely is what remained the same. She would always be jealous, she would always be cold, she would always be herself, and she couldn’t change. It was too hard and it didn’t suit her, along with it being impossible for her to remain in control that way…

The sun remained in the horizon and Jade peeked her eyes open and hummed a sad, depressing melody quietly as she sat there. She didn’t know what was really going on. She was more or less having down time, but it seemed that she was always being interrupted…


(Yeah, that sucked, sorry.)

[Ni Gustov]

Ever have one of those days? You know, when you just couldn’t seem to play your cello, trombone, OR the school’s really out-of-tune piano right? One of those days where no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t come up with a painting, or anything else creative, to save your life? Yeah, I’m sure you know what I mean, those are some pretty crazy days. No one likes to have them, even if you substituted all the music and art in for sports, or classes, or basically anything else. Those days are just not fun, and leave most people in a gloomy, depressed mood. It was one of those days when everything wrong would happen, so you’d have to make sure that bad stuff happened to other people too.

Ni Gustov was having one of those days, he just cared not to realize it.

The day had started off fairly normal, or as normal as a weekend day could. Seeing as Ni didn’t have a schedule to follow, he was free to do (and dress) as he pleased. First thing on the list was dun dun dun…Trombone practice. Now, for the most part, Ni was a very good trombonist, he’d been playing it since his arms were long enough to get down there in seventh position. And for the most part, he only practiced when everybody else was awake. (the walls in the boy’s dorms were pretty thin, you could hear just about everything going on in the next room.) Today, however, he woke up at four thirty in the morning, and really felt that he should practice his trombone. He had been working on a high B flat the day before (the highest note on a trombone, for your information) and his lips were shot, which meant his tone quality was bad. Add bad tone quality, a loud instrument, and the ungodly hour of four thirty in the morning, and you have a recipe for a beating.

Ni was promptly (and a bit violently) told to ‘Stop playing that idiotic instrument, or I’ll turn it into a hat’ by someone who could actually bend the trombone into a hat. Not wanting to loose his beloved instrument, Ni had abruptly stopped, and went to shadow-shift and sulk in a corner. He sat there for a while, mimicking the shadow of his bed, the dresser, a lamp, and his stack of canvases. It was fun until about six thirty, in which case he decided to shower, and get dressed.

Exactly thirty two minutes later, Ni was dressed, and had spiked his hair with his favorite bright, obnoxious, blue gel. He liked blue, red, and black a lot…and it showed. His shirt was blood red, but his pants, elbow/knee length jacket, and large steel toed boots were black. He looked a bit strange, and it was evident where he got his ever annoying ‘nick-name-that-wasn’t-really-a-nick-name’ “Spooky.”

The rest of the day crawled by at a snail’s pace. He had gone to eat breakfast, which consisted of a bagel and an apple, and from there went to practice cello for an hour and half. It turned out to be a fruitless effort, his fingers and his bow just wouldn’t do what he wanted them to do, so he gave up. Piano was no better, and neither was painting. He could write anything, and he couldn’t draw squat. Still, his mood remained a bit…too chipper for one who had a reputation such as his.

What exactly was Ni’s reputation anyway?

He was always seen as a ‘spooky, goth kid.’ He wasn’t really, but he defiantly had the goth tenancies down. (except for that annoying ‘I hate everything in the world’ sort of attitude) He was morbid, and his sense of humor was dramatically warped. He wore a lot of dark colors, and his artwork was pretty morbid-looking. He liked to read spooky, scary, morbid, books and comic books, and loved horror movies. He was a bit strange, but people seemed to be fine with that. It was a love hate relationship between his style and his personality. He was a funny guy, but he dressed, and did, depressing things.

Finally, after hours of trying to do stuff, but failing miserably, he decided to go outside. It was afternoon, but not early afternoon anymore. He wandered out of the doors, and onto the grounds, looking about for someone that he knew. Not really anybody that he knew very well was outside. Ah well, he’d make do with that. He’d find someone to talk to, and he did.

