( open | it's almost time for dragon tales)

[malignans]

WHO: Dio, possibly one of his minions, & you!!
WHAT: Getting a dragon and other nonsense shenanigans.
WHEN: Potentially throughout the month of August. Time is meaningless, as we all know.
WHERE: City of Sorcery + City of Nightmare
NOTES/WARNINGS: As far as the prompts are concerned, feel free to run into Dio and/or Charlotte (aforementioned minion) anywhere on their journey or post-journey. The only prompt that's a little first come, first serve is when he's found the dragon and returned. Warning for allusions to blood-drinking/murder. Emesis/vomit in one thread. Brief allusions to child abuse in another. I will continue to update as necessary!

[Dio is not one to exert patience ever, which makes him a fairly poor choice for a pet owner. But when said pet may perhaps prove itself useful, even downright dangerous? Well, Dio's willing to make far more exceptions for a pet like that. Besides, Dio could use a sorcerer on his side with a bit of skill. This was a matter of two birds, one stone. Within a few days, he's made arrangements for traveling.]

[Dio is not alone as he travels, given his weakness to the sun. Driving the pair of horses is instead Charlotte, a grifter he happened to collect during an excursion into the other neighboring City of Shadows. She's dressed in a manner meant to blend in with the locals of Sorcery even as they pass through Nightmare, but even with a somewhat plain form of dress, she's still noticeably beautiful. Charlotte is short, only two inches over five feet, with a full figure that speaks of childhood plumpness that no one really knew whether it would grow into roundness or settle into a pleasing silhouette. Despite how little time she spends now in the sun, freckles still dust her cheeks and the bridge of her nose, and her brown skin is still a warm, russet. Her eyes are a rich honey brown, big and capable of unimaginable softness if she allows it. But what really catches someone's attention is Charlotte's smile. It tells everyone exactly what she wants them to know, but nothing more and nothing less. Whether it's sweet and coupled with a light, airy laugh, or cold with silence, Charlotte knows precisely how to make herself seen or unseen. Which is the precise reason why Dio chose her as his company on this trip. Her discretion and manipulation are invaluable to him, and she's more than aware of that fact.]

[Dio is a rarer sight than Charlotte as they travel as he rests until nightfall within the safety of a coffin hidden beneath an assortment of supplies and other goods within the cart. Sometimes he lay awake, having grown accustomed to a more flexible schedule of rest and wakefulness in Nightmares. Then he stares up into the darkness of the coffin and listening to the world outside. Charlotte is never loud because she knows Dio can hear anything above a whisper without straining his hearing any, but she greets everyone and only occasionally stops for a longer chat for information. The only other stops they make are for the night. Charlotte carefully moves the cart out of sight, moving things around in the cart for Dio to rise for the night.]

[From there, they go about their own business. Charlotte looks for marks to swindle — for small amounts only — before she decides to turn in for the night, and Dio looks for food and other points of interest. Like Charlotte, Dio is careful in his selection for his food. He chooses only those he believes will not put up a fight and those more likely to willingly give themselves to him. Though it has been his habit to drink from more than one person and to never drain the bodies completely, Dio suppresses it while they are traveling. He drains only one person per night down to the last drop. So, he saves that for the end of his night. The rest, he spends his time searching for the right person, asking careful questions regarding ability and so-forth. Eventually, they reach the Dark Forest, and it is on the edge of the forest that Charlotte agrees to wait for Dio's return.]

[The choice to leave Charlotte behind is a calculated one. Though he knows little of the nature of these little beasts in particular, he is not interested in allowing one of them to attach itself to her instead of him. Besides, it is not as though he needs her protection within these woods. The darkness is home to Dio, and so he will conquer it as he does everything else that would stand between him and whatever it is he wants.]

[It takes three days of enduring the Dark Forest and everything it attempts to dissuade Dio with, but in the end, Dio finds a hungry little mouth helping itself to food Dio brought purely as bait rather than legitimate sustenance. At nightfall, he returns with the little thing perched on his shoulder. It's closer to the size of a cat with a pattern of yellow and black scales similar to that of a Nile monitor, but he's confident that the dragon will continue to grow.]

[The journey back takes a little longer seeing as how they need to take a different path (and he now has a companion in the dark of his coffin), but Dio does return to the City of Nightmares. He settles quickly back into his regular routines. He spends the majority of his time within his own estate, but he ventures out to feed (and to have a good time, let's be honest) at the Corvid and occasionally to find new books at the university library. The only difference now is that he's sometimes accompanied by the small dragon resting on his shoulder, tail curled around Dio's neck. And when not perched on Dio, she can be found in the sky, snatching unfortunate birds clean out of the sky or menacing people who wander too close to Dio's stolen property with unhappy noises and dives that just narrowly miss the tops of intruder's heads.]