Avengaea Roleplay (Pre-bonding Character Interactions)

[Dray]

((Oooh, one more day of no internet and then I'm back! Apologies for long post; I have had nothing to do but type, lately! Hope it's okay if I jump in!))

((So Orlinton is one of the Aven bonders that didn't bond in the single ceremonies! He's about 17' tall in dragon form, or 6' in his anthro form. Brown fur, with a few cream-coloured gems at neck, shoulders, hips and knees. A fluffy golden belly, green feathered wings and mane. He has two tails, one with Niteshan jelly, one with gold fur and an ax-shaped tip. I'll link a picture shortly!))

Sanctuary's Bonding Complex... for Orlinton Filidechiroptidae --through the vagaries of Nexus time -- it had been more than a couple of years, it had been closer to a couple of decades. Despite the passage of all of that time, however, stepping foot on Sanctuary soil brought back memories as though they'd come from yesterday.

Orlinton's last visit to Sanctuary had been in accompaniment with his draconic childhood friends. He, too, had been little more than a dragonet. Standing over seventeen feet tall gave the courtyard a wholly different perspective, one that only reinforced the sense of uncertainty that he felt about coming back after so long to try to bond again. He felt very much like an outsider amongst his sister and friends (not to mention their bonds), given that those who had bonded had taken so much longer to age. They were just achieving their adulthood. Orlinton had reached maturity, oh, fifteen years ago? Something about being in the bonding complex left him feeling stilted and out of place.

His discomfort didn't end there. Orlinton glimpsed a familiar kit's face, and found his tails lashing in distress: all of the bonding prospects looked just like they had when he and his company had left Sanctuary, oh so long ago. He had known that, coming into this, world hopping might cause some time distortion... but seeing it first hand drove that point unsettlingly close to home.

"Hey, you doing alright?" A wing nudged him, and Orlinton glanced over at his sister. Her look of concern shook him from his worries, and he fluffed his green, feathery ruff forward indignantly. Shonshi grinned and shoved him more callously, glad to be of some service.

A tiny clap of attention grabbed the dragon's attention, and he looked down to the humanoid that stood only to the height of his elbow. "Alright, you great big louts, shrink on down here or else I'm going to be worrying about being stepped on!" It was true that there were a lot of them in the courtyard. Orlinton; his sister Shonshiarnath and her Niteshan bond, Marimianu; the red Dyrmyst dragon Faraway Firescale and his Askan bond, Saroto; his Askan/Piralan crossbreed friend, Denique, his humanoid bond, Dracothrope, and his co-bond, Tanjoubi... it was so crowded, in fact, that Faraway was poking his head over the wall from the outside. They were quite crammed in!

With several flashes of light, the courtyard became much more spacious again: Orlinton looked much as he had in dragon form, though he stood on two legs instead of four. Shonshi was much the same as him, though all of the Asandae had become more human in appearance. "Better!" Dracothrope exclaimed.

"So, where to first?" Denique wondered aloud. Everyone turned to Orlinton, whether or not they consciously meant to put him in charge. It was him that was supposed to be bonding, after all.

The brown furred dragon anthro ran a hand through his feathers, considering his options. He felt a flush growing along his exposed cheeks and muzzle and, feeling gruff with himself for showing any uncertainty, announced, "I'd like to look around by myself for a while." He scanned all of their faces and added, belatedly, "if that's okay with you."

Dracothrope splayed her hands in acceptance. "Sounds good to me! We'll just be relaxing out here."

"Aww, c'mon," Shonshi interrupted.

"Relaxing out here," Dracothrope repeated, looking down her long muzzle at the dragoness.

Denique slipped over to Shonshi and threw an arm over her gem-laden shoulder. "Hurry, Orli, we'll keep her tied down!"

Orlinton scurried into the main doors of the complex, grateful for once in his life to be away from the scuffle that was ensuing behind him. Now he kept his eyes open for familiar faces from his last stay in the complex, that worried knot already beginning to form up in his stomach again.

