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[swerve]

[ he's beginning to wonder if engaging the egg that had hatched upon his contact with it had been a good idea. ( then again … there are several things that have happened on the plane that have brought about that line of thought. most recently, his offer to a certain redhead that had resulted in a case of lasting vampirism – though he'll never be sorry about helping his friend, it's pretty much a moot point by now. ) but this?

he is now in possession of a dragon. a little terror, to be exact, though more in the literal sense than the figurative. ( even if he doesn't know its breed, it helps for visual aid, doesn't it? )

he's been staying with it on the plane since he'd found himself with it, but upon thinking that maybe – just maybe – his friend back home would like some company, he'd thought to bring the thing back to his apartment with him.

he's

never

been

so

wrong.

he'd been told by eithan before – he can't rightly remember when – that dragons were territorial by nature. that they guarded what they thought of as theirs with a fierce sort of determination, and he's born witness to that more times than he can count since finding himself with aednat. bringing that new addition home? had probably been one of the biggest mistakes he'd ever made in his entire life.

his entire short life, but. you know. that doesn't matter.

darren drops to the plane with a rather exasperated expression, the terror resting comfortably at his shoulder while aednat … is currently curled up in a small change jar he's holding in one hand, just barely big enough to fit her reptilian self into, hissing at anything and everything that dares come close. not close to darren, but to the freaking change jar – and if one were to look closely, they would see her glaring daggers up at the dragon sitting on the boy's shoulder, huffing and puffing little wisps of smoke every so often.

dragons.

you're all hopeless creatures. ]

Comments

[vengefulagent]

[Wash's own dragon is clinging to his helmet as he's walking around the Plane, a makeshift harness and leash tangled around his shoulder armor. He's going to train this thing to behave and walk on the leash, so help him, but right now, he's giving it a break while he thinks of what to do. Dragons...are something else. At least this one's peaceful when its asleep...]

[So it's almost good to see someone else almost in the same boat as him.]

Let me guess. Dragon problems?

[Stating the obvious? Oh yes, that's him. Agent Obvious.]

[swerve]

[ he's been learning to deal with dragons for a while now – and he'd been pretty sure that he'd gotten a handle on it, up until he'd found himself with a second one. aednat is a special case, he's convinced, if only because she comes from eithan's reality, and while he'll never give her up for anything, sometimes she's worse than a toddler when it comes to throwing tantrums.

yes. she throws tantrums.

he looks up when he hears wash's voice, scoffing a bit as he stares down at the sulky dragon in the jar. ]

Yeah … problems I never thought I'd have.

[ he gestures lightly to wash's own dragon, curled up as it is, looking almost wistful. ] At least yours seems to be behaving?

[vengefulagent]

Tell me about it. A dragon in a jar isn't exactly the kind of thing they talk about in fantasy books. [The dragon on his head lets out a little sleepy huff in agreement. No way does it want to be stuck in a jar (unless it's filled with fish).]

For right now. We're...still trying to work with each other. We don't have dragons back in my reality. [Or vampires. Technically. It's easier to think of trying to care for this dragon as yet another duty of his. It's not like taking care of a cat, despite its tendency to purr endlessly.]

[swerve]

She did that to herself. [ and does he sound entirely unimpressed by that? yes. yes he does. because he hadn't thought he would ever have a reason to show off this ridiculous dragon and her penchant for being entirely too territorial when it isn't warranted, much less find himself explaining how she'd gotten in there in the first place.

and then he's gesturing to the thing on his shoulder. ] She was afraid he was gonna get in there and … I dunno. Take something away from her. She's been in there for a while now. [ and another exasperated sort of huff, because he really, really does not know what he's going to end up doing about this situation.

he nods at that, though. ] We don't have them in mine, either. I ended up with Aednat because of Eithan. [ yep. yay, mergers!

funny thing about eithan …

he turned you both, didn't he? y'all should talk about that sometime. ]

[vengefulagent]

Well, I guess it's cave-like enough for a small dragon like that... [He shrugs. He's just glad his hasn't tried to find a cave of any kind. Or claim his helmet as one.] But if they're being territorial, they need to know that you like them both. You're not going to favor one over the other.

Hold on...did you say Eithan? I know him, too. [Sort of. The whole accidental sire thing makes things complicated (understatement), but at least they're okay with each other.] What doesn't he have in his world? First vampires, now dragons... [The last sentence is muttered mostly to himself but still audible enough for Darren.]

[deviances]

[No dragon for Eithan - he doesn't need one in his life, he's got enough firepower and ridiculousness to last a while. Besides, Fang might get jealous~

But he does spot Darren, so he makes his way over, hands shoved in his coat pockets... When he sees a dragon that isn't Aednat on his shoulder, though, he's a little confused. But, when he finally spots her, curled up inside a jar like that, he stops in his tracks. The baffled look on his face is actually pretty impressive...

He points, opens his mouth like he's going to comment on it, fails to find words... And just ends up snorting.]

How the fuck did she...?

[swerve]

[ no, eithan, you need a dragon in your life. would you like to come take one of his? he will give aednat to you. he's about as fed up with her as he's ever been. :|

though … he wouldn't want to make fang jealous. he can only imagine what that would be like.

his mouth forms a thin line as he continues staring down at the jar containing his Very Territorial dragon, and when he sees eithan making his way over, he lifts the jar containing his Very Territorial dragon so he can see better.

