#pyrokinesis

When there’s trouble in the street, Burnadette brings the heat! This Pyrokinetic Punkette is smoking out the bad guys from Shreveport to Vancouver, and now her power is yours to control!

Spin her spark wheel to launch a shower of sparks from her hand! Turbocharge her pyrotechnics with ANIM brand Play Fluid for a blast of REAL FIRE! Dazzle your friends! Melt other toys! Now you're playing with FIRE!

Burnadette comes with one bottle of ANIM brand Play Fluid. Other figures and accessories sold separately.

First off, some facts: Limebloods were lowbloods, ranking between golds and olives. Lows are stated to make up the bulk of the population, which means there were a LOT more limes then there were highbloods. If we assume the number drops significantly between castes, then limes would have the 4th largest overall population, and would most likely outnumber all indigos and higher trolls. Maybe even cerulean/blues and higher.

Each caste going down is treated worse and worse, with each higher caste being trained to take out their anger on those lower than them. So, limes would be the 4th worst treated group in the population.

Next, we have the way troll powers are shown to work- if you're a highblood, they get you better army positions. If you're a lowblood, its a gamble whether you can become and exception like the summoner, or are used as a resource for the empire- like the psiionic/helmsman. The summoners case os stated to be VERY rare. He possessed an incredibly rare psychic ability (animal communion) AND a basically unheard of physical mutation that actually gave him an advantage- his wings. Meanwhile, those possessing goldblood psiionics (which are a combo of telekinesis and energy projection) are turned into living batteries- provided they don't burn out on their own first

If you take Hiveswap as evidence, then we see some trolls (Fokkyl) completely burn through their own energy and get the condition of "necrorot" which forces them to constantly drain energy off others just to live. Rust paiionics seem a bit better, its mostly just telekinesis at a lower level. But high levels come with the SIGNIFICANT drawback of being tormented by the dead (its unclear is this happens to golds as well, or is sollux was just special). Looking at the job prospects of Xefros, the only other rust show to have psiionics; he seems to be stuck wither being a regular rust servant, or going into a dangerous bloodsport that would require him to use his powers constantly to survive. He also showcases that overusing his powers causing huge headaches and feelings of exhaustion- something that fit in line with struggles aradia, sollux, and all the other golds and rusts w/ psiionics we see deal with.

However, we also see that Xefros can use his powersat a much higher level, and with no drawbacks when defending Joey during the game. This implied that while there is a limit to how far one can stretch their abilities (ie. Sollux and the psiionic/helmsman killing themselves), emotions can make them far more powerful

So, where does that leave the limebloods?

Calliope implies that every limeblood had some degree of pyrokinesis (which is backed up by the imposter still being seen as a limeblood after basically failing the pyrokinesis tests- almost like failing just meant you were super weak instead of having no powers), and that that form of psiionic did NOT come with the drawbacks that the golds and rusts delt with

If thats true, then that would be the 4th largest, AND 4th most disenfranchised group of trolls ALL had the ability to create fire, and didn't suffer physical/mental exhustion from using it. That alone would be enough of a ticking time bomb for the leaders to say "fuck it" and kill them all. But I think there are 3 more aspects to that motivation then just this basic numbers risk assessment

Firstly, when it comes to human "peasant" armies, they typically win thanks to sheer numbers ("they can't stop all of us!", anyone?). However, for trolls I don't think that would work. In homestuck proper, Gamzee is shown to be near-unkillable, only losing to being bisected by Kanaya. This sane fate hit Eridan, who's a caste higher then him. Feferi abd Equias were killed by Eridan and Ganzee respectively, and while I don't wanna get side tracked by the nuances of that, its safe to say they'd be fairly hard to kill by normal means as well

In hiveswap, its show repeatedly that indigos are basically impossible for a human to kill, purples are considered that difficult to kill by troll standards, abd that violets can only be killed by regular troll by "stabbing straight through their hearts at a very specific angle with a knife coated in special poison" (paraphrased). With fuchsia being assumedly EVEN WORSE

What's interesting though. Is that we NEVER see trolls go up against fire

Seadwellers are pressure resustant, basically invulnerable, and have shit loads of blood, yes. But like, the sea is cold as balls, so, couldn't we just... Set them on fire???

