damn'd Memories (Open. Frick's room)

[Silver]

"Oh crap-!" The rest of Frick's curse was cut short as his tripped and fell face first into the corner of his dresser. He swore this time more colourfully and rubbed his head, annoyed to find blood lingering on his fingers. "If its not my horns, its something else." He sighed and opened one of the drawers, fishing around for something to stop the bleeding for the moment.

As he rumaged he came across a small velvet box which cause his search to pause. He reached for it and opened the item on its hinges. Embedded in the cushion was a small silver ring decorated with three solitare cut diamonds. The ring was to small for any of his fingers. It would fit a woman's hand perfectly though.

"Huh." Frick closed the box and tossed it to one side. "Don't even know why I brought that thing with me." He continued to rumage and stumbled upon some bandage he had used before to cover a burn. He slammed the drawer closed, ignoring the box and continuing along to nurse the cut on his head.

"damn thing belongs in the past." He dabbed at the cut, unsurprised to find that it didn't bleed too much. He could just leave it after the bleeding had stopped and it would heal on its own. He was tempted to find Nimah and request her to heal it.... but it was a tiny cut - it hardly seemed worth the trouble he would have to go to to find the flighty Angel.

Flopping back in a chair he rumbled quietly in his throat, reaching for a book. He noted the door was open. He could have got up to close it, but that would take effort, and he currently felt deflated, and couldn't be bothered. Besides, with the door open there was the chance someone would come along.

(Ai - I figure if we just copy and paste our replies from the other site, and then continue from there?)

[Ai]

Sharpe was reading in his quarters when he heard some very colorful swear words coming from across the hall. The man sighed and grumbled something unintelligbly under his breath. Tossing down the latest journal from the American Chemical Society - they had an interesting article on the latest biochemical effects of a drug test he had been following - he pushed himself up and paced out of the room, limping slightly.

He proceeded across the hall and down a few rooms until he came to an open door. Inside, the room was a mess and a warlock was sitting in a high-backed chair, slumped down with a book and obviously upset about something. Sharpe needed none of his psychic skills to tell him that much; after remembering how much Frick had been shaken up by the previous uses of telepathy, Sharpe made a quick mental note to himself not to use it unless necessary.

With a wave of his hand, Sharpe closed the book that the warlock had been holding. Standing back near the doorway, the physics professor arched an eyebrow.

"Your... creatively colorful expressions could be heard across the dormitories," his voice drawled slightly. "No other teacher here would speak as you have spoken." There was a short pause as Sharpe's dark eyes glanced around the room. With a few waves of his hand, objects flew around and the second chair hidden beneath a few clothes and magazines was cleared off. Sharpe sat down and leaned forward.

"Either you should talk to the counselor and she could help you sort this out so you will not be shouting so all can hear or you should calm down and sort out whatever you have been ranting on about." Sharpe could have cursed at this moment; his ears pricked back and the corner of his mouth twitched. To put it bluntly, he was annoyed with himself for promising not to use telepathy. But a promise was a promise, even if it was only to yourself.

"Harris," Sharpe's voice was deadly serious. "I shall not pry at the moment, but you should really calm down before anger takes control of your powers and you light the building on fire." Sharpe had learned this lesson the hard way. By toying with another person's mind, he had made an enemy for life and this enemy had the one power to make him absolutely miserable and utterly incapacitated. "Honestly, Frick."

((That sounds good to me!))

[Silver]

"Hey!" Frick snapped as the book he hadn't been reading closed of it's own accord. He didn't need to look to tell who was responsible for closing the item. But he looked anyway. Sharpe was viewing him with an arched eyebrow, and Frick suddenly felt like he was three-years-old again and had been caught burning pictures into the wall by his mother.

"Trust me, I could have said a lot worse than that." Frick commented darkly, running his fingers over his temple, rubbing the places his horns should have been. He missed them right now. At this point in time, he would have rubbed them or scratched them for comfort - a trait from his boyhood.

