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Author Topic: A Meeting in the Stars: Here, There be Dragons [Cinnabun!]  (Read 778 times)

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Marakai2.0

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A Meeting in the Stars: Here, There be Dragons [Cinnabun!]
« on: August 07, 2017, 07:35:46 pm »
This was something he simply, absolutely despised doing. Scraping the bottom of the barrel for the greatest minds he could find, brains that could rival his own to further his research. Further his goals. Bring everything back...the way it used to be. The way it should have been.

Kenneth Trinity - a pseudonym, naturally - stepped lightly through the cobbled together walkways and byways of the space station Cancer, a single eye casting about and garnering more information than one would think one could with but a glance.

Tinkerers, laborers, drunks, muscle...they were everywhere. He had plenty. Starship pilots, engineers, cooks, shopkeepers...usele ss.

That single chocolate brown eye with its odd, narrow iris continued to bounce back and forth in observation. A thin nose wrinkled in distaste and irritation - nothing here.

Here was a man, middling height and with a thin frame, dressed in perfectly pressed business attire. A finely cut black suit and pants, a crisp white button up shirt beneath, and a dark, navy blue tie. A black eyepatch over one eye. And the other...

...wandering, still.

Yet, it would seem as if his sight wouldn't be the sense to lead him today - stepping into another area of yet more tinkerers and shops, robotics experts, useless, others....

His nose caught a scent. His nose, so much stronger than ones normal olfactory sense, detecting something that it hadn't in millenia. That old, musky dry scent of scales, the tinge in the air of ancient magic that sent his blood to tingling within his own ancient veins.

Unseen by the masses, that brown eye shifted to blood red. It was fine - nobody could see, not as his power wrapped the minds of those around him, shadow overtaking their senses to blot out all knowledge of his presense. To them, he might as well be invisible.

He very well could be, but...not if he wanted this miraculous scent to recognize him for what he, himself was. For what he could sense was the same as he....

Old. Different from the rabble of this scrap heap floating within the expansive vacuum known as space. A Dragon.

Excitement, well hidden, shot his heart rate through the roof. He thought he was the only one, the remaining pure dragon that hadn't been turned into one of those half-mechanized monstrosities back on earth. God's knew, if there were any left, he certainly hadn't seen one. Sensed one. Not for well over a thousand years, at least, but he'd stopped counting so long ago....the time didn't even matter.

This way, the scent grew stronger. Again, after so long, he found himself hunting. Though this time, he carried not a weapon, nor ill intent. Merely himself, a communicator, and a cane for show. Just enough for those that had seen him to know he had what he was offering.

But that was all off the table, now. For the first time in forever, Kenneth Trinity could sit in the back row. Kranath Trin was taking center stage.

Offline Bunbun

Re: A Meeting in the Stars: Here, There be Dragons [Cinnabun!]
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2017, 07:50:21 pm »
Sometimes she wondered how everything would have turned out if she'd just stayed on Aedolis. Perhaps nobody would ever have found out about what she was hiding, and she could have lived a fairly comfortable life without having to leave the place she once called home. Maybe she would eventually have been caught, twisted and transformed into one of those damned Aedolian Dragons, a single piece of the hive mind that ruled the planet with an iron fist. Hell, she might have even been killed in an attempt to resist the rampant assimilation of whatever biological dragons remained.

It was probably for the best that she had decided to leave when she did. While her humanoid form didn't necessarily give away the fact that she was, in fact, a dragon, it was also pretty obvious that she wasn't human. She couldn't risk being turned into a biomechanical Dragon, not when she was one of the only remaining dragons capable of reproducing... and that was assuming that there were still others out there somewhere. For all Axia knew, she was the only thing keeping her species from being doomed to extinction. Staying away from Aedolis was a small price to pay for the chance to preserve her species.

To tell the truth, though, staying on the space station Cancer most of the time wasn't actually all that bad. Sure, a lot of the technology on the ship was falling apart and the station was home to more than a few shady characters, but that just meant that she got more opportunities to tinker with stuff... and most of the people around here didn't exactly pose much of a threat to her. She'd made quite a few friends and business partners over the years, and every day the place started to feel just a little bit more like home.

Today, though, something definitely felt a little off. At first, it was a scent- a scent so distinctive, so powerful, that it could only possibly belong to one thing.

A dragon.

That couldn't be true, though, right? A dragon just shows up one day out of nowhere unannounced? Of course, to be fair, that was pretty much the same as what happened with her, but she still found it hard to believe. The only way she could know for sure was to go check for herself, which was exactly what she ended up doing- wandering the halls of Cancer, attempting to locate the source of the scent.

Sure enough, the scent only continued to grow stronger as Axia made her way to where she figured it was coming from. However, as she grew nearer, another sensation began to wash over her- one of uncertainty and dread. It was a feeling she knew she had experienced before, and when she finally locked eyes with the other dragon, she immediately knew why. She knew who this was.