-------

((Magpie is roughly medium-dog sized, maybe the height of a husky or a german shepherd. She's a trickster by nature, and though she's only ever set to bugging Mullen in the past, I'm just putting a flag up that she'll probably try to make other character's lives difficult if she makes 'friends' with them. She's quite incorrigible. Black fur, which fades to bronze at her fluffy feet. She has very long, tufted ears, sports a bowl-cut of fluffy black->bronze hair on her head. Has a tail with long bronze hair and an orb at the very tip that glows at times. Besides her webbed, cream-coloured wings, she sports a plume of feathers over either wing-shoulder. Will link to her page as soon's it's up!))

One might think that the man striding through the bonding complex's halls was a fellow who had brought his exotic, dark-furred pet along with him on his explorations. In truth, it was quite the opposite -- Magpie had encouraged this entire expedition, and Mullen had quite sullenly agreed to come along and play guide. The human was relatively average in height and weight, with sandy brown hair that was showing a touch of grey already, despite the fact that he was only in his mid-thirties or, at latest, early forties. He wore clothing that wouldn't be out of place along the Horn, or maybe even as far as Edilion: a loose tunic and leggings, along with thong-style sandals. A pair of dog-tags clicked under his currently stooped shoulders, however; a keepsake from the days of his life before he'd settled on Avengaea.

Magpie, for her part, looked nothing like she belonged. Small and black and fluffy, she could easily have been mistaken as a daemon bred by some gene artisan with an obsession for cute, cuddly things. Though she was the former, by no means was Magpie the latter: she was a trickster, excellent with sleight of paw and tormenting those she set an eye upon. Just why she wanted to be at the bonding complex was a mystery to Mullen. He couldn't see her wanting to bond with a dragonet, given that he'd never seen her work with others, or even form a single friendship. And yet as they perused the halls and looked into currently empty classrooms, Magpie held back an intense excitement. It was a plotting kind of excitement, certainly.

For the moment, the shaggy little fuzz-ball seemed to be avoiding clumps of people chatting throughout the complex, ducking shyly behind the human whenever anyone came into view. "You know, you're going to have to talk to someone other than me some time," the man speculated. "That's how this works, you know."

"I'll give you one tip for free," Magpie hissed up at him. "Always examine all of your exits before you engage with anyone."

"Sir, yes sir," Mullen drawled down at her, voice dripping with slow sarcasm. A moment later, he found himself sprawling forward on the lightly moss-covered floor. Luckily the wind hadn't been knocked out of him, so as he rolled to support himself with one elbow, he added, "I will be very glad when you've been pawned off on someone else."

A thick, wet tongue zerberting in his ear was his only reply, and the man gave a cry and made a face, shoving Magpie away while still sitting on the floor.

[Yakima]

Asher smiled. "Sounds much better then Sentra, even Pern," he grinned. "Though, even Pern was better then Sentra, even with their huge (though not as huge as the dragons here), dragons and strange plants. Well, some of the things I recognized but I guess call them different things." He frowned. "The same thing kinda happened on Sentra, I guess..."

[[sorry, short posts...]]

[StarFyre]

((Hey, new chars! Wanna run into either of them, Xalia? Since I added a random direction of travel, you can pick who we run into (if you want to run into one or ze other)))

::They have a lot of different things, according to Treya.:: Ansel commented as he nudged Kinsi into moving in the right direction, then started padding along at her side. ::I, er... really haven't had the courage to go there myself during the day, so I don't know. They put some little finger-foods out at night, I guess in case anyone gets hungry in the middle of the night, and that's what I've been nibbling on.::

____________________________________________________________

Flikk blinked, shrugged, and fell into step on Ansel's other side. It wasn't critical, by any means, that they find their rooms (or, more precisely, that he find where he and the other two were officially staying), and anything that got Ansel to willingly move around during the day was a blessing. The boy was far too self-conscious of his beast-form, in Flikk's opinion. Maybe Kinsi would be a good influence.

He looked over his shoulder, spotted Treya walking with another person, and signed to her: food and continue on. She'd understand.