He was tempted to laugh as Sharpe addressed him, taking on a typically authoritive role - which was suitable for this situation. After all, he was a fair few years Frick's senior. Instead of laughing, he simply half-smiled and put the book to one side as Sharpe telepathically movedd a few bits and pieces to get him somewhere to sit. Frick glanced at the disgarded clothes as they travelled in front of him. He really should do some washing at some point.

"I don't need to talk to a freakin' counciller." Frick snapped again, narrowing his eyes slightly. He didn't often get angry, and he wasn't angry at Sharpe specifically. Finding the stupid ring had shaken him somewhat, and now he felt out of sorts. He sighed and rose to his feet, running his hands over his face and back through his hair as he paced for a few moments, trying to calm himself down. Sharpe was right, he didn't want to set fire to anything... or anyone right now, so he had to calm down, or he'd risk losing control of his powers. He fingered the black collar around his neck and cleared his throat, inhaling deeply.

He continued to breathe slowly, long after Sharpe had addressed him. He couldn't say he was calmer, but at least he felt a little better.

"Sorry." He muttered, dropping his head a little, his back still facing Sharpe. "I just... I hate this time of the year. My horns have fallen off. My powers go haywire and I get swamped with things I really don't want to remember." Returning his hands to their more comfortable place of his pockets, he turned back to Sharpe. "Thanks for not prying. I know you can, without meaning to... I have some skeletons which are best locked in their cupboard," he smiled vaguely, "y'know?"

Going to his desk, he fished a new packeet of ciggerettes out of the drawer and placed one to his lips. He offered the box to Sharpe, unsure whether he'd clarified whether the physics teacher smoked or not. "You want?"

[Ai]

Sharpe nodded quietly, keeping his eyes slightly off of Frick's. If his nearly black eyes locked onto Frick's brown ones, there would be little he could do to prevent himself from glancing into the warlock's thoughts. Even if it was only slight, he still did not want to chance it happening at the moment.

If there was ever a moment before that he resent being telepathic, he knew it would have been severely dwarfed by this one. The scientist inside of him was curious to know whether Frick's horns fell off every year at the same time and whether or not the bad feelings were directly correllated. The human side of him told him he should wait for Frick to explain.

"Aye," Sharpe's voice was low, but he nodded. By the way Frick had acted and the thoughts he had picked up before entering the room, the physicist had gathered enough information to hypothesize that Frick was speaking of something relating to love. Sharpe had only been briefly in love once, but that had been many years ago; the girl had not returned his affections. "Many things are best locked away so that others will never know."

Upon Frick offering the cigarrettes to him, Sharpe's face paled slightly. His vices included neither smoking nor drinking. He had sworn off alcohol after seeing what it had done to various people - and he couldn't drink it - and smoking, well, he did not particularly care for the taste of smoke - cigarette or otherwise.

"No thank you," he replied. "I won't try to stop you from doing so, but I shall be using whatever powers I have in my arsenal to keep it from entering my lungs." Sharpe smirked slightly and shifted to a more comfortable position in the wooden chair. "My health already causes its own share of problems." There was a slight twinkle in his eyes; it would be difficult to tell whether he was being serious or not, but there was a certain gravity to his voice that betrayed his facial expressions.

If Frick lit up, Sharpe reasoned that he could probably use the telekinetic powers he had to keep the smoke away from him. Even though his powers were usually more effective with objects that were comprised primarily of solid - and sometimes liquid - matter, he had been developing his powers more over the summer and he figured he would have some amount of control over certain gasses. Especially if he could see them.

"Are you concerned about the school board?" By this time, Sharpe had stopped smirking and the dark haired man folded his hands in his lap.

[Silver]

The paling complexion of Sharpe's face was something that surprised Frick. He didn't think the other teacher's pall could become any paler, but apparently he had an infinate capacity to surprise. As he refused the cigarette he offered, Frick removed his own and put it back in the box.

"I don't like smoking if other people doing like it. Besides, I wouldn't want you to make any effort." He put the box back in the drawer and closed it. "I can live without. ... In fact, I really should stop. One of my worst vices." He grinned a slightly lop-sided smile and leaned on the counter.

