It's the back room of the Crossroads Diner. Dielle is there, sitting at a booth, eating beer-battered onion rings, with a plate of peach cobbler in front of her, taunting her. She's drinking milk. For once, it's plain milk. No coffee, no flavoring, it's just milk. Well, to be honest, there's also a glass of water, the milk is waiting for the cobbler, it's water for the onion rings. She's wearing a tank top and a maxi skirt, and while she has a serious case of hat-head, the hat is nowhere to be found. It's still early days on the onion rings, all the hot food is still steaming, but the whipped cream for the cobbler is on the side, so that it doesn't melt before it goes on. It looks like she's using real self-control to not just plow into the dessert.
When Iris comes into the back room she's carrying a plate with steak (rare) and eggs (sunny side up) on it, and she has a cup of coffee in her other hand. She's her usual vividly colored self, head to toe rainbow feathers and pearlescent scales in every color, and she's wearing a loose bright green tank top and a sky blue maxi skirt, in an entirely coincidental matching of general fashion. When she comes in and sees someone with rainbow hear a smile cracks across her face, bearing sharp white teeth appropriate for a dragon's maw, and she heads toward the table where Dielle is seated. "Heeey, love your hair," she says enthusiastically, and both her eyes and her scales seem to brighten, literally, with her excitement. "I'm Iris. I'll sit with you, if you'd like." Because Iris is awesome, and she'd be doing Dielle a favor. In her mind.
"... is a place of favorites for eating, for people like us," explains Etsy, fluttering in ahead of Reggie. She's dressed in her usual 'layers and layers,' with a bit of a windblown look to her wild, lily-blossomed hair. The mrbl slides off of Etsy's shoulders once they're in the back room, no longer playing the stole role, and follows after the three of them like an obedient dog, but a cranky obedient dog, at that. Dielle has seen the mrbl before, and this is a cross-looking blue-grey otter. (For Iris: the mrbl is a river otter, about the size of a corgi, with feathery antennae in its mien, and sparkly, iridescent blue-silvery fur.) "It is a unicorn!" she trills, waving her hand toward Dielle, and floats and flutters -- metaphorically, not literally, her feet do still touch the ground. Just barely. "Dielle Henner, is a Reggie Danger, Reggie Danger, is a Dielle... am not knowing a yous," Etsy offers to Iris. Her footsteps are followed by Spring vines, her ridiculous Mantle spilling everywhere.
Reggie Danger, as apparently he is called, is an unusual character. Tall and lean and ... otterish. Unfortunately otterish. Oh, he tries very hard to appear every bit the dashing hero of stage and screen that no doubt inspired his look? But at the end of the day he's a rodenty looking fellow that looks as though he got stretched on a taffy machine for a few minutes longer than necessary. Despite it all, the man's smile is infectious and bright and literally accompanied by a glint off of one of his pointy teeth that offers an actual *ting* sound. "Miss Henner," the fellow greets in a crisp British accent, "so good to meet you. And you as well, Miss." This latter bit is to Iris. "Reginald H S Danger, at your service."
And Dielle's left with lots of people to respond to! So she goes in order. "Well, clearly, you HAVE to sit with me, because we're both in danger of starting a rave on the premises, just by being us! I'm Dielle Henner, as you just heard." Then she gestures to the seats opposite her and says, "It's a mermaid! Hey, Etsy! It's a pleasure, Mr. Danger, you should both join us as well, we can be the League of Extraordinary...Myths. Or something." She gestures with an onion ring at the other seats at the table. "This day's suddenly gotten much better!" She's no longer looking in the slightest disconsolate, she's got COMPANY. And AWESOME company, at that.
Iris slides into a seat at the table with her steak and eggs, puts plate and mug down, and smiles at Etsy and Reggie. "Iris Drake, dragon of Dawn, Gilded Aspirant, yadda yadda, tl;dr I'm totally awesome. It's good to meet you both. Do any of you like hash browns, because I'm not going to eat these." They're all friends now, so she's happy to offer them the food she doesn't want. "If you two sit with us it brings the rainbow quotient back down to safe levels. I'm not sure if this place's insurance covers violent displays of color."
