@stardustwanderers @penner-fr actually, all things considered, how did Emma/Leon/everyone else react to the news that Flint was suddenly back? Did they all immediately think he was an imposter or was there some hope that it was really him again? > w>
@ward-fr POSTING THIS HERE BECAUSE ITS BEEN AN OPEN TAB ON MY BROWSER FOR A FEW DAYS AND IIIIIII DON’T KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH THIS SADNESS PLEASE HELP
@stardustwanderers @penner-fr @daringdragons @mesaifr Flint 2.0 has his work cut out for him, man. He’s got angry children looking to slay, sad children looking to reconnect, I’m just sad for all these kids!
At first he’d been nervous, so nervous he’d nearly chickened out and walked away. He certainly would’ve if his pride hadn’t kept him rooted to the ground outside the pub. He could hear it’s cheery music drifting through the battered doors.
What are you waiting for? a part of him growled. The Wildclaw clenched his fists and grit his teeth. You know what you’re doing. You’ve been listening and planning for so long you know him like the back of your hand.
But what if I say the wrong thing? he began to argue with himself. If I give myself away everyone will gut me on the spot.
He went over all his facts again: this had been one of the old Captain’s favorite spots; he knew the bartender well and always ordered the same thing. The bartender was a withered old Mirror named Kellan, blind in her two right eyes with unparalleled vision in the two left ones.
“What are you waiting for?”
The Wildclaw jumped. He searched around for the source of the voice but only located it when he detected movement down to his right. Sitting on a mat next to the foot of the stairs that led up to the door was a withered Fae whose hidewas so mottled with age and disease that he blended right in with the weathered wooden sides of the building.
He coughed so roughly that the Wildclaw thought he’d choke on his own lungs. “--been standing there long enough.” he hacked. “You goin’ in or not?”
The Wildclaw relaxed when he saw the old wyrm’s milky eyes. “I’ve been thinking--”
“Thinkin bout what?” the blind dragon snapped. “What’s there to think about?”
“I’ve been away so long...” he quickly said. “Do I just walk in again like the last time I saw them all was yesterday?"
The Fae’s whole body shook when he let out a stark “Heh.” “Order yerself a drink. Let everyone else worry about what they’re gonna do, eh?”
The Wildclaw thought another moment before he shrugged. “Guess so.”
Turning back to the door, he set his jaw and marched up the steps, pushing open the doors and entering the murky pub....
Walk like it was yesterday... Flint reminded himself. He stepped as casually as possible around the tables of conversing dragons, making his way to the bar. They’re not going to recognize you because you’ve “changed.” You’ll only get noticed when you give yourself away...
Kellan herself was arguing with a couple of shimmering Imperials.
“You’ll pay me for what you drank!” she yelled up at them (she was a large dragon, especially large for her breed, but everyone except a handful of Guardians had to look up to Imperials, and most dragons had to yell to be heard), “I can’t help it if your gut happens to be as large as those ships out in the bay!”
The Wildclaw stalked up to the left corner of the counter and watched their exchange down at the right. “You’re asking me to empty my whole purse for one flagon?” the larger of the two, obviously male, rumbled.
“One Imperial flagon.” she reminded him crossly. Flint smiled when he saw the gargantuan flagon in question nestled between the Imperial’s obsidian paws.
Flint called out to her, “Hey Swan, get me my usual, will ya?”
“Just a second, Flint!” she snapped. “Can’t you see I’m--”
The Mirror stopped abruptly, her barred shoulders falling limply, and even the other dragons currently at the bar counter lifted their heads. The Imperials just looked at her with cocked brows as she turned slowly, letting her two seeing eyes fall upon the brown Wildclaw at the other end of the counter. She stared open-mawed at him for a second before bounding across the bar in one leap, sliding to a stop in front of Flint’s face.
“It can’t be,” she whispered after she peered closely at him. She scowled, her extra long left fang poking out from underneath her wrinkled lips. The Mirror scowled. “What were the first words you said to me when you walked in those doors?” Kellan questioned, eyes ablaze.
“‘What a sorry sight you are, you dusty swan,’” Flint grinned.
