[EDEL PRP] A Reunion of Scales, Fangs and Claws

[Syrie]

Yu had not yet properly met his fully returned Brother, Tian Yue, though he certainly wasn't unfamiliar with the Worldshield's face and form; met in passing, and of course, he had heard -- second- and third-hand -- from others that had been around the Pantheon. Blue eyes squinched with happiness as his Brother's massive form came down to join in on this impromptue meeting of Draconic Proportions. Briefly did the Emblem Pillar flash jealousy: he could not yet attain the form that had once been his, that thick head and silky mane once bent under His hand. Tian Yue had that now. Jealousy quickly turned to joy and happiness that at least one of their number was returned to something akin to the former glory - Pre-Fading, of course.

It didn't take long for Zhiji to realize that Tian Yue had arrived - less time after that to transform. Yu's thick fur rippled and he had to swallow down an almost pensive whine, a wanting sound. He longed to join Tian Yue and Zhijian in Dragonform; it wouldn't be long, he hoped. Until then...he'd just have to wait, now wouldn't he?

"Brothers," Yu rumbled happily, arms going out as if to embrace the whole group, "And Sister Xuan." Here he paused to chuckle at Kheviel. For the first time since the Fading, we are gathered in force." Though some of their number were yet within host-mortals, nearly all were accounted for. Chien Tang was not - and had not - been seen nor heard from in a great span of time...Xia Lu Ling could only recall meeting his diminutive host once. "I promised Him that we would gather, we would speak...now, I can lift my head without shame to his outstretched hand."

Much to speak of, much to think on and roll through minds, hearts and scales. Grigori. The rebuilding of All That Is. But first...dragonpile. Jin Huang would have frowned disapprovingly~

[A Wandering Esper]

"You got lucky." Illisia pointed out to Laurence as he passed by her, amused. "He did pounce me when I ran into him." And would have done the same to the priest had it not been for him being distracted.

She took a few steps, bending forward to retrieve Kheviel's hat from the ground and dusting it slightly before handing it over to the blonde-haired elf. "I believe that's yours ?" It was still in one piece, at least.

[Mintaka]

"Yeah, definitely lucky," he said, rising up and dusting himself, eyes trailing past Zhiji a moment. "I wasn't exactly sure what to do." He gave a small grin and took his hat, running a hand through his hair to fix it before putting it back on.

"I mean, I don't mind much, but..." He chuckled slightly. "What do you do?" He nodded at Laurence. "You'll get used to it, I'm sure. I've kind of gotten used to expecting the random, and the unknown. Although that might come from having been staying with Insanity, too."

Xuan turned then, to Xia. "So then we speak as a group? Something important?" She figured as much, as he would not say such things otherwise, but it seemed something needed to be breached and it would be ill to put it off too long. Be serious first, and then relax after.

[Meepfur]

"It has," he purred in agreement to his 'older' brother, rubbing affectionately against him. He couldn't help but be just a little envious of Tian Yue's size, but that was mostly because...well, being so much smaller made playing a little more difficult. It was inconvenient. Though, while nowhere near the size of Tien Lung, he was still in the neighborhood of a hundred feet long. Large, but not huge.

Zhijian flicked one large ear in the direction of the chatting hosts and rumbled with mock-affront, "I can hear you, you know."

Actually, Kheviel was luckier than he knew, and Laurence as well. He'd been naked when he pounced on Illisia, as she'd caught him after a bath.

[Tsunake]

The dragon glanced at him now, elegant somehow despite its size, and its claws, and its.... teeth. Slender jaws had dropped open in what could only be a grin, but the priest sat up stiffly in the shade of the tree he'd clamored to for safety, unconsciously alert. "I've heard about you." He said bluntly without thinking, hesitating a moment before he nodded his head to the great beast in respect. Though there was no danger--he knew that, even without Shuo prattling and preaching about how he couldn't be safer here--his instincts continued to insist that this was a very large, very carnivorous creature, and leaving would probably be the best option for him.

If Tian Yue really wanted him, however, no burst of speed would place him out of range of one of those long forelimbs. "Laurence Pershary." He tried to keep his voice flat, but it fell thin and a little wavery, much to his annoyance. "Host of Shuo Huang Zhe, Mang." Lord, he could hear it--him--sniffing at him, and he took a deep breath to steady his nerves, ignoring the not-croon that Shuo was making to have finally found yet another brother.

