iamvictor-roth:

iamthefirechild:

iamvictor-roth:

iamthefirechild:

“I just don’t — hmmm — want you getting the wrong idea about me. I’m not some kind of pure, shining girl here to lift you out of the sewer. I’m not going to be any kind of balance for you.” She half-turned in her chair, taking his hands. “Thank you for breakfast, Victor, darling.”

“I would never hold anyone to such a high standard as being perfect, it’s impossible. An’ I sure as hell would never ask you to drag me out of the sewer. I would never imagine to burden someone with the task of balancing me out anyways. I’ve managed alright so far so I don’t see the reason to ask someone to try.” Victor looked down at their hands and smiled. “I’m not the kind of person that wants to be around people to be fixed, I’m just looking for some understanding and trust.”

“You’re welcome by the way love.”

“So. You’ve stuffed me and kissed me, and at some point I suppose I should clean up the kitchen.” She stuck another piece of pancake in her mouth. “Now what?”

Victor chuckled a bit. “I dunno love, what do you normally do during the day? Usually after breakfast I go out and either do some hunting or run about in the woods not too far away from my house upstate. I dunno if you’re up for that or that kind of drive though.”

“Depends if I have a contract or not. Right now I don’t. Work is slow right now, so usually I would tidy up the house a bit, maybe do a load of laundry or vaccum or something, and then play video games or read for the rest of the day.” Summer pushed a hand back through her hair, loose and tumbling over her shoulders. “And somewhere in there is a shower or bath.”

iamvictor-roth:

iamthefirechild:

iamvictor-roth:

iamthefirechild:

“You seem pretty intent on being part of my life. So, you know,” Summer turned her hands out, “I’m completely content to let that happen. And not be … alone, anymore. I’m … not afraid of darkness. Of shadows. I’ve … ” She took a deep breath, holding his eyes. “Killed people. Victor. I’m not really a good person.”

Victor looked at her, not wanting to make light of the situation but slightly quirking an eyebrow. “Remember who you’re talking to love, I’m no better, perhaps even worse. I don’t know how many people I’ve killed, how many governments I’ve toppled. It’s all a blur now really.” He trailed off for a moment before he smiled and got up to kiss the corner to her mouth. “As long as you’re content then this is fantastic.”

“I just don’t — hmmm — want you getting the wrong idea about me. I’m not some kind of pure, shining girl here to lift you out of the sewer. I’m not going to be any kind of balance for you.” She half-turned in her chair, taking his hands. “Thank you for breakfast, Victor, darling.”

“I would never hold anyone to such a high standard as being perfect, it’s impossible. An’ I sure as hell would never ask you to drag me out of the sewer. I would never imagine to burden someone with the task of balancing me out anyways. I’ve managed alright so far so I don’t see the reason to ask someone to try.” Victor looked down at their hands and smiled. “I’m not the kind of person that wants to be around people to be fixed, I’m just looking for some understanding and trust.”

“You’re welcome by the way love.”

“So. You’ve stuffed me and kissed me, and at some point I suppose I should clean up the kitchen.” She stuck another piece of pancake in her mouth. “Now what?”

iamvictor-roth:

iamthefirechild:

iamvictor-roth:

iamthefirechild:

“Victor, darling, I do search-and-rescue and crowd control for SHIELD. Yes, I can project.” Summer propped her elbows on the table and looked at him over her hands. “I don’t understand what you mean. What is it you /want/ to do? I’m not exactly suffering anymore. I have a job, there are people who see my abilities as useful but allow me to say no, and now there’s you.”

“You’re with SHIELD?” Victor whistled, “Well my thought process was that should something become difficult again, I’d be willing to ‘relieve’ you of some of the emotion. I’ve been to dark places so I wouldn’t mind, and I’m immortal in practically every way.” He shrugged, realizing that he probably sounded a little ridiculous. “I’m sorry it’s probably not one of my better ideas.”

He looked down. “What do you mean, and now there’s me?”

“You seem pretty intent on being part of my life. So, you know,” Summer turned her hands out, “I’m completely content to let that happen. And not be … alone, anymore. I’m … not afraid of darkness. Of shadows. I’ve … ” She took a deep breath, holding his eyes. “Killed people. Victor. I’m not really a good person.”

