Everyone was just sitting down for dinner, that warm spring evening, when a knock came on the door. Sentio, currently the closest one, waved Akija and Chario back to their seats-- as both of them started to rise again the same time he did-- and made his way over, himself. He wasn't sure just who would be dropping by, unless Aeta and Onis randomly decided they wanted to eat with the other bonded pairs instead of their parents that evening, but he still expected someone familiar. When he opened the door, however, it was to someone very not familiar.

It looked like, in fact, a giant bug. A giant red bug, with four limbs ending in grasping hands and big, buggy, red eyes. It was a good thing Sentio, unlike some dragons he'd known, didn't have a problem with insects. "Uh... hi."

"Mezzzzzage for Cacopheny?" the creature buzzed, wings mimicking the Z sound with a rapid flutter. It held in its hand-- probably his hand, given the voice sounded vaguely masculine-- a piece of expensive-looking paper, sealed with wax.

"Uh, yeah... Cacopheny?"

The half-demon frowned at him, but stood up and came over. "Vat?"

"Uh, message for you."

"Cacopheny?" the insect-courier buzzed again, and Cacopheny looked at him for a very long time before nodding, expression quite neutral. "Mezzzage for you, from zzzze ladiezz Chiya and Ketvia." He held out the paper, which did, indeed, have Cacopheny's name on it.

::Where in the world are they, if they're sending... bug-messengers?::

::I don't know,:: Cacopheny replied, as mystified as his bond, and accepted the letter. As the insect-courier didn't look as if he was going anywhere, he didn't close the door, but slit the wax with a claw and unfolded the paper, glancing over Chiya's precise handwriting. It was a long glance: Cacopheny, though he could read perfectly well, was not particularly fast at it.

"Sssey are at ssomeplace call't... Sssstar Ssssity?" he finally summarized. "Sssey have... tchiltren ssere."

Akija and Chario exchanged a look of surprise, and Sentio stared with the same. Cacopheny glanced around at them, and added, "Sssey vant us to come to sse hatching. --I ssought tragons tid not hatch," he added, sounding puzzled.

The insect-courier smothered an incredulous noise, which Cacopheny only ignored and Sentio frowned at, confused.

"They... don't", Chario agreed, scratching the back of his neck. "Unless they're Airs, or seedling Earths."

The courier tilted his head, absorbing the comment. "Well. Zzze ladiezzz have eggzzz now, azzz my employer hazzz created offzzzpring for zzzem from zzzere DNA, and can only plazze zzze children in eggzzz to grow. Plazzing zzzem in zzze motherzzz themzzzelvezzz would have been too dangerouzzz."

Akija stared blankly as Chario asked, " ... that made no sense to everyone else, right? What's dee'enay?"

"Wait, they're having daemon-kids?" Akija asked on the tail of that.

Sentio didn't bother to say anything, mind struggling around the concept of dragons having children like daemons, and from the utterly blank look on Cacopheny's face, he didn't even understand the words.

The courier buzzed thoughtfully to himself. "Hmmm. Zzzis muzzzt be a primitive world. My mizzztake. I wazzz not warned. Zzzimply put, zzze ladiezzz have had children togezzzer, wizzz zzze help of my employer, Doctor Zzzhroeder. Zzzere children will have two mozzerzzz. No fazzzerzzz."

Chario's expression was twisted with confusion, while Akija struggled to understand. "So... this... Shray-der is a daemon, then?"

At least the courier did not appear impatient with their inability to understand. Then again, with that insectoid face, he didn't appear much of anything. "Hmmmm. Perhapzzz I am not zzze bezzzt one to try and ezzzplain zzziz to you."

Sentio shook his head vigorously. "Maybe Ketvia and Chiya can explain... when is it?"

Cacopheny glanced at the paper again. "Ssree veeks."

"Are we going?" Sentio asked, looking around at everyone.

"Absolutely," Akija replied, while Chario nodded. "This I gotta see... whatever it is."

"I... kess," Cacopheny said slowly. "Yess. Zhe ssays Aedelian vill take uss, ven sse time comes."

"Then I guess we're going," Sentio nodded, too, looking at the courier still standing outside their door-- waiting, he expected now, for an answer.

He was right. "Zzzzen I will tell zzem, upon my return," the courier said with a bob of his own head-- which meant a bob of his whole body, given he had hardly any neck. "Good day to you all."

With another buzz of wings, the insect-courier drew up his legs and promptly darted off, quite literally disappearing before he reached the forest. "Wow," Sentio said, peering after him. "Was that weird, or was that weird?"

"That," Akija answered sagely, "made weird look normal. I mean... Chiye and Ketvia havin' kids? Even without this Shray-der person, that's weird enough on its own...."

"Vell," Cacopheny said as he came back to the table, eyes back on the paper, though he somehow managed to seat himself with triping anyway. "Ketvia alvays tid like tchildren... and Tchiya, as vell. Ssough I ssstill to not know how it might be posssssible."

"Daemons do it," Sentio mused, dropping back into his own seat. "And I've read something-- or heard something, I don't remember which-- about this 'Star City' place. It's supposed to be real advanced. Magic and machines." Not that Sentio knew much about machines, really; some of the most complex "machines" on Avengaea were pulley systems, and even they were usually magically enhanced in some way. "Who knows what they might be able to do?"

"But daemons still need, ya know, a guy and a girl to start things off...." Akija frowned a little, but then suddenly hit the heel of her hand to her forehead. "Oh, it's an off-world place! I get it!" She snickered at herself as she put her hand back down, now grinning widely. "I'm gonna be the first Watcher to go off-world!"

Chario cackled as Akija started to do some sort of jig in her seat. "As a guest, don't forget!"

"Matters not!" Akija put her hands on her hips, turning her nose up in mock arrogance. "I get even more bragging rights, now!"

With a good-natured roll of his eyes, Chario deflated his bond by giving her a poke in the ribs, making her jump to the side with a squeak. Cacopheny chuckled. "You brrrrag enough, as it is," he commented. "And all you haf done iss. Get bonted and faced town a demon. I fear vat you vill start sayingk. After visitingk anosser vorld."

Akija was quick with her response, which was just as playful as Cacopheny's had been: "Why, I shall expect your adoring worship, of cour--" She cut off with another laughing squeal as Chario lunged at her again, tickling until she was nearly forced to flee by falling out of her chair. Sentio couldn't help himself: he burst into a fit of giggles. Even Cacopheny looked like he was trying hard not to laugh.

"Not as long as I'm around to keep you in check," Chario grinned, after stopping to let her recover her breath.

"Killjoy," Akija wheezed, swatting at his wiggling fingers.

"Only now and then," Chario grinned.

And with that, they'd all recovered enough from laughing to at least start dinner.