"His tooth does a 'ting' when he smiles. You didn't have an imagining of it," Etsy enthuses, sliding in across from Dielle after leaning over to give her air-kisses by each of her teeth. "No hash browns for a mes, will be sending dashing gentlemans to pick up foods we ordered on way in, in just a moment." Yeap, the Flowering is totally gonna wring every bit out of that. "I ordered so many eggs and bacons. So much bacons. Was living up in a woods for a while after all the stupids happened for a while. You heared about a CBs?" And then she claps her hands at Iris's introduction. "Oh, but maybe not so much, because now is two Gilded Aspirants and two Rainbows. Is how ... how is I am least fabulous persons in room?" Okay, Etsy, now you're fishing for compliments. (But she's so good at fishing... )
"Am an Esther Swift, called Etsy, because long time ago someone who is not importants anymore called me Etsy, and it sticked. No, not like website, yes, heard a jokes before. Am a Springs and a Sacred Couriers."
"Another Aspirant, eh?" Reggie gives Iris another once more, clearly trying to square the dragon's awesomeness up and pin a number on it. Quantifying awesomeness is basically the Aspirant passtime. "Well! If I'd known, I'd have dressed up. Pleasure to meet you Miss Drake." He doesn't seat himself yet, on account of needing to run and grab the food once it's finished being prepared. He expands upon Etsy's story for Dielle's sake, "I happened upon her and her Mrbl friend when I was out fishing in the river. Seeing as I'm an otter, and all. So we hit it off, and she invited me back into town to meet the locals. You wouldn't know if there's a municipal airport around these parts, would you?"
"Maybe in Burlington," answers Dielle to that last question. "Hi, Iris, it's nice to meet you! And hey, my awesome comment covered the table! Anyway, I'm also Dawn Court, Iris. And a Sister of the Family of Silent Nights." She says that proudly, but that explains the eyes that are basically a starfield, something not normally seen in unicorns. Even ones that are missing their horns. "Also, Etsy's a damn fine sight at courie...ing." Her accent is very Southern, but man, that last word just failed her completely. "If Mr. Danger doesn't want your hash browns, I may take a whack at them, Iris. I'm carbing it up, since my boy's out of town."
"It sounds like you eat like I do, Etsy," says Iris with a laugh, as she takes up fork and knife and starts cutting her steak into bite-sized pieces. "Not too big on eating the vegetation?" She nods like she understands, though she probably doesn't really, but she moves right on to grinning at Reggie, while she pokes holes in the yolks of her eggs and starts letting the liquid run all over her plate. She doeosn't seem to be looking at what she's doing as her hands keep working and she talks to Reggie, but that doesn't seem to cause her any trouble. "I'm delighted to know I'm not the only Aspirant in town," she tells him. "I hope that we can find ourselves on some glorious adventures together." The query about an airport momentarily dims her mood (and the faint light in her scales and her eyes), then there's a ruffle of the feathers on the wings on her back before they settle. "Burlington, I think," she agrees. "Honestly, I'm not sure. The last time I was in town was before air travel was a thing, and I've only been here a couple of weeks." She turns back to Dielle and says, "want to push your plate over? You're welcome to these! If Reggie wants some he can ask you to share, but you spoke up first. And I'm glad to meet a sister of your family. It's good to know where to find you all when dreams start getting fucked up."
"Order up!" comes the call from up front. Etsy gives Reggie her winning-est smile aside, and from under the table comes the groan of the irritated mrbl. Clearly the hedgebeast has Opinions about this interloper otter. Interlotter. Something. Anyway. "Please can gets the foods? I will have a pays." Of course she won't pay, because he'll insist, but she has to make that gesture, after all.
"I am a best Courier," she agrees, adding, "Mina is also very a goods, is true." She shifts her attention to Dielle, and asks, "A Jons is out of town?" There's a bit of sadness, there, and she queries, "How longs? Am not seeing a Maddox or a Leos for a long times, Leos for a week, Maddox since... " a little fluttering wave of her hand. "Seeing Other People. My idea. Is why was living up in the tent. Weird to live in the junkyards trailer still with him."
"I believe that's my cue," Reggie notes of the call from the cook line. "Hold that thought, won't you?" Reggie excuses himself, pretending he hadn't heard Etsy's desire to pay for the meal. So she's right about that. He's absent for all the chat about couriers and Mina and Jon's absence and there even being a Maddox from which one might see another person. All he knows is that Etsy gets the plate laden with bacon and eggs, and he gets the plate with the old fashioned farm omelet, hash browns, toast, and coffee. He slides in beside Iris, of necessity. Mindful of her wings. There's a brief quick smile at her as he does so, complete with that quiet ting. "Adventure is actually the name of my airship. And, yes, of course I have an airship, don't be silly."
