Raheem Casteel
| Name | Raheem Casteel |
| Gender | Male |
| Homeworld | West of California |
| Class | Junior |
| Nut | Not |
| Totem | Leech -1 S/Gm, +2 RWP, -2 Luck, -1 Drive, +1 Cool, -1 Bonk, 30+5kk |
| Smarts | 7 |
| Bod/Feet | 10 / 6 / 5 (agility > dexterity > strength) |
| RWP | 2 |
| Luck | 6 |
| Drive | 2 (ride 5) |
| Looks | 3 |
| Cool | 4 |
| Bonk | 3 |
| Powers | Reality Shifting - character can transform into an appropriate being in addition to moving to another universe or dimension; Acts randomly from Homeworld but can be focused and useful while he's out in the multiverse; Can be triggered by other users of dimensional travel or teleportation; tends to remain human as shown if at all possible; can take along a certain amount of mass, though his dragon is an exception and comes only as herself Pocket Dimension, Portable - carries with him a bag of holding, in the form of a durable if beat-up looking tie dyed canvas satchel about the size of a typical military kit bag; inside this bag he can store a volume of goods up to a 10x10 foot room; sorting through it takes a few moments for the 'right' item to come to his hand |
| Clusters | Mechanical Aptitude +3* WaterSports +3 |
| Skills | Navigate Weird Places +3 Right World, Right Body +3 |
| Knacks | Surfing +5 Find That One Guy +3 Charming As Fuck +3 |
| 1 | Drama / P. Fettel |
| 2 | Dimensional Travel / Lane |
| 3 | Betting and Odds / Haital |
| 4 | Ironic Literature / P. Fettel |
| 5 | Martial Arts Fasion Conscious / Carver |
| 6 | Theoretical Physics / Freeman |
| 7 | History of Warfare / G. Fettel |
| 8 | Snappy Comebacks+Heroic Banter / Carver |
Pets |
Only ones that latch on to him if he's around |
| Dragon | Balsamina |
Raheem felt in his element here. The world was lush - well, this part of it anyway - and felt vibrant and alive. It wasn't just him that noticed there were three moons gracing the skies (Mat was the one pointing that out - with a weird relief to his voice). The rest had bedded down on the sandy grass well away from the high-tide markings nearer the shore. The other kids knew to listen to those who explored, like himself, when they said not to put tents too close to the water. Without knowing how long the tide would be out - or whether it was in at the time... It would be much safer to assume it would sweep away any structures.
There were no other obvious structures around this particular beach, but they all knew there were intelligent beings on this planet. Those with the senses for it said outright: the dragons here were the dominant life form, but there were humans and other creatures here as well. The way they said humans however... Led Raheem to believe that they might be less human than any given student at Carramba. While that turned out to be somewhat correct, they had yet to encounter any humans in the area.
The dark-skinned young man walked quietly along the shore, feeling the sand still warm beneath his toes. He sensed more than heard Lane as the instructor walked up behind him.
"Something-something constant as the northern star, something-something firmament... I don't remember it all," Raheem said quietly. He didn't see the faint query on Lane's face, before the older man nodded deeply.
"Ah, you also take that Drama course from Paxton." He gave a little soft chuckle, "don't worry about remembering it all perfectly - he doesn't either." Raheem was about to suggest otherwise, but as usual Lane's timing allowed him to interrupt with, "yes, I know he presents it as though it's all memorized. But he cheats." Raheem's eyebrow went way up, and Lane tapped his finger to his temple. "He stores his library in someone else's mind-space and consults it thanks to his Vortal power." He looked away, and added quietly, "I should ask her if we could visit."
"I'm not even going to pretend I have any idea what that means," Raheem said.
"Shouldn't you be resting?" Lane asked, after a moment, though neither of them had stopped walking along the shore. They were not far from the camp, and Raheem was the one who paused in his next step. He turned in an incredibly graceful curve, and stopped to look back at the camp.
"Nah, I don't sleep. Least, not away from home. Something about my grand-dad's mom or like that."
"I am even more convinced I ought to consult with Melissa now," Lane muttered.
"Well what about you? I mean, you've been up the whole time, too." Raheem continued to gaze at the stars, not recognizing them, but memorizing them easily enough.
"I... stopped sleeping quite a while ago. I really ought, it's a bad habit." He turned away to make sure Raheem didn't see the sheepish smile on his lips, "I've been informed that my bodies still need it, and that it's good for them, but... still. Habits are... very hard to break."
