1184/A Less Kind Dragon

A Less Kind Dragon
Date of Scene:	20 December 2014
Location:	Fall
Synopsis:	It turns out that Ryu is not the only dragon in his world. Here, that dragon rears its scaly head. And it turns out Ryu knows the dragon...
Thanks to:	Ryu, Finna, and Kyra Hyral, for showing up!
Cast of Characters:	513, 626, 636, 668

---

Teepo (668) has posed:
    Syn City is dark, but light. Dark in that it's built inside an old abandoned mine, light in that chrysm lights glow inside the mine. Flashy and glitzy, Syn City is a gambling town, casinos and clubs lining the inside of the mineshafts the city is built into. Syn City is one of those places that glows from a distance. Or well, it would if most of it could be seen. From a distance one can only see the large neon-like sign on the outside that welcomes visitors.

    Today however... Syn City is not welcoming. There are screams. Roaring. That is not a human. There is a monster here, that's clear even without hearing the people's screams of exactly that-- "Monster!" People are running out. And there's a woman in a revealing red dress, a broken dinner length cigarette holder at her feet, collapsed outside the entrance. All she can manage to stammer out is, "Th-tha-that... that definitely wasn't on the menu!"

    What wasn't on the menu? Well, continue inside and one will see the source of the problem. A destroyed vendor's stand is where the trouble seems to start. But there's a trail of destruction further into the mountain. Eventually one will come across a dead body. Burnt beyond recognition. This 'monster' must have been the one responsible. And where's the monster?

    Very near the dead body, in fact. A six and a half foot purple-scaled thing, breathing fire. But there are also a few people partially or wholly frozen in ice. And the dragon SPEAKS! With a horrible, demonic-sounding voice, it bellows, "What's the matter?! Are you AFRAID?! Or just TOO WEAK to face me?!"

Ryu (636) has posed:
    Another dragon arrives to Syn City, though he's in human form. He runs through the fleeing crowds in the other direction, turning the heads of those who pay attention to the weirder things in a crisis. The soldier rushes to ground zero of the disaster, eager to find the source of this. There, he might find answers, and he might find someone to compare himself to... someone who might understand what he is. But the reaction isn't good. People are freaking out, and already he can tell military forces might converge on this place.

    Ryu stumbles to a stop when he finds the source. The burnt body gets his face scrunching just from the smell alone, and the site of the dragon is enough to make him feel more than a little fear and uncertainty. Instead of asking it any questions... he draws his sword, the Bonebreaker, and glares at Teepo. The words of the dragon hit Ryu hard, like it was exactly the thing the stories had warned about.

    And he didn't want them to be true.

    "WHAT DID YOU DO!?" he shouts, the pain and destruction around them having made him VERY ANGRY at this dragon.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra has been studying Multiversal navigation so today she is able to respond to this distress call pretty quickly. Knowing that Ryan was going to be here gave her a considerable amount of confidence, having fought alongside him before and comfortable that she could adequately support him. She does not show up on foot, appearing astride a yellow-feathered chocobo, handling the animal with ease as it thunders down the streets.

    As she nears the scene of the conflict, her nose scrunches up as she catches the smell of burnt flesh. It's a familiar smell to her but still something exteremely unpleasant. The Chocobo is pulled to a stop about fifty feet behind Ryan, Kyra making it clear that she's not going to get much closer. With one hand on the chocobo's harness, her other reaches into her hoodie to pull out one of her guns.

    "Is that purple juiced-looking thing it?!" Kyra calls out, hopping off the chocobo.

    No sooner than she dismounts, the chocobo disappears into a flash of Caller motes-faint green sparkes that suck into somewhere at her waist.

Finna (513) has posed:
    Scampering at Ryu's heels is nothing other than a fox from the north. Because Finna's gotten a bit lazy in the Multiverse and found that people rarely care too much about animals acting weird. It's much more convenient to move about like this, free as the wind, than waste energy bolstering her human form. So she pulls ahead of Ryu once she picks up on the scent of charred...

    ...everything...

    The snow fox ends up leaping atop one of the People-sicles and gazing right at the dragon.

    The FOX speaks too. "Ah.. as usual, city people prove to be morons in a crisis, but what's with all this chest-beating? Does picking on weaklings make you happy? Do you feel PROUD?" Her voice DRIPS with sarcasm and frustration alike.

