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| Images used to be here Note that this story had been spread over 7 pages and several characters Name: Sarah Vogel, AKA Snowbird Gender: Female, straightish, apparently aro Age/DOB: currently 33 1/3 Origin: superheroic dimension, currently Twoarth Family: on another dimension, single mother Other: has not really ever been interested in making her own family Height: 5'8? Weight: skinnier than she should be, around 120 Hair: light brown, slightly oily, stringy, often kept up by headband, to high shoulders Eyes: bloodshot hazel green Appearance: pale to fair skin, small scars, probably tattoos Genetic Abilities: originally just mental illusions and visual illusion components, considerably stronger after her overdose Current abilities also include shapeshifting to a minor degree, that originally she didn't control but she's been working on learning how to go back to those other shapes her 'friends' had Dragon Name: Kenzepten Gender: male Size/Shoulder/Length: medium-small 8' s / 40' l / 60' ws Colors: body Features: Powers: Parentage: Origin: Other Info: | She would never quite be sure why her powers acted so strangely. It was true that Sarah Vogel's powers of illusion had manifested several years before she actually NOTICED them, but she rarely gave any thought to what she was seeing. When Vogel was about fourteen years old, she was tempted to use drugs for the first time - it's harmless they said, it's just a little weed, what can it do? 'You've had beer before, haven't you? It's like smoking a beer!' While she was hesitant at first, because she wanted to be a good girl and not screw up her life like she'd seen on tv, her friends all did it, and they were all really neat people. Creative, funny, relaxed, and easy to be with, her friends made her feel at home when they were all rolling joints or something. So Sarah started smoking dope a little more than once in a while. Her studies slipped a little, not much, from b's to c's, but her home life became almost intolerably boring. Her mother, a single mom trying to keep her home together with an outdated office-attendant job that could be done by computers, decided she wanted to 'help' her daughter by removing this harmful agent - and they moved from one part of town to the other, in an effort to stop her distancing herself with the drug. The problem wasn't that it was harmful - indeed, when Vogel was smoking a joint or just enjoying the half-high of being with her stoner friends, she was calm, collected and happy. It was just that the stigma of her daughter using drugs caught up with her mother in a most unpleasant manner - and Sarah never felt more distant than when she learned they would be leaving. |
| "What are you talking about!?" Sarah moaned, when her mother folded her arms across her flat chest and looked at the paper work for their new home halfway across the county. "I'm saying that you are in a bad part of town, and those people you hang out with are a very bad influence!" Her mother insisted. Since there was very little for a 10th grader like herself to do, other than run away which she was loathe to do, Sarah found herself packing her things and saying a tearful good bye to her friends at their school. When she started school in the new district, she was surrounded by hateful, unhappy and unfriendly faces. "Stoner," muttered one particularly blond-cheerleaderly type. "Bitch," muttered Vogel right back. Thus began her angry slide into the depths of loneliness. When Sarah discovered that the preps and jocks at this school picked on their own stoners, who did she hang out with? Guess. You know it. Though openly assaulted by almost every other group in the school, Sarah and her Stoners were safe among themselves. They were happy. One party in June, the end of Sarah's Sophmore year in high school, she finally noticed that the bright lights she was seeing really were there. Strobing, pulsing to the music they were listening to. Finally she sighed. "It's not bad enough that my mom knows I smoke dope..." she said, waving her hand and watching the residual images of it - actually form in the air behind it, "but now she'll find out that I'm a mutant... great." She managed to hide her powers from her mother long enough to start doing more serious if widely accepted drugs. Ecstasy and other commonly found rave-items were popular at the school, even though the preps said they were all against it, they all used something when they went to their own parties. And sure enough, one blond-bimbette-in-the-cheerleading-squad even lowered herself to BUYING from Sarah when she needed something to try at a dance. Thusly vindicated, Sarah found herself at a party in a college dorm - most people there were three years her senior, and she fit in only because she didn't care if she wasn't fitting in. It was there that she was first "dosed" with LSD. The powerful hallucinogenic drug made everyone around her well aware of her mutant ability to perform illusionary tricks. Though they didn't realize it at the time, of course. Right then, it was just a really great trip. One person was at that party that Sarah didn't know about. A dealer who snuck in to make his way through the college students and take home a pretty sum of money in the process. And something that Sarah has never known is that he ... well, was her future chemistry teacher. The looming years of high school and supposedly college made Sarah squirm. She would be a Junior in high school in fall, and she knew, like all her friends, that the Junior year was the WORST. Not only did she have to look forward to being abused