Adelade North
| Name | Adelade North |
| Gender | Female |
| Homeworld | Devilish Earth |
| Class | Sophomore |
| Nut | A Little Nutty |
| Totem | Porcupine +1 Bod, -1 RWP, +3 Luck, -3 Drive, +1 Cool, 25+5kk |
| Smarts | 8 |
| Bod/Feet | 7 |
| RWP | 0* Orphaned in her dimension |
| Luck | 4 |
| Drive | 0* does not drive, this is wise |
| Looks | 4 |
| Cool | 5 |
| Bonk | 6 |
Powers
|
Magic - Adelade is able to use most forms of spell magic, though she prefers ones with somatic and verbal components: snapping fingers, obscene hand gestures, and simple phrases as triggers. These spells are usually quick and dirty 'of convenience' types that aid for a brief time and consume very little magical power Summoning - can summon hellish creatures or even just her friends, with a brief incantation. Bigger rituals = more people or larger creatures. Has devised a way of 'summoning herself' via delayed or triggered spells, leaving triggers around campus to move from class to class.. |
| Clusters | Eye For Details +3 |
| Skills | Remember Names Perfectly +2 Precision Caligraphy +3 Doesn't Need Your Soul +2 Photograph Restoration +2 |
| Knacks | Not blow things up when she snaps her fingers +3 |
| 1 | Genetic Engineering / Paveh |
| 2 | Algebra Basics / N. California |
| 3 | Mars+Venus Culture / Noah |
| 4 | Earth Geography / Rubio |
| 5 | Olde Englyshe Studies / Underwood |
| 6 | Environment Crafting / Penbardd |
| 7 | Warfare+Tactics / Hagen |
| 8 | Teleport Practice / Lane |
| Dragon | Saxifrage |
After spending a few days on the beach with Raheem's new chittery and very bright friend Balsamina, and having the foresight to pack a few more fresh fruits and berries for the next leg of their field trip, Professor Lane quietly addressed the group.
"For the time being, we will be... remaining on this world," he nodded in reference to the vividly shaded dragoness who still rested her tail in the wavelets nearby, and her dark-skinned human partner Raheem. "I trust that you will be able to translate for those who cannot?" The student nodded, then looked toward the witch, Delvin.
"If I can't, she can," he said, and that self-same girl grinned with her wand and magical notebook at the ready.
"Good, good," Lane said, he then fixed his turquoise eyes on the dragon, "I should warn you, that this will be disorienting. Our ... mode of travel isn't one your ... people, have readily available."
The colorful dragoness tilted her head, neck fin flopping to one side. "But we can fly?" She lifted each wing, showing off some spectacular sunset colors. "Are we not flying to ... wherever it is?" To which Lane shook his head.
"Not this time," he replied. "While your world is considerably smaller than some with such a population, it is still much larger than you'd expect." With a wave of his long hands, he beckoned the students to gather closer around the dragon. "If you would, please close your eyes and relax. Imagine..." Lane hadn't even finished his sentence - they had moved somewhere new, but as promised, were still on the same planet.
"It's cold as hell here!" Mat exclaimed. He clutched his arms to himself, his duffle bag smacking himself in the back - then he remembered he was wearing a tank-top and had a jacket packed... He rooted around in it while the others did similar things shortly.
Raheem pressed into his dragon and groaned, "at least you're wearing shoes, is this ice?" He went slightly blurry, and momentarily returned to focus. No one could really tell, but his feet had grown a little... thicker skinned. There was a small amount of freshly fallen snow on the surface, however he was right: this was an ice wall complete with crevasses and boulder-sized chunks of ice strewn down from a nearby pillar formed from the same stuff. Several more pillars could be seen in the distance, barely, through the whirling snow.
The dragon behind Raheem was having trouble catching up to all this. She was perhaps standing still because of the surprise... no, she was absolutely frozen in time, and not because of the icy surroundings - though only a couple of the students could detect the distinct turquoise-green energy surrounding her coming from their professor. Raheem couldn't hear the conversation going on between the dragoness and Lane, but he knew they were having one. She wasn't panicked, just... a little surprised. At least: once Lane had finished calming her...
The others were also beginning to notice their surroundings, eyes widening and then squinching shut against the extremely cold wind. Lane didn't seem to really be bothered at all, but even his own breath formed slight plumes in the air before being whipped away with the rest of the snowy whiteness. Connith picked his feet up one at a time; they were blue because of his fur color and not the chill, and he was not really feeling how cold it was, but clearly the Gelgelan wasn't prepared for this. Sumire flickered similarly as Raheem had done - coming back with a good thick fur coat under her shorts and t-shirt. Delvin snuggled up to her, because in her muttered words, skirts and snowstorms are not good partners. Pace was wide-eyed, but had to continue to wipe his glasses free of the fog on them. Carmen didn't really do much more than stick his hands into his jacket pockets, he was trying very hard to emulate their professor and his calm attitude... his teeth were chattering, however. Eastamin's wings folded closer to herself, though she wasn't on edge - this wasn't a surprise trip, not like her first jaunt to another dimension!
