Red

RED Nicknames: ??? • #1 / Captian Magma Runner Familiar It is difficult to discern these quick lizards from their surroundings. When the heat goes up, bioluminescent membranes in their leathery skin begin to glow a deep red. 2525 Bloodstone Roundhorn Apparel It is said that dragons with spiral horns have an affinity for balancing on the sides of sheer mountain cliffs. 250 Bloodscale Helmet Apparel Forged in blood, this helmet is pieced-together from the trophies of vanquished foes. 4000 Glowing Red Clawtips Apparel Softly glowing nails are the mark of an alchemist who has dipped their claws into their cauldron one too many times... 250 Ruby Minerals & Ores Rubies are a popular choice to ornament armor, scabbards, and harnesses of nobledragons. (Special thanks to Hahoe!) 85 Andesine Minerals & Ores Beautiful in the raw or when polished. 85 Cerdae Sparkle Organics Cerdae shed has fallen out of favor as a light source in recent years. Recent acquisitions of the material produce a sickly red glow. 48 Scarlet Yuccaweave Dragonmade Though practical, this deep red-colored rope can stain fabrics pink if stored together. 41 ╭━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╮ ♫ Steak Knives - Man Man ♫ ╰━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╯

Red is one of the quietest of the bunch, only surpassed by Yellow and just barely less quiet than Green. They generally mean well, but given their reluctance to talk to others, they haven't really made any notable relationships with even one of the current bunch. Some might call Red cowardly, but they just don't like to make rash decisions. They tend to overthink a lot of what they do, and though this does definitely keep them from making silly mistakes, others tend to label them as paranoid.

Red did used to be a lot more outspoken. However, that was when Tan was there. Back when Tan was still around, the two were one of the most powerful pairs in the group. They weren't a couple like Green and Orange, and the certainly weren't partners in crime like Purple and The Imposter, but together they were nearly unstoppable. When they played together, they were almost always on the willing team. If one of them was The Imposter, the other never snitched, but in return they always caught the Imposter when both were crewmates. Tan was the leader, and Red their second-in-command.

All of that changed when the malfunction occurred. Red had begged Tan not to do what they did, pleaded for them to reconsider, but Tan was not to be dissuaded. When Tan was pronounced MIA, and eventually declared dead, Red was never the same.

Though others mourned the loss as well, no one was quite sure how to comfort Red. They did not know him well, only Tan. Ironically, it was only The Imposter who could accurately figure out how to comfort Red. After all, The Imposter has been in Red’s head. They’d been in everyone’s head. So of course they would have gleaned some information from their time using Red as a vessel to kill everyone else. At first, Red rejected The Imposter’s attempt at help. How could he even dare to allow the enemy to sympathize with him? It all must be some cruel, elaborate trick— he and Tan had ruined many of The Imposter’s games. The Imposter should be angry at him, vengeful, and rightfully so.

When The Imposter made it known that revenge was not on their agenda, and they truly wanted to make Red feel better, then Red became a bit more accepting of The Imposter’s company. But only in secret.

Even after everything that had happened, out of all of the dragons, Red is still deemed one of the most fitting to lead. Not only are they rather rational, not one to jump to conclusions, they were the first to wake up. The first to realize that something was off. The first to stop freaking out, and the first to calm others down. The first to ask for names, backstories, the first to make sure everyone had food and water.

The first to get his tasks finished.

The first to die.

And the first to wake up again.

....................

Recently, Red has noticed strange going-ons concerning his anatomy. He's grown horns, and his claws are starting to glow. He's taken on a helmet to cover his face in shame.

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The first thing he noticed was the sensation of floating.

The world was... dark. Not pitch black, but rather the absence of anything and everything. Something a blind person sees, rather than the absence of light, what one sees when they close their eyes. He could not tell if he was hearing anything, if the rushing and ringing was actual ambiance or just the sounds projected from within his own head. He felt nothing, smelled nothing, tasted nothing.

He was simply floating in the abyss.

Soon enough, he noticed a light in the distance. He tried to extend a claw to it, but realized he couldn't move. In fact, he couldn't even see his arm. He could do nothing but wait as the light slowly grew brighter, soon consuming him whole.

. . . . .