Jade Delanvers. She was known to be a bit stand-offish, but Ni didn’t mind. She was someone to talk to, so he wandered over.

“And the short boy named Ni came across a girl sitting in the grass. ‘What the heck is she doing, sitting in the grass?’ he asked himself. ‘What is she contemplating doing? Who IS this girl sitting in the grass?’” Ni snickered. He knew who Jade was, and she knew him too.

“’Lo Jade.” He said, laughing. “How are you today?”


-it didn't suck-
-just so you know-
-i was able to post back-
-so it didn't suck-

[Jade Delanvers]

The sound of someone approaching made Jade tense a bit and when she heard the voice she rolled her eyes a bit. She didn’t ever really get a moment’s peace really, but what else should she expect with living at a boarding school, for the gifted, with many other students. Many people craved attention and friendship, though very seldom did Jade give either out. She was too reserved and far too quiet and rude to do either usually. The young woman was mean to many and she didn’t normally put up with stupidity. She wasn’t a moron by any means and she didn’t put up with much. Her attitude was always that she was superior and often times it made people leave her alone, or absolutely intrigued and they had to try and annoy her.

Though, when she looked up at the person speaking to her Jade wasn’t that angry or pissed off. She found that this was a person she could stand to an extent. HE was a jokester, yes, but he wasn’t too bad. Not like Jake, her best friend’s boyfriend. No, Ni was fairly easy to put up with. He had an odd personality and Jade could tolerate him sometimes… She found that this was a moment that she could tolerate him. Though she wasn’t sure how long she could do so. The fact that he was practically being a moron when he approached her was slightly amusing, but other than that he wasn’t really, in any way, annoying. Really, his way of speaking like he was writing was a bit amusing, but then again Jade wouldn’t be the one to judge.

“How am I everyday? I’m just peachy-keen, Ni.”

Jade responded back with her sarcastic, cynical ease. She wasn’t really being mean, but it could seem that way. She was just being herself, though. She was tempted to make fun of him. She was quiet most of the time, but not always. You just had to catch her in the right mood, which was what she was feeling today.

“The Asian-American girl, Jade, eyed the short dwarf evilly. She had not wished to be bothered, but it seems her plans had been throttled. She wondered why she always had to be disrupted in her attempts at meditation. She wanted to know why this short, elf was bothering her while she took in the beauty of the afternoon. She wondered if she would have to beat him with another short stick to get her alone time.”

Jade said with a snicker that seemed to be mocking. Yes, she had mocked him, but that was more of her playful side than anything! It wasn’t that bad. At least she hadn’t called him a freak or a ferret or something. She could have indeed said worse, but her tone had lifted a bit. It was obvious that she wasn’t being a bitch to him. She was just tossing his own attitude back to an extent. This was the playful Jade, thought she seldom let this sideshow. She was still herself. Jade wasn’t smiling, she wasn’t happy, she still seemed to be pissed or something. She wasn’t thought. She was calm and she was serene at the moment. There just really wasn’t a difference to tell…

[Ni Gustov]

Ni caught the eye roll, and snickered again. That was often the reaction he got…His attitude shocked many people, and annoyed quite a few. Most people could tolerate him, he had friends (but not an astonishing amount) but there were those select few who couldn’t. He found himself lucky that today Jade could tolerate him, and didn’t decide to blow him up, or smash him into the ground, which would have been funny to watch, even to him. Ni was generally good natured, unless you severely pissed him off. If you went to far with the teasing, you ran that risk. If you ran that risk, you most often made him mad, and then he’d explode. For such a thin, semi-short guy, he could get incredibly angry. It would have been funny to watch, if he got mad more often. But he didn’t, so people knew to avoid him when he was.

Ni was a jokester, just not a very good one. Usually his joke had to do with so and so getting their head blown off, or such and such getting sucked into a jet engine. People just didn’t find that kind of stuff funny. He wasn’t about to try one of his jokes out on Jade, he didn’t feel like getting yelled at today, it had already happened to many times. Jade seemed to be a bit of a ticking time bomb, and he didn’t feel as if he should be too terribly ‘jokester-ish’ around her. Though a bit of good natured teasing wouldn’t be too bad. Who knew? Maybe he could get her to loosen up a bit, relax. Even though she appeared to be meditating, she looked as if she could use a bit of relaxation.

