Boredom. [Locke]

[Garion DeLuse]

Garion stared at the pack of cards he had borrowed, with an urge to throw them across the room. He had played every single player game known to man with them, but one can only play Spider Solitaire for so long without going mad. Garion eventually started orginanizing the cards according to suit, then making makeshift villages with them, complete with politics and communities.

The Queen of Diamonds was in the middle of an affair with the Ten of Spades, when he had given up. Garion didn't feel like going anywhere on Campus, all the house computers were taken up by other students, and even the small House Library was too crowded with people for Garion to get anywhere.

Garion wished for any intelligent human conversation, but no one approached him, and Garion couldn't muster the strength to go strike up a conversation.

Intead he contimplated Power Theory, one of his favourite learning feilds.

[Locke F. Herald]

Locke was walking, as usual with his nose in a book towards the door of the common room. He rarely spent time here anymore, preferring instead to find populated places to read, so if he grew tired of the book he could look up and start analyzing the people.

Years in the future he might learn to look where he was going, but that wasn't happening any time soon. He only looked up when he felt his foot run into something, and he looked down to see what he had just kicked. And he noticed a mess of playing cards all over the floor, and a child significantly younger then him sitting there, when did they start recruiting children this young?

"Uh, sorry about that." Locke said, bending down to collect the cards. "Wasn't watching where I was going."

[Garion DeLuse]

Garion was about to put the infuriating cards away, when a foot crashed through a pretty awesome card castle. He looked up to a boy with blue hair and..... cat ears?

"Oh no problem!" Garion grabbed fistfulls of cards, and semi-stacked them up into a semi-pile, not at all unhappy that his cards had been scattered. And he was desperate for human contact.

Garion stood up to his full height (or shortness), his trained eyes snapping immediatly to a book the boy had been carrying. It was thick, but Garion couldn't seem to find a title. Garion had been searching for a good book; he had already ran out from the supply he brought from home.

"Hey, what're you reading?" He asked the card-killer.

[Locke F. Herald]

At the question of what book Locke was reading Locke himself looked down at it. Well he could blow up this little boy's mind, or get him curious about knowledge, either ending was fine by him.

"It's a book on Electric Current Theory. It explains the differences between Volts, Watts and Ohms and how all three are used to determine the strength, current and wavelength of electricity as it flows. It's quite fascinating really, and it explains so much of how basic electrical devices function along with the principles of lightning and static shocks. You follow?"

Maybe he was just being mean to the poor kid, but there was no better way to judge someones ability.

[Garion DeLuse]

Either this guy had assumed Garion was in Edengrowth for a reason, or he was challenging him.

" I do, but I thought that the standard unit for the measure of electric current intensity was the ampere. A volt is the measure of electric potential difference or electromotive force (and so is used to measure how fast a current is), and Watts and Ohms are a measure of a rate of energy conversion and electrical resistance, respectively."

If the guy wanted to play, Garion was glad to join.

[Locke F. Herald]

Locke's eyebrows arched as the child spoke, finally a sharp one, but this child in blue never did like being shown up.

Ever.
"That is true." Locke said. "Just the basics, but I'm more looking into the electrical breaking point of objects, the points where the molecular bonds break down and turn the material into a gas. See if you can isolate the weakest bonds and overpower them first, you can break an object apart with a minimal amount of energy. A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link after all. So I'm trying to find a method for determining the electrical weak spot of copper first, start with the simple. Of course since copper is an oxidized metal if becomes quite easy to find bonds in it that can be easily broken down, leading to a simpler way to break it apart. It's the stronger metals like Iron and Steel that will be difficult."

All the intellectual talk, and they hadn't even exchanged names yet.

[Garion DeLuse]

Garion smiled, oblivious to the older kid's annoyance.

"Ah, see, now I never really did go in too deeply on the subject of Electrical Current Theory, and am sad to say I will have to check out the book. I knew about the electrical breaking point, of course, but I never really looked into it. I'm more interested in the topic of power theory, but I admit that electricity does spark my interest."

Garion absentmindedly kicked the forgotten mess of cards, not noting the unintended pun.

"I'm Garion, by the way. Telekenesis, Edengrowth."

[Locke F. Herald]

At the electric and spark joke Locke groaned. "Ugh you have my father's sense of humor." He shook his head with a grin. "I was just testing you really, getting a feel for how much you have in that skull. I'm Locke, Photographic Memory and Electric Manipulation." He said, making a small Tesla Coil with his index and middle finger.

"You're quite young, and without a mental gift it's odd to find such intelligent children. I bet you throw people for a loop for judging you on appearances all the time eh?"

He shook his head in disappointment. "It's a horribly ignorant world out there."