“Who was the first dragon who’s head you broke one of my flagons on?”
“That blue Coatl who worked for Erik, he never told me his name,” he waved nonchalantly.
“The dragon who’s tooth you knocked out on that corner of my bar?”
“Ah,” Flint chuckled, pretending to remember the experience fondly. “Dani, wasn’t it? Oh yes it was, he had to get a replacement so he could keep up that mimic gig with his brother.”
Kellan gaped. “Your eyes--”
He beckoned her closer with a finger. She brought her ear to his lips and he whispered one sentence to her. “No.” she echoed, breathless. Kellan looked at him. “And she did it?”
“With the Warden’s help,” he said gravely.
She looked him up and down. “So you’re a--”
He flicked open his palm and a brilliant, crackling fire sprung up between his fingers. She gawked in amazement. “Well if that ain’t the tallest tale you ever told,” she chuckled.
“It’s true, Swan!” Flint insisted, hushed. “I told her I needed to change if I was gonna continue on living; I couldn’t put the lives of a whole other crew in danger again--just in case Gail got away or his ilk ever came looking for revenge!’
“You’re going back on the seas?!” she yelled.
“Well not by myself.” Flint said, flabbergasted that Kellan would even suggest it. He leaned on the bar and cocked a brow. “Know anyone looking to get outta town?”
Kellan’s laugh that time was so loud she attracted the attention of the whole tavern. “Do I know anyone who wouldn’t wanna skip town on your ship?! HA!”
“I need another ship too.”
“I can find you plenty of sailors, honey, don’t worry. Who wouldn’t wanna sail under Captain Flint?”
The pub went quiet, and Flint suddenly felt the piercing gaze of over 100 eyes boring into his back. Keep calm, keep calm, he steadied himself. He heard a chair being pushed back and the quick patter of feet out the doors. Flint felt his skin begin to crawl. Keep calm, keeeeeep calm.
Kellan continued, “I don’t know how much money you have to buy a ship, but I could swear someone would just give you one if you asked nicely.”
“I’m that popular, eh?” he said, keenly aware that he could hear the claws of the dragon who’d stood up clacking against the floorboards getting louder and louder as the dragon got closer and closer to Flint.
“Oh don’t make me laugh again, Flint, you’ll make me scare away my own customers.”
Flint nearly jumped out of his skin when a small grey shape jumped up onto the counter beside him.
Kellan turned to it, her demeanor abruptly motherly, even solemn. “Need something, Finny?”
A dark grey Nocturne hatchling was perched there, inspecting Flint’s face with a more scrutinizing pair of eyes than Kellan had. “Are you the Captain Flint?” she asked.
“That’s me,” Flint said, relieved it was just this kid and not some real threat.
The crowd gasped collectively and began to murmur. The Nocturne ignored them; she pursed her lips and squinted harder. “How did you get away from the Emperor?”
The two Imperials Kellan had been arguing with visibly shuddered at the mention of the zombie-like creatures, but everyone else in the bar shut up and appeared to scoot several feet closer. Flint looked over his shoulder and found himself face to face with many more dragons who looked much more starstruck than the little Nocturne. If anything it should be the other way around, Flint thought. Well, time to work my magic.
Flint bowed his head, pressed his hand to his heart. “It was dreadful--”
“Finbar, don’t ask the man to relive his worst nightmare!” The obsidian Imperial interjected, craning his trunk-like neck over the room so he could bear down on the tiny Nocturne. “Please excuse her, Captain.” he pleaded, turning his mossy eyes on Flint. “She’s just a youngling, she has much to learn.”
“Especially regarding manners,” the female Imperial at his side interjected, regarding the tiny dragonling with disdain.
“She’s--she’s charming,” Flint chuckled. His charismatic smile helped lighten the mood; he could swear he saw a few dragons out in the crowd let out a sigh of relief for fear that they’d all offended him. The Wildclaw cleared his throat and addressed the Imperial, patting the Nocturne on the head (Finbar herself did not appreciate being pat on the head in such a manner), “Is she yours?”
“Oh no, Captain!” the Imperial started, straightening.
