Heartburns No Tums Can Solve

[Quinn Wiley]

Quinn felt a pain in his chest. No, this was not a stroke, his heart was fine. The pain was located more at the center of his chest and was going up to his throat. Gastric acid wanted to go up and made him feel sick. He knew perfectly well what was going on. Heartburns. And, sadly, no medication could help with his.

The equation was easy: if Quinn wanted to use his power, he needed to eat a lot of fat, and an excess of fat caused heartburns. It also needed Quinn needed to find a secured place to throw this excess of fat because he knew it might decide to do so on its own and even if he never acted like he loved this place, he sure didn’t want to burn it. It already did this year, he was not responsible, there was no need to burn another section. He preferred to go outside for it as you couldn’t make more open than this. But going outside would take too long. His best option was the training field with its high ceiling. Where she was waiting for him. “I don’t want to deal with her,” he muttered to himself.

Quinn was certain they were punishing him for something. There was no other explanation to give him Charity Croft for trainer. How could she properly train him when he felt like the adult in the room? Anyone else would have been better. Besides, how could she help him? It wasn’t like he didn’t know how his power worked. It was all a question of diet. All they had to do was to give him some space where he could blow fire and they should be fine. It wasn’t like he wanted to learn how to breathe fire whenever he wanted.

His temperature was rising. It was another effect of his power, telling him he needed to throw some fire out. Once he would, the temperature will drop and he’ll be cold. He had no other choice, he headed there. “Let’s start right now,” he let out as he arrived, not really caring whether or not she was here and alone. The words were, instead, followed by a series of coughs and son a fireball came up. Luckily, it wouldn’t hit anything.

[Charity Croft]

Yep, Charity definitely ended up with some of the troublesome ones. she bet it had something to do with her last name, with her father's tendency to handle these cases and do a great job of it. They took one look at "Trainer Legrange" and pretty well figured that she had what it took to reach these kids. It was a little overwhelming for her, but, well, she totally thought she could manage it.

Charity did, after all, provide most of them with precisely what they wanted: answers. She could figure out what was going on with them, often better than they could, and even help them get it better. With enough training, they could even use their powers to live whatever kind of life they wanted. Yes, Charity could make a positive difference in their lives.

She had to remind herself of all that as Tarquinn Wiley approached, looking almost like the dragon that he resembled in many of his attached photos (including one by a local mutant artist that Charity thought she was supposed to be researching for unrelated reasons). The trainer put a smile on her face as he approached, getting ready.

"Right, we'd better," Charity said, trying not to look put out at having to skip the introductions. "Maybe you should try and breathe it out? At least enough to make you as comfortable as possible? I brought, um," she looked around for a moment, "there's some, ah, pepto bismol around here? And some stronger stuff that they made for you just, um, in case," she looked over at Tarquinn, studying him, her ability already kicking in. "I'll pick things up better when you use your power, really."

[Quinn Wiley]

Quinn wasn’t sure what kind of training he still needed. He knew his power was linked to his diet, he knew how to recognize the signs he had to throw some fire out and he knew how to do it in a way that would be safe for everyone. He barely ever lit things on fire anymore. Really, the only thing he needed was something to deal with the pain before and the cold after the use of his ability. He didn’t need a trainer for that. Quinn was ready to admit that the chance of blowing fire whenever he wanted, to be able to use a quantity of the gas and acid only was tempting, but he also didn’t think it was necessary. Quinn wasn’t really good at doing more efforts than required when he was not properly motivated. And, let’s face it, he doubted Charity Legrange would be able to provide said motivation.

Quinn breathed out some fire. The heartburns were still there of course, he only started to empty the sack attached to his lungs, but, as Charity said, he was more comfortable now. The pain was more tolerable. Sure, heartburns were not the most painful thing in the world but it was not a good feeling at all. He knew she was still talking but he wasn’t paying much attention. Something made for him? He looked at her as if she just made it up. They probably had every medication for heartburn on the market at his disposal, so he could try what worked best. They probably worked but there weren’t a lot of medicine with an immediate effect, unlike breathing out fire.

He let another ball out, making sure this time there was nothing in his way. “And what are you supposed to pick up?” he asked her. What was more to see than what he was just showing her?

