genessia | 1st fire = it don't come easy, the road of the gypsy

[ACTION;Genessia City]

[He's an idiosyncratic sight, the man stalking through the city streets looking like something out of a strangely futuristic fairy tale: the high leather boots, gleaming mail armor bearing a coat of arms depicting a full moon branded by the figure of a dragon, short sword at his hip, and gauntlets he wears give him the look of some kind of medieval soldier or knight.

The look of him is too sleek, however: the mail he wears is a snug fit, shimmering in the light but seemingly little more than fabric, covering him from neck to waist with his arms left bare. The boots and gauntlets are heavy leather, but make no sound as he moves--and carry a strange pattern, something like scales but not.

And despite the fact that he was visibly on his guard, scanning his surroundings at regular intervals, every sense on high alert...he's visibly comfortable with his surroundings. He navigates the streets with ease, minding street lights, hugging buildings to make faster turns around corners--he's clearly seen a modern type of city before. He's lived on streets like these, he's walked a world very similar to this one.

It's been a while--decades--but Neil Blair still remembers his way around a city. It's not Nocturne, it's not the five realms, and it's not New York. But it's still a mostly known quantity.

He's going to feel a lot better once he has a lay of the land--and finds a place to gather some spell ingredients.]

[VIDEO;public]

[The moment the feed comes to life, the moment of transition is brief--a handsome face with dark coloring frowning in confusion at the smart phone in his hand before he confirms he's life and refocuses on the camera. His expression is...well, angry is the nicest way to describe it.]

Uh--hey. I'm--

[The words are on his lips. Black Fire of Nocturne, the title he uses at court, but this isn't the five realms. This is...another world, and nobody knows him here.

The anger in his face dies for just a second, replaced by something like hope before his features turn guarded.]

--I'm...Neil. New here--uh, I was just curious about what people do for work around here? Y'know, what and where. These temporary bunks are okay but I wanna get a job and get out of here...so recommendations on housing would also be good. I know there's a few places to go, what's your input?

Thanks in advance.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Like I said: crush it in your hand if your power ever gets outta control." he reiterated, gently reaching out to curl her fingers back around the stone as he straightened, looking her dead in the eye with gentle resolve. "And you're wrong. Not everyone starts with magic, I get it. Maybe it came outta nowhere, but it is magic. And magic can be a great thing."

Sighing, he rubbed a hand over his mouth...and found himself going back to that first time he met a man that knew what he could do.

"I was like you once--street kid with fire magic, and I did...a lot of damage. Did a lotta scrapping, but instead of knocking a guy out? I'd slug someone, send 'em flying, and they'd need skin grafts. Got called road rash, from eating pavement." He shook his head. "They were burns. Bad ones. I met someone who knew what I could do, though--a man with power, honorable and cruel. He taught me how to use it, how to control it. With his help, I never hurt anyone by accident again."

He hurt others by choice instead--but that was something he could share with her later. If she was interested.

"Point is? A remarkable life with power like ours--it can be a normal life, too." he concluded, spreading his hands. "However you came into power, it is possible not to be afraid of it. I can teach you...if you want."

“Now I’m sure we aren’t from the same worlds,” Charlie replies, taking the stone and sticking it in her pocket with a small smile.

“My abilities came from science. An experiment done on my parents with their consent before I was even conceived. They’ve been part of my life since I could remember.” This is the most she’s said about her abilities to anyone in years. It’s a heavy topic, even with as carefully as she is saying it. Vaguely and with details missing, but no less implied.

“My parents are gone. So is my freedom because those scientists think I’m theirs. So, there’s not much you can say that will convince me my pyrokinesis is a good thing.”

"But it doesn't have to be a bad thing." Neil presses softly. "I get science--pretty sure the world I was born in is a lot like your world." He pauses, smiling a little again. "Hell, I had a middle school teacher at PS 72 who once said that magic is just science we don't understand yet."

She's cagey, and Neil could respect that. Hell, he kinda likes it, in a screwed up way. Again, he finds himself thinking of the Night Dragon.

"Look, if it helps? I have an incredibly selfish and self-serving reason for wanting to help you." he added after a moment. "Teaching you will keep my skills sharp, and...and seein' anyone grow up like I could have if my king never found me? It bugs my shit. Like the unfinished chorus of a song, or a crooked picture."

