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 Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 6:02 pm
setting The owner is a tall man of slight build and undeterminable age. His features are smooth, but his hair is snow-white, and there's something in his eyes that is as old as time. He is dressed in a simple blue pinstripe shirt, black pants and black shoes, but somehow, this doesn't seem to suit him... His eyes are an icy, intense blue; his voice is clear and cultured, but every bit as cold as his eyes. He smiles almost constantly, and really, his smile looks friendly enough, but there's something insincere about it, something that makes your skin crawl. There is an aura of evil about him that even the most spiritually ungifted human can't help but feel.  Reignar Lazenby, owner of "Cursed Dragons" Everything in this store is black or silver, and made from stone or metal. The shelves are empty. There's a glass display case in one ill-lit corner that might or might not be empty, as well. You'll have to step up to it really closely to find out. ((OOC: At the moment, it holds the Cursed Dragon plushie that's up for sale in the Cursed Dragons shop thread. )) If you take a closer look at the floor, you'll see that grey tiles form a sort of unbalanced cross shape on the otherwise black floor.
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Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 10:31 am
In the rooms above the "Cursed Dragons" store:
Shiar sits on the cold floor, his gaze fixed on the door to The Room. He remembers a time when he was too little to understand that The Room was off limits for him... but he made the mistake of sneaking into it only once. He was caught, and his owner, Reignar Lazenby, made sure that he'd never forget again that he was not allowed in there.
He remembers strange instruments, vials, glasses with weird, organic looking specimen in them. What Lazenby uses them for, he has no idea. Lazenby is in there now, doing whatever it is he does.
Shiar knows from experience that Lazenby is not going to come out for a long time. The small dragon has a few precious hours to do whatever he wants to do.
He knows what he wants to do. He also knows that it's something that his master would disapprove of, and he doesn't want to disappoint his master. But still...
Shiar fidgetes, torn between the need to obey his master and the longing for something he can't name. Finally, he stands up, then takes to the air and silently flies down the stairs into the store. There, he unlocks and opens the door as quietly as he can. He freezes as the door squeaks, but when all stays quiet upstairs, he slips out the door and flies away from the store as fast as he can manage.
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Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2005 5:31 am
(( Directly follows a post in the "Enchanted Dragons" store thread! ))
When Shiar arrives back home, he's badly out of breath. The store is dark, so there is hope that master is still in The Room.
Shiar quietly opens the door and slips in. Quietly he levitates across the store room and to the hidden door to the second floor. Quietly, he opens that. Quietly, he flies up the stairs.
It's a quiet voice that says: "And where have you been, Shiar?"
Shiar has learned long ago that quiet does not always equal calm. He turns and faces his master, who is leaning with boneless grace against the wall, studying him with cold, narrowed eyes.
He does something he has never done before. He lies to his master.
"Just out stretching my wings. I lost track of time; I'm sorry."
There is no way that Lazenby is going to let that go. No way. Shiar almost trembles as he waits for the reaction.
"Ah. Don't let it happen again."
Shiar is left blinking in grateful confusion as his master passes him and walks down the stairs to the store.
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Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2005 7:36 am
(( The next day. ))
Lazenby is in The Room again.
Shiar tries to resist the temptation to slip out... He knows that he was incredibly lucky the night before, that his master must've been in an exceptionally good mood to let a transgression like that slip. Surely he will not be as tolerant next time!
*But I can take more care to get back on time, this time*, Shiar thinks to himself, *this time, he doesn't even need to know I was out...*
In the end, the temptation proves too strong. Shiar flies down the stairs, through the secret door into the front room, and when he reaches the door, he is already thinking about the other store, the other dragons. So deep is he in thought that he doesn't notice the light steps behind him, or the gaze of a pair of sharp, light-blue eyes on him.
...
Reignar Lazenby frowns as he watches the foolish creature sneak out the door. He has long suspected that Shiar is weak, that he has been corrupted by the warm, friendly, thoroughly disgusting magic of the other side. If that is indeed true, then Shiar is not only useless, he has become a liability.
Something has to be done.
Lazenby quietly slips out of the door. Even though he cannot fly, he has ways to follow his dragon to wherever he is going.
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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 7:04 am
When Lazenby returns, he is still seething with a quiet, but volatile anger.
Purposefully, he strides through the front room, enters the staircase through the secret door and then takes the stairs two steps at a time. Upstairs, he enters what Shiar simply calls "The Room" - his private labatory.
He grimly smiles to himself as he runs his long, pale fingers over vials with liquids in bright, vibrant colors, and when they finally stop, hovering over one specific vial, he chuckles.
If revenge is an art, as some people say, then Lazenby is a master artist.
What better way to teach Shiar a lesson than to make him the unwilling instrument of destruction of what he so admires?
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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 4:46 pm
This time, there is no Lazenby waiting for him when Shiar returns to the store, heart beating wildly in his chest in fearful anticipation.
The store is dark and empty, as are the stairs. When he gets upstairs, he hears soft clinking noises out of The Room - Shiar breathes a sigh of relief. Master is still in there. He hasn't realized that Shiar has been gone again.
