oh my god not another open post

[ofgoldenfoil]

Date & Time: OPEN! Forward dated to the 15th.
Location: throughout the city
Characters: Aurican and YOU
Summary: There's a big, shiny horse-sized baby dragon around the city. What would you do on a casual day when you see one?


Morning

The morning light has barely lifted its dreary head before a young gold dragon sets out of the apartment complex for a day at work. He's a courier now, with straps wrapped around his chest and neck so to two empty bags, one for each side, can be filled with letters and parcels. His employer at first had doubts, but when Aurican demonstrated his good speed on a trot and on a run, he is employed more readily, even though it was obvious that the employer was hoping Aurican will fly. (Aurican himself was disappointed at well, and apologized profusely.)

After taking a stop to the mail station to fill up his bags, it is off trotting through the streets, bringing those their deliveries. Sometimes he will have to pause to catch his breath - as swift as he might be, he is large and doesn't have the light-footedness of his copper cousin Blayze.


Afternoon

A time of a break, a time that Aurican learns of something called a "lunch": a meal for a certain time of a day. Aurican at first found it odd to always mark a time of a day with a meal, but after a week of work, he finally understands the necessary of it. It makes him eager for finishing work, ready to scarf down much needed food before he sets off with more deliveries.

Aurican's favorite meal is chicken, as it tends to be not only tasty, but tend to be cheaper than the red meat of cows. As a growing dragon, he usually requires one whole chicken as his meal. Today, he bought his chicken raw and ate outside, behind a pub. He scorched it with his fire until it was black enough for his likening. (He has developed a taste for cooked food, thanks to the residents of this world.)


Evening

A day drawing to its close, Aurican has done his rounds for the day. Feeling a little more tired than usual, he heads towards to the apartment complex. Pressing the door to open, he enters the main lobby, ready to climb the awkward stairs that he comes to dislike. He hopes he doesn't run into someone coming down on his way up. It is always awkward to avoid them and more often than not he had to turn around and climb down to allow them passage.

Comments

morning

[whatsupcroc]

Collette enjoyed the feeling of the lightening grey skies that accompanied an unseen sunrise behind the cloud cover. it wasn't like the dramatic sunrises in New Mexico, enjoyed while shivering in the fridgid morning air, nor was it the lightening of the skies she remembered from the hospital.

Nine months of Exsilium had tuned her in to its moods. Today feels like a good day, and her mood, generally upbeat, is positively bouyant as she sets off on foot for an early morning round. With her stop watch tucked in over her heart, she was prepared for the four hours this might take, hoping to be done within three and a half. One morph and demorph cycle would save on her personal energy, as well as give her some time to gather her wits and head off to the rest of what she needed to get done before the end of the month.

Jogging along on sheer good spirits, her own satchel slaps against her side until she shifts an arm to pull the strap taunt, keeping the bag from jostling as she moves. It's a short, pointed run for her today, a few missives and one parcel for personal deliveries. Most of what she runs is usually business, so this is lighter work, less constricted to deadlines.

Aurican is a sight Collette recognizes with a start as she turns the corner, spotting him further down the road. "Hey!" she calls out, pitching her tone to be a little uncertain. It's harder to gauge how she should be reacting to his presence. Wariness seems a good place to begin. "Out on delivery?" She asks, trying to sound conversational even as she keeps a respectable distance.

Internally, she's glad Aurican had run with the idea of how to make himself feel useful and busy. It was a good feeling. It's part of why she did any runs as Terri. Collette really didn't need the money, after all.

[ofgoldenfoil]

Aurican knew the moment he heard the uncertain tone of the speaker, they were talking about him. Some days he accepted without question, he wasn't human, he had huge wings and teeth and claws and humans had none of these things. Sometimes he cannot help but sulk when he heard it.

He continued to walk but turned his head back, looking for the source. Unfortunately as he saw the yellow-haired human, he didn't see the light pole ahead of him.

Smack! Momentarily stunned, he took a few steps back and sat down on his haunches, shaking his head. These metal constructs are very hard. He looked aside, turning to greet the human despite the pain. "Yes, I am."

[whatsupcroc]

Collette was laughing before she could think better of it, stunned by the absurdity of having a dragon walk headfirst into a lamppost. She wanted to ask if there was a hidden camera somewhere around. It was just too ridiculously perfect!

"Are you all right there? That's um, ahaha, that's one way to make an impression around here. Thinking of picking up lamp testing on the side? With all the rebuilding, it might be almost lucrative."

She came closer, shifting her satchel around to rest at her backside. "If that's the word I want to be using."

