Roleplay

@Pinnithin

It was as she'd known all along. The brightness over the land, the ruins dotting it, the river meandering lazily through it all. With a splash Iku hauled herself onto the bank and sneezed out the water still in her nose. She didn't bother with drying herself off, the sun would soon warm her hide. Blinking in the harsh light (so much brighter than she was used to), she briskly started to make her way towards one of Clan Sunsharp's prison outposts.

She was fairly sure this was the right one. The web of protective magic spanning the river had messed up her Sight for a bit, and she almost had missed the ebb in the net that would allow her to pass through and into Sunsharp territory.

Just as she'd expected, no one had seen her rise from the river. That would delay them enough to allow Iku to reach the entrance uninterrupted. In no time she was in the shadow of the building and only gathering speed. The guards turned their heads in her direction, one even opened her mouth probably to demand she state her business or something like that.

"Beep, boop, bop!" Before the guard could get farther than two words, Iku poked her three times: snout, chest, forehead. "Password correct, gates opening!" At that moment, another guard stepped through the door and crashed straight into Iku. Smoothly, she twirled the newcomer around, smiling at him as she spun him into his comrades and herself inside. They tried to stop her, but their paws couldn't find purchase on her wet, slippery skin. Iku shoved the door shut after her and heard it lock with a satisfying click. So far, so good! No time to slack off, though.

Iku descended to the dungeons, taking care not to slip on the marble stairs. Would be silly of her to fall and crack her head open after she'd got so far. Not that that would happen, but still! At the bottom landing, she greeted the guard on shift cheerfully, bewildering them for the few seconds it took her to slip into the cell alcove that held what she was looking for. Here her Sight would cut out for the time of her visit, but it was okay. It was all going just as it should.

The waves of magic-suppressing enchantments hit her head on and she faltered. She no longer felt the near absolute certainty guiding her steps. The guard shouted something at her. Iku stopped. A small fae looked up at her and Iku didn't need magic to know this was the place. There she was, her Charge. A smile bloomed on the guardian's face.

"Hello! My name is Iku and you're my Charge. Nice to meet you!"

((Tooks some liberties with the settings, hope it's not completely off the mark!))

@Akal

Tempest awoke to the slam of the dungeon door, followed by a heavy slap slap slap echoing from the alabaster staircase. There wasn't much to do in her tiny cell, but she had more or less fallen into a rhythm of sleeping, eating, and lying awake in thought. This interruption deviated from both her own meager schedule and that of the guard shifts, so she raised her head with interest from her cot when the guard posted in front of her cell raised a shout of surprise.

She propped herself up on her elbows - it was the only reaction her weak limbs could muster - when a fully grown guardian thrust her head into the alcove of her prison. She was grinning from frill to frill, her violet scales dripping with water and her giant frame completely filling the narrow space allowed to her. Tempest regarded her carefully, suspiciously, yellow eyes red-rimmed and tired.

"Hello! My name is Iku and you're my Charge. Nice to meet you!"

It took a moment for the words to register. Tempest had not had such enthusiasm directed at her in a very long time. Finally, she opened her mouth slightly in fatigued shock.

"I'm your what?"

From outside the cell, there was a bit of a commotion as the guard, a golden-haired wildclaw named Kamol, stumbled up the stairs to unbolt the door. Tempest heard his faint call for backup but barely paid it any heed. What in Lightweaver's name had brought this anomaly to the dungeons of Clan Sunsharp? To her?

"Just gonna watch this rp..."

@Pinnithin

"I'm your what?"

That wasn't the response Iku had expected. She must have got the words wrong somehow, she thought, despite all her practice during the trip from the Sea. "My CHARGE," she said, louder this time and careful to enunciate every syllable clearly. "My name is Iku," she repeated to be safe, "What is your name?" She tried to reach her hand out in greeting, but banged her elbow against a protruding rock instead and hissed in pain.

"Is every place here this cramped?" She said, rubbing the sore spot. Her wings were already falling asleep, wedged between her body and the ceiling, and the bars of the cell were uncomfortably close to her face. The cell itself didn't look like it could hold anything larger than a wildclaw without resorting to cutting bits off the prisoners to fit them in. Neither did any cell she'd seen on her way here nor any other room for that matter. Was everyone here just really small?

"I would swear I saw some Imps on the outside--OW!" Iku yelped. Something had just jabbed her tail and hard. Or someone, rather. And right when she was getting to know her Charge! Iku frowned, but maneuvered herself around in the tight space, horns bumping and scales scraping against the walls. One would think a clan this big could afford to invest in more space in their lodgings.