____________________________________________________________

"It really was a beautiful place. Maybe one of these days I'll return and spend some time there, again." Treya smiled, "But for now, I'm with the Devyrs, and we're hired by Clan Akelara, so there's not much time to spend time elsewhere." She saw Flikk, Ansel, and Kinsi turning to leave and tilted her head slightly, wondering if Flikk would call her back. But, no, he signed that they were going for food and that she could do whatever she wanted. With a little skip in her step, Treya signed back her acknowledgment and turned back to Asher with a smile.

"I amused several of the Devyrs for a while. There's a plant they use for bruises that they call adiro, but for me, it's bruiba, and seeing them use it for bruises is... well, it's a bit like watching someone take a really rare flower and stick it in their hair only to discard it a bit later, because they can."

[Yakima]

Asher only smiled, looking around him as he walked. Again, Tiro made it known he was hungry. The elf sighed. "Perhaps I better find something to feed Tiro," he told Treya, gesturing to the fire-lizard in his arm. "I think he's going to bit my arm if I don't..."

[StarFyre]

((Cannibalistic fire-lizard! Eats its own bond, as a source of renewable noms. Woot! =P ))

Treya pointed towards Flikk, Ansel, and Kinsi. "Well, they're going to get food. We can tag along, if you want. There's a dining hall not too far from here, if your little not-lizard-lizard can wait that long." She grinned, "Otherwise, I suppose he will just have to start dining on you."

[Yakima]

[[lol, yeah, well, Asher wouldn't know that. He wasn't on Pern long enough to figure that out. heehee]]

Wincing, Asher shook his head. "He's waited this long, I'm sure he can hold off on testing my finger for a little while longer," he smiled, nodding and waving his hand before him. "Lead on, Treya."

[[some habbits shall die hard. lol]]

[StarFyre]

((I can't believe this is three pages long c.c;; And that I'm a significant part of that. Wow do I have no life =P ))

Treya flashed an amused grin at Asher, "You never know, he's awfully little. Maybe just give him your little finger to chew on and he'll shut up." Nevertheless, she trotted to catch up with Flikk and the rest, sending Mrrak and Kyar on ahead of her.

"Cap'n Flikk," she said as they caught up, using Flikk's official title because they were in public and he was her superior, and that was what Zarilyna had drilled into her head.

He arched an eyebrow at her, "Who's your friend?"

What was she... oh! Right! Treya cleared her throat and straightened up a bit, "Asher, this is Cap'n Flikk, the white fuzzball is Ansel, and this is... uhh.." She eyed Kinsi for a moment, chewing on her lip, before her face lit up, "Kinsi! This is Kinsi. Guys, this is Asher."

Flikk winced slightly and Treya wondered what she had done wrong. Had she not said something right? Was she not supposed to introduce Kinsi because she wasn't 'part' of their group? Treya was at a complete loss, though she tried not to show it, and Flikk didn't seem about to correct her immediately. So maybe it was just something that rubbed him wrong, but wasn't a real mistake?

[Yakima]

Asher made no comment to his remark about Tiro eating his finger. In his own, quite way he laughed as he followed her to the others. His eyes widened - was their no end to the strange creatures of this Nexus place Tayenden had told him about. Nevertheless, twenty-eight years of service took over and he half-bowed to them but said nothing as his mind tried to figure out those before him.

[[okay, he's not trying to be rude by not saying anything but away from Tiaos and in a larger group...well, that's a different situation then one-on-one meetings! heh...okay bed...me tired. ]]

[Dray]

((Orlinton might know Belaria, as he and she were the only two sponsors who were left on hold. Maybe it would be better if someone ran into them? I'm totally excited to join in somehow, though -- it's so nice to have a sane internet connection again! :D))

[Yakima]

[[I would run into your characters, Dray...but I'm stuck with Treya! lol (kidding, Star. ) heehee...........................*wanders off to be distracted by ElfQuest...........*]]

[StarFyre]

((Treya: *clings to Asher* You're cool! *clingclingcling*

Flikk: *twitch* Treya...

Treya: *pout, doesn't let Asher go* He's mine. Shoo.

