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A New Field of Interest

Part 1

Commissioned by Taiko

By Draconicon

Transportation was easy when one had sufficient knowledge of how magic worked in a specific world. Considering the number of times that Draconicon had visited Novus Ager - both when his friend living there was aware and when he wasn't - it was quite simple to appear just outside Taiko's latest...

"...Another melon patch?"

The black dragon shook his head, lifting his sandaled feet out of the dirt and stepping to the side of the largest melon of the bunch. Considering it was at least two times the size of a person, he knew that it wasn't just another fruit. He reached down, rapping at the outside of the melon hull. The knocks echoed for a few seconds, then a hatch popped out on the far side. It thunked into the dirt, barely missing another, smaller melon.

"Hmm? Someone knock?"

A green-and-yellow scaled head poked out, with little white and green horns poking out of the top of the head and down the neck. There was a certain measure of cuteness as it looked away from him, and then around the melon at him.

"Oh! Drac! Didn't think you'd be arriving - well, here." Taiko blinked, looking back and forth. "Where is here, anyway?"

"Got me. I just magicked myself to wherever you are."

"Huh. Well. One second."

The green-and-yellow dragon slid back into the melon, and Draconicon could just make out the whooshing sound of someone falling for a much longer time than the melon seemed to have size for. A splash followed - a pool, he imagined - followed by whirs and beeps and whistles.

"Getting your security system set up?" he asked, leaning down with his hands folded behind his back.

"No, trying to figure out where I am."

"Was that a pool I heard in there?"

"Yes, but I'm putting that back in the back room. Too dangerous as a water hazard."

"Fair enough."

He stood up again, pulling his robe back down around his shoulders and settling himself to be as comfortable as he could. The black dragon loomed over most of the plants in this strange garden, considering that he stood seven feet tall. He kept his wings furled tight against his back to avoid bumping into things, and he continued to pull and tug on his robes to make sure that they weren't flaring out too much. There were plenty of occasions where that had happened in the past, and he'd ended up accidentally flashing someone.

This was meant to be a clean visit, and he planned to keep it that way.

Looks like some sort of greenhouse, he thought, glancing at the ceiling and the walls. Plenty of glass walls, lots of plants...

Which, considering the size of the place, meant that they were either in a city garden, or they were in the middle of some super druid's plant base.

He knocked on the top of the melon again.

"I'm almost done, promise. Just getting all the blueberries sealed up while the GPS sorts itself out."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. Just one question."

"Hmm?"

"Are there any druids or plant-based supers in Novus Ager?"

"Uh, yeah, three. Why?"

"I think that's where we are."

"Oh? How can you tell?"

"Well, call me paranoid, but I don't think carrots usually start loading themselves up like crossbow bolts."

"...Oh. Um. You want to get in?"

"That depends. Are these magically-resistant carrots?"

"I don't think so, but the last time that I saw Lady Greene, she was in the middle of doing a long-distance course on enhanced vegetables."

That was good enough for him. He slowly walked around the side of the super-sized melon, and then dropped himself through the hatch. The thump-thump-thump of the carrot bolts against the outside shook the melon just enough for him to think that he'd made the right choice in the matter.

Of course, as he'd known from the start, it wasn't a melon.

The inside of the 'fruit' was filled with various bits of machinery, most of which were far beyond his level of understanding. Wires that moved and crept like melon vines, buttons that were shaped like cut-outs of a fruit's hull, consoles that had the strangely fibrous, 'living' appearance of the inside of a fruit peel: all of those and more made it feel more like a bio-tech construct than anything else. It also fed the energy that kept the thing stable to the different parts of the machine structure, which stretched out nearly to infinity.

That was what a TARDIS did, after all, when it wasn't running through space and time.

Declining the fall to the pool below, Draconicon took the ladder that was cut into the wall, instead. He hummed to himself as he climbed down to the command console, ignoring the different slams and quakes that hit the melon TARDIS from the outside.

