Day 288

[wayofvoice]

Who: Paarthurnax and you
Open: Open
When: 288
Where: About the Bastion in general
What: The daily life of a dragon
Format: Any
Warnings: None yet


Life goes on in the Bastion. Whether death, calamity, or simple misfortune, that is how things work. That is how it goes for Paarthurnax, as well.

In the morning, when the sun is still faint, he takes off to the Skyway and doesn't return for some hours, bringing back both shards stuck in his teeth and the meat of a mammoth to eat, or share.

In the noon and some hours following it, he teaches his class at the stone tablet with its letters in his own tongue, patient and careful for both new students and more practiced ones alike.

The only change to this seems to come in the evening. It's then that people might notice him at the Monument, drawn up high as he sits and inspects the device.

People are free to talk with him during any of these times. Paarthurnax has always made it known that he can be approached, after all.

Comments

Class!!

[scary_music]

[Ibuki has a ridiculously good memory, so she picks up on the language fairly well. When she can sit still long enough, anyway. This was one of those days, apparently]

[... she did miss school, after all]

Someday, Ibuki will have to put together a cool song in Dovahzul!

Monument

[cyan_maid]

After making a promised delivery and chatting with Psii, Jane returned to the Cannery for the day, emerging only in the evening. She's weary, her hands are somewhat pruned, and frankly she thinks she's seeing things as she approaches the Monument in her walk back to her apartment, because that's a dragon over there. That's a big dragon. Oh, all that hot water is getting to her, isn't it? Would it be bad if she stayed in the kitchen for a few days instead? But wait, wouldn't a hot kitchen be worse?

It's as she's gotten quite close and blinked a few times, the dragon not disappearing, that Jane remembers that there is a dragon in the Bastion, a friendly one according to Colin. She stops short and makes a sound that can only be described as surprise, loud enough for her to be easily heard.

[After class]

[freedom_engineer]

Colin still has no desire to be in the presence of a great majority of the Bastion's inhabitants. Paarthurnax is an exception to this rule. While Colin numbers him among those less intelligent than him, in Paarthurnax's case, Colin suspects it is merely a matter of not having been taught, rather than not having the capacity to understand.

Plus, he is both patient and understanding. The former is a distinct rarity here, and the latter is welcoming.

"Got a few moments, Paar?" Colin asks, approaching only after everyone else has departed.

At the Monument

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

[Rob doesn't recall if he's ever seen Paar using the Monument before, though he knows it has to have happened before. Then again, he doesn't see Paar as much as he could; despite everything, Rob still has an instinctive nervousness about being near the giant creature that could kill him with a sneeze, even though he doesn't have any reason to believe that Paar would be so careless. But while he's here...

Rob's unintentionally quieter than usual as he approaches, the faint blue glow from the eye sockets of the rabbit skull on his necklace seeming brighter than usual in the growing darkness. The reason? Mammoth-hide sandals, accompanied by tan lines from wearing shorts and high-top shoes for months. And is that a mammoth-hide holster on his belt for his rolled-up datapad? Yes it is. Not from any of the mammoths that Paar's killed though; there were no brains to tan those hides.]

Making something?

[gianthobo]

AZ and Torkoal are out walking when he notices Paarthurnax. It's sort of hard to not notice him, but still. He wanders over towards him, slowly, since Torkoal isn't the fastest. He looks up - and isn't that a change, looking up at someone for once - and calls out to him.

"Something... interesting to you?"

[wayofvoice]

It would be my pleasure to hear it from you.

There are some songs I know in Dovahzul, although I cannot say I am a fine a musician as yourself.

[wayofvoice]

At the sound, Paarthurnax turns his head to glance down at Jane. Seeing her appearance, he gives a small but polite nod of his head. They haven't met, that much he knows, but he has seen Jane around. Paarthuranx, if nothing else, has a good memory.

"Greetings. It seems you have been hard at work." Just a simple observation, and the smell of food about her. "Are you tired? Many could help you go to your home, if you cannot go much farther." He doubts, of course, that is what's bothering her but it's a good way to ease the air, he's found.

[wayofvoice]

As if Colin needs to ask.

"Always for you, dii fahdon." Tail sweeping along the grass, Paarthurnax settles himself down on the ground and looks to Colin. He doubts he needs to ask consider all that has happened as of late, but he still does.

"What is it you wish to speak to me about?"

[wayofvoice]

Niid. I am simply thinking.

[Looking away from the Monument, his head bobs somewhat as he takes in the new smell and things on Rob.]

I see you have been hard at work.

[cyan_maid]

One would think that Jane had seen Paarthurnax around herself - he's not hard to miss, after all, but then again, she hadn't been looking very hard. It's a little startling to hear him talk, but all that happens is Jane's mouth falls open, and she's silent as his words sink in.

"Um - oh - uh...n-no, I'm fine...but, erm, thank you. I just..."

