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 Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2025 6:35 pm
Keeping his head down, per Queen Laurelite’s request to not get into excessive amounts of trouble, had proven quite easy for Cryptomelane.…… Mostly because he hadn’t had the time or energy to power up too often recently. Submitting the final draft of his dissertation had been incredibly time-consuming. Preparing for his eventual defense of it, even more so, with an added amount of stress that he did not experience from simply writing and then making edits based on the feedback from his committee members.
(Dr. Sturm’s feedback and general demeanor had markedly improved since New Year, which Preston counted as a huge win. While some sort of problems certainly still existed, they weren’t the sort of thing that Cryptomelane could assist with by yanking out his advisor’s starseed, or by doing anything else that it was in his power to do. But Dr. Sturm was no longer actively spiraling into divorce-induced self-annihilation, which considerably improved several aspects of Preston’s academic and personal lives.)
The cover of the lightning storm felt like a good reason to power up, though. Maybe some of the Order interlopers in town would be going to space for magic lightning storm reasons that Cryptomelane couldn’t predict or understand. If any of them did make themselves apparent, then he would deal with it perfectly fine—or so Cryptomelane told himself as he strode through one of the parks near the university’s campus. The air itself felt rich with power. When he found a good spot in which to lurk, Cryptomelane found the energy draining so easy, he had to wonder if there was something wrong with him.
It had to be something in the storm, didn’t it? From what Cryptomelane had read in the database about the issue, that felt like it made sense. Energy coming to his orb not just from the people who passed by his spot, but from thin air itself? Strange. Very strange—and wonderful.
The power at his fingertips made Cryptomelane itch for something more. Something that would let him feel the same sense of power for himself. It took him a moment to steady his nerves, but right as he was ready, someone passed close enough to make the grab. Cryptomelane threw himself at the civilian’s back. His hand plunged in as easily as ever. Allowing himself a victorious smirk, he grabbed the starseed.
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Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2025 10:25 pm
Tianyi really was trying to avoid conflict with the Negaverse. They were all supposed to be working together to protect the planet, and to stop the Calamitous Hollow and the threat it posed. Jet had been so kind to him, even when he was essentially waylaying a General-King with useless bullshit, and generally, Tianyi wanted to take this opportunity to reach out and try to make things better. Meet the other side where they were.
He also sort of liked being where the people were, even if he had to keep out of sight because he was an alien freak from outer space, but being around people that were happily living their lives was a reminder that he was no longer on his world, hunted by people who hated him.
But he'd felt a Chaos aura--and in truth, Tianyi had been hoping to speak to whomever it was, but as soon as he got close enough to be sure he'd found them, he froze in place.
One: this officer had his hand in someone's back.
Two: Tianyi was fairly certain he knew that someone. He looked like Murikabushi's father--the one he'd had to leave behind when he left the Dark Mirror and chose what he felt was right for himself.
Tianyi had not known it was possible for him to be as angry as he suddenly felt. How dare this man abuse his power in such a way. How are he harm someone who had done nothing to him. How dare he.
Tianyi stormed forward, and his magic came to hand almost without him needing to do anything. Under his feet and around him, flowers bloomed, and he snapped out his order.
"Unhand that man, immediately!"Quote: Tianyi speaks the name of his attack, and in an eight-foot radius around him, a field of kerria flowers blooms. Those within the radius feel inclined to obey his words as they would a royal command, though this inclination can be overcome, particularly if the target is higher ranked than Tianyi or the order would cause the target to act against their nature or cause themself serious harm. Tianyi can use this magic three times per battle, and the spell lasts for 25 seconds.
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Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2025 2:00 pm
The rush of getting his hand around a starseed always did something for Cryptomelane. Better than any other kind of rush, more intoxicating than anything else (save perhaps actually eating the starseed), utter perfection contained within a single moment that never failed to fill Cryptomelane with the sense that he finally had everything in his life under control, exactly how he wanted it, and everything was going his way—except tonight, that bliss was soon curtailed. Painfully.