In good spirits, Shiar flies into the kitchen and opens the fridge. His eyes light up in delight when he sees that his master has bought Shiar's favourite chocolate pudding - not only because Shiar truly loves pudding, but also because this must mean that his master is pleased with him. Lazenby only buys pudding for him as a reward, on very rare occasions.
Shiar helps himself to some pudding and eats it slowly, savouring every bite. It's delicious, but after he's licked the last of the pudding out of the plastic cup, he frowns - there's a curious aftertaste, just a hint of something slightly bitter, somewhat metallic.
Finally, he shrugs it off and flies into the living room, where he curls up behind the sofa for a nap.
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Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 5:08 pm
A few days have passed, and Shiar has slipped out a couple of times and gone to the Enchanted Dragons store to look at the other dragons. So far, he's not dared to actually enter the store, but he's starting to ask himself, why not?
Nobody knows he's Lazenby's dragon. Nobody will tell his master. And it's not really betrayal, is it? He tells himself he's just spying on the other dragons.
As Shiar sneaks out of the Cursed Dragons store, again, he feels strangely clumsy. It must be the cold he's apparently caught - he's been sneezing and coughing and generally feeling slightly ill for days.
Shiar tells himself that it's just a cold, and that he is not a wimpy baby dragon anymore. Shaking off all thoughts of his illness, he takes flight.
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 7:00 am
Shiar wakes up after a long nap and realized with relief that he's feeling better. For days, he's had a bad cold, but now, he feels almost fine. No runny nose, no cough, no fever. He stands up and stretches. Ah yes, the heavy feeling in his limbs and the aching in his bones is gone, too.
That's good. He's fallen behind in his training in the last week, to his master's disappointment and anger. Now perhaps he can catch up.
When he walks into the living room, though, he finds a note by his master, saying that he has gone out for the day, and not to expect him back until late at night.
Shiar knows he should propably use this time to train, but really, this is such a perfect opportunity to pay another visit to the Enchanted Dragons store...
In a flash, he's down the stairs, through the store and out of the door, but just as he's about to gain altitude to fly over the rooftops, he suddenly feels weak and dizzy, and before he can comprehend what's happening, he's falling. As quick as the feeling has come, it's gone again, though, and Shiar can stop his fall before he hits the ground, heart racing.
What was that?
Maybe he's simply still feeling week from his cold. Walking to the store might be a better idea, only that it's so far...
A bus drives by. Hmmm. It's going in the right direction, too... Shiar smiles.
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Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:47 am
Shiar is unhappy. He's been over his cold a while now, but his problems with flying have only gotten progressively worse... He's afraid that he'll never be able to fly properly again! Also, he's been finding it more and more difficult to "hear" his master - and this has gotten him into a lot of trouble, as Lazenby insists that Shiar is just not paying attention to him properly.
"Shiar!"
That's Lazenby's voice, coming from downstairs. It sounds impatient and angry - maybe Lazenby has already called Shiar telepathically a couple of times. Reluctantly, the small dragon drags himself down the stairs and faces his master. He stares at Shiar furiously, but he doesn't say anything... Why doesn't he say anything?
Oh.
It dawns on Shiar that he can't hear his master at all anymore. Nothing, not even a faint whisper. Not too long ago, it would've upset Shiar terribly to lose this connection with the man who has raised him... lately, though, he's begun to realize what a bad master - and what a bad person! - Lazenby really is, and so all he feels is panic at not knowing what is wrong with him, sadness that he does not have what all the other dragons seem to have, and a twinge of relief at not having Lazenby in his head anymore, though it does feel lonely at times.
There's a sort of freedom in this, Shiar realizes.
It takes a while for his master to realize that Shiar cannot hear a word he's sending, but when he does, the anger on his face very briefly gives way to something... a dark joy, a twisted satisfaction. It's there for only a second, but it's enough - things finally click into place for Shiar, and he gasps as the realization hits him. His own master has done this to him, whatever it is!
This shatters what was left of Shiar's loyalty in a second, and without a thought, he throws himself at the door, pushes it open and runs away from the store as fast as he can - he's not going to wait for his punishment this time.
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Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 1:32 pm
Reignar Lazenby curses as the knife slips and bites into his finger. That's what he gets for thinking about his faithless dragon, Shiar, instead of concentrating on the potion he is preparing! He watches with narrowed eyes as a few drops of dark blood fall into the cauldron, mentally calculating if this will render the potion useless, or possibly more potent.
As he lazily stirs the silvery liquid, he ponders where his dragon might be right now - has he gone back to that other store, begging in vain for help? Has he even made it that far?
For a few days now, he's been expecting Shiar to come crawling back. Oh, the little dragon has realized that Lazenby is to blame for his condition, that much was obvious from the expression on his face, the last time Lazenby has seen him... But he also has to realize that only his master - former master - can help him. Maybe he realizes that the chances of that are slim to none.
No matter. If he wanted to, Lazenby could find Shiar in a matter of seconds, but where would the satisfaction be in that? Lazenby briefly touches the pendant glowing on his neck, considering his options.
At last, he shrugs and banishes all thoughts of Shiar from his mind. There's more important things to worry about.
He smiles as he decides that the only way to find out what exactly the blood has done to the potion is to simply test it. He pours a small amount and turns to unlock one of the cages.
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