If Vina Sanger had lived to see her daughter slipping into her favorite leather corset, she might have exploded. Or, helped her get into it. Sophia was her mother's pride and joy, while Soren took lessons from merely observing, Sophia could learn directly how to bat her eyes and how to speak in just the right husky tone.

Sophia is a temptress, make no mistake about that. As her brother is a masculine Siren, she takes any situation and makes her way to the top of it using any means necessary.

Naturally her Modeling class is her highest priority. However she really does enjoy Fashion Tech as well. Her bane on the other hand is Multiplanar History. She knows there are many different versions of Earth out there. But she just doesn't care.

***

"I love your hair," Miranda Varnhagen, the Business Math teacher, said. It was after classes, and Sophia had stopped back in the room to pick up some notes for Crazy Doc Sanger. Apparently the two knew one another outside of the school system, or perhaps in another universe. That was one of those things Sophia wasn't clear on - which came from where, who was native, that kind of crap. It wasn't her 'thing'. It was clear to Sophia anyway that her mother's male doppleganger (who kind of took precidence in her mind, because, well, he was alive, and Vina had died when she was a child) had either had sex with or flirted at practically every single member of the school's staff.

Well, in many cases, who wouldn't? Varnhagen was very pretty, if a bit old for Sophia's tastes. She hardly cared which gender she was looking at, though she'd been warned several times that teachers were strictly off limits. Twoarth's (that's the world where Carramba High is, she reminded herself repeatedly) policies were a bit different than in many exclusively human worlds, but they still didn't approve of student-teacher physical relationships.

Wait for graduation, was the mantra that she and her brother Soren chanted often enough.

Getting back to the present, Sophia giggled and prodded at her hair. It was lifted into a little flat curl at the back of her head, framed with a row of barrettes and baubles that brought out just how black it was. Miranda's was quite dark, and had the same kind of heavy strands that Sophia did. "I could style you," she suggested. The instructor brightened right up.

They chatted about this and that, and eventually got on the subject of Sanger. Sophia immediately recognized the signs of 'crushing' from the woman, but with a mature air. They were friends first, scientists second, and lovers third.

"Don't you want a bit more out of ... your relationship?" Sophia prodded gently while she combed the woman's thick hair. "I mean, friends make the best lovers."

"Of course they do," Miranda said, eyes closed and with a gentle smile on her thick lips, "but we're both quite busy. We actually spend more time together in off hours now, than we did before he bonded Umpteenth. Since he comes with us to the dragon events, you know."

"That's nice," Sophia said, faintly disappointed that her powers didn't seem to get any farther than that. It was always so much easier to push a pair into a hot and heavy frenzy when they already liked each other! And if anything compelled Sophia to action, it was that there wasn't nearly enough hot and heavy going on around her. She knew that Crazy Doc was getting whatever he wanted, but ... For all intents and purposes, if he wasn't getting who she thought was good for him...

Eventually, after trading makeup and hair tips with one another, Miranda had to go and Sophia began her walk home. It was not far, but it was into a neighborhood where there had been quite a lot of gang activity. Since Alabaster had taken care of the prior gang, others were ready to take their place. Lucrezhia and Lucien hadn't put up further magical barriers while they'd been residing in the complex, so slowly the encroachment started again.

Sophia saw the gang tags, first one building, then a beatup fence, then on trucks parked in a dock. Whoever the RatSkullz were, they were hardly the kind of image that Sophia wanted to see portrayed around her home! While she made it home without incident, she'd seen clearly three gang members hanging out trading insults and watching her from across the street.

A keen little laugh in her mind was echoed a bit later, in the apartment's common area. When she talked to Tamsin about getting rid of the gang.

"But we don't have powers, not like -" she waved her hands in the air like she was casting a spell, "'Powers'! What can we do? I mean, we're pretty and everything but we're hardly superheroes on our own." She sighed, "especially me and Thomas, really..."

"No, no, you're exactly the person I want to help me..." Sophia said. The wicked grin she had grew on the girl rapidly, after she told the plan...

