The Gifted

[Grace.E]

Central Park.... Emily silently looked around her surroundings as she sat on a bench, watching people as they passed. all sorts, she skimmed through her assigned reading book, The Crucible. she snickered at the paranoia about the witch trails. suddenly her hand starts to tingle, her fur stands on end as she pulls out her Journal and ink pen and quickly opens it. in a trance...she could hear her mothers voice "there she goes again..." all senses multiply by a thousand, everything she thinks is valuable is put into the journal, the smooth, emerald ink gracefully glides across the paper and a beautiful tree appears. her own voice tells her what to say and draw. with beautiful script she writes
leaves dance in the crisp wind as they unfold themselves in the autumn colors, like fire they spread themselves across the ground making a field for the fire spirits to dance in....

[Ares the Ram]

Inside the Buddhist monastary, the monks gathered in a circle. "He's been asking about his parents again. We can't avoid this forever." "Yes, but we can't just tell him his mother dropped him off here when he was a baby. It'd break his heart." "Break who's heart?" The monks all turned quickly to discover that Raphael was standing in the doorway. He knew he wasn't allowed to disturb them when they were in a meeting, but something told him that he should. "Raphael, you've been working very hard this week, why don't you go to Central Park for a bit to relax?" said one of the monks. Immediatly, his ears perked up. Central Park was his favorite place to go in the whole city, apart from the monastary. "Really? You really mean I can go?" he said with excitement. "Yes Raphael, just be back before dusk." "Hot dog!" Raphael ran to his room to change into his leisure robes when he saw his talent show trophy. Memories came flooding back to him about the friends he lost and ridicule he endured. Instantly, his happy mood became depressed. Walking out of the monastary, he sighed as he hoped Central Park would cheer him up.

[Self-sain]

Living a New York city, there wasn't a lot of places a freak, as  Seth was often labeled, could get away and just talk to nature, central park was an exception. He lied in the tree, peacefully making conversation between the two of them, this was one of his favorite, he named him Jeffry, he was old and wise. They where having the daily discusion, when Jeffry said something about some girl in a crazed sketching action, Seth was not the nosey type, but he was the curious kind, he often told Jeffry that there is a difference between the two. He leaned over on a branch, and saw the girl, he didn't know why, but he felt something towards her, he felt as if he should talk to her, this was strange, seeing how he had never wanted to do something like that with another person ever, Jeffry insisted that he do it, but he told him he had know idea how to start to conversation. Jeffry did his tree laugh, which sounds quite like a person on helium, and he said, to apologies for falling on the girl, Jeffry shook his branch, making Seth fall off, and rolling off another branch landing on the girl. "Oww..." Seth said as he rubbed his head, "umm.. sorry for falling on you, trees are very good at math" Seth said more to him self at the end.

[Grace.E]

Emily was extremely surprised as she snapped out of her trance, luckily, she didn't ruin anything in her journal, she looked at the boy who fell on her and smiled "I didn't know that trees could do math?" her eyed lit up in excitment and wonder, she took out a note pan and wrote it down. she felt an odd connection to this boy that was interesting, she never really liked hanging out with other people, she wanted to know more why she wanted to talk to him. "what else do trees say?" she noticed her mother was staring at her, worry and surprise lit up in her eyes but then turned back to gossip to her friend. but she turned back to the boy with growing fascination. 

[Halfeb]

Meanwhile, not too far away in Central Park. Halfeb revved his motorbike. The crowd chantd his name, "Hal-feb! Hal-feb! Halfeb!" He looked down the ramp. He knew this jump had to be pushing it. Five large people troop carrying helicopters, end to end. Fireworks set up on the perpellers, so if he was too slow, he would be blown to smitherines. If he dosn't get enough speed, he'll land in the final coppers perpeller ad too muh and he lands smack into a concrete fountain. He looks over and revs his engine, the back wheel of the bike spins on the ground ad he heads down the ramp. He hits his Nitro and his speed triples. He then leaves the ramp and flies through the air. It was all in slow motion to him. He watched the fireworks launch under him, narrowly missing him as he flies past. He then realises that its going to work. He always hates when he realises that its going to work. He hits the landing ramp and the crowd cheers like crazy. He stops at the end of the ramp and takes off his helmet. Halfebs manager run up to him and Halfeb throws him his helmet.
"I think we can save money next time if we use a 15% lower nitro mix." He tells him as he walks off. The reporters follow him as he walks all of them talking at once. He then stops and looks at them. One of the reporters asks,
"Halfeb, this was one of your biggests jumps so far. Whats next for you?" She asks.
Halfeb looks at them and replies, "Right now. I'm going for a walk. Have a good one." He says as he walks through an exit and shut it behind him. He walks out into the park and a few fans come up and ask hi for his autograph. He happily signs it and gives his sunglasses to a kid fan. He then sighs and walks along, thinking what he can do to make the next jump bigger, better and test it more. He sees two sitting on a bench. One writting furriously. He sits on the other end of the bench to them and looks out deep in thought.

[Ares the Ram]

Upon entering the park, Raphael's mood immediatley went back up. The smell of hot dogs from vendor carts was replaced by the smell of trees and grass. He found a nice patch of grass and decided to lay down on it and watch the clouds. "I wonder who the monks were talking about," he said aloud to himself. He slowly closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the park. A flock of birds, a bycicle, a guy falling out of a tree. A guy falling out of a tree?! Raphael quickly sat up and looked around to see where the sound came from. He saw a bat being helped up by a snow leopard. Figuring that was where the noise came from, he lied back down in the grass. "They're fine," he said to himself. He closed his eyes and began to doze off.