Ni’s parents didn’t believe in vacation, it interrupted the farm life. (God forbid the chickens don’t get fed by Tess and Ni! Oh NO!) Ni however, though it was a good idea. Sometimes being somewhere NOT where you lived was a good thing. It allowed you to unwind, and not worry what everybody else thought of you. Ni had to be very careful in his hometown, people just didn’t accept him there.

Ni had to worry about his issues back in his hometown. The people in the small community didn’t really understand what was ‘wrong’ with him. They all considered the creepy ‘that dern there ‘gothic’ kid’ to be more a nuisance than a benefit. They didn’t see his almost constant crazy (in a good way) mood as a good way to be. Especially for a ‘freak’ kid like him. Oswald had spread around the rumor, but because hardly anyone left the town (sometimes there was actually a party when someone went into the city, it was that big a deal) the fact that Ni could shift to a shadow never got outside the town. And most of the people didn’t know where New York was in the U.S., so they most certainly didn’t know where ‘that Gustov boy’ went to school. That was another plus. People never talked to him about his ‘shadow shifting’ but he knew some people wanted to…He could see it in their eyes as he passed them on the streets. It was a bit strange, but he was stranger, so he could deal with it.

But I digress, what was meant by the whole ‘vacation’ tangent was: Ni thought Jade could use about three years of vacation. He would never tell her that though, he would just go ahead with his good natured joking.

“Ah! Peachy-Keen? Is that a type of soda? Sounds like it could be…” he laughed at his really, really, really, bad joke. “Anyway, glad to see that the Jade Statue could be a bit better than…” He cleared his throat. “Good.” He muttered the last part in a ‘Jade-tone-of-voice.’ One that expressed the really bad wanting of not being bothered.

“The artistic, wonderful, and oh so amazing Ni was just about to ask Jade a question regarding the…HEY!” Ni grimaced. “I am not a Short Dwarf! Nor am I a Short Elf! I’m a good five foot eight!” He tried to stand up straighter, but just ended up looking stupid. “If I stand like this, five foot eight and a HALF!” he snickered. “I don’t go around calling you the ‘Ice Queen’ so don’t go around calling me the ‘Short Dwarf.’” He laughed, trying to brush off the fact that he had called her the ‘Ice Queen.’ It was one of his famous though-slips. A kind of “Think Ni! Think!” moment.

“So Jade, honestly, why are you sitting in the grass? You could be doing so much more productive things with your time…Like learning an instrument, I’ve got a cello that I’m thinking about selling…Seems I can’t really play it anymore.” He laughed. It was another bad joke. Ni would NEVER sell his cello. Too important, to much of a stress reliever. However, after this morning, he felt a strange anger towards the life-less instrument. “Well… I couldn’t play it this morning anyway.” He added as an afterthought.

[Jade Delanvers]

Jade fit in just fine considering she ignored people and avoided them the best she could. That was what was always easiest. She wasn't always the best at it. Even if she seemed to be made out of steel she wasn't. She had feelings, but they all had to be hidden. She knew things and she had to act stoic and cold, though she wasn't really all that. Jade was amused by Ni, though. Unlike other students in the school he wasn't completely scared of the way she acted and that actually made him qualify to be put on the same sort of respect pedestal as Wynne, JAde's best friend. They both seemed smart enough to realize there was reason behind Jade's attitude and problems. If the girl let loose she'd end up blowing up somehing and that would never be good.

Jade resisted the urge to smirk when Ni began to speak again. For some reason he amused her to no end. No matter what he was a jokester, and he just wasn't annoying like Jake, Wynne's boyfriend that hated JAde. Though, Jade didn't treat Wynne nearly as bad as she treated other people, though no one saw that. JAde didn't react as he ranted a bit after realizing she had called Ni short.

