Flight of Fan-cy-fare

[Deleted]

It seemed like, very quickly, this was turning out to be the place to be.

Something mechanical approached before Alice replied to her, so she turned towards it and blinked behind the blindfold. It was clearly a suit, a loud one, made out of strictly junk. A voice come out through something (she didn't know what speakers was, also, she couldn't see very well. Obvs.) While she asked if a party was going on, the crow spoke. She actually chuckled at the greeting she received- a very hesitant sounding hello. Then the crow turned to the mecha suit to inquire what a party was.

Ophyra rubbed at her temples. This place was wild, as were the people on it. She might be one of the more normal ones even, which was an odd concept to her. Alice left to approach someone else- was that a priest?- while a couple more people showed up. She observed Thane approaching the priest as well, so at least there was someone she kind of knew. She watched Leonard and Chase arrive next but made no move to interact with either. Her head was pounding, so as nobody was seeking her out especially, she decided to keep to herself.

There were too many people for her comfort, anyways.

Ren replied to her, then, something she almost missed. She refocused on her, and couldn't help but flash back a grin in response. Oh, that was more like it. She liked her humor, and she refocused on her for the time being, seeing as how she was gearing up to start explaining things. Like parties. Why was Danu so hell-bent with the party thing? Firelizard. That work sparked her interest, and her ears twitched, looking at the one they had present whom landed on Ren's shoulder. She wished she could get a better look at it. It didn't look lizard like though, not really; she would say it was more... draconic? That was mildly relieving to her. Ophyra liked dragon kind, which has gotten her in trouble once before.

They were there to help the Firelizard female with her.. young? To feed them? Geeze, this place was bizarre. It almost didn't look like the Dusk wanted their help, as nervous as she seemed to be. The elf watched and listened as a couple of eggs started to react; a large looking one cracked open, and a younger version of the mother above spilled out. Ophyra had to resist pulling off the blindfold to get a better look at him. Another one cracked with a resounding sound, and a smaller one spilled out. She decided to approach the table then and grab a bowl of meat. Which she did manage to do, although she did catch her hip on the corner of the table and cursed a bit, stumbling backwards with a bowl grasped with one arm against her side while her other hand was pressed against her hip.

Danu caught her attention again, as she spoke. Fae? No, none of the ones here were Fae. The elf took one glance around to be sure. She didn't approach the two that just hatched, as she figured all of them swarming at once would only incur the wrath of the mother above. Also, she wasn't entirely certain how violent the young were, and she didn't feel like trying to figure out the hard way. Instead, she moved away from the table so others could get their bowls, ending up standing close to the Twitchy One and the Quiet One.

[Deleted]

So, it WAS a party! Meow Mix beamed a whiskery grin from her pilot's seat, and got her mecha to nod in acknowledgment. The concept of celebrating hatching definitely made sense to her. Babies were a big deal to a lot of species. She didn't have any use for the concept of being a mother herself, but still- she could understand why a glittery lizard would want more glittery lizards around. But hey, birthday parties were completely valid parties.

"Did anyone bring a cake?" she asked cheerfully. "Birthdays NEED cakes. I'm sure even lizards eat cake." She wasn't sure, of course, but it seemed like a safe assumption. Who didn't eat cake? The same kind of critters that thought a bowl of raw, drippy meat and some boring drums were the best way to welcome a pile of critters into the world?

And on that subject... "You say no band," she felt the need to point out, "but I do hear drums. Why have drums if she doesn't wanna band? That's half the band right there. The loud half."

The pretty little lizard didn't look upset by the noise, though. Perhaps a little upset at some of the crowd... like the person with a suitcase full of blood (?), but not at the noise. But hey, if she was getting the gist of this, it looked like the Cracked Egg wasn't broken and rotting, but instead ready to hatch? That was great!

"Isn't meat too tough for babies?" she began to ask. "Shouldn't it at least be ground up like-"

But what was that? Splitting shells? Teeny hatchlings?

Parties!

Lizards!

Excitement!

Mixie couldn't help but chitter softly in delight as a couple of eggs shattered their way open, releasing a tiny fire-colored firelizard and a little silvery one as well. They were itty bitty little rat-sized dragons! How cute! It was delightful to see SOMETHING around that didn't look like it was going to eat her! From the size of the pile, though, there were plenty more teeny dragons to come. It looked like they might be out of time to discuss whether or not tough meat scraps would be appropriate for tiny newborn teeth. Turning towards the table, Mixie took a hesitant (and, blast it, squeaky) step forward, considering grabbing some of the meaty mess... only for the giant crow to knock one of the bowls over, spilling chopped animal bits all over the dark sands.

Eew.

Bending over awkwardly, Meow Mix tried to scoop up some of the least-dirty bits of meat, wiping fruitlessly at them before turning her attention back to the nest. She figured it couldn't be long before the Cracked Egg finally popped, given that it was already cracking. In fact.... with a motion more fluid than one would think a pile of rat-assembled refuse could manage, she reached down and attempted to scoop that egg up into her free hand. It had to be better than hatching down in the dirt where everyone was stomping around, right?

