Winter Solace [closed;ice]

"Head to the academy to check up on how it is doing in the aftermath of the destruction Argona's Force set upon it several months ago."

It was a basic objective that would have been assigned to lower-ranked members of the group, but he had been told to specifically request it due to his operator's current condition - inflicted with a hangover and unable to function properly from consuming a large amount of alcohol at a popular nightclub in Paris. As a result, working on an easier assignment had proved to be most efficient as he took up wearing the Sofia uniform once more. An approximate estimation told him it would take a mere fifteen minutes if he utilized the highest point on the campus to his advantage and read the wind rather than surveying the entire school by walking to check up on each individual place; if he had done so, going at a quick pace, it would be 2.37 hours at the very least. The commands to limit any and all social interactions rung in an infinite loop within his mind.

Snowflakes fell from the dreary, gray skies above in their feathery, crystalline forms, the ones that held a weak, sixfold symmetry in its most common type. For the winter season, it would continue on-and-off for about thirty-four days with an average of forty-six inches of snow for the year. The clouds told him that it would fall harder for the day once it grew dark, but that didn't really matter. Taking a seat on the bench, he closed his eyes, focusing on the air that encompassed the world. Students spoke of homework and many assignments consistently while teachers seemed to say little about the incident from the past, focusing more on their next lesson plans. The buildings themselves had been repaired to perfection. So the school's destruction seemed to be of no concern at the time-being. Argona had already punished those who had partaken in it for acting out of their place, and the group moved back into its usual routine, with their next move unknown.  

Graham Sinclaire promptly disappeared after being disciplined on his insubordination. Warren Parks betrayed the Force and killed Aster Barnes and Riley Schutzhauer in the process. Many more similar incidents took place.

His escort back to headquarters would not be arriving for 1.649 hours. He had nothing to do while he bid his time outside of the essential functions to continue living. Half-lidded green eyes focused on the snow-covered roof floor below him, staring blankly as he placed his hands on his lap for no particular reason without the visor to cover them. Frosty wafts of air came with each of his shallow breaths, a delicate fae-like figure who was frozen with no sense of time, each second and minute the same as the last. The viriscent bed of hair obscured his feminine face before he tilted it upward, the words soft and inaudible as they nimbly passed his lips, weaving together a quiet melody with no feelings.

"真っ暗になった心は森のようで / その先に微かに見える不確かな進むべき道 / 教えて…"

Walking up the stairwell with his metal leg making a 'clank' type noise against the metallic stairs, Jake opened the door that led to the roof and burst of cold, snow filled air smacked him in the face. Wearing his school uniform, the navy blue sweater that he had over his shirt wasn't the warmest thing to be standing on a snowy roof in, but he would manage. Stuffing his hands into his pockets, Jake let out a sigh, his misty breath disappearing into the brisk air. Boy, was gloomy weather just the greatest.

Walking over the to the section of the roof that wasn't fully protected by the tall fence that guarded most of it, he noticed that the rooftop was pretty much empty, being that every other sane student preferred to stay inside, probably snuggling next to their special someone. While he would've loved to have been doing that instead of standing in the snow alone, Jake was too exhausted for even that. With Maria being... well, with Maria having some recent issues, he felt as if all of his heart and soul had been poured into looking over her. It wasn't that he didn't like hanging out with her, but a bitchy girl to begin with, plus a bitchy girl in her predicament, let's just say no matter how hard he tried to be nice (like normal friends were) and care for her, she wasn't in the greatest of moods (not like she ever was) to accept his assistance.

So here he was, the man of steel (literally), overworked and overwhelmed. Besides the few times where he'd gotten in a spar and battled it out, he'd never felt this emotionally and physically drained. Schoolwork, exams, working out at the gym on a regular basis, and looking after Maria was starting to take a toll on the 'oh so tough' teen, although it wasn't like he was like he was ever going to admit that to anyone.

Listening to the soft winter breeze that made the leafless trees whisper, Jake lifted a hand out of his pocket, revealing a small metal lighter resting in his palm. Reaching into one of his back pockets, the Autumn then popped a cigarette that had a little green leaf tattooed on it into his mouth. Barely holding onto it with his teeth, he cuffed a hand over it. Clicking his thumb against the lighter trigger, he kept attempting to light the joint until the tip of his thumb was numb, but soon enough, a small flame emitted from the metal flask. Slowly lifting it to the cigarette so that the tiny fire wouldn't get blown out from the wind, he lit the butt. Sucking in and letting the green leafed substance flow down his throat, Jake shoved the lighter back into his pocket.

