Roleplay

@Akal

Tempest considered giving up on trying to understand the gibberish that was coming out of the young guardian's mouth, and was teetering on the edge of dismissing their conversation entirely when she heard Alacrith's name.

She worked her jaw idly before replying, "She's the clan leader. And also my dear mother." The last sentence was laced with sarcasm. Alacrith was anything but dear to her. "We'll see if she actually bothers to come or if she sends someone else to take care of things." She rested her chin morosely on her knee. "Probably the latter. She hasn't been to the dungeons since I was put here."

--

"Ma'am? Pardon me, ma'am, but there's a situation."

Alacrith was seated at a reading table in the library, reviewing correspondent letters from allied clans, when two guardsmen approached her. She lifted her gaze from the documents and recognized the newcomers immediately. Upon seeing the worriment on their faces, she assumed the worst and rose from her seat. "What is it? Has she escaped?"

The gangly, long-haired one she remembered was named Rhys raised a hand in reassurance. "No, no, no, nothing that drastic. There's just, uh, well..." He fumbled for words and fiddled with the hilt of his sword. "There's a full-sized guardian down by her cell, talking to her. She says Tempest is her Charge and she didn't listen to us when we asked her to leave." He ran a hand through his hair, and continued cautiously, "...But, she's not doing any damage, and she's not making any attempt to free the prisoner, so...."

Clan Sunsharp's leader blinked once; twice. "I'm sorry, what?"

@Pinnithin

An important step in any guardian's journey, meeting The Family! This whole encounter was going better than Iku had ever anticipated. All the troubling visions and bad feelings she had had from the time beyond this point were just that: visions. Not unlike the nightmares she had when she'd eaten too many crabs before sleeping. Iku turned around to face Tempest, excitement practically radiating off of her.

"Oh, about that! She is coming, or at least I Saw her leaving the prison at some point--"

Correction: she attempted to turn.

"Hm."

Iku experimentally yanked her head. It failed to move an inch. It seemed she had somehow got her horns wedged between the bars of Tempest's cell in her attempt to gain knowledge of this elusive Kamol (a.k.a yellow-head guard), and now she had no room to get them out. This was a problem.

"I am stuck."

Or would be a problem if she was going anywhere. Iku twisted her body to get her neck in a better position, and was rewarded with an awful cramp instead. Okay, definitely a problem. "Why is this place built so small? It is impossible to move in!" Iku writhed around a bit more, only managing to get herself even more stuck. Situation update: can't twitch a fin. Guess this was her life now.

@Akal

Tempest watched the ungainly guardian wriggle around in her cell block with mild fascination. She didn't place much stock in seers, so she did not allow herself to feel any sort of anticipation at the mention of her mother's potential arrival. She unfolded her legs and sat back on her cot, unable to really see anything besides Iku's lilac hide beyond the bars of her cell.

Faintly, she could hear Kamol's smooth, polite voice, saying something along the lines of, "be reasonable, please," and rolled her eyes. It was clear after the first few minutes of their encounter that this intruder was anything but reasonable.

"Yeah, why do you think the rest of us shifted our forms?" Tempest said in response to the guardian's aggrieved question. "The lair was built in the Second Age, by beings much smaller than most dragons. We took advantage of the space and reverted to a bipedal form so we could all fit comfortably." Her eyes drifted up to where Iku's horns were locked into the bars of her cell. "A skill you seem to lack, from the look of things."

--

Alacrith's long, purposeful strides carried her through Clan Sunsharp's lair, forcing Rhys and Mara to practically jog in order to keep up.

"You are positive this intruder has made no attempt to free the prisoner?" She asked Rhys sharply, and the urgency with which her eyes glinted made the guardsman want to look away.

"Yes," he replied, "from what we saw. "

"She still has the potential to do some damage though," Mara piped up, "Remember, she is in her full draconic form, for whatever reason."

Alacrith closed her eyes and allowed herself a brief moment of disorientation. "Why in the hell..." then, shaking her head, "Alright, one of you, please go find your captain. Perhaps she can lend her perspective on this whole situation."

"I can get her," Mara offered, hurrying off down another hallway.

Alacrith rounded a corner and shouldered open the heavy oak door to the dungeons, Rhys following close behind. "What did you say her name was, again?" Alacrith asked, descending into the cool subterranean air below the lair.

The guardsman heaved the door shut behind her and followed her down the steps. "Watch for the puddles she left," he warned, before answering, "She said she was called Iku, I believe, and she - " He stopped short to avoid running into Alacrith, who had reached the bottom of the stairs and had promptly halted in her tracks.