[Deleted]

If Alice was at all perturbed by the fact he was not off-put by the blood, she really didn't show it. Quite the contrary, in fact, a perceptible eye might even notice that it almost seemed to put her at ease. "Oh! Pardon my manners, Father. Alice Noe, Philadelphia. A pleasure to meet you, I can certainly think of worse people to be trapped in the Faewild with. And worse places, for that matter." Sure she'd never been here herself, but she'd heard stories of the Faewild, certainly enough stories to know that she never wanted to be here. Mostly because the Fae didn't have any real appreciation for technology.

What? Alice liked her Netflix, one of the best things humans had come up with.

"Giant purple rob- Actually, nevermind." She didn't want to know, there were a whole lot of things going on around her that she didn't want to know and it wasn't a whole lot of effort to file that away as one of them. Alice was very good at not knowing things, it's how you lived to be her age without getting involved in too many life-threatening things. She liked it that way. Maybe a little quixotic by vampire standards but that didn't bother her one bit.

She heard the words of the strange fae that she pointedly had her back to, in fact she had her back to the whole affair with the table and eggs and she hadn't even seen the Firelizard yet. She didn't know what a Hatch-day was, or a Firelizard, or any of the other words really. She did know what a crow was, and she knew that it was correcting her. She turned her attention to the bird and responded to it in it's mother tongue.

Have you ever heard a human speak crow? It's kind of impressive really. "That," She pointed at Ophyra, "Is an elf. And I smell magic. Not all Fae are tricksters... I don't think." She shrugged. Certainly most of the ones she'd heard of hadn't seemed much like the tricking type. They mostly seemed like the murdering type. Why any vampire would want to come to the Faewild she had no idea, but apparently some of them even had jobs here.

She'd stick with being a Bank Teller, thanks.

[Danu]

currk, currr- currk

It sounded like choking but really it wasn't at all the gigantic crows shoulder shook and her beak clacked with the noise, no she was not choking she was laughing. There was so much going on around her so little time to respond or interrupt, well always time to interrupt but she wasn't completely rude just an opportunist.

Hrrk Par- ty did not know word before. Don't, currrk, know many hu-mannnn words

She shuffled to tilt her head to keep on eye on the eggs in front of her and glance back at the party of strange beings, it seemed not all where what she thought or so this other human thing told her. The human thing carrying the funny smelling, blocky bag. She eyed her much more curiously now, it spoke in her tongue very well and she allowed herself to slip back to it once more briefly. The frequency with which her and Alice spoke may have been lost on the other humanoids but she wanted to make a point.

It is nice to see another knowing my speech, as it is quiet hard to speak human tongue, its words are complicated and blocky on my beak. Yes there is much magic here, you reek of its last bits though many still ooze of it and its remnants including this. . .elf. I will need to learn the meaning of this word eventually.

Ahhhh it was so much easier to speak in her tongue but alas she'd cut it short, she must spend more time with the human tongue, she'd eventually be fluent enough to understand all that was said! well she hoped, she ruffled her feathers and preened carefully her eye dropping away from Alice. She considered the earlier conversational bits she was hearing, such as the ur Father? she knew exactly what a father was, or so she thought, but was this Alice and others really related? or maybe it had a different meaning? silly humans had singular words for multiple things. . .I mean yes crows and birds did the same but learning them all was a task! She raised her head and croaked for this supposed father.

Fa- thhher, what is Father? hrrrk its meaning different from family fa-thhher?

[Deleted]

“Indeed. Thane, Alice,” the priest nodded, agreeing with Alice and echoing their names in turn. He was a little surprised when the kid said he was a pilot. He looked way too young to be a pilot, let alone former pilot. But um the giant robot that was, sure enough, sitting up on the slopes of the mountain around them kind of explained that one? It didn’t but Fr. wasn’t going to ask. Nope. He laughed nervously, “It’s a, um, nice color.”

Thankfully his prayers for a quick subject change were answered, “Philadelphia, you say? I’m from outside Denver myself.”

Not thankfully, a giant bird started talking to him. After Alice started cawing back at it. Clarence’s eye twitched behind his sunglasses. This place got stranger by the second. This, of course, coming from the man who talked to the dead. At least giant birds were alive. Or something. Yeah, just going to try and ignore that one too. Mooooving on.

“Do you think they’ll like airline peanuts?” He’d gotten pieces parts of the giant bug alien’s explanation, but Firelizard sure didn’t ring any bells as an explanation. Producing a little coppery foil bag, the priest popped a few shelled peanuts out and tossed them in the direction of the eggs that were hatching into more of those tiny dragon lizard things.

Somewhere, he heard a familiar voice call out but a quick glance didn’t reveal the little old lady he thought it belonged to. Must be this horrible place playing tricks on him.

[Thane Hampden]

He chuckled at their reaction to his words. "Yeah, purple is a pretty nice colour," he replied. "Come visit sometime and I'll show you how it works." Thane's attention was then caught by the words hatch-day party, and he swung his gaze over to the person standing by the table. Things Kalla had told him when they first met ran through his mind, and he started to get excited. She had said already offspring of already bonded creatures usually made bonds themselves, so was this the situation that happened in? Eager to learn more, he listened to the explanation that followed, orange eyes darting to the egg that started to crack as the person spoke. A small baby Firelizard slid out onto the sands, quickly starting to make noises. Probably hungry, Thane assumed, glancing quickly at the meat set out on the table.

