Skylights

[Rhi-Rhi]

Every now and then, when Gabriel had a free moment that wasn't being filled with work and missions and friends and gaming and bumming around, he liked to head up to the rooftop dragon eyries to relax. Truth be told, it was one of his favorite places in all of Haviah; you couldn't get any higher off the ground short of flying, and the view over the city at night, with all its lights and sky-ways, was spectacular. Up here you could even see the moon--something he hadn't seen until he was sixteen--which tonight was full and a rich orange color.

It was really pretty, if you ignored the fact that pollution made it so.

Leaning over one of the railings and peering down at the city below, seeing but not really seeing it, he let his thoughts drift. A lot had happened lately, and he hadn't really given himself time to process or accept all of it, had kept himself distracted as all hell and for good reason, but whenever he came up here he could finally just...think it over, he guessed.

...At least, when he didn't have a warm, slimy tongue suddenly licking up the back of his neck.

"Gotcha."

With a yowl of surprise and disgust, he slapped his hands to his neck and whirled around to come face to face with a slender white dragon--who looked rather smug, Gabriel thought; lizards weren't all that expressive, no, but he'd come to pick up the cues. Groaning, Gabriel did his best to wipe off the saliva but only succeeded in smearing it all over his hands. "SIREN! Don't DO that! That's DISGUSTING!"

"Yeah, it kinda is. Think you put enough hairspray on?" the dragon replied, sticking his tongue out and giving a grimace of disgust. "Smells better than it tastes," he added, stretching his neck and snuffling his nose in his Pilot's hair despite his protests, making good and sure to mess it all up.

Yeeep. Typical Siren. Gabriel never came back from an encounter with him clean and slobber-less, but it was how the dragon showed affection. Or something. Like a big, scary dog, only Gabriel would never dare think that where he could hear it.

Shoving the dragon's nose away, Gabriel ran his fingers through his hair and made a face when they reached a wet, sticky mass of slobber-coated hair. "Eugh...thanks. Jeez. You could at least write me poetry before you start with the tongue action, dude."

"I'll remember that next time. Anyway, we're about to have company," Siren said rather cheerfully, lips pulling back into a candidate-scaring grin, all glistening sharp teeth. He raised his head and looked out into the horizon, clearly having read something on the Network--or, well, the 'hive mind' or something, Gabriel figured. "So I wanted to make sure you looked your best. Really, I think I made your hair look better. Not a big improvement, but it's there."

"...Har de har har." Gabriel rolled his eyes and wiped his hands off on his jeans, nose wrinkling. Dragon slime. Ugh.

[Anonymous]

The thing about solo missions, Kailan reflected sourly, was that it was all fine and dandy when you eliminated the five rebel leaders the mission brief told you about. It was when you were ambushed by said leaders' fucking twenty-man army on your way out the door that you really had to question the wisdom of going it alone.

Not alone, fool girl. Olael's voice was as impatient as any dragon's could be. You had my assistance, did you not?

"Your assistance isn't much help when your fat ass can't even fit in a rebel base," Kailan snapped, and punched her dragon irritably on the base of the neck as he flew them toward the Citadel's rooftop eyries. "I was doing all the work the second half of the mission."

Mice, Olael said scornfully, tossing his head in a very un-dragon-like manner. You hardly needed any help fighting against rebel trash.

"Tell that to the guy who had the taser," Kailan muttered, rubbing her injured shoulder where the electric burn still stung. It had taken nearly all of her control not to burn the whole damn place down around the targets' ears, but apparently the grand poobah of something-or-other needed the secret base for secret operations. The Pilot had been forced to flush out the enemy fighters using just small-scale psionics and hand-to-hand combat, sustaining injuries that could have been avoided if she could have just blown the whole place sky high and been done with it.

"I don't get paid enough for this shit," she muttered as Olael took them in for a landing, then blinked. "Hell~o there--what's this?"

On the eyrie that Olael had chosen there was already another dragon, a medium-sized palely glimmering work of art. Kailan eyed the sheen of metal on its hide as Olael flapped his wings once, twice, then took them in at a slow glide.