Yes, it's bullshit. But he wants to help her, damn it.

"No altruism whatsoever." he swears, raising a hand in a solemn salute...complete with his fingers crossed for good measure, and hoping for a laugh as he offers her a handshake. "Whatcha say--worst you could do is have a nightmare and not burn the sheets. Huh?"

It's not so much a laugh he gets out of her. It's a snort and a faint huff of what could be a laugh. He's gotten her to relax some. Not so much putting her guard down. No, that won't be for a while. But she's calmer. Less likely to snap at him again. For now. God knows what'll set her off next, honestly.

She looks at his hand again and sighs, finally reaching over for it after long enough to almost make it awkward and giving him a handshake.

"I'm only for it because you're being honest about your intentions. That's pretty much points in your favor. Nothing massive. Think Whose Line Is It Anyway where the points don't actually matter."

She's joking.

"Plus, I'd like the fire extinguishers by my bed to grow dusty once in a while."

She's...well, she's not joking there.

"By the Goddess, it will be done." he replied--an oath, not merely a promise, leaving his lips as he shook her hand. When he drew back, he flicked his hand as if dislodging a bug, instead sending what looked like glowing ashes from his fingertips. The embers wafted in the air, then gradually began to coalesce until there was a scrap of paper floating down onto his outstretched palm.

"Name's Neil." he added, handing her the scrap. "My room number's on there, stop by if you ever need anything. Other than that, gimme a call whenever you're ready to start and we'll head somewhere safe--big, open, tinder we can scrounge to practice stuff. Sound like a plan?"

It's the mention of tinder that causes a visible reaction, eyebrows lowering and eyes locking onto a memory that isn't all too pleasant. A guy in a lab coat, a tray of woodchips. Things attached to her head to measure what she has no clue. And she knows Neil isn't trying to be insulting or bring that up, but now she's not sure of him.

Even if there's a part of her telling her she's being stupid. That this man is harmless.

But...("Woodchips. They should have given me something harder.")

Damn that memory. Damn Hollister. Damn the Shop. She knows Neil meant nothing by it. He doesn't know the extent of her abilities and really, neither does Charlie.

So she tucks her brief irritation away as best as possible, tone back to clipped and short.

"Tinder? That's all? I've had control since I was eleven. I've had this ability since before I can remember. You're going to have to do better than tinder, Neil."

The insult registers, if not the root of it, and Neil just smiled at her 'angry young woman' routine with an expression that could only be called fond.

"Thought you wanted dust to collect on that fire extinguisher, Missy!" he replied with a laugh as he got to his feet. "We're not gonna be starting fires--we're gonna put 'em out."

One day she'll explain the root of it. For now, she's going to be fairly baffled at his suggestion. People always wanted to see the fire created, not put out. So she's just going to blink at him a few times.

"What?"

Give her a second, she'll have a better response soon.

"...."

Nope. She's got nothing.

That gets a laugh, but it's not unkind. He's pretty pleased with himself--it's not every day he gets to render someone speechless.

"The man who trained me? He likes to say that you can't hone your strengths until you eliminate your weaknesses." he explains, stooping to pick up a twig. Blowing on the tip, he ignites it, a little tongue of flame burning merrily away.

"If you have skill with a blade? You learn how best to use every weapon that can best it. Then you learn to defend against those weapons...then you begin to learn how to fight with a sword."

He points at the twig with his free hand.

"That's a parlor trick I picked up...three years ago? The first thing I ever learned to do was this."

Focusing his attention on the tiny torch he'd created, Neil took a deep breath and stared deep into the flame. His entire expression changed, hard and calm and focused as his free hand lifted, fingers spread before the fire.

Drawing his hand back, fingers flexing as if pulling something away, before her eyes the flame began to flicker and grow smaller, and after a couple of moments it winked out completely, leaving the twig to smoke in his hand, tip charred--and even that wisp of smoke faded to nothing in seconds as the twig went dead cold.

"That'd be useful to learn," Charlie admits readily. Control over how big the fires got? Sure, she had that. She'd had that for ages, ever since she lost her dad. And she could even pull her own fire back. But fire that wasn't hers? That was a challenge.

"Would it be my fire I'd be putting out?" A pause as she tilts her head to look at Neil. "Probably not, I'm guessing. It'd be a challenge if it wasn't."

1st fire = it don't come easy, the road of the gypsy

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