"Tian Yue," The dragon's deep voice was a little hoarse with his emotion, practically beaming even as his host stared warily up at the behemoth. "Magnificent. You are, truly... I must admit, brother, you leave me at a loss for words! To see you again, and at your prime!" He held such a thing dearly; it was hope, it was encouragement and to see one of their number at full strength for their Lord... But the dragon had exhausted himself in his excitement, and to his disappointment, had not the strength to continue the conversation he so longed for.

Despite himself, a sardonic smile curled at the corners of his lips when the elven woman tossed her words after him, and he rubbed at his face for a moment. "I'll count my blessings, then." There was an acknowledging nod to the unknown man, and he watched for a moment as Illisia handed him back his hat that had been so carelessly knocked askew.

The seemingly surly rumble from the former cat-dragon-beast had Laurence blanching a little, and he fell silent as though to help him avoid further attention. The last thing he wanted to deal with was a pouncing--particularly when Shuo saw absolutely nothing wrong with such a thing.

Brothers or not, he wasn't too keen at the idea of having another... well, man-thing knocking him to the ground for cuddles. Laurence Pershary was not a cuddler.

[A Wandering Esper]

Illisia did pause for a moment, almost as if frozen, thinking, trying to understand if she'd insulted the fangbridle somehow, overstepped her bounds...

...But then forced all that away, reminded herself of what she had been told, and grinned. Xun's good humor was infectious, and it helped. She took a few steps forward the rest of the dragons, in order to spare the other hosts, and looked up. "And is that supposed to scare me, Zhijian ?" Her eyes glinted with mischief. There was a bit of a deeper tone in her voice, that had not been there before, and went away just as quickly.

...You are so asking for it. The dragon laughed. He honestly had to hold himself back, or else he was much too likely to join the fray. He wanted to, honestly, but... No, perhaps it was better to hold back. His fear of harming Illisia, unfounded or not, was still too great.

Oh, I know.

Perhaps her little dragon-taunting would have the side effect of keeping Laurence safe, who knew ?

[Sosiqui]

Tian Yue snorted cheerfully at Zhijian, then peered down at Laurence, mouth opening wide in a draconic grin. "Mang! You have been gone long, brother - but you are here now!" So many brothers, all gathered in - only Shen Lung seemed missing now, gone for so long without sign. His tail waggled happily.

Letting out a contented sigh, Tian Yue laid down, sphinx-style, though he kept his head up and ears perked to hear the buzz of conversation around him. Idly, he planted one great paw on the tip of Zhijian's tail.

[Syrie]

When Xuan spoke up to ask him aobut the group, about why he'd found it so important to try to drag so many of the Brotherhood together, Xia nodded and started to clear his throat to speak - only he found his voice didn't want to come up yet. Watching his siblings playing together brought forth a warmth into his soul; healing balm to the wounded and bare returned Dragon King.

Eventually, however, he would speak up to them all. "Aye, Sister." Yu straightened and turned so could face the group more easily; multiple eyes taking in each member fully, measuring their forms and power as best he could. It took a moment, but eventually all settled down; the high spirited atmosphere remained, however.

"As much as my heart is filled with joy at reuniting, our Lord has charged me to speak thus, to see that we all talk and plan for what will come next...and what may come next." Yu's ears and tail twitched briefly, the rest of him deceptively still. "The Grigori will retun. No doubt but that Samyaza has used the Empress' arm to retrieve more of her compatriots from the Ashlands. He has told me there are no weapons that will harm the Grigori - creatures of Void cannot be harmed in this manner - so we must work on finding alternate methods to protect Him."

The pitch-furred Dragon King closed both sets of blue eyes and made a sound something akin to a long-suffering sigh. "He said the Grigori created themselves, made against All That Is...and that they cannot be captured - for questioning or otherwise. The Grigori will eat themselves into naught. Not even in the Old Tongue, is there recourse against Samyaza and her ilk. Long ago, when our Lord passed the judgement that ended the War, He sought out the Names of the Grigori but found none. They are without a perfect means to control and are wholly unto and of themselves."

Such a dangerous creature to contemplate; words like a horror-show, slinking from mouth to ear to heart and back again to bring down the gaiety of their reunion. It was necessary, Xia Lu Ling told himself, biting back the grief he felt in saying such things now.

"The Lay of the Sable Pearls is the story of the Grigori come unto our number...into our open arms, as it were. It is her story, as He has related Samyaza's story to me...and were Gianfar around I would bend him to tell you what he knows." Again, Yu cleared his throat; speaking so long was difficult with his gravelly, growling tones and muzzle not meant for so much speech.