[Anonymous]

It was a nice day today.

The paperwork was piling on his desk, the small dish of candies was still fill - which made Xico sad, it meant no one was visiting him - save for the few flavours he himself enjoyed. He even scooped a few up in his good hand and shoved them into a small pocket on his ‘coat’. It could hardly be a coat, but Xico felt better when he called his clothing by the normal names. Three of his limbs left him quite unable to wear normal things, a large scary clawed forearm on the right.

His legs.

Well, his lower legs.

Xico looked down at his feet, the natural pointed heel that added to his already impressive height. With the strange ghost-fellow gone that would leave him almost the tallest. He puffed out his chest as he made his way to the Eyrie, a mental sweep of the area left it to be rather deserted of Pilots except for the higher levels. An Echo. Gabriel Tierney. A flick towards Trust gave him the rest of the info from the files. Ex mentor to Vaughan Liik and Alaina Elise, the latter of the two having died. Current mentor to Finaa al Jarn. Ex candidate of Roman.

Well, that last tid-bit of information just begged Xico to go up and bother him.

Trust was somewhere downstairs. The large green dragon would look like he was asleep, in reality, he’d be deep within his own mind processing information, working over the hive mind, constant surveillance. Very few things got past trust.

Not much could be said for Xico, because he was quite surprised to see Siren there. “Well, Hello Gabriel.” A cheerful voice that didn’t seem fitting coming from a large blue man covered in spikes. His feet were noisy against the ground, being made of hard bone like substance. Xico was, to say the least, unnerving to look at. His eyes looked like they glowed, an illusion from what natural light got into the building. The spikes were worse, of course.

One good punch to the head with his right hand would break someone’s face.

Xico brushed his left hand, the one that wasn’t a giant weapon, against Siren’s side gently, a pet almost. His hand dug into his pocket and he picked out a handful of small warpped hard candy before gently putting them in the clawed hand, his fingers cupped around them so they didn’t roll off onto the ground. “Would you care for a candy? There’s lemon, strawberry, orange and grape.” He wrinkled his nose, and extended his hand out to Gabriel “I don’t care for the grape ones, lemon are my favourite,” He wagged one in his left hand before popping it in his mouth and pushing it into his cheek. Xico leered at Gabriel for a moment, tilting his head to the side and moving his hand to run through his lavender hair, “Nice style, your hair... Ah...”

His eyes flicked outwards to the sky, tilting his head slightly. A quick flick and he frowned, before nodding towards the dragon and his Pilot. “Such a young Echo. It appears we’re going to have a party.” Xico rose his normal looking hand in a wave towards the young woma

[Anonymous]

Unlike his best friend, Alaric loathed the dragon eyries with a passion. Kazef was there and Alaric didn't really like his dragon much. But Kazef complained of being lonely and how Alaric never came to visit. So he got to go visit the smug bastard. Not his idea of a good time.

The large green dragon was intrigued as the Imperial joined Siren and Gabe. Generally he found the stupid blond annoying and detrimental to his messing with Alaric's mind. And Siren was only slightly better. But, well, Kazef at least enjoyed the challenge. Standing with a slight squealing of metal, the dragon shook himself and made his way over to the group, "Well, it seems there is a little party going on. How fun. How are you today Gabriel? I wonder if the reason you can't get a date is the hair..."

Entering the eyrie, Alaric scanned for where Kazef was. It was easy to spot him near Siren, the white dragon tended to catch the eye, though that surprised Alaric. Kazef didn't like Siren much and hated Gabriel. Sighing, the alien headed over, hoping Kazef wasn't being an ass to everyone.

And then noticed Xico. Oh...shit. The Imperial. Because he wasn't terrifying to be around. If Kazef hadn't summoned him, he would have turned and left before anyone noticed. But he couldn't ignore the dragon's order, so Alaric approached the group. He gave the Imperial a quick salute, "Sir."

