psychoshenanigans | GRATIA // PSL

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GRATIA // PSL

The first thing he feels is the cold.

It permeates everything down here on the lower levels. What little warmth humans have made for themselves is greedily gobbled up by the stone walls that surround them on all sides. Despite the stirring of people in the streets, in their homes, and around corners, this place feels like a grave. A similar sense seems to loom over the heads of most who make their way through this deep, dark part of the world, hovering around them like a cloud of inevitability. No one has been outright sentenced to death, but they may as well be.

Upon waking, Tek will have found himself in a dark, wet alleyway. Attempts to orient himself reveal that he has been brought, somehow, to an impressively large network of tunnels that all lead, more or less, to three or four larger chambers. There is far more vibrant life above him somewhere, far, far above the layer of caves he's in now, and there is also a very deep, sluggish form of life somewhere far below his feet.

No one is coming to get him. No one follows him in his immediate vicinity--the few stragglers hanging around doorsteps and windows don't give him a second glance, or even a first one. The place is crowded, but not busy. Everyone keeps their heads down. The people are all dressed poorly, in rags and robes and bundles that suggest a certain level of consistent poverty all throughout the level. The buildings in these tunnels look man-made, either built from scrap or carved straight out of the rock of the cave, but the majority of the actual roads and cave walls seem to have been formed with very little help from human hands.

The place is lit with lanterns and dirty-looking florescents suspended high above in the cave ceiling. The air is thick and stuffy, the smell of mold and mud prevalent over even the smell of human stagnation. It would not be hard to drag someone off, and he gets the immediate feeling that if he did, it's unlikely that anyone would come looking for them.

What does he do?

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[Tek surfaces just long enough to spot where Robin is coming up. once the pale shape of the demigod bobs into view, the dragon ducks under again. with a big hunk of glass held in his foreclaws, it's much easier to just swim underwater on his way back to the shore. ducking under again and extending his wings like before, he "flies" through the lake, leaving choppy waves behind him.

the rest of the lake is mostly still after he submerges, making it surprisingly hard to spot the massive dragon for a few moments, until he runs out of water deep enough to hide all of himself in. then, he has to move the glass into one set of talons and put his feet down to stand and walk the rest of the way... hobbling a little, as he only has three limbs free to move with.]

[Robin is quick to follow Tek along to the shore, once the immediate choppy waves have subsided, of course. he's much faster once he gets some ground to stand on, propelling himself forward until he can pull himself up and shake himself out on all four limbs again.

the glass that they pulled up is very rough, most of it covered by half-fused silt and sand... but when the sun hits the smooth top, specks of yellow and orange and greens dance over Tek's scales as if it were a prism. it's a little big to go hauling it back to the city, but they could probably figure out something...

and with the way Robin is padding along excitedly next to Tek, he might already have some ideas.]

[by the time Robin has caught up, Tek has given the hunk of glass a good shake in the water to rinse off as much silt as he can, before setting it in the sand on the shore.

he's too busy gazing into its glittering, prismatic surface to glance over at Robin as he approaches. he just grunts a question at him. 'what's next?']

[the hunk of glass looks much bigger next to Robin--the thing is probably about three feet wide and two feet tall. the demigod stretches his hand out over its flat surface, watching the points of light fleck his skin with pale colors.]

We can't carry this whole thing back... At least, not all at once.

[he tilts his head, and then cranes his neck down to look at the rough side of their find.]

Why don't we break it up? Get a couple of good chunks as a memento, maybe, and then throw the rest back into the lake.

[he looks back up at Tek with a little smile.] We can come back for those pieces later.

[with the way that Tek is looking at the boulder a little regretfully, it's probably the thought of coming back to retrieve the other pieces later that convinces him that breaking it apart isn't a terrible idea.

wrapping one set of arm-length talons around the thing and rolling it a little to the side, he rumbles thoughtfully at Robin. it will take a little consideration to realize that there aren't any real words in the question--just sounds to convey the fact that he would love to hear how exactly they're going to break the thing apart.]

[it's a perfect plan. Tek gets the satisfaction of knowing he can keep as much of the damn thing as he wants, and Robin gets an excuse for them to keep coming back to this lake together. this whole thing has been so surprisingly pleasant, aside from the parts where he was caught in a wave of death dragon energy, and the part where he got shredded against a tree. he's more than happy to pitch in some effort if they can keep it that way.]

I can do it with magic.

[he holds one of his hands out, as if he was getting ready for Tek to hand the thing over to him--probably more of a metaphorical gesture than anything.]

[it's so easy to see some of Tek's more recognizable mannerisms then, as the dragon reacts to this idea.

there's an interested hum, sounding a little impressed... and then he takes a step back to sit down contentedly in the sand. wrapping his tail daintily around him, he might as well have been his humanoid form crossing pretty high-heeled boots and waiting expectantly.

go ahead--he can't wait to watch and not help at all. he has lounging and drying off of in the sunlight to do in the meantime.]

