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]

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."