    Because it's a really good coverup for how really horribly awful Burnt Person smells and how it's getting to her very sensitive nose.

Teepo (668) has posed:
    Ryu's shout gets the dragon's attention, and it turns to look. A horrible grin lights its face. Turning briefly back to the remaining soldiers he growls, "I'm done with you. Get lost!" He swings his tail and knocks them away. They'll survive though. Then he turns his attention back to Ryu. "Ryan! There you are." Yup, it knows Ryu! Sitting back on its haunches, the dragon regards Ryu carefully. It's a considering look, sizing him up.

    And then Kyra arrives! The bird is eyed suspiciously, until it disappears. There is a disappointed headtilt from the dragon-- likely disappointed he's not going to get a chicken dinner. Darn. "And who are you?" the dragon asks. "Friend of Ryan's? Good, someone needs to hear this."

    Suddenly A FOX IS TALKING! The dragon blinks, head drawing back somewhat. "Ryan makes interesting friends. Anyway. Proud? Hell yeah!" Pointing a claw at the burnt body. "THAT used to be Drust Burg, the most ruthless gang boss around here. Just ask Ryan how many people this bastard had killed. THAT'S why all this. These people aren't gonna hurt anyone else, ever again."

    Looking back to Ryu. "And THAT is what I did--" In a roar, "I ENDED him!" The dragon stands again, to its full height. "That's what this power is for, Ryan! WE'RE not the ones who should cower and run in fear! WE are the ones who MAKE HISTORY!"

Ryu (636) has posed:
    Ryu hesitates when the dragon knows his name. Its voice grates on his nerves in an awful way, not sure if he was supposed to be able to talk like this when he became a dragon. The thought crosses his mind that maybe this one is... less stunted? The sword clatters for a second as his gaze drops to regard the dead gang leader, before the other dragon even brings it up.

    When the name is dropped, Ryu pales. His gaze raises to focus on the dragon, as he searches his mind for anything that might clue him in on who this person could be... His mind is clouded by the horror of the encounter, at first, but then a rational part reminds him of clues in the way the dragon speaks. So obsessed with strength, and pride, and he knows Ryu directly... someone he never quite agreed with in the first place. Someone who would eagerly gobble up a power like this.

    "T... Teepo," he murmurs, confident about who it is, now. This is starting to make more sense. His sword lowers, hesitant about attacking someone he's known for so long. He can't exactly DISAGREE with what Teepo has done. After all, Drust was an awful, awful man... but he practically ran Syn City's underground, and the less harsh dragon understood what chaos killing him would bring. Sure, someone would take the mantle in his place, but...

    "You need to stop." Ryu frowns at the other dragon. "You need to stop before you hurt anyone else. Some of these people don't deserve it, they're just scared." It's a pretty weak request, like he's not sure how to deal with what's happening at all.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Considering that there are dragons around, Kyra's pretty glad for the way summon matrixes work. If she lost an actual chocobo to a dragon she might cry for an /entire day/. Though the interest in the chocobo is well noted by Kyra and filed away for later.

    "I am Kyra Hyral of Galianda! I'm one of Ryan's new extraversal allies!" Kyra stomps a foot, the buckles and chains on her boot jingling as she does. "So! Hmmm."

    Teepo explains who the extra-crispy charred victim is and Kyra frowns. "Hey Ryan, does your world have rules against casual murder? I want to say most places will still call "street justice" murder."

    Ryan drops his sword and Kyra frowns, worried. "Hey...!" she hisses at him, "Hey! Pick that back up!"

Finna (513) has posed:
    "Ah... laws and rules. Not my problem, but you're not doing many favors with all the screaming and the terror and the burning everything..." The fox's nose wrinkles, and she soon hops off the frozen... unfortunate... and does a flip in the air!

    When she lands... she is now a young woman. Shorer than the dragon, though only SLIGHTLY shorter than Ryu. Still, she puts both hands on the blue-haired man's left shoulder, springs up on her tiptoes, and waggles a finger at the dragon fearlessly! "Uuuuurgh, I can't stand that smell...."

Teepo (668) has posed:
    Teepo sits back on his haunches again, pleased, as Ryu seems to recognize him. Though he tilts his head at Ryu's request. If a dragon can pull a '...Really?' expression, that's exactly what this is. "You know how it is, Ryan. The strong get what they want, and the weak can't do anything about it. Just like him." A look to the burnt corpse. "He was strong, so he got what he wanted. No one could beat him. But I DID!"

