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[Malix]

Malix strolls down the street, passing her gaze over businesses and people and cars and all the other paraphenelia of city environments with a stoic, methodical scrutiny.

Today she's on a photo scavenger hunt. Except that unlike most such things where they give you the list before you search, today she would photograph everything and decide on a list later. It sounds a little crazy but it's also very freeing.

So with her bag on her shoulder and her camera in her hand, the search began. The camera is not a great expensive camera but it gets the job done, and if you have photoshop you can fix just about anything.

First she snaps a photo of a hotdog stand's reflection in a puddle, and then gets a close-up of a brick texture, followed by a shot of the back of a bald guy's head.

Now she passes a cafe, and what catches her eye is a coffee cup on an outdoor table whose contents had spilled very slightly so that there were a few drops on the table. Brilliant!

She kneels by the table and photographs the cup from three angles, completely ignorant of the table's inhabitant(s).

[Max]

Max was enjoying his day. He was at a nearby coffee shop and was enjoying it. Max reached for his cup and just spilled a little bit but hadn’t really minded. He took a drink and set it back down. What he noticed next shocked him. A lady had seemed to come up to the table and start snapping pictures of his mess. Now that was a little strange. Max had to ask.

“Maim, what exactly are you doing?”

He would say it in the nicest way possible. She was a girl and seemed to have some curves so he just had to ask.

[Malix]

“Maim, what exactly are you doing?”

Malix lowers her camera, her attention captured by this unexpected voice and its owner. She catches the man's gaze, and her expression is completely unreadable.

She seems to take a moment to think about it, and then lifts her camera and snaps another picture of the mess.

"Oh you know, it represents the wastefulness of a post-industrial society growing fat and toothless in a cushion of deceiving decadence, riding the backdraft of an artificially inflated economy based in borrowing against debts at increasing risks..."

Malix stands and stretches, and lets her arms swing back down uncontrolledly.

"...Or something bullshit like that." she adds cheerfully, and snaps a quick picture of the colorful van parked across the street.

[Max]

“So your basically showing how the people are completely messing up the ozone and the appearance of the people? Interesting.”

Max wasn’t actually interested but he had to confirm what she was doing. If he didn’t then how would that look on his part. That was the question and the answer is bad. Max sat their as if he was interested, he quickly gave up. He was more interested in the reason she took a picture of the truck and where she was from.

“So do you care for a drink or you just taking my cups picture and leaving?”

[Malix]

Malix laughs as the man seems to take what she had said seriously. "Oh no, really, that was just some bullshit I made up on the spot...I just like taking pictures." She tosses a strand of red hair from her face and adjusts a setting on the camera idly.

“So do you care for a drink or you just taking my cups picture and leaving?” the man asks. Malix belatedly becomes aware of the fact that she has probably bothered this guy in a way that he might find awkward and intrusive. She wouldn't lose any sleep if he took offense, but it's not in her nature to be comfortable with discommoding people just the same.

"No, sorry, I was just taking photos. I'll go now," she says apologetically, and turns to leave.

[Max]

He watched as she started to leave. That wasn't what he wanted. He wanted her to stay for a drink.

"Maim, sorry about the way that sounded. I would actually like to buy you a drink. Will you please stay?"

Max hopes that she did and would talk to him for a while. He was extremely bored and would like to get to know her a little bit more. Hoped she didn't think he was a perv for that wasn't his attentions. he was just trying to be a nice guy. Hopefully it worked.

[Malix]

Malix turns around. "Well all right!" she says, glad to hear he isn't bothered. Her photography excursion would have to wait, but sometimes you gotta go with the flow, ya know?

The red-haired girl perches lightly on a seat at the table. She slides her bag from where it hangs at her shoulder and lowers it to the ground next to her seat.

She takes a moment to survey her new acquaintence, and her gaze lingers on his unsettling eyes for a split second, and compensates for the slip by fumbling idly with ther camera's controls and shutting down its electronics, then leaning over and stuffing it into her bag.

She comes back up all smiles. Let the small talk begin. "Come here often?" Malix asks.

[Max]

“Actually I don’t come here that often. I just decided that I wanted some coffee this morning. How about you?”

Max didn’t know what else to say to her. It was kind of awkward at first but he would be fine. He enjoyed the company of girls and he totally seemed to be digging her. He totally hoped she became one of the girls that he could just hang around all the time and be very playful with her. It was the playfulness of a girl that interested him a lot of times. He was a gentleman and all but he loved having fun with the girls. That wasn’t a crime was it. Of course not but some girls might get offended.

[Malix]

“Actually I don’t come here that often. I just decided that I wanted some coffee this morning. How about you?”

...says the guy. A simple, straight answer, no guile or pretense on the scope at all.

And so Malix responds in kind. "Oh no, I only just started coming to school in this area so I don't know this neighborhood well at all, really," she says, ending with a self-depricating laugh. Not that being in unfamiliar territory worries her...heck, if the rumors were to be believed, she was safer on the open streets than on her school's grounds anyways!