Much like one of my favorite vampire posts like to being up- most things are pretty fucking weak to being set on fire

Add in the fact that robots also doing really badly in fire, and theres a non-zero chance the pyrokinesis SPECIFICALLY was a huge ass weakness for the empire. I mean, in pesterquest we see that chucking a goddamn mall at eridan doesn't fucking kill him, but we never see that mer-troll on fire. And its not like rusts, bronzes, and golds (or even the midbloods), could just. Get their hands on a shit ton of explosives or flamethrowers. Having easy access to fire could be an advantage we're all grossly underestimating!

Maybe the sheer numbers alone could but stopped, but not if every one of those "peasants" had biological flamethrowers, y'know?

(also it would tie into the sun being a huge problem. Like thematically fire being trolls "weakness" fits in with them burning in their sun. Their sun us freakishly hot/bright. But like, thematically you guys-)

Secondly, even if limes WEREN'T a huge threat on their own, they might have posed some kind of cultural threat

Limes and mutants have a lot of narrative linking- caliborn and calliope, the signless and genocide being linked, the imposter and knakri wearing the differentt colored sweaters, etc.

We know that the signless wasn't a physical threat to the empire, but his ideas were enough of a SOCIAL threat that he was killed, and attempted to be erased from history

Just like the limebloods were

MAYBE the limes just were really cool about having solidarity within themselves. Or treated the lowers castes well. Or refused to serve the higher castes. Maybe they just had to die for inspiring widespread social change. Its not that crazy

Thirdly, there is some evidence of a possible caste upheaval

If you except that all limes had some level of pyrokinesis, then its possible that they consistently made better soldiers/engineers/etc than those higher caste then them. Its one thing for equias to be freakishly strong- possibly more strong then the 3 higher up than him. Or for the summoner ALONE to ruse through the ranks. But if a shit ton of lowbloods were consistantly outperforming olives, jades, teals, and possibly even highbloods. Then they'd call into question their place in the hierarchy. And that would be the worst for the poor tyrannical government

Annnnd as a final ado to all this crap: maybe there wasn't a reason

No, no- hear me out!

Trolls die for the crime of being mildly annoying, or just existing ALL THE TIME

In hiveswap heiress Trizza canonically firebombs lowblood neighborhoods regularly for the lols and/or for fucking selfie lighting

The empress might have had them killed for ANY REASON!

Maybe one was late bringing her food, or she thought they were ugly, or she just wanted to see if she could

Maybe the genocide was just what genocide always is- fucking pointless. And the ideas that these lower-class citizens with little to no rights were "dangerous" to the government was just an excuse to hurt them. LIKE IT ALWAYS IS

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"[Leo's] whole body was wreathed in fire. Rain hung in the stormy air, but it only sizzled and steamed around him" (BoO, Riordan 387).

"Rain sizzled and steamed around him." So, Leo's flames would need to be hot enough for water to immediately evaporate anytime it gets near him. We know the boiling point of water is 212 °F (100 °C), but that changes with altitude. "As they ascended, Jason gathered the wind and clouds around him." 6,500 feet is the average for low-hanging clouds. This matches with what is happening in canon ("If they gained any more altitude, the air would be too thin to breathe" (BoO, Riordan 389).), because while there is less oxygen, a person can still breathe easily at that height. A lower atmospheric pressure actually decreases the boiling point, so Leo's heat would be at least 199.6 °F (93.1 °C). So this is the starting point/baseline of Leo's fire in this scene.

"Gaia crumbled to sand, only to get blasted by more flames. Her body melted into a lump of glass, shattered, then re-formed again as human" (BoO, Riordan 388).

