a little young for that

[alicornucopia]

There is a red-eyed teenage boy - or so it would seem - positively interrogating the bar.

"Redreed wine?"

Aren't you a little young for that?

"I don't actually want any right now, but you know what it is?"

Of course.

"That... is interesting." He taps his fingers on the bar. "All right - I do, actually, want a chocolate iced planet."

And he gets a little square pastry, frosting on the top, and turns on his barstool to watch the comings and goings.

~~~

with Giles

with Lazarus

Comments

[jellyinthemix]

"How odd."

[alicornucopia]

"They are not much like most other humanoids. Depending on how you weigh it they might be more like most humanoids than, say, me, or a fairy or a merperson, but yeah."

[jellyinthemix]

"Are you unusual in ways other than being a fire-breathing dragon?" he inquires.

[alicornucopia]

"...No, but, you know, dragons aren't humanoid? We are quadrupedal and winged and so on?" says Kaylo. He is not any of those things right now.

[jellyinthemix]

"Clearly not all of the time."

[alicornucopia]

"Well, no, shapeshifting is handy for things like," Kaylo lifts his temporarily neglected wine, downs it, "interacting with objects, fitting into architecture. Downright essential for casting spells, all the gestures are designed for people with hands. But this is just an assumed form." He glances around the bar, assessing its ability to hold him if he were to shift.

[jellyinthemix]

The as-yet-unnamed human raises his eyebrows.

There is sufficient room in theory for Kaylo to shift, although he would block traffic wherever he stood and might bump into things if he tried to walk around dragon-shaped.

[alicornucopia]

"And I am just a little too big to politely demonstrate here, although I'll impolitely demonstrate for a couple of seconds if you want."

[jellyinthemix]

"You may as well."

[alicornucopia]

Kaylo hops off the barstool, checks the perimeter of his available space, and - demonstrates.

It is instantaneous, silent, and demonstrative.

He grins with sharp teeth surrounded by wine-red gem-sleek scales.

[jellyinthemix]

"I see," says the human. "Both quadrupedal and winged, yes."

[alicornucopia]

"Yes. Not going to demonstrate the firebreathing in here."

He shifts back, sits down again, and receives a note saying, I do thank you for your restraint. He snorts at it.

[jellyinthemix]

"Thank you," he says, not having read the note.

[alicornucopia]

"I am actually pretty sure I could avoid setting the place on fire, but I am nothing if not - no, actually I would remain lots of things if I were not courteous, but I am anyway, so."

[jellyinthemix]

He laughs.

[alicornucopia]

"Do you have a name, by the way? I'm Kaylo." Kaylo pauses. "Oh, and for a dragon I'm about as mature as I look and I call my teachers Aar this and Aaral that all day long, so if you prefer to be Mister Something I will not be offended in spite of the probably-three-times-your-age thing."

[jellyinthemix]

"It would be Mr. Giles, but you're welcome to drop the Mister, in the tradition of every other adolescent I know."

[alicornucopia]

Kaylo laughs. "Nice to meet you, then, Giles."

[jellyinthemix]

"Likewise."

[alicornucopia]

"Has your world got a name? Mine's called Elcenia."

[jellyinthemix]

"Not as far as I know. The planet, yes, but not the world as a whole. How did yours get one?"

[alicornucopia]

"Draconic," says Kaylo. "It's a language, basically. It does that."

[jellyinthemix]

"Does being 'basically' a language imply that there is some way in which it isn't?"

[alicornucopia]

"It is a language, it just doesn't have all the - dependence on its speakers that other languages do. It will produce words without help. If you show me a selection of magical artifacts from your world that no dragon has ever seen before, I will have words for them, and I will be able to go home and talk about them to other dragons using those words, and those other dragons will have some idea of what I am referring to."

[jellyinthemix]

"That sounds... useful," he says thoughtfully.