With all the destruction that happened in the world every day, it was nice to be to give something back and grow something, no matter how small. Like the begonias Jesse was currently tending to, cheerfully bright little flowers in a rainbow of hues, bobbing in the faint breeze. A contented smile curved his lips as he gave the most diminutive bud a gentle, affectionate pat, his youthful baritone brimming with encouragement as he said, "Don't worry, little guy, you'll grow up to be just as impressive as any other flower in here."



Any other person might have received a few strange looks and caustic comments from their high-school peers for talking to flowers, but the young people around him were well accustomed to his quirks. One of the closer boys remarked, "You're such a dork, Jesse.", though there was no malice in his tone or the laughter that followed, so Jesse simply beamed at them and turned back to his budding charges, only to pause as the sound of a familiar, feminine voice raised in anger reached his ears. He cocked his head to one side quizzically as his enhanced senses detected a rapid, localised drop in temperature, accompanied by the unmistakable crackling sound of water solidifying into ice.


He pushed himself to his feet and made his way over to the scene, eyes flicking between the older woman and the animated and very clearly irritated girl that was attempting to snatch the frozen pail from Ms. Sundress' hands. "Hey, hey, Liza, come on, there's no need for that. The lady made a mistake, that's all. We've all done something like that once in a while, right? Remember when I cut my petunia in half because I heard the ice cream truck?" He said in a pleasant tone of voice, eyes creasing as he favoured them with a sunny smile. As he talks, he maneouvered himself so that he is able to dip his hand into the pail, placing his palm upon the frozen surface and vibrating it with sufficient speed to excite the molecules enough that the ice melts back into water. All of this is done with speeds so great that even a particularly keen observer wouldn't be able to detect a thing, so he turned to the older woman and says, "Sorry about this, ma'am, Liza's just been working really hard on her patch for a while, is all, so she gets a bit tetchy when something happens."

He sighed inwardly as Liza rounded on him, the acid in her tone washing over him harmlessly. It took more than someone being rude to hurt him, after all. He'd been hoping this could be smoothed over easily and that'd be that, but he should have known better. Liza could be prickly at the best of times, and it was never the best of times with Liza, particularly when someone had just accidentally unleashed a miniature version of the biblical flood on her patch. Still, better she focus on him than the poor woman who'd done nothing wrong. He raised a hand to rub at the back of his head, his free hand lowered with its palm facing Liza in a non-threatening gesture. "No, I don't think that. I think it's great that you try so hard and put so much effort into everything you do. I'm sorry for annoying you, but the lady made an honest mistake, and she's trying hard too, you know?"

As he spoke, he sensed the temperature in the immediate vicinity of the strange woman plummeting to worrying levels. A quick glance in her direction showed that she wasn't suffering from the incredible cold herself, which was good, but getting too close to something that cold could be dangerous, and with Liza's temper, it was possible she'd try to grab the woman, and that would be, well. Disastrous. Intervening could out his durability to the woman if he touched her and he didn't show any signs of suffering, but not intervening could lead to the woman herself being discovered, and give Liza a bad case of frostbite at that. Best just to try to calm Liza down and be ready in case something happened, then.



physis

He knew Liza wouldn't go too far. Still, he breathed a faint sigh of relief as the human thundercloud gave up on berating the poor stranger. Plenty of people had short tempers, and were prone to lashing out without thinking about things,but they usually weren't bad people, so Jesse didn't mind folk like Liza so much. It was just a shame that their flares of temper tended to end up with people getting hurt. Speaking of which...

He turns to check on Ms Sundress, only to find that she'd taken an impromptu seat upon the ground, which was worrying. Was she ill? He hunkers down beside her, chewing on the inside corner of his lip as he waits patiently, giving her a few moments to collect herself. He doesn't know this woman, and she is very possibly dangerous given how the temperature fluctuated to such a degree around her, but...She seemed so sad.

Gently, he extends a hand to place his fingertips ever so lightly upon her upper arm, the warm touch accompanied by his soft, concerned tones. "Miss Sundress? Are you alright?"

physis

Jesse blinks at the handkerchief, momentarily taken aback by the gesture. He accepts it gingerly, very aware that this was the most expensive segment of cloth he'd ever handled in his life. He regards it much in the manner another man might an untrustworthy snake, and he makes no move to actually dry his hand off with it, for fear of soiling the fancy tissue...Thing. Instead, he wipes his hand on his hoodie to dry it off, dabs at the back of it lightly with the silk handkerchief, and hands it back to her. "Thank you, ma'am."

He regards her for a long moment, wondering what it was that had left this poor woman in such a state. He shifts, crossing his legs beneath him to sit before her, and he offers her his hand, palm-up. When he speaks, his voice is gentle, honest in his desire to put her at ease. "I won't pretend to know how to fix what's troubling you, Miss Sundress, but I can offer a friendly face, and I hear I'm pretty good at listening, if you want to talk about it."

physis