Dantinath and Dymati

Size comparison Piece and Knockoff/Pawn; Images are named DDnye

Pernese/Smoke, four legs and two wings, claws on feet only, long neck and tail, beak-like face, faceted eyes, smoke based webbing and crest/tail that may vanish entirely; Bonding is not required but they do enjoy having one, Sponsorships are unlikely, multibonding doesn't generally occur, and non-human bonds are possible

Naming: Dumani is Turkish for 'smoke' and their names reflect their appearances; knockoffs are smol, so they are ... Dumanish

Knockoff stats: average 2 in most, with one 4 and one 1 your choices; powers average 3 for typical powers in their family including becoming larger at the expense of their wings vanishing, choose one of vapor, shadow, or particle control to be at 5, the others then cannot be used

This clutch makes its appearance during the 3-hours until midnight mark, but may have actually shown up earlier, they are sneaky and who can tell one from the shadows?

Bond: Ajal, Voluntary Companionship
Meeting Notes: Why had he come here? Well, there was an invitation, but how had whoever was throwing this party even known that he existed, let alone found a way to send an invite? On arrival to this Checkerboard Ball, the very first thing Ajal noticed was how many dead there were. Not... not attending, but in the surrounding aether, the sea floor was just littered with dead people, not just the expected detritus of fish and carcasses having drifted down from above. It was pretty weird though - they were being kept a bit at bay, this place was inherently magical, even though it was a bustling city made from technological brilliance.

Oh. There was -

"You might consider putting a body on," the man suggested. He wasn't a man, he was definitely not human, not to Ajal's vision. With his self he saw, what any physical eyes could never: Nach'lih kallah-vahh stood as a teal-turquoise clump of enery that had an outline pretending to be a biped...

"How are you seeing me? You're not dead," Ajal spoke without a mouth.

"I sent you an invitation, I could hardly neglect my duties to at least greet you on arrival," the entity spoke and Ajal could swear that even the formless energy had a smirk on it. "I have seen... much death. Even among my own kind, who believed themselves beyond mortality." He was sad, Ajal's instinct was to ... hug him, so it was pretty strange to suddenly have a body both physical and visible. As well, being in close proximity to the tall, slender man known as Keenan Lane to most of his friends, accept that sudden embrace as though it was nothing out of the ordinary. And just like that, Ajal was at the party.

Not particularly sure he wanted to be seen too much, it was supposed to be fun and lively and... well, he wasn't exactly the 'lively' being. There were many here that would live quite long lives, he could tell. There were many connected directly to kallah-vahh that drew insane amounts of energy around themselves, immortals, non-mortals, people he would never have needed to 'collect'. But also so many, so very many souls here that would eventually end.

Most of them were friendly, enjoying the moment; some had other things on their minds, but very few of them nefarious. Ajal felt a strange nudge, it was Lane nodding toward a kiosk near the edge of the Ballroom. "I suppose you don't need to drink it, but there is some excellent coffee over here." Ajal did accept the mug offered by the pleasant attendant and it did indeed smell delicious! Lane did the same, but at least he got to enjoy drinking his...

It felt rather weird, to have all these people around him - alive, vibrant, all of them thrilled to the gills with the energy and sounds and food - and just ... be accepted? He didn't put his foot on the dance floor, that would be even weirder, but he watched, oh yes. The music thumped through his slender form, there were things visible outside the big windows beside the Stage - what even were they, he'd been around for a very long time but it was hard to even describe the creatures or beings or whatever they were drifting through their own Void-like spaces.

The coffee remained warm somehow, all the time he held it. Oh clever it was in a mug that had the checkerboard logo on it, he would keep that mug as a souvenir. (And... it would remain - warm.) But he'd have to find a place to put it just now, because he could hardly just hold on to it forever. It was while he was rummaging around in his 'coat' (an affectation of clothing at best, was it part of him or a real thing? who knew?) he hastily stuck the mug into a 'pocket'. Something was looking at him.

Someone? Eyes bore into him, yellow - the only spot of true color. Against the starker white and black backdrop of this party, the dragon that fixed its eyes on him were friendly and curious enough. Their shape was obscured, and suddenly Ajal realized that was because parts of that shape were just simply moving around, smoke or vapor perhaps, but still part of the dragon. The darker tail and crest grew and shrank along with the darker inky markings on its legs.

I cannot seem to pin you down, you're fuzzy around the edges, but not fuzzy like I can control. Not that I want to control a person! That would be rude!

It was a mental voice, and it cut straight into Ajal's mind somehow. And it was fearless, it felt the mind of a soul collector and did not shy away?

If Ajal had a 'heart' inside a 'body', it would have sped up with glee. There was something about this dragonet, curious and open-minded, endearing.

"I... don't mind you looking," Ajal said quietly, telepathically. "Are you... are you wanting to come with me?" Ajal glanced around and realized that a great many dragons had been parading around the venue and they had all established connections to people. Was he now one of those people?

The dragon nodded. I am Chorap, I would like to see new things. I do sense your hesitation.

If the dragon could sense that, surely he knew more about what Ajal's duties really were.