With the feeling of peaceful pleasure slowly seeping over him, he put his arms against the railing and looked out onto the school grounds. Of course he'd been slightly worried about being caught at first, but now that he was here and it was most likely that no guardian or prefect was going to come around, he could care less. Besides, he's already lit it, thus there was no going back now. Letting out a smokey breath, the tall student jumped when he heard something shuffle around not too far away from him. Shit, so much for not getting caught.

Having failed to notice the green haired person that had been sitting on a bench to the left of him, Jake turned his head so that he was looking down towards the bo-girl...? From where he was, he couldn't tell if it was a female or male, and thinking about it left him confused, and the fact that they were wearing a slightly different uniform left the Autumn even more confused, but he shrugged it off. Maybe he'd ask questions later. Sticking the smoke between his index and middle finger, he continued to lean on the railing, but didn't let his gaze leave the other person. What in the world were they doing out here in this weather, and why did they look so... dazed? Maybe they were a little high as well? Although by the looks of it, they didn't seem to be the druggy type, and were probably the prissy type instead. Well, who ever they were, man, woman, stoned or not, he just hoped that they weren't here to rat him out. If they were, they had another thing coming and he'd make sure to teach them a lesson or two about being a tattletale.

"Yo," the deep voiced student spoke after more than enough awkward silence between the two. Not being a very good conversationalist, he wondered what the hell was he supposed to say now. Offer them a smoke? Nah, he wasn't going to waste his goods on them, or at least until he knew their motives. "You must be as crazy as I am if you're out in this weather," Jake added with a slight chuckle at the end. Popping the cigarette back in his mouth but still holding onto it with his fingers, he sucked in a breath and after a few moments, let it out and watched as the misty substance drifted away with the wind. At least the breeze ensured that the smell of his greens were less likely to be discovered.

A student had came from the stairway and taken a place on the roof as well. He had hear him coming as he tracked the entire campus; most seemed to be staying indoors and the few who were lingering outside were ready to give in and head back towards warmth. It was peculiar that someone was willingly heading up to the top of the school when it was below freezing point. But that didn't matter too much. Questioning others' motives and understanding what they were attempting to accomplish was something he was forbidden from learning about. Before the person opened the door and entered the field of white, he shut his mouth and stopped mid-way through the phrase, lowering his own gaze back to the floor. She would be angry if she heard him singing again, and he wasn't sure why he had done so in the first place.

Without looking, he could tell the newcomer was tall. The rough estimate would be 200 centimeters, and with more precision, 198.120 centimeters was his final conclusion. Disheveled hair with a sturdy, muscular build in conjunction with a six-pack, most likely. This stranger had a metal leg, it seemed. The logical reasoning behind it would be that he was an amputee and lost his leg in an accident or that he had been careless and ended up having to remove it from a fight. Considering the category the boy matched, it would be the stereotypical "bad boy" type, making battles particularly common. He was smoking, the valley of ashes spilling into the air and filling his senses.

The taller, faceless man had noticed him. Perhaps he should've been more cautious about allowing any sound being pinpointed towards his general vicinity. What had been a short silence was immediately broken when the Beata student had sauntered over, using a typical ice-breaker to start a conversation. "..." He knew better than to try and give any sort of response. Talking to others was something he wasn't allowed to do. He didn't understand why the older boy chuckled and ignored the attempts to hold any kind of discussion, though he made no move to edge away either.

... So this person was Jake C. Baxter, bearer of the gift known as mechanical transformation.

Continuing to look out onto the peaceful school grounds with his mind foggier than usual, Jake waited for the person to speak, but the only thing he got in reply was silence. Letting out a smokey and misty breath, Jake placed the cigarette between his figures once more. No one ignored him like that, especially when it they weren't even a foot away from him. Turning his gaze down to the person and shifting his stance so that he leaned against the bar with one arm, he tilted his head to the side, his eyes boring through the other kid. It wasn't like he cared that much about chatting with this oddly perplexed character, but people like this royally pissed him off, even when he didn't know the true reason behind their quietness. Besides, he'd already been on edge for the last few days, and while the wonderful feeling from his smoke always managed to help him relax a bit, it didn't mean that he wasn't able to become easily annoyed.

