2nd floor common room, Tuesday after classes

[fantastic-torch.livejournal.com]

Johnny was bored. Johnny overturned two empty trash cans and laid a piece of board across the top. Then, because yes, he was bored, he made a bunch of paper people, lining them up across the wooden plank. For their sake, he didn't try to name them.

Sitting on the couch, one by one he sent a fireball towards them, torching them, watching them lift in the air and burn until there was nothing left. Yes, he was playing with fire but he was very safe, really. Nothing was catching on fire except for his mini-paper people. How cool was that?

"Yes! Take that you with the cur--" No, he wasn't going to say it cause he didn't mean it. Seriously. He did not name his paper dolls, come on!

[common room is totally open.]

Comments

[fantastic-torch.livejournal.com]

"Oh, well, then okay. You killed her because she was trying to kill you. Justified."

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

"I didn't have to," Cassandra shook her head. "I could have done something else."

[fantastic-torch.livejournal.com]

"So your anger just took hold and you dealt with it, eh?"

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

Cassandra considered, "Frustration, I think. And..." her voice softened, "She asked."

[fantastic-torch.livejournal.com]

Again, he was confused. "She asked to have her neck broken?"

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

"Not specifically. She... wanted to die. It was the only thing she ever asked me for."

[fantastic-torch.livejournal.com]

Johnny craned his head to hear her clearly and yeah, he got it. "You knew her. Very well."

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

Cassandra shrugged, "Well enough."

[fantastic-torch.livejournal.com]

"So, because of that you decided you weren't going to be a superhero anymore?"

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

"Decided I never had been." Heroes didn't kill, after all.

[fantastic-torch.livejournal.com]

"Cassandra, I'm not judging, but that sounds harsh. Given what you've told me, it wasn't your fault." He shrugged. "I guess heroes come in different sized packages."

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

Cassandra considered her response in silence.

"Do you know what it's like to die?" she eventually asks.

[fantastic-torch.livejournal.com]

"Is that a trick question?"

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

"Um... no?"

[fantastic-torch.livejournal.com]

"Then that would be a no, because I'm still standing here," he answered with a raised brow. "I'm kind of afraid to ask, but do you?"

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

"Yes, but not... not like that." She frowned, trying to figure out how to explain it. "I... see what people mean, what they think, what the feel when I look at them. The first time I killed a man... I saw what... I saw what it did."

[fantastic-torch.livejournal.com]

"Ah, you're a psychic?" he asked, because that is what it sounded like to him.

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

She shook her head, "Not like that. It's that... people are always talking with their bodies. I just know how to tell what they say."

[fantastic-torch.livejournal.com]

"Ahhh, okay, I get it more now," Johnny rubbed his chin, folding his hands across his chest. "I think though, if I saw anyone dying? I would just think it was hurting like hell."

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

"Oddly... not always." Cassandra's eyes grew distant. "Surprised, at first. Then... disappointment, like he was sad that he wouldn't get to do all the things he had planned on. Then..." she shuddered slightly, "Nothing. Empty."

[fantastic-torch.livejournal.com]

"Ah, man, that would suck," Johnny said. "My suggestion to you? Don't be around dying people." Johnny might not be too hot in the advice giving department. But he has good intentions, seriously.

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

Well... intentions counted for something, right? "That's why I'm here now." Of course Bart had died, but... she was trying.

[fantastic-torch.livejournal.com]

"A lot of us are here for various reasons," Johnny said low. "You're among friends."

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

Cassandra nodded. "I know. It's... nice."