Humble Beginnings [Vella/Private]

Considering how silent he usually is, one would think of him to have lost his voice. That was not the case. As a child, he would never bother trying to make friends, and he never really spoke. There was not a moment in his life where he wanted to answer a teacher's questions either, so his lips were sealed tight from that as well. So he was able to get through school without questions, but by simply listening. Andre was good with auditory learning, words were remembered the instant he heard them. This had been enhanced since he did not speak, so all he could do was listen and learned it to mastery. It was a useful trait, not losing much data on himself while gaining data on others. Perhaps that would have some use when he becomes a hunter for Syne. But first, he needed to prepare himself to train. Instead of going to the populated training grounds, he went to the courtyards while it was less populated. This meant he had such a small amount of space to work with since he would rather not have others have their eyes on him. Instead, he would place up a small textbook up. However, behind it would be him manipulating the air in front of him, trying to have it form in a sphere. This was his semblance, but it was pretty messy as of right now. He'd like to learn it at it's best, but that had yet to be done. It was fine, though, he would be given plenty of time to do just that... Through trial and error of course.

However, he was not too aware since a pair of blue headphones would be placed on his head, connected to a phone inside of his pockets. The music he was listening to was electronic dance music, or E.D.M for short. The current one was Future Bass, which had a lot of Bass, so he was not able to hear things around him. He relied on his eyes to protect him from being caught, but he was only able to see at 180 degrees, and could not look behind his back without looking suspicious. Was the music worth it? TEvery drop promised him that it was indeed worth it and that he should not even have such thoughts. However, the sphere of wind was mushy and told him that he should just quit since no progress was being made. This was ignored, Andre wanted to continue until he at least showed a small amount of permanent improvement. He was definitely a stubborn one, but his ambition lead to bringing himself up, so perhaps it was not all too unfortunate.

The result of the attempt was a failure, the knockback of the sphere as it blew up would knock him back a bit, knocking the textbook back and flat on the surface, giving him all of the attention he did not need. His violent eyes raised in alarm, feeling the stares of all the other students around him. Clenching his teeth, he would grit a little bit as he listed the options he had in his mind. One was to run, where no one can see how he looked and hopefully forget him. A 50-50 plan, but it was one that was not totally impossible. Another one would be to just play if off as if he had done it on purpose. But how? Seeing the book, he noticed that it was still open on a page discussing the earth plate tectonics. That was how he was going to do it. Placing his hands on the edge of the book, he would slam them over to the center, both ends slamming with a loud boom. It was to act as if him placing the book on the table was done on purpose. His headphones would be the excuse. Some students turned away, most of them without any interest. Eventually, the activities would resume back to normal once again. With this, Andre would stand up from where he was, look around to see the there were no other lone areas. The closest that he could find was a lonely homely girl sitting at the end of a bench. Seems that was the best that he was going to get. So he would make his way over towards that direction.

With this, once he got over to the bench, he would look over at the girl sitting on the other side of the bench before giving her a small wave with his left hand, since his dominant right hand was too busy with the textbook he was carrying. He'd then welcome himself by sitting on the seat all the way to the other side, not looking to bother the lady with what she had been doing. The textbook was placed up in his lap once again before trying to form the sphere, which could not fail this time, or else he would suffer the same fate as last time multiplied... The ending result of that might end up having an adult come onto the scene. Was it worth it? Andre liked to think of himself as an extremist. Not too many things are out of line for him when it came to doing tasks. Little did he knew that the one he was sitting next to know about what he had been doing. And little did he know about how she probably would know what he was doing...

Well if that did not alert him of her knowing what he had been doing, then there was no way he would have ever known. The sudden jolt of her questioning him would make him flinch, eyes raised once again as his hearing was much sharper this time around. Not to mention the volume that her lips could emit were able to pierce through his headphones. The attention of the courtyard would probably be on them if she had no problem with getting such a volume. Maybe that was the case, and she was not one to care. As for Andre, he wanted to know how she even found out about what he had been doing. He was so sure that he could have gotten down... But no chance was given to him. As for moving elsewhere, there was no way that he could move back to the previous table he had been at. There was also no other less populated area, and he made sure to sit as far from her as he could. Eh, people were people. Andre himself was never too social with them anyways, and this was the exact reason why. Giving up on the mask he had, he'd let go of the sphere gently, making sure not to trigger it in the process. This attempt was successful, as it would dissolve with the wind. With that, he'd place his headphones down onto his lap with a neutral facial expression. Shifting his violet eyes back over to her, he'd nod his head subtly in some form of agreeance to show that it was kind of inconsiderate. Honestly, he was not looking for a fight. Not so early in the school year.

The nod was in check, but that was about all that would happen. No way was he speaking, only a reclusive few were able to get that from him. This was a stranger, a somewhat hostile one at that. Not that he could not understand her, there was plenty of reason for it. Plus... She was rather observant, she was able to break through the book barrier he had set up... Though her mouth was a bit too loud. It was unfortunate that she felt the need to be so noisy. Other than that, though, it seemed like she was a potentially decent being. Students that react in such a way were rather nice compared to what he and Nikki have known. They knew nothing but violence and isolation, only having been together due to blood ties before even that got cut off. She was immobilized, leaving Andre on his own for so long.

He was not the slightest bit angry with her. It seemed like a genuinely normal reaction for someone with worry to have. There was not much space he could have used, hence why he tried to sit at the opposite end. But yeah, that was most likely not enough space between them, but hiding it was not going to be effective in exposed air. Yet, it seemed like she was able to find out regardless if he his it or not, so it most likely did not serve to be too effective. On the plus side, at least there was no more need to hide it. The unfortunate news was that he could not continue learning it. Regardless though, she seemed to apologize to him for coming off as “rude”. Eh, strong perhaps, but nothing about her reaction was too unreasonable. Still though, it was not like he’d try to restrict her from her speech. Apparently her reason to do that was to prevent an accident from happening… That was not something he did not believe. A few seconds ago, his ears detected that she was going to end up getting hurt if he did it so close to her. Seems like she was trying to cover up that fact, for some reason. No need to call her out on it though, so he’d play along.

The latter reasoning was actually true. It was a risk he was willing to take, but for her sake if not his own, he’d stop. Getting people hurt was the last thing he wanted, which was why he needed as minimal population as he could obtain. This served to be a difficult task, since hiding it from one set of eyes served to be an impossibility. After her explanation, he’d place the tip of his right finger against his chin, processing all that he had heard for a little bit. Once that was done, that same hand would ball up, sticking a thumb up to show her that it was all fine. Both his eyes would close, lips brought up to a genuine smile. Nothing too extreme, but a casual one. But just to hopefully bring things to light, he’d reach his free left hand into his bag to look for his favorite snack, spicy chips. Having damaged taste buds, spicy things were all that he had to offer. He’d gently reach the bag out to her, shrugging as he gave her an offer to have it. It was not much, and maybe she’d prefer a sweet such as chocolate. Andre never saw how anyone could like such a thing, since he could not taste sweets, and chocolate by far had the weirdest texture.