Kranath Trin. Ancient dragon. Necromancer.

Mass murderer.

A small voice in the back of her head screamed at her to run, to do whatever it took to get the hell out of there, but it was nothing in comparison to her overwhelming desire to cave this guy's face in.

So that's what she did. Just kinda... walked up to him and started swinging, not particularly caring which part of his body she was hitting as long as she hit something.

Marakai2.0

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Re: A Meeting in the Stars: Here, There be Dragons [Cinnabun!]
« Reply #2 on: August 10, 2017, 06:52:55 am »
After some time, Kranath had stopped walking, stopped following the scent of this other - he'd noticed that it had begun to move, and furthermore, move toward him.

And, so, he had decided to wait and see. He wasn't disappointed, as only a few minutes later he saw her - an attractive female with pale skin, platinum blonde hair, unnaturally bright blue eyes. Those wings and scales, also, the proof of what she was.

Well, along with that alluring scent of hers. He wondered for a moment whether her scent was so powerful because he hasn't seen another of his kind in five millennia, or perhaps for some other reason. Quickly he pushed that line of thought from his mind - she drew close to him, eyes locked with his own - one eye, rather, the other hidden under his eyepatch - and quickly he realized she appeared...angry. Furious, perhaps.

Of course, it was his luck that the one dragon that wasn't a mechanical monstrosity would know who he was. Suddenly he was being hit, repeatedly, even as he had smiled to prepare to greet her.

He put alot of effort into those smiles, dammit.

Kranath's head and neck snapped to the side when a blow landed solidly on his jaw, and then careened the other way when another struck his temple. Body blows, less painful but with just as much force, peppered his torso and arms.

She was out of control. She was angry. But, luckily for him, she didn't appear to be very strong. And so, he stood there and took it, spitting out the occasional tooth or wad of bloody saliva, feeling his jaw eventually crack and splinter. A rib first bruised, and then cracked, and then finally snapped and jammed itself inappropriately into his internal anatomy.

Yet, even as he accumulated this damage, his body speedily raced to heal it, teeth regrowing as fast as they were ejected from his jaw, his bones snapping back into place, that jagged hole torn by his splintered rib healing, internal organs made right again.

He'd simply let her continue - perhaps she'd be more apt to listen after she tired herself out.

Offline Bunbun

Re: A Meeting in the Stars: Here, There be Dragons [Cinnabun!]
« Reply #3 on: August 11, 2017, 04:02:54 pm »
Her barrage of punches went on for a few minutes, showing no signs of letting up until either Kranath was unconscious or until she was physically unable to continue. In fact, her punches were actually increasing in power at first; her hands were slowly beginning to shift towards their natural draconic form, gaining more mass by the second as her scales attempted to grow back to their natural size. Her nails sharpened themselves into claws, and along with the her jagged scales, they must have been doing almost as much damage as the pure force behind her attacks.

And yet, as much as she could feel and see the impact that her attacks were having on the other dragon's body, she didn't appear to be making much progress. He was barely flinching despite literally having his bones broken, and no matter how much she tore into him, the damage simply undid itself within the span of a few seconds. It was shaping up to be a hopeless battle, and deep down, Axia had suspected that this was the case from the start. She'd never been nearly as powerful as most of the other dragons she'd come across back in the day, especially those with abilities like Kranath.

Eventually, Axia felt herself beginning to tire, and her punches began to lose the driving force that made them so devastating. Swinging around dragon claws was significantly more difficult than just fists, and the fact that her efforts were apparently being wasted wasn't exactly keeping her motivated. She could always try using her magic, but she didn't really want to kill him... not yet, anyways. Probably wasn't worth the risk of getting kicked off of the Cancer.

Deciding that continuing with her assault was ultimately a waste of her energy, Axia allowed her hands to revert back to their humanoid form, but not before throwing a couple more punches for good measure. She let one of her hands rest on Kranath's chest after it landed the final blow, using him as a support while she caught her breath.

"You... you. What the hell do you want?"

She looked up into his eyes (er, eye) and gave him the most intense death glare she was capable of before continuing.

"Well? Got tired of waiting for so long? Did you decide that today was a good day to get out there and murder more dragons? Huh?"

Marakai2.0

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Re: A Meeting in the Stars: Here, There be Dragons [Cinnabun!]
« Reply #4 on: August 11, 2017, 06:21:14 pm »
Kranath allowed the punishment to continue for the longest time, noticing how at first her attack seemed to intensify in its ferocity for a time.

Eventually, however, she began to tire, as was inevitable. When she finally slowed and finally stopped, leaning heavily against his chest, he turned his head and spit out a mouthful of broken teeth and blood.

