Snapshots of the World.

[jessica2008]

Lately after graduation, Antonia has been distracted with the past events in her life. Living with her brother was fun and all but she was just tired of his constant want to watch over her. She was 18 now and done with school. She was feeling crowded in her own home.

So early today she had decided to get out of the house and get out in the world around her. She hadn't been out in a while. The walls of her rooms were beginning to make her depressed. She got up and got dressed. Today she had on black hip huggers that were low cute and a black fluffy sweater that was unbuttoned in the front. She had on a blue low v cut sleeveless shirt that tied behind her neck. Her hair was done in the loose curls the way she always styles her hair. She had on her gold locket on that was her mom's.

Antonia always loved the world and the nature at its normal state. She felt so bad for neglecting one of her favorite hobbies that her and her dad both share. She had her camera pointed at a opening between a few trees that had the ocean in the background with the sunsetting. It was the best site she has seen in a long time. She bent down to get a better look at scene and aimed the camera to take her picture.

[soda]

Soda had woken up late. Last night he went to bed at about 3:00 AM, does that count as last night? Or this morning? Technicallities weren't really Soda's main concern at the moment though, so he pushed that thought from his head. He stretched out and forced hismelf to sit up, his spine cracked. Ouch. He yawned and got up, wandered over to his closet, grabbed a pair of old jeans that were torn at the knees and fit perfectly. Hr grabbed a belt, slid it on and entacgled the chain his cousin had given him years ago on it. He grabbed a band shirt: Rancid, good band, might as well advertise. He slipped on some socks, his Doc Martin boots and tossed on a sweater. He walked out of his room, oh he was at his other place. The house he shared, shocker, he thought he would end up at the hut. No matter, he made it somewhere alive and well.

He walked out side, went around the side of the large house and grabbed his bike, motor cycle, whatever. He jumped on, gas. He burst off, where was he going? He had no idea. All he knew was the sun was going down, the clubs, bars, and any place of value wouldn't be open with decent people until at least 9:00. He drove along, heading to the cold beach, why the beach? Who the Hell wants to go to the beach in the middle of winter? He shook his head, his hair was short but messy, sticking up. You could mistake him from the back as a messed up Sid Vicious, great. He had Sex Pistol hair. He skidded the bike to a stop, and got off. He wandered out onto the sand. The Soles of his boots collecting it and then releasing, with every step. Keeping the rhythm.

He wandered down, staring out at the sun as it started to sink down. Though, his mind wasn't on the sun it was more concerned about what he was going to do tonight. He had three hundred bucks to spend in one sitting, and he didn't want to spend it on himself. That would be selfish, he smirked. He was in his own little daze. He glanced to the side, at that moment a flash glared him in the eyes. His eyes started spazzing. Zooming in and out, trying to X-Ray the ground and night vision makes the lighting worse when the sun is still up, even a little. He ran his hands over them, "Ah, Je- Ouch!" He growled. After a moment, he got them under control, he sighed and glanced at the girl who had taken the picture.

"You should be careful with that thing, man ... chick." He took in a deep calming breath and then gave her a good look, he zoomed in on her face. Pretty, not worth his lectures, you can imagine how much this happened to him. He had a list of things to avoid, camera flashes, strobe lights, and even some video games. He smirked at her, "Sorry, That wasn't you. That was me. Should be paying attention to where I am walking. He made his eyes go to their normal state and he looked out of the sun. He took a few steps back. "You can ... uh ... take your picture. I won't ruin this time. The name is Soda by the way."

[jessica2008]

After she pushed on the trigger on her camera and the flash went off, she felt something weird almost a shocking tingling feeling in her. She closed her eyes and shook it off. 'Alright that was weird....' She thought to herself. She looked down at the camera and flipped to see if she got the picture and she had. But there was a leg in it. Luckily it was fixable on the computer. She started to stand up slowly. She snapped back into reality when she heard a deep voice.

