A Star Wars Nerd
Comrade Minzhe watches the students break into groups. As soon as most of them seem to be in one or the other, he directs the students standing by the stairs to start running laps around the yard and those in front of him to begin a routine of pushups and situps. For once, he doesn't seem to be making that much of an effort to curb chatter, though he does shoot stern looks at the louder ones.
Ruth finished her coffee, tossed it to the ground, and obediently started doing pushups. "Yeah, gotta stay in shape to mash on all these scrub kids and mack on all the hot ones."
She eyed the other students eagerly, trying to pick out the ones who were in shape like her from the weaker ones, then divide the weak into other categories. The actual fat kids, she figured, would be okay, but the whip-skinny kids who were out of shape would be the most dangerous. They were vain enough to care about their appearances but were also above Jock Things like getting in shape. Even from this distance she could pick out some fuckface with a fedora and a trencher. She could totally fight him. There was Kasparas again, still really damn fit, too; she'd have to get back to him later.
"Thanks, Alena." whispered Erika before she began running.
Running, just like any other form of physical exercise, put Erika in a trance-like condition and after a while all she was aware of was the soles of her feet hitting the ground. After what the boy in the fedora said to Alena she began to really dislike him and all the negative energy it gave her, she pushed into the ground with every step.
She had just barely escaped a tricky situation. Alena clearly became worn out when she healed someone, and yet she used her power for what was nothing, really. Erika contemplated whether she should tell this to Alena and quickly came to an answer. Yes. She worried about her, clearly nothing less than the truth would suffice.
someone
Alena smiled at Erika in response, completely zoning out what Noah had said. After taking a moment, she began to jog around the yard, fairly slowly in comparison to those in good shape for running, but, for her, a decent pace.
[TOP SECRET]
Hot-blooded Catholic Space Nazi
Noah was particularly happy with the exercise assigned to him, so he hit the ground and started running laps around the yard. The serious look the instructor gave him made him silent, so he was not about to complain in the meantime. First impressions were important when meeting just about anybody, and Noah usually botched them up. He had to make the teachers an exception though if he didn't want to end up in a bodybag. Who knew what happened to students that fell out of favor?
I'll probably not get along with the students, Noah thought to himself, he was considering becoming a lone wolf that wandered the corridors of Iron City. It was not any different from his previous life, and a solitary creature like him was suited to lone periods of loneliness. It was for the best, since people typically banded together to fend off the social outcast.
He even kept the people closest to him at a distance, and treated them like acquaintances rather than as friends. He doesn't even remember their names sometimes. Suspicion and mistrust was his world, and few succeeded in dragging him out of it.
Notwithstanding his anti-social behavior, he could also remain truly loyal to people that can awaken a desire for self-sacrifice in him or those who have met with him so often and interacted with him so lovingly that he shakes off the doubts deep in his heart. Ultimately, he was just human and one as cold and indifferent as Noah could still find the opportunity for affection.
There was the danger of annoying someone so much that they would pick a fight with him. If so, then he wouldn't stand a chance at all against a goliath and the stronger kids, in these cases he just packed up his things and ran like hell. But he stood on somewhat firm ground with the normal children who had average physical fitness. The problem was that Noah didn't even know what power he had, so he was still at a disadvantage when fighting against any student.
Noah never initiated the punches in a fight, and is often caught off guard when someone makes the first strike. But he always said something out of turn that spurred the attacker to assault Noah with a cold fury that could only be satisfied by beating the fuck out of him.
Yet the obnoxious young boy wearing a trench coat and an impressive fedora was potentially dangerous. It was not because that he had fighting spirit, for he held almost no determination, but it was because he had no concept of holding back. Yes, he was weak, but he was not to be underestimated for he had been in fights before.
Another reason why one should not start a conflict with him was that Noah would often perform ambushes on his enemy by flinging rocks from afar and running away only to throw rocks again. Then there was the threat of triggering a vendetta with a reality warper that had great potential to cause significant harm to everyone as much as he could help them.
Unlike Ruth's assumption of Noah being vain of his appearance, he was not especially concerned with his looks. In fact, when one looks at him closely he comes off as a bit rough and mucky as there are stains of dirt on his clothes. He does not want to improve or damage his appearance, preferring to stick with the status quo. What Ruth was right about was that he was so self-conceited that he can become insensitive to other's needs. Not all hope was lost, for he was still young after all.
edited 8th Jun '16 3:55:34 AM by Victor_Skye
"In the grim darkness of the future, there is only war."
