explosive soup

[Rhett Hawthorn]

Lunch time. Rhett sat down at a near by table after getting a try of tomato soup, some lousy packaged crackers, and a glass of milk with ice. His meals had an acquired taste. The soup steamed in the styrofoam bowl it had been poured and Rhett licked his lips. He dipped the spoon in and tasted some. The second he swallowed his face twisted into disgust. It was cold. Rhett curiously stared at the liquid as it steamed and boiled. He hadn't had soup since he manifested. He reached his finger in and felt nothing but a lukewarm bowl. He focused on the bowl with great intensity and it started to steam and bubble even more. He quickly sipped some more and found no difference. Frustrated he focused harder and harder until-of course-the soup exploded and splash all over the boys clothes, table and floor. 

Frozen, he opened his eyes wide and look around. No one had seemed to notice, so he thought. In a hurry to clean up he scrambled to get a handle full of napkins and wipe himself and his area clean. 


Selina Taylor

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina had made her way over to an empty table and was about to site down when she felt boiling water splash her arm. She cursed vibrantly and quickly froze the liquid before lifting it off of her burnt skin. She then turned to see where it came from and was horrified to see a poor boy completely covered in the overly hot soup. She wasn’t usually one to help people, but that boy would be covered in severe burns if he wasn’t already.


    She set her food down and quickly made her way over to him, “Are you alright?” she asked as she examined him, amazed to see that he wasn’t even reacting to the boiling hot liquid that covered him. What the hell was going on? He seemed more concerned with cleaning it up off the table than he was about getting it off of his clothes. “Isn’t it burning you?” she asked, wondering if she was imagining things. Maybe his power was a lack of feeling? She honestly couldn’t tell.


    Surely it couldn’t be healthy for him to be soaked in boiling liquid?

[Rhett Hawthorn]

"Oh no', he thought as he watch the soup hit the girl. 'Please don't walk over', he pleaded in his mind. Too late. "Aye sorry 'bout that", Rhett blurted with a fake chuckle.

"Yeah I'm good" he responded as he wiped the soup off his face. He looked up to examine the soup he had spilled on her. She was pretty, a lot older than Rhett obviously. 'I would hit that', he thought hoping she couldn't read minds. He smirked at her confused look as to why he wasn't burned by the soup. When she finally asked why he wasn't burt he just looked at her and laid his hand on the table palm up. Without answer his hand burst into flames for a quick moment until the flames gather to a single flame. As it dance in his palm he smiled, proud of his progress. Earlier if his hand burst into flames like that he couldn't gather all the energy into a single flame. Although it wasn't a great leap, it was something. It took a lot of effort and focus but he wouldn't tell her that though. He hoped it would impress her but he just put o na nonchalent face. 

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina watched him in almost confused interest. “Don’t worry about it, I’m perfectly fine,” she lied. It would blister and she would apply some burn cream to it later, but he didn’t need to know that. Besides, she was used to injuries, so this really wasn’t much. Yeah, it hurt, but it was fading to a dull throb by now, and she could easily ignore it. The skin had turned bright red, but she didn’t focus on it.


    Selina saw him casually wipe the soup off of his face without even flinching with incredulity. Just what type of power did he have? Ahh, well that explained it. “Oh, got it,” she got out almost evenly, backing up a step as the flame appeared in his hand. She was definitely impressed, though she was also incredibly wary of him right now… and would probably remain so until the flame was put out. She knew how out of hand the powers of the younger students could get, and she wasn’t entirely comfortable with the open flame being so close to her. He seemed to have good control of it though, so maybe he had better focus than most of his other peers.

[Rhett Hawthorn]

Rhett smirked as he saw her flinch when the flame appeared. He loved the attention from an attractive girl. He knew she was lying about the burns. Almost no one could nonchalantly pass off blistering burn marks except for him (; . He sat there and looked at her for a moment while he joined his hands together and the second burst into flame created an even bigger flame as his hands joined. Seeing how he she wasn't really confident in his ability to control himself he decided to put out the flames.

That was the hard part for him. Looking around all he saw was the glass of iced milk. No really wanted to use it he focused on his palms and shut them tight. His left hand went out. To his excitement he let out a smirk. He knew forester he had used up all his concentration and hydration for now and he didn't want a headache. With an annoyed look his dipped his hand into the milk. Some sloshed on the table but the rest just steamed. 'Good thing I got skim instead of whole', he thought knowing whole would cover his hand in chunky diary once the water was evaporated.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina backed up an entire step further when he created a larger flame, she could manipulate water if it came down to it, sure, but she didn’t really want to have to. Right now, she was tempted to go and get a water bottle or something though, because she didn’t want to be burned down with the rest of the cafeteria either. She almost let out a sigh of relief when he put out the fire.


    “That’s impressive,” she offered with a slightly strained smile. Impressive yes, but also incredibly dangerous. While Selina was one for living on the edge, she didn’t put herself into uncontrollable situations if she could help it. She wasn’t entirely sure what to make of this young boy. He was attractive enough, but there was something that made her very cautious of approaching him. Perhaps it was the fact that he could set her on fire... but still, she didn’t step back forward when he put out the flames.

    He seemed to be fine and she could always freeze the burn on her arm. It wouldn’t really help with healing, but it helped to soothe the pain momentarily. For some reason, she didn’t want to do that in front of him, though she wasn’t sure why. Perhaps it was just pride.

[Rhett Hawthorn]

"Thanks. I haven't really trained all that much considering a I got here last week", he stated and pushed all of his trash onto the tray. Smiling at the fact he didn't seem to mind his hand sitting the cup of milk he pulled it out quickly and wiped his hand off. "I'm Rhett", he introduced pushing the hair out of his face.  "Again, I apologize for burning you sometime my powers get a little too much for me", he admitted and reached out his hand for a shake. This girl was really the first person he'd talked to besides staff when he first arrived, getting settled in and all. He just wanted a friend but wasn't really making the effort to gain some. "You look like you've been here for awhile. What are you a senior?" 

