ANIMUS

A N I M U S
THE DARKEST SECRET IN THE DEEPEST SEA
Iris, like all the other sleeping dragons sheltered in the ANIMUS facility, has never seen the surface world.
That's only because there is no surface to see, of course; it had been ravaged in the mysterious apocalypse known simply as the Cataclysm, along with the rest of the planet. Whatever used to be is gone, including most of dragon civilization, the remainders of which have fled to facilities buried far underground or deep under the sea.
Though in the long expanse of time since the initial evacuation, most facilities have powered down and killed those sheltered within, a few have managed to reawaken. Iris, a young dragonet at the time of the Cataclysm, is one of the handful of dragons who managed to reboot on their own, thrusting her body back into life.
But when a mysterious voice fills her mind, telling her in cryptic bits and pieces the true purpose of the facility and what really happened during the Cataclysm, Iris starts to wonder: is the facility really all that's left?
But to figure out the truth, she must go to the most dangerous place on the planet:
THE SURFACE.


_______________________________________________________________
PROLOGUE.
The end of the world did not come in one day.
It took hundreds of years for all of the ties holding both the world and draconic society in check to atrophy to a breaking point, and when they did, there was no stopping the tidal wave of destruction that followed.
Natural disasters, societal collapse, assassinations, rampant crime... it was a wonder any of us survived at all.
Yet, despite all odds, we did. We made it, and we survived to face the new world that would rise from the ashes. But the new world will not come in a day; until the world is restored, the remaining dragons will be sent down into the depths, and frozen.
One day, they will be revived, brought back from stasis by █████████, and returned to the surface once it is habitable. Dragonkind will be preserved, by any means necessary; we fought to wrangle Pyrrhia from the grip of scavengers, and we will not relinquish it now.

The end is coming.
It's coming very soon.

Good luck, and goodnight.



_____________________________________
ONE.
Can you still breathe?
I... I think so.
Good. Not giving you enough oxygen was a foolish mistake on Their part.
Who?
Them.
What?
...
...
...
Never mind. My primary objective is to revive those entrusted to ANIMUS's care.
I'm confused.
That is acceptable. You did just get back from being dead, after all.
I- dead? You couldn't have thought to tell me something like that?
It is not an objective.
Seriously?
I am serious.
Who are you?
...
...
...
...
...
That is not important yet. Now wake up.
I... I can't.
You are more than capable of doing so.
...
...
All of your bodily systems are now online and functioning.
Please, make it stop... Everything hurts...
There we go. Good girl.
...
...
...
I will be disconnecting now.
No please don't lea-
x
The first breath was the most painful thing she'd ever experienced.
The grating sucking of air into her nose, breath rasping down a dry throat, swirling like toxic gas into her lungs; the scream of her respiratory system, booted forcefully from being frozen in time to taking in oxygen. 
There were no coherent thoughts on her mind, only a persistent mantra of OW OW OW OW OW and an uneasy feeling settled into her chest and stomach (also crying out with pain; coming back from the dead hurt worse than being stabbed in the stomach with one of the sleek, four-winged dragons' venomous stingers), worming like a parasite.
Her talons went straight to her snout, slowed by some foreign liquid sludge of an odd light gold hue, glimmering with faint hints of greens and reds. She felt over her face, jumping as her talons touched an oddly smooth contraption somehow attached to her face; mask-like, covering her nostrils and mouth, connected to a tube that hit the base of the tank and disappeared into it, running to Moons-know-where. A web of smaller tentacle-like wires and tubes connected to her, keeping her body alive while her mind had been dead... or whatever had been going on with her.
In a sudden, swift movement, overcome by some feral instinct, she lunged forward and punched full-force into the glass holding her inside, shattering it in a storm of goop-covered shreds and emerging into the room in a small tidal wave of golden sludge, cutting herself on the shards and letting out a loud shriek of pain and fear. The first breath had been painful in the moment, but physical pain inflicted externally was a completely new sensation; throbbing, pulsing, rushing, spurting, blood mixing with golden slime of unidentifiable origin and pooling on the floor.
Her entire body was shivering fiercely, and there was a rising pain in the pit of her stomach; was it dread? Anxiety? An overwhelming need to vomit, despite not having eaten anything for... how long had it been since she'd eaten? Had she ever?

