InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I'm giving you the eeeevil eye"

Charlie McGee (startsfires) wrote in wariscoming,
@ 2010-12-22 21:22:00

Entry tags:

charlie mcgee, st. john allerdyce/pyro

Who: Charlie maybe OTA
What: Charlie dozed off and caused a fire in her sleep
Where: The Complex
When: Early evening

It seemed like people often found themselves taken by home and placed in Lawrence, Kansas with only the clothes on their back taken with them. Thankfully for Charlie she happened to live out of her rucksack and had brought all of her belongings with her. She had everything she needed, clothing, some snacks, toiletries, a blanket and a small fire extinguisher.

Charlie had positioned herself on the bed in the room she’d be staying in, pulling her blanket up to her face with a sigh. Always being on the run, always looking over her shoulder, it had all caught up with her. She was tired and hadn’t had fitful sleep in a long time. This bed felt more comfortable than the benches and cots she’d been sleeping on lately. It was easy to drift off into a sleep right away even though it was early for her to settle down for the night.

Just as it always happened when Charlie slept, her dreams became dreams of The Shop, the government sect that had made her life miserable and the lives of her parents miserable before she was even conceived. There was never any plot to these dreams, just abstract images and memories of dialogue shared with various people. The bullet that took out her mother almost instantaneously, her father’s life being taken by the horrible John Rainbird, and images of human vivisection - This was what haunted her sleep and, really, her waking life as well. Shouted pleas, begging for her to save them from the massive walls of super hot flames, but Charlie couldn’t save them if she tried. She could create the flame, feeding it with her own energy until it was a towering inferno, but she could never stop it.

Suddenly the flames seemed more real and Charlie shot up in bed. The blanket she had cuddled up under was on fire. It had happened before so much as this seemed like routine to Charlie. She reached over beside her bed and put the flames out with her handy fire extinguisher. Another blanket wasted. She shook her head frustratedly and hopped out of bed, trying to gather all of the charred remnants of the blanket to throw away.

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allerdyce
2010-12-23 03:59 am UTC (link)

After bidding Kael farewell, John had taken off in search of more answers. It took a few hours and a few wrong turns, but eventually he had made it to the complex where things had been explained to him in terms that made no sense to him at all and left him with more questions than answers. So he did what he normally did when he was frustrated and annoyed. He went to the roof and set things on fire, while drinking beer. It felt like he had spent hours there before he finally dragged himself off the beach chair he had found up there.

He had a high tolerance for alcohol, but he would be on his way to drunk if he kept this up. And as much as he wanted to get drunk and forget what was going on, he didn't exactly trust this place yet.

Gathering the empties and throwing them in corner to pick up at a later time, he wandered back downstairs, intending to check out the community kitchen. Deciding against the elevator to avoid meeting people on his way down, he started down the stairs. It was as John was rounding around the fourth floor, that he felt a fire flare up nearby. It was bigger than a pilot light...too big to be safe. For a moment, he considered minding his own business, before sighing and hurrying off the third floor stairwell toward the heat source he could feel.

Finding the right door, he banged on it as he shouted, "Hey, if you can hear me, open up or I'm kicking this door down!" Just as he stepped a few paces back to kick the door down, he abruptly stopped himself when he felt the fire go out.

Huh.

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startsfires
2010-12-23 04:25 am UTC (link)

Sometimes it seemed like cleaning up after a fire was the most annoying part of it all. There were toasted chunks of synthetic fiber among little piles of ash. Charlie tried to sweep it all up and told herself that she would find a blanket made of fabric that wouldn’t smell so foul if it ignited in her slumber. It aggravated her that she had to worry about things like that.

Charlie certainly wasn’t expecting the sound of someone banging on her apartment door. She jumped slightly at the loud noise, taking a few steps closer to the door to peer out the peephole and see who was causing the commotion.

“I’m fine!” She raised her voice so that the figure outside could hear her, but her statement didn’t seem to satisfy him. With a roll of her eyes, Charlie opened the door a crack.

“I’m fine.” She repeated. “The fire is out and everything. It’s okay.” Charlie poked her head out from behind the door.

