Theo/Pandora;; Hydro-Arsonist.

[ 436 / 1750 ] Personal WC

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After meeting several hominid females in the walls of mysterious shortly after she emerged from the hidden world she lived in, the dragoness had set off on her 'quest' to see the world. Pandora could in no way predict how long she had been soaring the skies and seeing the landscape sprawled out so small compared to anything she had ever been able to see in the grotto due to how high she could fly with the sky being her limit. Even though she did want to get on the ground level and interact with everyone? The dragoness knew that she had to know the layout of the land before she approached any other creature, her entire flight being taken in an invisible state. Remaining unseen, was the best defense that her species had, and any other defense methods they had all led up to going invisible again at the end of it. However, certain environments were better suited for hiding shades than other ones, the further into hiding they could sink, the better off they were, so she had to look for anything that could serve as a cave or such, a secondary hiding place atop her natural camouflage encase she ever got into trouble and needed to escape.

During her flight over Hargeon as she was beginning to grow hungry again, the Shade had realized something that seemed as if it could serve the purpose of caverns for her. Flying low, unseen she hovered right in front of the entrance, trickling with water and smelling horrible. If something was tracking her thus making her invisibility hard to use, it would never find her here, also making it a good place to stop for a days rest. With the objective of slumbering some the invisible dragon walked further into the tunnel and laid down. If someone tried to walk through? They would walk right into her, but why would anyone walk into this stinky sleepy tunnel. Little did she know that any rest she did find herself having would be short-lived because there was more going on than there seemed to be with these 'caverns' as they were actually the entrance/exit for the sewers in Hargeon.

Pandora was taking her nap in the direct path someone would have to take if they were going to go pursuing the Hydro-Arsonist who had been plaguing the city above. So chances were it was not going to be long until someone literally ran into the camouflaged dragoness, which would instantly knock the eight foot tall slumbering Shade into visibility, considering they would also be waking her up.

The word Hydro-Arsonist was confusing. It'd taken Rin several minutes to read the job to him on the board, still a few more to explain what exactly a Hydro-Arsonist was, and still a couple more to explain why she wasn't coming with him. He hadn't taken many jobs while in Crystal Swan without one member of the Sugar Squad, so going it alone made him feel naked. Despite the solitude tomb raiding and exploring could offer him and how many times he'd indulged himself in those activities, he still preferred to have someone with him. Theo hated being alone, even more so now that he had a reliable best friend and a lover, let alone an entire heavy populated guild. Yet here he was, teleporting into Hargeon Town by himself to hunt down a murderer who had an affinity for fire and scalding water.

Sometimes taking heroic jobs as a nasty business. To save the world living over the sewers from quite the unpleasant death, Theo had to break out his waders. The places a treasure hunter had to go for the good shinies wasn't always the best smelling or the cleanest, and more often than he'd like to admit it was sloshing through ancient muck to find the secret lever to open the door to riches. On a less adventurous and proud note, it was exceptionally shocking how often people these days washed valuables such as earrings, money, and rings down sinks and toilets, so there'd been a time of desperation where he'd crawled the sewers in search for those items just to scrape by in the new world. Well, new to him, anyway.

Mentally preparing himself for the repercussions of hanging out in such a dank and rancid place-- (Rin would probably exile him from their home until he aired out for a couple days-- the onyx haired male with the luminescent ice eyes entered the mouth of the foul tunnel. The stench was like a wall that smacked him in the face, and he was chattering to himself about how anyone could want to hide so badly they'd resort to this place, no matter how obvious it was that no one would look for them when a "wall" really did smack in him the face. Stumbling back, he blinked. Theo was a clumsy soul, so it wasn't beyond the scope of reason that he would walk into a wall while not paying attention, but...this wall was invisible! Er, it was, until it turned into a huge black dragon! A dragon?! ....A dragon? Not the Hydro-Arsonist. A dragon. In the sewer. The shock wore off after only a couple seconds...

And he started screaming.


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She was fresh to the world around her at the moment, never once had she ever thought any creature would come somewhere so smelly. Instead of a long peaceful rest? Pain flared up in her flank, causing her to flicker into visibility, head shaking slightly as she tried to see what was going on past her sleepiness. For a few brief seconds? Pandora made eye contact which her first hominid male, for he smelled and looked different from the females she had encountered before. Everything about these seemingly populous creatures? Was so tiny compared to her, it was astounding how there could be so many of them that she seemed so far to run into them no matter where she was. How had they covered so much of the world outside her sheltered grotto home, nothing seemed special about these creatures and yet she could not seem to escape them.

