The Sky's Still Fire

[everambient]

Characters: ALEX & OPEN
Date&Time: July 21/night
Setting: out back
Summary: star trekkin' across the universe gazing.
Rating: BOOBIES, BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE IF YOU CALL NOW...
Status: Open

Comments

[eagleonfire]

Amara had crept out of the mansion quietly, intending to hike to town to find a store that would be able to give her cigarettes this late (a vice she'd picked up in Miami), but when she saw Alex sprawled out on his back, she'd had to stop. She moved to stand next to him quietly, slipping down to lay next to him. "They are beautiful, aren't they?" she whispered, not wanting to be too loud in case anyone was around. She didn't want to draw attention if he'd wanted to be alone, plus she still intended to head into town.

[everambient]

His smile returned, just like that, at the sound of her familiar voice. Alex was careful to keep his gaze on the stars though. After all, he was tempted to reply with some lame line like 'yeah you are,' and if he didn't look at her, it was easier to not say stupid things.

"Yeah," he agreed quietly, bringing his hands up to rest on the containment plate. He could almost feel the energy being absorbed. "You can see a lot more of them back home," he explained. "They don't have so many city lights to compete with back there, and the northern lights...Jesus, it's like someone decided to paint between the stars, add some color to the darkness. It's the most incredible thing I've ever seen."

[eagleonfire]

She smiled softly, her eyes picking out familiar constellations, remembering the stories her father used to tell her when she was small. "Yeah, there is a bit of a wash here. I've never seen the northern lights, though. We were too close to the equator. Where was that, when you saw them, I mean?" She didn't really know much about where he'd come from, before his trouble with the law.

[everambient]

"Alaska," he explained. "It's pretty much as far North as you can get without actually being on the north-pole. And the northern lights--they're really called auroras--that are basically caused by energy colliding with atoms in the Earth's atmosphere, causing these gorgeous light shows. It literally looks like someone took a paintbrush across the sky, and the colors are so surreal it seems almost..." he searched for a word to explain it, one she might understand and finally settled for the almost Latin, "extraterrestrial."

Alex turned his head to look at her finally, and his smile was still there on his expression, but it softened a bit, relaxed as he looked at the girl. "It's kind of like what happens with my power," he explained quietly, "only I turn the energy into plasma instead of light." It took him a moment to realize how closely she was laying next to him.

[eagleonfire]

"That sounds amazing. I'd love to see that one day. In Brazil, there was this mountain that rose out of the forest. I'd go up there, late at night. It's different, here, maybe similar in Alaska, but it was like the sky was so bright with all the stars. It never looks as bright here." She spotted her name sake, smiling like she'd just met up with an old friend she hadn't seen in a long time.

"You get your power from the stars," she questioned, waving her hand towards the heavens. She turned her head to face him, so she'd be able to see him when he answered and was surprised when his face was almost touching hers.

[everambient]

"Yeah," he replied quietly in answer. Alex looked at her for a moment, then reluctantly turned his face back so that he was looking at the stars again. Only it was difficult to concentrate on the science of it all knowing how close she was beside him.

"My body absorbs cosmic rays," he explained, clearing his throat as he tried to concentrate on remembering exactly how his power worked--because it was very suddenly difficult. "Which is just energy from space that usually ignites in our atmosphere, or turns into radiation or lightning, actually there are lots of things cosmic rays become...but, uh, my mutation turns it into plasma, which I can throw in the form of a very hot light."

[eagleonfire]

She watched him look away, swallowed hard and did the same herself. She focused on Aquila, trying to focus on the comfort of the familiar and not the way she seemed to be crawling out of her skin.

"That's...that's actually really interesting. You'll always have a power as long as there are stars in the sky. Not all of us can say that, that we'll always be able to use our powers. I know you don't...don't like your power, but it must be comforting to understand that constant."

[everambient]

She was right--the source to his power was neverending. And while it wore him out sometimes, it always came back. Eventually. And when he least wanted it too.

"NASA--that's the government's new space program--they're trying to figure out how to send a man to the moon," he told her. "They asked me if I'd be interested in going, but even though I know it's not possible in the first place, I'm afraid that if I ever actually found myself in space I wouldn't be able to turn it off."

Alex looked at her again, before adding quietly, "It's a stupid fear I know. I mean, the idea of sending a person into space is ridiculous. What would we even do up there?" Aside from gain a view unlike any other, a once in a lifetime experience of awe. If Alex had thought NASA might actually be capable of it, and he didn't have his power to worry about, he would have taken them up on their offer in a heartbeat.