One who wasn't bothered in the slightest, however, was Adelade. The blue-skinned demoness stood straight and tall, her spaded tail gently winding around her leg. "Hell, you say? Well, this is my kind of place!" She said happily. "And this is still the same world? Awesome." She alone was already looking up and around at the sheer ice wall nearby, the mountains in the distance, and when she squinted...
"Is that a ... castle?" She tilted her head, and then made a simple motion with her clawed fingers: putting on glasses. Magic wavered around her face, and a pair of opera-glasses appeared in her hand, allowing her to magnify her vision. "Ooh it is! Are we going there?"
"No, that... is not a wise idea," Lane said. He glanced up at Balsamina, who he had finally let out of her temporal 'bell jar'. She was clearly stunned by all of this, it wasn't just the cold air. However when the dragoness finally collected herself enough to truly look around, her dorsal fins and spines stood on end like a pufferfish, then she forced them down again when she realized once more how cold it really was here.
"It's not safe here," she stammered, her voice squeaking into a pitch that only a few could hear. "It's dangerous for other tribes here..."
Of all of them, Eastamin reacted to that phrase with an odd jolt. After a moment of scanning the stormy horizon, she looked sharply to one side, her wings going down and assuming a combat posture - which was no small threat, given the massive claws on their wrists. "Something is there, I cannot see it."
The demoness Adelade turned that direction and suddenly jolted a little - whatever she saw was tremendously magnified by those lenses she'd magically produced - then removed the binoculars from her eyes. "I can. It's... a dragon."
"Because of course it is," Pace said, jaw clattering with the cold. "Please tell me it's got fire breath because this place is far too cold to handle..."
With the group huddling together - the wind had kicked up, it really was a blizzard they'd dropped into - and Balsamina hunkering down both to afford them shelter under her wing as well as soak up a little of their own warmth, Adelade and Lane stood apart from them. Thus only the bravest eyes could tell that there was in fact movement beyond the swirling snow and chill winds out there. Whatever was coming, Eastamin suggested it was coming from that direction because of the difficulty to see it. A wise choice for a predator... Balsamina kept one cyan-colored eye open, squinted, but also kept one ear perked: whatever dragon was there would likely speak Draconic, and not English. She'd be needed, probably...
As they all held their breath as well as their ground, a large shape formed through the snow. It couldn't be said to be a shadow because it matched the shine and colors of the icy area very well. No sound came from this creature. It bristled with spikes on its neck and tail - both of which were visible, because that tail was in a posture almost akin to a scorpion's, held high as the wings spread out to form a dangerous pair of shields. The posture was very similar to Eastamin's, in fact... But the Kthari was in a defensive posture below Balsamina's wings, making sure that the others didn't get ... well, eaten. Balsamina had warned the group that Scavengers - humans and whatever else were here - could be on the menu for other dragons, even if they were considered someone's pets -- or threats by others. Though brave, even at her biggest outstretched wingspan, Eastamin's shape would easily be swallowed by a dragon of the size found here.
And the one nearby... was bigger by a bit than Balsamina. The dragon approaching looked like the ice surrounding them, glimmering with faint glacier blue and sunlit yellow markings. When it did speak, extremely sharp teeth were visible in its mouth. Draconic speech, of course, and Balsamina stuttered, "she said 'what are you and how did you find me here'."
"What an odd thing to say," Adelade said. She turned to see Lane looking at the dragon with those faintly-glowing eyes of his, and addressed Balsamina beyond. "Can you tell... her? That we're not going to make trouble?" She wasn't certain how Balsamina knew this was a female dragon, but... she trusted the local to have 'insider' knowledge. It wasn't Balsamina that found a voice to reply to the Icewing.
Lane cleared his throat, and spoke - but as usual, the students heard him speaking in their own native tongue, while Balsamina still showed a little shake of her head, it was still so weird to hear that speech coming from a scavenger. "We are only here to observe," he said, "we apologize for any appearance of aggression, it is not our intent."
The dragoness wasn't quite satisfied with that, however odd it was to have such a tiny creature speaking her tongue. She'd never heard of a scavenger this far north let alone of one which could speak Draconic. It had to be fake. It had to be a hallucination. "Then what's she doing here?!" The pale dragon pointed with her tail, at Balsamina. The violet color of the water-born dragon was faded into a kind of pastel, but it looked more iced-over than anything else.