Perhaps some of them will need a distraction, perhaps I can offer them something with you. The dragon pushed his beak-like nose into Ajal's hand gently, You are a good soul, yourself, I sense no harm in you. You care for the weak and tired, in their most final moments. They don't need to see more... The dragon's powers nudged a little, and a thin cloud of dust (or maybe the glitter left over from the prior Stage performance) rose around the pair of them. If there is life left in their body, they don't need to see the pain around them...

Ajal's hand delicately rubbed up against the dragon's forehead. "I like you, I think you're just right for the job."

Bond: Koa, Voluntary Bond
Meeting Notes: He knew from experience with the Court that they were here, he could smell them. Though his King had clearly wanted to come without those pests following, it was sort of a given that they would somehow manage to squeeze in behind them. Maybe the portal opened too wide for too long. Maybe... There were other factors at work here, and he intended to figure it out.

But for the moment, when they entered the Ball, Koa put those thoughts very-slightly-aside. They had been invited. This was a party, not a war zone. Truth be told though, he never stopped thinking about where to put defenses, how to get from one area to the next without being seen. The place was too big and bright to be easily traversed by people like him, but there were other means. Certainly.

He could swear that there were people popping in and out of the corner of his vision, constantly. One of them appraised him from a nearby archway with stormy turquoise eyes, shortly followed by a much larger version of him stuffed into an equally formal suit, who didn't glare but still seemed to be judging him - and then offered him a 'clip on tie' which somehow didn't entirely clash with his existing formal clothing.

This certainly was going to be a challenging evening. His instincts were apt to rise with the appearance of any of Jade's people. Thankfully there weren't that many... he counted the same number on her 'side' as they had. Convenient. Always paired, they were so used to the competition.

There was a dance-off on the large ballroom floor, just then, but Koa wasn't entirely sure who won.

The audience, a faint wafting voice said.

It seemed accurate, that would track. ... But who'd said it? It felt so close and yet so distant at the same... A movement of dark grey at the edge of his vision, appearing along the higher balcony, then behind one of the long tables. As if from the shadows themselves, the faintest flash of lighter grey, sparkling a little, moving at the edges. A wing?

The shadow moved, and Koa followed it. Finally into one of the 'crash rooms' where two beings were zonked out on comfortable couches, but otherwise no one else was there. The shadow revealed itself to be a smallish grey dragoness. Her long tail moved like the edges of her wings, slightly billowing.

"You were easier to find than I expected," she said, and Koa's mouth snapped shut - because he'd been about to say exactly the same thing. He paused for a moment and then chuckled.

"Well I suppose that's because I'm pretty easy to spot in a crowd," he indicated how much closer to the ceiling he was than she. Even if the dragon was young, she'd still be taller at the shoulder as a human might get, and he was no mere human.

"I am Kulrengi Dumani," she bowed, her beaked face notably still able to look up at her surroundings as she did so. "You will want me with you, I will be able to see things you cannot, and go places you cannot reach."

"That will be very handy indeed..."

Bond: Selanar Mae, Voluntary Bond
Meeting Notes: The kitchens were his haunt of choice, of course, during this big festival. But his expertise would be reserved for a little later in the night, when the delicate pastries and delicious desserts would be added to the rotation at the buffet and on plates for the formal dining upstairs in the balconies. So that did mean he had a little time to mingle and take a good look at how people responded to the other foods, before diving back into the kitchen. Selanar was suddenly dragged over to the dance floor by an enthusiastic Human girl, and had to give credit where it was due: she didn't seem to mind his feet occasionally dodging when they should be following along... Working in a kitchen after all made for a lot of missteps that could be dangerous - best to avoid those!

The girl seemed to perk up when a boy of her same appearance of dark skin and brightly white kinked hair showed up, nudging her, and they both wore huge smiles as they vanished in puffs of smoke. Huh, well, some magic, then! That left him at the edge of the ballroom floor and wanting to head back into the kitchen. Selanar deftly managed to not trip over the long tail of a dancing dragon-person, and carefully eyed the kitchen entry to wait until that last server came out - in with the swing of the door, well practiced.

But no amount of practice could possibly have saved him from the burst of activity just as he was getting back to the work stations. A girl, a canine morph, came rushing through the doors heedless of the danger that would pose to those in the kitchen, and smacked straight into the overseer of the food preparation area, Wilson Carver. A lot of people did pause and hold their breath, including Selanar. What would he do?

Rather than being angry or doing anything abrupt, the big man escorted the girl through a door (that ... door hadn't been there a moment ago, had it? it wasn't there when he glanced back to the others in the room and tried to find the master chef again) and didn't come back for a bit.

Unfortunately in that stunned moment, someone's pan caught fire, and began billowing thick dark smoke into the room. There were no fire alarms, no sprinkler systems, but... The smoke stopped almost as quickly as it had begun forming. Might have been magic in the room, Selanar thought. Something designed for safety.

But that wasn't it at all, was it? He realized that there was a dragon in the room with them - unusual at best, since this area wasn't really made for dragon-sized movement. It wasn't a very large dragon - yet - and wouldn't be huge by any standard. But why would he even know that? He just did.

