Cybil was tapped by Carramba's HR department years ago, essentially to replace their entire filing department. At the time, computers at Carramba weren't nearly so complicated as they are today - and she is part of the reason they've been improved. Bringing with her technology from Dawnlight as well as other cities (the 'year 2480' version on Earth, not the Pernese or Nexus Dawnlight), Cybil has made quick work of the once bulky filing system that rode Carramba's clerks ragged.

Not that she fired anyone. She still uses gophers and attendants to help deliver messages that just need a personable touch, and there is always the massive 'hard copy room' ... Fortunately these days, that room is accessable via the Torus Wing, and doesn't bother anyone else any more. It used to sometimes come drifting out of its meager 20 by 15 room and literally shamble around the campus before someone directed the filing cabinets back into their 'dungeon'. Its room now is much more accomodating - magically created to expand as needed, with nice wide walking space, and bright lighting. The files no longer move, they've been disenchanted since Cybil has all the information she needs in her Deck.

Yes, the filing system at Carramba was always magical... But hard copies of everything still have to exist somewhere. Cybil knows precisely where to look should she need to find almost any piece of paper.

She also has an unerring ability to locate people. This ability borders on the supernatural, it's possible that she has either a gene for Genrehopping, or a cybernetic enhancement. Whatever the cause, she can even detect if someone has left the campus magically or by teleportation. This 'power' doesn't extend much beyond Carramba (or Dawnlight) or its people - but it comes in very handy as it is.

It's saved lives, of both students and staff. It's caused happy reunions, and love to blossom. It's also caused a few problems now and again. Early on, before Cybil really had a grip on things, there were a few chance meetings that turned not just to rivalries, but to deadly encounters later on. But she can't be blamed for actions others take. At least, that's what everyone told her.

Deep down, Cybil is trying to make up for that dreadful mistake of years ago. Quick research isn't enough for her - her headjacks connect to a series of networks that have almost every piece of information one could ask for. She has asked the Alabaster company to help modify her cyberdeck (which they happily did, with the aid of Synergy and Silverknight) so that it accepts data in almost any form, from binary to magical. Using every possible outlet, Cybil has never had another incident of danger to people she might hook up.

Even so, it's almost like a crusade for her. She really genuinely enjoys public relations, and her teaching of the subject proves her expertise. She's got a terrific understanding of the way people interact - but she also has a knowledge base that can run simulations and statistical outcomes based on personality types. And despite any other misgivings she might have about her own abilities, Cybil's 'people advice' is usually the best one might find.

Her personal best was Crazy Doc Sanger's hookup with Gabriel. When the Doc arrived to Carramba he was far, far crazier than he is today - dangerously so. But when Angel Gabriel (Angelino Gabriella to the students who don't necessarily know he's that Angel Gabriel) checked the box 'looking for roommate' on his yearly on-campus apartment status... That was an opportunity that Cybil couldn't resist.

She isn't in charge of housing, of course. But she made a few recommendations, twisted a few arms... Okay she altered documents to get them in the same apartment. And to what end? Well, keeping Gabriel alive during his worst challenges off-world (which one does not ask about, that's not just a footnote in Cybil's database, it's a bold-20point headline) and making Crazy Doc just a little closer to Sane.

They've enjoyed each other's company as well - many, many times... Just to flip through Cybil's Little Black Book would prove that. What's that? Yes, of course she keeps a Little Black Book. It's the holy grail of date partner information. A rosetta stone of romance... She keeps detailed notes. Detailed notes. About her fellow employees (and a few of the older graduates).

This book she protects with all her might. .... Well, not so much, but when it gets liberated from its hiding place that's the only time she ever goes on a warpath. If someone asks nicely to see it, or asks about someone she's met, she'll happily parade it out. But not asking to see it? That's just plain theft.

Since it's not a person, and not really connected to a database (being a book and all, without a microchip), it's not something she can easily hunt down the way she can unerringly find a person. She has to do it the hard way. Usually by asking Sanger to find it for her. He just looks critically at anyone she tells him to, and if they jump out of their skin he'll .... pursue it. Usually with good success.

Sanger's not the only person that Cybil has had 'a close' relationship with. Many of the men around her age, and some of the women, are written up in that book. For that reason, it's something she does try and keep as private as she can toward the students. Some of their parents would flip out if they learned about half the parties the staff has off-hours...

