Sept 2: Praying Hands and Bended Knee

[Graham Jaeger]

Graham was on a tall rock among some trees, currently balanced upside-down on one hand as part of his exercise routine.

"Ten one-thousand, eleven one-thousand, twelve one-thousand..." he counted aloud.

(open)

[Paul Valmont]

A portal opened a foot or so above the ground, and Paul came through it at a full run. He started to throw another portal open. "-each to... wait a minute..." He came to a stop, looking around. "Shit, this isn't the beach. Damn it!"

[Graham Jaeger]

Graham started and cried out as he lost his balance, barely avoiding falling on his head as he caught himself fast enough to end up on his butt instead.

[Paul Valmont]

Paul looked around and noticed Graham. "Oh, hey Graham. Did I wake you up?"

[Graham Jaeger]

"No, but you almost made my crack my skull open," he said accusingly as he got to his feet, rubbing his sore butt.

[Paul Valmont]

"Hey, hey, sorry," he said holding his hands up. "I... was supposed to pop out at the beach."

[Graham Jaeger]

"Well you're way off," Graham said as a parting shot before he calmed.

"...the beach huh?"

[Paul Valmont]

"Or... whatever you call it down at the shore here," he admitted. Is there even sand there? "Aiming is tough to do on the fly like that."

[Graham Jaeger]

"Not afraid of crazy sword chick finding you?" he teased.

[Paul Valmont]

Paul shuddered. "Don't make me think about that, man. I came here to go to mutant school, not the Knights of the Round Table On Crack."

[Graham Jaeger]

"Really? I thought she was more Lord of the Rings."

[Paul Valmont]

"Nah, the crazy things are uglier in that," he said, shuddering a little. "That might have me jumping all over campus like this, though, yes."

[Graham Jaeger]

"My animal side agrees with you."

[Paul Valmont]

"Man, I really threw a fit in there, though, didn't I," he sighed. "Dammit..."

[Graham Jaeger]

"Little bit yeah," he said with a hand gesture.

[Paul Valmont]

"You think people really noticed with all the crazy swords and shit?" he asked, slightly hopeful.

[Graham Jaeger]

"No more than me being an idiot and trying to fend her off with a lunch tray."

Uncle Bennett would be ashamed.

[Paul Valmont]

"I don't know, at least that was sort of bad ass, staring down crazy sword-chick. And thanks for that."

[Graham Jaeger]

He shrugged. "Just felt like the thing to do."

[Paul Valmont]

"Yeah, well, it looked a whole hell of a lot better than stumbling all over the cafeteria and pulling a fire alarm," Paul muttered, looking around sheepishly.

[Graham Jaeger]

"Eh. Don't worry about it. You just haven't been taught to swallow your fear."

[Paul Valmont]

"Yeah, but I don't have to puke it up over the whole cafeteria."

"So, uh, what're you doing out here?"

[Graham Jaeger]

"I was doing a balance exercise."

[Paul Valmont]

"Oh. And when I... shit. Sorry," Paul said. "Was it going all right?"

[Graham Jaeger]

"Alright enough. I got to about fifteen seconds on my right arm before you showed up."

[Paul Valmont]

"On one arm? Wow. That's... how do you learn to do that?" Apparently, Paul was impressed.

[Graham Jaeger]

"My dad taught me. My mutation surfacing made it way easier though."

[Paul Valmont]

"Huh. Well, at least one of us can make something useful out of it..."

"What do you do, again, anway?" he asked, sure that he'd heard but not remembering.

[Graham Jaeger]

"I... umm... can turn into an elk..." he answered, a little embarrassed.

[Paul Valmont]

Well... huh. That thought probably played pretty clearly on his face. "That's... not one you hear a lot."

"Sooo... what's it like being an elk?"

[Graham Jaeger]

"It feels powerful... and, like, super duper ultra paranoid."

[Paul Valmont]

"That's kind of a weird combination. Like... what, do you always feel hunted, then?"

[Graham Jaeger]

"Sortof? Always alert for potential danger at least. A little of that carries over... and really screws with my head sometimes."