He didn't press about Sharpe's body causing him problems. Not because he wasn't curious, but because he had a sneaking suspicion he wouldn't let slip any information concerning his own problems, physical or otherwise. After Sharpe asked about the school board, Frick pondered his inquiry for a few moments. Was he worried? Yes... and no. He had a few reservations, as to the school board. After all, they could shut the school down. But why would they? Nothing awful had occoured. In fact nothing had occoured. Things were going fairly well for the school at the moment. For now meta attacks and human attacks were a world away from the students. Something Frick was sure not only he was pleased about.

"I guess." He said finally. "But we all are in a way - I think it would be a kind of bravado if someone said they weren't concerned. I just hope they don't stay long. The atmosphere is iffy enough without all the suits making their rounds." He smiled briefly, "but they're not gonna be here for a long while yet. After all, we haven't blown anything up yet, so they don't have any reason to come."

((Editted somewhat as school board aren't actually coming to Kosaka yet.))

[Ai]

Sharpe nodded. "I doubt some of the newer teachers are aware of the implications of the schoolboard visiting," he answered after a long moment of silence. He glanced briefly around the room and sighed again. "And a decent portion of the younger students are not aware." The last time he asked, none of the students below high school level knew that the school board was coming. For this, Sharpe was grateful; he could hardly imagine having to deal with the faculty, the older students and the younger students all knowing.

Like usual, Sharpe was not voicing all of his concerns aloud. "Did you read the briefing Nimah sent out about the board and its members?" The folded piece of paper was still sitting in Sharpe's pocket, no doubt wrinkled from anxiety by this point. He held relatively little concern over most of the school board's members, but there were a few who struck his concern, particularly a Gloria Conway, and of course, Tetsuya Takahashi. But there would be little he could do to ease his anxiety over the latter of the two aforementioned boardmembers.

Absently, he reached his fingers up to his right temple and let out a sigh. With his other hand - his head was bothering him too much to use telekinesis right then - he reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple of chocolates. He held one out to Frick. "Chocolate is one of my vices." There was a slight smirk on his face, but his hand was still touching the side of his head.

((I'm assuming Gloria's still on the schoolboard, as is Tetsuya Takahashi. Edited for continuity with current plotline and characters. And we're back to where we left off... so hoorah!))

[Silver]

Frick listened, taking the seat at his desk, turning it so he faced Sharpe. He was rather grateful the other teacher had appeared. His mood had been fairly bad before; and having Sharpe around meant he wasn't thinking negatively - which was was prone to do when in such an unproductive mood.

"I skimmed it." Frick said reaching behind him for the booklet which detailed most of the school board members. It was fairly indepth - Frick doubted Nimah had done this on her own, it was far to professional and detailed. but he wasn't about to call her up on it. "But I haven't had time to read it fully." He paused, noticing how Sharpe sighed and lifted his hand to his head as if to soothe.

He grew a little concerned. He wondered why the older teacher didn't try and find a remedy for the headpain. He was willing to bet Nimah could quell it, if only temporarily. Maybe he had tried and there wasn't one. Noting the chocolates Sharpe held out, Frick smiled a little but declined. "Thanks, but I'm not really in the mood for anything sweet right now."

Leaning back in his chair, Frick opened the brief and started skimming again. Most of the board members from what he could see were men, middle-aged, human and rich. Two were women. One, looked in her late fifties and the other was fairly young. Probably around his own age. She looked rather out of place in the booklet.

"If the board come, we just have to be on our best behaviour." Frick stated, "the students, at least the younger ones, wouldn't need to be told. It would put them on edge and they'd just be more prone to using their powers without meaning to. Tell the older ones, especially the ones with... attitude problems," Frick paused, naming several in his head, "and maybe warn a couple of the faculty members - Raiden for example - to be on their guard and to be as polite as possible..." Pausing again Frick paused, "I don't see why we're speculating, there isn't a visit arranged yet - unless there's something you've been told that I missed?"