No physical pain came for Cryptomelane, but the order from some outside source cut through his thoughts. As it rang in his ears, he heard not the Order senshi’s voice, but the voice of Brother Horace. Not snapping or yelling at him, but purring with cold, detached disdain. The sort of imperious drawl that always wanted you to know exactly how pathetically insignificant you were and how insufficient he found any effort you could have possibly made. Although Cryptomelane tried to resist, his hand moved of its own volition, releasing the starseed. Pulling back and out of the civilian’s chest. Thus freed up, the man looked around wildly, but didn’t linger in the moment too long before he took off running.
Cryptomelane’s breathing was heavy. Ragged. Calling his flail to hand, he curled his hand so tightly around the handle that it hurt.
“Idiot,” he snarled. “You left something out of that order you barked.”
With no other preface, Cryptomelane threw himself toward the tiny little Order senshi who had so brazenly thought to insert himself into Cryptomelane’s business. Eyes wild with outrage, heart desperate to right this wrong and maybe claim the senshi’s starseed instead, Cryptomelane charged at him, swinging the flail with the intent to cause whatever damage he could. The Queen had specifically said to avoid any unnecessary violence with Order right now, to focus on the importance of the greater mission. But this little Order brat had cost Cryptomelane a starseed, and he had the absolute temerity to give Cryptomelane orders—
Well, then, let him suffer the consequences of his actions.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.
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Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2025 2:15 pm
Good. Tianyi had once again successfully saved the civilian in front of him--his magic really was good for something, even if it was just making people behave how they should instead of being raging, violent monsters as some seemed eager to be. It still chilled him to the soul that so many people were so eager to rip a starseed--so eager to snuff out that spark of immortal life, that core of a being that could never be replaced.
But at least he could stop it. Even if the Captain turned on him, he had already accomplished what he wanted.
So even as the weapon struck him, even as he stumbled backward because it hurt, blunt force striking his arm as he moved to turn away from it so that it didn't strike anywhere vital, huddling in against the strange magic that made him hear things that couldn't be real--awful wails that sounded like something straight out of his nightmares, screams that reminded him of nothing so much as how the palace sounded when it was breached, as the rebels cut through the few guards that stood to protect the royal family, as they killed servants whose only crime was refusing to accept their new masters over their old--even with all that, he still felt like in the end, he'd won. To some degree. This was probably going to hurt and he was going to hate it, but he was a Senshi. It was his job to fight.
He felt tears pricking at the corner of his eyes, and reached up to wipe them away, skipping backwards to stay out of reach. At least he was still able to hold onto all that anger. At least he could still be furious about the arrogance, the cruelty of someone who was willing to murder in cold blood when the world was ending.
"I didn't forget," he said, and then, "stop. Lower your weapon. Walk away." They didn't have to keep fighting. Tianyi didn't want to. "And...and think about why you're willing to kill people so casually." That didn't really have the force of an order behind it, but it was phrased enough like one that maybe his magic would at least do something.
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Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2025 12:37 am
Oh, Cryptomelane hated this senshi.
They had never met previously. And Cryptomelane tried not to throw around words like “hate.” They needed weight behind them in order to truly mean something, and they couldn’t have that if you wasted them on every minor inconvenience, the way that some people did.
Yet, as Cryptomelane felt his body stopping—as it refused to press forward in his attack, despite him screaming at himself inside his own head to move and to swing his flail—the only word that came to mind was hate. As his arm snapped down, refusing to be moved and feeling as though an impossibly heavy weight had replaced his weapon, that word played itself over and over again in his mind. He hated this senshi. He hated this senshi’s magic. He hated the way this senshi had the unmitigated gall to throw such magic around. To force someone to conform to his vision of how the world should have been, with no regard for anything but his own personal sense of righteousness.
“This world has others just like you, little senshi,” Cryptomelane snarled. He’d only been told to stop attacking and leave. The door to make this pathetic creature think about his place in the universe remained wide open. “All they do is seek to control others, to ruin people’s lives for their own gratification. Perhaps you ought to think about that.”
Turning on his heel despite himself, Cryptomelane took two paces, then teleported back to Negaspace.
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