Dragons are Scary! [r]

[Nascha]

suna

Today was not a very good day to be a goat. Certainly not a stray one off on its own, milling about in the fields west of Ylisstol. This particular goat found that out in a rather unpleasant way, as a shadow shadow grew out of nothing to overwhelm it. It might have looked up first, it might have just run without looking. The owner of the shadow didn't care. The goat didn't get far enough to get away before powerful jaws snatched it off the ground. Needless to say, the goat had not been expecting a dragon.

That was Nascha, longing for a fresh meal after several days of camp food and berries. So, she'd wandered off away from the Knights' encampment and gone searching for just such an unsuspecting creature. Dragons were predators after all, and no amount of time living like humans would change that. And now that she had a goat, she shook it in her mouth until it stopped struggling, then chomped it up and ate it. Anything that wasn't digested, like the horns or bones, would end up quickly dissolving due to her acidic dark magic breath.

Once she was done, however, she waited a few minutes for that process to take place, then reverted to human form with no fanfare. No roar of victory or anything like that. That tended to scare the living daylights out of people and she couldn't really afford that at the moment. Not until the Knights and, most likely, other Ylisseans, got used to her presence. So she simply let out a sigh once she'd returned to her human form, stretched, and glanced towards the city in the distance. No signs of mass panic. That was good. She'd kept herself restrained enough to not alert the city at least. It just didn't occur to her that there could've been anyone closer by.

[suna]

sry if this isnt enough to reply to i can totes edit Nascha

Today was not a very good day to be Suna. She had no idea of it just yet, though. Once again, the taguel was avoiding the cities - even though she had a good experience in the northern part of the Halidom by not avoiding the cities, she simply didn't feel up to staying around so many people, especially considering they were all... Ylissean. So, she strayed west, into the fields, enjoying the feel of grass underneath her feet and the openness that surrounded her.

That was, until a shadow passed overhead.

A massive - oh god, Suna didn't even have the word to describe what it was - a lizard? No... a dragon?! swooped in from above, snatching a poor, cute looking goat from the ground within its great, terrible jaws, and proceeded to viciously shake the animal - Suna might eat more than her fair share of meat, but this show of power, and dare she even think it - brutality - was enough to make her stomach flop right over. Blood got on the beast's mouth and surely it was getting everywhere else too, considering the way it was shaking the goat...

And then it proceeded to eat. Fear kept Suna rooted in place, her eyes like saucers - that thing had just been alive! Alive! Even the bones disappeared within the dragon's maw. There was just... nothing left of that poor goat. There really was just...

It was just gone!

How messed up was that? How...

She may have been trembling, but in a great show of terror will, Suna managed to keep silent - all of the minutes (that felt like hours) spent for the bones to dissolve. Well, she was silent... until the dragon inexplicably turned into a human, stretching casually, like she just went out for a nice sunday stroll.

Suna shrieked.

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HAZEL EYES, I WAS SO COLORBLIND, WE WERE JUST WASTING TIME !

[Nascha]

suna

Oh. Uh-oh. That was not a good sound. Nascha's first instinct was to cover her ears, but that was definitely a very relevant and not at all good sound. That was someone shrieking, and a tell-tale sign that someone had seen a lot more than they ever wanted to. Whether it was an innocent or a traumatized survivor, Nascha had just treated them to a horror show without ever intended to. She turned on the spot, catching sight of a girl with rabbit ears. A taguel? No, more importantly, she had to defuse this quickly.

"Whoa, hey, hey, calm down," Nascha said quickly. She raised her hands, palms facing away from her, and pointedly nowhere near her dragonstone. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you or anything. I...okay, I know that wasn't the most rabbit-friendly display, but I promise I wouldn't do anything like that to another person." Without reason, at least, but she decided to leave that part out. "Just...calm down, okay? Please?"

Yeah, she was probably not making a good case here.