Some of the other prep workers and one of the senior staff waved their hands around, "this smell isn't going to help the dishes rest..." one of them commented. Selanar then saw the dragon look up, around, and... the smell just sort of vanished. It looked like her tail was on fire, or had been - it was smoking gently. No wait.

Wait. No. That... was her tail. The smoke. She turned to look at Selanar, and tilted her head toward him. "I want to know what your fruit tart smells like, not smoke tarts." She spoke directly to him, and Selanar realized... this dragon knew his dishes? Though it was hard to tell with her beak-like muzzle, the little hatchling dragon gave a nod and a grin to him. "I do know I want to sample it, but I doubt it will be as good as nice raw meat for me."

Without hesitation, Selanar grabbed one of the boneless steaks sitting nearby, and offered it to her. "Well... I mean, they can smell good too, to the right nose?"

She introduced herself as Halkasi, and Selanar realized he was in for a great partnership with a dragon that could whisk away smoke or even steam in a kitchen!

Bond: The Steward, Voluntary Companionship
Meeting Notes: Things had gone... reasonably smoothly all evening. The Empress had enjoyed her groupies, and there were plenty of people to keep everything nice and safe. He took the time to marvel, looking at the walls, the tables and chairs, even though they were functional - were they part of the venue? Or did someone build these and put them here? The music was ... something else, would he dance? Perhaps. Would she? Definitely, which was a sight.

Around 3 hours to midnight, he hears an odd sound, and glimpses ... something? Maybe nothing. He's not sure it's anything at all. Until a voice breaks into his private thoughts.

I am not nothing! But I am not always something!

Then it tittered and left a trail of wispy ... steam? Smoke? it didn't smell like smoke, but it was too dark to be steam. So he followed it, her - the voice was distinctly female. In one of the dimmer nooks, out of the spotlight and away from the groups and booths, the Steward saw a sleek form coalesce from the dark wall. No that ... wasn't a wall at all, well it wasn't dark! It was quite light in color, and what came off of it was that darkness, gently forming into a wavery set of wings, and a long billowy tail. The markings on her legs and wing arms never quite stopped moving, particularly when she eyed the corner of the room and fled into it when a group of people came stumbling into this nook...

Bond: Mitsu, Voluntary Bond
Meeting Notes: Oh he was a tall, handsome one, wasn't he?

She'd been slightly distracted and hadn't noticed him before smacking into his elbow - it was bare, his outfit had no sleeves, and looked faintly similar to ones she remembered on ninjas from her childhood. On bumping him he jolted slightly, and turned to look with blood-red eyes, though they weren't harsh or judgmental, merely surprised. Mitsu hadn't guessed that the tan-skinned black-haired man was not merely a guest, since he was sneaking around the edges of the ballroom and people-watching, just like she was - three hours to midnight and she didn't feel like dancing or sneaking drinks.

Those eyes squinched up with a bit of mischief, she saw the briefest of smirks and his eyebrow flickered upwards. "That takes effort," he said, "see if you can catch up."

And then he vanished in mid-air, leaping upwards into the balcony areas above.

So people did know how to have fun here! Intrigued, how did he do that trick? She followed his last known spot and after a minute or two of this tracking and spotting she realized several things. One was that he was definitely better at hiding than she was, and two was that he was leading her somewhere and not just bouncing off the walls randomly. The third thing... she figured out when they came to a stop in a dim booth nook on the second floor balcony overlooking the ballroom below.

"Dymati wanted me to say that you pass the sneaky test," the man said, warm and proud.

Mitsu squinted, she knew that name somehow - oh. Oh. It was one of the dragons pictured in that pamphlet that was scattered on tables everywhere at this venue... it was... his?

His friend, that's my sire, and I am yours, your knight, an odd sound ... was it living shadow or smoke or a mind? It smelled like a dust-filled room or...

She shut out the memory of the house, it was useless to dwell on it.

You cannot change the past, but you can affect your future, the voice said again and she wondered whether the man was speaking to her mind? But he was now nowhere to be found - maybe he was just invisible (he was), or bored (he was not) and wandered away. You know I'm right here, the voice reminded her. And Mitsu finally realized that the booth held more than just her and the mysterious dragon rider. The curved and well padded ebony bench wrapped half way around an oval table, but as she watched the dark became a more subdued silver color, and the darkness... A dragon.

He rested with his head on the table, slightly beaked face looking a little tired, wings materializing into a still-moving sort of shape. He was out of breath, probably from all the antics. And if he'd hatched recently that would make sense, how can a little hatchling be so active?

"My... my knight?" She looked at the tapestries draped around the walls, oh yeah, the whole chess thing. "Wait, my knight?"

We will be able to get into places that no one else can reach.

Mitsu grinned widely at that thought.

Bond: Siji, Voluntary Companionship
Meeting Notes: They might not consider him the leader of the team, or even the smartest of the group, but Siji was definitely the go-to guy for dealing with the politics and social structure of any given place. He'd encountered the legal asshattery of Zekira numerous times - stop causing power outages on the docks, please ask before frying all those fish with your energy there might be residual radiation... Pff.

