2015.01.25 - Dragons and Floating Chairs

Terra often takes some scouting detours to see more of the surface world, often finding people to help, potential friends, but every time she learns something new. This time, she's discovered a new region! Breakstone Lake seems pretty awesome, particularly the people who float about in their kayaks. Standing at the very edge of the lake, Terra calls out at some of those strangers, "hey!!! Where did you get the floating chairs? I want one too!"

At the far side of the lake, away from the people willing to brave the cold waters of the lake in late January, the trees rustle and shake as something very large moves among them. The thick woods betray nothing except for showing flashes of deep red from time to time as the foliage moves about.

"Never mind the floating chairs! I need to check something out!" Terra calls at the puzzled people in their kayaks, before leaping into the air, before a piece of rock rises from the ground to fly up from under her, carrying her over towards the area of the movement, "who goes there!?" She demands, as she descends into that area of the trees, wondering if the people might be in danger.

Right at about the same time a large, crocodilian head snakes out from between the trees where they are growing closest to the water. Keeping close to the ground to avoid attracting attention the creature dips its muzzle into the water proper only to roll an eye up to look at the flying girl and freezing momentarily.

"You! Stay away from those people! They are only having fun!" Terra cries out from her floating rock, pointing down firmly at the much larger creature, "you can go swim further down the stream, yes? Shoo!"

The head snaps back under cover, managing to avoid everything except for a quick glimpse by the kayakers. The glimpse is still enough to alarm the humans, sending them scrambling for the shore opposite to the one the creature is at. Meanwhile the creature raises its head on its serpentine neck to peer at the girl through the thick foliage of the forest canopy, smoke filtering through the leave as it lets out a questioning accompanied by a puff of smoke.

Terra flies on her rock, closer still to the creature, "hey, no need to be shy," she oddly enough seems supremely calm. "I'm not trying to be mean or anything, it's just, these people would really be scared if they saw you...and they're just having fun."

From up close the forest doesn't provide the same kind of coverage it does from afar and now the girl can clearly see that there's a, for lack of a better description, a dragon among the trees. The dragon cocks his head a bit to the side, like a curious bird, before twisting its head around to pointedly look at the kayakers. Said kayakers are now clustered around in a group at the opposite shore. Their gestures make it pretty clear they're having an animated conversation about what they've just seen or at least what they think they've seen...

"Hey!" Terra announces in a sudden bout of excitement, "you're a dragon! Just like on TV!" Floating closer to the dragon, Terra keeps her rock in one spot as she tries to more or less keep to eye level with the dragon, "so...how long have dragons been real? You're very good at hiding yourselves!"

Well, at least dragons have expressive eyebrows. This one's right eyebrow raises a little bit in a classic 'Really?' expression, accompanied by a small growl. The creature doesn't seem to be afraid of the young woman but its clearly not answer questions any time soon.

Terra crosses her arms when the dragon seems non-responsive, while the dragon is clearly not afraid of her, the same holds true for the young woman, despite the tremendous difference in size. "Listen, if you're not going to answer, that's rude...and you're not going to be making any new friends that way." She thinks for a moment and then ends, "did you ever meet Elliot? He's Pete's Dragon, and he can tell you all about how fun it is to make friends."

The dragon's head snakes back down to ground level then it focuses its attention on the still excited kayakers. A second or two later the dragon dissolves into a blob of golden gel that coalesces on one the high branches the dragon was holding on to and solidifies into an exact copy of one the kayakers on the opposite shore, down to the same outfit. Looking up at the floating girl the man frowns slightly an asks, "And who told you all dragons could speak? Because who ever did, lied to you."

Terra shifts positions, flying towards the dragon, now a copy of a person he mimicked, sitting on a branch. Not looking at the kayakers, she doesn't quite realize he's mimicked another person, "d'uh! Everybody knows dragons can talk, don't you ever watch TV? Elliot is just one example! And look, you're speaking now! Don't try to trick me! I know stuff."

The young man frowns, clearly confused by the young woman's train of though. After a few moments of thought he carefully says, "You do know most things on TV are fantasy right? Just stories people think up. And yes, I'm talking. But I'm not a dragon anymore." Getting to his feet on the branch he shuffles a couple of steps off to the left until he's leaning against the tree's trunk, arms crossed over his chest and as nonchalant as if he wasn't standing on an 10 inch branch 20 feet off the ground.

"I know dragons can shift forms, I'm not stupid," Terra points out while still talking to who she thinks was a dragon who wore a human form, "and a lot of most everything on TV is true. I even saw Power Girl on TV, and I met her! So she's real! You can't fool me!"

