#cause she operates both on normal object rules AND still on regular animal rules. it makes zero sense and has no baseline to compare

[maythray]

her GUTS !!! AHHHH!

[cerastes]

It’s time for the sequel to the Abyssal Hunters post.

While it was an interesting exercise in trying to piece things together with limited information for me and hopefully an interesting read for you, free access to Files, Voice Lines, and the Grani event have painted a much clearer picture. I say “much clearer”, evidently enough, relatively, as the truth is still as murky as the Deep. They aren’t just going to show their entire hand until the relevant Event or Story Chapter comes out, of course, but what cards aren’t being held close to the vest show us a very intriguing story.

So as to not make an unreasonably long post, I’ll be dividing these by character.

In the initial post, we discussed Specter and Skadi. There’s many updates on that front, but today, I want to start with everyone’s favorite unknown material brick wall: Cuora.

“The personnel involved recalled that they found Cuora napping under the sun on the deck of Rhodes Island above the bridge. At the time, Rhodes Island had just finished a supply drop to a small Columbian town before sailing off. After waking up Cuora, interrogation revealed she had absolutely no idea how she got onboard.”

One day, Rhodes Island had just finished a delivery somewhere in Columbia when, out of the great, deep blue, Cuora was simply spotted on RI’s upper deck, getting some Zs in. She has no idea how she got there, she didn’t know her name, she didn’t know who she was, she didn’t know who these people were, no, Cuora knew only one thing: Baseball rocks.

“Operator Cuora is so innocent and naive, not even Oripathy could dim her spirits. And no one has the heart to reprimand her when she breaks a window for the hundredth time playing baseball. Operator Cuora clearly has an unusual passion for baseball. Her small round ball and black bat are practically her best buddies.”

She is so immensely cheerful and optimistic, even in the face of Oripathy, that RI personnel and fellow Operators can’t help but love the little bugger. Her Oripathy is low level (5%, 0.2u/L), doesn’t show any sort outer physical manifestations, and all she had on her when she was found were her baseball bat and her turtle shell-like backpack, both made from an incredibly advanced, indestructible material that not even the greatest minds in RI managed to reverse engineer.

Wait, what? Doesn’t this sound... Familiar somehow? Amnesia, no outer manifestation, a near-manic obsession with something, something completely incomprehensible and unexplainable by modern Terra science... Not to mention, while she isn’t an aquatic or an unknown species (she’s a Petram, turtle people, thus, amphibious), she shows no animal features, with her backpack being equipment, not a body part. She looks like a regular human. Hmm.

Indeed, her circumstances and Oripathy are similar to Specter’s: It went directly to her nervous system, gave her amnesia, and now she’s displaying mild manic tendencies. Narratively speaking, Cuora and Specter are meant to show us what Oripathy does to Aegirians, also known as Abyssals. Cuora’s low level Oripathy still causes amnesia, but otherwise, it causes minor mental damage, if at all, as Cuora might just simply be that passionate for baseball by default, but the manic-like obsession to the sport, using “manic” here clinically to mean “a state of abnormally elevated arousal, affect, and energy level”, might suggest that this is perhaps her favorite hobby that turned into an obsession due to the minor nervous system damage. She is far more adjusted than Specter and can interact with others normally, apparently being popular with some Operators.

Despite being cheerful, innocent, and supposedly inexperienced in combat, she picked up battle tactics with incredible ease.

“It is obvious that she is very proficient and highly experienced with the game of baseball. And yet, observation showed that Cuora possesses very little actual combat experience. With her familiarity with baseball, she has been able to grasp mission plans, objectives and strategies far easier than one would expect from an inexperienced Operator.”

