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Colin, Sarah and Sylvia had gathered at Donnie's house for some gaming.  After going over the premis of the game they were thinking of running they worked on making characters and Donnie ran a sample combat so they could see how it works.  After the gaming part of the evening Donnie wanted to pass along some recent news to them.

Sarah thwaps Colin's figurine off the table and into the couch cushions.  "Your defenses are weak and I have crushed you!"  She then offers up an evil laugh before settling down.  "Sorry, I think they put something evil in Mountain Dew."

Sylvia, who was kind of getting into the game at the end there--perhaps a little too much; the session was weirdly exciting, everyone's adrenaline running a little high--grins across the table at Sarah.  "It's the green.  Never drink anything that glows in the dark."

Donnie cringes as the minifig hits the cushions. "Geez Sarah, take it easy, you hoser. You know I spend hours painting them. Mountain Dew is evil. Must be the antifreeeze they put in it. I prefer to stick to my normal battery acid" as he takes a sip of his Coke. "So I figure we can do a full game next weekend if everyone is available. I'll get the ball really rolling and into the meat of the adventure."  He closes his folder and claps it on top of his books. "Now for the real reason I wanted you all here early.. I received a package in the mail from my grandfather who I have never met before. Come with me and I'll show you what it is.."  He shares a mischevious grin with Colin and leads the crew upstairs.

The kitchen table contains the remains of the two pizzas and boxes they chowed through for dinner. One meat lovers and one veggie (which Donnie surprisingly liked alot!) One corner of the meat lovers box was suspiciously chewed through, and Donnie tossed the boxes into the recycling bin before his mother saw them and asked questions. I belch echoes faintly in the air near Donnie's left ear as Pip shimmers int existance. Donnie feels the needle-like claws of Pip as the little dragon barely held on, his stomach distended grotesquely my the four pieces of pizza (and a quarter of a pizza box) that he ate when no one was looking.

Donnie rolls him off his shoulder into the crook of his arm as he takes the steps up to his bedroom two at a time, eager to share his secret with Sarah and Sylvia. When they reach his room, he closes and locks the door behind him and goes to the closet, where the threee other teens hear him rummaging around.

"If this is your costume," Sylvia says, "we might need some time to prepare ourselves."

As they played, Colin made quick pencil sketches of the characters as the other described them. Following the rules was quite easy for him, thinking with his character's head took a little adjusting but it was fun. He's glad he picked a lawful good alignment, he got to speak as a gallant knight the whole session and friendly bicker all the time with Sarah who instead was chaotic.


Colin picks up the miniature chuckling.
"You think I am vanquished so easily? You'd better prepare to meet thy doom, for I bear the king's standard and deliver his justice! Have at thee!"

He pretends to go for her figurine, but at the last moment he lets go the miniature and goes for her sides instead to tickle her.



"Well, not the costume, but prepare to be shocked anyway."
Colin replies with a wide grin.

"Sorry Donnie.  I haven't gamed in a while and uh... the Dew made me do it?"  She looks over at Colin with a smile, "Sorry to you too."


"Ahh!  Sneak attack!"  Sarah falls over the side of her chair in retreat landing upside down on her neck and shoulders.

When Pip appears Sarah grins enthusiastically but refrains from making any cute noises.  She offers the little dragon an upside down wave but otherwise maintains her cool... such as can be mustered upside down while in full tickle escape mode.

Donnie's voice echoes from inside his closet. "Naw. You have to wait until the party to see my costume."

He then comes out, holding a sheather sword. At the girls' upraised eyebrows, he lays it on the bed, and pulls it mostly from the sheath, showing the deeply etched runes and draconic-shaped handguard and pommel.

His face is serious. "My grandfather says it is my legacy. My summoning of Pip is not some random power, but a power investure of a pact with the race of dragons.."

He tells them of the Legacy group, the Watchman, Dragon Reach, and the connection of his grandfather.

He looks to their faces to see their reactions. Pip scrubs his head against Donnie's cheek, jade eyes swirling as he looks at the assembled teens.

"Bullsh*t!"  starts off Sarah but adds after a moments thought to all the craziness so far this year,  " ....Seriously?  A race of dragons?  Do you mean there are more like Pip running, uh, flying around somewhere?  That is so cool.  So how do protect them anyway?"

Man, why can't my powers come with an explanation in the mail?

