- Location
- Here & There
Excel sheets don't count as kittens.
An Extra Primarch
- Thread starter ilbgar123
- Start date
Sir LagsAlot
Yandere Dice Magnet
- Location
- In the fridge
*Le gasp* Take that back! Take that back you filthy mongrel! All excel spread sheets are my kittens! *growl*
Community(Canon)(+10 to roll of your choice)
- Location
- Ohio
Lets see what I can come up with after thinking and writing on the spot of a few days. I'd like to thank the QM for making my one omake cannon.
I think that if WOF was in Warhammer, the varied dragon tribes would be one of the very, very old experiments of the old ones, near the start of their more basic observations, as the adaptations and abilities of the dragons seem rather hard to evolving naturally. Basically, a original dragonoid species given millions of years to adapt with analogous traits of surrounding species and not just natural mutation on its own. Plus the few humans surviving here probably are good at hiding if they have lasted 5,000 of constantly being hunted by dragons. (though I think whatever the qm has personally decided would be better actually)
Edit: the world may of been a little death-worldish to humanity at first, but the warp storms would of been what really set them back severely, and it took a long-draw out war that decided humans aren't the dominant species of this world, and both humans and dragons, with some notable exceptions, do not think of each other as sentient.
And don't worry, dragons on this world are matriarchal, but that is more out of either tradition or biology, as males and females are basically more equal than most places on our Earth.
Also I never thought of it until now, but the second continent literally has hives, a repressed underclass, and an authoritarian head of state that punishes dissent harshly.
Warning, the first two omake parts are much darker than most people came to this quest to read, contains trigger warnings, war crimes, violence, and emotional trauma. I have put in a lot of work into these and feel they are good enough to show, but no one should be forced to be made uncomfortable. We all have a right to enjoy things, and I will not change that for others if I can help it.
I had to split this into three parts due to the size and scope.
Edit: I may not of been thinking, but almost 5k words, unbroken? just take a moment to blink.
Part 2.
Epilogue: A lighter tone for everyone, and needs no warning here. Feel free to enjoy this one.
Coldplay- Something Just like This played in my head for this part.
(I can't stop writing. help me. I have work later, but my Persona/Stand has awakened. over 5k words... I think editings is going to take a long time, but I am happy I can now rest)
I think that if WOF was in Warhammer, the varied dragon tribes would be one of the very, very old experiments of the old ones, near the start of their more basic observations, as the adaptations and abilities of the dragons seem rather hard to evolving naturally. Basically, a original dragonoid species given millions of years to adapt with analogous traits of surrounding species and not just natural mutation on its own. Plus the few humans surviving here probably are good at hiding if they have lasted 5,000 of constantly being hunted by dragons. (though I think whatever the qm has personally decided would be better actually)
Edit: the world may of been a little death-worldish to humanity at first, but the warp storms would of been what really set them back severely, and it took a long-draw out war that decided humans aren't the dominant species of this world, and both humans and dragons, with some notable exceptions, do not think of each other as sentient.
And don't worry, dragons on this world are matriarchal, but that is more out of either tradition or biology, as males and females are basically more equal than most places on our Earth.
Also I never thought of it until now, but the second continent literally has hives, a repressed underclass, and an authoritarian head of state that punishes dissent harshly.
Warning, the first two omake parts are much darker than most people came to this quest to read, contains trigger warnings, war crimes, violence, and emotional trauma. I have put in a lot of work into these and feel they are good enough to show, but no one should be forced to be made uncomfortable. We all have a right to enjoy things, and I will not change that for others if I can help it.
I had to split this into three parts due to the size and scope.
Edit: I may not of been thinking, but almost 5k words, unbroken? just take a moment to blink.
At the day of Bastion's Arrival.
Lilac was paralyzed with fear. Literally.
A HiveWing, specifically the type with paralyzing claws, had left her immobilized as she was carried off by a guard in flight, his talons still bloody.
It was better and luckier than being put on display on Misbehaver's Way. A place with a rather silly name, but is one of the worse places a dragon like her could be put on display.
For a full day, a SilkWing or even HiveWings who has committed some offense not bad enough for prison, is put on display along the sides of the street, set on a pedestal, under a light, in whatever position they where paralyzed in. Then a plaque with their "crime" is placed right below them for everyone to see for a full day before the toxin wears off, being publicly shamed by anyone passing by, and scaring classes brought by on field trips into behaving.
For Lilac, it would probably have listed how she supposedly tried to start an inter-species romance with a HiveWing and assaulted said dragon. A HiveWing who had been making advances for months with no one in charge believing her or caring, reminding her that supposedly, no HiveWing would ever fall for her and that she should just get back to work.
And now she was being carried off to who knows where.
---
half an hour ago
---
HiveWings, being hybrids descended from Clearsight the NightWing diviner from across the sea and Sunstreak the SilkWing over two thousand years ago, are ten times stronger than their cousin tribe. Strong enough to be raging this "war" and doing as they please, including pursuing a one-sided relationship she was afraid would lead to those jaws around her neck and worse things if she had said no too loudly.
She had kept politely dismissing him as they could get in trouble. She had to focus on her work, and had already been assigned a mate by her Hive's local Lady. The larger and more insistent dragon just kept asking and approaching her more closely each time. He had been getting a little more insistent, imposing, and more touchy. He showed up at work and made her feel afraid, worried that others saw and got the wrong idea.
Her reputation, already low as a SilkWing, would of been dragged underground by this stalker. Not only would HiveWings have payed attention to her, which was never good, other SilkWings would not of like it if she made things worse for them, and some of them just believed everything the HiveWings told them. He could of said and done anything he wanted, and could easily have convinced others that she was the one who tried to romance him, and others would have believed it. He could of pushed her out of sight and that would of been it.
And that is exactly what had almost happened.
He had corralled her along one of the allies in the Hive, making sure she could not fly as he stalked calmly. He had been silent, insistent, and uncaring of her protest or cries for help. The way he did not get angry, his face was so accepting and nonchalant about the situation, letting her know something was horribly wrong with this stranger. The looks of disdain, or preferably the lack of attention,from most HiveWings had been better than what this broken dragon was trying. He must of had a job he can't be late for and duties of his own! He should not have had time to pursue and court someone not only forbidden by law to him, but had no interest beyond living out her life in what comfort can be found. Even he should of known that he would not get away with this!
Lilac, feeling the dread and despair that had built up from the moment they met, heart and organs squeezed painfully inside of her, had tried to resist, almost faltering, leading her to do whatever it took to stop her worse fears from happening. Meaning, since she would not be allowed to run, she turned the fact that it was a narrow alley around on him. Her claws had grabbed his snout, startling both him and herself as she wrapped his head in silk with the spinnerets in her wrist, entombing that face that at least considered being shocked.
Not thinking and panicking, scared at what he might of done, she roared... or screamed? yelped? Some sort of cry had been uttered, as Lilac kept slamming his head to the right as fast and hard as she could as he tried to claw the silk off. Lilac had dented the wall with his head, slamming and slamming till the cracking and pounding in the wall turned into sick, slightly fleshy thuds as red started to soak through the wrappings, those reaching, clawing talons and thrashing tail faltering as she feels the scratches and gashing slow and stop. Her muscles burned as she grunted with each swing of her wrist, teeth bared as she just desperately tried to end things THING that had been haunting her life. It was automatic, instinctual even, to make sure this thing could never move and harm her.
The next thing that she had noticed was how sharp pain had shot into her shoulders, and being restrained against someone's chest from behind as burning, scorching pain flowed through her bloodstream, from scale to muscle, her claws desperately flailing as her jaws open in a stifled roar of fear and desperation. The site of two HiveWings, a male and female guard, most likely with paralyzing claws, had their claws in her. The brief time she had to struggle ended with her halting in complete agony, trapped like a hunting trophy and left to her increasingly panicked thoughts. Her frozen expression couldn't even show the true, heart-wrenching and shattering terror as she watched her pursuer silently stand up, with no staggering, like he had simply chosen to raise himself up like a puppet.
Even the "normal" HiveWings had been unnerved by this unusual dragon as he unwrapped his head, the guards even forgetting to go out of their way to help their privileged kin as he revealed his blood-soaked face and tugged his snout back into shape with a sharp crack, 100% nonchalant at how bruised and broken the scales are on the right side of his head. Lilac just wanted to cry at this point. Cry and not have to hear anything he might have to say.
"Thank you." His voice, it was alarmingly normal as he cleared the bloody snot from his nose. "How is Lilac? I think she got the wrong idea." The guards restraining her had unconsciously stepped back from the wrongness of the situation.
