Experiences.

Who: Kaysen and Charlotte.
When: Late morning.
Where: Kaysen's house.

Once the sun came out and Charlotte and her mom came out of the basement, they found that their street looked a little... scorched. Which would have been a lot more terrifying and shocking if Charlotte didn't happen to know a fire elemental across the street.

Oh hey, what do you know, it was still a little shocking and freaky. Because her friend was that fire elemental. Charlotte knew she would have heard about it if something had happened to Kaysen, but... still. Street. Scorched. Vampire apocalypse. First chance she got, Charlotte headed across the street to knock at the St. James' door.

Kaysen's mother answered, and sort of looked vaguely confused at the girl on the other side of the door. "Can I help you?" she asked.

Charlotte had never met Kaysen's mom before. Or, well... any friend's parental unit before. This wasn't weird, right? "Hi, um, is Kaysen home?"

The woman paused and seemed to have to think about it. Lately her children had been...either home or next door, and she was having trouble keeping track of their comings and goings. She thought her daughter was home though. "I think she's up in her room." she said. "You can go check. First door on the left at the top of the stairs."

"Thanks." Charlotte said, giving the woman a polite smile before she headed for the stairs. She'd been to Kaysen's room before, when they practiced together, so thankfully she didn't feel awkward. She tried not to hurry, though she knew logically that she didn't need to be freaked out. If something major and vampire-related had happened to Kaysen, her mom would have been freaked out - right? Hopefully. Charlotte stopped at Kaysen's door and knocked lightly, already starting to listen for Edison.

Edison went over to investigate sounds at the door, but Kaysen wasn't getting up any time soon. She still felt like she was too drained to move, and so she looked over at her door. "Come in." she said. She was curled on her side, pillows hugged to her middle. Beyond that, she was looking just like she felt. Drained as hell. there was a candle lit on her bedside table, and she kept occasionally meditating with it, or trying, but it was more just there to make her feel mildly better.

Charlotte opened the door and peeked in, and frowned when she saw Kaysen. She let herself in and shut the door behind her, being careful not to step on Edison. "Holy crow, are you okay? Did you do what I think you did?"

"If what you think I did is 'set Thom's lawn, part of the street, Chance's car, and a little bit of Thom's tree on fire' yeah. I did that." Kaysen answered. She looked over. "I overdid it." she added, unnecessarily, because hey! Obvious! "C'mon in. You okay?"

Charlotte winced as she walked in and sat down on the floor next to Kaysen's bed, idly petting Edison as she did. "Of course, I'm fine. I didn't pull a... fire ninja. Were any of you hurt? Can we find a way to help you?"

"I dunno. I guess I could look in the book or something, but I'm just drained. I don't think I was meant to be able to do that but I kinda just...flipped. Then everything was on fire." Kaysen said. "So I'm payin for it. I think I'm just...like, hollowed out or something. Running on fumes. So I'm just tired. Like I don't have a headache and I'm not pukey sick or anything, I just feel physically exhausted." she attempted to explain.

"I could try to look it up for you, if you tell me where your book is." Charlotte offered. "Or I could leave and let you sleep? I just saw that and wanted to make sure you were okay." She'd been hoping for more okay than this, but... well, she was alive. Charlotte had a million questions she wanted to ask, but they could wait if need be.

"You can stay for a while." Kaysen said. "I dunno where it is. My dresser?" she suggested. "It's okay, I think I just have to recharge. I just KO'd myself." Accidentally. Or something like that. She'd just done waaaaay too much in too short a time, and she hadn't even been that good when she'd started. So yeah! Massive overdoing of it.

Charlotte got up to look around, and managed to find the book without any trouble. She reclaimed her spot on the floor and started flipping through the pages. "So... what happened? How did it happen?" she asked. "I mean, I can kind of guess, but... how'd it come about?"

"I was outside with Thom and Isaac, Thom did um...this spell thing so that the vampires couldn't come onto the property. I wanted to see if I could help. Vampires don't like fire and stuff, I guess. Well, anyways, it worked, and I killed a couple of them, then Chance showed up out of nowhere, and was like, being attacked, and after that things get a little fuzzy." Kaysen said, fidgeting, and not quite looking at Charlotte while she said it.

At first it was a little hard for Charlotte to get past the Thom doing a spell bit - Thom does spells?! - but then there was the whole attacked thing and her eyes went wide. "Is he okay?" Well, okay, if he wasn't, Kaysen probably would have been a lot more upset, what with the boyfriend of it all. "Things got fuzzy, did you pass out?"