[suna]

Nascha

Perhaps a singular impressive thing about this whole debacle was how high pitched Suna could shriek. It was like her lungs were made out of steel or something. It was surely painful for the other person, and sure enough, they covered their ears before they turned towards Suna. Whoa, hey, hey, calm down, Calm down? CALM DOWN?? She just! Oh my god! It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you or anything. SHE JUST ATE A GOAT LIKE A SNACK I...okay, I know that wasn't the most rabbit-friendly display, SHE WAS A BIG MONSTROUS LIZARD THING - but I promise I wouldn't do anything like that to another person. LOOK AT THE BONES Just...calm down, okay? Please? THERE ARE NO BONES. THEY'RE GONE. THEY'RE ALL GONE.

Suna settled for trembling, staring incredulously at the other, and making soft, faltering attempts to speak. i... She... i-i... God, what if this person just turned back into a dragon? Suna had been around taguel all of her life, and sure, she was used to seeing people in both beast form and their normal form, but for a dragon? Even moreso, for a dragon with no indication (that Suna could recognize) that they were some sort of... weird... lizard taguel?? to just tell her to calm down, after being so Massive and Terrifying and -

Okay, she did need to calm down. Suna tried to take a deep breath, and then decided to cut to the heart of the matter. w-what are you??


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HAZEL EYES, I WAS SO COLORBLIND, WE WERE JUST WASTING TIME !

[Nascha]

suna

That was not helping. That was definitely not helping. The bunny girl was still freaking out quite a bit, and Nascha's feeble attempts to calm her down were doing very little. Ow. Her ears would be ringing for the next few days, probably. But, thankfully, she did stop shrieking, at least. Not that trembling and being all but unable to speak were much better. Nascha sighed and took a step back, then opened her hands palms up. Well away from her dragonstone. Not that it would provide much comfort to a taguel. Humans, at least, sometimes thought that if she wasn't touching her dragonstone she couldn't do anything with it.

What the heck did she do now? Just leave? No, then the girl would run back and tell of the terrifying dragon she had just run into, causing many a misunderstanding. And possibly a few attempts to kill her. That...would be a problem. Try to shut her up? No, that would cause more problems. She needed to keep her here until she calmed down. Talking more would have to work. Somehow.

Fortunately, the girl did find words eventually. It wasn't much, but it was enough to start with. "I'm a manakete," Nascha responded, deciding to just be open and up-front. "I'm a person that can turn into a dragon. A concept it seems you're...at least passingly familiar with."

[suna]

Nascha

Attempt #1 to calm down: A failure. After all, Suna was still trembling, though she managed to not shriek anymore, so we can all say that at least that part was a success. I'm a manakete, The woman explained. A... a fuckin what? Suna had never even heard of - I'm a person that can turn into a dragon. A concept it seems you're...at least passingly familiar with. No! She was definitely not familiar with this concept, actua...

Actually, now that Suna thought about it, she did remember a vague story that her mother told her about some man that could turn into a dragon... but how could she know that was relevant and not just some crazy story! Who ever heard of a lizard taguel?? ... She opened her mouth to respond, and then closed it - and then opened it to try to formulate a response, and then closed it again. What... what was there really to even say? 'I'm sorry but the concept of you being a lizard taguel makes me very uncomfortable, as a taguel'? ...i... see, she settled on saying, the awkwardness in her words and demeanor palpable. so... you're human? or a lizard? Suna tried, unintentionally being a tad bit racist. Obviously manaketes were somewhere in between, and had someone asked her if she were a human or a beast, she would have huffed and corrected them with 'i'm a taguel!'.

why did you do that? what even happened to the bones? why did-... she trailed off now, and suddenly switched gears. what's your name?? - Suna never liked calling people 'lady' or 'scary lizard person' in her head for too long.

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HAZEL EYES, I WAS SO COLORBLIND, WE WERE JUST WASTING TIME !

[Nascha]

suna

Nascha instinctively twitched at the rabbit girl's words. Lizard? Lizard?! She could forgive plenty of ignorance, but how did one even make that kind of mistake? Not to mention that the rabbit girl had just seen her transform, freaked out over it, and was saying things that could upset a manakete with less patience.