She was in for another surprise when the male suddenly let out this loud girly shriek, piercing through her sensitive hearing, considering she could hear ultrasonic frequencies due to being able to echolocate. Was that some sort of weapon they wielded, noise? Quickly her head shook, she stood up impacting the top of the tunnel since her first instinct was to try flying away but clearly she could not do that here. What was this infernal noise, would the hominid ever stop shrieking in this manner?! Had she broken it somehow, she supposed it was always possible small and frail as they seemed. Roaring out her mouth revealed teeth about the same size as his hands. She was not entirely sure what she was supposed to do about hominids that screeched like this, her parents had some encounters with humans, she heard other dragons tell stories, but she knew nothing herself! The dragoness did not like feeling this lost over something.

When the winged animal tried to fly, her head slammed into the roof, sending her collapsing back to the ground, a pained whimper emitting. Pandora snarled slightly, glaring at him as she turned tail and darted around a corner, maybe his screaming would hurt her already pounding head any less if she was further from it. Once she was in another tunnel a few meters down, she looked back around to see the male who had nearly screamed her ears out, green eyes narrowing slightly as she tried to evaluate what in the world was going on here.

The continued to shriek, growing even louder when it roared and bared its humongous teeth that he was sure would masticate him better than a blender. A sewer dragon?! How had he not been warned about these! This seemed like an important detail to be left out of his knowledge of Fiore. Sewer rats? Snakes? The occasional crocodile? Maybe even a clown! But certainly not a jumbo dragon that could turn invisible. He could just imagine Rin's devastation that her lover was murdered in the sewers of Hargeon, chasing a murderer but instead of being bested by said murderer, a sewer dragon ate him and pooped him out.

Once the shock wore off, he realized he'd yet to become food, and the suddenly appearing black dragon smacked its head and ran away, Theo stopped screeching. He was a sucker for animals, even eight foot tall ones scaring him half to death in the smelliest part of any town. Hearing its whimper in pain and seeing it scurry stirred his heart, insanely leading him to carefully follow it. After all, as much as it had terrified him, he probably scared it nearly as bad walking into it while it was sleeping. "Hey, hey..." he cooed, holding his hands up in a gesture of peace. "I didn't mean for you to get hurt...you just scared me," he continued, meeting the green eyes with his icy ones. Offering a smile, he tried to get a little closer, to prove he meant no harm. However, why did it never occur to anyone that any and all of these motions would mean nothing to a beast that has potentially no experience with humans? For all he knew, he could be throwing up every warning sign and be seconds from food again. Walking away and thanking his lucky stars he didn't get killed was the logical way to go, but Theo rarely thought that way until after the bad thing happened. He just had to know if the sewer dragon was okay. "How's your head?" he asked, then chuckled at himself. As if the thing would speak back to him. Good thing he was in the sewer where no one would witness this.


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Luckily enough for Theo the dragoness was not yet any threat to hominid creatures as the female had not yet learned that she could offensively do anything to them yet. Actually, if she was learning anything about human appearing races, it was that all of them were rather scared like rats or very friendly towards dragons. Every single encounter she had with anything on two legs? Was furthering her idea that others of her kind had thrown the stories out of portion and that no human was actually harmful to dragons, they just wanted to be friends at worst! Anyway, there was no way that the wizard was going to end up getting ejected in pieces out the rump of this particular dragon, and he would be highly unlikely to encounter another here. Most dragons? Were more set on avoiding anything relating to the human race than a shade young as Pandora was, so the chances of finding another here were excessively low bordering on impossible.

Hearing the human cooing at her, the dragoness tilted her head, green eyes widening as she had yet to experience sympathy from anything besides another dragon. Why did her kind fear these creatures so much if they were capable of the same level of empathy?! Slowly she crawled forward, pushing her nose into his hands and rumbling, to return his gesture of peace, wide eyes opened and focused on him. What was so terrifying about these things. He seemed nice, even if he had rudely awakened her. Another soft rumble came from the dragoness when she learned that he was actually concerned about her well being. That was way more than she had expected of hominids from all the stories she had heard, these things were supposed to be heartless, firebreathing monsters who hunted little dragons in the dark of night, and banded together or made slayers to kill large dragons, outnumbering the dragon for no reason besides they desired to. How could those be the same creatures?!