[Charity Croft]

Charity could almost feel her ability kicking in as Quinn started coughing and producing flames. Yes, it was a process, as opposed to some abilities that seemed to quite literally produce fire. Gas and diet and then something within him that sparked things. no wonder he had something of a cool-down after the fact... there had to be some way of fighting against that but, well, that would practically require a dietician, wouldn't it?

The question made Charity jump, and she realized that she'd done that thing where she'd gotten distracted by her ability's analysis and nearly missed a question. She actually had to pause and sort of mentally rewind, trying to figure out what was going on there.

"oh, right," Charity nodded, bringing her hands together. "I didn't explain, mostly because you were..." she gestured, then nodded again. "Right, so, I can actually understand powers. Like, not just the same way that everyone can, but I can intuitively understand the way they work and all. So by watching you breathe the fire, I can figure out the entire process."

Another pause, and Charity studied him a bit more, trying to make sure not to let her power take full rein. "So... is there something you particularly wanted to work on? Your power does seem kinda cut and dry, but maybe there's something you needed to work on?" Charity fidgeted, moving over to where she'd set his file and flipping through it, looking to see if it provided any more answers.

[Quinn Wiley]

Of course, Quinn didn’t really bother to ask what Charity could bring to him, if her ability could be of any help while training. All he cared was that she was a weird character. Not weird like some people thought he was. Weird as in he didn’t always get the way she spoke and felt like she could just hug him for no reason all of a sudden. That kind of weird. He preferred to stay away from that normally but he had little choice here. Especially since it would not reflect well on him if he skipped his training sessions with her.

Speaking to Charity was like speaking with a teenager. You’d figure that since Quinn was one, he might like it but he was not really speaking that language. Couldn’t she be more adult-like? He still got an answer, after some time of her dozing off first. “You’re saying you now know how it works? Just by watching?” Just by watching, he’d say it looked as though he spat fire after coughing a little. It wasn’t what happened of course but he wasn’t seeing how watching him told her he coughed vapors he could then ignite with some acid but that wouldn’t be the first time he doesn’t understand someone.

Quinn didn’t particularly want to work on anything. Just release the acid and vapor before it did any damage to his body. “I just needed to breathe it out. What more can I do about my ability anyway?” he said. He had a light shiver. The room seemed cooler than earlier but he knew it was just his body temperature that dropped a little after he cast some fire out. Even though he knew it couldn’t help, he still massaged his chest where he could still feel some heartburn. He didn’t want to talk to her but he had no choice. “What kind of stuff they made for me?” He didn't want to get his hopes up on the efficiency but if they made it for him, it had to work better, right?

[Charity Croft]

Charity nodded at the question: "I totally can! That's how my power works. So, like, I know that you have to build up gas and that it's a whole process that's altered your biological chemistry and that you're probably poisoning yourself or will or have something built in that might stave it off or something," Charity motioned with a hand while she talked, nodding a few times. She couldn't help it when it came to stuff like this: sometimes her power quite literally forced her to start analyzing someone until she knew intricacies about their power that they themselves hadn't even fully realized.

Though in this case, that didn't seem quite as helpful as it would be normally. Quinn had a point: there was only so much they could really do with his power. Well, they could technically work at regulating it, get him to do smaller bursts or figure out ways of altering the flow or something like that. It wasn't like they had to train him to fight anyone with it or anything.

"Oh, right," Charity nodded and then turned to the cubby they'd built into the wall. All the rooms came with the little storage bins, just perfect for storing bits for students and what have you. Charity started digging around. "This is something that the side effects people were working on for a while," She finally pulled out the small bottle, reading it before nodding. Soon she was walking toward him, holding it up. "This should work to counteract some of the basic stuff. I think it has to do with helping your digestive system deal with the excess chemicals that runoff from your power..." Charity paused, licking her lips and looking down at the bottle. "But I'm a trainer, not, like, a doctor or anything."

[Quinn Wiley]

Quinn stared at her, his eyes growing slightly bigger as she kept going. “You know you can sugar-coat right?” To die poisoned by himself or something equally terrible, what a nice thing to say! They must have run out of tact when she was born. What kind of trainer says she knows your power and starts by telling you how it is likely to kill you? He supposed he should be glad she didn’t say he might explode in a big ball of fire and added sound effects to it. Though Quinn never thought it could poison him. He thought he’d blow up. To be pointed out that the gas he created could poison him... Now he was depressed. How nice of her!