[Ai]

Sharpe nodded almost absently when Frick mentioned the brochure Nimah had sent out. Though it had been her idea to allow the faculty members to become acquainted with the work of the members of the school board, Sharpe had done much of the research, preferring to spend hours learning bits of information he could someday use to his advantage. He'd gotten one of the college-aged students to assist him with the research; McAllistair was able to work through pages of computer files much quicker than he was.

Of course, there were a few things he requested that Nimah not include in the brochure and he insisted upon gathering the information on Tetsuya Takahashi himself. It was one thing if the Headmistress figured out Takahashi's background and put two and two together, but it was another thing if every member on the staff knew what had happened. Like his myriad of health problems, he preferred to keep his history a secret from other people. Sure, some of the staff members knew he had worked on an ethics project in the past, but few knew what the extent of his project entailled or with whom he worked.

Sharpe's long fingers pressed against the side of his head and he could have cursed himself out for not having tighter control over his telepathy. The more tired he got or the more his head hurt, the harder time he had blocking out thoughts from entering his mind and he even picked up on Frick's concern subconsciously. He could do little to quell the headache and he was not likely to ask Nimah for help; he had refused to ask anyone for help concerning personal matters unless he was in dire need. Since he had only briefly glossed over the details of his health - and they were locked away in a sealed envelope in Nimah's office - it seemed illogical to him to ask for her to help him.

"There..." Sharpe closed his eyes. Right now, he had to fight in order to keep his mind from wandering or losing control of his telepathy. "No, we are merely speculating as of right now." He did not voice his concerns for what might happen when the board came to visit; if Nimah knew when it was happening, she had not disclosed that information to any of the faculty members yet, not even him. His left hand dropped towards the brochure that Frick was holding. "There is something that was left out of the information here." He had deliberately asked Nimah to leave it out; there was no reason why the entire faculty and some of the students - should know that Takahashi was a meta-human. After all, he had worked to keep this fact hidden from Septimus McAllistair; Sharpe wasn't entirely sure whether or not his efforts were successful because using telepathy on someone with a computer chip implanted into his brain was different than doing so on a human or meta-human.

"One of the board members, Tetsuya Takahashi, is a meta-human." Sharpe's voice was flat, but he was struggling for control and the slightest bit of strain showed mainly in his eyes. "If he comes, we shall need to insist that the students be on their best behavior." There was an unspoken look that Sharpe gave to the warlock that said something along the lines of and I shall need industrial strength medicine.

[Silver]

Frick leaned back in his chair and simply listened as Sharpe rather gravely pointed out a few details about one of the board members. Frick wondered if there was any history between the two of them, considering the change in Sharpe's tone he was willing to stake his life on 'yes'. But didn't ask, as he was fairly confident Sharpe wouldn't disclose any information.

As a teacher, Sharpe seemed a little out of place. He was probably the oldest teacher at Kosaka, at least with a natural age. He was excellent at his craft there was no doubt about that, and he had an unbridled respect from everyone, students and teachers alike, the second he walked into a room. However, he still seemed out of place. He never really seemed to want to socialise with the other teachers. For one reason or another. Frick thought it might be an age thing, but it couldn't have been that bad. He probably just had a lot of skeletons in the cupboard - that didn't need to come out, no matter what.

"A meta?" Frick repeated, "I guess it makes sense for them to have at least one meta on the board, they are funding a school for them, after all." Frick said, rather nonchalantly.

"If a visit does go a head," Frick continued, emphasising the 'if' of his statement, "its more than likely the head of the board will come, one of the women, to make sure there's no discrimination, the meta-human member... and whomever else has the most money invested in this place."

Templing his fingers, Frick sighed quietly. He was willing to bet the backers if they visited, would expect some big celebration, and a lot of grateful grovelling from the school for their input. Frick would not be one to bow to money - no matter how much they had put into the school, as far as he was concerned the metas had nothing to be grateful for when it came to humans. So far the school have proved to be a safe haven, and that was great, but it could only house a limited amount of students. Hate crimes were still going on outside the picturesque little island. If these backers had so much money, Frick reasoned they could do more with it to help other meta humans that weren't in such suited situations.

