time for all the anger,, altair

Altair had been in a foul mood, as of late. Fouler than usual, actually, considering the conversation she had had with her boss. As much she tried to stay on her best behavior so she would not get fired from her job, she couldn't always reign herself in when it needed. So when she had found herself in the office, wearing the clothes she had been told to wear, a sheer blouse over a tanktop and very short shorts with strappy heels, she had not let her anxiety show, tried not to shift uncomfortably as she looked around at the framed magazine covers on the walls, the women she hoped to be. She was only eighteen, but one could only exist in the modelling world for a short amount of time. It was transient, really, and so she only had that small frame to fit her entire existence into. The girl would make it count.

She had listened to the woman go on about flights she would need to take, layovers, and this is what she wanted but Altair was learning something else: responsibility. She could not leave her sister for that long, could not leave school for weeks at a time without coming back and being buried under work. After listening to the woman go on for a little while, she held her hands up and said, ”I have school and a sister to take care of, I can't leave for so long,” she protested. Protesting was not what you did in this industry, and in some cases it could get dirty. She knew the underbelly, she knew what it took to move on up, and it was complete compliance, even if it was a man who wanted to take full advantage of everything you had. The woman narrowed her eyes. ”Don't expect to go very far if you cannot make time for your job,” she said coolly, and Altair instantly regretted her words. Still, in her stupidly stubborn nature, she had to bring up what she believed to be a good point. ”I spent two weeks away from home, and I'm still catching up in school because of that.” Nails tapping against the desk, and then a cold dismissal.

Altair had not lost her job, not yet, but she feared it. She feared she may have pushed too far, asked for too much, but what could she have done? She never figured that it would be this hard, returning to life like this. Somehow, when she was working as a dancer and living off tips, it seemed easier. Then again, back then, she also had Syria around. She walked through the courtyard with a frown on her glossy lips, looking for all the world like the temperamental Fire leader she was, particularly antagonistic that day. So it did not help when she was oh so rudely bumped into by a random chick. ”You're fucking gonna be,” she said wryly with a light smirk, her eyes not as humorous as her tone. Not at all. And to prove she was far from joking, she expelled a wave of fire from her body all around her, a warning for the damage to be done. ”Really should watch where you're going.”

The girl didn't want a fight. Altair expected that. She really loved people who did fight back, though, especially physically. That's where the challenge was, in the person who could stand up to her and not back down, not turn away from her because she wasn't worth it, or they were scared, or whatever it was that backed them out of any confrontation. That's why Earths couldn't keep her attention for too long. They were pacifists, pincushions in all honesty. In her eyes, the lack of desire to fight was a weakness. It made sense. The fighting spirit, the drive, that was where character lied. It showed strength and power, and eve though she did not admire anyone, it could come close if a person would show that they were willing to face her. That, and she fed off violence.

Altair was primal, entirely so, all the things that most people kept buried brought to the surface. And some may call her a bitch or a slut or what have you, but she couldn't see why they would have a problem with the fact that she was more in touch with her base desires. She didn't try to sugarcoat anything with society, didn't try to click with it. Fighting and fucking was part of Darwin's whole idea, it was natural selection.

And so she wasn't going to back down when this girl seemed to sass her, or that's how she interpreted it. Such words just spurred her on. "Will you?" she asked, looking quizzically at her. There was amusement in her gaze now, not just the cruelty and sharpness in her gaze that was always there. "Because I really fucking doubt that. Maybe I should show you why you should watch where you're going?" The flames grew. Only a short time ago, none of this would have been possible without a lighter. She didn't miss those times, how weak she had been. Now she was a leader, and she didn't even recognize that this girl was, too. There hadn't been a collective meeting since the one with Ashton and Asher that ended up in a war. It had since died down, which she found rather unfortunate with how much she loved war.

The girl cocked her head to the side, looking almost like a puppy. But she wasn't cute enough in that moment to pull it off. Always sexy, she reminded herself. Always sexy. "Or you can just tuck your tail in-between your legs and run, in which case I'll just have to laugh at you." She raised her eyebrow, and she was sure she would be making a scene right now with all her fire. She hoped she intimidated the girl, scared the living shit out of her. Altair enjoyed that kind of power over another person.

Was this little shit going to start something with her? It was terribly like Altair to make incredibly fierce first judgments about a person based on her own ego and beliefs. Kiya was just...tiny. Unassming. Not someone she would imagine holding her own in a fight. Maybe she just liked to believe these things to help boost her confidence before a fight. It certainly made things a lot easier on her part. But she didn't really need help, did she? Altair's jaw set, before she opeend her mouth and said, ”Yeah, really.” The lack of pure sarcasm showed just how irritated she was, an animal disturbed too easly after slumbering. She started a lot of fights, she knew that, yet she always found ways to blame the other person. It was Kiya's fault for bumping into her when she was already pissed off. It was her fault for Altair not liking her. Even if these views simply weren't true, it was what went through that blond head of hers as the fire circled and whipped and stretched in her open palm like a sentient being.

