The rays of the setting sun began to hit the training grounds, the only sound being the night birds chirping and a lone staff hitting a dummy. The perpetrator of said noise was none other than Kari, who saw that the only way to fit fighting back into her schedule was to wake up earlier and go to sleep later. It was extremely hard for her body to keep up with her determined mind, her eyes developing dark shadows and her memory becoming more hazy. However, every time that Kari fought, her movements were pristine and sharp. Kari could fight on no sleep - it came as easy as riding a bike.

Kari twirled her staff around her body, doing a small flip before raising it above her head and bringing it down once more on the lifelike dummy. The redheaded girl really appreciated how the dummies at J.A.M. never broke - she felt as if she could attack them all day. Sometimes they could even be programmed to fight back, but Kari wasn't feeling up to actually fighting. She simply preferred show fighting and pretty tricks. She would get back to actual fighting eventually though, it was still fun.

Recently Kari had been attempting to incorporate her powers into her fighting style, shooting little jets of flame from her fingers occasionally, but it had never been the main part of her fighting. But here at the Academy, all of her teachers seemed to be pushing her towards using solely her powers and no weapons. Kari hated it, but she had been working on her powers more, finding them to be both aesthetic and powerful. 

As she swung her staff behind her, Kari did an aerial cartwheel and rose up, facing the dummy and opening her mouth, letting a stream of fire pour out of it. The moment the fire left her mouth, Kari choked and dropped her staff, falling to the ground. The fire, while it did not burn her, still hurt like hell coming out. She laid down on the ground, cupping her burning throat in her hands and wishing for a glass of water. I probably shouldn't have attempted that one without more practice.

Victor paced the hallways, sleepless. He was having a rather annoying bout of insomnia, and he knew by experience the only way to cute it was for him to get up and walk it out. Yes, it was technically past curfew, and he might get in trouble if he was caught, but he could be rather... persuasive if he had to be. He wouldn't get in any trouble.

Pushing open the door, Victor was greeted with the brisk air of the night. The cold just woke him up more, annoyingly enough, but he needed to get out into the fresh air. As large and welcoming as it was, the Academy was rather cramped. Maybe that was why he had been having so many sleepless nights recently, apart from his new roommate. He looked around himself, seeing...

Fire?

Someone else was out here. Smiling,Victor made his way to the bright orange of the flame. He didn't know any pyromancers yet, it would be fun to get to know then and then snap them.

When he got close enough to the person to see their figure, they -- she -- was letting a stream of fire loose from her mouth. A fire breather? How interesting. But as Victor watched, the flame broke and the girl began to cough. With a smirk, Victor came from the shadows. "It's so amateur to choke, sweetie," he said, clicking his tongue. "What are you doing out so late at night?"

Kari heard a noise coming from behind her, soon accompanied by one of the most obscene things she had heard. She had never really been exposed to the world of dirty jokes in Sweden, and now here she was, a dirty joke being directed towards her. How rude! But...pretty funny. Kari opened her eyes to see a lanky boy standing over her. Of course. Teenage boys, what else could you expect?

But maybe, just maybe, Kari could play along at his little game. She at least knew how to make a good comeback. "How would you know, pretty-boy? Your night life is probably as active as my dead grandmother's." Kari cracked a smile, a lighthearted chuckle escaping from her lips. She couldn't keep a straight face while cracking jokes, and especially since this was her first one that had dirtier connotations, she struggled.

"Want to help me up?"

Victor twisted his face into a look of mock offense with a gasp as the girl insulted his sexual prowess. "You must be new here. I'm known to get my share." As he said this all with a bored, straight face, the girl was giggling. Obviously she wasn't the most skilled in dirty humor.

When she was through laughing, the girl asked if Victor would mind helping her up. He offered a hand to her to pull her up, though he frowned as he did so. "I would mind very much," he drawled sarcastically as he helped her from the ground where she had fallen. "The name's Victor, by the way."

He got around? Did that make him a man-whore? Kari smiled to herself as she pictured his reaction to such an insult. There weren't many people at the Academy, so for him, getting around probably meant flirting with more than one girl. But Kari would keep that one to herself for now.

Kari learned as the boy was reluctantly helping her up that his name was Victor. "I'm Kari," she responded, her eyes glinting mischievously. She had the perfect idea.

