Eímai Sýrtos

Peggy still had no idea what jumped cables were, she’d only been half-listening as she nursed where her hand was zapped. If that’s what static electricity felt like, now she knew why her dad never wanted her grabbing at the broken lightbulbs in their house. Taking whatever Syr had said on surface value, she figured it wasn’t smart to grab him again and starts walking towards the school, thinking what they’d be looking for would be massive ropes.

“Wait!″ Peggy stopped dead in her tracks, an ironic little lightbulb going off in her head, “Can’t you just zap your car again? You’re like battery and your arms are the cables.” She pointed to Syr, then to the car. Surely if Syr had the power to mess up his battery, then he had the power to get it running again. Or maybe it’d just explode his car. Peggy kind of wanted to see that happen too.

Syr was never all that great with reading people, but Peggy’s disinterest in learning about jumper cables is apparent. He’s a little annoyed, though, wondering whether or not her ignoring him was due to the subject matter—or his speech impediment. People often quickly grow impatient with him when he speaks, and it makes him wonder if taking the time to explain anything to them is worth the trouble at all. It takes a lot out of him—communicating —so when he’s ignored, he can’t help but burn a little on the inside.

Syr grimaces at Peggy’s suggestion. It’s not like he hadn’t thought of it, it may be worth the try, but he’s hesitant. “I-I...I don’t know. I’m n-not sure what I’m...what I’m cap-capable of, and things might go si-side-sideways. I don’t want anyone t-to get hurt.”

As Syrtos starts to walk, Fern feels her body start to be pulled along with him, no matter how she resists. It was like the electricity acted as a tractor beam, the sparks almost hypothesizing her with how they glowed. Fern’s anger was suddenly replaced with worry. Was Syr of all people about to discover a weakness even she didn’t know she had? As much as she wanted to stop it, Fern’s body was just following the pull and her eyes were locked on the glow, with no means of looking away.

“Pest control…” Fern mumbled to herself, connecting the dots a little. Whatever part of her that held insect DNA was being drawn closer to Syr, like a bug zapper but on a much larger scale. Thanks, dad,” Don’t you dare tell anyone about this.”

Syr’s ears buzz a little, picking up on the light mumble from the girl. Confused, he turns to look at her with knitted brows. “Um...pest a-as in...me?” He wouldn’t put it past her to deem him a pest, but the timing seemed a little weird for that.

At her demand, his brows relax, as do his shoulders. He gives her a gentle smile, though he’s not certain that would help give her any assurance. “It’s n-not my place to tell an-anyone that. Y-your secret’s safe with m-m-me. I promise.”

Was Fern actually worried about something? The idea of Fern worrying sounds so foreign to him, something he's never seen from the girl before—even in a small capacity. There’s still a lot he has to learn about the girl, if she’d allow for that to happen at all. Regardless, he considers Fern a friend whether or not she sees him as one, and friends don’t exploit each other’s weaknesses.

“I’m su-sure it’s nothing serious. M-maybe you’re just a little un-und-under the weather? And this, uh...this el-electricity coming off of m-me is ex-exac-exacerbating it?” he suggests, hoping to give Fern a little peace of mind.

Peggy pouted and took a few deliberate steps away from the car, checking it up and down as if she knew anything about how cars worked, “What are jumper cables? I’m not jumping on that again,” She points to the hood, now a good distance away but unwilling to go closer. Maybe that was normal for cars, though Syr didn’t seem to think so. Peggy kind of wanted to help, but if she wasn’t willing to touch it again, that’d probably be hard.

“We should take the school’s, they have everything,” She still didn’t know what jumper cables were, but Auradon Prep was huge and filled with rich people, one of them had to have what Syr was looking for. Everyone was in class most of the time anyways, so stealing them and putting them back in time would be easy,  “Come on!” She grabbed the end of his sleeve to pull him, only to feel little bits of static come off on her hand, “Ouch! Don’t pinch me!”

Syr frowns as she asks what jumper cables are, knowing now that there probably isn’t a chance that she could help him—at least not directly. He apologizes again for the shock, “I’m s-so sorry about that sting. I-I’m sure it won’t happen again,” he tries to assure her, but he’s not so sure of it himself.

“Jum-jumper cables are these, uh, these cords you can attach from one c-car’s battery to another’s. The other car wo-would then have to be sta-star-started to, uh, to jumpstart the fir-first one’s battery,” he tries to explain the best he can. He scratches the back of his head at her suggestion. Did the school staff have jumper cables on them that they’d allow students to check out? It’s a possibility, one he hadn’t thought of.

Before he can thank her for the suggestion, he feels himself being dragged by the sleeve, and realizes too late what this could mean. Before he can pull his arm away—another electrical pulse leaves his body through his arm and into hers. “I-I’m so sorry! I di-didn’t mean to. It-it wasn’t a pinch, I,” he rambles, unsure of how to explain what was going on with him, especially to someone he didn’t know all too well. “It’s...I’ve been...there’s this weird sta-static that’s been coming out of m-me lately. I ca-can’t control it.”