The attitude back certainly had not been what she'd expected. She half expected the bitch to bug off, to go somewhere else, anywhere so that Altair just didn't have to curb stomp her. She loved to fight, but she didn't like one that was already won. Seriously underestimating her opponent, she believed Kiya to be like that, someone who would crumble easily. ”I'm sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you over the sound of me kicking your ass.” Altair flicked her fingers, the fire shooting out in a thin, spear-like attack aimed for the Water leader's chest. She didn't mess around, and did not care too much for verbal warfare when she could just kick ass with her element. Her eyes narrowed coldly, obviously intent on doing more damage if Kiya wanted to talk some more. She was not one who would back down or tuck her tail between her legs, so the Wind girl will probably be sorely disappointed. She didn't care, as long as she was the one who came out on top.

It was very hard to insult Altair. In her mind, she couldn't even be insulted. For one, she had her head so far up her ass she couldn't even see the hater. For another, she just didn't listen to other people. And Kiya calling her a "slow one" was at the bottom of things she'd been called in her lifetime. She had had worse things said to her, by loved ones and by complete strangers who wanted nothing more from her than her body. Altair had seen her fair share and it built her a tough, impenetrable skin. That was one thing she could be thankful for with having so much shit in her life. "Oh wow, thanks for your advice," she said, and the sarcasm did not have to be noted. It was always there, and it was clear by the way she stood confidently and unchanged that nothing Kiya could say would ever affect her. Save for making her even more angry than she already was. The Fire leader may not have let things get to her, but she did get pissed off easily, if this day was any proof of such a thing.

Altair blinked when the girl said that this needed to stop. "Don't tell me you're going to go all freedom fighter on me," she said dryly, not amused by this new development from her. If she had some self-righteous bullshit she needed to spout, the Fire was getting out of there. She did not have the time or the patience to deal with that kind of thing. To deal with Kiya if it wasn't with her fire itself. It was all she could do not to roll her eyes, and it amazed her that she actually did not. Then, when the Wind leader spoke her part, Altair laughed. "Wow," she said slowly at first and then, "Wow! You have got to be shitting me. You don't want to fight and then you go right ahead and call me a bitch." She took a moment to shake her head with that wry smile on her face. "Your obviously great at these peace agreement things." She didn't like peace. She did not even want it, as a matter of fact, which was why she thought it was rather unfortunate that the war had to sputter out like it did.

Altair was sure the other leaders appreciated it. Kiya's partner Asher had been a mediator between Ashton and Altair, but the two had gotten into a back and forth spat that gotten them into the war in the first place. It was obvious just from that that Altair did not really care much for 'keeping the peace'. It wasn't in her agenda. "I'll tell you what," she said smoothly, the lax smile still on her face, though it was still lacking genuine intent. "Why don't we gather all the leaders and have a little discussion about our problems. And then we can be a big, happy family." The sarcasm wasn't strong, it was spoken as if she were saying that this was exactly what she wanted. She frowned then. "It doesn't work like that, honey. You pissed me off and now I'm going to hurt you. Clear?" It was obvious as day and night. She wasn't just going to disperse the fire and laugh it off simply because Kiya said they shouldn't fight. That was one of the worst things you could say to an angry Altair.

Altair gave the girl a withering glance. Smart asses. She could not deal with them. Anyone who thought they were funny and clever, she simply wanted to punch them in the face. And she did, a lot of the times. She didn't know restraint, what that meant, what it looked like. She supposed it was in the way Earths turned the other cheek, or Thunders bottled up everything and waited to carry out their vengeance. She supposed it meant not going off the handle whenever someone said something that angered her. But she had a temper problem, one that she never bothered to control. Why should she restrain herself when there were so many idiots out there who didn't control themselves and what came from their mouths. Kiya should have just shut up with that comment, but she didn't, opting for whatever would piss Altair off more. It wasn't the wise choice, and why should Altair take the high road now? Why should she just walk away?

It was this style of Altair's that got her into the most trouble with other people. She didn't believe in holding back for anyone else. Let alone an obnoxious Wind leader. Of course, she was just obnoxious to Altair for simply breathing the same air as her, but Altair believed every opinion she had of other people to be fact. The Fire girl lifted her eyebrows as if Kiya's words were something completely new and mind-blowing to her, opening up a whole new field of existence for her. "Wow, really, you're new to this? Holy shit, I would have never guessed." She remember the old Wind leader, Asher, how he had tried to mediate the meeting between she and Ashton. But Altair was a provoker, she did what she could to piss people off. Actually, in that case, she had spoken how she felt. The fact that she really did not care about his element and her own could do what they felt was right. She ran her group with a Laissez-faire policy. She was not her police, she was the queen, and she could not control every single person in her element.

She grimaced as the girl created the shield of Wind. Though she knew that luck wasn't on her side. If she truly tried an attack, wind was like a buffer to fire, it fed flames and grew them, spread them out. Altair felt like she had the upper hand, but she always did, even in fights with Water elementals. She always found some sort of excuse, something that would make her feel more confident in an altercation. She fed her own ego, she built herself up, and therefore she was the only one who could tear her down. So she gathered more flames in the palm of her hand. "Don't think that you're going to even come close to touching me," Altair warned, noting that there was no fear in Kiya's voice. "You got nothing on me and you can't defend yourself forever." Altair held out her hand, and it was like a flame-thrower, full blast. Her style of fighting exhausted her quickly, but she liked to subdue her opponent from the outset. It may have been different when it came to fisticuffs, but right now this was elemental-to-elemental combat. Two leaders causing a scene in the courtyard, not the beset example to be setting for the school. Though this was the usual for other students.