"Really, I have no idea. My grandfather did not stick around to tell me too much, and I have no way of finding out exactly what I should be doing. Evidently my mother was supposed to tell me things about her father and the Legacy Group, but she has evidently hated him since she was twelve.

I have a theory, though. If all these dreams and imaginings I have had since I was a child are true, there are all kinds of dragons, from the little Jade dragons like pip, to the huge, gnarly horned Crimson Stokers and everything in between. Maybe I'll be able to call other dragins. My grandfather thought so.."

Pip winged over to Sarah for some belly scratching, lying indolently on the bed in front of her, next to the sword.

Colin stops his assault and offers her a hand to help her on her feet... but when she us up he stays a little too close and clings to her hand a little too long.
"You think you'll have the time to take a walk later?" he whispers to her.


"Ok. Here's what I think. You have to do a little experimenting. When you were in danger you were able to call upon Pip, so that means the dragons are fully respecting their end of the bargain, and you nearest to them now than you ever were. If I were you, I'd take out all your notes, everything you've written, every drawing about them since you were a child and go over it again, to see if they make more sense now, if they wake up something, some memory from a previous life, or something like that.
I'd keep a notebook near your bed, so, first thing in the morning, you can take note of your dreams, they may be important. That's what I'm doing too.
I'd try to see if you could maybe call the sword to you the same way you call Pip. You pass a lot of time at school, and the principal barely let us use cellphones. Now if it were a raygun... but a sword taller than you... I think he'd object to that.
Donnie, show them the drawing I've done of your aura. You won't believe it."

"Oh and I think you have to find the Dragon Reach. If your grandpa is right, you share this... duty with a Dragon Lord. Who better than him to explain you what it means? Now I don't know if it's a physical place or not. It could be just the place Pip goes to when he disappears. Have you ever tried asking him to bring you there?

Otherwise... maybe you should go to Iceland. The previous Guardian can't possibly have left you the sword with no explanation. He's gotta have a journal or anything."

"Maybe it's Pip?" Sylvia suggests.  "Couldn't he be a Dragon Lord?"

Sarah nods to Colin, "I always have time."

She scratches Pips tummy and says, "Well, he eats like a dragon lord."

Donnie ponders Colin's words. "I doubt I could get Mom to sign off on a trip to Iceland. As far as summoning the sword, I will try that tonight. I have never asked Pip to take me with him when he goes." He looks to where Pip was lying on his back blissfully enjoying a scratch from Sarah. "I know Pip is not a Dragon Lord though. That's for the Crimson Stokers or the Golden Regals. Pip's a Jade. They are messengers, spies, familiars, and confidants. If dragons do eat the way Pip does, I can't imagie the damage a full size Bronze Walker or Grey Hunter would take it, let a lone a Crimson or Regal. Crimsons can consume a herd of camels in a single day of hunting. Luckily Regals are amphibious, and dine on tunnys or large fish, slipping sleekly through the waves, sun glinting off their scaled hides.." He gets kind of a far away look as he talks of the different dragon types, then shakes his head slightly, as if coming back to himself.

Donnie grins at Sylvia suddenly, smile lighting up his face. "Wouldn't it be utterly wicked to show up to Homecoming atop a gorgeous Golden Regal, burnished golden scales and seventy foot wingspan, shimmering in the lights of the parking lot?" He laughs and strokes the pommel of the sword, a small smile remaining on his lips.

"Little hard to park aren't they?"  Sarah quips. 

"Totally better than a limo, but I'm thinking dragon scales don't go well with chiffon."  Sylvia turns her thoughts from the impossible to the merely improbable.  "My mom would take us to Iceland--"  Carolyn's an architect after all.  Architects make damn fine money.  "--especially to see dragons.  I mean, you'd have to pay your own way, probably, but if it's an issue of chaperoning, she'd take us."  Mitzi's always up for adventure.

Colin's mind for a moment is full of photos. The ones he could make in Iceland, icy wastes, geysers, volcanos, the dawn on a dark blue stormy ocean, a ship catting through ice as en enormous knife. The one he could make of a shimmering golden dragon,  the glow of the stars reflectin on his scales as he floats in the night sky, being the first in the world to capture the return of their glory and majesty...
Then concern kicks in.