[Ai]

When Frick inquired about Takahashi being a meta-human, Sharpe merely raised an eyebrow. "None of the students need to know that and some of the younger teachers do not need to either." In specific, he was talking of Aislynn Celeste, Miss Lehane and a few of the other teachers who had proved less than competent in his mind. Nimah already knew the full extent of what had happened and Sharpe was intending to tell Adela and quite possibly Raiden as well. "Nimah already knows and I intend to tell Adela."

Based on what Sharpe had observed, Adela had connected with some of the students and she was rather easy to talk with. Frick was similar; his personality allowed him to be spoken to without any feelings of being too guarded. The older teacher sat back and listened to Frick's comments about the schoolboard. Because his telepathic sense wasn't completely blocked, he picked up a few extra thoughts from the chemistry teacher. He closed his eyes for a moment and frowned in an attempt to suppress them, but that did little good.

"Perhaps we should arrange a tour for the school board around the entire island." As soon as he said that, Sharpe could have shot himself in the foot. He had inadvertently picked up on some of Frick's stray thoughts and actually reacted to what had been thought rather than what the warlock had spoken aloud. This was not what he needed at the moment. So much for his promise about not using telepathy. "Hell." Sharpe swore aloud.

[Silver]

"Why tell Adela?" Frick inquired, arching an eyebrow when Sharpe mentioned it. He could understand why he would tell Nimah - you kind of had give her your life history, so she saw you ligitamet. But Adela - Frick hadn't spoken with her much, but she didn't seem that important. However, if Sharpe had his reasons, Frick wasn't going to push. "In fact, never mind. Not my business." He waved his hands in a 'forget I asked' fashion and sat back in his chair.

Sharpe went silent, and Frick could see his face straining under some kind of effort. Frick had never been especiallt great at reading people. He looked like he was in pain. Thinking about asking if the older teacher wanted anything, Sharpe made a suggestion, Frick had been musing. He arched an eyebrow.

"Are you having issues with your powers there?" Frick asked, templing his fingers. "You should seriously get that checked out. You wouldn't want to read anyone's thoughts by accident and get something you didn't want to hear." He suggested standing up. He crossed his room to a sink on the far wall. Frick grabbed a tumbler from nearby and filled it with cold water. He then crossed to Sharpe and held the glass out to him. "Here, maybe it'll help."

[Ai]

"I only mean to tell her that Takahashi is a meta-human, not what happened and only Nimah knows what actually passed." Sharpe's voice returned to its normal low, even tone. In actuality, even Nimah didn't know everything that had happened between Sharpe and Tetsuya unless she had a way to read his mind without him knowing. "Part-time and junior staff members do not know and I do not intend to tell them." If Nimah wanted to tell the younger teachers what she knew about Takahashi, so be it. He would do little to stop her.

Sharpe was quiet as a few moments passed and he spent them watching Frick. He knew the younger teacher had never been very attentive and as he rubbed a long finger along his temple right underneath where the frames of his glasses were located, he picked up a few more unguarded thoughts from the warlock. It was mostly related to general concern about classes and about things Sharpe could honestly care less.

As Frick handed him the mug of water, Sharpe accepted it. However, he did not drink any and instead wrapped both his hands tightly around the cup. Mentioning he should get his powers checked out was ridiculous right now; Sharpe was unsure if anyone was qualified to meddle with another person's head like that. Based on the fact his body temperature was within normal range, this power was not malfunctioning... no, it was just his telepathy, the one that posed the most danger to other people and ultimately to himself.

"I highly doubt anyone is qualified to heal another person's powers or meddle within the depths of another's mind as such." There was the slightest of a cold edge to Sharpe's characteristically quiet voice. Experience had taught him that the most effective way to repair a malfunctioning sense of telepathy was to go deep into the other person's mind. Not only was it intrusive for both parties, but utterly exhausting and time-consuming as well. "But thank you anyways." He looked over at Frick, but avoided making eye contact. It would have been nearly impossible to resist telepathy if eye contact was made at this point. His right hand let go of the mug of water and reached into his pocket, pulling out a wooden chess piece.