"There is no trouble, sir and madame, this SilkWing has been very stressed lately, and did not mean anything by this little incident." He continued, walking closer.
The guards had looked to him, then down to her as she tried to move anything other than her beating heart and pleading with unmoving eyes, pleading even to a tribe she thinks of as heartless and sadistic animals who do nothing but destroy and drag the misery out of everyone and into plain sight. The SilkWing feels her eyes eyes lock with the two guards, and the three shared an understanding that she is sure surprised them as much as her. She was alone with three dragons that could do literally anything to her right now. Anything...
What they ended up doing was asking her harasser to come with them, to answer some questions. He gave a confused look and started to turn around, about to run as the guards told him to stop, ending up getting pounced by the one not holding Lilac. A few heavy thrashes, and the unnerving figure is stilled, as paralyzed for the full day as she is. Rather shocked, she saw the guard holding her look at the identification that had been carved into her right palm a few years ago, a wrist cuff on her other arm letting them know where she worked and here she was allowed to move around in the hive.
Looking like he felt rather awkward, the guard spoke. "I...uh...we... we are sorry for... you know... all of this." His voice haltered at first, but got clearer as he continued. "We are so, so sorry about this. Someone had filed a report by a SilkWing about a harassing HiveWing, and rumors had been going around, that no one, even us, had taken seriously." His companion dragged the other paralyzed dragon off while he stood on two legs and flew off with Lilac in the opposite direction.
"We think with this incident... I wish we had know that before you ended up like this... I had thought that..." He paused."You will never have to see him again." He said reassuringly, having made Lilac feel conflicted while still in pain from the toxin flowing through her, face still frozen in fear. She just wanted to be home and hide in her silk nest, for this pain to pass or just knock her out.
All she could do was listen to the four wings of the guard beat in the rushing wind, soaring over the upper hive, the burn mercifully fading. She was still paralyzed and scared, but she could dream. Just dream and wait till she can move again. Not worry about if he would set her down on a walkway or drop her.
...
...
...
---
Back to the present
---
He doesn't drop her.
He just falls out of the sky with her in his arms.
Lilac's heart leaps in her chest at seeing her carrier's eyes try to roll back into his head, just like when the queen is controlling her tribe directly. Somehow, Queen Wasp manages to lose control of him before they crunch against the stone and wood-fiber (from when trees where plentiful) walls. As he shakes it off, the SilkWing notices the deep-looking scratch on the guard's neck, probably from when she was struggling so much against them before the toxin set in.
Queen Wasp never liked possessing, even if it is temporary, injured or dying HiveWings, as if she could feel it herself. Lilac thought of this as the guard landed with her in a richer neighborhood, the sky of the hive full of the yellow-black figures of HiveWings all rushing towards the exits with the thunder and wind of countless wing-beats, the SilkWings around hiding wherever they can or heading home, very old and injured HiveWings here and there looking rather sheepish about not being up there with the others. Lilac's antennae feel the motion and movement all around her from this.
The guard looks back down after starting up for some time, readjusting his grip on her. "Sorry again. And I know a doctor who'd be... happy?... to watch over you till you are better." He talks, landing and walking in to an empty clinic, firesilk lanterns lighting the place orange. The unusually conscientious HiveWing raises one claw as he balances his cargo, hailing a nurse and doctor, asking for a bed and checkup on Lilac, the nurse parting a cloth over a doorway into the rooms beyond the waiting area.
The rumbling, thundering buzz of a swarm can be heard as she is laid on a bed, claws and feet up in the air with her on her back. Her eyes catch the guard and doctor talking, the doctor nodding and the two leave her with a SilkWing nurse, the guard obviously getting that gash checked out while the nurse here takes care of Lilac, examining and caring for her. This other SilkWing has rather good bedside manners at least as she talks calmly and cleans those wounds.
Another doctor comes in, a SilkWing, his ears swiveling and antennae waiving as he listens to her heartbeat, a forepaw running along her chest as he listens and to and feels the rhythm of the heart and lungs. "You sound rather strong." he talks, smiling as he tries to be reassuring to that face of frozen terror as he takes his time to communicate while he works. "Yes, I know how horrible it is being unable to move, and you will be stuck like this till early morning, I infer."
He rest his head against the patient's chest, listening intently. "Now. I want you to try and control your breathing for a moment, if it is not painful and if you can. Just hold it in and let it out more slowly four times. If it hurts, I understand, and we can stop." He waits patiently, not moving, not trying to pressure the patient.
Lilac finds she can control the breathing, startled and relieved, having been too worried too notice. "Very good!" the medical dragon replies soothingly. "I want you to try inhaling twice, then exhaling twice." She does so, repeating it a few times.
"Now I know you can answer this question." He looks up and makes eye contact. "I am not going to do anything you do not want, but there are some choices to help you get through this day. Option one being we have a caregiver or volunteer sit in here with you. You will not be left alone that way.
Option two is I give you a sedative to help you doze off and sleep. It is the one I would not go to first, but I feel you'd prefer it if you had a choice, and this is not without risk when you are in a state like this." He says, soon going into a whisper for the next bit. "HiveWings never listen to us, so here is your chance for that." He smiles softly. "I know sometimes, sleep is the best medicine."
There is no choice here. She is going to take whatever will make her sleep. And she does so after inhaling from a purple vial the doctor brings out, finally in blissful sleep.
Lilac was paralyzed with fear. Literally.
A HiveWing, specifically the type with paralyzing claws, had left her immobilized as she was carried off by a guard in flight, his talons still bloody.
It was better and luckier than being put on display on Misbehaver's Way. A place with a rather silly name, but is one of the worse places a dragon like her could be put on display.
For a full day, a SilkWing or even HiveWings who has committed some offense not bad enough for prison, is put on display along the sides of the street, set on a pedestal, under a light, in whatever position they where paralyzed in. Then a plaque with their "crime" is placed right below them for everyone to see for a full day before the toxin wears off, being publicly shamed by anyone passing by, and scaring classes brought by on field trips into behaving.
For Lilac, it would probably have listed how she supposedly tried to start an inter-species romance with a HiveWing and assaulted said dragon. A HiveWing who had been making advances for months with no one in charge believing her or caring, reminding her that supposedly, no HiveWing would ever fall for her and that she should just get back to work.
And now she was being carried off to who knows where.
---
half an hour ago
---
HiveWings, being hybrids descended from Clearsight the NightWing diviner from across the sea and Sunstreak the SilkWing over two thousand years ago, are ten times stronger than their cousin tribe. Strong enough to be raging this "war" and doing as they please, including pursuing a one-sided relationship she was afraid would lead to those jaws around her neck and worse things if she had said no too loudly.
She had kept politely dismissing him as they could get in trouble. She had to focus on her work, and had already been assigned a mate by her Hive's local Lady. The larger and more insistent dragon just kept asking and approaching her more closely each time. He had been getting a little more insistent, imposing, and more touchy. He showed up at work and made her feel afraid, worried that others saw and got the wrong idea.
Her reputation, already low as a SilkWing, would of been dragged underground by this stalker. Not only would HiveWings have payed attention to her, which was never good, other SilkWings would not of like it if she made things worse for them, and some of them just believed everything the HiveWings told them. He could of said and done anything he wanted, and could easily have convinced others that she was the one who tried to romance him, and others would have believed it. He could of pushed her out of sight and that would of been it.
And that is exactly what had almost happened.
He had corralled her along one of the allies in the Hive, making sure she could not fly as he stalked calmly. He had been silent, insistent, and uncaring of her protest or cries for help. The way he did not get angry, his face was so accepting and nonchalant about the situation, letting her know something was horribly wrong with this stranger. The looks of disdain, or preferably the lack of attention,from most HiveWings had been better than what this broken dragon was trying. He must of had a job he can't be late for and duties of his own! He should not have had time to pursue and court someone not only forbidden by law to him, but had no interest beyond living out her life in what comfort can be found. Even he should of known that he would not get away with this!
Lilac, feeling the dread and despair that had built up from the moment they met, heart and organs squeezed painfully inside of her, had tried to resist, almost faltering, leading her to do whatever it took to stop her worse fears from happening. Meaning, since she would not be allowed to run, she turned the fact that it was a narrow alley around on him. Her claws had grabbed his snout, startling both him and herself as she wrapped his head in silk with the spinnerets in her wrist, entombing that face that at least considered being shocked.