    To Kyra, he snarls, "'Street justice' is the ONLY justice here. Haven't you seen this place? You don't get anything here unless you TAKE it!"

    Teepo observes Finna's change and smirks. "Of course. Only somebody with power would tell me I needed to back down," he reasons. "It's easy for you up on your high horse to tell the weak not to get powerful. To just sit back and let you pull all the strings. Because if they do get powerful, they're a threat to you."

    "It's people like that who have Ryan so scared of his own power. I heard about it... people shooting at him and he didn't even raise a claw against anyone," Teepo continues. "They were so proud that they hadn't lost anybody to the 'monster'. HA!" Looking to Ryu, "See? They don't care. They just want you to stay meek and dependent on them, so they can keep what power they have over you!"

Ryu (636) has posed:
    "That's... that's not right," Ryu murmurs, baffled by how unrestrained the other dragon is about his power. It's not that he's strictly evil, but that he's severely misunderstood. The blue-haired young man found himself more conflicted about this than anything. 'The strong thrive, the weak fade' is a philosophy he's never agreed with, either, the entire reaction that Teepo is having with the others making the white dragon just make an incredulous face.

    "I didn't attack them... because they were just scared of me. They left the moment they had an excuse to." He's beginning to put two and two together, now that he's forced to think back on that day. "I knew I was powerful when I overturned their vehicle, but that was because I couldn't talk and I had to escape before they shot me." He begins to glare at Teepo again.

    "Leave this place. Leave before we have to force you to leave," he says, growling at the purple dragon. Still human form, now more aggressive. "Please." He doesn't want Teepo to get hurt. He's known this one since they were both kids. "This doesn't have to turn into a fight."

Finna (513) has posed:
    "Oh, who died and made you king of philosophy? Oh..." Finna steps out from behind Ryu. "Right. Some selfish money grubber by the sound of it. Look, dragon-boy. Weak and strong aren't aren't what you think they are. But we're in no place to debate it, like blue-head here says!" She says, squeeing Ryu's shoulder briefly before letting go.

    She glances at Kyra briefly, as though worried for her, then exclaims, "Iiii've never cared to have the power to cook people in their own skins. Pleeeeenty of things can lead to the downfall of men like that and I'm happier employing most of 'em. Don't go beating your chest at me until you know the first thing of using that power for anything but a brute force bludgeon withotu any finesse!" Still frownig, she again waggles the finger at Teepo. "Sheesh... boys and their toys. Shall we move It'll be a madhouse here in a few minutes!"

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Technically this is my first time in this world! But it looks like you've got some kind of /civilization/ here and these people don't look like a pack of fucking wolves." Kyra says cheerfully, boldly speaking up in stark contrast to Ryan's subdued response. All the while she speaks, she seems to be searching for something on her person and pulls out an empty flask. From there, she seems to be unleashing the contents of several darts she had held on her bandoliers.

    "Maybe they just don't want Ryan to turn into an out of control asshole like /some/ people seem to be." she adds offhandedly, how listening as Ryan speaks of events that must've happened sometime before. Likely when this whole 'dragon' thing became a thing based on context.

Teepo (668) has posed:
    "Ha! So you DO have some backbone!" Teepo scoffs. "Good, I was afraid it'd been completely snuffed out. They SHOULD be scared of you! You don't have to let them walk on you anymore. C'mon, join me! With our power, we could be KINGS! Syn City, Wyndia... doesn't matter. Pick a place, it'll be yours. You'd get to make the rules."

    As for Finna's statement about having the power to cook people in their skins? Teepo snorts. "Power's the only thing his kind understands. He wouldn't have stopped. You have any idea how many of my friends this guy's killed? He's not gonna do it again, is he? This was a message!"

    As for Kyra's not-so-veiled insult? Teepo visibly bristles, growling under his breath. He composes himself a few moments later, though, and waves a claw dismissively. "Out of control? Ha! I know EXACTLY what I'm doing. I got my message across-- there's a NEW boss in town!"

