#the imortal

[mahvaladara]

Fannar opened their eyes when they sensed Arlo stirring, smiling at Mal just giving a small nod as their answer. Mostly because they heard that Arlo was already a bit lost and confused, so they figured it was better to not push any memories. Hopefully if this worked, it would be better after. 

Fannar: Morning -they smiled at Arlo.- I guess as they say, we might as well get ready and get it done?

Emil was the first to awake the moment they felt the energy of the paradox. Sleeping bags had been set around the room, and Emil had found himself sleeping with Flynn in the living room. Flynn using their chest as a pillow.

Emil: Flynn? They’re her-

Before he could even finish, Vy came rushing downstairs, Syra, who had been awakened by him chasing. Having also felt the paradox. Their eyes met and Emil bowed their head.

Vy: The Paradox is here!

Syra: it’s just my dad. Calm down mister Vy.

Flynn stirred from the comotion around him, he had always been a fairly deep sleeper, but hearing his uncle half panicked and Syra following, he couldn't help but chuckle a little. 

Flynn: Yes, it's Mal, you can call him that, he is Arlo's dad after all. -he smiled at Emil, before sitting up and stretching.-

Vy looked at Flynn and Syra.

Vy: I know. He’s still a scary paradox...

Syra laughed and shook her head. Rushing past Vy, she went to meet her dad. 

[mahvaladara]

Emil nodded and bowed their head respectfully.

Flynn: I asked him to come home, and he said yes, so I guess now we know we will still be welcome for family dinners. 

He smiled at his uncle, although now curious to learn more about how their laws worked. He had been surprised when Vy had asked his questions, but mostly the fact that he called it the duty of truth. It was something he would have to ask Emil about later. At least it seemed Vy had accepted him. 

Fannar: I'll just go out and check on Arlo and grampa. -they smiled, putting away their empty plate, walking outside.-

Chris: I'll leave you to it, I can help innside.

Fannar just smiled, their grandfather was always the type to understand, so not really saying anthing he took his place, just sitting there watching the now starry sky close to Arlo. Flynn looked over at Syra for a bit, wondering how she was doing. It was her big brother after all. 

Flynn: Does this place have some extra beds, or do we need to find some sleeping options?

Syra: No. But I'm sure one of you can squeeze into the chicken coop. 

Vy looked around the room and sighed.

Vy: If you get us some blankets we can make arrangements.

Syra: I'll go get some.

She nodded and walked out, before she left to go gather the blankets she gave her brother a big hug and walked out.

Arlo just kept there, watching her leave.

Arlo: If this fails... don't let her see.

Fannar: I won't I promise.

[mahvaladara]

Vy blinked, trying to understand what they meant. From the knowledge of a thousand stars he understood that a dragon once shamed, was no longer worthy of being a dragon. It was the dragon equivalent of punishment, instead of prison, dragons would either be killed or shamed, and once shamed, they were considered inferior beings, but their crimes had been paid.

Vy: You were shamed...

Emil lowered their head.

Emil: Yes. I understand if you do not wish me here. I can go outside and wait-

Vy shrugged. 

Vy: I demand the duty of truth -Vy spoke which caused Emil to nod- Did you fight against your punishment?

Emil: No.

Vy: Did you struggle?

Emil: No.

Vy: Did you seek them out?

Emil: No, I waited. I knew they'd find me on their own easier than I would.

Vy: Alright. Then I say you can stay. If you paid for your crimes and promise to never repeat them-

Emil: I won't! I am not that dragon anymore! I want to be a dragon worthy of forgiveness, worthy of Flynn!

Vy: No dragon survives punishment thrice. That you have been punished twice and stand here, you should count your blessing. You’re not supposed to survive the first two, be thankful that you have…You can stay. But that choice isn't really up to me.

[mahvaladara]

Vy looked at the door and got up, grabbing the plates he headed to the sink to wash them. 

Vy: Fannar, you should rest. Tomorrow will be a big day for the two of you. Emil, do you think you can help us tomorrow?