Before he dared respond, he reached into his breast pocket of his jacket, very nearly touching her fingers on his chest, and pulled out a silk handkerchief. He dabbed on and around his mouth, wiping away the blood.

After a moment, he nearly folded it and replaced it within his jacket pocket. Then, and only then, did he look down to meet her glare, one blood red eye staring down, amused. His cheeks and nose crinkled slightly as he smiled.

"Well," he started, the amusement clear in his tone, "what I want should be clear. Here you are, one of and perhaps the only Dragon left, besides myself. I was quite curious...it's been quite some time since I've heard of, let alone seen, another Dragon."

That said, his smile disappeared, and his face was made grim. "And if my reputation precedes me, after so many years, then you should know that if I were here to kill you, I would have done so at the first."

Kranath's hands reached behind him, cane and all, and clasped their opposite at the small of his waist - his cane was allowed to simply hang loosely from his grip.

"No....I am here to kill no one. Now tell me - there are only two I know of whom would have been able to tell you who I was...all others have, regrettably, been slain. Who was it? My dearest brother, the Prince? Or his lovely mate, Otohime?"

Offline Bunbun

Re: A Meeting in the Stars: Here, There be Dragons [Cinnabun!]
« Reply #5 on: August 13, 2017, 11:50:13 pm »
The way he nonchalantly took care of the blood and went right back to smiling down at her almost made Axia want to start unleashing hell on him once again. Combined with the way his wounds had effortlessly healed themselves, his demeanour made it almost as if she'd never even started hitting him in the first place. Well, minus the small pile of teeth that had built up in the ground.

She knew there was no point in going at him anymore, though. It wasn't going to accomplish anything other than wearing herself down, and whatever satisfaction she got from inflicting pain on Kranath was overshadowed by how useless her blows ultimately turned out to be. She did, however, tighten her grip on his chest, scrunching up the fabric of his suit as her hand balled up into a fist.

"Well, you got your wish. Here I am, Kranath. Take a reeeaaaaal good look. I hope it was worth coming all the way out here."

Finally releasing her grip on him, Axia gave the other dragon a shove that, unfortunately, wasn't nearly as effective as she wanted it to be. Her arms, now unoccupied, folded over each other as she turned her head away from Kranath. She couldn't bear to stare into that piercing red gaze for too long.

"...Marakai's the one who told me about you. And taught me how to do... this," she explained, unfolding her arms and gesturing with them before returning them to their original position. "Of course, that was a long time ago. Before you did him in. And honestly, I find it hard to believe that you feel sorry about the deaths of so many when you're the one responsible for them."

Marakai2.0

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Re: A Meeting in the Stars: Here, There be Dragons [Cinnabun!]
« Reply #6 on: August 14, 2017, 04:48:33 am »
Kranath stumbled back a single step before righting himself, giving only that much before his single visible eye again turned to her. The look in his gaze still conveyed a smile, despite her hostility.

"Yes. Yes, here you are. And yes, it was more than worth the trip - believe me in that, at least. For now, a possibility of rebuilding our race yet exists."

He'd noticed she had turned away from him, and idly wondered if it was his own countenance that unnerved her so. In response to this, his eye widened for the barest of moments, and the blood red of his eye washed away, replaced with a dark brown. A simple enough tweak to his appearance.

"My dear brother, then...well enough. And you would, of course, assume that I am still the monster I was surely described to you as so long ago. You would be wrong."

His gaze softened, his smile gone.

"The sins of Marakai's death, as well as all of those others, weighs heavily upon my soul. What I did was...well, mistake seems far too light a word for the grand scope of genocide, does it not? Yet here I sit, upon my mountain of dragon's bones, weeping for them and the world at large. I wonder, often - would Earth be where it was today if Marakai yet lived? Could Be - or, rather, would he - have had what it takes to show Adela the folly of their ways?"

He closed his eye, head lowered to face the floor.

"The world stands at death's door, and I can't but feel that I had more than just a hand in it. I cannot erase my sins, yet.... I may be able to nullify them."

Offline Bunbun

Re: A Meeting in the Stars: Here, There be Dragons [Cinnabun!]
« Reply #7 on: August 18, 2017, 04:31:07 pm »
The fact that Kranath also seemed to have an interest in rebuilding the race of dragons- actual dragons- painted him in a slightly more favourable light, at least to Axia. There was finally something that the both of them could agree on, and for a moment she actually considered the possibility of working together with him in order to potentially save their species. That was, of course, until she considered what repopulation might entail. The thought of possibly doing... that with him was sickening to her, but seeing as she had yet to hear him out completely, she tried not to get too pissed off at him.

"...well. Don't get any funny ideas, Kranath. You can talk about rebuilding all you want, but that doesn't mean I'm anywhere close to trusting you."

