[PRP] Burnt hair (Nezza and Yao Feng)

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Nezza fixed the mare with his most steely glare. In his time as an actor, he'd practiced all sorts of different looks. He could do a good steely glare, he could do indignant shock, righteous anger, and of course, triumphant delight. He liked being triumphant the best, but it was definitely fun to be dramatically grieving too. In truth, he still considered himself somewhat of an actor now. No one was really quite honest with their emotions, he figured. Emotions were a lot of work. Now, he was acting.

"What I want to know..." he asked, eying the mare with scrutiny now too. "Is...." His eyes widened, alight with curiosity. "Can you catch stuff on fire with your hair, or is it just for looks?"  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Yao Feng choked back a number of automatic responses to the stallion's assinine question. Was he even really a stallion? She got the impression he was more like an especially large foal sometimes.

Apparently they were companions now, for the time being, at least. She'd given him directions to finding his canine companion. She had assumed that would be the entirety of their interactions, but she had no such luck. He was following her around, and even when she grew angry with him, his cheery demeanor barely flickered. She, used to inspiring fear rather than affection, didn't understand that. She didn't know that she liked it either, though she didn't entirely dislike the unusual companionship, despite what she might tell herself.

Still, this question was even dumber than most. She didn't bother moderating her tone as she snapped back at him "You have hair like mine! Does your hair cause incendiary outbursts? Think before you speak, idiot." Her hoarse hiss might have silenced another soquili, but Nezza was no ordinary soquili.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

"Naw, it doesn't." He replied with just as much amiability as if she'd been polite in her remarks. "But my hair isn't really like yours. Mine is more like smoke." He gave his head a flick and ethereal wisps billowed free to disappear a moment later in the clear air. Though his hair had the tones of flame, it did indeed behave more like smoke. It gave off no light and gently undulated, moving more swiftly in a breeze. When humans pet him, their hands went straight through it with no resistance, just like smoke as well. Once he'd asked his parents if their smoky manes meant they were burning inside, and they had only laughed at him. He still didn't really know where his mane came from.

"Your mane is different," he said, staring closely at Yao Feng. "It's like, when the fire is really hot and glows blue at the center. That's what it looks like."  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Yao Feng sighed harshly. Part of her knew that he was just teasing her and not actually looking to converse, but she took the bait nonetheless. She gave her own head a flick now, looking at him pointedly after.

"It isn't fire, or smoke like yours. My mane is hair." It was a convincing effect and her mane didn't entirely follow the laws of physics, but it was still hair and only hair. She would accept the use of "fire mane" as a metaphor, but it would only ever be that. As one with blood from the ulun'suti tribe however, she did have some powers with fire. Those she felt no need to disclose to her annoying companion.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

A flash of disappointment crossed Nezza's face. Sure, he knew her mane wasn't really fire. Probably. It still looked a lot like it, and it was undeniably disappointing to find out that it was more normal than it seemed. He had heard about soquili with true manes of flame, but had never actually seen one himself. Some soquili had water manes too. he had a much harder time imagining that.

"But you can play with fire a bit, right? I think I saw you doing it when we first met." Realizing how imprecise his statement had been, he clarified, "I mean, because you're an ulun'suti. You have a lot of ulun'suti in you, right? Maybe all?" He wasn't exactly an expert on the subject of soquili breeds and their powers, but he knew a bit about ulun'suti. "I am part ulun'suti too. Not as much, but see my scales? And I think my smoke hair is part of it too. And..." He cracked a grin and focused a little. A breeze stirred up and whipped between them, making his smoky mane flicker and bob.

"I can do that! I can make the wind blow. It's not much, but can be nice when it's hot, or you need to make something look cool."  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Yao Feng watched his antics with only the barest hint of interest. She really didn't care what he could do. She didn't particularly care what he thought she could do either. She almost didn't deign to give a response, but she relented. She knew he wouldn't shut up about it until she gave him an answer of some sort.

"Yes, I can manipulate fire," she finally said. "But-" She clicked her claws on the hard ground, one at a time. "I do not breathe flame." It was her way of saying that she wasn't a pureblooded ulun'suti. She was too prideful to say the words as they were. Her parents had looked like her, draconic and clawed. The fact that they were not defined by a "pure" soquili breed did not diminish them in her opinion, nor did she think it should for others. They were their own breed, and would not be defined by the rules of these ignorant locals.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

"I knew a guy who could breathe flames," supplied Nezza helpfully. "But he was a raccoon, not a soquili. And he didn't do it with magic, he put some stuff in his mouth and blew it out over a candle."

