<hr/><div class="floatleft">(http://i.imgur.com/gfXiZgF.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Salem Summers<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Salem's Dorm, then the halls outside of Gabriel's Dorm<br/><strong>Date/Time:</strong>Sept. 2nd, 5:40 pm<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Gabriel Summers<br/><strong>Content:</strong>Salem hears the story of her parents. She is emotionless about it, absolutely numb.<br/><strong>wearing:</strong>Emma's clothing here (http://i.imgur.com/cK6kfyx.jpg) - Also these shoes with dark black leggings (http://i.imgur.com/4Em0Q3S.jpg) - And her signature glasses of course.<br/><hr/>Salem felt herself relaxing, but she knew not to let that feeling take over. There was plenty left to get through in this orientation meeting that was feeling more and more like an acid trip every second. To keep herself sharp, she just focused on her breath and paid attention. It felt good to have the power behind her glasses again. That constant laser was part of her body at this point.<br/><br/>She nodded and smiled when Gabriel said that she had an interesting power.<em> ‘He basically said I have an interesting power.’</em>There wasn’t much she could say to that. For the most part, she didn’t really know what he meant. Salem’s optic blast had always just been that to her. She knew how to stop it, to close her eyes or wear something. She knew how to control it with the aid of her visor. But, she didn’t really understand what the hell it was.<em>‘A mutation.’ </em>That had always been enough. And it still was. The next part required some feedback on her end though,<strong>“No, no harm done.” </strong><br/><br/>She smiled at him, an honest one. It would be hard to tell for him, which smile was real and which one was fake. Every expression had a crimson mask on it still. The mask she had just been too afraid to let go of,<strong> “Everything’s good. And yes. Americans say yuhp, yes, yeah, uh-hu, of course, sure, indeed, ok...” </strong>Salem paused.<strong> “They all sort of mean the same thing in that context. Try to use ‘Yes’ as often as possible. It’s proper.”</strong>She was already playing the big sister before she’d heard the story. But that was about to change.<br/><br/>As soon as Gabriel went into the story, Salem braced herself. She gripped the arms of the table, she steadied herself and straightened her back. But as the story went on, she just soaked in the information. Each word came in, got recorded permanently, at least roughly, and then sat there. Each segment added building blocks together. The structure continued to build, and that was all. She was made of stone. It was the last thing she expected. Salem had never imagined anything this horrible, this bizarre, this alien. It was fantastic, it was too unreal. She knew it was true though, there was a blunt quality to Gabriel’s tone that only someone who was certain of what they were saying could have. Still, Salem remained an emotional shell. Her smile faded, her face was still. There were no tears falling from behind her glasses. Her hands even loosened their grip on the chair. Her back eased out of it’s tension. She almost looked bored.<br/><br/>She’d heard it all, and she was absolutely empty about it.<strong>“Huh.”</strong><br/><br/><strong>“I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t believe you or anything…” </strong>Salem leaned back in her chair and put her left hand up to her temple. Exhaling with some force she tried to let it sink in.<strong>“It sounds like I need to learn more about Sha’ir” </strong>She still couldn’t pronounce it correctly, but she was trying.<br/><strong><br/>“Maybe we can… do the orientation thing now?” </strong>she chuckled at herself, still trying to reel it all in, she felt unnatural. Salem knew she was doing the wrong thing, but she didn’t know what the right thing was. Even if she did, she would have almost no chance of pulling it off.