Seeing that most people were focused on the new baby and the remaining eggs, Thane stepped away from Father Clarence and Alice as another egg hatched, moving towards the table to pick up some meat for himself. Nearby, a walking pile of junk scooped up one of the eggs, and he winced, wondering what the mother would think about that. The assortment of items making up the robot-like thing didn't look like it could withstand a stiff breeze, much less an attack by a miniature dragon. Oh well, maybe everything would turn out fine.

Scanning the wiggling eggs, the pilot noticed that one had rolled off to one side, where it shook violently. Mindful of the watching mother, he walked over to The Smooth One and crouched down near it, meat cupped in one hand. "Come on, you're almost there," he encouraged softly. Hey, if Alice could speak to the giant crow, then he would talk to the egg. "I'll give you some tasty meat once you're out," he added, holding one of the strips before the egg as if the baby inside could smell it. Given the way it was shaking, it would hatch soon with or without his encouragement.

[Deleted]

Well, he had learned a couple things today. Those dragon-y things were Firelizards, and the fun was just getting started. What he was going to do with this information, he wasn't entirely sure, but hey. That's what he was here for, right? Seeing how the locals lived and what they did, and how everyone adjusted here. He certainly wasn't the only one that seemed clueless, and everyone seemed to be more or less milling around a little uselessly. Maybe because momma looked a little twitchy and uneasy, but eh. Sometimes you had to risk your fingers.

Taking a step closer to the table, Len scooped up a small, copper colored bowl that held little bite sized pieces of meat. He watched briefly as the junk-robot picked up an egg, but elected himself to move over to where the newly hatched Cyclone, and The Shiny One egg that seemed to be hatching next to him. "Aren't you just all cute and shit?" Len crooned warmly at the Cyclone. "If you wanna come out of that egg, you can have some food. You and your sibling." A glance was cast at the Shiny One, but he wasn't about to help the hatched flit or the unhatched one out of the shells. Seemed rude. And no one appeared to be in any danger, yet.

"Look, got an entire bowl for you guys." He put the little bowl of meat down near the hatchling and the egg, and just hoped he wasn't going to annoy Momma Dusk too much.

[Deleted]

With her height, Ren could pretty easily see the action even when she stood back. She looked at the different attendants carefully, military training ready in her back pocket if she needed to pull it out and whoop someone's ass. If momma Dusk didn't do that first.

Everyone seemed a little bit reserved but everyone approaching her hatchlings put the Dusk on edge. It was all fine, fine for now until… a hiss erupted from the back of her throat as her eyes turned onto Meow Mix and narrowed. She made no sudden movements, with her precious cargo in the strange beings’ grasp, but she did fly a little bit higher, flaring her wings when she could as if she was trying to appear bigger than she was. While Firelizards aren’t the largest creatures, as a queen, she could definitely hold her own in size.

“Hey, wait til it hatches first. Or you know, if it comes to you.” Ren brushed some of her fingers over her face with a sigh. Maybe she should’ve explained all of this, this weird ceremony to these people. Many of them clearly had no idea what was happening, calling George’s drums a band and whatnot, but that, that she’d explain later. So long as the Dusk didn’t take one of those metal parts off with her teeth.

Regardless of whether or not Meow Mix put The Cracked One or dropped it to the floor, the egg would only continue to splinter, the cracks climbing slowly over the surface.

The Home Is Where the Hearth Is Firestorm in the meantime didn’t seem to be getting all that much attention. There were a lot of loud noises and not a whole lot of meat in his face. He could smell it and he could feel the pit of hunger in his stomach. On wobbly legs, the Firestorm made his way in the sand, dodging the other massive (to him anyway!) eggs. Why were these wing things so dang floppy? He cut his way around, eyes suddenly pinned onto the bowl of meat that had dropped to the ground. Licking his chops, the Firestorm bumbled his way over to the table, not really paying attention to any person, or foot that might have been nearby. Outta the way, people! This little man was hungry and no one was going to stop him.

In the meantime, the Adjust the Sails Cyclone turned his eyes up to Leonard, or no, no wait. He turned his eyes to the meat. A small excited chirp escaped him as he wiggled around in the shell. Comfortable as it was inside the egg, that just smelled so darn tasty. He little tongue flopped over to the side, as he squirmed until enough of the egg had chipped away that he was out in his full wildly black, grey, and white glory. He went straight for the meat, almost tipping the bowl over but ending up partially flopped inside of it instead. The bits of meat juice was great, and the Cyclone snapped some of the meat up greedily. If this is what being hatched meant, he was all for it. His faceted eyes glanced up at Leonard for a second, but he didn’t seem all that menacing.

The Shiny One continued to to struggle with the shell, hatching was tough work you know, when a yellow and orange tie-dye tail flipped and smashed right through the shell. The Glitter is My Makeup of Choice Solstice poked her head through the shell and let out a high pitched squeal, looking delightedly at all of the movement all around her. There was a bit of rumble in her tummy, but she didn’t seem to mind because there was excitement! So much! Excitement! Everywhere!

