shatterverse | (no subject)

"Maybe you could try dog food - dogs are supposed to eat meat but they eat dog food!"

Oliver takes a long inhale, counts to ten, then exhales.

"...Given the size of most dogs, I think it would take a great deal of that. I prefer cattle, deer, horses, that sort of thing."

She lifts her head up briefly, swinging it around to look at Oliver as she pricks her ears. "Are you all right?"

"Dog food tastes really good. You can find it in Petco. We went there to get food for Mr. Snuffles. He really liked it." Sell that Purina, Bridge!

Smooth and pleasant is Oliver's, "I'm quite well, thank you. Just...resettling." Oliver feels hellishly awkward telling a child that isn't his to be quiet.

"Does the bite from the pretty fish-lady still hurt?" Bridge asks Oliver.

"A bit...." His eyes snap open, his gaze mildly alarmed. "Ah, did I tell you about that?" That doesn't sound like a story he'd tell a child.

Mommy told her not to talk about the dreams. "Guess so. Maybe someone else did."

Well, that makes sense. Oliver closes his eyes again and resolves to have a word or two with Thrust.

Nhim nods, then puts her head on her forefeet again. "I still think I prefer meat, though it being fresh or not doesn't matter much to me." Hooray for tough digestive systems!

One ear flicks slightly. "Fish-lady?" she repeats. "You mean mermaids?"

Bridgette nods slowly, seriously. "Gotta make sure the meat's not sick, though," she cautions Nhim. Bridgette knows sickness.

"No, they weren't mermaids," Bridgette continues. "The lady walked on land - and didn't sing - and didn't have a fish tail. Until she grew one when she kissed him. But the robot guy fought them off and another fish-lady bit him and," is that a bit of a malicious smile on Bridgette's face as she nods towards Oliver? "he didn't have a shirt even though it was winter." She shakes her head at the silliness of Oliver Wycliffe.

When Oliver first realized that Nhim wouldn't harm him, he didn't blush as much as he does now. Nor did he sputter softly and look quite so shocked.

DEFINITELY. HAVING. WORDS. WITH THRUST.

"You know, generally they lose their tails, if there's any kissing of landdwellers involved," Nhim notes idly, then adds. "And I would recommend keeping your clothing on during the winter. It isn't as if humans have fur."

She swings her head in Oliver's direction again. "What's wrong?"

"That makes sense," Bridgette seconds, regarding shirts in winter.

"Good Lord, it was hardly as if I chose to--" Oliver begins heatedly, then bites back his words. "There was dark sorcery involved," he finishes curtly. (Dark sorcery and a man's urges, but he'll die before he admits that to anyone other than himself.)

"Oh. 'Kay." Watch Bridge not entirely believe Oliver - but move on to more important things. "They lose their tails? Really? Have you met any mermaids?"

Nhim nods, apparently satisfied by this answer. "That does happen. Generally there's not much that you can do, except hope that someone breaks the spell for you."

Her attention goes back to Brigette as she nos. "Only a few, but I have met them. And sometimes they do lose their tails and gain legs instead, if they wish to live on land. But it takes magic-it isn't a natural thing."

Oliver nods absentmindedly to Nhim, very much done talking about this. He tries once more to center himself.

"There are a lotta people with magic, here. Like Inty and Gabe. Inty knows things, and Gabe knows how things are. And they're really special. Did you ever meet a unicorn?"

"Oliver can perform magic as well," Nhim points out-look, Oliver-talk that won't cause him to turn funny colors! "But yes, I've met many unicorns. ...I very nearly ate one once, but that was a mistake. I couldn't see her horn until I dove."

"Oh, yeah," Bridgette replies, a world of dismissiveness in her tone.

Bridgette's expression soon becomes horrified. "I'm...real glad you didn't eat it," she mumbles, subdued.

Dead bodies don't bother Bridgette much anymore after Captain Trips, but the idea of dead unicorns really does.

"I broke my dive, at least, before I hit her. I ended up apologizing quite profusely." She shakes her head. "I don't eat anything capable of speaking."

Notice how she said 'I', rather than 'dragons'.

"That's good," Bridgette tells her approvingly.

"You'd have to fly a real long way to get to someplace cold all the time," she mentions.

Nhim nods, dropping her head back to her forefeet. "That seems to be the case, unfortunately. I think I might have to settle for somewhere's that cold most of the time...or at least for a good portion of the year. I'm afraid traveling isn't quite as easy for me as it once was."

"You could try Vermont? It's like that."

Bridgette suddenly looks at the door, smiling a little. "Marie, c’mon out – it's a dragon!"

Bridgette becomes anxious, looking back at Nhim long enough to say, "Uh, 'scuse me..." before hurrying over to the door and going inside.

"I'm afraid I don't know where that is." She starts to look to Oliver for help, but pauses as she watches Bridgette, tilting her head to the side, then going, "Hm." to Oliver.

Oliver cracks his eye open to determine that Bridge is out of earshot.

"She's quite lonely, I expect," he says pityingly.

Nhim turns to look at him, her ears pricking forward. "What makes you say that? Are there not many children here?"

"Her sister, poor thing. And the only other children I've seen have been a young boy who works in the kitchen and Hana and Loo, Mel's toddlers."

"If there are enough adults around, though, there ought to be more soon enough, though. It would be some time before they could keep her company, but..."

Nhim knows all about the relatively rapid rate of human reproduction.

Oliver's mouth quirks in a smile as he closes his eyes again. "I hope I shall be asked to perform some marriages first."

She shrugs a but, grunting at the movement. "I think it varies depending on the group, in my world-I've heard some humans mention such things, but not others."

"Oh, heathens of my world have marriages as well," Oliver agrees. "But I would hope those here would keep to civilized codes of conduct."

Nhim sounds amused, gaping her jaws in a smile. "Raxis and I were quite civilized, but we never married. It's not what we dragons do."

Oliver's eye cracks open just a moment, but then he shrugs it off. "As long as you kept to the codes of your God in other ways, who am I to object?"

Hey, dragons - and what's he going to do, trying to guilt Nhim into marrying someone who isn't even here? Pfft.