"Atasenne Haital says the same thing," Raheem said, when Lane was less than chatty about why. "But then statistics are her bitch, so there's that." He paused, and then seemed to be mulling something over. "You said something before we left, I've been thinking about it. Kinda funny when I come to say it, but I'm taking like, almost all my classes from you and your family." He chuckled. "I mean, Haital and Freeman are the only ones -"
Lane broke in, "Oh, Doctor Freeman is family too, don't doubt that for a moment." He waited just the right amount of time - as he always did - for Raheem to try and speak, and added, "it's a very complicated mess, my family. But... you are correct, your schedule is rather... packed with it." They began slowly walking back toward the tents, though it was clear Raheem would maintain a distance - he didn't want their conversation waking up the group. "How are you finding our... instruction?"
If he'd been new to Lane's classes, like Eastamin was, he might have balked at being as honest as he could. But very early on in any of Lane's classes, the instructor was absolutely clear about one thing: honesty was the best way to go about learning, and he himself wasn't afraid to hear the truth about his own teaching style. Lane would then go on to prove that he was worth that honest appraisal as nearly every semester there was something that happened in or around their classes, triggering action from Lane that showed he was demonstrably heroic. He endeared himself to students quite well, it was something Raheem noticed straight away, and thought it was somewhat refreshing compared to classes outside of the unusual man's 'family'.
"Well," Raheem pondered. While walking, he tilted his head up and again gazed at the stars - and Lane noted very carefully that his feet planted exactly where they needed to be, even around sticks and rocks on the ground before him; he never tripped, nor even really made any sound beyond a very faint rustling in the pale tan colored grass. "Well, I dig this one - yours I mean - cuz it's... well it's what I do best. I might swap out of that Drama course and take something more practical though." He scratched at the back of his head, tossing the thick dredlocks around with the motion, "mainly because most of those roles they want me to play mean I have to wear shoes." He paused for a short moment, and then chuckled, "and mister Carver's almost always telling me the same thing, 'wear those shoes! you'll want to impress with them!'"
Lane didn't even bother holding back that deep laugh. "Yes, that would... be Wilson. He does enjoy showing off with shoes."
"The costume department loves him, I mean I can't blame them. But like, he wants to put blades in the toes of shoes for that martial arts class, and man I do not do that. I'm not the stabby type... I guess mister Pointman doesn't care much for that attitude either."
After a second of mulling that around, Lane replied, "Geoffrey has always been a warrior, considerably more learned than he lets on, but he is... a fighter a bit more than a lover I suppose." There was a very strange and slight smile on the older man's face with that thought, Raheem wasn't sure why.
"And I guess if you're counting Freeman," Raheem said with a slightly baffled look, "I only wish that I'd had time to take the Speculative Engineering class. Theoretical Physics is great and all but... I like fiddling with stuff, keeping my hands occupied, right? Can't fiddle with theories."
"That never stopped him, but it certainly is a trick to get right." The elder agreed. After they'd made another half-circuit around the camp site, and the only sounds were the lapping of small wavelets from the shallow bay nearby, Raheem drew in a breath and Lane looked on with interest.
"So... like... Why are we on this trip? Seems like this is a really nice vacation spot but there's not a lot of math and science going on here."
"True, true. But that is merely for you. Miss Eastamin has had the chance to set up a base camp and do some hunting, did you see how she investigated the woods from above? And miss Sumire's skill in organizing the camp site itself showed well when she took over that duty without even being asked, after you claimed the site for putting it up. Mister McNabb instantly attempted to locate familiar stars - as I believe you were doing before I ... interrupted you."
Appraising that, Raheem nodded. "I wondered whether Delvin was going to fly up with Ea. I think... she might be sneaking a pocket dimension in her tent though. Isn't that cheating?"
"My dear fellow, that is the point of having a pocket dimension!" Lane chuckled, and Raheem gave his own little laugh. "Besides, that bag you carry is the same trick, only impressed upon a physical object." Raheem had left the satchel in 'his' tent, he suddenly patted himself on that hip - it wasn't there, obviously - and Lane gave a chuffing laugh. "I know that habit myself," he said, adjusting his tie, but more talking about his briefcase as he flexed his right hand by his own hip, since that was where he usually held it for decades.
They both paused, enjoying a breeze that passed around the camp site, bringing with it the scent of magnolias and jasmine. Something rippled the water in the bay not far from their vantage point, not near the center of the pear-shaped waterway, but more ... close to the camp?
"Hold up," Raheem said, his body language speaking volumes: slightly guarded shoulders, feet planted firmly. Even if he didn't want to wear the shoes, clearly Wilson's martial arts class had had its effect. Lane ticked that off on a mental roster while watching him. "There's something in the water. I'm gonna go check it out."
The instructor stood quietly on the grassy hillock and waited. Occasionally he glanced toward the camp site, which wasn't as close as this interesting presence in the water. He gave a private smile to himself and walked off, he'd looked around with Vortal eyes.