He looked about so say something more but Flint interrupted before he could do anything more. “No? Oh, why such aversion, sailor?” He turned quickly to Finbar. “You must be a troublemaker, young lady, hmm?”
Finbar opened her mouth to reply when suddenly several voices from the crowd answered for her. “Rather troublesome.” “Troublesome’s too tame a word for her, I’d say.” “Not as troublesome as she is nosy.”
Flint looked out at the crowd with a slightly surprised look. “Hey, hey! Let the little lady answer for herself, eh mates?”
Finbar hung her head and refused to meet his eye when he turned back to her. “How bout it, sweetie?”
“Yes Captain,” she mumbled, obviously saddened by her comrades’ remarks. She shuffled her shimmering green wings more in front of her body, as if they could shield her from their words.
“Who do you belong to?”
She shrunk down even more. “No one, Captain.”
Flint raised his brows. “No one, eh?” He flashed his eyes up at Kellan; she nodded gravely. “Well then,” he started, “how would you like to come work for me?”
Obviously the other sailors in attendance had mixed reactions regarding this proposal, but the starry look in Finbar’s eyes when her head shot up was simply unforgettable. “R--Really?!”
“Well I’d have to get a ship of course,” he continued, ignoring the cautionary waves of the surrounding dragons. “But a ship needs sailors--” he grinned.
“Can Dash come too?”
Her question caught him off guard. “Who?”
“Me!”
A great whooshing sound caused Flint and even the other dragons to jump again. A small golden Wildclaw had appeared at Flint’s side from out of nowhere--how he’d done it was a complete mystery to Flint--and was grinning up at him with bright eyes. Flint could nearly swear he saw the electricity jumping around in those glittering orbs.
“Uh, sure,” Flint said before he could heed the shaking heads of the others. Looking up really quickly, the elder Wildclaw saw the younger had somehow cleared a perfect path through the crowd. Either he’s strong enough to push everyone out of the way, he thought, or everyone’s terrified of him.
Dash laughed joyously, running a few victory circles around Flint. If he was quite honest with himself, Flint couldn’t even follow him when he moved. “I see why they call you ‘Dash’,” he smiled, putting a hand on his head.
“Now hold on you two--” he had to interrupt the frolicking wyrmlings while also speaking above the loud drone of the suddenly-talkative crowd. “We still need a ship--”
“Just steal one, you’re good at that!” Kellan laughed again,
“Midrin has a ship!” Dash piped up. With lightning fast reflexes, he ran forward and straightened as tall as he could. “Midrin knows you’re here! She said to bring you to her! She has a ship for you!”
Flint wracked his brain, trying to remember a Midrin from his “past.” Oh yes! Midrin was that Guardian merchant who ran the largest trading hub in the whole of the Zephyr Steppes, perhaps the Plateau itself. Should’ve known she’d come up, he reasoned.
Dash was pulling excitedly on his arm, trying to get the Captain to follow him via the newly-carved path through the crowd. “Catch you later, Swan!” he called over his shoulder, urged on by the very excited Finbar. “Gotta go say hello to some more old friends!”
AN: Finbar asking the real questions up in this ’hood.
Is Dash a v subtle Incredibles fan dragon? Nope. Nope, not at all, I don’t know where you would ever get that idea, it’s not like that’s the only movie I’ve watched repeatedly in the last four days, nope, nope, not at aaaaaaaaaaaaall.
Anyway~ >:D the chaos begins.
@stardustwanderers @penner-fr @mesaifr @daringdragons also gonna ping you guys cuz you reblogged Flint 2.0′s bio post so idk maybe you’re a bit interested :3 @aquiserising @forever-fallyn @pmfolife @liah-fr @astori-fr
Go ahead and let me know if you’d like to start being pinged/continue to be pinged for these updates!
@stardustwanderers @cerberaheart-fr @daringdragons (and if anyone else wants pings when updates to this plot occur, let me know!) this is why I needed Midrin > v> she’s gonna come in soon....
EDIT: ALMOST FORGOT THE INSTIGATOR OF LITERALLY ALL OF THIS @mesaifr