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allerdyce
2010-12-23 05:02 am UTC (link)

John let himself relax at the woman's reassurance and nodded. "You're sure?" His accent was a little more prominent than normal due to his tipsiness, but he didn't sound so concerned anymore. He couldn't feel the fire, only just a few harmless embers, and had only come knocking because he didn't want this place burning down quite so soon. At least not until he was out of this place. After that, he didn't care what the hell happened to this place.

"What happened anyway? Trying to burn the place down are you?" The only reason he hadn't taken off yet was because she was cute. And he really needed someone cute to stare at after dealing with that dumbass Kitty Pryde. Alternate dimensions he got, but that didn't mean he had to like anyone with the face of the woman that threw him in jail.

"Because I'd appreciate a warning before you try that. Died once already, not looking to do it again."

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startsfires
2010-12-23 05:33 am UTC (link)

Charlie smiled a little, though half of it was forced to avoid suspicion. She’d worked so hard over the years hiding her little fiery slip-ups. The last thing in the world she wanted was to wind up in one of The Shop’s facility doped up on Thorazine and being poked at by scientists. It kept her alone and on the run.

“Just a dumb accident,” She gave a small shrug. “My blanket must have been flammable. Get it too close to a heater and bad things happen.” A halfhearted laugh escaped her lips and she opened the door a little further so as to not seem like a suspicious loner.

Charlie wrinkled her eyebrows, thinking for a moment that she’d heard him wrong. “You’ve...” She trailed off, a disbelieving smirk tugging at the corners of her lips. “You’ve died before?” She cocked her head to the side, eyeing him curiously. This would have to be an interesting story to hear.

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allerdyce
2010-12-24 06:34 am UTC (link)

John used to have a lot of slip ups when he had first discovered his ability. To control fire...it wasn't easy. He had spent a lot of money on salves and bandages and he couldn't count the number of times he had to lie to someone about awkward burns or charred items. It took John most of his teen years learning how to control fire. But it had paid off in the end because now he was able to do stuff with fire that people could only dream of.

Peering inside of her apartment over the woman's shoulder didn't reveal anything that could prove that Charlie was fibbing. But whatever, it wasn't his business and if she said she was fine, then she was fine.

"Yep," he said, instead, turning back to look at the brunette. "It wasn't fun." Here he spread his arms out wide on either side of him. "But as you can see, it didn't really stick." That didn't mean he was going to throw himself off a building anytime soon to see if he was brought back again, but he might have been a tad more relaxed about death than he had been before.

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startsfires
2010-12-27 02:37 am UTC (link)

“I guess not,” Charlie smiled, suddenly intrigued. There had to be interesting stories behind those deaths that didn’t quite stick. Having so many crazy stories to tell on her part made ordinary life seem all the more ordinary. It was refreshing to find something that strayed from the usual norm.

“Would you like to come inside? I’m relatively new, so I haven’t stocked up on food quite yet, but there are some chairs. I figure it’s more comfortable than standing in a doorway.” She gave a warm expression and took a step back from the door, allowing enough room for him to step in. There was nothing in this place that could reveal exactly who she was, nothing so obvious that The Shop would be able to track her down and take her back. Perhaps Charlie’s owning a couple of fire extinguishers could be considered strange, but she would tell people that she was simply a cautious girl by nature.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Charlie.”

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allerdyce
2010-12-28 05:46 am UTC (link)

His return to life wasn't as interesting as some of the ones he had heard. Jean Grey alone had so many more interesting stories than John had or ever want to have. These people thought that the apocalypse was bad...they didn't realize that this was pretty much paradise for John. He had an okay apartment and he was protected from the bad and ugly of this world so long as he didn't step outside. He was almost set as far as he was concerned. All he needed to do now was find a way to make some cash and he was retiring from his very short superhero career.

It didn't take long for John to consider her invitation and agree to it. "Yeah, thanks, that'd be good." He said, rubbing the back of his neck as he entered her apartment. It was just as bare as his own place was, which meant that she probably was just as new as he was. "I'm John," he said, glancing over at her bed and noticing the lack of sheets. She must have cleaned up pretty quickly once the fire had died down.

Still, her story had rung false, even if he couldn't pinpoint why. "I'm pretty new here too. One second I was dying, then I was dead...then I was here."

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