#pyrokinetics

hmmm. yes.

This girl is not... a traditional girl. In any sense of the word. She's bright, sharp, all edges and blades and ferocity. She hates dresses, hates makeup, hates jewelry, likes long hair, likes loud shouting, likes fighting people. She's competitive, she's sassy. She's not interested in romance, not really, she's more concerned with dragons and weaponry. She spends her hours figuring out how to weaponize her talent, how to arm herself against every evil. She's so determined to save everyone she knows from the evil of the world that that's what she devotes her time to. She's a hero, this girl. She's a superhero in the making.

Oldest sister of like, four. She just gives off that energy. She's bored of kids, at this point, and nothing they do can impress her anymore. She just nods, like, yeah. Okay. I can see that you know how to do a backflip. Mhm. Good for you. Nice job, you nearly lit yourself on fire. Clean it up. It's just very blasé, very straightforward, and extremely unimpressed.

Her dad's got some family that's talentless. Her aunt, uncle, and cousins are all talentless. She never talks about them. But they're invited to every holiday. Marella watches her dad hug his sister tighter than he hugs anyone else. She watches them, as a little girl, and she tells herself that someday she'll fix the world for him.

She doesn't know that her aunt is only labeled as "Talentless" because she's an illegal pyrokinetic. Maybe it's a good thing that Marella doesn't know. After Marella presents her talent, her dad tells himself that Marella, the only exception in centuries of oppression, will never know that her aunt is in the same boat as she is.

Linh and her are just... friends. It's stronger than that, but not in a romance way. Linh's not interested in any of that crap, and honestly, neither is Marella. But she likes her in a different way, loves her in a stronger way, a fiercer, more powerful, intense way. Theirs is the kind of friendship that is fiercer and stronger than any romance, can last longer and stronger than romance can. It's not equivalent to a relationship, it's not binding, it's just. There. Stronger than family, stronger than any contract, stronger than anyone else's' friendships in the entire group. Maybe it's just that they both understand each other, maybe it's just that they're closer than they ever thought two people in a completely platonic friendship could become. Maybe it's that they're just like sisters, like best friend sisters, who love each other to the moon and back and would kill and die for each other in the same breath. There's no jealousy between them, no bitterness. There is only love. And it's as strong as love gets, as fierce as it gets, it is a rock, untouched by water and fire, and it's about as amazing as a friendship can get.

Marella has wholly and completely become the world's salvation. She's put a ton of pressure on herself to save everything, to solve the pyrokinesis problem, matchmaking problem, the talent problem, the societal problems of perfection, the hypervigilant council, the registry's files, every flaw of society is on her shoulders, in her own mind. She needs to save herself, but in trying to do that, she's required that she save the world. She spends hour after hour fighting. She's not going to stop until she's done.

She's never going to be done fighting. Because this world is flawed, and there's no end to it's struggles.

Marella wants to get married someday. But she's not in a rush. It's gotta be the right person, anyhow. Her favorite person. Someone she likes romantically, someone she likes as a friend, someone who can be everything and more. gray biromantic ace what

(Personally, I have a headcanon that Marella stays single for about three hundred years, meets a boy a hundred years younger than her who looks at her like she hung the stars and kisses the tips of her fingers that have caused so much destruction, and sees her as so much more than just a hero. More than a weapon. He sees her as a person. And Marella just collapses in his arms, three hundred years of tired coming apart in his arms. No, this boy does not get a name. I think he's better this way, and that Marella should keep him a secret.)

Marella buys a house for herself straight out of foxfire, and moves out. She takes all of her things, and leaves. She needs her own space. She loves her family, but they're a bit much. She settles into her chair, one night, and sighs, up at the ceiling, proud of how far she's come.

She will run herself into the ground if you don't stop her. Linh has a appointed herself the "Marella Brake", as the crew fondly calls her. Marella will work herself to exhaustion, if left unchecked, move until her body physically is forced to stop, try to get up the next day, and it's too much, and she complains about it. So Linh makes her go take a nap, once in a while. Marella grumbles, but really, she just loves her best friend more for working so hard to protect her, even from herself.