"You know, this can't be good for the chameleon circuit."

"I know, I know, but it's so cute like this," Taiko said, shaking his head as he ran around and around the console like a kid at school playing games with a friend. "And besides, a big fruit's not that unusual."

"Depends where you go, I guess."

BANG! The whole place rattled, and the dragon had to catch hold of a railing to stop. Well, a plant railing. Well, a vine. He shook his head as he pulled himself back up, catching the somersaulting Taiko as he went over the console and nearly to the floor.

"I think getting out of here would be a good idea."

"Yeah, I think you're right."

"Which buttons?"

"You take the left, I'll take the right. Just, uh, do what I do."

#

A few minutes later, the melon TARDIS reappeared outside of Novus Ager university, and Draconicon pushed the hatch open on the side. He groaned as he dragged himself out, only to immediately have a few pieces of smashed carrots fall on his face. Flicking it off his forehead and snout, he pulled himself the rest of the way from the melon TARDIS, then reached in and helped pull Taiko out.

"That was...an adventure."

"Yes, well, carrots aren't supposed to go into the time vortex, are they?"

They both shook themselves out, spending a few moments in silence as they cleaned the orange stains off the back of the TARDIS. Soon, it was back to looking proper, two tones of green and shiny as could be.

Then, Taiko asked the inevitable question.

"So, what brings you here, Drac? Usually you ask before showing up. Everything okay?"

"Yeah. Well, mostly," the black dragon admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm kinda moving out for a while."

"Moving out..."

"Of my current house. Just for a half-year or so."

"Everything okay?"

"Mostly, yeah, just...need some fresh air. Get away from my regular life for a bit. And I kinda thought, the least regular place I know is Novus Ager, so..."

He gestured around him, even as the buildings of the university started to change. Not in terms of shape or size, but rather in how they were organized. They went from a square around a central plaza to being in a circle around something not that dissimilar to Stonehenge, if Stonehenge had been made of couches and chairs instead of rocks. It happened so fast that, if he hadn't had experience with the way that the city worked, he might have been completely disturbed by it.

As it was, it was just one of the things that he knew would make living here more interesting. Taiko, on the other hand, winced slightly.

"Well, um...you know you're always welcome around here, Drac, but..."

The green-and-yellow dragon looked down, one hand pulling on the wraps of a blue bathrobe that covered him from shoulders to thighs. He hemmed and hawed, and the black dragon realized a slight issue.

"Um, I'm not looking to move in with you, if you're worried about that."

"Oh? Oh, sorry. That - yeah, I was worried about that, but I didn't want to say it. I mean, you're a good guy and all, but I'm always bouncing around, and -"

"And worried you were gonna offend me," Draconicon said with a chuckle. "I get it. No worries."

With that settled, Taiko seemed much, much more relaxed. He let out a deep breath, smiled, then looked around.

"Uh...you mind if I go change clothes? I know you like robes, but, um, if we're going to find you a place to stay, I'm gonna need to get dressed."

"And not look like Melon Man?"

"Shhhhh!"

Taiko still smiled as he did the shushing, though, and Draconicon nodded. As the other, wingless dragon hopped back into the melon, the black dragon leaned against it, looking up at the sky.

It's going to be nice to get away from the fanboys and...well, everything else for a little while.

It was the 'everything else' that was going to make this, hopefully, a profitable and useful six months or so.

#

They ended up borrowing Taiko's dad's car, and soon, they were off. Draconicon leaned back in his seat, looking out at the city, wondering when it was going to change next. Here and there, he could see caped figures either flying through the air or leaping from building to building, and he knew that they were going to make his life rather interesting while he was living here.

Then again, he imagined that he was going to make their lives rather interesting, as well.

"So, how are you going to handle the magic thing while you're here?" Taiko asked as they turned onto the inter-city freeway.

"Oh, you know. Keep it fairly low-key."

