Grave Guinea Pig Campfire, Very Late Thursday Evening

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Well, then. Her friend with the pink hair and pet Gulliver appeared to be a butterfly. She'd spent nearly an hour trying to find her way back to the cabins after stopping to explain Anemone's predicament to one of her professors.

Now it was very late, and Alice should be sleeping, but sleep had gone tiptoeing out itself and gotten stranded elsewhere, and Alice would have to do without. She hoped that sleep had at least found itself somewhere with comfortable chairs.

She would roast marshmallows and see if anyone else might be awake. Perhaps they were all visiting with sleep.

(very open!)

Comments

[peace_n_war]

Warren had spent much of the day handwavily sitting on the shore, watching ships drift in and out of sight. Now that it was dark... there wasn't really much to see, and so he'd started to make his way back to the cabins.

Naturally, the fire had caught his eye. Warren and fire just happened to get along. And so he'd decided to make the detour. If not for the company, then for the flames.

Company was just a mild inconvenience, after all. And the weird girl wasn't bad company, anyhow.

"This a private campfire, or can I appreciate the fire, too?"

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"I wouldn't stop you," Alice said, examining the marshmallow as it if perhaps contained the secrets of the universe.

If so, the secrets of the universe were bubbly and turning black rather quickly.

"Did we introduce ourselves once before, or was I mad that evening?"

These were important questions.

[peace_n_war]

"The night the stupid guy was sitting in the firepit? Yeah, we introduced. You're Alice, I'm Warren." A pause. "Are those marshmallows public, too?"

Important things to know.

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"He was on fire, wasn't he?" she asked, giving Warren a somewhat sharp glance. "I'm not mad. He was on fire and he flicked himself out again and wasn't harmed at all and I thought I invented it."

Abruptly, she added, "The marshmallows are for any who'd like them."

[peace_n_war]

Warren idly reached for a marshmallow, looking at Alice calmly.

"Some people can do things like that," he ventured. "You're not crazy. But they really should exercise a bit more tact as to where and when, and who gets to see them."

He wasn't supposed to broadcast having the very same talent, let alone abuse it to terrify the crap out of total strangers.

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"I thought he was dying," she said simply. "Burning and screaming, except he wasn't screaming, I was. And then everyone was looking at me oddly, as though nothing had happened. Alice, mad again. I assumed that I was."

It wasn't terribly unusual.

[peace_n_war]

Warren gave a little shake of his head, passing the marshmallow back and forth from hand to hand.

"No, you're not going nuts. The guy's just a jerk. Most citizens don't get exposed to that sort of thing much. I don't blame you for screaming."

He held up the marshmallow that was in his hands. Starting to get a nice, toasty brown. Good, good.

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Civilians?" she asked, one eyebrow raised. "Is he military, then? That would be a useful tactic for soldiers, I must say. Particularly if the flames don't hurt one's self."

She hesitated before addressing the marshmallow again. "My exposure to that sort of thing was more of the screaming-and-roasting variety, I'm afraid."

[peace_n_war]

"Oh, uh." Warren's interest was very firmly affixed to the progress of his marshmallow. His hands were hot enough to cook, but not to burn, at just that moment. "No, citizen is... a thing from my old school. Not really military, per se..."

He shrugged. "With any luck, you won't get caught off-guard like that again, then."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"No, I pray I won't," she said. "What school were you attending? Some sort of academy?"

[peace_n_war]

"It was something like that." Warren had to take a moment to remind himself that he was attending a school where people probably wouldn't find Sky High to be very strange. "It was a place for kids to learn how to put weird abilities like that to use. For... good things."

As opposed to... Bad things?

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Those of us without such abilities, we're civilians, then?" she mused. "I hardly feel as one. I was a Queen, you know. Though that was a very long time ago."

[peace_n_war]

"Citizens, yeah." Warren shrugged and inspected the marshmallow again. Almost done. "It was sort of just the word they used to describe... anyone who wasn't us."

Queens included, yes.

"Not that all of us were treated equal, either. My old school needed a little reworking."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"The class system?" she said, eyes dancing a little at that. "I'm British, you realize. Our class inequality is somewhat famous, or so I've heard. Your country was the one saying a lot about creation being equal."

[peace_n_war]

"Yeah, I kinda noticed the British... ness." Accents were amazing things. "Our school isn't really infamous for anything. If it was, it would probably be better known for the distinction they used to draw between people with more obvious powers, and those who... weren't quite there."

