Raffles & Giveaways

[url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=9320914] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/93210/9320914_350.png[/img] [/url] This float wheels along, pulled by a matching pair of male ridgebacks. Shadows swirl along their flanks and curl around their necks, masking all but the polished gleam of their sword-like spines and the hard glitter of their eyes. The main part of the float seems to be covered in a thorny, tangled bramble thicket. It's impossible to see inside - even Shadow eyes have to look hard to see into that darkness. Tiny nocturnes periodically pop out of the briars to throw favors into the crowd. At least until one of the 'vines' sits up and spreads its wings - a cleverly-painted, spiny mirror dragon. She grins and launches herself upward, vanishing into the tangle of fliers overhead to throw out her own favors. Now, if you care to look, you think you might see other places where the thicket isn't really a thicket. Are those really glowing mushrooms in its depths, or the light reflecting off a gembonded dragon? The rear of the float rises up in a cupola made of giant glowshrooms. Dark-scaled mirror dragons lounge on the favors scattered here like a hoard. Sometimes they throw them out into the crowd, but mostly they pick up pieces and disappear into the bramble thicket. At the front of the float, a dais looks like it's been violently cleared of brambles. Skye stands there, tail whipping back and forth. Now and then, he turns and stalks into the thicket. Even seeing his entrance point, even with him being so much bigger than the nocturnes, he all but disappears. Maybe if it weren't for the chaos of the parade, you could follow him, but as it is... He always returns with a particular favor, which he throws with a grin that shows all his teeth. @Slyjinks Abruptly, one half of the brambles just stands up - it's an imperial! She stretches her wings, gives herself a shake, then settles back down. With her head tucked in, the painting on her scales is so well done it's hard to tell where she ends and the rest of the brambles and dragons begin. @shadowmaat Nocturnes flourish on the wing overhead, throwing out favors. @Sorrendragon The vendor gives him four sticks with bugs on them, because hey. Not like there isn't more where that came from. @RabidFlamingo Evergreen's display draws eyes, ears, and scattered applause from people evidently thinking it's part of the show. (( Anyone from Canisa's second post on page 13 onwards, I'll get to you tomorrow as part of a closing post for the parade. ))

@beckyh2112

Foxglove is so busy staring at Evergreen and trying to copy his whistle in hopes of attracting a gyre of her own that the Nocturnes catch her by surprise. She lets out a startled squeak and scrambles to collect the favors.

"Thank youuu!" she trills, and promptly trips over her own tail. But she got the favors! She does a victory dance around ffuP, who tolerates it with ursine fortitude.

@beckyh2112 [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=3826128] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/38262/3826128_350.png[/img] [/url] Flamecaster watched with amusement from some distance away as Duskfire, Twilight, Spellweaver, and Titania came together in one bunch. His adopted Clan were a strange group... but he loved them all. He stretched his neck, considering whether or not it was time to join them. He had a message to delver to Duskcloud, but he thought he would wait until after the Float she was staring at so intently passed... there was no reason to upset her just yet, after all. Besides, he was having a lot of fun watching the parade himself. The former Shadow dragon had never seen one of these parades before, having been too young when he left his overcrowded lair for adventure in the Starfall Isles, but he definitely loved this one--especially the illusions. As he watched, Flame absently gathered the ambient magic in the air around him into a little ball of glowing purple fire, and began tossing it in the air and catching it. Unbeknownst to him, several younger dragons form other lairs noticed his game, and began to watch him, waiting to see what he did next. Flame twisted in the air, tossing the ball through himself, unconsciously mimicking some of the movements of the Spirals in the parade as they danced. It was good to be back in his home territory, even if only to visit. The Starfall Isles had a lot more interesting magic to play with... but only Shadow dragons could really understand what Flamecaster liked to [i]do[/i] with that magic. He rolled the ball down his body, watching as it absorbed and created shadows. Then he flicked his tail, dismissing his toy--much to the disappointment of the younger dragons--and turned over in the air, heading toward his Clanmates. It was time to join his family and watch the [I]real[/i] experts at illusion and twisting dance. Maybe if he watched the Shadow Spirals long enough, he would figure out how to do some of their moves.... and he needed to tell Duskcloud that her mate was in the process of gambling away their lifesavings at the Midway. Ten minutes later, a screech of rage echoed from the portion of the crowd where a small collection of dragons had gathered. A moment after that, a vey angry purple Guardian moved out of the crowd, heading in the direction of the Midway, while a red Spiral darted after her, completely ignoring the favors raining down around him in his haste to catch up.....

