2025 Winter Holiday Prompt
Winter Star Poinsettias: (6) : Poinsettias are common during the winter seasons, so it isn't unusual to see them decorating windowsills and local establishments. What is unusual are the unique Winter Star Poinsettias that seem to have accidentally mixed into the bunch. They look like ordinary Poinsettias reflecting a bit of glow from nearby lights--only, the leaves themselves are emitting a soft, silvery glow. They look like they are covered with a fine morning dew, only with fine silver glitter peppered in to give it a unique sparkle. They seem to have gone unnoticed by most of Destiny City and the landscapers, and it's not clear how these plants were selected, but anyone with a keen eye might recognize them as the catastrophe of Destiny City Botanical Garden's 2016 Winter Extravaganza. Thankfully, these variants are far less dangerous than their counterparts, however, these plants have a strange pollen that acts like an allergen and can cause agitation, oversensitivity, and sneezing to anything with much of a strong smell. Anyone who comes into contact with these plants may also find themselves suffering from flu-like symptoms such as fever, coughing, fatigue, and nausea and no medicine will relieve it, but the symptoms gradually fade. The leaves of the poinsettia are sharp and can sting like a papercut, so be careful! ...If you're worried about an all-out attack again, it might be a good idea to destroy these poinsettias--if you can manage to do so without getting caught.
Ginyami pulled into the front parking lot of a Destiny City library when he thought he caught sight of someone taking a potted poinsettia around to the back. Curious, Ginyami decided to follow them as discreetly as he could in his car and found out that the plant-holder was a ginger-haired woman. He parked his car in the back parking lot a little ways from what must have been the woman’s car as she took the poinsettia and set it down in the car’s open trunk. From his place behind her, Ginyami thought he could see some books and a laptop playing a video also visible in the trunk of the car.
As he watched, the woman looked around - causing Ginyami to duck down in order to avoid being seen - and then went inside her car to do something. When she came out again a few minutes later, her attire had completely changed. It looked much more military-esque. Had she potentially powered up…? Was she a Negaverse agent like himself?
Deciding to find out for himself, Ginyami ducked down in his car again to make his own quick transformation into Lieutenant Actinolite before sitting back up to observe the woman. He tried to get a read on her energy signature and, sure enough, she was a Negaverse agent. What was more was that she was a low-ranking lieutenant like himself. Perhaps that was why she had been what Actinolite perceived as being so careless in her activities, not bothering to really hide what she was doing. Well…maybe it was about time he let her know she had really ought to have been more discreet with her business if she had meant for it to be private.
Forsterite startled a bit when she heard a car door slam some distance behind her and whirled around instantly to find a very finely-dressed, smiling man in a dark business suit with pale green accents and smoke patterns. At first she feared he was a civilian, but after quickly taking a moment to check his energy signature, she realized he was a Negaverse lieutenant like herself. What was he coming up to her for, though?
Then her gaze passed over the poinsettias in the front seat of his car. Could he have come to the Destiny City library to research the same point of the city’s history that she meant to? It didn’t seem unlikely.
“Hello,” she greeted a little stiffly, still unsure how to treat the stranger. His smile seemed friendly enough, but something about it put her on her guard. It was too practiced; too used to being worn as a default expression. She didn’t trust anyone with a smile as cheerful and friendly as his as their default expression. “Can I help you?”
Aware by her body language that the woman was wary of him, Actinolite chuckled softly at her greeting, putting his hands in his pockets. “No need to be concerned. I was only curious as to what you were doing,” he explained, strolling up to her until he was about a foot away. He nodded toward the contents of her trunk.
“You seem to be conducting quite a bit of research. Might I ask what about?” At her hesitation, he added, “I could be wrong, but it looked to me as though you were as suspicious of these poinsettias as I was. Is there something about them you know that I don’t?” In all honesty, he hadn’t known the first place to start looking when it came to researching the flowers. He hadn’t even realized they had been that much different from the other poinsettias until he had purchased them and started to take them home, so he hadn’t thought that they might have been a different breed, much less that that particular breed might have had a name or history within Destiny City.
Well, however unnerving the man was, he was also polite, at least.
“Yes, I was researching these poinsettias,” she confirmed, gesturing to the plants without touching them. “Specifically, the Winter Star Poinsettias. They were first introduced as a new hybrid to Destiny City at the Destiny City Botanical Gardens in 2016. There was actually a huge event that occurred for their unveiling - one that went horribly wrong,” Forsterite explained.
“But before all that…I’m Lieutenant Forsterite. I came to Destiny City shortly after that whole incident regarding the introduction of the Winter Star Poinsettias which is why I was aware of them. I hadn’t seen them in years and had thought they had all been destroyed. At least until I recognized them at the grocery story today.”
She raised a brow. “And you are? Not to be rude, but I’m not one to beat around the bush. Who are you and what’s your interest in these plants?”
”Ah, my deepest apologies, Lieutenant Forsterite; I forgot to introduce myself,” he said, bowing at the waist. “I am Lieutenant Actinolite. I’m grateful you know so much about these poinsettias because I’m quite new to this city as well as the Negaverse organization, so of course I wouldn’t have been aware of such an event that occurred with these particular kinds of poinsettias nine years ago,” he admitted. “That’s despite being a plant lover and something of an expert due to my family owning a chain of plants shops in Japan.”
The Japanese man took a hand out of his pocket to gesture with it. “I only know I mistook them for the ordinary kind this morning only to realize on the way home that they are actually quite the nuisance.” His smile added and the skin between his brows pinched in consternation. “Would you mind me asking what else you’ve found out about these plants and how much you know? May I aid you in your research?”
Lieutenant Actinolite. Forsterite silently committed the name to memory among the others of the Negaverse whose owners she had met. “You may,” she answered his question. “I don’t trust my memory of what I’d heard and seen from so long ago, so I decided to look up what news articles and videos of the event that I could. There was an immense amount of media coverage, so I have a lot to work with, but it’ll be a big help if you can assist me in sifting through all of it to get the facts we need about the poinsettias themselves.”
Taking out a USB flash drive, she offered it to him. “Here are some of the clips of news reports and footage regarding the event. Some scanned articles are in there, too. If you could look through those and start making a list of your findings, we can compare what we’ve both found out later and culminate a report based on both of our research.”
”That’s all very well and good,” Actinolite said, accepting the USB drive, “But why, if I may ask, did you power up just now? Was that really necessary simply to do a little research?”
Forsterite fixed him with a hard stare. “You might understand once you read more about these things and realize what, exactly, we’re dealing with, here. I didn’t want to take any chances after what I’d heard about what had happened at the Destiny City Botanical Garden’s 2016 Winter Extravaganza.”