"I'm with them, we're - traveling!" The obviously-frightened hybrid called out, her wing protecting her neck and most of her face, but the fin on top of her head was still easily visible, half-flopped as it often was. Under her other wing, it was obvious that both Raheem and Delvin were quietly translating for the others.
Adelade didn't need to hear words to know something else was going on here: it was obvious that this spiked white dragoness was flustered and fearful rather than aggressive. She turned to Lane, since Balsamina was obviously afraid, "tell her we're not here to harm her."
The instructor waited until Adelade wasn't looking directly at him, to give that pleased little smirk. He offered the dragoness words to that effect, which seemed to calm her a bit, then added, "I can ... make sure that no other eyes are on you, if you wish."
"How could you do that?" The ice dragon screeched, unexpectedly. "How can a scavenger be an animus? Who taught you magic!?" Lane could sense that she was near panic, so he did something he'd hoped wasn't going to be necessary. Carmen picked up on it from under Balsamina's wing, but could do nothing more than 'notice'. Time slowed to a faint fraction of its normal speed for not just the dragoness, but the entire group, and Lane took a few steps toward the dragoness. She could move, only barely, but since Lane was so small she didn't seem likely to run away or even particularly attack.
Had anyone been able to see the concern forming on Lane's face, they might have easily interpreted it: how can you explain to a dragon, that every star might have a world around it, and each of those worlds might have myriad alternative paths? He quickly came to a decision about it.
"I can do that, because I'm not from here." He did something Vortal and the dragoness' expression changed; he had very briefly imprinted in her mind an image of Carramba's campus. Normally he would never have intruded that deeply into her mind, but this was an exceptional moment. "Obviously neither are my... friends." He waved his hand to indicate the others, who seemed to the dragoness to be a bit... darkened? What was wrong with the light? It was broad daylight before! Where had that weird image of structures and tons of little scavengers come from? The one in front of her? How? Even the blue-colored scavenger (did they come that color?) was a little bit out of focus. "Please forgive my... intrusion," Lane continued, "I merely want you to understand that we are not intentionally going to lead anyone to you, or ... betray you." With a blink and tilt to his head, Lane let Adelade 'in' on this frozen-in-time moment.
She took a deeper breath, unsure of what was really going on here. She'd 'heard' what he said, she was fairly certain that the others had as well, though whether they'd remember any of this was unclear so far. "Can you tell her I think she's beautiful?"
He blinked quickly, that obviously hadn't been among the many things he would have conveyed just at this moment. But he sensed the time was right for this, and on more than a whim, accessed a deeper magic. A Vortal tweak here, a local-analog-power there, accessing Adelade's summoning magic to work in a very specific manner; not something she'd ever have managed on her own. "You should tell her yourself," he said instead. Clearly Adelade knew something in herself had changed, that was rather bold of him. But then, she had signed that waiver at the start of the school year, that's what it was for.
She stood tall, she'd be taller than Lane eventually, and strode forward carefully. "You're so pretty," she said, "my name is Adelade, what's yours?"
"Scavengers have names?" The dragon said, half-surprised at the girl's words, but more at the fact that she now spoke Draconic. Momentarily the rest of her statement caught up with her. "Um. Thank you?" She paused for quite a bit and looked away, clearly pondering what to do next. "It's..."
There was something so familiar to their instructor: how she looked in a nervous fashion over each shoulder, tucking her wings closer to herself, readjusting her feet in the snow drift. Lane felt an old, old pang of fear and regret; of shame, of defeat, of anger. His right hand gently felt for that briefcase he didn't have just then, and though he didn't put anything into words, he thought furiously to himself, get past it. Work past it. You're better than that. He held his breath, hoping that the dragoness could do what he'd had to do so long ago.
They hadn't noticed that time was flowing again, though it wasn't entirely up to speed - the wind wasn't buffeting them, snowflakes were visible clearly floating in a horizontal path around them all.
"It's okay if you don't want to tell us, me," Adelade assured the dragoness when she hesitated. "What's... what's wrong? Is someone after you? Because we're not going to let anyone harm anyone around here." Behind them, under Balsamina's wing, there was muttering, surprised sounds. But then very shortly, Balsamina lifted her wing just enough to allow the others to see out. As well: to allow this Icewing to see in.
"There's a whole nest of them," the dragoness whispered to herself.
Lane drew in a breath, and quietly stated, "trust is a difficult thing. Something... someone has betrayed yours."
"How could you know that!" She was panicky again, but rather quickly subsided. After all, the creature in the dark outfit was apparently an animus, she should mind her manners.
Adelade held her hands up, splayed, then more gently: she didn't want the dragon thinking her claws were out for a fight.