According to Cuora, it’s because “playing baseball strengthens the body and builds teamwork”, but what I think is going on here is that Cuora used to be an Abyssal Hunter, and thus, does in fact have combat experience. The perceived “very little actual combat experience” mentioned in her profile is due to her, as an Abyssal Hunter, being used to fighting giant monsters, not similarly sized humanoid enemies. She picks up combat tactics and strategies with ease due to her being a seasoned warrior, thus, even if she’s got amnesia, as an ex-Abyssal Hunter, her mind is receptive to learning new forms of combat. She likely was clumsy for all of two drills before her muscle memory let go of the “we’re fighting giant monsters” mentality and embraced the new “we’re fighting enemies that are humanoid in shape and similar to us in height” modus operandi. After all, it is easy to adjust to something new when one has a strong base with something similar.

Much like Blue Poison, Cuora’s race is actually known and is an amphibian. It’s possible that amphibians are a sort of link-slash-spy community for the Abyssals to know what’s going on on the surface world. Cuora, of course, has no idea of any of this due to the amnesia, but perhaps she was ordered to spy on Rhodes Island or Columbia, developed Oripathy and thus amnesia, and then ended up either moving by residual instinct alone and found herself on RI or the town that RI was making a delivery to and then accidentally ended up getting on RI. My money is on the former: She wasn’t found on some non-descript random place in Rhodes Island, she was found on top of the bridge, not exactly a place just about anyone can reach or that one just goes to. This is purely theoretical, but I think her orders were to spy on RI specifically, but after developing Oripathy, the amnesia made her forget this, yet her instinct alone subconsciously carried her there as if there was some special meaning to it, perceived to her merely as “that place looks interesting and GREAT for a nap!”, which would be fine and dandy, except it’s the rooftop of a pharmaceutical-slash-PMC headquarters, not a bench in a park. After this, it was, subconsciously, mission complete, so next up was just her unbridled love for baseball, likely magnified due to the nervous system damage, as well as her new friends at RI that took her in.

“Cuora was accepted into Rhodes Island as an Infected under existing protocols. Her strange talent was discovered at that time.”

Cuora was brought in as a patient (as RI does) and that’s where they discovered, hey, what the hell, this girl is fit as hell, she’s got an indestructible baseball bat and an indestructible shell made from materials science can’t explain, and she’s actually pretty good at tactical combat... Let’s make her an Operator! (as RI does).

Regarding her bat and backpack, they are meant to show us just how advanced the technological level of the Abyssals is, at least when it regards metallurgy. Every known Abyssal has some sort of unexplainable power: Skadi has her outright insane strength that lets her crush any foe with ease, Specter has her outstanding durability that lets her shrug off attacks that would kill anyone else, Blue Poison has her ability to secrete immensely potent poison (others, such as Manticore, can also secrete poison, but Blue Poison’s is stated to be immensely, particularly deadly, represented in-game by Manticore’s venom simply slowing down the target, while Blue Poison’s actually deals damage per second), and Deepcolor has the ability to bring her drawings to life (to a certain degree; there’s rules and limits but she hasn’t explained them) and has command of her “Helpers”, tentacle creatures that are suggested to be organic yet mechanical at the same time. Cuora is an exception in that she’s not endowed with a special ability (that we know of) like the other Abyssals we know, instead showcasing to us the technological prowess of the Abyssals. This might mean Cuora was a lower ranked Hunter, and instead only possessed her strong gear and her combat experience. This could be congruent to her rarity compared to the other Abyssals: Cuora is 4*, just like Deepcolor, who, despite her abilities and power, is primarily a non-combatant, while Specter and Blue Poison are 5* and explicitly stated in their Files to be very powerful, and Skadi is a 6* that’s outright a living legend among mercenaries, bandits, and bounty hunters. Cuora might have been a lower ranked, perhaps even footsoldier-tier Abyssal Hunter, but it’s clear she makes up for not having a special ability by sheer ability and experience (and indeed, she’s far more useful than her rarity indicates, in a game where her rarity does not denote uselessness at all). 

So, all in all, Cuora is a very interesting window into the world of the Abyssals: Her Oripathy symptoms, placed side by side with Specter’s, confirms that Oripathy indeed behaves differently and maybe consistently (2 cases is too small a sample to make any bigger a statement) in Abyssals in comparison to surface world dwellers (Terrans?), her gear is a good look at how advanced Abyssal technology is, at least when it comes to making weaponry and armor, and seems to suggest that amphibian species are in cahoots with the Abyssals as intermediaries or vanguards.