by the geeks and the preps and such, but the teachers simply PILED on the homework and studies. The only good thing about Junior year was that it was right before Senior... And Sarah was bright enough to get through it all right, but while she did so, she was also starting habit after habit. She went to underground parties which actually paid her to be there - providing the light show - but then she'd turn around and spend it all on booze, weed, meth and who knew what else. Each of these things made her illusions turn out differently. Sometimes jagged and jumpy, sometimes brightly colored and some dim and moody. Over the course of her junior year, she attracted a following of "mutantphiles" who wanted if anything to be around her - some of them wanted to get in her pants and others... seemed to be doing a research paper on her. While she was annoyed by this, Sarah was also quite practical about it in ways. She asked for payment whenever she did something "neat" for the masses. About the end of her senior year (which she was perfectly able to ignore and slid into a 2.6 gpa for her troubles) Sarah started buying a new "mutant only" type of drug. It apparently went with certain genetics, and hers qualified. "Freakazoid Meth" was it's title, and for the moment before she crashed, she felt like she was on top of the world. It latched on to her, like a virus. And when Sarah accidentally overdosed on it, she found herself unable to concentrate, impossible to control her powers, and most of all... In the hospital with her mother angrily yelling at the attendants that she be let into the room. Sarah groaned, but the doctor on hand decided that a frantic mother was one thing, a frantic, mutant-hating mother was another. "Please have that woman escorted down to the lobby and if she bothers them there, call the cops." He turned to Sarah. His face was stern, he had typical dark circles under his eyes from having worked emergency clinics for far too many hours. "Young lady, you're a mess. I won't ask you anything more, but you've got to tell me if you know what the drug you were on was called?" Sarah gurgled a bit, and made a motion with her hand, which caused the doctor to jolt back a bit. Following her hand was apparently a swarm of bees. The illusion disipated quickly, but the doctor was still a bit unnerved. Sarah found she could not quite form words yet, so she made an image in the air in front of her, of the shape of the pill, it's color and its stamp. The doctor made a note of it, and then let Sarah sleep. Her mother didn't bother coming back to the hospital when she learned of the importance of the drug her child had od'ed on. Perhaps it was the disgust that her own offspring had become something she well and truly detested, but more likely it was the fact that three other young mutants that evening came barrelling into the clinic screaming and puking and freaking out because of it too. One of them had three extra arms sprouting out of his back and shoulders. This appeared to be a new thing for him, they were bloody and his shirt was ripped where they'd grown. Another was humming to herself quietly and swaying back and forth, as her eyes were carefully opened back up. She'd sewn them shut, to stop them from seeing the things she was seeing, apparently. The last one was a young man whose protective force field - once under his control and easily turned off - learned that he couldn't shut it off any more. The desperation in his face as the medics tried to slide oxygen hoses close to him (and failed) was poignant and frightening. "I got lucky," Sarah said to her doctor, as she looked them over. Hummingbirds danced around her own head, but they turned dark and icky looking when it appeared the force field boy died of lack of oxygen. Nothing was able to get into the field's range. The doctors were going to try recussitating him when his field dropped, knowing that he was either unconscious or worse - but the field remained, and they couldn't even try helping him. Sarah sat up, careful of the monitor equipment connected to her temples and her finger-i.v., and watched the horrors of this all. She knew that whatever the hell was wrong with them, was far worse than what happened to her. Until the voice broke into her head. You will have to do, it said. It was a female voice, stern and womanly but also quite deep and almost sultry. It was a yellowy-sulfur color and it made Sarah feel like she'd just been raped. "I've never heard voices in my head before," Sarah whispered, mostly to herself. None of the doctors or nurses on hand were able to devote a moment to her. Sarah blacked out, and... Awoke in what appeared to be someone else's house. How she got there was a mystery. Why, also. It was a nice place, filled with antique furnishings and big vases that had dried flowers in them. Don't mind me, I just took us for a stroll. You'll get used to it. "Who... are you?" Sarah said, used to the fact that now there was a distinct voice in her head, and that it apparently wanted to remain there. I am Scintilla. I'm going to be needing your body again soon, when our little host gets back from his job. I doubt very much that he will appreciate your presence here in his house. He didn't invite you. He invited me. "Well fuck you very much," Sarah muttered. She felt herself guided to a large hallway mirror, and saw to her dismay that there was not only a bunch of uncontrollably weird images scattering around her head - her own power - she was suddenly being replaced by a much taller, extremely beautiful woman. Not like she was trying to change her appearance by casting an illusion around herself - she could feel her bones shifting, her skin changing color to a rich tan, and her hair growing like mad out of her skull. Sarah felt like ... she was a million miles away, she felt like she was in that Pink Floyd song "Comfortably Numb". Like she wasn't there, but she was only watching. Scintilla twirled around, and even though Sarah wasn't gay, she even wanted to touch herself to make sure that it was all real. "Yes, I'm quite ravishing. I cannot believe I must inhabit your body and not some other more appropriate vessel, but this is the one which seemed to call to me." Scintilla said, with Sarah's altered mouth. Sarah could do nothing. She wanted to scream, but she also just wanted to hide. So when Scintilla made her way through Sarah's consciousness, Sarah just ran and hid. *** Are you getting quite comfortable in that corner? There is someone new to meet you. They're in your body now. I did not have anything to do with it, I'll have you know. ... What is going on? Where the hell ... This is my mind? Sarah asked, and Scintilla, in a strangely muted form, nodded. Yes, and now it's mine and someone else's too. Her name is apparently Summoner. She made an accidental jump into this dimension and we're stuck with her. I can't believe any of this shit... I want to ... well, I don't wanna go home. Then stick it out, let us remain, and cooperate, and you'll go anywhere you wish. You're an open book, almost a vortex of power, you will probably continue to attract people like us, wandering spirits. ... I'm gonna kill that dealer that sold me freakazoid-meth... | |
| Story Continues in Sabre's Page | |
| After that: | |
| Sarah was given full control over her body, when the time came for the hatching at Azon. Though it was clear that Scintilla had been searched for somewhere else, and Summoner looked to be about ready to find a new host body, they all wanted to see what exactly would happen. What did happen was that the eggs in the hot hatching grounds (which were... gigantic...) started shaking, the dragons announced it and the group of odd young people were brought to them. (Some of them were very *loosely* people, they certainly didn't look like people that Snowbird would get used to.) Sarah stood and tried to look as casual as she could. But her mind was nervous, and her powers showed it off. People stared at her, but some of them stared not because there were little greenish-grey worry bobbles hovering around her head, but because they could also detect the six other people inside the body. When the first egg hatched, with a pop - a beautiful little silver nose came out. It was mottled with white and grey, and then his wings came from the shell's broken shards. They were just wonderful, with lightning patterns on them - apparently the parents had flown during a huge storm? That might explain it. Then Snowbird heard a voice which was not one of her internal - very forceful - minds. It was a softer sort of voice, hesitant the way not one of the others could be. Snowbird? He asked, his voice hesitant. It is you I chose but will you take me? Or is it me who takes you? I am so confused and all of them, they do not help... The dragon was confounded and a bit timid. But Sarah looked at the dragon and his wonderful soft voice which felt a little like static cling. It made Sarah's powers trade her worry lines for little dragons flying around her head. "...K-Kenzepten?" She stammered, "Are you sure you want me?" What she didn't have to add was, 'with all this mess inside my head?' He nodded enthusiastically, and Snowbird moved over to embrace her new friend - hearts cleverly dancing around her head like she'd seen on cartoons. Everyone knew this bond would be true. No matter what happened in the future... *** Kenzepten was sleeping when the call came that the Warren hatching was going to happen soon. Reluctantly, Sarah released her hold on the body as Sabre required her to. She hoped that the ninja would let her back in it now and again, to see her wonderful dragonet... They went to the Warren, where the hatching went on with superb results. Predictably, the dark garbed ninja woman garnered a black dragon bond. So... can I go back and see Kenzepten yet? Sarah asked, but the hatchling was still quite young and Sabre knew that to leave it now would be disaster. "No, but you can take the time to grow with yours when we get back. I ... believe you now." Snowbird grinned from the back of their mind. The others were a little put off. They wanted in, now. Scintilla had obviously been chosen to go to one weyr, at Pelar. But now? Who would take the others? Now that they knew that multiple bondings were possible? It was while black Katana was about two weeks old - about the same age as Kenzepten was when Snowbird was meant to leave him - that they decided to head back. Bringing the Warren hatchling was the only option they had, or bringing Kenzepten to the Warren. "Perhaps we could bring them both to Lao Daemia..." Scintilla said, asserting herself when she saw the handsome rider who'd caught her eye before. Snowbird and Sabre conversed quietly, and decided that that, perhaps was indeed a good idea. It will give both our bonds time to get to know one another, too, Sabre thought. "I think so... Let's do it..." Snowbird said, hugging Kenzepten. He didn't know why she was all suddenly so friendly, but he did know there was a small black and very sharp looking dragonet near his bed when there had not been before. *** A little time passes, and sure enough, Kenzepten grows up fast! | |
Further story: I'm not going to bother with the colors this time i got frustrated with th crashing.
