Antonio

Generation 4 I am a Celestial Runner! The innate abilities of the family include word, bone and blood magic, as well as stargazing and future predictions. There is also a bit of unknown magic from space - the mystery of how existence began included. Each hatchling has their own personality and abilities. This makes the family incredibly special and incredibly mysterious. It is not often that they share their magic and secrets, but it is passed down in the family. Each hatchling has their own secret to be discovered. To find out more information on the Celestial Runner Project, click the button! Celestial Runner Lineage: Lasgalen & Galanta >> Bizurian >> Andromeda >> Baryon >> Me!

Antonio left his family, and the Southern Icefields, when he was barely fledged, but everyone will tell you he's an ice dragon through and through. Brusque, taciturn, aloof; what's he doing in the Sunbeam Ruins, even in the shady streets of Lanternlea Port? Maybe he should try being a Gaoler and see if that suits him better.

Antonio is, indeed, taciturn and aloof; he learned early on never to make a statement he couldn't back up with evidence, never to bother his father when he was working, and never to ask questions unless he was prepared for a lengthy and detailed answer. And certainly never to get bored in the middle of that lengthy answer and begin playing with a toy. His mother would smack his father with her tail if she thought he was being too harsh with Antonio, but that didn't erase the harshness that had come before, especially since Baryon was never terribly contrite and Dazzle's standard of kind treatment of a hatchling was a bit eccentric as well. Sometimes Antonio wonders if he would have broken, instead of merely bending, if he'd stayed at home longer.

He did leave, but he did bend; throughout his studies here in Lanternlea, he's vacillated between two approaches. Sometimes he throws himself into fields of research that he knows his father favors, privately and ashamedly dreaming of producing some work of scintillating originality and unmistakable genius that will leave even Baryon speechless. Other times, when one too many of his colleagues or mentors has pointed him towards Baryon's work, and he's either weathered the awkward conversation that followed or, shamefully, simply nodded and smiled and agreed, he'll abandon that line of study entirely without warning or explanation.

He dropped a careful survey of the effects of bone magic on easing breed change transition - because oh, you simply must read Baryon's latest, he has some very insightful ideas about this - to take up cartomancy. Eventually he got tired of that - he could certainly manage some degree of clairvoyance but it just wasn't interesting - and began a joint study with a colleague of the impact of caster element on several types of magical incantation. But a kindly Spiral professor happened to mention a fascinating piece about the precise mechanics of word magic - so much exciting work being done in the field lately! - that had been published in a journal that Antonio knew Baryon edited. He stopped returning his colleague's messages and holed up in the library studying astral projection. If it was good enough for his oldest sister it was good enough for him.

---

That all changed when he crossed paths with the Imperial, Cepheus. It didn't take carefully-calibrated measurements to tell that this dragon's magic was unusual, unstable, and very powerful. "You," Antonio barked at him. "Come with me."

It was only after the words left his mouth that he realized perhaps some pleasantries might have been in order. A greeting. An introduction. Was this what it was like to be Baryon? Although some of the clan's Imperials - the leading warrior, Zalitz, for instance - were remarkably free of bias against Pearlcatchers, others held to the ancestral grudge with gusto.

Antonio was frankly surprised not to be obliterated by a blast of arcane magic. In fact, the Imperial stood up, the crystalline decorations he wore clattering like a flock of windchimes, and seemed to be waiting for Antonio to lead him somewhere. So Antonio swallowed his trepidation, and his impulse to apologize, and turned toward his lab.

At least he never had to look back to make sure the Imperial was still behind him. Those arcane crystals chimed the whole way.

---

Once in the lab, they finally introduced themselves, and Antonio began taking measurements, and notes, and interviewing Cepheus about his powers.

---

He gets so absorbed in researching the wild and hard-to-categorize magic Cepheus uses that he doesn't even quit when there's a chance of overlap with his father's interests. He meets Alessia and they fall in love; he tries to be a more engaged and patient father than Baryon was, with mixed results