[ofgoldenfoil]

Aurican frowns impatiently at the laugh, shaking his head as though it will knock the pain from his head.

"I do not think hurting myself will allow higher pay," he grumbles. Or if he is even willing to go that far. He enjoys hoarding, but not that much.

[whatsupcroc]

"No, but it might raise a few moods around you," she pointed out. It's much harder for anyone to feign being scared of something they find more amusing than dangerous. "Here, let me look at your head for a moment! What's your name, big guy?"

Collette approached his head, keeping her movements slow out of respect for not startling something his size. Ponies were dangerous, even if they only were actual ponies! Pony sized dragons were a whole other ball game.

[ofgoldenfoil]

Collette might be right in keeping her movements slow. There has been instances of Aurican accidentally running over several someones simply because they moved to a different spot than Aurican thought they were in.

"Aurican. My name is Aurican."

[whatsupcroc]

Collette grinned, holding out one hand toward his head. Dragons probably didn't shake hands; maybe she could touch his nose?

"Nice to meet you, Aurican. My name's Terri."

Her tone carries some of that pleased wonder, made more comfortable after his mishap. She's in good spirits after having been laughing. "Do you run this part of the city often?"

[ofgoldenfoil]

Aurican stares blankly at the approaching hand. What is she doing? Is this another greeting? Didn't they just say hello? Perhaps hitting his head ruined the greeting, making it too informal. How can he return the greeting? He has seen humans clasps other hands and shook them as a greeting, once. He doesn't have hands, he has claws that can easily rip a man apart.

Tentatively, slowly, he raises his forepaw toward the hand. He won't shake it, but he tries to touch the palm of her hand with the bottom of his forepaw. "It is nice to meet you too."

[whatsupcroc]

She held herself steady, waiting for his forepaw with more fortitude born out of a confidence in his carefulness than anything else. When he's close, she closes the gap, pressing her palm to his paw.

"Nice adaptation," she remarks, winking as she says so. "Wasn't expecting a full-on hand-shake! Is that how you guys normally say hello?"

She's unaware of how silly that sounds, considering how saying hello needn't be more than the action in summation itself: speaking a hello being enough greeting. She's lost in her own cultural context for officiating meetings.

Evening

[explodewiththerage]

Another day wrapped up safely. He'd seen to it that Lucy made it back to her place no problem and after pestering her a bit and spending a little more quality time with his partner, he was finally chased out of her place. Something about needing to be alone to write for her novel or something along those lines. While he did want to spend a little longer with her, he knew nothing could come in between her passion for authorship. So he didn't really put up much of a fight as she pushed him out the door with hasty promises of making it up to him the next day. Honestly pushing him to the door took longer than him just jumping out the window. But she had her own place now so she had her own rules and all that and some compromises had to be made. Not that he'd stop climbing in through her window, certainly not.

So here was Natsu walking in through the front door. And here Natsu froze as he saw Aurican at the base of the stairs. Aurican. A dragon. A baby dragon to be precise but in Natsu's eyes he was still a dragon and he was one of the biggest fans of Dragons. After all one raised him and taught him his magic. At least that was what he was lead to believe until now. Whether the future would reveal otherwise, no one knew but now Natsu rushed over to Aurican's side.

"Hey little guy. When'd you get here?" He honestly didn't mean any disrespect but he was too excited and formality was never one of his strong points to begin with.

[ofgoldenfoil]

Little guy? Aurican was more or less certain he was far from little despite his age. His claws can easily rip apart a man's stomach, if he wanted too. Aurican always steer his thoughts clear of such dark and alarming thoughts. It made him ill.

The gold wyrmling turns around and watches as this human approaches him. He looks young, but it is hard for Aurican to tell for certain. He can barely tell between the sexes. "Several months ago, I think. I have been here for a while now."

[explodewiththerage]

He has seen a full grown dragon or more like two of them. Though the second one was out to kill him and everyone he held dear. So compared to those two, Aurican was most definitely still fairly small in Natsu's opinion.

"Several months? And you've lived here too? Wow! You'd think I would've run into you by now. My nose must be getting rusty or something." Natsu never hid his emotions in most situations so the surprise was visible even without the small quirk of his eyebrow.

[ofgoldenfoil]

"Maybe. Or maybe the rain keeps masking my scent." It has happened before.

It then occurs to Aurican of his manners - or what matters for manners among humans.

"I am Aurican."

[explodewiththerage]

"That might be it." Natsu nodded as if that suggestion had been made by himself.

