2013.03.14 - Too Close for Comfort

It's the middle of the afternoon in Harlem, and it's been something of a quiet day near a local homeless shelter. People are lazing about, taking walks, or generally in a relaxed mood...but Jeremy? The young street kid is hard at work, dutifully working to paint over some rather nasty graffiti that was painted on the side of the shelter. He's doing a pretty good job of it, too--taking the work much more seriously than one would expect of a boy his age. There's a few splotches of paint on him as well, of course...even if he's serious, there's a bit of a learning curve in handling paint, and it's inherently messy.
Homeless shelters. Those were things that Jocelyn knew plenty about. She had been busy, purchasing a few new clothes and getting herself slightly altered. It wasn't that hard, if you knew where to look. The result was that the girl now had a nice bit of brown hair in a single braid instead of her usual flaming red hair and some new clothes. Nothing too out of place in New York in the late winter, but different enough from her usual look that she could avoid any obvious comparisons to what was on the news.
The teen happens to see the young boy painting over some graffiti and shrugs a bit. Well, hey. He might have done something to earn it, or maybe he was just a good guy. Regardless, she happens to be walking by. "Not bad work kid," the girl comments casually to him, though she keeps a few feet away, due to the messiness of the paint.
"H-Huh?" Jeremy jumps a bit as someone speaks to him, and looks over at Jocelyn with clear surprise. "O-Oh. Um...thanks..." He smiles, nervously. "Um, I'm glad it's lookin' okay...I think I was gettin' more on me than the wall for a while there, though." He looks her over a bit, and his eyes go a little wide. "Wow, your hair's long!"
"Yeah, I've been growing it my entire life". Jocelyn was actually surprised he didn't comment on the height thing. That was what most people saw first. "Want a hand with some of the stuff a bit higher up?" she asks. Doing something good seemed like an appropriate thing to her, today. "So, what brings you out here to clean a wall up?" she asks. She tilts her head slightly as she looks the boy over. Well now. That might be a bit like looking in a supernatural mirror for her. Fortunately, he wasn't holding that much juice, so it wasn't a serious problem for her right now.
Everyone seems pretty tall to Jeremy, still. "Really? That's cool...it's really pretty." Predictably, the boy goes a bit red as he says that, and spends the next couple moments trying to shake it off. Fortunately, Jocelyn provides a distraction. "Um, um..." He looks up at the higher parts of the wall, then over at Jocelyn. "Um, yeah...I guess that'd be good. I was gonna go see if they had a stepladder here, but...um, hold on." He digs around for a few moments in a fair-sized pile of painting supplies--clearly, someone's idea of preparing for work had been "gather everything that looks remotely related to painting and toss it in a pile." Finally, he produces a second brush, offering it to her. "Um, thanks! It's really nice of you to help out." He stands, going back to his work, and looks over at her for a few moments, then back at the wall. "Um...I, um...help out here sometimes...'cause...um, 'cause it seems like a good thing..." Yeah, he's not being entirely honest, there.
"Thanks," Jocelyn says easily, giving the young boy a smile. Yeah, he went a bit red, but Jocelyn isn't bothered by that. Boys that age always stumble over complimenting a girl. Not like she's that much older, but still. She takes the offered paintbrush and pauses as she looks at the can. The girl reaches into her pocket and pulls out a rubber band. She stretches it around the can, so that it's strung over the opening. "Watch," Jocelyn says. She dips the brush into the can, then pulls it out against the rubber band a couple times. This causes the excess paint to drain smoothly back into the can. "Keeps the mess mostly in the can, and makes you look like a genius," Jocelyn explains with a little grin as she starts to work on the higher up areas of the wall.
She is quiet for a couple minutes while she works. "So, I've done a bit of time doing this sort of stuff, too. Actually used to live at a shelter like this. What's the real reason you're doing this?" Jocelyn asks easily. There's no accusation in her voice, but mere curiosity. "It's okay if you don't want to tell me. Just say so. I won't be offended". A pause. "By the way, my name is Annie".
Jeremy watches the trick with the rubber band with great interest, and looks at her in awe. "Hey, wow! That's a neat trick!" She clearly looks like a genius to him, anyway. He mimics her the next time he dips his brush in, and grins as he goes back to work. But then comes the question. He sighs, and spends a few moments paying veeerry close attention to the painting and kind of hoping the question will suddenly be un-asked...but...he doesn't actually refuse to answer. After all, sounds like she was in this sort of situation once too. "Um...I...kinda live here...s-sometimes..." he says, a worried look coming to his face. "S-so...I...I-I like to help out..." He looks up at her. "M-My name's Jeremy. I-It's...I think it's nice to meet you, Miss Annie."
"Nothing to be ashamed about, Jeremy," Annie tells Jeremy. "I didn't live at this one, but since I'm in the area, sometimes I swing by and help a place out a bit, you know?" Annie continues to work on the upper portion of the wall. She remains quiet for awhile as she works some more. "So, what all do you do when you're not painting the walls?" Annie questions. "They got you going to the public school around here?" she questions. "You look like you're, what, sixth or seventh grade? Just starting the awkward middle school career?" Because even if you're popular, middle school was lame.
Jeremy continues to look distinctly uncomfortable with the questions, and his painting gets a little shaky as his hand subtly trembles. "Sc-school?" He looks up at her as she mentions that, wide-eyed. "Oh, um, um...no, I don't, I mean...I'm not...um, um, they've got teachers here and...and stuff." Kid's an awful liar.
"Bull," Annie says with a laugh. "You either don't go to school because you're skipping it, or you don't want to talk about school," the teenager comments as she continues to casually paint the walls. She turns to look right at him, almost through him really. She does drop her voice. "I really hope you're better about keeping other secrets, the more important ones, from people," she adds with a good-natured smile. However, the dropping of her voice indicates she might be hinting at something more serious.