He dealt with those folks from the mainland on the regular, not just because he angered them or crossed some unknown line of their weirdly complicated legal system. Others on their islands actually knew he was good at interaction and asked him for help - because more often, because unscrupulous Zekirans themselves were trying to exploit the Benders who didn't know better.

Oh how he loved making those ones rush off to their hovercraft, leaving the islands after trying to kidnap another earth Bender or convince a water bending woman to bear 'more' children for 'them'. He knew it wasn't because he was a troublemaker, that he'd been brought here with the others, it was more... in spite of that fact. Siji had a strong will, boldness, courage to burn. And there were dragons here who valued courage, needed companionship.

He didn't realize, just then, as he was gazing around with a half-drunken daze, that Kallah Vahh had brought him here perhaps in the hopes that a dragon might temper those things... Maybe he'd learn later. Maybe he wouldn't care. Perhaps with age and wisdom that knowledge would come. For now though, he was still young enough that he enjoyed dancing with the exotic ladies on this big ballroom floor... more than he wanted to listen in to the political wrangling being done up on the balconies. He knew that was all more or less boring trade routes and exchange programs. Pff. Dull, he wanted something more! (Kallah Vahh also noted that while the lad purposefully ignored those things, it was because he recognized them as such. A feat that not all of his companions reached.)

There was a perfect place for what Siji wanted to do tonight: over by the casino (which he also enjoyed quite a bit) was another slightly more hidden spot. It had signage but he couldn't read it - he could read, barely; Zekiran script was squiggly and elusive in meaning but though this sign was much more plain looking, he'd never learned English. He could easily tell that the scribbled marks over the stencil were graffiti, though.

The sign said "WARNING, LIVE FIRE RANGE, EYE AND EAR PROTECTION REQUIRED". And the marks over it, 'OSHA CAN KISS MY ASS' and it was a preface for the theme in the shooting gallery.

He heard the laughter and shattering glass after odd noises, and on turning the corner he spotted a dimly lit chamber with a bunch of rather drunk people clumped around another, who was using her fingers to 'shoot' at bottles across the room. There was no weapon in her hand, but then he needed no weapon either. And within moments, he was in a competition (friendly) with several others using guns, crossbows, and psionic powers. A discussion popped up among some of the more tech-oriented participants, whether Maliwan or Hyperion made better guns.

The answer was obviously Maliwan, since a bright yellow Hyperion robot sat broken and burning, slagged and frozen, in the corner.

The fun he had when he 'reanimated' that robot... oh yes, this was his element!

And then about halfway through the evening, he felt more than saw a blast of incredibly hot fire, which enveloped one of the paper targets nearby. Everyone was surprised, but he more than most - because this dragon then glanced at him with a wild, open-smoking-mouth (and smoking wings, and tail) look. That was fun, can I do it again?

"I don't know, Eyerarkasi, can you?" How had he known the dragon's name? Didn't matter. They were absolutely a team now.

The dragon - a hatchling with silvery hide with a shadow of grey over his back - looked around for... something. Finding it, he chomped his small mouth around a beer can, exploding it and ... drinking it?

No, not drinking, storing it, or maybe processing. Because he belched out a loud rumbling along with the burst of fire, that for all the worlds smelled of spilled beer and burnt toast. This would be the best possible outcome for Siji, finding a partner in crime like this...

Bond: Zhaurian Toerii'Eyele, Voluntary Bond
Meeting Notes: He didn't wait around with the others in his nest, but he did have to do some investigation before figuring out where to go. Because Gül needed to find his one, a particular person... a dragon, really. But that dragon wasn't here in the proper side for such folk. And Gül had nosed around the entire dome several times trying to find him. Nothing. Not even a whiff.

Hmph.

The dragon's mother nudged him gently, when he returned again to their hatching nook. I don't understand, why is he not here?

He is, but I think he's ... having some issues with authority, right now... Dantinath got a little chuckle out of it: her life spent Outside with Misota had lent her quite a bit of unusual experience, and power that wasn't common among Pernese dragons like her parentage. You could go look for him on the other side of the venue, you might even be able to help him...

That was all Gül needed, and he scampered as well as a newly-hatched dragonet with improbably large smoke wings and a billowing vapor tail might do. Dantinath watched her young child and was joined momentarily by Dymati, who looked rather too pleased with himself about all that...

**

"So you were actually there too, all along?" Zhaurian laughed, "I can't even believe... wait, wait," he eyeballed the dragonet's shadowy shape blurring around the edges. "I can believe it. You were up by the doorframe, and in that one nook," the dragon-shaped-dragon laughed about it now, but it was certainly all kinds of heart-pounding while they were racing through the halls trying to avoid detection (failing) and figure out what was going on (sort of succeeding)...

I was there, yesssss, Gül rolled his head around and his big wings flickered with solidity or wafted as a cloud. They were almost 2-dimensional, like smoke trapped between two panes of glass, their edges always moving. I'm not strong enough yet to do much more than hide behind shadows but... I'll learn and we'll find ways to sneak around, you bet. If you'd been around when we came out you wouldn't have had such a fun story to tell, either.

