fandomtownies | The Beach, Wednesday morning

The Beach, Wednesday morning

Charlie had worn her swim-suit so she could cool off after firestarting practice, and brought a cooler of water, as well as a bag full of stuff to practice on. She dug out another fire pit in the sand, and ringed it with rocks while she was waiting for Isabel.

[ooc: for

izzyalienqueen but open to anyone who wants to play on the beach, or watch the practice from a safe distance.]

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Isabel wasn't in the greatest of moods, but she'd promised Charlie she'd be there, so she was. Besides, burning stuff could be therapy. "Hey," she said as she wandered up.

"Hey," Charlie said, waving to her, and getting up to brush sand off her legs. "Thanks. I've got some more stuff to burn. And I talked to Principal Washburn about this. She was cool with you guys helping me." She pushed her sunglasses up on her forehead. "Want a water?"

"Water would be great. It's way too hot," Isabel replied. "You did? That's great. I didn't think there would be a problem. But still, good to know." She eyed the pile of stuff. "So what are we working on today?"

"I was hoping it wouldn't, but I was still pretty nervous telling her, since I didn't tell anyone at the school before." Charlie pulled out a bottle of water and handed it over to Isabel, then opened up the canvas beach bag. "I've got a rope-- I thought I could soak it in water, and see if I could make the flames move down the rope slowly? And some charcoal, Dean thought they might burn longer than wood."

"If they tossed everyone that came here with secrets? The school would have a lot less students," she said, taking a long drink. "That all makes sense. I'm ready whenever you want to start." Isabel knew she wasn't exactly being the cheeriest this morning. But hopefully Charlie wouldn't hold it against her.

Isabel seemed kind of tired, so Charlie said, "Just hang out here a minute, I need to burn off some heat before I try to get started. I don't want this to end like last week." She walked closer to the water, and sighed, trying to focus. Be calm. Not nervous.

She took a breath, and reached for the firestarting, directing it at the water, about fifteen feet out. The water frothed and a plume of steam rose immediately. Remembering what Dean had asked, she directed it further out, the stream of heat still feeling incredibly strong as it went through her, towards the water. Twenty feet in a line of bubbles, then thirty, fifty... it might have reached two hundred feet away before it felt weak enough for Charlie to turn it off without effort. "Whew."

Isabel had taken a seat on the sand to watch. "Impressive. Is that burning off excess energy for you?"

"Yeah." Charlie felt half-way embarrassed, half-way relieved. "Just enough. It's still there, but it's not -- it's kind of like a hose?" She turned to hike up to the firepit, stopping to pick up the rope, then walking back to drag it through the water, getting it thoroughly wet. "And after the worst of the pressure's gone, it doesn't feel like it wants to go everywhere at once." She walked back and dropped the rope into the pit, sitting down next to Isabel, and grabbing a bottle of water for herself.

"That makes sense. And that's a fairly safe way to burn off the excess," she nodded. "I bet eventually you'll have to do that less and less."

"I'm ready when you are."

"I hope so." It was disturbing, how much was still left after she'd slammed out enough heat to destroy a house, or a row of them. Charlie chugged half the water in the bottle, then capped it, and put it aside. "Okay."

She stared down at the rope, and slowly, let a tiny fingertip of heat touch one end. It flared up, but didn't explode like the wood had the week before. A large flame, but not melting the sand underneath it. Clumsily, she tried to nudge it along the rope, and the flame danced as it started to move. Nudge, nudge. Flame. Nudge, nudge. Frustrating, and sloooow.

Isabel sat quietly, unwilling to disturb Charlie's concentration, but watching warily in case she needed to jump in to help.

Nuuuudge. Charlie closed her eyes, and rolled her head around, needing the mental break. It didn't make her tired to do this, but it was hard to keep pushing at it without just heating up the rope. It was closer to her telekinesis than the pyrokinesis. Sighing, she opened her eyes, to see that the flames were merrily making their way around the coil; not out of control, but not under hers. "Damnit. God. Okay, back off," she muttered, trying to force the flames to burn down to the rope, and not advance. "Back off. Back off."

