legionworld | Getting settled in

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Getting settled in | Open

Who| Tsunami and anyone she runs across.
What| Getting used to her new home.
Where| Legion World; the mess hall
When| Now!
Warnings/Notes| Dragons!

Tsunami was still reeling a little from her arrival here. It had been unexpected mildly speaking and the big dragon lashed her tail, then awkwardly curled it around her feet. All of the tiny, scavenger-like creatures scurrying around were off-putting, too! They'd told her scavengers were properly called humans and even if all of them looked very similar to her, not everyone here was a human. She couldn't tell them apart, though. All of them with their tiny little paws and furry heads and no tails...

She huffed, lifting her front leg to examine the bracelet that encircled it now. A flight ring? What did she need a magic ring to fly for? Still, it was pretty looking and it made her feel nice to have some treasure to call hers, even if she was stuck here for the time being. She hunched down and finally sprawled out, resting her head against one of the small tables as she watched the room. Even being quiet, Tsunami tended to take up quite a bit of space--dragons just did that naturally, what with all their wings, tails, and claws and all that. She grumbles, the noses the table away with a clatter--all this furniture was annoying! She sprawled her head out on crossed legs and glared glumly across the room. Even with all the crazy, shiny things they'd been showing her and telling her, she wasn't quite sure she could believe it...

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Hunger (and friendly directions) had sent Kubo jogging for the Mess Hall, the Sword Unbreakable moved to his belt to make room for the shamisen on his back. He was still a little dubious about this 'credit' concept, but his worries about a lack of coin quieted RIGHT AWAY when he entered the mess hall and beheld the dragon-!

The boy took a step back, almost bolting, but he stood his ground - tense, not exactly with fear, but with a healthy dose of serious caution. The blue dragon looked so different from the dragon puppets the villagers played with, but what else could it be? Was it dangerous? He'd been told he was here to fight dangerous things, but surely those dangers weren't just sitting around in this strange space-city where the food was, were they?

Kubo resisted reaching for the Sword Unbreakable. He opted, instead, to try introducing himself.

"Hello! My name is Kubo! I - I just woke up here - is this where everyone gets food?"

Bolting would be the next best option, though, he was sure of that. Unbreakable sword or not, there was no way he stood a real chance against a dragon.

Tsunami's head lifted slightly as the tiny (they were all tiny really, but this one looked tinier) scavenger actually spoke to her. Right. She can understand them here. That's still taking getting used to. She blinked owlishly, then rolled her shoulders in a massive, dragon-y shrug.

"That's what they told me. I'm pretty new here myself," she admitted. She didn't like admitting that to anyone, least of all a scrawny scavenger, but she didn't have much choice.

"Wow," Kubo said, his one-eyed gaze flicking all over the dragon, taking in every detail, his hunger put aside for the moment.

"You're really a dragon!" he said, walking slowly to get a good look at Tsunami - ALL of Tsunami. His fear gave way easily to awe, with Tsunami not giving any sign that she cared to attack him. "Right? I mean - the dragons people paint back in my village aren't very accurate, if you are."

As he walked, he took his shamisen off his back, plucking a few notes. A piece of blue paper snapped out of the robe of Kubo's sleeve, fluttering in the air around him as he plucked the occasional note.

Tsunami let out an annoyed rumble. Of course she was a dragon? What else would she be. She tilted her head to examine Kubo a bit more closely. Squinted. How was anyone supposed to tell these things apart?

"No, I'm actually a rabbit--of course I'm a dragon!" Huff. She exhaled briefly, watching as Kubo began to pluck at this strange instrument.

"Scavengers make art?" This is brand new information.

Edited 2016-09-30 05:12 (UTC)

Kubo was trying to get a look at Tsunami's tail - yes, it was quite long, and those WERE wings! But when he looked up and saw the squinting, he frowned. It wasn't his fault he'd never seen a dragon before, or that it was likely the rest of the humans he knew hadn't. "I was just making sure," he protested, squinting back at Tsunami.

"I'm not a scavenger," he said, in a firm tone. He didn't sound very insulted yet, but his pride was a little wounded. Kubo worked for a living. "I'm a storyteller."

He whipped out a quick riff of notes on the shamisen, a tune rolling with a jump up the scale at the end, like something with a long, long spine rolling movement down to flick the end of its tail. The blue paper floating beside Kubo suddenly folded itself in half, then again and again, folds popping in time to the notes until it had folded into an intricate, unusually detailed piece of origami in a shape very much like Tsunami.

The color wasn't quite right, but Kubo only had a few blues on hand.

