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WHO: Cougar Alvarez
WHERE: By the river
WHEN: January 8th
OPEN TO: All!
WARNINGS: Pyrokinesis violence against fish
STATUS: Open

It had started, strangely enough, that morning when Cougar had woken up. Normally, his toes are the iciest thing known outside of actual glaciers in the Arctic, so when he wakes up not having to press his toes to Jake's heater body, he should have figured out that something strange is going on. Dressing in at least three layers (and topping it off with a warmer hat than the tarp one), he heads out after leaving a note that he's gone exploring.

As always, since the gifts, he brings the rings. He doesn't like leaving them out in public and he still hasn't figured out what the binary on the inside means. True, the box says they're from Jake, but plenty of things have arrived here. Maybe they're not what he thinks and they're just another clue.

Cougar leaves the rifle at home, but brings his binoculars, heading first into one of the parts of the woods he's set up with snares and traps. There's something under his skin, like a spark desperate to get out. He thinks back to others and how they seem to have had strange powers of ice and fire, which is definitely something he could have used before. On a hunch, Cougar glances around him to make sure no one is there in case he accidentally is wrong, but then he concentrates with his eyes closed, hands pressed together before turning outwards. With a sharp crack, the evidence is there. Cougar opens one eye to see one of the trees look like a very specific strike of lightning has struck it.

Grinning slowly, Cougar knows all of Jake's comics have quotes about this. Power and responsibility and this and that, but he's like a child as he tests it out, making fires, setting small areas ablaze (before using the snow to put them out) and it's the river he turns to next.

"Here, fishy fish," he coaxes, crouched by the side of the river after he's cut a small hole using a fiery tip of his finger near some slower moving water, waiting for the fish to swim by. The speed at which he grabs the fish out of the water, that's not a new power, but being able to gut it on a rock and cook it up in the same moment? It's something he could get used to.

He's in the middle of frying up his second this way when he hears a twig crunch nearby, his muscles tensing a little out of habit before he calms. "It's hot, if you want some," he calls the warning over his shoulder. "Fresh fish," he says with a smug smile, snapping his fingers to show off the fact that he's as good as a butane lighter, now, able to cook anywhere.

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Moana had made herself a crude spear from rocks and a long stick she'd found near the woods. It wasn't perfect, she'd make a better one when the weather warmed but she needed something to do and she fell back on what she knew. With the weapon in hand she made her way to the lake with a borrowed basket.

She was planning to give the fish to the inn, assuming she was able to find and catch any fish here.

The smell of cooked fish reached her nose before she reached the rivers edge and she paused. Her brow furrowed and she turned towards the smell, her expression openly confused.

"How are you doing that?" The fire thing...

Cougar wishes that he had a good answer other than 'magic' or 'God', but he's not entirely sure this is a gift from the latter. Luckily, he also doesn't think that he's being condemned or tempted, because he's seen stranger things happen here to himself and to others and in a stand-off between losing his memory for three weeks and suddenly wielding fire, he knows which of the two options he prefers to have. "It was like this when I woke up," he says, flattening his palm and letting his hand burn a little redder, like turning the heat down on charcoals, using it under the fish.

This would have been very helpful in the field, especially if he could have weaponized it, but he'll make do here. He just needs to make sure not to touch the chickens for a while. "Lucky gift," he finally decides on saying. "Hungry?" he asks her, nudging a bit of cooked fish towards her.

Both 'magic' and 'god' would have been easily acceptable responses for Moana. She knew that the gods sometimes interfered with man though she didn't know under what circumstances that happened. As it was, she was positive that the fountain was a portal of some kind and they just needed to find the right portal back home.

She was a little envious of that fire power though she'd probably end up burning something she wasn't supposed to with it.

Moana stepped closer, placing her basket and spear down before scooting a little bit closer to the fire. She couldn't really feel it beneath all her layers but it was there and it was a welcome hea to her face. "I don't want to eat your food. Besides, I'm going to catch fish." She pointed to her basket and spear. " So you aren't normally able to control fire?" She thought he might be a demigod or something. "Do you know how long it'll last? Does that mean fire doesn't hurt you?"

"It started today," he explains, but it's not something that he's going to turn down. It had taken hours of practice to get it to the point that he can control it, but in the end, he'd used the same tactics and techniques that he uses when he's shooting. He calms his mind and gets to a central focus point that gives him power to notice and eye the situation around him. Then, he uses what he can in order to use it to his advantage.