The The Twitchy One by Ophyra in the meantime, was twitchy for a reason. The Before and After Noon popped out right from her egg, freeing herself through a neatly picked away hole leaving most of the egg intact. As soon as her tail exited out of the shell, she was sort of a mass of hide and teeth getting out of there, she was overwhelmed by all of the smells of food all around her. And while Ophyra WAS right besides her, what the Noon focused her attention on was Alice’s briefcase. With a little thought to her actions, the mostly yellow Firelizard, with little bubbles of orange on her little paws, she hopped-skipped-jumped out of the sandy makeshift nest, sort of destroying the wall as she went over it, and stumbled/wing flapped over towards the briefcase that was still dripping. That meat smelled different, but it still smelled pretty darn good.

The reds and pinks of The Solo One were not to last much longer. The egg shivered a bit, before it tipped to the side and began to split about a third of the way down. The tip of a maw emerged, than a tiny set of claws, and the Flicker of Melted Ice Glacier rolled out of his egg, eyes widened as, by chance, a peanut landed right in front of him. It didn’t have much of an odor, but he did immediately grab it in his mouth, teeth digging into the food pulling back and chewing at it thoughtfully. This was not what he expected when he wanted to quell the rumbling hunger in his stomach, but he did eat it slowly. It was, um, maybe an acquired taste?

And finally, with not much attention focused on it, The Tall One, oddly shaped as it was, hatched rather quietly. Splitting quite nicely, webbing through like roots in the ground, the egg broke away to leave room for the Dancing on My Faults Quake to emerge. With egg goop all over his small form, he flexed out his wings, flapping them sort of uselessly, knocking into some of the eggs all around him. He seemed more keen on trying to get to stretch and move than anything else, emerging from a tiny cramped space to a cold burst of freedom.

(SORRY this took so long. Bonding is still open!)

[Deleted]

There was a long moment where Meow Mix remained unaware of the chaos going on around her. She had zoomed her suit's focus in on the egg she had scooped. Up close, the Cracked Egg was fascinating! Mixie wasn't too familiar with reptile eggs, but this one looked like a particularly vibrant Easter Egg (albeit a broken one). The mottled colors were nothing like the dull, washed-out pastels that most natural eggs came in. Were these lizard eggs painted, then? Was this some kind of Easter party?

Zooming her optical focus out again, Mixie found herself momentarily taken aback by the dizzying aerial display being put on in front of her. The flouncing and fluttering looked for all the world like a mockingbird trying to drive a cat away from a nest, and it didn't take some kind of genius to put two and two together here.

"I'm not gonna EAT your egg, lady," she assured the momma Dusk- not that the mechanically amplified voice was particularly reassuring. She could take a hint, though, as well as the direct instruction of the bug lady, and with a reluctant sigh she bent down and gently placed the egg back into the sand.

Phooey.

Still, even if they weren't scooped and in enhanced-vision-range, the eggs were pretty fantastic, and more of them were starting to pop! Yay! Trying hard to keep all of them in view, Mixie turned slightly to watch the multi-colored little lizards as they started scrambling about. She wasn't sure which one to focus on- the pinky one, or the fiery one, or the yellow one, or the sticky green and brown one? How could anyone pick? Hesitating a moment, Mixie put a few pieces of the meat she'd scooped down near the Cracked Egg- practically on top of it- before turning to the lovely browny-greeny-Dancing Quake.

"Heeeeere lizard lizard lizard," she cooed, holding out a juicy chunk of slightly sandy meat and waving it enticingly in the little beast's direction.

... what? It worked in the movies.

[Deleted]

Sorry Thane, she would not be taking you up on that. She was not interested in whatever hijinks giant purple robots got up to. That was decidedly outside her comfort zone. This whole situation was already outside of her comfort zone but there wasn't much she could do about it. She wasn't any good with blood magic, the best she could manage with it was parlor tricks, certainly nothing as fancy as opening a portal back to home. Maybe she could get the elf over there to do it, but it seemed rude to leave the priest here when he was juts as confused as she would, it would seem.

"Denver huh? That's uuuuuuh- Shit, who is it?" She squeezed her eyes shut trying to remember, "Jim! Jim Berkson, isn't it? I understand he's a bit of a... character." Denver was not one of the Covens that she'd ever been to, so she'd never met the man herself, but she'd heard a few things from Jack and she had overheard just enough people call the man 'mad' that she hadn't really gone out of her way to meet him either. Besides, she hadn't been feeling a whole lot of wanderlust lately. She was fairly content in her current routine.

When she felt something examining her briefcase she looked down, blinked a few times to see if the thing was still there, and jerked her gaze back to Father Clarence. She stared the man right in the eye through his sunglasses, stiff and more than a little unnerved at the moment. "Is that... is that a dragon sniffing my briefcase?" She whispered, seriously hoping that he wouldn't know what she was talking about and that she was just hallucinating.

[Deleted]

Looks like the Adjust the Sails Cyclone managed to get himself out of the shell without a problem. "Good, uh. Baby." Len congratulated, as the little flit made it's way over to the bowl. So food was definitely a motivator, which, really, wasn't surprising. Hatching was hard work. "You don't...that's...okay." And there the Cyclone went, tipping half himself into the bowl. "Now you're all gross and need a bath." What was his life, even, when here he was, trying to motherhen tiny miniature dragons.