He looked at the dragon with suspicion trying to see his reaction. Emil took Flynn's hand in theirs and nodded.

Emil: Yes. Of course. I have never dealt with an Eye before, but I will aid in any way I can.

Vy: What happened to your wings, by the way?

Emil froze, eyes wide on the dragon. 

Fannar looked at their mom, they were probably right, they would need the rest, but they also wanted to go out to Arlo, talk to him if he needed it. His attention however was taken by his mom's last question to Emil. It was something they had wondered as well. 

Flynn just squeezed Emil's hand in support, he had guessed someone would ask, since Emil after all had proclaimed that he would never hide them. 

Emil looked down, and then looked at Flynn once they felt the squeeze. They took a deep breath, wondering how the dragon would react. Some dragons would be quite aggressive to shamed dragons, segregate them, isolate them, as they were not worthy of standing besides regular, honorable and valourous valatar. Would Yvreon ask them to leave?

Emil:... They were ripped off as punishment for my crimes. Clerics found me and gave me due punishment.

[mahvaladara]

Emil: There's several levels of scales. Those you look at and can off the bat tell they're a Scale, those who are more dragon than human, and most consider them Dragons, and those who have dragon characteristics, but unless you're specifically looking for those, you'd never tell they're a Scale, because they're more human than dragon.

Syra: I assume I'm the later, and Fannar there the first! -She giggled remembering how Fannar had confided in her never taking the form of a dragon, but having the pretty form of a mer-seadragon. 

Syra: I think it's bull, non of us has ever taken dragon form,  but dad says the three of us, me, Arlo and Apollo can take dragon shape. I mean, I understand with his illness Arlo can't take dragon form, and Apollo has a dragon shaped pole up his ass and would rather be hit by a moving train than turn dragon. But me? I'd legit be the best teen dragon alive! Simerican Dragon Syra Sullyvan!

Vy: I spent a long time without ever taking dragon form, so, just because you haven't yet, doesn't mean you can't.

Emil: When you have not received proper training on the shifting, you'll need a catalyst to take dragon form.

Syra made a silent oh.

Fannar: Hopefully a nicer catalyst than poor Lucas, I doubt he will ever want to turn into a dragon ever again. -they remembered Flynn telling them all about it.- And maybe one day I will find mine, who knows. 

Flynn: Then we can try and fly together.. if I can turn into one again that is. -he chuckles, he hadn't turned into one after the accident, it had just been so many other things, like getting his magic under control for one thing, then caring for his twin when they came back. - My dragonform is different though, I have my granddad's look. 

Fannar: What if my form is like a mix between mom and grandpa.. can you imagine?

Flynn: -starts laughing- A very long stardragon?

Emil looked at Fannar: A Cosmic serpent... You feel like a comet, due to your power over ice and energy... 

Vy looked at Emil as he spoke about his son. He was torn between curious admiration and distrust. His eyes trailed over the dragon, without the horns and looking so tathered. Only now he started to realize something. Emil was a proud dragon, they wore their wings and tail with pride so where were their wings and tail?

[mahvaladara]

Almost on queue they heard the singing of the hens as Syra rushed back up the path throwing corn with a whole bunch of chicks chasing her. She smiled at them and made a surprised sound when she saw the fixed coop.

Syra: You fixed it!

They smiled looking at the coop as it now looked better than it had ever done. As Syra came running with the chickens, they turned to Mal.

Fannar: And I am as prepared as I can be, and I intend to stick by him to the end, whenever that might happen.  -they nodded, then looked at Syra. - Impressive, they seem to know resistance is futile. - they chuckled and picked up one of the chickens. - See new house and all.

Syra: These aren’t the original chickens -she confessed sheepishly- But we didn’t want Arlo to get upset.

Fannar: Oh.

Syra: Sorry. Brightside though! Disposable Rooster #2 -and she pointed to the rooster- Will live a long happy life and not become chicken soup!