He gestures towards the fish again. "Go ahead," he prods. "I have food at home," he says, his accent thick around the words. The chickens have been laying decently, even if he did have to bring them into the house and convert Jake's old room into a hutch of sorts.

Moana didn't need to be told twice. "Thank you." She reached towards the fish, not caring that it was hot and began to eat. She was from an island where you used as much of the fish as possible so she happily ate the crisp skin and then dug her way to the meat. The only thing she tossed to the side were the fishes lungs or gills, it wasn't safe to eat those, and then the bones.

"I'm still planning to catch some fish if you want me to repay your kindness." She wasn't greedy and everyone's been pretty nice since she arrived. She wanted to give a little something back.

When she was finished eating she was inspecting the bones carefully, turning them over slowly, looking for something very specific.

Cougar's working his knife over the next fish, gutting it and de-boning as he looks at her, a little curious why she seems to be so intent on staring at the leftovers. "What do they say?" He's met with enough shamans and other sources of power that he doesn't look down on what she's doing, even if a part of him still doesn't believe in that faith, personally.

"If it's a future, my future, I hope it's good."

"I've never been very good at reading bones." She replied without much thought to cultural differences. Moana knew things as they were and she's only just beginning to realize how much she didn't know about other places. "I was trying to see if it was good enough to be used as a needle. I'd like to make clothes more like what I wore at home."

Her dark eyes looked up at him. "Do you want to know your future?" It was a question that nagged at the back of her mind. Would she choose the sea or her island? She still didn't know and given how much time she had here she kept thinking about it.

It was one of the reasons she'd decided to go fishing today. Fishing was something she knew and it was something that could take all of her attention.

Cougar's fairly prescient himself when it comes to his future, mainly in that he thinks that he can tell what's going to happen because he has a choice to make about what happens. If he chooses to acknowledge Jake and his gift, his life will be one way. If he doesn't, it will be the other. It's probably not so simple and cut and dry, but it sometimes feels like that.

"Yes," he finally decides, thinking that it can't hurt to see what she has to say. "What do you see? In my future?"

Moana was a bit surprised at his reply. She went back and forth between wanting to know her own future and not. She wanted to be on the ocean but she was torn in two by what she should do and what calls to her. She didn't want to accept giving up one for the other when they were both important.

With a quick nod of her head she inspected the bone a little bit more carefully, her dark eyes focused on it and then on the man sitting across from her. A bit of a smile tugged at the corner of her lips though she tried to keep her expression steady.

"Let me see." She hummed as if whatever she was doing took a great amount of thought. "It pretty much says that you'll do what you want and let your heart guide you." Moana was totally making this up but she knew he was stubborn, being able to suddenly control fire power when only just waking up with it was proof of that, he also clearly did whatever he wanted so she figured it was a good guess from just meeting the man.

Cougar smirks at the future, raising his brow as he continues to grill the fish and wonders how many more of these he can do before he figures out another use for his powers that will also allow him to see things on fire or blowing up. He thinks maybe some more trees could be destroyed, maybe he could think of new log cutting like that.

"My heart," he echoes, because maybe he should stop avoiding the issue. Maybe he should not use the fire as a reason to not think about that. "Have you ever loved someone?"

Moana sat back and blinked, dropping the bones to her side. Love. It was such an easy word to use but it had a deeper meaning. She watched the man across from her, studying him before shaking her head.

"I love my island, my mother and my father and..." Her voice trailed off and her head turned to face the water at their side. "I love the sea." Moana's tone was soft and affectionate. "If you mean the love of a person. Someone you'd spend you life with then no. I haven't been lucky enough to feel that. I might never have that chance." It was something she was okay with. It was part of her position as the daughter of the chief. "But I think if you find someone like that you shouldn't let them go. Your head can muddle things but my grandmother used to tell me to listen to your heart because that's who you truly are."

Not that Moana believed it fully. She had her doubts but that was between two loves, not the question of love itself.

"Are you in love?" She asked with a bit of a smile tugging at her lips.

Normally, Sonny likes to stay in the village. Forests and trees aren't really his thing — not including a nice picnic in the shade of a leafy tree in Central Park, of course. But in general, he's leery of the wilderness, like anyone might be leery of the unknown. But today, he's chosen to venture out of town a little ways. Not too far — he doesn't want to get lost. But enough to do some exploring.

He takes his ice axes with him, just in case. Not that he's too concerned about the ice itself. It's the wildlife he's more concerned about. For what might be the first time, he sort of wishes he had his gun on him.