Not thinking and panicking, scared at what he might of done, she roared... or screamed? yelped? Some sort of cry had been uttered, as Lilac kept slamming his head to the right as fast and hard as she could as he tried to claw the silk off. Lilac had dented the wall with his head, slamming and slamming till the cracking and pounding in the wall turned into sick, slightly fleshy thuds as red started to soak through the wrappings, those reaching, clawing talons and thrashing tail faltering as she feels the scratches and gashing slow and stop. Her muscles burned as she grunted with each swing of her wrist, teeth bared as she just desperately tried to end things THING that had been haunting her life. It was automatic, instinctual even, to make sure this thing could never move and harm her.
The next thing that she had noticed was how sharp pain had shot into her shoulders, and being restrained against someone's chest from behind as burning, scorching pain flowed through her bloodstream, from scale to muscle, her claws desperately flailing as her jaws open in a stifled roar of fear and desperation. The site of two HiveWings, a male and female guard, most likely with paralyzing claws, had their claws in her. The brief time she had to struggle ended with her halting in complete agony, trapped like a hunting trophy and left to her increasingly panicked thoughts. Her frozen expression couldn't even show the true, heart-wrenching and shattering terror as she watched her pursuer silently stand up, with no staggering, like he had simply chosen to raise himself up like a puppet.
Even the "normal" HiveWings had been unnerved by this unusual dragon as he unwrapped his head, the guards even forgetting to go out of their way to help their privileged kin as he revealed his blood-soaked face and tugged his snout back into shape with a sharp crack, 100% nonchalant at how bruised and broken the scales are on the right side of his head. Lilac just wanted to cry at this point. Cry and not have to hear anything he might have to say.
"Thank you." His voice, it was alarmingly normal as he cleared the bloody snot from his nose. "How is Lilac? I think she got the wrong idea." The guards restraining her had unconsciously stepped back from the wrongness of the situation.
"There is no trouble, sir and madame, this SilkWing has been very stressed lately, and did not mean anything by this little incident." He continued, walking closer.
The guards had looked to him, then down to her as she tried to move anything other than her beating heart and pleading with unmoving eyes, pleading even to a tribe she thinks of as heartless and sadistic animals who do nothing but destroy and drag the misery out of everyone and into plain sight. The SilkWing feels her eyes eyes lock with the two guards, and the three shared an understanding that she is sure surprised them as much as her. She was alone with three dragons that could do literally anything to her right now. Anything...
What they ended up doing was asking her harasser to come with them, to answer some questions. He gave a confused look and started to turn around, about to run as the guards told him to stop, ending up getting pounced by the one not holding Lilac. A few heavy thrashes, and the unnerving figure is stilled, as paralyzed for the full day as she is. Rather shocked, she saw the guard holding her look at the identification that had been carved into her right palm a few years ago, a wrist cuff on her other arm letting them know where she worked and here she was allowed to move around in the hive.
Looking like he felt rather awkward, the guard spoke. "I...uh...we... we are sorry for... you know... all of this." His voice haltered at first, but got clearer as he continued. "We are so, so sorry about this. Someone had filed a report by a SilkWing about a harassing HiveWing, and rumors had been going around, that no one, even us, had taken seriously." His companion dragged the other paralyzed dragon off while he stood on two legs and flew off with Lilac in the opposite direction.
"We think with this incident... I wish we had know that before you ended up like this... I had thought that..." He paused."You will never have to see him again." He said reassuringly, having made Lilac feel conflicted while still in pain from the toxin flowing through her, face still frozen in fear. She just wanted to be home and hide in her silk nest, for this pain to pass or just knock her out.
All she could do was listen to the four wings of the guard beat in the rushing wind, soaring over the upper hive, the burn mercifully fading. She was still paralyzed and scared, but she could dream. Just dream and wait till she can move again. Not worry about if he would set her down on a walkway or drop her.
...
...
...
---
Back to the present
---
He doesn't drop her.
He just falls out of the sky with her in his arms.
Lilac's heart leaps in her chest at seeing her carrier's eyes try to roll back into his head, just like when the queen is controlling her tribe directly. Somehow, Queen Wasp manages to lose control of him before they crunch against the stone and wood-fiber (from when trees where plentiful) walls. As he shakes it off, the SilkWing notices the deep-looking scratch on the guard's neck, probably from when she was struggling so much against them before the toxin set in.
Queen Wasp never liked possessing, even if it is temporary, injured or dying HiveWings, as if she could feel it herself. Lilac thought of this as the guard landed with her in a richer neighborhood, the sky of the hive full of the yellow-black figures of HiveWings all rushing towards the exits with the thunder and wind of countless wing-beats, the SilkWings around hiding wherever they can or heading home, very old and injured HiveWings here and there looking rather sheepish about not being up there with the others. Lilac's antennae feel the motion and movement all around her from this.
The guard looks back down after starting up for some time, readjusting his grip on her. "Sorry again. And I know a doctor who'd be... happy?... to watch over you till you are better." He talks, landing and walking in to an empty clinic, firesilk lanterns lighting the place orange. The unusually conscientious HiveWing raises one claw as he balances his cargo, hailing a nurse and doctor, asking for a bed and checkup on Lilac, the nurse parting a cloth over a doorway into the rooms beyond the waiting area.
The rumbling, thundering buzz of a swarm can be heard as she is laid on a bed, claws and feet up in the air with her on her back. Her eyes catch the guard and doctor talking, the doctor nodding and the two leave her with a SilkWing nurse, the guard obviously getting that gash checked out while the nurse here takes care of Lilac, examining and caring for her. This other SilkWing has rather good bedside manners at least as she talks calmly and cleans those wounds.
Another doctor comes in, a SilkWing, his ears swiveling and antennae waiving as he listens to her heartbeat, a forepaw running along her chest as he listens and to and feels the rhythm of the heart and lungs. "You sound rather strong." he talks, smiling as he tries to be reassuring to that face of frozen terror as he takes his time to communicate while he works. "Yes, I know how horrible it is being unable to move, and you will be stuck like this till early morning, I infer."
He rest his head against the patient's chest, listening intently. "Now. I want you to try and control your breathing for a moment, if it is not painful and if you can. Just hold it in and let it out more slowly four times. If it hurts, I understand, and we can stop." He waits patiently, not moving, not trying to pressure the patient.
Lilac finds she can control the breathing, startled and relieved, having been too worried too notice. "Very good!" the medical dragon replies soothingly. "I want you to try inhaling twice, then exhaling twice." She does so, repeating it a few times.
"Now I know you can answer this question." He looks up and makes eye contact. "I am not going to do anything you do not want, but there are some choices to help you get through this day. Option one being we have a caregiver or volunteer sit in here with you. You will not be left alone that way.
Option two is I give you a sedative to help you doze off and sleep. It is the one I would not go to first, but I feel you'd prefer it if you had a choice, and this is not without risk when you are in a state like this." He says, soon going into a whisper for the next bit. "HiveWings never listen to us, so here is your chance for that." He smiles softly. "I know sometimes, sleep is the best medicine."
There is no choice here. She is going to take whatever will make her sleep. And she does so after inhaling from a purple vial the doctor brings out, finally in blissful sleep.
Part 2.
Ten hours later.
Lilac woke up, taking a moment to realize she had rolled onto her belly, head raised as she opens and closed a claw, flexing it for some time and growing more and more relieved. She can move! Yes! As she yawns, her turning head notices a nurse practically zipping around, Lilac's room full of HiveWings laying on rollout beds and sitting on silk cushions, all of them very silent, crying, or whining in pain.
With how overwhelming this and the previous day was, she just blinked, not sure what to do next... until she heard some voices arguing.
"NO! You are NOT going to execute anyone here!" The voice of the kind doctor sounded angry and unyielding as she carefully slipped out of bed and around the sad, glazed-eye figures around her and into the hallway with a peak into the lobby, bringing up a claw to halt a gasp.
The doctor was standing angrily on two legs, spreading his wings and arms to block the strange group of figures he was talking to from getting to a dragon on the ground. And that dragon was a HiveWing with three missing limbs and a nurse crouched over him to tourniquet the stumps while another silked over the bloody ends. The cause of this was a strange, two-legged and armored figure with a bloody knife... a blade? of some kind. It was not alone, as other creatures like it had HiveWing guard's, hospital staff, and even civilians down on their bellies with strange things pointed at all of them, some had a few bleeding holes they or a dragon nearby tried to staunch.
"Whoever... and whatever you are... This. Is. A. Place. Of. Healing!" The doctor growls, even this unknown being seemed hesitant, as if in their brief time here, even they expected all SilkWings to be as easily cowed and compliant as the HiveWings do.
"Just step aside." The female voice behind what appeared to be a mask says. "These are combatants who have attacked and endlessly harassed my forces all day and night. They are going to get back to that, and then get back to keeping your kind down." She replies, pulling up a weapon like the others had in her free hand, trying to peak around the dragons as she tried to get in an attack.