And party planning is her other favorite activity! Enjoying it enough to run a class - each of the Party Planning periods is taught by a different instructor, so each class is slightly different in its emphasis. For Cybil it's all about who you invite. Matchmaking, hookups, even just 'a group of people who won't start fist fights in your mom's kitchen' will be easy once she teaches it. All about the social aspects of planning a gathering, Cybil is really fun to learn from as well. She uses examples - "work safe" photos of parties she's been to - how much people enjoy themselves depends on who they're around! After all, you don't invite the chess club to a football party. And worse: you don't invite one member of the chess club to a big social event where they don't know anyone! She teaches how to consider who to invite, who to leave out at any particular gathering - but also, 'don't leave someone out too many times'. After all, you want to keep your friends, she says.

Almost anyone who's worked on the campus more than five years can consider Cybil to be at least a friend. She's open hearted, gregarious, and easy to like. Those who observe in her the deeper currents of concern and concentration actually become her more valued allies than ones who simply enjoy her company and outward appearance.

The one thing to always remember though, Cybil is a 'Blackbottom'. No, this doesn't have anything to do with her being black, it's her hair cult. She is one of the headlining 'Brains Blackbottoms' in their 'organization' (which isn't so much organized unless she gets ahold of it... honestly). Any Blackbottom responds to another's cry for help - be it pass the salt or I'm stuck on Saturn and there are Bugblatter Beasts on my tail - eagerly and as quickly as possible. Cybil is absolutely no exception there. Though she herself rarely goes out beyond either Dawnlight or Carramba, her cyber connection to everything makes it much easier for her to coordinate Blackbottoms in scattered parts of the multiverse.

Orange hair Blackbottoms? Yes, they have personality traits that follow colors... She's loyal, intense, smart and lucky. She has never used the Blackbottom Goo that every official Blackbottom gets - a tube of hair gel dye that, when used on an appropriate person, will dye the back or bottom scalp's hair black and the upper front areas another color... It's based on genetics, and sadly if the wrong subject is chosen, their hair falls out permanently and completely.

She's waiting for the right person to Goo. It might be someone who is close to her, it might be a student, she's always looking for her 'heir' ... get it, hair, heir?

She does come with a bit of a goofy sense of humor, at that. She's not a practical joker, far from it, she really hates practical 'jokes' and doesn't find them funny in the slightest. Too much effort, she claims, for not enough reward. She prefers bad puns, really. And really bad puns. Even though she's very happy-go-lucky off hours (when is she off?) and an enjoyable sort even professionally, she is professional. She jokes when she knows there's time.

When there isn't, she's absolutely to the point. She will state the obvious only when someone hasn't yet caught on to it. If everyone seems up to speed, she'll simply do whatever needs to be done - politely. She introduces herself when she knows someone hasn't met her yet. And she is the one that most folks go to, for introductions to other people. It's much easier when she does it, after all. She knows who you are. She knows who they are. Baddabing, baddaboom, done.

So it was a little bit of a no-brainer when Cybil investigated something that had been clinging to her mind for a while.

Everyone she knew, well not everyone but everyone important to her ... was a dragon rider. Or sponsor, or even a dragon. Ever since Sanger's 'other' broke the universe (shortly before Crazy Doc arrived actually) dragons had been filtering into Carramba, and by now it was a vested interest in the campus' course load to offer good dragoning classes. By the time Crazy Doc came back with his very own dragon (he'd been one to leech off his dopplegangers and ride theirs, until Umpteenth showed up) Cybil was a little weirded out with impatience.

She knew: it might be because of her cyberdeck. To the extent in Dawnlight that they had such things, she knew that some forms of electronic interference tampered with psionic abilities. Cybertiger for instance, had head jacks installed after an accident and had to be physically plugged in to her dragon's own brain-matrix to communicate with him. Psionics like Etan and even mages like Lethe had trouble with contacting Cybil with their minds. So maybe, Cybil considered, it was that she had a cyberdeck.

She thought about looking into Vere's world, finding a dragon that literally was bred to be in the Matrix there... But then she'd have to stay there, and that just wasn't her style at all. If anything she'd blue-pill it in the Matrix and keep a dragon in her back yard...

Cybil thought about what to do though. Surely there was a way to keep her electronics from interfering with her brain's magic or psionics. Hell, on Zekira they couldn't have any electronic material touching a nerve anywhere on them, or it'd disrupt things for them. She breathed a sigh of relief that she wasn't Zekiran!

Maybe magic was the way to go though. Lethe's communication took a little longer, was a little harder to hear than a cyberspace message, but it got through, unlike Etan's mindspeak. Cybil headed off to the magic department.

