Paragons

Adele can feel the crimson starting at her neck and climbing up her face. Cheeky little twerp, ain't ya? Something about this Galwix is charming; but she doesn't fail to notice the fact that he ignored most of her questions, which seems a little suspect.

"Well, sir, most of us tend to keep things in our own heads, for starters. More importantly though, keep it in your pants..." As soon as the words leave her mouth, her cheeks flame even more - so much so that the heat causes her eyes to dampen. She stands for a moment with her mouth open but then just slams it shut as she shakes her head at herself. The hood certainly is not helping her discomfort, but she dares not remove it just yet.

At that moment, she catches a glimpse of the hooded man lying on the floor. Bleeding?

"Uh, Virgil? Sorry, I heard the name," she gestures toward the counter. "Do you know this guy? I don't think he's okay..."

Great, another one's already here. Better make this quick.

"The name's Yarden," I corrected, removing my hooded sweatshirt. "And that's Dom. He started this thing."

I bent down and took off my pants, wadding the clothes up, and tossed them in a corner.

I addressed the human and Galwix. "Do yourselves a favor and don't touch those."

It was in this moment, that whatever malevolent force that powered the creature known as Dominic woke up from its temporary unconsciousness.

The black inky pool they were lying in hardened into tentacles and they propped the body up by its shoulders in a rather unnatural fashion.

”Who DARES confine me to this pathetic mortal form!?!? Speak now and SUFFER!!!!

“‘Right den, day uns no good ‘tal.” Galwix remarked ironically, turning to the creature that had just suddenly stripped themselves of clothing entirely they made a whistling noise.

“Now now... I ken ye wanna get r’ght to it... seems could be bad t’min do.” They click their tongue condescendingly. “Wot say the tree o’ is beau’tul cre’tures make taks and get on la’ta?”

…?

“No clue what you said, Galwix, but I got the tone,” I pointed to the tentacles. “I think you have more immediate concerns.”

Speak now and suffer? That doesn’t give a lot of motivation to answer.

I checked my distance to the corner where my drenched clothes landed. I could jump there easily if needed.

I vanished.

Yarden? It was definitely "Virgil" earlier... And satyr? Satytur. Whatever... I've lost it. I've gone completely insane. Dragons, and living pictures, and wormholes, and... Adele closes her eyes and breathes in deeply as she attempts to come to terms with the incredible amount of ridiculousness she's seen this week. She looks up again just as Yarden-Virgil tosses the clothes into the corner.

"Wait! What are you doing?" she asks incredulously. "Oh..." Her head shakes in disbelief again. She quickly finds the nearest horizontal surface to place her still-untouched coffee and tugs the hoodie sleeve off her left arm.

But just then, the tentacled beast thunders out its threat. Adele stops and stares, mouth agape with a soft "whaa...?"

She turns to the other two - no, one - with concerned confusion written all over her face. Her features suddenly soften into surprise and begin to flush again, as she realizes what exactly Galwix had just suggested moments ago. "Ohhh, no," she whispers to herself. "This is ... interesting?"

She looks, with a hint of disgust, back to the tentacled form, shakes her head, and shrugs. Her left arm finds its way back into her sleeve; she retrieves her coffee and, rather casually for the situation, takes a long sip at it.

Galwix looks from the floating humanoid form with the tentacles to the human woman casually sipping coffee with first utter shock... then hardcore respect. Giving her a gentle nod he matches her casual posture and produces a tankard of foaming liquid from somewhere and takes a quaff.

“Aye beastie! Don’cha be go’in bout wit dat tude in ye! Wen’s Be drin’kin here, eh?”

Turning to Adele he says in a notably softer tone. “Yen do be hav’n a play, ye?”

Adele reaches into her bag for the muffin she'd placed there earlier; it's a little crumbled but mostly managed to stay on top of everything else. She offers a bit to Galwix.

"Listen. I'm still trying to decide if any of you are real or if you're just manifestations of me losing my grip. But as long as I believe I've got a dragon wrapped around my neck, I guess I've got half a play. You?"

She glances around quickly to see who else might still be in the cafe and reaches up to loosen her hoodie strings at the same time.

The floating tentacle creature has had enough of this banter.

”If you pathetic mortals will not answer my demands in life, you will do so in death!!!

It blasts red beams of energy from Dominic’s eyes in the direction of Adele’s head, but he beam is intercepted.

Galwix hummus softly and waves his free hand redirecting the beam to cut a neat line in the far wall and you hear a car alarm in the distance.

Somewhat winded suddenly, Galwix strains to keep his voice calm. “Aight luv, you got game, no’s time to play it, eh? Ken on’y do dat a couppl-tree again.”