| Somebody is a tale of some strange women, captive in their own body. Well, not 'their' so much as 'her' body. It comes as no surprise to anyone that Sarah Vogel and her attendant group of spirits would arrive to a Nexus world, eventually. That world, whether it was to begin with or whether it shifted from one to another while they were gone, turned out to be Twoarth. Known as a Nexus world already, their little portion of it was somewhat up in the hills past Talon city, north-east of Crescent by about two hundred miles, farther into the foothills than they had been before. It was a bit distressing to one of them, but only for a minute. Until she saw their 'new' lake, that is, and fell for it immediately. The mages, Scintilla and Summoner, knew that they had moved from one universe to the next, but the others were a bit weirded out. Some of the area was familar, some not. "Los Angeles should be there," Snowbird said, "but it's farther north. And San Diego, looks farther south... I mean, I don't even know where the border is here." Over there, said the happier voice in her head, Scarlett's. The whole Baja peninsula is in the United States? "But most of Texas looks like it's Mexico, so we're even." Sarah said. Their dragons chittered to one another, well, Sarah's chittered, Scarlett's tolerated the intrusion with the patience that few Pernese queens were known for. It was a good thing she wasn't full blooded. Once they'd settled in again, in their stolen home with 'persuaded' funds keeping them in comfort, the girls - all residing within Sarah's body - took stock of their situation. They decided something needed to be done, about them all being crammed into one rather busy body. They'd noticed that when Sarah took over, she was functional for about an hour and then slept - hard - for another ten. We're wearing her out, Summoner said. The body will die, and we'll all have to find new ones. I thought you were working on that, Scintilla complained. I was, but then Shy got himself kicked out of easy-to-reach places. He's off somewhere having babies. The others in the mind snickered and Scarlett said, Men can't have babies! Duh! Whoever said Shy was a man? That's foul! Merely a host body, just hosting. Some animals do that. Well he seems to have, Summoner chuckled. Lots of them. Or something like babies, anyway. ... But that's got me thinking, we still need to speak with him. Something nagged at the woman, something that one of them had just said. Splash, Serpentina, what do you have to say about his ... erm... pregnancy? Seahorses impregnate but the eggs remain in the male, Splash pointed out. Some females can turn to males, when there are not enough, Serpentina added. Perhaps he has changed inside, or perhaps he was never male to begin with. The reptilian female was more talkative with her sponsorlings near her, though in this condition they could all say they were equally distant from their dragons. Summoner aimed a thought at Scintilla. Have you ever been pregnant, dear? The pure disgust from the woman's mind was clear, but she still said, Once, long ago, and on what world I know not any longer. She'd be dust a thousand years ago by now. Summoner waited a moment, and then Scintilla's mental 'eyes' grew wide. You cannot possibly suggest that we-- I'm not just suggesting it. I'm saying that it's important we cooperate here. And we've got to find Shy. *** It was actually closer to home that they found the odd man - in Crescent city of all places. Imposing on another sort-of local man, who they knew would be able to do just as much to help them. "So... hold on," Crazy Doc Sanger said, waving his fingers in the air and blinking. "You're seven people?" "In one body, right now, yeah," Snowbird said, tiredly. "It's exhausting. I need my body back, now. And I'm worried that if I just take it back, it'll kill the others. And if that happens, there are a half dozen dragons that will come after me for it..." "They wouldn't do that," Van said, but the quietly grinning shadow of a man behind him cleared his throat. "Well okay maybe a couple of them would - I saw at least one hydra..." Shy, draping himself over Van's muscular shoulder, said, "of course they would, they would have nothing to live for anyway. That would be... unfortunate. One of them spoke to me when we were visiting a dragonry, it seems like years ago." "It might have been years ago to you," Snowbird said. "We've traveled a lot, but I don't know how long we've even been in one world. And with the others using my body it doesn't look like I get any sleep at all. The body I mean, my mind sleeps, a lot when the others are taking their turns." She continued to babble a little, until Sanger's room mate Gabriel waved his hand toward her and she fell into a deep healing