"Yeah. I guess I fried the vamps and stuff. But then I defintiely passed out. Next thing I remember was waking up this morning. I guess the guys were worried about me. But everyone was okay. No one got like...seriously hurt and I didn't burn anyone to death, so that's um. A plus. I guess." She still was having a little bit of trouble understanding everything, and had a bit of a numb feeling towards it yet. She was kind of hoping that lasted because beneath the numb was a whole lot of screaming fear.

"I'd say that's a plus." Charlotte agreed, still frowning faintly with a worried expression. She looked back down at the book and started skimming through the information, hoping to at least find something. "Um... it says you can regain energy through meditating with your element." she offered, though she was guessing that wouldn't sound altogether helpful. By the looks of Kaysen, it would take more than a candle or two.

"Yeah, I know that part. And I totally am, it's just not helping that much." Kaysen said with a sulk. "Oh well, I guess I'll just get over it eventually here." That was the working theory, anyways. "I've been feeling a little better as time goes on, but yeah. Whatever, I guess. It won't kill me." She didn't think.

Charlotte didn't think it was possible for an elemental to... well... element themselves to death. She didn't hope. "Do you need anything?" Charlotte offered. "Or can I do anything?" Not that she was a heck of a lot of help, but if it came down to it, she could always... clean Edison's litter box for her or something.

"No, I think I'm good. The parents have been kind of fussing lately and Isaac too and stuff. So I think I'm okay, just way too tired. But how's everything going with you and everything? Oh and remember how you said you got better? I did too. Obviously."

At that, Charlotte actually laughed, though she tried to clamp her hand over her mouth. "I'd kind of hope so." she replied. "But I'm guessing you haven't been able to test it out much?" Kaysen had asked about Charlotte's advancements though, and she didn't ignore that. She was wondering how much she should tell her. The animal telepath thing probably wouldn't freak her out - it paled in comparison to vampires, after all - but Charlotte wasn't sure if it was the greatest time to give Kaysen even more new information. Initially she'd wondered if any kind of telepath would creep Kaysen out - paranoia and all, but she felt like they were closer now. Well, if I leave it too long she's just going to wonder why I didn't tell her sooner.

"I can meditate and feel better now." she said. "It's still slow going, but I definitely notice a difference. There's, um, another thing too."

"Another thing like what?" Kaysen asked. She didn't get into the whole no she hadn't had time to fuck around with it. Her getting there in the first place had been entirely due to the fact that if she hadn't done it, someone would have died. Possibly several people. So yeah! And it had kicked her ass.

"Another thing I can do?" Charlotte answered, and then frowned. "Well. No. Another thing I... am. Like, an ability I guess? I would have told you when I told you about the elemental stuff, but I felt like I'd overwhelmed you as it was, and then there were mines and crazy things..." And death. "Well, um..." Why am I still wondering if Kaysen's going to think I'm crazy? By the sounds of it, she played human molotov cocktail with a group of vampires, but there's still potential that I'm the crazy one. "I'm an animal telepath." she said, carefully.

"Like...you can talk to them? Or um...read their minds?" Kaysen asked, frowning as she thought about it. "What do they think about?" she asked. Then glanced over to Edison, who was doing his own thing, really.

"Both." Charlotte answered. "But I have to try really hard to actually get... sentences. I had an actual conversation with my dog for the first time a couple of days ago, it was really surreal. She had an accent." Which was probably odd information, but it had taken Charlotte by surprise. She followed Kaysen's gaze over to Edison, and bit her bottom lip as she tried to concentrate with him. She'd found that the only minds she didn't have to work really hard to access were her own pets. Her current theory was that it was because she knew them better. "He's thinking..." Her expression grew puzzled as she studied him carefully. "'If they had come closer, I would defend the fort. It's my fort, they can't have it.' ...Which is a lot less intimidating when I realize he's talking about under your desk." Charlotte explained. She blinked, and when she tried to reach out again, Edison looked over at her and she felt a wave of surprise. "...He says you can come too, but your brother won't fit."

Kaysen giggled at that, and then moved to lay at the end of her bed, looking over at her kitten. She held her hand out. "Little fort builder. You kick ass, kitty." she told him. "So bright and innovative. What kind of accent? Why would she have one? Was she from someplace else when you got her or something?"