"One of the Pearls, belonging to Law, was unused. Samyaza - long before she claimed such a name for herself - was once a tennant to Law. Even Creation does not know how Samyaza was able to turn the magic and the pearl, how she managed to use Names, to unname herself and the others like her. We do not know how the Grigori exist nor how they weild void to eat at All That Is."

Yu had very little to offer his Brothers and Sister in the way of solutions; most of what he knew would only lead to more and more questions...but he had been charged to explain and to talk; to bind the Dragon Kings together again in a hunt. Different from some of the hunts from the past, but no less important.

"If we knew, that would be the Key to destroying them. I had asked Gianfar of Knowledge once, but he was guarded...the story he told did not answer questions, but birth new ones. I only discovered that many of our number were injured and that He wept. And that Knowledge and several others were punished for bringing the Grigori into the Twin Crown's inner sanctum. To Gianfar's credit, he did not see her for what she was, but thought her one of His own vassals - for there was no Knowing of the woman we know as Samyaza."

Whatever punishment had been meted out to Knowledge and the others, he did not recall; perhaps one of his brothers did...Tian Yue? Quite likely. But that wasn't what he was there for just then. Later, perhaps later he could quietly speak with individuals and see what he had forgotten about the trial. Knowledge and...whom? Had it been Law, sequestered with Knowledge under the protective hand of Silence?

"I know I bring nothing but questions to the table, but I am hopeful that together we can attain answers and find a way to defeat the Grigori."

[A Wandering Esper]

Her playful taunting of the fangbridle stopped when Yu spoke out again. Then, she'd settled back with Laurence and Kheviel, sitting against the tree to listen, bringing her knees up and laying her chin against it. She knew some of what was spoken about, mostly from her meeting with Jin - who was now absent, she suddenly realized - but this might very well be the first some had heard of grigori, Most of the information was new to even her.

"Samyaza... that's the one who caused Gehenna, isn't it ?" She was bristling at the mere thought, so much was Xun's unrest at the situation.

And how could he not be ? His Lord had been wounded, his brothers and the world around them had suffered, to say nothing of the other gods - and he hadn't been there for it. He hadn't been there to hold them, support them, run scales against scales for comfort. He'd hadn't been there to help repair most of the damage wrought, hadn't been there in any shape, or form - he'd only been a question mark in the back of his sibilings' mind, a cause of worry as to where he was, and if he would even be there.

But that was over. That was done. He was here now, and he would remain so. Now he could do his part to make a difference. Xun Jiang was not a figure inclined to fight unless it needed to be done, in true self-preservation. But even Lifewater had to admit himself that they were there now, at that crossroad. There was no reasoning with the grigori, no true. Only existence or death. They wouldn't have gone as far as to strike down their lord if it was otherwise.

Host and dragon sent thoughts, back and forth, until they thought that they might be on something. Illisia was, after all, the fighter, not him. She was good at finding potential weakpoints - he wasn't.

Illisia, we have this to offer - can you speak of it for me ?

"Jin told us." Illisia started, cutting out the silence that had taken over the group after her last sentence. It hadn't been long, since the exchange of thought in between her and her dragon king was lightning quick, but it had felt this way. "That Lord Harmodius was Destruction when he was struck down. I don't think this is a coincidence." There she was, mixing her we and I's again - she didn't care at the moment. "They... thrive in the void, in nothing, in death, in endings - so what could He truly have done to them ? But on the opposite side... Could Creation be able to harm them ? Fill them with something again... then end them." She had almost hissed out that last sentence, her hand clenching in the grass. Xun Jiang's anger was highly contagious. This was perhaps one of the few things the otherwise gentle dragon king would be able to truly be angry about.

No one was to harm his Lord. No one was to harm his brothers. Or they would pay the price.

"Is it possible to name them again, did Lord Harmodius say anything about that ?"

[Meepfur]

Zhijian, though his tail was held captive by the larger dragon, was half snaked-around and about to move to snatch Illisia up when Yu turned the conversation serious. Had the topic been less weighty, he would have done it anyway, but to keep playing would disrespectful to his brother. Instead, he settled, stretching out beside and leaning a little against Tian Yue. His pinned tail twitched, an outward sign of the anxiousness this topic brought on.

"What of the artifact weapons - the glaive, the shears, the sword, and the jesses? They were found. Can they not be of use, though they are so few?" A pity if they could not, after all the work to get them. "But that brings another matter. It is His wish that we train, take up arms and practice. We are young, and it is long since we knew war. When our enemy returns, we must be better-prepared to fight them."

