The Fire King (Private for Slight and kfire)

[SlightPhobia]

[Continuation of the old thread!]

[kfire]

Mae nearly jumped off the sidewalk in attempt to dive for cover as this strange man exploded her can of cooking spray. A small shard of can whizzed right past her left cheek, leaving a shallow cut. Her eyes widened as she saw him seemingly engulfed in flame. Oh, great...I just figured it would pacify this nut, not immolate him! Not to mention the shrapnel... She thought as her hand brushed the stinging cut just below her eye. Ow! Then, if anything, the moment grew even stranger: the flame somehow seemed to...enter the man, his wounds healing over as if by...magic.

She shied away as he stood. "W-what the hell was that for?!" She half-shrieked. "You could have killed me! Yourself! B-both of us!" He said something about insults and burning at the stake. She shook her head, disbelief and lingering shock leaving his words barely comprehensible. "Y-you want to talk about insults? How about I try to help you, and you return the favour by scaring the piss out of me! J-just go! I don't need your stupid gift or trade or whatever. The last thing I need is for the ambulance to turn up to two healthy....mostly healthy people." Shaking her head in surprise she turned to begin walking back to her apartment, the situation leaving her morning exercise abandoned. "And they don't burn people at the stake any more, for the record, Mr...just what is your name, anyway?" She turned back to snap after a few steps.

[SlightPhobia]

Thinking things through was not Agni's strong suit. Why he hadn't envisioned the can as potentially killing his human benefactor pointed out his self centered nature. Still, the pungent bloom of blood struck him quickly and curiously. Had humans gotten slower than he recalled? Shouldn't shrapnel been easy to avoid? His perception of human ability was also greatly skewed. His surprise was not unveiled as concern, rather the half-lidded way he eyed the girl's cut suggested something closer to boredom. His observation was derailed with the profanity.

"Shut up," he replied in a very clipped, though calm tone. The woman-child before him was making very accurate observations about her potential demise. "Such is the price of offering cheap oil to a Fire King." How arrogant! Would he have been just as unmoved if she had died or been seriously injured? It seemed that way for now but, were he truly hardhearted he would have retreated without fulfilling his end of the bargain. He was at least a man of his word, rude as he was. He still owed her a wish.

It had been a long while since he had engaged any humans in a meaningful way. He was used to groveling, marveling, and maybe ogling. He was not used to an independent woman shouting insults at him and telling him where he could put the figurative it. She was a curious creature, to be sure. As she flapped him off and mentioned being scared into wetting herself, he canted his head to the side. He was certain he didn't smell human elimination... Then again, he hadn't really been testing the air for it either. "I do not take gifts freely unless they are in the form of sacrifice," he replied to her command to leave. "We had a bargain and I fully intend to uphold it, no matter how trivial the offering." Again, he insulted her cooking spray. Did this nut job have an agenda against Pam spray?

As she began walking, he remained rooted to the spot, staring after her. He might have hastened to his feet to retrieve her had she not paused and asked for the most trivial thing possible. His name? "...Is that the wish you want me to honor? You wish to know my name? Of all the things on earth, you wish for my name?" His brow rumpled in confusion. Humans were supposed to be selfish, wasteful creatures. Maybe this was a waste of a gift, but it certainly did not capture the sense of greed he had attributed to human kind. On the other hand, his first name was a very intimate thing. Mortals had never called him by his proper name. This was the sort of thing close friends and acquaintances asked brazenly for!

Lowering his lashes somewhat, as though to submit to the idea of parting with something intimate, he breathed an arrogant sigh. "Hmph. You really are a fool...." After some pause, he lifted himself to his feet and brushed his hair over his shoulder. "Agni." The name came plainly and irrevocably. She had just spent her wish on a name. How silly! How.... ....interesting. She was very different. "You are the first, and potentially the only mortal to know my name. Keep it wisely, lest you solicit the wrath of myself... or others."

The man smiled wickedly and in a burst of vibrant, scarlet flames he seemed to disappear all together! But had he? No. He was curious now... And curiosity burned brighter than the strongest flame he could muster. He would follow her not because she'd saved him... but because she'd run from him. Running from immortals only attracted their attention.

[>3 I'll have him appear in her home / apartment once she arrives, so feel free to get her home and set her into routine. You can have as much time pass as you please.]