Mal: Waste of perfectly good meat. With his size and age, his liver is huge, tasty and healthy, his heart rubbery and tasty, and if I pull and snap his neck and hold him upside down long enough all the blood's going to accumulate on the neck and head and then I can boil him, clean him up and cook that neck with coagulated blood to make the most marvelous chicken soup.

Vy and Fannar stared Mal horrorfied.

Mal: What? You guys never had chicken?

Syra: No dad. I think they did. I just think you horrified them with the graphic description of how you prepare them.

Mal: Or, you're one of those "only eat chicken from the supermarket, injected with growth hormones, held up in tiny pens and fed the remains of their crushed siblings and rejected eggs, and killed by electrocution" kind of guys.

Vy: Well... but you actually snap their necks? With your bare hands?

Mal: With what else would I kill the chickens? You expected me to go ax murderer on the chicken? This isn't The Shinning. Wastes effort, time, it's messier, more painful for the chicken, can actually take longer to kill it, especially with a rooster that size that requires at least two good hits to chop off his head, and shooting a chicken would just be overkill. Besides, it would waste all the blood I'd want around the neck to cook.

Vy: Why do you want to eat the chicken's cooked coagulated blood?

Mal: Because it's a delicacy where I come from! Don't you people have cultural gastronomy? Where I come from we eat everything from the chicken! Everything from the pork too! And almost everything from the cow. Except the kidneys, the kidneys just taste bad.

Vy: No wonder you don't eat dragons. You eat everything else, devourer.

Mal: I don't eat cockroaches, and have only eaten bugs out of desperation. I am actually repulsed by them. If you want to incapacitate me in a battle, just throw a flying roach at me and I'll jump out a window to escape it! Or set the building on fire. I have done both in the past.

[mahvaladara]

Tal Mutt Sullyvan

Adventurous Confident Loyal

Hobbies: Yoga and meditation. Rock-Climbing. Horse riding and

What happens when you mix a werewolf with a dragon? You get a very... destructive little horned-wolf toddler who breaths fire and tries to eat your mini-goats and horses every two days. That's was the predicament of Tal's parents. If it moved, Tal would pull a baby Yoda and try to it eat.

After years of teaching and training Tal, this were-dragon grew into a very loyal, calm and collected young man, far too mature for his age. Just starting Highschool, how will this sheltered teenager fare in the future?

[mahvaladara]

He felt his breath was stuck in his throat and he could not deny what he saw. He was aware the beauty of dragons in human form was not natural, but evolutionary, to lure mortals into being either enthralled or terrified. But this entity? The beauty, the allure, the captivation those sharp green eyes had was unnatural, ethereal, alluring and frightening. A demon in sheep’s clothes.

It was a sense of dread, of absolute fear as Vy knew he was staring at a Paradox. A creator and a destroyer, a devourer of worlds, and a saviour of universes. An entity that was as dangerous as it was safe. He was afraid. And this entity was walking up to a house where Vy's son was. Vy's son was in there and this entity was heading that way.

Vy rushed to stand in front of the door.

Vy: Get away!

Syra: Mister Vy?

Vy: You're not welcome here! Leave!

Mal stopped and lifted a brow as he looked at the frightened dragon in front of him. It was incredibly young for a dragon of such kind. Yet, it held knowledge.

Mal: Good afternoon to you too.

Vy: You’re a devourer.

Mal: I don't usually 'devour' anything. For a matter of fact, I'm quite careful with what I eat.

Vy: Leave! 

Mal chuckled.

[mahvaladara]

Mal: Forgive me if I don't shake your hand. I spent nearly a decade staring at you and wondering how you could stand there, watch what was happening to my son and not acknowledge me. Unaware if you were real or if my brand of insanity was contagious. I know they ordered you not to interact with me, for if you did it would give me power to interact back. You're not supposed to aknowledge hallucinations... but I am a bitter man, and no one holds a grudge like a dragon. They basically ordered you to play with my sanity, being divinely gaslit... -and he chuckled-

He looked over his shoulder at Chris.