Victor looked at her, not wanting to make light of the situation but slightly quirking an eyebrow. “Remember who you’re talking to love, I’m no better, perhaps even worse. I don’t know how many people I’ve killed, how many governments I’ve toppled. It’s all a blur now really.” He trailed off for a moment before he smiled and got up to kiss the corner to her mouth. “As long as you’re content then this is fantastic.”

“I just don’t — hmmm — want you getting the wrong idea about me. I’m not some kind of pure, shining girl here to lift you out of the sewer. I’m not going to be any kind of balance for you.” She half-turned in her chair, taking his hands. “Thank you for breakfast, Victor, darling.”

iamvictor-roth:

iamthefirechild:

iamvictor-roth:

iamthefirechild:

“I said we could.” She smirked at him, laughing. “If we keep doing what we were doing last night, then definitely. But it’s a lot easier to handle bonded emotions than almost any other. They aren’t obtrusive, and they don’t affect me physically.” Summer’s eyes went distant for a moment. “It’s the people I’m not bonded to that are the problem, that way. Someone else’s pain, someone else’s desire, someone else’s desperate hope. You asked, why have I been alone so much? That’s why.”

“Wait, so is it based in sexual arousal? Intimacy? both the romantic or non romantic sort.”

Victor looked down for a moment. “I wish there was something I could do,” he mumbled almost inaudibly. He looked up at her then, questioning and curiosity in his eyes. “Have you ever given your emotions to other people?”

“Victor, darling, I do search-and-rescue and crowd control for SHIELD. Yes, I can project.” Summer propped her elbows on the table and looked at him over her hands. “I don’t understand what you mean. What is it you /want/ to do? I’m not exactly suffering anymore. I have a job, there are people who see my abilities as useful but allow me to say no, and now there’s you.”

“You’re with SHIELD?” Victor whistled, “Well my thought process was that should something become difficult again, I’d be willing to ‘relieve’ you of some of the emotion. I’ve been to dark places so I wouldn’t mind, and I’m immortal in practically every way.” He shrugged, realizing that he probably sounded a little ridiculous. “I’m sorry it’s probably not one of my better ideas.”

He looked down. “What do you mean, and now there’s me?”

“You seem pretty intent on being part of my life. So, you know,” Summer turned her hands out, “I’m completely content to let that happen. And not be … alone, anymore. I’m … not afraid of darkness. Of shadows. I’ve … ” She took a deep breath, holding his eyes. “Killed people. Victor. I’m not really a good person.”

iamvictor-roth:

iamthefirechild:

iamvictor-roth:

iamthefirechild:

She grinned at him, sending the flame back to the candle. “What — oh, the bonding. It’s, um. It’s hard to explain.” Summer chewed on her lip for a minute, trying to think of the right words. “I guess the closest analogue would be the mind melds, from Star Trek. When I bond to someone, it’s mostly involuntary on my part, though, and they usually don’t know anything about it. But what it means is that even under heavy shields, unless I’m drugged, I can still sense that person. No matter what. Distance doesn’t matter. Their feelings are a whisper in the back of my mind.” She paused again, flicking her gaze up to Victor. “I’m bonded to the girls I met in college. One of them lives in Hawai’i. I can still feel her.”

“Wow, she’s in Hawaii? That’s incredible that you can still feel her emotions. I suppose it might also be difficult.” He shook his head in bewilderment, “Trying to sort of all of those emotions and your own must be an interesting process.” He stopped then and thought a moment. “So you said that we bonded, correct? I’ll do my best not to be too much of a pain then with the bloodlust.” He smiled, half joking, half not. “Do you keep in touch with your friends from college?”

“I said we could.” She smirked at him, laughing. “If we keep doing what we were doing last night, then definitely. But it’s a lot easier to handle bonded emotions than almost any other. They aren’t obtrusive, and they don’t affect me physically.” Summer’s eyes went distant for a moment. “It’s the people I’m not bonded to that are the problem, that way. Someone else’s pain, someone else’s desire, someone else’s desperate hope. You asked, why have I been alone so much? That’s why.”

“Wait, so is it based in sexual arousal? Intimacy? both the romantic or non romantic sort.”

Victor looked down for a moment. “I wish there was something I could do,” he mumbled almost inaudibly. He looked up at her then, questioning and curiosity in his eyes. “Have you ever given your emotions to other people?”

