Home 26: Rooms to let, fifty cents

[Recaiden]

The Kobold blinks. Wow, Master Algix sure has lots of visitors. Well it’s just a normal lady, so...
“Okay, Ma’am. I think he’s home today.”
With a signal the doors creak open, revealing the courtyard to the visitor. The place is uncharacteristically quiet. Though little eyes peer at her from the holes in a nearby playground.
“Master Algix is probably inside.” Informs the gatekeeper on this side of the gate.

"Delightful."
Mei nods to the kobold and skips into the courtyard. She waves at the little eyes watching her and heads in to find Spako.

[Deathkeeper]

Felix's Tower

Krayger looks around for a towel. Hopefully there's one that Felix doesn't mind him ruining.
"Well, I hope you know how to turn it off because it's been using your ingredients to mix up potions. It spewed this stuff at me and then made a bunch of slime minions. Can you help me get this stuff off before it starts turning my coat funny colors or something?" So far it seems like the goo isn't anything anomalous but he sure doesn't want to be proven wrong!
"Because yeah otherwise I might just go back down there and smash it to pieces." Magic axes are good at that.

Fort Aegis Resport

Inside the fort's main door is a pretty little foyer with hand-carved wooden paneling and simple décor. There's a smiling kobold receptionist behind a desk. "Hi Miss! Do you-" She's cut off as a little phone buzzes next to her which she glaces at for only a moment.
"Oh, you're a friend of Master Highclaws? Um, he's in his personal pool at the moment. All the way down the hall, make a right, last on the left. Please knock and announce yourself first, we don't have intercoms in the pools." That's probably a flaw in the building's design. they should fix that.
The hallways are brightly lit with electric and magic-powered lights. The complex certainly seems well-thought out and rather large. But it wouldn't be a resort if there was only one or two rooms, would there? Either way it's not too confusing for a normal person, and surely Meirhin is very good at not getting lost anyway.
The door is marked with a pair of dragons lovingly carved. One of them looks an awful lot like Meirhin's acquaintance. There sounds like a muffled voice from inside.

[Recaiden]

Perfectly helpful little kobolds, these. So pleasant.

It seems easily navigable and she has directions, so no chance of a problem. Just *knock-knock-knock* on the dragon-marked door.
"Hello! It's Rhin." she calls out, wondering who that other dragon is supposed to be. She hasn't had the time to catch up on everything she maybe should have.

[Deathkeeper]

Fort Aegis

”Oh, Rhin? Um, come in.” comes the muffled response.
Inside the door is- well, a room for towels and belongings. You need very big towels when you’re a dragon. And smaller ones, when you’re a dragon with babies that need toys and a collection of humanoid forms that might need to undress.
Beyond this room is a very large chamber filled almost entirely by a hot spring pool. Inside is Spako Highclaws, (sometimes known as Spako Algix by some literal-minded kobolds and dragons). As well as a pair of glittering hatchlings. One sleek electrum paddling around her father and a shining platinum hatchling half-buried in towels by the side of the pool.
”Hello, Rhin. It’s been ages. What’s the occasion? Or, did you get the prayer? I wasn’t sure how that works.”
Spako had offered a sincere prayer when he named his child Meirhindalrenn in her honor. She’s a goddess after all. But he doesn’t actually know if she’s the sort who hears it when people do that.

[Ashen Lilies]

[Cass' Tower - Electra]

Cass shrugs.

"I can work on it. It may not be any more complicated than the techniques I already have. And it's not like our other plan is going anywhere right now," she says.

"Thank you," says Wren, nodding to Electra.

[Cass' Tower - Wenomir]

Wenomir may feel a slight disorientation and tingling sensation as he steps through the doorway. The reason why is immediately apparent, as Wenomir steps into the mostly-familiar layout of Cass' living room + kitchen, yet finds that where he would usually expect it to be enclosed on all sides by stone walls, most of the wallspace and the ceiling seems to have disappeared, opening out into a bright, breezy meadow. Indeed, Wenomir will find that the wall behind him (which was definitely there from the outside) doesn't seem to exist on this side of the door, and the door itself seems to disappear as it swings shut, replacing the view of the farmland and pasture that he'd been walking through with a wide expanse of shimmering blue lake.

