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Post by Alma on Nov 10, 2021 1:30:01 GMT -6
AlmaEncounters: OFF Current: SzaFemale | Offspring Wiurn 12.0 | 12.0 -No official young stats. As mature stage uses wiurn v1 stats despite v2 youth art, here are the estimated young stats- Stamina: 3 Strength: 2 Resistance: 3 Dexterity: 2 Mentality: 0 Special Abilities: Fly Moves: Bite
Registered adult stats for reference: Cunning: 2 Critter Average Top Speed: 20 mph, 80 (flying) Notes: Offspring of a wiurn and a mosca Stamina: 13 Strength: 10 Resistance: 9 Dexterity: 5 Mentality: 3 Special Abilities: Fly, Hardy, Intimidation, Fire Resistance Moves: Rend, Stalk, Pounce, Fiery Soul, Breathe Fire, Flame Bite, Wing Buff Known: Name(1)
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Post by Alma on Nov 10, 2021 1:37:50 GMT -6
The first thing anyone in the city had to learn about dealing with dragons was that it was illegal to kill one.
That was fine for the citizens that lived safe within its walls, some unseen tech still wheezing away after so many other pieces had failed to keep out the scaly fire-breathers that might have sought to claim their hoards for its own. The only dragons they tended to see were the tamed ones that were brought into the city by their masters, oddly well behaved as they strode alongside, or under the heels of, their masters. Some would speak, but they cleaved to their master’s sides, seemingly able to detect what was wished of them by the fool who brought them into the crowded streets. Those who saw this thought so highly of the dragons, or draconics as the beasts demanded to be called, and always argued against allowing anyone to hurt such majestic beasts. Compromises were made, the city rulers ensuring that the forces who guarded the city and her people were not to act on crimes committed by the beasts outside, leaving judgement and punishment to whichever dragons had killed their way to ruling the canyon.
The Sentinels were such a force, and as one of her coworkers liked to point out, “Dis way we ‘Nels ain’t gonna end up wit’ extra work ‘n bein’ extra crispy.” He liked to drag out the last word with a hiss, slapping a clawed hand down on whatever nearby surface he could find to emphasize the second syllable.
Alma winced as the young wiurn beside her leapt at some unseen bug on the path to the gardens, yanking the leash back towards her as she dropped the sack of supplies to rub at her shoulder. She could still see his wide grin, and she would have swore it somehow grew wider when his gaze flicked down to the small badge she had been rubbing on her uniform. “Yeess, we Sentinels get to be nice ‘n cool.”
TBB-1(Pumpkin Drej Start) 1
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Post by Alma on Nov 10, 2021 1:38:11 GMT -6
When all she had done was slip the badge in her pocket and fight a losing battle not to blush, he had laughed and balled up the report some poor twit had bribed their way into submitting to the office. The non-citizens, the ones who refused to sleep in the protected walls of the city or could not find a sponsor to get them in, occasionally tried to petition the different forces of the city for aid. Sometimes, if it was a beast worth skinning or a ranger wanted a challenge, they might finally get some relief from whatever plagued them, but there was no profit to be made from killing a dragon.
There had been a few more jokes, one inventive avian suggesting that the farmer simply pump out a few kids for the dragons to take, and then they finally moved onto a task much more important than a man watching his livelihood burn around him.
Breaks.
Alma managed to get one, claiming her garden was in dire need of work, which was true, and that she needed time to get the whole thing back in working order, which was supposed to be false. The clerk handed over the slip that detailed her break with a twitching mouth, and Alma snorted as she saw the line detailing that she ‘would bring proof of progress upon her return date to claim her monthly wage’.
Still, here she was with a bundle of creaking wood and rusted metal in one hand, and a wriggling wiurn leashed to the other, peering at eash sign as she tried to find her lot number. Credits made the wheels turn, and she was not about to miss out on her share of the fees and fines the Sentinels hunted down like a pack of vulticus with a baakir. Even if, tragically, she was going to miss some of the taily-culls that the citizens kept calling in.
When she finally found it, she pushed past the creaking gate with her hips, holding the gate open just long enough to drag in the wiurn after her.
TBB-2 2
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Post by Alma on Nov 10, 2021 1:38:24 GMT -6
The young wiurn fought her, digging its claws into the sand of the path as the collar slid and caught around the plug of its head. “C’mon now, Hissy,” she said, dropping the supplies onto a nearby tangle of splintering brown before rubbing her hand over her shoulder, “It ain’t that bad.” The young wiurn grunted as it was slowly dragged closer, wings pushed out into the ground between them like two hide-bound sticks as it kept its tiny arms close to its chest. Alma chanced a look behind her, then shook her head. “Well, yer still coming on in.” With a yank, the wiurn was dragged across the threshold, and Alma held the leash short as the gate swung shut behind it with an ominous creak and slam that put the moros-mansion to shame.
