Spectator Sport (open)

[jess]

Technically, a "Training Center" should be used by people who were training. This struck Jessica as being an incredibly narrowminded very, not to mention being rather contrary to what she actually wanted. Ergo, it was something she could ignore when it suited her.

Right now, she leaned against a wall, holding court with her little flock of admirers. Usually this was a group of girls relatively close to her own age, each one intent on her every word. This time, it was a group of younger boys, each one intent on her every word. Several of them seemed to be going out of their way to impress her, and she watched, her eyes lazy.

Eventually things would devolve into a brawl of sorts. One boy would want to show up another, and try to do so by embarrassing his competition. Generally whoever was left standing at the end would earn at least some grudging respect from Jessica, and quite possibly a peck on the cheek. Maybe more, if they were attractive enough.

Two of them engaged in a reckless shouting match now, and one Fae called upon wind. It proved difficult to unsettle his Gifted opponent though, who proved remarkable acrobatic.

"Bo-ring," Jessica sing songed, yawning. A few of her gathered admirers chuckled, and at least one agreed with her statement. Which only made her lose interest in them.

Really, it was a lose-lose situation.

[tory]

There was really no point in Tory being at the training centre other than the sheer fact that he was incredibly bored. The young Royal Dragon shoved his hand in his pockets as he watched the two other boys start off with a verbal spar which quickly turned into battle of elements versus agility.

He rolled his eyes as he watched the two, of course there would always be impeccable amounts of reckless testosterone floating around this campus. He for one, never got tired of watching younger boys humiliate themselves due to hormones.

Tory's eyes caught sight of Jessica and her admirers and let out a small scoff as he walked along the terrain of the training centre. There was a chance he could make it through the place without being mauled by the younger girls if he just played it cool and casual, but no matter how hard he tried to be a wallflower, there were always female fanciers. Both welcome and most times unwelcome.

[jess]

Since the contest had quickly devolved into a mindless testosterone contest, Jessica found other things to interest her. The initial response was to stare at her nails, but honestly, those were always with her. While the other people in the training center were not. So she scanned the center, looking for anyone passably interesting. Sometimes the ones who weren't vying for her attention were as entertaining as the ones who were. Or more so, in some special cases.

One young man in particular caught Jessica's interests as he tried to slink around the center. It looked as if he were trying exceptionally hard not to be bothered. So Jessica decided that he needed some company, being so lonely and forlorn. Leaning back, she whispered to one of her closest lackeys.

"See the guy over on the edge? You should go and say hi to him," Jessica "suggested." The implication had been quite clear, and she'd utilized her gift on the poor lackey. Now the nervous girl darted toward the outlying wallflower, looking utterly terrified.

She did approach him, however, moving in his way. Meekly, she looked up at him, and squeaked "Hi."

[tory]

Oh lovely
Tory thought as he watched one of the Queen Bee's followers march over meekly. He almost felt sorry for the poor girl, who looked as if she was doing this against her will. It was decided that he should at least be nicer than usual to the girl.

What could it hurt right?

He withdrew one of his hands from his pockets and scratched the back of his head lightly. An almost sheepish smile came across his features as he looked down to the girl.

"Uhm, Hi" he said in response, not really knowing what else to say. For being what some girls would call 'hot', Tory sure was a little socially awkward. He then shoved his hand back in his pocket and shrugged his shoulders slightly, looking over in the direction of Jessica.

"Did she make you come over here?" he asked the girl curiously as he subtly nodded his head in her direction.

[jess]

Jessica's eyes remained on the conversation, though her voice couldn't extend that far. It did look as though her influence stretched. The nervous girl dared look over her shoulder, and managed to look even more unsteady as a result. Turning back to Tory, she smiled sickly.

"No, uh, Jessica, uh," the girl chewed her lip. "She just thought that, uh, I, uh. You're hot."

Yes, it had devolved into that already. Jessica's lackeys were not selected for their impressive intelligence or stellar conversation skills, after all.

"I, uh, just wanted to say hi because, uh," the girl blushed now. Clearly she'd already given the reason behind it all.

Jessica grinned, fully watching the conversation now. The heated display became completely forgotten, and the bossy brunette's eye were solely on the awkwardness. A few boys didn't fully realize they'd lost Jessica's attention and kept trying and failing.

I'll give her a few more minutes of awkward, then swoop in and rescue her.

[tory]

"She just thought that, uh, I, uh. You're hot."

Tory just looked to the girl for a minute after she had blurted out that he was hot. It was a good thing he wasn't eating or drinking anything at the moment of her confession because he was slightly taken aback by what she had just said. Well who knew that the meek girl was awfully bold.

"Uhm...well, thanks?" he said, a little unsure himself. His dark eyes flitted over to the girl who now had a name, 'Jessica'. Sure he had seen her around before, but he never actually knew her name; in fact he didn't know a whole lot of peoples names, partly because he was really bad with remembering them.

