Piers Hoarfrost
President of the United States
And Magic Studies Professor

Yes, that's right. It does say he's also 'President of the United States'. A while back, before every Nexus world in its right mind started visiting Carramba, a magical universe started spiralling out of its friendly ways and into a more dark, fearful time. Equating to the modern 1990s Earth, but with the added bonus that witchcraft and mages really did exist and work their spells right next to everyone else, this world was somewhat boring. Until the Shadow Mage guild decided it needed to run things.

Piers was actually more than 90 years old by that time, having worked his way through two world wars and breaking into several neighboring universes on the way. He'd also spent a few years serving a demon in Hell, as an exchange for knowledge and abilities - and the friendship of the demon followed him back to earth.

The Shadow Mages included one extremely powerful mage from each inhabited continent, and several others from large and powerful countries. As a group, they influenced the political leadership from behind a mask of shadows. They occasionally took control over people, making them into puppets and doing their bidding. They knew about Piers and his demonic connections, they knew that he was much older than most of them. But what they wanted to know was whether he had it in him to become one of the world's Great Mages.

The Shadow Mages 'elect' a Great Mage every few decades, and it had been a while since anyone had cared about their last choice, as he'd gotten bogged in his own ruins and desires. The general population doesn't know about any of this of course, but some magic users were privy to it.

Piers was running a sort of magical fix-it service, creating wards for homes, healing sick children and the like. Correcting bad magic, lifting curses. And having a lot of sex with his demon friend, too, along with his new human girlfriend...

It was therefore a bit of a shock to him when the president declared witchcraft to be illegal. In major cities around the country, and many smaller towns where magic was well known, members of a special team of government agents rounded up the children of magical parentage, and forced them to recite an oath declaring that they would never perform magic upon pain of death.

Now... To Piers this broke all conventional wisdom, and he knew something was wrong. He couldn't stop the cursed oath from killing more children than it already had - but he could make a new one to nullify it. However, in order to make sure it worked, he had to be in a position where people would follow along and repeat it.

His girlfriend suggested he run against the president in the upcoming election. Piers had never considered politics before, he was after all the kind of guy with a weird past and secrets that people just shouldn't hear about in a mudslinging campaign. The fact that his demon lover was male among them.

He was deciding what to do, taking a bit of a walkabout, when he learned that the wards of his home were being breached. The Shadow Mages had openly attacked his home shortly after he declared his anger about the president's decision - before he'd declared he'd be running. But this certainly gelled it. There were irreplaceable items - books by the dozen, magical statues, papers and many other things - which were destroyed in the explosive invasion to his home. But he began rebuilding. With his demon friend now officially by his side, and his girlfriend standing guard, they sealed the house up once more, and launched an official campaign.

Piers traveled by teleportation, unerringly, to where he was needed most. At the bedside of yet another dying child, or in a school to make it clear that while the curse was still active it would be best to just 'be normal'. He won support quickly among the magic using population of course.

Disaster after disaster seemed to follow - but finally Piers got a good look at one of the Shadow Mages. He followed the cloaked man to their guild hall, and literally killed fifteen of them before one even shouted that he was there.

Yes, Piers Hoarfrost kills people. But the lives of the Shadow Mages, in his opinion, aren't worth even a moment of the children they killed.

When he was finally able to confront the last Shadow Mages - a group of seven - he learned at last that it had been a plot by them to see whether he'd be able to lift the curse from the children - becoming a Grand Mage in their eyes - or if he'd crumple under the pressure as the last one had.

So he ended the Shadow Mages' hold on the current president, who abruptly repealed the orders against magic users. (Not coincidentally, the US was re-admitted to the United Nations shortly afterwards...) But he couldn't lift the curse, he had not truly cast it. So Piers ran, unopposed (for the very first time in the history of the country) and won the seat of the Presidency with overwhelming support. Broadcast over live tv, Piers did manage to lift the cursed oath from the children who'd survived. More than five thousand children had perished before that time, victims of accidental magic use or purposefully attempting to break the oath.

His curse breaking was dramatic, difficult, and even ugly. Five million children affected by it. The chant they were to say with him threw off their curse. Indeed it did. It was impossible for him to be in thousands of places at once to take the curse personally - he did so en masse, on television, soaking up the collective curse on the children until they were free of it. Then and only then was he able to actually break it. It left him nearly dead, broken and weak. He recuperated for seven weeks, able to speak and move enough to sign various documents or pass on information as necessary. Eventually, he went missing.