"Why are your eyes that color?" Malix questions, peering into them inquisitively. "Never seen anything like them." She is genuinely curious and hadn't really thought about whether it might be a touchy subject or not. She had always been proud of her own grey eyes as being fairly peculiar and unique, but here was someone in a whole 'nother ballpark.

[Max]

Max thought about it. He never really knew why exactly his eyes were like this. He had a theory for a little time for now. When he was young he just accepted it but it now that he knew about his ability it put it in a whole ‘nother ball park.

“Well the thing with my eyes is that for the longest time I didn’t know why they were like this. I just kind of went on with life and took the punishment from the kids teasing me. It wasn’t until recently when I came up with a theory to why they are like that. It would have to do something with my Qi.”

Max didn’t know what else to say. He activated his qi and saw the girls veins and blood flowing. Her heart pounding and all the other good stuff on the inside. He deactivated it then to look at her normally again. It had to do something with it.

[Malix]

“Well the thing with my eyes is that for the longest time I didn’t know why they were like this. I just kind of went on with life and took the punishment from the kids teasing me. It wasn’t until recently when I came up with a theory to why they are like that. It would have to do something with my Qi.”

While Malix listens to his explanation, she waves a waiter over and asks for a small coffee quietly so as not to interrupt, since she really was listening. She's not really a big coffee drinker but since the guy had been generous in offering she didn't want to be rude and refuse.

At his mention of Qi she really perks up a bit. Someone had explained the basics of Qi to her when she had been joined the school, but she was still fuzzy on the details.

Something happened with the guy's eyes there for a second, but it could have been her imagination. Whatever Qi was, she was pretty certain she didn't want anything to do with it. It sounded like a lot of science fiction mumbo jumbo. No, the only defense in this world was her mind, and her fists and feet when that failed to produce results.

"I'm not really sure what Qi is, but I'm pretty sure I don't have one," she says, half smiling. "Lucky you!" she adds cheerfully, though in her naivete she's not truly sure who's the lucky one.

[Max]

“Well don’t worry. You may have one and have been using it unknowingly and I wouldn’t say lucky. Sometimes I feel cursed with it. Having these eyes and being able too….”

Max stopped himself there. He had almost told her what his qi was without even knowing much about her. The thing was that most people would ignore Max for the way his eyes were. That was everyone except the folk at 42. They were the most excepting of all the people and didn’t shun me away for being different. They were all different in ways which brings them together more than they know.

“You sure you don’t have a qi. Anything strange happen to you that you can’t explain maybe?”

Max felt like getting off the topic of him. It was her he wanted to know about.

[Malix]

“You sure you don’t have a qi. Anything strange happen to you that you can’t explain maybe?”

Malix hadn't really expected him to ask about her, and is a little surprised and pleased.

But she has to think about it. Maybe there was something, maybe there wasn't. "Hmmm..." her coffee arrives and she sips at it idly, trying to think of anything out of the ordinary.

At length, she speaks. "Hmm, well maybe...well I work out a lot and I like to push my limits...and sometimes it's like my limits disappear and I can do anything...but the next day I REALLY pay for it and I'm hurting all over. That's kinda how it is for everybody though, I think."

Malix hmms and humms for another moment, and then perks up. "Oh, I know what my Qi is!" she says. She leans in conspiratorially, with a sly expression on her face. She looks to the left and right as if preparing to tell a secret and watching for eavesdroppers. "I can predict the future!" she says with great significance, but clearly joking around.

[Max]

The future ay. Well I can see your insides. Like veins and stuff.”

Max would pause. He would give it that dramatic effect of trying to make her think he was being serious. Then he would start to laugh and lighten the mood. Hopefully she didn’t actually think that was possible. Hopefully she wouldn’t be able to know that was exactly what my Qi was. The ability to see into people. It sounded creepy but helped him for tactical reasons. He never really had to fight anyone. He could use pressure points. He remembered her saying she worked out. That was totally different. Most girls hated to work out.

“So you like to work out. Very interesting. So you meet any hot guys at our school?”

He wasn’t asking to see if she thought he was good looking. He was asking because girls liked when you talked about stuff they like. So he would talk. If she said something about him that was a plus, if she didn’t then it wouldn’t hurt his ego.

[Malix]

Malix laughs along with him. What a goofy suggestion...looking at peoples' insides...well, maybe it was true, who knew? Malix knew she was hardly an expert on what a Qi might and might not be able to do, so she couldn't say.

Malix laughs again when he asks about whether she's met any hot guys at 'our school'. Malix assumes this means he's a PHS #42 student...what a coincidence. "Truth be told I haven't been paying much attention," she says honestly. "Trying to find all my classes and keep my schedule straight keeps my attention pretty occupied..."

Malix finishes her coffee and tosses her cup basketball-style, which lands in a refuse bin across the sidewalk. "...but I suppose there are a few around now that you mention it..." she adds, and arches an eyebrow at him. "What's your name, anyways?"