Jessie immediately took this as a cue to sit down, though the response kind of only makes her worry more, so she doesn’t take his hand in the process despite that being what she’d normally do. Actions wise, she hadn’t noticed anything super out of the ordinary, but normal they were so close and it was a serious loss to not have Syr touch her, when just a few weeks ago she said she trusted his judgement on those sort of things. Perhaps she’d have to just trust his judgement on this too.

“Is it something bad?” Again, Jessie didn’t want to assume anything too fast, but she also wanted to be the first to know if Syr was going through anything. Distantly, she noticed even his body language was tenser than normal. This wasn’t public speaking, it was just the two of them. Things were usually easier with just the two of them, so something definitely had to be up for Syr to be so nervous, “Is there anything I can help with?”

Syr twiddles his thumbs, looking down at them at first, but settling his eyes back up at hers. He knows he’d rather not have her worry about him, but perhaps that couldn’t be helped? Avoiding was never the answer—especially with the person he feels safest with. If not her, who?

“It’s...” he begins, licking his chapped lips and pulling at the collar of his hoodie a little to let in some air. “I’m not sure if it’s ba-bad or good, buh-but it’s been nothing but tro-trouble so far.” He shakes his head, collecting his thoughts—or rather catching them as they race through his mind in different directions.

“I’ve been expe-exper-experiences this...energy. Li-like...it’s hot, it’s...there’s sta-stat-static, and I’ve...I’ve been sho-shocking people right and left. I ca-can’t get it stop, Jessie, and it fee-feels like it’s just buil-building up.” He rakes his fingers through hair, feeling the static bouncing around as he does so, the electrical discharge strong enough, he’s certain she can see it. “I’m...I’m no-not sure why this i-is happening, like why n-now? I know my gran-grandfather has these kinds of pow-powers, buh-but I didn’t have anything like them until juh-just recently.”

“Ahh!” Syr jumps, startled, as he usually is when someone approaches and speaks to him without and prompting from his part. He cools himself down swiftly and turns his attention to the girl that had approached him.

“Ah-ahh…y-yeah, I, um, I can hel-help out if you n-n-need it. Wha-what kind of tech are we ta-talkin’ here?”

“Woah, I didn’t know it’d scare you that much. I didn’t mean to,” the girl was genuinely sorry.

“Great, thanks. Well, I don’t know, phone technology? The small type? I think you’d have a better guess,” she says before reaching into her back pocket to reveal metal and plastic pieces that used to belong to a phone.

“I don’t think these are all of them, but I could find money to buy the rest. I…had an accident. Is it a lost cause?”

After calming himself, and letting her know it’s okay—and that he scares easy—Syrtos scrunches his brows together, blinking in silence for a long moment as he stares at the wreckage that once was a phone. “Uh…” he shakes his head, snapping himself out of it.

“I ba-barely recognized it as a ph-phone. Probably best to ge-get a new one. I-I can help you pick one out tha-that works best f-fo-for you.”

Though the Robotics Club usually met twice a week or when students could meet up, Syr had noticeably been gone their last few meetings. It made more of a dent than Syr probably expected it would, both in how the group ran and how Jessie worried. She hoped there wasn’t something wrong, but it wasn’t like Syrtos to not talk to her in the hallways. She was starting to notice it seemed like he was avoiding her, but she hoped that was just an overreaction. Maybe he’d just lost his phone and couldn’t reply to texts.

There were a couple times a day their class schedule lined up so they could see each other, one of which was lunch, but Syr wasn’t in the cafeteria. Wasn’t in the computer room, wasn’t staying afterwards in his class to talk to a teacher. Outdoors, the entire campus was huge and probably take hours to trek, but she finds a definitely Syr-shaped person sitting on the wooden tourney benches, like where benchwarmers sit during games. Unexpected enough already, but he’s also eating his lunch in a hoodie despite it being nearly summer time.

So as to not startle him, Jessie comes around the long side and stands in Syr’s eyesight before speaking, “Uhm, hi? What are you doing out here?”

@asksyrtos

Syrtos knows Jessie would catch on eventually. He hadn’t wanted to avoid her—not at first. At first, he figured he could just avoid touching her, or getting too close to her. His paranoia, however, had him worrying about accidentally bumping into her, or even forgetting his predicament for a second and hugging her or holding her hand out of habit. As much as he didn’t want it to, this fear pushed him towards avoidance.

He knew he’d have to tell her sooner or later, though he was hoping he could figure out a way to resolve it himself, first. He didn’t want her to worry about him, and he really didn’t want her trying to help him—he’s certain she’d try. The metal in her prosthetic, being highly conductive, would create a potential threat to her if she gets too close to him. He wouldn’t want her to feel like she had to take it off, either, and he wouldn’t ask her to.