"I TOOK CARE OF HALF OF THEM WHEN THEY FIRST HATCHED!" The resistant SilkWing snaps, everyone flinching, the doctor breathing heavily. "They are down, broken, queenless..." All conscious HiveWings flinch at this reminder. "Not everyone here is even a soldier, in the name of Clearsight! Can't you see that with Queen Wasp being dead", A HiveWing was curled up, paws hiding his face as he tried not to sob as that was said, "that there is no one making them attack? That the urge and will she sends out is gone? Do you really think yourselves better than them?" He challenges. "That because you saw the dead and dying LeafWings, you can do the same to the ones who caused that?"
The invader pauses, that mask and armor hiding her face and thoughts. The gun lowers a little as the Doctor talks. "Yes, they have hurt us, the LeafWings, you, and each other. All of us used to live as equals, and then they exploited our fears and our trust in the prophecies in Clearsight's book." He tries to be a little less threatening and calming, the situation still intense with so many armed attackers. "But that does not change the fact that many of those here are patients who trust in me, who have shown me their fears and hopes."
He pointed with this tail tip to one curled up HiveWing to his side, kept down in a submissive posture with the aliens aimed at him. "Him... Skimmer, I was there when his parents rushed in years ago, pushing others out of the way to help a cracked and leaking egg. Me and the staff worked hard to seal all those cracks and keep the young dragon inside alive as his family prayed and worried over him every day. And when a dragonette hatched out, half-choking and terrified, it was a miracle he grew up into this strong and handsome dragon laying here." Lilac had never seen a HiveWing look bashful before. "Each one has a story here. I can't give up on any of them. Whatever they have done, we can deal with that after we get them treated and stabilized. Horrible things have been done that can never, ever be taken back, but none of those here are the monsters you make them out to be."
As the doctor negotiated, Lilac noticed something. The guard's who helped her where there.
The one who had tackled her stalker was on her side, scales cracked and bleeding, protectively keeping her claws around the one who had carried her hear. Lilac's heart jumped for a moment as she saw his left forearm and wrist where snapped in way that makes the limb look like a lightning bolt. His breathing was in a rapid, shallow rhythm, eyes glazed over as he tried to focus on the armed being before them.
And Lilac saw, in both his eyes and the ones of his companion snarling with her neck arched in a brave front to the creatures, that there was a hopeless, fearful look of despair. They had accepted that no one was coming to help them, and that this creature here could do whatever they wished.
The SilkWing may of disliked HiveWings still, despised every little thing they have done to her and her peers over the years, but there was no revenge or schadenfreude for her to have here, not among these broken and defeated half-shells of dragons.
She was still hesitant though as she walked slowly into view, legs trembling from the fighting and paralysis the day before, but she did not give herself time to stop and turn around.
The HiveWings where stupid, viscous, heartless monsters that got away with everything.
But they... and everyone else, where so scared. And those over there... that HiveWing held her, and carried her to safety instead of placing her frozen body on Misbehaver's Way for something horrible like "tempting a HiveWing" or some other degrading list of wrongdoings against the Queen. Both of them made sure she survived a night she might never of came back from.
The doctor noticed her approach, and called for her to get back to her room, a free staff hand walking closer as one of the imposing figures raised their weapons. Lilac raised a paw to urge the staff away, feeling the pain from the clawmarks in her shoulders still. "No... Its okay. Let... let me handle this." She urged them away as best she could as her slow way was made to the two she wanted to help, wincing and trembling, as if the world was spinning and would fall out from under her.
"Hey..." She starts, everyone watching her as she tried to sound confident. "I... can you.. let these two... go?" She asked, meeting the figure's face with her own stare, unable to see past that mask. "They... saved me..." Embarrassed, she continued. "I had... been stalked for weeks by a HiveWing.... He was trying to get me to go with him, talking to me no matter how much I tried to avoid him... And no one, no one at all, helped me or kept him from getting bolder each time." She breathed in and closes one paw. "Yester..Yesterday... nnrrgg..... He tried to do something!... something... pushing me along an alley with no one trying to save me."
She turns to look at the two HiveWings looking up at her in surprise and hope. "I may not be here, talking to you, if these two had not stopped him... they took me seriously, out of anyone in charge in this hive... They could of ignored me and let him get away. They could of put me in jail instead of him!" She spoke with more confidence as she swallows back the lead feeling in her stomach, all four wings fluttering and readjusting as she gestured with a raised claw around the room at the other HiveWings.
"The HiveWings here, who would leave me to a SICKO because they would not listen to me..." She started and then stopped, a little vitriolic and almost laughing in catharsis at how sick some of them looked as they shied back or ducked heads. "I had no idea what he wanted to do with me. But these two took me to a doctor that cared, who did his best to listen and understand me while I still could not talk or move after what happened." She omitted how the guards had paralyzed her as well as the stalker, she was unsure how well these already on edge beings would take it when she needed them to stop.
"He's not in jail." Lilac turned to look at the female HiveWing guard who had spoken down below, smirking despite the situation. "Lady Glowworm herself sent him flying, with broken wings, off the top of the hive." She chuckled as she talked to Lilac and the one keeping them down. "He had a long, looong record that had come to light due to the target suddenly placed over him, and was made an example of." She touched noses with her friend as the two HiveWings smiled. "The jackals and lions are probably finding more use out of his disgusting, worthless, mass of meat than anyone here ever did." The male guard smiled up at Lilac with his eyes clearing up slightly. "I told you; you will never see him again."
Shocked, Lilac was unsure how to feel as she found herself sitting on all fours. She did not know if she was going to cry, or smile, or collapse on the floor as all the memories from yesterday and today blended together. She managed to settle on the first two, adding in an appreciative paw on the shoulder of the injured HiveWing. "I just can't stop thinking about what he was going to do... and now he is finally gone. Someone listened..."
Something unspoken changed about the way those aliens faltered, weapons going down with a few shaking. Tiredness, fear, understanding. Whatever it was, the alien figures disengaged from what would of been a bloodbath, their leader calling them back to her, setting up guards outside and some approaching with weapons down and small, glowing devices, examining the injured dragons and applying some substance to wounds. The way the injuries sealed was both unnerving and satisfying, one of these alien healer's working to help stabilize the HiveWing missing those limb behind the doctor, working to revive the legs and claw, surprisingly.
Securing the location with much less violence, communicating with others far away, somehow... the leader of these soldiers left just a few to stand guard as most leave the building. Though by now, a few is enough, the will of their draconic enemies more heavily broken in will than their bodies are. The officer looked around, at Lilac, the Doctor, everyone. She lifts off her mask after holstering her non-bladed weapon, the strange face causing quite a few wide-eyes. A pale, haunted face with bright, blue eyes and brown hair, similar to one of the mammals out on the Savvanah like a monkey or zebra's mane. She held up three glowing stones, looking them over as she takes a moment from commanding.
"Who where they." The Doctor ask with sympathy, "they" probably being who those belonged to. it is not hard to guess those belonged to fellow soldiers.
"Demolition Squad Sergeant Mattias Gen, Private Redding Selmers, and my C.O... Comanding Officer, Lieutenant Fiore Lasalle."
Her voice carried up to the taller figures of the dragons, taking a moment to look fondly over the stones. "I just wonder how she'd react to how I have handled the situation now that I am in command." She gave a very small and brief smile. "You can all rest. There will be no more death tonight... Just take care of each other." She places a mask back on as her expression changed to something very recognizable, even on an alien face, and she walked out while giving orders.
...
...
Lilac collapsed with the tension she had not noticed leaving her limbs, groaning in exhaustion and aching muscles, paws around the back of the male guard as a healer treats his wrist, the female guard not leaving her friend while her scales where treated. When the alien medic asked them to move apart or motions where made to separate everyone, there was a collective groan. "I never want to move again!" They all blinked, staring awkwardly at having said the same thing, and started laughing.
---
Lilac woke up, taking a moment to realize she had rolled onto her belly, head raised as she opens and closed a claw, flexing it for some time and growing more and more relieved. She can move! Yes! As she yawns, her turning head notices a nurse practically zipping around, Lilac's room full of HiveWings laying on rollout beds and sitting on silk cushions, all of them very silent, crying, or whining in pain.
With how overwhelming this and the previous day was, she just blinked, not sure what to do next... until she heard some voices arguing.
"NO! You are NOT going to execute anyone here!" The voice of the kind doctor sounded angry and unyielding as she carefully slipped out of bed and around the sad, glazed-eye figures around her and into the hallway with a peak into the lobby, bringing up a claw to halt a gasp.