She looked up and saw the guy. She gave him a small innocent smile as her deep brown eyes gazed over the guy's eyes. "Sorry, Soda... And don't worry about that I got my picture that I wanted." She said in a small and innocent voice. "I really didn't see you if I had I would have given you a warning of some sort." She said as she walked over to him. She let her camera hang on her neck.

The sun was completely down now and the cold breeze began to float off of the ocean. But she was not cold so the breeze felt good against the skin on her neck and her face. She looked down slightly for a moment and with her free hand tucked an annoying strand of her hair behind her ear revealing a gold hoop and rhinestone studies up her ear. She looked back up at him and smiled widely and brightly showing her straight teeth. "I am Antonia." She said as she held her hand out between them so he could shake her hand if he wanted too.

She could not help but look at his eyes. They were different. She didn't not know why or even why she could not help but look at them. She knew he was around her brother's age. 'Maybe he knows him... I highly doubt that my brother is such a hermit.' she thought to herself as she waited for his reply. 'hmmm I wonder what his story is or who he is. And hello how come i have never met him before!' She said to herself as she quickly checked out how he was built and what he looked like. She then looked back at his face and then over his eyes again.

[soda]

[Sorry it is short. I am about to pass out ]

Soda smirked at her, his teeth not cracking through his lips. He gazed at her, glancing out to the water, watching the top of the sun disappear into the water. He shivered, as the cold breeze ran off of the water. He shook the feeling though, he didn't have heating at his house, well, at his oprigional house. So he was used to having a drafty air around him when he didn't want it there. His vision switched onot it's night vision. He could see perfectly, as if the sun was at it's highest point, only things were tinted differently and obviously there was no sun. He gave her a nodd. "Good. You a photographer? I mean, a proffessional, or this just a hobby?" He asked, he wasn't afraid to just dive into questions, as long as they weren't personnal or anything. He knew better.

Some how he had learned talking about peoples pasts could be awkward and far from intriguing. Besides, he knew how to talk to girls, well, girls in general. But everyone is different, you just need ot learn their spin on things and then you got them. He watched her for a moment, "Well it is very nice to meet you. Can I call you An? Or Toni? What ever you prefer?" He said, forming it into a question, people didn't like being locked into being polite. Give them a chance to bend the rules and it will work ut better in the end. He ran a hand through his messy hair and gazed off to the side. He then looked back at her, she was staring at his eyes? Captivating kid this was, was she not? He looked down at his feet as she looked at something else.

"So, one question. It's the middle of winter, and this is a beach. Now, I know I can be strange, but what is a charming girl like your self doing in this dead weight of a land anyway?" He asked, tightening his seater zipper a little bit. He kicked some sand off of his shoes and glanced to the side, he watched a squirrell run from one tree branch to anouther, circling up the tree. Something only someone with this defined of vision would be able to see, at least see clearly and relize it was a squirell. He could see how its fur was pure grey, it had a chestnut in it's mouth and it had a scar on it's left leg. Percition and detail. He had learned it after a while.

[jessica2008]

She pulled her hand back seeing he didn't not take the offer. Which was a relief for her. For some reason lately everytime she touched someone's hand or skin a flash of memories come to her for a few moments. Then before she knew it she was back to where she was with that person. Without warning after the flashes her stomach gets all tipsy and she feels like the morning after a crazy party and major drinking. She could not understand why she was like this but she knew better then to tell anyone. She was afraid to tell people.... anyone. She knew about the Tainted people but she didn't know who was one though.

"Just a hobby. My dad is a professional photographer up in Paris." She said with a smile as she bent down and wiped the sand off of her pants. She was so used to this question because she was acted like a professional but she wasn't . Photography was just a hobby of hers. Something that her and her dad shared. She was always amused on how sand always seem to get somewhere on people when they came to the beaches. She stood up again and rub her hands together to get the sand off.

"You can call me Toni then." She said with a smile and a soft laugh. Most people had never asked her if they could call her by a nickname it was always 'ANTONIA'. She turned her camera off so that way there would be no accidental flashes since he seemed to be effected by the flash when she took the picture before. Putting her hands in her jean pockets she looked back up at Soda. Weird name but she thought that the weird was sometimes the best things of all.