[oh, an audience... he ducks into his own shoulders a little, just now realizing that he's going to be the center of attention, but his sudden shyness doesn't last long. it's just Tek, after all, and normally he'd love a chance to show off in front of another magical creature.

he gets close to the stone, puts his hand down on top of it, and says nothing.

this is only notable because he usually says something when he does magic. from what Tek has seen, Robin's magic needs written words and chalk circles, or some muttered prayer in that old language of his. his blood magic works without any of that, but that has been the only exception.

except for now, where the stone immediately seems to respond. the barest traces of magical aura inside of it begin to answer some unspoken call, slowly shifting and changing to fill the tiny, nearly indiscernible cracks in the glass that were left there by the impact of the lightning strike.

before the feeling of lightning can really get much purchase on the air around them, Robin gently closes his fist over the glass and the feeling of whatever is inside of it seems to die down. whatever lives in there isn't going to get out. instead, it keeps filling the material with slivers of glowing yellow that turn to veins of white, and grow and push until a crack quietly crunches through the surface of it, and then another appears, and then another. when something inside is satisfactory, Robin finally takes his hand away.

the large piece of glass crumbles at his feet, into maybe two-dozen smaller pieces, all different shapes and sizes, now inert and totally harmless.]

[aside from obviously watching the whole thing play out in front of him, the only reaction Tek offers is when even the smallest sensation of energy that matches the signature of lightning reaches him. then, spines bristle up on his neck like ruffled feathers.

he's glad when the energy falls away after that. it's also a little unnerving to feel such a thing flare up and then utterly evaporate, so what first prompts him to lean forward and peer down at the pile of glass chunks is to check and make sure that they still have that sparkling, barely-magical quality that makes them special in the first place.

he growls the words that amount to asking 'what did you do,' but he's more focused on delicately raking a couple of claws through the proportionately-tiny fragments of glass--making a cursory exploration of the results and beginning to build a plan.]

[Robin takes a couple of steps backwards to give Tek plenty of room to investigate. he knew he'd be a little suspicious. it seems like he always is, when it comes to magic.]

I asked it to break itself.

[he shrugs a little, face tilted down to observe the shards. now that the glass has been broken open, there are a lot more sharp edges and clean angles to reflect the light. blues and reds and purples scatter over his face as Tek paws through them.

from what Tek can tell, the shards do still contain that soft trace of old magic. Robin didn't kill it, or anything. he just had it to him a very big favor.]

[maybe the glass did it as thanks for being freed from the bottom of a lake. he doesn't know; inanimate objects don't listen to reason where he's from.

and after a few moments, some order developes out of his pawing of the fragments. he's picking his favorites--some large and some much smaller than is convenient for his giant paw--and scraping them into a pile.

once his selection has been made, he nods toward the whole collection with an insistent grunt. there. now, he presumes the one with opposable thumbs will do the carrying. and maybe the sinking of the remnants as well.]

Hm.

[the demigod looks down at his long, spindly hands, as if he's not sure what Tek expects him to do with them... he could probably come up with some sort of fancy magic to bring them with, but that immediately sounds like more trouble than it's worth. eventually, he looks down at his wet, ill-fitting shirt, shrugs, and peels it off.

this will work. he'll bundle up the good shards nicely, pausing to grab one from Tek's reject pile for himself. it's long, skinny. would look good on his desk, but it's equally likely he likes it because it's almost a perfect shape to stab someone with.

and then there's the rest. having no better ideas, he picks up one of their rejected shards, and... just... chucks it into the lake.

it makes a very satisfying "plunk" sound. he smiles, throws another one. it'll take him a minute, but it looks like he's having fun?]

[ha... that does look like fun. the dragon chuckles as he watches his friend chuck pieces of magical glass like a child throwing stones into the lake.

normally, he would have been more than content to just sit back and watch Robin make a fool of himself. but after a few hunks of glass land with healthy, satisfying splashes, the ripples gliding far across the surface, Tek decides that maybe a little more participation wouldn't hurt. just this once.

one big paw reaches over to scoop a few claws under several of the glass-chunks (and an inadvertent scoop of sand), carefully maneuvering them against his talons, to then be flicked out over the water.

some of them fall short and off to the side with clumsy leverage behind them, and the sand kind of sprays in a scattershot, but a couple pieces of glass get flung impressively far. it's enough for him to seem a little pleased with himself.]

[it's funny, after all the time they've spent together, there have been a lot of firsts today. his first time seeing Tek's true form, the first time he's really enjoyed being with someone in this form, and now, the first time he's seen Tek lightheartedly join in on a stupid little game of throwing stones in a lake.

so even if the initial swing is a little startling and some of the pieces get lobbed far in the wrong direction, Robin laughs and claps his pale hands in polite applause.]