    Looking again to Finna, "Though, you got a point. Wyndia's probably heard about this. Not looking forward to fighting 'em. So I'm gonna have to wait 'till later to stake my claim." He takes a breath, stills... and then blue fire seems to erupt from the ground under him, obscuring his form. It freezes and then shatters into nothing. And then there's not a dragon there anymore.

    What's there is a mousy-looking young man with dark purple hair. He's wearing an outfit that anyone who's seen it will recognize as being at least derived from a Wyndian military uniform. There's a pistol and a sawed-off shotgun hanging on his belt. "This is probably easier." He crosses his arms. "C'mon, let's get outta here." A look to Ryu. "There'll be time to make you understand." That should probably not make Ryu feel very good....

Ryu (636) has posed:
    Ryu looks profoundly uncomfortable with everything that Teepo's saying. Being a king... more like a Tyrant. The concept makes Ryu seem pretty disgusted, not wanting anything to do with the major problem and wars it would cause to conquer any of the countries. The exchange having concluded with exactly zero bloodshed, Ryu frowns at the other dragon once more.

    When it's shown that Teepo can turn into a human form, and it seems to come more naturally, Ryu's eyes widen. He lets out a haggard sigh, sheathing the sword he had drawn earlier. "Once we get out of here, I think you should find something in the Multiverse to do. Stirring up our world is just asking for trouble. We don't know if there's other dragons, and I /don't/ want you getting killed." Because that would mean losing someone he's known since childhood, and someone who might increase his chances of finding answers. He's being pragmatic here. He just doesn't say that much.

    "Let's go." He leaves at a more-than-brisk pace. He doesn't actually care that Teepo follows him or goes his own way, just that everyone gets out of the city before someone shows up and starts overturning tables looking for the dragon so they can slay it. He glances at Kyra and Finna, respectfully, looking apologetic toward them, knowing they have good points.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    'Be friendly at him and he'll go with them?' Kyra's not been to Equestria yet, she doesn't believe in the 'power of friendship' to solve this problem, especially when the purple dragon just crispified a dude. Shaking her head, she elects not to say anything else to Teepo, preparing her flask in case it is needed. The flask, in fact, contains a whole lot of tranquilizers that were just emptied from her darts.

    Alerted to yet another change in plans, Kyra calmly puts a stopper in the flask and reattaches it to one of her belts. The needlegun is slipped back in the holster under her arm as well.

    Kyra turns to Ryan and gives him a big shrug, palms turned upward, but offering not much else. One of her hands drops to a very steampunk-y looking device at her hip that looks like a big brass dial. She cranks it, it clicks loudly, and in a flash of green Caller motes the chocobo reappears. Casually, she swings herself up onto the bird, mounting it astride in spite of wearing a skirt. The bird sprints off shortly afterwards.

Finna (513) has posed:
    "Oooooh.... attitude's not my style, but I LOVE that hair!" Finna declares openly, going rather visibly *SQUEE* over it! But only briefly.

    Not like there's anything WRONG with enjoying such things, is there?

    "Come on, let's go, let's go!"

    Better to be civilized than hostile if you want to talk to someone furhther, she figures, so no aggroing on Teepo.

    In the next few moments, she's turned into a horse. It's not exactly a subtle change either. Anyone crazy enough to still be watching the group might bve vaguely creped out by the way her flesh melts out into the shape within seconds. And yet still, she can talk. "Up! No complaining about it being bumpy, either."

    No arguing about it! She will HAUL both of the dragon boys up onto her back if they don't hoof it. With her teeth. No she's not wearing a saddle.

    It's time to LEAVE.

Teepo (668) has posed:
    At the note of not getting himself killed, Teepo snorts, "Heh. Didn't know you cared." Smirk. Though with a surprisingly small amount of snark, Teepo returns, "You stay safe too. Can't have you dying before you finally wake up."

    And he EYES that chocobo again, muttering something under his breath that might be along the lines of 'gotta get one of those'. To the group at large, he notes. "Oh yeah." Pointing to the corpse of the gang leader, "Try and stab me in the back, and you'll join 'im. Got it?" ATTITUDE!

    Finna's squeeing over his hair prompts an arrogant hairflip. Then suddenly Finna's a horse and she's grabbing hold of his jacket and-- "Wha-- HEY! LEGGO!" Flail! But he's nowhere near as strong in this form, so up onto horse-Finna's back he's hauled! Eh, whatever. Faster this way.