The clan leader stared at the small gaggle of concerned guards, Kamol at the head of them with an uncomfortable look on his face, and beyond them, to the hulking frame of a fully sized guardian wedged into the stone corridor. Or, rather, the backside of her frame, seeing as her head and shoulders were thoroughly stuffed into the alcove of what was presumably Tempest's cell. Her brows furrowed together in a perplexed frown and she placed a habitual hand on the hilt of her battleaxe. "What in the name of Lightweaver...?"

"...That's her," Rhys said awkwardly, gesturing to Iku.

@Pinnithin

Tempest's words seemed to echo in the small, crowded space, at least to Iku. If you looked closely you could almost see the gears whirring in her head. She blinked, and several puzzle pieces clicked into place at once.

"So when you said shifting form, you meant--Ohhhhhh!" She exclaimed. "All the things make so much sense now!" It was like the sun itself had come out and shone its bright rays of knowledge directly into her brain. Finally, everything (well, mostly) was clear as day. There were no weird beastdragons, just your regular dragons having SHIFTED their FORMS. Her enlightened stupor lasted only a minute, before she perked up again at the sounds coming from behind her.

"That's her!" Iku said, exactly at the same time as Rhys, but in a considerably more excited tone. However eager she was to introduce herself, she was quickly reminded that her horns were indeed still stuck between the cell bars. She was making a terrible first impression on her…mother-in-Charge? Iku wasn't sure on the terminology, having learned everything she knew about Charges and guarding from her dad, who hadn't exactly been 100% clear on it himself. Except on the part where he had assured her that not every guardian felt the need to get a Charge and that was okay too. He'd been very firm about that.

But again her thoughts were straying from the situation at hand. Okay, still stuck, still so close yet so far from meeting the Family. But Tempest had very kindly presented her with the PERFECT solution to her problem, hadn't she? So, face scrunched up in concentration, Iku pulled at her magic.

A few minutes, and several writhing forms later Iku was standing up fully in the alcove for the first time. There might have been more dragon in her form than in any of the others, but it wasn't half bad for a first try, she thought. She picked at the brown fabric of her clothes curiously. So this was what wearing clothes was like? Huh. Neat!

Iku smiled with entirely too many teeth and looked to Tempest, with eyes that were almost a mirror to the fae's own, from a face that was near identical to hers. For all intents and purposes, there were now two Tempests standing in the cell alcove; one behind bars, one outside them. Iku spread her new arms, black scars and all.

"What do you think?"

She went to make a twirl to show off her new form, but tripped over her own feet and went instead inelegantly sprawling on the floor, hissing and clicking in a way that could only be described as expletive. "How do you move on these things?" The offending limbs were wiggled in the air for emphasis.

((i should never think "oh, i can reply to this rp post right away!" because it always ends up with me replying a week later. sorry!))

@Akal ((My replies might be a little slow in the coming months since classes have started up for me again, but imma TRY))

Tempest, staring in the space where Iku once stood, at the doppelganger now sprawled in front of her cell, opened her mouth to utter some condescending remark, but stopped short by the utter shock of seeing a reflection of her physical state. Was she really so thin? Her eyes so hollow? She knew her Shade scarring was ugly, but gods, looking at it on the limbs of another person was downright unnerving. And when had her hair become so lank?

Her time of self-reflection was interrupted by the appearance of her mother's commanding figure at the alcove. She fixed her intense golden gaze on her daughter behind the bars immediately.

"Tempest, would you care to explain why this..." she searched for an appropriate word, "...person is here?" She asked, nudging Iku with a toe. "And why she looks like you?"

No 'hello,' no 'how are you, Tempest?' Absolutely no acknowledgement whatsoever besides a confrontation. Tempest guessed she shouldn't have expected anything different. She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms.

"You think I know anything about this? I'm just as clueless as you are, Alacrith."

If the clan leader was affected at all by being called her name instead of the familial title of 'mother,' she did not show it. Instead, she turned to Kamol, who was worriedly looking down at Iku with a mixture of concern and perplexity on his face. "Has she been giving you any trouble?" she asked him.

The lieutenant raised his gaze to look at his leader and scratched his jaw. "Um, not really? That is, she hasn't been violent at all. Just... stubborn," he said. "And a bit odd."

"Hm," Alacrith grunted. Her eyes flicked back down to Iku, limbs askew, where she lay on the dungeon floor. The sight would be comical if she didn't look like an off-color copy of the dragon she claimed was her Charge. Instead it was just bizarre.

"Iku, I am Alacrith, leader of this clan. You are trespassing on Clan Sunsharp property and fraternizing with a dangerous individual. Will you please get on your feet and explain yourself?" the mirror said, the question sounding more like an order than a request.

Tempest could not help but smirk slightly, knowing that whatever Iku was about to say would be maddeningly nonsensical, and she loved seeing her mother frustrated.