He played on, beginning a new song that the paper dragon flapped its wings to, and the boy's serious, proud expression lifted as the paper successfully glided around his head. In a second he was chuckling, a smile on his face as he sent the paper dragon soaring up to the real one. It moved as snappily as it had come into existence, darting up to Tsunami's eye level and fluttering there for a second.

Not a scavenger--that's right, scavenger wasn't their name for themselves. It was hard, getting used to this kind of thing. They weren't people where she came from. Or maybe they were and she just couldn't understand them, cute as they could be. She let out a faint sigh and settled again, watching as Kubo began to sooth his wounded pride. Storytelling was good, and she supposed that scavenger stories were as good as dragon stories in some respects. The music was nice, if a little strange--

She sat up straighter, eyes going wide as the paper began to dance and fold itself into a dragon shape.

"You're an animus? I didn't know scav--humans had animus abilities!" She sounded a little awed by this, following the little paper dragon as it danced in front of her eyes.

The paper dragon dove back to circle around Kubo, as his music made it hover, gape its jaws in a voiceless roar, roll and twirl experimentally. He was having fun with this new creature, but what sort of stories might he tell with a dragon -?

"I don't know what that is," he pointed out, to Tsunami's question. "My mother used her magic this way, and she taught me. She was a daughter of the Moon King." He wondered if that was an explanation to anyone, if dragons knew more about moon magic than he would. He looked at Tsunami a little hopefully. "Do you know more about that than I do?"

"An animus dragon, uh. Is a dragon that can enchant objects and do magic and that kind of thing. 'Cept it takes a little of your soul everytime you use it. That's uh, that's about as much as I know," Tsunami explained, then sat up a little, peering curiously at the scavenger boy.

"The Moon King? I didn't know the moons had a king. Well. Maybe your moons do..."

"I don't think it takes a little of my soul," Kubo said, wondering with a little shudder of horror what that would do to him. Would his vision fade slowly, would a shining blindness creep over his eye until he was as sightless as his grandfather had been? His magic couldn't possibly be something that horrible, or he'd already be a little bit blinder for using it. His mother never would have taught him to use it at all. She would never have let him disintegrate his own soul, not even to earn the money to take care of her. "So it can't be the same thing."

He pressed his lips together against a surprising amount of disappointment, even as he considered how to answer. Had a king would invite more conversation about the current state of the Moon King than he wanted to have just then. "We only have one moon," he settled on. "So . . . does that mean you're from THIS world? Are there more moons here?"

"No, I guess it can't be. Maybe scavenger animus is different from dragon animus..." She scratched under her chin for a moment with her front talons. She closed her eyes, then cracked them open after a moment.

"Oh, no. I'm from Pyrrhia! We have three moons and this is definitely not it. For one thing, I'm the only dragon I've seen." She sounded a little disgruntled by that observation. Being surrounded by tiny humans is disconcerting.

Oh dang. That sounded lonely.

"I hope more dragons come to join you soon," Kubo said, meaning it. More dragons sounded majestic to behold, and he hated to think of anyone else being lonely. He knew too well how it felt. "I'm from a place called Japan," he added. "I lived there with my mother. She was from the only moon we have. Do your three moons have their own kingdoms?"

The Moon King had been such a terrible, overarching figure dominating the night sky back home. Maybe three Moon Kingdoms would have spent their time bickering with each other, and kept too busy to interfere with the lives of mortals so much.

"As far as I know, the moons don't have kingdoms," Tsunami replied, then looked thoughtful.

"I hope I see some other dragons, too, but honestly I'd rather just get home." Another pause from the dragon as her mind clicked onto something that Kubo had been talking about.

"Wait, the Moon King? Why doesn't the moon have a queen? I thought everyone had queens. That's weird.." She tilted her head, trying to wrap her head around the idea of a king. Scavengers sure were weird.

Kubo nodded. "But would you go home before we stop the End of the Universes?" he asked, with a slight, curious frown.

Tsunami's last question brought Kubo up short. "I don't . . . I don't know if the Moon had a Queen."

He pressed his lips together. She would have been his grandmother, but . . . his mother had never talked about her, and Grandfather couldn't remember anything about being the Moon King anymore, so he'd never be able to tell Kubo.

He doubted she'd been any bigger on insight and kindness than his other lunar relatives had been. He moved on from considering this missing piece of his family. He never knew anything about his father's parents either - and he never would, just adding more to the very long list of things Kubo would want to know until the end of his days.

He shrugged. "There must have been a Moon Queen, but my mother never talked about her, and my grandfather has lost his memory, so he won't be able to tell me about her."

He really, really didn't seem to care.