She let herself in, being that high up in the Administration of the school allowed her to open doors that to many folks on campus Just Didn't Exist. The alternate universe where the magical campus rested was shared with a few other pocket worlds, but at this moment it was only in use by Carramba. It was the middle of the semester, people were busy fixing up the last potion making area disaster.

"Well that's not a good way to start the week, huh?" Cybil commented to one of the kids, who groaned and continued picking up shards of glass from the corridor. It looked as though several beakers had launched themselves through the glass windows - three had shattered and one poked a neat hole through another. Cybil glanced the way it'd gone, and sure enough another forty or so feet away were a pair of students similarly sweeping up.

"It wasn't bad," Aleira said calmly from the room's door. "But now they know not to mix certain things, at that temperature..." The class, scattered though they were around the area, all gave the same groaning reply of 'you were right, we were wrong, we'll do it your way next time'.

"Have you seen Lethe around?" Cybil asked, mainly out of politeness - she knew the head of magic studies was here 'somewhere'. Aleira nodded toward the Summoning hall, it was second period and the Advanced Summoning class would be in progress.

Cybil moved quickly across the grassy landscaping, and onto the protected Summoning area's cement walkway. She had once spend too long on the grass, under a very strangely magical sky, and almost gotten a weird magical sunburn. Didn't want to do that again. She could hear the combat mage giving encouragement to some student that was working up their spell.

Standing just inside the protective walkway, Cybil watched as a plume of dark red-wine colored smoke rose from a series of candles, each one lit adding a new intensity to the color. Down below, on the summoning floor, several students kept up protective wards, while their other team member pushed out words that were hard to pronounce and harder to memorize. But he got them right in the end, and a small red-colored horse-like creature appeared shortly in a large poof of smoke.

Because this was a school, and because they knew better than to summon things that were dangerous or unexpected, this creature bowed its long head to the floor, and then was 'un'summoned by Lethe as she clapped her hands in approval.

"Good work, good work," she called out. The people, things and animals that were summoned here, Cybil knew, were all arranged before hand. Even so, there were times when it looked as though a skeleton or banshee had come at a lousy time in their own life, sometimes they even wanted to stick around. Lethe spotted Cybil's orange hair from below, and then lept up onto the catwalk above. "You guys wipe down the symbols, make sure there's nothing left of them this time."

"Magic isn't easy, is it," Cybil said, "it's like you've got a typewriter and old paper with things you can still see on it, huh?"

"Rather like that, sometimes," Lethe laughed, "especially here. What can I help you with, Cyb?"

"Well I was wondering..." She fiddled with her head jack, and finally came out with a stream of half-giddy, half-pleading requests for help. It seemed when she was trying to work out something for another person, everything was calm, cool and collected. With herself... that was out the window.

"Wait, so you want ... ah, let's see..." Lethe looked into different magical spectrums, and then tilted her head. "That's odd, you are a good dragon-candidate type, but there is a kind of blockage. It's caused by the circuits, you were right."

"Can you help?" Cybil asked, again.

"Maybe... But I think perhaps Piers would be better to help you out. He knows way more than I do about fiddly spells that last longer than a few minutes. Remember, I'm a combat mage, quick and dirty magic's my specialty."

"And pocket dimensions," Cybil waved her hand indicating the area, and Lethe laughed.

"And pocket dimensions, yes, but mostly the things I make that are meant to last, are large like this. Small things... neuron-sized things, you'd best be asking Piers."

He was in the Warding lab, close by. The blond man, President of his United States (in another dimension), perked up when Cybil entered. The room was mainly silent, he was giving a quiz on rune recognition, and could afford a few minutes to speak with the young woman.

They stepped out, both rather more comfortable with just standing outside a door instead of plying extra magic around themselves to speak protected from others' ears.

"You have that needy look," Piers said, "that's a surprise."

"Shhhheeeee wishes to ride a dragonnnnn," said his own multi-winged black dragon, a size-shifter who slunk around their knees when they noticed him.

"I do," she said, "but these get in the way. I notice you aren't talking to me in mind-speak, are you?" She looked at the black dragon, and he shook his head. "I've only heard a couple dragons, ever, and their riders have told me it took a lot of effort to get me to hear them. I want some way to get around that."

Piers wagged his eyebrows up and down. "You've come to the right man. Sit, I don't think this could take that long."

He checked on his students, and slung two free chairs over his arms to bring them outside. They sat facing one another, and Piers started a subtle, quiet spell. His fingers twitched gently, and his lips moved a little but Cybil could hardly hear his voice. He didn't blink, but he wasn't looking at her orange-tinted eyes. He was looking at her temple, first her right, then left. It was like he could see right through her flesh and bone, down to the nitty gritty.

