Dragon on Deck! [action OR prose]

[unionjackoff]

[if you are awake at this hour of the night, you are going to see something really awesome... or really scary, depending on how you look at things. there's a huge red dragon flying close to the ship. It swoops around, darts up high into the sky, then back near the water. it goes forward and comes back... no matter where it goes, the dragon always returns to the ship's side.

most of you are probably wondering what this beast is doing. it can't be here to kill you, right? most of you are already dead. BUT WHO KNOWS. it could be hungry! it could just want to make trouble. or maybe it just wants to tak along.

actually, this dragon is a very restless inmate, one who's tried to keep his secret under wraps so he wouldn't scare the humans. but even his magic cannot last for a week. even he needs to stretch his wings. he won't harm you. in fact, he'll probably ignore you unless you try to hurt him.

if you're his warden, poor you. you get to explain to everyone what the hell is going on]

Comments

[garantundkraft]

How about awesomely scary? Is that an option? Or scarily awesome. Either way, Prussia had been woken up by the sound of wings beating somewhere outside, and had ended up peering out the porthole in his room to see what the source of the noise was. Which has led him to be sitting up on the deck, in his undershirt and pants, just watching the dragon fly for a bit. It's kind of terrifying, all that sharp, shiny scale... but also really fucking cool! And he figures if it really meant to attack, it would have done so by now, instead of just cavorting around the ship.

[unionjackoff]

For the most part, England doesn't pay attention to the ship. He's lost in his own thoughts, mourning his situation in peace. But every now and then, he will glance over to make sure he's not too close, or to see what attention he's attracted. Because, yes, he knows he's cool looking, especially to humans.

And that's when he sees Prussia. Tch, of course that guy would be watching him. He still is like Gilbert, in some ways. England snorts and looks away before heading up into the clouds.

[garantundkraft]

The longer he sits there, the more awake he becomes. And he just has a sneaking suspicion... Which is confirmed when the dragon spots him and then ever so pointedly flies off. Seems he's found England. Arthur. Whatever the fuck he wants to be called. Well, he has to land sometime, right? So Prussia is just going to make himself comfortable and wait. Hopefully he doesn't fall back asleep, though, because then Arthur will probably just sneak right past him.

[unionjackoff]

No, just go to bed! England doesn't want to talk to you! You're mean and remind him of his possibly-dead boyfriend who he is responsible for teaching and shouldn't have fallen in love with in the first place!

Eventually, England does poke his head out from between the clouds. When he sees that Prussia is still lying there, he huffs indignantly, causing spirals of smoke to expel from his nostrils. Apparently they are going to try and wait each other out. This would be fun. Or not.

[garantundkraft]

He's not a patient man by any stretch, but it's not like he's got anything better to do with his time right now! So when he spots that indignant dragon head peering out from the clouds, he just offers a little wave of his fingers. Doesn't matter if Arthur can see the precise motion or not, really. The entire point of moving was simply to let him know that, yes, Prussia was still awake and still watching for him.

Really, Art, might as well land and get it over with. He'll wait all night if he has to!

[unionjackoff]

The dragon isn't patient either. Well, England was more patient than most dragons, if only because he'd spent a fairly long time interacting with humans. But right now, he's not patient at all. There is a part of him that really wants to talk to Prussia, but he knows if he did, he'd just be setting himself up for some epic failure.

He finally leaves the safety of the cloud, but doesn't return to the ship. Instead, England wants to show off a little, if only to tell Prussia he's not the least bit bothered by him. Which he is but Prussia doesn't have to know that! England does tricks... spins and dives, flying backwards and forwards.

[unionjackoff]

"I need to stretch my wings! They don't like being cramped in that little room or hidden by magic."

By now, though, England feels like he's been able to fly enough. A part of him wants to change back and land. But, if he did that, he'd have to go through Prussia. And, yeah. He doesn't want to go through Prussia.

[garantundkraft]

"Then don't whine to me when I don't ignore you!" Huff! See, he's being perfectly logical here. He doesn't want to ignore Arthur, so as long as there keeps being convenient excuses for him to bug the guy, then he will! It's kind of annoying to him anyways. So what if they aren't from the same place? That's not a good reason to ignore each other. He's even trying to be good and remember that Arthur isn't the same England who totally stabbed him in the back with that dissolution shit.

[unionjackoff]

Prussia just compared Arthur to England so, to the dragon, that looks like Prussia doesn't want anything to do with him. Makes things a helluva lot simpler, really. Why couldn't they continue doing that?

"Then you don't whine about me being a pompous know-it-all!" He snaps his teeth at Prussia, tone bitter. "I don't deserve to be called names, or poked, or told my breath smells!" He didn't deserve to be teased, either. All Arthur wanted to know was if Gilbert survived!

[garantundkraft]

"And I don't deserve to be called a child, or told I don't take anything seriously, but that sure as fuck doesn't stop you, now does it? When you don't even know the first thing about me!" Right, so he's not exactly making his most mature arguments at the moment, but still. Arthur can't just expect him to be polite when the guy keeps making all these stupid assumptions about him. (Never mind he hasn't exactly been stellar at not jumping to conclusions.)

[unionjackoff]

"You started it!" England hissed. "I told you to leave me alone! But you insisted on pestering me and calling me by that name! Then you have the nerve to mock me!"

[unionjackoff]

"I wouldn't have let anyone drown," Arthur said, narrowing his eyes. "Unless they were the Emperor. But you're certainly not him. Insulting me doesn't warrant death."

His stomach is cold. He wishes it were daytime, so that his body would heat up faster. He needs to feel the fire inside.

