Return to Turtle Island

LOCATION: Los Angeles
TIME: Morning - 11 AM

Dragons hanging out was now a semi-regular event. They had managed a couple of fairly normal dinners in a month, watching shows, talking psychology, even getting acquainted with the foul tempered Gyoji, June’s mean cat that took after her owner’s dragon alter ego. and now hopefully a third normal lunch gathering. But as they say, third one’s a charm.

The venue was the “mysterious tea house” that set off their wild and wacky interdimensional hijinks. The Lu Tong Long (Iron Dragon) Tea and Dimsum Shop was once a modest two storey building that blended in and kept itself under the radar. Today, its seedy, shady minimalist structure was completely revised, now stood a 8-storey building with the same footprint but a much grander façade now, making it and the street it was on the newest LA hotspot. The golden lions at its entrance were probably solid gold too. When Niao builds, she goes grand.

The first two floors of the Iron Dragon are now a busy restaurant dining area, so VIPs like the actual dragons were ushered to a private elevator to the loft office living space. The office had a grand view of LA, the ceiling extra high, with a massive outdoor balcony lounging area. Grand, just how Niao likes it. Young ladies in the Lu family green qipaos led the guests to the living room, where Drake was waiting to receive guests. Now, cousin Drake was a distant descendant of Lu Feng, so he was more human with only the slightest smidge of dragon blood. Still, he was bigger and more muscular than Asians had any right to be, displaying the usual dimorphism of that blood line- and it showed in his totally chill tank top, shorts and flip flop house attire.

He was also a cool guy who had been put in charge in providing the entertainment, in the form of alcohol, and a large glass vaporizer on the coffee table. He was also preparing the cannabis tonight. He was every bit the cheerful chad he projects himself to be, believing in addressing people as “Bro” and righteously fist bumping them, and offering them choice of poisons.

Deimos’s wings catch the air beneath him, the wind carrying him at an effortless breakneck speed. He remained above the clouds, choosing to dodge as many in route airplanes as he could to avoid any kind of press as a giant flying dragon surely would draw. He’d been in the air for the past two hours after a short break in Kansas, where he’d snagged a white tail deer as a morning snack. It was a long flight, but not one he didn’t appreciate. Clutched in his forelimb was an entire yeti-cooler, carried as if it were nothing. The dragon takes a slow dive, dipping under the canopy of clouds to survey his surroundings as LA begins to come up over the horizon.

Pulling one wing up, he banks hard, secondary wings descending to help him turn a bit tighter as Deimos realizes he’d missed the building he was looking for, overshooting it by about 30 feet. He descends quickly, tucking his wings to let gravity guide him toward a nearby building before snapping his wings open to catch him and lower him down safely on to an adjacent rooftop with only a minor groan from the bricks.

As the pool of black smoking magic swallows the body of the beast, the cooler hits the rooftop as Deimos now struggles to drag the damned thing down the fire escape and haul it into the rather fancy lobby of the Lu Tong Long, wrestling the heavy cooler the whole way. It was heavy enough to require two usual men to carry it, but poor human deimos was only about as strong as one and a half men it seemed. He plops it down, out of breath as he pants. “Ah, Here for June… Shit.” He huffs, taking a deep breath before resuming his struggle with the cooler full of goodies, made in extra large portions by dear old mom.

Ever since he was young Jordan didn’t know many dragons, Half, quarter or otherwise he’d mostly been raised around humans, and other inhuman beings. Just not something like him. So when he’d managed to somehow get invited to a small gathering of half dragons and dragon adjacent individuals it was enough to get him preparing and looking for it. Of course his mom was the one who knew everyone, his dad however was the kind of person to encourage him to get out and just meet new people. Two people that were responsible for him being the person he was today. The guys were pretty  helpful, packing him up with various dishes from their repertoires of cooking knowledge. How did someone do so many things with just chicken?