"Uh, I'd like to? I mean, end of the universe is a big deal and all but I kind of have my own thing to do back home. I already stopped a war and all that stuff. You guys seem like you have it in talon." She paused as Kubo continued, brow knitting a little. No queen? Weird. Well, he said he didn't know, so there probably was one. She tossed her head slightly.

"That's too bad."

"She probably wasn't all that great," Kubo said, dismissively, casually for such sullen, fighting words.

"Would you quit shoving? You'll get your fish soon. Try for a little patience once in a while." said a fairly tall human who was being shoved along by a black, salamander-like dragon, who was pushing the man forward with his head.

Toothless snorted. Patience was overrated when it came to fish.

Edited 2016-09-30 05:07 (UTC)

Tusnami's head lifted from where the dragon had curled into a lazy doze, taking up a rather significant portion of one corner. Nostrils flared and she eyed the strange pair for a moment, evaluating. Another scavenger and what looked like a fairly small dragon, all things considered. But he didn't quite look like any dragon she'd seen before. The round, flattish head, the low-slung body and the relatively smaller size all marked him as oddly different. She didn't speak for the moment, instead merely watching the pair as they approached. The mention of fish, though, did make her stomach grumble.

Hiccup turned his head a bit to further protest his treatment, and then a double take as his eyes passed Tsunami. Thaat was another dragon.

"Hold up a sec, bud." Toothless ignored him, pushing him inexorably forward.

"Seriously, stop a for a second and Look." The dragon huffed, rolled his eyes, and turned his head, reaction clearly indicating he was just humoring the human. That was short-lived as his eyes widened and his ear-flaps tilted back in shock.

Tsunami narrowed her eyes as Toothless' head swung around towards her at the little human's urging. Was the scavenger the weird dragon's pet or something like that? Why was he letting the little thing push him around? Considering her options briefly, she settled on lifting her head, lashing her tail, and letting out an annoyed rumble.

"I didn't expect to see another dragon here. Are you some kind of NightWing I haven't met yet?" She directed her question towards Toothless, her attention shifting away from Hiccup for the moment.

Toothless's eyes widened even further, and he stumbled back a bit.

"Holy Thor. You can talk?!" Hiccup exclaimed.

"What am I saying? Of course you can, you just did" he mumbled, slightly embarrassed by the shout, while Toothless gave Tsunami a wary look. "Sorry, just, never met a talking dragon before."

Edited 2016-10-01 11:03 (UTC)

"Of course I can talk. The weird part is all of you scavengers being able to talk." She sniffs, her snout poking upwards for a moment in a rather snooty gesture before she settles her gaze back to Toothless.

"What's wrong? You let your pet do all the talking for you or something?"

Toothless rolled his eyes. Hiccup had just given the answer to the question, albeit in a roundabout way. It wasn't their fault Tsunami hadn't been paying attention.

"Toothless can't talk." Hiccup replied. "That's sort of what I meant by 'Never met a talking dragon before'. Dragons don't speak where I'm from. At all. Ever."

Even if they had, Hiccup did more than enough speaking for the both of them.

"Also, just to clarify? I'm not his pet, I'm his partner. We're friends. Neither of us is in charge of the other.

"And where I'm from, scavengers don't speak at all. Ever. Somehow that doesn't stop all of you from chattering constantly," Tsunami sniffed. She lowered her head onto her front talons and exhaled a faint breath. Partnership? Between a dragon and a scavenger? Sounds fake, but okay.

"What dragon is friends with a scavenger? I mean, you have cute little paws and fluffy heads but that's about all you've got going for you, as far as I can see. No talons, no teeth, no scales, can't breathe fire or fly..." Tsunami heaved a sigh. "Not even very good eating, come to think of it."

Edited 2016-10-02 20:51 (UTC)

"Because edibility is such an important thing to consider when choosing friends." Hiccup said sarcastically. He should've expected this, really. Dragons without the ability to speak had massive egos. It wasn't surprising that dragons that could talk would share that trait.

"Besides, I happen to think being able to make fire without the ability to breathe it is slightly more impressive than just being able to breathe it because you were born that way."

Toothless's head swiveled over to Hiccup , and let out an offended growl.

"You breathe plasma bolts Toothless. Way miore impressive than just fire."

The Night Fury relaxed, apparently mollified by the comment.

"Who said anything about choosing friends? I mean, you don't really make friends with scavengers. Pet? Sure. Friend? not so much." As far as Tsunami saw things, it was just the way things were. Talking humans who tried to snark back at her were rather far outside her realm of experience.