(He doesn't know the statistics of guns vs. grizzly bears, but he figures they have to be pretty favorable towards the guns.)

Eventually, he winds up towards the river, leaning down to press against the ice with his fingertips, testing how strong it is. A little ways down, he hears noises. Not wildlife noises, but talking. And the accent strikes him as familiar. That's where he finds Cougar and the smell of frying fish, and he's about to ask why the other man is cooking it out here instead of back at the inn when Cougar snaps his fingers and strikes a flame.

Sonny's heart leaps into his throat, a loud startled sound escaping his mouth. It sounds like it was supposed to be some sort of words, but that they didn't quite make it there. Instead, he gapes for a second, hand over his beating heart like an affronted soccer mom.

"I-- What? How did you do that? What even is that?"

Cougar shrugs, his face impassive. He might have given his heart away a little (or rather, let Jake break down the barriers with years of full frontal assaults that were as annoying as they were charming), but it's also not something he intends to let show. After all, he's still so much a physical person who finds his connection and emotional resonance in touches and physical love. It's different, having an emotional component of that. "Sometimes, I think I have been in love for a long time. Other times, it is very short," he confesses.

"I think it is not enough love," he admits. "That it should be more."

Cassian had been making another sweep of this quadrant when he heard the crack. Not one of the normal sounds of the forest he'd made sure by now to become acquainted with. Velocity almost of weapon fire. By the time he'd discerned which direction it had come from, he rose from the combat crouch he was unsurprised to find he'd dropped into, and started making his silent way in that direction.

He hears the other being before he sees them, and circles to avoid running into them directly while keeping an ear on where they go. He finds a place to get a good look at Cougar as he heads to the river. He doesn't appear to be armed—nor injured. But there's no one else nearby…? Following Cougar's origin vector, while making sure not to lose him as he moved away toward the river, Cassian found the bolt-struck tree and gave it a cursory look. What he sees makes him frown; he can't tell what just happened but it was powerful enough that he's going to. Just then, from behind him, Cougar sets a new blaze and Cassian again whirls and drops into cover. He goes into full surveillance mode, following Cougar as he tests, setting new blazes.

Cassian can't make out what weapon Cougar could possibly be using. Nor his objective. He seems to be setting fires for the pleasure of it. But with the snowcover, and locations he's choosing, neither does intent seem to be burning down the forest. For all his air of uncalculating glee, there's something of the experiment about this.

When Cougar goes to the river, Cassian's still shadowing him. It's the flash-frying of the first fish that finally gets Cassian to accept what he thought he'd been seeing: there is no weapon. It's the man himself.

…All right. No use approaching as hostile when everyone knew everyone else. And they all needed one another—for information if nothing else.

So, making a decision, Cassian at last straightened, and found a good place in the bush to come through, and deliberately stepped on some twigs to see what first move Cougar chose.

That it was grinning and offering him some of the fish (rather than, for example, firing on Cassian)… confirmed more suspicions but was still a relief.

"How are you doing that?" Cassian asked, not hiding his bewilderment but keeping it (and his approach) on the friendly side of awed as he picked his way over to a spot across from Cougar, where he could sit and join him. (Without actually sitting yet.)

Moana watched him and was confused by his reaction. His words didn't really match how he was acting.

"That's true. You have to respect them, trust them, but that can be included in love or not. It depends on how you define it." She pulled her knees to her chest and watched him with a smile. "What more do you think should be to it?" She was curious, he looked like he'd seen more of the world than she had.

Of all the people who's found him like this, Cougar has to wonder if this isn't some devilish trick to make a God-fearing man haul him away for bearing the powers of the devil. If the positions were reversed, he might have thought the same, but right now, Cougar's just pleased with his sudden powers. It's enough to distract him from the elephant in his pocket, which somehow feels like they're branding against him.

If fire powers is bad for a Catholic, those rings might be even more of a strain to understand (but, he doesn't know Sonny that well, so maybe he won't care). "It's fire," he responds in a deadpan, stating the obvious. He shoots the flames just a little higher. "Don't worry, this sort of thing happens here. Maybe worry," he amends, because it really isn't normal.

It should feel like much more than what he gives Jake, especially after years of being his friend. Still, he shrugs his shoulders and keeps his gaze on the fish, the flame growing a little bluer and hotter the more he represses his answer and tries not to answer it. "Sometimes, people don't love easy," he says. "And others love plenty. Putting them together, it is a recipe for badness, isn't it?"