Down to the web of fine wires that had been embedded into her brain at a young age, and had actually grown along with her nerves. He could see her mind - colors and layers of sound, she had remarkably bright thoughts, straight lines, most people thought in curves. Their energy in her mind would surely attract a dragon, he considered.

If only the static produced by the wiring didn't get in the way...

At first, Piers wondered whether he could surround each of the nodes with magic, but that would take far more energy than he could easily keep up this afternoon. The brain after all was filled with such connections, and the wiring in her head was at a pace with the nervous system.

So instead, he explained in a few quiet words, he was going to make the nodes 'magically transparent'. A dragon would see they were there, see that something was in the way - but it would be more like a window, or even a screen door - able to see in and through, able to hear and be heard, but still be present.

"It shouldn't change your ... process," Piers searched for a word, "your thought process, however you use this cyberdeck - because I don't really know all that much about them. If it does feel that something is wrong, if you cannot access your network, tell me as soon as you can."

Cybil nodded, and took a deep breath. She could feel the magic working, as he thrummed a weirdly vibrating wordsong at her. His fingers touched her scalp, focusing where each of these layers of magic would go. His dragon, Cedanuachoth, sat calmly with his lengthy body around both chairs, a set of wings keeping prying eyes from seeing what was going on on three sides.

Within the time it took for the class period to end, Piers had finished up his spellcasting. His students carefully filed out, having left their papers on his desk (they knew what to expect if they had cheated, they knew what to expect if they'd peeked at anyone else's papers there) and they were curious but in a hurry to attend their next class.

With a bit of a start, Piers realized that he too needed to be at his next class which was on the normal campus, the Humanities building. But he could teleport... So he wasn't in a rush.

"How do you feel?" He asked. He was a very charming man, and his girlfriend Kelly was rather accepting of 'other' girlfriends... Cybil would have to properly thank him. Improperly. Whichever if he wanted.

"It feels okay," Cybil said. She accessed her network, which only caught a portion of its normal fare, but she knew that was purely because they were still in the small alternate pocket universe of the school. "Let's go out to the campus, I need to try getting the full infonet."

With that, Piers flicked them to his classroom in the Humanities building, on the second floor. Cybil swayed a little, everyone always did when they were teleported. (She almost lurched, but Cybil had been teleported around by others before, and had a little experience. This time, it was a downward tug because they went up a floor.)

With a little concentration, perhaps a tiny bit more than usual, Cybil went into her infonet program and opened up a list of current classes... They were there, everything was good. Information cycled before her eyes (only her eyes, inside her brain actually somewhere behind her optic nerve) and she declared it 'good'. "Works a few nanoseconds slower than I'm used to. I'll get used to it, I think."

"But will dragons and people be able to speak with you now, that's the question..." Piers said, as the first of his fourth-period students began to enter the room. They took their seats raucously but calmed down before the bell, Piers' influence was like that. Some of them had Cybil as an instructor too, she waved a little at them, and walked outside.

Below the building's walkway there was a small park-like area where some of the offworld Rukels had claimed as their own, and one of them was Bernard the little incubus-breed mythic Rukel, who had just recently brought back a four-headed hydra-cat-dragon. Cybil glanced down, and sure enough all four heads and Bernard's as well were gazing up at them.

She heard Bernard make an adorable squeek, and she took that as a sign he wanted to talk to her. Cybil left the walkway and went down the cement stairs, walking casually toward the tree. There were no spare girls this time, gathered around the Rukel and his bond, but she could sense there were many eyes from the classrooms nearby that had followed their actions.

Cybil was pretty sure there were at least a dozen girls attending the school that would alter their class schedules just to be near Bernard... Cybil had to decline some of their requests in favor of keeping their studies above average.

"Well hello little distraction," Cybil said, smiling.

"You got something done," Bernard said, and his dragon Narruz echoed it. Narruz was almost fully grown, not quite as large as he'd be next fall, but big enough to look Cybil in the eye.

"I... you can tell?" Cybil said, unconsciously putting her finger on her head jack.

"I can tell, Narruz can tell, really," Bernard said. Cybil's heart raced for a moment, she calmed it just in time for her stomach to leap into her throat.

"Could you ... do something for me?" Cybil asked, looking at the taller of the heads on the cat-hydra. "I ... just had some magic put on my brain. To make it easier for dragons and people to think to me. But I've never... really heard a dragon. Very distantly, like it's from across a mountain."

Oh that's no problem, I can talk if you want!

I can talk all day if you want!