The layout of the room itself seems to have changed slightly, mostly it seems to accommodate the new addition of a baby grand piano, which is currently dominating the middle of the room, between the living room and kitchen portions. In front of it, a massive piece of paper has been spread out across the floor of the room, with Cass and Lucien laid out on their stomachs over it, surrounded by pots of paint, brushes, watercolor pastels, crayons, and other various artistic supplies. Lucien's side of the paper is covered in various drawings and splashes of random color as might be expected of a seven-year old, including a number crude stickmen and several square houses, whereas Cass' side has few more sophisticated, though somewhat frustrated, attempts at detailed portraits and landscapes before she apparently gave up and embraced the chaos, currently collaborating with her little brother on a colorful scene of a knight fighting off a terrible, three-headed dragon. Not all of the paint seems to have made on to the paper, either, with Cass in particular having been the victim of various paint-based assaults on her arms and the loose white tank top that she's wearing over a grey half binder and shorts.

Engrossed as they are in their work, it's actually Geneviève, seated in an armchair sipping tea while watching the other two paint, who notices Wenomir's entrance first.

"Commander," she says, respectfully, nodding to him in greeting. Cass looks up, surprised, then flushes as she spots Wenomir, climbing up to her feet carefully so as not to tear the paper.

"Oh, you're here! Hi."

[Recaiden]

You can also get along with lots of small towels.
Mei steps in through the towel room to the hot spring, and then her human appearance becomes low-resolution and indistinct for a moment as she unfolds into the dragon named Aurani Meirhindaniacolanmastarania. The electrum-scaled dragon is bigger than Spako remembers, but luckily this is a very large chamber. Her eyes flick between the hatchlings. How...? How can they look like that? Are they okay?
"Oh, I made a trip to the Nexus early this time for personal reasons, and of course I'd come visit you while I was here."
"I don't get a lot of individual prayers like that, so it was passed up to me, yeah. You should follow up with those, absolutely."

[Deathkeeper]

Fort Aegis

Spako is surprised when she says of course she’d visit. They really only talked in person a few times. So he’s glad that those adventures weren’t just another Tuesday for her. They were very important days for him after all.
Spako dips his head under the water and the electrum hatchling and lifts her up for the other dragon to see. She peeps in protest.
”Oh well if you got that then you know about her already. Ah, Meirhin, meet your namesake. She’s a very important dragon you know.”
The hatchling mostly just stares at her. She’s too young to fully comprehend the world around her. She seems perfectly healthy, though.

[Murkus]

[Fettina's Place]

"I'm here now." Kirk murmurs. He presses his lips into hers, his body pushing back into hers. He responds to her body. Can this go anywhere further? Who knows, but at the very least touching her is heaven.

[Fettina's Place]

Her lips don't feel like metal. They feel like the same familiar, tender flesh. She molds against him and, with some trepidation, drags the curtain down to try.

[Recaiden]

The Nexus is a place where things happen very quickly compared to back home. That can make it really memorable. Besides, helping people become dragons isn't a common activity at all. I doubt she's had cause to do it again since.

"I didn't get all of the details, though...."
Mei leans in to get a closer look at Mei, claws on the edge of the pool. What an adorable little dragon! And with that color of scale!
She flutters her wings in amusement at the -to her- peculiar name. Having the same name as someone else? That must be a kobold thing. It's far too cute for an ordinary dragon to contemplate. It would be 'Meini Dalrennspakonia' if she had been named the way Mei is used to. But of course, there aren't any more hatchlings named that way.
"Hello Mei. You aren't causing too much trouble for your sire, are you?"

[Deathkeeper]

Fort Aegis

To be fair, Spako mandated to Sylvess that they would not give their children long confusing names that would take years to memorize. Except Imbaerisendovalrenn[cont.] since he's named after his grandfather.
Meirhindalrenn gives a small peep but is otherwise unhelpful. The platinum hatchling slips into the water and paddles over to rest on Spako's wing.
These girls have been very good. They're not troublemakers like Hiedie and Sendo. Um. Yeah, we're not sure why all the bloodlines of mine filtered into all the hatchlings. But all of them are different metals. It just kind of happened. No clue what's going on with Heuldra here. I blame goddess interference." Spako chuckles, rocking his wing.

[Morty]

[Cass' Tower - Wenomir]

Cass and her family are full of surprises, as always. Wenomir presumes it's some kind of advanced illusion. Done, apparently, for no reason except leisure. Pretty extravagant. Geneviève's help, most likely. And.. Cassandra is painting with Lucien. It's actually surprising to see them get along so well. Cassandra didn't strike him as being good with children, but here they are.