Taking in one last satisfying breath of the wonderfully sweet cigarette, he grabbed the end of it that had been in his mouth and pressed the tip of it against the metal bar. Keeping it pushed against the surface, Jake twisting it side to side snuffing out the remaining heat, and watched as a small stream of smoke rose from the ashes. Flicking the small joint over the railing so that it would fall a couple of stories and into the snow below, he brushed off the small pile of grey flakes from the bar and turned back to look at the student. That little prick, thinking sh-he... was good enough to ignore him.

"Hey, I was talking to you, buddy," he muttered, taking a couple steps towards the green haired person so that he stood in front of them. "What, too good to talk to me?" observing the white uniform, he thought that he recognized it from somewhere... Sofia, that was where it was from, or so he thought that was it. But why the hell was this kid wearing a Sofia uniform here? Was he just plain stupid? Probably. Not to mention the fact that he couldn't tell if this person was a boy or a girl (although Jake was leaning towards classifying them as male), he must have been one troubled kid. Then again, a plus to this confusion was that it left open a whole other realm for Jake to cross the line in when picking on the student.

"You and your prissy little uniform, do you think you're special or somethin'?" the tall student snapped. Getting no response, Jake leaned forward so that he wasn't so far away from the kid (seeing that his height put a bit of distance between him and the bench), and flicked the green kid's head with a finger, quickly drawing back his hand to his side, just in case. "Come on, say something, you little prick," he hissed and lightly tapped the palm of his hand against the person's head, still leaning a somewhat close to the solemn kid. The Autumn's irritated behavior was somewhat sudden and wasn't anything like how he'd been acting for the past couple of weeks, but given the state he was in, he really didn't give a crap about his behavior.

At this point, Jake might as well have wrote a book, "How to be a stoned bully 101."

While the other boy continued to shift around, playing with the cylindrical tobacco leaves in his fingers before quitting with its usage, he never turned his head to find out what exactly Jake was doing nor did he bat an eyelid in the direction. He didn't need to - he could tell from what the wind was whispering to him -, and he continued to stare at absolutely nothing and no one in particular, like a porcelain doll waiting for someone to pick it up and toy around with it whenever they passed by. The psychoactive device the Beata student had been using plopped into the ocean of white below, joining the snowflakes in their cascade from on high. It wasn't anything more than a simple observation, his mind wired to think nothing more of it nor to judge anyone's actions or emotions.

Yet, he didn't comprehend the tone of Jake's voice as he spoke again, coming closer to his general vicinity with a glare. From how his phrases and sentences were pieced together, the main assumption would be that the taller person was attempting to provoke him, but why exactly, he wasn't sure. He didn't flinch with the aggression and no reaction came when Jake made physical contact with him, as though he had completely shut down, unable to process his surroundings or anything taking place.

A large hand placed itself on his forehead, blocking his eyes and tilted his head upward as the presence only continued to inch forward. Breaths that didn't belong to him lingered, slowed and warm, something expected from any human. The lack of personal space didn't bother him; he didn't have any in the first place.

Jake was commanding him to say something. Wordlessly, his lips parted, scarcely open, before they closed once again. He wasn't allowed to speak, but he was being told to right then and there. Out of the blue, in the midst of the silence, a single term fell. Faintly, he replied, his voice monotonous and effeminate, "... Something."

"Something."

Jake was about ready to punch the kid all the way to Timbuktu. Well, never mind punching when he could blast him all the way there. Pivoting on a foot to ever so slightly expand the distance between the two, the Autumn clenched his fist, lifted an arm, and pointed it straight at the person's forehead. Within seconds, the flesh and bone was platted with a thick, protective layer of metal and his once clenched fist had transformed into a gun type weapon, but the type that didn't fire regular bullets, and instead blasted a ray of some sort of light beam that disintegrated objects.

Being one of the "futuristic" types of weapons that you'd see in movies or video games, the gun took a few moments to "warm up," and inside of it, there was a blue light kept growing brighter and brighter as it prepared itself, emitting a soft humming noise that continued to get ever so slightly louder. "You little..." he spoke between gritted teeth, breathing heavily and standing as still as a statue as he held his transformed arm up to the kid's head. The little brat, did this person not know who he was, and did they have a death wish? Probably.

While Jake wasn't himself from the dry, green leaves that he'd just smoked and already having been fatigued, holding a gun to the stranger's head showed that he was obviously not thinking straight, and the longer he stood there, ready to blow his head off, the more he started to think about what he was so very close to doing. 'I can kill this kid, no big deal. One less idiot on the earth, I'm doing everyone a service!' He reassured himself, his arm growing shaky from keeping it still for so long. This person, whoever the hell they were, had thought that they'd be able to best the taller student, but no one got the better of him without consequences, he was Jake fucking Baxter for God's sake!

