Old Run Down Music Store [Isaac & Megan]

Cold water ran over Isaac's fingers. He breathed out slowly as he brought it to his face. It was the first time in months he'd been in the the city. The small flat he had broken into proved to be a good place for a rest. He flicked off the lights in the bathroom and moved into the living room, packing his things once more into the small pack he carried. The contents of the cupboards were strewn across the counter and an old hot pocket was cooking in the untrustworthy little microwave. With the rolling power outages, everything on electricity was suspicious.

After taking a few cans of preserves and a chunk of beef jerky, Isaac slowly made his way around the flat, observing the old pictures, coated with dust and long forgotten. The previous owner was a musician. He had multiple pictures of himself and various musicians signing classic guitars. Among these were pictures and what looked like his daughter. Isaac's heart jerked as he noted the girl's oversized brown eyes with the same giggling look he'd seen countless times on his youngest sister. He swallowed the lump in his throat and forced himself to walk away, distracting himself with the gorgeous old acoustic propped up in the corner of the tiny room.

He lifted it up, looking over it with careful eyes. Wiping away a patch of dust, Isaac noticed what had once been a signature of sorts, worn by use and misuse. He let out a long, appreciative whistle turning it over a few times. Isaac took the time to tune the thing and slide it into it's case before grabbing his hot pocket from the sketchy microwave. Against his better judgement, he slid the case over his shoulder, taking it, his pack, and the hot pocket out with him. He had longingly passed the run down music store on his way into the flat and intended to search it before taking his leave. If his suspicions were right, the owner of the apartment was the owner of the shop, and with the gem he found in the flat, there had to be some good stuff in the store.

Isaac hopped down the stairs, skipping a few in his lazy, falling step. He reached the door to the shop and pressed his back to it, leaning back and sliding through the entryway. A high-pitched jingle caught his ears and he jumped, nearly throwing his meal. He looked up at the bells hung over the door and laughed at himself, relaxing for a moment. A gasp came from across the room and Isaac whipped around to see a young girl, long brown hair laying past her shoulders.

For just a moment he could've sworn it was Jasper. Fear shot through his chest and his head began to pound. Isaac threw up his left arm, prepared to use a shield, and dropped the hot pocket, ripping the jaggety blade from it's holder at his belt. Frozen, he watched her.

Cautiously, Isaac relaxed his arm as she flailed. Moving the blade forward in a slow, sweeping motion, his eyes locked on her every move. He flipped the knife, dangling it loosely, unthreateningly from his fingers and slowly moved to put it back in it's holder. Isaac's breath caught as he willed himself to speak.

"What are you?" He asked, forcing his voice to a low, gravelly threat.

Shocked by her response, Isaac chuckled silently, her sass reminding him even more of Jasper. Pushing back the little pang of loss, he went back into his rough act. "Just passing through," he mumbled. He shifted his weight uncomfortably for a second, attempting to get a threatening stance. Holding his hand defensively over the knife, Isaac continued.

"I'll tell you one thing, though, I wasn't looking for backtalk from someone who, for all I know has..." He broke off for a second, distracted. "Aah, has... shit," he gave up on the rude character, "is that Queen?"

Isaac grinned, "hell yeah," he said, making his way across the dim room. Completely taken in by the picture, he didn't even consider being defensive as he drew close, slipping his fingers over the old photo. He laughed, "man, I can't even tell you the number of times i've listened to these guys."

Pulling off his hat, Isaac took a moment to run his fingers through his shaggy hair. He took a step back, feeling the need to fix the awkward gap in communication. It had been a long time since he'd had a normal conversation and suddenly, he found himself craving it. Carefully, he lowered the guitar and his bag to the floor, and walked back to the doorway. Retrieving his hot pocket, he brushed it off and moved towards a stack of CD's. He filed through them, pulled one out, looked it over, and tossed it across the store to the girl. "That's ahh, Aerosmith," he said in an attempt to make small talk as he ambled over to her, biting into the hot pocket. "Sweet Emotion was the first thing I ever learned to play. Do you know them?" Isaac asked, leaning against the counter by her.

