The Gang's All Here

Here is a follow on to "Through the Looking Glass"

Which was a follow on to "The Cookie of Good Fortune"

Part Three of a drawing series-

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Rather than a colored lineart like "Looking Glass" , went now to a painted sketch technique, although a lot of the sketch still gets obliterated, its still faster than painted - over sketch.

As always, some of our resident deviant Dragon Writers and sketchers have been "recruited" for this one, look and see if you were tagged. If not, there may be more of these in future. Hints- two numbers figured in here ...387 and 616.

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Let the storyline begin:

After a series of delays and diversions, finally made it to UltimateDragCon2012 for the last day, better than nothing. I arrived early and entered the hall and noticed something was out right away. Cosplayers are always at these events, and ComicCons plus other gatherings. This place seemed to be nothing but costumes, and not a lame one in sight either!

Still shaking my head, I spied a group of six more attendees who were in plain clothes and skin, aka - human and sat down with them, knowing most of them. They were a bit shaken and said "You don't know whats' been going on here, have you?" seeing my puzzled looks. I gave them my whole sad story about not getting here until minutes ago, and whats with these costumes, I had not been online for a few days and that includes the phone. The group spelled out the whole thing about the last 48 hours.

"That's Looney Tunes" I said, secretly hoping I was wrong. One of the "dragons" was walking by and even had a name tag I recognized, a good friend- Dragon1337. Calling him over, asked if it was real or costume, straight up answer, bro!
Even as I was doing this, others at our table were jerking my sleeves saying "Don't". Too late, 1337 stepped behind me, wrapped arms (awfully strong for a teen!) around me and sprung into the air, flying around the auditorium with me saying "OK , OK , I get your point! Down please, Eustace."

1337 apologized, after we landed - but he was just having too much fun and had given the airshow to half of our table already. The room was filling fast and we just sat and wondered how long we had until getting the species makeover. Maybe soon, maybe...not? What a letdown that would be! The final presentation was minutes away and we were the center of attention as 7 non-dragons in a room-full.

A Eastern dragon entered along with an assistant and the lights dimmed. He raised a paw for silence and the room slowly calmed. Turning to his assistant, he mumbled something while pointing to our table. The assistant came over and placed a large candle in the center of our table and quickly resumed his station on stage.

"Welcome to the final presentation of UDC2012, I am glad we have so many fledgelings here today, and a few yet to hatch", smiling at our table. A flutter in my stomach, it looks like we were 'on the list'. The entire assembly started quietly chanting "Lets light this candle" and cheering.

The speaker snapped his fingers and from them shot a little fireball that arced over to our table and struck the candle, sending up from the wick its tiny flame and a very heavy incense.

Small as it was the flame grew in intensity, becoming a blowtorch color yet no sound from it.

Soon it began to act like a ROMAN candle, spitting small incandescent orbs into the air. One landed on a member of our group and it seemed to "enter" him, instead of burn him. In moments, he was a anthro dragon! and his chair collapsed from the extra weight!

Six more orbs launched, finding their marks with ease, mine landed on the tip of my nose and my vision blurred and I shook and next found that head shake was waving a full muzzle side to side! It was done.

Our group were marveling that we were all the character personas that we had written about, sketched or built using those dragon-maker programs. The candle had collapsed to a smoking lump of wax, its job done.

"Allright then, now that we have FULL Attendance, lets get this show over with."

What I did not know was that among all of the dragons here was a great anticipation mixed with dread and fear. Why would anyone turn over 700 persons to another species in a short time. A great mystery must surely now unfold. Was it a great quest to be embarked on? Was there a space ship double-parked behind the theater? Or a time portal, Star-gate, or maybe a fleet of Army trucks to haul us to some secret lab where our worst nightmares would be exceeded?

Our host simply said that a envelope was waiting for each of us on our way out. Inside it was a pair of incantations that would allow us to shift back to our old selves and back to this form at will. Nothing else. He bid us a safe journey home and said that next years con' was going to be even better, one not to miss.

One dragon held up a paw and asked "Is this all?" to which our host said "yes!" Another question of "Aren't we going on some adventure like rescue a planet of wolf-men or something?"

Our host simply said "That's a great idea, you should write about that, epic story idea there!"

More questions, each answered similarly with a "you should draw/write/sculpt/paint/animate that!"

He smiled and said, "I was sent here to confer a gift on you that each of you, in their own way, asked for. The way that you came to the idea to become one of us ancient ones in the first place was through your imagination. Now this goal is met. So it is up to each one of YOU to make of it what you will and to plan and begin the next step, which can be truly remarkable. You each have a special unique magic and will couple it to your existing extensive gifts and talents. The results should be great, but only you can envision them, much as you envisioned becoming a Dragon."

The throng began to consider what they had just been told. The story was not in its middle or the end, in fact, the book and the canvas were BLANK.

Now, anything was possible as long as we could think of it and apply ourselves. Heads began to nod and smiles appear and hushed talking.

"SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!" said our host as he disappeared in a flash of violet light, to a thunderous applause.

I'll be there, come hell or high water!

Update: 12/7/12

Everyone in this one has guessed their characters except