She claimed the side-effect people had been working on something for the heartburns. And that they had been doing so for a while. He mustn’t be the only one who needed it then. Quinn just couldn’t see why anyone would ever bother to do something specifically for him, even when it was their job. She came back to him with a bottle. He took a caplet. He didn’t know if he was supposed to take more so, in doubt, he took only one. Charity was here anyway. She was supposed to know.

He stared at her when she said she was a trainer. “And are trainers supposed to break the students? Will you start putting me back together or are you going to tell me how I’ll die on every session?” Yes, he was a little bitter about this.

[Charity Croft]

"I'm actually not sure that sugar would---oh!" Charity then realized what she'd said, her blue eyes going wide. She held out a hand, fingers splayed. "I didn't," she brought it back to her mouth, as if she could somehow shove the words back in. "That's just sort of---" she tried again, but there was the bit about breaking students.

"Well, some do that, but I'm more about hugging and love and building up and--yeah," Charity gestured a few times with her arms, holding them out and gesturing at Quinn before letting them fall to her side. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, knowing she'd need the time. "Sometimes my ability is like 'you have to tell them exactly how it works now.' 'cuz it just sort of takes over my brain and all," She pointed at it, then she let out another long, slow breath.

Charity studied Quinn closely, her eyes going up and down him, then she nodded. "Look, it's, like, you probably are getting poisoned in small doses," she said, holding out the hand again. "That's a thing. No need pretending it's not. But your body has also adjusted to it. Your literally built to get poisoned a little. And that's also what this is for!" she gestured at the medicine. "It's to dim down on the chemical mixture. Though regular release will help too, since it burns off the runoff and---" she pointed at him, "you totally already knew that, right?" Charity pursed her lips, nodded, and then held out the meds. "You just want the drugs now?"

[Quinn Wiley]

Sugar would not what? Make it feel better? Well, she just seemed to realise what she told him so now it was pretty clear why sugar would have been nice. Seriously, who was the adult here, because Quinn felt like he was the older one. He stared at her as she tried to recover. She wasn’t able to finish one sentence. Yeah lady, you made a mistake. Way to go. Good thing Quinn was not just starting his training or she would have freaked him out for good.

Hugging and loving? Yeah, no, Quinn could do without. He even stepped back, afraid she might attack him by surprise with a hug. If so, he’d tense and wait for it to be over. Hugs were just too weird for him. He never liked them much. Luckily for him, and for her, she did not hug him just yet. “And your power figured I’d want to know how mine could kill me?” Her power was a bitch. “I should have used mine earlier, I waited too long. The only thing I might need help with is to find a way I can stop freezing to death afterwards,” he told her. He was not really freezing right now but he could still feel his temperature had dropped.

Instead of telling him how to keep his body temperature, she insisted on him to accept he would poison himself slowly. He looked at the medicine. This would help him not getting poisoned? “It’s just fat...” he let out after a moment of silence. How could fat be poisonous? That, she explained. Of course, the chemical reaction happening inside of him! “...You expect me to blow some fire every day?” Could he? So far, Quinn always let himself gather the right chemicals inside of him to the point he could barely take any more of them before letting them out. He knew he probably should be doing it more often and sometimes he thought about doing so but he sure was not doing that every day. Once a week, at most, depending on how much fat he ate.

“Yes,” he answered as he grabbed the bottle. That medicine sure became a lot more interesting now. Quinn studied Charity for a moment. Maybe she wasn’t that bad after all. “Will eating more bread help?”

[Charity Croft]

Quinn looked absolutely thrilled at the mention of hugging and support, which left Charity feeling like she was actually doing worse just mentioning that. She pursed her lips as he pointed out that her power probably hadn't quite mentioned things as strictly as she'd technically said it. Charity looked away for a moment. "Well, it's..." she began, pausing as he continued.