I think she heard us,

I'm pretty sure we're talking too much, let her speak! Each of the four heads chimed in.

It was overwhelming. Cybil swayed, her hand pressed gently against her temple. She felt the minds strongly, she could feel the direction they'd come from, the slight differences in inflection indicating the different heads. Narruz was used to talking to different people at once, it made sense that when they spoke together as one they would be a bit powerful.

"I ... heard you," Cybil said. Bernard flapped up with his improbable wings and Narruz supported him, sitting down on his hind legs and holding up his beautifully plumed wing-hands. Bernard dabbed at the tears Cybil was crying.

"I know the feeling," Bernard said quietly.

***

Not too much later, Bernard came to Cybil's office but not to hide. He and Narruz were headed to the Abstract Destiny to get something, and he invited her to come along. She'd been to hatchings before, but this would be something special. Narruz' mind couldn't help but blurt out many things they would be seeing and doing - and that there was a nest on the sands that needed people to attend to the eggs.

"Me?" Cybil said, "really, you think...."

"Of course they think," Dominique said, "so does Ringeth. Let's go kids," she indicated the brown marked dragon, who was more than big enough to sit both women, the Rukel, and hold on to the reasonably small Narruz.

They headed out, Ringeth speaking gently into Cybil's mind about their journey. He was politely explaining the ins and outs of travel between universes even though he knew Cybil knew them in theory. She'd been to other worlds, of course. But never by a dragon who was speaking with her while doing so...

***

It was a complete surprise to Cybil, when she saw these odd creatures. Someone had neglected to tell her that yautja had bred with dragons and.... other things... They had very few of that species at Carramba, but her species-recognition software turned on when she gazed at the hatchlings.

He walked up to her, and sat down with dignity. I prefer to introduce myself, he bespoke, lighting up Cybil's face with joy. I am Baransalon. If you would have me, I will come with you.

"Of course I will!" Cybil said, giggling. "Will you want to go to the school as a student? Or ... as my assistant, or... just as a dragon? We have all kinds of plans."

I do not know yet. She sensed hesitation, I don't know if I want to be anyone's assistant.

"Then probably student," Cybil said, taking the dog-sized hatchling to her side and scratching his back. "It won't be until next year, or summer classes."

Summer sounded good to him, actually, and it worked pretty well too. By the time he was old enough to attend the classes, he'd also gained some control over his ability to siphon the heat out of the area - and that meant less work for the air conditioners in classrooms to do. Anything that saved the school on its energy consumption was okay in their book.

And then he saw the Java cup that posed as a nuclear reactor.

What is that? It ... gives off such a strange glow. I can see it, I do not know if you can. I want to investigate it.

And he did - Cybil just made a note of it to the staff: don't interrupt the dragon, please answer his questions. Of course they did have to ask him not to remove the radiation that he found - except where it'd started snaking out of the containment units below.

Eventually, Baransalon would find classes geared toward engineering, repair and damage control - such things that anyone would be proud to do, he could simply concentrate a moment and remove the danger to the workers around a building, or carry in supplies to fire fighters in the middle of a blaze.

Honorary mentions and awards started to line the walls of Cybil's rooms - he came home through a kind of portal and his lion-shape was much easier to get around in, here.

"Are you happy, Baran?" Cybil asked, "you've done so many things, I'm proud of you."

I am glad to hear that. I am content. There is a bonfire at the beach this weekend - I would be happy to take you there, we will make a good entrance!

Name: Baransalon Mei'Ontainde

Bonded to: Cybil Qeats

Gender: Male

Species: Supernal / Yautjadragon

Hatchling Height: 3'11"

Adult Height: 14'8" at shoulder

Color: Tan-Black

Element: Heat / Dark

Element Ability: Heat Sink: The ability to concentrate the heat in his surroundings to a small area.

Personality: Despite his yautjadragon lineage, Baransalon is a rather independent beast. He likes knowing he's got someone watching his back, but at the same time, he doesn't want anyone to slow him down or get in his way. He does not coordinate particularly well with others, and does better knowing that he's the only one he has to worry about. In a relaxed environment, however, he's perfectly happy to enjoy a drink or card-game with the rest of the guys and gals.

Abilities: Acid Immunity. Breath Weapon (Lightning). Corruption Immunity. Fire Immunity. Heal Others. Huntermind Communication. Shapeshifting (Lion). Telepathy. Teleportation.

Random Ability: Control Radiation: The ability to control radiation. Can also affect the toxicity of balefire, helping protect others from its effects.

Extra Token: Moderate