And was found at his home, fixing the place up just a bit before having to move fully into the White House.

His first duty done, Piers then changed the very face of politics yet again, and added an entire branch to the government's offices. One which had been ignored too long, that which governed magic and its use. Even though he'd been exposed to have killed two dozen men in the Shadow Mages guild, it was and still is understood that mages of his caliber are allowed to do so, for the sheer folly of getting in their way.

Piers has been President twice, now. There is no term limit in his world, and everyone rather expects him to run again - or even just remain president until he doesn't feel like it any longer. He is after all immortal, or very nearly, and people well and truly like him. He doesn't openly lie about any question that he's asked, though he is known to dodge some now and again.

***

Piers had been at Carramba teaching for just under two semesters, kind of at the same time as his Presidency, when he received a strange tugging on his mind. It was almost like a child grabbing at a coattail, but it was more urgent.

He always listened to such requests, and followed the direction that he could discern with his highly tuned mind. It led him to teleport offworld, which he'd been known to do many times before. This time though, he was met with not a child in distress or even a demon wanting some company.

But instead, an egg. A rather large one in fact. He looked around, knew that it wouldn't quite be 'missed' so much as 'wondered about', if he took it.

So of course, he took it. The mental relief when he did so was immense, as was the black hatchling that tumbled out of it shortly upon arriving home. (Home for Piers is his normal house - which is situated somewhere in the mid-west, but for purposes of magic, it hardly matters whether he's on campus or not, he's always available.)

"You've got plenty more wings than I'd expect from a dragon," said Piers, and his girlfriend Kelly scampered over to see what the noise was. Even the demon hanging out had to admit that the black color was rich and the little dragon (to him it was little) was pretty cute.

The dragon mentally attached himself to Piers in moments. To some, this would be quite invasive. But to Piers, who was used to parceling out parts of himself all the time, he merely wrapped a bit of himself around the idea that this dragon was now 'his'.

It didn't take long before Cedanuachoth wanted to follow Piers to school, and he grew at such a rate that even the dragonry classes could hardly keep up. By the end of Piers' first year at the school, the dragon was nearly twelve feet long. How he kept up doing everything, being President, being a professor, a Grand Mage, boyfriend and all, no one knows. But now, Piers has a fantastic dragon to show off at parties...

Cedanuachoth is not a talkative dragon. However, when he does speak it is absolutely direct and to the point. He likes the way that Piers cuts through the bullcrap and speaks his mind to people, and has always tried to emulate it.

What he likes most though, is when they go to parties, Cedanuachoth (or Piers calls him 'choth sometimes, not always) gets to wear a special size-changing charm. It's entirely possible that Piers wears one too at times, given his partners or situations...

But in this way, Choth can slink around at the size he used to be as a youngling: about twelve feet long nose to finny tail. Like an oil slick, he slips between people, checks out what they're doing, and moves on. Yes, he's a bit intrusive that way. But no one really wants to say anything.

It's the President's dragon, after all...

Name: Cedanuachoth
Colour: Black
Size: Very Large, 25' shoulder, 75' long at adolescence, about 120' long at full adulthood), 80', 75', and 65' wingspans
Features: Triowing Danachian with tail fins and buttwings
Abilities: Winged Flight
Teleportation, Genrehopping
Telepathy
Firebreath

Mate: Shadow-Spirit Myrsilk Tameji (ew that link is gross), Offspring here

Sponsor/Caretaker of: Rustle, of the Burrow

Cedanuachoth noticed that he was among the bigger of the dragons lingering at this place, though there were some fair few that could match him. He did fit right in, many of the inhabitants and certainly plenty of those who had hatched here were strikingly black - or white, or red...

And it was a red hatchling that emerged carefully, after seeming to poke around a lot both mentally and physically. A few others moved by him, but this one remained. She peered up at him with curious but already intelligent red eyes. He did feel the nudge of her mind, inexpert since she was so young.

Come with? Teach me?

I will do both of those things, but I know others will help you too, Cedanuachoth reassured her, and was rewarded with a tiny cheep of glee.