The young man arches both eyebrows now in complete astonishment. "Please tell me you're not one of those weird alien races that looks all grown up by the time they're just 5 years old... Or maybe you're a clone? But anyone that believe that just doesn't have a whole lot of life experience." Then he tilts his head to the side in a very similar gesture as the one he used a few moments back as a dragon, "And besides, what reason would I have to try and fool you?"

Terra gasps at the insinuation, "I'll have you know I'm 16! I'm not 5!" She seems offended by the suggestion, stalling as she thinks of what else she might say, and simply drawing blanks, which leaves her in silence. "Because some dragons are tricksy, maybe you're a tricksy dragon!" Terra looks suspiciously at the person who was a dragon. "So...you're saying that you're not trying to fool me? Is that it? In that case, I accept your apology."

The man in the tree opens his mouth for a moment, ready to debate that he asked for an apology then seems to think better about it. With a slight chuckle he says, "So you're sixteen. Where do you come from then? Because you clearly don't have a lot of experience with TV." Shifting uncomfortably on his feet he holds up a finger and adds, "Give me just a moment." Reaching up to his neck he opens a small bag that's hanging there by an elastic cord and he pulls out a pack of picture cards. Flipping through them he settles on a card with the picture of a mynah bird an after a second he once again turns into a blob of golden ectoplasm that turns into a mynah in the blink of an eye. With a shake of his head he make the elastic cord flop off his neck, leaving the bag with the card on the branch as he hops around for a bit, "That's better. Birds are much more comfortable on branches than people."

"I come from the land down under," Terra is quick to answer, quoting a song it seems for her choice of reply, and almost as if in an after thought she adds, "mate." Terra squints when the young man now turns into a bird, "so you like to always look different, that's your thing? Right?"

The mynah uses its beak and one foot to stuff the mynah card back into the bag before answer, to prevent it from blowing away. Then he looks back up to the girl and in the raspy voice typical of most birds he says, "Now you're trying to trick me. Your accent sounds nothing like an Australian's. But we are all entitled to secrets." After hopping side to side a few times he answer the last question the young woman posed, "Well, I can change shapes, yes. I wouldn't say I necessarily like to do it. Its just convenient sometimes."

Terra blinks, she hasn't thought out accents and such, and it was so clever to tell the truth while implying something different. "Errr...it's because I've been to Canada a lot," she tries some weird excuse which in reality is just the first thing that jumped to mind. "Exactly! You're doing secrets first, Mr. Dragon!"

The mynah once again tilts its head, this time looking much more natural than in either a dragon or a human, "You can call me Gabriel. And while we're at it, what's your name, Ms. Canadastralian?" Taking the bag of picture card in its beak the minah flaps up to the top of the canopy, now able to stand on a branch much thinner than one that would hold a human.

"And you can call me Terra, Gabriel," Terra offers before extending her hand to the bird, quickly changing it into a fist, and trying to bump her fist lightly against the brid's beak. Closest thing to a fist bump possible, "I never said my name was Ms. Canadastralian, it is Terra though, Champion of Justice! Because I'm a hero!"

The mynah twists its body at the last second, meeting fist with wing edge, a much more appropriate 'fist' bump. A fist bump with unexpected result. The mynah barely has a chance to start letting loose a squawk before its melting into golden ectoplasm again, expending in size and solidifying into an exact copy of Terra herself. Looking down at herself Terra-2 sighs and shakes her head, "One of these days surprise contact won't make that happen..."

Terra blinks as the bird now assumes her own form, looking a bit confused at first, before pointing out, "you can't be me...I'm already me, and if you're me, it's going to confuse people!" She then quickly makes a funny face, testing if the other Terra will mimic it as well.

Terra-2 just looks at Terra-1 with a flat poker face as she makes funny faces then lets out a startled yelp as the branch she's on breaks under her weight and she starts falling she curls into a ball and then pops out perfectly placed to land on her feet. After she lands with a loud thump, knees bending to take the impact, she looks down at her legs in surprise, "Well, that should have broken my legs, no matter how well I fell." Then she chuckles as she looks up at the original Terra, "Let me guess, you can fall from as high as you want and as long as you're hitting earth you won't get hurt..."