He got chills from it? That was somewhat odd. Charity supposed it had something to do with the reaction. Though the buildup should be leaving some sort of runoff. he talked like it was mostly fat, but Charity knew that there had to be something else involved. Blow fire everyday? "Maybe?" Charity said, pursing her lips. "It does sound as though you already have this more or less regulated, which makes me wonder why they even assigned you to me as a trainer," probably to torture her: the school almost seemed to be taking pleasure in her suffering for reasons that Charity didn't quite comprehend.

At least Quinn had the bottle now: Charity had helped with that. She nodded at his question too: "It should. Your power is kind of unique in that we could just about regulate it with scheduled releases and specific diet plans." Charity paused again, then nodded. "Right, why don't you just tell me what you're doing? Outline it all for me. What you actually do, not, like, what they say you do. And then I can figure things out and we can work on actually making this help you instead of my just saying something stupid or your not getting what you need out of this."

[Quinn Wiley]

Yes, Quinn got chills. His body temperature tended to drop a little whenever he expulsed the fire. Which could be weird since he was not technically breathing out fire as much as igniting the air. But it was not his job to understand how powers worked, it was the trainers’. His however didn’t look like the type who’d be so good at knowing it, despite her power giving her all those details about his.

“I do. About once a week, or every two weeks, depending on my diet,” he told her. It was an automatism for him to say it. And it closed the subject. At least they could both agree on the fact he shouldn’t have her as a trainer. Couldn’t he just have, like, someone to have a checkup every now and then, to make sure he still regulated everything and get some medication for the heartburns? Was that too much to ask? Or, in this case, too little? Because he apparently really had to come here and train like anyone else. Quinn was not interested in blowing fire at any time. He would be happy if he could do it as little as possible, pretend he didn’t have to.

Charity asked him to put into words what he was doing. He sighed as she went on, asking him to use his words and not what they told him he was doing. It would mean a lot of talking. Awesome. And, of course, she had to say it was so he could get the best out of these training sessions. If that meant he could stop seeing her sooner, than he was ready to talk. “I start by coughing and some gas or whatever, that is flammable, comes out. Then I cough something else, like acid or something, and it ignites the gas and it makes fire. It’s really that, cough, cough and then like I’m throwing up of hairball or something and I make fire. And that gas, or the acid, or the reaction to make those, I don’t know, produces heat so when I expulse it, it lowers my body temperature.” Was that clear? That didn’t sound clear at all to him but she asked it to be in his own words so she had it. “I’ve always had a hotter body temperature since my power. And that whole process takes whatever fat the body doesn’t need to function. And when I stock too much of it, I get those heartburns and my body tries to get it out on its own.” He made a face like he was a little disgusted about this, and he was. It was like his body considered his power like an intruder and got it out. Great, now he was starting to see how he was supposed to die, the way she mentioned it.

[Charity Croft]

Charity could tell that Quinn still had some frustration, though she still didn't know what she could say or do to really alleviate that for him. It made her feel hopeless, really, like she should have some sort of sage advice or an easy fix for everything plaguing him. It sounded stupid, even when she just kept it to herself, but she still wanted to do it. What use was being an adult if you couldn't offer answers to people younger than you?

Well, he did outline his power as she'd asked. it matched up with what she'd suspected, and the more information the had, the more she could put together with her own power. Charity could feel the strange mutation working in conjunction with all those years of training, and she found herself nodding slowly as he finished up.

"That definitely sounds... kind of disgusting, actually," Charity admitted, letting out a slight laugh. She reached up to adjust her glasses. "Makes you wish that the powers were all like in the comics and movies, huh?" Charity tapped her fingers again, studying him. "Quinn," she said, her voice serious, "do you really want more training? Like," she gestured toward him, "is that something that you think you need? Because if you've got this and it's just going to be a waste of time, and it kind of sounds like you do, then I can just set up the final test for you..."

Which she'd admittedly never done before, but she had to start somewhere, right?

[Quinn Wiley]

Quinn was not really expecting any help from Charity. She seemed pretty lost herself. An adult acting like a teenager was pathetic in his eyes. Then again, he was a teenager who acted as one only when it came to the negative aspects of being a child, like being brash, stubborn and hating any form of authority coming from adults.