She and Sophie get to bond a lot. They sit out, one night, under the stars, and Marella is just a bit unstable. They have one of the deepest conversations either of them have had that didn't involve either of their best friends(Linh and Keefe, respectively). They both just look at each other. Stunned, almost.

They collapse into each other's arms, and hug each other like they're never going to get the chance again.

And after that, they're each other's like, "My powers are insane and I feel like reality wants me dead" friend. They call each other up randomly and just rant. It's good for the both of them.

Tam and Marella are about as close as the average person's best friend and older brother are. Not super close, but they understand each other. And they'd both kill and die for Linh. They get along great. Just don't ever say anything mean to Linh, or they'll band together and end. You.

Marella really likes reading. Like, a lot. She's read Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Cicero, Shakespeare, Thomas More, Sun Tzu, all those great human philosophers and discussers. She loves reading those in the sunlight, they make her feel alive. It's so interesting, she thinks, reading Plato's The Republic, "In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill... we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one.”

She's a heating pack. A human heating pack. She always has a ton of people draped over her on movie nights, and she loves it. It's just so nice, because her mother doesn't her skin, anymore, doesn't try to touch her anymore. But her friends do, and cuddle close, and Keefe will bury his face in her shoulder, his whole body relaxing for the first time all day, and Marella is just... so relieved to be someone good for all of them to be around.

Marella's mother loves her to death, she just never knew how to deal with Pyrokinesis. Marella didn't either. Didn't make her mother's subtle fear of her power any easier, though.

In the lexicon of the OPG (Omni-Power Genesis, the leading experts on superpowers and the first book in the Bible) there are primary powers and there are secondary powers. Primary powers are, you guessed it, a superhero’s most prominent powers. The one’s they use to save the day on the reg. The one’s listed on their collectible trading cards. Secondary powers are the unsung heroes of a superhero’s skillset (hmm, is a superhero metaphor really appropriate in a sentence about superheroes?) they’re the abilities the hero needs to have in order to allow them to use their primary abilities. It’s the invulnerability that makes it possible for those strong guys to break through brick walls without hurting themselves. It’s the friction resistance that prevents speedsters from bursting into flames. It’s the ability to withstand air pressure and breathe low amounts of oxygen that allows flyers to fly.

The example that we’ll work with in this post is pyrokinetics, though the points we make can be applied to a bevy of secondary powers. Their primary powers are fire projection, fire manipulation, all that good stuff. They’re the hottest guys on the block. But an often overlooked, though in retrospect totally obvious, secondary power of theirs is heat resistance. What good would they be without it. Imagine if every time they used their powers they had to be rushed to the emergency room to be treated for severe burns. They would be a pretty useless superhero. So generally they can tolerate severe temperatures that would melt, burn or fry a lesser being. (An even lesser known tertiary power of theirs is the ability to shrug off any and all insults, or burns.)

One of the marks of a truly talented superhero is the ability to use their secondary powers as additional primary powers. There’s no law saying that you can’t save the world using the little bonus gifts you’ve been given. [Tell a lie, there’s actually a little known law in a small province on the planet Cartalogia, the universes leading go-kart manufacturers, that specifically prohibits the use of secondary powers in go-kart races, so if you’re ever in a scenario where you need to save the world with go-kart race you should not use your secondary powers for fear of interplanetary war with the Cartalogians.] So you need to get creative and work to hone your secondary powers into effective tools all on their own. In our example that could mean participating in rescues from burning buildings or explosions. If the super-genius that was dispatching heroes to various crisis sites was only paying attention to primary powers they might assume that a pyrokinetic is the last thing a fire would need. They’d send out hydrokinetics or weather-manipulators. But that would be foolish and people would die! It might take a while for those guys to put the fire out. We need to get someone inside the fire to mitigate the loss of life. So you get a pyrokinetic. 