Raheem could sense that there was something in the water, something large, but slowly moving. A big turtle maybe? A dolphin wouldn't make the same wake, there was no trail of bubbles either so maybe it was a fish of some kind. Who knew, this wasn't Earth of any kind, and he knew there was a huge variety of wildlife on all worlds he'd visited that he never saw. He had no weapon to defend himself if it was a predator, but he could reality shift if he really needed. Maybe into something with spikes and shells...
The trio of moons weren't full, but there was more than enough ambient light to provide him with a view of the surface of that bay. The wavelets were small, no bigger than a foot or so in sets (so, crap for surfing, but he guessed that the west facing beach about ten-k away from the camp might be great for it), but they changed in frequency: whatever was in the water was coming closer, up into the very shallow shelf. The bay was fairly deep in the middle, but still he could probably dive holding his breath to the bottom and back without issue.
The shape of the rippling was... really weird. He'd never seen this kind of refraction - the moons scattered light all over the surface, and then the surface changed with something rising up out of it. Raheem still stood with his feet planted in the wet sand. He was strong, quite adept, but not remarkably brave without having his satchel on his hip - why had he left it behind!? What was wrong with him!
Even in the moons light, however, that shape resolved itself quickly. But... he didn't really understand it until the bulk of this creature was standing on the shore, its feet and lower legs like pier pillars as the water moved around them. The problem was that those moons didn't really do much for color vision, and he wasn't sure what he was seeing was even real... Maybe it was the same color as the water? A slate and aqua blue? No wait - wait, it was violet? It changed colors? Raheem didn't shut his mouth when it dropped open, because the colors then revealed a red and purple ... dragon! With all the fins and bits that one might associate with a fish, but clearly reptilian in its body and face. And the wings! They had been folded down, but they rose up, causing more of a splash than when the rest of the dragon's body came out of the water. Raheem was barly the height of this dragon's knee - or... ankle, or whatever that backwards joint on the front legs was called. Its mouth could easily just open and envelop him whole.
Its mouth opened widely, and Raheem braced himself! He hadn't even looked back but with his arm held over his face in defense he glanced around and didn't even see Lane over by the tents... Where had he gone?! Was he getting help? There was a dragon here!
He felt dripping, like rain only quite concentrated over him and barely anywhere else. On looking up, Raheem saw a large eye: blue, up close he could see the colors much more clearly. This eye was the size of his head. It blinked. Backed up, the dragon tilted its head, forehead covered in a fin that flopped slightly, fluted leather webbing between tines, a vibrant red-violet color. Then he heard a chittering, high-pitched but voluminous sound. It was like a dolphin, like an Orca, but... But it was coming from this dragon?
There was a moment when he realized this, and the next, he'd reality-shifted. It was subtle: he didn't physically change at all, save for a slight posture alteration. His arm came down slowly, he wiped the salty water from his head and face with it while doing so. The chittering of the dragon resolved itself, he had reality-shifted into a form that knew her speech.
"What'cha doing here? Scavengers don't normally come out this far, they're afraid of the water. They're afraid of the things in the water! But they shouldn't be afraid of me!" Her voice - he could recognize that now, she was very clearly feminine, was speaking in words, that also still sounded like dolphin chatter to part of him. Did all dragons here speak like cetacians? That would be kinda cool, actually... "Are you okay? I didn't hurt you did I? I thought about jumping up and surprising you, but I didn't want you to run away. I like you! What's your name, little scavenger?"
Raheem took a moment to collect himself, and suddenly all was well with the world. He said, "I'm Raheem, I'm here with my classmates. We're only passing through, sorry to have disturbed you!"
"Oh you didn't disturb anyone! This bay is nice, but it's boring! I saw the other scavengers earlier, but you didn't see me, I don't think so anyway. You don't think they'll be scared of me, do you? I don't want to scare your friends away!"
She was still standing, but it felt for all the world to Raheem that she wanted to kneel down and be... rather puppy like. But she was careful in the water, not to make too much noise, beyond her speech. "I don't think you're scary now," Raheem said, "but they're asleep. Well I think they're asleep, they're supposed to be." On a strange impulse, he reached his hand out and touched the horned nose in front of him and on instinct just ... started scritching. She blinked, and for all the world, that long toothed muzzle of hers gave off a brilliant pleased smile. The colors along her face, scales in particular patterns anyway, started changing. Red, pink, violet. They were echoed on dots and other scales along her entire body. It was actually really cool, Raheem thought.
"Oh! Oh! I'm Balsamina, you introduced yourself and I totally forgot! That feels nice, I like how that feels." Her eye was half-closed, lines of color turning crimson and pink in phases.