She takes a moment to look him up and down.

"...Golly, you're really a dragon, aren't you? The genuine article and then some..."

[wayofvoice]

Because he's nothing if not polite, Paarthurnax lowers his head when he hears AZ call out to him.

"Only the Monument in its whole. Recent conversations have been enlightening... Although not all have dealt with them so well." As if it needed to be said, considering the reactions.

[gianthobo]

"No, they haven't. ... But I didn't feel like I could really contribute much to it."

He has the feeling that they wouldn't like his answers, and that he wouldn't be able to change the feelings of the young and brash anyway. ... He hasn't been feeling great after Calem's disappearance, anyway.

[wayofvoice]

"Indeed." For a moment, he sounds a bit amused. Even back on Skyrim, his presence was the stuff of legends and tales told to children.

Here, at least, he's not attacked, although he would not blame anyone for doing so.

"Do you require a moment to acquaint yourself with this?"

[freedom_engineer]

"Ignorance," Colin replies, nodding at Paarthurnax in gratitude. "The things that I know could fill a library, but the things I don't know could fill a star system. Unfortunately, the one thing I need to know right now... I cannot learn. How am I supposed to deal with that?"

[wayofvoice]

"It is a difficult topic." Paarthurnax settles down onto the ground with a heavy sigh.

"Especially when so many have lost so much. To turn back things is tempting. Yet for those, such as Colin and Zulf, there are costs to this attempt. Whichever is the proper answer is something we all must think on and discuss... once tempers have calmed."

[gianthobo]

"Agreed."

Torkoal takes this as a signal to sit down, too, and he lowers himself with a contented 'Koal'.

"We need to find more cores anyway to be able to do anything."

[wayofvoice]

As always, Paarthurnax thinks carefully on what is being asked of him. This isn't the first time someone has come to him for advice, not even in the Bastion. As with everything else, he gives it his full respect and consideration.

"It is not easy to come to terms with the fact that even for those with much power, whatever the form it takes, there are things we cannot do. Even I raged for many years before I could accept this, when I was a youth." A sigh. "When it comes to such things... Sometimes we must rely on others to use that which we cannot."

[freedom_engineer]

"The only other ones whom I can rely on are likely dead," Colin says, remarkably nonplussed by that. "And even if they aren't, the odds of their locating this without the scans we were taking are not good."

He shakes his head. "Time travel is complex, difficult, and most of all, exceedingly dangerous," he says. "And I do not have the education to explain why and prove it. All I can explain are the non-classified details of what will happen if there is another reversion... It's bad, by the way."

[scary_music]

Ibuki will dedicate the first one to you, for sure, Paar-ojiichan! It'll be awesome!

Ooh, you have to let Ibuki listen to them! Can you sing one now? Can you?

[because listening to a dragon sing oughta be really cool]

[cyan_maid]

That's really quite generous of him. If people were to attack Jane out of the blue, she wouldn't nearly be as forgiving. Then again, when you spend five months tormented by monolithic skeleton monsters, there's not much questioning to be had in hit first, ask questions later.

She nods, a little dumbfounded. "I-If you...don't mind."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Uh, yeah.

[Rob's mind is on other topics so it doesn't occur to him that Paar could be referencing his mammoth-hide creations, which leads to a moment of confusion about how Paar can see what he's been doing when he's spent most of the last week inside.]

I've been working on alchemy, but I haven't managed to make anything yet. It's only been a couple of days since I started working in Colin's laboratory rather than just reading though, so I can't expect to have success right away. [He kind of did though.] Preparing reagents from scratch isn't as easy as it sounds when you just read about it.

monument.

[fireburn]

[Zuko had mentioned Paarthurnax, and anything Zuko knew that Azula didn't was definitely not okay. And unless Bastion is home to multiple dragons, she's pretty sure she's found him. but just to be sure (and to be actually nice in an intro for once), Azula walks up carefully as if trying not to disturb him and asks:]

Are you Paarthurnax?

[wayofvoice]

"That will be good." Paarthurnax's head bobs in a nod. "It will give us more time to think... Hopefully no one will act rashly, or foolishly, in that time."

They do, after all, have hotheads in their settlement. Paarthurnax won't pretend they don't.

[gianthobo]

"Hopefully. But I think we have enough people to be able to handle fallout from... almost anything."

If nothing else, AZ or Golurk can put someone in a tree until they calm down.

[wayofvoice]

"With what we have experienced due to such a thing? This is not something I doubt." He gave a shake of his head, thinking to other things. "Even before Calamity... this is something I am familiar with. The father of my kind, Bormahu... His realm is that of time and his eldest, my brother, only recently was from the past to the time I considered current. For any other creature... We know they would not survive such things.

"An event such as this, forcing all along with it regardless of their choice... I can imagine such disaster." He thinks for a moment, nodding his head to Colin. "The Cores are the key to all of this, are they not?"