Espilce

Or, less stupidly, head of marketing. Espilce is fluent in the language of the Stormcatcher's top bureaucrats, the Earthshaker's wealthiest merchants, the political machinations of the Arcanist's most tenured academics, and everyone in between. He's well-liked by almost everyone because he knows people better than most dragons could ever dream of. The right smile, the right joke, the right self-depreciating little chuckle or peek behind the curtain, and even his haters are usually won over. Espilce always seems to know exactly what to say, or exactly the right gift to give, to win over just about everyone he comes into contact with. He says he developed the skills because he always felt a little backwards, as a Shadow dragon with brilliant colors. His little quirks, like being a little silly and unreliable with scheduling, were pretty forgivable in comparison.

Nobody really knows what Espilce is like when he doesn't have the charm turned all the way up, leading most to believe that the Imperial is just naturally magnetic all the time. In the eyes of his vast network of personal and professional friends and acquaintances, the idea that such a nice person could even be capable of doing some of the shady things some of his more spiteful exes accused him of is laughably unthinkable. Of course they'd spread nasty rumors when he broke up with them as soon as he found someone new. Espilce liked to be gracious and take the high road. Most people didn't.

Pyewacket, his longterm girlfriend, has long been envied for her position with him. After all, he needed love like anyone else, and Pyewacket was exceptionally loving and kind. But what Pyewacket probably wouldn't understand was that dragons as expressive as Espilce had a lot more love to give-- and needed to receive a lot more-- than average. That did not mean marriage. Nor did it mean roping him into babysitting duty. But it did mean that one woman could never possibly be enough to keep a man like him content. Pye didn't need to know... for her sake, you understand. To spare her feelings. Her sister Tricia was much too spiteful and shrewish, too committed to fitting in a box, too committed to her bore of a husband.

Tricia's daughter Jarmara, though... she understood, to a point. She could see what it was like being unsatisfied in a relationship. The fact that Jarmara was a professional acrobat, and several years younger, was pure coincidence. She got him, see? But she also had a tender heart like her auntie, and needed to be spared too. It was kinder to tell her that Pye was just oblivious to the fact that they were going to break up. That way she wouldn't feel inadequate.

There'd been a bit of a snag when Tricia tried to ruin everything for him, like she ruined everything else, but luckily his ladies both loved him too much to believe her. They worked out some sort of peace between themselves that meant he doesn't have to see Tricia any more, which he considers a net win.

Espilce is the epitome of a Fun Dad: there to occasionally spoil them with big trips and amusement parks, suspiciously absent whenever anything serious or work-related comes up. His kids learn very quickly about his no Bad Vibes approach to parenting. If they have any trouble, or need support, or want to connect in any way other than surface level play, he'll pawn them off with a platitude and disappear. Moms are better at that stuff, after all, and why should he open his living space to some snot-nosed kid who'd just bring his mood down? Especially if he has company over that they might want to blab to their mom about? No, it's a kindness that they don't get to come over to his place or meet his friends. He'd be bad at it. Better to let mom handle it.

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