The Multi-Dimensional OC Bar

"I have my limits but it really depends on whether there are things or ponies that you don't want hurt as to whether I can push past them." He says becoming serious once more. "Fire can do a lot of damage if you let it and my pyromancy is tied closely to my emotions. That's why I stopped my display, I could continue but there is a chance that I could get out of control. When I do get out of control anything in front of me is going to be burned until I pass out from the exertion."

He downed his cider and stood. "That's why I don't use powerful spells unless I'm in a place I can focus on them, like in my forge."

"Ah." Ician nods. "Thankfully the only thing I can lose control of to my emotions is my sanity. And that usually comes back after a while." He smiles. "Somehow I don't think, if I go insane, that I'd like my house to be burnt down too. Might be something of an inconvenience."

Storm ordered another cider at the bar and returned a few minutes later. "Exactly." He said. "What worse is just passing out might not be enough, it's possible that if I use too much and get too angry I can stay in that state indefinitely. The more powerful the spell is the faster that happens to. To get where I am you have to be good but you also have to be careful." He takes a long draft of his drink. "Knowing all that, do you still think bringing me is a good idea?"

"Oh, certainly." Ician's smile grows wider. "I trust your self-control, Storm. You said it yourself; to have gotten to where you are, you had to be both good and careful." He takes a sip of water. "You've made it thus far already. I believe in you."

"Good." Storm says with a smile. He raises his glass into a toast. "To not burning the house down." He says before drinking.

"To not burning the house down." Ician agrees, raising his own glass of water for the toast. "Amongst other flammable things."

Aerv slightly chuckled. "You can try to make your show slightly bigger." he says. "If anything goes out of control, I can eat your flames and everything will be alright." he adds as one of his eyes turns black again and he creates two shadowy figures of dragons flying above the table.

"Um." Ician watches the shadows dance through the air. "Sounds... safe?"

"I saved a few forests from forest fires like that." Aerv says. "I might be small for my race, but I am powerful non-the-less." He adds when he makes one of the two shadowy dragons breathe real fire at the other.

"Oh..." Ician's eyes follow the fire as the dragons dance their deadly duel. "I suspect that powerful doesn't even begin to describe it."

"Not as powerful as I'd love to be. Actually even for my specie I am kinda small." Aerv says, making the other shadowy dragon breathe blue flames. "Everyone else in my village was about 5 times my size. I could say that I was hatched.." he makes a small pause "...deformed. I can easily get crushed by something larger, but normal swords and magic is something my scales don't even care about."

"Truly impressive." Ician nods. "I have seen larger dragons in my time, but none of them have seemed even half as attuned to magic as you are." He shrugs. "I would ask you to join the expedition force to the Eastern Sea, but... I know you don't kill. Or at least only in self-defense."

"Thank you for the offer but I'm fine. I just need to take a bit of a break every so often. I prefer to control myself anyway, I hate relying on others to keep me in check." He said. "Would you mind if I borrowed some of that fire though? Manipulation is easier than creation for me."

Aerv's eye turns back to white again and the twin shadow dragons disappear. "Sure" he says as he takes a glass and spits a ball of fire into it. "And Ician.. I would love to join your expedition, but I am currently headed north to the mountains. I have someone I want to meet."

"Ah." Ician nods knowledgeably. "I would ask who, but... well, if you want to tell me I'm sure you will. And if you don't..." He shrugs. "Celestia knows I've been in that position often enough. I'll let it go."

"Some dragon that's there on holidays." Aerv says. "Doubt you'll know him. He never reveals his name."

"Seeing as I only know two dragons and one of them is you, you're probably right." Ician says. "The other one is a huge frost dragon."

"Thanks." Storm takes the fire with his magic, giving it a second to get get used to the feel of the fire and allow it to get used to his magic. He stretches it into a long stream pulling it out of the glass and twisting into an infinity sign again. He allows the fire to flow around the shape like a river for a few minutes.

He then condenses the flame into a blob and lowers it back towards the table surface. Four columns of fire extend towards the table and become legs, a third extends and curves gently away from the body and becomes a tail, then a head forms at the other end and the lion finishes forming, Storm makes it walk around the table.

Aerv slightly chuckles and checks his compass. It wasn't pointing north, in fact, the needle seemed to be stuck. "Oh well, that's life.." he murmurs to himself, making only those with perfect hearing able to hear him.

Ician notices Aerv staring at his compass and murmuring. "Is something up?"

In a bathroom off to the side of the bar, a changeling in a lab coat stared at his reflection.  The blue of his eyes was a healthy color, his chitin was smooth and shiny as ever, and his horn... well, it certainly hadn't gotten any worse.  Satisfied with his appearance, Crow closed his eyes and focused on the emotions he had taken in.  A lot had happened, faster than he could properly process it.  Emotions of every type had sprung up, from confusion to wonder to lust to anger and everything in between, and he only knew where half of them had come from.  It was an overload for the shut-in Crow.  Slowly, he ordered them, absorbing and compartmentalizing.  After a few minutes, he had finished, and was ready to go back out.

He glanced down to Joy, who had become bored watching Crow, and was looking into her locket.  Every so often, she would close it, scrunch up her face in concentration, and open it again to a new picture.  An enchanted locket, thought the changeling, attuned to her visual memory.  Simple, but amusing.  Though it was hardly interesting enough to warrant the sort of attention she gave it.  So much emotional investment in something so material, and Crow wondered why so many did that.  Even the dragon at the table had a compass he clutched, as though it was something of true worth instead of a broken magnet.  How curious.

Shaking off that train of thought, the changeling focused on transformation.  He focused on the only form he could muster; a minimally modified version of the form he had been in when is horn broke.  Green flames washed over him, giving him a short-cropped brown mane, and a dull brown coat.  The face was neutral in every way, like a child's, denoting nothing of personality, emotion, or even gender.  The only truly notable features were the eyes, and how notable they were!  A metallic silver, catching and reflecting he light in a slowly shifting pattern.  He pulled on his goggles, covering up the eyes, and put on his default fake smile.  He loved that smile, it made ponies unconfortable, and that led to them ignoring him.  Perfect.

He placed Joy on his back, and headed back to the table, open and receptive to any incoming emotions.  He set his supposed niece down with a new soda, and put his smile on, full force.  Show time.

"Sorry about that, I had to take care of something.  What's being talked about now?"

"Hm?" Ician looks over at him and notices the strange smile. He adopts an awkward one of his own. "Oh, nothing in particular. Just a discussion on magic, life, and pyrotechnics."

Crow's smile never wavered.  "Well, I know a bit about two of those.  Pyrotechnic's aren't really my field.  But my..." The smile did waver, as he took a moment to think.  What was Jon?  He settled on something familiar, and technically legally true.  "My half-brother does a lot of magic, and quite a bit of living."  The smile was almost gone, replaced with Crow's approximation of jealousy being hidden.

Ician raises an eyebrow. "A lot of magic? What kind of magic?"

Crow's expression and tone shifted fully to disdain.  He was planning to milk this for all the sympathy he could get.  "Nothing too interesting.  Some emotion magic here, some geometry there, I never really cared for it.  Don't know why it's so bloody special just cuz he doesn't have a horn."  He ordered an ale, and finally began drinking.  Joy was sitting next to him, listening.