The ATC is bland and boring (Closed)

[Anonymous]

“I never said age was a bad thing, I just said that because it annoys him,” Mara replied, “I could have worse dragon though. Some would eat me for that comment.”

     He laughed when she suddenly started flying around above him. But he was a little insulted at the implication he needed her to give him a lift. She obviously underestimated the pilots. He simply used telekinesis to float up to Arka’s pen. Latona could fly up to the pens though. It would be rather interesting if she and Demya ever met. The winged pilot would probably find Demya annoying though and break her wings.

     Mara glanced across at his partner, currently the dragon was watching Demya fly around in front of him. Mara glanced past her at the pens on the opposite wall. Oh great Tenebrous was in, he seemed to be asleep but that probably wouldn’t last what with Demya being so noisy.

     “I am Arka,” the old dragon said getting to his feet, “And I do not know why I was named after the city of Arca. It still existed when I was born however. So that should give you some indication of how old I am. And yes we still have genders.”

     Arka’s voice had a rather grandfatherly quality to it. Stern but not mean and he was a big softie really.

     “And kindly keep the noise down harpy. Some of the dragons are trying to sleep. If you continue to make a nuisance of yourself you may just wake Tenebrous over there. And trust me he is not as kind as I am.”

     Tenebrous was a rather…interesting looking dragon. His scales were dark purple and half of his body was covered in armour. From his back protruded mechanical wings and on his head was a helmet with holes cut out to allow his ears and horns to poke through.

[Anonymous]

When Mara started levitating on his own, Demya felt a little put out. She had offered because it would be fun. She dropped in the air slightly and sighed before following him the rest of the way. She perched herself in front of the dragon and bent her head and wings down in a sort of bow. The dragons she had met had all been very respectable and she in turn, respect them.

When Mara glanced at another dragon, she turned her head. That must be the cranky dragon. No wonder he is so angry, I would be too if most of me was made of metal. I don't even want to wonder what that would be like.

Greetings Old One Arka, she thought in a long dead language. Perhaps that wasn't the correct greeting. You can't really call those younger than you Old One. Hopefully he didn't think her thoughts were insulting. It is a pleasure to meet you.

I will try to keep the noise down but I must warn you, I may start chirping inside. She gave the dragon a sly mental-grin then cocked her head bith mentally and physically. What do you remember of the Earth when it was whole? What were you like back then? Do you think we could show Mara some memories? She then turned her mind to Mara so that he wouldn't feel left out. In modern speach she thought, do you mind if we talk about the past? You might even see some things you remember. After that could we go somewhere really open. I still haven't found anywhere to fly freely. This place was made for humans afterall.

Demya pulled back into her thoughts a bit and considered giving the dragon a feather. She would be doing it more out of respect than friendship but she was already warming to him. She decided not to for now, she had all the time in the world to give him one. Did you know that other winged creatures used to use feathers as tokens? Kind of like debts owing. I used to too until someone sold one on the black market. That was mean because I had to do what they said. That and I don't like being controlled.

She remembered that she had given one to Mara and blushed. I don't owe you anything for that one. Well I probably do owe you but it has nothing to do with the feather. If you do sell it on the blackmarket though I probably wont be nice to you for a very long time.

Demya started scratching at the door. She wanted to start flying and chirping again. Maybe some of the dragons would let her make their areas a little more natural.

[Anonymous]

“I remember bits of what the world used to be like and yes I could show Mara memories if he wished. However he would have to earn that privilege.”

     Mara laughed internally at Arka’s thought, the dragon was always trying to find ways to make him more sensible, but sensible was boring and bribery rarely worked on him.

     “You do not need to call me ‘Old One’,” Arka continued, “You are older than me after all. As for making some of the dragon’s pens more natural I doubt they’d appreciate it.”

     Demya hadn’t said anything like that had she? Arka must be reading her thoughts; well she was only a candidate so he didn’t need to ask.

     Suddenly a loud booming voice echoed through Mara’s mind.