Doing the only thing she could think of, Pandora extended her tongue from her suddenly less toothy maw and licked the human male. Once she had done that? Pandora took a step back and sat down, wagging her tail back and forth a few times, looking the male up and down. How could these creatures ever be malicious?

Theo's face busted into a grin as the dragon pushed her smooth snoot into his palm. That was way more than he was hoping for...better, too! It was friendly, and forgiving at least. It seemed to understand human speech, or at least implied meanings behind them. What a smart dragon! "I'm glad you're okay," the Crystal Swan ace chirped in happiness, unable to foresee the next action.

Dragon kisses!

A huge tongue whipped out of a mysteriously gummy maw, covering him in a thin layer of moist slobbers. It was shocking at first, and a little gross, but considering that they were both hanging out in the grossest place, this was hardly enough to keep him from laughing. "Thank you!" Theo chuckled with a brightness that echoed through the tunnels. Acting almost dog-like, the creature retreated enough to sit and stare at him from a small distance, tail whipping to and fro. Aw, it'd be hard to leave it behind! But he had a job to do, and a potentially dangerous one at that. This already felt like trying to shoo the stray pup following you home, when really you really wanted to keep it. "Alright, gameela, I've got to go catch a serial killer. Maybe I'll see you on the way out," the inky haired man told her warmly, though with a touch of ruefulness and a little bit of humor. He didn't know if it could really understand, but maybe by tone it'd pick up that he didn't want to leave it, but he had pressing matters and didn't want it to get hurt.

Turning to make his way down a pipe she wasn't blocking, the young man looked at a map on his iLac of the sewer system. It seemed there was a square opening many of these tunnels lead to, so that was his best guess of where a Hydro-arsonist might hide out. The sloshing of his legs would kill any chance of stealthy observance or attack. With his sticky jello it'd have been cool if he could silently approach by crawling on the top of the round metal overhead, but it was far too grimy to get a save hold. Theo definitely didn't want to try it, only to plunge into the muck below with his whole body. Waders would be pointless then, now wouldn't they? He hadn't gone very far when he thought to turn back and check on the dragon, to make sure she stayed put.


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He seemed to be very happy with the contact she had given him, the way she chose to communicate currently. Not needing to transform to 'speak' with this one, was good, she hated transforming since she couldn't fly in that form, not that she had ever really used it. Pandora honestly didn't even know she could look hominid, the Shade had never tried nor did she have anyone to show her it could happen due to her homes distaste towards anything relating to hominids. Anyway's, she was happy that these creatures could seem to understand her even if their language for some reason would not come from her maw. How come she could speak every language besides theirs? It was very confusing.

When he spoke, she understood and whined out something, putting her front paws back on the ground, the flaps on her head appearing to be her ears as they went down slightly. Pandora knew a little from her prior experience with these creatures, even if she had little experience with them, so she'd go off that. Staying put as he vanished down another tunnel, the dragoness waited for him to reappear as hominids seemed to vanish and reappear often, going in and out of places. However, Theo did not reappear in any sort of decent time, not quick enough to sate the 'lost puppy' he had found. She hadn't been done with that one! Whelp, her only choice in this matter was to go deeper in to find him since she was far from done with the dark haired one.

Running up, she turned the corner and bounded down the tunnel sending a brief echolocation noise down the tunnel, listening for his shape to bounce back. Only? It wasn't just the boys shape that she heard back, the water had taken some sort of weird shape ahead and someone else was deeper down in the tunnels. Pandora leaped very quickly, using her wings to extend the jump until she was beside Theo and quickly stuck one wing out in front of him, wrapping it like a barrier as a high hissing sound like superheated water emitted. She had managed to block an attack being aimed at him, her wings than flapping forward causing the enemies to freeze in their steps. Once she had pacified the enemies by freezing them in place? She looked over at theo, making cooing sound to inquire if he was alright, not a mark on her wing.

"A-Ah!" Theo stammered, startled by the dragon's bullet-like reappearance as well as the steaming attack. Blinking a few times, he looked between her wing and the frozen attacker. "You could've been hurt!" sputtered the jello mage, feeling a little dumb as it came out, though. This beast was tough. No damage to the wing at all. "Thanks, though. You're really tough," he commented, smiling at his scaly protector. Someone as strong as he was now should have seen both things coming, yet here he was, bumbling and surprised. Some things might never change, eh?

