Camp Darkness

Gideon was standing on the higher braches of a tree, using a hose to water down the thirteen foot fire that her kids had started. She wasn't angry, she wasn't screaming. In fact, Gideon was laughing her ass off at this situation. And yet surprisingly this wasn't a worst case scenario at all, in fact, Gideon had been hoping something like this would happen, thus why she was ready with a hose up a tree.

45 minutes earlier

After the whole hole thing, intake five followed after Gideon in a slightly thoughtful silence. It was perfect but she knew better than to get her hopes up yet. They still hadn't even suggested naming themselves yet, and she knew that once that idea started to occur to them, they'd be ready for rule two. That was also always the most fun. Don't get caught. The possibilities were remarkable. And often slightly insane, but that's why this worked. The crazy and the brilliant aren't opposite sides of the line, more like a couple getting it on, arms and legs everywhere, the line all blurred and combined.

"Alright kids, here's the day's challenge for you. I'm going to give each and everyone of you an item, and when I go off with one of you, the rest will try to figure out how to make me the biggest fire you possibly can without setting the rest of this forest on fire or blowing anything up." I gave them the brief instructions and then started handing out pieces of paper with a single item listed on each. The items they needed were all generally located near by, but I wanted to see how creative these guys could be. I was giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming that they were at the maturity level to handle a little fire. Though using this technique with the vampire was a risk. Which was why she had made sure to take the vampire as her first person to speak to today.

She was going to grab Luc, but seeing the empath readily step up to support the kid made her take a second and see what would naturally develop. Not a romantic relationship, Virgil was straight, but the convict didn't seemed bothered by the boy's sexuality. Then again as an empath, he was probably the only one who could literally empathize with the troubles the Incubus felt. Since the convict seemed to have things in hand for now, she was satisfied to leave it at that and focus on the vamp. Today's task was going to be especially hard for her.

So while the kids struggled to figure out what to do with such item lists such as: old picnic bench, powdered mashed potatos, large logs, newspapers, twigs, cardboard boxes and matches. Not hard to figure out what you were supposed to do, but Gideon had seem some interesting attempts that defied all forms of logical thought.

"Sit." Gideon indicated a smoothed out log repeatedly used for this very purpose. It's become slighly more comfortable over the years and it helped the kids to relax a little more. "So you like to burn things. So far just inanimate objects. But you are more than perfectly aware of how very flammable you are due to your heritage right?" Gideon asked, knowing that her attitude was going to provoke Ebony into a response instead of sullenly shutting down.

"I'm not stupid alright? Geez I just like to burn things. I don't have a death wish, I've never meant to catch myself on fire and I'm not sorry for it. Can I go back now, I'm actually interested in this one." Ebony demanded.

"No." Gideon replied with a smile. The vampire was feeling bold, still buoyed by the witches' blood. The afterglow of feeding would fade off in a day or so, but she was going to be near intolerable the entire time. Power high. "If I want to sit with you here the entire time your intake is out there playing with the nice, pretty and burnable things, then that's what I'll do. How did you start burning things?"

The vampire frowned at the question. "I grabbed them and burned them that's how. Wow, how stupid are you."

Gideon felt the smile on her face take a slight predatory gleam. "So you just lit fire to your desk, school books, barbie dolls..... tell me about that first time."

The vampire frowned and gave Gideon a look that clearly expressed 'You are so LAME'. The vampire stared at the Councillor for another moment, then with a huff she rolled her eyes and settled into a dejected body language slouch. Another point to Gideon's scoreboard. "That first time was different than the rest. I'm a vampire and now that everyone seems pretty cool with that kind of thing, they have sterotypes and expectation on 'what a real vampire is like'." the young woman did finger air quotations and everything, her tone of voice filled with disgust and frustration. Underneath it though, Gideon knew that Ebony was feeling vulnerable. It's not often that someone demanded an explanation from this young vampire and she wasn't used to the harsh realities of life yet. Once she got the girl talking though, Gideon knew the flood gates would open and eventually the 온라인카지노게임 would spill out.

"My mom and dad are great." Ebony stated, the nonsequitor seemingly necessary before she could explain. "They're just so traditional! My dad wants me to wear these clothes and my mom! I have to act a certain way or else I feel like I'm a disappointment." the vampire fumed. Gideon kept the sardonic smile off her face. The only thing she had done was ask about that first time. But with most compulsions, its the first one that matters the most. What compelled that first action? By opening herself up to listen, Gideon had shown Ebony that it was alright to vent and talk, there would be no repercussions. Not here. "I just got so sick of it one day. So I took all the 'traditional' clothes and books and everything they pushed on me and just threw it in a pile outside and lit it up." the smile on the vampire's face matched the twinkle in her eye.