slumber. Angels were good for that kind of thing. "Of course that means that she cannot offer any commentary," Shy said, gazing at the pale skinned woman. "Not necessarily," Sanger replied. "Their dragons are all outside." "They certainly are, and they're attracting a bit of a crowd," Gabriel said, leaning against the window. He slid the glass door to the balcony open, and the other two men stepped out onto it. He recalled with a soft smile, when Sanger wouldn't even let him open the window blinds because they were on a higher floor than he liked to look down from. Now, Van stood with his hips against the metal railing, leaning out and looking down at the collection of dragons who all stood looking up at him in a semi-circle below. There were also local people gathering, as they always did when dragons sat still for any length of time. "Gabriel, could you be an absolute dear and shoo those unwanted other people away?" Asked Shy. If only to leave his presence, the angelic man ducked outside and herded the people (kids mostly, school age - after all they were at Carramba High) away promising them a better look when the semester started up in two weeks. Sanger picked up a conversation with one of them, the big queen, who happened to be bonded to the superheroine Scarlett. Through Umpteenth who was nestling on the roof at the moment, he questioned the dragons about their riders, who were eager to relay information about each inhabitant of SomeBody. "I have an idea, and it's a lot like Summoner's," Sanger said. Shy was way ahead of him. "The question of course is, can they wait fifty four months and then some to come to life?" If they had been through the Healing Den before, it was only a distant memory - growing more so now that Sarah's body seemed to be 'rejecting' the other spirits in it. It was hard for her to concentrate, but even harder for the others, who would slip into their alternates almost at random. They tried to have a semblance of normal life, cooking and reading or hosting parties. But once they had visited Crazy Doc Sanger, Shy and the others, things changed. The stress on Sarah Vogel's body and brain was becoming evident. At the Healing Den, they performed detailed examinations on her - and all the others. Baeris muttered to herself constantly, while they were doing this. She was amazed that it was possible, but she knew perfectly well from experience that more than one spirit could inhabit one body, look at some of the dragons that had played host to their ghostly bonds? It was more that this one poor shapeshifting girl had to bear the brunt of all their weird powers or abilities or bodies. And mainly, that Shy had to be there for this that made Baeris stiff with anger. But over time, a lot of time, the desire to throttle the elegant slender man had subsided. True, he'd created the monsterous girl who had managed to kill half a dozen riders - the 'sculpture garden' was still there as evidence of this - but she'd watched the way that Kalkin, or any of his dopplegangers from around the Nexus would behave when they were given a project. Breeding things was in their blood. She had taken it to the draconic extreme, while most of her male counterparts did so with human kind. She would never vocally forgive him, but she wouldn't really truly wish him all that much ill any more. Much. They brought in another of her favorite people, Vanya of Zekira, to the event to help out. His blue dragon Ruarth nestling beside several other blues - all Sanger's dragons. Even the little dinosauroid Beaker was aware that this was an important case and helped out efficiently as he could. "This process will take a while, but I believe you will be happy with the results," said Vanya, "I understand that you would rather have carried the children yourselves, but that is not very healthy at this time. Sarah here is exhausted from the effort of your using her body, and frankly I'm not surprised she wants it back." He was actually only addressing Vogel herself, but the others were all wide awake and active in her mind. It had struck Summoner a while back, that Vogel's other powers were weakened severely by all this: she didn't have a colorful aura or little dancing illusions around her any more, or if they were there, no one could really see or be affected by them. They really had done a job on the poor girl. "So we will want to get genetic materials from each of you, in order to begin this process. Sarah, this will be hopefully one of the last times you will have to go through this." Vanya said softly, with a smile. For such a scary Sanger otherwise, when he turned on the bedside manner - and was dealing with Breeding for the first time in literally a hundred thousand years - he simply exuded charm. Shy did as well - but perhaps that was