No, she wasn't upset. Well, not much. The senselessness of the situation was a bit jarring, but Nascha was the forgiving sort, so rather than getting upset she just sighed. "It may be better to say that I'm a dragon who has taken human form. There's a very long history lesson explaining why that I'd rather not get into. But I'm a dragon. I just happen to need to stay in human form most of the time." That was probably the best explanation she was going to be able to give. If a Taguel didn't understand the concept of transforming between two different forms, then there were bigger issues here than poor communication.

Then after a few stammered questions and partial questions, the rabbit girl finally asked her name. "I'm Nascha. It's nice to meet you," she said, nodding. She decided to just let the other questions go. 'I was hungry' was probably not going to help much in settling the rabbit girl's panic.

[suna]

Nascha

Lizards, dragons. They were all the same to Suna, having never actually met a dragon before. All the same, she realized her social gaffe just a little too late to correct herself, dropping her gaze from the other. Okay, so this person might be a terrifying... dragon... human... thing! But that didn't mean that she could be rude to them willy-nilly. sorry, she mumbled, her eyes still downcast. that was sort of... rude? Heck yeah. Ah well, though.

Nascha. Nascha. That name didn't seem evil, at least. i'm suna, she offered, and then grabbed one of her ears, fidgeting with that. ...i was just passing by, and... um... sorry. Maybe that would be enough to appease the dragon lady. The last thing Suna wanted to do was offend her. .... but i can turn into a beast! so that's not so weird, when i think about it. No, turning into a scaley thing instead of a furry thing was still weird, but Suna wasn't about to complain now. But what to say now? 'How are you' was too awkward, and 'what were you doing before I interrupted you' had an obvious answer, and the answer was 'being terrifying'.

Instead, Suna let an awkward silence hang, continuing to fidget with her ear. Maybe someone better at socializing would know exactly what to say.

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HAZEL EYES, I WAS SO COLORBLIND, WE WERE JUST WASTING TIME !

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[Nascha]

suna

"It's fine," Nascha said. Really, given the kinds of things humans did to her people in the past, a thoughtless comment or two was effectively negligible. Just what would she be if she got angry over something like that? She could turn into a dragon. One who looked really evil and menacing, and who was descended from the legendary dark dragon from the War of Heroes. That alone put her in a precarious position, so she had to be the better woman.

The taguel introduced herself as Suna, and Nascha nodded. Then she tried to explain herself, clearly still nervous. Well, that was fine. She was used to that much, at least. She gave a small chuckle when Suna acknowledged the oddity of freaking out over transforming while being able to do the same. Nascha, in turn, had to admit to herself that it would still be very different to anyone who had never actually seen a manakete before. Taguel seemed small and pretty harmless in comparison. But it was still transformation into a humanoid form from a more bestial one.

After a moment of awkward silence, Nascha decided to speak again. "Well, I guess my dragon form's pretty scary, even for a manakete," she admitted. "But, for the future, I'm one of the good guys. The last thing I want is people getting the wrong idea and trying to attack me or chase me off because I scared someone."

[suna]

Nascha omf this got buried in my notifications im sry....

So even she recognized how terrifying she was. That was... that was probably good! At least Suna didn't seem to horridly offend her with her foot-in-mouth disorder, so the taguel figured they were off to a good start. Or... well... as much of a good start as they could ever have, considering they, in all actuality, had a completely horrible start. However, Suna let go of her ear as Nascha spoke up once more - But, for the future, I'm one of the good guys. The last thing I want is people getting the wrong idea and trying to attack me or chase me off because I scared someone. Oh! Oh no! would people really do that to you?? Suna asked, suddenly quite concerned. She'd hate it if her own skittish nature led to someone who at least... seemed... mostly nice getting attacked or chased off. i really really hope not. that sounds awful. Suna stated the obvious, frowning and reaching for the ear that she let go of in surprise. Once she had that back in her hands, she fiddled with the furry top of it for a moment, before she spoke up again.

...uhm, if you're one of the good guys... does that mean there are more good guys? what are they like? who are they? who are the bad guys? If there were people out there more terrifying than this woman, Suna definitely wanted to avoid them on principle. or, did you just mean that figuratively? She decided to add. That was always an option, of course.

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HAZEL EYES, I WAS SO COLORBLIND, WE WERE JUST WASTING TIME !