Fire Belly Newts (15) : Pranks are common this time of year, and what’s funnier than a little arson? A lot of things, actually, but for some reason there are frequent reports of small fires being set and abandoned all throughout the city. Most of the time, these fires burn out before causing much damage, but things are escalating and it’s only a matter of time before things start getting dangerous–especially with how dry it’s been, and all these dead, fallen leaves. But, it’s worse than just flammable debris. Sometimes, there are small patches of boiled pavement. Melted metal–guardrails, lamps, fire hydrants. Destruction is rampant, and no one knows why. But you do. You saw one of them. A foot long, black newt, with a bright-red belly that glowed brightly when it spat up real, liquid flame right in front of you. Lava pooled from its round little belly, ignited like a match to oil. It darts through alleys and storm drains, too fast to catch. At least you tried.
To say that Tianyi was having a difficult night was maybe to understate the matter a bit. His outfit told the story, really--the ends of his skirt and sleeves were singed, and ash clung to his cute little socks and shoes from where it had drifted there. He'd managed to put the fires out, but it was sort of a near thing--and fundamentally, he was annoyed that it had happened at all.
Bad luck, really, running into one of the little fire-breathing newt creatures. He'd heard of such things before, but never encountered one; they'd always seemed like something far-off and rumor-worthy. Tianyi had no such wildlife. Other worlds had, once, perhaps, if the rumors he'd heard from traders talking with his older brothers and parents meant anything.
He'd thought about chasing the thing off violently, but it had mostly seemed scared--a condition Tianyi could more than relate to.
But he was still angry. Angry that he was feeling singed, and that the whole thing had been so embarrassing, that he'd fallen over trying to pat out his own clothes and now he was dirty--just. angry.
So when he came around a corner and spotted a tall Negaverse Captain standing over a body with a glowing starseed in his hand, Tianyi reacted first, and considered talking later.
"Blossoming Decree," he whispered, and then, louder, once he was sure his magic was working--"Put. That. Back."
amorremanet
Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2025 12:40 am
The start of the semester had honestly not improved anything for Preston. Not really, anyway. He’d expected that to happen, since he had very little left to do beyond preparing to defend his dissertation in the spring and covering classes for Dr. Sturm as necessary……but he’d held that expectation in his mind prior to learning that Dr. Sturm had a new assistant, one who would effectively act as Preston’s shadow as he learned his way around. By now, he would’ve expected Mercar to have adjusted, learned his way around things socially (personally, Preston preferred to navigate by ignoring the vast majority of their peers), and, very critically, gotten stable enough in his footing to have a conversation with Dr. Sturm for himself.
Alas, none of these things had happened.
Whatever in life had made Hyacinthus Mercar such a high-strung nightmare of a person to deal with, that pattern of behavior in him had given Preston that much more incentive to power up into Cryptomelane, and to wreak whatever he could all over the slaves of Order. The season didn’t make that easy, given all the equally potent nightmares that always crawled out of the woodwork for Halloween. Cryptomelane had no idea where the newts that set things on fire had even come from, but trying to stomp them out and limit their destructive capabilities had led him nowhere. They always managed to get away before he could catch them. Failure on his part, undeniably. Here, he had the enhanced physical abilities of a Negaverse officer and yet, he couldn’t catch a simple magical pyromaniac amphibious salamander? Disgraceful.
Weakness such as this shouldn’t have been tolerated in a Lieutenant, much less a Captain.
A starseed probably would have handled things for him. Gotten him close enough to overcoming this limitation on his own part. But—he’d gotten himself into trouble about that. Eating them and throwing himself into fights that he couldn’t win.
Didn’t mean he couldn’t claim more of them, however. The civilian who made the donation never saw him coming, and as he stared down at the glowing stone in his hand, Cryptomelane felt that much calmer and more at peace with the world. He felt powerful.
Of course, it couldn’t last.
Just as the civilian hadn’t seen him coming, Cryptomelane paid little attention to the Order aura that advanced toward him. He didn’t see the magic coming—not until it slammed into him, cold and heavy and with that attached directive to release the starseed. Without his permission, he felt his fingers moving to do just that. As he forced his grip to tighten back around the starseed, Cryptomelane felt as though a heavy weight intended to crush him. Teeth gritted, he turned to face the source, and his eyes went wide as he took in the sight of the golden sleeves and collar, the many flowing layers of fabric, the long lavender hair, the delicately curled horns—
The man before him was much taller than Tianyi himself. He was probably also physically stronger--most people were. Tianyi was not a fighter. But he had to make a choice, and his choice was that he refused to allow someone to die right before his eyes.
There was already so, so much blood on his hands. He would not add one more body's worth.
"Yes," he said, crossing his arms, "me. And I told you to put. That. Starseed. Back."
He stomped his foot, as if that would make his spell more powerful. He was not going to bend. he would not run away. He would save a life tonight, whatever it took.
"Put it back and let that person go. You have no real quarrel with them. Have one with me instead."
Perhaps unwise, when his magic turned his words into commands, but he could play distraction. A little luck from the new magic he'd discovered might help, there.
