Andon

ANDON

A fast and tricky dragon who always makes sure to watch his own back. Long-legged and quick-tongued, few know his name, but almost all seafarers know his looks. He currently works as a bootleg 'coast guard', responding to distress signals at sea and guiding ships and dragons back to safety in storms and other harsh conditions. He's also known to heal wounded wanderers, haul rations to larger ships, and flirt rather terribly. He can stand his ground rather well on almost all fronts (long ranged, short ranged, claw to claw and magical), but he can also function quite well as a healer. Other times, he's seen roaming through the Golem Workshop with Mamonaku and Azlysatian. While he boasts a pair of laser pistols at his side, he's yet to be seen using them.

Another 'transcendent', who showed up on Gaia's doorstep one day due to fate. Apparently he had been wandering the Golem Workshop with Azlys, but departed to find new fronts and ran into the Shellbound clan. After a transcendental memory took hold of him, he attempted to assassinate her alongside his companion- but was quickly detained before he could injure anyone. He was released from prison after a short period of time for his cooperation, and thusly negotiated a deal to end Azlys's sentence early by volunteering to leading some expeditions in the Golem Workshop.

Overall, he's adjusted to the Shellbound clan quite well. Despite his strange relationship with himself and others due to his transcendental memories coming back in increasing frequency, he never fails to offer a grin and a silly remark, and he seems to be almost anywhere at any given time. He's also almost scathingly flirtatious, much to Azlys's annoyance.

Gaia's deduced that he was one of a group of five assassins who had been hunting her in a past life- his combative expertise seems to support this claim. However, he possesses the memories of multiple lifetimes, and also has the ability to induce memories of past lives in transcendents. This has proven to be a dangerous and harmful weapon against Azlys and himself, who have had positively soul-breaking and unfortunately intertwined incarnations. Andon's already been to counseling to come to terms with this, but he still struggles often with an unwanted memory, for he gets them much more frequently than most other Transcendents.

[completed 4/19/2022]

---

my ears hurt.

i can't come down; haven't, won't, never will.
ceaseless passing of feathers and stones
smiling up through sickened mists
where were you when
the sky broke?

"you've come to guide us back home?" back to what?
back to what you keep home on your tongues, no,
but in senseless claws on earth,
numbed and spinning heads,
its loving soil?

thick clashing rope in strength unknown and jade
spiraling, dizzying, the breath you take in
"grab my talon", "don't let go"
for the air hissed
and swamped gasping maws

tired wings docking beating hearts aflight
tears, cracks, and hoarse shouts weathered
you wept and kissed the planks of wood
thus, forgetting briefly those
put to rest

i won't come down; in the waves and hills
beckoning claws shine, whisper, stride
come, we will take care of you
we will allay your tears
eternally

and yet i abduct, stealing from the ocean
its prey and keep, held for another day
flowers for dead and for achieved of living
praying the time comes quietly
and peacefully.

time has gone, and my thievery of fate's hunt
has not come off unnoticed in her eyes
she stalks, her teeth glitter up to me
her beckoning has shifted; from the seafarers.
now, her gaze beholds the vagrant

she has crept mournfully across the decks
gesturing for payment for the souls she's been denied
and, what do i owe her? i laugh at her,
"you deal in riddles and stipulation,"
and she wants what has never truly left her

golem of wind and rock,

reincarnation of nauseating skin.

my ears hurt,

and i will not come down to the land

dare i go back to where i came.

---