It was a beautiful evening. The sun was slowly setting on the water, sinking farther into it every second. The water was reflecting, seeming orange instead of blue-green. It rippled as a small stone landed in it. But to David it didn't seem so beautiful. Mainly because he was preoccupied. But he had never had a thing for sunsets anyway, just sunrises. He loved it when the sun rose. So pretty. But no, David wasn't even looking at it. He was staring down at his hands, which he had spread out in front of him. Palms up. They were shaking rather violently as he stared at them. If you were to simply look at him, sitting there on the edge of the dock, staring at his hands, you would think he was off his nut. But if you looked him in the eye...You would see just how scared he was. How shocked. How utterly bamboozled. His eyes were trembling with fear.

Ever since he knew about his powers he had been able to control them. And since he really didn't need to, he never used them. Okay rarely. Sometimes he'd get cocky and light a candle or start a camp fire. But nothing harmful. Until tonight. He hadn't meant to, really. He just got so mad at those three men standing in the ally, trying to mug him. He was just going to stare them down, scare them a little. He must have gotten so mad, his powers just took over. And BOOM! They were on fire! Running down the street in flames. David had turned to his favorite place, the dock, to help himself calm down. He had never done this before, never ever.

"I did that." He kept repeating. "I killed them. I set them on fire..."

Violet meandered along the waterfront, shivering a little at the chill breeze that always seemed to come off the water. She'd worn a long-sleeved white t-shirt and jeans - fairly usual attire for her - and sandals. She was out taking a walk. The waterfront wasn't her favorite choice, but she'd grown tired of the city streets, lately - they just seemed to go in circles.

Peering out at the water, she caught sight of the silhouetted form of,... someone, crouched down at the end of the dock. Violet frowned, reaching up a hand to brush her brown hair out of her eyes. Being in a slovenly sort of mood, she'd left her hair out of its usual ponytail. The purple streak was there still, but barely - it needed to be re-dyed. Her deep brown eyes fixed on the young man. He didn't look alright - you don't go and sit alone on the edge of a dock because you're happy. She hesitated for a moment, rocking from one foot to the other before she decided she should go talk to him. If he was okay, she'd apologize, and leave. If not, well... she'd figure something out.

She walked quietly towards him. The boards creaked a little under her feet, but other than that, her footsteps were nearly silent. She often tried her hardest to go unnoticed, and her manner of walking was no exception.
"Excuse me?" she said timidly, stopping a few feet away from him.

David started slightly, leaping to his feet and shoving his still shaking hands into his pockets. His usually bright eyes - which were very dark at the moment - scanned the person standing in front of him. He put most of his weight on his right foot, which made him slump just a little in the direction. He tried to look casual. Not possible. Small unspiked strands of blue hair fell over his eyes. He looked sort of like a mad man. A hansom mad man.

He gave himself a second to gain his voice again. "Yeah?" His voice was shaky and a little snappy. He didn't mean to sound snappy, really. He was just a little bit shaken up.

Violet cringed at his sudden movement, taking a half-step back before deciding not to turn and run. She gave a quick, weak smile that looked more like her lips had spasmed than it did an actual smile. Her head tilted to one side as she forced herself to hold his gaze. Despite the relative ease she'd had in approaching him, she didn't deal very well with strangers - no matter how handsome they might be.

"I,... um..." she fumbled for the words for a moment before coming up with a semi-coherent, "...'re you alright...?"

He would have spilled his guts right then and there. If he'd know who the heck this person was. So instead he just shrugged and kicked a small rock off the side of the dock. He kept his eyes focused on his shoes, leaving the silence hanging over their heads for a moment. Before he looked up, his eyes were so sad.

"Erm..." He fumbled a few words around in his head. "I wouldn't say I'm alright, no."

She'd been expecting him to give a flat-out No, I'm fine, so she was a little surprised. His initial response hadn't been very friendly, and she'd been anticipating a quick brush-off, or some harsher response. As glad as she was that she hadn't gotten snapped at, she was put slightly off-kilter by his admission.

"What's the matter?" she asked timidly, then grimaced, "Not that it's any of my business, I know - I was just wondering 'cause I saw you out here by yourself and I thought,... well,... um,... sorry, I'm ramblng..."

She was right. It wasn't any of her buisness. Of course he had no buisness killing those people either, so he had no reason to be weird about it. He glanced at his shoes, then the sky, then the water.

