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.
amorremanet
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2025 12:50 am
Listening to the little Order senshi before him, watching the idiot stomp his foot as though it meant anything and exercise such temerity, Cryptomelane felt struck by a realization. As his mouth fell ever so slightly open, his eyes went wide. His face paled, and outrage flared up in his chest. Not only did this senshi think himself fit to so carelessly wield the same sort of influence over other people, but he didn’t even bother to—
“You don’t remember me at all, do you,” Cryptomelane snarled, keeping one hand curled tight around the starseed as he summoned his pumpkin ball flail to hand. Abandoning the body for now—if the little senshi wanted to save this civilian so badly, then he could carry the starseed over to their corpse like a ******** adult, after winning their soul back from Cryptomelane fair and square—he advanced toward the would-be interloper. “Everything you did to me……and you don’t remember?!”
Had he been in a less incensed state of mind, Cryptomelane would have conceded that this senshi likely had no reason to remember him. The worst part of the idiot’s magic hadn’t even been the magic itself, but what had come afterward. The sensation of darkness crushing in around him, being mentally jerked back to the compound and to Brother Horace’s care while as he corrected young Preston about whatever wrong in him was an issue today, feeling as if he couldn’t breathe, as if Brother Horace had been right there in the room, denying Preston his inhaler right now.……
Maybe he couldn’t really blame the senshi for not knowing about that.
But that wouldn’t stop Cryptomelane from running at him and swinging his flail at those asinine layers of fabric.
Noir Songbird
Being hit with Cryptomelane’s pumpkin ball creates brief hallucinations. For about 10 seconds, affected enemies will hear ghostly wails that seem to come to nowhere. These wails can induce fear and be very unsettling, but they cause no damage. This effect works once per target, per battle.
Tianyi really hadn't meant to insult the man in front of him, but clearly he had--and it took a moment, but the memory slotted back into place, and he gasped.
"You! You were doing this before, I had to stop you then, too!" Clearly his magic hadn't actually left any sort of lasting sensation, or led to any real contemplation, because here he was, doing exactly the same thing, with exactly the same amount of actual, fundamental remorse.
"Fortune Blooms," Tianyi gasped, just in time for the luck magic to kick in and let him skip backward, away from the flail by mere centimeters.
"Why? Why don't you care? That's a person, with a life, and you can just--take it, so casually!"
Quote:
Additional Attack: Fortune Blooms! Tianyi speaks the name of his attack, and kerria flowers bloom in a 10-foot radius around him. Allies within the radius are blessed with good fortune; they may find that they are a little luckier in their dodges, a little less likely to be unlucky and miss, so on. Additionally, allies who remain within the radius for the full duration find that minor injuries are healed, as if their new good fortune has erased the previous bad luck of being damaged. This attack lasts for 30 seconds, and Tianyi can use it twice per battle.
amor remanet
Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2025 11:25 pm
cw: eating disorders, body dysmorphia.
“Why should I care about them,” Cryptomelane snapped, pushing himself harder, trying as best he could to keep pace with the cheating little space senshi. “Why should I care about any of them!”
Except he wasn’t cheating at all. Whatever magic he’d used on himself just now had simply increased his facility with dodging, or……or something. He’d made use of the resources fairly available to him and the only thing for it, on Cryptomelane’s end, was making himself get on the same level. Didn’t matter how hard he had to push, or that he was several degrees of tired and worn out from midterms season and shepherding Hyacinthus Mercar through it (never mind the way he managed to be so much worse than the undergraduates because he already had a PhD and did not need to ******** act the ways he did), or any such things.
“If these fools won’t take care enough to protect their own worthless lives—” He swung at the senshi, but felt the wily little thing pulling away from him, “—if they won’t summon the strength enough to fight for their right to be alive—” However much power he put behind his swipes, it all seemed to amount to naught. None of his blows were connecting. But he had to press on. He had to try harder. Fight better. He couldn’t allow himself to be…… “—then what right do such pathetic failures have to keep their starseeds!”
Baz……had objectively been doing really well for himself lately.
Even thinking that felt intensely, horribly wrong of him on some level, considering the state of things with his team. Put bluntly, things with the team were a mess and had been since Faustite had first turned up missing over the summer. Since then, things had spiraled out, getting progressively worse. “Massive permanent injuries with debilitating consequences” levels of worse. Sure, Haymitch was working hard to build Albite a new eye, but Albite was still down one eye at the moment. No matter how much he tried to keep things together (relatively speaking), that blow to his depth perception and ability to function had to bother Albite.
