Coruscate || Jasper Hale [ON HOLD]

Interesting Conversations

"We don't talk, we hold forth.
We don't converse, we expound."
J.D. Salinger

"You haven't always been able to shift," Elle muses as she and Sam continue through the forest, "So something triggers it, right? Is it puberty? But then Jake, Embry, and Quil would have probably shifted too."

Sam listens to the girl talk, impressed by her ability to put the few pieces she has of the puzzle together and still get most of the picture.

"If it's got to do with being descended from the original shapeshifters, it's genetic," Elle continues, "In that case, only those with the shapeshifting gene will be affected by the trigger. You weren't so distant before Bella and I moved back, so the thing that triggered it happened between my last visit and our move here."

Elle pauses, shrugging her backpack from her shoulders to pull out her notebook and a working pen.

"Can you give me a sign if I'm right, please?" she asks while flipping to the back of her notebook, "Maybe snort, or huff, or something?"

Sam shakes his head in amusement but snorts for Elle anyway.

"Alright—so assuming you first shifted in 2004..." Elle trails off as she starts writing up a rough timeline, walking at Sam's side while her attention remains on the page, "...the trigger couldn't have come later than that, right? And I reckon the trigger couldn't have been around too long before then?"

Elle stumbles over a root, glancing up for a second before returning her gaze to her timeline.

"You were around 18 when you shifted, so I would have thought it to be a boy-to-man thing—but Jared and Paul aren't 18 yet, and they've shifted.

"Now, I'm making a lot of assumptions here," the Swan girl reminds herself and Sam, "but if it has to do with both 'coming-of-age' and being triggered, then the trigger must have come in 2003 at the earliest, and just before your first shift at the latest."

The sound of the pen scribbling furiously against the page distracts Sam from the sound of nature around them.

"And maybe the others weren't old enough to shift yet," Elle muses, "Or maybe the shift is dependant on more than age and the trigger? Like, both are there, but so is something else, and that's why some shift earlier than others?"

Shaking her head with a snort, the girl decides, "I think I'll just wait until we're at the Rez, and you're human, for an explanation."

Sam snorts in amusement, secretly having enjoyed Elle's brainstorming, but also slightly grateful for the silence.

The shapeshifter prepares for the plethora of questions he knows he'll have to answer when he shifts back.

✯✯✯

"I'm guessing you can't keep your clothes when you shift, so where did you get the pants?"

Emily chuckles at Elle's question—Sam had moments before been a wolf and motioned for Elle to go ahead. When he walks into his and Emily's place, wearing shorts, that question is the first thing to come out of Elle's mouth.

"Do you want me to answer your questions from our walk, or about my pants?" Sam asks with a chuckle.

"The pants first," Elle states without hesitating, "That is the most pressing thing for me right now."

Shaking her head at the girl's question, Emily responds with a laugh, "There's a stash of pants for them—can't have the boys walking around butt-naked."