Death, something Sam had to grasp from a young age. Either he had to kill or he brought people in that were eventually killed because they wouldn’t cooperate. It was a messed up life for a kid and if he had his way no kid should have to do anything he did as a child. In fact that was what he was now striving for, preventing kids from having to have a childhood like the one he had. Having to fight to stay alive, fight to be useful a kid in his opinion should be a kid, sure it shouldn’t be easy (an occasional class with him should do the trick) but a kid should still have a childhood and have a chance to grow up and live a life and be happy or miserable all about choices.

This was an instance that didn’t sit right with Sam, a kid tried to kill himself. Sam wasn’t sure on the details but he had heard enough talk from some of the kids in the mansion, none from his classes those were still pretty much non-existent but from the staff. Which in his opinion much worse. The kid was on watch now, the mansion was doing all they could but in this case Sam decided it wasn’t enough no kid should feel so low in his life that suicide was the answer, that was the cowards way out.

Sure Sam had been low a few times in his life but any thought that was vaguely similar to taking his own life was replaced with his motivation to get back up. Heck maybe that was what this kid needed, a little motivation.

Sam was standing in front of the kid’s door, before the frost started to eat away at the front of it. Slowly weakening the thick wood as Sam raised his foot and kicked in the area near the lock. He had keys to all the rooms, but he thought a case such as this might require a little more intimidating approach which was why as he kicked in the door a certain chill filled the room as frost started to coat over the nearest windows blocking the already partially sunny day. ”Where is Persi!?!” Sam yelled as he entered the room.

Training for the day, done. Eating to recover from the training's fainting, courtesy of Cafas' pushing, done. Homework?

Hah. Long since dismissed. Aiden was quite happily crashed out on his bed, dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, with a stack of manga beside him and one in his hands. He wouldn't want to have to get up just to continue in the series, after all.

And then his door broke.

Aiden's first reaction was to be on his feet and moving away from the window, but a few steps across the floor had him realizing that the window was free of demonic fire turkeys. Hm. Frost. Must be nice and cold outside; perhaps it would be worthwhile to take his books out there. He'd just have to find somewhere dry enough to protect the pa-

-per.

Why was there a guy in the doorway yelling for Persi? With an eyepatch. What did he think he was, a pirate? Aiden sighed and let his nerves settle down again. "He's not here, and no, I don't know where he is. Was wrecking the door really necessary?" Aiden glanced pointedly at the singe marks scattered across Persi's side of the room and around the window. Poor room got beat up enough.

Persi probably should be learning to dread his room.

Entirely apart from the awkwardness that being anywhere near Aiden caused, there were the perpetual phoenix attacks. Why exactly the bird always attacked their room, and Persi's bed, and why it only ever attacked when only Aiden was around, Persi had no idea. It was, however, becoming a disturbingly common event for Persi to have to drag Aiden and at times the bird as well down to the infirmary. Which had at least had the effect of making them stop staring at him like the expected him to be the one hurt.... Which was the most logical reason for Persi to actually have started to become weirdly used to the phoenix attacks and not overly bothered by them.

Still, they were attacks that tended to end in infirmary visits, when he heard a crash from the direction of his room (and therefore almost certainly his room, because where else would it be, really?) he hurried. It didn't sound quite like the fire extinguisher, but that probably just meant the phoenix had found a new way to destroy things.

Once Persi actually got near the room, he stopped, blinked, and then continued much more slowly until he was within speaking range of whoever it was standing in the... was it still a doorway if it lacked a door? Anyway. Random guy standing in the doorway, with an apparently broken door. "Who are you?"

It really ought to be disturbing that Persi was getting used to this.

The kid in the file wasn’t here. Sam looked to the kid’s roommate and shook his head, ”No it was to help get his attention.” Sam said without much hesitation. So the plan of scaring the kid didn’t really pan out the way he wanted it did however get his attention. Another voice came from the hallway and Sam turned his head towards the kid with the multi-colors in his hair. Sam’s face was stern his eye was fixed and with that he started walking towards Persi ignoring the roommate. He wasn’t the one Sam wanted to talk to.