They waited until evening, and Sophia got Tamsin dressed up more like her, less brightly and colorful, more black and leathery. They applied makeup, did their hair and nails. And then they went out to find the RatSkullz. This gang, while named after an animal, were all human - even though there were a good number of kin types in this neighborhood. Perhaps their name was meant to sicken the rat-kin populace? They were found easily enough in just about the same place they'd been while Sophia walked home.

"Hey boys!" Sophia called, and though Tamsin was supposed to be brave in battle she could feel the otherworld-twin wince. "Do your thing, Tamsin," she said quietly while the men were approaching. Tamsin obeyed, though she wasn't sure why. What could her powers be enhancing?

She found out soon enough! Sophia's body didn't change, but for all intents and purposes she was hardly a fifteen year old any more. The way she was stuffed into the corset and skirt, while elegant, made her look as though she'd be much more comfortable if only one of these gentlemen helped her out of them.

"We're looking for someone to ... talk to," Sophia said. Tamsin played along, still a little worried.

"Well you found us," said one young man, whose pockmarked skin and scarred jaw were hardly what Sophia or Tamsin would call attractive.

"No, I am looking for someone... more important than you." Tamsin kept plugging her power into Sophia, and true to form, all she had to do was bat her eyes a little, and the trio of men practically scampered over one another to lead them into the nearby dock building.

Inside, four more young gang members had gathered. They were playing cards, and it looked like they'd helped themselves to the contents of some of the boxes which were supposed to have been shipped out by the company owning the place.

"This isn't your building," Sophia said, walking with confidence and a beautiful sway to her hips. "What exactly are you doing here?"

"We..." The one guy started to say, but when Sophia and Tamsin got close enough he sank back into his seat as did the others. "Well, they're letting us... use it."

"Letting?" Tamsin asked.

"... Yeah, sure, letting us... I mean, they're over in the corner, right?" He tossed his head and a pair of guys who clearly shouldn't have been tied down to chairs, were tied down to chairs.

"Hm." Sophia said. "Well. That will stop right now, won't it."

Tamsin felt a strange change come over the girl, and sensed her powers getting serious.

The hoods were going to protest, but then they simply couldn't. Their eyes glazed over, and eventually the weaker willed ones just up and ran out of the building. The leader took a little longer, but eventually he too stood and politely excused himself.

The girls untied the two men running the building, who thanked them profusely.

"If they come back, you just be sure to tell us. We're in the new apartments." Sophia said. "And we'll get rid of those vermin for you."

"Sure, we'll be sure to do that!" The older man said. "Whatever you did to them, thank you! Thank you!"

The younger one was still stuck staring right at Sophia's bosom, but was shaken from that when the girls dropped their powers.

"But - you're just a couple of kids!" Said the younger man.

"And yet," Sophia said with a grin and a flip of her hand, "we weren't the ones tied up to chairs in our own business, were we."

They left, and went at least a full block before dissolving into giggles and triumphant talk.

***

It wasn't long after the school year started, perhaps a month, when Sophia was sent out to find a dragon bond. She did a lot of research, and that research led her to a place that had only barely been discovered. It was a complicated world, to be sure, but rich in wildlife and culture. Sophia went to the Chanson De Coeur to study up.

Though their 'dragons' did not have wings, they flew beautifully through the sky. Sophia was immediately taken by their grace and style. And their baubles, how they held themselves, in other words it was love at first sight for the Zuruihebi.

But what she found first was so perfect for her needs, that she was compelled to share her limited candidate space with a Tejijaneko! The cat like creature was huge, and she liked him that way. The size of a decently large dog, coming up to her hip at his furry shoulder, she named him Genso for his ability with aiding her in mentally addling people.

So Genso and Sophia waited for the Zuruihebi eggs to hatch. What would come from them? Who would pair and who might be left standing and waiting? These exotic and intelligent creatures would have to choose for themselves!