"And there is another thing that comes to mind: before the Ritual, Plague and Science developed a vaccine against the Void. I'm not certain of the extent of its effectiveness, or if it is actually helpful at all, or if there is even any left, but it is something to think about."

[Sosiqui]

"I have learned something of the Naming of Names - it was my honor to learn of and invoke such power on our Lord's behalf," Tian Yue rumbled. If he thought about it, he could still feel the undercurrent of that power running under the surface of his mind... the words he had spoken before the Chrysalis, breathed into it in defiance of Gehenna. "What I learned was simple and specific, turned only to that task, but I would be willing to expand my scholarship."

He tossed his head, then. "And any who seek to harm our Lord again must pass through me." He bared his teeth, a ripple of protective anger running down the length of his body, raising the mane along his spine like hackles as it went. "I am ascended fully in truth - I am, if not invincible, a significant stumbling block."

Or so he hoped.

[Tsunake]

"They'll have to pass through all of us." Laurence interjected, though caught himself, and offered a rather guilty bob of his head for the great Tian Yue. "...I'm still learning about everything here, but until Mang is strong enough, I won't let another apocalypse happen." What kind of person would he be to stand idle--or worse, to cower behind these still-young Dragon Kings for protection!

"Even if they were Named again, there's nothing to say they won't be able to undo it. Still, the more knowledge we have, the better." The priest hesitated for a moment, then bowed his head reluctantly. "If there's anything I can do--just let me know. I'm willing to research, or ask around, or whatever you need me to do."

He could at least make himself useful.

[Syrie]

Yu's great head shook as though to dislodge a fly or bit of chaff as he listened to the bantering of questions-and-answers-and-yet-more-questions among his bretheren. Tian Yue brought forth a challenge to all that might have stood to harm the Crown and was accompanied by a general rumble of assent from all present.

Naturally but the Dragon Kings would band together thusly!

"Samyaza caused it, with help. Gods brought her back, gave her the chance to ravage Kishara and to Unname Harmodius. It was no one being that did everything...but for a target, yes: it is she." He flicked his tail and cocked his head thoughtfully; multiple sets of eyes did traverse each face, each form, present. Of the Brotherhood, only Tian Yue and Zhijian stood strong enough for his tastes - a weakness in himself that was absolutely intolerable (yet somehow he managed to keep the distaste for his current state secondary to living it) - but soon. Xia Lu Ling felt the undercurrents of power from his 'family' and knew they would not be so weakened for much longer.

"Of Naming Grigori, he did not speak to me. Perhaps a better person to press such thoughts to would be Gianfar of Knowledge, or Himself." Here he tilted his head towards Zhijian specifically, "Harmodius did state that no weaponry we have now would touch them, not even the artifacts. Void would rot through cleanly, destroying them. Were Forge available perhaps...but no. We are not going to 'win' against them with any blade, ball or otherwise forged weaponry currently available. This He made clear: in battle, we will not win. Not now. So we must train body and mind; grow stronger. In power and form - what good are weakling Dragons to the Crown? Train and convert mortals to believe. That, He said, was very important - more so than brawn and battle, even."

That went very much against his own principle means of action, but...what Harmodius said must be Truth. They must find something else with which to defeat the Grigori than muscle, sinews and blade...power in belief, in mortals - power to hold their true forms again as Tian Yue did.

"Brother, if you know of Names, you must share if you can - and torture the Grey Dove of Knowledge and Harmodious Himself for more." Basking in the pleasure of being with so many of the Brotherhood, Yu half-closed his many eyes for a moment as he let his words sink in, roll over and otherwise pick brains other than his own.

[Meepfur]

Such tension in this grim topic, such frustration, it did not sit well with the Fangbridle. He did not sit well, for that matter. Seeking some outlet, he clambered onto Tian Yue, draping himself over the other dragon's greater form to muss his raised hackles. Somewhat inappropriate, perhaps, but play was one of the ways he dealt with things, an almost unconscious attempt to diffuse or distract when things were not right - when there was nothing to fight.

"Where is Knowledge? I say we should bring him here, now," Zhijian growled out, disturbed by the news that the artifacts would be of no use. Why had they bothered, then? Why had they wasted the time? More than that, all this waiting and speculating was wont to drive him mad. "As the consesus seems to be that we know almost nothing, we clearly need someone who does."

"Who else is there? More than dragons have been reborn, many worked to avert the End. Do the gods scatter so easily? Surely the others will help how they can, if they know that they are needed."