Wow, good underhand...! You really got some distance on that one.

[he picks up another piece of glass, ready to try and lob it farther... but stops, suddenly, arm half-back and holding still as if he's just spotted something.

there was movement, all the way across the lake. it could have just been branches moving, but...]

[Tek probably wouldn't have noticed anything at all if Robin hadn't paused so noticeably (when you're the size of a building, it becomes much harder to care about the insignificant creatures smaller than you) and so is a little delayed in focusing his attention across the water.

the only real outward sign that he's giving it any consideration at all is a telltale flick of his tails against the sand.]

[it's hard for Tek to see anything that far across the water... especially now that it seems to have stopped moving, or maybe disappeared. it doesn't feel like there's anything over there, just more of the forest that stretches for miles and miles.

Robin lowers his arm.] We should go.

[he tosses his last shard a short distance into the water, but turns to head back for the line of trees with sudden seriousness.]

[...and Tek's big, scaly butt doesn't move from the sand. he takes his time in glancing back toward Robin, somehow looking even more casual and relaxed than he had been while actually relaxing.

he wants to know, 'why?']

[of course he wants to know. Robin calls back over his shoulder as he continues walking away, not about to stop on his (beloved) idiot friend's account.]

We've been spotted. He's probably going to go run and tell his--

[he pauses, strangely.] --Friends.

[which is where Robin starts backing slowly away from the treeline, because there are at least four bows drawn on him from the underbrush, equipped with wicked-looking arrows.]

[Tek hadn't felt the group approach, which is strange... but once it's confirmed that it appears to just be a few local humans, Tek laughs.

The sound is much more hideous growl than anything else, but at least Robin will get the idea. and he finally stands up--the motion continuing out into his wings and spines and aura until he's entirely unfurled and looming before whoever it is that is daring to bother them.

the wicked snarling begins immediately. and by the low welling of power that Robin would be able to catch at the edges of his attention, he's planning on doing more than just that.]

[the underbrush actually shuffles back a little as the dragon begins to unfurl, with some more figures peeling away from the trees. human shapes start to become discernible as a couple of them point their bows towards Tek. they're wearing cloaks of leaves and wrappings of soft bark. instead of faces, they all seem to be wearing masks that blend in with the colors around them, with many resembling the faces of wide-eyed, exaggerated animals.

despite the threat of being shot, Robin turns back to Tek in an instant, putting up his hands in a very clear signal to stop.]

No, no no no-- [his nine voices all sound genuinely distressed.] Don't do that! Dooon't do that!

[Robin is lucky that Tek likes him. that's probably the only reason he's considering listening to him at all.

still snarling (now with acidic drool beginning to pool around his teeth and drip from his jaw), the dragon begins to gather his weight in his shoulders, leaning down as if he's preparing to charge toward the fascinating little creatures in the trees.

again, he asks, 'why?']

Because... [for whatever reason, in his anxiety, he finally switches to what he can remember of the dragon language.] They're good people.

[well, that is.. a very sentimental statement, coming from Robin. a few more of them appear, coming forward from where they were hidden near bushes and stones, but none of them advance past the tree line. a couple of the masks turn to one another, or hesitantly let some slack into their bows as this scene unfolds...]

I don't want them as enemies. [Robin continues to explain, hands still up.] If you hurt them now, word will spread to every tribe in the forest.

[Tek sighs with more drama than he's really feeling over this. honestly, he mostly thinks it would just be fun to mess with these humans. in light of a few specific incidents during his involuntary interplanetary adventure years ago, he now approaches encounters with local inhabitants with a little more restraint than he used to.

when he snarls that he 'just wanted to scare them a little bit,' it still sounds terrifying to the average listener, and he doesn't let his murderous gaze fall away from his targets for a second... but Robin will be able to distinguish the playful lilt to it. he's taking his time, but he's slowly making the progression toward backing down.]

[and, in hearing a little bit of that... playful tone, he finally lowers his arms some and all of his voices sigh in unison. Tek may find enough amusement just seeing him deflate and knowing he'd nearly given Robin a heart attack.]

Well, you're doing a good job. [back to his normal language and now fully standing, he turns to regard the line of people in the forest, most of which are still holding on their position.] Just keep telling me all about it. In complete sentences.

[two of them begin talking in lowered tones, but still no movement.]

[perhaps to spite Robin (more than he already has) the first thing that Tek does is croon in wordless amusement. he does, however, lower his predatory pose into a more relaxed crouch. his head slinks down near Robin, practically hovering over his shoulder, and his tail lashes dangerously behind him, but it amounts to him looking more like an animal wanting to play with something than one about to tear into an enemy.

he does eventually speak again, though he doesn't go out of his way to sound less snarly when he does. 'why? do you think they'll mistake me for your pet?']

GRATIA // PSL

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