"I'm Isaac," he smiled. He slid up to sit on the counter and looked around, sidetracked again, "you'd think in an old music store they'd have a CD player somewhere," he mused. For a moment he considered this before looking up, watching Megan thoughtfully. Isaac liked to think he didn't easily trust anyone but something about this girl brought his guard down. She was obviously close to his own age, yet somehow she reminded him so much of his little sister. He frowned, pushing back that thought and the urge to protect the girl he hardly knew.

As he thought about it, he began to wonder how much he really did know about her. She was alone, she loved music, she was gifted. Not much else. Does she work with another group? Is she really gifted? Was she just passing through like Isaac, or did she live here? He lifted his head, finding a way to vocalize his train of thought in some way. "Sorry about the whole..." he broke off, motioning to the door in a flustered reference to their meeting. "I didn't mean to scare you or... I don't know... come on your turf," he fumbled, looking down at his hands.

Isaac smiled, relaxing considerably as she explained. He stepped down, running his fingers over the old CD player. It was in relatively good shape, considering the time that it had seen. It looked promising. Grabbing the plug, he pressed it into a socket in the wall. A spark shot out and Isaac laughed as his heart jumped for a moment. "That's promising," he mumbled, looking up at Megan as she mentioned his gift, and nodding his head as he listened.

"Well," he said after a beat. "It's all kind of based on... controlling energy," he started. "I can use little bits of energy to create these..." pausing for a second, Isaac lifted his hand, palm up. In it appeared a little ball. "These projections," he continued, "They're not much, these things, but I can create literally anything," as he spoke, he tossed the ball across the room, watching as it bounced off of the wall across from him and came back to his hand. Holding his hand out to Megan, Isaac dropped the little ball into her hand. It fell through to the ground, "but really they're just projections. Not real, solid objects, just something I can manipulate to look real." Isaac described, projecting a small pistol into his hand for emphasis as he spoke. He dropped that too and prepared himself to demonstrate the real power in his energy control. "Now, that's not much, really. The gift comes in what I can turn a projection into a real, solid object. I myself, can create a shield," as he said this, Isaac braced himself, pulling as much energy from the air as he could to avoid the extreme use of his own energy. He breathed out slowly as he produced a large, glowing mass from his hand which extended fully over his tall frame. "It's solid," Isaac explained through labored breathing as he dropped the shield. "My siblings all had similar abilities. Some stronger than others, but, ah, that's about the gist of it," He concluded, propping himself up against the counter once more. "What about you?"

He dropped his head with a wry smile at the mention of his siblings. He hadn't even really noticed that he'd mentioned them in his explanation and the question caught him a little off guard, "Ah, they're... they're gone," Isaac stated simply, nodding. He pushed the thought behind him as she continued. A touch of worry hit him as Megan mentioned the mind-reading. He quickly tried to remember if he'd thought anything embarrassing, brushing his hand over his mouth to hide a slight blush of his cheeks. Isaac smiled as her tail appeared, lengthened and shortened. "Man," he laughed in awe, "that's actually pretty damn fancy."

Isaac felt a lot better about his situation knowing just what Megan was capable of. She was like a breath of fresh air, someone to hold a normal conversation with in a world that was everything but normal. She liked his kind of music. Not to mention, she was definitely and eye-catcher. Sharply, He pulled himself out of this train of thought, worried she'd overhear. Attempting to distract himself he responded to her question, "Hmm... I'll pick one out," he smiled, shifting towards the CD's and flipping through them swiftly, wondering if the mind-reading was a constant thing or something she could just turn on and off. With this thought, he turned to another stack to hide another blush.

"What about a classic? You up for a little Hotel California?" Isaac asked, tossing her the Eagles album.