shamelesshookery | (no subject)

Luck has worked for you so far.

No. What I've achieved couldn't have happened through just luck. And it also couldn't have happened if I'd looked at a distant future and decided to work toward that instead.

Perhaps. But you have also found yourself in a dragon's lands, in a country where the custom is to eat parentless young unwise enough to be noticed.

What would you call it, then, that the one who noticed you happened to be a foreigner?

...Lucky this time, then.

[ a soft puffing noise ]

Some things you can plan for, once you learn how.

I don't know what I'd be planning for, at this point.

You prove my point.

I already achieved my goals.

You have no others?

[pauses, to give that the proper thought...]

I want to live.

[and that's apparently where he stops.]

[ ...

more of those distant feathery rustles, and then the soft ticking of claws on stone, slowly getting louder. it's plenty of warning before glowing red-orange eyes appear out of the dark, the rest of the dragon's shape just barely visible as deeper shadow ]

Do you consider living surviving? Or thriving?

[Turns to face Bane, but without fear. Almost out of politeness, really.]

I don't know yet.

[ there's a flicker of movement as he scents the air with his tongue, and then he pads over to lie down in a large, loose curl around Sieg and the banked fire. ]

Then that is where to start.

[...you're so big. i mean. he knew that already, but it's still a thing.

considers this...]

That makes sense.

[ puffs again, gently— Sieg can see the faint glow as the dragon's nostrils flare and smell sulfur again, even if the smoke isn't visible ]

[...

. . .

. . . . . . .]

I have to ask. Why don't you want to eat me?

You would make a poor meal.

Why don't you want to kill me, then? Eating optional.

I don't take the lives of beings capable of reason lightly.

[???

???????????

that's such a strange concept... people have those kinds of feelings?]

Even something like me?

What part of yourself do you think doesn't deserve that consideration?

[looks him right in the eye. ...just one, because he'd have to lean back to get a good enough look at both.]

I deserve it. I told you, I want to live. But others have thought otherwise in the past because I'm a homunculus, and I don't think having the heart of a dragonslayer would help my case with you.

[ another puff ]

Do you want to be a dragonslayer?

I already told you what I want.

[that's it. that's all of it. and it doesn't necessarily exclude dragonslaying, depending on the situation.]

[ yes. but there's a difference between considering murder to defend oneself and deliberately seeking it out for other reasons. ]

Then I have no issue with it.