<span style="font-family: 'Georgia'">If he had nothing else, Noah seemed to have superpowers aplenty working overtime to give him a ridiculously high metabolism. Shiloh remembered that appetite. No doubt if he put his mind to it, he could have still put away an entire eighteen-inch pizza all on his own. The pair had spent many a study session together on a bedroom floor, going through bags and boxes of snacks like nothing, though the redhead had made far more of a dent. Shy had always sequestered his own, just to keep his smaller portions from getting sucked into the bottomless pit that was Noah's stomach. In that regard, it seemed that not much had changed. He had to wonder if the potentially volatile nature of Noah's abilities had something to do with his need to consume calories. The body needed to compensate for the rapid burn of energy somehow - in this case, by devouring cinnamon buns the size of a man's head.<br/>
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"Mechanical," he replied at length, looking up from the crime scene that was Noah's pastry. "I've always liked building stuff. Studying. Making things better. I guess that's why I'm alright with entry-level R&amp;D. IT's not super impressive or anything, but I'm hoping it'll look good on applications for grad school scholarships." He offered a small, hopeful smile. Going for another degree seemed so far away, not to mention unlikely. He was in absolutely no position to fund classes out of pocket, not to mention the fact that he had no idea how to manage working full-time and taking classes on top. But he could only focus on one problem at a time. Securing the scholarship came first. Everything else would follow.<br/>
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Hopefully.<br/>
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"Enough about that," he said, flapping a dismissive hand. "That's pretty much all I have going on anyway. You're all caught up." Shiloh hated talking about himself. It had as much to do with feelings of inadequacy when compared with Noah, he supposed, as it had to do with an unwillingness to bare his soul. "So what's next for you? I know there are probably things you can't really tell me, but I'm curious. It's been... what, five years now?"<br/>
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Programs were very secretive. He had no way of knowing why, of course, but he could have wagered a guess or two. With the kind of reputation they had to uphold, they had a lot to protect. Shiloh had to consciously repress his longstanding feelings of envy, that he might remember to be hopeful for his high school friend. Best friend? Were they best friends anymore? He wasn't sure what the rules were if best friends went years without any contact. Without updates or texts over Christmas or even an email every so often.<br/>
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On that topic, Shiloh was quite uninformed. Not much had changed since high school, in the sense that he had a very difficult time forming and understanding close connections. Outside of Noah, he hadn't had any close friends. Owing to an introverted personality and general shyness, he hadn't even dated much as a teen and had only just begun attempting it again as an adult. People in high school tended not to date the brainiac, much less the boys Shy had been interested in. Usually jocks. After growing into himself, though he maintained a degree of standoffishness and awkwardness, he had had better luck, though he had yet to find anything that stuck. Not that he had time for anything to stick.</span>