"Well I sort of..." Wait a minutes, David dear. He couldn't really tell her 'I killed some blokes in the ally by setting them on fire with my bare hands!'. "Err...Uhm...Got mugged." Not a lie.

"You did...? That sucks," she said, frowning in concern. Yes, concern. For someone she's never seen or heard of before now. That wasn't exactly uncommon with Violet. She worried too much about other people. "What happened? I hope it wasn't anything too serious...?"

Dave might be surprised to learn that she wouldn't be too terribly shocked to learn what he'd done. Okay, maybe she'd be shocked at the, well, the violence of it, but the concept of someone spontaneously causng fires wouldn't surprise her a bit.

He sighed and shook his head. "Nah nothing serious, nothing worth explaining. Just a few dollars and my pocket knife." He flashed a nervous smile and suddenly stuck out his hand. "My name's David." He liked to introduce himself to people right away, gets all the awkward not-knowing-the-persons-name thing out of the way.

Of course since he had no idea if Violet would have not been all 'OH MY GOD YOU KILLED SOMEONE!? I'M CALLING THE COPS!'...So he had no intention of mentioning it.

"I'm Violet," she said, with a funny, amused sort of smirk as she shook his hand. She let go fairly quickly. She didn't mean to be rude, but she couldn't help being a little nervous. It wasn't his fault - she could be like this with anyone. "Well, a few dollars and a pocketknife, that's not a serious loss,... still, hope you called the cops about it. Even if I wouldn't count on them actually being able to do anything."

"Nice to meet you, Violet." When she let go rather quickly he frowned. "Scared of me or something?" The moment he said it he stuck his tongue out of his mouth is dislike. "Forget I said that." He smiled.

"Uh...Didn't get a chance to call the cops. They er...Died before I could." Oops. Damn.

She looked at him strangely. Yes, she was scared of him, actually, but no more than she was of everyone else. It was no big deal. It wasn't as if she going to have a panic attack, she was just a little anxious. That small bit of anxiety grew quite a lot after a moment, though.

Died..?

"What do you mean, they died?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and slowly sliding one foot backwards, to the edge of the dock. She didn't realize how close she was, or she would have pulled away in the other direction. "...What happened?"

Do I really want to know...?

"Errrrr..." Great. He'd really gotten himself into a pickle now, hadn't he. So how was he going to explain this one?

"Uhm. Well. You see. Uuuuuuuuhhhh...This is weird." He started, now he had to finish. "I've got these powers...I'm a pyro, I can start fires at will you know. And well these blokes were trying to mug me and I just got real mad and..." He trailed off for a moment. "And...They burst into flames."

"...Burst into flames," she repeated, frowning. She wasn't looking at him so strangely anymore, ... it wasn't strange when it was plainly fear in her eyes. Her sneaker slid back a little more. Feeling the sudden emptiness below her heel, she quickly pulled it back. She was beginning to feel a cornered. She had to remind herself that he hadn't given any indication of being a psychopath yet.

"You set them on fire and they died," Violet said flatly, summarizing it more for herself than for him. "Why did you do that... you might have been mad, but that's no excuse..."

Note that Violet didn't realize he hadn't done it on purpose, and she was getting to be on edge. Both literally and figurativey.

"Well I didn't do it on purpose." He explained, running a hand through his hair. "My powers took over and suddenly they were on fire. Scared the willies out of me, that's why I'm here."

He gave her a look which to be blunt simply said 'I'm not a wack job, so don't pity me'.

Under ordinary circumstance, she would have giggled at the expression he used to describe his fear. She noted it, and would probably giggle about it later- but not right now. Instead, she gave him a sort of frown. Okay, so muggers were bad,... though Violet didn't think that merited being set on fire and burned to death, who was she to judge?

"I'm sorry," she said finally, in a meek voice, fidgeting with the chewed-short fingernails, "Must've been horrible..."

His look faded and he grimmaced. "You think I'm off my rocker, don't you?" Of course she did. Who would believe a guy claiming to have set three men on fire without even touching them? Hell, he could be drunk or something.

"Well, no..." she shook her head, "...Should I? Unless you're flat-out lying, I don't see why I would."
Yet, she added silently. She'd have noticed by now if he was drunk.
The frowned returned briefly, then she gave a faint smile, "I've seen some weird stuff,... it's hard to draw the line at what to believe and what not to."