Kazef gave a draconic grin, all teeth and sharp points, "Ah. Good. You have arrived. You shouldn't ignore me so much Alaric. I have an itch." Kazef moved so he was closer to Alaric, nuzzling his head against the alien's shoulder, enjoying Alaric's discomfort at the touch.

[Anonymous]

Well, wasn't this turning into a party.

Olael landed on the rooftop a respectable distance from the white dragon--Siren, Kailan remembered belatedly. The white dragon was called Siren. Couldn't remember who the Pilot was, but no matter.

As Kailan rolled tiredly off of Olael's back, getting her feet under her at the last second, she saw a shock of blond hair and nearly fell on her face. So that was where Siren's Pilot had gone. The tall boy had been hidden from Kailan's view until now, when he and his bright head of hair had moved into her line of sight.

Kailan shoved her hands into the pockets of her torn and bloody uniform, wondering what to do next, when she abruptly remembered that Siren's Pilot wasn't the only one on the rooftop eyrie.

Shite.

"Sir," she said, hurriedly turning to the Pilot Imperial (oh all the false deities above, please don't let him be angry) and sketching a salute. "Good to see you."

Out of the corner of her eye, Kailan saw the other other Pilot (the non-blond, non-Imperial one) grimacing at his overly affectionate green beast. Kazef, right?

It probably said something about her that the only names she could remember were the Pilot Imperial's and the dragons'.

[Rhi-Rhi]

Turning around to face the skyline again, Gabriel spotted motion in the distance, an object growing closer and closer, and he squinted to try and get a better look. Was that the 'company' Siren was talking about? Obviously it was a dragon, and as it came in for a landing, he saw that it was being piloted. "Is that...?" he started, but not before a cheerful voice cut him off and he jumped.

"Oh, whoa, sorry, didn't know anyone else was up--" The words froze on his tongue as, looking over his shoulder, he saw none other than THE FREAKIN' IMPERIAL!

He spun around to face him and immediately pulled off a neat salute, spine straight, heels together, and shoulders back. "S-sir! I didn't know it was...ah! Nice to see you, sir!" he said, cheeks heating with embarrassment. The Imperial. The IMPERIAL. Sure he had seen the guy in passing, but he had never really met him, not on a face-to-face, first name, individual basis. Was he in trouble? He'd been keeping up with his work! Uh, he had been late for a meeting that one time, though...

And here he was, covered in dragon slime and wearing scrubby 'just bumming around the Citadel' clothes, baggy jeans that had seen better days and an old t-shirt. At least he wasn't in his sweats. "Dammit, Siren! Why didn't you tell me it was the Imperial?!"

"Because he isn't the only one heading here. What difference does it make? He would have come whether I told you or not."

Gabriel bit back a groan. Dragon logic. How he hated it sometimes.

When Xico pulled out a handful of candies, Gabriel relaxed a little and stared down at them, then looked back up at Xico. Was he serious? Well, it would be pretty rude to reject the offer, so he reached and snagged a strawberry candy. "Uh, heh, thanks. Sir," he said, popping it in his mouth and sending Siren a wave of displeasure when the man commented on his hair.

Such a helper, Siren was.

Not as much as Kazef, though.

As the other dragon's voice filled his head, along with the sound if screeching metal, Gabriel looked past Xico and toward the massive dragon joining them. What the...? How did he attract all these people?! He ran a hand through his hair, which was still wet. He didn't like Kazef, not at all; he hated him for what he did to Alaric and tried to do to him, but he did what he always did--just grin it all away. Briefly meeting Alaric's eyes, wishing he could help him, he looked back up to Kazef and flashed him a wide grin, speaking aloud so Alaric could hear. "I'm great, actually! You don't look so shabby, yourself, Kaz. Get your scales polished? Nails clipped? Ohh, lemme guess...someone flossed your teeth!"

But it was easy for him to shake it off--he didn't have to live with the dragon always in his head, connected to him, like Alaric did, and when Alaric showed up, there was nothing Gabriel could do to stop Kazef. His smile faded as he caught his friend's discomfort, and next to him he heard Siren give a hiss of annoyance, teeth bared in a snarl.