Chris: I know its not much consolation, but I am sorry I couldn't do more.

Mal: You could have stopped me. But alas we were both bond to the same plot I suppose.

Arlo: So you could see him…

Mal stopped as he saw Arlo walk down the steps, supported by Fannar. They had been listening to the whole interaction and Arlo wanted to see what was happening. Though his memory was full of holes, he remembered wondering if his dad could see Chris, for he remembered vaguely his dad sometimes staring straight at him. But they never acknowledged one another.

[mahvaladara]

Vy stood outside, starting to weed out the plants. He was actually surprised. He had never seen anyone who had been able to grow Arian and Syrian flowers. It was a secret dragons carried with them, one they never shared for how dangerous these plants were. People killed dragons already for so many valuable things, if they added the knowledge of these plants to it, it would be one more reason to harm dragons with.

Several minutes later. Vy had started working with wood and net on a small makeshift fence to keep the black and white flowers contained, so they wouldn't spread. The sound of footsteps had Vy lifting their head as from afar they saw Syra and something with her. The energy that filled the area had Vy whimper as memories of a broken past flooded him. Stars being devoured, a whole nebula destroyed as he and his sister escaped the clutches of the devourer of worlds.

Syra: Mister Vy! I am back and I have brought the coolest flower seller in the county.

Vy's eyes fell on the man next to Syra.

[mahvaladara]

Mal got up, the man's eyes fell on Chris. He just stared at Chris, his expression devoid of any emotion and he could not tell what was on his mind but it was clear he knew Chris. 

Mal sighed.

Mal: Well. Guess having an honorary ankou might come in handy. Because I really doubt trying to rip out an eye won't go unnoticed. -he grinned- You going to greet me now or continue pretending you ain’t real, as if my sanity hasn’t resigned couple centuries ago already.

Chris: No, no boss ordering me to ignore you this time. -he winked at Mal, walking past Emil and Flynn, holding out his hand. - Christian Ward, Fannar's and Flynn's grandfather, Vy is my son in law. You can call me Chris though.

Mal lifted a brow.

Mal: Jael’s smart. Don’t interact with a Paradox, right?

Chris nodded and instantly, before he could even react, he got punched on the face. Chris staggered back, taking his hand to his jaw, being met by what he could only describe as a shit-eating grin on Mal’s face. Chris had been hit before, but to actually feel pain from getting clogged to the face was new.

[mahvaladara]

Vy looked at Fannar. He hated what he was reading, that this broken damaged person, this monster capable of torturing and killing and kidnapping, was now a burden Fannar had chosen to carry.

Vy:... He won't be easy, my star... We go from a happy creative boy... to a completely hopeless and nihilistic... broken boy...

Fannar looked over at his mom as they read from the book. Some of this he had understood from what Arlo had told him, but he had never really understood just how bad it had been, and it really deep down made him want to hit Apollo at least once just for good measure. 

Fannar: I don't understand how a twin can treat their other twin that way... -of course his twin was different than they were, but still.- And I know mom, it's why I said that if he still felt that way after a while.. I would let him go. He has been through so much, too much, and to once again have someone not listen to him. I can't be that one, no matter how much it will hurt. 

So many times Arlo had told them that they were worth nothing, that it would be better if they didn't exist, and hearing what their mom read, made him understand it better, he could see more where that self-destructiveness came from. He looked at Arlo, gently running fingers through his hair. He hoped he could somehow show Arlo the world was worth being in, that it had things in it that would make it worth it, and that they truly loved him. As they sat there, they heard familiar footsepts outside.

Fannar: I think Syra is here. 

[mahvaladara]

Mal looked at him, trying to access how much to divulge. There was something else in there with them, and he had a suspicion of what it was. A resentful shard, a malevolent entity. He knew if he took the Eye whatever he suspected was there would follow the Eye, so it might be a problem they wouldn’t have to deal, if everything went well...