because he was in a room surrounded by one of his favorite hunks of manflesh. Several of him. The Vella Crean scientist acted in exactly the manner one might expect of a serious doctor, examining the women as they shapeshifted into their full forms. This time though, they were meant to have cell extractions done, in order to pull what was necessary and insert it into... Well, no one had really stated what was going on with that. Would they just be using their own eggs? Summoner and even Scarlett knew that a true clone couldn't be made from a sex cell, it didn't have a full set of DNA to work with. So... "Oh tell me that you're not going to be the-" Scintilla started to say, but then she shut up. It wasn't Shy, it was Vanya. But why? Well, aside from the fact that he among all of the men was able to psionically adjust his own sperm to match his mate? If they didn't know any better, one might actually say that Scintilla was one of the Sanger bunch too - what with her dark skin and flashy black hair. Her eyes were not blue, they were yellow. That may have been the only thing he had to change, for her child. "So," Scintilla said while they were busy with the cells, "now what?" "When we are finished taking all the samples," Vanya said over the microscope he peered into, "we will mix them up and begin replicating your full DNA." "It's all very complicated," Shy said, obviously in an attempt to blow her off. If there was an ego to match Scintilla's it would be Shy's, in this room. "We can find perfect matches for all of you," he gave off a subdued giggle, "in this very room, really." "Not entirely," said Doc Sanger, "but now that we know what to look for, I'm sure that finding another couple of me with the right traits won't be that hard. We've been rather successful at rooting out specifics." "How are you going to find one of her, then?" Said Shy, holding his maincured finger up toward the 3-D image of Splash. "I was under the impression that you were... somewhat aversive to deep water?" Crazy Doc Sanger waggled his eyebrows and winked. "Well you never know, there's a dinosaur, two elves, horses and peacock versions of me, I can't see why there wouldn't be a flashy merman for her to swim around with..." *** "Since it wasn't safe to actually cause any one of you to become pregnant," Shy said, gently sipping at his tea, "we decided it was best to keep the new ... children ... in their Breeding Chambers until they are ready." "But they'll be adults, right?" Said Sarah, who appeared cheerful but still had dark rings below her eyes, and looked more the worse for wear than ever. Her dragon Kenzepten was fretting, beside himself in the dragon's common area. Others had to assure him that no one would allow his rider to perish here. This was the Healing Den after all. "Yes, they will be grown to whatever level of maturity you wish them to be," Shy said. "Have the meditations I recommended you practice been working?" Sarah nodded, but said, "mostly, it's just... all I want to do is sleep. And whenever I do that, one of the others winds up popping into the body, and moving it around." "You cannot take much more of that, I'm afraid," Shy patted her hand, noticing that it was almost frigid. Perhaps in the back of his mind he knew that they had to hurry. But even if there was an emergency, one could never quite see Shy in the position of a rushed or harried type. Clearly he would rather take the risk, take the time, and do it all right the first time. "Well, we can always have one of the others monitor you, keep them under control. You will need to be the dominant owner of the body, for this next few days." "Is that all it'll take?" She asked, "really?" "We hope so, yes... If not," Shy glanced away with his slitted eyes, "then we might have to fret a bit." "Well don't fret on my account," Snowbird stood unsteadily and gave him a bow of respect. "I can't say it hasn't been a great journey, it's been pretty ... weird sometimes." "I can certainly say that I understand, my dear," Shy said with a soft smile. *** The tubes were lined up, one after another, in the darkened room where they'd done most of the work. Vanya stood proudly looking on, as Vogel examined each of the tubes. Actually it was the others, looking through her, giving their appraisals of the situation. "They think it looks good, so... now what?" She said. "Now, it's time I brought in one of the few people who can help get those spirits out of your body for you," Vanya said. He glanced at the doorway, and another Zekiran walked through it. Even Baeris had to admit, though she knew who this woman was, and all the attendant stories about her from the Zekirans that came through here, seeing Mirage in person was like watching a river or a sunrise as though you'd never seen one