Manners were never Natsu's strong point but the basic act of name exchanging still registered with him.

"Aurican. Nice to meet ya. I'm Natsu." He grins happily before looking up the stairs. "You're heading up too?"

sorry for the late!

[ofgoldenfoil]

"Yes, I am." It takes Aurican to understand human expressions, and it never fails to unnerve him slightly to see a smile that bares so many teeth. "I am going upstairs to my room. Do you have a room here as well?"

Never too late o/

[explodewiththerage]

Hey Aurican would be showing even more teeth if he tried smiling. Heck Natsu was probably the only one who'd find Igneel's smile comforting and friendly.

"Yeah. Most of us live in this place. Well my friend, Lucy got her own place not too long ago but not many people do that."

He won't presume Aurican needs any help just yet.

[ofgoldenfoil]

Aurican's smile would be difficult to tell apart from a snarl, which he learns quickly early on. Ironically enough, he has similar difficulty telling from a smile to a grimace in a human face.

It seems the only emotion that can be read easily among all races is fear.

"Is it because the cost of living here is literally nothing?" Aurican wonders. That might explains why so many live here.

afternoon

[gevurah]

It didn't always come as a surprise when Kate was out in the city and stopped somewhere for food to be told there was no more of the particular selection she attempted to order. The vendor apologized and she waved it off, hardly pressed about it and thanked them anyway, buying herself some fruits to munch on for now until she got get a proper meal. She could head back to the Hold and eat there, however she hated being cooped up in there so often.

As she passed by the pub, she could smell something burning -- no -- burnt. Latching onto the scent, she followed the trail behind the pub and froze upon seeing the dragon dining by (her or him?) itself.

[ofgoldenfoil]

The sounds of bones breaking were audible, small snaps that interrupt the relative quiet of the pub. Cooked flesh torn from the long-dead chicken and ripped to shreds by his teeth, the scene must have appeared to be ghoulish at the very least, even without the blood apparent.

He detected another scent, a strange scent nearby. He looked up and saw a human - a female, he believed -
and instinctively flare his wingtips around the chicken, a move long since used when he recently had to screen his kills from a nestmate who would like to attempt to steal his prey.

"I bought this chicken," he said, in case this human misunderstand and think of him as some beast that stole the butcher's chicken again (it happened before, much to Aurican's exasperation). "I have the receipt."

[gevurah]

She raised her arms slowly and in mock surrender, eyes scanning everything from the tail to the claws. There was no mistake about it: this was definitely a dragon she had walked upon. Something about the colour of its (his -- that was a male voice, she thought) scales nagged her in the back of her mind, but she couldn't determine what it was. Instead she blinked back her confusion and stayed where she was, as non-threatening as possible.

"I didn't say anything," she said pointedly. That was an odd thing; normally children quickly made up excuses or told half-truths when caught in the act red handed.

She had an umbrella in her hand, but it was closed for now. Instead she had a hood on to keep the rain from hitting her hair. "You're a dragon."

It sounded stupid, even to her, but she was caught completely off guard.

[ofgoldenfoil]

Aurican relaxed as it became obvious the human won't be yelling at him, or worse, try to take his chicken away. It was half-eaten and Aurican was awfully tempted to return back eating if it wasn't for the fact he still felt a little sheepish.

"I am," he said, wondering if him being a dragon will ever stop being a novelty. "I have been here for three months now."

[gevurah]

Kate certainly had no plans to eat something that was probably on the ground at some point. She had done her fair share of eating snakes, bugs, and other things people normally didn't back during her globe trotting training a couple of years back.

Well, there's a magical, singing dinosaur. Why the hell not with a dragon? Kang was something called a draconian.

She took a step closer, gripping the umbrella. "I've only heard stories about dragons." She paused, "You should eat inside somewhere."

[ofgoldenfoil]

Aurican looks up and around, looking for shelter. There's a small porch right at the exit of the pub, enough for a small shelter against the impending rain. He looks back at the woman. "I'm too big for a lot of places," he says, not sure if he can really explain his sense of self conscious in a room full of staring humans as he eats his lunch.

[gevurah]

There's a soft look on amusement on her face then. "There's a synagogue -- place of prayer that is still being fixed up. It's kind of cold inside because of the broken windows, but you could eat in there."

[ofgoldenfoil]

"The cold does not bother me," he says, not mentioning the fact that it is the cold nights that usually bothers the fire-natured dragon. "So where is this synagogue?" When he first heard of prayers, he decided he likes to do one eventually. He doesn't know who to pray too. He thought of Darlantan and the others, but they aren't here to hear him.