Offering her a cautious snoot pat, Theo approached the immobilized enemies. These cuddly little things lived down here? Spraying scalding water like that, maybe that's where this serial killer got his idea for a weird killing method from. Making jello molds around the little water imps' bodies, he ensured that they'd float along harmlessly when they unfroze. Perhaps having her around would be helpful, especially if she was way tougher than his human or jello skin. "We'll be running into a much more dangerous person by the end of this...are you sure you're okay with that? I don't want you to get hurt," Theo spoke to the dragon as if she was a person, taking his cold eyes from her and looking on down the tunnel with a deep exhale. He'd have to be much more careful, for both of their sakes.

As he pressed onward through the tunnel, now wanting to hurry up to get out of this reeking place, it wasn't long before more threats rose. He sensed it just before it happened, narrowly dodging a lithe lizardesque thing with large balled fists. Slinging an extending jello arm out to swat it just as it landed behind him, the hiss of fire came from the other way. There was more, and they had the heat of flames glowing in their throats and bellies for then their fists didn't get the point across. "Incoming threats, gameela! Now that everything that lives down here knows we're intruding, it'll only get worse from here!"


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Could have been hurt? Seriously why were kind afraid of these things, they had more empathy than what she had seen from some of her own kind! Also, from her current experience, they had far less blinding pride. Honestly, the more time passed the more she could not even remotely understand why some dragons feared these creatures and they were the monsters under the bed for many hatchlings, humans were harmless to them. She would have to take this discovery home one day, make sure everyone knew how wonderful these hominids really were.

Pandora chirped softly when he patted her snoot again, sneezing for a second when he was done. Watching as he moved forward to investigate the enemies she had rendered immobile, the dragoness simply observed, not knowing how to evaluate them herself. She would have not known they were dangerous if not for the fact they tried attacking someone who had proven himself kind. More danger? She was exploring, that suited her just fine! The rumble and little squeaking sound she made announced how alright with that she was, bouncing forward a step to stand next to him again. Heading deeper in, towards more danger, would teach her much more.

It had not been long until they were attacked once more, curling her wings forward again she defended from the flaming shots fired directly at them. However this time, the attacks were more numerous and she changed tactics for the final flaming attack, flapping her wings as they glowed blue causing the strangest thing to happen, the fireball changed direction impacting the very being who had fired it. Apparently, these things were tough because she had to dodge the next shot fired at her, finally pushing her to decide she needed to fight back a little in order to keep them both safe. Pandora opened her maw, a brief glow emitting before she fired roughly a dozen consecutive blasts. When she stooped, the enemies had not been taken down but they had been weakened, the dragoness looking at Theo with a purr. Her kind weren't really the kind to 'eliminate' things, and that fire blast was really the best she had offensively to begin with.

Beginning to get used to working in tandem with the dragon, witnessing her combat capabilities. The assistance was really nice to have. Once she'd weakened them for him, all he really had to do was launch some larger blobs of jello at the water gremlins, incasing them. Immobilized and buoyant, the floated harmlessly bad with the sewer current, and once again they were safe. For now.

"I like you, dragon~" Theo chirped gleefully, grinning at his new friend as if he didn't have a care in the world. Smiling eyes squinted the blinding blue from view as he turned to advance through the sewer system once more. "Can you understand me?" he asked suddenly, as if it just dawned on him that for a creature not tamed as a pet, she seemed to listen to commands very well. It was rather crappy of him to assume she was less intelligent. What if dragons were smarter than humans? After a mini mind-blow, he turned to his pretty dragon, all sleek and black and smart.

While his sense of smell has long since gotten used to the stench of the pipelines, his sense of touch shouldn't have been affected. However, Theo was the type to get heavily distracted very easily unless he was hunting treasures, so that could be the only possible excuse he didn't feel the subtle brushes from something living against his waterproof wading pants. His shins had been bumped enough that honestly it should have triggered some sort of alarm, but the thoughts of a dragon being smarter than him and able to understand human speech was taking up all of that lovely brain power that should have been focused on not dying in the town's waste system.