Soon enough he found himself carrying various sized heat retaining containers, some under his arm and others slung over his shoulder down the sidewalk with eyes scanning for the right address. Brushing deep green bangs from his forehead and sighing. Well, he certainty had enough enough food to feed a few half dragons, maybe a full blooded dragon so long as he were in a human shape. Taking the personal portal within his closet, Jordan found himself in LA quick enough. Magic was a pretty handy thing when he actually thought about it, though he also made sure he didn’t do anything that let the average man catch on. Because there was always some kind of masquerade going on, even if superhumans were commonplace. Maybe humans just couldn’t accept magic but they could accept godly supermodels that could level buildings.

Jordan went with casual clothes. Loose fitting grey sweat shorts that settled around mid knee, and a sleeveless green shirt with no sleeves, bearing shoulders as well as cut a little down the sides. Jockish as Xavier called it, though no one seemed to care about that small aspect.

Finally reaching what he assumed was the residence, another person was standing at the door. An unknown, but he smiled anyway. Forest green eyes looked down to the cooler, and then the huffing male. ”Need some help there?” He questioned, smiling widely with sharp canines. ”I was invited here to meet a June too, though I’m not sure if I’m in the right place,” He looked around, not elaborating on the various containers hanging from his body like scaffolds from a skyscraper.  Maybe this guy knew something.

DRAKE
Drakey boy was the personal door greeter, having a big headset on his cranium and a PS5 controller in the other, as he paused his game on the console. He saw this smaller leaner fellow with the cooler and naturally assisted him, seeing he name dropped one of the ladies in the kitchen. “Let me help you with that, Bruh. The Dragon Ladies are in the kitchen whipping up some lunch.”

“So, you must be Deimos. Heard about you from A-yi Niao. I’m Drake by the way. Drake Lu. Niao’s my …aunt.” Drake said, still finding it strange the small woman was a flesh and blood ancestor.  “My aunt from some wild wacky timeless dimension from ancient China. That’s some wacky fantasy writing there, bro.” He said, hanging a lampshade on it all.

Another guest had arrived at about the same time. “You must be… Jordan! Hehey, welcome, mah brother from another mother! Pull up a chair, feel at home!” Drake helped them both get into the grand living room and get settled in.

He begins unpacking the food onto the massive round mahogany table. “I’m not a half dragon by the way, I have like… one drop in me. Still does me a ton of good.” He flexes his giant biceps. “Anyway, feel at home broheims, help yourself to some refreshments in the fridge. We stocked up on ginger ale, Arizona iced tea, soda and juice, if you don’t want a beer.”

He also exits his game and puts on some Katy Perry concert on the big screen.

SAGE AND DRAGON GIRL

“Hey!” June waved as she was frying up her dish. “Greetings, salutations.” Sage was much more formal, managing her own big pot of soup. Since the floor plan as open, behind a bar counter was the big kitchen area where the two dragon girls worked, with two Asian female staff in green uniforms, assisting them. June was in a big shirt and her yoga pants, while Niao had her casual home robes. The kitchen was Sage’s work, as Niao combined traditional earth and stone with modern stainless-steel countertops and appliances. The kitchen looked like it could make food for twenty, no sweat.
June prepared a dish that was familiar to the American palate with a twist – sweet-spicy chili fried chicken, and two side dishes - a bowl of carrots of peas, and a most creamy, buttery mashed potatoes. Quick and easy comfort food everyone would understand. Now, since she was feeding a crowd of half dragons and one guy who ate like them June simply decided to make four whole large chicken’s worth of fried chicken, in two large bowls.
June came out of the kitchen first, the staff helping her set the table. Then she greeting Deimos with a quick hug. “What did your mom make us?”
“Oh, you must be one of Deimos’s friends! Welcome, I’m June. You guys must be eager to get eating. I made a ton of spicy sweet fried chicken. Korean style.” June introduced herself to Jordan with a pleasant tone, then she gestured to the smaller one still cooking. “The other one is Niao, she’s making a soup so don’t fill up yet on main course.”

