This Isn't How I Remember Swan Lake...(Closed)

[Duffy]

At the mention of the mutant ghoul’s name, Duffy could only smile.

“You know Lorenor?” he raised an eyebrow.

Ruby mock yawned, knowing how two men finding common ground often drowned her out.

“I do, though I wish I never shared time with him under those unfortunate circumstances,” was Drago’s natural response.

Duffy could feel the weight of sorrow behind the draconian words. There was respect for Lorenor in his sentence, but not for the events in the crater. The bard wished one day to find out what happened there, but now was not the time nor place. Though he had not known it then, in the paradox of their meeting, Duffy knew now how cruel and sadistic Lorenor was. N’Jal’s greatest champion had walked with the bard, and he had listened, starry eyed.

Ruby could only tut. She slid up to the bard’s side and whilst the ‘men’ talked, she unfolded the picnic blanket from Duffy’s satchel, took out the trenchers and started to set out the picnic they had painstakingly prepared. She fought with the red check with futile efforts on the privet lawn.

The wind that rolled down over the hills of Regent Park kept Duffy cool as his anxiety continued to grow. His fingers would simply not stay still. He was excited at the prospect, he never, in all his life, imagined that fate would be so…interesting.

“Long ago, Lorenor told me that I would one day have to save another like from the same fate that would befall him in time. ‘Another paladin will seek redemption’, he said.” Though Duffy’s memory was exceptionally hazy at the best of times, he still could picture fighting with Lorenor atop the walls of Jadet, unlikely allies fighting a common enemy.

Finally able to sit atop the blanket, Ruby flopped onto the bright squares of crimson and crème and sighed to herself. She clipped her heels together and leant back on her palms.

“I sent Lillith to the Citadel when I finally caught wind of a man claiming to be N’Jal’s paladin, and she delivered a letter…I never put two and two together.” He finally relented, beaming a smile when it dawned on the bard that the dreams they were having were just a further part of the grange irony of life.

“Join us,” he gestured to the picnic blanket, which was large enough for each to at least perch on a corner. “I am afraid we have not brought enough food to share, but your company would be most welcome.”

He hopped over the cotton, all too aware that Ruby would throttle him if he got too much mud on her pleated Fallien weave, and dropped into a cross legged lotus position on the corner opposite Drago. Ruby sat to his right, leaving the left or far corner free for their new and strange companion.

“This is fascinating, it really is,” Duffy furrowed his brow at his leading lady, and then turned back to Drago, who was a little more…difficult to read. “However, Duffy hasn’t eaten and he gets grumpy when he’s not at least half drunk or plied with bread.” Ruby held out Duffy’s sandwich at arm’s length, eyes fixated on the cumulus clouds and flocks of sparrows swirling through the sunny, glorious spring skies.

The bard could only shrug as he took it from her, and bit into the thick, fluffy and still buoyant poppy seeded loaf. The taste sensation and the fresh, crisp, moist salad brought a smile to his face. For just a brief moment, he forgot that to save Drago, he would have to die. By the crystal shores of Valeena Lake, Duffy used the time between chews to work out just how exactly he was going to tell Drago that yes, they could help him…but he really wasn’t going to like it.

The draconian advanced towards the blanket, and their strange meeting progressed along its natural course.

[MetalDrago]

As he took his seat on the blanket, Drago's comfort level took a swan dive. He began fidgeting with his cape, and imagined what the people around them must have thought. A half dragon thing picnicking with what was by all appearances a normal couple. He chuckled at the thought, an unnatural sound. He felt a certain camaraderie with these people. He didn't know why, but something about being with them made him feel different than he normally did. He listened to them talking about the letter that Duffy had Lilith bring him and nodded. "I remember. That was the battle that really began to shake my resolve about being a Paladin of N'Jal." he fished around inside his armor and pulled out a piece of folded paper. He placed it carefully upon the blanket and said, "This the one. You have a certain way with words, my friend."

Relaxing for the first time in what seemed like years, the Dragonian let himself lean back and look around at the surroundings. The water of the lake lapped against the shore as the yellow sun above beat down upon them, warming them body and soul. Above them, a pair of birds began to circle and dive. As they landed, Drago took a quick look out to the lake's surface. He placed a finger on his chin and pursed his lips.

"Duffy, didn't you say something about Swan Lake earlier?"

The bard turned red and started sputtering for a moment, before being shot an ironic look by his female companion. The Dragonian suddenly felt very sheepish at having forgotten his manners. "Pardon my lack of manners," he said, his cheeks burning as he looked at the woman. "I am MetalDrago, though you can call me Drago for short. I don't think we've had the pleasure of meeting."