”I’ll replace the door.” Sam said as the chill in the air followed him with every step he took. ”You and I.” Sam said pointing to the kid then to himself, ”We need to talk.” Sam walked past the kid and patted him lightly on the shoulders despite him being pissed about the whole thing. His initial ‘scare the hell out of him’ was put on hold when he saw him. He was a scrawny kid didn’t look to tough. It didn’t say much about him but it told Sam his approach can be a little more lax. At least for now.

Sam started walking towards the stairs to the roof, normally kids weren’t allowed up there at all but the kid was almost an adult and he was with Sam. That and Sam wasn’t going to take no for an answer. He passed the kid and put his foot on the first step then stopped and looked to Persi. ”Don’t have all day, come on.”

"Uh...." People wanting to talk to Persi was a new one. Apart from Miss Gemma, anyway, and Persi was still pretty sure she was just good at acting, since it was her job and all. Most people either didn't want to be around Persi at all, didn't want him to talk, or only wanted him to answer certain very specific questions. Still, whoever it was was an adult, and Persi trailed behind out of habit, still completely bewildered. "Do I know you?"

"...Do you know me?" That was also a good question. A very good one, Persi thought, though judging by the 'no students' sign on the door the guy was trying to have him go through, Persi would guess he knew the answer.

”Yeah, I know a little about you. Enough to know we need to talk.” once the kid was following him Sam continued up the stairs to the roof he didn’t say much to him on the way up but the chill in the air continued to remain in the air. Once he pushed open the door Sam’s breath was visible momentarily till the wind blew it away.

Once on the roof Sam got a grasp on how crappy the day was it was cold enough where he didn’t need to use his mutation to put a chill in the air and with the occasional guts of wind if he wasn’t immune to the weather he would have wished he were wearing a sweater. Though he was immune and the chill he produced continued till the kid was on the roof with him. Sam walked over to the middle of the roof far away from the door and placed his hands on his head and let out an audible sigh. Again Sam waited till Persi was close to him before he continued.

”So, you want to talk about your most recent trip to the woods?” Sam asked curiously as the door behind them was shut. The lock kept the door shut but there was a button to the call center. A way to let the staff know someone who wasn’t supposed to be on the roof was on the roof. It didn’t matter though the door could have been open. Persi wouldn’t make it there in time. Sam would have grabbed him before that.

Sam turned towards Persi and pointed to the kids arms, ”I want to know what happened?” Sam said with more authority in his voice. This time the chill in the air was directed at Persi’s spine when Sam spoke. It was meant to be a wake up call. Sam just hoped the kid heard it.

"That really doesn't tell me anything." Not that Persi actually expected a response to the complaint, with how wonderfully informative the guy had been so far and all. "If I get yelled at for being up here, I'm blaming you." Not that Persi cared all that much if he was yelled at, really... unless it was by Andrea, and really, considering how the last time he'd blamed something on someone else (even if it was entirely Cafas's fault that he punched Persi) she'd ended up claiming that her boyfriend was a pig, Persi thought it was probably better to just let her be upset with him. It ended with less insanity, at least.

Gah. What, was everyone in this place secretly an ice sculpture? The guy seemed like he was enjoying the cold. Persi, on the other hand, was distinctly not, and had his arms wrapped around himself almost as soon as he was outside. He would be glad he had long sleeves on, but they honestly didn't seem to be doing much good.

"Woods?" Persi's irritated expression went back to bewilderment. "Uh, not really? I could?" Persi was pretty sure the last time he'd gone he'd spent most of his time sitting in a pine tree drawing. Or that might have been the time before, and the last time he'd just climbed trees. They kind of blurred together. And why in Heaven would some random guy be asking if he wanted to talk about it? If this guy was some sort of spy, he was horribly incompetent. He couldn't have picked a less useful person or a less useful topic if he'd tried.