But damn, who was he kidding, he wasn't a killer. Yeah, he could be a jerk at times, but he wasn't going to kill this kid, no  matter how tempting and oddly easy it would be to end them here and now.

Relaxing his tense muscles and letting his mechanic arm fall to his side, Jake took a wobbly step back so that he wasn't so close to the kid. "You got lucky this time," he mumbled under his breath, though it came out a bit louder than he'd hoped. Adjusting the collar of his jacket, he made his way back over the railing and leaned on it once more, not allowing his gaze to leave the green haired weirdo, just in case they tried anything funny.

Slightly turning his head towards the student, but not enough to look too obvious, Jake let out a huff. "You're weird, did ya know that?" he muttered, his head having became more fuzzy and groggy than it was a few minutes before. Having only smoked a small amount of his joint, the effects of the dopamine that usually caused a longer high started slowing down earlier and even though he'd just been acting like a total lunatic, now he felt as if someone had placed a sandbag on his head.

"Nah, I bet you're too dumb to realize anything like that," the deep voiced Autumn added and looked back to the courtyard, not expecting an answer. Snowing slightly heavier than it had been when he'd first arrived on the rooftop, most of the grounds and shrubbery were now fully covered in a light blanket of snow, but for the time being, Jake didn't really notice the drop in weather, nor did he have the right mind to care.

Oh, he made Jake angry somehow. That didn't make sense; he did exactly what he was told. Before he could begin questioning the reasoning behind the other boy's actions, a barrel had formed from the taller man's arm, pointing cleanly at the top of his own head, a weapon that he impassively responded to. It wasn't the same as the firearms that he had grown accustomed to seeing, but it was nothing special. From how it seemed to work, the insides heated up and eventually fired a ray that possibly functioned off something similar to a fusion core. Nuclear power and radioactivity were likely, though the chance that radiation would affect either of them and hinder their physical capabilities in the future were minimal. Whichever way it ended up, it didn't matter too much to him.

The hastened, terse breaths of the student standing in front of him could only be the consequence of the drug he was using mere moments ago. As the metal continued to burn, rapidly accelerating to scorching temperatures, one would've expected him to start sweating or nervously trying to move away from the line of fire, but he did neither. He didn't need to - Jake would miss no matter what and the attack would backfire despite which way and when he pulled the trigger. But then, Jake was trembling in his own skin, hesitating and one second passed. And another. And one more. He didn't let it go yet. More than a minute had gone away with the wind by that point, and the metal transformer hadn't done anything besides threaten to shoot.

...

. . .

.  .  .

Before going through with what he said, he had backed down, choosing to move aside. Dark eyes bored into him, but it wasn't anything different from what he had known. People stared often. He couldn't care why they did. The words Jake spoke were strange, as though they were of a foreign language despite being explicitly English. Was it the way that they were said that was throwing him off? No matter how it came off, the literal meaning was still the same. But he couldn't figure out what exactly Jake had meant. It was less that he was lucky and more that Jake didn't want to shoot - why that was, he couldn't figure out either. Nobody in Argona's Force would be reluctant to kill, despite the situation or circumstances. A death was a death. That was how it worked.  

Silence overwhelmed the scenery again, blanketing the rooftop with only the crystalline flakes and his voice was drowned out by the passing, eternal wind. "You're... not shooting?" Jake's arm hadn't reverted back to normal yet. He must still be considering it. His gaze averted, glancing at his feet, the ones minimally shuffling within the snow. What did he mean that he was too dumb to realize it? Realize what?

After who knows how long of silence, Jake snapped his head down to the the kid as soon as he made a peep. So, he could talk, that was nice to know. But he still didn't understand why the person didn't choose to speak until now, especially when he'd been so close to death like that. This guy was obviously anything but normal, and probably explained why he'd been up on the roof all alone.

Why didn't he shoot? Even Jake himself couldn't answer that question. It should've been an easy and quick task, and while the Autumn usually didn't pay much attention to the angel on his shoulder, he still knew better than to kill in cold blood, even if the buzz in his brain tried to persuade him otherwise. "It's not worth it; wasting that much energy on you," he started flatly with a shrug, looking down to the kid. "Besides, you don't seem like the person to deserve relief from life so quickly," he stated plainly. Looking down to his arm that was still transformed into the blaster-canon-gun-thing, Jake let out a sigh and within seconds, the limb was back to looking normal.