     “Arka, shut that harpy up and if she dares come any where near my pen I will eat her.”

     Great…Tenebrous was awake…What he had just said sounded vaguely like something Latona would say…Maybe she was rubbing off on him.

     “Tenebrous, shut the hell up, you’re more likely to wake the other dragons than she is!”

     Oh great, Latona was here as well…Sure enough a moment later, the winged woman flew up into Tenebrous’ pen and glanced across at them.

     “Mara, why is the harpy candidate in here with you. You know you aren’t allowed candidates.”[/i]

     He frowned at her, her conduct last night was far from exemplary. She shouldn’t be allowed candidates either.

     “I was merely introducing her to the dragons as Victor has neglected to,” he said cheerfully.

[Anonymous]

I remember bits of what the world used to be like and yes I could show Mara memories if he wished. However he would have to earn that privilege.

'That sounds fair,' she thought to him. 'Has it worked so far? So er, what would you like me to call you? You can just call me Demya. Just make sure you pronounce it properly.'

She turned and saw a winged pilot coming in. It was all so exciting. Perhaps this place wasn't as dull as she first thought. Demya's mind started chirping, there were more people here.

'Ooo! Hello,' called Demya as she flew over to Latona. 'You have really pretty wings. Mara's not my mentor, he's just showing me around. Greetings Tenebrous.'

She cocked her head. She wasn't exactly sure what to say to him so she just bent her head and wings in the same manner as she had to Arka. She didn't bow as low though, he wasn't as much of a dragon in her eyes.

'My mentor is Victor. I've only seen him once though; he's not that nice. I think he needs a bunch of flowers.'

[Anonymous]

Mara saw Latona roll her eyes, “I know Mara isn’t your mentor, like I said he isn’t allowed candidates. He’s a bad influence.”

     However he noticed her twitch her wings a little at Demya’s compliment. And he had to admit, Latona was quite pretty, or she would be if she smiled more and was a little friendlier. Most of the time she was frowning or being sarcastic or whining or being violent. She wasn’t the nicest of people.

     Neither was Tenebrous, he was visibly unimpressed with Demya bowing to him, he probably couldn’t wait for her to leave, or maybe it was because his pilot was present, he didn’t seem to like Latona at all. Then again he didn’t seem to like anybody.

     “How am I a bad influence?” Mara protested.

     Latona sighed, “You’re weird, you convinced the harpy to cover the mess hall in vines which I noticed on my here. You’ll do anything if asked, have no shame whatsoever, and delight in annoying us all.”

     Mara laughed, they were some good reasons but things that the others pilots had too. The doing anything if asked was just his nature and besides the candidates would be forced to do some pretty degrading things. He only annoyed the pilots because they didn’t really talk to him, and as for convincing Demya to redecorate the mess hall, it wasn’t as if she needed much persuasion.

     But as he said, any of the pilots’ merits as mentors could be questioned. Some might think Gabriel was too nice to his, Latona nearly killed one of hers and didn’t always follow protocol; Roman had made one of his unable to walk. Mara’s supposed flaws were marginal in comparison to some.

[Anonymous]

'That's silly. If you know he's not my mentor then what is the problem? He's taking me here as a favour, it's what people to.'

Demya didn't like the way the white-winged woman was picking on her friend but he didn't seem too upset. Perhaps this was some long standing arguement between the two.

'You know, it's not very nice to be mean to somebody because they're not normal. That's how slavery starts and I hate slavery. You should go to Edanith if you're going to use weirdness as an excuse to atop people doing things. You're acting like a human, they did that sort of thing all through history.

'Besides, the lunch hall looks better now too. If someone doesn't like the gross cafeteria food, they can have fresh fruit. I suggest trying the grapes, you might like them.'

Demya completely lost her train of thought and started flexing her wings. It was a shame to have so much space and not use it. Perhaps she could leave the two pilots to bicker while she exercised. She pushed off from the ground and leapt down towards the floor. Once she got a few yards from the floor she pulled herslef back and looped backwards up into the air. How wonderful it is to feel the air through you're feathers. I love the way it tickles.

