Expendable

Umbra Rose Condos

Qaymu

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Bldg 1, Restaurant
@Lemons - Velvet

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"My story?" Qaymu asked, amused. "Well, I was the runt of the litter, so at some point I got pushed out of the nest. While I couldn't fly yet, I tumbled very well."

The dragon chuckled to himself.

"Fortunately for me, I was found by a circus. They put me in a cage, took care of my wounds, and for a time," he shrugged, waving his right hand palm up for a moment, "I was a side-show attraction. A profitable one, too. But as much as they were taking advantage of me, I was taking advantage of them. I watched - I listened. And I practiced. Then one morning, when I was ready, I said 'good morning' to the child who came to tend me."

"Ah, you should have seen his face!" Qaymu laughed. "He gaped at me, pissed himself, then ran off to fetch the ring master. Of course, the ring master and the head roustabout came over and stared hard at me. I coughed, trying to clear my throat, then the ringmaster turned to the boy and demanded, 'he talked to you?' So I said, 'I do beg your pardon, but I am terribly parched. Might I have a drink of water?'"

"A very interesting conversation, that day," the dragon said, sliding the knight's pawn to B6. "Naturally, the ringmaster preferred I didn't talk to the punters, afraid his circus would go up in flames, no doubt. And I got quite the earful from Ms. Beng, my neighbor. She was the circus' tiger."

"I made some promises, and was granted some liberty when the circus was closed, spending many an hour in the ring master's wagon, learning to play chess. As far as the punters were concerned, I was just a trained animal. I can still remember my stage fright! However, this was not to last, and it came time for me to make my own way in the world. As I was searching for a suitable cave, I came across an overturned royal carriage and men fighting over her. So I swooped down and rescued her."

"I was prone to much foolishness in those days," he sighs. "Not knowing who to trust, I raised her myself in as humanly a fashion as I could."

He gave a shrug, leaning back. "I couldn't leave her with anyone, so I made a comfortable home in a cave and raised her myself."

Umbra Rose Condos

@Expendable By the by, I love how we're just like...actually playing chess, it's really funny to me.

@Lemons

The hard part is finding all the pieces...

Queen

A new guild

"Huh?" Gabs paused, looking at them doubtfully. "So if this place starts losing money, they're going to take out out of your pay?"

"So like throwing all these people out who's been paying for their ale and beer," she added, waving around at the other regulars, "zf they ain't drinkin' here, that's gonna cost them money, right? So you're paying for all those people who won't be payin', anymore?"

"Boy, did they see you guys coming," she grins, smashing her fist down on a small tabletop, the empty wine bottle being used as a candle holder smashing to the rush-strewn floor, which began to smolder and smoke, "Heaven forbid that something should break."

Empire of the Clouds

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Nikos

Zeppelin #27, Gondola

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Nikos grits his teeth, then sighs. "I can help land her."

He leans against the gondola bulkhead, shaking his head. "Iffen we ain't connecting ta the mooring tower but the ground, me and another lad can go down in the pod while someone lowers the forward line. Once we get her tied up, we can use a winch ta help pull her down."

"The only tricky part is hooking her up to the quick release, but once she's belly down, we can get supplies or whatever."

A New Day; Cozy Fantasy Village Life

*Mysterious Figure looks at the now re-destroyed village from a mysterious location*
"... I just wanted this place rebuilt."

@Xaltwind

Is this place a mana dead spot? If the characters look around, will they find a fallen flying palace? Or is the mana here still recovering and is so low that only novice and possibly apprentice level magic is possible?

A New Day; Cozy Fantasy Village Life

Umbra Rose Condos

Qaymu

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Bldg 1, Restaurant
@Lemons - Velvet

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"Ahh," Qaymu sighs, scratching his head, "It has been too long for me, as well. I'm lucky that I get the pieces in the right order. "

His nose wrinkled, taking in the rank odors coming from the spoiled food in the kitchen. He didn't need to be fed daily, although he knew he needed to be careful about snacking. He'll have to check to make sure when his food arrived later this week, it was delivered on the day and kept in the coolers.

His hand hovered over the board, then he picked up his Queen's knight and moved it to F6. There would be problems later, to be sure. He had started playing with his adopted daughter, she was very clever in her responses, not unlike Velvet. Hopefully he wasn't playing with her grandchild - that would be awkward.

"How do you like working at the bar?" he asked. "Do you enjoy being among the people? Or...?"

Qaymu smiled delicately. It was always best when you could pick and choose your dinner, but he didn't think she'd hunt a regular. Too easy to track the victim to the killer, like that mess in London.

Umbra Rose Condos

Such a terrible girl! She deserves to be cursed for the rest of her life for getting an earth dragon killed for nothing!

@BunniesOfDoom

It gets worse. Left to clean up the mess, the peasant whose house was now draped in dead dragon started selling the meat, in secret at first, but then word got out, people started bragging about how much they paid for their dragon meat, and the Prince found out. He came to reclaim the carcass, but the peasant pointed out that there wasn't much left. What he needed was another dragon, and he'd pay the prince handsomely for whatever dragon he brought back to him. It just snowballed after that.

We had to hide, burrow deep.

The unicorns were next.

@Dragonydas
I think you might like this!

feeding time

A New Day; Cozy Fantasy Village Life

... All of you should be ashamed...

@Xaltwind

It makes you wonder what happened to the original villagers? Watch out if the carpenter starts building a really big boat.

A New Day; Cozy Fantasy Village Life

The well has enough water in it for now to sustain the current population with no issues.
I like McKinzie's energy. She'll do great things.

... Or die trying. :)

@Xaltwind

There's already a carpenter. I wonder if this town has a graveyard or a necropolis? And what safeguards they might have against zombies?