***

Sophia is standing at Renaissance's Le Feu

***

Sophia smoothed lotion on her skin, and Genso sniffed at it with a snort. "You don't have to like it, nekocritter," Sophia laughed, "it's to keep my skin soft. Your fur is soft enough without it!"

Apparently glad for that little blessing, the grey colored feline curled up on the foot of her bed and swished his tail emotively.

"I know, the eggs." Sophia said. "So you will stay here and, um, guard my dresser."

Genso purred loudly at that. He didn't speak so much as emote, almost like the little smilies online. Four-foot tall smilies with a long tail and fangs.

Sophia darted through the halls until she reached the chambers the candidates were called to. The red female whose eggs were shaking appraised everyone coming in to watch, and then left. Intensely independant, the zuruihebi were attractive to Sophia because they could survive with or without others.

She preferred with of course, but a private confidant or a second opinion on things would always be best. When everyone was there, waiting (and there were a lot more people than Sophia would have expected for three eggs! these must be very special indeed!) the first of the three hatched. A blue-lavender hatchling came from his shell, and was immediately cared for by the local professional. "Korin," he announced the name.

When the second egg hatched, it was an energetic purple who rolled rather than slid out of the egg. She wound up knocking Sophia down with the force of her exit, mewled quietly at her leg, and then adopted the very same colors of aura as Sophia had.

"Copying me now, are you?" Sophia asked with a grin.

Like you? I'm a breed of my own, girl, Zuruihebi, haven't you noticed? Teach me though. We'll be great, and you know it.

"Well come on, Isasa, let's get you fed." Sophia decided that would be the best course of action. Her connection with this highly magical female was strong. They found their way to where Korin was being tended, and watched from the sidelines as the beautiful copper male, last in the clutch, bonded to the drak who was the only other candidate.

"He's quite beautiful," Sophia commented to the drak when they were heading back to the rest areas. The drak would probably be in another part of the castle, and Sophia sighed to look at them go. The copper slithered through the air as easily as a snake through grass.

I know how to do that, Isasa commented, and floated eagerly around Sophia's head. She wasn't very big right now, but not even close to the size of the copper male.

"Well you're going to get to do it a lot, I think," Sophia promised the female as they walked back into her quarters. "When we get back to Carramba High you'll be coming to classes with me, and I want you to learn everything you can. From the shadows, of course."

With Genso? The feline flipped his tail from left to right, purring and gently licking the Zuruihebi's velvety fur.

"Well, Genso doesn't need to come to classes with us, he's such a lump... And I think he'd make some of the kids allergic to cats go nuts."

That is a shame, I like Genso. He is very warm.

"He is, and heavy." Sophia'd noticed that, because of course he slept at the bottom of her bed... on her feet...

It would be summer before any of the dragons and creatures which the Sanger Twins bonded were big enough to actually ride. Of course, with summer came summer classes - and since most of the dragon riders would be requiring constant lessons anyway, they all enrolled. The slick zuruihebi that Sophia paired up with was rapidly growing her back spines and had already found a few orbs worth storing power in. Sophia could cling onto the purple while she hovered - but Isasa wasn't quite strong enough to lift them both just yet. She would be, in time.

Name: Isasa
Age: Hatchling; Dam: Red Nikka; Sire: Silver Viras
Gender: Female
Color: Dark Purple
Size: 20' (Medium-Large)
Abilities: Aura control, Empathy, Healing, Psionics, Thrall, Shadow magic
Hatching Message: Like you? I'm a breed of my own, girl, Zuruihebi, haven't you noticed? Teach me though. We'll be great, and you know it.
Personality: She loves being different, and is proud to be the first female to hatch at an official clutch. She's also proud to be purple. And to be Sophia's bond. And… heck, she's just plain proud. Isasa will take any achievement and brag about it. She does know when to be humble though, such as when manipulating people. She wants to help Sophia however she can, and Isasa has no doubts that Sophia is perfect, so don't cross her bond or you'll end up with a very angry Isasa.
Bond: Sophia