Additionally if you’re a pyrokinetic you could sign up with a space program and be the first person on the surface of the sun! That would be pretty sweet. Just make sure you sign up with a legit space program not like a mad science space program. Because a mad scientist would definitely skin you in order to make a heat resistant space suit for themselves. So if you’re filling out the forms and notice that the agency is called MASA (Malevolent Angry Scientist Agency) you should leave immediately. If you get it right though... wow. Imagine if you were the first person on the sun. You could retire from all that dangerous superhero stuff immediately. Think of the marketing deals. You could make a fortune off of selling sunglasses and sunscreen. I don’t know about you but if I were shopping for sunglasses I’d definitely purchase the brand that the first person to walk on the sun was wearing. (*Ahem*) Oh right, but that’s obviously not why we do this. We do this to help people. So keep on doing that.

Superhero costume designers need to be keenly aware of the nature of secondary powers as they often need to figure out ways to install them, so to speak, into a superhero’s costume. Nobody wants to be rescued from a burning building by a naked man. I mean, I guess if they’re tapped in a burning building, any savior will do, but ideally they’d be wearing clothes no? So they need to figure out how to make their costumes heat and fire resistant too. Or friction resistant in the case of speedsters. Or malleable in the case of stretchy guys or (uch) shapeshifters. 

Once you have a deeper understanding of your own secondary powers you’ll become much more effective in combating supervillains with the same powers as you. Other superheroes who fight these guys won’t necessarily be paying attention to anything but the big flashy abilities they’re using. But once you’ve gained a mastery over your own powers and intimate knowledge of what you’re capable of, you’ll be able to see past the more obvious abilities and get into the nitty-gritty of how they use their powers and what they might be capable of. This will give you an obvious edge when it comes to fighting them. Especially if they haven’t gone on the same introspective journey you have.  Just a heads up though you might have to swap enemies with another superhero to be your most effective self. This can get a bit dicey, superheroes get weirdly attached to their bad guys. It’s all very territorial. The devil you know and all that jazz. (Note: This doesn’t apply to Codename: Gabriel. The superhero/spy/alleged angel who frequently finds himself fighting the actual Devil. He knows that Devil and he does not like him. If anybody wants to swap nemeses with him give him a call, he’s definitely open to a trade.) To sidestep this try only fighting bad guys with the same powers as you from the getgo. If everybody does that then we’ll never have any problems like this. Though I guess there’d be nobody fighting the bad guys with the powers to fire bullets through time or the ones who shoot garbage from their hands. Those seem like the kinds of powers only bad guys have. 

An important thing to note is that, in some cases, if exploited by a particularly savvy supervillain (Note: If you are a particularly savvy supervillain it is illegal for you to read the rest of this paragraph), your secondary powers can also become secondary weaknesses. For example, superheroes who can project forcefields need to breathe. To account for that, the forcefields they create are not entirely impermeable, their secondary powers kicks in and allows oxygen and sunlight to pass through, and carbon dioxide to pass out. These tiny, microscopic openings in their forcefields could conceivably be exploited by a supervillain to pump in harmful gasses in order to incapacitate or even kill our projecting protector. So you once you’ve discovered the wonders of your secondary powers we’d advise you not to publicize it (like by writing a free to read blog post without any legal warnings). 

Marella is Linh's best friend. Like, they're besties. Best friends. Super close. Would kill and die for each other. Although Linh doesn't want to kill anyone ever again. Marella knows that. Marella will kill for Linh.

So, logically, Tam and Marella hang out primarily because of Linh. Association is a great friendship inducer.

Anyways, they usually give each other a lot of space, and honestly don't really interact beyond whenever they're both around Linh.

However.

Sometimes, interactions just happen, and you're spilling all of your emotional problems to the first person who's there and able to listen to you.

Tam walked into the kitchen, one day.

Like, not intending to be up to anything in specific, probably hunting for a snack.

And at the island, in the center of the kitchen, there was Marella. She had a flame hovering in her hand, and her eyes snapped wide as she looked at him.

She was cooking a marshmallow in between her fingers above a flame she held in her hand.

They held eye contact for a good fifteen seconds.

"What," Marella demanded. "Linh went to go get graham crackers and chocolate. I'm supposed to keep the marshmallows warm."

Tam blinked, slowly.

The flame crackled in her hand, hovering above the stone countertop.

Tam shrugged, and then moved to sit next to her. "I want one."