Ah, sense is made Gideon mused, realizing it wasn't the fire the girl was addicted to, but the feeling of power she got from burning things. It was a quick diagnosis, but Gideon would check in with the Doc and the Senior Councillors to confirm the girl's diagnosis with the actual professionals. That was the fun dance all House Councillors got to conform to. They were not therapists or psychologists, so they couldn't 'treat' the kids, but they were able to support and help them. So Gideon did what she did best; kept her mouth shut and listened to what the young woman in front of her was saying. It's sad but a lot of the time, that's all these kids really needed, was someone to listen to them, let them vent and yet not try to fix all the problems for them, or get mad at them for how they feel. The vampire's biggest problem seemed to be that she wanted to establish her own identity outside of her heritage and parental control, but was not allowed to do so just yet. And because at this age she was mostly hormones,angst and impulse control problems, the vampire had only learned one way to respond. Her parents allowed her to set her own fashion choices if she agreed to stop burning things, but now the girl wanted her cake and to eat it too. She could always just start burning things and using that threat to get her own way.

"So you think you have control of the fire starting?" Gideon asked, keeping her opinion out of her tone. She wasn't challenging this time, making it a face value question.

To Gideon's surprise, the vampire didn't immediately state that she had absolute control. Meant the girl was smarter than she wanted others to realize. Ebony looked down at her knotted hands and then back up at Gideon. "Most of the time, I think I have in under control. But if I did, I'd be able to stop, wouldn't I?" the vampire's voice lost it's usual attitude and sounded like a young girl making a realization about herself that she didn't like.

Gideon shrugged. "Yes and no. It's a habit, like chewing your nails. You get stress and like to play with lighters. That makes it easier for you to give in to wanting to burn something. Like always having pop with supper. If you want to stop drinking pop, chances are the hardest time of day for you will be dinnertime. What makes you stress out?"

The vampire started to play with the ends of her hair, not a nervous habit but a thoughtful one. "I dunno, stuff I guess."

Gideon let the amused smile onto her face. She was getting a better sense of the girl without all the attitude and knew that the vampire would understand. "Wow, vague."

Ebony smiled, her petite fangs flashing at the unguarded smile. "Whatever." she replied, but still smiled. "I just... I don't know what stresses me out somtimes. I mean. My friends all tell me that they're there for me, but if I tell one of them something, I know everyone will know about it before the end of the day. And it's no use complaining to my parents about it! They just remind me that vampires are solitary creatures, mostly coming together to form small families. They don't expect me to have lots of friends so they just tell me to get rid of them!" Ebony's fingers had stopped twirling her hair and now she peeled at the bark on hte log she was perched ontop of.

"And from the sounds of it, you want the chance to make those kind of decisions for yourself." Gideon repeated the concept to her kid.

"Well... yeah. Wouldn't you?" Ebony didn't sound sure of herself though.

"It's not about me though. The question is, what decision do you want to make about it? Do you want to go on starting fires because you're stressed out? You know it could kill you, you know it terrifies your parents and you know that you don't have to do it. So what do you want to do?" Gideon turned the question back on the young girl.

Ebony for a moment almost looked like she was going to cry. Gideon wasn't actually expecting an answer yet, the point wasn't to get one, but to provoke thinking. A loud commotion from the group though, made Gideon and Ebony both run for the others in mild alarm and with great curiosity. Gideon looked out and started to laugh.

Her intake had gone above and beyond the three foot fire she expected and most groups did. Instead of taking the very obvious axe and cutting the old, rickety picnic table apart to build a fire with. Somehow they lit the entire thing on fire and it was now near thirteen feet high.

So Gideon was standing on the higher braches of a tree, using a hose to water down the thirteen foot fire that her kids had started. She wasn't angry, she wasn't screaming. In fact, Gideon was laughing her ass off at this situation. And yet surprisingly this wasn't a worst case scenario at all, in fact, Gideon had been hoping something like this would happen, thus why she was ready with a hose up a tree. The fact that the kids had built the fire at all meant that they had worked together. Rule number one was sinking in.