Yet, in all the lower-case chaos that had dogged Team Faustite since the battle with the Calamitous Hollow, Ilmari seemed to have found some previously untapped well of motivation. Maybe, in the same way that the stress leading up to that battle had gotten him to intensify his skincare routine so he could have control over <******** something, he’d managed to get himself together so that he didn’t let the team down by falling apart. He was well on top of his energy draining quotas, even exceeding them most weeks (had to cover extra territory and swipe up extra energy, just in case anyone else on the team came up short because of all the mess going on for them).
Most importantly to Ilmari personally, though, he was looking skinny.
Still considerably off from perfection—certainly not giving what Ariana Grande had been giving on Instagram lately—but he’d definitely slimmed down some since summer, never mind since this time last year. On a break from tonight’s patrol, Ilmari had found a safe, quiet place atop the roof of a little apartment building, where he knew there was a suspiciously placed full length mirror. He’d felt another Nega’s aura somewhere vaguely nearish, but as he took out his tablet, Ilmari figured that they could probably handle themself. Sure, his evidence at the moment mostly amounted to the two auras feeling about evenly matched in terms of power levels, but still.
Even given the proximity of an Order aura, Ilmari didn’t feel any need to intervene. Both auras felt more or less equal to Ilmari’s own power level. He would’ve heard if Litharge or Vesuvianite were planning to go out in this area tonight, maybe even Mizuki? So, it probably wasn’t any of them. Hopefully Ilmari wouldn’t need to stick his nose into helping for a while.
Pulling up the tablet’s Photos app, he picked out some recent selfies. Probably not what he was supposed to have used the Camera for, not on a Negaverse tablet, but damn, he really did wish he could post some of these on the social media accounts he didn’t widely share with friends or let anywhere near his parents. They might’ve understood too well what some of Baz’s poses in his mirror selfies meant, or what he might have been looking for specifically. He couldn’t have that. Not when his work on himself still had so much further to go before he was done.
The other auras remained close by, he noticed as he tried to square himself up in a good angle, neither one yet retreating. Sounded like their own problem, really—until Ilmari chanced to look in the direction of the other auras.
He couldn’t really see the people attached to them from here. But through the ambient city lights, he caught a glimpse of lilac twintails and billowing yellow-and-orange sleeves.
Tensing, Ilmari felt his cheeks flush hot. Which made no sense. Not a single goddamn bit of it. Thank God he was alone instead of being around Litharge, or Vesuvianite, or Mizuki, or Miss Hestia, or basically anyone who might have noticed him blushing like this over the thought of an Order senshi. Never mind one whom Ilmari hadn’t seen in months, and who probably hadn’t thought of him at all. (Ilmari hadn’t been at his best when they’d met. Not that he was right now, either, but—well. If he’d struck the Order senshi as forgettable that one night, several months ago, while he’d desperately fought to prove himself and yielded in the face of said senshi’s magic giving him orders……
Well.
Ilmari had no one to blame but himself for how forgettable he’d likely been.)
As he headed for, then hopped down, the building’s fire escape, Ilmari told himself that none of this would matter.
As he darted across the street and into the park, Ilmari tried to tell himself that this probably wouldn’t even be the same Order senshi. The one Ilmari had met before hardly had an exclusive claim on a sunrise color scheme and twintails.
As he got close enough to see that this Order senshi was indeed the one he thought about, Ilmari felt his brain white-out at the state of things before him. Some Captain he didn’t recognize was running at the senshi whom he did. Loyalty to the Negaverse told Ilmari whom to join in with and whom to fight against.
Yet, when he threw himself into the fray, it was with his back to the Order senshi and a hand raised to the Captain.
“Captain, stop,” Ilmari snapped at the other man, calling on his magic. Hopefully, it would help the Captain open himself up to reason.
Sensing another Negaverse aura on the approach, Cryptomelane briefly felt relief—but he didn’t allow that to distract him. Backup would help, but that didn’t mean he could allow himself to go any easier on this wretched little senshi.
But then the backup got between them.
