Lost emotion in raindclouds

It was taco night. Taco night at the mansion meant the woman who prepared food in the kitchen had gone to great lengths to prepare grilled beef, an assortment of tortilla, cheese, and taco fixin's. She even went so far as to bring out frozen yogurt for dessert. Shin would be hard-pressed to turn down those odds. So when the first call came over the intercom, Shin was away from his desk due to unfortunate mansion circumstances. The second call got a bit more luck.

Shin turned the spoon in the flowery tea cup full of frozen strawberry yogurt as he sat down at his desk and kicked up his legs. It was fantastic. A masterpiece, even. For a moment, the spoon sat in his mouth as he enjoyed the flavor with eyes tugged shut. A voice cracked over the intercom. The spoon nearly fell from Shin's grip.

"Eh? Alexander Garcia, Alexander Garcia..." Shin set the tea cup down as his fingers tumbled gracelessly over the paperwork and notes sitting on the desk. He poked a button on the keyboard and scrolled through phone records until his eyes fell on Mr. Garcia's mention. Age 18, recently moved to New York... Mutant Ability: Influences the Weather. Shin's eyes widened as he scrabbled to press the intercom button to the front gate and respond.

"Right, Mr. Garcia. I've got your paperwork here. I'll open the gates and be down to greet you shortly." With that, he hit the button to send the gates swinging open, and grabbed his coat from the rack. A long grayish-black duster trailed behind the Asian mutant as Shin wrapped a navy blue scarf around his neck and flowed towards the main gates. He arrived two minutes later, popping open an umbrella as he casually approached the Korean male. He extended a hand. "Tetsuya Shinbo, mansion greeter. Pleased to meet you."

Shin shook Alexander's hand briefly, then let go. Droplets of darkness hung on his face where the light overhead showed through the clear plastic umbrella. He shifted his hand back to carrying the umbrella as he gestured towards the main doors.

"Plenty. Let's go inside out of the elements before we handle the basic paperwork, though. From the conversation over the phone, we've gleaned most of the pertinent information about you, Mr. Garcia. It shouldn't be too hard finishing the process and getting you a room once we're inside." He took a few steps, then paused, glancing back with that ever-present hint of curiosity that hung over him like a cloud bank. "That is, unless you'd like to do a quick demonstration... we have the needed ingredients. What better time than now?"

The rain seemed to blow past them in a horizontal gust, as if in answer. Rain dribbled off the sides of Shin's cheeks as his scarf trailed. He spun his umbrella, shaking off a few drops, and pointed to the sky.

Hazel eyes lifted upwards, peering through sheets of rain as the Korean boy concentrated on the sky. The clouds hung overhead, heavy as they ever were. They rolled black pie crusts, hemming an edge overhead. A moment of hushed drizzling perforated the scene. Beyond the pair, a frog croaked by a pool of water near the trees. A squirrel chattered on a branch, head snapping up in attention as he clutched at his nut. The lull of cumulus movement reflected in his amber eyes. A faint breeze blew through the pine needles, sending a few to topple end over end towards the grass below. With understated dignity, the winds seemed to slow. Rain eased. Shin held his balled fist in front of his mouth in thought, eyes dropping from the gray sky overhead to fall on Alexander.

The corners of Shin's mouth turned up in a smile as he shook his umbrella and pulled it shut. "Very impressive. And does that happen when you're feeling intense emotions, or can you control it naturally?" Some degree of control was obvious, from the display he'd just elicited, yet that may have been the result of focusing on a specific emotion or thought. Shin propped the umbrella under his arm against the crook of his elbow, and started leading them towards the mansion. It looked like whatever method Mr. Garcia used had drained him slightly. "Come along," Shin lilted back at the boy. "After I get you set up with a room, I can give you a tour of the mansion."

((OOC: You can get us into the front door and do your reaction. After they get in the main hall, Shin will lead them to the office to wrap up the paperwork. I'll take us there.))

"Makes perfect sense," Shin quipped. "Emotions tend to cloud judgment and wash over concentration. You can't well think about manipulating specific affectations of reality when you're focused on that ball of rage in the pit of your stomach, now can you?" He glanced at the sky and itched the side of his cheek. "That's why learning to control these things is the most important part. And right now, this is less 'theory' than postulation. Theories are hypotheses that have been tested, and have passed the first few tests of time." Shin smirked. Science 101. That being said, Alexander was right. Spinning their rudders like this was only sending them in circles. Further testing needed to be done. Shin glanced once more at the clearing sky, then entered the mansion.

