milliways_bar | (no subject)

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The sky over the Milliways outdoors is blue and picturesque and scattered with fluffy clouds. There might be the occasional bird flying around, whether a patron or a forest animal. Also, you know, there's that big dragon gliding by.

Wait. Dragon?

Wait. What? appears to be the dragon's reaction too, at least if anyone around is good at reading draconic body language. It (she) soars in a great and wary circle, surveying the ground before landing warily by the lake.

She's huge, with green scales (properly brushed and polished, thank you) just beginning to go gray at the edges, and three horns (the third, stubbier than the others, in the middle of her forehead), and a quantity of extremely sharp teeth. "Now," she says to herself, "this is new."

(Meanwhile, whether or not anyone's noticed, the Milliways forest just got a little bigger.)

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...Huh.

Kazul has a few different reactions to all of that, some more scholarly and some more emotional. The one she goes with first is, "Are assassins common around here?"

She's not worried for herself, on the whole, but it seems like useful information to have.

Ysalwen laughs a little.

"No one's allowed to hurt another patron, here, so -- assassins themselves might be, but not on the job."

Thank the Maker.

"I'm just used to them at home. My partner is an ex-Crow -- the largest and most tight-knight and well-reputed assassin's guild in Thedas -- so they come after us, sometimes. Then there's the Carta, that I've. Um. Upset a time or two. So every so often, out of nowhere wham, assassin trying to kill me. They never seem to learn, though."

Sad.

(Only not sad at all. Ice magic is great for times like that.)

Well, a society structured around lots of competing Assassin's Guilds seems an awful lot of work to maintain, not to mention the turnover. But hey, to each their own.

"No one hurts each other at all here?"

Forgive her if she's politely skeptical.

"Well. You'll notice I said 'not allowed', not that it never happens. There's Security, and they police those who break one of the three rules. But -- well."

Cough.

"Security doesn't spend much time out here, particularly. So. Sometimes things happen. Plus it's a bar, so bar brawls also occasionally break out."

Kazul snorts. (There's a little flame.) "Ah."

One of those situations.

"Whose rules are the three? And what are they?"

Kazul is making no promises about obeying them, mind you. But it seems worth knowing.

This is a weirdly organized world-inclusion-thing.

"I think they're mostly rules so the whole place doesn't end up burned down, fallen over, and sunk into a fundemental universal abyss of some kind."

There are equations for that.

"Who first enforced them, I have no idea. But they are -- one, don't kill, attack, or cause harm to other patrons. Demon rabbits are fair game but they taste terrible, according to some. Two, no sex in public. Or nudity. Three, no outside grudges carried out or acted upon inside. That one -- is probably the hardest one to stick to, when people have got enough hate built up. In case you wondered."

Rabbits are like having to hunt down teeny cocktail weiners one by one, come on. Totally not worth eating unless somebody else cooks up a few dozen of them or something.

Kazul cocks an eye down (waaay down) at Ysalwen, and doesn't say anything that assessment of which rules are hardest to stick to.

"Surprisingly reasonable," is what she allows, a little grudgingly, after a moment.

(She's not promising not to eat anybody ever, but.)

"I definitely prefer it to a long and codified list of rules and regulations," Ysalwen allows.

"Those I dislike. A lot."

Dammit, Circle Tower.

"Dragons are more sensible than to bother with that kind of thing."

Kazul is, of course, not remotely biased about this.

"What do dragons bother with, where you're from? The ones I'm familiar with usually avoid people, for a start. And I don't think they can speak languages that humans or elves or dwarves find comprehensible."

And maybe that means they cannot speak at all, but Ysalwen cannot swear to that.

Flemeth is . . . weird. Was weird. Both?

Edited 2015-07-01 20:53 (UTC)

"We avoid people because so many of them are annoying. Have you ever tried to go about your daily business with a knight camped out on your doorstep yelling about vanquishing foul monsters? It gets tiresome to pick the armor out of your teeth."

"Actually, yes. Though less camped out at my doorstep than inside the room with me. It gets -- old."

Ysalwen can relate.

"Though I usually don't end picking armor out of my teeth. Just my hair."

"Well then there you go."

Ugh, knights.

"When we're not being plagued by Heroes and wizards--" UGH, wizards-- "we occupy ourselves sensibly. I have quite an extensive library."

'Sensibly' may be a stretch, but no more so than with any group of people, really. These people just breathe fire when annoyed.

"Oh?"

Ysalwen's eyes brighten.

"What sorts of books do you keep there? Do you specialize, or is it a general collection?"

She gets an amused, assessing look, but Kazul goes ahead and answers.

"History and magic, and anything that seems interesting."

It's. It's kind of a draconic hoard. But a well-organized one, these days! (Thanks, Cimorene.)

"Ancient history or recent? For -- a given value of recent, I suppose. And -- can I ask what kinds of magic?"

Wait a second.

"Do you do magic? Because the dragons at home usually just breathe fire. A lot of fire. I suppose it might be magical, but it just -- feels like how they are."

"Of course I do magic."

She's a dragon.

"What kind of dragons do you have, if they don't talk and don't do magic?"

Maybe just ones who think Ysalwen's people aren't worth talking to.

"Well, they've only just started to come back, and one was definitely the shapeshifting mother of a friend of mine. The other -- mostly wanted to kill and eat anything that moved near her mountain?"

Kazul doesn't say anything, in the moment.

But her tail is lashing a bit now, and her wings are bristling upwards a little. If she were human, she'd be frowning deeply.

This is weird. And, for the first time, it's weird not in a silly way, but in a disquieting one.

Ysalwen looks a little tired.

"My world is messed up. I know. It's -- been brought to my attention several times."

Kazul glances down (waaaay down) at her, and huffs a small breath.

"Well, we all do what we can."

Sorry your home sucks, Ysalwen.

She smiles, very slightly.

"Some of us can do more than others. That's all right."

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