[Silver]

Sharpe took the tumbled from Frick. He didn't drink anything, but Frick didn't care, particularly. He had given him something that he hoped would help with his apparent headache. Whether Sharpe actually decided to leap on this and try to quell it was his business. Frick wasn't exactly in the habit of being a good samaritan.

To his words and thanks, Frick simply shrugged and returned to his chair. "You're welcome." His response was fairly non-commital and blazé in return. He leaned back comfortably in his seat and crossed his legs, leaving them out stretched in front of him.

They sat in a fairly silent reviere for a few minutes. Sharpe grasping his tumbler of water, Frick, sitting, arms resting on the arms of his chair, trying not to think back to the ring and the past. That stupid ring had put him in a bad mood. And while Sharpe was okay, Frick didn't feel like he was very good company. Or that he was really in the mood for company. Not any more at least.

He noticed the older professor taking out a chess piece. He arched a brow, but lowered it again. Maybe he had a thing for Adela. She was kind of willowy, from what Frick knew of her, which was extremely limited information. He hadn't gone out of his way to get to know many of the other teachers. None of them seemed his ideal cup of tea, though really, the only person who Frcik could really see himself striking any kind of friendship up with was Raiden. That would have been fine, if Raiden wasn't completely hardassed.

A few of the female faculty members were nice too. Nimah was totally off limits as an Angel, and also as head mistress. But there was Aislynn, who seemed pretty cute and fun, and Honey. Frick couldn't help but like her. She was kind of mindless sometimes, but in a good way. And her demenor was quite endearing. Of course, she was another faculty member Frick hadn't bothered to get to know, but she seemed to have more in common with him than most other faculty members.

He shifted and sighed, "so like..." he began, not wanting to seem rude, but finding that what he was about to say would come across that way, no matter how he worded it, "what did you want, anyway?"

[Ai]

((OOC: Sorry for not getting back to you sooner...))

Despite what Frick thought, Sharpe had no romantic notions for any of the other people on Kosaka Island. The one person who still held the key to his icy heart had since high school and she had blatantly rejected him. Of course, both Adela and Nimah were fair company to keep and many times Sharpe had met the former for a game of chess. As he pressed the tip of his index finger up against the king hard enough to make an imprint in his hand, he sighed.

It was starting to get a little late in the morning; in another hour, it would be time to head down to the cafeteria to grab something for lunch. The physics professor let go of the chess piece, closed his eyes for a long moment and levitated it across the room and back into his hand.

Thankfully for him, Frick broke the awkward silence that had built up. “Whether you wish to believe this or not, I originally came over here to see if you were going to burn down the building or not,” Sharpe answered, hardly looking up at the other faculty member. Thought it was evident he was still feeling a bit ill, the sarcastic tone had re-entered his voice.

[Silver]

((No worries. ^^ Life happens.))

Sharpe's reply made Frick. Burn down the school? Now that wouldn't have been a bad idea. But it wasn't the school that Frick was angry at.

"Nah." He replied after a few moments of speculation on the idea. "The school's safe." He looked back to Sharpe and shrugged. "Its not the school that's bothering me. Its other stuff. Life stuff." He shrugged awkwardly, and sat up in his chair.

He remained sitting upright for a few moments, before lifting himself out of his chair and crossing the room again. He felt unable to settle and moving seemed the only logical thing to do. That or fall asleep. And he couldn't really fall asleep with someone else in the room. Wasn't the done thing. And would have just been rude.

Frick crossed the room to the small kitchette all the faculty member's rooms were fitted with. Nothing immense. Just a sink, cupboard and kettle. He filled the kettle from the tap, and then set it to boil, taking out a large mug and dropping in a tea bag.

"Considering you haven't touched the water, I'll take a wild guess that you won't want any tea or coffee?" Frick said, speaking to Sharpe as he leaned agains the cupboard.

Tea would be good. It would settle him for a little while, it always did. Made him feel a little less tender, and calmer. Helped to clear his head. Then maybe he'd be better conversation and company. He wasn't sure if this would be so, but was pinning some hope on it at the moment, as he didn't really want to have to hint at Sharpe to leave. He was never the most subtle creature.