The ground was cold. That was the feeling he noticed. He took in a breath, filling up his lungs as if he hadn't breathed in for a long time. His fingers twitched, his tail spasmed, and he jumped as his heart threatened to leap out of this throat. He sat up quickly, only to fill back down as pain seized his muscles. Instead of trying to move once more, he focused only on breathing. He would do this one step at a time.

When the paid faded away and his breathing was at an easy pace, he tried to sit up again. This time, there was no burst of pain. He felt the subtle soreness of stiff muscles stretching for the first time in who knows how long, heard the popping as unused tendons snapped back into place. He felt a brief wave of motion sickness which was gone as soon as it came, and frowned. How long had he been out?

With unsteady legs he stood, and looked around. He was not alone. An array of other dragons were around him, unconscious as he had been. He took the time to stop and count them all. There were fifteen-- no, sixteen including him. Most of them were different colors, though two did appear to be the exact same. Twins, perhaps? The longer he stared, the more he noticed the oddities. Every dragon appeared to be monochromatic. The two of the same color-- a light sort of brown-- were only a bit bigger than him, but immediately he knew that such was off. He didn't know why, but he felt that they should be... bigger. Much bigger than him.

He reached out to try and wake one of them, but then thought better of it. Best to get the bearing of his surroundings first. The others could be hostile.

Paying better attention to his surroundings, and not the dragons, allowed him to realize that the ground was slightly vibrating. A constant low rumble that you could easily ignore with time. The space wasn't too expansive, but large enough to house the amount of dragons within it currently. Bunk beds lined the walls, and there appeared to be mini refrigerators in each corner. A few doors labeled "bathroom" led out of the main space, while the wall opposite of it held a door only labeled "CONTROL PAD". The large room had windows, but all he could see out of them was an inky blackness dotted by sparkly glowing lights. The ceiling and roof had vents, and he couldn't help but wonder what they were there for.

...A part of him knew that he usually would not be able to name all of the features that surrounded him, but for some reason, he could name them immediately. As if the knowledge of their title and use had suddenly appeared in his mind.

A low moan come from somewhere around him. He whipped his head around just in time to see one of the other dragons twitch. It was the yellow one. A... Spiral? Yes, a Spiral.

Well, he had procrastinated enough. Red walked over to the dragon on shaky legs, stumbling and nearly falling over once, but somehow managing to keep his balance. He stood in front of the dragon, unsure of how to proceed. He reached a paw out and gently shook the dragon's shoulder.

The Spiral inhaled sharply, body lurching as if experiencing a sudden fright. The Spiral's eyes fluttered open, unfocused, the color of just-pressed olive oil. Their tail began twitching immediately, not stopping as their gaze finally settled on the Mirror in front of them.

"Where am I?" the Spiral rasped. She coughed sharply.

The Mirror said the only thing he could, in the calmest voice possible. "I don't know"

. . . . .

The situation took a sharp decline the more dragons woke up. The Mirror and the Spiral worked together to stir their fellow dragons to consciences, but it was a mistake to think that they would be as calm as them. When the first dragon started screaming, the Mirror could already feel his sanity deteriorating. The blue Guardian was the worst, loud voice grating on the Mirror’s senses. Some dragons weren’t even awake yet, causing more panic as the others wondered if they ever would. If, perhaps, they could fall asleep and never wake up as well. As the tempo of chatter grew louder, Red grit his teeth.

Standing high, he bellowed out in a voice much louder than his usual one;

“Everybody! Stop!”

Not everyone quieted down, but that was good enough. At least now everyone would be able to properly hear him.

“I know you’re all confused and frightened— we are in a brand new place, and no one has any idea what is going on. I know I don’t. But please, keep your heads about you! Try and remember something, anything. Does anyone remember their name? Where they came from?”

Multiple dragons spoke at once, and the Mirror waved his arms around. “No, no, one at a time please. Wait your turn.”

There was a brief moment of silence before an orange Skydancer spoke. “Um, I don’t remember my name, or where I came from,” he spoke, hesitantly, voice soft and quiet. “But I know that this is my family.” He featured to a green Bogsneak and a cyan Pearlcatcher. “My mate, and my son.”

“I’m here with my brother,” an Imperial piped up from the back. This did not surprise the Mirror, the two were identical after all.