Although, he was doing decently on the torture thing, with as cold as it was up here. Persi shivered as a breeze somehow managed to go the opposite direction most were and hit his spine. "What happened? What are you talking--" Persi glanced down, just to be sure the guy wasn't actually pointing at a two-foot-tall ghost in front of him or something, and finally figured it out. The guy was pointing at his arms. "Oh. Um, that wasn't the most recent... nevermind." That probably wasn't a detail that actually needed to be corrected. On the other hand, what was Persi supposed to be explaining? 'What happened' was not very clear. "Um, why? I'm pretty sure you can ask literally anyone in this building and they can tell you, and you obviously have or you wouldn't know to ask me...." Whatever it was he was trying to ask, anyway. "Do we have to be outside? It's freezing."

The kid was talking but not answering the questions that Sam wanted answered, to be fair to the kid Sam had been avoiding his questions as well. He was cold, he didn’t know cold. Not yet anyway.

Walking a few steps to the kid Sam shook his head and crouched down like he was trying to make the kid seem in control at least for now maybe that way he’d be more willing to talk about everything. Every step he took towards him the air got a little colder till Sam’s breath was first visible. ”I don’t care what I heard from anyone else kid, I want to hear what happened from you.” he shook his head slightly and then added, ”Been on the receiving end of gossip lately as well not the first time and it won’t be the last. People talk but they never talk about the right stuff. Unless you get it from the source.”

Sam raised his arms up slightly and pointed to his wrist where he heard the kid tried to end it. ”I’ll ask again,” he paused this time the air seemed to warm up a bit while he severed his hold on the temperature around them.

Sam looked to the kid, the serious look in his eye gone for a minute while it was replaced with some sympathy and understanding a look he didn’t think he was capable of but it just goes to show what happens when you have kids for a little more than a decade even if it wasn’t real. ”What happened?”

"Uh...." Okay, so the guy had a point about rumors. They were rarely all that accurate, though Persi hadn't heard anything too far off yet. He probably wouldn't, though. But still.... "Why do you want to know?" Why do you care if what you know is accurate? The guy didn't know Persi, wasn't anyone Persi could recognize from what anyone else had mentioned. And he probably would have remembered the eye patch, if nothing else, unless the guy had somehow forgotten to take off a piece of a Halloween costume for two weeks. That seemed like the sort of thing that would fall off on its own fairly quickly anyway.

There weren't, technically speaking, any scars on Persi's wrists. Well, not that one, anyway; the crosses started a bit above (below? Arm directions were confusing) the wrist, and while there were burn scars on Persi's left wrist, the guy was pointing at Persi's right. It still made the point a little more directly than Persi really know how to deal with, and he tried to shift between his feet without being too obvious. It wasn't that he was ashamed of the scars, at all, he was actually sort of proud of them a bit, but--everyone seemed to expect him to be ashamed. How was he supposed to explain that to people? Or deal with people that were unhappy just seeing them? It was winter, so he could just wear long sleeves and that hid the crosses, but he couldn't really casually wear gloves inside, and the burns were kind of obvious no matter how he held his hands. Except if he kept that one in a pocket, but that wasn't particularly casual either, and anyway it wouldn't exactly help with getting that hand to work right again. Sure the scars were just stiff, but it was still incredibly annoying.

And then it got warmer, which was actually kind of disturbing because Persi was pretty sure that if he shivered from warmer air then it had been way too cold before. He was still more bothered by the sympathetic expression that he couldn't find any flaws in. Eventually he shrugged and looked down at the hand that did have scars, running his thumb along the edges of them. "I dunno what you mean. Like... what did I do? Or why it didn't work, or...? I don't know."

Sam’s look faltered slightly when he didn’t get a straight answer it was clear the kid did try to take his life but Sam at this point still wanted to know why. His irritation with Persi became apparent when he started to walk closer to him the air around him started to become cold again.

>>>"I dunno what you mean. Like... what did I do? Or why it didn't work, or...? I don't know."