He didn’t really see how the things he told her could help her. Couldn’t she learn all that in his file? What was the point of having a file on every student if it did not detail the power better than anything they could say about it? It wasn’t like Quinn had the words to properly explain the biological reaction going on inside of him. All that he knew was that it was not fire but air and something burning, the acid, that came out of his throat. He also knew it could look like he was spitting or vomiting, which might not be entirely far from the truth. How could that help her? They already knew all of that, and so much more!

He rolled his eyes. He did find it disgusting but being told like this, especially by a trainer who was supposed to make him accept and improve on his power, it kind of sucked. “Thanks,” he muttered under his breath, uncertain she would hear the sarcasm in his voice. He refused to nod and agree with her on that. His power was the kind you’d think to be awesome. Visually, the image of fire that seemed to be coming out of his mouth was impressive. The process to have it happen however, not so much. No way his power would be used in a movie without some changes done first.

Charity finally talked some sense by asking him if he really wanted more training. He shrugged. “It’s the school that seem to think I could learn to control the intensity of the fire and stuff like that,” he let out on his usual moody voice tone. He knew it made sense. It would be nice if he could throw just a tiny ball of fire every now and then. He wouldn’t need that big a place without burning anything in it if he could control how much was coming out at once. Obviously, he was not interested in becoming a dragon and blow fire whenever he wanted it. He was more likely to blow some only because he had no other choice. His power was not amongst the most useful ones around here. He got interested though at the end of what she said. “I can do that? There really is some test that can have me not do any training session anymore?” Could he pass it in his state? He didn’t know but if that could allow him to avoid seeing Charity every once in a while for a training session, he was ready to try it.

[Charity Croft]

Yeah, sometimes Charity didn't quite think things through when talking to the students. Though in this case, she was trying to empathize with Quinn, to let him know that she was more or less on his side. Hence why she'd bridged from that to discussing the test.

Charity did have some second thoughts as Quinn mentioned the school thinking it. She looked him over again, her eyes lingering on his throat. "You could," she replied quickly enough. Even she could tell that. It would take some regulating and learning how to control muscles, but now that Charity had some idea of where they wanted to go, she was pretty sure she knew what to do and say to get that process moving. First things first though, she had to explain the whole test thing.

"Yeah, that's part of how they determine if you're ready to graduate," she offered, shifting the file so she could gesture again. "Before we let a student graduate and leave the campus, we need to make sure that they have enough control over their abilities to be safe for themselves and for other people. That's why you'll sometimes run into people who almost never seem to be training," Charity nodded, then folded her arms again. "If you really wanted to learn some control though, I could actually help with that. Now that you've brought it up, I can kinda see how it's working and how to get it to work better. Even if you wanted to test out pretty early, we should probably still work on that a little. Who knows," Charity shrugged, "it could be useful for you someday."

[Quinn Wiley]

Of course she would encourage him to better control his ability, such as the intensity of the fire he poured out of his mouth. Was that really possible though? Wouldn’t the chemicals be the same hence having the same effect? Well, he supposed smaller quantities wouldn’t cause as much damage. Yes, in the end, Quinn could see the point in training more and learning to throw the right amount and only that. But at the same time, he failed to see the point. He was no superhero in spandex suit, he was a guy who tried to be as normal as possible with the fucked up life he already had without adding his power to it. “You meant more than I do with the diet already?” Somehow, he doubted the efficiency of the training but that might just be because Quinn hated to put efforts in it. Or because he would have to train with Charity. There really were quite a few reasons he could bring out to explain this.

He did feel like he wouldn’t have much of a choice however, if he wanted to do that test that was supposed to tell them if he was ready to graduate. He was not surprised that the students couldn’t leave until they succeeded some sort of test with their power. It must be why they also had a college here, so that those who could still train to perfect their ability could do it in a safe environment. Quinn was seriously considering leaving before college, not really thinking a school could offer him anything more if he wanted to pursue a career as a photographer. This just proved him it might not be that simple.

Charity went on about the fact she might help him. He sighed but he knew she had a point. Even though he might wish to do the test now despite still having one more year of school to go, it would be good to train. In fact, it was even more important if he wanted to do the test, for he had to be prepared. But that just mean more time here, with the woman who talked like a teenager. One younger than he was. “What did you have in mind?”Quinn asked, resigned.