The doctor was standing angrily on two legs, spreading his wings and arms to block the strange group of figures he was talking to from getting to a dragon on the ground. And that dragon was a HiveWing with three missing limbs and a nurse crouched over him to tourniquet the stumps while another silked over the bloody ends. The cause of this was a strange, two-legged and armored figure with a bloody knife... a blade? of some kind. It was not alone, as other creatures like it had HiveWing guard's, hospital staff, and even civilians down on their bellies with strange things pointed at all of them, some had a few bleeding holes they or a dragon nearby tried to staunch.
"Whoever... and whatever you are... This. Is. A. Place. Of. Healing!" The doctor growls, even this unknown being seemed hesitant, as if in their brief time here, even they expected all SilkWings to be as easily cowed and compliant as the HiveWings do.
"Just step aside." The female voice behind what appeared to be a mask says. "These are combatants who have attacked and endlessly harassed my forces all day and night. They are going to get back to that, and then get back to keeping your kind down." She replies, pulling up a weapon like the others had in her free hand, trying to peak around the dragons as she tried to get in an attack.
"I TOOK CARE OF HALF OF THEM WHEN THEY FIRST HATCHED!" The resistant SilkWing snaps, everyone flinching, the doctor breathing heavily. "They are down, broken, queenless..." All conscious HiveWings flinch at this reminder. "Not everyone here is even a soldier, in the name of Clearsight! Can't you see that with Queen Wasp being dead", A HiveWing was curled up, paws hiding his face as he tried not to sob as that was said, "that there is no one making them attack? That the urge and will she sends out is gone? Do you really think yourselves better than them?" He challenges. "That because you saw the dead and dying LeafWings, you can do the same to the ones who caused that?"
The invader pauses, that mask and armor hiding her face and thoughts. The gun lowers a little as the Doctor talks. "Yes, they have hurt us, the LeafWings, you, and each other. All of us used to live as equals, and then they exploited our fears and our trust in the prophecies in Clearsight's book." He tries to be a little less threatening and calming, the situation still intense with so many armed attackers. "But that does not change the fact that many of those here are patients who trust in me, who have shown me their fears and hopes."
He pointed with this tail tip to one curled up HiveWing to his side, kept down in a submissive posture with the aliens aimed at him. "Him... Skimmer, I was there when his parents rushed in years ago, pushing others out of the way to help a cracked and leaking egg. Me and the staff worked hard to seal all those cracks and keep the young dragon inside alive as his family prayed and worried over him every day. And when a dragonette hatched out, half-choking and terrified, it was a miracle he grew up into this strong and handsome dragon laying here." Lilac had never seen a HiveWing look bashful before. "Each one has a story here. I can't give up on any of them. Whatever they have done, we can deal with that after we get them treated and stabilized. Horrible things have been done that can never, ever be taken back, but none of those here are the monsters you make them out to be."
As the doctor negotiated, Lilac noticed something. The guard's who helped her where there.
The one who had tackled her stalker was on her side, scales cracked and bleeding, protectively keeping her claws around the one who had carried her hear. Lilac's heart jumped for a moment as she saw his left forearm and wrist where snapped in way that makes the limb look like a lightning bolt. His breathing was in a rapid, shallow rhythm, eyes glazed over as he tried to focus on the armed being before them.
And Lilac saw, in both his eyes and the ones of his companion snarling with her neck arched in a brave front to the creatures, that there was a hopeless, fearful look of despair. They had accepted that no one was coming to help them, and that this creature here could do whatever they wished.
The SilkWing may of disliked HiveWings still, despised every little thing they have done to her and her peers over the years, but there was no revenge or schadenfreude for her to have here, not among these broken and defeated half-shells of dragons.
She was still hesitant though as she walked slowly into view, legs trembling from the fighting and paralysis the day before, but she did not give herself time to stop and turn around.
The HiveWings where stupid, viscous, heartless monsters that got away with everything.
But they... and everyone else, where so scared. And those over there... that HiveWing held her, and carried her to safety instead of placing her frozen body on Misbehaver's Way for something horrible like "tempting a HiveWing" or some other degrading list of wrongdoings against the Queen. Both of them made sure she survived a night she might never of came back from.
The doctor noticed her approach, and called for her to get back to her room, a free staff hand walking closer as one of the imposing figures raised their weapons. Lilac raised a paw to urge the staff away, feeling the pain from the clawmarks in her shoulders still. "No... Its okay. Let... let me handle this." She urged them away as best she could as her slow way was made to the two she wanted to help, wincing and trembling, as if the world was spinning and would fall out from under her.
"Hey..." She starts, everyone watching her as she tried to sound confident. "I... can you.. let these two... go?" She asked, meeting the figure's face with her own stare, unable to see past that mask. "They... saved me..." Embarrassed, she continued. "I had... been stalked for weeks by a HiveWing.... He was trying to get me to go with him, talking to me no matter how much I tried to avoid him... And no one, no one at all, helped me or kept him from getting bolder each time." She breathed in and closes one paw. "Yester..Yesterday... nnrrgg..... He tried to do something!... something... pushing me along an alley with no one trying to save me."
She turns to look at the two HiveWings looking up at her in surprise and hope. "I may not be here, talking to you, if these two had not stopped him... they took me seriously, out of anyone in charge in this hive... They could of ignored me and let him get away. They could of put me in jail instead of him!" She spoke with more confidence as she swallows back the lead feeling in her stomach, all four wings fluttering and readjusting as she gestured with a raised claw around the room at the other HiveWings.
"The HiveWings here, who would leave me to a SICKO because they would not listen to me..." She started and then stopped, a little vitriolic and almost laughing in catharsis at how sick some of them looked as they shied back or ducked heads. "I had no idea what he wanted to do with me. But these two took me to a doctor that cared, who did his best to listen and understand me while I still could not talk or move after what happened." She omitted how the guards had paralyzed her as well as the stalker, she was unsure how well these already on edge beings would take it when she needed them to stop.
"He's not in jail." Lilac turned to look at the female HiveWing guard who had spoken down below, smirking despite the situation. "Lady Glowworm herself sent him flying, with broken wings, off the top of the hive." She chuckled as she talked to Lilac and the one keeping them down. "He had a long, looong record that had come to light due to the target suddenly placed over him, and was made an example of." She touched noses with her friend as the two HiveWings smiled. "The jackals and lions are probably finding more use out of his disgusting, worthless, mass of meat than anyone here ever did." The male guard smiled up at Lilac with his eyes clearing up slightly. "I told you; you will never see him again."
Shocked, Lilac was unsure how to feel as she found herself sitting on all fours. She did not know if she was going to cry, or smile, or collapse on the floor as all the memories from yesterday and today blended together. She managed to settle on the first two, adding in an appreciative paw on the shoulder of the injured HiveWing. "I just can't stop thinking about what he was going to do... and now he is finally gone. Someone listened..."
Something unspoken changed about the way those aliens faltered, weapons going down with a few shaking. Tiredness, fear, understanding. Whatever it was, the alien figures disengaged from what would of been a bloodbath, their leader calling them back to her, setting up guards outside and some approaching with weapons down and small, glowing devices, examining the injured dragons and applying some substance to wounds. The way the injuries sealed was both unnerving and satisfying, one of these alien healer's working to help stabilize the HiveWing missing those limb behind the doctor, working to revive the legs and claw, surprisingly.
Securing the location with much less violence, communicating with others far away, somehow... the leader of these soldiers left just a few to stand guard as most leave the building. Though by now, a few is enough, the will of their draconic enemies more heavily broken in will than their bodies are. The officer looked around, at Lilac, the Doctor, everyone. She lifts off her mask after holstering her non-bladed weapon, the strange face causing quite a few wide-eyes. A pale, haunted face with bright, blue eyes and brown hair, similar to one of the mammals out on the Savvanah like a monkey or zebra's mane. She held up three glowing stones, looking them over as she takes a moment from commanding.
"Who where they." The Doctor ask with sympathy, "they" probably being who those belonged to. it is not hard to guess those belonged to fellow soldiers.
"Demolition Squad Sergeant Mattias Gen, Private Redding Selmers, and my C.O... Comanding Officer, Lieutenant Fiore Lasalle."
Her voice carried up to the taller figures of the dragons, taking a moment to look fondly over the stones. "I just wonder how she'd react to how I have handled the situation now that I am in command." She gave a very small and brief smile. "You can all rest. There will be no more death tonight... Just take care of each other." She places a mask back on as her expression changed to something very recognizable, even on an alien face, and she walked out while giving orders.
...
...