Mal: You should have called me to help with the heart. I could have done something with the Eye. - or even felt what it was that hid behind his Eye and Fannar’s Heart, but like this, he could only suspect-  Now... there exists the potential for that Eye to steal the heart and "assimilate" Arlo...

Fannar: Assimilate Arlo? Do you mean take him over almost like a pawn, or the borg in Star Trek? But on the "Best end" it would just be a part of Arlo, and not assimilate him?

They couldn't say they liked this idea, and they had an inclination that Mal had more to tell them, something to do with that eye. They realized just how powerful it had to be, when they had kept Arlo going for so far, even if at a fairly terrible cost.

Mal: The Eye would become its own person... Take all of Arlo's knowledge but become a new person. Not that different from the opposite, except, in which Eyes control the body and spirit. 

Vy: This is confusing.

Mal: You have no idea. I don't think even the writter knows how to clearly explain this without getting confused themself.

[mahvaladara]

Mal: So, Fan. Those plants. Pests, and dangerous ones. Hide their danger behind their beauty and power. A curse from an ancient god betrayed by the very heart on his chest and the words on his lovers tongue. Luckily, they die out very easily, they can all die out in a week, but can last a whole spring and that's all they need to kill an entire forest. My son's been growing batches of them, so he always has new ones to replace the ones that die out. But, in Spitford on Badger...

Syra: Henford on Bagley.

Mal: ... they can last out until winter. So we need to make a greenhouse for them, to both contain and maintain them. 

Watching the flowers they nod, they most certainly had a lot to learn.

Fannar: It seems the safest way to keep them, yes. -they nodded.- I do not know much about any of this, I hope you don't mind if I ask you to teach me? 

They looked at their mom, they knew they didn't like the next question any more than the fact that their son would stay here. 

Fannar: And I have a favor to ask, as I'm in training to be a doctor, or well was, I would like to continue that here. Do you know any hospitals or clinics that would take on a intern, that all their credentials are from another universe? -they chuckle slightly- I still want to follow that dream, even if I am on this side.

[mahvaladara]

Fannar smiled as they looked at the incision in Arlo's chest, it was like it had a pull on their heart, an odd feeling really. Taking a deep breath, they followed their hearts pull, gently putting the shining heart where their mom had made the incision, watching as it cradles in, quite fascinated with how the light filled the dark as the gold string that had been between their hearts seemed to fade yet they could feel the connection that was now there. 

Fannar: I think.. it works. -they could feel other things too.. pain... and they could only guess they would soon feel more.-

Arlo felt the light flood him, like fire burning through his veins. For some reason he thought it would feel cold, and perhaps it should, but instead, it felt boiling, burning. He sprung up and Vy tried to push him back to lay back down, but he fought his hands. Among the light that blinded and burned him from inside all he could see and feel was the gentle breeze that was Fannar.

[mahvaladara]

Mal sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, hand on his hip. He lifted his eyes to the dragon in front of him as Vy had revealed his claws threateningly.

Mal: Look. Dragon. I am one of you and have no interest in starting a fight, so, would you kindly move aside?

Vy: I know what you're kind is capable of. I am not letting you anywhere near my son!

Mal sighed and shrugged. Lifting his hand Vy widened his eyes and quickly charged at Mal. The strike was so quick Vy didn't even have a chance to react. One slap, quick, backhanded and completely out of nowhere, hit him with a strength that was not of this world. Vy staggered to the side wide eyed in time of seeing the man grin, he opened his hand and there was light sharp and bright. It was a thundering sound, reverberating through his ears and in a second he had no ground.

Vy was flung like a ragdoll right from where he stood, and thrown by a flash of purple light so suddenly he was thrown against the chicken coop. He came crashing against it, clumsily falling to the ground with a thud, dust and dirt, feathers thrown about as the two hens and the rooster ran off.

Mal: Or I can move you myself. -Mal shrugged-