-JEILE ooc/ Sorry it's taken awhile to post again, family emergency

bic/ Tanwen wandered around the streets, wondering how she'd be able to get out if she really really wanted to. Her ability to move things would make it easy to do if she could handle her ability. She hid from a lot of people because her emotions got in the way of her controlling things sometimes. There were people hanging around the park, she wondered what they were up to but didn't dare go too close to any of them. 'Maybe some other time.' she told herself like always. If anybody wanted to get out she'd help them, it wouldn't be difficult to convince her to help at least, but on her own she felt safer trapped where she could do only minimum damage.

Sorel continued to eavesdrop as best he could from where he was. He caught bits and pieces and it was easier to overhear the dark haired boy who seemed less cautious about his words. Abandoned farmhouse had an attractive ring to it. He hadn’t had a proper roof over his head since he burned his house down and while it hadn’t been more than few months since it had happened he was sorely missing it. He resolved to follow them and take up residence with the kids even if it would only be for a few nights. He doubted they would welcome him there, but he was confident that they wouldn’t be able to force him out. It’s not like he would take over and try to chase them off. He decided he wouldn’t steal from them either. Sorel was beyond stealing children. He had established certain lines that he wouldn’t cross. That’s what he told himself anyone. It contradicted with his earlier inspections for valuables earlier. His moral standards had been slipping for quite some time and he was struggling to hold onto them. Either way he was up and following them from a respectable distance now.

As Prince and Tobi walked farther along Prince noticed that someone was following them, very quietly Prince spoke to Tobi, "Someone's following us, no don't look." Tobi who was about to look back soon followed Prince's directions and remained facing forward "How long has he been following us?" Tobi asked starting to concentrate his energy to his eyes as Prince did the same. "Since we left the park, he either heard about the farmhouse or our plan which we didn't do a very good job at hiding." Prince said shooting Tobi a look who just looked apologetically to the ground "Anyway I'm reading his energy it's different which mean's he's probably a gifted, I can't tell whether or not on if he's good or bad."Prince said again making Tobi want to look back "Should we make a run for it, or keep walking?" Tobi asked making Prince think that if he was a gifted then maybe he could help them escape but that all depended on whether or not he was willing, but then there was also the problem that if he was bad that he could try to kill them. "Let's just keep walking if he does turn out to be bad we'll have three against one even though were still at the basics of our power. Baron's more advanced though so I don't think we'll have to worry too much, but it's like I said it all depends." Prince told Tobi who thought just seriously "Alright then." was all Tobi said and without another word the walked in silence just listening to each other's footsteps. They knew it would be a long walk back to the farmhouse it was out of town and on foot would take about two hours, usually the two boys would run all the way there practicing to hold out there energy in order to make them move faster but today they decided to preserve it and just walk.

Sorel stopped every now and then pretending to look at something interesting or to fuss with something. He made efforts to make himself less conspicuous, completely oblivious to the fact that they were already aware of what he was doing. He had a habit of underestimating kids. He maintained varying distances from them knowing a set distance aroused suspicion. Being a bad pickpocket had helped him catch on to these little things. In theory he would get pretty good after a while. Tailing them became more difficult as both the people and buildings began to thin out. Sorel began to break off, falling in a less direct manner. He would have thrown a fit if he knew how pointless his efforts were. After what seemed like several painstaking hours of tracking and forming regrets of following them, the farmhouse crept into view.

