Roleplay

Lightning barreled through the sky in a blinding arch, followed closely by its brother thunder. The two seemed to be chasing one another through the skies with the sound of a little girl's giggle following closely behind.

"More Zarak! Please do some more!"

Engel cried out in delight as she sat upon Zarak who was soaring through the storm. He let out a sigh through his nostrils while rolling his eyes.

"Engel, we have been doing this for the past 3 hours. Keep it up, and the humans will think a supercell storm is coming."

Zarak complained, but still called forth another burst of thunder and lightning. This combo even louder and flashier than the last. Even though he grumbled about it, the grumpy dragon would still do as the girl asked. Plus they were high enough that their little storm shouldn't bother too many of the humans.

Hearing another squeal of pure joy, a small smile pulled on Zarak's lips before he peered down below. "Alright, enough with the light show. The human city known as New York isn't that far ahead." As he announced that, his wings tilted down a little so he could descend at a gentle slope.

Engel let out a small aww, but didn't complain about it. She already knew Zarak had spoiled her with the storm he made just for her. With a shout of okay that got drowned by the wind, she tightened her hold on one of his spines as she felt him descend.

Clearing a layer of clouds, they both laid eyes upon the city that never sleeps at the same time, and both had the same thought and said it aloud at the same time.

"This place stinks."

With a pause, Engel peeked over to look at Zarak as he looked at her, and laughed at each other. Still chuckling under his breath, Zarak tucked his wings in a bit tighter and soared down to one of the many roof tops that decorated the city. Flapping his wings sharply to slow his landing even further. A cat let out an angry hiss For disturbing it's slumber. He narrowed his eyes at the little furbaby, but didn't hiss back like usual.

Landing with a small thump, Engel climbed down from his back so Zarak could shift more easily. Straightening his leather jacket, he walked to the edge of the roof and peered over the rim. "Ready to go play Engel?" His asked with a mischievous grun.

The girl smiled back innocently while running up to hold his hand. "Don't forget we are suppose to be here to met that clan you wanted to see about. Maybe they will be our new family!" She piped up excitedly as Zarak tried not to grimace.

He highly doubted the clan here would be the one they joined. With all he has heard of them, he was more prepared to fight than actually socialise with them, but for Engel he was willing to try. Although he raises the girl for most of her life, she was coming to the age were she would need a females touch. Maybe it was selfish of him, but he wasn't going to give her up to some human family to help raise her, so he was looking for a clan instead. They still needed to check out a desert clan he heard of after this one, but first comes breakfast!

"Come on kiddo, we should eat before meeting the local clan." He told her while picking her up and placing her on his shoulders.


Walking on the streets, Zarak asked a few of the locals for a decent place to eat. None seemed to blink at the girl hugging his head and leaning close to the conversation, and simply pointed towards a joint called Docksomthing.

After walking for a while, he finally found it and walked into the place. Setting Engel down, he sat them in a booth while waiting for someone to serve them. Engel sat across from him excitedly looking about the place. Her eyes darting around constantly as her little legs swung back and forth.

Zarak glanced at the women who came over to them, his nostrils flaring lightly as he smelled the air around her. She smelled of salt water and oil. Looking away from her and out the window, he began to zone out.

Engel frowned at his obvious dismissal of the kind women, and beamed up at her instead. Thanking the kind lady for the remote, she felt a thrill of joy run through her stomach. Since they didn't have a steady home, Engel rarely got to watch t.v., amd missed all the good stuff happening. Turning it on, she immediately tuned into the news channel. Smiling, she turned her attention to the menu and scrunched her brows together in deep thought. Should she get pancakes or french toast? The choice was grizziling and she finally let out a frustrated growl before turning to Zarak in hope for some inspiration.

"What are you getting Zarak?"

He didn't even glance at the menu before grumbling out his choice. "Meat."

Engel just stared at him with a "really?" look that was on the verge of being disgusted. Pouting, she stuck her nose back into her menu to torture herself for another ten minutes.

After about thirty minutes, she smacked her menu down with a triumphant look to her face. "I'm ready!"

Zarak rolled his eyes before waving for the women to come back.

Opening her mouth to order a full stack of pancakes, the sudden thought of the million perks of having French toast instead sprang in her head. Her once excited face started to become crestfallen before Zarak let out a sigh and ordered for her. "She'll have a full stack of pancakes along with a four slices of french toast."

Engel gave him a crossed look, not wanting him to spend so much money on her, but he ignored her like usual. "Ill have a steak, no, make that two. Done rare." He placed his own order when a sudden thought hit him. Looking at the women with renewed interest, he began to wonder. "Do you know anything about the head clan around here? Dokusei I believe is the name." Engel perked up at his inquiry and leaned forward in anticipation.

((Oh sorry, Ill stop here then))

Mojave Desert

Rhett

“I keep trying to talk about this and I… just have too much trouble, over and over again, I try and I give up. Well, no more, I’m gonna speak my mind, face the past, I mean, it’s been a couple years now, I can’t let this eat away at me forever, right? Right… So… just regarding everything that’s happened here, I remember five or six years ago when I was actually pondering a quiet retirement in some veterans home somewhere for the rest of my withering existence. God, I can’t even laugh about that anymore, it seems like I’ve lived an entirely new life since then. I mean, that’s not even too far from the fact of the matter.