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina nodded her understanding, “That’s alright, it happens to all of us,” she offered. Besides, it was just an accident, and she wasn’t going to hold that against him. She shook his hand then and smiled, more sincerely this time, “I’m Selina,” she replied easily. Now that the fire was gone, she felt herself relaxing marginally. It wasn’t that she was scared of fire, but merely that she had a healthy respect for it. Particularly when his gift had already burned her once.


    Selina laughed lightly at his guess, “No, I’m a sophomore,” she answered with a smirk. She certainly wasn’t in high school anymore though. “And you?” she asked as she studied him in interest. He had only been here a week, but he didn’t look like he was fourteen or fifteen. Perhaps he was a late bloomer. If that was so, he’d gotten pretty good control in such a short time.

[Rhett Hawthorn]

He smirked at her sympathy for his lack of control. "Yeah that's uh pretty much all I can do" He finally admitted. "And for that long too", he ended. He felt like he could not try to be more than actually was considering how nice she was. "I pretty much wasted my energy for the next few hours trying to impress you", he didn't know why he said that, wasn't really like him. stepping back he felt like an idiot and tried to change the subject quick. "Wow your a junior, obvious not in high school. How you liking college?" Rhett didn't really no what else to say or do. Hopefully she wouldn't notice his terribly retarded comment. 

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina nodded to him. “You’re just beginning. It’ll get better in time,” she offered easily. She knew it could be difficult adjusting to a completely new place. “And trying to impress me? There are many ways of doing that… tis such a shame you’ve used up all your energy already,” she replied with a suggestive grin.

    Selina shrugged at his question, “It’s alright. Better than high school, as there’s more flexibility, but not by much,” she responded honestly. University wasn’t everything people made it out to be, but it did have its advantages she supposed. Either way, it was a necessary step in getting to her goal, so she put up with it for now.

[Rhett Hawthorn]

He gave the girl a mischievous smile with a slightly glint in his eye. "My power refills quickly... Just gotta hydrate." As the words came out the boy grabbed an unopened water bottle left by someone and pounded it in under  30 seconds. Rhett had gotten so used to just drinking 3 to 4 gallons of water a day it seems like nothing. "Yeah I haven't thought much of college. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it", he kind of always put planning aside seeing where life took him. The boy threw away his lunch and returned to the table. "Got any plans for today?", Rhett inquired with a slightly flirting but nothing too serious. She gave a positive reaction to what he'd said before so he figured he'd just take the bait and see what happens. Flirting with a college girl was a little weird for him to be honest but why not? Rhett ran his figured threw his hair and relaxed his former tense muscles. 

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina laughed and shook her head, “Glad to hear it,” she mused as she watched him in silent interest. He was a little young, but then so was Nico. She didn’t often underestimate people unless she didn’t like them, so she decided to give him a chance. Selina nodded in response, “Good idea. I suppose it’s not like you have so many you have to choose from,” she added wryly. Mutants had a pretty damn limited selection.


    Selina laughed as he asked her about what she was doing for the rest of the day, “Not yet,” she responded with a grin. She glanced down at her burned arm and winced, “Well, I might head over to the nurse’s office, but after that I’m free,” she amended. Burns weren’t something she was used to dealing with, and she had a feeling she’d need help to properly treat it. “We can meet up… somewhere,” she offered as she was about to offer her room, but had wondered if that might scare him off.

[Rhett Hawthorn]

Rhett nodded, "Yeah the mutant life isn't all its cracked up to be". Sighing he thought about how much his life had changed since fire started to burst from his body. Sadly, BA was all he got. 

As the girl denied Rhett's flirty comment he gave a quick, yet exaggerated frown. He found it intriguing he was giving him some feedback instead of blowing him off. Surely it was too good to be true. He reviewed the girls facial expressions, sure that she was playing him just so he would be humiliated. Rhett was no anti-socail nerd with no love life or anything but this sort of confused him. A hot latina wanted to mess with him? Rhett shrugged to himself and continued on just considering himself lucky. 

When she mentioned the nurses office he frowned once again. "I'm really sorry 'bout that", Rhett apologized reaching over and examining her burns. He ran his hands over them lightly as to not hurt the girl. "I should be able to to at least something about it", as the words came out he focused hard. Rhett wasn't sure what he could do but he really felt bad even despite the girls interest in him. He applied light heat around the burns as to calm the nerves that would sending the painful signals. "I'm sure that didn't help much but..." Rhett shrugged, atlas he tried. 

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina let out a sardonic laugh, “No, it’s really not,” she agreed. There may have been a bitter undertone to her words, but she didn’t care. Being a mutant wasn’t easy, and she had never been very fond of the institutions that had been put in place to control her every move until she’d turned eighteen. They even had the say in where she attended college.


    Selina wasn’t one to play men for the sake of humiliation unless she despised them. Even then, she far preferred being upfront about her dislike instead of playing games. It just wasn’t in her nature to waste time on people she didn’t like. “Don’t worry about it,” she offered with a shrug. She wouldn’t. Physical pain wasn’t something that often bothered her too much, as she had a high tolerance for it.


    Selina almost flinched back from him, but forced herself to remain still as he took her arm and looked over her burn. She was interested in the fact that the pain wasn’t quite as bad after he let go. She had no idea what he’d done, but she nodded her thanks, “I appreciate it,” she replied honestly.

[Rhett Hawthorn]

Rhett smiled. "I'll catch you later", he paused grinning more, "AFTER the nurse". Rhett raised from the table and walked out looking back with a glint of mischief.