I have to duck to miss the knife-like energy reflected my way.

So much for a stealthy escape. Shesh.

The sweating starts up again as my heart races. Gross. Usually I’d call this inconvenient, but today I’m thankful for my body’s rapid reaction.

Huh. The human has a dragon.

**attempt**

I slip back to my clothes. Calculating my aim, I pick them up and hurl them at Dom- one at a time while I dash across the shop. When I run out of projectiles, I switch trajectory and scurry back behind Galwix and the dragon-holder.

Adele cowers as the beam, almost in slow motion, rushes toward her face only to turn away at the last second. She suddenly realizes that perhaps having a full game-plan would have been a good idea. Now she's loath to send her little friend to fight against this monstrosity for her. But before she can do much (aside from dropping her coffee), she hears a hiss from under her jaw. A lizard-looking head appears under her chin and a bolt of blue-white light shoots toward the floating tentacle-thing. Another hiss, and she can feel the dragon crawl back onto her shoulders to hide.

She throws what's left of the muffin at the beast and yells that she needs two minutes while digging in her bag for a pencil, marker, any sort of writing/drawing utensil.

To Grier~~
You plan works... you think. Each article of clothing you throw is stopped by a short burst of laser fire from the eyes, but he creature is solidly distracted, it also takes a moment to blast where it thinks you are standing after the final toss, but you went the other way much to its consternation.

It also is completely blindsided by the dragon's fire.

To Adele ~~
Your muffin bounces off the forehead of a completely stunned, but seemingly unharmed, tentacle creature. Rummaging through your bag you come up with a blue ink pen and a yellow highlighter.

With writing utensils in hand, Adele first begins outlining giant billows of smoke on the floor with the blue pen. Then she scribbles in large yellow flames below that. With a "c'mon, c'mon, please work now," she hopes they'll rise from the floor and provide something of a smoke screen for at least herself and Galwix. If successful, she continues adding flames and smoke slightly behind and to the side of the first bit.

Seeing the clothes being lobbed by an invisible assailant Galwix lets out a soft cheer!

"Get 'em luv!"

He then shields himself from the dragon's fire even though he was not in the area effected.

He quirks an eyebrow at Adele drawing on the floor, but takes a defensive stance above her anyways. When the drawings leap into literal flames he is overwhelmed with awe... then starts fanning the flames while speaking quickly.

"K' den beau'ts, wen's gotsa mek'n our tails scar'd liek, ken? Who be hav'n a reput'ble cast'le wekin she'der undda?"

Blood disappearing into a book.
Invisible forces.
Swirly vortex.
Another race.

Could be science. I can accept that.

Drawings coming to life?

Not science. I can accept that.

Drawings of fire coming to life?

Not science. Not acceptable.

Panicking won’t help. This fire is different. It’s not aimed at me, though it has effectively blocked any escape plan.

I swallowed my fear. It fought on the way down. I crouched closer to Dragon Carrier and Galwix.

“I’m here,” I said, loudly enough to be heard over the growing flames. “I’d appreciate that fire not jumping behind you.”

Adele hears both voices without acknowledging either. Processing what was said takes longer as she concentrates on her work. She stands after finishing the last bit of smoke.

Even as she concentrates on the flames and smoke, her subconscious recognizes that they still need to get themselves out of the building. She's not even entirely sure how to control this newfound talent. And tentacle-monster could choose to come around either end of the smoke wall at any point.

She silently gestures for the other two to move toward the windows in the front corner of the cafe.

My jaw tightens and I follow Dragon Carrier's instructions.

I could've gotten a scone at Starbucks.

Galwix gives the magic woman a broad wink and follows to the window, but not before casting a minor illusion in he opposite direction. He soon hears his own voice coming from the back of the room.

“Oi wee beastie!! Yen kanna no be’ten me!”

To Adele~~
The street, other than being somewhat torn up, is completely clear, anyone brave enough to be spying is doing so from the shelter of the nearby buildings.

Once Galwix is headed toward the front, Adele jogs after him. She pauses at the window to first glance back toward the tentacle monster and then decide on the safest place to exit through the broken windows. She gingerly, but quickly, picks her way through the broken glass and mangled brick and metal.

Outside, she motions to the others to follow to her car. "C'mon! Let's get out of here. Virgin, er, Yardel-en... Ugh. Sorry! Uh, you here?"

She paws through her bag for her keys, pulling them out after a few seconds. She aims the fob at the car and begins furiously pressing the unlock button to assure herself the car will be unlocked when they reach it.