Anese

So beautiful. So cheap. He was 5g (should've been 33g.)

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Named after Manganese, which is used to make blue and purple stained glass, is paramagnetic, and people who understand chemistry better than me will get the whole "electron capture" aspect of the element. Sure sounds like taking electric charges from other things to me.

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An Earth egg was being carried among other things by a caravan of traders. In truth, it was just an oddity they'd picked up, intending to sell it. It had somehow found its way into the Shifting Expanse; no one really knew how or why -- maybe it had been abandoned, maybe it had been left behind on accident -- there was no way of knowing. But this wasn't an uncommon fate for lost eggs: to become merchandise. So it was for this egg.

It is no uncommon thing for a storm to be rolling over the Shifting Expanse. Being seasoned travelers, the traders knew this, and so had come prepared...for the most part. Sudden storms can be unpredictable, however, as this one was. The caravan rushed to set up their pop-up shelters, and to store away their goods. Upon trying to grab the Earth egg, however, one of the traders' hands slipped, and the egg dropped and tumbled away. Lightning was striking now. It wasn't worth it to chase the thing as the wind tumbled it along. The traders retreated into their shelters, and the egg was again separated from dragons.

The egg was alone in the storm, out of the sight of the traders, now. And, of course, unsheltered. Lightning struck the egg with a powerful surge -- a direct hit. The shell exploded from the blast, and the hatchling within was propelled into the outside world. It hadn't quite been time for him to hatch. He had still been forming. This lightning strike changed the course of his life, as his body, attuned to Earth, was suddenly flooded with raw Lightning energy.

His body's natural electrical signals -- such as the ones found in the nervous system -- were burnt out completely. His ability to produce his own signal was lost...but it was also charged by the lightning. And so, in an instant, he became reliant on outside sources of electrical impulse, and even, in essence, became a Lightning dragon. Lightning is always drawn to the earth, seeking to surge into the ground. His body also transformed -- having still been developing -- absorbing the lightning strike as in a flash, it transformed the minerals in his Earth-aligned based body into something like flexible glass.

A pseudo-lightning dragon, both his magic and his life force are now connected to electricity stored within his body, as his body became unable to produce electrical signals on its own. Every so often, he needs to expose himself to electricity so that he can "recharge." Unfortunately, this very often has dire consequences to what he siphons the energy from, whether it be lightning dragons, or electronics. His natural, earth eyes become more and more apparent the hungrier he gets. The more cyan his eyes contain, the healthier he is. If he fails to recharge, he will die.

This urge to feed is very powerful, and grows ever stronger the longer he is in the presence of Lightning dragons, or electrically-charged items. Instinct takes over, and he feeds, to the detriment of his victim. His sense of electrical signatures isn't entirely different from how creatures normally smell food. The tastier the smell, the hungrier they become. So it is for Anese, but on a much stronger level.

After hatching, he wandered. Inevitably coming across Lightning dragons, he had his first meal, killing the dragons whose electrical impulses he ate. He was so young; he did not understand death at the time. But as he grew, he learned. He learned what his feeding did to others. He learned to be afraid of interacting with other dragons, as he was labelled a monster which killed both dragons and electrical objects. He became very shy, timid, and socially awkward when he did interact with others. He tried to control his appetite, but it always ended in failure. And then, he was eventually captured and imprisoned within what became his home: a place for monsters who could not help but kill, even if they did not intend to do so.

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Favorite food:

High-Voltage Almonds

Plant

It just seems like a really bad idea to try and eat these, but don't let common sense stop you.

43

5

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