"Really low-key, or you-low-key?"

"Oh, come on. I don't do that much."

"Says the dragon that popped up on top of my carefully-hidden TARDIS."

"Heh, fair point, fair point," he said, shaking his head as he looked back at his friend. "But I won't go too overboard. I'm not going to start anything big. I'll only go big if someone else makes me do it."

"That's a relief. Novus Ager's kinda weird, anyway, and if you start doing weird stuff to it..."

"Yeah, trust me, I get it. Preserve the natural order of stuff, and all that."

They turned off the inter-city, pulling into the downtown area. The roads shifted around them, but Taiko just drove into the proper lanes even as the cars moved with the reality. They went from a four-lane street to a two-lane side road, something that should have caused at least one crash, but there was no such thing.

This city has some very interesting ways of preserving those that live in it, he thought. Or a really smart intelligence that knows how to handle it...

The black dragon shook his head, putting the thought out of his mind. The last thing that he needed to do right now was focus on some new mystery. He was here for a vacation, to spend six months not unraveling the mysteries of the universe or perfecting some spell that would make life better. He was here for time off, and that was it.

As they pulled into the downtown proper, Taiko went back to asking questions.

"So, are you looking for a house, or an apartment, or...you know, where you want to live?"

"I notice you're not asking what part of the city I want to live in." He chuckled. "I guess I'll end up in all kinds of neighborhoods before the month is up, no matter where I pick."

"Probably. At least half the city by month's end," the other dragon admitted, shaking his head. "Sorry about that."

"Don't be. That's part of the reason I want to be here. It's something different."

"Well, if you say so. So, apartment or house?"

"Let's try a house, first," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a phone. "Shall I check a couple of addresses?"

"Make sure you go from NovAgRent. All the other ones don't update fast enough."

"Thanks for the tip."

A few minutes later, he had a small list. He glanced at where they were on the GPS, and nodded.

"Alright, straight down this road is a house owned by a self-professed 'crazy cat lady.'"

"Out here, that could mean anything."

"That's what I was thinking. Let's find out what she means."

#

They barely got through the door before they found out that 'crazy cat lady' didn't mean a little old woman with plenty of kittens running around the place. It meant 'crazy old cat' with a bunch of were-cats that lived with her. Taiko and Draconicon took one look around the living room with all the half-naked felines that were perched on shelves, at the scratched-up walls, and the sheer mess of catnip everywhere, before slamming the door shut.

THUMP!

Draconicon was almost thrown clear of the door from that first slam, and Taiko was. The black dragon lifted his fingers, shadowy flames running up the extended digits, and pressed it to the doorframe. A soft 'fwoosh' followed, and the spell melded the door with the frame.

"Mmph..."

And it was all done in the time that it took Taiko to get back up. He walked over to his friend, gently helping to lead him back to the car.

"Yeah, we're not going for this one," Draconicon said.

"No kidding. I've never seen that many were-cats in one house."

"Well, now we know she was serious." He glanced back at the house, not surprised to see a number of the were-cats looking up from the bottom of various windows, looking rather displeased that the dragons were leaving. "Is there a version of animal control for that?"

"No, but they should be alright. I think. I hope."

"Yeah. Let's get out of here before they realize that they can hop out the windows, too."

As soon as they were back on the road, he crossed off two more worrying houses from the list, one that was apparently up for 'Dog lovers only', and another that was listed for 'Willing to Care for Past Pets'. He didn't know if that meant that there were collared anthros or if there were ghostly pets that needed to be watched over, but neither were what he was looking for in a home right now.

Further down the list was an apartment, and a penthouse one, at that. It looked like the value was a little too good for what he was getting, but it was a city of heroes, so he supposed it was theoretically possible that it might be going for that price. If it was a former villain home, he could live with that.

"So, uh...two blocks - wait, no, eight blocks down, one block over," he said.

"Uh..."