Raising her hand, Isabel waited for a sigh that Charlie was losing control.

And Charlie pushed too hard, and the rope went up in a blaze. "Ack!" She jerked back involuntarily, hands going up to block the smoke.

The smoke drifted away as soon as the source was out, smothered beneath a mound of sand. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Charlie sighed, discouraged. "I almost had it. It's just so weird. I let go of it for one second and it was taking off on its own." She sighed rubbing a hand across her face. "Thanks for catching that."

"That's what I'm here for." Isabel took a drink of water and thought about it for a moment. "When I use TK, especially for simple stuff, I don't have to think about it. I've been doing it for so long, it's instinct at this point. But when I push myself? And try to go farther, do more stuff, I have to focus on it, and keep aware at every moment. Maybe it's just a matter of you getting used to the control. So that that's instinct as well."

Charlie listened, thinking, then slowly nodded. "Moving stuff, it's always been easier for me too. Maybe you're right, and I just need to keep practicing, and practicing." She opened up the bottle, and took another long sip, then sighed. "Okay. Charcoal. And trying to keep it small." She opened the bag of charcoal she'd brought, and picked out a couple briquettes, dropping them in the pit. Then sat down next to Isabel again. "Brace yourself."

Another fingertip of flame, and the charcoal flamed up, but didn't explode.

"I think it's like any talent. You just have to practice and practice and practice."

She watched as Charlie set the briquettes up, then smiled as they flamed up in a what seemed like a controlled manner.

Charlie grinned, and added another one to the pit, turning the power down as she directed it at the charcoal. It flared as well, but smaller, not as high. "Whew. I was hoping this would work and not explode. If I can work my way down to wood, and things that aren't wet, maybe I can feel safe starting fires with things like wood again."

"It's a good start. But don't push yourself," Isabel said. "That's when mistakes happen."

"Okay. Maybe a few more." Charlie sighed. "What did you do, when you were learning something new?" She dropped a few more briquettes in the pit, and wiped sweat off her forehead.

"We always kind of knew what we could do," she explained. "So it wasn't really a matter of learning. At least not till I came here. Back home we couldn't push limits, because we were too worried about someone seeing it. But here? I just tried. Time and time again."

"Cool." More determined, Charlie focused on the briquettes, and tried to light them using even less flame than before. One caught. Two. And the third, flickering to life with a small gold flame. "I'm practicing with Johnny on Friday. Maybe with melting things. That's always been real easy too."

"That's good. Maybe he'll be able to give you a different perspective on things." Isabel watched and nodded as the briquettes burned. "I actually need to go back and get changed. We're meeting for ice cream for lunch."

"No worries. I think I'm ready to quit anyway. I don't get tired, but this gives me a headache from having to concentrate so hard after a while." Charlie grinned, and bumped her shoulder against Isabel's. "Tell Johnny I said hi."

"Totally understand," Isabel nodded. "And I will."

Charlie pushed one more burst of fire at the firepit, igniting the last of the briquettes and then let it die down, throwing sand over the remains. "It's getting hot, I'm gonna go back to the dorm. Walk back with me?"

"Sure. I need to get ready anyway." Climbing to her feet, she smiled at Charlie. "You did good today."

"Yeah?" Charlie grinned happily, relieved, and put her shades back on. "Thanks. Maybe I can get the hang of this. And thanks for the help, again."

And they chatted on the way back to the dorms, about things totally unrelated to fire and powers and practicing.

Billy was out jogging that morning when he spotted Izzy and Charlie. He stopped at a discreet distance to see what was up.

Charlie didn't notice him, and neither did Isabel*, concentrating hard on starting a fire with the briquettes. The flames leapt up, and Charlie said something to Isabel, wiping the back of her hand over her forehead.

[*modded with permission*]

Billy raised an eyebrow, and hoped he wasn't intruding by watching. He sat down on a log where he could pretend to be meditating if they seemed upset by him being there.

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The Beach, Wednesday morning

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