Zhaur glanced over his shoulder, and spotted that slab of meat Wilson, still watching them. He didn't see Wilson's smirk.

"It'll be a long time before any of us have a better story," Zhaurian chuckled.

Bond: Niq Valence
Meeting Notes: She'd noticed them arrive, just before the third hour ahead of midnight. They were sneaky, that was certain. Niq was sneaky too, and she decided to watch what might happen with these long legged, long tailed... long necked and very strange dragons. They weren't as brightly white in their lightest form, nor as deeply black in their darkest, as many others were being billed - the checkerboard black and white was much starker than these dragonets.

One or two of them outright vanished before her eyes, but then again so had she: because from her vantage point as a hanging decoration on one balcony, who would have guessed she was a person? A few of the smoke dragons lingered near one or another person or dragon group, obviously finding their forever-friend or just a place to hang out. Eventually, Niq grew a little bored of this, as well her shape needed to revert to her normal appearance so she dropped to the floor, startling one of the dancers.

She thought that was that, even got around to dancing a little, herself. Enjoying the food - so much of it, but not too much to be bloated or bogged down. She'd hardly ever seen this much food in one place, and been able to just... reach out and eat it, most of her life. It was nearly an hour later when she felt something strange brush her elbow. On turning, she saw nothing out of the ordinary. There was a dim corridor behind her, so Niq headed into it on habit. Oh, the casino was back there? She heard noises of a few slot machines and someone inexpertly belting out a cheerful song on the small stage there.

Well, there was ample opportunity to make a coin or two here... and not exactly by playing cards. However, before she could reach into the first pouch for whatever local coinage this odd four-armed man had, Niq felt that brushing once more. She covered for her own startled glance around by apologizing to the man in earnest, and heading off to the far wall. What was going on, was this place infested with mosquitoes or something?

No, no infestation... Besides, I could take care of that easily.

Niq's normally tan cheeks went pale, but she said nothing, she didn't want to appear too skittish. With her eyes, she scanned the area and tried to look casual. Finally up on one of the small dining balconies around the casino floor, she saw a billowing shape. Almost like a cape, or smoke on the wind.

Oh.

Niq ascended the wide black-velvet runner on the white marble stairs, picking up another chunk of cheese to pop into her mouth on the way. The dragon that waited for her stood carefully, but proudly with her head up and violet eyes shining. How her wings could 'fold' like that, and still be smoke, Niq couldn't guess. The markings on her limbs and tail swirled like the oddly hole-filled edges of her tail and wings.

"I wanted to make sure you were the right one for me," the dragon spoke in a strangely husky voice. "Looks like you are. Cilalı Dumani," she asserted, "we will be trouble together. Who'll know?"

A broad grin, unusual on her normally stoic face, grew on Niq's lips.

Bond: Bielyr, Voluntary Bond
Meeting Notes: The group was easily accepted at the portal's entrance, graciously led into the big ballroom by a multi-armed woman with a clipboard and two small checkerboard dragons to do the rest. Once they were there, of course, Bielyr keenly watched her companions just in case they went sideways. All it took was that one time, and trust was a very, very hard thing to come by.

This venue was amazing, and had Bielyr really cared to look, there was much more going on in the background than just a bit of food prep and stage hands rummaging through costume racks. She didn't feel like dancing, but was pretty sure that some of the dancers were of the same opinion as they were dragged out there by over-eager friends. Bielyr was immediately distracted by the casino, after all that was where a lot of deals might be made - at least, that's where they tended to be done where she was from. Not wrong, either, as a strange collection of performers belted out an aggressive song on the smaller stage there (it was 'Blackout' shortly followed by 'Whiteout'... how interesting) it was clear that a bunch of people had felt about the same and retired to the shady, smoke-filled room in order to barter or deal, in addition to playing a few card or dice games.

Absently she wondered whether Jaseu was having any success, as she casually skimmed the disappointed emotion off a nearby player and took advantage of it to bluff her way into another win at that card game. She spent a good while there, though finally did tire of the activity when she noticed the churn of players were getting a little too skilled for her. Spotting the massive clock on the wall above that Stage, it said it was around three hours until Midnight, give or take.

The big ballroom was much brighter, airy, focused on something other than individual motion and thought. A big room with hundreds of people in it, surely some of them knew what the dragons would be able to do...

I know what I can do just fine, a voice entered her mind unbidden. She wasn't really able to form a defense against it, if she'd ever been able to in the past. You won't need to defend against me, I am here because I want to see the things you look for, too.

Straightening her curled tendrils, relaxing a little, she glanced around the room. Where she'd just come from, the Casino seemed to linger in the hall. Or... No, against the black walls there was a shape, dragon like, but slightly moving. Suddenly a pair of large wings and a billowing tail seemed to focus, or - wait, no, it was that they became visible when a bunch of that casino's smoke and haze cleared out from around them?

"Well that's very, very clever," Bielyr said, with a growing smirk.

