Creative Corner

[This is the old lore thread alluded to in my bio; any posts that are still considered canon will be kept here, but they may be transferred elsewhere if I ever get a new thread set up.]

[center][img]http://www1.flightrising.com/dgen/preview/dragon?age=0&body=70&bodygene=0&breed=17&element=7&eyetype=0&gender=1&tert=95&tertgene=0&winggene=0&wings=13&auth=dd6dd88bd0fc1bd1ebae9659825cbe08b9c5b09c&dummyext=prev.png[/img][/center] A dark, furred shape slunk through the Tangled Wood. It kept to the abundant darkness, moving with silent haste. It heard the quiet steps pursuing it and ran faster, eyes scanning the murk as it clutched a small bundle of fur to its chest. Finally, it found a small altar of dark stone, half-sunken into the ground. It placed the bundle of fur onto the altar. It stirred in its slumber, icy pale eyes blinking drowsily open. The larger shape placed a clawed hand onto the cold stone and closed its eyes. It drew upon old knowledge, something entrusted to it long, long ago. [i]“Undel.”[/i] The air stilled. The word dripped with power. The true name of a deity had been spoken. [i]“I offer myself to be exalted into your service. I will remain loyal to you beyond the final night. I offer this hatchling to you, and pray that you may hide her from my kin.”[/i] The shadows drew closer, beckoning the larger shape. It reached out to them in kind, welcoming their grasp. The shadows changed it, made its fur viscous, turned its form to liquid, yet it remained sharp as ever, claws so fine-edged as to rend the air. It blended with the dark, became a part of it. Its new form slipped through the brambles without a trace, shadows running like water through paths no normal dragon could hope to pass through. It glanced back at the sunken altar, a relieved smile touching the edges of the dark as it saw the shadows flow over its hatchling. The hatchling began to shrink. Its fur, tail, antlers, and claws shortened, while its wings spread and grew. The hatchling looked over its new form and began to inspect its surroundings, taking wobbly steps while sniffing at the ground and nibbling on dark grass. It blinked, and its eyes turned from an icy blue to a dark purple. None would recognize the tundra hatchling as a child of the ancients. The liquid dark smiled. Its hatchling was safe. Distant pursuing steps scattered, losing any trace of their quarry’s trail.

[God this is outdated and I really should've posted it a while ago]
(Previously…)

It was calm at Moonwake when she got the message.

It shouldn’t have been. It felt like everyone should have been in a panic, outraged and preparing for battle, or stunned in melancholy silence.

But it was calm. Aurelia and Calixto were discussing theatre over tea. Norrell was happily munching on the candied cacti Ashura had offered him in exchange for his latest haul. Snap tended to a small topiary, while Arbor yelled at his own topiary nearby. Even LISP was settled down in his favored concealed bunker.

Tessla’s claws clenched as she took shaking breaths. A horrible feeling had settled in her chest. This was… Newly unpleasant. Forcing herself to focus, she looked down and within to her systems, and toggled off a few processes. Her claws stilled, her breaths steadied, and the horrible feeling was replaced by a slightly uncomfortable, but manageable numbness.

Setting down her tablet, Tessla searched the shelves for a sending stone.

She needed to call Andromeda.


On nearly the other side of Sornieth, Andromeda and Solis sat at a cafe table, engaged in conversation.

“Hey, sometimes it’s not about whether you win or lose, but how many rules you add to the rulebook.”

Solis giggled. “Honestly, though, that’s what the spirit of engineering really means to me. Not just improving on what’s there, but finding new solutions to old problems.” She paused, glancing briefly down at her drink. “Are you sure you don’t want anything? The lemonade floats here are some of the best I’ve had.”

“I’m fine, really.”, Andromeda replied. At this point, there really didn’t seem to be a good way to explain that she hadn’t had a sense of taste for years. Not a moment later, her sending stone lit up from a pocket in her sleeve. Swiftly sliding it into her palm, Andromeda checked the stone as discreetly as possible. Two of the runes lit up: ‘clan’, and ‘urgent’.

Andromeda frowned. On one hand, she really didn’t want to leave Solis behind. On the other hand, well, the ‘urgent’ rune wasn’t often used lightly. Solis peeked over the table at the stone, then nodded sympathetically. “Work call?”

An easy out. That was enough for Andromeda to make up her mind. She sighed. “Yep. I hate to cut it short, but it seems like they need me. Same time next week?”

Solis smiled. “Sounds like a plan.”

Andromeda smiled back as she slipped the sending stone back up her sleeve, waved farewell, and took off for Moonwake.


Tessla was there to meet her when she arrived. Andromeda immediately noticed Tessla’s utterly impassive expression. That could mean she had forgotten to re-enable expressive protocols after working on some coding… Or there had been a battle. Andromeda looked around at the clan as she landed, but nothing seemed out of place. She raised an eyebrow at Tessla. “Everything alright here? I got an urgent call.”