Spartak took off running with the others, for the moment choosing to remain focused on the task at hand, lest he invoke Minzhe's ire at being overly talkative.
"If you hate it so much, then run away," Anna told Noah. "Way, way away from here. I'm sure that will work out for you."
The morning drill was disappointingly normal. Anna took off her coat entirely, stripping down to a slightly tattered jacket underneath that was more suitable for running. With a few warm-up stretches of her arms and legs, Anna set off down the track at a brisk pace.
Anna realized she'd gotten a bit fitter over the last few years. She wasn't fast, by any means, but she certainly remembered not having this much stamina before gaining her aberration. Was it all the traversal practice figuring out ways Stonewall could be used to overcome obstacles while on the run? Or just the extra work she had to do once her father left?
Anna lapped the yard with a very indiscernible smile, her breaths still clouding in the cold air. She kept going without missing a beat.
Hot-blooded Catholic Space Nazi
"Oh, you can try," Noah said while running, "But they're likely to send an entire army just to look for you. What's more is that you're going to expend more energy running away from them, starving from lack of food, shivering out in the cold at night, and not to mention the thirst which would make it a daunting prospect at best."
After an ominous silence, he spoke again, "In short, it won't work out for me."
"In the grim darkness of the future, there is only war."
A Star Wars Nerd
After enough laps around the courtyard that the least fit kids look like they're about to drop, Minzhe shouts for everyone to stop and switch exercises, ignoring the groaning that ensues from some of the newer students near him.
Mike Jones
Kasparas nodded, and started running. This was easy for him. He was generally in very good shape, and his legs were especially strong. He was glad he had bundled up too, though he hadn't predicted they'd have to do exercises immediately. He'd hoped they'd have at least gotten a chance to put their luggage away. Ah well.
Kasparas didn't know what sort of exercises they would have, so he was careful to pace himself. He wasn't going extremely fast, but he still got a good time. He fell into place next to Noah and across from Anna.
"Yes, but that just means that you may as well try to enjoy yourself. If you get nice muscles you can use them to pick up babes, you know." He said. He leaned to the side so he could look at Anna.
"Like, you like dudes who are in good shape, right?" He asked, just as Minzhe told them to switch. He took his time shrugging off his jacket and heading over to the group doing push-ups. Underneath, he had nicely built arms. They had to be, since a lot of ballets required him to lift people. He dropped to the ground and began to do push ups. He did a fair amount while training. The exercises weren't easy, but he found them manageable.
Hot-blooded Catholic Space Nazi
Noah had heard what Kasparas said, and tried to shrug the enthusiasm off, "Women require too much time and money. I neither have the time or the money to ever be in a relationship, and strength alone does not open doors to love. Perhaps it opens doors to adolescent infatuation, but not love. I have no patience for such foolishness. I shall not indulge in such infatuations. They are damaging to the moral character of all young persons!" He said this in a fit of passion to the pretty boy.
The instructor shouted at them to switch exercises, and there was a visible look of horror on Noah's face as he hit the ground, carrying the full weight of his body with his scrawny arms. He was far from heavy, but far from being too light. This could be a problem. The boy was spooked, intimidated by the demon of exercise, so he hesitated for a few moments before pushing himself to the ground. He winced with each pushup completed, propping himself up and down the ground with herculean effort.
He did about 20 pushups before collapsing due to exhaustion. By the time Noah reached his last pushup, he was sweating like a surging waterfall. As he lay facedown the ground, he turned his body back against the ground to face the sky above.
Noah's Imagination Theme 1 - Inside the Cloudcuckoolander's Head
It was a beautiful day, a huge field of blue almost monopolized the dazzling color of the sky; this was joined by a collection of small white dots of clouds with the sun majestically placed high above, warming up the chilly temperature of Russia.
For now, the wind whooshed in and out every now and then to give the students a whiff of cold air to relieve them of their demanding workout.
"Air.... heavy..." Noah hoped nature's breeze would give him the second wind he needed to continue the exercise, but he was thoroughly exhausted to the point that he couldn't move another muscle if he wanted to.
