Uncommon characteristics ask, Pyre, numbers 15, 30, 40 and Letter B please!😊
Let’s see if I can manage to not erase this response this time lol. Sorry for the wait and thank you for the ask!!
15. How do they speak? Is what they say usually thought of on the spot, or do they rehearse it in their mind first?
I’m gonna take the best stab at this I can because I’m not exactly the best at describing physical things (although when I think of Pyre speaking, I know exactly what he sounds like).
I’ll say that he’s boisterous, loud, and explicit. He sometimes takes special care to enunciate words with an added degree of sharpness. I can definitely say that Pyre doesn’t rehearse the things he says, even if he does often sound like an actor delivering lines on the stage of Broadway. But his words are not premeditated; he’s got plenty of venom to spare at the tip of his tongue and everything he says, he says with the intention to sting.
His desire to hurt people with his words coupled with his teasing and somewhat flirtatious personality is what makes the things he says so powerful (???). He’s definitely a pro at getting a rise out of people. He isn’t manipulative and doesn’t play mind games, but what he does is good enough. He makes people angry enough to give him a real fight which is what he wants. He just likes stoking fires.
30. Who do they most regret meeting?
It’s definitely not Victor, that’s for sure. Victor is a constant in his life that he has come to expect and has resolved himself to look for whenever it does not come immediately to him because.. well there’s a lot going on there with that, isn’t it? His relationship with Victor isn’t exactly the question so I’ll just leave it at this: Pyre is competitive and egotistical. Victor is the only one alive who he believes to be on his level and he wants to change that. Permanently.
Pyre doesn’t really hold anyone in high enough regard or esteem to have as strong a feeling as regret towards their presence in his life. That being said, there aren’t many in his life. If I had to pick someone, it would perhaps be the Ares Island warden. The person in charge of the prison housing the world’s most dangerous super villains is no Mr. Rogers. At least when Pyre talks back to Victor, he has his powers to fall back on... on AI, he’s just some guy.
40. How sensitive are they to their own flaws?
Ah, now this is the passage that caused me the greatest deal of pain when i GOOFED and deleted it.
Pyre is acutely aware of his ability level as well as areas that have room for improvement or evolution, so much so that he doesn’t need to be using fire in order to practice how to use it. For example, when he terrorized Victor with that huge burning bird, he said he got the inspiration when he heard the news about Victor’s fire flock. He heard that news while on AI but still managed to imagine a way to make that happen without ever having done it before.
But this doesn’t necessarily reflect his own abilities of introspection.
Pyre is stuck in a routine of seeking validation through trying again and again to best heroes at his game. And in a way, it works. Just because the good guys always manage to arrest him in the end doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve “won”. Some heroes come out of fights with him looking ... a bit crispy? And if not badly injured, they are most likely some combination of incensed, riled up, distracted, or dishonored in a way that is not befitting of a hero.
Heroes are noble and good. They take the high road and do not behave the way a villain does: out of anger, vengeance, or spite. If a hero behaves that way, their image cracks a bit, and those cracks are harder to fix than a crack in a bone. If Pyre can create some of those cracks, that’s somewhat of a win, is it not? A hero with a wounded ego is easier to overpower the next time they throw hands.
Oh wow, maybe he is manipulative?
Pyre is stuck in a routine of seeking validation because that is what he can afford to think about when it comes to imagining his future. To summarize the words of a very long and dead passage that I unintentionally murdered with my own hands: he’s not going to have a revelation on his own. Right now, the game he’s playing works for him. It gives him a goal, every day, for as long as he can keep it up, and those goals satisfy him. He has no reason to stop playing the game. And to be clear, the game is to get as many strong people as possible to prove to him what he’s already thinking: that he’s the best in the world.
I’m not sure how much I want to elaborate on this right now because I’m still debating how much of his story I want to flesh out and with which characters... but for now, just know that he sees no reason in changing the way he does things, no reason to be introspective and take a step towards some change.
B) What inspired you to create them?
When I originally imagined this fic, it was just supposed to be fluff about the YOI gang as heroes. But even back then, Pyre was still pretty much the same character that he is now. I made him specifically for Victor because Victor needed an “archenemy”.
Victor has control over an entire spectrum of power. On one side of that spectrum, we have powers that are more often associated with “good”: water and ice. Those elements can be healing, defensive, or protective. The elements of heat and fire are more often associated with “evil” because it’s hard to do much protecting with something that hurts to the touch. To add insult to injury, he doesn’t really have a choice in the matter because he can’t use water during the day. If he wants to be a hero, he has to find a way to make his power work for him. Victor worked diligently to figure out exactly how to make fire gentle. How to turn a weapon into a shield.
For most people with fire abilities, this isn’t really a problem. For starters, they’re not heroes lol. They just don’t have the sheer amount of power that Victor does. He can make a bonfire with a snap of his fingers without breaking a sweat. Comparatively, someone like Noor can light their fists on fire for a few hours before they start feeling woozy. So normal people don’t feel the kind of pressure Victor is under because they’re playing with matches while he’s got... idk... a bazooka?
Pyre is on his level, but Pyre woke up and chose violence. And in this world, people kind of expect him to in an ironic (but definitely not ironic when they’re right) way... the social culture around powers is kind of like our culture surrounding astrology. People with fire powers are kinda treated the way we treat people who are scorpios or geminis. We just kind of expect someone with fire powers to have a “bad” personality. Idk why I’m rambling but I’m basically saying that Victor could be Pyre but far worse.
Pyre is egotistical. Victor himself admitted he was a bit vain. They’re both competitive, Pyre to a horrible fault, Victor to some degree of regret and embarrassment (heroes shouldn’t behave the way he does around Pyre). Pyre and Victor are both teasing and flirtatious. They’re both dramatic. They both crave attention, in different ways, but again, they’re occupying opposite sides of the same spectrum. And they’re both insanely good at using fire; they’re innovative, sharp, and quick.
Pyre is deeply flawed, horrible, and definitely sorta kinda yes definitely a murderer. Victor, while he has his minor flaws, is no where near the kind of evil Pyre is, so I’m not saying that Victor would just start terrorizing the town after having a bad day. I’m saying that if he wasn’t also compassionate and loving, he could’ve gone down a darker road. Pyre’s goal is to prove that he’s the best. Victor’s goal is to protect those who don’t have the power to do it themselves. That alone puts miles and miles and miles between them on that spectrum they occupy.
Victor needed someone to give him trouble. I also needed a way to show the difference between a hero using fire and a villain doing it.
So Pyre was originally made for the plot, I guess.
TLDR: Pyre is naturally a drama queen, he doesn’t regret meeting anyone except maybe the AI warden, and I made him so everyone can appreciate the fact that Victor is good and not a dirtbag.