Do you think so? I do too, and there's something about how you keep thinking back to 'toxic vapors' that I might have a solution for...

Oh this night was going to prove very, very profitable indeed...

Bond: Breathhold and Jiclaeju
SHARD TAKING THIS 10.8.23

Oh he was definitely in the right place at the right time. The party was barely started when they arrived, and even if this wasn't his normal choice of activities, maybe once in a while. Maybe he could take a spin around this large flight dome under the sea. Maybe - oh, there was a spa. Like a real, honest, run-by-dragons spa. The trip here had ruffled his fur a bit. Some of the white beads and accessories might have gotten out of place. So Ostin strutted right up to the sign-in board, and was shown the entrance arch. Even the draconic service here was polite and suitable, it could have been just a big mess.

... "That's mud," Ostin said, on impulse, and without even hesitating.

"Of course it is, it's a mudwing healing center," another dragon commented. "You don't look like you need any healing, let me get Burrow, she'll know just what you want." And the multicolored very-broad dragoness (a mudwing, it turned out, there were quite a few of her specific breed here) moved off to locate said dragon. The air had changed, and Ostin realized that in going through the archway, he was no longer in the Ball's undersea dome. Rather, this was under the stars, and in an admittedly beautiful bayou canyon. It was warm, much warmer here than down in the dome, but that was to be expected, who thought the deepest part of the ocean would be toasty?

The ground was not paved nor stone, it was just bare dirt. Hmm. He wasn't going to get a mud bath (oh no no no not on his floof) but he did take a moment to watch the activities for a bit, before deciding he would be returning to the Ball proper. Over there were large pits with heated water, thin mud, thick mud, what looked like algae... Who knew what that glowing blue water was about, but it actually seemed to sing with magic. All of those places swapped rapidly with one dragon or another lounging in them, climbing out, being doused with fresh clear water, and ... and blow-dried by other dragons with wind or breath magic. It was a regular assembly line of day-spa treatments under these foreign stars.

"Oh look at you," another dragon spoke, and for a brief moment Ostin couldn't even see where she was. She blended in with the dusky greens and grey-browns of 'beautiful this area'. She was not as tall as Ostin, but the moment he did actually focus on this new mudwing, he realized that she was probably three, maybe four times as heavy, and the last thing he wanted to do was say the wrong thing about how plain she was.

Instead, he said, with a tilt to his head, "yes, look at me!" That elicited a bright laugh, good. In fact, it made him feel better - or maybe that was the aura of this dragon, or the whole place. It was a spa, it was magical. Burrow was so broad, so thick, he wondered how in the world could she do anything with those big paws? And yet, she sat up on her haunches (improbable though it seemed) and picked at the stray baubles and pearls that he'd draped himself with earlier. Her long, curved claws were probably used to scratching in dirt, sand, mud - but they were pristine, here. And shortly, so was he. She'd buffed his spiral horns, and made sure the ribbon dangling from them stayed behind his ears, muttered something about 'you could have a veil over your muzzle but then no one would see how shiny your teeth are' - and they were cleaner now. Every little detail, from nose to tail, this broad matron of a mudwing took all of him in and made sure he was perfect.

"Oh those little teensy paws of yours," she sniffed at his forepaws, which were indeed somewhat delicate - her one toe was bigger than his whole foot... "Now, don't flinch."

"F-flinch?!" He did, but obviously she was ready for that. Burrow had somehow taken dirt and flung it at his feet, covering all four of them in it. And he was about to get a touch on the irate side. But then his toes... tingled. It was more magic all right. She gently blew across them; warm, actually quite pleasant smelling breath. His claws sparkled. His toe pads felt invigorated. One particular hind pad that had been giving him trouble for weeks felt better than it had in a long time.

"Now you're ready to dance and mingle, your toesies won't get tired for a good while!" Burrow said, cheerfully. She was clearly having a great time with this, in fact a lot of the local mudwings were acting like this was as much fun as they'd had in ages - and then he realized there were the trappings of actual hospital rooms here in the Bayou's mud wallow. They were used to attending warriors. No wonder she was so eager to see a happy smile and a proud strut. No wonder they all appeared to be so... so oddly relieved when dragons dunked themselves in those mud pits or lifted a wing to have their pits dried.

In a show of unusual graciousness, Ostin thanked Burrow with a quiet voice and a low nod. She was instantly off to attend another dragon, but he still appreciated the work she put in. Work that he nearly destroyed when he almost tripped over ...

"Careful, please?" The voice was tiny, but confident. "I could learn from her. I think I did learn from her. But I won't practice on you until later."

Ostin drew in a long, carefully measured breath. "That is correct you won'... Pr...ractice? On me?"

The dragon was tiny, particularly compared to Burrow, and was blurry around the edges of its wings and tail. In addition to those wings and tail being completely covered in checkerboard patterns. Apparently the dragonet noticed. "Oh you like it? I know most of my siblings are all spooky-hide-out-in-shadow types but not me. I am Waan, Waan Dumanish. I'll be able to help keep your 'little toesies' clean and proper. But only if I get to practice."