"I don't hink that would be a good idea. Going with it to Homecoming, I mean. Pip always disappears when somebody you don't trust is around, they likely have to mantain some secrecy. The whole point of this stuff was so human wouldn't have bothered them, isn't it?"

"Your mom... Mitzi would do that? Wow. You have to check with your grandpa if it's a good idea Donnie, but it would be so great if we could go." then he frowns "Though I have no idea where I could get the money. I'd need to land some great photo deal with a paper."

Sylvia mumbles something about cheap youth hostels and so forth, but she understands that Iceland is almost as unreachable as the Dragon Home.  "Does Pip know who the Dragon Lord is?"  She turns to Pip.  "Pip?  Do you know him?  Can you find him?"

She nevery cutesy-talks the dragon, cute as he is, and it's taking her a while to come around to the idea of talking directly to him instead of trying to bounce her questions through Donnie.

Pip shrugs, which is made unmistakable because he uses his front legs and his wings for the display.

Donnie smiles at Sylvia even broadly, reaching out and entwining his hand in hers. "That would be incredible. Perhaps over the summer we could do it; get a teacher to go with us and make it a school trip or something..
I can check with him, once I get some contact with him again. He is supposed to start sending me some reading materials and stuff. We'll see."

Donnie looks to Pip curioously to see if and how he responds.

Donnie purses his lips in an ironic smile. "Inscrutable dragon.."

Sylvia can't help but smile.  They're holding hands.  And Sarah and Colin are here which makes it almost a public display of affection, something they haven't done too much of.  She says, "As for the summoning thing, can't you go downstairs and try it from there?  I mean, if it works from a mile away, it should work from ten yards away, right?"

"Heck. It should work from ten feet."  He leaves the sword on the bed and goes into the closet, leaving it open a crack. He stands and closes his eyes, feeling outward to see if he has a connection to the sword as he does to Pip; some tenuous ephemeral cord of energy, and to see if he can pull the sword to himself as he calls for Pip.

OOC: Will Save DC 14

ooc: Donnie's Will Save vs. DC14 (1d20+1=14) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=775024)
woot!

There is a sound like thunder from the closet and the sword vanishes off the bed.  the closet door blows open and there is a flash of light as the sword appears in Donnie's hand.

Sylvia stares.  "That'll be . . . subtle."

"HOLY SHIT!"

Donnie drops the sword and runs out of the closet, shaking the mouse on his computer and whip-fast logging into World of Warcraft while listening for the tread of his mother charging up the stairs. "Colin, open the door!" Donnie says, pointing towards the bedroom door as he kicks his closet closed on the sword, which lies on the carpet of the closet, runes glinting crimson in the darkness.

Donnie looks at the other kids around him, eyes wide. "That was unexpected.."

"You're not going to change into He-Man or anything, are you?"

Pip jumps from the bed to the top of the computer desk and does what can only be described as a happy dance, complete with clapping of paws and sticking his tounge out.

"Wait, wait, you cagey dragon. Are you saying that I can turn into someone else with this sword?"  Donnie looks a bit alarmed at the notion.

Pip gives Donnie the same look a dog might give a helicopter.  Head tipped to one side, wide eyes, tail still.  Then he shakes his head no.

Donnie nods. Good. I am me, not a shell for something else.

When enough time has passed that he thinks his mom won't be investigating the noise, he closes the door again and brings the sword back out, leaving it on the bed. He contimplates the meaning of the sword and what it might do for him. He also realizes the fact he was utterly out of his depth in this situation.

He sighs. "I guess I will have to wait and see what Gramps sends me. I hate waiting, but I can't think of anything else to try. I will do the dream-thing Colin." He picks up the sword and returns it to the closet. He gets cokes and waters from his mini-fridge and passes them around, sutting cross-legged in the middle of the pale blue-carpeted floor. "Anyone else have things to talk about, ideas for me, or just general talk? I don't want our first foursome get-together to be all about me."

Long pause.  Then Sylvia says, "I liked the game.  It wasn't what I expected, though.  I thought we'd be, you know, doing things."

"But appropriate." Colin is smiling as if he ate the sun. He couldn't be more happy for Donnie. He knew it.


"Oh well, not so much. After all, I think it's meant for your defense. Maybe you should check if you can send it back too, but not now, or your mom will actually come this time. Too many thunders, and it wasn't that cloudy today."