Out of nowhere, a swift winter breeze smacked him in the face, sending sharp little snowflakes to pelt his skin. Letting out an annoyed grunt, the tall student adjusted the collar of his jacket so that it stood up around his neck. Stupid winter, it was always so cold and gloomy. Well, it definitely explained why they chose to name the Winter house after the dim season...

"You don't seem to be from around here," Jake commented, observing the white Sofia uniform. Wearing the Europe attire in the American School, yet another reason to accuse him of being a weirdo. "So why are you here?" the low voiced student asked, raising a brow, although he quickly realized that he probably shouldn't have asked, seeing that he most likely wasn't going to receive an answer. But then again, the kid had finally spoken a few moments ago, so anything was possible, right?

So it was about energy efficiency. The fact that Jake had mutated his arm into the machine in the first place and charged up the attack only to not do anything with it after a prolonged amount of time seemed wasteful in itself. It didn't seem like that was necessarily the correct reason as to why someone would not attack... what was the word to describe the inadequate explanation given here? He couldn't remember the term for some reason. There was little point in dwelling on a minor situation that no longer needed to be addressed, even more so considering that the other boy had already put the weapon away and the immediate threat was dealt with.

Relief from life. His eyes only wandered further away from seeing the Beata student's figure, the almost imperceptible movements his feet were making beforehand ceasing. Hands previously resting in stillness on his lap intertwined with one another, fingers overlapping like threads weaving onto one another. As though he were going to speak, his lips scarcely parted, a very shaky breath escaping as he completely froze up. Words such as those shouldn't affect him. They were nothing of particular importance. They weren't anything more than words. He coughed a few times, cheeks flushed red from the cold. Ah, she wouldn't approve if he got sick again.

Jake's observation was correct. He wasn't from the United States, let alone a student that was part of the student body at the campus they were on. "Confidential," he responded softly in between coughs, nestling the lower portion of his face further into his scarf. The current time was approximately 16:37 PM. Temperatures would continue to drop as night fell, the sun already hidden behind the mountains.

Wow, he'd gotten another reply. At least they were making some sort of progress.

"Confidential?" Jake echoed softly, raising a brow. Was this kid a secret agent or something? He was starting to get sick of all of the one word replies, and while half of him wanted to punch the kid, the other half started to realize that maybe their was actually something mentally wrong with the guy. Don't judge a book by its cover, right? Wrong. Although staying silent, Jake was judging the kid like there was no tomorrow, and if someone asked him to speak his mind, he wouldn't even know where to begin, well, it wasn't like it really mattered which aspect of the person he picked apart first.

"Confidential," he stated with a firm nod, verifying the word as if he didn't know what it meant. "So are you some sort of secret service agent or somethin'?" the tall student prodded in a teasing sort of way. If the green haired student said yes, Jake wouldn't be able to hold it in anymore and was probably either going to burst out laughing or hit the kid upside the head, though either way didn't really matter to him. "Here to spy on the school, gather info, assassinate some bad behaving students?" Jake chuckled, unknowing that his random and unlikely guess was not as farfetched as he thought.

"..." There was a sort of strange air to the words that Jake spoke. They weren't spoken in the normal sense that they were exactly what he meant, but rather, something different. He couldn't put his finger on it. The words were simply just words, and that was all there was to it. It was unlikely that they had another meaning hidden beneath them. Whatever it was, he couldn't process it properly to give a more desirable response, instead, fumbling with his gloved fingers silently as his body was stricken with another hacking fit, unable to stop trembling and counteracting his natural instincts any longer. The weather was bitter, and while he had the means to make his surroundings warmer, he couldn't do anything about it.

He was about to open his mouth once again to speak, but a command repeated itself on loop within his mind. Limit any and all interactions possible. Don't talk to anyone. Almost hesitantly, he bit his lip, opting to shake his head to convey 'no'. This is an order, and you know what happens when you disobey. Speaking anymore would break the limit, and he couldn't break that. An order was an order. That was that. Making her angry was not something that he should do. It was something that he couldn't do. And leaking secrets to a faceless student at the academy was another prohibited action by the Force. Taking his leave would be most efficient towards carrying out the given instructions.

Shakily, he stood up, legs weak as though he were a newborn fawn getting up to take its first steps, one hand reaching towards the fence to keep balance, grasping the metal wires as a crutch. His fingers reached around his neck feebly, pulling slightly at the scarf woven tightly around to give himself more air to breath, taking caution not to pull it off completely and keeping it on enough that most of his neck was still hidden.