Dielle promptly pushes her plate over to scoop the non-egged hash browns onto her plate o'onion rings and chuckles. "And I'm the one that's closest to being a vegetarian, not that I'm that close. Jon's away at training camp, Etsy. It's a football thing. I miss him. And I haven't seen Maddox or Leo in ages. So much for motleying up. Oh, well. It's probably me, I have horrible luck with motleys. I wouldn't stress it hard if I were you. But if you need a place to sleep, let me know. There's no tanks, but I can let you have the guest room, if you need it." She pauses, then says, "Thanks, Iris!"
Fortunately Iris's wings are easy to be mindful of, since like a bird's they fold in neatly against her back and don't really take up space except when she unfurls them. Even then, she's only a Changeling, so they're too small to get her aloft. Iris makes sure there's room for Reggie, bestows her hash browns upon Dielle (or at least the unicorn's plate) and then takes a bite of steak sopped with egg yolk. She chews briefly while other people are talking and then, since she has nothing to say about talk about relationships people have and so on, she tells Reggie, "I think I'd name my airship Audacity, if I had one. Unfortunately, I don't, and I've clearly missed the boat on that one. Or the airship. I wonder if I could get my motley to go in for that idea, but I think we've got other plans, and they're pretty awesome as well. In their own way." Her reptilian eyes narrow thoughtfully. "How much treasure can an airship lift, anyway?"
"Oh, sorry, did not have an answering, so many answers to have. A flowers should not be a cannibals flowers, at least not this flowers," Etsy explains to Iris easily enough. "Sometimes is a pitcher plant, or one time had a meeting of a mint that was a Summer and a strangler, but mostly, is a bad idea I am thinking for flowers to eat plants. Anyway, is making a sick stomachs on mermaids." Reggie's timing is perfection. "Oh, tell about the airship!" She's clearly already enamored of the thing, though by the way she talks about it, she hasn't seen it yet.
Leaning to the side, Etsy airkisses Dielle's cheek. No direct contact, just the thought of it. "So much for that. It is not just yous. My motleys before this went plthbtht," and she makes a raspberry sound. "It hurted. I think maybes take a deep breath, think about motleys, and try again. Am stays in the tent out in the woods, but maybe come to stay when gets colder, if not figuring out a thing by then."
"Oh, plenty I imagine. Treasure, that is. I'm not really in it for the treasure, though I can see why you might be." Reggie gestures with his fork at Iris's draconian nature. "It's really a giant aquarium in the sky. More or less. Several little distinct lagoon-like glass enclosures. Sea and sand. Populated with fish and crabs and so on. All connected by a network of water filled glass tubes. Like a habitrail for fish, I suppose. But rather than being on the ground, it flies." Reggie does not expound upon precisely HOW it flies, but it's a hollow in the hedge. So one imagines it does so in an entirely make believe fashion. "It carries my plane about, so probably a pile of treasure wouldn't go amiss. Talk to your motley. Everything is better with an airship involved, I find. I was explaining to Etsy earlier that it cuts down on unwanted guests. Hard for the hobs to invade if they have to invent air travel first, you know?" Reggie pours himself some coffee, then actually starts to eat his meal rather than run his mouth.
Dielle smiles at Etsy and nods, understanding. She reaches out, pats Etsy's hand, then goes back to eating while listening to the conversation about airships. She finds that she's rather fascinated by it. She doesn't ask questions, just ingests varying forms of potatoes and onions. Which means that she's 3/4 of the way done by the time Reggie stops talking. She's eating fast.
"Makes sense," says Iris to Etsy, after thinking just a moment on the whole cannibal flower thing. "I just find that if I eat too much that isn't meat, or..." she takes a forkfull of eggs, "at least things that aren't animal products, is making a sick stomachs on dragons as well. Plus plants just don't taste very good to me." She listens to the talk about the airship, sounding nearly as fascinated as Etsy, while she eats more of her steak and eggs. "That sounds fantastic. At least for you. I'm not so big on the swimming thing personally, but I'm a strong proponent of a to-each-their-own kind of approach, and if I was a swimmer that seems like it would be amazingly fun."
The way that Etsy's face looks when Reggie talks about the airship is sort of like if someone told Tyrion Lannister there was a land made of books, wine, and big-tittied women. It's like that. She siiiiiiighs contentedly... and then tucks into her food. Now, if you've never seen an Etsy eat before, it is sort of a spectacle. There is a reason she never shows her teeth when she smiles, and it's because inside that pretty mermaid face are long, curved piranha teeth. She rends the bacon efficiently, shovels entire over-easy eggs into her mouth, and generally looks, for a few moments, exactly the opposite of a delicate lily maid. She eats like a Beast.
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