Roleplay

"Semi-living jewelry?" Chou echoes, listening intently. "Very interesting..."

He continues to nod along as he listens.

"Yes, distance between members does come with the territory of being a larger clan," he reflects. "But many clan dragons are close to one another. I do stand as a bit of an outlier. My focus on my work keeps me away from such... social pursuits. I am not fully sure what it even means to be another dragon's friend beyond the fact of becoming allies in combat when you need one another..."

He clears his throat after mumbling the last part. "All that aside... you live in the Viridian Labyrinth, correct? That is very far removed from our home here. Though there is little animosity towards Nature dragons in this lair, some dragons here still fear the place. What is living there like?"

While listening, Nia can't help but wonder if Chou can be truly happy living a life without close friends or many other contacts with dragons. He knows that Skydancers are extremely social dragons, even Ranun, who is the most antisocial dragon he knows, regularly interacts with others and seems to be close to at least one other dragon. They decide they might ask Chou about it, but when they know each other better.

"I know there is a long history behind why our flights are against each other, but it still surprises me that anyone could be scared of the Viridian Labyrinth."

Nia looks around at that, suddenly really realizing that he is a nature born dragon in the middle of a Wasteland clan, with quite some dragons generelly still known for being hostile towards each other's flights.

"I think it's wrong to still blame each other for what our deities and ancestors did in the past and there is no reason to be hostile or afraid of each other. The Viridian Labyrinth is a beautiful place to live. A variety of stunning plants and pretty flowers are growing everywhere, there are many lakes and rivers, so we are never short of water. Some areas have deep, neverending forests where only the sounds of nature can be heard. Dragons feeding on insects or plants will never be short on food."

It becomes clear by his dreamy voice that Nia loves his home more than anything else.

"But I am convinced that all areas of Sornieth are beautiful in different ways. I've found the Tangled Woods, where our allied clan lives, to be a fascinating place as well that I really enjoyed seeing, and I'm sure once I'm not dead on my feet and attacked by weird skeleton hounds, I will easily find the appeal of the scarred wasteland as well."

Nia is usually a very cheerful dragon, but when it comes to such topics, his moral code can really come through.

Chou is fascinated by his passion for the topic. As Nia describes it all, he can envision it in his mind's eye, piecing together what lay beneath the canopy he has flown over in his travels.

"I would love to visit one day," Chou comments idly. "I have only ever seen it from above."

He flicks his tail thoughtfully at Nia's words on the conflict. "As a dragon born to Lightning, I will admit my knowledge on the conflict between the flights only goes as deeply as what I have heard from other dragons here. Generally, they share the same sentiment as you. In fact, we have quite the population of Nature dragons who have settled here. Most work on using their magic to cultivate a garden for produce in the upper area of the lair, given the variety of what does grow naturally here in the wastes is quite slim. One such Nature dragon even commissioned a friend to come assist us, before our clan was even modified to have a representative council for the different flights, so a Nature priestess does live here. I'm told she is quite remarkable on the battlefield..."

He trails off, realizing he is moving into the mind of a warrior again. He clears his throat, trying to put his head into the place of a "normal" dragon, whatever that means... he would really like to have more reason (and material) to speak with Nia with.

The silence is cut off by Encha arriving with a small tea tray, holding two cups carved from hollowed stone. "Passion fruit tea for you," she slides one cup to Chou. "And water for you," she says, nudging a cup to Nia. "Any kind of food on your minds? We can serve up just about anything you ask for here... within reason. As long as our food stores allow for the right ingredients, just about any style of dish is on the table!"

Nia nods along, pleased to hear that the clan does have dragons from the origin of the Viridian Labyrinth. He wants to respond to what Chou told him, but Encha arrives and his mind wanders to what he wants to eat.

"If you have anything with berries or other fruits I'll take that!", he ends up saying, deciding that some vitamins will be healthy for him. The knowledge that nature land dragons work on farming within the clan has him hoping that something like that will be available.

