Aquatic Anomaly [Avu]

[Kisha-Ra]

Mo’rya twisted his body back on himself, becoming, for several moments an odd tangle of limbs and hair, then with a splash he straightened out and turned onto his front, then made a face at the feeling of his long hair tangling around his limbs and sticking to his back. With an almighty sigh for the unfairness of the laws of physics Mo’rya struck out for the edge of the pool where his dragon, his salamandyr, and his blue firelizard lounged in the sun. With Ghost and Gaia apparently still feeling worn down by the illness that has swept through the firelizard population the trip to the springs had become a bit of a boys day out.

Epifayrmuth blinked slowly as he turned his gaze on the dripping human that had just perched on his rock. I told you that was going to happen. The bronze dragon stated with absolutely no inflection as his rider sprawled across the rock, nearly squishing Wit in the process, to pull a pile of his belongings toward him. I recall this distinctly, it was not that long ago. Epifayrmuth added as Mo’rya pointedly ignored him. Evil added his own emphasis to this with a hiss from his perch on Epifayrmuth’s neck.

Retriving a comb from his things (and a hair tie that was discreetly slipped over his wrist when he thought Epifayrmuth wasn’t looking), Mo’rya returned to the pool and dangled his feet in the water while he tried to get the snarls out of his hair. The bronze dragon snorted, and privately admitted his rider did look an odd sight but at least this time there was no doubt Mo’rya was male. Whether or not this was a good thing was a matter for debate.

[Avu]

“Your obsession for the hot springs is slightly concerning and entirely predictable,” Ce’thian observed, as Sparath, apropos of nothing, executed a neat mid-air U-turn away from the Weyr and dipped through a tunnel to get outside; even if he hadn’t explicitly made his destination clear, it was only really a matter of guesswork. Ce’thian was good at that, with Sparath. He was also good at picking his fights, and trying to kick the bronze into taking him back to the Weyr was ever so blatantly a waste of time that he didn’t even bother. Instead, he crossed his arms across his chest, adding, “I hope you know most dragons are polite and at least add a by the way, we’re going to drown in heat in the middle of winter, outside or something. You couldn’t even let me go back and get a book?”

The last bit, tacked on, was only a little whiny. Ce’thian didn’t mind getting dragged along for Sparath’s little whims, but he’d much prefer to have something to serve as distraction when the bronze got too tickled at his expense. (He was allowed to have an ego, or at least try to have one, what with Sparath’s delight in teasing him, right?)

Sooo antisocial Minething, purred in an unsurprisingly reproachful amusement. Sparath coiled down to land, eyeing Epifayrmuth and his Rider in light interest, adding to Ce’thian, Don’t you want to play with the baby bronzie? I do. His humanthing looks very pretty like that, doesn’t he? Maybe you should go flirt with him. I think that’d be funny. With which ever-so-helpful suggestion, Sparath backwinged to land on a rock near Epifayrmuth, twirling his tail around the base and fluttering one wing in a mimicry of a human wave at the smaller bronze.

Don’t suppose you’ll mind us crashing the party, do you, Sparkles? Hypocrite of epic proportions, why yes he was, It’s cold outside and I need to thaw Minething out, he’s like a human popsicle. So awkward flying around with a frozen lump on your neck, ever tried it?

“Well aren’t you classy,” Ce’thian muttered, mostly to himself—when Sparath got distracted, he was very good at pretending he was completely distracted, even if there was really only so much attention a baby bronze could possibly merit. He tilted his head at Mo’rya, bemused, as he slid down from Sparath’s neck and stepped away from the bronze, commenting, “I’m pretty sure all the fish-people in the old stories, most of them were female. Otherwise you’re pretty convincing.”

[Kisha-Ra]

We have company it seems.[/i] Epifayrmuth noted as he spotted Sparath coming in to land, not that this required great powers of observation, the other bronze was quite large after all. Mo’rya was still apparently ignoring him though, either that or the effort of applying comb to hair was so great as to render his rider deaf. Evil responded to pronouncement of company, naturally, by flaring his dark wings and hissing defiance at the backwinging dragon, simply because he could.