Flikk: *facepalm*

.. Sorry, had to =P ))

[Yakima]

[[lol poor Asher... XD I think he's going to have more friends then I intended! lol Which is fine. I tend to plan out stories for the 'after the bonding' part. heh. heh, I need a gardener in Treval...and his love-live (at least for him) is in limbo. *smirk*]]

[Dray]

((Yakima, Kat and I have been reading all of the RP posts while we were on holidays and could only get the internet to work in fits and snatches, and I have to say that I freaking love your city guard character. I'm trying to convince Kat to throw another character in to interact with Tiaos, because he's the best, like, ever. XD

I figured it was a bit late to throw characters in to RP, since you guys had already paired off, and Kat's planning on running the actual RP the day after tomorrow... but if anyone still has RP juice, I would adore getting a couple more posts in after the official RP just for funsies! We could even skip to different times if that's more convenient so that nobody's all in one place. XD))

[Yakima]

[[lol well, I'm glade you like Tiaos. I honestly didn't know if his personality was right for a niteshan but I needed someone to get Asher to open up and that was the kind of personality I needed. And, I only choose niteshan because they're the earth asandus and Asher is a gardener. But yeah, I don't mind using Taios again! I just needed him to leave Asher alone a bit. *smirk* I have half a mind of asking JKat to let me 'take him home' with me. *innocent grin*]]

[JKatkina]

((Hahaha, Yakima, I adore Tiaos! Take him on as a character for good if you'd like, I'd be thrilled! XD Anyways, the 'personality types' for asandae are just stereotypes, a niteshan can be whatever personality you'd like. X3

I love all of this RP, by the way. JKat stamp of approval!

For food (for the curious), there are probably a lot of vegetable dishes (I think it's summer), and all the vegetables seem quite large compared to earth-size vegetables, and they've probably been bred for fanciness so you have a lot of crazy kale-like frilly goodnesses and colorful fleshy fruits. Meat and grain dishes, rarer and simpler, tending towards smaller portions. No dairy, no eggs (very little asandus animal husbandry!). That's all for the humanoids -- asandae are omnivores, who tend to eat more vegetables in their human forms....

For dragon-sized and -shaped critters, there are more prepared meat dishes, stews, and vegetables, with very few grain dishes.

Any other questions I can answer to facilitate this RP?))

[Xalia]

((Gah, yesterday was monstrously busy and I had no time to RP...Dray, feel free to run Orlinton into Belaria, but I think I'm still waiting on Airy and/or Jess to post something there...?

Starfyre, if you want to go ahead and take them to the food hall or whatever the Asandae call it, or have them run into Dray's other characters that's fine with me...I just woke up and need to shower and eat before I'll be able to think clearly enough to post anything not lame-oid like the below...))

Kinsi shrugged, "I guess we get to find out together then!" She started walking in the correct direction, fussing with her skirts and trying hard not to let her tail swing. Dakani usually didn't walk close together since they were likely to trip each other with the sway of their tails, but Kinsi figured it might be rude to try to walk too far away. Everything else was so different here she didn't want to risk offending her new-found friends!

[Yakima]

[[Yeah! Thanks, Kat! He'll probably follow Asher to Treval after the bonding or whatnot. Though, I think Asher will stay around after the bonding for a while to learn a bit more. ]]

[StarFyre]

((I just woke up, long night and all, y'know =P And will probably be here off and on today, since it's a beautiful day out for once.))

Ansel had moved to walk slightly in front of Kinsi, compensating for that tail of hers. (Chase it! urged one, luckily small, portion of his beast. He quietly squashed that urge.) Unfortunately, this also meant that he was first through the door into the dining hall, and Kinsi got to watch as he froze up momentarily before managing to force himself forward again. This time, his stride was a bit stiff-legged, and he knew his mane was slightly poofed up.

Worse, he knew there was no reason for this reaction - what people had even glanced their way were curious, not malicious, and had calmly went back to their business after looking them over. But there were other children around, and children in groups always equalled potential tormentors in his mind.