[garantundkraft]

"Well. Guess you're a better man than me." He closes his eyes, making himself comfortable since it seems like they might be up here for a bit. "Who's the Emperor? He must be a real peach if you'd let him drown." Prussia pets the scales beneath him idly. They're interesting... So pretty. They're probably more awesome in the sunlight.

[unionjackoff]

England thinks about how to respond first. He supposes there is no harm in telling Prussia everything about his world. It's not like he was going to go there. "Emperor Austria. He's a ruthless monster who wants to destroy human life."

[garantundkraft]

What Arthur did not know, but now does, is that Prussia has something of a knee-jerk reaction to that name. Especially since he blames Austria and his people for the past two wars that led to his own demise. So if Arthur can feel subtle movements through his scales, he will note that Prussia has tensed, fingers digging in a bit harder than necessary.

Even if he can't feel that, Prussia snarls. "Keh, I know an Austria. He's the reason I'm dead." Which is grossly oversimplifying a lot of complex politics, and completely ignores the role the Allies had in his dissolution, but Prussia's always had something of a simplistic view of the world. Everything boils down, in the end, to the fact that it was Austria who started the first war, yet West and he suffered. Then some Austrian came in to Germany to fix things... And Prussia took the blame. So yes, from such a view, it's all Austria's fault.

[unionjackoff]

England turns his head back to look at Prussia briefly. It's fine, there's nothing in front of him, so they won't crash. "You... There's... Austria's in your world?"

[unionjackoff]

That did sound complicated. Then again, England had seen many strange things in his life, and he'd experienced crazy things. Like falling in love with a human. That was incredibly complicated.

He's silent until they get back to the ship. He gets close enough so that Prussia can hop off first, and then attempts to transform. He manages to do so with a bit of magic combined with the warm power, and then he is Arthur again, standing on the deck with his tail and wings out, and wet clothes. He's happy that he can go get some warm clothes and a blanket!

[garantundkraft]

He feels bad for Arthur, seeing him standing there still wet when the flying mostly dried him off. "Hey, let's get you back to your room. Can't be good for a fire dragon to be all wet, right?" Barring any protest from Arthur, he flings his arm around the dragon's shoulder and presses close to warm him. Stupid dragon; jumping in the water after him. Down below with you!

[unionjackoff]

Despite Arthur's better judgment, he leans into Prussia, folding his wings around them as they walk. He really is cold, but he's not unhappy.

"Do you really not exist anymore?" he asks as they near the inmates' quarters. He wondered if he would be able to find a book with a map of Prussia somewhere on this ship. He would like to read about the history, see if humanoid countries are mentioned anywhere.

[garantundkraft]

"I got dissolved. So, no, I don't. Some of my land was given to West and some of it to Poland and some of it to Russia..." And maybe others got parts of him, but he's not too sure on the minutae of it all. That's just where he knows the bulk of his land ended up. "Heh, it's fine, I guess. Who needs militaristic Prussia in an age of peace, right?"

No. It's not fine at all. But... he's too awesome to be sad about this!

[adamantly]

[When Arthur had spoken of wanting people to know of and accept his dragon form, this is, perhaps, the very last way Mordred would had hoped he'd go about it.

Drawn out onto the deck by shouting and the few people left awake dashing around the hull, at first Mordred instinctively puts a hand to the sword hilt at his hip. But he then just as quickly releases it, as the full scope of the situation hits him. For a moment the only thing he can feel is a sense of surprise and confusion. He may have known that Arthur was a dragon, but this sight is completely divorced from the beast his imagination had conjured. It's beautiful and overwhelming all at once.

Clinging to one of the railings lining the side of the ship, Mordred leans out towards the sea and watches Arthur pass overhead with an abrupt feeling of uselessness. Nothing bad was happening, but the easily-avoidable sense of shock that all of this generated is troubling, and it makes Mordred question what he's gotten himself into. How useful could he be as a warden if he didn't even have the power to keep his charge from frightening people on board the ship?]

Arthur! [Mordred calls, not knowing what else to do. He waves, trying to attract Arthur's attention.]

[unionjackoff]

[it wasn't like Arthur WANTED to frighten anyone! though, certainly, he knew that he would. that was just the way people were. he huffed quietly, flicking his eyes back to Mordred when he hears him. for a moment, Arthur feels guilty. he liked Mordred, didn't want to make him uncomfortable...

he hovers closer to the ship so that they can talk]

Hullo, sir.

[adamantly]

[Busted.

Mordred is annoyed, but it's a smothered kind of feeling, more the result of the stress of not knowing how to handle this than anything else. In Camelot he had begun leading the guards and giving them orders sometimes, but that was completely different from this. He can, however, see that no real harm has been done. The only thing he truly doesn't accept is Arthur causing a disturbance that could be avoided by telling people on the ship about his form. That he hadn't, strikes Mordred as thoughtless.

As Arthur comes closer, the giant presence registers to Mordred as an uptick in his awareness of his physical surroundings. He isn't afraid of Arthur after having met him in his in human form, but he couldn't say that being close to something so large and powerful didn't feel a little oppressive.]

People on the ship fear you in this form, Arthur. Can you not see? [Part of him twinges painfully at the irony of him telling someone to mind their powers. He doesn't like it, but knows that part of his responsibilities as a warden lie in acting as a guide, and not just a friend.]

[unionjackoff]

[thoughtless, perhaps. but Arthur was frustrated. he was used to putting up shields while he went flying so that he could be unseen. hell, he was used to getting out and flying whenever he wanted. he'd at least waited until nightfall, hadn't he? he was trying to be considerate!

he huffs out smoke through his nostrils, holding back an eye-roll. he wants to be good]

Aye, I know.

[adamantly]

Did you explain your intentions to anyone on the ship?