Sage meanwhile, had been cooking since yesterday, and decided to make the opening of the meal, the soup. And boy, she went full ham. It was called Emperor’s Jar, in a massive gallon-capacity red clay pot and she set it in the middle of the round dining table. Each diner was handed a matching red ceramic bowl. And oh, the utensils were all solid gold, because that’s how Niao rolled. Soup spoon and chopsticks, in addition to standard spoon and fork.

Sage had to fill them in on this unfamiliar dish. “This soup has been brewing for 24 hours, in a combination of chicken and beef stock. Bits of beef tendon has absorbed all the flavor of the herbs and spices, if it hasn’t already gelatinized and thickened the soup. The soup has been also been made thicker with oats, barley, cranberry, mushroom, and peppermint. Before you are small saucers of side dishes- Pickled chili and ginger, cilantro and fragrant tofu each add a layer to each spoonful of soup.”

Sage demonstrates how to drink the soup, using a chopstick to place a small bit of side dish onto the soup spoon then scooping up the soup with an outward-to-inward motion. She seemed pleased with her work.

The Sage did not exaggerate. It was a deep, complex soup, spicy but also oddly sweet and cooling. Each of the pickled dishes added another entire dimension to each spoonful of soup. It was a technically impressive dish for sure, but the flavor clashed with the more casual dishes. Drake did not dare to speak ill of her relative’s soup, and drank it with proper etiquette.

“I’m taking this home.” June whispered to Deimos, holding up the gold table knife.

“Cool! This a great fancy soup, Niao.” June just dumped all her soup addons into her bowl and mixed it, much to Sage’s dismay. But at least she showed her appreciation by slurping loudly, doubling Sage’s dismay. “Whut?” June said with a grin. Sage simply shook her head in dismay and took her seat… subtly raising the floor underneath her so she’d match everyone else at the large table.

“So, Deim, how’s your mom? What have you been up to this past week?” She asked, wanting to know the mundane stuff for a change. No… superpowered threats to the city. She juggled a conversation with Deimos, and also about modern female fashion with Sage.

Deimos would find the meal seated next to cousin Drake. An older and more observant fellow, He subtly nudges his arm and speaks in a low voice. He was assured the superhero across the table did not in fact have super hearing. “So, uh… bruh… Are you… and Ja-Eun… ya know…” he winks, between loading up his plate with a bit of everything, not wanting to miss out on anyone’s food, and pouring himself a corona light.

Sage ended up next to Jordan. She was definitely a totally different vibe, with the raised floor and the good posture and overtly formal English. “Felicitous greetings. I am informed that you are of an earth heritage. I am eager to study your lineage and be acquainted with you personally. Ah, I forget my manner. I am Lu Tong Niao. You may call me Niao, or Sage, as is my moniker."

Deimos gives a hard sigh of relief as two others relieved him of the cooler. Damn thing was heavy and it didn’t help it was full of ice and the coldness was radiating through his coat making him begin to feel a bit sluggish. He stretched his wings for a moment, both to let the blood flow through and to catch some of the heat back into his bloodstream. They were dark along the backs, but just on the inner membranes shined the stars of a thousand night skies. Pulling his wings back in, he brings them flat against his spine for easier navigating through human establishments.

He seemed a bit overdressed, jeans and a dark tee under a blue and white flannel and as per-usual a much warmer attire than the climate excused with a gray peacoat. His wings seemed to be excluded from the confines of his clothing with seamless ease, however he did remove the peacoat and with a wave of his hand any kind of holes cut in it were gone, as if it were a completely normal coat fresh off any rack. “Thanks guys. I kind of forgot I’d have to carry it like this too.” He groans as Jordan and Drake help him haul it off to the kitchens.”Yeah, we’re in the right place.”

