Issue 1 Downtime

Elena had commandeered a section of a small kitchenette in the dorm building. The microwave, which had occupied most of the counter, had been removed from its space on the counter and set out of the way and she had a cloth spread out in the place as she worked some dough. Every once in a while there was a brief "whoomph" noise as one of her hands glowed, one of her kinetic blasts at low power adding some extra force to the kneading. The smell of baking bread was coming from the small oven.

((Open))

"This smells great." Teri says, wandering into the kitchen, chewing on an energy bar.

"What's in the oven is almost ready," Elena said, glancing over her shoulder. "You're welcome to some if you want some."

"Thanks. Can we help with anything?"

"Hrm," Elena said, looking around for a moment, her hands continuing to work without her having to look at them. "That bowl," she said, briefly pointing at a large mixing bowl, "needs to be washed and dried."

"Sure thing." she says and turns on the faucet. "We'd feel bad just sitting there, eating your bread."

"We'd?" Elena asked, looking around for more of her that she hand't seen immediately.

"Yeah. There's lots of us." she says.

"I'd show you but there's not much room here and you probably wouldn't like us around your food..."

"Ah," Elena said, "My name is Elena. I think I've seen you a couple of times since the term started."

She nods and dries off the cleaned bowl. "We're still getting to know people."

Elena smiled, "I find that I know of people, but I do not know very many people."

"Yes! Well, we haven't been here very long. I'm sure we'll know everybody eventually." she smiles brightly.

"You're already off to a good start," Elena said with a laugh, taking the bowl and tossing the dough into it before covering it.

"And no one has freaked out or anything. That is nice."

"Many of us went through our freak out stage in high school," she said, slipping on oven mitts and pulling the loaf of bread out of the oven, sliding another pan with prepared dough in to cook.

"We never freaked out. Everyone else did though. We guess that made us worry for a while. Does that count as freaking out? Because we are still not entirely sure what His plan for us is."

"Some mutations are harder for others to get used to," Elena said, taking the hot bread out of the pan to let it sit for a moment.

"Especially when everyone thinks they must have angered God to be 'cursed' with our presence."

"What do they know though? This is just the way we are." She took out a bread knife and started slicing the fresh loaf.

"Oh, God has a plan for all of us." she nods.

"If you believe in that sort of thing, sure," Elena said, passing a slice of hot bread to Teri.

"Oh. You don't?" she says, taking the bread and nibbling on it politely. Mainly because she feels it'd be rude to tear into it like she wants to.

She cut a slice of bread for herself and chewed thoughtfully before answering. "In the specific God you're talking about? It isn't precisely that I don't believe... how to put it... If there is a God, it's unlikely that I would know it, and if there isn't one, it's unlikely that I would know that as well. There may be something out there and if there is, maybe it watches over us or maybe it just watches. Either way, daily concerns are more pressing."

"It's up to everyone to decide if or how they want to believe. For some it takes longer than for others."

"My parents were always very adamant about thinking things through. Whether I believed or not was less important than my having thought through what it was that I believed."

"Then we're sure you'll come to the right conclusion at some point." she smiles.

"The bread is very nice, by the way. Thank you."

"Another gift from my parents. I grew up in a bakery, so learning to bake was a given."

"Where we grew up most things were still made fresh and by hand. It just tastes better that way."

"Where did you grow up?" Elena asked, cutting another slice of bread, just in case Teri wanted another slice.

"A small town in Greece. More of a village maybe."

"We went to Greece on vacation once. It was beautiful."

"It is. We lived in the mountains by ourselves for a while. It's pretty there."

"We mostly kept to the coast, but we did visit the mountains one day. Quite a view."

She nods. "It's so different here. Colder too."

"England has many faults, the cold is just one of them. That's why we have hot bread," Elena said with a grin.

"That only makes sense." she chuckles, taking another slice, this one disappearing much faster than the previous one.

"I want to make one last trip back to Paris before the term becomes too hectic."

"That sounds nice." she says politely, not being too fond of, well, cities.

Elena cut another slice for Teri, "Have you been to Paris?"

"No." she shakes her head. "Only London on the way here from the airport. We didn't like that."