"You could call me 'Ice Queen' like everyone else, but then that would make you equally as moronic and you'd have a far greater chance of having your head kicked off when I'm rather angry."

JAde had responded without even blinking. It was true too. some people JAde could just imagine drop kicking in the teeth. That would be so fufilling, but then again she wouldn't be in complete and total control if she did that. That would be giving in and showing a sort of emotino and as Jade knows, her emotions are connected to her powers, which is something she has to keep under control. Jade frowned and tilted her head a bit when Ni spoke. She wasn't calm enough to play an instrument, though she already could play the piano technically. She didn't care for playing instruments.

"I think not. You can be the band geek, Ni. I'll stick with Ice Queen for now."

Jade commented as she settled down to be comfortable again. She had been meditating. She hadn't answered him really.

"And I'm sitting in the grass because I was attempting yet again to meditate."

She replied sighing a bit more as she fidgetted a bit and eyed Ni, he'd get fed up of her soon enough. Everyone did. JAde couldn't help it, though...

[Ni Gustov]

Ni was very lucky in the aspect that his moods never really affected his powers. He could control them for the most part, but when he got nervous, his power would go haywire. One of two things would happen. The first one would be the easiest to deal with. About half the time when he was nervous all he would do was shadow shift and stay that way for about three hours, or until he calmed significantly down. The other one was not so good. The other half of the time he would flicker back and forth to shadow rapidly, sort of like a bad T.V. reception. The second option, or reaction, was the worst. It made him tired, and made him go a bit crazy. He had heard that Jade’s powers were somehow connected to her emotions (from a very unreliable source mind you) but he didn’t know. In fact, he honestly didn’t even know what her powers were, though he was curious.

He snickered a bit about her statement of the moronic student body. It was true, most of them were a box of rocks. A bunch of cardboard receptacle pates. Most of the guys were too busy figuring out how to get drunk, high, or when the were next going to attach their face to their girlfriend’s (or their second girlfriend’s) face. The girls were no better, all they thought about was ‘is my…like…oh my gawd! Hair straight?’ it was almost laughable. Ni tried to focus on more…intelligent things. If he was to have a girlfriend, he would respect her, and quite frankly, apart from what strange color his hair was, he could care less what it looked like. Ni wasn’t the smartest guy in school, but he was right up there at the top of his class. Maybe it was true, music made you smarter, though you wouldn’t know it by the way he acted.

“Well, my lovely Jade, I’m rather attached to my head. I think its actually a nice brain container, so I think I’ll stop calling you ‘Ice Queen’ and start calling you…erm...” he thought for a moment, trying to come up with a good name. In the end he just end up blurting out the first thing he thought. “I’ll call you Elm Tree.” D’Oh! Way to go Ni, now you’ll either get a laugh from her, or get your face melted off by the evil death stare.

“Band Geek?!” He choked. “Band GEEK?! No no dearest Jade, you have it backwards. Those who don’t play instruments are geeks. See, I might be a starving artist or musician, whatever, but I’ve got moolah. About once a month I go into the ‘Be-Goth club, do my ‘Ghastly Cello Society’ spiel, down a Blue Raspberry Brainfreezy, a FREE one mind you, and get paid $150 bucks. For an hour of cello and my terrible voice screeching out depressing songs for those of the goth community who can’t seem to get a life of their own, or steal someone else’s for that matter. So I’d say, I’m not a band geek…I’m a band god!” He laughed, and flexed his pathetic excuse for muscles.

He grimaced as she spoke about meditating. “Into that whole ‘if I sit really quiet, I’ll find inner peace’ stuff?” He sat down next to her, and leaned back into the grass, putting his hands behind his head. Another smile, and Ni began to speak again. “I’m into the whole ‘If I paint for three hours straight, until my brain explodes and my eyes melt out of their sockets and I pull out all my hair, or until some idiotic classmate and or underclassmen comes up to bother me and I have to stand on a table and bark at them, I’ll find inner peace’ stuff.” He laughed at his bad joke.