"I hate being human," Noah said wistfully, "I wish I was an angel so I could fly away and bury my head in the clouds. But now I'm here, running around and doing hard physical labor to fight the wars of old people." Such was his description of exercise, the toil was endless and the rewards too little.
On many occasions, he would stop anything he was doing even if it was important to just freeze life for one second to contemplate it. In this period of period of reflection, the entire universe would not be so big anymore, since it was all in his head.
Life would not be hard, because he knew that his suffering could not even be compared to the grand scheme of things. His work ethic took a hard blow to the nuts, but during these times he could forsake his pretentious apathy and could truly give justice to his feelings through his criticism and praise of the hidden things in the living world of his imagination. In short, he was addicted to his own thoughts like one is addicted to drugs. He craves his thoughts, and sometimes his thoughts consume him in turn. In this world of imagination, he could turn into an intellectual beauty as much as he could be an intellectual monster.
At the same time, in order not to vilify a human character such as Noah who has his flaws as well as his redeeming qualities, his love for his thoughts must be described in a compassionate way.
"I wish I was like the air, alive and free. Sometimes, we think the environment around us is dead. We seriously need to rework our philosophy. The environment is not dead. The environment is alive. The air we breathe invigorates us. The sky we see decorates the atmosphere with its splendid color of blue. The sun warms and scorches corners of the Earth to give it everlasting heat. Everything has a characteristic that makes it alive. We seem to mistake life with intelligence. That is the greatest mistake that we can ever make, because if we mistake life with intelligence, we think that the world around us is dead. And when we convince ourselves that the world around us is dead, that's when we begin to die inside. The world is much more than just intelligence, it has a romance of its own."
He spoke these words, and these words vanished into thin air. It may seem temporal, but Noah marks these moments in the everlasting realm of eternity. What happens now does not pass away, instead it is ingrained in the memory of eternity, which is beyond the memories of men. What has already happened cannot be undone, Noah was satisfied by this fact alone.
You may think that Noah is such a hypocrite for preaching such high-minded thoughts while being a hateful person, but when he stops to think, he stops being Noah, instead he becomes a critic of the universe that comments on the state of its affairs. It is not vanity, but rather it is a separation from the self. He unchains himself from his attributes. A human being can be readily identified by his intelligence, appearance, and other distinct qualities. In breaking from these, he loses himself and his attributes but gains the freedom of another self, and possibly and objective self that is free from judgment. He gains a soul, no, he finds his soul. For when he loses his attributes, his qualities, he can only become himself.
A person may become many things, but he must not forget himself. He must not lose his soul. Nobody can take your soul away from you but yourself. That is what it means to have a soul, to hold it tight and never let it go.
These thoughts were running through Noah's mind. So many things that he had to say inside his head, but he shared so little with the people around him. In here, he gains a certain independence from himself, and immerses himself in a paradise of freedom that no dictator can ever take away.
Despite his passion for his personal philosophies, he is considered an amateur for he cannot put his thoughts together to assemble a coherent sets of thoughts that can be easily understood by anyone other than himself. In his own mind, he is the undisputed master of his ideas. But in the outside world he might pass off as just a madman. If one wishes to understand him, he must read between the lines once or twice before getting a somewhat blurry picture of his concepts. But if Noah shares the same type of soul with that person, then it does not take much difficulty in understanding his plight.
"A man may confess that he pursues knowledge, but we must know that knowledge is a contradictory thing, since one cannot know everything. For when one knows something, he abandons so many opportunities to learn another. One can learn law, medicine, business, politics, and war, but what about the numerous sciences, mathematics, and philosophies? So little time to learn them all. We have been cursed with having been given so much with so little time to enjoy it all. Perhaps, we just need to enjoy that things we have even if we don't have it all. In any case, sometimes in man's quest of understanding higher things, he has abandoned the study of an infinite amount of other ideas to focus the light of his thoughts to illuminate a dark corner in his mind that is filled with ignorance but is redeemed by the grace of curiosity.... and..."
Maybe one can learn a lot of these things, provided that he does not forget himself in it. There are many people in this world, but the only person who can be you is you.
This rare interval of meditation was interrupted when Noah suddenly realized that he was in the middle of the morning drill followed by another realization that the instructor would shout at him for slacking off for too long. This sudden snap back to reality hit him like a slap to the face. That was the bad news. The good news was that he was not feeling tired anymore.