With his powers becoming more of a problem, and not going away on their own like he hoped, he figures he ought to fill her in.

Cupping his hands together, trying to keep calm as to maintain some control over these powers of his, he answers, “Jessie...I, uh...I’ve go-got something to tell y-you.”

“I’m fine!” Fern bit out, starting to jolt towards Syr again with her teeth bared. It wasn’t a lie to her at least, she was not about to admit she needed any help from Syrtos when he practically has steam coming out of her ear like a cartoon. With a few deep breaths, the buzzing returned and Fern felt drawn to the electricity of Syr’s hands again. She pulled herself further away, “Back off, I’m not getting shocked anymore! Turn it off, turn your…stuff off!”

Now in full attack mode, Fern clawed in Syr’s general direction, a bit fruitless since she tried to keep her eyes off of the sparks. If she’d been of more stable mind, perhaps she would’ve been worried. This had never happened before, and if today was the day a weakness in the Boogeyman was finally discovered, Fern did not want this wimp of all people to be the one to discover it. The minute her eyes came drawn to the sparks again though, the idea of seeing a nurse didn’t phase her so much. It felt like an odd trance, “Start walking.”

Syr takes a step back as Fern lunges towards him, frightened, but not scared off. There’s something going on with her, as a result of his newfound “powers”,  that seemed to be bothering her quite a great deal, and as much as her demeanor shows that she wants to drive him away, he knows he can’t just abandon her in this state.

“I do-don’t know how!” he tries to convince her, maintaining his distance to keep her from any “harm”, or whatever this reaction of hers is. It’s clear that Fern is very bothered by it, and that’s enough to concern Syr. He nods at her command and begins to head over to the nurse’s, glancing back every now and again to check on her as he continues.

Peggy skipped up to the car as Syr called her over. She didn’t know exactly what he wanted her to do about the car, but she certainly remembered him letting her play games on his phone. The giant logo on it was bright and garish, totally not cute. She’d never even heard of jumper cables before, but assumed that was another word for jump ropes like on a play ground.

“What do you want me to do? I could fit underneath if you want, but I can’t push a car or anything. Have you seen how strong I am?” Or rather, how weak she was. Truthfully she may have been in a bad mood fro after talking to Audrey and didn’t want to try something she was clearly going to be bad at, “Isn’t your girlfriend a mechanic? I don’t know anything about cars.”

But, she knew cars were fun to play with. Peggy took a seat on the hood with a little hop. She was only sitting for a moment though before the metal shocked her butt, practically pushing her off. “Ow!” Peggy rubbed her backside with a groan.

Syr rubs the back of his neck, as per his nervous habit, feeling kind of ashamed by his automatic assumption that most other people also know their way around a car. “I-I, um...so-sorry. I just nee-need another car, and some jumper cables to con-connect my car’s battery to the other’s. To get mine wor-working again.”

While he knew Jessie could probably help him with his car dilemma, he didn’t want to take her away from school, for one. Shaking his head, he responds, “Jessie’s in cla-class right now. And I want to tak-take her out on a surprise date t-to-today, and it would be kind of a ba-bad start to it if I had her help me get my car wo-wor-working.”

Syr flinches at Peggy’s yelp, and immediately apologizes, assuming right away it was somehow his fault. Probably, considering all the extra electricity that had been coming off of him lately. “Wo-woah! Are you okay?”

The cold drink idea didn’t sound like a real solution, but Cole would go along with anything that Syr thought might relax the situation, “Yeah, let’s just find you a place to sit, eat, drink, and we can figure out what’s been causing all this,” He didn’t feel like launching into the intricacies of being half video game, it probably wasn’t the most important at a time like this. He placed his hand on Syr’s shoulder again, to provide some stability as they walked to the cafeteria, and the tiny sparks starter up again. Since Cole felt more charged after getting shocked, perhaps maintaining the connection would start to draw more energy out of Syr.

“I think touching things that are metal would pass the charge along too much, we don’t want anyone being shocked cus they’re trying to open their locker at the same time as you. I think something rubber would hold in your charge too much, and just make this all the more pent up. I’m not saying we should explode on the school computers, but what may help is getting in contact with something else electric and see if it draws from you.”

Syr nods, shifting his feet carefully as he walks towards the cafeteria with Cole’s guidance, being mindful of others around him as to avoid giving them any shocks. He brings in and out through his nose to relax himself, trying to do whatever he can to maintain control, just in case his electricity is somehow tied to his emotions.

He flinches a little as Cole sets his hand down on his shoulder, but the electrical discharge seems to have lessened significantly, possibly because of the huge shock that he had already unleashed onto the boy earlier. Still, it proves to be helpful as he can feel some of the heat draining through his body.

“May-maybe the school has some old computers sto-stored somewhere? Ones tha-that don’t work an-any-anymore?” he suggests, pondering whether or not he could bring “dead” electronics “back to life”, so to speak.