"Wait a minute," he said, turning his attention back to the girl in front of him, "You said 'she thought'? Or is that what you think?" Tory asked, now putting the poor girl on the spot. Though it was more out of curiosity, were girls nowadays using 'wing men' to scope out and pick up guys?

[jess]

The poor girl about had a meltdown there. Someone actually asking her what she thought? That wasn't how the world worked for her.

"Well, uh, you're, um, I think," she flubbed again, chewing her lip.

Jessica enjoyed watching her "friend" flail about in the conversation. She couldn't catch most of it, but the body language said more than enough. Jessica eagerly waited to see the next reaction.

"I think you might be, err--" the girl looked on the edge of a breakdown. Now she turned to lock eyes with Jessica, begging her friend to come and save her.

Jessica sighed, rolling her eyes. Clearly the first round had ended, and the player had done about a well as expected. Time for replacements.

Jessica walked over to the conversation, placing a hand on her lackey's shoulder and smiling at her.

"Did you want me for somethin'?" she asked, smiling reassuringly.
The girl nodded, pointing a shaking finger at Tory.

Jessica turned her grin on the man, the look a mixture between taunt and tease. "Was she botherin' you? She's good, honestly, just doesn't know where her head's at."

Jessica shot a pitying look at her friend, then focused back in on the boy. "I don't think I know your name."

[tory]

Tory looked* actually confused when the girl was about to have a nervous breakdown. If he didn't know any better, he'd have thought that either the girl wasn't as skilled as others in talking to boys, or that she had never been asked what she thought. He went with the latter theory, because when you have a gaggle of girls following one, everything in their world revolved around that one girl, or Jessica, in this case.

He bit his lip when Jessica finally came over to her struggling lackey, who pointed her shaking finger at him. Did she not know that he was standing right in front of her? The only way she could have made it more obvious was if she began yelling at the top of her lungs 'YES IT'S HIM I NEED HELP WITH'.

Automatically, a hand went back up and rubbed the back of his neck slightly as he raised his eyebrows at her. He shrugged again and shook his head.

"No, she wasn't at all" he replied casually releasing his shoulders though his hand was still on his neck. He hesitated a moment when she asked him his name, well indirectly asked him.

"I'm Tory" he said removing his hand from his neck to hold it out for her to shake. It was polite, wasn't it? Nice guys did that sort of thing.

[jess]

"Awww, you're awkward, how cuuuute," Jessica cooed. She grinned, slipping her hand into his and shaking. Winking, she said, "I'm Jessica, and it's a pleasure to meet you."

The lackey looked quite relieved to have the reins of conversation taken from her. In fact, she quickly fell into the normal role of supporter and major Jessica-fan. Jessica and Tory had barely exchanged a few lines when said lackey fell behind Jessica, back and to the left.

"Nice to know she wasn't bothering you," Jessica said. She waved a hand to the poor girl behind her. "Honestly, I asked her to go over here."

The girl nodded. "Yeah, it was all Jessica's idea."

"She needs to learn to talk to hot guys," Jessica explained/lied. "And we saw you and, well."

Jessica shrugged, "It just worked beautifully."

She shifted, glancing over her shoulder. The fight had been ended by an older student intervening. Both the brawlers looked properly abashed, shuffling their feet. Seeing them like that only lightened Jessica's mood.

Turning back to Tory. "Sooooo Tory, basics, come on. You know. House, talents, girlfriend?"

[tory]

Wait a minute? Awkward is cute? Since when?
Tory thought to himself as Jessica began coo-ing about how cute it was for him to be awkward. Well he would definitely say it was a little bit shocking to learn this little bit of info. Maybe she was just one of those girls who actually liked the nice boys instead of the ones that treated them like dirt. He began to shrug that thought off when Jessica intervened that her friend needed to learn how to talk to hot guys.

"So she wasn't just being a wing man?" he asked jokingly looking to her lackey who had seemingly fell back into place, then back to Jessica. Sure she was pretty, but Tory wasn't too convinced. Girls like this were often the shallow type who relied on their looks to get them through life. He casually stood with his thumbs now in his belt loops as Jessica turned her attention to the two who were fighting before.

He raised an eyebrow when she began prodding him with the demand to answer the basics and smirked slightly when she said the word 'girlfriend'. It had been quite a while since he had had one of those.

"House? Cavan, Talents....uhh, is reading a talent?" he joked again, "Nah I don't think it is, but I'm into sports, you know guy stuff" he continued chatting up the pretty half fae.

"Girlfriend? That's a little forward don't you think?" he said shifting his weight to the balls of his feet so that his heels lifted from the ground a little bit. He leaned closer to her so he could whisper in her ear.

"I'm a little embarrassed about this but I haven't had a girlfriend since the 6th grade" he admitted. Tory wasn't embarrassed about it, but he just thought it was funny.