[kfire]

Mae's draw dropped as the man's asshole dial quickly shot up to 11. See if I give you any more oil again, nutjob... she thought to herself. She stood there, folding her arms and shooting him a glare as he went on, only breaking to quirk an eyebrow at his name. "Agni? That's a weird name...were your parents hippies or som-" she cut off, shielding her face from the sudden burst of flame. Guess I touched a nerve... Her jaw dropped, though, as the conflagration expired and he was simply...gone. She quickly looked all around, trying to figure out where he had gotten off to. The pyrotechnics were impressive and all, but unless he'd buried himself back in the shrubs...there was nowhere to go. Slowly, carefully, Mae reached her left hand across to pinch her right forearm. "Ow!" she squealed. Well, guess this is happening then... she sighed, mentally resigning herself to insanity. At least that means my wake up was real...five days straight, a recent high. With that, she turned and headed back for her apartment.

As she moved to slip the key into her lock, her stomach growled. She was hungry AND didn't even have cooking spray any more. Stupid weird fire psycho... she thought darkly as she walked across the lot to her car. Normally she wouldn't go out dressed as she was, but she felt like having a lazy day after her earlier ordeal. She'd email her professors when she got back, explain that she was just sick or something and wouldn't be in class today. With her mind made up, she put the key in the ignition and headed to the nearest SuperMart JumboMarket.

Parking was minimal trouble: not many people felt like grocery shopping at 8am on a Tuesday. Mae pulled the tie out of her hair, shaking the straight, golden locks out to fall halfway down her back. She grabbed a basket and headed straight for the rear of the store, where all the grocery items were located. As a bit of self-satisfaction, she noticed her path happened to take her by the incontinence aisle. She graciously offered a middle finger to all the products there as she passed.

Finally reaching her destination, she grabbed up a can of cooking spray. She considered it for a moment, dropped it into her basket, and then grabbed a second can, just in case. Stepping down a couple of aisles, she also grabbed a six pack of some exciting looking beer. After the day I've had, I've earned this... she told herself. Besides, she knew her refund check would be coming in soon to keep her afloat for the next little while. She set the beer carefully in her basket with the cooking spray. Beer and spray oil... she scoffed at herself, I am the spitting image of a classy lady... She quickly checked out and returned home.

Upon entering her apartment, she put her few items up: spray in the cabinets, beer in the fridge. She wandered back into her room to exchange her shorts for a pair of black leggings. When she wasn't running, the January chill set in, even here and home. Besides, she wasn't the biggest fan of her legs...but that was irrelevant. She tidied up her room a bit, throwing last night's discarded clothes into her hamper along with the running shorts and making her bed. The loud crinkling of her plastic bed cover brought a brief blush to her cheeks. Finally, she returned to her kitchen, grabbed her first beer, popped the cap off, and sat on the loveseat in her small sitting room, clicking on the TV.

[SlightPhobia]

Weird? Even the Fire King had to turn his head away from her at this. There was a very awkward moment in which he felt his cheeks color. Whether he was embarrassed or angry was not immediately apparent. Her commonplace observation seemed quite ungrateful to him though. He hadn't demanded she be grateful though. That wasn't part of their bargain. Fortunately, he made his exit in a timely fashion, perhaps hiding his overall reaction to her assessment of his name. It was a lingering feeling that stuck with him... and that bothered him!

Being at odds with an opposite and equally powerful elemental was bad enough. Tacking on external curiosities made life insufferable! Not only did he have to wonder about the Rain King's next moves, but he was distracted by flashbacks of the damned woman and her infernal commentary. Cursed liberated mindsets... Initially, Agni had disappeared to a furious forest fire in the Southwest. He wasn't entirely sure where he'd wound up, but the fire was hot and it was enough to fully heal him from his previous state. He imagined Yu was likewise basking in a violent rain storm somewhere off the coast. His trip should have been enjoyable. Creatures were fleeing for their lives... stupid human fire fighters occasionally flew over in giant metal beasts to try to silence the blaze... The fire was even approaching civilization! How WONDERFUL! Unfortunately, these were not things he focused on. Instead, he spent his time pacing amid the flames, brooding about whether he was angry enough to smite the town or curious enough to visit the town at the very least to discover what made the odd, blonde woman so... peculiar. She could have asked for anything, after all! Had he not been clear?