[Self-sain]

"Jeffery, that guy behind you, he tells me all kinds of wise things, trees are also good listeners so he tells me when he thinks I shouldn't come for bad things might happen, I think of him as a granfather figure" Seth stopped talking and looked at the tree, "Yes you are an old fart, your older then most of the concrete around here, anyways, yea well he is one of the nicer of the trees, some are just mean, most are nice, but not all an-...." Seth looked at the girl, "You probably think I'm a freak.. don't you?..."

[Armalite_]

"You can't keep this up forever, Walter." The fox ignored the voice that pressed his ear. He sat in his kitchen at the table in silence. A glass of milk sat still on its surface while Walter eyed it carefully. "Walter...I'm not leaving this place...It's my house." The fox didn't take his eyes off the glass for a single moment. "No...This is MY house now." He said quietly. Suddenly a loud bloodcurling scream pierced the air. Walter didn't cover his eyes, but his eyes winced in reaction. The milk in the glass turned a deep red and began to pour over the sides of the glass, spilling onto the table and onto the floor. Walter didn't move. He only sat still. Then, as quickly as it started, the screaming stopped. The glass filled with the bloody liquid threw itself against the wall, shattering and spraying the wall with the red liquid. "...You don't want to do this..." The fox said quietly with a slight German accent. "...I don't mean to intrude...but understand I am here to stay." Walter looked up at his surroundings. The kitchen seemed normal and quiet. The only sound was the tapping of dripping water in the old kitchen sink. There was no response. Walter looked back down on the table where he saw the same glass, filled with milk and unmoved. He looked back up and smiled. He picked up the glass and drank from it. He stood up from the table and walked out of the kitchen and down the hall. The house was dark and small. It was very old and hung pictures baring its previous owner. He made it to the front door and opened it. Outside, he watched as the children ran past and laughed as they played. It was a nice neighbourhood and Walter was new to it. He hoped New York held a better life for him but it seemed that his old one had found him already.

[serpington]

max walked into central park slowly, he watched the birds flying around and fighting over some bread. he noticed a stray dog wandering around looking for food. "here you are." he smiled giving the dog his lunch. he pulled out his book and a pen. "you wouldn't happen to have a story to tell would you?" the dog looked at him then began to run away, "hay theres no such thing as a free lunch!!" he ran after the dog jumping over a man laying on the grass in robes.

[Ares the Ram]

Raphael sat up in alarm, due to the yelling nearby. Sitting up, he turned his head to see a lizard running towards him. Quickly, he lied back down as the snake jumped over him. He seemed to be chasing a dog with a lunch bag in its mouth. "That dog must have stolen that guy's lunch. I gotta help him get it back," said Raphael. Sprinting after them, he easily caught up with the snake, "Don't worry man, I'll get your lunch back!" He then sprinted ahead towards the dog, lunging forward in an attempt to grab it, but fell a few inches short. Looking up, he saw the dog running further away. "Another failure," he said, letting his face fall back into the grass.

[serpington]

max (the lace monitor) didn't see the monk get up to help him but did feel the ground when he tripped over him. he looked up at the dog who had stoped near a park bench with three others sitting on it "you owe me a story!!!" the dog looked at me "you want a story? how about the lizard that couldn't catch the dog." it walked off with the bag of food. "looks like a hard day." "shut it tree!!!" he got up and helped up the stranger. "thanks for trying."

[Armalite_]

Walter looked across the street into central park. It looked like a nice day out and figured he'd make the best of it. He walked down the steps and crossed the street into the park. He noticed a dog walk past with a bag of food and stopped to look at it. The dog looked back at Walter and flattened it's ears. It tucked its tail between its legs and dropped the bag before sprinting off sqealing. Walter frowned and walked over to the bag the dog was holding and bent down to pick it up. It was a lunch and most likely stolen as Walter could tell. He picked it up and kept walking. He looked at the monk and the lizard over by a tree. "This belong to you?" Walter asked through his accent as he held the bag up.

[Grace.E]

"A freak?" she began to laugh "no, not at all, people at my school call me a freak because I claim that my own voice talks to me and tell me weird stuff", she pulled out her journal again with her ink pen, in beautiful detail, she drew the vampire bat boy, and the tree named Jeffery behind him. and in her beautiful script, she wrote down a bit of what she experienced.

The young boy I spoke to today among the fire dance, told me about how he can speak to tree's, Jeffery was the tree's name, it fascinated me that such a beautiful, ancient tree can do math...

she looked back up at him. "can you talk to other things besides trees?" she asked, somewhere in her gut, she already knew there was more to him... again her tingling senses roared to life as everything fired up again. she looked around, her senses was enhanced by a thousand as she began to draw and write everything in beautiful detail and desgin, this trance only lasted a minute before she snapped out of it..."sorry...I kinda go into weird trances"

[serpington]

"yea thanks, guess that dog will have to con someone else out of a paycheck. I'm max by the way." he held out his hand to the strangers while grabbing the bag. "that wasn't nice" "i said quiet, you already burnt me once." he shot an evil look at a tree over to his right. he looked over at the strangers, "nevermind that......"

[Armalite_]

Walter's eyes bulged when he saw Max accuse the tree. This guy is CRAZY. He thought to himself. He shook Max's hand. "Walter Austerlitz." His glance switched over to the tree and then back at Max...then back at the tree. His wierded out expression hadn't changed much but he felt the need to ask. "...Ummm, I beg pardon but...what was that about?" He asked narrowing his eyes.