Issue 1 Downtime

The day after arriving with John, Mizuki was absolutely stoked. She had a lot of unpacking to do, but that was the last thing on her mind at the moment: she just wanted to relax and see who was out and about. Plopping down on the couch in the common room, she pulled out her phone and played around on Candy Crush. ((The game made by the Devil))

((Open!))

Alex had spent a while working out, finishing his homework, going through the motions, doing all the little constructive things that people would say you have to do. Now? Screw it. He was going to slack off and stop being bored.

So that was why, when he saw that nothing was on the TV, he came in with his X-Box and started hooking it up. Fuck yes, big screens.

And that was when he noticed the girl sitting on the couch. "Oh, hi," he said.

She looks up from her phone and waves. "Hi there," Mizuki answers, looking to his Xbox. "Whatcha gonna play?"

"Thought I'd piss some people off on Call of Duty," he said. "You don't mind?"

"Not at all! You don't mind if I watch, do you?"

"I... no, I don't," he said, sounding a little surprised as he started the game up. "Don't think I've met you yet."

"I'm Mizuki. Have you met John here?" She scoots over on the couch to make room.

"Ummm... I... don't think so?" How many Johns are there?

"Whoa really? He must be sticking to the computers more than I thought." She hops up. "He's about...this tall." It's probably pretty hilarious to see her jump to try to reach about how tall he is, ((over six feet)). "He has horns, is green, black hair...kinda looks like a dragon, actually. Pretty cool. He's my brother."

The description started very obviously catching Alex off guard when the casual references to horns came into play. "Wait, that's your brother?" He gave Mizuki a once over. Wow. Never would have guessed that.

"Mhm!" Mizuki plops back down, not really paying mind to the look. She was used to it. "What's your name?"

"Oh, sorry, I'm Alex," he said. Duh. "So when did you get here?" He was pretty sure that she couldn't have been there long.

"Yesterday. I've been here before, but went back home for a bit. This time I'm here to stay. I think. Yeah I'm pretty sure." She nods.

"Oh! Well, it's good to meet you," he said as he got situated. He kept his headphones off one ear, and turned the volume on the TV down so that he didn't have to be oblivious to play. "Why'd you leave?"

"Nice to meet you too!" She watches the game launch, not seemingly too interested in it. "Oh, just visiting family. Saying goodbye to my friends in school. That sort of thing. Nothing too special."

"Eh. Here it is," he said. "I think most people came here on the back of a bunch of jealous 'fuck off, mutie' crap." He smirked at his own joke, then started distractedly trying to kill things.

"Yeah. Really sucks when people have to go through crap." Her eyes move to the screen and she watches quietly for a few moments. "You're not too bad at this."

"Eh. Product of a lot of unsupervised nights at home and a lot of social status drops when I got outed."

"How bad was it for you? I mean like...you don't outwardly look different."

"It wasn't too bad. It just kind of took me by surprise, then word got around fast. Everyone was too scared to give me much of a hassle, though." For the most part.

"What do you do?"

"Oh, right," Alex said. Duh. New girl isn't going to know your power. He reached into his pocket for a coin, came out with a penny. He gave it a little flip in the air to show her what he had, then synced with it when he caught it, his whole body taking on an impressive shiny copper look.

For a moment she just stares blankly at him, then a smile begins to form. Probably the look on someone's face when infinite possibilities come up and they're sifting through them all piece by piece. "Any material?"

"Any metal," he clarified. "There's more to it than that, but..." He shrugged. No one tended to really care what he could do beyond turn to metal. He did frown when he saw the look she was giving him, though. "What?"

"Nothing! What's more to it? What else?"

"Oh, I can control metal if I've turned to that kind of metal," he said. "Like I said, it's not much."

"Sure it is! Like...say there's a car accident. The people are trapped inside. You shift to the metal the car is...which...erm...I have no idea what it would be, but still. Then when shifted, you can pull apart the car and save them! Or or...or say you're in a big bad place and an evil mastermind has you locked in a cell. You use a penny, or quarter, or something you have on you...simple as a belt. Then crash through the wall and escape!" She seems to have thought a lot of this over in the couple seconds they've been talking.

"Yeah, but someone'll probably have a better way to get it done before I can do all that," he said, shrugging as he looked back at the screen. Then he threw the controller at his feet as his guy got shot in the head.

She gives a shrug. "Maybe it'd be better, maybe it wouldn't. I dunno. Depends on what people's definition of 'better' would be with each circumstance." Mizuki eyes the screen. "Holy cow, where was that dude even at?"

"If I knew, I'd be better at this game," he sighed. "'Better' usually means 'people will go along with it.' Doesn't matter how much sense what you're about to do or say makes, if people are just going to hush you up for someone else."

"This game looks hard. But yeah, I guess you're right. I'm uh, not really good at advice otherwise I'd point some out. If it means anything, I think your power is really cool and useful."

He blinked. "Seriously?"

"Yeah sorry. I've never been good with the advice thing. I suck at it."

"No, no, that's fine. Just don't think anyone's thought my power was useful so far."

She raises a brow. "Seriously? Why wouldn't it be? Every power out there has its uses."

He shrugged. "I guess that being able to hit things hard isn't in high demand?"

"I get you. I really do. But seriously, I'm sure there will be a time when you're the only one that can do things." She says with a determined nod.

"And that will be awesome."

"See? No worries!" She points at the screen. "You probably should worry about that though. I think you're respawning."

"Oh, right!" he said, lunging down to grab his controller and starting again. "So what about you? What do you do?"