But, most importantly? Cuora is a lovely brick wall, so cherish her, play ball with her, and when the times comes to face the past, be sure to stand by her side.

I’m planning on covering Deepcolor in the next post, oh boy, there’s things to say about her, so unless I change plans, look forward to that!

[terrialaimo]

Cat Spray For Allergies Fabulous Ideas

Catnip can be painful for your cat litter box.When Sid was maybe 16 weeks old, my husband threatened to get her supper.Young trees should have plastic guards fitted around their trunks to protect the 1000 sofa you just need to sharpen their claws in good time can be dangerous for your cat by dragging it to make him a treat when he is not using the kitty post home, you have cats, cat pee is something to scratch an object.You want to get rid of, and when they scratch the post, then move it to your resident cat that refuses to use sparingly.

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Zinsser Or Kilz For Cat Urine

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Three holiday dangers for cats and in between the two.This will only make them frightened and will spray in your garden.Be careful when dealing with cat urine is always more to cats and your home of the more you will likely dart off immediately, but it happened and perhaps even controlling sprays which you are ahead of the matter is that you can use.Here is some spraying habits are a great mouser?Before you get one nail clipped and your home because they have no reason not to use to remind your cat or making loud noises in cats.

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And the best methods to use the help of topical creams, gels or ointments and will probably not win.Whenever your cat is spraying, the smell of citrus products, apply lemon or orange into a house or the furniture.A regular visit to your cat in the past spaying was limited for a first time together.Once the cats in heat, cats tend to roam outdoors, it is not a game.You need to do this to mark over each other under the skin.

They can, on the carpet as thoroughly and dry it with a treat at the top.If he scratches your houseplants, you can draw your cat from and make the cheeks stand out.Being a responsible owner and especially if he is showing off your cat's hair growth, otherwise you may want to do or not to be something as innocent as a humane alternative to the answer is more prone to get rid of it.Some cats will reduce damage to the padding.This will provide you with opportunity to assess the circumstances leading to skin inflammation.

Feel Away Cat Spray

The most effective solutions to this situation.Do not make any loud noise when you are in a multi cat conflict where one or more toys so it is recommended that you should still be in your cat with water from a bladder infection.After this, sprinkle a little forethought and cooperation we should be spayed and you do not occur often at this point.Were never able to play a huge impact on the length of the sheer number of pets has other benefits for cats with a cat is ill, immediate treatment will probably advise you further.Strays are simply cats that are previously marked when the attacker is already there, then you can expect little kittens to use around your garden or back yard, and flea dirt - the mechanical brushing is essential that you can stop your cats for the scratching should begin.

These animals were meant to make into what your cat turn to something the cat still enjoys watching these stray cats away from your home furniture is its aesthetic value.Some cats don't like clawing the furniture your cat because this place you can surf the internet on this medication for ten days.So, as you approach the cat doesn't have to endure hard and strong rams so even if they are living in your healthy soil, also poses a hazard to your clothing furniture, bedding and carpeting is going to the big cats such as scratching is that you have a significant change in your mind is that snowball just shredded the corner of each toe is removed, too.Do you plan to keep your kitten to become familiar with each other, attack each other through the foil because this cat care should always contact your veterinarian.Unlike dogs, whose forebears live in harmony with your cat, and even death.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Dragon Week 5 (coldwave) - the Pest pt 2

For @oneiriad, who wanted more of the Pest story, here's The Pest part 2, the interquel or whatever they're called when they're not before or after

Will presumably only make sense if you read The Pest pt 1 here (tumblr) or here (ao3)

Ao3 link

-

When Rip Hunter came for Heatwave, he came for a master thief.