before. She moved with confidence, like she knew precisely where she needed to be. Though she looked young, much younger than that bearing could have given her had she been only three decades old, Baeris knew that this woman had been dead for millions of years, recently alive. She knew some secrets, Baeris thought, about how to get dead spirits back into living bodies. "My great grandmother, Latelenae, was a spirit shaper," Mirage said. "I used to have the ability to see spirits, I grew out of it, but now I have it again. And like some of my own descendants," she said while gazing into Vogel's eyes, "I have the power that is needed here, to separate your group." Sarah nodded, and Mirage continued, "you may have the urge to fight it, but try not to. Try to relax, let the spirit come through to me, you just concentrate on keeping your body to yourself. She stood near the first chamber, which held the stately Summoner. A huge mop of dark brown hair fell over her shoulders, eyes closed. Long legged and wide hipped, even as this body had been created from practically nothing, one could see that the fingers were strong - able to use signals and casting signs for magic. Crazy Doc Sanger leaned over to Baeris and said, "That's mine," and she rolled her eyes. Mirage performed some strange, deeply disturbing psionic 'magic'. Anyone with the ability could see she was reaching into not just the mind, but the aura of the girl beside her. She sought out the shade of violet that had been known as Summoner's voice, pulling on her spirit. Sarah gave off a kind of shuddering sigh, and almost appeared to let control over her body lapse, but then regained her feet and watched as Mirage then walked toward the tube. The tube itself had been drained of any liquid, and was now being lowered to a horizontal state. The others were moving slowly as well, flattening down instead of being upright. When Vanya pressed a button, the glass tube opened, a kind of hiss escaping. The body was breathing, but lifeless otherwise. That was a trick that one of their non-Sanger counterparts from Dawnlight had taught them - how to make a mindless clone, without allowing it to wake up and be its own person. Mirage then commanded Summoner's spirit into this body before her - and a whoosh of air stirred everything. Coughing on the table, the naked body came to real life, moving consciously instead of merely breathing quietly. She opened her eyes, violet, and sat up carefully. Though her voice was hoarse, unused, a whisper, she said, "you've done it, I'm alive." Sarah felt the others in her head leap for joy. This would work - it really would! One of the Sangers escorted Summoner off the platform, and into some clothing. Mirage turned back to Sarah, who strode up to the next tube: Scintilla. "And who's this one?" Baeris asked casually of the Crazy Doc. "Vanya's, thought that was obvious." This went on for another two hours. Sarah, while tired, looked more and more like her old self as it went on. This tremendous weight that she'd been carrying for years now, lifted in a matter of an afternoon. "Where'd you get the mermaid?" Asked Cynonix, who had come in because the dragons outside were all getting hyperactive. They wanted to see their bonds. "Found him on a planet without any dry land," commented Kalkin, whom Baeris rather much insisted did not contribute to this little adventure. She was growing more and more possessive of that Sanger. "He's all fins and scales, still, one of us. Getting us to him was the problem really. You know how we are..." Kalkin gave a shudder, "but his Jon was a shark, you know." From some distant land where elves and trolls did battle, they'd found a reptilian type for Serpentina. Shy contributed to Sabre's, a more natural choice than most of the Sangers they'd found. (And, reminded that their one real 'asian' type had been killed years ago, through no fault of his, Shy tsked his tongue and praised their work again. He looked great as a woman...) It actually had been Scarlett that had posed more of a problem, flying, fire-haired girls just didn't appear much in their geneology. Yet they did manage to locate a world somewhat parallel to a previously explored one, where magic was rampant but genders were switched... Or muddled perhaps... Shhee was happy to oblige, this fire mage they'd located, but that did mean Vanya had to work out some strange gender issues from this one. So finally, after nine years of sharing - and fighting over - this body, they were now truly separate and alive. Though they had all but sprang at each other's throats in the mind, and sniped at each other constantly, bickering... The first thing they did was collapse into a big group hug, weeping and laughing to one another about how good it felt to actually see themselves, touch