The world sure ain’t what it used to be… or at least, the world as I know it, which I guess isn’t entirely accurate to where I am now, but… that’s all just rambling, I’m sorry. Digressions aside, human civilization, it’s had to make way for dragons, and I can tell you, there was a time when no one here would treat that with any level of seriousness. Flying scaly beasts out of fairy tales that fly and breathe fire, in our reality? That’s the sorta talk that’d get you locked up somewhere and put on some serious medication for the rest of your life. But it’s the truth of the matter, and after everything that’s happened since they’ve first arrived, there ain’t a single human out there that can deny their existence any longer.

It’s all still haunting… I’ve seen war, I’ve lived through it, fought through it, saw others die in it, and I thought I’d faced the worst kind of hell on Earth imaginable. That’s because I couldn’t rationalize war getting any worse, it didn’t seem possible, but then Garvus and his followers decided to teach me just what hell really could be. I’ve been blessed to have a friend and pact-partner like Gronk around all that time. The guy’s been a brother to me, not even figuratively speaking anymore, we might as well be family by the closest definition possible. Had I not met him and good old Trigavor, rest his soul, back in Diablo Canyon, I wouldn’t be recounting all this, I firmly believe I’d be dead right now. So many other soldiers didn’t make it, I mean… this was an enemy beyond anything we could combat on our own, at least not without help, and we’ve been lucky enough to get it...

Even in our darkest hours, someone always stepped in to keep the light going. I remember a time when I thought I’d lost Gronk for good… Some kind of darkness possessed him, and I wanted to stop it but… the darkness just ended up taking hold of me through the pact, and I was unconscious that entire time, but that crazy space pirate who I spent so much time ridiculing ended up being the one to save Gronk’s life in the end… and really, he saved us both… Just one of the dozens of people I owe my life to. Really gives a guy some major survivor’s guilt, thinking about all this… Ugh, no, what the hell am I even doing…”

Rhett walked over to the camera he’d mounted across his room and turned it off, letting out a sigh and shaking his head. Garbage footage, all of it. He’d thought recounting his past would be therapeutic, but he certainly didn’t feel any different. Well, there was no harm in trying. He put the camera away, one of the few electronic devices left in his possession, leaving the footage just in case there came a bizarre reason to use those ramblings, and stepped outside. Like many mornings, he simply stood there, taking in the landscape of this small desert town of humans and dragons for a moment. It was calming, pleasant, both words he once thought would never reenter his personal dictionary, but he couldn’t be happier to be proven wrong on that account. He wasn’t sure where to go this morning, outside of just the usual unscheduled patrol he took upon himself whenever he felt the need. He saw himself as a sort of watchman for the village, not that they really needed one with the dragons in charge, but, it only seemed fair to have one of the humans assume some kind of responsibility for keeping the people protected as well, and considering his history, he seemed a reasonable candidate… Not to mention the dragon he had a pact with was next in line to the highest authority of the place. Quietly strolling out of his living abode, he occasionally stopped to concentrate on said pact. He could sense Gronk was likely awake, and there was a sort of troubled feeling going on inside him, but that was rather common this day and age. Likely the dragon would talk about it once it started to really irk him… That or Rhett would just have to insist he stopped closing himself off again.

---

New York

Atticus

For some reason, Atticus found himself staring blankly at his old police uniform for a particularly long time this morning as he heard the sounds of the television spewing out the president’s latest sugary-sounding statement. The words themselves he couldn’t be bothered to listen to, he’d heard the same spiel for the last two years, and of course, the vast majority of people seemed to really buy into it…

Not that he could blame the public of course. What had they seen? Certainly none of the things their adoring leader did in the midst of the dragon war. No, they were either all in hiding at the time or off in the towns that were fortunate enough to not get incinerated. Either way, completely unaware of the sort of person this guy had been… Maybe he’d really turned over a new leaf, it was hard to say, nothing really directly countered that claim, but every time Atticus tried to believe that, he just remembered what that man did to Tiamat… He’d made it clear he’d never forgive someone who brought that sort of harm and trauma to her, and through their pact he knew it was a trauma that still stung her to this very day. That was all he needed to distrust Zermack’s motives.

Still, he wasn’t a politician, and he wasn’t a public servant anymore either… No, he was a simple security guard now… though considering the tower he guarded, there was hardly anything simple about it really. For one, he was the only human guard out there that he could recall ever seeing, and for that matter, that tower’s existence was probably more of an anomaly than the dragons themselves by this point. Seriously… they erected a monstrosity of a building like that in two years? It baffled the mind just how much dragons and their magic could speed along progress as easily as they could bring everything to rubble. Of course, he wasn’t being paid to question the expedience of skyscraper construction, so he eventually snapped himself out of his trance and finished putting his security gear on, making his way over to the living room to see Tiamat had been watching the presidential broadcast, and, well… she didn’t look like she was taking it so well.

“Hey… You gonna be alright?” he asked her gently as he went to sit down beside her on the couch. “I know you don’t want me worrying, but when… you-know-who’s on the news, it’s kinda hard for me not to. You know… force of habit.”