Time was a curious thing to immortals. Stewing in one's own thoughts took up a great deal of time; it took up more time than it should have. Brooding often lead to large decisions and once a choice was made, it was rare for immortals to second guess themselves-- no matter how foolish the choices had been. From the forest, he blazed back the odd park in which he'd landed. He was a little unnerved to see a bunch of uniformed humans inspecting the tree he'd ruined. Maybe they would leave him offerings, or those were Agni's conceited thoughts. Abandoning the scene, he allowed himself to scent the air. The girl had a very distinct aroma. Though the whole area was crawling with human stench, her smell was easily enough picked out. Following it wordlessly, he walked as any human might. There was only a few oddities about his walk. For one, he didn't wear shoes. His toenails seemed to be too long and... sharp for shoes. Second, He was still dressed like a fruitcake. He'd since donned himself in a clean, gold-lined white sash. The fine linen was draped over his right shoulder and fastened at his waist by a golden chain. Of course, the chain was garnished with garnets... or were they rubies? Whatever they were, it was pretty inappropriate for the time.

Once he'd reached the young woman's apartment complex, he squinted. What a large dwelling. Perhaps she was royalty? The curiously unpleasant stench of many humans abounded though... which either indicated that she had a lot of servants or... perhaps she herself was a servant to a larger abode located elsewhere. No matter the case, he quickly disappeared in a flicker of flames... and appeared in a similar fashion within the little apartment unit. Where had he appeared? In the kitchen area. Burr! Appearing in servant's stations was so... undignified.

Scoffing, he turned and began to wander about the apartment as though there were no crime in it. It didn't take him long to discover the woman perched in the love seat. The aroma of alcohol was in the air and that... well while alcohol pleased him, he wasn't certain the young woman should have been partaking of it. "...What are you doing?" He asked suddenly. His tone was accusing-- disapproving even! Was he unaware that stalking was against the law?

[kfire]

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Mae shrieked, nearly falling out of the loveseat in shock. Here she was, trying to take it easy, enjoy and beer and...now THIS guy was back?! Despite her recovery, the quick, jarring motion had upset her beverage and, before she was able to answer the creepy guy's question, foam began to spew from the mouth of the bottle. She very quickly shoved it in her mouth, clamping down with her lips and doing the best to swallow the foam as it poured out of the bottle, giving no consideration to how suggestive the position looked.

Scooting as far a way from the man as the loveseat would allow, she fumbled blindly at the drawer of the end table that stood beside the seat, unwilling to take her eyes from this bizarre man. The flash of assorted jewelry was captivating, certainly, but she more seemed to be under the delusion that if she could see him, he wouldn't move. Finally grasping the knob on the drawer, she yanked it open and fumbled again for her knife. Her hand closed quickly around it and she brought it to bear with a slight whisper of steel on leather as she drew it from its sheath: a shining 8" knife, its blade slender and suggestive of a dagger more than any utilitarian usage. "Mmmm mmmph," she threatened, waving the blade dangerous. Right. The bottle. She must look a bizarre sight, she knew: her hair all mussed up, dressed in leggings and a tank top, splayed out across her loveseat, overflowing beer bottle held in one hand (and her mouth), her knife in the other.

Carefully, feeling the foam receding, she pulled the bottle from her mouth and fixed Agni with the most seriously glare she could muster. "I know how to use this thing," she cautioned, brandishing the knife. It seemed like she did: she kept the point rather than the edge leveled at Agni, prepared for the quick thrust that made smaller blades like this so deadly. "Don't even explain yourself. Just. Get. Out." She twitched the tip of her knife briefly towards the door to accentuate her point. (Heh.)

[SlightPhobia]

Few men wouldn't have let loose a forbidden shudder with the image of fellatio dangling in front of them the way it now dangled before Agni. His pupils contracted into tiny slits as he gawked at the woman giving her bottle neck a figurative blow job. "..." There just weren't words. Beer was stored in such containers, but women didn't really... well unless it was that sort of a party with those sort of women. Oddly enough, Agni rarely partook of women. His occupation was more war-like in nature. Night and day, he only plotted conquest. What few women had been unfortunate enough to lay with him were probably damned unsatisfied. He'd never loved anyone and given the way his attitude progressed, it was possible he never would.