As expected, he didn't get a reply, and he wondered why he'd ever thought otherwise. Letting out an annoyed sigh, Jake kept an eyebrow raised as he watched the kid get up from where he sat. Now that he stood up, the green haired person looked even more weak and frail. "Looks like someone didn't listen to mommy and drink their milk," the tall student chuckled aloud, still leaning against the railing and keeping an eye on the pipsqueak. What a weirdo.

God, you're useless without any help.

Leaning cautiously onto the fence, his fingers shakily reached into his pockets, at first pulling out the container of pills before shoving them back in. He shook his head, eyes closed, and took a deep breath. His earphones clung to his flesh, playing sounds that were indistinguishable to anyone else. Sweet whispering that lulled the consciousness to power off and shut down in place of another. A laugh, dark and waspish, before his hands curled into fists, straightening up with a smirk to lock eye-to-eye with Jake, folding his arms across his chest. The student was big, but the bigger they are, the harder they fall, as the saying goes. His posture reeked of confidence, a dangerous luster within entranced eyes, voice low and whispy with a much more clear intonation to them.

He pinched the bridge of his nose before releasing an exasperated sigh. "At least I didn't kill my parents, metalhead," he started, casually making no movements with his body as he contemplated a few things, air pressure crashing down onto Jake's body and restricting him like shackles. "Oh wait." Sneering as he pushed off the back of the fence, taking a few steps towards Jake. Any minute now and the pressure would cause him to fall onto his knees.

Once that was done, he bent down himself, lifting Jake's chin up to make sure he was looking where he should be. "I probably shouldn't insult you anymore since I'm afraid I can't do as well as nature did." Being able to freely do what he could do here without any witnesses was more than fun. He placed the tip of his finger on Jake's lips, hushing his voice to nothing more than a whisper. "Be careful with who you mess with, big boy. Don't want me to accidentally poison you now, do you?"

Before Jake knew what was going on or was able to react, a large amount of pressure was put on his shoulders and he was pushed down to his knees with the green haired kid standing over him. What the Hell was going on? Unlike a few moments ago, the strange kid didn't seem so meek and helpless anymore, and a grin was on his face. Looks like Mr. Shy wasn't as shy as he'd appeared to be.

Jake was all for a little tussle, well, until the brat insulted him for killing his parents. How did he even know about that? "For your information, I only killed one of my parents," he smirked back, still not fully in the right mind to realize the threat that the kid posed or to get too angry at him for bringing his parents into it. Poison him? At this point he didn't really give a crap if he got poisoned. It wasn't like he had anything in life going for him and the only thing that was able to give him joy was the wonderful buzz that came from smoking weed, and it wasn't like anyone was going to really miss him.

"You're just full of surprises, ain't ya?" the tall student laughed. In most cases he would've rose to the challenge, seeing that he always enjoyed a good fight, but today he wasn't really feeling it, and so he sat there on his knees, smiling a crazy smile back up to the other student and waiting for something to happen. Maybe he'd be killed right here and now, or maybe he'd been given mercy. Either way, he was willing to except what ever was to come.

Callum straightened up, giving a nonchalant shrug to Jake. "A kill is a kill. No point dancing around who or how many you killed." That was pretty obvious. It still didn't change the fact that he did kill a parent, only verifying his statement in the first place. Not that he needed the validation - he already knew what happened in the far, far past and what happened as of late. Collecting that sort of information was just part of the job, and not being able to do it spelled out failure in more ways than one. Strumming his fingers against the side of his arm, he took a seat on the bench once again, crossing his legs over one another without relinquishing his hold on the metal transformer. No sort of begging would have gotten him to stop, and from the looks of it, Jake wasn't going to be trying to fight back anyway.

Full of surprises? Oh? Not exactly what he would've called it, but it wasn't the first time he'd received that sort of response. How cute. He was laughing and smiling as if he was okay with this. Wasn't this the kid who loved to pick a fight all the time? Ah, no wait. That was the other tall, dark-haired Soundman. Either way, they were pretty similar in a few ways, so it didn't matter. No point in over-analyzing something that didn't need it. This certainly wasn't worth the effort, and it didn't need any effort anyway. "What's wrong? You look like you just swallowed a cockroach..." Callum paused for a few moments, mocking a contemplative look. "Never mind, you always look like that."

There are approximately 7 trillion nerves in the human body, and it was a rather enjoyable hobby of his to get on each and every one of them.