Charlotte grinned, feeling relieved that Kaysen didn't seem bothered in any way. "I'm not sure. On either count. She was my grandma's dog, and my mom took her when my grandma died. I don't really know where Grandma got her." She looked over at Kaysen and smirked a bit. "My grandma had the telepathy thing too, so I think Anna was just kind of waiting for me to be able to talk to her. It was kind of like a Star Wars moment." Yes, Charlotte would never have abilities to kill a pack of vampires at once, but she had at least had one good, surreal Jedi moment.

Kaysen glanced around and grabbed one of her pens Edison loved to play with because it had feathers on the end, and held it off the side of her bed to attract his attention. Which definitely drew him in for attempted pouncing. "That's really neat. Kinda weird, but neat." she replied.

Charlotte blinked at the insane sound something akin to a war cry she heard in her head, and grinned back at Kaysen again. "Thanks." she said. "It gives me migraines sometimes. When we first came up here and there were animals everywhere I felt really overwhelmed. But I like it. And I'm glad I'm not a human telepath. I don't think I'd want to know that kind of stuff." I'd never be able to look anybody in the face. "So do you know any of the stuff you'll be able to do now?"

"No, I have been way too tired to really look." Kaysen said, twirling the pen for Edison as he kept trying to capture and kill the mean, mean pen. "I'll look it up later or something, but I kinda set a bunch of stuff on fire, and could like...trail it through the grass and put things out and directed it. I can make it bigger and hotter and everything." she tried to explain, feeling like she wasn't doing that good a job.

Charlotte understood it well enough, or thought she did. Maybe she'd just read too many books or had an overactive imagination. "That's really cool." she said. "It seems like once you realized what you were you just... went from two to ten on the scale in record time." Maybe it was a fire thing. Passionate, all consuming... earth was just so darn slow.

"I think it was more called 'hey if I don't do something, my boyfriend is going to die'." Kaysen answered, making a face. "And then things just snapped, I guess. I set up all these candles, and used that, and there was already fire, then it was everywhere. I'm lucky I didn't kill anyone." Well. Anyone among the living.

Charlotte winced a bit, her expression then going a bit apologetic. "That too." she said, softly. "He's lucky you were there. Still... you should be proud. You went from knowing nothing about this stuff to keeping the fire going when you were -- uh, gone - in a pretty short amount of time. And now this... you're really gifted, Kaysen." Which might have normally sounded a little corny, but with Kaysen's plethora of issues and insecurities, Charlotte figured it was probably something worth pointing out to her, in case no one else had.

Kaysen dropped the pen so Edison could properly go about killing it, then looked over at Charlie. "Maybe. I kinda feel a little like maybe it's bad. Like...it taps into parts of me that aren't pretty, y'know? And it's not like fire is good for much but destroying things." she added. "So...it's kinda scary, too."

Charlotte would never have thought of it that way, but she wasn't immediately convinced. "That's not true. I mean, the just good for destroying things. Fire is a beacon. It's warmth and necessary to survival. It represents progress and enlightenment. I understand the scary part, but... you could save someone's life just as easily as... um... near-kamikaze a group of vampires."

"Doesn't matter what it represents, it touches things, it gets torched and then becomes ash. It hurts things. So how could I save someone's life with it? Without the killing something else part? Cuz I already did that, and you didn't hear the screaming." There was lots of screaming.

"I think you could." Charlotte said. "I mean..." She frowned, not sure if she should bring these thoughts out or not, or if it was a Bad Subject. One that should be stayed away from. Either way, she both lowered her voice and softened her tone significantly. "When you guys were... wherever you were, when you disappeared? You kept the fire going, and you said it felt like there was something in there with you. Maybe you kept it away. Or maybe you guys could have ended up in some place where you would have needed the fire to keep warm and stay alive. In a survival situation, you'll never have to worry about that aspect. Just because it hasn't come in handy that way doesn't mean it couldn't."

Kaysen listened to that, and thought about it. "...I guess." she said, giving her that. She hadn't thought about it at all. But maybe she was right. It still boiled down to fear of pain, she guessed, but maybe it still helped. "I hadn't thought about that. Maybe. So...yeah, I guess. I'll have to think about it more. Get used to this stuff, cuz it's weird, y'know?"

Charlotte nodded. "It hasn't been that long." she agreed. "I'd say you're doing pretty good. And you don't think I'm crazy anymore." she added, lightly. "...I think that all the elements have potential to be what you make of them. They've all got their good and bad sides, none's better than the other. Though a lot of the time I wish I had something I could see progress with, the way you do."

