Rowan came up quickly after himself, and started demanding information far more directly than Caleb was going about it. Immediately, given his already current suspicions he noted, Rowan's second question 'How did you do that?' Was it possible that like himself Rowan had noted the strangeness of the event based on personal experience? Caleb reassessed Rowan, but was interrupted by the arrival of Val, who identified the Scissorhands Wannabe as "Ken." He chuckled lightly at her Word-A-Day, and was offered a container of hand sanitizer from the protest girl with a brusque "Here." He offered her a charming smile as she did, pleased that he was already making some headway with her.
He turned back to face 'Ken' who proceeded to vomit all over his new pair of shoes and then had the gall to insult them all and use a slur in the same sentence. Caleb stood stunned for a moment as 'Ken' moved away from them not offering a word of apology. Caleb was all too suddenly aware of the blood pumping more and more fiercely through his veins as his pulse increased to a crescendo of fiery rage. He could almost see an outline of red around his vision as he looked down at his shoes. The shoes had not been the highest quality of athletic shoe, but they had been the very first pair of new shoes that he had ever owned. It had taken a lot of extra shifts at the BCC gym until he had felt comfortable making the investment. And now that piece of shit Ken had ruined them with not so much as a word.
Caleb's hands clenched into fists, the whites of knuckles showing through his skin. He turned and took a heavy step in the direction Ken had gone, fully intending to slam his fist through the asshole's stomach. As he took that step, however, he heard the squelch come from the vomit in his shoe as well as a sharp twinge of pain from his thigh as the phantom pain limited his motions. His face contorted into a grimace of pain and discomfort for a moment, knocking him out of his temporary state of bloodlust. And for a moment he could hear a scream of incredibly pain, the heat of the sudden flame, and smell of burning flesh and plastic mixed with...orange? He glanced down and noted he had crushed the container of hand sanitizer in his hand by accident.
"Give me a second."He turned away from the group and the direction Ken had gone, and began walking towards a nearby bench. He paused briefly by Kalama and without looking at her muttered
"Thanks. Sorry. I'll get you another one soon." The squelch in his steps was near as unbearable as the smell of vomit now radiating up to him. Using the hand not covered in santizer, he gingerly pulled off his shoes and socks and grabbed his water bottles using the remainder of the water to rinse of his legs and shoes as best he could, the socks were a lost cause in his view. He then applied the hand sanitizer to his legs and hands doing the best he could to clean them off. Luckily, he found an old plastic shopping bag in the bottom of his bag and contain his shoes and, more importantly, their scent. The socks were tossed into the nearby trash can.
Caleb sat on the bench for a second fuming trying to fight the urge to run after the prick once again. At the moment though, Rowan had said something that attracted his attention like nothing else. He too, it seemed, had recognized that Ken had down something to call out the rat. It was possible then, that like him Rowan had or at least knew something about his new abilities and that was critically important. If Rowan had some clue about how to get his healing power working properly and even more vitally how to prevent his sudden burst of pyrokinesis then Caleb had to find out.
With a couple deep calming breaths, Caleb promised his own sense of rage that he would find Ken later and make him pay for what he had done. He walked back the group, well-versed in walking distances barefoot, and gestured to Poor Yorick's now visible in the distance.
"Let's get going, I don't think that guy is coming back and we got some studying to do! Besides,..." He flashed a smile at Rowan and Kalama, moving a hand through his own hair somewhat tensely while also playing it off with a laugh,
"pretty sure I deserve a drink after all that."