It was a pretty amazing trick in his book, magic or not. That raccoon had been one of the best performers he'd ever seen!  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

A raccoon. A local animal that was barely rated higher than vermin in Yao Feng's eyes. Those same eyes she shut now, quietly seething in frustration at the pointless conversation and her participation in it. When she opened them again she was calmer, but no less pleased with how her day was going.

"I don't care about the skills of raccoons, or rats, or rabbits," she hissed. "You bore me with these prattlings. Find something intelligent to say, or keep your mouth shut and let me enjoy the silence." They weren't kind words and she didn't particularly care.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

It was then that Stardust Comet made his descent. He wasn't the best flier, he was built too heavily to be light in the air. Still, his wings were wide and strong, and the wind whistled as it gusted through the holes in his feathers. He looked like a shooting star when he flew, even if he needed a long time to turn. He had just been going to land somewhere random, but he saw two figures. He always loved company, and amiably angled himself towards the two. He looked formidable enough that no one had ever tried to hurt him, though in reality he was pretty harmless.

He landed in a cloud of dust and thrown up leaves. Once the air stilled, he gave a sharp-toothed smile to the two soquili. They were amazingly beautiful, and very strange looking as well.

"Hi!" he said brightly. "I'm Stardust Comet. Sorry for butting in."  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

"Uhhhhh..." Nezza blinked owlishly at the new arrival. He hadn't expected that. He liked meeting new people too, but they didn't just drop out of the air most times. He quickly looked over the newcomer. He flashed a grin when he saw the flat reptilian feet. He'd never seen feet like that before!

Cheered up again, he turned his smile on Stardust Comet. "Yo. Welcome, or something. I'm Nezza. This is Yao Feng. She's probably about to say something mean to you, but she's always like that. She's ok once you get to know her, sort of." This last part he meant as a joke, and he chuckled to himself with it. Joke as it was though, it was very true. He'd never seen Yao Feng meet someone and not be mean to them at first, or at least frosty and standoffish.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

While that idiot Nezza stared like a fool at the stranger, Yao Feng had prepared herself for an attack. She lifted her blade-like tail and pointed it at Stardust Comet, ready to strike should he prove aggressive. He was lucky she was even giving him that chance. Many who surprised her like that walked away with slashed skin.

She let her guard down somewhat as the two stallions introduced themselves, but s he was no more happy at the intrusion. One grinning fool was enough. Two was unbearable. Her teeth were bared prior to the "mean" comment, and they only grew more exposed after.

"There is no place for you here," she hissed, both voice and head hanging dangerously low. "Both of you." Now, she shot a bladed look at Nezza too. Maybe she could get rid of both of them after this random encounter.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

"Er..." Stardust Comet looked between Yao Feng and Nezza. He may not have encountered anyone trying to hurt him, but he had brought himself into something of an awkward situation. Suddenly, he wondered if he'd made a bad choice. He was too tired to get flying again, but maybe he could just leave and let the two of them sort things out on their own.

"Sorry for intruding," he said, trying to be more formal and smooth things over. "I can leave you two alone if you want." Though Yao Feng was apparently trying to get Nezza to go away too? They seemed like they knew each other, but he wasn't really sure.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Nezza felt something like a whine coming on. It had taken so long to even get Yao Feng to sort of tolerate him, and now Stardust appearing was making her start to flip out. "Hey," he said, automatically taking on Stardust's calming tone.

"Maybe we can all go walking around? There are some of those good mushrooms growing on a tree near here." At their blank looks, he added, "They're not the ones that make you see weird things, and they're not poisonous. They taste pretty good, even if you like meat." This he mostly directed at Yao Feng, but come to think of it, he didn't know what Stardust ate either. He had pretty sharp teeth over there.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Yao Feng scowled. She wanted to tell them both to shove their heads into beehives, and yet she hesitated. She had started to grow somewhat used to Nezza and his inanity. She perhaps didn't hate him as much as she pretended to, though she wasn't ready to admit that to herself. Her eyes narrowed a little as she made a few calculations, and then she relented.

"Fine," she muttered, still glaring at Stardust Comet. "Let us go to the mushrooms." Mushrooms were somewhat of a delicacy where she came from. Nezza was right in that she did usually subsist off meat, but nothing could compare to a beef stew with mushrooms simmering beside it in the broth. The memory of that almost made her smile, almost. She had very little softness left in her these days.