The kids words reverberated in Sam’s mind again. Sam’s hand reached up and grabbed his shirt as he pulled him in closer while walking forward towards the edge of the Mansion’s roof. He was still a few feet away but the air continued to drop in temperature as ice started to cover parts of his body, the more visible ones like the hand that grabbed Persi’s shirt and held tight so he couldn’t pull away.

>>>"I dunno what you mean. Like... what did I do? Or why it didn't work, or...? I don't know."

Sam’s face became filled more with anger as he continued to walk his lone eyebrow lowering as his face contorted into an almost snarl as ice started to blotch his face. ”What do you mean ‘why it didn’t work?!?’” Sam said his voice raising with each word. He was yelling now and mad, and Persi’s feet were inches from the edge of the room. ”I know damn well, why it didn’t work! I’m asking why you did it in the first place!?!” he was supposed to protect the people in the mansion, that was his calling at least it was before he was mind controlled and was forced to kidnap the kids he was trying to protect.

No, it was still his calling. Sam just had lost sight of it for a while. After hearing that one of the kids in the mansion tried to take their life, well that put him back on track. Sam gave a final little shove while his hand was still on Persi’s shirt as the other one grabbed his arm so when he was forced from the roof he didn’t fall from his death.

The kid was scrawny, which was good for Sam, but still Sam was forced to lower his body to get a good stance so he could hold on to him. ”This is what you wanted right?” Sam asked shaking him as he dangled over the edge of a few story building. Not the most productive teaching methods but, Sam as many would say was anything but productive recently.

"Um...." Persi was very quickly deciding that this guy was just insane, and that was all. Why did he keep running into violent crazy people? Technically the guy hadn't actually punched him or anything yet, but glaring and stalking toward him didn't have too many other meanings. "What are you--" Persi squeaked when the guy grabbed his shirt, and tried to jerk away. "Let go!

That was about as effective as it ever was. Persi really did not like being near the edge of the roof right now. New rule: No following crazy people up to the roof. Or considering Persi's apparent habit of attracting crazy people, maybe just no going near the roof at all would be a better rule.

Oh, and now the guy was turning into ice. Great. Was this Aiden's cousin or something? Persi was pretty sure Aiden would have mentioned if his dad was around, but a cousin could be older by enough. Either way it was not reassuring Persi at all. Sure Aiden seemed sane, but--why was he in the air?!

"What the hell!" Grabbing the guy's arm probably wouldn't actually make any difference, and if trying to kick him did it certainly wouldn't be a good difference, but Persi wasn't really thinking about what he was doing. Panic tended to have that result. "No, falling's not supposed to hurt at all, what's wrong with you!"

Although, it might be that panicking about falling could hurt. Persi's eyes and throat certainly did. So did his shoulder, but that probably had more to do with the fact that a lunatic was dangling him over the roof by his arm.

>>>"No, falling's not supposed to hurt at all, what's wrong with you!"

His reaction wasn’t he expected the kid didn’t scream. Sam expected a scream. ”You wanted pain?” Sam asked curiously his tone filling with venom and disgust, ”You wanted to feel something?” Sam added as his arm started to ice over as it was latched on to Persi’s as his hand attached to the kid’s shirt did the same. It wasn’t just a scare tactic it was supposed to make his grip more solidified and his strength from giving out. His body might tire but his mutation wouldn’t let him drop the kid.

”Trust me kid, falling hurts pretty bad, sure maybe the distance from the ground won’t kill you on the first go, all depends how you land really. Don’t worry if you really want to die kid I can do it, real easy too. Wouldn’t take much, as painful as you want.” Sam’s tone started to fade as he stared at the kid as he dangled in his arms. Sympathy reaching his expression only for a second as Sam’s feet started to ice them selves to the roof for more support.

”Why did you do it kid? I’m only asking once more! Talk quick!”

