Time Warp: Flaming Homework (Vin)

[Samuel Rixon]

2009

Sam kicked at the ground, his hands jammed in his pockets. So far, he was loving Hammel. He’d only been at the school a few weeks, but he was already settled in well. No siblings to fight with, no parents. Okay, so he’d gotten himself in a little trouble a few times for setting fires where fires did not belong... but he’d been assured that was all part of training.

Sadly, being a little tripped out on weed he’d procured from an older student (hey, it had seemed like a good idea at the time) made his powers just that more unpredictable. Which hadn’t boded well for him in the library. He’d been giggling over a supposedly nice dictionary, looking up bad words. Then he’d felt the odd warming sensation, and boom, no more dictionary.

He’d been subsequently removed and banned from the library.

Now he was wandering around the courtyard, trying to find a good warm spot. He figured it was a good idea to actually try to study. Upon finding the warm spot, the sixteen year old flopped down on the ground and took out his books.

His unused textbooks in a pile near him, he started in on some of the easy work from English. Okay, it would be harder without a dictionary, but he was still giggly, and making up definitions could at least be entertaining for a while.

Long enough for him to feel the warmth flood his body again. Knowing just how flammable paper was, he sat up and scrambled away before he scorched the grass near his books. And the books. ... And his homework.

He sat staring in dismay for a moment. At least before the hilarity of the situation hit him. His mind addled with pot, he started laughing. Yes, his homework was gone, but how often could you legitimately say ‘I burnt it?’

Hammel was awesome.

[Vincent Verax]

Vincent loved Hammel.

He got away with pretty much everything by now. There'd been a short period of time when he first started a couple years ago where his swearing, his stunts, and his general unruly behavior would earn him detention or other sorts of punishment. Now he only got in trouble if he was a shade or so more destructive than usual. And while his foul mouth usually earned him some unhappy stares or verbal corrections, he could pretty much swear as he pleased.

Plus there was that whole thing about being surrounded by people who could do AWESOME things. Especially things that could cause him bodily harm. Those were fun things. Even more fun when people would pay him to watch or inflict said bodily harm on him.

Needless to say, Vin was quick to build up a very high tolerance to pain. Just because he could heal didn't mean that impaling himself with sharp objects or lighting his crotch on fire didn't hurt.

Speaking of fire, there was a roaring blaze in the courtyard that Vin could see out the second story classroom window. And with his decision making skills (that are non-existent) he decided that he needed to go talk to this kid with the fire in front of him. And possibly be friends with him because really who couldn't use a friend that can set shit on fire at will? Grabbing his books and ignoring the teacher and his fellow students, Vin climbed through the half-open window, shouted "GERONIMO!" and fell to the grass with a heavy thud.

He picked himself up, dusted himself off, then confidently strode over to where Sam was with his happy little homework fire. "Y'burnin' books, dude? COUNT ME IN!" He grinned from ear to ear and tossed his textbook into the fire, giggling almost as much as the pyro kid next to him.

[Samuel Rixon]

Sam had heard of Vincent Verax. It was hard not to, given the size of Hammel, and how fast news could travel. From what he could gather, Vincent was the crazy guy that kept getting paid off to do idiotic stunts. While he couldn’t say he’d met the boy face to face, he sounded like a good time. Eventually, they’d meet.

But first, this fire. Which was far from funny, which was only making the little pyro giggle harder. It was pretty freaking awesome. And considering he’d been unable to light up a training block just that morning, it just proved that YES HE COULD SO LIGHT FIRES.

Just.... not when or where he wanted to.

He watched the covers of the books curl and burn, black smoke rising. Really, it was a wonder no one had come over to check it out. It couldn’t be a good sign to see smoke coming from the courtya-

The shout made his train of thought derail in glorious fashion. Sam turned, looking up at the goth boy approaching him. “Yup!” More giggling. Pot was not good for his feeble mind. “I didn’t mean to! I just – HEY!” He watched the books add fuel to the fire, and he rocked back in the grass, laughing harder. “YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BURN TEXTBOOKS ON PURPOSE!”

Of course, this only made Vincent grow that much cooler in his eyes. And funnier. “That was aaaaawesome. ... Can you fly?” That was his only conclusion, being that Vincent hadn’t been there a minute ago, and he was pretty sure that thud had belonged to him.

[Vincent Verax]

Vin smiled right back at the boy, not observant enough to catch the fact that he might have been under the influence of anything. He figured the guy was just giggling because FIRE! Who didn't love fire? He snorted as the other boy rolled in the grass, then dropped down beside him, grinning from ear to ear. "FUCK MAN I DO WHAT I WANT!" He shouted right back, whooping and hollering at the roaring blaze that he'd fed.

It was actually comfortably warm by the book-fire, and though some students in the Courtyard seemed to be giving them a wide girth, Vincent was quite cozy as close to it as he was. In fact, he folded his hands behind his head and stretched out across the grass and sighed pleasantly. "Naw man, but it'd b' pretty fuckin' awesome 'f I did.' I jus jumped outta that window there." He freed one hand to point across to the classroom building and the ajar second story window he'd took a leap out of.

It wasn't really that far, Vin had jumped off a lot higher things, but he was still pretty proud for his mid-class divebomb exit. "Stairs are fer pussies, bro." He said with a wink and a chuckle. "So wha'ss yer name. I ain' seen ya 'round here b'fore an' ya seem pretty fuckin' awesome."

[Samuel Rixon]

If Sam had been clean, he probably would have been at least a little worried about the blaze he’d inadvertently set. Panicked, even. But no. No, he was giggling, and now he had company! Cool company, being that he was swearing a blue streak, and had just fed his little bonfire. Sweet. “FUCK DUDE!” He had no idea why he’d blurted that out, but it seemed like the right thing to do.

Much as he liked heat, Sam didn’t want to be as close to the fire. Namely because it was going to be blamed on him. But this guy? He looked like he was ready to camp out for a bit. Again. Sweet. This guy was awesome! “Aww,” he pouted just a little at the news the goth boy couldn’t fly. “Wait, you jumped out of CLASS?” That was all that went on in that building, and that was crazy. Crazy-awesome. “YOU ARE AWESOME.”

Somewhat reassured by the other boy’s calmness around the blaze, Sam allowed himself to lie back in the grass, trying to keep one eye on the flames. “I’m Sam. I only got here a few weeks ago.” And, because it wasn’t obvious enough, he pointed to the blaze. “I make fire!” Nice, Sammy. “Who’re you?”

Yeah, boys. Just stop worrying about the fire. It’ll just go away.