Sitting down in the sand, so he was at an easier level to the hatching, Len eyed him a bit. "You're a mess. Come here." Deciding to risk his fingers, the doctor made an attempt to scoop the Cyclone out of the bowl and put him on his knee. If that worked, he'd be able to feed the baby meat without it taking a bath in gross juice.

The Shiny egg still seemed to be struggling to hatch, but before Len could decide if he should help or not, someone else did. Whether he meant to or not. A tail lashed out, and ta-da! There was a new baby popping out of an egg. The Glitter is My Makeup of Choice Solstice was far more colorful than her Cyclone sibling, or, at least, from what Len could tell when she wasn't fully out of her shell. That was okay, though.

Eyeing the half-hatched lizard, Len scooped up a piece of meat from the bowl and offered it to the Glitter Solstice. "Are you hungry, too? If I feed you like this, maybe you won't bathe in meat juice like your siblin' did." Len chuckled. "You might wanna thank your bigger sibling over there, too. He helped ya out of that egg." No, the doctor didn't really think they understood him, but he could still motion to the Firestorm, like she would understand him. Food was doubtlessly more important right now, anyways. Which was fine, and kind of cute, and while he wouldn't cherish the memory of a little mini dragon being soaked in meat juice, he was going to keep enjoying himself. Even if he was going to stink like dead animal and have sand clinging to him for the next week. Worth it.

[Deleted]

It was entirely an accident that Aurelir came across the nest of firelizards, humans, aliens, rodents in mechs, and a turian not a member of his crew.

Accident, and hunger, actually. He'd finally caved and tried some of the local cuisine, on the insistence that it was pif-amino, whatever that meant, by the only local he trusted to have enough scientific acumen to properly assess the situation. It didn't particularly taste right, but the bowl full of meat and vegetables was better than any ration bar he'd eaten in nearly an entire year.

He was on his way back to the wreckage of the Ferrala when he spotted the gathering.

Then he spotted the turian.

He was far enough away that the slight episode of choking probably wasn't on any of the gathered peoples' radar.

"You!" Was. Alright. Maybe not the most polite greeting, especially considering ignoring most of the other lifeforms gathered around some very small creatures that appeared to be a variation on a human's dragon-species.

The giant-ass bird-bug-dinosaur-man that came barreling into the midst of the gathering was somehow not even the strangest person present, even. There was an actual giant bird, a mech suit of some sort, various humans -- and the turian, who Aurelir scrutinized from closer with narrowed eyes and probably more alacrity than was really warranted. "You're not part of my crew." The obvious was the best to start with, maybe. The I don't understand how or why you're here and I'm confused was probably plenty obvious to another turian, but very possibly spoke of plain aggression to others.

A beat, and his carefully trained-in manners kicked back in, and the captain relaxed his shoulders, glanced around the gathering, attempting to meet eyes in greeting. "Good day." He nodded, sharp, drawing in mandibles and affecting an expression that bordered on detachment. "Why are you all feeding the local wildlife?"

[Deleted]

The witch was first distracted by the extravagant display that the mother was showing in front of the... suit. Thing. She could only make out the grand swoops and flaring of wings that the Dusk was giving, and she gave a short snort of laughter. She wasn't sure what Meow Mix had done, but the display was entertaining. For a while, Ophyra ignored most of the hatchings to watch the mother instead; until she heard a crack near her. The elf turned her head just as the Before and After Noon fully exited one of the eggs she had stood near to. She couldn't make out much of the creature, but watched it beeline straight to Alice. She did hear the whispered, "Is that... Is that a dragon sniffing my briefcase?"[/b] and had a hard time suppressing laughter.

"I'd offer it this food before it eats your... briefcase," she advised, hesitating on the last word because she wasn't quite sure what a briefcase was. Looked like an awkward way to carry things. Quite cumbersome, in fact. She instead turned and caught the Home is Where the Hearth is Firestorm marching towards the table. His very Official march caused her to chuckle, so she also carefully approached the table; she didn't trust it much after bumping into it. Because clearly, it was the table's fault she couldn't see well and had banged her hip on it.

"Hey," she greeted as she knelt on the ground for the hatchling,"don't eat those off the ground. Have a fresh one." She offered a strip of meat to the Firestorm. Idly, the elf chastised herself for this, as who knew if the little one was good at aiming and she might have just as well offered her fingertips to the mini dragon gods, but hey. It was a baby, it was a dragon, she had a migraine and this place was nuts so why not let's live a little.

Should he take the piece she offered, she'd go fetch another out of her bowl and take a quick glance around. She noticed the Quake that hatched by the weird metal talking suit, and outright laughed at the suit's response to him. "It isn't a cat," she said to Meow Mix in a teasing manner. That's when another person strolled on through, one that looked to be the same race as Ren, and she watched him barrel through with unmasked amusement. She watched his interaction with her out of the corner of her eye, while she waited for the Firestorm to be ready for another piece (if he stayed, or took the first piece). At his question, she glanced over to him but did not answer. He seemed a rather aggressive sort, and she'd leave the others to handle that one.