He only had a few seconds to figure out the math of Niao and Drake’s relations, and to jealously admire the man’s greek god biceps before June had hugged him, which he couldn’t help but stiffly return, arms free of the giant cooler. “Better question is what didn’t she cook. I don’t even think she cooks this much for ThanksGiving.” He laughs as he begins emptying the contents of the cooler. Two trays of deviled eggs, three tins of brisket (obviously made by dad) which immediately made their way into a warm oven to get back to serving temperature, a soup pot of turnip greens with pork, two bowls full of fried okra from his mom’s garden and a two giant trays of banana pudding, full of bananas, whipped cream and vanilla cookies.

“Note to self. Enchant the cooler before I come. Thanks again for the save guys.” He laughs nervously as he realizes he was probably the only one incapable of bench pressing a bus here. He couldn’t help being impressed at Niao’s soup, or at least the dedication to the soup. A full 24 hours? He suddenly realizes Niao and his mother must be from the same cloth.

With a bit of struggle, Deimos does his best to mimic Niao’s holding of the chopsticks, only to end up dropping a golden stick on the table with a light clank as he tries again, only to fail once again and then play it off as if it never happened, opting to attempt to do the proper soup eating procedure with a fork instead. “The soup or the fork?” He asks with light giggle as Niao is demonstrating the soup.

“Yes, very good soup Niao!” He chimes, happily slurping his soup, ignoring the fact he was literally eating soup with a fork. “Mom’s doing great! She did basically make me fix her roof though. Sometimes I think I was adopted for the benefit of a winged indentured servant. I did set everything up to graduate this fall though, knocked a whole semester off.” He chirps, attention juggling between June and Jordan and Drake.

Just as he was downing some sweet tea, Drake let the bomb drop as he coughs, struggling keep everything down from the surprise. “Ah. No? Um.. ah… I’ve got it bad.” Deimos groans as he slumps his head down a bit, finally admitting a deep truth to himself that he’d buried for a while. One can only go on so many extra dimensional excursions before one starts to catch feelings.

The young man struggling with his cooler seemed like he was having a tough time, so it only made sense Jordan helped him with it. Any extra help, well that was also fine really. Maybe he was another of the dragons he was supposed to meet, though he always had the assumption all of his kind were strong. Strong as him at least, but that might have not been the case. ”No prob, it happens,” Maybe not to him, but it happened to other people he was sure. Was happening to this guy anyway. He smiled widely, trying to seem friendly to these strangers he was trying to befriend.

The man that stepped through the door to greet him seemed like a fine enough guy. One of those guys that probably drank a lot of protein shakes and were concerned with gains, though he smelled something else in the air. Okay, that gave a little more context to things. Well muscular stoner guys were one of his many types, so no complaints here. Granted the rest told him he every guy was his type so maybe there was some merit to that. ”Hiya Drake, nice to meet you.” The guy was pretty welcoming, leading the two into a comfy looking living room. Really felt lived in.

The guy wasn’t a half dragon but that didn’t matter. Not like only having a single drop of dragon blood made him any less than the other, aside from maybe just lacking in sheer dragon strength. He eyed the flexed bicep, giving a small flex as well as if proving something. ”Dragon blood does a lot of good for that,” He didn’t look as overtly muscular as the man but Jordan was strong, enough likely to even upend a tank with mostly ease. A concert played in the background, ringing in his ear and remaining  as they moved into the dining room with his many dishes he was sent out with.

Niao with her day long cooked soup, having gone through various processes to make it the way it was. Scenting the air was enough to fill his mouth with saliva, uncomfortable almost the feeling. Jordan had a collection of middle eastern, Japanese, Chinese and American dishes. Hopefully these people were going to enjoy it, because he enjoyed these delicacies daily with his family/boyfriends. There were others, all of which he smiled at while things were set out.

”Eager to learn my heritage? Me too actually,” He stated with a smirk, pulling some of the food into his mouth and chewing it up with his chopsticks. ”I’m Jordan. Don’t know too much about my dragon parent, but I guess that comes with being orphaned or abandoned.”