“Hey Jade,” he said. “Lean back into the grass and look up at skyline, tell me it doesn’t make you want to…” he sighed, and said in his goth voice, “give all humanity a beating.”

-woah-
-that was a train wreck of a post-
-and a short one at that-
-will Ni make it out of this alive?-
-he’s being awfully annoying-

[Hadley Chase]

[[-Sneaks In-
My dad calls me Elm Tree....because my initials are ELM.
Which if you turn it around says MLE, say it aloud. It says Emily.
Isn't that rad?]]

[Jade Delanvers]

*snickers*

Lovely.

[Jade Delanvers]

All of Jade's emotions mattered. It didn't make a difference whether she was happy, sad, angry, or whatever. If she let her emtions out uncontrolled she'd end up hurting someone. She would blow up things and not even on purpose. It wouldn't be as if she pointed to a bottle and could blow it up while she had emotions running. YEah, Jade could blow things up on command, but usually she had to use her emotions to do that too. She'd have to bring up her anger or whatever, though anger was the strongest along with hurt, and then she could send something combusting. It was simple in her mind. She knew she had to keep herself under control or she would accidentally hurt someone. She didnt'w ant to hurt anyone despite her feelings about them. Jade didn't want to hurt anyone, she was indeed good in that sense. She made a sacrafice for those around her. She kept herself from sending them all to an early grave by way of combustion! Though, no one apreciated that fact. No one cared that she could have easily have been like everyone else with emotions, but that would have sent them all up into clouds of smoke and ash, wouldn't it?

Jade was oh so tempted to laugh or to even crack a smile by Ni's antics, but she didn't. that was showing weakness on her part. She couldn't do that. It was a liability to her. She didn't want to kill other people or anything so she kept herself under strict control. Though few could effect her to even want to smile or laugh. Ni just must have been a bit special.... He was a good guy. Jade would consider him a friend if it weren't for the fact that she really had none. Though, Wynne and Ni could be considered on the same levels. She had respect for them both and she had them scooped up, in her mind of course, upon pedestals. They understood not to push her so far. They understood not to piss her off, though, Wynne knew more of a reason.

"Elm Tree? I think I prefer Ice Queen to that, or... wow, this is a shocker. I'd actually prefer my name to any of them. ISn't that something?"

Jade drew out rather cynically. Wow, she was that way even when she was being fairly pleasant? She couldn't help it. That kept her in complete control, though. She had her control completely and that was a good thing. People really wouldn't want to see her angry. That would just be scary. She did smirk, quite evilly in fact, when he spoke of how she had called him a band geek. She found it humorous, but a smirk was as far as she was going to go. She was under control, but the smirk was sort of unespected.

"Good for you. Why aren't you off doing something like that, then?"

Jade didn't miss a beat. She sounded like such a bitch, but really she was in full control. It was so odd how she was cruel, but she couldn't be another way, by now her smirk had left that face of hers, though. She found herself feeling fairly comfortable there. Her body was still in that same position, though she seemed stiff she wasn't. Jade could probably adjust her seating position, but she'd be comfortable no matter what. It wasn't as if Jade kept herself toned and whatnot for no reason. He spoke about meditating. Oh, he didn't know how well it helped. She tilted her head to the left quietly and smirked again.

"Yeah, I'm into meditating to get inner control."

Jade muttered, though Ni was still going. It was amazing how he could do that. He was such a jokester, but other people could show emotion. It just wasn't fair. Jade was tempted to growl a bit and say fuck it, but she didn't. She quirked a brow at NI's last commment and her smirk disappeared. She hadn't thought about that, though she wouldn't be one who would be kicking people or whatever. She could blow them up... NO BAD THOUGHTS! She shook her head at Ni and tilted her head back silently, though she looked blank and unpleasant as always.

"Hmm... give humanity a beating? I think not. Why waste the effort. IT won't get through. Maybe give all of humanity a big boom."

Jade stated a bit carlessly as she shrugged...