[url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=7041222] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/70413/7041222_350.png[/img] [/url] [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=7041224] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/70413/7041224_350.png[/img] [/url] "Should have come here before the last day!" Winewings said, watching the procession with all four eyes wide. "Oh [i]wow[/i], I wonder how they do [i]that[/i]!" Gloaming was more focused on the floats wheeling by. He squinted at them intently. Winewings wasn't interested in figuring out how the floats moved. She wanted to enjoy the music, to dance; indeed, she started imitating some of the dancers, her movements somewhat awkward, but accurate. Meanwhile, Gloaming was edging closer and closer to the floats... "Wait—no. Don't do anything stupid!" the female mirror barked, but her twin was already slinking toward the floats, fluid and low with the natural mirror stalk. Winewings charged after him, and bonked into someone who seemed to be associated with the parade—it was hard to tell exactly what species they were. Whatever and whoever they happened to be, they shot her a dirty look and moved on. Gloaming, meanwhile, had just about reached the floats, and was staring up at them, his glasses-magnified eyes aglow with fascination. He reached out to touch it, just as Winewings leapt up beside them. (both my sets of obnoxious dragons had to come to the parade, ahahaha. clearly I should have taken more time to make sure the polite, respectful ones came, too)

@beckyh2112 [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=55398] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/554/55398_350.png[/img] [/url] LIghtwing pushes her way through the crowd to see the end of the parade. She smiles as memories trickmurks of her childhood flash by in her mind's eye. She always loved watching the parade that went by when the circus was coming to a close. [i]It is unfortunate that I have missed almost all of trickmurk this year, but at lest I get to see a bit of the parade [/i] she thought. (( I am failing at PRing tonight. And it kind of sucks that I missed all of the user hosted events for this year's trickmurk because of the 3 exams that I had to do among other things, but what can you do.))

[url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=9736020] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/97361/9736020_350.png[/img] [/url] Poseidon grinned. Scattered before him were dragons of all shapes and sizes, beautiful and plain. Orange Spirals and elaborately dressed Guardians stared at him in awe, high up in the floats. Poseidon tilted his head to flash a charming grin at a rose Imperial, before crouching on his pedestal, gathering his thoughts. A moment passed. Suddenly, he pushed off, wings tucked close to his body. The ground rushed to meet him, but a couple of seconds before impact, he flared out his azure wings, whooshing past astounded dragons. He zipped to the pool and dove in with an elegance only years of training provided. The festival. Such a lovely place.

@Canisa The beads of the necklace that caught on Titania's tail are worked in a strange, otherworldly metal. Designs are stamped on them, but they seem to be slowly fading out of view.

The favors do not ignore Flamecaster, though, as at least one plush bounces off his scales.

@shadowmaat A masked mirror dragon glides over the crowd, tossing favors both above and below him.

@Firefeather The next float to come into sight seems to sail on a sea of shadows. It's a miniature ship in the style of the most modern built on the Sea of a Thousand Currents. Strings of pearls tangle around the ship's hull to drag it down, and mirrors and guardians 'fight' to free it.

@AllosaurCoffee (Bah! It's the Circus! It's time for dragons to be obnoxious!)

If those mirrors don't back off soon, there's going to be a large, shadow-eyed guardian picking them up by the scruff of their necks and depositing them back into the crowd.

@Talicinx (( Awwww. *cuddlefluffs* ))

Spirals cavort in the colors of the Shadowbinder, waving silks that gleam like the night sky. Fae flit between them, zipping through barely-there holes between silk and scale.

@Niernen And the parade goes on through the eternal gloom of the Tangled Woods.

The parade winds down. Instead of circling the Circus endlessly, floats and performers are vanishing into the darkened Big Top. The vendors along the parade route are making last calls for snacks and drinks, while others are already packing up.

The music, by contrast, becomes even more wild, joyful, and brassy. At least one wildclaw stops in the middle of the route to do a saxophone solo.

But this too fades.

The tail end of the parade is end sight now, and it didn't have a tail end before today. Like the beginning of the parade, it's a group of darkly-colored snappers with drums across their shoulders for smaller dragons to play. Unlike the beginning, the snappers are singing:

"Here's a health to the company,
And one to my lass.
Let us drink and be merry
All out of one glass.
Let us drink and be merry,
All grief to refrain,
For we and might never
Meet here again."

---

(( Wow! This was so much more awesome than I expected. Thank you to everyone who participated - I love your RP, and I love what we made the Parade. I hope you all had a wonderful Trickmurk Circus!

Thank you to the Shadow Flight members who volunteered their dragons for floats: @SmilingGod, @Vesuvia, @Boaaekin, @Meyoline, and @Sellenair. Without your dragons to inspire me, this parade wouldn't have been half so wondrous.

I'd also like to thank the members of Shadow Flight who donated throws to the Parade: @Murn, @paradoxfox, @Zothsis, @MangoPanda, @ensigncelery, @Somnibris, @HiddenMica, @Mitiba, @MoonGazer, @NuclearNoxi, @Avici, and @Brynncognito. I couldn't have put on this amazing thread without you guys. ))

@beckyh2112

Ranulf's grin was wide and his eyes filled with delight as he caught the favors. "Thank you! Merry Trickmurk!"

((And thanks for a fantastic parade! Wow! This was oodles of fun to write and read and interact with in general. :) ))