@Pinnithin ((i'm not the fastest replier either, so no problem! i'll try too))

Lots of people had entered the alcove now that it wasn't completely filled with guardian, and Iku observed them from the floor with great interest, having forgotten that most of them had pointed spears at her face just moments ago. She noticed Kamol looking at her, and gave him a cheerful wave. The conversation went on above her, until suddenly she was addressed.

Upon request, Iku rose unsteadily up from her prone position, stumbling some and glaring daggers at her traitorous feet. All her life she had trusted them and now, at the hour of her need, they betrayed her like this. She was going to get them for this one day, just wait and see. But her vendetta was quickly forgotten when she looked up and saw Alacrith.

"Yes, I can definitely see the family resemblance," Iku said before wrapping Alacrith in a big hug. Hugs were the best thing she had discovered since surfacing from the Sea of Thousand Currents and she used every opportunity she got to share the miracle of physical contact with everyone else.

"Hi, mom! It is so nice to meet you!" She chirped and bumped her head against Alacrith's affectionately but clumsily, trying to mind horns that weren't there anymore. Iku wasn't good at explaining things, but if her new mother-in-Charge wanted to know about her, she'd give it a try:

"I am Iku, my father is Hadewych and my other father is Abaia, I am second of a clutch of three, I play the lute and poker, and…" She racked her brain for more things to tell about herself. "I like long walks on the seafloor…" She trailed off, suddenly looking confused. Her body…fluctuated for lack of a better term, scales and horns flickered in and out of existence as she let go and wobbled back a few steps. All was still for a moment.

"Oh no."

Iku's form gave a final quiver before rapidly expanding, if not to her full size, then enough to make the little room became very crowded, very quickly, before she got her shape under control again. The person knocked on her butt in the middle of the room was still arguably Tempest's twin, but bigger and plumper and most noticeably, entirely purple in colour, from skin to clothes.

Iku eyed the dragons now mostly piled up along the sides of the room. "I'm sorry," she said in a perfectly even tone. At least she had the sense to look embarrassed, even if only mildly.

@Akal

A lot of things had happened at once, too fast and too inexplicably, and Alacrith's reaction was on the razor edge of violence. Her battleaxe was in her grip instantly, an instinctive response to being touched by a stranger, but she was effectively shoved against the dungeon wall before she had a chance to use it. Her back hit cold stone with a heavy thud, her vision a flash of nothing but violet scales for a moment. By the time she could breathe again, Iku had reverted to a different form and was back on the floor again.

Clan Sunsharp's leader was too shocked to be angry at first. She stared at the intrusive guardian, right now a sick purple mockery of her imprisoned daughter, struck wordless. Beside her, the guardsmen and their commander, who had also been effectively knocked back to the wall, looked to their clan leader to gauge her reaction.

Silence reigned.

Tempest shattered it by bursting into hysterical laughter. It bubbled up in her throat like froth, unfamiliar and underused. She wheezed and broke into a cough, sucking in gasps of air in between fits of giggles, holding her ribs until they ached.

Alacrith shot her daughter a scolding look through the bars of the cell, clearly finding nothing about the situation funny, before flicking her intense stare back down at Iku. She brandished her battleaxe, using it to point at the guardian in an almost threatening gesture.

"If that is going to be a regular occurrence I will not hesitate to lock you in a cell of your own until you can get it under control," she warned in a low voice. "Tell me what clan you hail from and what gives you the right to barge into my territory unannounced. And do not ever call me 'mom' again, understood?"

Kamol and his guardsmen stared from Alacrith to Iku, recognizing the authority in her words. Tempest, on the other hand, was still shivering with laughter, a sound so alien to the rest of the dragons that a few of them shot her curious looks.

"Long walks on the seafloor..." she chuckled breathlessly. "Ridiculous."

@Pinnithin (has it...already been a month...I'm so sorry for the wait)

Things were heading south very fast in a way Iku couldn't really put her finger on. She'd tried to be on her best behaviour, but evidently hadn't quite got it down yet. Not that Iku was really sparing a thought to all that. There were much more important things going on.

Tempest laughed. She honest to gods laughed and it wasn't the bitter barks she seemed to favour, but real, genuine, actual-factual laughter. Needless to say, Iku was delighted beyond belief.

When she next spared a glance at Alacrith, there was a battleaxe, regularly sharpened one by the looks of it, being pointed straight at her face. It was out-matched by the sharpness of the words that followed it, every syllable like a spike on a stonefish's back.

"Aaawwww…" Iku had never had a mom before and had been very excited to finally have the chance to try it out, but guess things don't always work out. Maybe she could get Alacrith to warm up to it later? Later when the shapeshifting incident had hopefully faded from recent memory and they'd gotten to know each other. Iku filed a mental note to get as much quality bonding time in with her mom-in-Charge as possible.