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Humans even had a concept of liking other creatures, it was impressive to know the species was capable of that. Liking something? Was far different than just living with it or something of the sort, liking another living thing meant that one was willing to keep going with that thing even if it's benefit was not constant. Her reply to that was instant, a light rumble as she walked along next to him being careful of all the hazards which could exist beneath her large feet. Green optics widened when the dragoness realized that until this very moment the human had not assumed she could understand him one bit. Why else would she be listening to a single word he said if she could not understand him? Of course she could understand the human language. In response to his comment she walked several steps in front of him and aimed to whack the male over his head with her slender tail, making something akin to a buzzing sound afterwards, rolling her eyes before she settled back to walking beside him.

She kept pace with the male well as they continued down the tunnel, but she was starting to get the feeling he was paying more attention to anything that wasn't looking for danger. Good thing her kind happened to make great guardians, the male could get distracted all he wanted and she would still be alert. When one was taught how to seek out, heal and protect other dragons from the day they hatched? They tended to be pretty good at the job. Thus pandora was quick to notice the small thing starting up his leg, pushing up with her back legs she moved to grab him with her front one's, flapping her wing's once before she would fold them around him as she glowed blue. Trying her best to protect him? All the dragoness could do was hope her double layered barrier was strong enough, tucking her head and long tail to complete her defense. The scalding water swept over her, pushing the dragoness against the ceiling, beginning to fall when the attack ceased.

Pandora nearly undid the defense to attempt to catch herself, but when she felt the heat of fire against her back she was happy that she had not, the blue barrier shattering between the combined attacks. In the end? Her combined barriers had barely been able to stand up, several small burns spread across her, but she was a dragon so they weren't any big deal. Unwrapping herself, she checked the boy, rumbling to make sure he was alright, wings flapping causing their opponents to freeze once more.

The ex-rising star chastised himself for not paying better attention. As the dragon once more protected him from the sewer monsters, The found himself more concerned for her safety than the job at hand. This time she'd taken a little damage, all because of him. Maybe he should just turn and lead her out of the sewer system and return another day to take care of the issue. Apparently if he explained this, she'd understand. That was nice. Too bad she couldn't speak back, only buzzing and cooing in response. But...could he let the dragon's fate be more important than all the lives above ground, lives that would be in danger of becoming the next murdered victim if he didn't stop this here? That was a troublesome thought. Theo was supposed to be a bonafide hero now, so the decision shouldn't have been a hard one.

Either way, he ultimately didn't get to make the choice. Movement in the water ahead caught his eye, just before a cackle echoed from around a bend in the pipe. The frozen enemies floated on by, leaving the only threat ahead being the serial killer. And by the sound of that laugh, it was either a castrated man...or a woman. Hey, everything was equal opportunity in these times, so Theo tried not to act surprised. Not that a dragon would judge him. Or would she? Would he ever know?

No! Now was not the time to become distracted again by the sleek scaled reptile at his side! This hydro-arsonist was his target, so he'd try to make this quick. Such a low ranked mission should be no trouble for an S ranked guild mage, should it? "Stay here, gameela. I'll show you I'm not completely helpless!" he spoke teasingly, self deprecating himself a little because he deserved it. Running forward, his expression shifted to one more befitting a legal mage intent on saving lives. As he broke into the square shaped open area he'd been aiming for, he heard the sound of the flame thrower before he felt the heat. Bouncing out of the way like only a jello man could, he reached the safety of some pipes above. Peering down at here he'd formerly stood, all he saw was a black spot on the pipe behind with some steam and smoke. Ew, roasted sewer grim was a new and highly disturbing scent.

The literal lady killer readied a gun which tapped into a peculiar apparatus on her back. This must be the scalding, flesh melting water part. As she fired upon him, spouting off insults and threats like any average bad guy, Theo started bouncing around the area. He body slammed her a few times in passing, sometimes earning him a light burn, but ultimately nothing he couldn't handle. He hated pain, but when a flaming fist went straight through your chest and heart, these burns weren't much in comparison. "Two can play this game," Theo frowned, unleashing jello scald on the woman. She didn't seem to like being on the other end of molten liquid, and was thus defeated.

Restraining her with jello blobs, he returned to the dragon with his prisoner. "Alright! I've done what I came for. I have to walk her out to hand her over to the Rune Knights. You can follow me out if you'd like..this is no place for a pretty thing like you," he smiled, sloshing through the muck on his way to fresher air. "I really hope we run into one another sometime!"


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