Lilac collapsed with the tension she had not noticed leaving her limbs, groaning in exhaustion and aching muscles, paws around the back of the male guard as a healer treats his wrist, the female guard not leaving her friend while her scales where treated. When the alien medic asked them to move apart or motions where made to separate everyone, there was a collective groan. "I never want to move again!" They all blinked, staring awkwardly at having said the same thing, and started laughing.
---
Epilogue: A lighter tone for everyone, and needs no warning here. Feel free to enjoy this one.
Coldplay- Something Just like This played in my head for this part.
Five weeks latter
Lilac looked out from the top of Sequoya Hive, over the new trees growing, the other Hives and the miles of Silk bridges between them still dominating the landscape. The return of the trees had brought cooler weather, finally. The forecast for today showing this wonderfully light rain is going to stay light and enjoyable.
The newest hive, named after the late LeafWing Queen, was grown from the ground up, a few eager LeafWing survivors and many other dragons eager to have something to do now that the world figuratively flipped over twice and sat on by one of the large MudWing tribe dragons from the other continent (the dragons there have two wings like the LeafWings, but they are like bat-like wings instead of like dragonflies or leaves! Just like Clearsight!). She was lucky to have a home at the top level, able to enjoy the mix of technology and nature mixed together, allowing her to sit in the super light drizzle.
She had physically recovered from what had happened. Mentally, she talks with a therapist, a vi confidant for personal stuff, and her two mates. She had tried to avoid it, to not be dependent and weak and creepily clinging to rescuers. However, it was hard for the talks to not turn into something more just from how surprisingly similar they all where. And also the fact that she was just as strong as them due to joining the newly made Arbiters and all the benefits that came with it.
Really, none of them tried to get to this point, it just... happened! She had just intended to have a quiet life, but now she managed to actually sit down and listen to HiveWings... as equals!... And now they have too much in common and shared goals. At least it came about during the training and not when she was vulnerable. Helping with recovery efforts, working with alien officers (these humans seem to also be native to the other continent, and even a few hiding underground here on Pantala! How did that happen?), the natural dynamic while working together grew from there.
With the old order thrown up, the realization that she could do more than work for HiveWings put a new drive into her. Lilac wanted to be strong, to not let anyone feel weak or alone again. The restrictions on the HiveWings joining was lifted a week after she went into training. Antlion and Firefly, the female and male former guards respectively, where happy to help in her training.
It helped a lot that the introduction to new technology, augmentations, and procedures put them all at a similar level at the start, except for the experience of the other two giving them a step ahead. Lilac lost a lot in sparring, but when she won, it was always a surprise and sudden victory, till it became a 30-40% win rate. Not quite one per one, but average when fighting such strong and enhanced opponents and vi. It is still training after all.
Dragons learn very, very fast (though some things they learn just as slowly as any sentient race. The basic things many races forget such as "do unto others" or "don't be an asshole to the people who build the foundation of your empire.") so it was easy to get to the point of on the job training two weeks in, following a veteran arbiter human on his patrol, a few of the Bastion soldiers stationed to prevent retaliations between the tribes and make sure integration of the more vulnerable communities all get an equal say in government while the new Queen takes care of the really big stuff.
When Lady Serras, the founder of The Bastion came, her strange, overwhelming presence and a few passive and powerful stares really calmed everyone, and made 90% of those wanting to cause trouble to reconsider that plan. That does not mean that things where crime-free, and Lilac got to let others know that being a SilkWing does not prevent her from dragging you to jail.
Even with all of these changes to society on Pantala and Pyrrhia, many SilkWings expected to be slaving away to humans as well as HiveWings, not that they could become equals again. But it is getting to that point, even if it has to push through the cracks the invasion caused in the wall. Many LeafWings (many being most of the survivors) where currently either in orbit or on Pyrrhia as work is done to help them recover and banish the fears Queen Wasp instilled in everyone. Many rich HiveWings are still high on their hierarchy, but are joined by dragons of many other tribes. And as bad as being poor was, it would never be as bad as it used to be.
The one thing all of this technology, reform, and glowing runes and crystals can't do is magically fix the feelings and thoughts of everyone on this sad planet. Some things are never, ever going to be okay for as long as this generation and the next few last. Magic gel and alien doctors can't just make you stop feeling like you are being followed.
The only thing Lilac is sure will help with that is themselves and each other. She used to just get by and hope no one took notice of her, but it was still not enough when there was no one to grab her paw and lift her up when she could not move. As much as you have to help yourself, social creatures still need to reach out to each other before it is too late. As amazing as a lone hero is, there was a whole community or at least an individual they where that hero to.
As much as it was satisfying putting a jerk in a cell, the real sense of pride was when she talked a young, crying LeafWing out of doing something they'd regret, getting them and their friends to safety after hiding for so long. And again when she found her brother, Viceroy, having been locked up due to Queen Wasp hoarding Flamesilk SilkWings, releasing the rest of them that had been hidden and locked up even after all of this. Carrying him out into the light again on her back made her feel vindicated somehow, a spirit rising in her chest. Actual Pride! As much as she made sure he was safe, she could not help but give a victory roar, like a dragon from one of the fiercer tribes would, her fellow trainees congratulating her and getting commended by her instructor for investigating within the law and her persistence for justice, not just for her brother, but all those sad figures with scars from shackles and half-starved frames.
It did not stop the intense guilt of having blocked the loss of him out of her heart for so long. But seeing him every day for a week now helped ease that up. He had been very surprised at what had happened to the world, and even more so that not only was his sister being so helpful, but is dating two HiveWings. They both had changed, but neither was going to give up on the other. She did that to him once, having given up on everything and everyone else as well, but she is not going to let that happen again.
She still had a deep resentment for years of mistreatment and neglect, and as stated, still sometimes feels like she is being followed or has episodes.
Having two dragons who listen and understand her feelings helps. She, them, and every member of the hive was an accomplice to making the world just a little worse, but they are not going to let that be the case from now on.
She closed the window, dried off after the relaxing rain, and got back to bed with the other two. It is a lazy, rainy day off, and the three where happy to just snuggle up in a pile of cushions, watch the little news thing with how much information there is now, and just twine tails or rub wings.
Lilac never knew HiveWings could be so soft, warm, affectionate, beautiful, and safe. And that she would get so flustered between two of them.
It was a very nice day off.
Lilac looked out from the top of Sequoya Hive, over the new trees growing, the other Hives and the miles of Silk bridges between them still dominating the landscape. The return of the trees had brought cooler weather, finally. The forecast for today showing this wonderfully light rain is going to stay light and enjoyable.
The newest hive, named after the late LeafWing Queen, was grown from the ground up, a few eager LeafWing survivors and many other dragons eager to have something to do now that the world figuratively flipped over twice and sat on by one of the large MudWing tribe dragons from the other continent (the dragons there have two wings like the LeafWings, but they are like bat-like wings instead of like dragonflies or leaves! Just like Clearsight!). She was lucky to have a home at the top level, able to enjoy the mix of technology and nature mixed together, allowing her to sit in the super light drizzle.
She had physically recovered from what had happened. Mentally, she talks with a therapist, a vi confidant for personal stuff, and her two mates. She had tried to avoid it, to not be dependent and weak and creepily clinging to rescuers. However, it was hard for the talks to not turn into something more just from how surprisingly similar they all where. And also the fact that she was just as strong as them due to joining the newly made Arbiters and all the benefits that came with it.
Really, none of them tried to get to this point, it just... happened! She had just intended to have a quiet life, but now she managed to actually sit down and listen to HiveWings... as equals!... And now they have too much in common and shared goals. At least it came about during the training and not when she was vulnerable. Helping with recovery efforts, working with alien officers (these humans seem to also be native to the other continent, and even a few hiding underground here on Pantala! How did that happen?), the natural dynamic while working together grew from there.
With the old order thrown up, the realization that she could do more than work for HiveWings put a new drive into her. Lilac wanted to be strong, to not let anyone feel weak or alone again. The restrictions on the HiveWings joining was lifted a week after she went into training. Antlion and Firefly, the female and male former guards respectively, where happy to help in her training.
It helped a lot that the introduction to new technology, augmentations, and procedures put them all at a similar level at the start, except for the experience of the other two giving them a step ahead. Lilac lost a lot in sparring, but when she won, it was always a surprise and sudden victory, till it became a 30-40% win rate. Not quite one per one, but average when fighting such strong and enhanced opponents and vi. It is still training after all.