Draconicon looked up, then slapped his face. The map had shown the change in where the building was, but it had failed to take into account that the city had managed to split itself nearly in half with a new series of canals.

"Goddammit..."

"I have to say, first time it's done that in a while."

"How long is it going to take GPS to fix itself with this?"

"Um, probably about ten minutes. Sorry."

"Not your fault. I'm going to read for a bit; you mind?"

"Not at all."

#

They eventually reached the building that the penthouse was in, but Draconicon could tell that it was going to be a no-go as soon as they pulled up. Four different sentry weapons above the front door, eight different cameras, force-fields over the windows: it all screamed that it was a mad scientist building.

Nevertheless, he figured that he might as well check. He glanced at Taiko, wordlessly asking if he wanted to come. The melon dragon groaned, but nodded, getting out of the car with him.

As soon as they walked up to the front door, a rat, ever so slightly hunched over, ran out the front door. He bowed his head, wringing his hands together and laughing giddily.

"Guests, guests, welcome to the Tower of Madness. I am the head butler, Igar."

"Not Igor?" Draconicon asked.

"No, no, Igar. With an 'a'. I don't have the right hunch yet to be Igor, though you flatter me, sir, you flatter me."

The two dragons shared a look. They both knew that this was doomed to failure, but they were there, and they were both curious. He was pretty sure that Taiko also needed to have some information to call in anything bigger to deal with this tower, too, so the other dragon was kind of forced to come along.

"There's a thing posted about a penthouse?" Draconicon asked.

"Ah, yes, the Lightning Chamber. The good master has been looking for willing, ah, renters to take residence there. We promise, it is well worth the cost of ownership. If you would follow me this way..."

Igar started to hunch, only to grunt.

"Nope, still Igar, not Igor. One day, one day..."

"..." Draconicon pointed after the semi-hunchback rat. "I'm starting to wonder if your city celebrates Halloween, too."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you only see that around spooky-time. Well...are we going to do this?"

"There's no way that you're renting this place, right?"

"No, but it might make for a funny story."

"...Yeah." Taiko looked up at the sentry guns above the door. "Funny. Right."

The dragons looked each other in the eye once more, then stepped through the doors.

#

Smoke followed them out, and despite being sheathed in a bubble of Draconicon's magic, they were both coughing from the mess. The bigger dragon was brushing robot parts off his shoulders, and Taiko was shepherding a melon and cantaloupe along at his feet with his tail.

"There, there, it's fine," the other dragon muttered, patting them before scooping them up in his arms. "I am so reporting that guy to the city."

"Hmmph. And I should report Igar to the Council of Cronies."

"They'd never revoke the 'a'. Most that they'd do is give him gardening duty instead of house-watching duties."

"...I was joking," Draconicon said, blinking as they walked back to the car. "There's really a Council of Cronies?"

"There's a lot of stuff here. I haven't met them, but I'm pretty sure they exist. Just about everything seems to in Novus Ager."

"Apparently," he muttered, shaking his head and getting into the passenger seat. As they pulled away from the building, one of the sentry-guns fell to the concrete, shattering into pieces. "He's not getting his money back on those, is he?"

"Probably not."

"Well...let's try a few more. There's gotta be some place in this city that's not a hazard to life and limb..."

#

Draconicon and Taiko spent hours driving hither and yon through the city, and when it became obvious that driving around the canals was going to take even longer, they took a gondola. Along the way, they had to deal with sea monsters, submarines, and a couple of rather affectionate eels that seemed all too willing to lead them to a sea genie that would grant them their every desire.

When the eels revealed that they were pretty sure that the genie was worthless with real estate, the only viable distraction on the journey stopped being interesting. He sent them on their way, and continued the search.

Eventually, with the sun setting and Taiko looking like he was about ready to give up, they found it.