When the boys reached the farm house they breathed in the country air glad to be away from the town. The farmhouse was just a simple white two story with a simple white fence in front and sitting on the front porch was their friend Baron practicing water manipulation. The farmhouse was a great place to train because there was a lot of land to practice on it was the main reason the house was precious to them. Normally the two would have enjoyed it more but because of the person following them they were tense, but finally breaking the silence Prince yelled out annoyed but still calm "YO we know you're following us so stop acting so secret about it and come out before I come to you. I'll be fair and give you ten seconds to come out and explain yourself but if you don't then I'm coming for you." Then without another minute to waste Prince began counting as Tobi walked to the front porch where Baron looked at him curiously "What's going on?" Baron asked as still focused on manipulating a whip of water Tobi who sat down on the porch swing just looked at Baron and gave a small smile "Someone followed us here Prince says he's a gifted." Tobi said pushing the swing by rocking it back and forth "So you two decided that it'd be a good idea to bring him here?" Baron asked a little angry by their actions "Well we didn't want to create a scene in town, and if he is a gifted then he might help us escape from here." Tobi replied still smiling his same smile that had no worries whatsoever Baron could only give an exasperated sigh as he listened to Tobi and just went out to where Prince was pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance with how reckless these two could be.

"Come on, kid.." Aries looked over her shoulder at the small child who skipped along just few feet behind. A light sigh escaped her lips as the smll one just grinned up at her and continued skipping along, a breeze picked up her hair and the sun glinted of her horns. "We're almost there.."

"Almost where? You've been saying that for the last half-hour.."The little one whined, Awe was none to happy with her new companion, they had only met a couple days ago but Aries was right that Awe couldn't keep wandering around alone. The toddler like 4 year old looked up at Aries as she skipped passed her, sticking her tongue out and giggling. "CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!!!" She lowerd her head and chest spread her arms and ran, shoting of in a little blurr, the child was fast but Aries was faster, she kicked her foot and jumped ahead. Ctaching the small girl off gaurd by scooping her up...

OOC: Sorry for my absence! BIC: Sebastian walked toward the nearest shadow, a shadow of a tree and watched the rat scurry off into the distance. Closing his eyes, he searched for the location the boys had talked about earlier. Upon finding the location, Sebastian wrapped himself in a blanket of the shadows and used them to teleport to nearest shadow at the farmhouse. It usually hurt to go through from shadow to shadow, the longer the distance apart the more it hurt him. Sebastian winced when he came out from the shadow, his legs, last to come out, felt numb. The stinging numbness was luckily, only covering the lower half of his body.

Sorel had thought he had been doing pretty well for himself before one of the boys called him out. After some profane muttering he emerged out where they could see him. Only now did he notice Baron and realize he had been fooled. Why had he expected it to be any different? He was self-proclaimed the unluckiest person in the whole damn state. Something about the kid’s tone and the way he worded his demand irked him. Maybe because it was child giving him demands. Tilting his head, eyes flicking from farmhouse and each of the people there in turn he said, “Gutsy kid aren’t you?” He stretched the plastic bag the loaf of bread was in and tied it to his belt so he wouldn’t have to carry it for a while. He didn’t like his odds if he had been lured here for a mugging. Baron seemed like a pretty big guy by comparison and Sorel was somewhat emaciated. Being cooperative seemed like one of his better options no matter how obnoxious this kid was. “As you can see,” he said throwing up his hands and walking forward so he wouldn’t have to shout, “I’m dirt poor. I overheard your friend talk about this barn hear and I was planning to become a tenant. Wouldn’t pay you, of course since most of my meager wealth went up in flames with the house. I figured I would be able to stay here a while since I doubted you kids could do anything about it. Your friend kind of makes me doubt that now. Never planned to rob you if that’s any consolation.” Why am I being so damn honest?. It sure wasn’t making Sorel seem like a great person, bullying kids for a roof. It was a problem of his. Honesty came to him far more naturally than lying. Maybe that’s why he was living in such sorry ship. How many honest thieves actually did well?