"Y--No, not like that! That's stupid, who ever wants pain, the whole point of it is that no one likes it!" And the crazy guy was turning more into ice. And trying to turn Persi into ice too now, or something; Persi couldn't actually see since he was glaring at the crazy guy, but he could feel his arm getting colder.

Kicking had made no difference at all the first time, but it was better than doing nothing so Persi tried again. "I fall out of trees all the time, if falling hurt enough then I probably wouldn't need to anyway!" Probably. Persi wasn't sure; he might have been too spoiled even if he'd managed to hurt himself more, or get sick or whatever. But pain of some kind was a treatment for pretty much all sin that Persi knew of, so enough probably would have worked.

A gust of wind made Persi close his eyes; they were too cold and too dry and watering enough already. Whether the wind was the crazy guy's mutation or not Persi couldn't tell; it was cold, but so was everything outside at all, so that wasn't really a good indication. Either way it was just a gust, and he got his eyes back open in time to glare at the crazy guy. "Because I had to! Why do you care? It's got nothing to do with you!"

The kid might not know Sam or what his job was or what he did or what he had done but Sam was going to make some of it clear. ”It’s got everything to do with me!” Sam said his voice getting a little louder as he lifted Persi up higher into the air so he was eye level with Sam. His ice took most of the weight. ”My job, my purpose is to make sure the kids in this mansion are safe, to make sure they can have a life, a childhood!” he had forgotten that over the past few months but this kid reminded him why he was still here, why he taught and why he lived in the mansion otherwise he would have been gone sometime ago.

”I make sure kids like you don’t have to go through shit like this.” Sam shook him one more then brought him back away from the edge of the roof so the roof itself was under his feet. Sam took a breath and continued this time his voice was a little calmer however there was still volume so the kid got the message. ”You don’t have to throw it away kid. There are people here that care about ya, people here that can help.” he vaguely recalled similar words Neena and Tricity said to him.

Sam took a breath, ”I’ve been where you were kid, feeling so down like the only way to end the loneliness or what ever the hell you’re going through is to numb it or end it. But you’re wrong, you don’t end it. You fight it.” Sam took another breath and shrugged his shoulders, ”Sides you do something like that here… a lot of paperwork for a guy like me.” He did his best to offer him a small grin but it only was displayed for a second before vanishing.

”Now want to try this again?” Sam asked his tone still stern but it was slightly warmer like the air around them was starting to become once he stopped using his mutation to control the temperature. Sam lowered Persi and let his feet touch the ground his hand still attached to his shirt. ”Why did you try to off yourself?”

Persi was not at all convinced that his life... er... actions, had anything to do with the crazy guy, but arguing that clearly wasn't going to convince him. Crazy people were crazy because they didn't know they were crazy, and explaining to them that they were tended not to be successful. Maybe someone else could manage it, but not Persi. The closest he could get was to pretend whatever the crazy guy said was possible, and then argue that he should still do what Persi said. "Well then, go pester someone you can help."

...That was... annoying. Sure, the guy probably meant to be nice, and having the roof under his feet again was nice, but Persi still scowled. Being reminded that he'd upset Aiden and Cafas was not what he wanted to hear.

"That's not the point!" Why wouldn't anyone ever believe him about that? Sure, getting away from everything would be nice, but that wasn't why Persi had to. And that would only work if he didn't just go to hell, anyway. And... paperwork? Really? Was that what he was concerned about? There couldn't be that much paperwork. No one was going to ask where Persi was. Persi didn't even exist, technically.

"Not really." Oh good he could touch the ground again. Persi immediately backed up as far as he could... which wasn't very far, with his shirt still in the guy's grasp, so he settled for staying as far away as he could, holding the shoulder he'd been dangling from with his other hand, glaring at the guy and trying to figure out if he could get out of his shirt and run back to the door before the guy grabbed him. Probably not, but it was tempting to try anyway.

As for answering... no, Persi really didn't feel like it. He kept glaring, though it was starting to feel distinctly worn out. "You're just going to tell me I made it up anyway."