Sweet Smell of Summer by Domoviye

Little Spring, Indiana
June 15th, 2007

Nate Lawrence is on a long drive home from Whateley with his parents and younger sister, Emily. That is one good thing about Whateley, whether in martial arts or survival class, you will get in shape. Poor Emily having all that weight gain, you better be nice to your sister, Nate.

Cerberus and Anubis, good names for dogs. Uncle Tommy starts off on a bad foot with that comment. What a jerk, calling his nephew names like that and acting like a little kid. Whelp, that is one way to get revenge on a jerk uncle.

June 16th, 2007

Oh boy, the incident that still has Pristine pissed as Nate. Ah, yes, the gas bomb during the combat final and lighting it on fire, not expecting it to explode. Good grief, that was a mess. Nate, how many people have you used your powers on just for calling you or friends of yours a name? Hehe, I like Emily, a smart girl and observant.

He isn't lying about Whateley, the classes are cool. Except for history right now, that teacher sucks. Ouch, the truth about being one of the Underdogs comes out. Nate isn't wrong about what some of his other classmates think about him and the other Underdogs, but that isn't true of all students.

July 24th, 2007

“Black bean breakfast enchiladas,” his mother said.

You would have Nate subject nature to the horrors that will unleash, you are a generous woman. Nate, I hope you don't let one rip while anyone is around.

And survival class has already proved well worth the training, detecting the threat of Jeremy Harris, the biggest bully in town, before he even saw him. Dodging a punch and unleashing that horror onto Jeremy, if that bully hasn't learned to leave him alone after that they have something seriously wrong with their brain. Nope, the idiot recovers and comes after Nate, foolish.

What is with Jeremy's leg length? Catches up to Nate and when confronted about the fact he made his legs grow in length punches Nate in the face, so neither can rat on the other about being a mutant without being outed themselves now. Crud, two kids watching him from off the path, this just got bad.

Early morning,
July 28th, 2007

Aww, Nate has a crush on Anna and has those types of dreams about her. Oh crud, Emily is floating in the air up on the ceiling. At least Nate kept his head and helped Emily get back down onto her bed. Nice suggestion to help out Emily and she releases the helium gas from her body through her rear, oh boy. Great, Emily thinks Nate's spirit did this to her, so he runs for his own safety.

July 30th, 2007

Cumulus, cute codename. Taser to test if she had danger sense, ouch. Exemplar 2, is not very strong, but smarter, and manifestor 2 who can create other gases as well and with practice might be able to do more, cool. Make the gas come out of her skin too, nice. Ouch, more work for Nate around Whateley and the school sends home reports so they know about Nate's 'pranks'.

“Can I use a bat to help smooth him out?” Emily asked.

“Hey! That's just mean!” Miasma shouted.

Definitely siblings and anyone at Whateley who doesn't realize it without them stating it will have to be dense.

August 15th, 2007

Nate is out fishing and Jeremy ambushes him, thinking he told about Jeremy being a mutant, not knowing about the two spies in the bushes. Those creeps told H1! about Jeremy, that is cowardly. 10 armed adults coming after Jeremy, This is a lynch mob, these people are psychotic. Great, now they think Jeremy is a liar about Nate being a mutant too.

Send Jeremy to the hospital for attacking a 'baseline' just because he is a mutant, a bunch of bigots. Beating him with bats while he is tied up, cowards, the lot of them. Beating him and planning on branding Jeremy, Nate tosses his gas grenade into the fire and has an idea to get them both out of there. Having to actually hit Jeremy while waiting for the grenade to go off, hurts Nate to do. The grenade goes off, Nate cuts Jeremy loose and they both run in different directions.

Crud, his clothes that bad, his skin burnt, and the stench on him able to do that to Emily still just from what is lingering on him. Having to tell his mom all this with a straight face as he goes to shower, Nate has had a bad day.

August 16th, 2007

Oof, Nate still has that stench on him even if it has gotten weaker. Go and stay with their dad, might have to move if H1! figures out what Nate did and what he is. Mr. Washington shows up and doesn't suspect Nate, Jeremy and his family left town, at least they are safe from these nutjobs. A business card for H1! with a number, I would burn that, Nate. No, you don't want to be a member of H1!, Nate, not even to prank them with the fact you are a mutant.

Crystal Hall, Whateley
Lunchtime,
September 30th, 2007

Nate and Emily at the Underdogs table eating, new members of the Underdogs besides Emily. Jeremy Harris shows up, hugs Nate, and thanks him, he knows he got him out of that bad situation and owes him. Just don't fart near him, good deal. Yes, Anna, he had an interesting summer.

This was a fun story, a peek into the life of Miasma and his family. Even seeing Nate do the right thing to save his own bully, he has too much of a hero in him to be a coward. I'm glad it all worked out and Emily is adorable, I wonder if Nate will have to be an overprotective brother soon,

-Did you know there are at least 261 slang words for Fart in English? I only used fart 3 times in the story, and did a fair bit of reading to find just the right word each time I needed to say he farted.

-I was hinting at Emily being a mutant from the start. Rapid weight gain, bouncing clumsily along, and 'bounced to her feet', combined with Miasma thinking about how she's smarter and noticing things more, all signs of being an Exemplar, and slowly building up helium in her body.
And I liked her codename Cumulus too. I was having trouble with it, until I thought of fluffy, slow moving clouds. Good thing they have a good sounding name.
She and Tink are going to share at least one class together.
And I think she's a sweetheart.

-All the people mentioned except for Mr. Washington and Emily, were brought up in previous stories. Miasma's family was called pretty good, except his Uncle Tommy who was a jerk, and he wanted to gas Jeremy for unmentioned reasons.
It wasn't mentioned in canon that he had a sister, but it was also not made specifically clear that he was an only child either. So I had some fun with that.

-With Jeremy, I had an idea of a size warper, but he could only increase the size of part of his body at any one time. So longer legs, extra large hands and arms, etc. His ability keeps him from becoming unbalanced, or tearing something with the increased size. We'll see more of him in future stories as a minor side character.

-One thing I liked doing with Miasma was giving him slightly more depth than just stinky, loser, prankster. Showing how he acts a bit nicer and less stupid around his family, where he doesn't need to prove things is, I think, a good bit of characterization.
And having him somewhat quick on his feet when coming up with a lie under pressure works with how he quickly came up with a story to explain his gas mask when he had his combat final with Peeper.

-With H1, I had originally thought they'd burn Jeremy at the stake, but it seemed to extreme. A beating and scarring, let me use my plan of secretly setting off a gas bomb, without having a murderous group of townsfolk. Having them think Nate was helping them and making him an honorary member however, was ALWAYS in the plan. It just seemed like the right amount of comedy of errors for Miasma.