"Lately things have been weird when I touch or am around people. So right now until it passes or I get used to it or something I have decided to try to stay away from as much of emotional areas as possible. So I figured its the winter and most people don't come here." She said as she looked up at him. She kinda told him what has been going on. But the biggest part was she left out the major details about the strange outbursts of emotion or the trips down other people's memory lanes.

"plus I love the way the moon is like when it peaks over that horizon just over there." She said as she pointed to the spot she was talking about. "It feels and looks like a whole new world awakens." She said slowly as she turned her body over to the ocean and crossed her arms enjoying the feel of the breeze going through her hair. Complete silence and no other crazy outbursts or anything but peace and happiness. It was such a pleasure to feel this again.

"So what about you.... What is like you doing here alone on a beach because I figured you would be the type of guys to hit bars and clubs and all that party scene type." She said as she slowly moved her eyes and her face over to his attention. It was weird but she felt something different with him. It was not attraction at least she was pretty sure it wasn't. But she just kept pushing whatever vibe she was getting or feeling from him. She slowly turned her attention back to the view that was in front of her. She would do anything to see this every night for the rest of her life.

[soda]

He smiled over at her. Rubbing the back of his head lightly. "Exciting, photography always was on my career list, you know how in school they ask you What do you wanna be when you grow up? type of thing. Never going to go through with that though." He kept a light, false smirk to himself. He didn't have a job, his cousin gave him all the money he needed. He slid his cold fingers into the pockets of his jeans. He closed his eyes for a moment, concentrating on turning off his night vision. There wasn't much to see, he already knew what she looked like, and personally, sand looks like crap when it has a odd tint to it.

"Toni, nice. Two syllables, better than four, right?" He asked, making it a slightly rhetorical question. Soda leaned slightly to the side, looking out at the ocean, it seemed like a great big shadow on the earth that was just a reflection of the sky. Great, he was getting poetic, who cares if this was just in his head. He watched her turn off the camera, "Thanks ... uh ... Sensitive eyes." He said, no justification in what he said but hey it was the basic truth. Very, very basic. He listened to her, "Touch people? So ... your trying to isolate yourself?" He said, confused. Was she just talking like a teenager, he didn't know how teenagers worked, even if he just got out of his teenage years, they weren't very ... normal.

He glanced out to where she pointed, shifting his body with his glance. He nodded and smirked, "I suppose. You a photographer and a poet?" He joked, he looked back down at his feet. He never had conversations like this, this was knew to him. Well, the fact that he wasn't partially drunk and was on a beach, at night, with a pretty girl he had never met before ... it all messed with his head a bit. He sighed and squinted as the wind threatened his eyes, he ran his fingers around the chain that hung onto his belt. It felt rough, it was old but still had it's solver glow of a shine to it. He bit his lower lip lightly, what was he doing. He should have been gone by now, biking up into town. Yet, he couldn't pull himself away from this, did he even want to?

He laughed lightly, "Yeah. Accually, you hit the nail on the head perfectly there. I am a bit of a partier. But I dunno, I had nothing to do before the night started." He shrugged. "You into parties, bars, ect?" He asked, slightly curious. Now questioning himself on how old this girl was.

[jessica2008]

"Photgraphy is a nice hobby but an awful job." She said as she looked over at him. She hated the fact that her dad's career left her here. She would do anything to have her dad around more but he was probably up in Paris taking pictures of who knows what these days and doing, literally, who knows what. She looked down for a moment and took a deep breath. She looked over at him as he talked. She had to admit that he had great structure in his face. Too bad he gets pained with flashing lights.

"Yeah it is nicer to have two instead of four." She said with a smile. She shrugged her shoulders softly. "Plus its always fun seeing how shocked and stunned people are to find out the Toni that they thought would be a guy ends up being a girl." She said with a smile. It was nice to just have a normal civil conversation with a guy. Lately she would just be at the bars and clubs flirting and getting hit on. She missed school in a way on how she seemed to have meaningful conversations with people.