Cryptomelane was already pulling back into a halt as the Nega-senshi’s magic slammed into him. Not a forced compulsion like the Order senshi’s had been, and yet, everything inside of Cryptomelane seemed to go cold. Dazed, reeling, stunned, staggering. Gritting his teeth and fighting to feel something—anything—in the cold void where his rage had just been, Cryptomelane pinched the bridge of his nose.
“What is wrong with you senshi,” he bit out. “Throwing around psychoactive magic as if it’s a ******** toy? Have you completely lost your mind?!”
Industria’s magic may have also affected the mind, but it only inspired people, added to things that they could already feel or notice. It didn’t compel them to abandon their pursuit of a dangerous enemy, or force them to feel things that they didn’t. Nor did her magic strip people of their feelings, such as the case currently was.
“I believe you’ll find that I haven’t, Captain.” Ilmari took a deep breath, and a quick moment to glance back over his shoulder at the other senshi. This was okay. He had to justify his actions to both an enemy and the man who should have been his ally. He’d only used an itty bitty little hit of super magic on a fellow officer of the Negaverse. But he was smart and clever and he could get himself out of this situation. “This senshi……has the protection of a General-Sovereign behind him. He’s a person of interest, and an informant. I must ask you to cease in your attack against him.”
Okay, so Ilmari was lying. But, like, that was fine, right?
He could just………retroactively make everything okay again by talking to Faustite, probably? He was Ilmari’s boss’s husband, and a General-Sovereign, and maybe he would agree to back Ilmari in treating this Order senshi as an official informant. Anyway, it wasn’t as though Faustite, of all people, had any room to judge Ilmari for favoring a pretty boy as an informant, considering the technically good-looking former Dark Mirror skank in the legs and the <******** sleeves, who kept acting like he was better than Ilmari every time said skank’s friendship with Albite and his whole thing with Faustite forced him and Ilmari to deal with each other.
Except that Faustite and Albite……were, like, uncharacteristically complicated right now?
And was Faustite even still a General-Sovereign? Was his current state, like, a starseed thing? Or had he actually been demoted?
Ilmari didn’t know, and ******** him gently with a chainsaw, he really hoped that this Captain didn’t look too much into any of his story.
……………This was fine.
Noir xx Songbird
Super Sailor Scout Attack: Chaste Restraint. Ilmari summons this magic by blowing a kiss at his intended targets. Instantly, they are hit with a moderate chill that places them into a chaste state of mind and resets them to a pure, unblemished state by cooling their passions, dulling their emotions, and strongly urging them to exercise restraint in their actions, making it more difficult for them to attack. This can be distracting and can leave enemies feeling dazed, stunned, or without any drive. The chill is illusory; it does not deal damage. Ilmari can choose up to three targets within 15 feet. The effects last for 35 seconds, and Ilmari may use this attack two times per battle.
"That's not how it's supposed to work," Tianyi declared, firmly. He was glad for his magic making him quick and light on his feet, making him just lucky enough to dodge an incoming swing. He really didn't want to find out what getting hit with that mace would feel like, nor did he particularly want to spend however long it would take laid up until it healed.
"People who can't protect themselves--we're supposed to protect them!" He thought of Jet, asking him if he was alright leaving that vile chicken creature to be the next person's problem. If he was alright with risking that the next person who it attacked wasn't able to defend themself.
He'd chosen then. He chose now, too.
He kept dodging, looking for an opening. He hated hitting. Hated the idea of fighting with his own hands. But that was what he would have to do, wasn't it? The thought made him a little dizzy, and he stumbled, his magic not quite able to catch him, and he was sure his mistake would mean he was about to pay for it.
And then something cool and calming washed over him, and suddenly, he felt very much less afraid. And less indignant. Everything felt very clear and calm, and he knew in a moment that it had to be some other Senshi's magic.
Someone in black, with long, blond-pink hair, dressed in black and blue--Chaos, someone Chaos, but he was telling the Captain to....stop? He was protecting Tianyi?
It took him a moment, but he remembered. The Senshi he'd used his magic on. The one who had taken it much better than this Captain.
And he was surprised to hear the Negaverse Senshi arguing on his behalf. Claiming him as an informant.
Well. He did at least know a General-King to invoke.
"Yes! That's right! General-King Jet knows me, and he won't be very happy to hear about this," he said. Which was probably a lie. Jet would probably be annoyed, if he even remembered Tianyi at all. And it probably seemed a bit unlikely at this point, but at least invoking a name was a step. It proved he wasn't completely lying.