This train of thought was interrupted by another series of thoughts. It was like a river of ideas that never stopped flowing unless there was something blocking the downpour of the river.
In spite of Noah's pessimism and cynicism, he can still exhibit a carefree naivety with his ideals when he is at peace. He lacks motivation for academics, but he a thirst for knowledge that can only be quenched by plunging into the depths of his imagination. To restore metaphysical concepts their integrity by seeing them as they really are. He seeks acknowledge them in a world that so often ignores them and leaves them in the dark. In a world full of darkness, one must either be a beacon of light or be a part of the darkness. This was Noah's way of being a shining example to others, in his own quiet way, that is more unseen than seen. In thoughts and not in actions. This was Noah's world.
By this time, he stopped paying attention to the outside world. He was so buried in his thoughts that it seemed like he was sleeping with his eyes wide open while he babbled on incessantly with fancy words stringed together. He was consumed by his thoughts. His thoughts ate his consciousness. He was so absorbed by his intelligence that he yields himself to a stupidity that retards his performance in other areas. So while the rest of the students were exercising, he shipped himself off to fantasyland.
edited 10th Jun '16 11:51:52 AM by Victor_Skye
"In the grim darkness of the future, there is only war."
Anna kept pace, lost in her thoughts and the repetitive humdrum of left foot forward, right foot forward. She hardly noticed Kasparas keep pace with her, and made a conscious (futile) effort not to notice Noah, who didn't seem to be smart enough to grasp her rather harsh suggestion, or was in denial.
Until Kasparas butted in with his remark. Anna almost stumbled, turning her head instinctively and consciously wishing she hadn't far too late. It was probably just the cold, or the running, but Anna's face was red.
"Huh?!" Anna looked away. She paused to regain composure, then concealed a snort of laughter. "W-well, I certainly don't like dudes who are up their own ass, that is for sure, so what does it matter?"
She tried not to glance at Noah and show her intentions. Anna ran ahead to put distance between her and the others, though not enough distance to miss Noah's last remark. Anna pressed her hand against her face.
"Kretyn."
At the end of her last lap, Anna joined the group near Minzhe, dropped to the ground, and did her level best to perform as many pushups as she could. Which was not many.
Minzhe informed the students that it was time to switch exercises and Erika did as she was told. After a while the boy with the fedora who did pushups directly in front of her, suddenly stopped. He lay down on the ground, completely out of touch with reality.
Erika shouted "Hey, slacker! Wake up!" as she continued doing pushups. "You should get back to work!"
Mike Jones
As Noah went on his spiel about infatuation and love, Kasparas smiled slightly, nodding sagely. "I know! Isn't it great?" He asked. Was he jerking Noah around, or did he just only hear every other word?
Kasparas clutched his heart as Anna spoke. "You must have pyrokinesis. Because I'm going to need ice for that burn." He said, in a tone of mock hurt. He was smiling a little. It was funny cause it was true.
As he did his push-ups, he happened to look to the side at Noah. His first thought was that he was dead. Kasparas picked himself up and knelt beside Erika.
"Don't kick him! He needs to go to the infirmary!" Kasparas said. After confirming that his fedora'd friend was still alive, he scooped him up in his arms.
"Sir! He needs to go to the nurse's!" Kasparas said.
edited 10th Jun '16 3:15:10 PM by HeroicSociopath
someone
Alena changed exercises, beginning to do push-ups, slowly. She managed to do a couple, before hearing a cry. Getting up, she walked over to the source of the kerfluffle.
"What's wrong? I should be able to help."
[TOP SECRET]
As Ruth picked up the pace and got running she watched the fucker passed out on the ground with a sort of morbid fascination. "What the fuck is he..."
She passed him once and heard the kid mumbling out a string of fancy words. Holy shit. She spat out a little "Pffttchck..." and held out for just a little while longer before cackling like a hyena as she kept running. "Holy crap!" She squealed out, "Did just that little bit just knock him out? Fuckin' goyim. Easy pickings here, looks like."
Anna struggled through her last push-up, then collapsed in a heap on the ground. Better than ever before, but still not great. And that last one was barely a push-up. Anna sat up and shook her head.
"Let him stay unconscious," she said. "It's better this way."