“Victor, darling, I do search-and-rescue and crowd control for SHIELD. Yes, I can project.” Summer propped her elbows on the table and looked at him over her hands. “I don’t understand what you mean. What is it you /want/ to do? I’m not exactly suffering anymore. I have a job, there are people who see my abilities as useful but allow me to say no, and now there’s you.”

iamvictor-roth:

iamthefirechild:

iamvictor-roth:

“I guess I was lucky, that it didn’t all come at once. The convulsions didn’t start until after I went through puberty, and that was really late. So I already knew how to shield, and keep my emotions separate from others.” Watching the dancing flame, she turned her hand up to catch Victor’s. “Plus, I end up … bonding, I call it, with people I’m close to. I think I mentioned that. And those emotions … my body seems to consider that energy normal. So my family can’t actually trigger me that way.

“Which is probably why things went weird when I went to college, because I was all alone, and most of the people I was reading weren’t familiar at all. By the end of the year, that first year, I was … it was pretty bad. And then something happened, I don’t even remember it clearly … and I could turn the emotions into fire.” Summer put the finger of her free hand out toward the candle, and the flame moved through the air to light on it. “It’s part of me. I can’t be burned by it. I can choose if it burns anything else. I can shape it, and direct it, whatever I like.

“So of course I imitated the Human Torch and taught myself how to fly with it. The wings are just for show.”

“Yeah, I remember you talking about that and I don’t exactly understand what it does or mean really. From what I gathered, you can feel my emotions but does it entail anything besides that?” 

Victor nodded then shuddered as he remembered how he had coped before he accepted that he had been born and bred to be a killer. ”Yeah, college can be hell sometimes.” He watched her reach out towards the flame, fascinated. “That’s incredible,” he smirked then, “of course, imitating the Human Torch, what else would you do?”

She grinned at him, sending the flame back to the candle. “What — oh, the bonding. It’s, um. It’s hard to explain.” Summer chewed on her lip for a minute, trying to think of the right words. “I guess the closest analogue would be the mind melds, from Star Trek. When I bond to someone, it’s mostly involuntary on my part, though, and they usually don’t know anything about it. But what it means is that even under heavy shields, unless I’m drugged, I can still sense that person. No matter what. Distance doesn’t matter. Their feelings are a whisper in the back of my mind.” She paused again, flicking her gaze up to Victor. “I’m bonded to the girls I met in college. One of them lives in Hawai’i. I can still feel her.”

“Wow, she’s in Hawaii? That’s incredible that you can still feel her emotions. I suppose it might also be difficult.” He shook his head in bewilderment, “Trying to sort of all of those emotions and your own must be an interesting process.” He stopped then and thought a moment. “So you said that we bonded, correct? I’ll do my best not to be too much of a pain then with the bloodlust.” He smiled, half joking, half not. “Do you keep in touch with your friends from college?”

“I said we could.” She smirked at him, laughing. “If we keep doing what we were doing last night, then definitely. But it’s a lot easier to handle bonded emotions than almost any other. They aren’t obtrusive, and they don’t affect me physically.” Summer’s eyes went distant for a moment. “It’s the people I’m not bonded to that are the problem, that way. Someone else’s pain, someone else’s desire, someone else’s desperate hope. You asked, why have I been alone so much? That’s why.”

iamvictor-roth:

“I guess I was lucky, that it didn’t all come at once. The convulsions didn’t start until after I went through puberty, and that was really late. So I already knew how to shield, and keep my emotions separate from others.” Watching the dancing flame, she turned her hand up to catch Victor’s. “Plus, I end up … bonding, I call it, with people I’m close to. I think I mentioned that. And those emotions … my body seems to consider that energy normal. So my family can’t actually trigger me that way.

“Which is probably why things went weird when I went to college, because I was all alone, and most of the people I was reading weren’t familiar at all. By the end of the year, that first year, I was … it was pretty bad. And then something happened, I don’t even remember it clearly … and I could turn the emotions into fire.” Summer put the finger of her free hand out toward the candle, and the flame moved through the air to light on it. “It’s part of me. I can’t be burned by it. I can choose if it burns anything else. I can shape it, and direct it, whatever I like.

“So of course I imitated the Human Torch and taught myself how to fly with it. The wings are just for show.”

