An impromptu guide to Flames.

༻𖥸༺

FLAMES WERE A PAIN IN THE ASS to master. It took years to fully know them inside-out and if a person went active later on in life, then good luck getting it down before your forties.

Most mafia children went active in their late childhood, early teenage years, though there were exceptions to the rule, such as Xanxus who activated his Flames sometime around his sixth birthday.

The amount of Flames you had didn't really matter unless you were a Sky, and even then opinions were subjective to change. For example, Vongola Settimo didn't have a large Flame output, so he got creative. Ergo, he made good use of Vongola's flametech and weapon advancements.

There was a reason Levi-a-Than was an Officer, and that wasn't his intelligence, no matter how off-the-wall it was. The Lightning specialised in weapons and had made it his life's goal to master and modify as many as he could get his hands on. R&D always had a field day when procuring Lightning Flame suitable materials. In equal parts excited, Levi absolutely enjoyed tinkering with his Flames and seeing how good of an electricity conductor he could make out of a deadly tool.

Lussuria was good. Like run if you value your life good. The okama was a specialist when it came to Sun Flames. While he didn't have the Flame output that Rebon, the former Sun Arcobaleno, had, Lussuria was terrifying when it came to modifying the body on a celular level. She could abuse the hell out Activation on both himself and other targets. It didn't help that if she was feeling even a tiny bit vindictive, the Sun Officer could give you stage three cancer in the blink of an eye; all it took was activating the right cells and steering them in the direction she wanted. There was a reason that Suns who specialised in both healing and combat were rare.

(Lussuria was also the bedlam of the International Disease Control Institution.)

Belphegor could desintegrate a person down to their bones, and then turn said bones into tiny microscopical grains of ash, all in one breath. The easily irritable Storm was a perfectionist in every aspect of his life, so him having extensive control over his wild Flames wasn't that out of his repertoire. It truly said things about his mastery when Bel could desintegrate particles of blood left on his clothes without ruining said clothes and conduct Storm Flames through laser-thin wires and into steel daggers and keep them in tippy-top shape at the same time.

Mammon, or Viper 一 depending on when you got to meet them, was living up to their title as Mist Arcobaleno. Being a mist required lying to yourself about your true self on a daily basis while also not going insane and dragging those around you into Flame Discord. It was a lot of mind-fuckery that went on in a Mist's brain, given that they did not create any mental backdoors in case of synapse degradation. Mists had a wild imagination that could go both ways, a really strong sense of deprecating humour, or they could be downright insane and still not selfdestruct. Mist bullshit was fun like that.

In hindsight, the Scarlatti Famiglia should have seen Sumu's behaviour for what it was and not confused it with classic teenage rebellion. Forcing a Classic Cloud into a mould and expecting them to behave according to everyone's standard? Why not just ask the Cloud to commit suicide while you're at it? Sumu snapping when she did was relatively mild comparing to how other Clouds liked to multiply people's deepest fears and then send them to a mental institution. Killing someone with multiplied sharp papers, was, by Cloud standards, still in the tame category.

Squalo had taken advantage of his Tranquility prospect and made good use of implementing it in his sword techniques, imbuing Rain Flames in every sharp weapon he owned for maximum efficiency in the field. The SIC of the Varia was, contrary to popular belief, a very silent assassin, opting to use his Flames to fake cardiac arrest or to clog blood vessels and stop brain activity all together. And, having collected hundreds of sword-based fighting techniques over the past fifteen years as if they were Pokémons, Squalo had more than a few ways of ending someone's life with Tranquility.

Having activated his Flames at a relatively young age, Xanxus was intimately familiar with the inner workings of both his Sky and Wrath. The Head of the Varia was someone who could pull out all of the components of the Sky and then use them both individually and simultaneously to suit his need. Though there were Flames that he didn't have the necessary mental aptitudes to utilise to the fullest, such as Mist, who relied on lying to one's self about their true nature and feelings, when it was in his Flame type to utilise Wrath, whose concept was allowing yourself to be consumed in entirety by your deepest fears and most vulnerable emotions. Having created his own weapons up until now, Xanxus was adept in flametech and smithy was a known passion of his inside of the Varia. It helped him cool his head and get a grip on his emotions more than drinking alcohol did.

Xanxus had very pure Sky Flames, though he was more Cloudy and Stormy than anything else, while Balanced Skies could never pull off other Aspects of their Flames other than Harmony. Tsunayoshi could manage it, through hellish training, but even then it would be in small Flame quantities. Yuni could not in good consciousness do so, lest she lost control over her clairvoyance and drove herself mad. The same could be said about Byakuran, who would go on another tangent about world domination, though this time one fueled by downright insanity.

The Varia, in particular, valued Flame specialists and diversity when it came to both in-house and field work.