Spartak switched over to push-ups when they were instructed to. He wasn't quite sure why everyone was making such a big fuss about the boy who collapsed - there were always weaklings on the first day who couldn't handle the exertion, it wasn't anything new. All the kid needed was some rest, no big deal.
"Agreed," he said in response to Anna, continuing to do his push-ups one after another. "Best to focus on our assigned duties."
Hot-blooded Catholic Space Nazi
While deep in his trance, Noah heard concerned voices and bursts of laughter among the other students. He did not mind them, for he was so occupied with himself that it did not elicit any reaction from him. As he plowed deeper into the recesses of his mind, he began shutting out contact with the outside world.
Free from any constraints of outsiders and public scrutiny, he felt so light that his body started to rise slowly from the ground. Inch by inch he floated towards the blue sky as if God selected him for an early departure to heaven. The other students noticed this and gasped in awe of this unexpected miracle.
Noah's psychic powers were in effect, a feeling of weightlessness has caused his body to become lighter than a feather. If one were to carry him now, he would feel like he was holding a balloon. The wind slowly pushed him up the air, and the boy Noah was about to have his dream literally come true by burying his head in the skies.
"In the grim darkness of the future, there is only war."
Mike Jones
On the one hand, Kasparas did understand how Noah could rub people the wrong way. On the other, he didn't want the dude to die. The others seemed nonchalant, but Kasparas was fairly certain that fainting was serious business.
"Well, I'm taking him just to be-" Kasparas had barely noticed that Noah was getting lighter. But then he blew away.
"YOU GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!" Kasparas yelled, chasing the flying fedora-wearing freakazoid.
"Don't worry, there is usually much more order to the school than that," Spartak explained, trying to brush off what seemed like it would be the first of many 'incidents'. No need to spook the new students. At least no one was getting poisoned, burned, or earthquaked yet, so that was a plus.
"Later on, if you need any help or a tour around campus, just ask one of me and he'll be happy to help."
Anna sat and massaged her arms, preparing to attempt push-ups again and trying to block out the distractions around her until she heard Kasparas yell, breaking her concentration. She stood and looked over at the commotion.
"Ah, hell."
Anna sprang into action, her body moving before she had a moment to think. She pushed past Kasparas with surprising speed, reaching Noah just before he escaped five meters from the ground. A giant hand rose from the ground to catch Noah in its stiff grasp, and pulled Noah back down to earth. Anna hit the ground on her knees, panting.
"Should've let you get blown away," she said. She ran her hand through her hair. "But that's too morbid, even for me."
edited 11th Jun '16 1:23:16 AM by opnerf
Hot-blooded Catholic Space Nazi
Noah's ascent to the heavens skidded to a halt when something grabbed him midair and sent him back to the ground. At this point, he slammed into the pavement with force, but the impact was smooth enough for his back to take the brunt of the blow. Upon landing, Noah was awakened from his stupor and he tried to get back on his feet.
But he could not get up, for the pain in his back was sufficient to convince him that any more movement would result in further agony. "The hell just happened?" Noah groaned and tried to avoid moving around.
"In the grim darkness of the future, there is only war."
Following Anna’s advice seemed to be the best option, so Erika didn’t bother the boy anymore. Just a few seconds later, he began emitting an ominous aura that only Erika could sense.
As he began floating Erika had the most harrowing experience of her life. The pain was unbearable, her entire body felt like it was going to be turned inside out. The aura around him that interfered with her sensory powers was blinding; she couldn’t see anything. All she could do was letting out a whimper as she curled up into fetal position.
By the time the boy with the fedora was brought down to the ground again, Erika had passed out.
edited 11th Jun '16 1:44:35 AM by IsaacTheRed
"The amount of torture you suffer at the hands of this activity called 'exercise' would make any human being cry out in pain." Noah groaned and he froze in horror in anticipation of the worst, pushups.
In response to Anna's brash comment about Noah being insane, "The only people that are clearly insane are those that love exercise. I cannot comprehend people that are so kinky that they love agony."
When Alena said, "Don't be nervous, it's not hard."
Noah retorted, "That's what she said." and remained defensive. The boy was naturally a difficult person to deal with, and that's because he is mistrustful of strangers. He can only connect with people that employ black humor since Noah always expects the worst to happen.
edited 7th Jun '16 4:39:22 PM by Victor_Skye
"In the grim darkness of the future, there is only war."