"yes I party and go to bars and clubs. Its been something that I just haven't done in awhile. But don't worry it will happen again. My friend and I are huge partiers." She said with a smile and a slight laugh. She crossed her arms over her chest. She turned so her back was against a small breeze of wind that was coming over the water. She knew better then to let her front side get hit with that freezing wind.

" I felt a pain in my eyes when I took the picture. Normally that doesn't happen to me. But when I saw you and realized that I felt your pain....." she stopped and looked down. "I am not isolating myself. You see everytime I get near people I feel emotions that aren't mine. And it gets even weirder when I touch people the emotion I feel gets stronger." She said as she looked at him. She then looked down and moved some sand with her foot and then looked back over the ocean. Her eyes moved around over the misted water. She was afraid of what he would say or would do after she told him that.

'Great... he is going to think I am a freak...' She said to her self as she gazed over to a patch of area where some huge white birds where. 'My name... yeah Toni aka freak of the world.' she kept repeating in her head. Her brother always told her that tainted and the nontainted are the same they just are a little different but what if she was tainted. She didn't understand her dad wasn't and her brother wasn't.... was her mom?

[soda]

"People are entitled to their own opinions. I was only interested because it seemed simple." He shrugged, he laughed a little. "Your definetly a girl." He looked over at her, wow, did that sound odd or what? "Assumtions are the best qualities of humans. PEople assume a lot of things, don't they?" He asked, again, semi-rhetorical. He took his hand out of his pockets and crossed his arms. Watching the sky, now pinning his eyes to a singular star. He never really looked at the sky, just a mild glance to see if it was raining or not or maybe just to see how full the moon was. But he never accually thought about it. The sky was something more, it was something that engulfed the entire world, it made all of the being on this planet seem even smaller. It was filled with mystery and curiousity, stuff that humans couldn't get their hands off of. For some reason, the things we didn't know about were more intreging than the things were knew and had answers for. Whether that was a downfall or a plus for the race, he wasn't sure. And didn't care much.

"Your friend and you? You have a designated partying buddy?" He asked, he was just kidding with her. His sarcasm some times was too much for him to control, or want to control. He didn't move his eyes or blink. He was now wondering how much he could zoom in on that star. His sub concious was over thinking things here. He tried to just keep out of his own little world and stay with this conversation. Being spacey wasn't exactly his favourite thing. He paused, listened. He tore his eyes from the star and glanced over at her and laughed for a moment. He then just smirked at herself. "You saying your a tainted? Well, aren't you trusting." He said, he looked back up at the sky, noting the same glimmer of a dot that was locked up in the great dark mass.

"Meh, you confess to me. I might as well be polite." He said, "I have amazing eyes. I can zook, X-Ray vision ... well more occationally for that one, see in the dark, ect. Nothing fancy but hey, whatever. That's probly why your eyes hurt when you took the photograph. Sensitive ... lights. You know?" He said, wow, he was saying he was tianted to a chick who either is tainted or is pretending to be a tainted ... but he didn't think she had a reason to act like a tainted. Not many untainted would try that move, seeing a they seemed afraid or completely reluctant to the subject. You say tainted, and they either jab needles in you or they cover their ears, starting running in circles singing Mary Had a Little Lamb. Wow, were we advanced and mature or what?

"So, are we freaks or what?" He joked, looking back over at her. Thinking for a moment, "So you can really feel what others feel. So ... If I were ... angry or something, would you feel angry?" He didn't run into tainted that often, well that was a lie, he did, but this was a first for something like this. Wow, did these guys have variety or what?

[jessica2008]

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Trust me I am 100% girl." she said with a soft laugh and shook her head. "yeah its always funny and fun when people make assumptions and turn out to be wrong about it." She followed his eye sight over to a tiny dot in the sky. She could barely see it but either way it was still beautiful from where she stood.