The gondola had become a kayak, and the kayak was barely big enough for Taiko to settle on the bigger dragon's shoulders. The melon was on top of Taiko, and the cantaloupe was on top of the melon, so they formed one of the most ridiculous water-bound totem poles that the world had ever seen on approach to the apartment building. It was just around a corner in the canal system, something that had a water entrance for the moment, and which probably only had room for a few dozen occupants on the inside.

"Last one for the day," Draconicon promised as he paddled up.

"Then food. I want food."

"Soon."

As they left the kayak behind, a somewhat chubby pangolin stumbled down from the front door, waddling all the way to the bottom of the steps. His hands, like most pangolins in resting form, wrung together regularly.

"Oh, sirs, sirs, I am so sorry that I didn't see you coming. I must beg your pardon. Ah, um, welcome to the Rambling Arms, where we do very little of importance and talk about it all day. Um. If there's someone that listens, of course." The pangolin gave a nervous little laugh, rubbing the back of his scaled head. "Sorry, sorry, a rather horrible joke, but I do ramble. A lot. I'm sorry, nervous habit."

"It's fine," the black dragon said. "I saw that you had an ad out for a room?"

"Yes, yes, I do. Do you - oh, are you together?" the pangolin asked.

"No, no, heh. Wouldn't be a bad thing, but no, we're not."

"Ah, wonderful. Sorry, it's just that it is a little on the small side, and, well, I try to see to the comforts of my tenants."

"Don't worry. Small is good for me," Draconicon said with a small smile. "Do you mind showing me the place?"

"Certainly, sir," the chubby pangolin said, bobbing his head up and down a few times. "Please, follow me."

The owner of the place definitely had a bit more of a hunch, but that fit with the species. He had a walk of walking that wobbled him from side to side, too, making it so that he didn't seem able to move without a waddle. Yet, for all that, he had plenty to say, and while he swayed, he never seemed in danger of falling over as his thick body trundled along.

"I'm glad that there's finally someone interested. The Rambling Arms has been part of my family for a long time, but it's almost never at full capacity. We're almost there, now, but I must say, sir, if you do move in, then I'm sure that someone else will move out. It never, ever stays full for more than a day."

"I hope that I'm not depriving you of income, then."

"Not at all, not at all," the pangolin said, shaking his head and waving one long-clawed hand. "It will be the same, perhaps better. Your room is not the cheapest, but it is the only unit left. Perhaps one of the cheapskates will leave, and it will be a net positive for me."

Draconicon looked over his shoulder at Taiko. The melon dragon shrugged, obviously not familiar with the owner, but the dragon had to admit that he was rather charmed by the chatty, slightly servile man. He seemed like the sort of landlord that would leave someone to their business by and large, but would be there if he was called for. That was the sort of landlord that he preferred.

"If I might ask, what's your name?" Draconicon asked.

"Oh? Ah, yes, I'm Lloyd Wadun, or Mr. Wadun, or, well, Lloyd. And yourself?"

"Draconicon."

"Is there a last name to that?"

"Not that you need, heh."

"Ah. Well, I suppose I can make an exception this time. In a city like this, I'm sure that we all understand discretion."

Well-mannered, chatty, and someone that doesn't push. Well, this is just looking better and better.

They passed through the small-ish lobby to the apartment building. It looked almost more like a hotel lobby, with a clerk at the desk and a few free water pitchers hanging around. He wasn't surprised that there wasn't much, though the walls were a bit of an ostentatious red and gold color, with gold leaf running up the corners and coming in odd lines to and fro. Not quite magical, but definitely something ornate, and perhaps a little mystical.

Lloyd nodded at the walrus behind the desk, who waved back.

"That's Jeeves. Handyman and clerk. If you need anything fixed, he will be the one to ask."

"I'll remember that."

"Now, um, you have no issue with stairs, do you?"

"Heh. Not at all."