Having hopefully made up for his lack of manners, he turned his attention back to the pair before him. They looked as easy together as any pair possibly could, as though they knew each other so well as to be something more than friends. "Pardon my asking, but are you two... a couple?"

[Ruby]

“Oh good lord no,” Ruby interjected, taking the reins of the conversation with the force of a hurricane.

Though Duffy had tried, many countless drunken evening over the last five centuries, they were not now, and not ever ‘a couple’. Ruby nibbled on a corner of her sandwich whilst she waited for the snappy retort to die down. As she chewed through the bread, she traced the rugged features of their new found companion and tried to reconcile her need to run away fucking screaming, and her need to touch, prod and stroke his scales.

“It is a curious pleasure, I must admit, and thank you for your kindness.”

The red head caught Duffy’s wry smile and stuck her tongue out in protest.

“As for Swan Lake, that is my fault I am afraid,” she put her trencher down onto the red check to lean over to Duffy’s corner of the picnic blanket. With haphazard tugs, she wrenched the copy of the play from the satchel, leaving it upturned and dishevelled on the lawn. “After the dreams got so vivid I could not sleep,” she half sounded bitter, “I started to trawl through every manuscript we had about transformations.”

With delicate, academic fingers Ruby flicked through the well-read pages of the Tantalum troupe’s only copy of Swan Lake. It was, amongst the many hidden treasures of the theatrical coven, one of their most important items. For it to have sprung quite literally to life now, of all the many chances fate had, still amazed Ruby. She held out the book, turned it to a page, and jabbed her finger at the etching on the middle page.

“The dream…it was like this,” the picture depicted a white swan on the left page, wings reared in defiance of the black swan on the right. Innocence and guilt were buried in metaphors of perfection and impulse. The duality between the two was the stuff of legend, of ballet, of stage fright, of a role that people had, quite literally, killed to perform.

Drago took the book with talons that Ruby had no reservations could sever her spine with only a fraction of their latent strength. She leant back; hands pressed into the cotton of the picnic blanket and lolled her head with a haphazard expression. Whilst flocks of gulls flew overhead, cawing and crying on their journey inland from the roughening seas of the high tea, the clouds continued to roil through the heavens on thermals and wishes.

“Now you’ve come here, and told us what you want, I am afraid I think you’re the white swan…or,” she chuckled, “the white dragon.” Ruby smiled with the sort of endearing expression that made married men melt and her married man flutter at the knees.

Duffy could only glare at her for stealing the spot light.

[MetalDrago]

Drago flipped lightly through the pages of the book, his eyes absorbing the information at a fairly quick rate. "I... see. I'm not sure how this pertains to my own situation, but I'm sure there was a reason you had such images in your dreams." He pondered for a moment as he closed the book and handed it back to her, careful not to damage the aging tome. He looked both of them in the eyes, his own flashing with a sudden insight. "Dream? Wait a second... You can't possibly tell me you had a dream about me?"

He looked down at his lap for a moment before looking back up. "I too had a dream. I think that's what caused me to stop here and wait for you. Something about this place felt... familiar somehow." He fumbled over his words after Ruby smiled at him in that warm, reassuring manner. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to steady his nerves, the looked back at the both of them. Everything about them screamed "good person," all the way from their warm, nearly playful demeanor, to the way they seemed at home in this peaceful setting. They didn't sick out like a big, black sore thumb, unlike the other being sitting on the picnic blanket.

The Dragonian growled, looking at his hand and clenching it into a fist. He was startled by his own voice and nearly jumped before apologizing swiftly for his change of mood. "It's been... a long time since I've actually relaxed or done anything close to this. It's always about the next plan. Even if I don't know what it is yet, I always have to be planning something to further the cause." His brow was set in a pained furrow. It truly made him unhappy to think about what he had done, instead of always living in the present, acting on instinct and the Word of N'Jal alone. This day, outside of Her influence, everything he had done over the last two years finally began to sink in, and he was not enjoying himself this time around.

He pushed his feet out against the grass, turning slightly away from the two sitting before him. The grass under his feet gave way to deep brown soil, fresh enough that new grass would grow in shortly. Drago smiled lightly, a pair of tears rolling down his cheeks as he took in a deep, rasping breath. "If you can free me from this torture, I will do whatever it takes. Just name it."

He then took a deep breath and added, "I forgot how painful having a conscience can be," before reaching up and wiping his eyes on the soft padding of his gauntlet's palm.