"I am, though I seem to have arrived in the middle of something. Hello, Cassandra. Lady Geneviève." He nods to the older elf. He's still not really sure what to make of her, so he defaults to politeness. "And you, Lucien." He looks down at the young elf. They didn't really get the chance to talk last time, and Wenomir can't help but feel a little apprehension. Will Cassandra's little brother like him?

[Recaiden]

Even easy names can take years to memorize. Names are hard, and babies just aren't cut out for remembering them.

Mei folds back her wings and dives into the water. After all, it's a very large pool, it should be fine. And water is made for jumping in to, of course. She surfaces, circled around Spako, with more questions.
"You don't say. Platinum scales, there? That would have been unheard of in my world. I'm sure you will be very special dragons, won't you?" Not that the hatchlings will be able to answer with more than a peep.

[Deathkeeper]

Fort Aegis

This room is intended for Spako and Sylvess together so it's more than wide enough for two dragons. Spako transfers both hatchlings to his wing as the water splashes. Luckily the walls were water-proofed.
"Y-yeah. We think Heuldra came out that color because of this." He shows her a tiny spot of bronze scales on his flank.
"Properly speaking with me and Sylvess we have all five metallic dragon bloodlines from our worlds represented. But we don't know if that makes her divine or just lucky. She seems perfectly healthy either way." And at the moment, sleepy.

[Recaiden]

Mei glides over to inspect the patch of bronze scales.
"Could it really be that simple?" No, probably not, since just one of the four children has those platinum scales, and just one looks like Mei, with the other two being presumably more normal.
"Oh, I can probably sort that." It should only take a moment of looking closely at Heuldra, actually paying attention, to see if there is anything divine at work.

[Deathkeeper]

Fort Aegis

Spako shrugs his wings. "I don't know! Sendo is copper, Hiedie is gold, Drassin is brass, and Nasir is silver. Only Mei, Heuldra and Bhoreldis ended up with mixed blood. So it seemed kind of...random? That's why we think maybe Heuldra just got all five and it popped out as something entirely different."
Heuldra is certainly magic but aren't all dragons? If there's anything particularly special and divine about her it hasn't manifested yet. But then, she's five months old so one can't expect too much out of her.

[Recaiden]

"Well, she just seems like a normal little hatchling." Mei confirms. "Seven, though! How do you handle them all?
If there were something special about Heuldra - well, it might not show up. but it can't be too strange, or it would already show through, to Mei.
"What is Bhoreldis like?" That would help confirm randomness or meddling, wouldn't it?

[Gullara]

[Fettina's Place]

Her lips don't feel like metal. They feel like the same familiar, tender flesh. She molds against him and, with some trepidation, drags the curtain down to try.

[Fettina's Place]

The curtain rises again with Kirk over Fettina, his forehead rested against hers. "So it was something like that, huh?" The drow chuckles.

[Deathkeeper]

Fort Aegis

"Very carefully." Spako answers automatically.
"But it helps that there's two of us and a small army of kobolds who love them dearly." He stops to consider. "Bhoreldis is...well he looks kind of like me. A little patchy with my red feathers. He didn't separate into one or two colors like the others did." Not that he seems any less healthy than the rest.

[Recaiden]

"He must be very cute, then." Although this 'dragons having feathers' business, Mei isn't sure about.
"Oh, that's a question, isn't it? Where did you get all these kobolds?"
And don't they - well, it's probably different for Spako, having been a kobold himself before.
"There aren't really five kinds of dragon in either of our worlds, right? No tin dragons left?"

[Deathkeeper]

Fort Aegis

Did a goddess just call him cute? He's not sure but he'll take it as a compliment to his son if nothing else.
"Yes, he is. Ah, the kobolds live here. They needed money to repair the place so they convinced Sylvess to buy it. So, we own the business and they staff it while living in the warrens underneath it with us. It worked out." He might have pushed Sylvess a bit hard about how much of the profits to give them but the two of them were already rich.
"Um, there are more, but the children of Apsu are five. There's the chromatics, the chaos dragons, and some gemstones."
Spako's shape shrinks into a very well-muscled dragonborn with deep sapphire scales and large curling horns. He sets down the hatchlings by the side of the pool.
"I've never met any dragons like this but Sylvess must have when he thought up this disguise for me."

[Recaiden]

"Ah, so you gave them the funds to recover it, interesting." A risk, financially, but it seems to have worked out well.

"There's supposed to be five, but really there's just copper, silver, gold. Brass and bronze are mixes." A very controversial statement, but probably Spako will understand. "Platinum is special because of the gods."
Mei swishes over to the side of the pool.
"I never met any gem dragons. It's a quality disguise."