::So, what do you like to eat?:: Ansel asked with forced ease as they made their way to the food. ::There's fruit, vegetables, more fruit, some grains, yet more fruit, more vegetables, and a small selection of meats.:: He eyed the fruit with a bit of wistfulness - he'd have liked to try some, but his beast could only eat meat, and he wasn't about to force a shift right here in the middle of the dining hall. That would get some attention for sure, and he wasn't quite up for showing his new friend the truly painful side of his curse.

______________________________________________________________


Treya grinned at Asher as they entered the dining hall. "Come on! Let's see what's here that your greedy-guts will eat," She quickly broke away from the other three and led the way to one of the areas that had meat dishes, figuring that, since Tiro was apparently related to dragons, then he'd prefer meat to fruit. She grabbed a plate and gestured towards the selection, "Pick away, I'll carry it, since you've got the greedy-guts."

[Yakima]

Asher grinned, looking down at Tiro. "I've found he'll eat just about anything," he muttered down at the fire-lizard clinging to his arm. As the blue smelled food he let out a loud chirp and launched himself toward the plates of meat. "Tiro! You pest!" the elf cried, his reflexes fast enough to catch the blue before he made too much of a mess. Knowing his face was red, he glared down at the fire-lizard. "We obviously need to wait on your manners!"

He let Treya carry the food as now his hands were occupied by keeping his very hungry fire-lizard from pouncing on the table again. Once seated, he pushed the plate of meat toward the blue who tackled it. Asher turned to his salad. "Greedy guts is right," he muttered to Treya. "I still wish Tayenden would show up and help me with him. It's his fault I have him anyway!"

[[finally have finished the age chart for the Sentran elves. I was wrong, it's every 25 years that they age physically. which means some of my characters are a bit younger then I thought and I had to tweak the Sentran timeline. heh...it's only been about 200 years since the War so, yeah...*baps self on head*]]

[Xalia]

Kinsi smiled thankfully as Ansel moved to walk in front of her, but then came close to stumbling when he stopped suddenly. He moved on, albeit stiffly, so Kinsi made no comment, just tried to make the jolt in her stride seem normal.

"Um, vegetables and meat sounds good. I might try some of the fruit too, it looks interesting!" Only when the words were out of her mouth did Kinsi notice his wistful look, while she probably chalked it up to him not being able to eat the fruit without making a mess in his beast form rather than not being able to digest it, she thought she understood the look and she smiled at him. Not being able to shift reliably herself she didn't even question why he wouldn't try to shift and try the fruit. "I can tell you what tastes good, then maybe you can try some later?"

[aireona93]

((Did you ever post after Jess, Xalia? For some reason, I'm not seeing it, and I think it's your turn. I could be wrong though! Am I missing it somewhere?))

[StarFyre]

((Wow, trying to watch the husband play Project Silpheed is like trying to watch the spin-cycle of a dryer. Uhm. Wee. I think I'm getting motion sick.))

Treya laughed at Tiro's obvious anxiety for the food, and watched the blue gobble down the meat greedily. She nibbled on some fruit that she'd taken. "Is Tayenden supposed to meet you somewhere?" She asked, wondering if Asher had somewhere he needed to be. "And how is it his fault you have the little blue terror?"

_____________________________________


Ansel's ears perked up at Kinsi's offer, and he gave her an appreciative look. ::Thanks. I'm not really able to eat anything but meat in this form.:: He reared up on his hind legs and examined the selection, indicating a few things and letting Flikk carry the plate of his choices back to a table.

[Xalia]

((Yep, Airy, it's five posts up from the bottom of page two...the bottom half of the post is Belaria's response... Sorry, was trying to save time by putting the two posts in there together! XD ))

"That's odd, I just figured it'd make too much of a mess. Is your stomach just not able to digest it?" Kinsi asked as she made her own selections. She glanced at what the others took and in the end heaped her plate with food. She hadn't realized how hungry she was until Ansel mentioned food, but she was starving! Teleporting that far, even with help, had taken more out of her than she realized. She carried her plate to the table Flikk and Ansel had taken and tried to act nonchalant about the pile of food on her plate. Her mother would have some choice things to say about her eating that much food, most of it to do with her lady-like figure, and while she didn't really think either of them would notice or care she still colored a little as she sat down and picked up a tasty looking vegetable from the top of the stack.