Tobi listened to Sorel and when he finished he jumped over the porch and made his way over to him "Oh well if all you needed was a place to stay why didn't you just ask there's plenty of room." Tobi said to him giving him a naturally friendly smile as both Prince and Baron let out a groan "Baron how much food do we still have in the house?" Tobi asked turning to Baron who stopped groaning and thought about it "Well we have enough for about two more weeks." Baron replied forgetting about Sorel for a moment. "Then you two stop complaining and welcome our guest as I remember correctly you weren't always so honorable and neither were you Prince. I was told once to treat others how you want to be treated, so let's eat I'm famished." Tobi said then turned back to Sorel "What about you? You look like you could use a good meal Baron's the best cook in the world he can make anything. Oh and my name's Tobi by the way, and those two are Prince and Baron." Tobi told him then started to walk inside as Prince gave Sorel a cautious look "Try anything and you'll regret it." Prince told him and then shortly afterwards walked after Tobi just leaving him and Baron alone. "Come on inside there's some extra clothes if you want them, if Tobi thinks you're alright then he must sense something in you that's good." Baron told him then held out his hand for Sorel to shake.

-JEILE

Tanwen turned around when she heard the little girl shouting, without thinking or realizing how she did it, she lifted the girl up, at the last second shifting her focus since the young girl was caught. Instead she lifted up a stray trashcan that was sitting nearby. "Sorry!" she said, walking over to the two girls and focusing on lowering the trashcan down gently, now that she realized what she was doing it was a lot harder to do properly. "I didn't know she had somebody watching her, or that either of you were so fast." Tanwen told the two, putting her hands in her pockets and looking around, hoping they wouldn't be mad or anything.

Why didn’t he just ask? Sorel wasn’t used to any sort of generosity since he had inherited such a dangerous gift. He figured they must not have heard about the infamous Blaze yet. He stood in dumbfounded silence for a moment. He listened to how well off they were by comparison. He really was in a miserable state wasn’t he? Sorel smiled with a look as though he couldn’t believe the offer he had just been given. “Name’s Sorel,” he replied, easily reverting back to how he was before the fire. Something about how honest and innocent the kid was dissolved the apathetic thief he had been trying to become. His friendly demeanor faded when Prince threatened him. Like he would hurt kids. Now he was conflicted. Best to deal with identity issues later. He was being offered food and a change of clothes and he wasn’t in a position to decline such kindness. So far first impressions were pretty mixed. He liked Tobi. He seemed like a good kid. He couldn’t say the same for Prince with how much the kid annoyed him so far. He couldn’t really form an opinion of Baron yet, but he seemed okay. He took the man’s hand in a failed attempt at firm handshake. Sorel didn’t think the first impressions he was giving were all that great. This Tobi kid had sense good in him? He wondered how far gone it was after the past few months. It was never a good idea to overanalyze your own personality. Too darn complicated and biased.

"Sorry!" A girls voice chirped as she put the garbage can back on the ground with a soft thud, "I didn't know she had somebody watching her, or that either of you were so fast." Aries came to a stop rocking back on her heels and turning to the side to miss the girl as she hadn't quite stopped when the girl had tried to stop Awe. Skidding a little she looked up at her, "It's all right.. Relax." Aries said with a light smile, placing young Awe back on the ground, "I am Aries and thi-"

"My name is Awe!" Awe cut Aries short to introduce herself with a childlike grin but offering her hand out in an adult like gesture for a handshake, " So what's your name?!?" Awe said bringing her bright pink eyes up to look into Tanwen's.

Tanwen took a step back, surprised at Awe's eagerness to introduce herself. "Nice to meet you both. I'm Tanwen." she said, shaking the small girl's hand when it was offered. She smiled at the girl, realizing she was just being friendly. She didn't really know what to say, avoiding people being what she did normally. She released Awe's hand and put her hands in her pockets, a little nervous.