'Hey Mara, how do you feel about being a passenger?' she called up to him. She remembered the whjite-winged woman and let out a trill of birdcalls. 'Do you want to join in too?' She came back up and hovered in the air near her. 'I don't know you're name yet. I'm Demya. Dem-ai-ya, not Dem-ya. My pilot seems to have a lot of trouble with that. I don't think he likes company much.'

[Anonymous]

Latona frowned at the harpy, “He’s not normal behaviour wise, physically I’m not normal. I have these remember,” she said flexing her wings.

     The harpy seemed to be a spacey air-headed creature that seemed to like riding her high horse. Latona didn’t even need to read her mind to tell she thought all non-humans were better than humans. Sure Latona wasn’t human either but she grew up around them, her foster parents were human so she considered herself one…she just had a couple of extra appendages.

     “And my problem is that if Mara isn’t allowed candidates then what does that tell you? It tells you he should not be around them and should not be influencing them.”

     Mara had claimed he was going to make friends with all the candidates and influence them all. The harpy seemed the easiest one to influence. Her candidates however would probably not be taken in, especially Nika, he seemed to dislike cheerful people and Mara was certainly that, even if he was annoying. Setrul however was an idiot. She’d have to warn him about the immortal idiot.

     Then the harpy suddenly jumped out of the pen and started flying around and being very noisy about it.

     “My name is Latona,” she replied to the harpy’s call, “And you might want to keep the noise down Dem-ya. Tenebrous here doesn’t like being disturbed.”

     She had deliberately mispronounced the harpy’s name to annoy her. It seemed it was true about her, she was incredibly irritating and Tenebrous obviously disliked her as well.

     “How do you think Victor will react if I break one of her wings and she falls to imminent death or injury?” Tenebrous asked privately to his pilot.

     “I’m not sure, but I’d tell him it was just.”

     Tenebrous smiled evilly, or as close to smile as a dragon could get. He glanced at the harpy’s left wing and a few seconds later there were five consecutive, very audible snaps.

[OOC If you don't like, PM me and I'll edit it so Tenebrous doesnt hurt her o.O]

[Anonymous]

'You'e got wings, don't you ever feel the urge to use them? I've noticed they don't have many places to fly around here, at least that I can get into. How are we meant to train and keep fit if we can't use them?'

Demya crossed her arms across her chest. She made an irritated chirp and shook her head. 'You've got it wrong. My name is De-mai-ya, don't think I don't realise you did that deliberately,' she said.

It took a few moments after her wing was broken before she realised what had happened. She screamed and plummetted towards the ground in a spiral. She shot her arms to and sent vines up to where the dragons were, her scream turning into a threatening screech. She climbed back onto the landing with the help of her vines, which disappeared shortly after.

Her wing hung painfully to her side and it hurt as she precariously tucked it into place. She rubbed the main wing joint then drew a shudderring breath.

'What on Earth is your problem you metallic psycho! You broke my wing because I was enjoying myself? That's pathetic! No wonder the Earth was destroyed if you are what people are expected to be like,' Demya's shouts echoed through the dragonarium (LOL). She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. She wasn't gong to get anywhere like this.

'Arka, I'm sorry for any disturbance the other dragon,' she shot Tenebrous and Latona viscious looks, 'and I made. I look forward to seeing you again. Mara, could you please help me to the hospital.' She gave him a smile, it wasnt as bit as her normal, bright smile but it wasbig enough to cover just how much pain she was in.

'This is the second time I'm going there. Victor decided he didn't like me sitting on the floor. How was I to know I was meant to crouch on the seat?' she said. 'This place is really frustrating sometimes.'

Demya wove a large net, this one had pretty flowers on it. Demya picked some and rubbed it between her feathers. She hissed in pain as te pressure hurt her wing.