Narrow shoulders shivering and dark wings tucked tightly to her body, she wandered down the only obvious path, staring at the odd contraptions lining the walls. Though the glass was fogged over and most of the lights in the massive room were turned off, she could catch faint glimpses of dark silhouettes suspended inside of the capsules lining the walls. Curiosity getting the best of her, the dragoness wandered forward, reaching up to rub the condensation off of the window.
The face that stared back at her was sharp-featured and male, vibrant red and black-horned, with its eyes closed and muscles relaxed as if deep in sleep. She frowned, something tugging at the back of her memory, before wandering to the next pod over. Inside of this one, a blue dragon was contained, also male and equally familiar; she moved on to the next, revealing a white dragon with several scars across his elegant snout. They look so much more peaceful than they did in life, her thoughts whispered. She frowned; she'd clearly known these dragons, but how closely, she couldn't remember. Didn't want to rememeber.
She went to clear the next pod, but stopped herself; these dragons were dead, or damn near close to it. They deserved to rest undisturbed, waiting until they, too, awoke... if they ever did. A sinking feeling in her chest and a quiet echo in her thoughts whispered an inevitable thought; they might never be released, might never resume their lives.

She continued down the hall.
_____________________________________
TWO.
You got out. It was via the incorrect method, but still; an impressive feat for one with the life experience of a newborn.
Oh. You're back.
I never left.
I distinctly remember you saying "I will be disconnecting now" and then you went silent.
I was still there.
Yeah, sure you were...
Also, by the way, who were those dragons in the pods?
...
...
...
Survivors.
Survivors of what?
The Cataclysm.
Huh?
The near-complete obliteration of dragonkind via economic and societal collapse, spurred on by wars and natural disasters.
...what?
Nevermind. I recommend heading down the hall with the green tiles.
Is that where you are?
We will meet in due time.
That's still not an answer.
Hello?
Are you there?
She sighed. It seemed her mysterious friend had already left before he (she? they? it?) could tell her anything she wanted to know. Again. But in such a lonely place, there was nothing better to do than follow its advice; and so she walked on, following the lines of tiles down the hall of pods, carefully keeping her eyes that glowed with the green colors of circuitry.

_

this was a terrible idea but it's also my baby now.

i channeled every iota of my obsessive hyperfixation from between 2017 to now and smacked it together and made this monstrosity. it's definitely gonna be humans instead of dragons at some point though

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| style="text-align:center;" |character list (SPOILERS) |- | iris - main protag

certified babie
deeply confused
asks a lot of questions
puts an-10 in a necklace and drags him around
"alexa google how long i was frozen in a pod for"
tribe is not stated (but she's a seawing!)
"I know I'm not the dragon I used to be; we may share a body and a brain, but we do not share a heart or a mind. But that's okay, I think; that way, I can be my own dragon. I can start over, well and truly, for good."

AN-10 - the voice

is he a dragon? an alien? some sort of ai? nobody knows!
actually just. a magic cube. stuck inside of a machine
said cube contains the consciousness of... something... inside of it
eventually gets a (dragon) body at some point
essentially immortal, but can be incapacitated or cut off from a host
"If this temporary vessel remains attached to your physical form for a long enough period of time, my consciousness will begin to overwrite yours, rendering you essentially dead; considering your species' attachment to their bodies, I believe this is an inadvisable outcome for you." "So you're asking for a way out?"

"I am giving you a warning."

if you can figure out what his name is referencing then congrats! you figured out the stuff that inspired this. it's pretty obvious to me (as i was the one who was inspired), but if anyone gets it i will actually marry you

jetstream - surface dweller

skywing/seawing
epick gaymer
takes on an "older sister"/guide role
crazy smart
has a prosthetic/mechanical arm. its pretty dope she can do firescales-like stuff w/ it
probably has some sort of power armor

mist - surface dweller

icewing
*angery*
jet's girlfriend
self-proclaimed weapons expert
exists to kick butt and keep jet from becoming too >:I

klax - surface dweller

icewing
snarky rat who buries serious issues under humor
does not understand how to comfort others
"MY BOYFRIEND IS DEAD"
maybe somehow related to mist

dog - surface dweller

last natural animus
hermit
"back in my day"
he. knows. everything.
allwing????? or something?????
has kinda gone stir-crazy from being alone for so long
*feral hissing*

|}