When she'd finally managed to turn around to face her assailant, it turned out there wasn't just one. A whole retinue of what she could only assume were guards had appeared outside the alcove. Maybe this was what all the yelling earlier had been about? Anyway, it was very rude to interrupt others when they were speaking, especially by almost skewering their tail. Yet, since it didn't seem likely they'd just leave her alone, she might as well talk to them.

"Yes? What is it that you want?"

@Akal

"I know what a Charge is, you - " but before Tempest could surface with a sufficient enough insult, the guardian was already shuffling around to face Kamol and the guards he had inevitably brought to back him up.

"Yes, ma'am?" she heard his honey smooth voice from beyond the alcove, "You're not authorized to be down here without clearance first. Conversing with the prisoners while lacking the proper admittance could be both a danger to yourself and the members of this clan. Tempest here is about to be on trial for murder, might I inform you? I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Tempest imagined every word was uttered with a smile on his face; ever polite and friendly, Kamol was. She couldn't help but wince reflexively at the word 'murder,' despite the fact that she's heard it dozens of times out of the mouths of the guards since her stay in the dungeons began. Raising a Shade-scarred hand to brush a few stray strands of hair out of her eyes, she took a moment to digest the gravity of this news.

A Charge. Her. How bizarre.

She shook her head and kneaded her knuckles into her eyelids, wondering if this was some sort of convoluted fever dream. Iku, with her boldfaced words and her - quite literally - large personality taking up all the space in front of her cell, certainly seemed like something out of a hallucination.

@Pinnithin

Iku regarded Kamol for a long, silent moment. Finally, she opened her mouth:

"You are all tiny." And all very weird looking, now that she had time to actually look at them. If she hadn't know better, she would have taken them to be some sort of beastkin instead of dragons. Fascinated, Iku reached out to poke Kamol, but instead was met with a wall of spears.

She decided she didn't like these weird beast-dragons at all. Although, it had been nice of the yellow-headed one to tell her her Charge's name. Tempest. She rolled the name over in her mouth: TeEeEeEeMMMpesssst. It was a good name, she thought, nodding to herself. Very sea-worthy. Oh, right, the yellow guard had said other things too, hadn't he?

Iku cocked her head, considering Kamol's words. "Yes," she said. Without further warning, she heaved herself up and out, the guards parting like blades of grass before her as she stepped forward. Oh, it felt so good to stretch her wings. She took a good while to stretch out her muscles and crack her joints, feeling blood prickle back to her limbs. Then she turned around and crammed herself back into the alcove and settled in, her tail tucked safely under her.

Once she was facing the cell again, Iku smiled at Tempest. "Where were we? Oh yes, exchanging names. But you know already my name and I know now your name, so we can probably move on. Well, then…" Well, then what? Her plan hadn't covered this.

"How are you?" She ventured after a moment of deep thought.


((edited to make Kamol less ooc))((in which iku doesn't understand personal space and not making sudden movements towards people who are armed and a bit on edge))

@Akal ((lmao youre fine))

Tempest blinked in surprise at the whole exchange. Where on Sornieth had this dragon come from? She hugged her knees to her chest and stared at Iku with narrowed eyes, simultaneously mistrustful of and fascinated with her visitor. Her question, however, prickled her hide with irritation, and she responded with more venom than was probably necessary.

"How am I? Are you serious?" Exhausted, she ran a hand through her hair - it needed a wash - and sighed bitterly. "My magic is bound and I'm living in a cell. I'm about to go on trial for mass murder and all of my clanmates hate me. How do you think I am?"

Her rage was probably misdirected; she had nothing against this guardian besides the interruption of her sleep schedule, but something about her oblivious, cheerful demeanor and her ridiculous, ungainly frame filling up the entire dungeon hall made Tempest's teeth grind together. "And haven't you ever heard of shifting form?" she added with a scowl. "Sheesh, who raised you?"

--

Outside the alcove, now facing the backside of the unusual intruder, Kamol puzzled over his predicament. He glanced at the guardsmen behind him inquisitively, but they all just shrugged at him. He wasn't quite sure what the protocol was for this; nobody was, for that matter. And for the guardian to blatantly ignore his request and continue to speak with Tempest was, well, not entirely expected.

"Um, ma'am?" He tried once more at getting the guardian's attention, prodding her politely with a hand, "I'm afraid that wasn't an option. You must leave this area immediately, for everyone's safety."

When he received no response, one of the guards at his shoulder reached for the weapon at his belt, but Kamol gave him a gesture of silent reprimand. "She's not trying to spring her free, nor is she trying to kill her. There's no need for violence unless she instigates it." He told the guard in a low voice.