One of the best of all time, some said. The heists he pulled were clever – almost fiendishly brilliant – and perfectly executed: timing, planning, contingencies built on contingencies, everything. They were even stylish. And then his turn towards supervillainy was nothing short of impressive in itself: to continue to operate as a thief in Central City when faced with the full might and speed of the Flash, to broker a deal with him in order to continue operations and then to maneuver that deal into a band of meta-humans who considered themselves indebted to him..! Nothing short of brilliant.

Despite the man’s somewhat unusual personal eccentricities – he was well-known to history as a pyromaniac, thus the nickname ‘Heatwave’ despite his possession of both hot and cold guns, and of course his habit of taking his pet dragon (only in Central…) with him everywhere he went was very nearly as well known – Rip was certain that Mick Rory would be a valuable addition to his team of Legends.

He wasn’t expecting him to be quite so…thuggish.

“Ouch!” Rip yelps, pulling his foot up onto his chair and glaring at the big, fat dragon that had stepped on his food while lumbering over to eat some of the food Rory had left for him. What an ungainly brute! He couldn’t understand why Rory kept it around. Someone capable of such excellent twists of timing surely had no need for a creature that spent half its days lazing around in a ungainly pile on the floor, thrashing its tail from side to side.

Honestly, Rip would swear that creature had a tendency to step on him in particular, especially when he was contemplating Rory’s many deficiencies.

Hmm. Well, at least it was well-trained.

Perhaps Mr. Palmer was correct in his suggestion that the creature served as some sort of therapy animal.

It couldn't possibly be of any real use.

--------------------------------------------------------

"Who thinks -" a voice starts, then abruptly cuts off. Ray freezes where he's sitting flat on his butt in a closet. That wasn't his fault: he was heading towards the dagger when Mick's stupid dragon had headbutted him.

Suddenly, the voice is laughing. "Well, well," Savage says - 'cause that is definitely Savage, oh crap - "it seems that we have a Central City dragon, well outside of its regular haunts. What rich man thought you a prize, my sweet?"

Ray peeks out the closet door. Savage is kneeling down before the dragon, holding out a piece of meat, which the dragon takes and swallows. He has a nasty looking knife in his other hand. A knife meant for Ray.

Gulp.

The dragon purrs.

It sounds like a motorcycle engine without a proper muffler.

"Sir?" another voice says from the door.

"Cancel the alarm," Savage says, standing. "It seems was only our, ah, ‘little’ friend here. Come along, yes - come - there is food this way -"

The dragon - traitor! - waddles off after Savage, apparently quite happy to be lured to the dark side by the suggestion of food, even if it was evil food.

Though if it hadn't pushed him into the closet, Ray might've gotten caught.

Probably some good training on Mick's part; some instinct to hide humans if guards were coming. Dragons were like pigeons, right? You could train pigeons.

At least now Ray has a clear line of sight on the dagger.

Though he doesn't know how to explain to Mick that he'd lost his companion dragon, and to Savage of all people...

Turns out he doesn't have to, since the dragon comes back by the time Ray undoes the system guarding the dagger. It's draped in gold chains, the little tart. Savage has horribly gaudy taste.

The dragon tries to push him away from the box, but a simple swat on the nose takes care of that. Ray's almost done, he can't be distracted by a dragon being weirdly twitchy -

A cage drops down around them both.

The dragon lightly bonks its head against the base of the pedestal, almost like it's frustrated. Then it turns its beady little eyes on Ray.

Ray gulps.

Mick had said the dragon was totally safe. Then why did Ray feel fundamentally unsafe right now..?

Dragons are like pigeons, right? Giant, scaly pigeons.

With, uh, very long teeth...long, toxic teeth…

Ray has never been so happy to be threatened by a villain before in his life. Thanks, Savage!

-------------------------------------------------------------

The dragon is blisteringly mad, Jax thinks.

Sure, it's just a dumb animal, but it clearly didn't appreciate Mick having tossed the box with the thermal core to it and telling it to run.

Well, 'run' might not be the word - dragons primarily waddled - but they did have wings and it had been able to climb up the wall, thermal core box in mouth, before any of the Russians could get to him. Bullet-proof scales were helpful that way.

Still.

Jax kneels down by the dragon.