Very Territorial dragon lifts her head and stares in the redhead's direction, like she's daring even him to try something. ] I don't know. But didn't I tell you she did this? Now you get to see it.

[ and the Very Clueless dragon on his shoulder only curls in closer to his neck and peers down at aednat. it does not understand why she doesn't want to be friends. :< ]

She won't come out. I've tried everything.

[deviances]

[Honestly, jealous Fang would probably just sulk a lot. And aggravate the hell out of whatever was taking attention away from him. So for the sake of a lack of dragon and dog fighting, it's for the best that the dragons just stick to Darren~

He leans forward to get a better look at Very Territorial Dragon, grinning, because he seriously can't contain his amusement at this. He reaches a finger close to the glass, hovering it just away from actually touching it. Because of course he's going to be an instigating little shit.]

Dude, I believed you before, but now I do see, yeah. [He snickers, looking away from Aednat to glance up at Darren, and the Very Clueless dragon on his shoulder for just a second.] You got another friend though, huh?

[swerve]

[ darren mackenna, the dragon whisperer??

( that's going to stick, isn't it. dear god aslkhg )

aednat perks up even further the closer eithan gets to Her Jar, eyes narrowing when that finger lingers dangerously close to the glass. she moves, just so that the tip of her nose is right in front of where he's not touching, and –

tap!

that … would be … her kinda-sorta-but-not-really snapping at you through the glass. why are you making things worse.

Clueless Dragon makes a small sound, something of a chirp, and then falls silent again.

why is this happening. ] Teach me never to touch things I find in this place, won't it? [ the epitome of a rhetorical question, mhm. ]

He's a clingy little thing, if nothing else. Friendly. Harmless.

[ yes, we finally decided the gender of Clueless Dragon. congratulations, self.

and now he's staring back down at aednat. ] You hear that? Harmless!

[ …

…

tap! ]

… Nngh.

[deviances]

[Yep, that's gonna stick. You should get your own TV show~

He's good at making things worse, haven't you realized by now? He snickers again at that tap, retracting his finger quickly, just for effect.]

Hah! Guess she really likes that damn jar, huh.

[He looks up to Clueless Dragon again, smiles at him and shakes his head as he crosses his arms.]

And she must really not like sharin'. Maybe they'll get used to each other eventually? If not, I guess you could leave one of 'em on the Plane until she gets over it.

[swerve]

[ it might be pretty popular, you never know. and he's a hell of a lot cuter than jennifer love what's-her-face.

he really can't do anything other than scowl down at the dragon in the jar while the dragon on his shoulder seems to be content with just being close to him, and he swears to any deity listening that he will never touch anything on the plane that he doesn't know what it is ever again.

this is just too much to handle. ] She'd never forgive me if I took her away from the apartment. So it'd have to be him. [ and he doesn't want to do that, because it's just a baby, and you wouldn't abandon a baby, would you?

no. :< ]

[deviances]

[much cuter. ... i mean what

Good luck with that particular swear, it's the Plane, after all.

And yeah, no, don't abandon the baby!] And he's too small to be left alone, I bet, right? Huh. I guess she'll just have to learn to get along with him. Might happen eventually, right?

[And he looks down at her in that jar again, curled up and glaring daggers at everything and everyone]

.... Maybe.

[swerve]

[ sdlkhg well it's not that difficult to be cuter than her. i mean what.

clueless dragon at his shoulder chooses that moment to – momentarily, at least – stop worrying about aednat down in her jar, opting instead to curl in a bit closer to darren's neck and let out a pleased little dragon-noise that more or less equates the sound of a cat's purr. ( this thing is adorable, good grief. ) ]

She's gonna have to. [ this is not an option, aednat. not an option at all. ] It's been her for so long that I guess she doesn't know how to share. [ … snort. ] Something she's gonna have to learn.

[deviances]

[That thing really is adorable, dear goddess! He watches, a faint smile on his face.]

I guess they weren't kiddin' when they said that havin' pets is like havin' kids sometimes. Which probably just means that dragons are the fussier kind of kids, huh?

[swerve]

( and with eithan looking on, clueless dragon seems to drift off to sleep, intent on not bothering with the ridiculous dragon in the jar until later. it hadn't wanted anything in there, anyway~

and darren just nods. )

I don't think fussy even begins to cover it. I'm about to dump this one – ( lightly, very subtly jostling the change jar just to ruffle aednat's proverbial feathers, and she stares up at him with the dragon equivalent of HOW DARE YOU I'M GONNA CHEW HOLES IN YOUR FAVORITE SHOES WHILE YOU SLEEP TONIGHT, YOU USELESS HUMAN.

or something close to that. ) – here and go get a cactus.

[deviances]

[dafkjsklj Aednat you poor, poor darling, please don't eat shoes. It can't be good for you, and Darren kind of needs those, just maybe.]

Well, at least a cactus doesn't spit fire. [Beat.] Can't pet it, though. Too spiky. [Snicker!] Dunno, consider that a fair trade?

[swerve]

( he only needs them because he's been wearing the same pair of chucks for like the ass end of forever, and he loves them, and he would probably cry if something happened to them.

which is precisely why she would go for them first. ) A cactus also doesn't leave little balls of tin foil all over the apartment, beg for attention by crawling all over me … get itself stuck in coin jars.

( aednat huffs a little, like yeah, well, a cactus also doesn't provide you with hours of entertainment, either, bucko. )