"You see, Victor, I was just practicing on this dummy and I had come to the realization that it was absolutely useless." She looked straight into Victor's eyes and smirked: "I figured since you're a dummy I could practice using my powers on you instead." Quickly, she added, "if someone like you can handle it."

Kari. "That's an interesting name," said Victor, tilting his head slightly as he maintained a bored look on his face. She was a pretty cool person, as far as Victor could tell, but he couldn't let that on. He had to stay disinterested, maintain his cool façade and keep the upper hand.

The one thing that broke his disinterested gaze was Kari's comments. Him? A dummy? Victor let out a haughty laugh with a tinge of anger. He was definitely more powerful than this girl, and he would show it to her. He could break her, make her beg for his mercy if he wanted to. He wouldn't take this insult from her. He could stand insults of his sex life, sort of, but his intellect? His power? Unacceptable.

She challenged him. Could he take her on? With a smirk, Victor straightened his back and crack his neck. "I can take you on in a heartbeat. But are you sure you want to take me on, sweetie?" His slight smirk widening into a grin, Victor continued to crack his joints, popping his back and then moving on to his fingers, one by one. "Do you really think you want to fight me?"

Kari smirked at Victor, who seemed to think it would be easy to fight her. Kari was used to being underestimated as a female warrior, so things like what Victor said barely got under her skin at this point. See, he could talk the talk, but Kari knew that she would beat Victor no matter what. She never lost a fight before.

"I don't think it qualifies as a fight when one of the opponents can't do it to save their lives," Kari said with a side eyed glance towards Victor. At first she had been playful, but at this point, Victor had insulted her and Kari felt like she had to prove a point. She was not angry, just interested. Interested in what a little smart-mouthed bum could possibly do that made him think he was better.

Kari smiled and picked up her felled staff, spinning it around her body a few times before taking a defensive stand. She would not actually do anything to hurt Victor, she would simply wear him out by blocking his attacks and would probably do something minor like trip him when she was over.

"Bring it, pretty boy," Kari demanded, a fiery glint in her eyes.

So, she didn't think that he could fight, did she? Well, he'd show her. He cracked the last knuckle on his hand then straightened his back. "I'd say good luck, but it would be a waste since you'll lose anyways."

He watched calmly as Kari planted herself into a defensive stance with a taunt at the end for good measure, beginning to calculate what the best pan of action would be. He had no physical powers to counter her attacks, but he could make it seem like he did. And if it came down to it, he could use some hand-to-hand combat, though it wasn't his strong suit. But first, he had to focus on neutralizing her fire powers.

I wonder...

Victor closed his eyes in focus, drawing the suspenseful quiet out. He wanted to increase her discomfort before the fight began, try and distract her focus naturally. He stayed this way for almost a minute, counting the seconds silently in his head, before snapping his eyes back open. He knew what he was going to do, but she had to make the first move for it to work. "Ladies first, then."

Kari watched in agitation as Victor paused for an unnecessarily long amount of time. Was this his way of preparing for a fight or was he just messing with her? Either way, Kari was sick of it. She had no idea what his powers were, but she didn't really care. Kari didn't think, she just acted. Normally it put her on top, even at this school full of magic users. She observed Victor once more, watching his vigil, realizing how calm he seemed. Almost too calm.

And then he was ready. Ladies first, what a classic. It bothered her that he wanted her to take the offensive, but Kari would step up to the challenge - temporarily. She would simply hit him to get him going and then go back to her defensive stance. "Get ready to lose Vicky."

With an annoyed grunt, Kari invoked a small stream of fire to wrap around her staff as she quickly swung it at Victor's legs.

Victor scoffed at Kari's little nickname for him. Vicky? Almost worse than being called Simon. Almost. He noticed her slight discomfort at being put on the offensive. Good. Another advantage for him. The only hole in his power was that it was hard for him to attack using only manipulation of perception, because he had to find a good pressure point as the basis of his offense and that could take a while. With defense, he could just avoid their attacks and make it appear that he was parrying their blows while finding the thing he could use against them.

Kari lunged towards him, a ribbon of fire curling around her staff. He jumped away from the attack, though he felt the heat of the fire against his leg. His main objective was going to have to be making her extinguish that fire. This was where his idea from earlier came into plan. Grabbing hold of Kari's mind, Victor began to twist how she saw him. He was now oozing a thick, green-tinged slime, making its way to her staff. It would seem as if the fire went out when the slime touched it, and hopefully she would put it out herself when she realized that it was (in her mind at least) pointless to use the ineffective flames that were being doused as she cast them.

