Heart of Ice

Natasha spread her face out into a sheepish grimace, watching the man press his hand to the side of his face while she shook out her own, offending fist. “I have to be honest, I have no idea how that happened.” She looked down at her own reddening knuckles, wincing in her own pain. “That’s why I wanted to spar in the first place.” She hissed, really feeling it in her hand, “I didn’t…break your face or anything, did I?”

Landon shook his head, wincing a little as he did. Nothing was broken, as far as he could tell, but the soothing feel of his icy hand on the sore spots really helped to take off the edge. “Nah, my face is fine, I think,” he offered a cheeky grin just to show that his spirits were still high. He gave a concerned glance to her hand. “Is...you hand okay? I didn’t realise my face was that hard...”

“Oh stop being a cry baby,” Miles chuckled. “I’ll get you some ice, we wouldn’t want your pretty face to be ruined by a black eye.” Maybe Miles had taken it too far, he hadn’t tried to punch him too hard, in fact he hadn’t even tried to hit him, but he had gotten a little carried away.

“I ain’t crying,” he spat, trying his best to stop that one automatic tear from rolling down his cheek. “Already on it man,” he showed Miles the palm of his hand, already frosting over before placing it back on his face. “You got some inner aggression you gotta get out or something?” That wouldn’t be anything new for Miles in all honesty. Landon just hadn’t expected to be on the receiving end of it.

Flynn rarely sparred with anyone, powers or not. He just wasn’t an aggressive person, or someone that really needed to or wanted to fight anyway. “I’m sorry, that definitely wasn’t my intention.” Flynn said, not even realizing the strength he did at times. “Hit me back.” Flynn insisted. “It’s only fair.” 

“Don’t be sorry dude,” Landon rolled his shoulder and gave his head a quick tilt to the side, straightening himself out a little better bouncing on the spot. “That’s the whole point of these sessions right? I’ll hit you back when it’s earned dude. That’s the fair part of a fight.”

“You mean they didn’t tell you what you were getting into when you asked for the sparring guy?” Peter danced around the ring, fists raised and ready for whenever Landon was prepared to go again. “They’re supposed to let you know. No powers, and I got a mean left hook.”

“I mean...they might have? I just tend to glaze over when they explain it all.” He gave his jaw another click before steadying himself back to his feet. “I’ll pay more attention next time I guess,” he said following suit and raising his fists. “Hey if we were using powers, I’d win hands down.” Maybe playing cocky after a hit to the jaw wasn’t the best idea, but Landon had a rep to keep up.

“Maybe next time don’t have such a punchable face,” Jazzy said with an apologetic smile. “I really didn’t mean to hit you that hard… sometimes I don’t know my own strength.” 

“Aww, C’mon J, I always thought it was more pretty than punchable,” he pouted a little before falling into a grin. “Honestly it’s fine I just...wasn’t expecting it that’s all. At least it was me and not someone completely helpless.”

open starter

It was hour six into her ten hour shift. She was tired. Her feet hurt. Her head hurt, she really needed caffeine and their coffee machine in the break room decided to break. It was a bad day. Doctor orders got placed in her inbox on her desk and she grabbed the sheets of paper. As a medical assistant with a certification and phlebotomy, it meant she did a lot more in the clinic than most medical assistants did. She gathered the various tubes she needed and her kit before heading to the patient’s exam room listed on the paper. Larissa knocked on the door a couple times before stepping inside, brown hues on the paper before she looked up with a smile. “Hiya, I’m Larissa, I need to draw some blood for lab tests,” she greeted as she pulled up a stool and sat down in front of the patient, “name and date of birth please?” she asked politely.

Landon hadn’t been sat in the room for long at all, as far as he was aware. He had closed his eyes, head tilted back humming some song that he had heard recently while he waited. When the girl entered he opened his eyes quickly, and looked over in her direction, giving a genuine smile. He knew the rules, these tests were compulsory, and he didn’t want to start a reputation for not following the rules. “Landon Miller, October 29th,” he answered, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt as he did. “Is it just me, or are these tests becoming more frequent?” Maybe the scientists were onto something? Or maybe all the previous samples had been lost. He didn’t know, and didn’t expect to get much of an answer. There was a lot of confidentiality to this.

Blake wasn’t one to argue with praise. Not unless it was something she felt she needed to do better, but lately, she’d been seeing herself as perfect. “Well, being a lawyer is hard work.” It was, in fact, Blake’s hard work–she’d been studying for the LSAT for the better part of the year. “But I think you could probably write for TV. At least shows like that. I mean, don’t they use a formula or something? They must, right?” She didn’t know. Writing for TV was of no interest to her. “All the episodes always go the same to me. Like they find the suspect and rule him out for stupid reasons, only to come back to him at the last second. That’s it, right?”

“Uh, yeah, I’m pretty sure they do. There’s always one specific case per episode, but some overarching case or drama that’s always happening alongside that. It’s just trying to weave it all together into something that makes sense and is fun to watch.” He shrugged. “Could be a future plan if none of my others work out. I can come to you for all the official legal terminology...and to see if it all makes sense.” He gave a small chuckle as a thought entered his head. “And there needs to be at least one episode in my show that features a shark. Just has to.”