Tessla’s voice was unerringly neutral. “It’s about FL/GHT. I’ve just received word that there was an attack on the main headquarters. There were heavy casualties, and the headquarters itself is now unusable.”

Andromeda paled, her crests drawing back. “Are the others okay?”

“Lisp is in his bunker. Ascii is… Missing. It seems most likely that they went down the escape tunnel that later collapsed.”

Andromeda’s shadow stirred as her crests flared. She found Tessla’s neutral tone infuriating, but quickly directed her anger elsewhere. “Well, what are we waiting for? We have to go look for them! Let’s- Let’s get our supplies and go!” Andromeda started off towards the clan’s main structure, trying to focus on her mental checklist in order to drown out the rest of the noise in her head.

Tessla followed a few paces behind. “Andromeda, wait. Please. Given the current circumstances, that would be inadvisable.”

Andromeda turned around. “What? Isn't that what you called me for?”, she snapped, then immediately cringed. That was… a lot more intense than she intended.

Tessla didn’t seem bothered by it. “I called you here to tell you what happened. If we’re going to stage a rescue, we need to treat it like any other mission. We’ll need to perform reconnaissance and gather information.” She had a feeling she couldn’t keep Andromeda off the warpath at this point, but she hoped to at least buy time.

Andromeda paused. Her crests twitched uncertainly. “But- Don’t you want to make sure they’re- Ugh, I hate when I can’t read you like this! I mean- That’s not-”

Tessla remained unbothered. “Please. We have to approach this rationally.”

Yin, the Imperial who had originally invited Ascii into the clan, approached and attempted to place a comforting claw on Andromeda’s shoulder. “I’ll go with you. Ascii’s my friend as well, and from the sounds of things, you’ll need some bulk on your side.”

Andromeda’s tail curled as her crests drooped. “...Fine. We’ll do some recon first.”

Tessla nodded to Yin. “Thank you.”

[Double update! I've got a bit of a backlog if you couldn't tell.]

A strange visitor combed through the wreckage of the FL/GHT headquarters. Their work was the only sound to be heard as they dug through fallen rocks and collapsed support beams. They dug with purpose, seemingly already knowing where their target was. Finally, they came across a broken hull adorned with crimson circuit patterns. A crimson liquid slowly dripped from these circuits, pooling beneath the hull. It had split open to reveal a jagged, crystal-like object with a pearly sheen. The visitor smiled and began to pry the object from the hull. Almost immediately, the crimson liquid started to bubble and churn. The visitor whispered soothingly in an ancient dialect.

“Easy now. We’re both relics, aren't we?”

The crimson liquid stilled. The visitor tucked the object under their arm, then began prying at the stones trapping the rest of the broken hull. “Let’s see if we can’t salvage some of you. That’s an interesting trick you have there, what with the bleeding circuits.”

The next day, all that was left was a patch of disturbed rubble and a puddle of crimson liquid.

[jk, triple update go!]

Yin allowed her thoughts to wander as she continued clearing away rubble. She had many questions for all the fascinating folk here. Machinery was far from her specialty, but she was still curious as to the workings behind some of the things she had seen. They were able to connect to an unseen network from seemingly anywhere! The very idea would have been madness back in the days of Yin’s old clan, but now, it was simply wondrous. Hopefully none of her questions would come off as offensive.

Yin paused her wonderings when she noticed the odd silence that had fallen. She turned to see Andromeda inspecting a puddle of crimson liquid. It would have resembled blood, were it not for the way it shimmered.

Yin recognized it immediately. Evidently, Andromeda had as well.

"...Someone took Ascii.", Andromeda stated. "Someone dug them out of the rubble and-" Her claws dug into the rock. "I should've been there. I should've protected them."

Yin thought back to combing through the ruins of her old clan. She placed a claw on Andromeda's shoulder. "Trust me when I say that regret will not help you now."

Andromeda barely seemed to register this. "We should've gotten here sooner. This is where all our preparations and recon landed us." Her crests flared, then immediately folded back. "If Project's gotten ahold of Ascii's decryption programs… Stars, it'll be a nightmare for the information teams." Andromeda's building rant abruptly lost momentum. "...I have a date with Solis in an hour. Stars, I can't… I'm a mess."

“You can just tell her it’s a work thing. I’m sure she’ll understand.”, Yin suggested.

Andromeda snorted, her crests drooping. “Yeah, sure. I’ll just… Blow her off like that.” She shook her head, pressing her palm to her forehead. “...I’ll go update Tessla.”

Yin couldn’t help but feel that she had messed up, somehow.