Epifayrmuth dipped his muzzle in a dignified nod and snorted at the greeting. Oh do join us Glitterbug.[/color] The small bronze replied in an only slightly Ironic tone, amused that a bronze of so many metallic tones would call him Sparkles. Your rider doesn’t seem so very frozen to me. In fact he barely looks chilled. Epifayrmuth went on to observe stretching his neck out so his slightly overlarge head was closer to the human in question. He seems to be moving quite freely for a frozen human in fact, but I must admit I rarely allow Mo’rya to freeze. Having finished his remarks for this round Epifayrmuth settled himself more comfortably on his rock and looked expectantly at the older bronze. Greetings Glitterbug. Wit added into the pause, in the honest belief that this was indeed the dragon’s name it might be added, and clambered up to a perch on Epifayrmuth’s foot as if he was an active part of the conversation.

Mo’rya didn’t bother to look up as a second dragon was announced and landed, he had to admit he’d become rather jaded to such things since he’d Impressed Epifayrmuth, at one time nothing would have thrilled him more than watching a dragon land. Now however, his only concern was that it would snarl up his hair even more.

Mo’rya bit back a curse as the comb hit a particularly huge snarl and looked up at the older man as he started teasing it out. ‘I never understood that.’ The young man commented. ‘How were they supposed to drown their lovers when they had the fish part on the bottom and the lady part on the top? What does a fish even have there?’ Mo’rya considered this matter for several seconds then added. ‘Not that it would be much better with the lady part on the bottom and the fish part on the top, but at least there’d be a point.’

[Avu]

Sparath glanced at Epifayrmuth with amused blues bright in his eyes. Glitterbug? He liked that. It was new. Most dragons seemed bewildered about how to answer him, or tried to treat him like he was ordinary when Sparath was deliberately not, and this was nice. Oh frozen heart you know… rumbled in a deceptively modest sort of tone. You know how they say…it’s what on the inside that counts, and all, and Minething is practically an ice cube…doesn’t understand he’s supposed to cater to my every whim. Don’t they tell them that before they Impress? No doubt your humanthing will remember better than mine…he’s still all young. Soft underbelly still? Conscientiously concerned this time.

Perhaps you should try freezing…does wonders for when the nasties come along and try and gut the soft little humanthings, if they’re all frozen solid on the inside already. Sparath blinked, serenely pleased by his own wickedly morbid conclusion, before he deigned to add to the Salamandyr who addressed him, Hello yourself Speck of Ocean, what brings you so far from the beach? He pushed at Ce’thian lightly with his tail just for fun, and then half-slithered and half-plopped into the nearest spring, eyes slitting in amusement as he watched the mini tsunami of his creation slosh up against the rocks.

Ce’thian flashed Sparath a scowl without any real aggravation, distracted by Mo’rya. Why…would anybody think about that. “Well I presume fish are capable of doing the dirty just like humans are…fish-spawn does exist,” half-amused and half-bewildered as he knelt on top of the rock, watching Sparath absently. “And I think the idea of being sung to by a woman has more appeal than being sung to by a fish, even if the bottom halves don’t quite correspond.” Not that he’d know, since he’d never really been one for being seduced and sung to and whatever anyway, but.

“Also, selkies,” he added, toeing off his shoes and abandoning them to a drier patch of rock. “They’ve got the whole woman thing going on,” with a sweep of his hand to indicate head to toe on the word ‘whole’, as the bronzerider considered his pants for a moment before he started shucking clothes. If he was going to stick around he might as well be inside the spring instead of awkwardly lingering beside it. “And a sob story to boot, damsels in distress on the high seas. Or in the seas, as the case may be. Isn’t that beside the point though? You still haven’t got boobs.”

[Kisha-Ra]

Well it seemed this large bronze had a sense of humour or at least he didn’t get upset about his new name, which meant Epifayrmuth didn’t have to bother explaining the illogic of that to the other dragon. Instead they could continue their verbal sparring without interruption, and the other bronze certainly seemed willing to. I am certain.[/color] The young bronze was more ironic this time. I don’t think advertise it as personal slavery anymore, interest sharply fell off when they did I’ve heard. It’s back to joyous union now, and so Mo’rya thinks of our association.[/color] In truth Epifayrmuth had no desire for slaves, he’d leave that to Wit, but it certainly didn’t stop him from playing along with the older bronze’s word game.