Terra lets the rock she's on crumble to pebbles, dropping down to a perfect landing right in front of the other Terra, "me and the Earth are friends, the Earth doesn't hurt me..." Terra explains it, while looking oddly at her doppelganger, "this is odd...you stole something from me?" Terra asks confused, "do you feel this?" She asks, as the ground lifts behind the other Terra, forming a little statue in Terra's shape, so now there's 3, albeit the third one is wholly a statue.

Upon realizing that the fake Terra is rather starkly naked, Terra points out, "you didn't get my costume! But I can take you shopping if you need, it's easy, there's Beginner and Advanced level clothes...I can help you with beginner stuff."

Terra-2 closes her eyes and nods, "I sure can feel that. A statue of yourself, all in earth, right?" Then she's being asked about clothing, which makes her eyes pop open as she looks down at herself. "OH for Pete's sake!" Ignoring the question she starts looking around the ground, finally spotting her bag of picture cards half hidden a few feet away under a bush. Grabbing the bag she opens it up, shuffles through the cards and settles on a picture of a non-descript young man. The transformation process happens again and in a couple of seconds Terra-2 turns into a 5' 5' blond teen-aged boy wearing a hoodie, jeans, and hiking boots. Letting out a relieved sigh he smiles, "There, that's better. And thankfully I wasn't stuck. Sometimes surprise shifts strand me in that form for a few hours."

"No, no, no, this has nothing to do with Pete, Elliot's friend, he definitely did not steal any clothes from you!" Terra points out, as the statue crumbles back down into the ground. "It's not that bad being stuck as me...I'm not ugly, am I?" Terra wonders noting the hurry with which the dragon wanted to change into that form of a young man.

Gabriel laughs and shakes his head, "Far from it. But its the middle of January in New York state. Being naked is asking for hypothermia. Besides, girls have problems I don't want to risk having to deal with..." He hides his sudden blush with an I-don't-give-a-damn kind of smirk as he realizes what he just said and quickly tries to change the topic, "Who's this Pete... Oh! No, that's just a saying. A different version of 'For goodness sake'"

"I am not bothered by cold, are you not able to mimic that?" Terra asks curiously, looking oddly at Gabriel, "and girls don't have problems. Girls are O-kay," Terra nods sagely. "Pete is Elliot's friend, you know, the dragon?" Terra blinks at Gabriel, before he explains the expression. "Oh! Goodness gracious! That kind of thing?"

Gabriel is now starting to look a bit confused. "Yes, that kind of thing. And I probably mimicked that too. Just didn't wait long enough to find out." He hesitates for a moment before adding, "You do have problems... Every month kind of problems among others..."

Terra nods when Gabriel helps her figure out "Pete's sake," but crosses her arms again and looks a bit displeased, "that's not a problem! It just happens...that's like saying boys have problems, because..." she then stops to think a moment, looking a bit stumped, before she offers, "that's like saying boys have problems because they don't have boobs. They just don't, it's not a problem!"

Gabriel nods rapidly, "Definitely not a problem not having breasts. That's another one of those problems. They flop everywhere and they hurt when you run and..." And at that moment he decides this might not be the healthiest direction the conversation can go and he shuts his mouth with an audible click of teeth.

"That's why you wear support, I told you I can teach you about clothes," Terra offers, looking a bit displeased at the suggestions girls have problems, like it was something personal against her. "Maybe you should change into a girl and try that out for a whole day, you'll see there's no problems! It's all in your head."

Been there, done that. Not that he's going to mention that right now. Instead he completely ignores Terra's last couple of comments and instead asks, "So what brought you to the lake today?"

"I found this place flying over...and the floating chairs looked fun, I wanted to try one," Terra answers, not minding the change in topic, she didn't much like the other topic as it were.

Gabriel frowns in confusion for a moment before something clicks in his brain, "Floating chairs? Oh! you mean the kayaks! They're not chair, they're boats. And if you tip in that water right now its crazy cold. But then again, sounds like that wouldn't bother you. I bet we could ask them to lend you one if they are still there."

"Kayaks?" Terra looks at Gabriel with uncertainty, until he explains that's what the floating chairs are called, "really? But they look like very long chairs for boats...funny!" She nods to the part about cold water not bothering her, but also shakes her head at the suggestion to ask the other people if they'll lend her one of theirs. "I don't want to take their kayak from them. I need to get one of my own."

Gabriel nods, "You should at least try one first before getting your own. If you don't want to ask someone to lend you one you can rent one in different place around the state."

"I will do it, next time I'm here, right now....if you can still feel, you'll know I need to go," and unlike before, this time Terra leaps head first into the ground, which seem to move for her, opening a tunnel, and soon closing behind her.