[Deleted]

“I may have to take you up on that someday,” Fr. Clarence smiled at the invitation. Thane’s cherished robot may have been giant and terrifying but the priest was curious. Know your enemies or something like that. Not that he thought the kid was an enemy. Quite the opposite actually. In fact, Clarence really hoped he didn’t get eaten by those little dragon lizards that he went off to examine. 

Thankfully, it seemed like they liked peanuts or at least would eat them. The priest watched the little Glacier attempt to enjoy one so he tossed it another while Alice was asking him about Jim. He knew a lot of Jims. It was a popular name in a certain demographic after all. So while the last name Berkman didn’t ring a bell it didn’t mean the priest hadn’t ever met him. Though, he suspected he’d remember someone like the word character was implying.  “Oh, you know, we priests shouldn’t talk about people like that,” he chuckled. That was a good noncommittal answer, just in case he did know this Jim guy (fun fact: he didn’t).

”And, yes. Yes there is a dragon sniffing your briefcase. An awfully tiny one at that.” Clarence meet Alice’s she before looking down at the Firelizard balefully. They were as safe over here as he thought. Time to distract it? At least so it didn’t try to eat the two of them.  Being small never stopped chihuahuas from biting people. He imagined the chihuaha dragon probably had the same view on life as the dog version. Reaching down, he offered the Noon a, “Peanut?”

[Deleted]

Being gestured at by a very large... A lizard, maybe? Lizard... woman, based on the voice? Maybe she shouldn't assume. Who knew what lizard voices could sound like. A lizardperson, oh depths, lizardpersons were real, and there was one talking to her. She was going to be replaced by one of them --

A much littler lizard suddenly broke out of an egg. Her babies (his babies?)? Helen gasped softly at the murmuring from the Home is where the hearth is Firestorm, surprised to hear a lizard, much less hear it cooing so quickly upon... birth?

This was.

This was a lot.

Oh, gracious, this was a lot, she really didn't know what was going on.

"Oh my!" she declared as she suddenly felt itty bitty feet scurrying over her feet. Where were her shoes? And where was the little one going off to in such a hurry? Casting a concerned eye over it, and pretty much everything, Helen toddled after the Firestorm as it approached Ophyra and the table, not having any other sense of direction for herself right now. "Come back dear, you'll worry your --"

Her well-meaning heart was interrupted by a loud shriek of surprise and terror as another of the lizard people threw itself into gathering, gawking unabashedly at Aurelir because it was VERY GAWKABLE whatever it was. Much more ruckusy than the first.

Why so many scaley critters!

[Thane Hampden]

Thane glanced up at the sharp hiss, eyes fixed on the adult Firelizard as she flew above the junk robot, wings spread wide in a clear display of aggression. The reaction was to be expected, given that the robot had picked up her egg without asking. He tensed slightly, wondering if the mother would attack. But the robot set the egg down with a curt comment and turned its attention to a hatched baby, so he relaxed and focused back on the egg in front of him.

It was still shaking, but hadn't hatched yet. Deciding to see if he could speed up the process, he reached out and tapped gently on the purple shell of The Smooth One. "Hey, hey, you're missing all the excitement," he called, the crack of eggshells occurring in the background even as he spoke. "And food," he added, adjusting his hold on the strip of meat that dangled from his fingers. While he didn't mind holding raw meat, he'd rather be rid of it sooner than later.

The sudden arrival of another bug/dino person drew his attention away from the egg. He watched the newcomer interact with the first bug/dino person...alien. Yeah, they were aliens. Thane was used to dealing with humans, or human-like people like Ophyra, but even though he came from a world where wars were fought with giant robots, actual aliens was almost too much for him. Sure, he had landed in a place with giant telepathic eagles, but they were from this world, and the bug aliens obviously weren't.

Some of his unease diminished when the new alien greeted the group and met his eyes, Thane giving him a friendly smile and wave in return. Just because he wasn't sure what to think of someone didn't mean he wasn't going to be nice to them.

[Deleted]

If Alice wasn't frozen by the concept of a tiny dragon sniffing her briefcase she would have found that comment hilarious Father. Some of the Faith clan she'd met in the Vatican were worse gosspis than anyone she had ever met. Sure it was typically more of a Rose Clan thing, but that definitely didn't stop anyone else. Vampire politics thrived on rumors, but maybe this guy was just good friends with Jim. She certainly wouldn't be caught speaking too ill of Jack, never mock your source of income you know.

But Alice was frozen by the concept of a tiny dragon sniffing her suitcase and she was really, really hoping you weren't going to say that. But you did say it, and that meant she wasn't hallucinating. That meant she had to acknowledge the little thing, and acknowledging meant she had to do something about it. Any other newcomers, old ladies and mantis-fae alike, were filed away under things she didn't want to know about as she took a deep breath to brace herself and finally knelt down next to the Noon.

"It's not food, it's money." She told the little lizard, setting the briefcase down and popping it open for the creature to examine. "You can't eat it, it's no good." A flicker of a thought crossed her mind, weren't some Beast Clan supposedly able to take the forms of Fae creatures? Alice watched the baby creature closely, her face falling from fear into consideration as she took in the structure of it's body and the way that it moved.