Epifayrmuth gave an amused snort at the rather morbid suggestion and flashed his teeth in an imitation of a human grin. Well, I tend to try not to go around letting my rider get gutted; it’s so inconvenient, and messy besides. I’ll forgo the freezing and continue with the avoidance tactics. I’m quite surprised you didn’t think of that yourself.[/color] The small bronze allowed himself to flop over sideways to expose a new area of hide to the sun (much to Evil’s dismay), curving his neck back to look at the other dragon.

Wit let out an overdramatically large sigh for such a small creature and eyed this new dragon with the same air that a human might examine an insect. Wit is who I am. The salamandyr began his authoritative explanations as Evil settled down next to him for the moment. I got here the normal way, with him. Wit flipped an oversized wing at Epifayrmuth just to be sure the Glitterbug knew who he was talking about. Could walk but slaves are so much better.

‘I don’t know, fish lay eggs, they could have totally different arrangements. I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been a fish, or a fish woman.’ Mo’rya might have been taking his line of thought too far at this point but now that it was aired he was determined to consider all aspects. ‘Can fish even sing?’ Mo’rya inquired, wrinkling his nose at the image of a human legged fish running around trying to seduce people, relationships and things seem very complicated without cross species and species hybrid romance to worry about.

Selkies merited a moment of consideration from the young bronzerider before he replied. ‘Selkies are probably better then, you don’t have to worry about drowning, or getting slimy fish parts on you, or anything like that. They’re probably way more popular than mermaids for just those reasons.’ Mo’rya blinked a bit at the apparent change of topic (it had slipped his mind just how the subject of legendary water dwelling female creatures had come up) but he rallied by sticking his tongue out at the older rider. ‘That’s good. I don’t want any, they’d look weird on me, and none of my shirts would look good with boobs under them. I’ll be a different sea monster, one of the giant ones that get mistaken for islands maybe…’

[Avu]

You’d think there’d be laws against that sort of deception…then unlucky souls would get humanthings like Minething who just don’t understand you see… Musing, Sparath drew his claws over stone, Joyous union is such silly propaganda after all, it’s not like after they Impress us they do anything for the rest of their lives…you’d think they’d be as frightened of commitment to oversized bewinged dragons as they are of commitment to normal two-legged people don’t you think…all this stigma about interpersonal relationships and dragons are just magically wonderful. Someday someone will be disappointed and the entire system will simply fall apart.

A blink, a flash of playful teeth curving into a grin, And anyway…these things do happen you know. You can’t aaaalways keep your humanthing safe and sound tucked up next to you like a baby. Like I said, they’re all fussy about commitment. Minething always says I smother him, but perhaps he means that literally rather than metaphorically. I never can tell, you understand… Sparath fluttered one wing coquettishly at Epifayrmuth, and sprawled himself out a little further, stretching to occupy as much stone as possible as he peered at younger bronze and the little worm thing, to whom he offered an idle Oh tell me about it…lucky you’re a small speck of ocean, if I tried to make mine tote me around I’d just have a pancake…

“The singing part is the woman half I thought,” Ce’thian said, entirely bemused by how intently Mo’rya was apparently determined to take this. “Although I’ve never studied fish genitals or vocal cords so. I don’t know.” He blinked, eyebrow quirking upwards, and pursed his lips to add, “And I don’t imagine it will actually matter since they are myths, you know…you, um. Do know, right?” It seemed like an important fact to establish before he started making assumptions, most people didn’t immediately try to fit out how Tab A and Slot B worked together when mermaids were brought up after all…at least, not out loud.

Another blink as the boy continued, and Ce’thian threw a faintly disconcerted glance at him, head tilting puppyishly to one side. “I’m sure if you had boobs,” accompanied by a vague half-circle gesture over his own chest area, “You’d have different shirts, it’s not like boobs magically poof into existence one magical day after puberty…although, um, hydra, leviathan, sea serpent? That’s a good aspiration I guess…” He paused and added, rather deliberately unhelpful, “When I was a kid, like,” he gestured a height of about weight level with one hand, “I wanted to be a tree. So. Let me know how that transformation goes, I may get tips from you.”