"You'll have to ask your sister."

"She'll say yes. And if she refuses, I'll lord it over her forever."

"You sound like my brother."

"You have a brother?"

"Yeah," She said, with a shrug. "Kalaren."

"How old's he?"

"Twenty-five," Marella let the fire in her hand flicker, a little, and her eyes grew sort of sad. "He hasn't talked to me since he found out I'm a pyro," she shut her eyes. and the fire fluttered down to a low burning. "Said something about how 'ashmakers don't even exist'."

Tam said nothing, watching the flame in her hand smelt itself down to a few flickering, dark orange dregs of heat.

"So," She said, "I suppose it's not that great a loss. Who wants a brother who doesn't think they exist?"

Tam still said nothing.

The flames picked up speed again, and she slowly turned the marshmallow over in between her fingers. It was turning a soft brown.

"You can't expect everyone to love you," Marella said, finally, staring intently at the fire. "Sometimes people are indifferent. That's okay, if I don't know them. Sometimes people hate me. That's okay, if I know them or I don't. I don't mind being hated."

Tam was watching her, now. He felt like he'd accidentally stumbled onto something large and heavy, that Marella carried close to her chest.

"But, you know. It's when someone really truly doesn't care. Like, they just... Leave me be. They don't talk to me, don't hang out with me, pretend like I don't exist, don't care about what happens to me or what I'm dealing with..." She sighed, softly, and snapped her fingers, changing the position of the flames to the tips of them, instead of the center of her palm.

Tam decided he should say something. "I think," he said, slowly, "That that sounds really hard."

Marella said nothing, but the flames on her fingertips blazed brighter.

"Hatred and love are very similar," he continued. "Because either way, you still care about the person. But," he said, "To not care at all. That sounds almost cruel."

Marella winced, and the flames flickered higher, and tiny shards of ash flickered to the table.

"I didn't even want blind acceptance, you know?"

Tam kept his eyes on the flame.

"I didn't even want him to be like, "You're a pyrokinetic, that's fine. I don't care either way." I wanted him to go, "That's amazing" or "That's horrible."

The shadows on the table that she cast from her fingertips shattered and reformed themselves. Tam watched them, wondering if they were trying to tell him something.

The fire licked the sides of the marshmallow. "But he just... he said I didn't exist, and ever since then. He's behaved like I don't. And it hurts. A lot. Because he used to love me."

Tam looked at the blonde girl.

She shook her head, her eyes glittering. "I'm sorry," she said, "I don't know why I threw that all at you. It's not that big a deal. I just saw him yesterday and he kind of just... didn't look at me. And I can't talk to Linh about this because she'll just try and hug me, and I like the hugs, it's just. I don't know. I'm sorry. You're just the first person I've been able to spill all this to."

"Don't apologize to me," Tam said, "I care about you, Marella. And I get what you're saying."

Marella smiled, softly, a look of relief flooding over her face.

"Apologize to that marshmallow, though," Tam said, suddenly. "I think you're going to need to start over."

Marella looked at what had once been a marshmallow. It was now a burnt crisp of sugar and air.

She snorted, softly. "Yep," she said, "Better throw it away," then her eyes caught on him. "Actually, no," she said, "I dare you to eat it, Tam."

Okay, so I bring this idea up a lot in my fanfics and on here. I don’t like the government in the Lost Cities. In fact, I think the government in the Lost Cities is so bad that it is downright dystopian. 

Here’s my comprehensive argument list.

The Lost Cities are an aristocracy. The powerful govern the non-powerful and powerful alike, and twelve people are in charge of making choices for every branch and level of society in the Lost Cities, from the talented to the talentless, pyrokinetics to the technopaths.

The laws bend to the whims and wills of the aristocrats. Law is not a constant, and can be changed if a majority of the council has it. That majority is seven on yes or know questions, but could be as low as three if there were enough choices presented.

 If you are convicted of a crime, there is no judiciary system, or jury of peers, you go before the council, and the council decides your fate. 

The new councilors are picked from the nobility. Which means that talentless will not be allowed to run for councilor. 