"Ha ha ha... No we aren't designated. We just always go partying together. We have been doing it since highschool." She said with a slight laugh as she looked back at him. She couldn't help but smile at that remark he said. "What do you think I am that young where I need to have a designated party person?" She said with a smirk on her face.

After he said that she was tainted she thought about it as she looked off on the beach some. Am I? Not a normal human would be able to just tap into other people's emotions.... She begant to nod her head as she took a deep breath. "yeah I guess i am tainted. This just started happening about a few days after I turned 18. I have always just ignored it or just left the area and it would go away.

"I could have told you that you had amazing eyes." She said with a smirk on her face as she looked over at Soda. When she looked into his eyes she had to admit to herself that his eyes were melt worthy. Lately it had been so hard to find a guy with eyes that just stood out and made a girl a little quick in the knees. She bite on her bottom lip some as he talked about the lights. "Sorry again... Maybe I can make it up to you one day or something." She said with a half smile on her face and a half smirk.

She shrugged her shoulders and moved her head slightly to the side when he asked if they were freaks. "No... we are basically all the same at least that is what my brother says. I just think that we have a better advantage to the world then those who are untainted." She said as she was just thinking out loud. She normally never did that but every once in a while when she felt comfortable around a person she would just speak her mind. "Yeah I can really feel what others are feeling." She smiled adn raised her eyes brows as she looked down at the ground. "Yeah I would feel the anger and I would also act angry even if I have no idea why I am angry.... And that is the other reason why I have been a little bit on the low side of parties. All those ummm emotions and other emotions I feel and act. So its kinda hard to act like you are completely content when you feel a couple making out near you." She said turning a little red on her face as she talked about that experience. That was her first time at a party when this ability or whatever started up.

[soda]

"awesome. I am 100% boy ... or maybe 99% ... I have always had an abnormal obsession with shoes ..." He looked over at her, giving a serious glance then paused and laughed, "Kidding." He rolled his shoulders a bit, "I won't bore you with my bad jokes." He said, lower his glance to the horizon, night vision kicking in again. The sky didn't look like a dark mass anymore, and the water didn't seem so deep and tretcherous. He close his eyes again, taking in a deep breath, his lungs wanting to reject the cold air. He breathed out, opening his eyes, and watching the smokey warmth of his breath collide with the chilled air that lay outside. He always found it funny how something so simple and practically impractical could make something so obvious but temperary. He watched it dissolve, the warmth loosing to the fridgy ice in the air. Go cold!

He glanced over to her when she laughed. "No. Not that your too young. I mean, I wish I had a designated partying buddy." He teased. "You sure you wouldn't need one, girl who looks like you. Must got boys barkin' up your tree all the time." He said, he wasn't really that type, he flirted with most, but only hit on his friends or that odd girl out. Why go for competition whn you had something great infront of you with out the other guys. He stretched, his back cracking as he did so, "Ohh. That hurt." Cracking joints, while people said it was relieving, he really didn't think so. Maybe it was the cold, freezing him into an ice block and making him into a horror movie, you know, the guy freezes, you touch his hand and his fingers break off. Happy thoughts.

He looked over at her, "Aw, thank yah Darlin'." He said, a fake southern drawl in his voice. He smiled at her, "Yeah ... if your into green, I guess they aren't terrible." He kicked some sand into the air with his foot, it was stuck together though and blumped right back down onto the sand a few feet away. Oh well, better than when it blows all over the place, when you get it in your eyes and all over you. He looked down at his jeans, they weren't too sandy, good, he didn't want to have to go home to wash them before he went into town. "Make it up to me? ONe day? And how do you plan to do that? I mean you could have blinded me ... might take a lot of sucking up to make me forgive you." He was joking about the last part.

He nodded, "We are a little more advanced ... but advancement can be scarey." He looked back out onto the water mass. He looked over at her, "Mmm, remind me not to talk to you when I am in a bad mood, correction, when anyone near by is in a bad mood." His jokes rang on, with the suttle truth, "So you go through the ultimate mood swings, ouch." He looked back at her, "Well, the making out thing. Would be ... awkward ... really awkward. Happens a lot?"