Siren wasn't a fan, either; he and Kazef clashed on a personal level, though Gabriel was unsure of their history.

"Mind your own Pilot," Siren warned Kazef, hovering his head above Gabriel's and staring the other dragon down.

By that time, the other Pilot and dragon pair had landed, and Gabriel, who had been slowly edging away from Xico, Siren, and Kazef (he did not want to be in the way if those dragons decided to bicker), finally recognized her. Kailan! Jeez, that girl had been graduated for a few years now but he'd hardly run into her! Bad timing, probably; they were all busy, and...wait, was that blood?

He froze in place, blinking. "Uh...are you okay...?"

[Anonymous]

Kailan gave the blond boy a blank, blank stare.

Your stupidity is amusing, Olael announced, and curled up on the rooftop for a nap.

Your mother was an electric dildo, Kailan snarled back, but Olael had already tuned her out.

She gave the blond Pilot a sheepish smile. "No worries...uh," damnit still couldn't remember his name, "most of the blood's not mine. The bastards used tasers, can you believe that?" She laughed, rubbing at the back of her head with a rueful grimace.

Looked like she'd landed right in the middle of a draconic dispute. Siren was still staring Kazef down, little pissy crackles of dislike and anger charging the air between the two dragons. Kailan shot them a wary glance.

[Anonymous]

Well, they all seemed rather... Stuffy. Xico pursed his lips and flexed the fingers holding the candy, rather pleased with Gabriel took one. Good boy. The Imperial flashed a smile towards the Pilot before turning to another strange looking creature, a hum of interest buzzed through him. Of course he knew of Alaric, but it was rare for Xico to actually meet them face to face. A delighted smile spread across his face, his lips pulling back to display an impressive set of fangs.

“Well, good evening Alaric.” He gave a polite nod of his head towards Alaric and looked around. Well, it was obvious he made people uncomfortable, even if they were trying to hide it he could practically smell it. Taste it on the air. The sheer force of awkward hummed through his muscles and he pursed his lip, the clawed hand still holding candy.

“You realise I won’t eat you.” He looked between both of them before quickly turning around to see a woman. A rather messy woman. “Ah, good evening, Kailan.” Another polite nod of his head, the short lavender hair falling into his face. A quick flick of his normal hand and it was behind dusky pointed ears. The row of horns on his head dark and apparent next to the pale lavender hair.

With a slightly awkward looking slink he moved to stand beside Alaric, his hand extending to the side, “Care for a candy? There’s lemon, strawberry, orange and grape. I don’t like the grape ones, lemon are my favourite.” A bright perky smile and he looked towards Kailan, “You too, young echo! Ignore the dragons, they’re old and cranky. At least Khuno isn’t here, you know.” Xico tapped his lower lip before looking at Alaric, “Your mentor was twenty two before he made Echo. Now look at the cardinals. Echo’s! All of you.” He brushed a faux tear away from his cheek, “I’m so proud.”

“You don’t have to be so formal, I didn’t come here to give you missions.” He pointed to himself, “I am here to slack off.” He paused a moment to look Kailan over, blinking at her as if noticing her state for the first time, “Why on Aedolis are you so roughed up?”

[Anonymous]

My my. I would think an Echo could stand up for themselves. Kazef's lips pulled back a little in what passed for a smile. He nuzzled against Alaric, the Pilot's clawed hand coming up to scratch under the dragon's chin, hoping Kazef would just go away.

No such luck, the unpleasant dragon seemed there to stay. Alaric finally noticed the other Pilot. He couldn't recall it's name, something with a K sound he thought. His nose wrinkled a little at the scent of blood, "Tasers?" She was laughing and Alaric didn't really get it. He had been shot with a taser before and it had hurt. He flushed a little, "I...uh...I don't think I understand the joke."

Poor darling. You should have kept quite, now they all know you are a moron. Kazef's comment had Alaric flushing even more, even his ears were turning dark blue.

