PBA 072a

[7/19/2015 9:39:02 PM] Valerian: Aziz finds Marti in a little stream, bent over and digging in the pebbles with her hands.

[7/19/2015 9:39:53 PM] Valerian: It's no deeper than about a foot, and it's not moving particularly fast here either.

[7/19/2015 9:40:54 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari plops down on the shore, loud enough that he knows she'd hear. "...you ok?" he asks after a moment or two.

[7/19/2015 9:41:56 PM] Valerian: Marti: Yes, I just can't find it. I know it's there.

[7/19/2015 9:42:14 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: What're you looking for?

[7/19/2015 9:43:33 PM] Valerian: Marti: Another copper! I know it's there.

[7/19/2015 9:45:44 PM] Valerian: She digs around in the pebbles a little bit more.

[7/19/2015 9:46:09 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari takes that time to compose his thoughts. It works... marginally.

[7/19/2015 9:46:28 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: ...I owe you an explanation.

[7/19/2015 9:47:57 PM] Valerian: Marti: Well, yes. I hate it when people won't explain. I would explain to you.

[7/19/2015 9:48:17 PM] Valerian: Marti: But being a dragon doesn't need explaining, you just do it.

[7/19/2015 9:48:25 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: It's hard to explain because I don't entirely understand it myself.

[7/19/2015 9:49:40 PM] Valerian: She keeps digging in the streambed while she listens.

[7/19/2015 9:51:45 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari stumbles mentally over a halfdozen ways to explain things, then sighs and abandons them all.

[7/19/2015 9:51:56 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: ...remember when Wynn was talking about romantic entanglements?

[7/19/2015 9:52:32 PM] Valerian: Marti: Yes?

[7/19/2015 9:53:21 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: She's not entirely wrong. I think I might be forming one. With you.

And... it worries me.

[7/19/2015 9:54:36 PM] Valerian: Marti: Why?

[7/19/2015 9:56:08 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Humans are... weird. We're very good at lying to ourselves, finding reasons for why a thing can't be, even when it's kinda staring us in the metaphoric face. I've been subconsciously coming up with reasons for why I can't think of you that way - you're young, there's this massive culture gap... I've sort of taken on the responsibility of teaching you about the human condition, and there's so many connotations where I come from that follow the "teacher-student relationship," so that helped separate things in my head...

[7/19/2015 9:56:31 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari sighs. "Humans are weird."

[7/19/2015 9:56:53 PM] Valerian: Marti: So weird.

[7/19/2015 9:58:51 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: And it doesn't help that there's an entire other side of the coin for you. Unless I come up with something in the next couple of decades, you'll outlive me by millennia. There's just as much cultureshock for me about your world as there is for you about mine. It just...

[7/19/2015 9:59:11 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari kinda peters out, having run out of words around the same time as running out of energy.

[7/19/2015 9:59:32 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: ...heh. I feel like some kind of teenage kid.

[7/19/2015 10:00:20 PM] Valerian: Marti: You're not a kid, are you? I'm not.

[7/19/2015 10:00:53 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: I'm not either.

[7/19/2015 10:01:47 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Though the whole age-disparity thing is... mind-bending.

[7/19/2015 10:02:18 PM] Valerian: Marti: You look just my age.

[7/19/2015 10:04:00 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: For an eyeblink. I'll advance an age category every decade. ...but that's just my brain still trying to make this weird.

[7/19/2015 10:04:15 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari sighs and presses a fist into his forehead. "Stop that."

[7/19/2015 10:04:25 PM] Valerian: Marti: Iskandar explained to me about presents.

[7/19/2015 10:04:36 PM] Valerian: Marti: And you have birthdays all the time.

[7/19/2015 10:04:47 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: So do you, though. Every year.

[7/19/2015 10:04:58 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: No reason we can't adapt a human tradition to dragons.

[7/19/2015 10:05:37 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Is that what this was for?

[7/19/2015 10:05:44 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari reaches into his satchel and produces the silver coin

[7/19/2015 10:06:17 PM] Valerian: Marti: It's a present. But if it's your birthday I didn't know that.

