Video

[kindrake]

So uh... Three things. First off... [Jordan angles the video to show a blue dragon that is roughly the size of a horse rolling around on the ground and wriggling as he tries to give his back a good scratch.] This is Ladon. [At the mention of his name, the dragon rolls upright into a laying position and looks over at Jordan with a curious sounding 'rrr?' noise.] Yes, he's a dragon, but he's not like any of the other monsters that are around here - the only reason why he'd ever attack anyone is if someone was trying to hurt me - so if people could please not stab him or anything like that, that'd be great, thanks. He's harmless, I promise.

Second thing is, he can fly so I was going to go looking for some of those temples to leave an orb at but it's probably not the greatest idea to go alone so... anyone ever wanted to fly on a dragon? He can carry two people, me and someone else who isn't too heavy. You just have to pass a little, uh... background check first, I guess you could call it.

[He'd been feeling extremely nervous about revealing Ladon to everyone else after he'd first gotten here, but he's been here for two and a half months now and he figures it's safe enough to do so now. Most of the people he's come across have seemed decent enough, at the very least.]

And the last thing is, can anyone work with metal or wood to make stuff if there's anything of that available around here? I need some forearm crutches, or at this point, even any crutches of any kind would be great. Thanks.

Comments

[am_i_a_monster]

[Abigail's eyes focus on the dragon.]

He's incredible. Can he hear me? Hi Ladon.

[She gives a little wave, then looks at the teen in the video.]

Where did you find him?

[kindrake]

Hear you, yes. Understand what you're saying, not so much.

It's a really long and complicated story.

[am_i_a_monster]

Ah.

[She's the last person to push anyone to tell their stories.]

There's wood around here. How high would you want the crutches?

[kindrake]

I'll just say I came across his egg before he hatched and have been raising him since he was a baby. [Very much a condensed version.

As for the crutches, he'll give a rough estimate about how high he thinks he'd need them.]

I don't know if anyone has any thing to measure with around here but that would probably be the best thing to use...

[am_i_a_monster]

Here? Or where there dragons like him where you're from?

I know Margaery from the sewing shop. She must have something we could measure with. My father taught me to make crutches and other things in case we ever had an emergency while we were hunting. I could make you some, they wouldn't be pretty but they'd work.

[kindrake]

Not here but not from my world either, a parallel one to mine.

I'll take functional crutches over no crutches any day.

[am_i_a_monster]

I never even heard of other worlds before I came to this place.

[Hannibal's basement had been her entire world.]

I'll have to meet you in person before I can work on them.

[kindrake]

Yeah, most people don't know about the parallel one on my world either. There's probably like... less than ten of us who do. I've never actually been to it yet so this is my first trip to a place that isn't my home planet. Plane. Dimension. Whatever this is called.

Okay. I don't really do much so whenever is good.

[am_i_a_monster]

[Abigail smiles.]

This is my first time outside the U.S. I'd only been in Minnesota and Maryland before.
I think it's okay just to call this place whatever.

I could come over in the morning if that works for you. Where are you?

[kindrake]

I'm from California but I've been to a couple places outside the country on digs with my dad. He's a history professor and an archaeologist.

That's fine. [He'll give a rough description of where he lives and around abouts where its at.]

[am_i_a_monster]

Oh, that's cool. You probably saw the ocean and it must have been great to have a dad that was a prof, someone to support you if you wanted to go to college.

I'll see you then.

[kindrake]

I've been to the Atlantic and Pacific, yeah. Hopefully I'll still be alive in the future to go to college, I'd like too, but I'm in 10th grade so that's still a ways off.

[am_i_a_monster]

Only in grade ten. I thought you might have been my age. I made it to my last year of high school.

[video]

[sciencelizard]

[The person who answers probably looks a bit of a sight, but if he's used to seeing dragons, this might not be so weird. She's much smaller than a real one, more lizard than dragon, but she still has the scaled face, yellow scales, and little head spines.

Also glasses. And incredible excitement.]

You have a real dragon?? L-Like, a magical companion???

[kindrake]

[He's not used to seeing something that looks like a cross between a humanoid and a dragon, so he does stare a little wide eyed.]

Uhm... I suppose so? It's more of a psychic bond but I guess some people might also consider that some kind of magic too...

[sciencelizard]

[She doesn't quite notice, mostly because she is still very, very enamoured with this dragon.]

That's amazing.

[She's a little starstruck, to say the least.]

So did you have to capture him or was he yours from birth or were you made for each other or did he come to give you magic???

[kindrake]

I found his egg before he hatched is the most simple, easiest explanation.

Are... you... a dragon of some sort too?

[sciencelizard]

[This is the coolest thing she's ever heard. Though Alphys does break out of it a bit when he asks questions of her, this time.]

Oh, uh, n-no, I'm a lizard monster. Not a dragon. I wish I was a dragon, honestly, but uh, I'm not that cool or anything.

[kindrake]

Hey, lizard monster sounds pretty cool to me, and you don't seem like a bad one.

[sciencelizard]

Well, I mean— I don’t k-know if there are really bad monsters. I mean, not my kind of monster?

[It’s hard to differentiate. The way she thinks of ‘monster’ and the way the connotation runs in most worlds are pretty opposite to one another.]

Anyway, uh, I just wanted to say, your dragon is uhm. Really good. Cool? Yeah.

[kindrake]

[He thinks about that for a moment.] It probably depends on what someone thinks of as a monster. I think of it mostly as something that's going to attack you and hurt you. A monster could even be a human or someone human-like. So that's what I meant when I said you don't seem like a bad one.

You could come see him, if you want. Like I said, he's pretty harmless most of the time.

[sciencelizard]

No, I uh, I understand, it's k-kind of a misconception, b-- ohmygosh really.

[FORGET explaining monster discrepancies in linguistic terminology. Dragons exist and there's one right there and she's being invited to see it omg omg omg.]

If that's okay!! I mean you said it was but just in case is it really okay.

[kindrake]

That's fine, just as long as you pass a little test first. I just need to hold your hand for a moment, that's all. [He'll be able to use his powers to judge if anyone means him or Ladon any harm that way.]

[sciencelizard]

Oh! Uh, o-okay. I’ll…do my best?

[Being a monster, Alphys doesn’t have a truly malicious bone in her body, but she could still do harm. Good thing she doesn’t want to. Normally, she’d be shy about meeting new people, but the prospect of getting to see a real life dragon is too enticing to ignore.]

Is there a place I should go, or…?