The dragons prove their mettle, going through all the food with gusto. Drake and June Segway into a mini eating contest and Drake encourage Deimos to help him with the California rolls and pork cutlet Jordan brought, which June seemed to be inhaling rather than swallowing. Against these many appetites, lunch stood no chance, and soon enough it was time to move on to dessert, since, it’s a proven scientific fact that dessert went into a yet undiscovered second stomach.

Sage looked at Jordan with a renewed perspective. Knowing the personal history of everyone at the table, that left her as the lottery winner of two loving parents. “…I see. Another foundling. Hmph. I had the fortune to be raised by both parents well into my adulthood. Well, it matters not now, all dragon kind are cousins. You are always welcome here.” Sage said rather deadpan, but also reassuringly. This was probably the closest she came to being comforting to someone. That and a very awkard patting on his shoulder. Sage and her atrocious pat game.

Somewhere along the way Drake had to encourage his new little brother how to take the woman situation on. “Shiiieeeet man. Does she even know? Have you talked to her? Have you had your talk yet?” Drake wanted to encourage Deimos, to shoot high and aim for the big target.

In the meantime, ice cream and sugar cones were served, while Drake sets up the Hookah and offered hash brownies covertly to those who weren’t into it. Everyone would get high, no exceptions.

Sage being the only time displaced person, eyed the dessert curiously. The first taste was all was needed to convince her. “This cream of ice is amazing! I desire more!” she said, and June obliged the enthusiastic little fish out of temporal water. With a triple favored cone.  “Okay, okay, calm down, Mulan.”

“Watermelon and mint flavor. I hear Miley Cyrus smokes this exact same mix. Since the Hanna Montana days.” Drake offered the first hit to Jordan, judging him to be the laid back one of the groups who’d oblige. Then he passes it around.

Up next, Sage proves her experience with mind altering substances. She takes a hit, and her mood significantly changed – she slouched slightly, and even had a small smirk. “…I… I am completely… unaffected… I am … victorious…” She said, before laying on the couch to pass out.

Drake nudged Deimos to look what he'd do. “Now, watch this. Confidence.” He sits next to June and offers it.

“I doubt it’d do much.” June shrugs, taking a seat next to Drake and taking a hit. A few minutes pass and June finds her formidable constitution unable to withstand it. Drake expertly captures a selfie the moment June's mind had left her body.

“Whooaaaa….” Five minutes later June groggily wandered over to the window looking at the cloudy sky. She laid down and curled up. “The sky is so pretty…”

As hours pass and the sky turned gray and thunder rumbled in the distanced, a cloaked ship slips into California Airspace, coming to a stop over the house. A handful of figures descend from the ship, and slip in through the roof deck door. However, these were not hostile intruders; these figures were young, curious, and unfamiliar with the modern world. They were more overly curious explorers, fascinated with all the objects of art, having no respect for the concept of locked doors, entering and touching things on a whim. It would not be a great stretch if one wandered off to the bathroom and encountered these strange cloaked figures fiddling with something as mundane as a showerhead…

Deimos just shakes his head at the whole situation. So many dragon-kind in one room a few months ago sounded like some strange fantasy a few months ago to him, for most of his life he thought he was the only one. It did strike him as strange that so many knew so little of their draconic heritage, only to remember not every dragon remained bound to their hatchlings. He did however realize that the research he was doing for June, he could do for Jordan as well if he had a starting place.

He retrieves his notebook, writing a memo to himself to research dragons and to listen for any information Jordan may divulge later, or to point blank ask him if he knew anything at all so he can start another information dig. He was spinning his pen around his thumb in thought before Drake once again jarred him out of thought, prodding the idea. He had been so lost in thought he’d completely missed the weed that was making its way to him. He waves his hand off the hookah, opting for a brownie that he had not realized was going to get him stoned like a gravel road in an hour or so.