"Pfft. Dragons can make fire without breathing it. I mean, I don't breathe fire--but that's because I'm a SeaWing, not a SandWing or a SkyWing or a MudWing or something like that." She eyed Toothless, her disdain for the un-talkative creature growing by the minute.

"You don't need to rely on him to tell you you're good, you know. Honestly, it's a little depressing."

Toothless gave her a flat look, and growled out an incredibly unimpressed "Mrah mrah mrah."

He was an Alpha Dragon. He didn't have anything to prove to her.

Hiccup snorted, amused to be on the other side of the Night Fury's backtalk for once.

Edited 2016-10-11 05:18 (UTC)

The loud skidding noise of the table being nudged across the floor was enough to startle Grif. He barely kept his grip on his tray as he turned to see whatever had done that.

...That sure was a dragon pouting over there. Okay. It wasn't like Grif hadn't seen a dragon on Legion World. He had. Too much of that dragon, really. Toothless was kind of a menace. This one was just bigger.

"Do you have a problem with tables or something?" he asked, scowling. He wasn't expecting a reply. Toothless didn't talk, after all. Grif was mostly venting his resentment over almost dropping his food.

Tsunami stared flatly at Grif as he asked his question. Scavengers. Now that she could actually talk to them, Tusnami found them more aggravating than endearing. Maybe she should start eating them. She was silent for a beat or two, then replied, her voice clipped and annoyed.

"It was in the way. I wanted to lay down." Obviously, Grif should have noticed that.

That surprised him, but to Grif's credit he recovered quickly.

"Speaking as kind of an expert on laying down, if you wanna do that you picked the wrong room."

It's not like during his first week Grif had to be told pushing seats together so he could lay down while eating was not acceptable mess behavior. Nothing like that happened at all.

"I can lay down where I want, can't I? Besides, it's not like anyone was using the table." Tsunami replied with her usual disdainful huff.

"I need space--all these rooms are designed for scavengers!"

"For what?" Grif asked, with a clear tone of excuse you?

"Look. If you want to go lay down, you find somewhere actually comfortable. This is basic laying-around-doing-nothing 101 shit here."

Speaking of tables, Grif took command of an otherwise unoccupied one in comfortable heckling distance. He was here to eat, after all. He could do both at once.

Edited (tense) 2016-10-02 22:10 (UTC)

"For scavengers. You know, small, cute, fluffy heads, tiny paws?" She peered down at Grif with a snort.

"You, basically. And if I want to lay here, I'll lay here! Just because I have to move a few things doesn't make it a bad choice!" Time to double down on her dubious relaxation strategy, clearly.

"Humans. You know. People. As opposed to dragons and weird aliens," Grif corrected, waving his spoon a little in Tsunami's direction for emphasis.

"And say what you want about us, but at least we humans make ourselves comfortable instead of laying on the cold, hard floor."

"Even the weird aliens are pretty good about that. You're behind the times!"

"Scavengers aren't people, strictly speaking. More like cute pets or treasure-stealing nuisances." Tsunami sniffed again as Grif waved his spoon. She's not impressed by this human so far.

"The floor is very comfortable. Believe it nor not I've been in worse places. Now, it's not as nice as a seaweed bed, but it's definitely not uncomfortable. Maybe you're just too small." She peered pointedly at Grif. So tiny, so helpless... She could probably eat him up in a couple bites!

Grif wrinkled his nose a bit. "Look, okay, I know I'm cute, but if you try to pet me we're gonna have problems. And if you keep saying we're not people we're definitely gonna have problems."

There was something else he felt needed addressing here.

"And seaweed? That's not just uncomfortable, that's gross."

Tsunami may have been big, and probably capable of biting him in half, but she wasn't moving anywhere fast and was still just arguing with him. It wasn't enough to get him to decide that maybe pissing her off might be a bad idea.

"What? You don't want me to ruffle your little furry mop and feed you fruit? Some dragons kept scavengers as pets, but I wasn't one of them," she mused idly.

"Seaweed is great! It's comfortable and useful and it grows just about everywhere in the Thousand Scales. And my bed was probably the best I'd ever slept on. Not that that was hard, though..." She trailed off, remembering her brief stay at the Summer Palace with a wistful sigh.

"You just have no appreciation for the finer things in life. How could I expect you to understand though? That tiny, tiny brain..."

Grif laughed.

"I think that if the finer things in life involve slimy leaves, you're doing it wrong," he said.

"And no. Don't touch me. Really."

He was mostly kidding around in this conversation, but no, really, please.

"You can keep your fruit too, I'm not really a health food guy. Cheeseburgers are more my speed."

He missed cheeseburgers. A lot.

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Getting settled in | Open

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