Cougar doesn't shift or look up when he hears the crack of the twigs. He catches sight of the other man in his peripheral vision and sizes him up suitably to know that if he needs to defend himself, he's got his brand new fire powers, but he could probably also manage himself in hand to hand, so long as things didn't get too wild. He turns his hand a little to roast the fish on the other side, waiting for it to flake a little as he looks at the stranger from beneath the brim of his hat.

"Magic," is all he says in turn, more curious about the accent the other man has. "Where do you come from, in Mexico?" he asks, not bothering to slow down like he might for Veronica or one of the others. It's the first time that he's heard something like home, here, and it surprises him with how much it's good to hear it.

Cassian decides to leave the There's no such thing reaction to the imaginary mini-K-2SO in his mind. (After all, there was such a thing, in the way of: that was the term usually used for members of a society of one technological level seeing a higher level for the first time. Perhaps this was something that neither Cassian nor the man himself could recognize; didn't mean there wasn't a better explanation, but also meant that was a fruitless line to pursue for now.)

The question makes Cassian display a genuine, spontaneous expression: surprise. "What is Mexico?" he asked in the same language (—in a flawless apparently Mexican accent). "And how do you know this language?" It had been rather a specialized pursuit for Cassian to learn, from the linguists who'd been deciphering inscriptions on the Massassi ruin walls and extrapolating from living descendant dialects elsewhere in the Yavin system.

Edited 2017-01-15 11:58 (UTC)

"I don't think so." It sounded difficult but then Moana thought it was better than two people who didn't love easily. "It just means that the person who loves plenty can teach the one who doesn't love easily. When we're born we don't know how to do anything but want. We want food and attention and for all those weird new things to stop." She knew a fair amount about why babies cried.

"We learn what love is. Usually from those around us and it's never to late to learn something new. It's probably easier for some people but it's not impossible."

Cougar raises his brow smoothly, choosing not to comment on that for the moment. After all, it's a little strange, but this place is very strange, so someone speaking with an accent that he'd hear at home and yet saying he doesn't know what Mexico is could be anything. "Mexico is where I come from and this is Spanish," he says, staring at the man in front of him, still perplexed as to how he doesn't understand this. "You sound exactly like my family and friends, right down to the accent."

"Do you not remember your life?" he poses in English, thinking maybe this is amnesia at play, again.

Cougar still thinks that he might be more broken than that, but he doesn't say that too loudly. After all, it's not like she needs to know that he thinks of himself like that, especially when it comes to his love life. If she ever meets Jake, she'll understand what he means when it comes to loving so much.

"And for you? Is it easy?"

Moana had to think about it and after a few seconds of silence she decided that she didn't know. "I'm not sure. I think so." She loved her island, the ocean and her family. She didn't make a conscious effort to love; it was just something she felt and she knew to be true. Maybe that made it easy. She'd never fallen in love with a person before and she felt as if that might be different; harder.

"What about you?"

He shakes his head. "No," he says, and the rings feel like they're burning a hole in him even with this fire. "I am the hard one with love. Not easy to love, give or take," he admits, because he spends so much of his time silent and not demonstrative. He knows it had been easier before the Army and that now Jake has seen that, but he still doesn't understand why he would get this present from him.

"Someone very dear to me has given a gift," he shares, while still being vague. "It's very dear. But it also means there will be no one else but him, if I acknowledge it." He can't help thinking that maybe Jake could find someone better, but he's too selfish to give him up. That's where he's stuck now, in this place, not telling Jake about the gift.

Moana was starting to wonder if the fire was reacting to his mood. That seemed dangerous, more so with what they were talking about.

No: the word carried a great weight with it. She didn’t know a lot about the man sitting across from her but she knew he was honest, that he was lost and that he was seeking an answer. Even in a stranger like her. She could offer him very little but Moana wasn’t the sort of person to leave or disregard someone in need. Her chin lifted and she wore a confident expression, there was uncertainty around its edges but it was the best that she could gather.

"By accepting the gift, I think you have acknowledged it some." It sounded like he hadn’t notice yet. Maybe it was because Moana was sitting on the outside and looking in, maybe it was because she let her feelings guide her but she had the idea that he cared very much for this person. "He chose you. It’s up to you if you chose him but you have to remember that it’s his choice as much as it is yours. He sees something in you." Her expression softens. "I get the feeling you don’t see it in yourself. You should try and see things from his point of view."

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