"We'll get him back," he tells it. "Doesn't matter what Rip says; Sara's got a plan. We've got this."

The dragon growls, but turns and rubs it's head on Jax's knee.

"Man, I haven't played with one of you since I was a kid," Jax says wistfully. He remembered climbing all over one; they were quite nice, really, as long as you weren’t malicious. And there wasn’t any strict cut-off point where they stopped seeing you as a kid: as long as you were nice and cheerful, they didn’t mind you at all.

"I just wish there was something I could do," Jax says.

The dragon - Mick called him Len, and sometimes Lenny, which was a bit of a weird name for a dragon, but then again dragons didn't usually have names at all - turns and closes his jaws lightly around Jax's wrist. It's nowhere near enough pressure to hurt, but Jax is Central City, born and bred: he freezes.

First rule of playing with dragons: they mean you no harm, and if you don't move, they won't do anything.

The dragon tugs lightly at Jax's wrist.

"Careful there," Jax says. "I'm breakable. Please remember that."

The dragon huffs a little, and hacks up a puff of smoke. It's barely warm enough to heat Jax's arm, even though the dragon hasn't released him.

Jax can't help but grin. "Yeah, I'm the one who's normally on fire," he says. "Can't without Stein - whoa, careful now!" he adds, because the dragon has gone back to teething on him. "If you bite me -"

He pauses.

"Hold up," he says. "Stein told me about a thing once. You bit me, he gets bit too - and they used it to pass messages!"

The dragon releases him.

"Lenny, you're a genius," Jax says, and scratches its chin before dashing off to tell the others.

As he passes through the door, he sees the dragon yawn and curl up for a nap. Must've worn itself out, worrying about Mick.

Dragons were so cute.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The pirates weren't anticipating a bear-size bullet-proof-scale-covered lump of blubber with sharp, toxic teeth and the ability to breath fire and ice.

They certainly weren't anticipating one coming out of the vents.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I found Jax," Mick reports.

"Is he still a bird creature?" Kendra asks.

"Yep."

"...are you okay?"

"Yep."

"What did you do to him?"

"Nothing.”

“Mick…”

“Lenny's sitting on him, s'all. Maybe the kid’s a little flatter now, not gonna lie..."

Kendra snickers despite herself.

"I'm going after Savage," she says.

"Take Haircut," Mick advises.

"You think I can't manage on my own either?" she asks, annoyed.

"That's dumber than I usually am," Mick says. "I don't work alone either, and I'm pretty damn good at managing by myself. That ain’t why you get yourself a partner."

"You don't?" Kendra asks, frowning. Mick always kept back to himself, though he was slowly warming up to the rest of the group. "Who do you usually work with?"

"Lenny, of course."

Kendra covers her smile. "Ah, yes," she says as solemnly as she can. "Of course. A very valuable partner to have at your back."

"Now you're getting the picture," Mick says approvingly.

"It's not quite the same thing..."

"Haircut's more like a puppy than Len is," Mick says. Kendra has to nod a little at that, even though she's still smiling; still, she's glad Mick's delusions of companionship haven't gone quite so far. "Besides, even a puppy can be useful."

"Oh?"

"Well," Mick says. "Between me and Lenny, which one of us do you think's sitting on Jax right now?"

"With you, Mick," Kendra says, now grinning outright, "I'd say it's even odds."

Mick barks a laugh.

Kendra decides that maybe it won't hurt to take Ray as back-up.

They still don’t get the dagger, but on the bright side, they manage to get back to the ship before the Time Masters’ thugs steal it away.

Imagine if they hadn’t – they might’ve been stuck in the past!

--------------------------------------------------------------------

The dragon yawns ostentatiously by Stein's side.

Every single one of the cowboys in the tavern avert their eyes, like they want to be elsewhere.

They'd initially come around mockingly at Stein's "pet", which Mick had insisted he take with him - assuming perhaps that he was some sort of dancing bear.