[7/19/2015 10:06:40 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: It's not my birthday yet. ...I don't think. I don't actually know what the date is back home, now.

[7/19/2015 10:07:20 PM] Valerian: Marti: You should make one up. Then everyone will give you presents once a year.

[7/19/2015 10:08:00 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: So should you. I wouldn't mind having more excuses to give you things.

[7/19/2015 10:08:35 PM] Valerian: Marti: But you shouldn't give me all your things. You have to have a nice hoard too.

[7/19/2015 10:10:06 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari shrugs. "Maybe you can just incorporate me into your hoard," he adds, half-joking.

[7/19/2015 10:11:23 PM] Valerian: Marti: You are worth a lot. But most dragons don't hoard people, they tend to get really upset about it. Although I know one that does.

[7/19/2015 10:14:03 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: I dunno if I'd mind so much, if it was you keeping me. You'd have to make sure nobody stole me, though.

[7/19/2015 10:14:10 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari smirks.

[7/19/2015 10:14:29 PM] Valerian: Marti: Well yes, I'd bite their heads off.

[7/19/2015 10:15:04 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Sounds fair.

[7/19/2015 10:15:35 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: What do you think?

[7/19/2015 10:15:39 PM] Valerian: Marti: But I'd do that anyway.

[7/19/2015 10:15:42 PM] Valerian: Marti: About what?

[7/19/2015 10:16:10 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: I dunno... this, I guess. Me.

[7/19/2015 10:16:34 PM] Valerian: Marti: Well I like you, silly. Dragons don't talk to people they don't like.

[7/19/2015 10:19:38 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: I like you, too. I like being around you. And it chafes to think of where you came from - I hate what you had to live through.

[7/19/2015 10:20:36 PM | Edited 10:21:43 PM] Valerian: Marti: Live through what?

[7/19/2015 10:21:12 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Those people hunting you, trying to steal your magic. I remember when you first got here.

[7/19/2015 10:21:36 PM] Valerian: Marti: Oh! But they never found me.

[7/19/2015 10:21:48 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: I'm glad for that.

[7/19/2015 10:22:45 PM] Valerian: Marti: I don't know if I want a hoard of people, though.

[7/19/2015 10:25:09 PM] Valerian: Marti: Having a lot of mates seems too complicated.

[7/19/2015 10:25:22 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Maybe just me? That would be nice.

[7/19/2015 10:26:46 PM] Valerian: Marti: .... but I can't even have time to think about it. How do you manage ?

[7/19/2015 10:27:36 PM] Valerian: She picks up a snake out of the water; it snaps at her with poison-dripping fangs. She makes a silly face at it and tosses it downstream.

[7/19/2015 10:29:47 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Humans are weird. We tend to learn about each other very quickly - couples share an enormous amount of information, especially when you compare them to non-couples. It's typically very apparent, very quickly, when a pair are uncompatible... though sometimes the couple themselves have trouble seeing it.

[7/19/2015 10:31:16 PM] Valerian: Marti: Well normally I'd just beat someone up for you. Maybe another female.

[7/19/2015 10:32:03 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: We could probably skip that step. Unless that's a requirement for dragons..?

[7/19/2015 10:33:53 PM] Valerian: Marti: Dragons don't have requirements.

[7/19/2015 10:34:36 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: See what I mean, though? Culture gaps.

[7/19/2015 10:35:44 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Humans tend to think of "mating rituals" for other species as some sort of hardcoded species-thing that must happen. At the same time we tend to have this blind-spot for our own, as if they're somehow different or better.

[7/19/2015 10:35:46 PM] Valerian: Marti: Well, I suppose.

[7/19/2015 10:36:17 PM] Valerian: She pulls her hand up from the streambed and examines it.

[7/19/2015 10:37:13 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Find anything?

[7/19/2015 10:38:24 PM] Valerian: Marti beams and splashes over to him. "Look, I got it!"

[7/19/2015 10:38:49 PM] Valerian: She holds out her hands, still damp and a little sandy, and shows him a copper coin! Ooooh.

[7/19/2015 10:39:26 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Nicely done. How did you build your hoard up back at home?