She didn't really display much glee otherwise, as she grew into a more mature dragonet. But for a time he helped deliver freshly killed meals, protected her from the big scary lightning storms that sometimes tumbled over their midwest home, and taught her language and observation skills. Then, when she had managed to spread her four wings and flew a short bit for the first time, 'Choth told his rider, she should go with you to school, I should start looking at that too... remember when I went?

"Wait - when... did this happen?" Piers was well aware that he was busy but how had he been busy enough to miss a half-year old dragon being cared for by his own bond?

Obviously recently, was the dragon's response, and that was the only time Piers also heard that giggle from the red and white dragonet.

So off they went, to find Carramba's selection of draconic studies had slightly expanded since the big black triowing had attended. Not quite enough for his taste, but perhaps he'd work on something, or at least try to locate other interested parties to give them more to work with. There was only so much algebra that a dragon really needed to know, after all.

(from a failed attempt to breed... oh well, Choth)

I shall return, Choth announced to his bond, and in a burst of wing motion he swept into the sky like a ribbon, and vanished with a teleport. Piers gazed after him, blinking, and pursed his lips.

"ooookay!" He said, and hoped that any enemies that Cedanuachoth had been keeping at bay didn't notice the dragon had left his side.

***

Cedanuachoth arrived after a lengthy teleport, somewhat winded but hardly exhausted. Where he arrived, was a locale filled with snow, dragons, and skiing. His bond would probably like this place, but for the moment it was Choth's decision to arrive alone. He didn't want any complications from Piers, and Piers was known to complicate things.

Kilandaia's lodge, high up in the mountains, was a welcome place, though he knew he'd have to use his little size-charm to get around inside. Why had he come here? Well, there was a flight or two. Well, one for him, another that he intended to watch just in case there were... well... spares.

Yes, he'd picked that kind of arrogance up from Piers himself, but the President had rarely been denied and Choth felt it was about time to get his own kind of action going. After all, he was a dramatic, extremely handsome dragon, and who could possibly resist that?

Well for one, Anakelsa might resist him. He didn't know that. Of course even if he'd been warned ahead of time that this flesh-and-blue colored dragoness was going to make it tough on everyone signing on to her flight, he would still have the same attitude. But he saw her as she flew in chilly circles over the lodge, and watched her for a bit.

She wasn't as long as he, but he was mostly wingspan, he had a huge flight advantage over her. But he also had a bond, one who'd essentially trained Choth up to expect people to watch him. Or at least, watch for him. Slinking around folks while shrunk down gave him an impish delight, but flying circles around them when he was full size also made him feel tremendously cool.

Not that he wanted to anger her. He watched as another potential suitor flew up and was spurned, yikes. On one hand, Choth knew that diplomacy would be needed for her to realize he was the best choice among these other males.

On the other hand, Cedanuachoth wasn't really great at diplomacy...

But he was good at flying, and perhaps that was something he could charm her with. It actually seemed like she didn't want to be charmed - she wanted to be thought of as bitter and caustic, and that made Choth a bit sad for her. How lonely, to want to push everyone aside like that.

If only he could put that into words... which came out right...

Another thing he was quite good at though, and he'd been told, was that of 'great entrances'. So Cedanuachoth took to the bright skies above the lodge, twirled just like that ribbon he was fond of emulating, and dove around Anakelsa's surprised feathery-winged form.

He delicately spun in the air, six wings providing an interesting, if improbable, lift vector.

I notice you flying out here alone, he bespoke carefully into her mind, not knowing whether it would be acceptable to her - not like he had much choice, as he was one of those dragons without the ability to speak words like humans did. I would enjoy keeping you company, for a bit, if you'd like.

He could sense the sudden wall of anger from her, which he didn't really know what to do with. And, being that he was still rather young, only around four years old (but mature! he would insist), he said, I don't know why you'd want to even bother with any of those other males down there. They're not suited to life in the air like we are. Why settle for them? When I'm here now?

He saw her eyes actually widen, and realized it was in anger a moment later, so he spun downwards, still trying to impress with his flight prowess, just in case. She'd probably come to her senses some time soon. And then of course, it would be him because pfft, those other males were all small, smaller than him and smaller than her in most cases, and they hardly had the wings to really keep up with a good flight.

He had that in spades. He knew he would be there for her. At least for a while, to keep the chill off. Choth flew around the hillsides, looking for likely places to land, if he wore her out...