Tannie

---

Tannie gripped the underside of the leaf more tightly as rain poured harder around it. The huge leaf was bouncing hard, but at least it was keeping her dry and relatively safe - as long as it didn't throw her off onto the soaking wet ground below. Not for the first time, she silently cursed the engineers who had made her this way. They had saved her life, and for that she was grateful, but they also put her in even more danger by leaving an exposed core of electric magic in her chest, which they warned could badly electrocute the parts of her that were still living flesh. There was even a burn mark slowly growing on the leaf in front of her as she bumped against it.

Somehow, she fell into restless sleep, grip still locked on the leaf stem. A voice below woke her.

"Hello? Are you alright up there?"

Tannie twisted her head around. A dark green Mirror was looking up at her from the ground. Mirrors were a little easier for her to read than other breeds, and she was pretty sure this one looked concerned. "...No," she called down, fins flat against her neck. "I don't think I am."

"The rain's stopped," the Mirror informed her. "You can come down if you like."

Tannie focused on the unfamiliar action of unlocking her claws. Once one hand was free, she used it to force the other open. Finally, she opened her wings and hesitantly let herself fall into a rough glide to land on a root in front of the Mirror.

The Mirror gave her a look that Tannie didn't recognize, but didn't seem like a pleased expression. "What happened to you?" the Mirror murmured.

Ah. Pity. Of course it was. Tannie automatically started to launch into her story, not really listening to herself. "I was caught in an avalanche, and-"

"No, I don't need to know a story you don't want to tell," the Mirror interrupted. "But gods, what were the people who put that metal on you thinking?"

"It was the only way to save my life."

"They could have done a better job of it. No offense."

"I can't say I disagree with you. Assuming it was possible to do better."

"You look like you need a place to live," the Mirror decided, "or at least rest. I'm Shar. Would you like to stay with our pack for a little while?"

"Tannie. I would like that, yes, but I don't want to impose. I wouldn't exactly be useful to a pack of Mirrors like yourself."

"Oh, we're a mixed group," Shar clarified. "Just a little camp, for now, but we're all more than capable of taking care of ourselves plus some."

With that agreed upon, Tannie automatically tried to flutter up onto Shar's back, but barely lifted herself off her perch. She sighed.

Shar looked closer. "What- what are your wings?"

Tannie inspected the spread-out canvas. "Uh... linen, I think. Mostly."

"What?" Shar bared her teeth, and Tannie reminded herself that this display was aimed at her engineers, not at her. "Have those metal-brains never studied an actual living dragon? Who looks at wings and thinks 'you know what would be a good material for those? Some nice, breathable fabric. Wouldn't want any air to be trapped by those wings.' Climb on." She put her head close so that Tannie could easily clamber aboard. "Gods. Wings should be made out of skin, wouldn't you agree?"

"That would be the natural thing, yes. I never really thought about it... now that half of me is metal, what's so bad about anything else being unnatural."

"There's unnatural, and then there's nonfunctional." Shar started walking, presumably toward her camp. "They could have at least used something closer, like leather."

"Do you have a dragon who could help in your... pack."

Shar sighed. "Not yet. But now that you're here, we'll definitely do some looking in this area. Any engineer who lives with Nature dragons, at least, should have a slightly better grasp on how to imitate the ways the gods made us."

---

When Tannie was taken urgently to a Lightning cybernetic hospital, her condition was such that their one goal was her survival. They achieved that, but at the cost of many, many conveniences. Her movements were stilted, her wings barely worked, and the electromagic core that replaced her heart was exposed to the world. It wasn't until she had joined our clan, and indeed been with us for some time, before she finally met an engineer who could help: Rigil, a cybernetics engineer who had done work on himself and had a much better understanding of how to help Tannie. He replaced her wings and crafted joints that moved more like a Fae's should, but unfortunately, the one thing he couldn't fully change was her core. Trying to replace it was likely to kill her. It could be covered, somewhat, but there still needed to be a direct path between the core and the outside world for it to remain powered by the world's magic, so the two of them made do. Tannie is a bit more durable now, and much less likely to electrocute her friends, but she still can't be in water, or go outside in the rain for more than a few moments.

---

gets the Powered Implants item because yay! We figured out how to cover up her electric core!!

Some say that the most dangerous place in Sornieth is an avalanche in the Cloudscape Crags.


hangs out with Farlander sometimes, especially when commiserating about rain. She can't go out in the rain, it's dangerous.
Bionics have to be specially designed for cold, a la FMA, so she couldn't go back to Ice territory? Or maybe she already lived in Lightning.
Artificial wing membranes

---