“Ah, Talk to her? Shit no. That’s not how that works. I just sit and wait until the feeling fades.” Deimos laughs, only now beginning to feel a little bit of something from the now three spiked brownies he’d eaten. He did however take notes as Drake had accomplished what he wished he could smooth as butter. “Lucky shit.. Oh hey.” Deimos had dropped his book and it fell open to a work in progress. It looked like a magic circle, incredibly complex and intricate. It had puzzled him sober but as his mind began to fade to the haze of hash, suddenly things seemed to make sense. It was like it forced him to stop over thinking.

Deimos gets to work with one of the knives from dinner, etching into the wood of the table, taking up the entire span of the thing then drawing many intricate marks and threads from the edges of the circles. Symbols in both draconic and infernal as he goes off script from the drawing as more and more the thing gets complete and begins glowering with his signature blue crackling of magic. Only when done does a blue haze come off the table, light spilling up like a soft lamp.

“Haha!” Deimos laughs trumphantly. “H-heh.” He stumbles, feeling the full weight of the brownies as he stood up and looked around for someone to acknowledge, only to realize they were also stoned out of their gourds. “Hey. Jordan! Look! It’s a magic detector… I don’t know why it’s going off, but it works!” He laughs before falling over cackling, completely missing the point that his magic sensor was going off the charts.

Jordan nodded along to what Niao was saying, not sure how he would feel about being raised by his actual parents. Did they leave him because they wanted to or because they had to? Was there a way he was supposed to respond to that? The pat on his shoulder as stiff, though he assumed it was some kind of comforting effort. If that was the case or not, he nodded as if understanding what she was getting across before returning to eat the food set before him. The meal moved on, his eyes watching Drake  and Deimos talking though he didn’t focus on what. Seemed like everyone was having fun, though he didn’t know enough about the people around here.

He partook of the hookah and the brownies, smelling the added has in it. So this was the kind of gathering they were having? He was going to have fun, and also not regret bringing a small flask of Seal with him. In case he was as resistant to hash as he thought he would be. His body tended to resist mind altering substances pretty well. Ice cream came into the mix and he was quite happy with that. Eating a cone or two with the same gusto he had with every bit of food he had before. Even with half draconic blood, he found his appetite seemed to be larger than even the hardiest human he knew.

Without thinking he accepted the first hit, dragging deep and letting the smoke blow through his nostrils; like a dragon actually. It was enough to make him grin, chuckling as if it were the most amusing thing ever. He watched the others take their drags, eyes clear in focus compared to the others. A small frown forming on his lips. It seemed that he wouldn’t be affected by this either, though the taste was pleasant enough. All the while he tried to keep himself playful and fun, hoping that the people around him liked just having him around. If his parents went through the effort to find him dragon friends, he would do his best to make friends of them.

This included playful little pranks such as manifesting his tail and prodding someone from an angle they couldn’t see and pulling it back before they realized what was happening. This ended up mostly happening to Deimos but that was fine too.  Eventually he just found himself lingering around the half dragon, sipping from his flask to achieve a similar state of mind as the others. All it took was three swallows for a buzz and then three more to get drunk. Squinting at the book which fell open, revealing a few magical formulae. Hours had passed between the meal and the book though he didn’t fully remember what had happened then.

Instead all he did was take another swig from his flask and watch the various runes being traced into the countertop. Eye4s narrowing as if that would somehow tell him what they meant. ”Are they supposed to glow like that? I mean if they are that’s cool but looks like somethins goin on,” With slightly slurred speech, he looked to Deimos with a cocked head as if questioning the obviously magically gifted half dragon.

HIGH DRAKE

Once Drake had the chance to get hit by his poison, he started talking really, really deep insightful things. Things that questioned the reality around him. He sits by Deimos even as he’s carving into the mahogany table.