[Garion DeLuse]

Garion paused for a minute, trying to figure out why he had his father's sense of humor (Which was apparently horrible). He caught his own bad joke and groaned as well, but that turned into a small laugh.

Locke's acute summary of all nine years of his life was impressive. "You are completely right! That's amazing. Are you sure you aren't a telepath?"

"I thought Telekenesis was a mind gift. After all, it takes a certain amount of concentration and patience."

Garion laughed then sighed at Locke's final statement. "In more ways than one."

[Locke F. Herald]

"But by that logic." Locke said waving a figure. "Most gifts are mind gifts. Pyrokenesis is using your mind to move and control fire, matter alteration is using your mind to change the phase of an object, and speaking to animals is an alteration in the brain to understand speech...well ok maybe that last one was a bad example, but you get what I meant right?" He asked to the young boy.

"No no, not a telepath, I just know how to read people." Locke remarked. "Though you wouldn't be the first to think so, it's not uncommon.

Locke blew off Garion's last statement. "Bah, just ignore them. So you are new here, right? I wasn't aware the Academy catered to people so young."

[Garion DeLuse]

Garion tiltied his head. This was a new idea to consider. "I suppose... but Pyrokenisis and Matter alteration both are working with matter... I mean, telekenisis doesn't work because of any special connection between the user and the object, like Pyrokenisis and fire. I would think it to be the ability to exert force and pressure through the use of your mind... although it is a raging debate, from what I've researched."

Garion examined the older boy carefully, wondering if he could try and read Locke by judging his tone of voice and mannerisms.

"The Academy usually doesnt... I was completely blown off at first because I was in a lower grade than the acceptance grade. I guess my power developed at an unusually young age, so it was starting to get out of control. I would... hurt people unintntionally when I was angry... minor cases. All it got me was a stern lecture on attention grabbing and anger management."

Garion shrugged.

"They wouldn't listen to me, so I took a few tests and advanced a few grades."

"I thought it was tough being smart in a normal world; it must've been torture to you to be supernaturally smart in a normal world."

[Locke F. Herald]

"No better way to get someones attention then to cause trouble I suppose." Locke said tilting his head thoughtfully. "Psh, being smart? Please, that would require people to look past what they can see, no I never had to worry about people giving me problems for being smart. They had enough ammo. Besides, I'm not really a people person." Locke added, smirking to Garion. "People, as a rule of thumb, are very rarely worth the time to talk to. Out of the hundreds of people here, I've found barely a handful worth having a civilized conversation with."

He shrugged with that arrogant grin on his face. "Why waste time talking to people when they just aren't on your level after all?"

[Garion DeLuse]

Garion's little attempt at a psychoanalysis wasn't very successful. Locke seemed a tad arrogant, but that much was obvious. Despite that, Garion decided he liked Locke.

Garion didn't catch what Locke was referring to for a split second, then realized he had all but forgotten the cat ears.

"I know exactly what you're talking about. I can't decide which is worse, people who instinctively hate me or people who wish to 'Pinch my widdle chubby cheeks!'. Even over here, where we have Faeries flying around and people lighting candles with a snap of their fingers..."

"If it isn't terribly rude to ask, why do you have the.. um... you know..."

[Locke F. Herald]

"And I." Locke followed up with. "Can't decide if I hate it more when people cross the hallway to avoid me or throw balls of yarn at me." He added scowling. "You'd think, with all the different races and appearances here, people would be used to it, but nooooo. One odd looking person, and everything goes to hell."

Locke was a little annoyed that Garion asked about the ears, but he was still rational enough to understand that he himself brought up the topic, so it was only his fault.

"It's...a genetic hiccup." Locke said quite plainly. "They are as normal to me as your hair is to you, not a curse, an illusion or anything else. It's like someone asking you why you have blond hair. You just do, it's genetic. Mine just happens to be a little odder then blond hair."

That and his hair color was odd too, tch what luck on his part. Two oddly freaky things at once.

[Garion DeLuse]

Balls of yarn? That's a little harsh. At least no one threw tinker toys at him or anything.

Garion nodded curtly, noticing Locke's slightly acid tone. It was obviously a delicate topic, and Garion let it drop without another word. Locke clearly had been asked if it was a curse or illusion.

Then, Garion realized something. If Locke had a super overactive memory, then would he remember every comment, insult, look, or otherwise rude or hurtful thing? Garion shuddered to think about what would happen if he couldn't block out memories. If every spiteful glance at him was as clear in his mind as if it was happening constantly. Garion realized the full brunt of pain Locke could be feeling, and hoped it wasn't true.

"Hey, are you able to block out memories? Or do you remember everything all the time?"