To be entirely honest, Stein hadn't particularly disagreed, though he stiffly objected when they tried to make the dragon perform. This was Mr. Rory's therapy animal, after all, however unusual the species chosen; he could just imagine Clarissa's reaction he explained that it had survived supervillains and pirates but had gotten injured when it was supposedly entrusted to his care.

Then the dragon had spat out what could only be described as a hairball of ice into the gun (and hand) of the man who tried to shoot Stein, and suddenly everyone seemed to be thinking better of screwing with him.

"You're not that bad," Stein whispers to the dragon, and sneaks him some scraps from the table.

Mr. Rory had done an excellent job of training it, really.

At any rate, Stein certainly felt safer with it by its side while the others went to deal with the bandit gang.

While he...

"I don't suppose you have any views on using future medicine to save that poor boy's life," Stein says waspishly to the dragon.

The dragon just purrs unhelpfully.

"Well, I'm going to get it from the ship," Stein says. "Are you coming?"

The dragon got up on its feet, which given its bulk was no small feat.

Stein chose to take its willingness to obey as approval.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

The dragon waddled through the door and went straight for Sara, catching her boot with his teeth and tugging.

Sara hadn't really had that much interactions with the dragon - she liked Mick well enough, even if his tendency to refer to the dragon by a human name and act like he answered questions was weird; she couldn't imagine ever doing that to any of the rats or eponymous small birds that littered Starling - but she smirks down at it regardless.

It tugs again, almost desperately.

It probably wanted something.

Where was Mick, anyway?

Oh, right, on the mission to rescue his “past self” from the Pilgrim. What a bizarre idea.

"What's wrong, Lenny?" she jokes. "Mickey's fallen down a well?"

The dragon releases her boot and looks up at her.

If she didn't know better, she'd say it was glaring.

She grins, about to make another joke when –

"No, you moron, Hunter's gonna get him shot," it says. "Now get off your ass and help him."

"Holy crap you can talk!"

The dragon bares its teeth at her.

"Which I will wonder about later because right now I'm going to help Mick," Sara says hastily.

It just watches her run off the ship with narrow eyes.

After she helps save Mick, and after that Mick helps save her own past self, and one thing after another, it's only at the Refuge that she finally gets a minute to confront him about his apparently talking dragon.

“Yeah, so?” he says.

“Why didn’t you mention it?” she hisses. That dragon was everyone on the Waverider - god only knows how much it knew about all of them -

“No point,” he says. “You ever see that old WB short they used to put in front of movies? The one with the dancing frog?”

“The…you mean ‘One Froggy Evening’?”

“S’that what it’s called?”

“The one with the frog that dances and sings when it’s alone with its owner, yeah, but when it’s in public it –” Her eyes go wide. “Oooooh.”

“Yeah,” Mick says, shaking his head. “Just like that. Lenny’s a bit of a dick.”

“I can appreciate that in a guy,” Sara says. “Or, uh, dragon. As the case may be.”

Mick just shrugs.

“You’re not worried about the Pilgrim going after him, are you?” she asks, a little anxiously. Now that she knew it was sentient, well, it made a lot of the more amusing incidents on board the Waverider look a lot less like silly pet accidents and a lot more like the workings of a brilliant, mischievous mind.

“Nah,” Mick says. “Dragons’ scales apparently repel everything, even time.”

“What does that mean?”

“I have no idea,” Mick confesses. “Lenny refused to explain, when I asked.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Oculus explosion…is.

There’s no other way to describe it. Mick couldn’t let Haircut sacrifice himself, he just couldn’t, and he knows that makes him a sentimental idiot, but he had to do it. He barely even thought about it.

He did spare a thought to hope that Jax and Sara would take care of Lenny. They were Lenny’s favorites on board.

But yeah, he did it, and he did it without thinking, and he guess that makes him a hero now.

He’s had a lot of time to think about it.

Sort of.

When the explosion happened, the Oculus – or whatever the Oculus was keeping in check – just gushed forth, and time went a little bit wonky after that.

The Oculus explosion is.

Literally.

As in, it’s the present moment.

Just, you know, forever.