Being stuck in a cell on her lonesome didn't much interest Iku, so her pause to consider the offer was a brief one. "I am good out here, thank you," she said and nodded. There was a pause. "Oh, right, a clan! I believe that I am by book part of clan..what was it called again?" She frowned and snapped her fingers, trying to force the name to surface. This anti-magic field was really messing everything up; it was not just seeing forward that was impossible, seeing back was harder as well.

Finally, the proverbial light bulb flashed above her head: "BOULDERSMASHER, yes, that was it!" She could now clearly see the memory of her father guiding her through familiar paths for the first time. The soft whir of the machinery that kept his body functioning the only sound passing between them. Then, the name of the clan carved into the wall of a tunnel just like the ones they'd been traveling so far, but that seemed to mark some important distinction. Then was the screaming row her father had gotten into with some golden-shiny tundra over some protocol issue or another. It had been a fun outing.

But nevermind that, no time for getting lost in fond recollections of the past. The next question posed a bit bigger challenge to answer. "For what right…?" There was only one answer to that one.

Iku shrugged.

@Akal
((Ayyy don't worry about it I'm just happy to be able to continue the RP! My life has been pretty crazy recently so it's no trouble at all that it took a while seeing as I've had no time for flight rising in the past several weeks anyway. You caught me in my one week window of free time holla))

Alacrith was about to speak again when the sound of heavy footsteps could be heard descending the dungeon stairs. Kamol, unpeeling himself from the wall, looked up and relaxed a little upon seeing the tall, broad figure of his captain approaching the scene. If anyone would know what to do about this, it was Nith.

"I came as quick as I could," the piebald guardian said as she pulled up beside Alacrith. "What exactly is going on -- oh my." She blinked a few times when she caught sight of Iku on the floor staring down the blade of Alacrith's war axe. "Did she attack you?" she asked.

Tempest spoke before her mother could. "Yeah, if you count a hug as being attacked." The laughter was gone from her voice, but a hint of a smile remained on her lips.

Alacrith shot her an icy stare before returning the axe to her waist and looking to Nith, who was a good head taller than her. "A misunderstanding, I'm sure. She does not seem to intend to harm any of us."

Nith's musclebound shoulders relaxed. "Wonderful. That makes things significantly easier to handle." She turned her warm gold eyes on the guardsmen gathered around Tempest's cell. "You all may return to your posts. Thank you for alerting Alacrith and myself."

As the guardsmen filed past the captain, casting last curious glances at Iku, Nith put out a hand to gently stop Kamol. "I left Haktan in charge of the guard rotation, so anything that's not an emergency should go to him until I'm done here."

The wildclaw nodded. "Got it."

Once the dungeon had been cleared save for Alacrith, Tempest, Iku, and Nith, the latter turned her attention to the unfamiliar face and offered her a smile. "Hello. My name is Nith; I am the captain of the guard here, and this clan is my Charge. Who are you?"

@Pinnithin (WOW, another month-long pause! Thanks for putting up with my slow pace. Spring is a pretty stressful time for me.)

Iku waved goodbye to each and every guard trickling out of the room, sneaking final peeks at her. She didn't have anything particularly against them (aside from the initial rudeness towards her), but she was glad they were going. It had started to get a little claustrophobic in the little alcove with so many people all around her. Meeting people was fun, no mistake, but there were limits to what she could digest all at once. Both literally and figuratively.

Iku turned her attention Nith. She blinked at the other guardian and a flash of scales rippled across her cheek. As fascinating as the war axe was (which was to say, not that much) Iku welcomed the distraction of a new face, er… facing her. This one's breed Iku didn't have to guess at, even before the introduction of Nith's Charge. Something about Nith just screamed guardian. Maybe because Iku had no doubt she wouldn't slam-dunk Iku to the floor without hesitation if she showed any intention of harming anyone in the chamber. Including Tempest. She felt an irrational pang of jealousy at the thought.

Iku made to stand up but found herself floundering again. She managed to catch herself on decidedly draconic hands, smoothly and a little self-consciously morphing them back as soon as she found her balance again.

Then, showing she had not learned anything from past mistakes, Iku proceeded to go from prone to her arms wrapped around Nith in one (admittedly less than graceful) motion. As she sprung up, she grew several inches more height to get to optimal embrace position.

"My name is Iku and she is my Charge," Iku said, pointing at Tempest in her cell. "I just now found her and I love her." She beamed proudly at Nith.

"Do you think we could go out of this cell for some time? The spells on the bars are freaking me out--just a bit," she said. Iku felt a little guilty leaving Tempest this soon, but if she didn't get some fresh air she was going to puke. A few breaths outside and a few moments to orient herself again and she'd be good to go for some time more.