“Yeah, I remember you talking about that and I don’t exactly understand what it does or mean really. From what I gathered, you can feel my emotions but does it entail anything besides that?” 

Victor nodded then shuddered as he remembered how he had coped before he accepted that he had been born and bred to be a killer. ”Yeah, college can be hell sometimes.” He watched her reach out towards the flame, fascinated. “That’s incredible,” he smirked then, “of course, imitating the Human Torch, what else would you do?”

She grinned at him, sending the flame back to the candle. “What — oh, the bonding. It’s, um. It’s hard to explain.” Summer chewed on her lip for a minute, trying to think of the right words. “I guess the closest analogue would be the mind melds, from Star Trek. When I bond to someone, it’s mostly involuntary on my part, though, and they usually don’t know anything about it. But what it means is that even under heavy shields, unless I’m drugged, I can still sense that person. No matter what. Distance doesn’t matter. Their feelings are a whisper in the back of my mind.” She paused again, flicking her gaze up to Victor. “I’m bonded to the girls I met in college. One of them lives in Hawai’i. I can still feel her.”

iamvictor-roth:

iamthefirechild:

iamvictor-roth:

Summer shrugged. “Sure. Ask me anything.” She picked up the fork and started playing with her eggs, pushing them around. It felt like Victor wasn’t taking her seriously. “I’ve always been weird,” she began, quietly, not looking at him. “I read too much, I think too much, I’m too outspoken. No tact, that’s how my mother puts it. I don’t dress right.” She sighed. “Imagine how you felt when you were a teenager. Then double it, triple it, a thousand times — that was my growing up. Because of what I am. I was shy, and introverted, and not enough like most of my classmates.”

Victor looked at her intently, not even touching his food as he listened. “I’m sorry, Summer. It’s not right that you were treated like that. Honestly, I think you had it worse than I did, having to deal with teenage politics sounds terrible. At least with me I knew what I had to do, the path was straight cut, black and white, but for you, it must’ve been hard.” His eyes had gone from the hazel they were last night to a much more green colour. They warmed while he was talking to her, going from their playful light to something much more serious. “Do you mind if I ask what you are exactly Summer?”

“I’m an empath. I’m not sure there’s a name for the other part of it. I just say firechild.” She got up from the table, picking up a candle jar off the counter. “Watch.” Holding the jar by the bottom, she just … looked at it, and it was lit. Summer put it on the table and sat back down. “I transform the energy of the emotions I take in to fire. If I don’t make that transmutation, the extra energy stays in me, and I have convulsions.” She paused. “I was ten when my empathy showed. We didn’t know what it was, just that I was depressed. I tried to kill myself.”

Victor’s eyes grew curious at her mention of ‘firechild’ and then they widened in surprise a bit when she set the candle aflame. “Bloody hell,” he said and he shook his head, “that’s some serious self control you must have had to learn to control the emotions and the fire. Not to mention the fact that it sounds dangerous for you, should the transmutation not work out.” His expression saddened then when she talked about her trying to kill herself. He wanted to do something, anything to comfort her, but everything he thought of seemed too cliche. He opted to reach over and rub the back of her hand with his thumb gently. “I’m sorry, love,” he whispered, “I’m sorry if I was a little crass earlier, things must’ve been really rough.”

“When did you discover you could fly?” Victor asked, trying to steer the conversation towards something that wouldn’t bring her down.

“I guess I was lucky, that it didn’t all come at once. The convulsions didn’t start until after I went through puberty, and that was really late. So I already knew how to shield, and keep my emotions separate from others.” Watching the dancing flame, she turned her hand up to catch Victor’s. “Plus, I end up … bonding, I call it, with people I’m close to. I think I mentioned that. And those emotions … my body seems to consider that energy normal. So my family can’t actually trigger me that way.

“Which is probably why things went weird when I went to college, because I was all alone, and most of the people I was reading weren’t familiar at all. By the end of the year, that first year, I was … it was pretty bad. And then something happened, I don’t even remember it clearly … and I could turn the emotions into fire.” Summer put the finger of her free hand out toward the candle, and the flame moved through the air to light on it. “It’s part of me. I can’t be burned by it. I can choose if it burns anything else. I can shape it, and direct it, whatever I like.

“So of course I imitated the Human Torch and taught myself how to fly with it. The wings are just for show.”