[7/19/2015 10:40:31 PM] Valerian: Marti: Oh, there were a lot of old ruins and things with treasure in them, and sometimes people came by the swamp who weren't very nice.

[7/19/2015 10:40:55 PM] Valerian: Marti: But this is miiiiiine!

[7/19/2015 10:41:12 PM] Valerian: She beams and hugs Aziz! damply. Very damply.

[7/19/2015 10:42:23 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari smiles, more distracted by the hug than by how soaked he is rapidly becoming. "Yep. I'm yours."

[7/19/2015 10:43:43 PM] Valerian: Marti: Oh no, I meant the coin. You're a person, you can't own people. ... you can maybe hoard them, but.

[7/19/2015 10:44:41 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari grins, trying not to chuckle. "It's a figure of speech."

[7/19/2015 10:45:16 PM] Valerian: Marti: ... oh, I forgot about how cold you get...

[7/19/2015 10:45:25 PM] Valerian: Her teeth are chattering.

[7/19/2015 10:46:55 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari nods and pulls her out of the water. "Let's get you back to the ship and into something warmer, alright?"

[7/19/2015 10:47:14 PM] Valerian: Marti: All r-right.

[7/19/2015 10:50:57 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Remind me to do some research into Endure Elements. I don't know if it works if you're already cold.

[7/19/2015 10:51:16 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari leads her back to the portal, then down to his... her? Their? room.

[7/19/2015 10:52:11 PM] Valerian: She takes off the dress and uses the towel on her hair, a bit more effectively this time.

[7/19/2015 10:53:09 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari gets her a change of clothes, setting the dress up on a metal mannequin to dry off under a heat-vent.

[7/19/2015 10:53:31 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: I wonder if we couldn't talk to Nation about getting this room expanded... it'd be nice for you to be able to rest in your true form, every once in awhile. What do you think?

[7/19/2015 10:54:38 PM] Valerian: Marti: Well, there is the forest.

[7/19/2015 10:54:52 PM] Valerian: She puts the other clothes on, shivering a bit.

[7/19/2015 10:55:25 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Yeah, but that's not... private. That's like setting up a lair with no walls.

[7/19/2015 10:56:04 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari thinks a moment, then sets the mannequin off to the side and tugs her under the vent, hugging her close while the vent blasts warm air down around them. "...any better?"

[7/19/2015 10:56:41 PM] Valerian: Marti: That's much better. It's so much easier with scales. I'm never cold.

[7/19/2015 10:57:24 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari smiles softly, tucking her head under his chin. "Glad I could help, then."

[7/19/2015 10:58:42 PM] Valerian: She snuggles in a bit.

[7/19/2015 11:01:24 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari kinda just... basks, enjoying the closeness and the relative peace of mind. "This is nice."

[7/19/2015 11:01:55 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: I feel like there's this weight off my chest.

[7/19/2015 11:02:22 PM] Valerian: She leans back and checks. "... it looks the same to me."

[7/19/2015 11:03:57 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: It's a psychosomatic thing. ...remember when I told you earlier how humans are really good at lying to themselves?

[7/19/2015 11:04:20 PM] Valerian: Marti: Yes?

[7/19/2015 11:04:29 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: And remember how illusions can make you think and feel things that aren't really there?

[7/19/2015 11:06:10 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: The human mind can basically cast little illusions at itself to make it think it feels things. They're typically how a human's subconscious tries to break ideas through to the rest of the brain. A weight over your heart, for example, could be the weight of a thing you feel obligated to do, but at the same time are really trying not to do.

[7/19/2015 11:06:47 PM] Valerian: Marti: Well, that seems silly.

[7/19/2015 11:06:57 PM] Valerian: Marti: Dragons just do things.

[7/19/2015 11:07:08 PM] Valerian: She kisses him!

[7/19/2015 11:07:39 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: I --

[7/19/2015 11:07:54 PM] Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari is quickly cut off by the surprisingly pleasant press of lips.

[7/19/2015 11:09:23 PM] Valerian: And there we'll stop for the night 'cause it's late!