[Deleted]

The Dancing on My Faults Quake slipped around, the egg goop drying on his body. There now, that felt less uncomfortable. This was how he was supposed to be most of the time, right? He nearly tripped over onto his side as he tried to manage legs and limbs and flailed his tail up in the air, delighted that he felt such a woosh of, of cold. Sort of. And the sand beneath his little toes was warm. And so was up, up was warm too. The cold seemed less as the good got off of him, but it was all so weird. He barely noticed Meow Mix gesturing at him, but he blinked his faceted eyes, seeing it move, facing him. With no objective in mind besides practicing his ability to move, the Quake wandered over to the one that held up the meat, fluttering his wings useless and tripping right in front of the mouse's contraption. He landed face first in the sand, but with a few flaps of his wings managed to right himself. He stared up at the creature, not the meat. There was an uncomfortable feeling in his tummy and that meat smelled darn good, but he was more curious. What on Whazzit are you? He flapped his wings uselessly. Maybe he'd get some of his back off the ground, but he'd never fully leave it.

The Before and After Noon in the meantime could hear Alice talking to her, but wasn't really processing what she was saying. Money. What was Money? Listen lady, the Noon just wanted something to eat, (something tasty Father Clarence what the heck even is that?), so because she was a nice little Firelizard, instead of immediately latching her jaws onto that briefcase, because the humanoid did not seem very keen on her taking it herself, she opened up her mouth and gurgled. Her tongue sort of flopped out, she didn't know any better. Go on. Feed her. If that wasn't enough, the little lady Noon marched up as close to Alice as she possibly could, attempting to sit on the woman's feet.

Meanwhile, Leonard was having a nice little gathering over on his end of the nest. The Adjust the Sails Cyclone did not mind being picked up, even though he was a bloody, goopy, mess, allowing the man to transfer him to his knee. The surface was sturdier than the sand, but harder to balance on, and his tiny claws would poke into Leonard's pants (hopefully he was wearing long ones!) so that he could keep on. He was being fed now? Well, this was what he was talking about. He, without complaint, opened up his mouth and chomped on any piece of meat that he came by. He would be absolutely content to take what life gave him, if this was what it was going to give him. His Glitter is My Makeup of Choice Solstice on the other hand, was a little bit distracted. With her eyes wide, as wide as a teeny Firelizard's eyes could go, following Leonard's gesture to her larger brother, but following his movements with interested. With a tilted head and a deep breath, she shoved herself out of the egg, nearly tripping over herself as she went right for the large form of life in front of her. She chirped, not as interested in the food as she was in the sites. She stumbled over to the large man-creature-hell if she knew, big eyes staring up at him, head cocked to the side. She was shivering, slightly, but much more from excitement than anything else.

Ren heard the flanging voice before she spotted the tall Turian stumbling over. She felt strange pangs of familiarity cause a sort of tension in her nerves, familiar feelings of stiffness threatening to lock up her joints. She tracked him with his eyes, not sure what she wanted to do, feeling bits of joy, strange nostalgia, just...strangeness. "They're not just wildlife." she responded, thinking about her own bonded that were...somewhere around. "If you stick around, you'll see for yourself." She gave a wry smile, in her Turian sort of way. "When did you drop into this part of the galaxy?" She was surprised by Helen's sudden shriek, blinking her eyes a few times, turning to the elder human. "Never seen a Turian before?"

The Home Is Where the Hearth Is Firestorm didn't care where the meat came from, meat was meat, but when Ophyra approached with the piece dangling and snatched it up, flapping his wings vigorously in an attempt to get some air, only lifting himself as he burst up onto his hind legs. At least Ophyra knew that her fingers might be in danger, though he narrowly missed them with his tiny pricks of teeth. He looked at her, than the pile of meat on the ground, than back at her again. Sooo was there more of that? Or was he going to have to find it himself. His eyes glanced over at the meat on the ground again. He didn't have all day lady. He had. So many things to do, didn't he? He had no idea about Helen either, because, well, he had other priorities.

The Flicker of Melted Ice Glacier in the meanwhile, wasn't feeling very satisfied. He was still chewing on the peanut, slowly, as if he wasn't quite certain when he was supposed to swallow. He turned to look around him, still hungry. He let out something of a squeak, turning to look around at the other eggs, as if someone would know what was happen and let him know what was going on. He bumped into The Little One, one that seemed to be perfectly fine and restful until the little Firelizard inside was so rudely disturbed. The Bending in the Wind Cyclone did not seem very happy. The Cyclone's egg shuddered, before the Cyclone clawed his way out, glared at his brother, then harumphed, curling up in the sand, covered in goo but enjoying the warmth of the sun and the sand. He didn't even bother to shake the bits of shell off of him, because he wanted to just hide between the walls of his unhatched siblings and relax. The Glacier on the other hand, wasn't all that interested in relaxing,and wandered over to Thane who seemed to be trying to coax The Smooth One out of its shell. Look buddy, it wasn't going to work, probably. Now did he have more of those food-things. Or maybe even a different food thing?