"Well... hi, Balsamina," he said. He looked around again and noticed that Lane was behind him, a ways back, nearly in the tree line - and so were the other students. All of them, just standing there with their faces all gawky and wide-eyed. Some were standing behind the professor, others behind Eastamin because, well, she was pretty big. And pointy bits came off of her limbs, so ... there was that.
But Balsamina tittered with glee - "oh your friends are here! Hi! Hi!" she chirped quite loudly, but because he'd already shifted, the volume didn't hurt his ears.
Raheem waved them over. "Come on, guys. Come on and meet my new friend, Balsamina!"
After a moment or two they did come, carefully, somewhat groggily but wide-awake now, into the slightly wet shore sand to meet this magnificent and colorful dragoness. She was young, maybe 'teenage' herself? Well, after a while they would find out more about her. In the light of day on this lush bayside retreat, the first of the kids found a lifelong friend.
"You know you're chirping, right?" Delvin commented, while they ate fruits and berries collected nearby. "I mean, when you talk to her." Raheem looked at her like she'd grown a second head. "No really, man, you're talking dragon to the dragon." She indicated her little magical notebook, consulted it, "you said 'how deep is the ocean nearby, are there good waves?' and she says 'it's shallow and there's a reef so it's not great for playing in'."
Raheem squinted at her, "first, okay that's kind of cool that you can do that, but second dude you're recording what I said?" He paused, and then added, "in dragon?" She nodded with a delighted smile. Raheem admitted it was in fact quite cool that her magic could self-translate, but then glanced at the rest of the kids, "do you want me to translate?"
Behind him, lounging on the warm sand with her tail splashing in the wavelets, Balsamina chirped. Raheem looked at her like she'd grown another head. "I'm gonna need a minute..."
"Why, what did she say?" Asked Pace.
"She said 'you're chirping, when you talk to them'..." Everyone laughed. It was clear that Balsamina's speech would take a bit to be worked out, but in the meantime Raheem began teaching her some phrases in English.
Lane stood by in the shade of the trees, turquoise eyes alight with Vortal energy. He smiled, not even holding that back to himself. This was perfect.
They spent a few more days at this beach, Eastamin collecting a few more little (and not so little) skulls and tails for her 'formal outfit' (which she tailored on the spot) after hunting. They began taking down their tents and ... well, wherever they went when they were 'stored' was a mystery. Probably The Mystery's work, actually. He seemed quite capable of carrying an awful lot without even holding on to it...
Balsamina looked on with a tilted head. "Can I come?" She said it in English, quite a bit better than just a day or so of language training might normally offer. She then chirped quietly, seemingly mostly to herself - because it was a stream of soft discussion points that even Raheem didn't catch all of. "I'd like to come with you!"
"We-" Mat started to say, but of all the students on the trip to interrupt, the least likely did so.
"We have a dragonry program at Carramba High!" Connith blurted, and suddenly put his hands over his muzzle. Eyes wide, he glanced around at everyone, his ears doing that thing behind his head as if to hide. But no one was trying to shush him. In fact, Delvin and Sumire looked at each other and started excitedly ... well, vibrating with glee?
"The answer is yes," Lane said quietly, approaching the dragon and her dark-skinned friend. The other students parted to let him closer, "While you aren't the first Pyrrhan dragon I've met, you might be the most... adorable. You would be a welcome addition to our field trip. Raheem?" He looked toward the instructor with his own wide eyes. "She is your charge. I dare say, your bond. I don't know if you can see it, but..." he glanced toward Delvin, whose eyes were nearly out of her head. "She certainly can, and Carmen." That boy was turning a whiter shade again. Apparently he was just now realizing what this field trip was about. They all were.
When Delvin consulted her notes, she was even more baffled than before: because he'd spoken in her language, but they all heard English. Maybe Eastamin had heard Kthari. Maybe Adelade heard Demonic. Lane made another mental note on his checklist.
It didn't take long for everyone to be on the same page, as it were. Raheem and Balsamina chatted about what was to come. Perhaps they'd be on this world longer, because there were dragons, and hadn't Lane just said that he knew these breeds? Was that weird? But then again... he was The Mystery, he'd always have secrets - and they had yet to realize that he was also the founder of the Rookery. The students had never seen the dark patch of shadow among the fruit trees as it moved silently to another spot. Even Eastamin hadn't noticed.
"Do you think we'll see a lot of Pyrrha?" Balsamina asked, her neck crest flopped to one side and then the other as she tilted her head.
Raheem didn't hesitate to scritch Balsamina behind her nose horn - "We'll surf the greatest places in the universe!"
(( Next ))
| Dragon | Name: Balsamina |