"Um, well, no offense meant, but it's all over your body language..." The demoness said, quietly, "you're so jumpy and defensive, and that really could only mean you've been hurt. Are... are you out here hiding? We-... we can help you!" That may not have been the wisest thing to say: the Icewing pulled her head up and opened her toothy mouth.
Before the dragon bellowed something about scavengers or strangers, she caught herself. Her wings drooped, defensive posture relaxing a little. Not much, but noticably. Her tail dropped to the icy ground behind her. "You're... right," she said. "I don't know how you even know these things, or how you got here, but... this place is no longer my home." She looked toward the icy spires of that castle in the distance. "I can't go back there, not even if I wanted to. I d-don't really want to talk about it."
Pace was the one that had to gulp back some self-realization, with that translated by Delvin beside him.
"That's all right," Adelade said, standing a few paces closer. "I'm getting the impression that there... may be some conflict between dragons on this world." She glanced over her shoulder at Balsamina and the others, "well... um. Not that there isn't conflict basically everywhere - but ... maybe... you could come with us. We'd keep you safe, you could see... well you could see so much more than this!" She waved her hands around, noticing that the snowflakes were still hanging improbably in mid-air and moving at a leisurely walking-speed while she was speaking. "You could get to know us, and maybe if you feel comfortable... we could get to know you?"
Once more, she looked over her shoulder. As though someone was watching - as if she was always under scrutiny. This time, Lane did step up. He adjusted his tie and it absolutely was unconsciously done. "While I cannot pretend to know what exactly it is that has gone wrong for you... I do know -- that." He waited for her to look closer at him, as were the rest of his students. He then gave, with a sickened and tense twist in his own gut, that same over-the-shoulder half-Vortal half-visual glance that he had done how many times? Under how many different suns, in half a dozen different mortal shapes, or even without one? And the dragoness closed her brilliant green eyes, lowering her head and letting her wings drop all the way to the ground.
Under Balsamina's wing, Carmen shuddered openly and did the exact same motion - in earnest, he had yet to really 'learn' how not to care who was watching him.
It was the now-bolder-violet colored Balsamina who spoke next, in her chirpy, sing-song manner. Even compared to the other dragoness' voice, she sounded altogether more chipper. "I'm Balsamina, and this is my friend Raheem." The boy leaned out and waved. Others came forward. "They came to the bay where I lived, and... well, we became friends. I think you'll like them!"
There was a long moment when no one else moved, but the Icewing's posture shifted around a little.
"Saxifrage," the Icewing said, quietly trying to collect her wits. She rose once more, folding her wings with purpose against her sides. She was a very pretty dragon, now that she wasn't bristling or posturing - something that Adelade had noticed straight away. With brilliantly white scales, muted tones of pale yellow and powder blue along her sides, and those glacial-blue sparkling wingsails, she certainly glimmered in what weird half-light appeared in this odd timeless bubble. "My name is Saxifrage."
Delvin did a few waves of her wand, and then perked up, "ooh that's a pretty arctic flower! It does look like you!" Balsamina translated for the dragon's benefit.
"Flowers are hard to find around here," the dragoness said, her voice was softer, and she smiled. Objectively it was terrifying to see as far as the humanoids below were concerned, but they did recognize it was a grin, and not a snarl. "And... so are friends. I ... I think I will take you up on that offer. I'd like to... well I need to get away from here, either way. I suppose it would be better with people to watch my back."
"That's the spirit!" Adelade said, happily. She turned to Lane, looking around pointedly. "Um. I mean, if you have some place in mind, now's probably the time to move us again."
The Icewing kept looking between the local dragon and the strange darkly-clothed scavenger-creature. "You all did just... appear out of nowhere, with a little green dot. I saw that," Saxifrage said. "How is that... you?"
"I believe you said 'animus'? I suppose you could equate it, but... well." Lane put his hands into a steeple, "my... students and I are on a field trip. They all display quite some ... interesting talents. I'm certain that you will, too." She seemed to ponder that, momentarily. "If I may ask of you," he tilted his head, eyes glowing a little, "do you know of a safer place, perhaps one not quite so chilled, where we might rest, and ... get to know you better? I'm certain that all will become apparent with the course of time."
As she thought this over, Balsamina encouraged her with, "I didn't see a green light, but I did hear a kind of weird noise, when they came to my bay."
It was with both of those unusual effects that they moved to a location that was a little past noon, in a rocky canyon. Snow-capped mountains could be seen to the north, but the place was well sheltered, no snow falling... And time seemed to be moving once again. It wouldn't be long before Saxifrage allowed Adelade to be so bold as to touch her ("chilled to the touch," she claimed, "how wonderful!"). It would take a little more interaction with the group before she was completely comfortable - if that could ever be said. Saxifrage would make the effort. She knew it would pay off.
(( Next ))
| Dragon | Name: Saxifrage |