Like women of that profession, Agni was not surprised when she drew a slim knife. Blades and prostitutes went together like dandies and mustaches. Her command to leave was flatly ignored, as was the brandishing of her blade. Could she really hope to stab him? Maybe. If she caught him off guard, she could easily have stabbed him a half-dozen times before he stopped her. That would have been... annoying. His movements were capable of surpassing human speeds dozens of times over. That didn't mean he didn't need to be cautious though. Humans had outsmarted his kind before. "Your aggression annoys this Fire King." This fire king? What a peculiar and arrogant way to speak!

The more she switched the blade around, the more his lips turned down at the corners. His neutral expression shifted into that of a sneer. "The way you move the blade away from your foe makes me question your statement. Do you know how to use it-- or are you threatening the door?" He asked in a condescending tone. His figure seemed to evaporate from where it was he stood. A breath later, he was beside one of the windows in the sitting room. His palm was pressed flat to the window-- his back turned to her. That didn't mean his guard was down though. "You will put your blade away. You needn't guard your filthy dignity. I have no intentions of forcing myself upon you. Clean up your mind," he muttered dully. While it might have been refreshing to hear, it was a bit insulting at the same time. Couldn't he have said it in a way that reflected he valued her at least a little? Instead, he sounded bored with the notion- maybe even disgusted.

"Is this tiny hole your home?" He asked, pulling his hand away from the window. He even went as far to examine his hand as though to suggest the entire place was dirty. "You certainly have a grandiose attitude for one who comes from such a modest dwelling..." Said the king of the aforementioned asshole dial.

And if he hadn't made his desire known, he repeated himself once more in a tone that was a bit more stern. "Put away your blade lest I strike you. I have no reason to harm you at present time..." What did he mean by strike her!? Was he unaware that it was illegal (and assy...) to break into someone's house and smack them around? As for how he intended to strike her, likely with the palm of his hand across her face. She was a woman and though he had killed women with indiscriminate fires, he rarely killed them with his own hands. If she was childish enough... if she rubbed him just the right way, perhaps he might have smacked her wrist or even her behind. For now though, he wasn't sure what to make of the woman nursing the neck of a beer canister. She was... odd.

[kfire]

Mae tentatively lowered her knife, though she didn't let go of it. This guy was super weird and...had he just TELEPORTED across her living room? Setting her beer down on the end table, she stared at him for a moment. Her increasing frustration with this bizarre man came to a boil. Hadn't she SAVED his LIFE? And her reward was apparently a name and a brand new, absolutely mad, and generally unpleasant STALKER?! She wasn't going to take it. Not at all. Her eyes narrowed, as if she hoped to glare a new hole through his chest before she launched into a tirade now that her specific grievances had precipitated. "Hold on a second, Mr. 'This Fire King' Agni whatever. You invaded my home...insulted me...and now you're interrogating and threatening to assault me? I'm not sure what kind of bizarro-land you're from, but that is incredibly, incredibly rude. You call yourself a king, you're decked out like Xerxes in that dumb movie, but you don't understand common courtesy? I'd say you could stay and chat, but I don't invite assholes into my home. So get out. Or I'll call those mortal authorities you were so worried about and I'll give them specific instructions to burn you at the stake or whatever."

With that, she slammed her knife down to stick in the top of the wooden end table, grabbed her cell phone, then stood and crossed the room to unbolt and open her front door. The chill breeze from outside caused her to shiver a bit, certainly not contributing to her attempted intimidation. She looked pointedly at Agni and, with a sweeping gesture, indicated the way out. "I grow weary of your intrusion. Please remove yourself from my 'modest dwelling'." She drawled, affecting a stuffy accent and clearly mocking Agni's somewhat archaic manner of speaking. With her other hand, she quickly dialed the police without actually placing the call. Raising the smartphone towards Agni, she waggled it a bit, the number clearly showing on the lit screen. "The choice is your, my loooord. Get out, or get burnt. Arrested. Whatever." Her eyebrows furrowed in exasperation over that last thought. "You really don't know they don't do that any more?" She burst out, the thought popping from her head to her lips before she even thought it through.