He wished he understood why the other Senshi had intervened for him, though. Surely no part of that story could be true? Had Jet noted him as an informant?
...Maybe that wasn't such a terrible possibility, if he had.
amor remanet
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2025 1:25 am
“What?!”
For all he hated to show weakness in front of some baby-faced dandy of a Nega-senshi (one who would raise up hands against his own) and this rancid little space senshi, Cryptomelane let his mouth fall open in shock at the story he was hearing. There was no way. Surely, none of the General-Sovereigns would waste their time on somebody like this? If they were to go after any of the senshi who had come to Earth from outer space, then obviously, they would go after someone with strength and power behind them. Someone like the one in the little wings who’d handled one of the spikes while imprisoning the Calamitous Hollow.
But then, the space senshi had a name ready, and Cryptomelane felt the fight start ebbing out of him.
“……It seems I was mistaken,” Cryptomelane conceded, even though coughing up each word felt like choking on broken glass. “I had no intention of questioning the work of a General-Sovereign. Trust them to have the wisdom to best make use of someone with magic as vile and dangerous as that one’s.”
Perhaps it wasn’t very kind of him to say. Perhaps that would get back to General-King Jet, and then General Amazonite would have some minor trouble to deal with, and might find herself in the position to explain that she hadn’t recruited Cryptomelane for his good manners or ability to play well with others, and that he adequately compensated for his deficiencies in those areas. Perhaps Cryptomelane might soon find himself in some manner of trouble with his General for the aforementioned deficiencies.
But, really, what other words were there for the little space senshi’s magic if not “vile” and “dangerous”? Any magic that could overpower the will of another person in the way that his did was hardly something to be flung around as frivolously as that senshi used his. If he required the gentle touch of a General-Sovereign to learn any semblance of discipline with his powers, then so be it. Better that General-King Jet should handle teaching the little beast to better himself than Cryptomelane should be forced to endure anything else with him.
It was only through a minor miracle of self-restraint that Ilmari managed to keep his face from showing any surprise at what the little space senshi had to offer in his own defense. General-King Jet……definitely not the specific General-Sovereign whom Ilmari had had in mind, but only because Ilmari was used to secondhand directly working under another one. Still, better Jet than Faustite, at the moment. Maybe Ilmari didn’t know him as well, but at least Jet’s status as a General-Sovereign was reliable, and he did not (as far as Ilmari knew) have some massive, extremely homicidal telenovela going on in his personal life.
But either way, that was distinctly Future Ilmari’s problem.
Right now, Present Ilmari had a rapidly de-escalating situation to help guide away from any further violence. A state of affairs that felt even more pressing in light of how the Captain described the little space senshi’s magic.
Deep breaths. Ilmari could do this (please, he really needed to do this). He was a strong, independent, skinny b***h with a winning mindset and he had this situation handled (he hoped).
“Captain,” he asked, “what caused you and this senshi to come to blows? I’m sure there’s an equitable resolution to this situation.”
“Do you have any idea what that word—‘equitable’—even means?”
For one thing, the Nega-senshi had the look and general feel of someone who was at best an undergraduate and at worst, still in high school. For another thing, Cryptomelane scowled as he held up this so-called situation’s Golden Apple of Discord.
“The resolution here is zero-sum,” he told the little idiot dressed like a fairy tale princess’s stepsister who suffered from a tragic lack of self-respect, “either I keep what I have rightfully claimed, he goes home upset at the tragic death of someone too stupid to protect themself and all their potential futures, and he lodges some manner of complaint with a General-Sovereign, or otherwise somehow potentially jeopardizes General-King Jet’s hard work.” —Cryptomelane would be the one doing that, if he kept the starseed. Even as he felt the magic’s hold on him waning, he did recognize that keeping the starseed would make him the guilty party, if Jet’s work on the space idiot were to suffer setbacks over tonight. “Or I relinquish it, he goes home happy, General-King Jet’s work can continue however he sees fit, and I don’t get my prize.
“Tell me: where in that binary choice is there any room for equity?”
………Eugh. Whoever this Captain was, he was making General Borax seem like a joy to have at parties by comparison.