It seemed that the time was coming, as multiple eggs were starting to realize that maybe it was time to come out and play. The Round One looked to have been splintering away while no one was watching, freeing the teeth of the Get Going Noon as she managed to chip away at the shell, freeing her pretty pale yellow and orange body. She shook the bits of shell off of herself, jumbled up in the sand and tangled in herself. She had some size to her, and not just body size. She sucked in a deep breath and surveyed the world around her, ready to take on the world.

Meanwhile The Colorless One and The Colorful One leaned against one another, splitting neatly in two vertically. The Do You Love the Colors of the Sky Solstice and her twin Which One Solstice practically collapsed onto one another, until their shells were mixed up with one another and there were bits of gray scale and splatters of colors all sprinkled within one another. They both reflected the time of the day, with bursts of yellow and orange, saturated and bright, covering their hides in a fashion that popped starkly from the black of the sand. The twin sisters hardly moved, but looked around at the people gathered. The world was a much less scary place when there was someone else by your side, wasn't it? Well, whatever it was, neither of the Solstices felt very keen on finding out. Unless, perhaps, someone could convince them to venture out.

The Sandy One was not to be left behind, and with one final, struggling push, the Mystery in its Entirety Dawn emerged, with something of a small Firelizard gasp. She was only just smaller than her Firelizard brother, but the instinct to push through to find a morsel to eat simply wasn't there. She stood firmly on her limbs, getting used to the abrupt feeling of being in the air, in the world. She wanted to stand, all on her own. She shook out her wings, shook out her tail, seemed to have some sort of sense or idea of who she was, what her body was, what she was doing. She set her mind to the beat of wings, flailing them around kind of at first until they felt firmer, stronger, dryer. She stood straight, folding her wings onto her back, shaking the bit of shell that was still stuck to it, looking around at the mostly empty eggs, Solstice sisters, the people around her. And then she looked up. Up looked kind of good.

(Last week it's open. :) )

[Danu]

Danu didn't know where to begin but she tried,

hrkkk ca- caw!

It came out before she could really stop it, it was the full alarm sound that most crows make when danger appears, in this case she was startled by the sudden dashing of yet another humanoid into their midst. The large bug creature hurling itself into all of them and practically demanding a few answers from the first bug creature she saw felt more threatening or at least instinctively aggressive that she felt inclined in calling out attention towards it.
She raised her large feather wings and let them spread out shielding the hatching eggs from sun and bugs, hey she might not have been the mom of the nest but she knew what may or may not make it unhappy. Her face kept to the side stared as yet more little eggs had hatched! yet the Quiet One sat so still, oh sad as it was she was still quiet pleased at how many so far had hatched the lovely both colorful and uncolorful babies squirming about she hoped perhaps for more including wherever the Hidden One was perhaps it had hatched too? no idea but there was plenty of babies already moving around!

hrkk hun- gry?

Giving her beak a little clack to get some or maybe a few of the babies attention she raised her left foot and tipped the bowl in front of her on its side yet again. The meat slid around with some landing on her toes as she tried to wiggle some out onto the ground for them to chew on and perhaps if they pleased catch a little shade after drying from their egg goop, it was pretty bright out here.

[Deleted]

Meow Mix huffed under her breath as Ophyra teased her. This most certainly was NOT a cat. If it were a cat, she'd be a bit more hesitant about trying to get it's attention. Nasty, unpredictable, vicious creatures, cats were- and not easily put off by a mecha suit, either. She's sure most humans would feel the same about a creature whose jaws had evolved specifically to kill human beings. Or elves or bug-people or whatever else all these people were. No, this was a lizard.

A really, really clumsy lizard.

Mixie couldn't help but coo with amused delight as the little Quake stumbled and tripped over itself. What an awkward little baby! "You should be careful before you hurt yourself," she told the little creature softly, extending a metallic hand closer to it. "Come here, little one. I don't bite. And you look hungry," she added, shaking the juicy meat enticingly.

She was still keeping an eye on the Cracked Egg- surely SOMETHING had to come out of it sooner or later, and given the way eggs were popping all around her, Mixie figured it'd be sooner. But it was hard to focus on it with so many shiny new babies entering the world! There was a new grey one, and a warm-colored one, and a particularly shiny lady, and-

"TWINS!" the rat squeaked in delight at the two little Solstices. "Look at them! They match!" she added gleefully, shifting just slightly to be able to see them better. Such pretty little creatures, too- though the greeny fellow in front of her was nothing to sneeze at, either. "Do you have a twin hiding in here somewhere, little guy?" she asked the Quake, continuing to wiggle the meat at him. Were lizard twins a common thing? Did they even eat meat? Other than the one chewing on the bloody suitcase over there, and the little blue fella with the peanut, she didn't see many of them actually EATING anything. Did anyone know ANYTHING about these other than that the momma lizard has clear opinions about people picking up eggs?

... she didn't seem to be attacking the guy who smelled like cigarettes for picking up a lizard, though. Huh.

Boldly, she reached forward with that free hand a little farther, her intention being to scoop the clumsy little Quake out of the sand and onto her palm. If momma didn't mind when other people scooped babies, maybe she wouldn't mind if Mixie did?