Logs:Vignette - We Real Cool

Vignette - We Real Cool
Dramatis Personae Avi
In Absentia	soulstice "How you make this stuff kick in anyway?"
Location <NYC> Harlem
It's exam week and they're probably supposed to be studying, but it's Avi's birthday after all, and so close to break besides. There are burgers and sodas scattered among their history books and notes and flashcards on the table and the discussion of Reconstruction has broken down -- juuust a little. "-- maaan I'm saying though gimme time travel," DeShaun is saying around a mouthful of fries, "I'd set some shit right. We'd be studying a whole different history then." There's a raucous cry of agreement from the other boys around the table at this proclamation. Jacob C. is laughing along but soon enough shakes his head, waves a hand dismissively: "Psh, psh, psh. Time travel, nah man, you telling me you wanna be a nigga in some other century? S'downhill erry direction from here. I'mm'a walk through walls. Roll right on up on a bank, my family be set here and now." Again, a cheerful bout of enthusiasm to greet this choice. Jacob P. takes a swig of his Dr. Pepper, taps his stack of mostly-forgotten flashcards against the table. "You all do not think big enough. Future sight. Predict the lottery? Predict the stocks? Save lives? I'm gonna be rich and a superhero. Always in the right place the right time." Avi has been munching his way through his burger, quietly eying the flashcards, but looks up quick, tongue running over his teeth before he gives a wide grin. "I'on care what I get long as I can do something great with it. Fly maybe. Move things with my mind. S'gonna be real Heroes hours up in here." When this initially meets with a few blank looks, a quick (unhelpful) amendment: "Season One only." His sweater is draped over the back of his chair, his arm hooked over it as well, posture a loose drape in his seat. "How you make this stuff kick in anyway? I got a good night sleep, full stomach, went all out at practice this afternoon --" "Maybe you just focus real hard," Jacob P. suggests brightly. He sets his Dr. Pepper down on the table in front of Avi and picks the flashcards back up. "Radical Republican", he reads off the card, "man we got those now." Avi's gaze has fixated intently on the cup. "Nah," he's saying, a little distracted, "those ones were backward. They wanted to get rid of --" There's a crackling sound, a sudden glittering in the middle of the table -- around the cup a hard pillar of ice has blossomed, a frosted coating of it spreading out across the notebooks and loose flashcards scattered near Avi as well. Avi has leapt to his feet, his eyes abruptly wide. Around the table, startled yelps. Startled yells. Someone calling his name; it barely registers where he's just staring down at his hands. Staring back up at his friends. "I was just trying to move it." "Wait, you did that shit?" Whatever else DeShaun was saying cuts off in favor of eying the table with sudden awe. "You telling me this planet stuff for real?" "Where's your time travel at then?" Jacob C. is saying with a thwap to DeShaun's shoulder. He's staring down at the table, then back up at Avi. "You got the real level up? Do it again!" Avi's hands plant down on the frosted table surface. When he exhales, it comes out in a crystalline puff. His smile stretches wider in time with the slow spread of frost across the table. "-- Cool."