Somehow, Ilmari managed not to roll his eyes at this absolutely tedious philosophizing. He really didn’t know how he pulled that off. But explaining his miracle of self-restraint was none of Ilmari’s business, probably. Honestly, he deserved a medal for being so brave and gay about not outwardly showing how tiresome he found this guy and his obvious over-investment in his own opinions.
“Alright, if you require compensation to go put that back? Then let’s make a deal.” Ilmari gently bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from sighing. “My name is Ilmari, senshi of chastity. I answer to Eternals Albite and Hestia.” And General-King Faustite, but seriously, better not to let anyone who didn’t need to know about the nuclear waste garbage fire telenovela in on the full state of affairs there. “You return the starseed to whomever you stole it from, right now. And you can have me on the hook for one favor of your choosing, to be called in whenever you desire. No conditions or questions asked on my part.”
The Captain took a moment to consider, but nodded.
Glancing back at the other senshi again, Ilmari asked, “Does that sound like an agreeable arrangement to you?”
Tianyi straightened, a little. If he was representing himself as somehow connected to Jet, he ought to be less of a shrinking flower, wilting away from conflict.
"It's hardly vile and dangerous, you just don't like being told what to do," he said, and he was proud of himself for mostly not sounding petulant. Even if he knew it was, a bit. Anyway, he felt like his read was very correct. This Captain did not give him the air of someone who took orders easily, and maybe that was noble, or maybe it just made him contrarian and annoying.
At least the Negaverse Senshi seemed like he wanted to help. Wanted to find an equitable solution, which was something. Actual conflict resolution that wasn't just violence piled upon violence. Tianyi could respect that. Once upon a time, it would have been his job, if Tianyi-the-world hadn't been cut off from the rest of the universe.
(He wished he'd had that life. But he hadn't.)
He felt his hackles raising at the way this Captain talked about a starseed. A soul. A life--a thousand lives, contained in a single little gem. Did he have any concept of the weight he held in his hand?
But he grit his teeth and simply ground the toe of his shoe into the asphalt below his feet, sublimating his desire to say something he would regret if it caused more problems.
"That sounds like an agreeable arrangement, yes," he said, finally. He didn't like the prospect of this Senshi--Ilmari--owing someone else on his behalf. But it seemed the best way to do it. A favor was thoroughly open-ended, and Tianyi didn't want to be responsible for something that might get someone else hurt, but...
(Surely it wouldn't be--well. Surely the Negaverse handled its views of debts better than the Knight-Captain of the Tianyian Guard.)
And anyway, Ilmari was making the offer. It wasn't Tianyi's right to deny him that.
"And I am sorry," he told the Captain, genuinely, because the distress was obvious and real and Tianyi couldn't really, fairly ignore that, "that my magic distresses you so. I hope I don't have a need to use it on you again."
amor remanet
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2025 2:52 am
And perhaps there is a reason why I don’t like being given orders by some mewling whelp with delusions of importance, Cryptomelane thought as he stared, pointedly, at the little space-idiot. Regardless of how intensely he thought as much, though, he bit his tongue about saying any of it, lest this entire situation return to blows, and violence, and heated emotions. He hardly minded those things, but they weren’t worth the trouble right now, not when the threat of incurring a General-Sovereign’s personal displeasure had been put on the table.
For surely, that was what Cryptomelane was meant to understand of Jet’s name being brought out like this, and of the way that speaking it made the space-idiot stand up straighter, with more self-respect.
“Keep your pity,” he told the space senshi, as flatly and mildly as he could manage (which still involved looking past the tall-but-tiny blonde to fix the space-idiot with a stare). “I have no need of it.” Thankfully, the body from which he’d stolen the starseed didn’t lay that far away. Cryptomelane could walk back there to deposit the starseed and still expect to be heard as he said, “You should never compromise yourself like that. Even hoping not to use the tools at your disposal—as despicable as they might be, hypothetically—is a weakness such as no one deserves to see in you. If I give you reason to use your magic on me again, then it’s my own choice and whatever I feel about your magic matters not. You don’t owe me any premature capitulation, and I don’t want any, either.”
Standing over the currently lifeless body, Cryptomelane held out his hand. He dropped the starseed over the civilian’s chest, and watched, more or less detached from everything, as the glittering little gem dove back into its proper place. Then, rather than linger over what he’d lost, Cryptomelane teleported away without another word. He did have an energy orb to turn in, back in the Dark Kingdom, and then after…… Maybe Lucette would be free enough from her own midterms load for him to come see her.