[Anonymous]

Even Mara was shocked when Tenebrous suddenly broke Demya’s wing. Latona could have broken it too just as easily but he knew from the energy that occurred with the snap that the dragon was the culprit. And Demya knew that too, he suspected she hadn’t noticed any change in energy and had just guessed the dragon had done it. Their pilot meanwhile was trying to suppress a smile. Pilots were not allowed to discipline candidates other than their own but Latona hadn’t done anything except insult the harpy, so she wouldn’t get in trouble. As much as Tenebrous and Latona bickered, sometimes they were completely in sync.

     The purple, dorky helmet wearing dragon snorted before curling up and going to sleep, now completely ignoring the harpy, Mara and his own pilot. It was just like him really to be like that.

     “Sure,” Mara said, “Do you need some help getting down?”

     Tenebrous probably wouldn’t attack Demya again, he should have that time and later would probably have to answer for his actions, but he probably didn’t care. Latona however sighed exasperatedly when Tenebrous went to sleep then simply flew down and left.

[Anonymous]

Demya glared at Mara and snapped, 'I have a broken wing. If this is all it takes to stop me, I would have been dead a thousand times over by now.'

To illustrate her point, the large net moved around her and gathered her up. Her legs hung between the vines as she was lowered to the ground. The vines disappeared and Demya took a second to balance herself.

'That dragon is infuriating! I didn't do anything to him. I saw the way he was looking at me. I didn't think people here would injure eachother for te sake of it. If this is how you people treat your allies, I am glad I'm not with those Earth-abandonning Edaniths. At least Arka hasn't been affected by humans too much.

'So, which way is the hospital from here? In fact, I probably wouldn't know how to get beck to the lunch hall either. My sister got all the navigating skills. You'd think for being part bird, I'd at least have that magnetic, homing instinct. I mean, I can tel you where to go to get to the place I was born but that is very little use now. OUCH!'  Demya shifted her wing and stopped to try and move it again. 'Ow, I'm going to have to bind this up. Could you hold it in place for me?'

[Anonymous]

Mara was a little surprised when Demya snapped at him, but having a broken wing was probably making her cranky. He hadn’t been implying she was weak, he was just being friendly. Yeah, he knew she’d lived along time but the wing probably still hurt.

     As the harpy’s net of vines lowered to the ground he used his telekinesis to get down. At another time he might have shown off and turned his hair into a wing like shape and glide down. Now was probably not a good time for that though.

      “Not all the dragons are that bad,” Mara replied to Demya’s ranting, “Like you said Arka’s not bad. There are good and bad dragons and good and bad pilots.”

     Some of the dragons were horrible, like Tenebrous but some were nice, like Arka and Lartech and Powder. In fact nasty dragons were quite rare.”

     She didn’t pause and just continued talking however. Something about not being good at navigating.

     “I’ll show you the way don’t worry.”

      She then asked him to hold her wing whilst she bound it which he did.

     Even if the dragons and pilots didn’t blatantly attack her, she would probably still end up at the infirmary a lot. Candidates usually did, even he had and he couldn’t die. Injuring him was pretty hard too. He suspected that if she were to tell him this, she wouldn’t believe him or would think that wouldn’t happen to her. Demya’s heart was in the right place but she was very self-righteous and ignorant.

     “Maybe you could use your psychic abilities to make a mental map of the ATC,” Mara suggested, “Or cheat and read the minds of however walking past. That’s how I learnt my way around.”

     Not very polite but necessary.

[Anonymous]

'I never said that all dragons were bad. It's just that a lot of the pilots are so moso-christ-ic. Did you know that one of them carves into people? That's disgusting. I have never understood why creatures harm eachother if not in war or for food. Or the whole control thing. I hate it when people try to control one another.'

Demya gave a hiss as she bound the vines tightly around her 'Okay, that hurts.' Demya took a deep breath and composed herself.

'I don't like delving into people's minds without permission, only humans like that. Okay, not all humans but if you look at their history it is full of mind-control, slavery and destruction. I could search out my way though. I don't know why I didn't think of that.

'Why does the military insist on having everything grey and white? Even the uniforms look like they grew out of some old cement vats. I guess they don't use cement anymore though. Did you ever have to keep your hair grey?