[aireona93]

((XD! OMG. Sorry about that. For some reason that line between the posts was making me think that that was a part of your signature. Serves me right for scanning the posts instead of reading them.))

"Hi," Galasthornen said to Jelnai. She seemed the friendly sort, and that was encouraging. Eager to show the other creature that he was friendly as well, the elf briefly took hold of the woman's shoulder. "That's a way of greeting new friends... where I come from," he explained. Nice as Jelnai seemed, Galas didn't want to risk making her angry by leaving her in dark about the simple gesture. Some species and cultures didn't have touch greetings.

"No problem at all," Galas said as he offered to take some of the books off of the Belaria's hands. "What are all these, anyway?" He asked.

"Seems like a lot to be carrying around." The elf glanced at one of the book covers, and couldn't help but admire the craftsmanship that had gone into the cover and binding. Though most information where he came from was digital, there were plenty of Fenda:soan artisans who still worked making books.

[StarFyre]

Neither of Flikk nor Ansel paid much attention to the amount of food that Kinsi had taken - in fact, Flikk had piled his plate as high if not higher, and was trying to be as polite as he could and not bolt his food. Of course, Flikk had the look of someone who hadn't had a good meal in a long time, so it was understandable.

Ansel, on the other hand, dove right into his food with the enthusiasm of the young and the beasts. Though hardly 'messy' in his eating, it wasn't really... upper class either.

::Well, it would make a mess,:: Ansel responded, amused. ::Eating like this is hardly mess free, and I don't have the hands to deal with some of fruits' more... interesting shapes. But yes, I can't digest it very well in this form. A lion is an obligate carnivore, which means it can't eat anything but meat, and while a fossa can eat fruit on occasion, I seem to have inherited more from the lion side in that regard than the fossa side.::

He paused a moment to lick his muzzle clean, staring thoughtfully down at the plate in front of him. ::Really, I've had to figure out my limits on my own. I've never even heard of a fossa/lion cross before... in nature, they can't actually mix, because they're not even vaguely related.::

[Xalia]

((I'm going to wait for Jess to respond before responding to your post, Airy, since that's the order we seem to be in. And I'll try to post separate responses when I do to avoid confusion! ))

Kinsi had to stifle a chuckle at the way the other two ate, but it made her much more comfortable about digging into her own plate. She wasn't likely to be looked down upon if this was the way they ate, nor did she think they would notice the way she ate for that matter!

In between eating she paused. "So, I hope you don't think me rude for asking, but, if a lion and a fossa?" she stumbled a little over the unfamiliar word, "can't mix, how is it that you're half lion and half fossa?"

[Yakima]

Asher chuckled as he attacked his salad. "No, he's a rider at Falas Weyr. He gave Tiro's egg to me just before I left so that I would eventually have another way of sending a message back to him when, or if, I ever wanted to leave. Or visit. He's an elf from Sentra, too." He paused. "Their are at least two more elves at Treval Dragonry, too. But they're necromancers...I think I can trust them but it's never wise to trust Necromancers."

[[sorry if I don't post much today. Had a very, very bad night...*hides* But I'll try to keep up. Just feel like disappearing...]]

[jess d]

The elf seemed friendly, even if the gesture he used was a little reserved by her standards. Jelnai was learning quickly that other cultures had very different customs than she knew. "Where are you from? If you don't mind my asking, of course!" She did remember her manners. Sometimes. "Are you here to find a bond, or for something else?"

Shifting the books she had picked up to a more comfortable hold, she nodded at Belaria. "I don't mind at all; books definitely don't belong in the hallway. Which way?"

[aireona93]

((No worries, Xalia... I will just look harder next time! That was totally my fault!))

[Xalia]

Belaria grimaced at the question about her books. "Oh, they're for all my classes. I'm afraid I'm a bit of a bookworm. But if you'll both follow me this way, it's not far to my room."

She gestured the way she'd been going when she first saw Jelnai and smiled ruefully.