If not, then Cryptomelane always had Ympe for company.
Out of respect for the peaceful resolution they’d arrived at—and, frankly, a desire for the Captain to get himself gone already—Ilmari held off on the reaction that he felt bubbling up inside him. He watched the Captain return the starseed to its person, and finally, as soon as the Captain had gone, Ilmari let out an explosive, exasperated sigh.
“Eeeeugh, what a ******** edgelord,” he said, trying not to whine or groan too much. “Who is he even trying to impress, stomping around like that and going on, and on, and ******** on about how much he doesn’t care or like……eugh, whatever.” A bit of a headache started blossoming, now that the primary stressor had gone, leaving Ilmari with just a very pretty space-boy and a rush of unexpected relief. Gently kneading at his temples, Ilmari added, “Is he trying to get a medal for being the worst person in the entire Negaverse? I’m pretty sure Queen Laurelite doesn’t give out medals for that.”
All of which was……mostly just Ilmari venting. But he still didn’t want to whine or groan too much when he wasn’t the one who’d just been on the receiving end of the Captain’s ire.
His next sigh came out more softly. Ilmari’s expression softened, too, as he turned to more properly face the little senshi he’d come over here to help. “Are you alright,” he asked gently, looking the other senshi over to see if he could spot anything out of sorts on his own. “Did he manage to hurt you?”
Tianyi's expression shifted, to a sort of bland pleasantness that he had gotten very good at in his time in Destiny City. Many feelings could be hidden behind a little smile, closed eyes, and a tilted head. Blithe innocence, radiated.
"I said that I hope I don't have to use it on you again, Captain. I have hoped for many things and been disappointed when they did not work out. I hope that you will not disappoint me, next we meet."
A threat, perhaps. A promise, certainly. He hoped to not have to cause intentional distress to another person knowingly. But, well. This Captain seemed very stubborn, and Tianyi expected that they would likely come into conflict again, in the long arc of "all the time Tianyi might spend in Destiny City."
He could hope otherwise, of course. But as he'd said, he was often disappointed.
At least tonight, he had won, even if it took intervention from someone else. The poor person's starseed was restored, and the Captain left in a displeased huff, but what mattered was that someone was alive tonight who would not have been had Tianyi not intervened.
It did not even begin to make up for all of his failures. But it was something.
The smile Tianyi cracked hearing Ilmari groan about his...colleague? Ally? Tianyi was not sure how these things worked--that one was more genuine.
"He does seem to be quite certain of himself, doesn't he," he said, mildly, and then shook his head a little. "No matter. I'm fine. I have magic that makes me a little bit lucky, so he wasn't able to get a hit on me. I...appreciate your intervention, though, I'm not sure I could have handled him on my own."
He needed more practice.
"I'm Tianyi. I heard you say your name was Ilmari? It's very nice to meet you."
amor remanet
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2025 5:24 pm
Although he had intentions of being very cool, calm, and collected, now that Captain ******** Attitude was gone, Ilmari quickly hit a snag. Namely: the little space senshi was smiling and……oh.
Oh, no.
Ilmari’s cheeks flushed all over again, warm and pink, and trying to breathe deeply was doing very little to help him keep his heart from flailing around like the beat and melody in some club remix of a hyper-pop track. His tongue flitted across his lips. His mouth felt dry and sticky in a way that really didn’t make any sense, considering how well-hydrated Ilmari kept himself as a rule. He felt a little dizzy (and honestly, part of him hoped that was from how well he’d behaved lately about sticking to his diet, because the alternative options were all potentially very bad).
“Well, I……”
Really, it was quite unfair for someone like this to exist in the universe, Ilmari thought. Someone so cute had no business being real, much less existing with the horrendous disorganization and messiness of Order. Clearly, he wasn’t a weakling. He’d stood up to Ilmari before and to this Captain (possibly more than once?). But considering how he talked about what the Negaverse did—or at least how the Captain had approached their work—the space senshi might not have had the best impression of them and the work they did. He probably had a good impression of Jet specifically, but that made sense. What little Ilmari knew of General-King Jet said that he was nothing if not professional.