Now Leo's heat has reached the point where sand gets turned into glass. This is a MASSIVE jump from the last measurement! For sand to instantly turn to glass, the temperature would have to be at least 3,000 °F (1,650 °C). If materials like soda ash and limestone were mixed in with the sand, that could reduce the melting point to 2552 °F (1400 °C), but that is still CRAZY hot!

"Leo looked like he was made of fire. Flames rippled beneath his skin, illuminating his skull. Leo grinned, which was unnerving in the flames, his teeth like molten silver ingots" (BoO, Riordan 389).

This is a fascinating passage, but it's very hard to break down, due to its fantastical nature. To find a temperature, I searched up, "at what temperature would bone glow?" The result was at least 500 °C (932 °F), but we already knew that, so this isn't a very reliable gauge. Additionally, Leo is highly resistant to heat, so there really is no telling how hot he is in the moment (no, brain, I will not make a 'Hot Stuff' joke, this is a scientific report).

"Festus became an indistinct ball of fire in the sky – a second sun – growing smaller and hotter. Then, in the corner of Jason’s eye, a blazing comet streaked upward from the ground with a high-pitched, almost human scream. Just before Jason blacked out, the comet intercepted the ball of fire above them. The explosion turned the entire sky gold" (BoO, Riordan 389).

So throughout this, Leo's temperature has been growing, but we don't know at what rate. He seems to be alive until the onager's flame joins the mix, so to get the best guess, we'll have to find the highest estimate of the onager's fire. As described in Nico's chapter XLV; "the projectile was a mixture of incendiaries and Imperial gold. Even a small amount of Imperial gold could be incredibly volatile. Exposed to too much heat or pressure, the stuff would explode with devastating impact, and of course it was deadly to demigods as well as monsters" (BoO, Riordan 344). This is also very hard to find a specific temperature for, because there is not much to go off of. But there is one part, "anything in the blast zone would be annihilated – vaporized by the heat" (BoO, Riordan, 344). "ANYTHING." I doubt Nico was thinking of extremely heat resistance elements like Carbon or Tungsten, but we can at least find the 'vaporization' point of materials common to Camp Half-Blood structures. Most common is wood, and then there's marble, melting at 1,339°C (2,442°F), and for Cabin Thirteen, obsidian, melting at 2,000 °C (3,632 °F). Obsidian is probably the material with the highest melting point, so we will use that as our lowest-heat for the onager.

Okay! To get the final lowest estimate of the heat, we need to find the average between Leo's fire, and the onager's fire. The highest measure we found for Leo's fire was 3,000 °F (1,650 °C), when he turned sand-Gaea to glass. The highest measure we found for the onager's fire was 2,000 °C (3,632 °F), the melting point of obsidian. 3,000 + 3,632 / 2 = 3,316.

So, the lowest estimate of the final temperature that destroyed Gaea AND Leo is 3,316 °F, or 1830 °C.

This is PRETTY HOT compared to the average heat of lava, which is 1,000°C (1,830°F)! Or even the highest temperature ever recorded from a rock on Earth's surface, 2,370 °C (4,298 °F), (Scientists determined the temperature by studying a mineral in the rock. The common mineral zircon transformed into cubic zirconia, a process that requires a minimum temperature of 2,370 °C). And this is just the lowest estimate, since I am OBVIOUSLY no expert!

"LEO WAS DEAD. He knew that with absolute certainty. He just didn’t understand why it hurt so much. He felt like every cell in his body had exploded. Now his consciousness was trapped inside a charred crispy husk of demigod roadkill" (BoO, Riordan 419).

And of course, we know that Leo did indeed die from this heat, so our fiery hero is NOT 100% fireproof! Even the pyrokinetic demigod from the Prophecy of Seven has his limits.

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My personal headcanon is that there is NO limit to Leo Valdez's fire, only to what his mortal body can actually take. So if Leo's fire was in the hand's of an immortal being, it could destroy the entire world and never run out.