"N-No, I-I just..." Jeremy hangs his head. "...I forgot about it...kind of..." He starts to go to tuck his hands in his pockets, but remembers the paintbrush and all at the last moment, avoiding further clothes-painting. "Um...I really can't go t-to school. It's not...not that anything bad happened there, I...I think...I just can't. 'cause...it'd be bad...if I went." He looks up at her. "I...I kind of think I'm probably not that good at it, miss Annie. I'm tryin', but...I don't think I'm used to lyin' to people."
Ugh, poor kid. Annie felt sorry for him. "Well, the trick is to not need to lie in the first place," Annie says as she makes another couple strokes. "For example. I can see that you and I are very similar. You store up energy, don't you? I can see it in you". She points at her eyes with her free hand. "Don't worry. I do the same thing," she tells the boy. It wasn't like she was easily recognizable now, so it was somewhat safe to tell him this. "You do anything with it?" she questions. "I hope so. Hate to see it if it bursts out, know what I mean?"
"You can tell?" Jeremy asks, rather louder than he'd intended. He 'eeps', and takes a couple steps back, clear fear coming to his face until she says it's okay. "I-I...do anything? I-I don't know, I...I guess maybe I must have or..." Poor kid's totally frazzled, now, and takes another couple steps back, looking around and studying the environment in the manner of one very strongly considering making a break for it.
"Don't worry Jeremy. I'm not going to pull you in or anything like that. Besides, believe me, I could catch you," Jocelyn says easily. "Keep your voice down. I mean do you just store it, or do you do anything with it?" Jocelyn questions casually. She holds her palm up and lets out a little bit of electrical energy. Just a bit, enough for a few inches of an electrical spark to shoot up out of her hand. "Like that. See?" She's being completely calm about this, like it's the most natural thing in the world.
Jeremy stops looking like he's going to run, but doesn't really look all that much more comfortable. "I d-don't...I don't know, I just...I..." And then she's sparking electricity, and at first that gets the predictable freaking out reaction, but...after a moment, that passes and he looks strangely distant and quite a bit calmer. "Like...that...was it..." He raises a hand, pointing it towards some trash in the alley off to the side, almost in a trance. "And then...I...what did I do...I thought about it...and...there." A bolt of kinetic energy shoots out--surrounded by a blue-hued light--and knocks a discarded soda can into next week. Jeremy seems to come back to himself, then, jumping and scampering back away from the blast, which happens to be towards her. "Wh-what...I..."
Standing still, Annie reaches out to try and catch the boy with one hand. She's pretty strong, so if she gets a hand on him, she should likely be able to stop him, though she'll let him go quickly enough. Reaching out slightly with her power to pull in the energy from the blast, to prevent any other damage. "Like that, right?" She looks over at him. "Looks like we're pretty similar. I just happen to be able to see it," Annie explains. "Though you might want to be careful about how much you use at once. Nobody around here, but you never know if someone might turn the corner," the tall girl says. "It's normal to be a bit hesitant about your powers though. I'm afraid I can't tell you how you got them though. I just know mine just appeared one day, and now I've got them". She shrugs a little at that.
Jeremy is caught, though as soon as he's let go he's scampering back the other way, trembling. "I..." He looks over at the results of his work. "I-I did...that? Wait, yeah...I...I did, didn't I..." He stares at his hand, and then looks over at her, wide-eyed, and nods. "Um, yeah. I'll be careful...um, sorry. I just kind of...remembered it...and I wasn't thinking, so..." He looks around a little, and breathes a sigh of relief as it looks like no one's coming. He seems to have calmed down a bit, now, and has stopped shaking. He takes a deep breath, and looks up at her again. "Um, thanks, miss Annie. Um...I'm not really hesitant, I just...kind of don't know much about them, that's all."
"Don't worry about it," Annie says. "You ever think about finding someone to help you with those powers? I'm not good enough to do it myself; I'm still learning a lot. But there are other people out there, people who might be able to help you out a bit". Annie gestures around the area. "I mean, they're skills you have, but some people would take advantage of that, know what I mean? But you could do a lot of good with them, too. Be like the heroes you hear about on the news on occasion, help out, that sort of thing". Annie gives the boy a smile. "Just need to figure some of these things out early. How long you had them?" she asks.
"I don't...think it's a good idea for people to know about me...right now," Jeremy says, the shyness coming back, though at least he's dropping back into the nervousness quite yet. He looks down at the ground, toeing it a little. "Um...yeah...I guess I could do stuff like that, a-and...and all, but...um..." He looks up at her, and takes a deep breath. "I, um, I don't know how long I've had them, miss Annie."
"That's fine," Annie says easily. "I won't go spilling the beans, as long as you keep me quiet," the teen offers. "Oh? How come?" she asks when he says he doesn't know how long he's had them. That was a little bit odd. Most people had a memory of when they had first had their powers how up, at the very least.
Another deep breath. "Um..." Jeremy looks away from her for a few moments, but looks back at her as he speaks again. "'cause...um, it's really...actually..." Yet another deep breath. "I can't remember much...at all. Somethin' bad happened, something really bad...I think...and it's all gone. All of it."
"Interesting. I'm sorry for that," Annie says. She glances around, making note of the time. "I'm sorry, but I've got a couple appointments to get to. I'll swing by another time, maybe we can grab a bite to eat or something," Annie tells Jeremy. Though maybe she could tell him her real name at that point, instead of faking it.
Jeremy ohs...looking very much like he can't decide whether to be disappointed or utterly relieved. There's something comforting about having someone know about you, but there's also something very disturbing when they see right through you. "Um, okay...it was nice meeting you, miss Annie. I'll, um...I'll see you again, okay?"
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