Tobi was in the house setting up the table when he saw Prince walk in "Oh hey just setting up the table later on do you want to train?" "Sure." Prince replied shortly grabbing out the map and lying it down on the table. When Tobi was finished setting up for dinner he went out to Sorel and called him over "Hey Sorel Which rooom do you want there's two extra rooms and there both clean so don't worry about that." Tobi said happily glad to make a new friend, Baron who went to the back of the house to get lumber noticed Sebastian and quickly he helped him up "Wow are you okay? Here come inside were about to have dinner you look like you need food and quick." Baron told him then led him inside sitting him down. Prince who noticed Sebastian said nothing he knew him from before and knew that Tobi had offered him a place to stay so he didn't say anything except "There's two rooms upstairs that you can have we also have another guest so just know that. Also there are some clean clothes upstairs if you want to change." Then turning his attention back to the map he said nothing more.Baron who had pulled his long dirty blonde hair back in a ponytail put on an apron and started to cook humming an old irish shanty his grandpa taught him when he was seven. Skillfully he manipulated the water into the pot and started cutting up vegetables and meat.

Sorel snapped himself out of the daze he was falling into and nodded. “Can’t say I care which room so long as it’s a room,” he said smiling. He was being genuine right now. He might have attempted to appear charming to stay on their good side, but he knew how that would go. Charming was something Sorel always managed to turn into sleazy. Forget sounding sleazy, he already looked dirty and untrustworthy. He started to think of the one kid as a little too trusting. Either way a change of clothes would be amazing. Maybe they would let him take a shower as well. His singed red hair was a greasy mop and he tried not to think too hard about how he must have smelled. He hadn’t felt self-conscious about these things for quite some time. He took it as a sign that things might have started to turn around for him. Might. He didn’t hold his breath. He made his way inside, casting a curious look to the side as he noticed Sebastian. He recognized him from the park and idly wondered how he had gotten here so quickly. Much as it pained him, he decided to leave his loaf of bread in the kitchen. It wasn’t much to give in exchange for being offered a room, but he would feel bad if just hoarded things for himself under their roof. It was another reason he made such a bad thief. Too much of a conscience. He went upstairs without another word and chose the first room that appeared to be unused. It wasn’t much, but it was more than he’d had in a long time. He didn’t have any other belongings to set down so he went straight to investigating drawers. He found the clean changes of clothes they had mentioned and decided to change. He switched from a dingy t-shirt that had unfortunately at one time been white to a simple navy blue shirt. He traded slacks that had begun to fray at the hems for jeans that fit for too loosely and were a bit long. The belt he’d been wearing was even more of a necessity to keep these pants up and he rolled up the hems so that they wouldn’t become dirty and shredded at the bottom. After raking his fingers through his hair and working out some of the knots, he looked significantly less like a hobo than he had before. Now if he could shower and shave off the stubble he would be able to clean up pretty well. He left his shoes where he had kicked them off and found a clean pair of socks to wear around the place. When he exited the room and started to head down the stairs he could smell the food. It reawakened the uncomfortable gnawing sensation that almost constantly plagued him and his stomach announced his presence before he could. “Smells good,” he said. An underwhelming follow up to the roaring his stomach had done. “Anything I could help with?”

Tobi smiled as Sorel walked downstairs and then replied to his question "No I think Baron has it under control." Tobi said smiling then turned to Sebastian "I'm glad that you took me up on my offer." Tobi told him genuinely while Prince was still absorbed looking at the map. "Hey Tobi we still need to figure out where to go after we escape." Prince told him looking up at Tobi with his lavender eyes "Oh yeah I was thinking about that too, I think we need to head down south I've always wanted to go to South America, and then after that we can take a boat to Africa, and then to Australia, and finally Asia." Tobi said adventureously, wanting to see everything the world had to offer, Prince just gave him a look that said I'm-not-made-of-money-you-know and sighed "Alright. Hey Baron dinner ready yet?" Prince asked Baron who was seasoning the meat "You can't rush genious. Why don't you four get washed up by then dinner should be ready." Baron told them still concentrated on cooking with precise measurements and accuracy. Both boys gave a slight groan at being told to wash up "Do we have to?" Tobi asked not wanting to take a shower which made Baron shoot him a look "I'll count to ten and you better be in that shower. One...Two..." Both Tobi jumped up from the table and started running to the bathroom as Baron started counting and when Baron heard the slam of the door from rushing he gave a smirk "Uh huh that's what I thought. So where are you two from? Have you lived here your whole life or did you happen to be here when the whole mess starrted?" Baron asked Sorel and Sebastian as he got out a spoon and tasted the soup.