“Hey bruh… when you look at June and Niao… like… don’t you think… it’s like those rpg video games with the character creation… then like… somebody put all the physical characteristics into minimum and maximum? Like bruh… whoever made those two… must be into extreme sized women…”

The circle carving complete, Drake only just makes a comment. “Duuude… like… who drew on the table? Aunt Niao gonna rip someone a new asshole for this…” Niao was thankfully, peacefully asleep on the sofa. As she snored, the metal coins in the pot of the lucky cat statue rattled loudly, as well as any other metal in proximity.

Drake even had a question for Jordan too. “H-hey Jordan, how… do you… do you transform into a dragon? I mean… don’t you think… it’s a weird violation of the conservation of mass… how y’all can go from people to beasts… like… where do you keep all their… extra weight… Oh man… I gotta… gotta go pee…” Drake stumbles up and heads to the bathroom to excuse himself.

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

Some hours after the dragon friends have their fun and gathering, the two mysterious visitors manage to contain their curiosity for all the wonderful, shiny trinkets around the Lu family home, and eventually make their way to the living room. Their seaweed and shark hide cloaks got sea water all over the floor.

In hushed whispers, they spoke. “Is that her, Xai? By the window?” the first one, an androgynous male, pointed at June who was admiring the rain by the window.

“Yes, Xan. That is the Dragon Warrior. And these must be her associates.” The second, a more obviously female creature pointed out, seeing the sight of a group of half dragons tripping out of their minds incredibly strange and intruiging.

“They are all heavily intoxicated.” Xan pointed out the obvious.

“Perhaps they are observing some sacred ritual.” Xai suggested a rational explanation.

The two rush over to June, crouching down and patting her arm to get her attention. “Dragon Warrior! Finally! It is an honor to meet you.”

June was registering these two quite wrong, not realizing they were sea elves, maybe a couple of friendly and well meaning fans. “Heyyy that’s me. I’m a Dragon Warrior! Over there’s another dragon warrior! And those two are dragon wizards!” June pointed to Jordan, Deimos and Niao.

“Dragon Warrior. Our people have need of your aid once more. Ill omens abound on our island home. Will you help us?”

June didn’t quite catch the thing about Ill Omens. But she did catch Island. “I love Islands! Hey guys you wanna go… go to an Island now? Let’s go to an Island!”

“Excellent.”

The two mysterious visitors pick her up by her arms and legs. Still incoherent, the large lady puts up no resistance. “Heyyy are you guys punking me? Gonna toss me into the pool on the roof??” she asked, still not quite done processing the effects of the hookah.

Once June was taken away, more sea elves descended from the upper floors to assist Xan and Xai in retrieving June's intoxicated associates... assuming no resistance was met. Deimos and Jordan were carried off by two elves apiece, whilst Sage needed only the attention of one.

Deimos fell for the  invisible tail trick every single time Joran played it, far too stoned out of his gourd to so much as question it. With a shake of his head he stares into space in Drake's general direction realizing that they were all the preset sliders pushed to either end. "Wait..,. she will?" Deimos cringes, glancinmg over to ensure Niao was down to for the count before going back to being enamored with his table. He was, however, very proud of his work. ”Yes! But also no. Usually when I try these things they just detect me… but I fixed it!” Leaning over the table he points out an incredibly specific script in the circle. “It was this piece. I’d been putting it two inches too far left. But yeah no. I don’t know what’s setting it off.. Whatever it is, it’s over there.” The boy excitedly points toward the door as the elves make their awkward way in.

“HAHA! It really works! Look! Wait…” He looks back down at his work on the table then back to the elves. “Did I summon you?” The half dragon asks, too high to even think twice on it. He was just overjoyed that it worked at all.

“Heh, elves.” He laughs, leaning back on his mutilated table he plops back, having lost a bit of steam, just finding himself tired, staring into the ceiling, magic cracking around him from literally laying upon the runes of the circle. He squints his eyes, extending a hand toward the sky experimentally and magic creeps forward from his fingers in a glittery blue haze as the elves end up having to haul his fried ass up. “Hah, Literally nothing bad ever happens on an island. I’m in!”