The guard nodded and slid his sword back into its sheath. Kamol returned his attention to the intruder - Iku, was it? - and tried again. "If you would like to speak to the prisoner, you're going to need the proper authorization," he said again. "We can arrange an escort to take you to speak with Alacrith, our clan leader, for the required clearance if you so desire?"

@Pinnithin

Iku nodded through Tempest's rant. Inside, she was quietly relieved. She'd thought it would be difficult to talk with her Charge, but the conversation was going swimmingly. They had already exchanged so many words! Interacting with others wasn't that hard after all, even when she couldn't See where she was going. The back-and-forth of it reminded her of playing checkers. When Tempest seemed like she'd ended her turn, Iku proceeded to answer:

"Yes; yes; I think you look like terrible and also like slowly dying; yes; my dads did, or actually, one of them most of the time. Auntie--" The auntie's name was a strange burst of sound with a lot of throat clicks and low-pitch screeches"--helped too. She tried to once eat me when I was small, but she is a sea serpent so I do not fault her for it."

"Sea serpents sometimes eat their young," she added helpfully.

Through this, Iku was faintly aware that the guard was still talking to her, even if she couldn't fathom why. As far as she was concerned, whatever business they'd had, they were finished now. He'd talked to her, she'd listened and talked back, end of conversation. Iku decided to ignore Kamol until he left, which was hopefully soon.

((Had a few bad brain days, not my best work))

@Akal

This was absurd. This was beyond absurd. Tempest placed her forehead on her knees, trying to puzzle out the mentions of "sea serpents" and that strange eldritch tongue, and let out a tired breath. "Why are you here?" she asked, her voice deadpan. "I mean," she raised her head again to eye her visitor, "I know I'm your Charge and all, but how did you find me? Where did you come from?" She paused again, and craned her neck to try and see past her massive frame. "And you know Kamol is still trying to talk to you, right?"

--

"Sir, perhaps we should fetch Alacrith and bring her here," one of the soldiers suggested.

Kamol scratched the side of his jaw, "We might have to, if this, um," he pondered Iku's lilac flank, "intruder, keeps it up." It really was an awkward situation; she wasn't causing any harm, but she still was flagrantly violating clan protocol, even if she was being fairly polite about it. He waited a few more moments, listening to the disjointed conversation between Tempest and the guardian and tapping his foot, before crossing his arms and jerking his chin at two of his guards.

"Rhys, Mara, go ahead and fetch Alacrith. Tell her what's going on." He sighed and furrowed his brows. "I'll keep trying to talk to our friend here."

((sorry this took so long lol I really do like this rp though haha))

@Pinnithin

Iku had her mouth open, already half way to starting to repeat the first words she'd said upon arriving, when Tempest clarified her question. Her mouth clicked shut, and then opened again, as she began anew:

"How I found you…There was over here some sort of fracas"--She pronounced the word with great relish, like it was an exquisite pearl she was showing off--"and when I tried to find out what was happening, I Saw you." She didn't offer any further explanation on the subject, instead moving right along to the next question. " I came from the Sea." Iku replied, again as if this was all the explanation needed.

There was a lot more questions in this conversation than she was used to, but that couldn't be helped with all the interference to her Sight from the enchantments covering every inch of the cell. Iku shook her head. She'd been no more than 10 minutes in this dumb nullzone and already it was making her kind of dizzy and nauseous.

No wonder Tempest looked more like a plague victim than prisoner, she thought: Unkempt, malnourished, her cheeks hollow and eyes dark and fevered. The black scars snaking across her skin did nothing to lessen the impression. Iku let out a small, unhappy sigh. Her Charge was in a terrible condition and her options for doing anything about it were limited. Tempest didn't look like she'd appreciate a regurgitated fish right now. Or ever, for that matter.

Resurfacing from her thoughts, Iku remembered she was still in the middle of a conversation and retraced the last few minutes in her head. "…Kamol?" Iku turned her head, trying to follow Tempest's line of sight, but only managed to wedge her head in an awkward angle against the wall. Still, it was enough to catch a glimpse of the guards standing outside and staring (rather rudely) at her backside, the one she'd spoken with in the front row.

Then it clicked.

"Ohhhh, yellow-head guard!" she exclaimed. He seemed to be talking to a couple guards standing somewhere outside her view. Iku twisted to get a better look at him, her interest piqued. From this new vantage point, reading Kamol's lips was difficult, but not impossible. Still, his odd form and her awkward position allowed her to only catch fragments of the conversation, and Iku's brows furrowed in tandem with Kamol's.

"Who is Alacrith?" She asked Tempest.

((with all the festivities over and done with, here i am again))