"... On me."

"On you."

Bond: Lothair Lawton, Multibond with Ebbu Zwitterion (See Ever page)
Meeting Notes: It was absolutely all Lothair could do to not ask how to get outside. They wanted to swim out there, with the fish and the dragons and whatever the heck else it was that floated on by the huge windows outside the ballroom. But no, they were tapped for the event for their skills in electronics, keeping the big bank of computers that ran all the event security and room lighting running smoothly. Not that they were meant to watch the security cameras oh no no that was someone else's job, and they took this seriously. They were passing Beck's 'Ethics' course with flying colors for a reason! Someone tried getting in to the security depot without a passport once, only once, while they were on this assignment...

I know you want to, but we have to get you fed first!

It was the strangest little voice, loud and clear in Lawton's ears even though there were a dozen other people in the hallway.

I do want to eat but... but I want to find them!

I know how! The voices got really quiet suddenly, but Lawton still caught the gist of it. Oh! Well this should be fun! There were definitely two voices, conspiring.

Lothair had a feeling they knew just where to go. Cutting these mysterious personages off at the pass so to speak, the student quickly headed back to the security office. No one even batted an eye when they arrived, and even though it felt a little strange to be there while the shift had already ended - this was important. And not a moment too soon, because shortly from above, in what looked like a fancy grill-covered air vent, a certain bumping and scratching could be heard.

The other two in the office, a pair of security guards, glanced up, then at Lothair; one of them gave a nod and turned back to their observation of a dozen monitors.

Leaving Lothair to stand, hands on hips and with the wide footed stance that they'd learned in their martial arts class, waiting.

From the grill, those noises were louder, and finally a skinny dragon nose wiggled the grate loose. It clattered to the floor even as the pair of dragonets tumbled out of the vent. Though they were both shades of grey and had distinctive checkerboard markings on their wings, they were quite different indeed!

But Lothair could instantly tell which voice had belonged to what dragon. The hungry one was the wispy-winged smoke dragon; the sneaky one being the tuxedo-marked... and masked attendant.

"Stop right there!" Lothair said, assertive. Doctor Beck really liked that voice because it was the one that Lothair used when they were training to 'stop workplace disasters' in the Ethics class! It would have been fitting for either of the guards in the room as well, and they both straightened up as though they'd been caught napping.

The dragonets did freeze in place, the one tuxy oddly had a bunch of scales on their shoulders that shivered like a cat's would puff up.

"I'm sorry! I just wanted to find you!" The smoke dragon said, hiding their face under a transparent and billowing wing.

It was my idea, the other finally admitted, standing with a sulk.

"Why did you want to meet me? I'm a--"

"You're our bond! Ebbu and me, we wanted to come with you!"

They're Daus, and they just hatched not too long ago. We should get you fed, the dragon told its companion, and then looked back up to Lawton. We really should, because little dragons need food!

"Well... I'll let you get away with it this time," Lothair smiled, "I'm not sure how I'm going to explain this to my moms..."

Bond: Stonefly / Sugarberry, Voluntary Bond
Meeting Notes: "I'm sorry I'm not very good at walking around yet," she said, and Stonefly had the sense that there was a lot more to it than that. At that moment he was still Sugarberry, dressed up in a sugar-white miniskirt and licorice-black halter top. The dragon had come to where he stood, looking at the absolutely divine spread of make-your-own-salad fixings near the bar, and hemmed and hawed before saying anything.

"Why are you sorry?" Sugarberry asked, in the back of his mind looking for clues about this odd dragoness. Young, not just hatched but definitely still just a 'kid', innocent but somehow sad? She'd bumped into Stonefly and immediately started apologizing.

It was when the dragon answered into his mind, that Stonefly knew that they needed to find someplace more private to talk. Because I'm a disaster, I tried to fly and just fell on my face, and I didn't know it was because I didn't even have my wings on right.

The unicorn-morph with hidden secrets looked the dragonet over, carefully. "But... you have wings."

I didn't when I tried to fly, though, she replied. Abruptly, the dragon became a touch larger, almost able to look Sugarberry in the eye, but ... those wings did vanish, dwindling to little half-visible wisps of smoke moving around the bone fingers.

Thinking it over, Sugarberry took the plate of greens with delicious smelling garlic artichoke hearts, and gathered a bowl for the dragon, filling it with the nearby fresh cut meat. "Come on up here, I have a table, I don't think anyone's going to grab it, it doesn't have the best view of the ball floor." Then they went up the balcony stairs, carefully so as not to spill the meat, and definitely careful to not trip over that odd shadowed checkerboard tail of the dragon's.

Setting the bowl and plate down on the small booth table, Stonefly looked back at the dragon, whose beak-shaped face seemed still a little sullen even if she was getting a good meal out of it. "I have to admit I didn't know how to fly either, when I learned it was tough."

How do you fly? You don't have wings? The dragon asked, tilting her head.

When Sugarberry wavered before the dragon's eyes, and was replaced with a black and grey pony with a jagged horn and beautiful little feathery antennae, she blinked those faceted eyes and blinked again when she realized that the pony had small fluffy insect-like wings. The dragon took a deeper sniff.