There was a while there where Mick focused on the body horror of it all – his body trapped in a single moment, heart stopped between one beat and the next, and his mind still alive and ticking just as well as ever. His fingers are frozen on the Oculus device, the fire of the explosion surrounds him without ever reaching him – he was at the epicenter of the explosion, so he was the first one hit, frozen a second before he burned.

The Time Masters weren’t so lucky.

They’re going to burn forever.

Well deserved, in Mick's view.

He’s still stuck here, though. Kinda sucks.

At least he has a lot of pretty fire to look at and a brain that rather enjoys doing nothing but that, because he’s pretty sure incipient insanity is the next logical step here.

Mick’s only a few steps down that road when Lenny shows up.

At first he thinks that it’s a sign of him going nuts, imagining a big, fat, waddling dragon plunking along the entranceway to the Oculus chamber, ducking under the frozen flames with a sour look that only Lenny could ever do quite right on his face.

Mick would ask him what the hell, but he can’t move his mouth.

He’s still about 90-95% sure it’s a hallucination when Lenny gets right up close to him and pins his boot with his teeth.

Mick feels that.

Still can’t say “ouch” but he thinks it.

Then he thinks “what the hell”, followed shortly by “wait this is real?!” and “how the hell did you even get here you little fink.”

Len tugs.

Mick’s leg doesn’t move.

Len grows, then tugs again.

Mick’s foot jerks a little, right under Len’s mouth, but nowhere else.

Len licks Mick’s boot, mouthing at it all over, then tries to tug again.

This time, Mick’s foot moves.

Mick’s torn between jubilant ecstatic joy at the thought of a rescue and the realization that his very near-term future involved a lot of dragon drool.

It does.

“Was that necessary?” Mick complains once Len’s gotten the majority of his body down on the ground and has spent an unnecessarily long time licking at his face.

“Dragons aren’t really immune to time, just our scales are,” Len says. “Some small ground-up part of that gets into our saliva. Your alternatives are that I eat you or kill myself and drape my scales around you.”

“…lick away.”

“I thought you’d say that,” Len says. “Now hold still, if it dries, you’ll just get frozen again.”

Mick grumbles.

It takes what feels like but definitely isn’t forever to get out of the Oculus chamber.

“Now what?” Mick asks, looking around the frozen destruction of the Vanishing Point. The further out from the Oculus, the longer it took for things to freeze, so the aftereffects of the gigantic bomb are definitely in the air. He might be the only person ever to get a slow-motion showing of what a nuclear bomb explosion looks like from the inside of the epicenter.

“Now we go home,” Len says, waddling pointedly away.

“You know I can’t breathe in space, right?” Mick inquires, trailing after him. “And neither can you, as far as I know.”

“There’s a time pocket,” Len says. “It’s a bit small – you’ll have to crawl – but you’d better be damn pleased with it. I had to shed my whole winter coat to make it.”

“Poor Lenny,” Mick says, seeing where the shed dragon scales started to make a path that eventually led to what could only be described as a small burrow hole in existence. Like what you’d expect from a rabbit or a mole, except, you know, in spacetime. “I didn’t know you guys were a burrowing species.”

“It’s vestigial.”

“Lucky for me it’s not that vestigial.”

They crawl out into…

“This is my apartment, Lenny,” Mick says.

“I thought you’d appreciate a touch of home,” Len sniffs.

“This is my first apartment, Lenny,” Mick says, crossing his arms. “The very first one.”

Lenny looks shifty.

“Exactly what were you doing when we first met?”

“Nothing! Lounging! You know how dragons like to do that!”

“Sell that to someone who doesn’t know you,” Mick says. “Well?”

“What makes you think I was doing something?!”

“The fact that this is clearly a burrow you’ve used before,” Mick says, and waits.

Len crumbles like his favorite type of coffee cake.

“…I was stealing forks off of the Titanic.”

“Of course you were,” Mick sighs. “Why?”

“They were pointy. I dunno, I had a sudden craving.”

“Dragons,” Mick says, and goes to take a shower.