"Well, maybe you can, if you try hard enough." Kaysen said. "Like with growing things faster and stuff, that's something you can see." she offered. "So, we'll both just keep practicing and working at it?" she suggested. Then she paused. "Hey, um. With that thing, the group thing, that started way too late, is that still on? Have you heard from other people?"

"No. I mean, I've been texting with Joshua and the other guy, Dean, to make sure they're still alive, but the meeting hasn't been talked about." Charlotte answered. "I figured once school starts back up I'll send messages around so we can do it then. I wish we would have had it before all this happened, but I think it only cements the idea that we need it."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking." Kaysen said. She was also remembering that there had been talk of Other People being there, and she wasn't so cool with that, but she still wanted the thingy to be happening. "Um. What about er. You were talking about other people." she said.

"A witch and a were...something. I never did ask what animal he was." Charlotte answered. "Just the two of them, so it's not like... a bunch of people." she added, trying to be reassuring. "The people you know will outnumber the people you don't know."

"Yeah, but the people I don't know might be less likely to come, just because I'm there." Kaysen said. "...maybe the first day I just won't be there. And you can keep me updated. Like I'll be involved, just not present at meetings and stuff." she offered. She thought it was a better plan than her being there and making things all stupid.

Charlotte frowned immediately. "No, that's not okay, this was half your idea. You have more of a right to be there than they do." she said. "Herbert vouched for them, they'll be alright. And if they're not I'll kick them out myself." Nevermind the fact that Charlotte wasn't even remotely sure how someone went about kicking someone out of anything. It was probably something to the effect of standing up and saying 'leave', right? She could do it. In theory. She'd just invest in adult diapers first. Heck, I stood up to Chance when I thought he was going to kill me, I can stand up to strangers.

"Um yeah, but like, I dunno. You know Herbert, I don't really, I mean he was there and stuff, but I don't know him well. And two other people who might be able to help out are better than one person who y'know, could probably flip out and kill everyone and is a social disease. So I think it's just like, more logical to go with them than me. Like I said, I'd still be involved, and I can still know what's happening and stuff, I just don't really wanna open myself up for more badness, or cause other people to not be included if they aren't bad, but might not like me by default, because that's kind of the norm." Kaysen said, trying to be reasonable.

"Well it's not going to be the norm for anyone involved with me." Charlotte said, flatly. "I don't care who they are or how helpful they could be, you're part of this and you have priority. I don't wanna leave you open for bad things either, but... I trust Herbert. I know you don't know him but he's a good guy, and he doesn't have a mean bone in his body." How many bears could you say that about? "Besides, you've had more experience with this stuff. You've been there."

"I totally don't." Kaysen said. "You've like, grown up with the elemental thing. Sure, I barbecued some vampires the other night and got stuck in a scary alternate dimension, but I wasn't having the dreams for the mine stuff, you were. I've just been like...sidelined on everything."

"Sidelined? That was totally the front lines." Charlotte disagreed, though her tone wasn't argumentive. "And if anything, I'd say being new to this stuff is all the more reason for you to be there. You need to know this stuff more."

Kaysen gave Charlie a flat look. "You can't tell me in one breath that the reason I need to be there is because I'm more experienced, then tell me I need to be there more because I'm not." she pointed out.

...I think I just did. Whoops. "There's different levels of experience. You haven't been at this stuff as long, but I've known about what I am my whole life and I still never encountered this crazy stuff until recently - and it's because if the crazy stuff we're starting these meetings. And you were there for all that crazy stuff - that's why you're more experienced than them. But you're still new to this stuff and should be included on all things while you... um... adjust." Sure, why not?

Kaysen was still giving Charlie a bit of a Look. "That was really good on the on the fly bullshit level, but I'm not buying. I'll just be nervous and everything, it'll be better if we just get the newbies in, then maybe if like, you and Isaac think they're cool, I'll show. How about that?"

Charlotte frowned as she leaned against her arm for a moment. "If that's what you really want." she finally conceded. She sort of wished she hadn't said the new people could go, but at the same time, she still felt like it was a good idea - and Kaysen had said she did too, so that was something. Maybe this was the easiest way. "We can try that."

"Okay then." Kaysen said firmly. "We're agreed, that works. So we'll talk about it tomorrow, and you can lemme know what's what." she said with a firm nod. "See if these people show, what they're about, and like...I dunno. If they're alright."

"They'll be alright." Charlotte replied, confidently. "It'll be good in general. I'll feel better doing something. I think a lot of people will."