“You’re fine.” Liam waved away the worry. He didn’t mind talking about sharks, it was just not something he was used to being asked. “Yeah, I could do that.” He snorted. “There are plenty of things I could do. Just as you could just freeze the water and make sure it can’t go anywhere.” 

Landon slapped at his forehead and let out the most bizarre noise, representative of his own ‘eureka’ moment. “How the heck did I not think about freezing the water?! I guess my fight or flight response is different for murderous animals than it is when I’m against people.”

“Unless there’s someone here that can manifest your nightmares into being, I think you’ll be fine.  Sharks in Grimstone?  That’ll be the day,”  she grinned,”  Perhaps you should update that list to something a little more soothing… Stephen King movies?  Really can’t go wrong with those, right?”

“I mean, there’s someone I know that’s illusion based...but as far as I know, me and him are cool so I don’t see him using that against me just yet.” Landon, raised a single eyebrow at Brooke’s suggestion and shook his head, a small smile on his face. “Swap Jaws and Deep Blue Sea for IT and The Mist? Sure, seems logical.”

Blake chuckled. “I don’t know if you’re obvious or I’m really good at reading people. I mean, I am. I just don’t know if you’re obvious or not,” she pointed out. Still, what he had to say, she understood, at least to a degree. “Yeah, I mean I feel that. It feels good to know you’ve outsmarted the detective. Or at least the TV writers.”

“Oh it’s definitely you being good at reading people. I tend to not make things that obvious.” Too on the nose Landon? Maybe... “That’s most of the fun for me, trying to outsmart everyone in the programme. Like...does that mean I’m smart in real life? Or just smart enough to write shit for tv? As cool as Landon the lawyer could be...not sure if I’m just at that level in my head.”

Wren rolled his eyes and smirked as they shot the shit. “Excuse me,” Wren gave him a look immediately feigning insult as he defended his position. “You save the best part for last. The body of the pizza is the best part. You don’t want to be stuck with the crusts at the end!” He exclaimed as he dipped his crust into ranch. “Duh.” He grinned as Landon came back with his beer. “Well, I certainly wouldnt object to a foot rub,” he smirked. “But keep your paws away from my slices. While you’re at it though, you could move the house a little to the left,” he grinned joshily.

Originally posted by dylobriens

“Nah dude, you need the crust to actually hold onto it. Otherwise you get grease and cheese and topping everywhere. I’m not about that messy life.” He chuckled a little as he sat back down on the couch, giving his bottle of beer a light dusting of frost along the bottom. “No,” he shook his head, “I shouldn’t have suggested anything. One beer run and foot rub could turn into any list of demands and that is not the roommate agreement I signed up for.” Landon grinned, picking up a slice of pepperoni and flicking it in Wren’s direction. “Move the house yourself, I quit!”

Blake frowned. A dramatic thing where they were talking about things? That could be any one. “You don’t watch many of these, do you?” she asked, though she’d already decided the answer was no. “No, probably not. I’m guessing you’re more of a….hm, procedural dramas? Like cop shows or whatever?” she said, thinking it through. Yeah, she bet Landon liked that kind of show.

Landon’s brows furrowed and he rubbed at the back of his neck. “Is it that obvious that I don’t?” He gave a forced grin, but a genuine chuckle escaped from between his teeth. “I mean...again...is it that obvious? Love all those ‘cops on camera’ things. And I love a good detective show. Playing along and working out the criminal before they do is like...a powerful thing.”

“You’re definitely weird. But we’re in a town of freaks so I guess it’s all relative,” she told him. Blake did a lot of telling in her life. Because she knew more than everyone around her. “Oh, was it the one with the like calm old British dude voice-over? Or the one that’s all Jaws-y?”

“Deeeeeefinitely not weird. And I wouldn’t say everyone is a freak here...I mean some people are a little freakier than others, but my point still stands: I’m definitely not weird.” He paused for a moment, thinking on what exactly he had watched. “Wasn’t quite the soothing British voice-over...they definitely had this overly dramatic thing they did when they were talking about things.”

She slighty raised an eyebrow and paused as he, however briefly, worked himself up over the possibility of this shark scenario. Letting a silence fall after his last question for a half moment, if only to draw attention to his run on of questions, she finally deadpanned,“ Maybe avoid any body of water that might have sharks in it? And maybe next time change the channel if it’s Shark Week.”

“Don’t give me that look Brooke...” He couldn’t help but smirk a little. He knew had gone off on something of a tangent, and in honesty, he was surprised she had stuck around to listen. “I think I’m going to scratch late night binge watching of nature shows off my to-do list for the rest of...forever really. Sorry, I didn’t mean to throw that all at you.”

Victoria thought on the question for a beat, rolling the thought around in her mind carefully before she answered, “I feel like I could agree with you but I’ve just seen too many Jaws-like movies and not enough documentaries. They have a very high kill rate in the movies.” She smiled as she joked.

Landon’s brows furrowed a little and he nodded in agreement. “Yeah that is true. The kill count is always excessively high in those movies.” He pulled up a seat, twisting it so that his arms rested on the back. “But it’s the build up to the kill in those movies that gets me. In the documentaries, Brucey is just swimming about minding his own business, but in the movies you know he’s always lurking. When you see something in the water out of the corner of your eye...that’s the scary bit.”