'Want to see something really colourful? I can make you a flower crown if you like. I can even make one that you can eat - leaves, stems and all.'

[Anonymous]

When Demya mentioned a pilot who carved their name into people, she was obviously referring to Dyerlich. And he only carved his name into his candidates. She must have seen her roommate’s scar. Mara had spotted her once; he couldn’t remember her name, only that she was very tiny and had silver hair and was a psychic mage supposedly.

     “I don’t understand the controlling thing, I doubt most humans do either,” Mara replied, “And I don’t delve into people’s heads without permission now anyway. And I only did when I was a candidate to learn why way around.”

     Okay, that was a lie. When he was a candidate he used to delve into people’s heads a lot because he was allowed to and it was encouraged. It wasn’t that long ago he’d been a candidate but he’d still been a little immature then. He still was to some extent.

      Demya then changed the subject abruptly, something she seemed prone to.

     “I don’t know why everything is grey and white. Maybe it’s because it’s inoffensive and neutral. But no, they didn’t make me have my hair grey,” he said cheerfully, “Never heard of cement though.”

     He pulled at the flowers already in his hair, “Its okay, I think these are colourful enough. Besides I can make my hair any colour I want.”

     He concentrated a moment and his hair suddenly began to lengthen to shoulder blade length. Then it turned cherry red with a gold streak hanging down one side of his face and the bottom edges turned gold as well.

[Anonymous]

'Hey, I'll have to fix them again if you do that... OOO! Very nice? What else can you do with it? Can I play with it again when the staff finish with my wing? Or better yet, could you show me somewhere big and open I can fly? I haven't found anywhere and I'm going to go insane if I can't get out!'

She stretched out her good wing and flapped it a bit. Walking was so annoying, how did people go around not enjoying the freedom of having the wind whistle past them? 'Do you fly around a lot? I mean, seeing as though you can levitate.' What he did wasn't the same type of flying, he didn't have wings.

She really hoped that they would get to the hospital soon. Stupid metallic dragon!

[Anonymous]

Mara laughed when Demya expressed her like of his hair, even after the many years he had lived he never got bored of playing with it. Even though he could change its colour he tended to stick with pink because it was his favourite. And he rarely ever chose natural hair colours, they were boring.

     “Sure I’ll let you play with it if you want,” he chuckled, “I don’t know about finding anywhere open enough to fly in though. You’d probably have to ask the winged pilots. There’re three of them that I know of.”

     Demya had already met Latona and she clearly hadn’t liked the harpy. Victor was her mentor and Demya couldn’t contact him. That just left Seiteki and he doubted she would be very helpful.

     “And no, I don’t fly around a lot, when I’m not on missions I tend to just use levitation for getting up to Arka’s pen. Or I turn my hair into wings and fly up with those.”

     That used a different type of hair than the one of his head. Since they needed to be on his back he used his back hair for that.

     Mara stopped suddenly when he realised they were stood outside of the infirmary. He hadn’t really been concentrating on where he was going.

     “Here we are,” he said as he opened the door gesturing for Demya to go in first.

[Anonymous]

Demya folded her wing to get into the door. 'I didn't know men still did the whole door-opening thing. It's cute,' Demya smiled, 'oh yeah, thank you.'

She went up to the medical staff, who gave a gasp. 'Oh come on, I'm not that scary!'

'It's okay Sam, she's been here before,' said a familiar voice. The doctor that had been there while Demya had been treated last time came over, looking none too impressed. 'Good afternoon Pilot, Sir. I hope she hasn't been pesterring you too.'

'My name is Demya and I'm not pesterring anyone. It wasn't my fault I was thrown against a wall either. It's Vicky's fault if he can't figure out I can't sit at a table.' Demya scowled at the thought of her mentor: stupid, dull jerk.

The doctor sighed and massaged her forehead, 'well, what are you in for this time?'

'A broken wing. I would have thought it would be obvious, the thing is strapped to my back.'