Sorel shrugged. He’d offered at least. In the meantime he found himself a place to sit and not be bothersome. He listened to the boy’s plan with a ghost of a smile. He’d once wanted to travel the world, but that was before the financial reality of his situation had hit. He had given up on the idea long before he had even moved out. It was still nice to dream and he let him do so without interrupting him. At least his brother…were they brothers? At least Prince seemed to have a pretty good grasp on reality. The smiled came to life when Baron started counting down and the kids tore up the stairs. In truth, Sorel almost sprinted up the stairs at the mention of a shower. He liked to think he had some dignity so he refrained. Baron had said you four, so he took that as an invitation to wash up as soon as the chance was available to him. He was glad that Baron had initiated a conversation. He wasn’t one to be so quiet, but he wasn’t sure what to talk about before now. “I’ve lived here for a few years,” he replied, “I lost my house, or rather apartment, to someone who became gifted. My parents live outside of this mess, so I’ve been on my own.” He decided to keep it vague rather than saying he had burned down his own apartment. It’s not like any of the insurance companies had been covering many of these incidents, so the fact he was homeless didn’t provide any hints that he had done it. Even if they had guessed he was gifted, they didn’t know how yet. Crap. He didn’t have a clue if this Baron guy had heard about Blaze yet. If so, the connection was easy enough to make. Hopefully he wouldn’t be concerned that he would burn down their home as well. The other acts of accidental arson had been pretty small and generally ignored. Maybe being talkative was another one of his problematic points. Either that or overthinking things.

Baron listened with interest as Sorel talked and widened his eyes as he mentioned a gifted burning his home down "Wow that's too bad though not all gifted are bad, I'm one. I have the ability to manipulate water or any of it's forms so if a fire does start then I'll be able to put it out no problem." Baron told him then got out the rosemary sprinkling it into the soup, and after smelling it smiled, then filled up five cups with water that he manipulated so it'd be nice and cold.

Tobi who was the first one to take a shower walked down stairs wearing his typical light blue shirt and golden yellow loose pants which was held up by a blue cloth belt. "Prince will be out soon so one of you two can go next if you want." Tobi told them then shook his head like a dog does after getting a bath, in all truth Tobi wasn't used to taking baths where he was from he lived in a jungle so there wasn't a shower or a toilet. Still Tobi grew acquainted with his new life and was beginning to like it especially now that he had friends.

ooc: This is my last post for now so that others can catch up.)

Sorel had been looking at Baron, maintaining eye contact for the sake of polite conversation and to see his reaction. It didn’t do him much good, because both his expression and reply could be interpreted in different ways. Sorel didn’t have a clue whether he had figured out he was the town’s semi infamous arsonist. Something about the way he had worded his response made him think so. It was as if he saying he could handle damage control if started anything. If he did know, then Sorel decided that these people must be saints. He wouldn’t have done so much for a stranger, and a dangerous one at that. “Sounds a lot more useful than some of the gifteds powers,” he said almost enviously. He had thought earlier that he would take the shower at the first possible moment, but now that the food was in front of him it snatched the top priority position. It smelled heavenly. “I’ll wait until after I’ve sampled your master chef friend’s masterpiece,” he told Tobi with a grin. Sorel was being too friendly and trusting right now, but he just couldn’t bring himself to care.

OOC: Sorry everybody, I've been dealing with some family issues and moving into a new house... BIC: Sebastian had no idea how long he had been standing there, seemed like it had been a few hours. Great, he must have missed quite alot.