Kranath's sudden change in his gaze did go some way towards calming Axia down, but probably not for the reason he was expecting. The glowing red eyes reminded her quite a bit of Marakai's, and considering her last memory of him was finding him dead on the ground... needless to say, it was dredging up some traumatic experiences. Well, at least now she could stand to look Kranath in the eye again.

"You can't just change the past, Kranath. Even if you did manage to repopulate enough for dragons to be as abundant as they once were, there's no way of changing Aedolis back to the way it was. It's all sorts of messed up, both the planet itself and everything that lives on it. There's nothing you can do to change the Dragons back to normal, and the people there are so brainwashed it's ridiculous. The place is beyond saving, believe me."

She held his gaze until his eye closed, looking him over for a few seconds before letting out a sigh and allowing her arms to drop to her sides.

"...fine. Out with it. What exactly were you planning on, and why do you need me for it?"

Marakai2.0

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Re: A Meeting in the Stars: Here, There be Dragons [Cinnabun!]
« Reply #8 on: November 16, 2017, 02:27:45 pm »
Funny ideas? Now, whatever could she mean by that? Despite his body's urge to procreate, Kranath was more than well aware that this was not an option. Any child of his might well follow the same path that he had, and that was the very mess he was trying to clean up. No, that wasn't, and never would be, a viable option.

"I have nothing of the sort in mind, if you're thinking what I think you're thinking. No...I don't wish to bring new dragons into the fold. Rather, I want to bring back the old ones."

Kranath let that sink in for a moment, a thin smirk on his face. He'd researched both magic as well as technology, working towards this singular goal for well over a thousand years, all while watching his people dwindling in number - either by being assimilated and becoming just another cybernetic freak like those creatures than ran Aedolis, or by some other grisly end. Now, he was at the cusp of a breakthrough, his goal literally just beyond his reach. But this one, this young, viable female, could help him to bridge that gap and make his dreams of redemption a reality.

"You misunderstand me. True, the past is already happened, and none alive who were alive then will forget it. But, erasing my mistake, as it were, will do more than simply ease the burden of my sin." Kranath leaned in slightly, careful to avoid making any kind of face that could be perceived as threatening. "Those mechanical abominations that dare call themselves dragons must be destroyed. And people - humans and otherwise - are surprisingly adaptable. You need only show them a force they cannot possibly overcome, and they will adhere to it...no, flock to it. History has proved that time and time again. As to the earth itself...well, you just leave that to me. I have an idea in the works for that as well, and unlike Aedolis, I need not involve Edanith in its fruition."

The one eyed Dragon smiled broadly, his voice confident as that statement was completed, before he moved on to the next topic of conversation.

"What I need from you is...well. Put simply, I need your genetic profile. I have one half of the genetic information necessary to reincarnate a Dragon - the genetic profile for a male. I need the information of a female...it is imperative for my work to continue."

He sighed, and crossed his arms over his chest, looking at her oddly. "But in order for that to happen, I would need you to trust me enough to travel with me."

Offline Bunbun

Re: A Meeting in the Stars: Here, There be Dragons [Cinnabun!]
« Reply #9 on: April 01, 2018, 11:51:04 pm »
Her... "genetic profile"? Axia could hazard a guess as to what that meant, and it didn't exactly make her feel too much better about the whole situation. She couldn't, however, be sure about how Kranath intended to go about getting what he needed, or how exactly he was going to use it to bring back the dead. If it was something that couldn't be done on Cancer, but rather required her to go with him to gods-knew-where, chances were that it was going to be some weird mad scientist type shit that she wouldn't trust most people with, let alone Kranath. It wasn't nearly as bad as actually having sex with him, to be fair, but it still didn't sound like something she would be particularly comfortable with.

Then again, though, what choice did she really have but to hear him out? If he was telling the truth, and he really did want to try to bring the old dragons back, then she might very well be dooming her own species to extinction if she turned down his request. On the other hand, if he was still the same dragon she knew him to be all those years ago, then it was probably a bad idea to let him go free without at least trying to figure out what he was up to. Either way, as much as she hated to admit it to herself, cooperating with him seemed to be the best course of action, at least for now. Of course, that didn't mean that she had to be particularly happy about it.

"Okay, look. If you're being genuine about your intentions, then believe me, I want to save our species as much as you do, but you can't blame me for being skeptical. I don't have any reason to believe anything you have to say, other than simply hoping that it's true. And I'm not about to run into your arms, completely defenceless, not unless you start giving me some real reasons to trust you."

She stared up into his eye, trying to gather whatever information she could from the elder dragon's expressions. His ever-present smile, while probably meant to help keep her calm, didn't do much for her except look a little... off-putting. Something about the person that she probably hated the most in the whole universe looking genuinely happy to see her just didn't sit right with her.

"...and you can start by wiping that damn grin off of your face. It's creepy as hell."

 

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