[Anonymous]

[OOC Mmmm Faily goodness]

Mara chuckled, “Well it’s difficult to actually ‘hold’ a door open unless it was faulty, that’s probably why it died out.”

     One of the medical staff seemed frightened of Demya. Sure she was a harpy but she was friendly. And besides she was a candidate, if she did anything really wrong she’d get shipped to TRIM the moment the grace period was up.

     Another doctor appeared however and seemed to know Demya.

     “Don’t worry,” Mara replied, “She wasn’t pestering me. I’m glad to have someone who’ll put up with me.”

     He couldn’t remember the last time he had been in the infirmary for his own injury. It was at least 50 since he had been injured seriously enough.

     He had heard about Victor attacking Demya but not exactly what he had done, “What did Victor do anyway?”

     She must have really pushed his buttons.

[Anonymous]

Demya smiled at Mara when he stood up for her and sent out a canary-like chirp. A male canary chirp because everyone who knew what a canary was knew that males sang better.

When asked what Icky Vicky had done, Demya flicked her hair and pulled a face. 'Well, what happened was couldn't sit at the table so I crouched down. I mean, it's not like I did anything wrong; I can't even sit. I didn't want the food so I grew a little grape vine in my hands,' she cupped her hand to demonstrate. 'I gave him some and told him I felt sorry for him. He didn't like that so he twisted my arm out of its socket. He's very ungrateful.

'I didn't take kindly to being attacked so I attacked him and showed him why I'm going to obey him. So, he threw me up against the wall and tried to crack my skull, strangled me froze me, blinded me and a whole lot of other stuff. Do you know how hard it is to get blood out of feathers? Trust me, it's the most time-consuming thing ever. I did manage to kiss him though,' Demya said before flashing a wicked grin.

'Candidates, they get worse every year. Come on Demya, let me see your wing. Will you be coming too, Sir?'

'His name is Mara,' Demya pointed out. 'And don't patron-eyes me.'

She did as she was told however and followed the woman to another room where there was a desk, a chair and a bed. The vines holding her wing in place disappeared and the wing drooped so that it scraped the ground. Having it move hurt and she let out a hiss.

[Anonymous]

As friendly as Demya was, he knew Victor and he suspected that Demya wasn’t quite telling him everything or at the very least was putting a biased slant on it. If he were a lesser man he might have read her mind to see what happened. He wasn’t going to do that though.

     Mara had to suppress a laugh at the medic’s comment; candidates did seem to get worse every year, and more interesting which was always good. The ATC needed some interesting personalities.

     “Sure, I’ll come as well,” Mara replied, “It’s Pilot Cassian by the way.”

     The medics, if they didn’t treat you very often tended to know you by your official name instead since it was at the top of your records.

     He followed Demya into the room, dumping his guitar case on the floor before leaning against the wall.

     “I don’t think I’ve been injured seriously enough to end up here in over 50 years,” he laughed.

[Anonymous]

The doctor called a healing mage in and they started to work on Demya's wing. 'Why haven't you been in here? Are you a healer as well as some type of hair mage?'

She tilted her head thoughtfully and looked at him. 'Mara, do you know something, I don't think Vicky and I are ever going to see eye to eye. I mean, I'm a harpy; I can't just let him boss me around. For starters, we or, well, just me now, hate it when people try to get control over us. The thing is, I have to pass this course. I have to become a Pilot.'

'Okay, this is healed now. Let's see if you can stay out of here for more than a week.'

'Excellent, can I play with your hair again Mara, or perhaps I should preen this wing first. It's hard to fly when they're out of place. Should I be calling you Pilot Cassian?' she asked.

She stretched out her wings and watched their movement as she walked. The one that had been broken needed some of the feathers organised but otherwise they weren't too bad. She could probably last without doing them. Just for the fun of it she made the vines already in her hair disappear and replaced them with jasmine, the same ones as she had used to decorate the massive uniform closet. They curled around her neck and down her arms, ending in a pretty swirl on the back of her hand and a little white flower on each. Perfect.

'So, where would you like to go?'