The wiurn had stumbled when she dragged it in, but resumed its frozen refusal to continue further the instant it had gotten its wings and legs properly under it again. “I don’t like it anymore than you,” Alma told it with a shrug, looking away from Sza’s perpetually smiling face to survey her ‘garden’.
TBB-3 3
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Post by Alma on Nov 10, 2021 1:38:37 GMT -6
The competition to get a few break days had been fierce, with everyone tired of being some taily’s chew toy or having their own weapons tossed at their head. The first week or so had been somewhat profitable at least, hides and eyes sold off to those keen on magic, fines leveled against those who had been stupid enough to collar the beasts but not keep them from meeting with ones lacking in any loyalty. She had been one of the first to have helped clear out one of those meetings, her partner at the time brilliantly panicking and mangling several hides so badly that she had refused to share the credits the nice furrier had given her. She had been a bit more generous when it came to the eyes, letting them sell the eyes to a contact that would in turn sell to gullible citizens who thought the blank gaze of the third eye would ward off evil. That had been a tidy sum as well, considering that there were three ‘third’ eyes per ‘po, but she had refused to claim any of that batch, leading to a few free drinks and more bruising on her back.
A chunk of those credits had gone to the sack of supplies cradled in the brittle brown stems she had dropped it on, and to the ‘bite-proof’ leash the wiurn was steadfastly refusing to test.
TBB-4 4
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Post by Alma on Nov 10, 2021 1:38:49 GMT -6
The profits from hides had dropped quickly as furriers bought up the beasts and rangers saturated the market with skins, and Alma had shied away from trying to sell the eyes to citizens still hopeful enough to think something like that could protect them. But the ‘po kept on coming, a veritable tide of claws and hunger, and rocks and blades that took off towards the nearest tailypo hunter when they drew too close to catching one.
So, she had claimed this break, and all she had to do was bring in some berries or whatever it was that grew in her abandoned lot after taking a long-deserved break. Bringing up one hand to shade her eyes, ignoring the grunting of the wiurn that feared plants or something, she almost wished she was just hunting more tailypo.
Gardens were just patches of plants, right? And plants grew everywhere. Walking over to her lot, she had seen plots with ponds and streams, plants green and growing in large, perfectly kept patches.
TBB-5 5
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Post by Alma on Nov 10, 2021 1:39:03 GMT -6
What she saw now was to those gardens as a snorg was to an izer. There were no beautiful, easily harvestable patches of plants. Shadows, she wasn’t sure if any one plant even repeated anywhere in her garden, vines and leaves and straw and bare branches mixing together to make snarls of prickly brown and green, flowers at all stages of wilt and still yet to split open, what might have been fruit of some kind appearing to writhe on the ground as she stared at it, clouds of insects buzzing into the air as she nudged a nearby one with her foot. And the smell, oh, where there had been the clean scent of what she could only call ‘green’ mingled with floral perfumes as she admired the other gardens, hers was choked with manure and rot, and she spat instinctively as to keep it away from her.
With a glance at the wiurn, still frozen in its refusal to continue, she sighed.
TBB-6 6
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Post by Alma on Nov 10, 2021 1:39:23 GMT -6
“Help me find a few berries,” she told it, kicking away some unknown fruit that left dark purple juice and whit grubs wiggling on her boot, “just a few the buggers ain’t already got, and we’ll go. Alright, Hissy?” The wiurn made no response, not even glancing up to meet her gaze. “Alright, Sza?” she repeated, the wiurn’s eyes flicking to meet her own. “Damn, I hate that name. Must ‘ave been a lizard that owned ya, huh?” The broker had not told her anything about the beast’s previous owner, only the name it had been trained to respond to. The wiurn was even less informative, though it at least had the excuse of having ‘the brain of a beetle’ as some researcher had gleefully noted.
“Right then.” Alma looked around the garden, noting that the fences seemed intact at least. Squatting beside the wiurn, she unclipped the leash, quickly, trusting the leather of her gloves to protect her from any nips.
TBB-7 7
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Post by Alma on Nov 10, 2021 1:39:40 GMT -6
Sza ignored her even as her fingers brushed against its scales, the young wiurn holding its frozen pose of refusal even as she straightened up, coiling up the leash before stashing it in the bag. “You...you know you can move now, right?” Alma waved a hand at the vista of thorns and rotting vegetation that stretched out in front of them. “All that space to run and play.” Sza looked at the flapping hand, tilting its head to the side as its shoulders dropped and it shifted its legs. Alma dropped her arms, tucking them behind her back as the wiurn’s head followed the motion. “You try to chew on me, I’ll leash ya and tie you up here.” The wiurn displayed the same understanding of the threat as it had shown all her words so far, blankly blinking as it wove its head side to side as it tried to catch sight of where her arms had gone.