[Duffy]

“There is no easy way to say this,” Duffy began, thinking better of him than to beat around the bush. “We can help you…but it is not a question of throwing yourself into the fire, of doing anything.” He chomped through another inch of his trencher and relished every moment, despite the sincerity of the conversation. “It is…” he chomped through a thick slice of tomato, a product of his haphazard and lazy preparation in between syllables, “more a case of do we want to do it…”

Ruby rolled her eyes.

“You would have to die…” she added to her melodramatic expression.

The silence was deafening in Regent Park all of a sudden. The draconian shifted uncomfortably.

“Die?”

Duffy nodded, lettuce and chutney pools forming in the corner of his mouth.

“It is a process called Evisceration. We used it once before to remove the possession of a Thayne from a man called Jensen Ambrose.” Though it had hurt Duffy to even ask his blood brother, the result had been to carve the spirit of their oppressor out of the mortal vessel and sent it reeling into the Firmament. If Drago died at the tip of Wainwright’s Blade, then he too would be free of N’Jal’s corruption, her wiles and whims.

“Is it…safe?” Drago asked. His scales seemed to chatter, the draconian version of teeth eschew in a nervous, anxious mouth.

The bard and the crimson mistress nodded in unison, a harmony of assurance. The dream had solicited the need for them to help this poor, unfortunate and wayward soul. Though both had encountered N’Jal before, in different lives and different times, here, today, they would not let the bastard daughter of the al-Thayne ruin another life.

“There is no danger to you, our companion, Arden Janelle, whom you have met before possesses a most unusual talent.” Duffy nibbles on a gherkin whilst he composed himself. The seagulls and breeze washed over head.

“A conscience is a terrible, terrible thing to waste Drago. I am so happy we did not just ignore the dreams we have both been having for…” she looked to Duffy, who clucked a number, “months.” She settled on vagaries for a greater impact. The Spellsinger rolled her eyes at being virtually ignored and returned to her own, still untouched trencher. She swallowed the crusty poppy bread with much enthusiasm, and tore through salad and chutney with a fickle, pickle wave of enjoyment.

“It is your decision, in the end,” Duffy began.

Ruby spat out a gherkin onto the napkin carefully arranged over her lap, “but rest assured, we can help.” There was a brief silence, a rescue of salad, and then a resuming of crunching.

Drago snorted.

“You do not seem so sure yourselves. Why should I fall onto your blade?” He flexed his leather muscles, their heavy weight tethered Duffy's desire to run to the soft green grass of the Regent Park verge. “Why should I believe you?” Duffy admired the human emotion hidden behind the bestial form. He stopped chewing, tore off half his sandwich, and though it pained him to do so, he held it out as a peace offering.

“It is our purpose in life to aid those in need. We reform characters dark and succour and bring them into the light.” He tasted bile in his throat as he regurgitated the traditional line of the Reformation Team of the Ixian Knights. The bard could practically hear Sei Orlougne laughing all the way to the vault. “Our blade is your salvation, Paladin.” Drago took the sandwich with a gruff nod and bit into it.

“What say you?” Ruby offered, her more regal and pronounced approach to diplomacy shining behind Duffy’s crude and colloquial riddled dialogue.

The sun shone overhead, birds cried, children played. Scara Brae continued on, oblivious to the dark tides forming in Valeena Lake.

To be continued, in A Dragon's Dogma.

[Revenant]

Condensed rubric requested.

Plot: (20) – The beginning of MetalDrago’s redemption felt very tied together. The Swan Lake was very well done and tied the thread together nicely. The settings were well-described and gave me a clear indication of the world of Scara Brae around the characters. What dropped the score in this field was the pacing, which jumped back and forth several times between drawn out, detailing posts and short, scene jumping ones in a manner that disrupted the flow of the thread.

Character: (22) – This area really shone, as all of the characters expressed a strong depth and it’s clear that you have a solid grasp of who the characters are and how they act/react to the stimuli around them. There were times when the characters were stifled by too much going on around them though. A more in depth exploration of MetalDrago’s motives an internal strife would have helped.

Prose: (22) – Duffy and Ruby, sometimes your language gets in the way of what you intend to convey with it. The way you tied everything in this thread to a single point really made it work though.

Wildcard: (5) – An interesting read, though I wish there had been more to it. I guess I’ll have to wait for the follow-on thread.

Total: 69

Duffy Bracken receives 1299 exp and 110 gp.
Ruby Winchester receives 394 exp and 45 gp.
MetalDrago receives 600 exp and 75 gp.

[Letho]

EXP/GP added.