Ah, heroes and sidekicks.

"Not that it affected me, really. But the line didn't stop at abilities, really. Where you come from tends to hold a lot of sway, too."

He held the marshmallow toward her, his hands already just as cool as any normal human's. It was a nice, even, golden brown.

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"There were civilians at your school?" she asked. "I must admit, I should have liked to be one of them. I would have forgiven the lower stature if --"

She stared at the marshmallow, quizzical, and to him again before she seemed to piece together how it had come to be toasted.

He would forgive her if she needed a moment to stare.

[peace_n_war]

He would. He didn't typically show off his power, after all. Well, now and again. With the small stuff. A marshmallow didn't count, really. He hadn't actually burst into flame.

That's how it worked. Honest.

"There were a couple of people who didn't have powers." Okay. One. "It doesn't happen often. It's the sort of school that tends to be pretty choosy about who gets to take classes there."

He regarded the marshmallow for a moment, himself, and then gave his shoulders a shrug. "You aren't missing out on anything, trust me."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

She was, unfortunately, still staring. "Just by thinking?" she asked. "How do you ... have you ever awoken from a nightmare, with your room ablaze? Become angry with someone and watch flames lick the walls before you could recover yourself?"

[peace_n_war]

She was allowed to stare. Warren would take the staring as long as she needed to do it.

"It's more conscious than that," he stated, as reassuringly as possible, all things considered. "I haven't accidentally started any fires with it. It's second-nature, kind of like breathing, only it's more..." He shrugged. "It's like choosing to stand up and sit down. The option is there, whenever. But I'm in total control of then when and the where."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"There are those who sleepwalk," she said, still seeming agitated. "Was it you who was in my cabin, when we came before? I never met him, but he could set himself ablaze. I slept that night in my brother's cabin. Not a real brother. One that Fandom's given me. Kind of them to do so; I'm low on family, otherwise."

[peace_n_war]

Warren gave his head a shake.

"This is my first term here. I wasn't in any cabins before these ones," he answered. "And I'm not much of a sleepwalker. You don't have to worry about that much from me."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

She flushed again, staring down at her hands. Which were still holding the stick with a now mostly-burnt marshmallow stranded on them.

"I didn't mean that to sound quite so rude," she said. "I'm not accusing you, by any means. I've ... known too much of fire to trust it."

[peace_n_war]

"There's a reason that people call fire wild," Warren replied, nodding slightly. "There's not much to worry about from me, though. I can start fires, but I'm not fire. If I was, I probably wouldn't introduce myself as Warren, so much as... Fire?"

He was certain there was a point in there, somewhere.

"The school I went to last was training people to become heroes," he continued. Like maybe that made all the difference, right there.

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Was he fire?" she said cautiously. "The boy sitting in the fire pit. Everyone looked at me so strangely for screaming."

She had to smile, faintly, at the rest of that. "Are you a hero, then?" she asked.

[peace_n_war]

"It looks like he has the same sort of power that I do," Warren mused. "I don't think he is fire, though. I think he's just a jerk."

Anyone who jumped out of firepits at people was pretty clearly a jerk.

"I'm not a hero, no. Not yet. Maybe after I graduate." Warren shrugged. He'd had his hand in some heroics in the past, but it wasn't all official or anything. "My mom is, though."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"I don't know him," she admitted. "Maybe he was trying to test his heat, or trying to stay warm. Or perhaps it's a very funny joke if one isn't ..."

Inclined to see such things behind one's eyes. That, he didn't need to hear.

"Is she?" Alice said, hoping this was a better avenue of conversation. "I'm no hero. Only a displaced Queen."

[peace_n_war]

"Pretty sick joke," Warren replied, giving a shake of his head. "He was tossing fireballs just above my head. I imagine he was enjoying himself."

If he'd pulled that stunt back at Sky High, he'd be stuffed into detention for weeks.

"Displaced? Is this another one of those eight-but-sixteen things?"

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"He ... threw fire, at you?" Alice said, growing pale. "That's ... someone could be hurt. Very seriously. Fires could start. He can't ..."

[peace_n_war]

Riiiight. Okay. Warren had just realized how important it was for him to keep his flaming trap shut when it came to talking about the stupid kid in the firepit. And... pretty much everything else that had anything to do with flames.

"Nothing happened," Warren said quickly. "No fires started that weren't already there."