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Just Daud. If I'm going to let everyone else in on the ritual part of it, leaving him in the dark until the end... well... [ How should she put it? ] He wouldn't have been too happy with that.

[ But how do you even know when he is happy? A mystery. ]

Is that man ever happy?

[ Strange asks, unintentionally wanting to know what's on everyone's mind. ]

Still, I'm grateful that I'm one of the first.

I'm not so sure about that myself anymore.

[ It's just Billie musing aloud, more to herself than to Strange, but she'll shrug at him being grateful. ]

And you're already helping me. It wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to go to anyone else.

That's right. After all, no one here knows as much about dragons as I do.

[ says captain egotism. Looking over at the book one more time, Strange points at a certain passage. ]

This part right here...'only living magic can alter living magic's course.' They must be speaking solely about the dragon's magic and not using 'living magic' to describe the dragons as a whole. After all, they have minds of their own. They can be convinced or shaped just like any mortal can.

[ That ego is going to get him killed one day, she's already sure of it. ]

Couldn't that translate a little more literally? From what I could tell, they fed a whole lot of lives to that orb of theirs. Wouldn't that be living magic?

[ Or maybe that's what he already meant. She wouldn't know. ]

I don't think so. Lives are described as conduits of magic a few lines earlier, [ Strange says as he points at the words ] I think the whole poem can be summarized as 'mortals shouldn't try to change the dragons, because only nature itself can do so.'

But that doesn't make much sense. In the egg, dragons can adapt to fit their circumstances. Say if you or I put our dragon eggs in a fire: then they might hatch heartier and more resistant to flame. Wouldn't that be a conduit of magic altering living magic's course?

[ or is he just overthinking this? It might be the latter. ]

The fire would be doing the altering, not us. [ Billie points that out. ] Maybe the cultists got it wrong trying to use people to match the dragon's magic if we're only conduits instead of sources.

That's what I would suspect. Something like another dragon or a natural event would be a better match. But then, that opens a whole new realm of what-ifs.

[ where would you find a dragon, how could you harness a natural event, etc. etc.

Over on the bed, Alistair has definitely lost the staring contest and battle of wills. He starts making a high-pitched whining noise, trying to get someone's attention. ]

Doesn't really explain the glowing blue eyes at the end, though. Something happened.

[ But what that something has to wait because there's a high-pitched whine that causes her to grimace and look back towards the bed. She's just in time to see Red go from staring at Alistair to charging across the bedspread — with all the grace of a stumbling kitten — and pouncing on him. Breaking eye contact was an opportunity and he damn well took it. ]

[ As Billie looks towards the bed, Strange looks as well...and then goes into full tilt panicky parent mode as Red pounces on Alistair. Alistair keeps whining as he starts to ineffectively paw at Red's direction: it's obvious Alistair Tourmaline has zero clue how to fight.

Strange almost instantly going into overprotective parent mode doesn't help at all. ]

Is he bleeding? Bell, keep an eye out for any blood. Billie, get ready to grab your dragon should the situation call for it.

[ Ineffective pawing is... ineffective. Red more or less ends up sitting on him when he doesn't put up an interesting enough struggle but it's hardly something that'll draw blood. This, even Billie can see. ]

Strange... Red's just playing around.

[ Calm down??? ]

Edited 2019-04-10 13:21 (UTC)

[ A combination of Strange's relative lack of a normal childhood, no siblings, and barely any experience with things like 'decent parenting' means that at least for the raising part of raising a dragon, he's in over his head.

He gives Billie a confused look. ] But couldn't someone get hurt?

[ Alistair continues whining as he tries to wriggle out from underneath Red. ]

[ Billie wouldn't really call her own childhood normal but she's punched enough kids as a kid. So. ]

Sure. Kids hurt each other all the time but this isn't malicious.

[ Red continues to sit on Alistair, though he won't make an effort to keep the other dragonet pinned. He's mostly just watching the struggle at this point. ]

These aren't kids, [ Strange points out, like it's obvious. ] They're dragons. Whether it's malicious or not doesn't matter, we can't let them get hurt.

[ Eventually, Alistair wriggles out from underneath Red. The whining stops as the blue dragon...just ineffectually tries to tackle the red one. Based on Alistair's pathetic fighting skills, it's obvious what form of development Strange hasn't been focusing on. ]

Strange, dragons don't hatch fully formed and ready to go. They have to grow up, just like any other kid, so yes, they're kids. They're going to get hurt somewhere down the line.

[ Because Billie can't imagine a childhood without some kind of pain. It could be as simple as falling out of a tree and breaking a wing, it could be worse.

On the bed, Red just makes a little trilling noise and puts a scaly little claw in Alistair's face to push him off when he tries to tackle him in return. Even if Alistair did have an idea of what to do, there's definitely a size difference even only a few weeks in. ]

[ Strange isn't so sure about this. He watches Alistair and Red with a small little frown on his face. ]

Most other children aren't conduits of powerful magic with the ability to change the world. And there's more of them than the five or so dragons that currently exist. My point stands.

[ Alistair takes the claw in his face as an invitation to try and wrestle with Red. Considering the size difference and lack of fighting skills, Alistair's going to get his ass kicked, but the little dragon is just as needlessly stubborn as the person who's raising him. ]

And? That just means they have the potential to fuck up a lot more than other children when they get hurt.

[ As the two dragonets fall into wrestling, Billie's attention drifts back over to Strange, her own expression fairly unreadable — if relaxed, at least — as she scrutinizes him, trying to figure out what his deal is. Is he assuming magical beings are going to be above the rabble of mortality or what? ]

You've never spent a whole lot of time around kids before, have you?

[ At Billie's question, Strange shakes his head. He's watching the dragonets intently, ready to swoop in and grab Alistair if needed. ]

I was an only child growing up. My childhood was...unorthodox, to say the least. I spent some time around children, but my father generally steered me away from anything that could make me happy.

[ like, you know, hanging out with other people ]

Sounds like a fun guy...

[ Sarcasm for sure. She isn't going to play the 'compare childhoods' game, however, just settling on the fact that, yes, she has more experience with children than Strange does. ]

Alright. So you were really sheltered. That isn't how much people raise their kids. Just let them mess around while they're still too small to do any real damage, it'll be good for them.

And you're sure that method or raising children works even if the children have fangs?

[ said as he gestures to the dragons. people children bite as well, dipshit. ]

I had fangs as a child. I think I turned out alright.

[ ha ha... ha, yeah. sure. ]

Says the criminal? [ he teases. Lord knows there's enough in his past that Lurk could throw stones at, he's not getting past light teasing. ]

Alistair Tourmaline is going to grow up at least slightly law-abiding, thank you very much.

A successful criminal who got you your book back. Don't forget about that.

[ law-abiding would have gotten you nothing instead, Strange. ]

And that's why I said slightly law-abiding, not completely!

[ he is not forgetting that book thing, it has firmly cemented Billie as a bro. ]

Though speaking of interesting things like my book, I've also found something relatively rare that I want you to look at.

Edited 2019-04-11 03:54 (UTC)

[ Okay, that earns a vaguely curious look. ]

You mean besides a dragon?

[ Because those two have got to be the rarest things in the room. ]

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