Kari reared back in confusion as her staff became covered in a thick goo, extinguishing her fire. So he wanted to mess with her power? She could still beat him. Kari had a couple other tricks up her sleeve as well. If I blind him I might be able to get this guck off of my staff in time.

Kari wore the slightest inkling of a smile as she backed away slowly from Victor and studied him for just a moment. "No wonder the girls don't like you, you're literally a slimeball!" She called to him in a playfully mocking tone. She knew what she had to do now in order to temporarily hinder the sight of Victor: she would just shine a little light on the situation. A ball of light began to form in Kari's free hand, and with a slight flick of her wrist, she threw the light towards Victor's eyes.

Calling him a slimeball. A bit of a low blow, but a nice little quip. "You're learning well, young Padawan." He smirked as she tried to shake nonexistent slime off of her staff. What was he going to do next? He had her distracted, so he could take a minute to figure out a good move. Maybe he could douse her with water? Or --

Suddenly there was a bright flash of light, blinding Victor. With a yelp, he stumbled backwards, tripping over a crack in the pavement. He fell, catching himself with his hands. They scratched against the rough concrete hard enough to take off some skin. There had to be a better floor for training grounds than concrete. He lowered himself all the way to the ground, staring up to the dark sky, stars still swimming in his eyes from the blinding light. He didn't want to surrender, but he also didn't want to get up again If he just sat here, could he claim that he was letting her win? That the fight was getting too boring? It was too easy for him? He would just have to wait for her next move.

Kari attempted to hold back a chortle as Victor yelped, but she began full on laughing as he fell on his rump. She had completely lost it, and she herself fell down with laughter next to Victor when she noticed that he had made no plans to move. As she laughed, she literally lit up, sparks of light flying from her body and landing on the ground next to her and Victor.

Soon enough, Kari sobered up, and sat upright, looking down at Victor, who was no longer green and slimy. "You're not all that bad, Vicky the Hickey," she started. "But I have to know: what's your actual power? You don't really seem that...icky." Kari was starting with the compliments now, Victor needed to know that she didn't really mean any of the things she said. When Kari got into the moment, she could say some pretty weird things. And today she had learned that she could actually be a fiery redhead. it was nice.

Victor rolled his eyes as Kari flopped down to the ground next to him, laughing wildly. "I let you win, you know," he grumbled, scooting slightly away from her to avoid the sparks flying. He observevd his hands, noticing the blood welling up in his scratched flesh. It was beginning to sting, not badly, but it wasn't comfortable. There isn't any pain. You're fine. You can't feel it. Victor let out a small sigh of relief as the stinging faded, being replaced with a sort of... numbness, a nothingness he couldn't describe. It was kind of comforting to him, though, knowing he was in control of himself. Nothing could hurt him if he didn't want it to.

As they laid there, Kari began to speak. Still with the Vicky. and rhymes. Dear lord, she would be able to get annoying very quickly. But she wanted to know his power, so he might as well oblige. His trademark smirk began to creep its way back onto his face as he sat up. "I alter perception. If I so chose, I could make it seem to you like someone had stabbed you, make you feel so much pain and watch in horror as your life dripped out of you, gushing or maybe dripping painfully, slowly. And this might not actually hurt you, but I could do it just because I wanted to."

Kari scoffed at Victor. Let her win? He was just embarrassed that she caught him off guard. Whatever, she thought his injured pride was quite funny. Victor probably wasn't used to falling on his rump in front of people.

He was smirking. He was telling her all the ways that he could make her hurt. Is this how he gets the girls? With a little B, D, S, and M? Kari giggled to herself, she was just so amused by the fact that Victor was so...into himself! "My powers are a little more tangible than your fun mind tricks, but crazy brain powers are pretty cool! You sure had me fooled with all that slime!"

Kari looked down at Victor's hands, which were bleeding quite freely. "Oh no!" she gasped, "Did I do that? I'll fix you up!" Kari stood up quickly and ran over to her bag with all of her supplies, grabbing her first aid kit and running back to Victor. She really didn't mean to hurt him! I guess that's what happens when you fall down. Kari took out a gauze pad, some cleansing wipes, and a bandage and silently got to work on cleaning and patching up his bleeding palms.