down on the bayou

[nottheanswers]

WHO: Khisanth and Vic
WHERE: a louisiana swamp
WHEN: 1/18
WARNINGS: none i know of?
SUMMARY: vic visits his dragonfriend
FORMAT: para to start, action after that???

Comments

[fantasycliche]

[ In the short time she's been here, she's managed to set up quite a network. Although all the large reptiles had instinctively known they were no longer the top predator around and cleared out (or been eaten), there's all manner of birds, snakes, and aquatic mammals willing to trade intelligence for a free pass at avoiding being made a snack.

The first reports of man begin to filter in when Vic is about ten miles away, and Khisanth has plenty of time to choose her intended meeting place and situate herself. At a mile away she picks up his scent, and it's not long after that that the sound of his boat comes drifting in to her as well.

By the time he finally makes it into sight, she's relaxing on a small, relatively dry island in the center of a clearing in what is otherwise a thick growth of trees. She stares at him coolly, head rested on her forelegs, and long, black body perfectly still. She doesn't speak. While her temper has cooled considerably from the last time she saw him, if her inscrutable silence makes him squirm at all, she certainly won't mind. ]

[nottheanswers]

[Well, it would be rather silly for him to think he could sneak up on her, but as the visitor, it would at least be polite for him to make his presence known directly. If he's unnerved by her, he doesn't show it, though she's most definitely unlike anything he's previously encountered. Any potential fear is still tempered by curiosity, as well as the assurance that he knows her well enough to tell she presents no more threat to him now than she ever did before. (Which says more for the potential threat she could always have been than any inherent harmlessness, really.)

He doesn't let the silence hang for long. If she meant to say anything to start, she would have already.]

I see you've certainly made yourself at home here, Onyx.

[fantasycliche]

[ She finally moves at that, lifting her head to stare down at him coolly. Even lying down like she is, this still puts her head a good twenty feet above his. And oh, she savors every foot of the height advantage. ]

It's Khisanth. [ Her voice is far deeper, but pleasantly so. Only the cadence bears any similarity to Onyx's voice. ] I've finished with that other name.

[nottheanswers]

[He smiles wider as she does that, looking right back up at her. Was it to hide some nervousness? Or, more likely, was it an act of defiance in the face of such a blatant imbalance? Vic Sage was nothing if not impertinent, after all.]

Khisanth, then. Makes sense, in hindsight. None of the other names you brought up from home resembled English so closely.

[He shifts his weight to the other foot. If there's one thing he could say against their current position, all his craning was going to be murder on his neck.]

Have you been keeping up your exercises?

NOT THAT IT EVEN MATTERS but make that 10 feet, not 20. hurp she's not THAT big

[fantasycliche]

[ How utterly Vic of him. That smile would have annoyed her before, but now it's only amusing. Now that she's been reunited with the proper amount of patience, and reintroduced to her usual balance of temper. ]

No. [ hey, at least she's honest, right. ] They're less necessary, now.

so how much craning he'd have to do is dependent on how close she is i guess

[nottheanswers]

Are they? [He looks a little satisfied with that, actually. She does seem to be responding differently than she would have before.] Well, you do seem to have settled into a far more comfortable atmosphere here.

[fantasycliche]

And a more comfortable form, as well. [ this part comes with a... touch of humor?? no surely not ] Next time you feel you have to lock me into a shape to stop me from doing something, please try to make it a less... unbalanced one.

[nottheanswers]

Unbalanced?

[He taps his chin.] Really, until you showed up outside the Dojo a few weeks ago, I didn't realize how many forms you have.

[fantasycliche]

[ A dismissive snort. ]

That was only a messenger. [ she pauses, glancing at him thoughtfully. ] Although, you're not wrong.

[nottheanswers]

Oh, my mistake.

[Don't think he didn't notice that deflection, though.] So, let's talk about this imbalance.

[fantasycliche]

[ A dragon shrug is, as it turns out, not all that much different from a human shrug. It does tend to involve a lot more wing movement, though. ]

Humans are emotional. It's difficult to handle it, and nearly impossible for long stretches of time.

[nottheanswers]

[Luckily, he offers one of his own to give us a basis of comparison.]

Haven't practiced it myself for forty years, I can't say it's really so impossible, it just needs a little management.

Dragons are less so, then?

[fantasycliche]

[ Oh, how she hopes this isn't leading toward teaching her to control that awfulrush of human emotions. That would require being human again, and she's so very done with that. Unhappy anticipation is a little harder to read on her face currently, though. ]

Well, I'm not threatening your life anymore, am I?

[nottheanswers]

[He doesn't expect it to, but he's just trying to get a good read on the situation at this point.]

No, but I expected there were other reasons behind that. You seem to be satisfied not threatening anyone at the moment.

[fantasycliche]

At the moment, yes. [ sounding amused again: ] You were going to be next on my list, after Dick.

[nottheanswers]

Well, that's the risk we take.

[He tilts his head a little.] So, you're implying that the only reason you changed you mind is that you're not in human form anymore?