For a moment, nobody said a word. Alexander looked around, taking the front hall in. Shin glanced back out the doorway, at the clouds in the sky. Darkness shifted on the horizon, and rain began to fall once more as Alexander did what he felt needed done. Shin turned to focus his smile back on the boy. He seemed a bit tired. Shin thought a moment. "Well, we could walk around the mansion for a while while I showed you the various important aspects of the school. Of course, there's always tomorrow for that, if you're exhausted. Or I could set you up with a room, and find you a place to put your bags. Actually, that sounds like the best course of action right now. Follow me."

He swung up his legs and led the charge down an adjoining hall towards the corridor that housed the mansion's many offices. He knocked once, then popped in. The door hung open for Alex to follow. Shin plopped down in his desk, dragging the pointer on the computer screen up to check the mansion's list of rooms with vacancies.

"Roommate or non?" Of course, while many mansion-goers often had to deal with roommates, it seemed the older children often got off scot-free with the problematic arrangement. Still, no harm in asking.

“Alright, let’s just see what we have here…” His fingers danced across the keyboard. With a clack, he hit enter. ”..aha, here we go. Wow. You’re in luck. We’ve got an open room on the second floor. It’s near the library, and not too far from the stairs. No roommate.” A final tap. He reached into a nearby cabinet, swishing his arm through a sea of keys. His brow danced in concentration, tongue jutting out the corner of his mouth as he searched. After a moment of hasty digging, he retrieved a key with the number that matched the one on the screen. “We’re good to go.” Shin grinned sheepishly. He spun to face Alex, key held upright. Alex’s look of apprehension stood out like a sloppy green screen against the face of the key.

The boy looked like he had a question. Shin lowered the key to look him in the face. “What’s up?”

>>"What powers do you have?" Alexander finally asked, feeling his face suddenly turned much warmer, as if he was embarrassed of asking it.

“Ah, I see…” A wry smirk fell tugged at Shin’s face. The kid wanted to see what he could do. He glanced around for a moment, then popped open another drawer and pulled out a ping pong ball. He held it up like a magician before the big trick. “See this ping pong ball…?” His eyes screwed up to impose upon Alexander the seriousness of the ball. With a ‘pop!’, he tossed it onto the table. It bounced upwards and to the right. Like a table tennis master, Shin’s right hand shot out, summoning two 3” triangular shards. They shifted into a square, knocking the ball back and to the left. His second hand rose up, controlling a different shard square. The white ball bounced up and down on the table between the two ‘paddles’ as Shin fought himself at Shard Pong. The ball flew high! The ball flew low. Shin nearly missed it, and then…

After a minute of this, the ball flew out of bounds on the left. Shin snapped his right hand. “Darn, beat myself again. But that’s my power in a nutshell. I… make triangular barriers that I arrange into shapes and do cool things with.” He laughed. “Any other questions?”

>>"I'm guessing you never have a dull moment" Alexander stated.

Shin smirked his little smirk. "Nope." Just one of the many tricks he'd dreamed up lately thanks to late nights and too much sugar. Maybe next time he'd show the Rubiks Cube? His concentration on the few shards he currently controlled slackened as he turned his attention back to Alexander.

>>"I do wonder" Alexander said as he scratched his cheek. "How do you in this school actually practice control over your powers? I'm sure that it wouldn't be safe to do everything in a regular classroom? Like myself, I don't see myself making rainclouds inside of a classroom where people observe you." He said to Shin. "Also, how about this school, I'm aware that you have classes, I was wondering which subjects that are available here"

Shin eyed him as he asked. A really good question. Shin crossed his arms and asked point-blank. "Does your power even work indoors? Altering the weather might be a more 'outdoor' thing, and if that's the case, we've got a field, and we've got the garden. Otherwise, there is a room you could go to (with permission from staff) that'd allow you to practice your powers... I could let you in, if you thought your powers might actually work inside. I'm sorry. I don't know them as well as you do, so I can't give you more than that." He finished with a wry smile.

"As for classes, the mansion's teachers teach from grades k-12. We've got a self defense teacher, a music teacher, an English teacher, math, history, languages, computer basics, art... I'm not sure on the status of our science teacher, or our professor of philosophy, but I'm sure we could find you some books if you wanted to bone up on weather conditions. Does that answer your question?"