Dragons learn very, very fast (though some things they learn just as slowly as any sentient race. The basic things many races forget such as "do unto others" or "don't be an asshole to the people who build the foundation of your empire.") so it was easy to get to the point of on the job training two weeks in, following a veteran arbiter human on his patrol, a few of the Bastion soldiers stationed to prevent retaliations between the tribes and make sure integration of the more vulnerable communities all get an equal say in government while the new Queen takes care of the really big stuff.
When Lady Serras, the founder of The Bastion came, her strange, overwhelming presence and a few passive and powerful stares really calmed everyone, and made 90% of those wanting to cause trouble to reconsider that plan. That does not mean that things where crime-free, and Lilac got to let others know that being a SilkWing does not prevent her from dragging you to jail.
Even with all of these changes to society on Pantala and Pyrrhia, many SilkWings expected to be slaving away to humans as well as HiveWings, not that they could become equals again. But it is getting to that point, even if it has to push through the cracks the invasion caused in the wall. Many LeafWings (many being most of the survivors) where currently either in orbit or on Pyrrhia as work is done to help them recover and banish the fears Queen Wasp instilled in everyone. Many rich HiveWings are still high on their hierarchy, but are joined by dragons of many other tribes. And as bad as being poor was, it would never be as bad as it used to be.
The one thing all of this technology, reform, and glowing runes and crystals can't do is magically fix the feelings and thoughts of everyone on this sad planet. Some things are never, ever going to be okay for as long as this generation and the next few last. Magic gel and alien doctors can't just make you stop feeling like you are being followed.
The only thing Lilac is sure will help with that is themselves and each other. She used to just get by and hope no one took notice of her, but it was still not enough when there was no one to grab her paw and lift her up when she could not move. As much as you have to help yourself, social creatures still need to reach out to each other before it is too late. As amazing as a lone hero is, there was a whole community or at least an individual they where that hero to.
As much as it was satisfying putting a jerk in a cell, the real sense of pride was when she talked a young, crying LeafWing out of doing something they'd regret, getting them and their friends to safety after hiding for so long. And again when she found her brother, Viceroy, having been locked up due to Queen Wasp hoarding Flamesilk SilkWings, releasing the rest of them that had been hidden and locked up even after all of this. Carrying him out into the light again on her back made her feel vindicated somehow, a spirit rising in her chest. Actual Pride! As much as she made sure he was safe, she could not help but give a victory roar, like a dragon from one of the fiercer tribes would, her fellow trainees congratulating her and getting commended by her instructor for investigating within the law and her persistence for justice, not just for her brother, but all those sad figures with scars from shackles and half-starved frames.
It did not stop the intense guilt of having blocked the loss of him out of her heart for so long. But seeing him every day for a week now helped ease that up. He had been very surprised at what had happened to the world, and even more so that not only was his sister being so helpful, but is dating two HiveWings. They both had changed, but neither was going to give up on the other. She did that to him once, having given up on everything and everyone else as well, but she is not going to let that happen again.
She still had a deep resentment for years of mistreatment and neglect, and as stated, still sometimes feels like she is being followed or has episodes.
Having two dragons who listen and understand her feelings helps. She, them, and every member of the hive was an accomplice to making the world just a little worse, but they are not going to let that be the case from now on.
She closed the window, dried off after the relaxing rain, and got back to bed with the other two. It is a lazy, rainy day off, and the three where happy to just snuggle up in a pile of cushions, watch the little news thing with how much information there is now, and just twine tails or rub wings.
Lilac never knew HiveWings could be so soft, warm, affectionate, beautiful, and safe. And that she would get so flustered between two of them.
It was a very nice day off.
(I can't stop writing. help me. I have work later, but my Persona/Stand has awakened. over 5k words... I think editings is going to take a long time, but I am happy I can now rest)
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- Location
- California
I think part of your success here lies in the fact you knew what you wanted to write, and knew both works of fiction. I will say you brought up interesting ideas about how no matter how good our Warp Engineering gets there are some things which will not fade.
On the other hand, there were spelling mistakes, and on occasions there were tense issues? Like it felt as if in place certain words like 'was,' other words would have been better to use like ,'has.'
Also, Do you mean to use latter or later? The first is used to refer to a thing when comparing two different things; mostly, the second 'thing,' in the listed pair. The other refers to a time past the present moment.
- Location
- Ohio
I have a lot of trouble with tense it seems. Here and in other thing I have written. I will work on spellchecking now before work and after.
I need to comb the "was" and "has" and whatever tenses I am messing up. I should of finished when I got more sleep, but then, nothing would of gotten out.
Maybe I need to tone down and cut back on omake things like this though? I feel I am going out of place here.
Sir LagsAlot
Yandere Dice Magnet
- Location
- In the fridge
You shouldn't tone it down if you don't want to writing omakes doesn't put you out of place any more then anyone else I mean other people in the thread have done much more outrages things in comparison to writing a few omakes such as the multiple people who have in the past cataloged the entirety of the character and technological information in the quest. Or in another case written at least 20 omakes I'm looking at you Grunt you omake factory.
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- Location
- England
Does the new system make stats easier to level up or is that just the ork?
if anyone is interested I had an idea for weapons our military could use. we have the teleporters with a range of I think 80 miles. and that we need a beacon to for moving a large number of our troops right. so why don't we have a policy that every planet in the bastion be divided in a grid with 1 sq miles long square and at every intersection we add a teleporter beacon underground so that we could always have beacons near where ever the enemies land. and maybe we could chain teleport through the beacons to effectively increase the range of our teleport.
- Location
- Wherever I feel like being
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Mainly because the resource cost would be staggeringly high.
not really we have the star lifters things. it could be after the kork war just to have a better system for deploying troops and we could make our soldier's power armour have sensors that emergency teleports them to a base or something when the armour is damaged and we could be basically like the Necrons on our own worlds and reduce casualties.
- Location
- Reno Nv
It will be stupid expensive, but we may be able to pull it off.
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
10 mile squares would be more than enough to have excessive amounts of redundancy, since there'd be at least 5 teleporters in range at all times, and anything that prevented them from working would probably be a bigger problem than insufficient coverage, such as an open Warp Rift or an ongoing ritual or whatever the Warp equivalent of an EMP is. Something to keep in mind is that they don't necessarily need a receiving teleporter at the other end, though such teleports are significantly less reliable and more power-hungry.
World of Four(Reserved for Bad Roll)(+10 to roll of your choice)
ExNihilo
SPACE!
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Avatar
Save this for a bad roll. (Why am I writing Omakes for the opposition?)
The world has no proper name in itself, as the technology caps out at basic metallurgy. At first glance, the world seems fairly benign, containing four ethnic groupings, each with a specific type of elementalism. However, any more than a cursory glance shows that this world is truly something unique.
First, the so-called Fire Nation. When a culture is devoted to warfare, fire, honor, and combat eternal, well, the first patron that comes to mind is Khaine, but given that they are human, it's clear they are devotees of Khorne. It's not clear where the obsession with blood was lost, as ancient temple of the Sun Warriors was clearly devoted to it. Nonetheless, Khorne rules. Though nominally the Fire Lord, leader of the Fire Sages, rules, in practice, the various Daimyo of the Fire Isles fight each other and anyone else. A strict code of honor to one's superiors is the only thing that tempers the eternal lust for battle possessed by the Fire Nation's citizens. If ever united, the Nation would doubtless be the mightiest on the planet, as it is, the fires of war mostly burn each other.
As Slaanesh opposes Khorne, thus does Water oppose Fire. During the long summers, the Ice-blue fleets raid up and down the shores of the lands of Earth and Fire, taking loot and prisoners, though most know that they might be better off dead then taken. However, it's the winter, those days without any light, that really do the Water Tribes in. The Human mind isn't meant to deal with that kind of pressure, and through the Water Tribes are better adapted than most, sometimes things happen. After the dark, it is not uncommon for a few to be missing, and the rest to avoid talking about what happened on those dark nights. Even more severe are times where the village is gone come spring, when all that remains are frozen bodies and ruined igloo, often still with ample supplies of food. Such a village is declared lost, and the waterbenders salvage nothing, turning over ice and consigning it to the waves.
The Earth Kingdom, sturdy yet stagnant, tough and unyielding, is the domain of Nurgle. The walls of the kingdom are resolute, and the cities, the largest on the planet, are the perfect breeding ground for plagues of all sorts. Each generation lives as the last did, secure behind the walls, casting down invaders and raiders alike. And though the plague often sweeps through their lands, in times of trouble, sometimes, the plague seems to empower their soldiers instead. But surely that is impossible?