"I liked it. It was cool. I wonder why it's got such a bad reputation. I can't stand the Mountain Dew, though. What kind of things you thought we'd be doing, Syl?" he says with a grin.

Colin tentatively reach out his hand for Sarah's hand too, but he's quite hesitant, as he's not sure she'd like it.

He seems rather thoughtful for a moment.
"Would you like to help me? I have a thought experiment for you. Let's say you were... a senator. A big time, important senator. And the secret service intercepts a letter for you with some serious threat. Would you rather know, thinking you could defend yourself better this way and be prepared, or knowing would make you feel too nervous, and you'd rather let them handle the job on their own?"

Sylvia blinks at Colin, peering at him as if she's trying to figure out what he's really saying.  Was that innuendo?  Was that a smarmy comment dropping from Saint Colin's lips?  "I thought it'd be, you know, standing up, running around, waving plastic swords around or something.  Ginny and I used to do that when we were littler.  No rules except the ones she made up."


And again, Sylvia's uncertain.  Colin's probably talking to Sarah, but while Sylvia's gaze swivels to the redhead, she finds herself thinking through the thought experiment.  She can't help herself.  "I'd want to know.  Choosing not to know is chickening out."

"Oooh! That would possibly be even more fun. Donnie should better take some training with his sword before we all start hammering on him at the same time like we did with his orcs. It wouldn't be fair. And Sarah should practice her reflex save." he says, tring to tickle her again, but letting her swatting wim away easily this time.


Before he forces himself to regain his composure, Colin looks at Sylvia for a moment in utter shock.

God and Great Spirit! That's what I'm doing?! I'm treating her like a coward? She's not like that!

"There are some that do that, they're called the SCA, the Society for Creative Anachronisms or something. I think my mom would get worried if I was running around with a duct-tape wrapped mace trying to brain other people." Donnie grins at the irony of his statement, thinking of the three foot sword in his closet.

"I think I'd rather not know." He makes a bwak-bwak chicken sound, and smiles at Sylvia. "I think you have to trust other people. If you have friends, employees, guards etc that are there to take care of these things for you, then you have to let them do what they can. To constantly micro-manage cheapens ther efforts."

Sylvia raises a finger like a school marm.  "But willful ignorance leads to misunderstanding, and misunderstanding can lead to catastrophe."

Donnie laughs. "Where did you read that?"

Colin tries not to look eagerly at Sarah, but he does. It's her opinion what really matters after all.

Sylvia sticks out her tongue in a breezy, playful show of pique.  "I didn't read it.  I made it up.  I mean, really, does knowing imply micro-management?  Is the decision to stick your fingers in your ears and hum a little tune ever the right choice?"  She's on a roll, hopped up on caffeine.  "In horror movies, the guy who crumples up on the floor and says, 'No, no, no.  It can't be true,' is the one who gets eaten in Act II."

"Horror movies? I didn't think Caroline would let you watch horror movies. Not knowing something, ignoring a situation, and trusting others to take care of it are three distinctly seperate situations. You can't judge each one by the same standard. If you knew the murderer in Scream was coming after you, and pretended not to know, you deserve to get stabbity-stabbed. If you hired fifteen people to keep an eye out for said murderer and another five to guard you personally, what's the use in sitting there worrying yourself about it? It won't do any good."

"Well, maybe not that much protection..." Colin mutters, thinking that his little experiment is getting out of hand.

"But doesn't knowing give you a better chance of avoiding danger?  Like if Colin and Sarah knew there was a vampire after you--"  Horror movies seem to be the theme.  Maybe it's the season.  "--would you want them to stand guard outside your house while you did your homework, or would you want to take precautions?  Carve some stakes?  Wear a crucifix?"

"well, ok. That's different. I was still going off Colin's 'senator' example. If I was just by myself, sure I'd want to know. But doesn't knowing saomething might happen cause a lot of grief too? if you aren't positive they are coming to suck your blood, and you stay up all night, garlic and stakes in hand, have you become a paranoid freak?being prepared for what life throws at you is one thing, being frozen in worry over may-bes or might-bes is anther."

Sylvia is willing to admit that undue worry could be a problem, but she articulates that concession in a series of inarticulate shrugs.  "Okay.  I kinda forgot the senator example.  I'd still want to know.  It might mean that, before I kissed a baby, I could make sure it wasn't a bomb."