“……I’m glad you’re alright, Tianyi,” Ilmari managed to say, repeating the other senshi’s name to help it stick. “And that you, uh……actually did have a General-Sovereign contact. That……” Ilmari ducked his chin, rubbing at the back of his neck. “I don’t work super closely with Jet, and definitely not close enough that I heard anything about you from him? My boss’s husband is usually a General-King, so I thought I could bluff and just go talk to him to make everything I said retroactively true, but……”
A soft sigh, and a dismissive wave of the hand, as if to indicate that what Ilmari said next was Very Fine and something that he could totally handle, Nothing To Worry About (because if Ilmari let himself get bogged down in worrying about it, he would spiral, and nothing would get done, and everything would be terrible, and the team would fall apart, and it would be all. his. fault. for not giving them the strength that they deserved out of him): “Honestly, Jet’s a lot less complicated. Things with Albite’s husband have been messy ever since that whole thing with the Calamitous Hollow in April, y’know? He was responsible for one of those magic spikes, and it all went a little weird—but he’ll be fine? It’s just, Jet is fine right now.”
On top of that, Faustite’s taste for pretty boys was well-known, and………well.
Aside from his well known emotional volatility, letting him be around Tianyi might have meant sharing. Even though nothing even existed between Ilmari and Tianyi to be shared because, like, obviously? Y’know, why would it?
Really weird thing for Ilmari’s mind to wander onto.
Probably nothing to worry about, though. If he stopped to worry, he’d ******** up everything.
Anyway, this was probably way too much to be telling anybody, especially not someone who was on the other side of this great magical war that they’d found themselves stuck in. Better to just……give Tianyi a hopefully reassuring smile and tell him again, “……I’m glad you’re alright.”
There was something...cute about the way Ilmari seemed to stammer over saying anything to him. He was nice, Tianyi thought, or at least nice enough to Tianyi, which was a pleasant change.
Also, he was cute when he blushed.
But his explanation was, perhaps, just a little disappointing. Oh, well, the bluff made sense, he supposed. It would have been too much to think that Jet might actually have thought anything of their encounters--probably he dealt with all sorts of messy, pathetic Order Senshi, one that just happened to be from space (but had so little to offer because of the circumstances of his world) likely didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things.
"Oh, well, I don't really know how much Jet thinks of me. We met during that whole mess with the Calamitous Hollow, yes, and then he helped me fight that demon chicken thing during the summer, but...two little encounters, you know." It had meant a lot to him, but Jet was a General-King. He had so many responsibilities. Surely Tianyi could not mean all that much to someone that busy. "I just sort of hoped it would work. Still! It sounds like things turned out well enough."
He tapped his toe against the ground.
"Would you mind walking with me for a little? If it'll cause problems for you, you don't have to...but I'd rather not be alone."
At the least, he could get to know Ilmari a little. That sounded nice.
amor remanet
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2025 10:22 pm
“I heard about the demon chicken,” Ilmari said, nodding as he took in Tianyi’s words. “Got lucky not to run into it myself. But I heard plenty of rumours about it around the Dark Kingdom, and for what it’s worth? I’m glad that you ran into General-King Jet instead of facing it down on your own.” Grimacing at what he recalled of the rumors about that rancid thing, Ilmari shuddered. “I can’t think of anybody who deserves to deal with that thing on their own.”
…………Well.
Maybe Faustite’s stupid Dark Mirror turned White Moon skank in the legs and the sleeves. But in recognition of how he’d also handled one of the magic Calamitous Hollow-imprisoning spikes, Ilmari could acquiesce that said skank was firmly a maybe-flavored sort of situation, rather than a definitely-flavored one.…… If he kept refusing to acknowledge Ilmari’s attempts at insulting him, though, that would definitely push Albite’s worst friend into should definitely fight the demon chicken on his own territory. Because how very dare he act like Ilmari didn’t bother him at all.
But that, like many other things, was Future Ilmari’s problem.
Largely because Present Ilmari was staring down a request unlike any that he’d heard for a while, and feeling his cheeks heat up again.
“Yeah, I……I, uh?” Rubbing his lips together as if it helped him think any more clearly (it didn’t), Ilmari tucked his loose fringe back behind his ear. That didn’t help him think more clearly either. “Sorry, it—it’s just been a little while since a guy wanted to get to know me for reasons other than sex.”
Which obviously wasn’t on the table with Tianyi, since doing it powered up probably would’ve proven difficult, considering all the fabric in his fuku.
Either way, Ilmari managed a shy smile. “……I’d love to take a walk with you.”