How are the councilors picked? We don’t know. It’s an election, but who elects the councilors? Everyone? Just Lords and Ladies? Just the talented? Everyone but Pyrokinetics? We really don’t know.

Moreover, councilors can feasibly do anything, whether or not the public approves. And the vote does not even need to be unanimous(see Fintan and the Pyrokinetic Ban.)

The council does not need to keep itself in good favor with the people it controls. There is no check on their power, and no reason for them to care about who they hurt with their laws. 

Matchmaking. That’s it, that’s the whole point.

The talented are always pressured to marry into a “good match” hopefully to raise children who also have talents similar to theirs, and “bad matches” are often ostracized from society as a whole, as well as seen as inferior. Due to this, logically, very few talented people would truly marry for love.

There is no way to separate a husband and wife. Not for any reason. So, like. Idk about you, but I see a lot of ability for people to get stuck in terrible situations and have no way out. 

Speaking of terrible situations, at least 3/5 kids(ei, Tam, Linh, Keefe, Dex, Stina) have parent issues. That is a huge statistic. That is not good or healthy. What kind of parents is this society bringing up, and infecting into existence?

Hey, random thought, are kids ever emancipated? Is there any feasible way for any kid who is in a bad situation to get out of the bad situation? Is there a foster-care system? Or is it all done by word of mouth and acquaintance-ships?

The talentless are constantly treated as inferior, as well as cast out and removed from society as a whole, demoted to working class or worse due to the fact that they don’t shoot lightening bolts out of their finger tips.

There is a lot of oppression, right there. You know what else is based on a lot of oppression due to natural abilities? Red Queen. That one is full on dystopia. So. Uh. Yeah. 

The talentless live in poorer cities, and don’t have access to the best things... because they can’t be nobility. Your quality of life, or at least, your quality of clothes, is very much dependent on your social status.

Pyrokinetics? are banned? Like the whole lot of them? Were they hunted to extinction in the hopes that they would never return at one point? Or did the council just decide that basic decency was not afforded to Pyros? 

Because who on earth thought THAT was a good or smart or fun idea???? “oh, let’s like, just, yknow, ban an entire talent, because we don’t like it.” GREAT IDEA. SUPER SMART. WOW.

Twins and triplets are also treated as lesser or inferior based on something they could not control. What the frick. 

Another point, elves don’t do war. This, initially, seems like a great way to approach life. Until you realize that elves are the only specie that doesn’t do war. They will literally withdraw their support of any given species or culture based on the wars they fight. Like... uh... Idk about you, but this seems like a great way to completely isolate yourself and your culture and lose all hope you had of being good allies with anyone. 

This also means that elves could literally be attacked by any given army and have no way to fight back in violent or war-like situations, except, of course, you know, the literal terrorists.

Let’s talk about them!!! Our bois, the Black Swan and the Neverseen!!!! And they are constantly fighting each other and the council. 

The terrorist organizations are fighting for freedom from oppression, and the deliverance of elvin society from the above evils, but are constantly depicted as the bad guys. Propoganda? Perhaps.

These terrorists feel as though they have been personally wronged by the government, and have been so slighted by the government and the people in power that they are willing to go to extreme measures to prevent the government from staying in power. 

What the frick, huh? Like, why are these people not allowed to have a voice in the government, why can they do nothing but try and burn down cities and kill people, or create Sophie Elizabeth Foster and hope that maybe she’ll set the world right? I mean, something clearly must be unbalanced, there, if people need to go this far just to feel as though they are being heard.

The final element is a little scary, because, you see, every one of these things, which seem so very vibrant right now, is very very hidden. Everything that seems so dangerous is cloaked in sparkles and futuristic science that operates like magic. Everything is hidden behind closed doors, and up glorious palaces of crystal. 

Everything is perfect, there’s no reason to worry!

Unless, of course, you’re a pyrokinetic.

Unless, of course, you’re talentless.

Unless, of course, you’re in love with a bad match.

Unless, of course, you’re stuck in an abusive situation and cannot get out.

Then, of course, nothing is good, and everything around you is a reason to worry.

Anyways.

I’m sure this is all very inaccurate and a super far stretch, and there really is no reason to worry.