Xico spoke then and Alaric felt a little grateful, "Candy? Yes please. I like the orange ones best." He took a piece of the candy, though he just held it in his hand, not really sure what to say. This was the boss. You couldn't just joke around with the Imperial, could you? Being around the Nobles and Royals was awkward enough.

[Anonymous]

Kailan shrugged. "Angry people with guns and tasers happened," she told the Pilot Imperial. "Lots of them. It's okay, I sent the damage report to headquarters."

"I...uh...I don't think I understand the joke," the other other Pilot said, and Kailan blinked and turned to look at the pale-haired alien. He--she--it was scratching at the underside of Kazef's chin, locked in an uncomfortable mental conversation with the green dragon.

"It's funny when they use tasers, see, because they could have just used guns to shoot at me like normal people do." She shuffled forward hopefully as the pale-haired alien plucked a candy from Xico's hand. "Candy? I like candy."

She leaned in to peer at the array of sweets Xico had cupped in his palm, idly noting the wicked curve of the Imperial's claws.

Olael, she prodded. Olael, you gotta help me out here.

Her dragon stirred irritably, mind drifting on the edge of sleep. Kailan didn't even have to look at him to know that he'd cracked open one large, dark eye to glare at her. If it will stop your incessant whining, then I will 'help' you over the eyrie railings.

Har. You're funny. Listen, who're Siren's and Kazef's Pilots?

After a moment, Olael said, PIlot Tierney belongs to Echo Siren. Pilot Eftwyrd belongs to Echo Kazef.

Wait, are those their first names or their--?

Olael tuned her out again. Grumpy bitch. Kailan sent a wave of irritation at her dragon and turned back to perusing the candy, finally picking an orange sweet from the pile. She grinned up at Xico. "Thanks."

Kailan eyed Eftwyrd as she unwrapped the candy and popped it in her mouth. "Don' wan' it?" she asked jokingly, smiling at him with her eyes as she pointed to the orange drop cupped in the Echo's talons. "S'pretty good."

[Rhi-Rhi]

[Whoo, sorry for my lame. Dx]

Tasers.

And she was laughing about being stunned with a taser.

Gabriel's eyebrows rose, and he scratched at his shoulder without realizing it, feeling sympathy pains. He flicked his tongue and shoved the candy between his teeth and cheek so he looked like a lopsided chipmunk. "Yeeeeah...angry people tend to happen when you bust them," he muttered, then gave her a wry grin, motioning at her. "Just be happy they weren't bullets, otherwise you'd be digging for lead right now. Gotta work on that dodging and shielding thing, huh?"

He laughed at a lot of things, but he wasn't so sure he'd be laughing after that. While he could work through pain, as any of them had been trained to do, he was no masochist! That stuff hurt and she was damned lucky it hadn't hit her in the chest! There wasn't a lot Gabriel took seriously, but damned if safety on missions wasn't one of them.

Of course, some Pilots were a little off their rockers, so hey, don't ask, don't tell...

He shot a look Alaric's way, then shuffled closer. He knew that look all too well, the cornered rabbit look Alaric got around his dragon, and Siren had backed off of Kazef so it looked safe enough to go near him, since it no longer looked like the beginnings of an all-out dragon throw-down. Shooting Asshole-Dragon a winning smile, he slung an arm around his friend's shoulders and dragged him a little off to the side, the height difference between them forcing Alaric into a bit of a stoop.

"Sorry, just borrowing my buddy for a sec!" he shot at Kazef, then smiled over at Xico, trying his best to act natural. The boss man had said don't act formal...but that was kind of dangerous. Well, he'd try to loosen up, but he sure as hell wasn't going to push his luck. There was a difference between pushing his luck with Roman and pushing his luck with The Imperial, and even with Roman there was a line you Did Not Cross. A bendy, elastic line that Gabriel was slowly stretching out more and more, but it was still there.

"D'aaw, thanks, sir. I'm proud of me, too!" he said with a grin, leaning lazily against Alaric.