[Deathkeeper]

Fort Aegis

Spako shrugs as he blurs back into his dragon form. He has been trying to make sure "Kai" isn't seen too much by the workers where it's absolutely clear that it has to be Spako. They've probably figured it out but it's a disguise for a reason.
"I don't really question how that works. I wasn't around for them making the dragon bloodlines and I'm not going to ask Apsu about it if I ever talk to him. What I've learned from these hatchlings is that mixing bloodlines gets confusing and you can never be quite sure how it's going to go." Magic creatures? Confusing? He probably should have seen that one coming.

[Recaiden]

"I've heard we used to be all together. But that was a long time ago, even before Mastara's time." That being the oldest ancestor referenced in Mei's full name. "And there's no one for me to ask now." She collapses herself into her human disguise, letting the water crash to and fro to fill in the space.

"And what would your priorities be, talking to Apsu?"

[Deathkeeper]

Fort Aegis

Spako pauses to think.
"I dunno. Probably cosmic stuff. Maybe asking if he knew where my brass blood came from. I'd probably think of something at the time."
Meeting your maker is not something that generally happens to people. But then again Spako is sharing a spring with a goddess at the moment so who knows?

[Gnrlshrimp]

Felix's Tower

Krayger looks around for a towel. Hopefully there's one that Felix doesn't mind him ruining.
"Well, I hope you know how to turn it off because it's been using your ingredients to mix up potions. It spewed this stuff at me and then made a bunch of slime minions. Can you help me get this stuff off before it starts turning my coat funny colors or something?" So far it seems like the goo isn't anything anomalous but he sure doesn't want to be proven wrong!
"Because yeah otherwise I might just go back down there and smash it to pieces." Magic axes are good at that.

[Felix's Tower]

"How very strange. Ah-" Felix pauses and pulls a glowing bone out of a pouch. "Ah, Lucas, could you bring some towels over to the balcony on the seventh floor? There's been a bit of a slime spillage." He turns and smiles up at Krayger, "Worry not, our ever-efficient skeletal friend will be along momentarily to help you get that stuff off. I dare say it's not anything too dangerous, or else you'd probably be feeling some sort of effect from it by now."

Content that the matter will be resolved shortly, Felix leans back in his chair and taps his chin thoughtfully. "Now then, as for what to do with our troublesome cauldron, we certainly can't have it running around down there spewing sludge everywhere. It could ruin my vast collection of bones, or worse. I'd prefer to capture it in some manner though, so I can figure out how it reactivated itself, but how does one go about catching a cauldron in a confined space, hmm?"

[Recaiden]

"Your family history is a lot less cosmic, though. Probably."
Perhaps there is far more to Spako's brass elements than he imagined - but that's even less likely.
"No cosmic questions weighing on you at the moment?"

[Deathkeeper]

Felix's Tower

"Well, at the moment it's only running around on its little animate legs. If you got it in chains or a net or something sticky it would stop the cauldron like it would stop anything else. " Krayger suggests. He'll happily accept help from Lucas to de-slime his coat. It better not stain!
"If you have a charm that can make metal cold or rigid that might also worked. Metal cauldron."

Fort Aegis

"Hmmm." Spako ponders, tail lightly slapping the top of the water.
"No, not really. Probably too busy juggling seven hatchlings. Heh. That does tend to eat up most of a person's mental capacity." he chuckles.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Cass' Tower - Electra]

Electra smiles at Wren. He probably gets the idea that if his current form wasn't so small, she'd probably hug him, based on her expression.

"It's the least I can do, really. I'm happy I can help!" She looks to Cass. "What would you think we would need to get started?"

[Recaiden]

"I'm sure you'll prove sufficient to look after all seven." Mei explains.

"Oh, Mei?" She holds out a hand to the odd-looking hatchling. "I have something for you." Two things, actually. She twirls her fingers and is suddenly holding a toy ball that's shining like a star, which she bounces towards the other Mei.
And for the other, she sets a blessing on little Mei. Not something she'd normally do for someone, but this is a special situation!

[Deathkeeper]

Fort Aegis

Mei looks up with a peep. Her eyes go wide at the sight of the ball. With a wiggle of her wings and tail she pounces upon it and rolls over onto her side with the ball in her paws and teeth.
"Aw, I think she likes it. Very kind of you, Meirhin."
Mei is of course a normal hatchling and Spako isn't paying attention so any divine magic will be unimpeded.