You are still you, but you smell better this way, the dragon announced. It was the first confident thing she'd said.

"Yeah, I am still, I guess I never thought about how I smelled to a dragon!" Not that a dragon on his homeworld would be happy to see a changeling pony either... "But yeah I ... couldn't get all the wings to work the right way, smacked into trees, cave walls, got laughed at a lot. I didn't care for that." The memory was actually pretty painful, as well as reasonably fresh. Stonefly felt the dragon fishing around those memories. "Normally I... I don't want to talk about it, but, that is why I left, it wasn't good for me there. And then I found the portal to Carramba High. Did... you want to come there with me? You could probably get good training there! They have flight classes!"

At that, the dragon perked up, they do? I would like that! I don't think that I'll ever be very good, but if I could get some tips, that would be nice.

"It's settled then. You'll come back with me, we can get you in the dorms it's not small, and you're not big. I think a few students are going home with a dragon too, you won't be alone."

I am Sano Dumanish, the dragon said, I will be happy to join you there.

Bond: Oswald, Voluntary Bond
Meeting Notes: Their dancing in the third hour before midnight was formal, as usual, or what Oswald called 'dancing'. Just dancing. It was his way, of course. Odette seemed to think there was more to it, and excitedly pointed out a pair that were apparently doing the Jitterbug. She knew perfectly well he couldn't be paid enough to make a fool of himself on the dance floor.

Harrumph indeed, a voice snuck into his mind. He knew it wasn't a sound, because the dragon it came from was standing right there next to them on the dance floor. Bold, dark against the white marble floor. They have little regard for tradition. But I do - and tradition is to choose a bond after hatching. So I have chosen you.

Though he was surprised, he wasn't particularly fussed about this. "Well that's good for everyone, then," Oswald replied. "I've heard that tradition includes me finding you food and offering ... a nice scratch behind the chin."

Which he did.

Bond: Oadicaeth, Voluntary Companionship, multibond with Gatt'nye (Smine page)
Meeting Notes: The evening was nearly overwhelming to Oadicaeth, but she took it in stride. After all, she was royalty, and had to act like it! There were many things to do and see here, though, and she was particularly fond of the 'rasslin' event... So much strength in some of these dragons! She wandered over to their main observation dome, and unlike the biped-side of the place, the windows here were more like hexagonal shapes, fit onto one another like pieces of a hive. But still, many of them didn't show what was beyond in the waters outside! Some had brilliant sky, others deep space. This place was positively filled to the brim with magic.

She wanted to learn some of it. Perhaps there would be time. A bunch of dragons were practicing magic over there... oh. Did she feel a little weird sneaking into the demonstration that Myrah'care was giving? Yeah, a little. She didn't know Mystic personally, but wow Naxi'im's responses to the woman when they got here were... something. Even if he held it together like he did, she learned from that moment: that was how to phrase things with a sting, this was how to give a sorely wounding backhanded compliment.

It would be best to avoid mentioning that she was actually learning a little extra magic from Mystic's dragon bond to anyone else. Right? She blended in with the other young (and older) dragons watching their elders weave spells or demonstrating how to block out unwanted magical interference.

I can see why that would be desirable, a voice spoke into her mind. I hope you don't mind my intrusion... Wouldn't want to block out someone who wishes to return home with you. And others, they distractedly faded out from her mental ears.

Oh. That was because the dragon itself was somewhat... hazy. Even with the brilliant checkerboard looking wingsails and tail, they weren't solid enough to be called 'leathery', and sort of... drifted here and there. Never losing continuity, but also never quite sitting still. It was actually a bit entrancing.

"Pfff," another dragonet made a disparaging noise, "spells are for brainacs," they said.

That is your opinion, an incorrect one but yours to have I suppose. The first replied, and why were they allowing her to hear this?

Because we are going with you, you ought to know us, the smoke dragon bespoke more clearly, as their wings grew more solid as well. Odd that its mental voice followed suit.

"I want to see some action," the other dragonet said, the improbable splay of tiny checkerboard on the backs of its wings was dizzying. "I know some of my kin can do those things, but not me, it's not in here," they tapped a long, curved claw to their dark head, "but that's okay. That just means I don't have to worry about learning how to control it."

Might learn to control your mouth, the smoke dragon muttered, but it didn't appear to faze the other one. They were both confident and assertive, that was for sure! But they weren't apt to snipe at each other, which was good - because they would also need to not snipe at her, nor the other queens, nor most importantly at Naxi'im.

"Oh I'm not dumb enough to anger anyone important, like you," the bigger, white-socked one said. "Just point me at the thing you want to ruin."

We will be able to mess up whatever you like, privately or... loudly, not to worry. By the way, I'm Gunn Dumanish. And the loud mouth is Gatt'nye. Independent contractors. It bowed, the smoky crest on its neck faintly billowing around a little.

"Where do hatchlings learn such complicated notions," Oadicaeth muttered, "you'll both do well as my personal guard, if you like."