"We do have several types of salads with berries," Encha responds brightly. "My best recommendations would be a dish we serve with a mixture of Winter's Delight and Butcher's Fig wrapped in roasted Crimson Rootvine for something savory, or if you're looking for something sweet but still filling we also could serve up a salad mixture that uses chunks of watermelon, Red Delicious and Granny Smith apples, some strawberries, and shredded acorns and tulips for seasoning!"

Chou blinks slowly at her. He's never ordered much directly from Encha... usually when he's here, he prefers to order straight from the bar for a quick cold drink to wash away his fatigue from a hard day's work. It's a bit frightening how precisely she knows the menu, and he quickly speaks up to stop her from prattling off when she looks at him while she gives Nia a moment to decide.

"Just a charred branch of Buzzing Rotwood for me, thank you, Encha."

Nia, matching Enchas energy, nodded along to her recital of the menu enthusiastically before Chou spoke up. They did however use that chance to decide, and quickly settled.

"I'll take the first one!", he says with a big smile "it sounds delicious! Please make it a big serving, I'm starving!"

“Can do! You’ll make our cook happy to give her something to do. I’ll be back out in a few! We have a very capable furnacemaster who can make roasts in a snap.”

As she leaves, Chou drums his claws on the table. What is there to say, now? He tries to think back on everything Nia has told him. He’s never wanted to get closer to another dragon more than now. If only he could find the right thing to talk about…

Wait!

“Ah…” Chou sips at his tea. “I recall you saying you have a fascination with gems. How do you feel about… naturally occurring gems in dragons? Things like crystallized bodies, gembonded dragons, ones sporting natural filigrees, all types who produce gem-like materials naturally.”

Nia, who watched Encha leave, visibly perks up at the question, the feathers at the back of his head spreading a little and his tail twitching behind him.

"Yes!! I find it so fascinating that some people have these genes! I wish they would run in my family honestly! Especially the Opal gene is super pretty! Our clan's scavenger Ranun has the opal gene, but he won't let me look at it closely. He is kinda mean."

Nia pouts a little for a few seconds but then keeps chatting on.

"Filigree is soooooo pretty as well, it looks very elegant! Oh! Wouldn't these genes be actually helpful in fights? Since they kinda harden the body?", Nia asks Chou, looking at him with sparkling eyes.

“I suppose they would,” Chou remarks thoughtfully. “Perhaps for things like Opal or Gembond, but especially Crystal and Facet. I don’t know about filigrees since they cover so little of the body…”

He flutters his wings. “They blend in among my feathers, so I’m not sure if you noticed them. Their color falls right into the grooves of my wing patterns. But nevertheless, I am covered in filigrees of my own, which is why I bring it up.”

It feels nice to have found some common ground. Chou can’t help but be proud of himself for driving some real conversation.

“The more prominent ones are obscured beneath my armor, but it is most easily seen on my face…”

Chou reaches up, and with a bit of effort, pulls his intricately carved helmet from his head. As the metal faceplate and the insulating lining are pulled back, letting his extra-lengthy feather mane fall limp, he exposes a web of hard, metal-like grooves in his face, a deep sunset color only slightly darker than his scales. They curl around his thin snout and cyan eyes, looping to frame topaz-like stones on each side of his head.

He can’t help but reach up to wipe at his sweat a bit. After all the excitement today, there was enough perspiration to nearly glue the thing to his face, but now that the sun was going down and it was really time to retire to his den, he didn’t worry himself much about taking the helmet off.

(I'm just gonna headcanon Chou as older than Nia, hope that's ok! Also I might draw that scene at one point, Nia gay panicking is just iconic :D )



Tithonia's tail falls flat to the ground and even his wings sink a little at the sight of Chou without the helmet on his head covering nearly his whole face.

For a second there, Nia was shocked that he didn't notice the Filigree adorning the base of the other's wings, but seeing his face quickly distracted him sufficiently.

Even though Chou's general coloring and muster were similar to that of his clan's prince, Chou had sharper features, the filigree gene enhancing them, and the ice-blue eyes looking even more pretty than they did through the mask.
Nia feels his face blushing and struggles to find words to properly respond to the older dragon exposing his beauty like this.

"You- you look very stunning. I mean you're just- very pretty."