The Bonfire

[nozomi]

Warden wrinkled his nose and dug his elbow into Z's arm in retaliation. Fine, then! No shoulder pats. He got an elbow shove instead."You know, Wherleader, one day I won't be here to call you Zalman and then you will miss the taunting. And you're also a horrible liar, did you know that? You really are. I know you. You drink. It's what you do, I think, that and you moon over the Bronzerider."

But it was a prison, and he couldn't exactly fire someone from a prison. Maybe demote Z, for the drinking? All that was left was Boy or whatever his name was, nasty bit of work but smart. Or something. And the newborn gold with the bitch Handler. Neither of them were decent prospects, and he liked Mama well enough to not out and out get grumpy with Z. And, in that, he supposed the man had a reason for drinking (now, at least).

Warden leaned instead, shoulder to shoulder with Z, and he grinned into the low fire. Smoldering fire? Whatever, Warden had a rock and the world was good. "Yusuth is gigantic and clumsy to boot. He isn't allowed in tight-close gatherings like this one. He might come if I ask but I doubt he cares. You know, I think the only time that dragon ever gave a wherrie shit about anything enough to do something about it was when he Impressed me. Little bastard, dive tackled me. Tore down my sides.

"Hurt like nothing else." Warden grinned anyway, bright eyes flicking back to Z, his leaning-post. Warden huffed, ran his hand through his hair so that it fluffed just a little. "Got nasty scars, all the way down my sides. Not that you'll ever see them. Besides, I think if I ever reacted to your highly inappropriate actions or comments, you'd not know what to do. You will also never get the chance to prove me wrong."

[tiamat]

Corvis wasn’t going to argue about the shells being messy; aimless scattering was the natural state of shells, after all. But the “wanting to be a dragon” thing was weird. Why would shells want to be a dragon? They were shells; their greatest aspirations were to be the next shiny home of a mini spiderclaw.

…Wait Tall Guy was still talking wasn’t he. Thankfully it sounded like he hadn’t spaced out too long this time. He smiled broadly. “Yes! I wouldn’t have said I liked it if I didn’t.”

He blinked at the part about buying from him. He couldn’t quite remember if he’d sold to anyone who looked like Kaydian, but it was entirely possible. “Maybe but I probably just remember from seeing you around the prison somewhere. I’m not very good at remembering things.”

He grimaced at Kaydian’s request. “His name’s Pest. I really don’t think you should pet him unless you really like pain… or unless you’ve fed him. He’ll probably let your hand live, then.”

Pest snapped in Kaydian’s direction, possibly in an attempt to prove that Vicious Bastard would have been a better name for him, but it probably fell a little flat given that he was still practically plastered to Corvis.

[maggie]

"It's ok. It's not an important thing to remember," Kaydian told him. He retraced his hand from the snapping flitt. "He's very pretty," he murmured. "Is he nice to you? He looks like he likes you. Maybe he's just scared of me." He looked back down at his art work, fussing with a few peices.

Jessan said he should make friends. Despite his evil flitt, Corvis seemed nice. Maybe Corvis could be a friend. That would be nice. He didn't seem to scary, just a little scattered. Although if he was scattered like that, maybe he was messy too, which could be bad. Although if he let Kaydian clean his stuff for him, it could be good... The obsessive young man mulled this over. "It's ok to not remember things," he said slowly. "It's better than always having to tidy things." He glanced up at the other prisoner with a nervous smile.

[tiamat]

Corvis nodded. He was at stuck at Warden’s; there wasn’t much point to trying to remember who had bought from him before now. Not that he had ever been good at that in the first place.

He laughed a bit at hearing Pest described as “pretty”; it wasn’t something he was used to hearing from other people. “He is pretty, isn’t he?” Corvis reached up to scratch Pest’s head, and was somewhat relieved when Pest didn’t choose that time to give him a friendly bite. “He likes me, but he’s also a little… overprotective. I think he thinks that everyone’s out to get me.” Pest ignored this mild criticism in favor of leaning into the head scratching, because clearly being pet was more important than paying attention to little things like not biting everything that approached Corvis.

Corvis waited quietly while Kaydian thought, and was mildly surprised (and very confused) by the statement. “I… guess? Why would you have to constantly tidy things?” He was starting to feel somewhat worried for Kaydian, and it showed.

[maggie]

Kaydian blushed, turning back to his shells nervously. It was the first time he had tried talking about it to someone other than Jessan. But she had said that opening up to people was good... "I don't know," he admitted quietly. "Jessan says that my brain just works funny sometimes." He looked up at Corvis with a small, nervous smile. "I often wonder why other people don't have to tidy things. How they can look at seashells and not try and put them in order."

He watched Corvis scratch his flitt, a wistful little light of envy in his eyes. It would be nice to have a pet to be his friend like that. Although he wasn't sure he would like the biting much. "Well it's good that he protects you," he murmured. "There are a lot of scary people here. And everywhere."