[eagleonfire]

She looked at him in surprise then back up at the sky. "Look at us. Look at what we can do. Don't say things aren't possible. I mean, people thought the bomb wasn't possible, but they did that. Maybe they will go up there someday."

"What if...what if there's something out there? There were these story, back home, about the gods who live out there, in the sky. I know...I know that not everyone believes what I do, but what if there is something out there. Wouldn't you want to find it if you could?" Maybe she was just being silly, but if the gods were up there, she'd want to find them.

[everambient]

He sighed quietly, sitting up, resting his arms on his knees that were bent slightly towards him. "You're asking me to believe that there are...beings out there that are powerful enough to make a significant difference in our lives. You're talking about people who would be able to influence fate, to change our every day experiences so that bad things no longer happened to good people, but instead sit by idol. I'm not sure I even believe in one God anymore, let alone more. And if there are gods out there? Then they'd better hope I never meet them, because the containment plate would be off in an instant."

[eagleonfire]

She leaned up onto her elbows, startled, looking at him as he sat up. "I never said you had to believe in anything. And certainly not whatever misconception you have of my religion. I just said that I do, and if there was something out there, I'd want to find it. If that's how you feel, then that's how you feel." She stopped before she said something stupid that she didn't quite mean, running a hand through her hair, pulling at the knots that had formed. "Look, I just wanted to see the stars with you. I didn't mean to upset you if you're uncomfortable with religious talk."

[everambient]

He turned his head to look at her, resting his cheek on his arm. "I'm sorry," he told her quietly. "I didn't...I assumed, and I didn't mean to insult your beliefs, it's just that..."

Lifting his head to look back at the stars, he explained, "My parents died for no good reason. I saw the sky burst into a ball of fire as my brother and I fell away from the plane, and all I could think was that God was angry with them, punishing them, because my dad was a damn good pilot, he never would have flown into dangerous airspace. And just when I'd started to believe that maybe it had just been an accident, my foster parents showed up and took me away. But not Scott. My brother was left back at the foster center, and I don't know if I'll ever see him again. That's supposed to be the worse that can happen right? But then my power shows up, I kill a kid, the girl I thought I loved hates me, and I realize that no one will ever want to be close to me again because of my power

[eagleonfire]

She nodded when he as good as apologized, understanding that he hadn't really mean it that way, even if she'd assumed that initially. When he started to explain, she sat up fully, bringing her legs to the side, leaning on them. She sighed when he was done, knowing that there would never be anything she could say that would make anything better for him, or easier to digest. "There's not some magical answer I can give you that will help you. There's never any answers. And I...what you've been through would make anyone have issues with faith. I don't begrudge you that. I just think you underestimate your situation," she explained, placing her hand on his arm. "I'm close to you. I'm not afraid of you. You or your power."

[everambient]

For a moment Alex Summers let himself enjoy it, that simply touch, a human gesture of...well, friendship in the least. For so long he had spent time in solitary with the idea that he would never be around people again, that he would spend the rest of his life behind those concrete walls, but here he was in a place that was not only filled with people, but people who understood.

"You are," he replied in a whisper, looking at his arm before looking back at her. Slowly, he turned his arm so that the palm her power had burnt was visible. It was mostly healed by now, just a little red, but it was his way of reminding her of why he was worried about his own power.

[eagleonfire]

She looked down, seeing the hand she'd blistered a few days ago, looking red and inflamed even in the washed out light of his plate. She bit her lip, not sure if that was supposed to scare her. "I'm not afraid of you. You could have hurt me many times down in the basement, but you didn't. You wouldn't. And even if an accident were to happen, I still wouldn't fear you."

She thought about pulling up her shirt to show him, but, well, that probably wasn't advisable. "When I was younger, I was training with some children, and one of them got past my guard. They didn't think I would make it." She rubbed at her abdomen where the scar was placed. "I don't blame him for it. He didn't mean it and I know he was sorry. If anything were to happen, I would never blame you. That's why I'm not afraid. You'd never hurt me on purpose."

[everambient]

He opened his mouth to reply, then closed it again, looking down at her hand where it rested on his arm as he thought over what he wanted to say. It took him a few moments of silence to put it together, and when he finally spoke his tone gave away just how true his words were as he told her, "Well I'm afraid."