Halfway across Sornieth, in a scrapyard just between the Tangled Wood and the Sea of a Thousand Currents, Solis looked up from her task of sorting screws to see her sending stone light up. She eagerly set aside handfuls of spare parts and picked up the stone, only to sigh when she saw what runes were lit up: ‘work’ and ‘urgent’. As of late, it seemed that Andromeda’s work had been calling her at odder and odder hours, and it was beginning to cut into their hangouts. What poor excuse for a working environment was that?

...Wait a second. Andromeda had always been rather evasive when talking about her work, hadn’t she? In addition, she was rather proficient with magic, particularly illusions…

Stars and shade, Andromeda was in the industry of subterfuge, wasn’t she?

Solis grinned. Of course. Come to think of it, there was a recent spike in the ongoing prank war between the Tangled Wood’s noble houses, wasn’t there? That would explain the more frequent work calls.

Well, only one thing to do: Figure out who Andromeda worked for, and use the information to surprise her with a gift.

There was a statue sitting in the middle of Moonwake’s central clearing. One that had definitely not been there an hour ago. Honestly, this was far from the strangest thing Mabli had seen this week.

Mabli noted that there were no other clan members conveniently nearby to explain whether the statue was meant to be where it was. Oh Eleven, this meant he was going to have to be the one to deal with this, wasn’t he? It was definitely too early in the morning for this. (Mabli had initially been more than happy to join a clan of late risers, since it meant that he and Violet could have the mornings to themselves, but sometimes, it was just plain inconvenient.)

Judging by the size of the statue, Mabli would likely be unable to remove it from the main path on his own, but he could at least make sure its arrival had not dragged in any trouble.

The moment Mabli approached the statue, it began to glow. Stone melted off its surface like oil, sinking into the ground without a trace. Standing in the statue’s place was a brightly-colored dragon of an unfamiliar breed with strong paws and an impressive mane. The dragon shook the last of the liquid stone off its fur, then turned to Mabli with a friendly smile.

“Hello! I am an Obelisk, here to protect this clan and the rest of Sornieth from the threats that lurk below!” the dragon proudly announced.

...Well, knowing this clan, there had probably been much stranger entrances made. “Pleased to meet you,” Mabli greeted, “Mind telling me exactly what threats you’re talking about?”

A strange expression crossed over the Obelisk’s face, but it was gone in an instant. “I cannot say. I’ve no clue what it is, only that the threat is below. Say, these colors don’t really fit me, wouldn’t you think?” Without waiting for an answer, the Obelisk ruffled their fur and, much like the stone that once encased them, the colors of their fur and scales sloughed off their form. They took a moment to look over their new colors with a dissatisfied sort of neutrality in their expression. “Hmm… Oh well, I’m sure I’ll get it right in time.”

This was one of the most obvious attempts to change a subject that Mabli had ever seen, and it was working, because what in the name of the stars was that? Actually, no. That question was unimportant. Shedding color on a whim was just one of the many possibilities one had to anticipate when a dragon breaks out of the statue that spontaneously appeared on your clan’s front lawn. “So, do you have a name?” Even a fake name could get you a fair bit of information on someone if they were prone to reusing the same names.

The Obelisk shrugged. “I’ll think of one once I get my colors right! A name’s almost as important as an aesthetic.”

Yeah, they would fit right in here. “That sounds reasonable enough. Call me Maple, then.” Call him paranoid, but Mabli hadn’t gotten this far in life by giving his real name to folks he just met.

The Obelisk’s brow furrowed at this, but just as they opened their mouth to ask something or another, Violet’s yelling carried from the trees. “Rhea, Daigan, give it a rest for a minute! We’ve got a new clanmate to greet!”


“So, how did it go?” Mabli asked once the Obelisk had been passed off to someone more experienced with greetings.

“I got them to start arguing over the proper past tense of ‘yeet’ instead of whatever they were on about before,” Violet answered with a hint of pride. “If it was something stupid, they’ve forgotten it by now. If not, well, I’ll need to brush up on my pedantry.”

[center][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/350/514886/51488505_350.png[/img][/center] It took Ascii a few minutes to realize they were awake. They felt as though they had been sleepwalking, an experience only made more novel by the fact that they lacked the biological need for sleep. From the looks of things, they had been wandering among the Hewn City’s crumbling ruins, though the memory of their arrival was safely out of their reach. By chance, they checked their pocket, wondering when they got a new coat in the first place. It contained a note written in neat script. [i]Apologies, but I wasn't able to salvage your cape and coat. I hope this will do for now. - Loci[/i] Part of them wanted nothing more than to rip the note apart and scatter the pieces to the wind, to never have to think about it again, but they quickly decided against that. This note was the only hint of where they had been for the past… How long had it been? Ascii quickly checked their internal clock. ...Oh dear. Their friends were going to be very worried.