[jess]

"Please," Jessica favored Tory with one of her best withering looks, "do I look like I need a wingwoman? If I were interested."

She stepped forward, definitely invading Tory's personal space. She looked directly into his eyes, wet her lips, and breathed the next few words: "You'd know about it."

As quickly as she'd turned it on, she turned it off, rocking back on her heels and returning to her pleasant, domineering self.
The lackey's eyes were wide and she looked thoroughly impressed.

"Cavan, huh? I can totally see that. Though you're kinda shy for one of them, aren't you?" Jessica half-smiled. "The guy stuff's a total giveaway though."

"Totally!" chirped the lackey, knowing a response line when she heard it.

"Silly!" Jessica playfully slapped Tory's arm. "I meant your special talent. You know, like your Gifts."

She looked him in the eye, exuding confidence. "I'm an Almasy, and people really like to do what I tell them to."

[tory]

He let out a small laugh when she said that she didn't need a wing woman. She didn't seem the type that would need, she was pretty enough and now that he began talking to her, she was as confident as a woman should be. Confidence was always made good looking girls look better.

He shrugged slightly when she pegged him as shy. Maybe he was a little, but it was only because most time he thought he got the wrong kind of attention from females. He was a just a boy after all, though he couldn't blame it on being human, because that he surely wasn't.
So she was a verbal manipulator. Wasn't that much of a shocker considering the look on her lackeys face when she came over to say hi.

"Well lets just say, that I've got a thicker skin than most" he said with another casual shrug. Not alluding to the fact that he was a dragon, but he was giving her the benefit of the doubt. If she was smarter than the queen bee facade, then she would be able to figure it out.

Edit for epic coding phail

[jess]

Two possibilities from that: Dragon or resistant Gift. Either could be a definite chance, given the way Tory acted. Though most dragons weren't quite this socially awkward, last Jessica checked.

She frowned, trying to sort through it. "So, are you a dragon or something?"

Now she cocked an eyebrow, studying him with more evident interest. Dragons were something decidedly different, and therefore more intriguing then the plethora of admirers the half-fae garnished. Albeit, he didn't have the sheer force of personality that Kenneth Lorne had. And he was cute, but not incredibly hot. Enough for, say, one of Jessica's top BFs, but not Jessica herself. Still, teasing him would be a special treat. Did dragon's blush?

"Hmm..." Jessica reached out, pressing her fingers against his arm. The nails slightly dug into the flesh, and Jessica glanced down at them. "So, does that mean that scratches don't show or something?"

She tilted her head, looking up at Tory. "And that can't be all you can do, if you're a dragon. Don't they, like, breath fire?"

The lackey gasped in false fright.

"And eat maidens?"

A twitter from the lackey.

Not that Jessica had to worry about that last bit.

[tory]

He examined the streak that she had left on his arm from her nail. Sure there was the general light streak that occured when someone lightly scratched at an itch or something of the sort. Tory looked back to Jessica and smirked.

"Sure they show up, but it'll take a lot more than your finely manicured nails to do the trick" he said, the smirk still on his face. Usually he wouldn't be this 'suave' (or so he thought) right away but this girl was priceless in the way that she stroked his ego without being too much of a girly girl.

He let out a small chuckle at the comment of 'eating maidens'. He had never actually eaten a person and probably wouldn't until he would have to mate. But that didn't mean he couldn't tease about it.

"Nah, I've had my fill of maidens today so you're all safe" he said with a wink to the girl who suggested it. Suddenly, his face contorted into a look of discomfort and he held a hand to his mouth, covering it but making sure there was enough space. He then let out a cough and a small stream of fire came forth.

"Excuse me, had a little tickle in my throat" he said rubbing it. Sure, now he was beginning to show off, but he was male after all. What guy didn't like to do that once and a while. Now if the girls had cared enough to take note, they would see that his eyes got slightly more reptilian looking and his nails grew a little talon like in appearance.

[jess]

So, dragon-boy could actually play along? That gave him a few more points, though still not enough to warrant a passing grade. Simply not enough "name value" to poor Tory.

"Tough guy, huh?" Jessica smirked. Any doubt she'd had of Tory's being a Cavan had been erased by the speech. Though an Almasy could have given it just as well, he probably would have preened a good deal more.

"That's sooooo cooool," cooed the lackey.

Both girls jumped appropriately when Tory let loose a little flame. The lackey even let out a girlish squeal of surprise. Jessica just looked slightly startled.

"Wow, that's..." Jessica grinned, showing all her perfect white teeth, "hot."

Of course this made the toadie giggle uncontrollably. Great pun, after all.

"Nice eyes, lounge lizard," joked Jessica. She flicked a finger up at the eyes. A finger went to her lips as her eyes went to his slightly reptilian ones. "You're kinda dangerous, aren't you?"