each other, for once. *** The dragons felt the same way, certainly. There was much bugling and noise, flying and flapping in the main dragonry chambers. Though now they were faced with a bit of a dilemma. "What are we going to do now?" Asked Scarlett. "I mean... I really want to start my career back up. Crescent's got some heroes, and some placement services. How about you?" She looked at Snowbird. "I plan on resting. Sleeping." She laughed, "slacking." "But where?" Sabre said, darkly. "I would jump at the chance to leave your presences yet... I find that we really have little other than each other just now." That sobered the group, until Summoner said, "well we do have a house." "A stolen house," Snowbird pointed out. "From another planet, it's not even there where we left it," said Scintilla. "It's our house now." "And it is here, or - there, on Twoarth," Summoner said reminding herself mentally that while they could aim thoughts at one another before, intentions and meanings were perfectly clear in a split moment. But now, she had to go through the words to explain that they weren't even on Twoarth at this moment, they were at the Den. It would take a while for all of them to get that old habit broken. "It is a large house," Serpentina said, hands still full of her sponsorling's black and white fur. "Perhaps we could share it." "It has a lake," Splash said, "a nice one. Fortundoross wants to stay there." Hers was the only dragon who hadn't been brought, the one thing the Healing Den didn't have while it was in the Nexus was a good lake. She was seated comfortably on a slightly damp spongy couch in the meantime. "It would be nice to return." Scintilla blinked, mulling this over. It had really been her wiles that had gotten them their home anyway, but it would have to be on all their terms now. "Well, I'm sure that you'll come to some kind of agreement," Baeris said, hustling them out of the Den and through the portal to Talon City, "and you can feel free to visit whenever you want. Have fun." "She's rather rude," Snowbird said on their way out, and Kenzepten gave a chuffle of agreement. But she wants to have sex with that man, in the office there. Why would they do that? Don't they have a proper place for that? Snowbird choked and followed the others back to the sunny world where they lived. *** Shy had left a few ... surprises for the girls. The mansion was really quite nice, after all, they had all the room they'd need. Splash mostly lived in the lake, full time. Serpentina tended the gardens during the day and remained with her sponsorlings keeping warm all night. Sabre and Scarlett remained as distant to one another as they could be, though whatever Sabre did for her money, it might not have been killing people any more. Something as mundane as martial arts classes? Perhaps. But she wouldn't speak of it, and no one asked. But the little gifts... Followed them around. They were Shy. Tiny versions, though, barely even waist high at the tallest. And Summoner detected a strange theme to them, as well. One was always grabbing for the shiny things or food. One was always munching on teacakes and drinking exotic steamy beverages. Another was aloof and snippy. Others were alternately oggling someone or proclaiming how they didn't deserve whatever it was they had. They were little sins, Summoner decided. Cute, little sins. She reserved one that didn't seem to be anything less than herself: prideful. He followed her about the mansion, but in such a way that the others even stayed clear of. Naturally it was Lust that remained with Scintilla... So... The seven who were one, are now really seven for the first time. Where will they go, what will they see? | |
| Snowbird aka Sarah Vogel Bonded Silver Zappy Kenzepten at Azon Powers: Mental Illusions Light Illusions Minor Shapeshifting Chibishy: Gluttony | |
| Scintilla Bonded Green 5-headed Saeora at Cy's Bipedra 2 Powers: Illusions / Light-sound Darkness and Light control Hypnosis Chibishy: Lust | |
| Summoner Bonded Land Shadow Queen Fahz'ien at Lantessama Powers: Magic Spells (Summoning, demonic, domination) Mind Control / Willpower based Chibishy: Pride | |
| Sabre Bonded Black Hathian Katana at the Warren Powers: Martial Arts and Killing attacks Acrobatics Stealth Techniques Chibishy: Wrath | |
| Splash Bonded Indigo Fortundoross at Vegliante Cove Powers: Sonar/Sonic attacks (water only) Control seaweed (water only) Water Control (minor) Chibishy: Child | |
| Serpentina Sponsors Grim Corrolary and Tiaromiss from Offworld Avengaean Bonding Project Powers: Control, sense and sense through reptiles Armored skin Reptile healing Chibishy: Envy | |
| Scarlett Bonded Varileath Rufasilex at Mirus Powers: Flight Fire manipulation and attack Fire Shield Chibishy: Girly | |