Opposing Nurgle and Earth is Tzeentch and Air. The nomads, on their bison-back, rarely stop moving, along with their winds. When the White Wind approaches, any settlement, from the lowliest town to the capitols, wait in apprehension. Perhaps they are passing by, as they oft do, but perhaps not. When they raid it is with the force of winds, taking everything they can, and only the strongest of settlements, Ba Sing Se and Omashu, the Caldera City, or the frozen citadel of the North can hope to drive them back. But perhaps they are here to trade? Nomad goods are fine indeed, as is what has been stolen or bartered from other lands. And no one can deny that the sages of the Wind are all but unmatched, should spiritual trouble threaten a village.
The most famous being is the Avatar, a powerful daemon of Chaos Undivided. Each generation, it is born again, rotating through each nation, Fire then Air, Water then Earth. It lives and dies traveling the world, learning new techniques and carving its path. And should the Avatar be threatened, it can unleash the power of all the souls it has consumed, generations upon generations of skillful techniques and powerful abilities, gathered over millennia. Once, it took entire cities to stop a raging Avatar. Now, it takes armies.
Deeper still are the crawling horrors, ruled by the one known, only in whispers, as Koh. A daemon predating the Chaos Gods, it is resentful of the Avatar's power, and the world in which it lives. Whenever it feels the time might be right, it seeks to destroy the world of the Four, and install its own. It has not yet succeeded, but it gathers allies in the disaffected each generation, and someday, perhaps, it may succeed.
Bleak though the world is, not all is lost. Each nation is not yet the thralls of their respective gods, after all. The ancient blood rituals are no longer practiced, the revelries of the night shunned and forgotten, the pits of plague sealed and covered, the peaceful temples of the Wind still remain. But only the balance between the nations keeps the worst from occurring, should it be thrown carelessly out of balance, each god's influence would rapidly increase.
Something darker. A:tlA is one of my favorite worlds, but it is clear that in 40K, it would be just a little darker. And four nations, in two opposite sets, and so easily aligned to the Chaos Gods? Well, too easy.
Save this for a bad roll. (Why am I writing Omakes for the opposition?)
The world has no proper name in itself, as the technology caps out at basic metallurgy. At first glance, the world seems fairly benign, containing four ethnic groupings, each with a specific type of elementalism. However, any more than a cursory glance shows that this world is truly something unique.
First, the so-called Fire Nation. When a culture is devoted to warfare, fire, honor, and combat eternal, well, the first patron that comes to mind is Khaine, but given that they are human, it's clear they are devotees of Khorne. It's not clear where the obsession with blood was lost, as ancient temple of the Sun Warriors was clearly devoted to it. Nonetheless, Khorne rules. Though nominally the Fire Lord, leader of the Fire Sages, rules, in practice, the various Daimyo of the Fire Isles fight each other and anyone else. A strict code of honor to one's superiors is the only thing that tempers the eternal lust for battle possessed by the Fire Nation's citizens. If ever united, the Nation would doubtless be the mightiest on the planet, as it is, the fires of war mostly burn each other.
As Slaanesh opposes Khorne, thus does Water oppose Fire. During the long summers, the Ice-blue fleets raid up and down the shores of the lands of Earth and Fire, taking loot and prisoners, though most know that they might be better off dead then taken. However, it's the winter, those days without any light, that really do the Water Tribes in. The Human mind isn't meant to deal with that kind of pressure, and through the Water Tribes are better adapted than most, sometimes things happen. After the dark, it is not uncommon for a few to be missing, and the rest to avoid talking about what happened on those dark nights. Even more severe are times where the village is gone come spring, when all that remains are frozen bodies and ruined igloo, often still with ample supplies of food. Such a village is declared lost, and the waterbenders salvage nothing, turning over ice and consigning it to the waves.
The Earth Kingdom, sturdy yet stagnant, tough and unyielding, is the domain of Nurgle. The walls of the kingdom are resolute, and the cities, the largest on the planet, are the perfect breeding ground for plagues of all sorts. Each generation lives as the last did, secure behind the walls, casting down invaders and raiders alike. And though the plague often sweeps through their lands, in times of trouble, sometimes, the plague seems to empower their soldiers instead. But surely that is impossible?
Opposing Nurgle and Earth is Tzeentch and Air. The nomads, on their bison-back, rarely stop moving, along with their winds. When the White Wind approaches, any settlement, from the lowliest town to the capitols, wait in apprehension. Perhaps they are passing by, as they oft do, but perhaps not. When they raid it is with the force of winds, taking everything they can, and only the strongest of settlements, Ba Sing Se and Omashu, the Caldera City, or the frozen citadel of the North can hope to drive them back. But perhaps they are here to trade? Nomad goods are fine indeed, as is what has been stolen or bartered from other lands. And no one can deny that the sages of the Wind are all but unmatched, should spiritual trouble threaten a village.
The most famous being is the Avatar, a powerful daemon of Chaos Undivided. Each generation, it is born again, rotating through each nation, Fire then Air, Water then Earth. It lives and dies traveling the world, learning new techniques and carving its path. And should the Avatar be threatened, it can unleash the power of all the souls it has consumed, generations upon generations of skillful techniques and powerful abilities, gathered over millennia. Once, it took entire cities to stop a raging Avatar. Now, it takes armies.
Deeper still are the crawling horrors, ruled by the one known, only in whispers, as Koh. A daemon predating the Chaos Gods, it is resentful of the Avatar's power, and the world in which it lives. Whenever it feels the time might be right, it seeks to destroy the world of the Four, and install its own. It has not yet succeeded, but it gathers allies in the disaffected each generation, and someday, perhaps, it may succeed.
Bleak though the world is, not all is lost. Each nation is not yet the thralls of their respective gods, after all. The ancient blood rituals are no longer practiced, the revelries of the night shunned and forgotten, the pits of plague sealed and covered, the peaceful temples of the Wind still remain. But only the balance between the nations keeps the worst from occurring, should it be thrown carelessly out of balance, each god's influence would rapidly increase.
Something darker. A:tlA is one of my favorite worlds, but it is clear that in 40K, it would be just a little darker. And four nations, in two opposite sets, and so easily aligned to the Chaos Gods? Well, too easy.
- Location
- Venezuela
- Location
- Planet Earth
I actually have a better idea than this, create a nice missile to be launched from a ship in orbit, with heavily armored(it doesn't have to manuver much n any direction but down after all) MIRVS each holding a single beacon, and just litter the battlefield with newly launched and perfectly serviceable beacons.
- Location
- Florida
So...heavily armored and shielded drop-pods with high-end communications and computational gear with our Star Trek sensors to let us tele-frag anyone near the landing site who can't stop it (those lacking Void Shields) or to send in Automata as Shock Troopers to clear the LZ for those who can stop tele-fragging?
- Location
- Planet Earth
I'd argue they'd be better than the drop pods simply because they don't require anyone actually being inside them and so can either be much smaller, have much larger engines, or can have a lot more armor depending on design.
And that's not including the fact that our drop beacons could be used to deploy as many soldiers as we want rather than the squad or 2 in other drop-pod designs.
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Sir LagsAlot
Yandere Dice Magnet
- Location
- In the fridge
Wouldn't it be more efficient to send an extremely tiny and durable version of the teleporter down? I mean the vast majority of planets even the most heavily defended can only detect objects of a certain size category or above and therefor can only defend against objects above that size meaning if you can exploit that you suddenly have a 100% successful drop rate.
- Location
- Planet Earth
I already thought of that.
Sir LagsAlot
Yandere Dice Magnet
- Location
- In the fridge
You didn't you said you wanted to shoot them down in a missile and I said why not just drop the teleporter itself.
- Location
- Planet Earth
because if we're just sending the beacon rather than having it be in a tiny missile or at least a shock cage and a bunch of parachutes the teleporter would probably break itself on impact with the ground?
- Location
- Reno Nv
Why don't we teleport our teleport beacon on the ship?
- Location
- Planet Earth
because if we can already teleport our beacon there we don't need the beacon perhaps?
Sir LagsAlot
Yandere Dice Magnet
- Location
- In the fridge
...We have magic space wizards and you think our biggest problem is going to be getting a teleporter to survive orbital re-entry. Jesus Christ the object would be so small in terms of mass that even traveling at it's terminal velocity well withstanding re-entry it would still survive. And even if it couldn't survive that right now it wouldn't even be that hard to make one that can considering tons of cameras have fallen from the cruising altitudes of planes and survived with just normal modern day consumer tech so a specifically designed teleporter with out material science shouldn't have any problems at all surviving the fall.
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- Location
- Planet Earth
How small are you thinking the beacons are? I figured at minimum it was at least the size of a space marine backpack, and that probably would have had issues without runes, though now that I think of it yeah those could probably save it.