[SlightPhobia]

For one representing the fire element, his temper didn’t seem to be stupendously explosive, at least not on the surface. Next to the young woman, who’d finally had her fill of nonsense, he seemed calm as a sleepy kitten. Even as she burst into her rant, Agni watched her as one might watch something for the first time. His mildly fascinated expression didn’t seem to shift into insult. He bore her justified rage in stride and watched as she brandished a phone, and possibly the knife at the same time, wagging her hands around like a lunatic. He interrupted her before she began dialing the phone and as she attempted to show him the door, he stood in a rather militant stance. Clutching his hands behind his back, he stood with his feet shoulder width apart. “Allow me to enlighten you about rudeness. Rudeness is in perspective of a dominant culture’s politeness measure. I have no idea where this place is and from what culture it hails but… do you have any idea of the gap between you and I?” He let the question linger for a moment as she waved her phone with the number displayed on the screen. 911 meant nothing to him.

Finally, his arm lashed out, though it struck nothing. Instead, an array of flames followed his arm. For a moment, it seemed as though it was no more than a pyrotechnic move until the phone burst into flames. Hopefully the poor girl would release it before the wretched smell of burnt plastic—and more importantly the heat of burnt plastic—came into contact with her. Her poor hand if she hadn’t!! Stepping forward, he flexed his toes and all at once, his neutral expression was replaced with one of savagery. “I am the Fire King! I am what controls the fires burning wild here, there, and everywhere.” Well… he couldn’t have consciously controlled all fire at the same time. He’d have little mind left to think! Or could he? He left that little detail unanswered. “Call your priests and shamans,” he began clearly unaware of what the police did on a regular basis. “But wouldn’t it be a pity for them to come to a building curiously engulfed in flames? And all because a wretched slip of a girl couldn’t control her temper!” He was one to talk… destroying a harmless little ol’ cell phone. Those things cost a lot of money! He’d probably feel bad about it later… or not. It all depended on how much damage he wound up doing in the long run.

In a flash, he reached forward and his hands were on her. Rather than slap her, he took hold of her cheeks in between his thumb and fingers and squeezed her cheeks into a fishy expression. He didn’t really dig his nails in nor did he squeeze her face so rough as to truly hurt her. It was more a hold of dominance. “Fight me, woman, if you dare… but I will not have you presume that we are equals! I’ve lived far too long!” And all at once, the rage smoothed away from his face. “Hu… You’re like a child.” As though he’d reached a revelation, he released her all at once. Ignoring her protests, he paced back toward her bedroom. What, was he demanding she sleep with him? Not at all? He was simply exploring. “Haven’t you any parents to mind you? Or do they turn you loose on this village to throw tantrums and threaten every man with the inquisition?” He’d already yanked open a linen closet… who knew if there was anything that would spill out.

[kfire]

Mae dropped her phone with a startled shriek the moment it burst into flame. Wh-what the hell?! her mind raced; terrified, baffled, and enraged by this display, all at the same time. It's wasn't some cheap phone either. "Th-th-that was a $300 dollar phone!" She cried in disbelief, looking at its smoldering ruins on the floor. And her dilemma didn't end there: she kept getting angrier and angrier with this man, but began to realise more and more just how little there was she could do to stop him. Dammit...I knew I should have bought a fire extinguisher for this place... she mentally berated herself as she slammed the front door and started after Agni as he moved into her bedroom.

"I am NOT a child! And I DO have parents, thank you," she protested as she pursued him, "Ones that taught me proper manners, too...unlike some people..." She added the last bit under her breath. As she caught him tearing open her linen closet door, she rolled her eyes. "Oh, I don't need to threaten anyone with the Inquisition. It seems it's ALREADY HERE!" She snaps as she tries to force the door shut before he gets too good of a look into her stuff. It's not that she was worried about anything in her linen closet; it had, in fact, entirely slipped her mind what was tucked in the back and very bottom of said closet.

There was a small packet of GoodNites the last guy she brought back here had gotten her the morning after. Must have thought himself really clever...she had been so humiliated. First to have peed on him, then that. Ugh. At the time, she had reassured herself that he was just an asshole (not unlike the man currently invading her apartment). Still, she had been too ashamed to immediately take them down to the dumpster, so she had thrown the package in there and completely forgotten about it.