[Kisha-Ra]

Epifayrmuth blinked slowly as the other bronze continued to chatter on about how silly it was to describe Impression as joyous union. Oh but you can be a hero if you just put your backside upon a dragon’s neck you know Glitterbug. We’re just that wonderful, who’s going to be sad as long as they get the girls all the time?[/color] The small bronze happily took that last phrase from the odd vocabulary Mo’rya appeared to have contracted of late, he also puffed his chest up, flared out the wing he wasn’t lying on and arched his neck in a horizontal mockery of a heroic posture.

Oh he can move fairly fast of his own accord, particularly if he thinks he might get caught somewhere he shouldn’t be. He could easily run from an impending gutting I’m sure.[/color] Privately Epifayrmuth considered the risk of gutting to be minimal at this point, unless there was some kind of horrific comb accident, so it was fine to be blasé, however Saprath had better not bring this conversation up if Mo’rya ever really was in danger. A literal comment I imagine, if you always strive to take up so much space. You must crowd up that poor man’s weyr dreadfully.

Get Bigslave Glitterbug. So big though you need most giant slave. His goldfriend maybe. She biggest, other biggold not so big as her. Wit waved his wing at Epi, as if Sparath would never work out who he was talking about.

‘But would an inverted mermaid sing too? I think that’s something to consider.’ Mo’rya gave the older man a look of wide eyed innocence, suggesting with it that he was utterly serious in his perusal of all the available information about fictional creatures. ‘Are they really myths?’ Mo’rya tried to keep his innocent and gullible look on but he wasn’t totally sure he was succeeding.

‘They don’t? I thought girls just woke up with them one day.’ Once again the incredulous expression was dragged out. ‘I’ve been hoping it doesn’t happen to me for ages.’ The wide eyed look cracked into an amused grin. ‘I see your aspiration of being a tree wasn’t easy. Did you give it up, or were you kicked out of tree class?’ he added slyly, tying off his newly combed and braided hair and slipping back into the pool.

[Avu]

Sparath shot Epifayrmuth a wide-eyed look of mock disbelief, rumbling a purring Oh is that how you do it? And here I’ve been going about it all wrong…I must find myself a dragon to sit on then, it’s a wonder I’ve been getting anywhere in Flights… He flashed his teeth in amusement as his companion continued, and ever conscientious, draped his wings out as far as they would comfortably go, the tips dipping into the water on either side of his rock. As for Mine…he must simply cope I’m afraid, although I hear growing up at high altitudes has a peculiarly good effect on the lungs…perhaps growing up being perpetually half-smothered will do the same.

To Wit the bronze fluttered one wingtip in mock-solemn thought, Oh you must mean sunshine…perhaps I’ll have to ask her to carry me someday, do you think we could manage that bridal style that the human romance stories are so fond of…or would the wings get in the way? Not that Sparath even really knew Nitrath, other than by sight and name; he’d never had occasion to speak to the younger gold. Preferred poking at Millieth, so far. But hey, there was a conversation starter, anyway. Of course if I squash her as well I don’t suppose anybody would like me anymore…

This kid.

Ce’thian quirked an amused smile at him, deciding that the sanest way to go about this was to assume Mo’rya was screwing around for the fun, and playing along was probably going to ensure he stayed sane. He raised one eyebrow, going for slow majestic wisdom, and said gravely, “The world’s a wide and varied place, young grasshopper…there may indeed be magical boobs and inverted mermaids that make sounds that fish can’t, but let us operate in the realm of practicality instead…that being never give up. Of course I still want to be a tree. I’m partially there already, it’s just the inside bits you can’t see.”

He settled to perch like a penguin on the rock, and added as an afterthought, “Also my legs, they weren’t this long when I was born so I must be getting somewhere, yes?” Because obviously nobody else’s legs grew, that never happened. “I bleed green,” Ce’thian tacked on helpfully; it was the kind of twisted strangeness that he sort of had a soft spot for, although he suspected that it hadn’t existed before Sparath. Not that much had existed before Sparath except for a few unfortunate crushes and a really gangly, awkward body to go with an equally awkward disposition. “What d’you think, you going to grow scales or fins first?”