TBB-8 8
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Post by Alma on Nov 10, 2021 1:39:50 GMT -6
When they did not reappear within a few seconds, the wiurn turned to find something else to entertain itself. Alma watched as it headbutted the gate a few times, the metal joints rattling with each impact. She watched the wiurn continue its assault for a solid minute before she brought her hands back around to her front, resting the elbow of one in the palm of the other. With her free hand, the one that had so interested the wiurn only a minute ago, she pressed it to the side of her face and slowly dragged the rough leather down. The wiurn paid no attention to her even when she sighed, bringing the hand to rest just above her chin, fingers stretched to avoid covering her mouth. “Really? First time I take ya out, and you jus’ wanna go back?” The wiurn did not respond other than to continue its assault on the gate.
TBB-9 9
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Post by Alma on Nov 10, 2021 1:40:01 GMT -6
“Yer supposed to be a big fighter when yer older, you know that? Spent a good o’ chunk of my credits on ya after that greedy broker told me you’d rival a dragon in size and strength” Alma squatted down next to the wiurn, watching the young reptile smack its head into the gate yet again. Alma watched for a few more headbutts, straightening up to check the joints. Other than a few flakes of rust floating down from the metal, it seemed to be weathering the beast’s assault with ease. Shaking her head, Alma turned her back on the wiurn to look over the garden. “Careful now,” she said over her shoulder, “don’t wanna look to be too much smarter than them. They’s a prideful bunch.”
The human laughed to herself, then bent down to pick through the sack of supplies. There were some bits of food, both meat for the wiurn and fare slightly less rare for herself.
TBB-10 10
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Post by Alma on Nov 10, 2021 1:40:12 GMT -6
She looked at the wrapped sandwich with some regret, then shoved it back as deeply in the sack as it would go. She had heard rumors about beasts that roamed the gardens, oversized bugs that could pick a garden bare in a matter of hours. She looked up at the tangled landscape of her garden, and laughed before returning her gaze to the sack. Most of the tools were shoved aside, a small hand shovel resting on the wrapped sandwich as Alma fought to free the tool she wanted to use first. It had caught on the tines of the pitchfork, and it took some work to carefully pull it free without yanking out the other tools.
“Don’t suppose ya’d like to try breathin’ fire like a proper dragon, would ya, Hissy?” She could hear no response other than the knock of wood and rattle of metal.“Eh, yer right. Burnin’ down the place would be a big fine.”
TBB-11 11
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Post by Alma on Nov 10, 2021 1:40:26 GMT -6
With the wiurn happily occupied, Alma pulled the small scythe free. It was nowhere near long enough to be like the scythes she had seen at the Heavy Hammer, certainly lacking the spooky air that the claimed magical one there had displayed. It’s blade was long and thick enough, sure, but the wooden handle had snapped long before she had bought it, the discounted price and the demonstration that had the seller cut a decent chunk of hay in half having convinced her it was a good buy. The handle stretched out just past the little cylinder of wood jutting out perpendicularly from the base, a handle that Alma assumed would normally be used to let the harvester cut with a little more force.
One last look at the mess waiting for her led her to swing it at the brambles holding the sack, the dried stems catching the blade and making her yank on the extra handle to splinter them.
TBB-12 12
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Post by Alma on Nov 10, 2021 1:40:37 GMT -6
With a snort, she hung the scythe on the broken stems, pulling out a tool she saw a bit more commonly used within the city boundaries. The four metal tines were a common sight in everything from pamphlets to being held in shaking hands, and she even used one herself when the cleaning systems at the kennel proved harder to implement in her small fort. “Same one, actually,” she told the battling wiurn as it fought against the tyranny of the gate. “Figured there wasn’t much of a point buying a new one. Plants don’t mind a bit of shit.” Looking over the garden as she took a deep sniff, the inhale ending in an exaggerated hacking cough, “An’ if they did, they already have plenty to deal with. What’s a little more?” She smiled at the wiurn, the grin edging towards genuine as the wiurn bopped its head again. “An’ ain’t that true of us all?”
TBB-13 13
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Post by Alma on Nov 10, 2021 1:40:49 GMT -6
Alma turned to the massive plot of land, a garden of shit and plants that died choking out the life of others. Her grin faltered as she repeated the last sentence, tightening her grip on the pitchfork as she looked over the nearest patches of spiny plants. With a sigh, and a small party of curses directed towards “the bastards who made them ‘po’s,” her “bitch of a boss wanting proof for this of all things,” and a final, eloquent, “shittin’ plants’, she stabbed down into the thinnest patch. The tines slid past the vines, digging deep into the earth hidden below. She wiggled the pitchfork, hearing roots snap and seeing the earth churn as she moved it back and forth, then pulled it free with bits of dirt and one enterprising root that had somehow coiled around a tine.
She stabbed down again and again, always in a slightly different spot, the sound of tearing roots overlapping the rattle of the gate, the sound of metal stabbing into the earth paired with a skull bashing against wood.
TBB-14 14
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