Particularly as he would be teleporting quite regularly, when it came right down to it. They walked up two flights, with Taiko carrying the melon and cantaloupe with him. On the third floor, they took a turn, making their way almost to the exact center of the building before they came to a stop. Lloyd reached into his pocket, pulling out a key - a metal one, to the dragon's surprise, and old-style - and unlocking the door.

"And here we are. Again, I apologize for the fact that it is rather small, but it is all I have. Would you like to take a look?"

"Yes, but it won't take long."

He poked his head inside, turning left, right, and left again. The current layout - and he knew that it was going to change, both from his magic and from the general way that Novus Ager worked - was a simple one. A long-ish hallway, a living room off to the side, with the bathroom attached right beside the front door. He could see that the living room connected to the kitchen without a barrier, and from the look of things at the end of the hallway, there was a turn that took one towards the bedroom.

Simple, small, and contained.

With the constantly shifting city, the view out the far end didn't matter. That would change on the daily, if not on the hourly, though he hoped not quite that much. The dragon nodded to himself.

"I'll take it."

"What? But you didn't even -"

"Look, if it's twelve-hundred or less a month, then it's a better deal than anything else that I've seen today."

"...It's actually nine hundred, Mr. Draconicon," Lloyd said, his eyes wide. "But, um, I imagine that, um, we can find some -"

"Arrange a regular mail call, make sure that the delivery boys don't get lost bringing food here, and - does this place have a washing machine?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll make it $1,100 a month, just for the convenience."

"You're paying...more? Why?"

"Call it an appreciation surcharge," he said, reaching into the pocket of his robes and pulling out his wallet. He pulled out the precise amount. "First month's rent now, the rest when we sign the lease?"

"..."

The pangolin's face was the picture of surprise tinged with a hint of anxiety, almost like he was worried that this would dry up in the blink of an eye. Draconicon shook his head, gently pushing the cash into his new landlord's hand, then plucked the key from the other.

"Thanks. I'm sure I'll see you again later. Just like I'm sure that you probably want to deposit that."

"Oh. Yes. Right. Um...yes. Thank you, sir, and welcome to the Rambling Arms."

The pangolin waddled off, still staring down at the money and - from the look of things - counting it again. He was probably going to be in shock for a while.

As soon as Lloyd was out of sight, Taiko turned to look at him. The green-and-yellow dragon arched an eyebrow.

"What?" Draconicon asked.

"Rent up front? Drac, seriously, what's going on?"

"...I need time off, that's all."

"From what?"

"From...heh. Well, let's just say everything."

"Is it that bad back home?"

"Bad isn't the right word. It's more...complicated."

"You know you can talk to me, right?"

"Taiko, you're an amazing, amazing guy, and there's so much that I can do with you. And so much that I probably have that you don't remember right now, but that's not really the point." He shook his head. "But for that, I need something - or rather, someone - in particular, and you're not that."

"...I'm sorry that I can't...Wait, what do you mean, done things that I don't remember?"

The black dragon smiled, pointing to his eyes. White, empty, hypnotic. The melon dragon blushed, groaning.

"Now that's just not fair."

"Just using all my tools."

"Well, one day I'll use the TARDIS to go and find out what you did."

"Yes, I'm sure, and the day that you do, you'll be blushing worse than that melon in your arms did when she found your photo albums."

"WHAT?!" Taiko whipped his head down. "Melly, how could you? Snooping?!"

With that hilarious image in mind, the black dragon stepped back into the apartment.

"Dinner in an hour?"

"Yes! After she's explained herself!"

Shaking his head at the melon dragon berating the melon and the cantaloupe perched on Taiko's head to watch it happen, Draconicon shut the door and looked around the apartment. It really wasn't much, but he'd make it something great. Something comfortable. Something right for the next six months.

This was going to be good.

The End

Summary: Draconicon needs a vacation, and decides to move to Novus Ager for a few months. First off, finding a place to stay...

Tags: No sex, Draconicon, Novus Ager, comedy, supers, pangolin, dragon, rat, various species, were-cat, series,