Paragons

to Adele~~
Galwix mutters acceptingly but glumly to himself. You see no visible exterior damage but you can tell your window is propped open.

"This window right to our left. Just to our left, whatever. The one that's open. Tom might be in there though, so be careful about just climbing in." Adele looks and points toward the window as she mentions it.

She parks and heaves a determined sigh. "We ready? I've got to figure out how to hide this guy. Maybe the cooler bag?" She gestures for it. "Sorry, I just can't see you and don't want to run into you, Yarden."

"Thank you," I said, looking at the indicated window. Her right or correct wording wasn't troublesome, I knew what she meant. The window was propped up, so I wouldn't have to mess with breaking anything.

"Don't worry. When I'm like this I take special care not to be touched. I know it can be unsettling," I lied. True, I would certainly avoid making contact while invisible, but it wasn't out of consideration. I didn't like touching humans at any given time.

I handed her the bag. "Squirt should fit in the cooler. I'm sure you'll make a convincing pair of cousins returning from a library picnic of some kind."

I looked around for other options in case the size wasn't comfortable for the lovely beast and patted the sweatshirt beside me.

"If the hoodie works better for transportation, it's dry. It should be safe."

I opened the door and stepped out of the car.

When the angry tentacled being happened upon us again, their skills of drawing things into existence, creating clones, refracting lasers, and breathing fire would be useful assets. Much better than running and hiding.

I swallowed my preferences. My body didn't seem to bother Galwix, though I noticed Adele's discomfort in the coffee shop. At the time, it didn't qualify as a mitigating factor in my actions. Now that we were out of immediate danger, I could afford to be more considerate.

Be nice. Behave yourself.

I leaned back in and addressed Adele.

"Also, if you would like to see me while we try to sort this all out, I would be grateful for any extra clothes you can spare."

I closed the door and shook my head.

Manners.

To Adele~~

The journey up to the apartment is without incident, Tom left a note on the door saying that he found the source of the burning smell and that your neighbor had left a burner on.

The four of you, human, Satyr, dragon and experiment take up positions around the apartment and Galwix begins the conversation.

“So, what’s our next move?”

Adele mutters something about that being a relief upon finding the note.

"Well," Adele replies to Galwix' question, "I told Yarden I've got food." She points out which cabinets contain cereal, snacks, and bread.

"I can go grab some clothes if you want, and I want some of my art supplies handy... Also," she pulls out her phone and activates the voice search feature and asks, "Tentacled monster, immortal?"

Disappearing into her room, she calls out, "Oh, Galwix? Could you let the little critter out of the cooler bag, please?"

I climbed into the room without much difficulty and waited for the others to arrive. I didn’t go snooping or rifle through any of Adele’s possessions. When Adele pointed out the food I browsed the available selection, finding several snacks to my liking. I hadn’t eaten this much since my last transformation. Something told me I’d need the energy.

“Yes, please.” I responded to Adele’s offer of clothing. I was curious to see what else she could do with those art supplies.

Adele spoke into her phone. I grabbed a loose piece of paper and a pencil, jotting notes from my own recall for future searches. “Tentacled monster, indeed. Immortal. So, a monster? Alien? God?”

Remembering my state, I called out to the room where Adele went, “I’m on the couch.” Though the floating pencil might have given me away. “Seeking blood. Glowing book. Red. Glowing book wanting blood. Needing blood.”

I put down the pencil and leaned back, “What can confine an immortal?”

And what causes a vortex?

“And you,” I looked at Galwix. “You appeared in the middle of all this. Where’d you come from? Have any hooded creeps asked for your blood? What did the whirly vortex feel like? How well do you play that harp?”

Galwix was in the process of removing the dragon from the bag and his glimmer was also fading but he still tried to answer the questions posed as best he could.

"'deren ye go pet, ay?" He said to the dragon then turned to the floating pencil on the couch.

"Nye, thems didn' tak no ask per me bluud. I bens fr'm the lan' o' Kirksin, wit'n de b'rder of Celest'"

Glawix’s human appearance and accent faded after taking care of the dragon.

Good. He’s back to normal.

“Kirksyn, within the border of of Celeste. That’s not in Oklahoma. I don’t know that place, but I know the words. They’re quite old here,” I said, reaching in my mind to my earliest nights at the library.

“Celeste derives from the Latin caelestis, meaning heavenly or celestial, Kirk points to the Church of Scotland, and lastly Syn is borrowed from Greek, meaning with or together. Even if the religious origin is off kilter, Earth’s languages point to your home’s otherworldliness.”

I scribbled through the etymological notes I had written regarding heaven, church, and together. The key to making sense of this afternoon wasn’t going to be found in a dictionary.

“Then again, my comparisons are probably useless considering our current context.”

My transparent hand pushed the bag of granola closer to Glawix.

“Would you like some?” I asked.

The dragon eagerly climbs out of the bag as soon as Galwix opens it and then hops up toward the granola with an excited throaty chirrup.

Adele reappears in the doorway with a stack of art supplies and clothes while scrolling through her Google results for anything remotely similar to whatever it was they had just encountered.

"Uh, Yarden, I wasn't sure what to grab - pants, skirt? I got both, and short sleeves and long sleeves. So, take your pick, I guess."

Hardly glancing up from her phone, she continues, "Sorry, Galwix, you're welcome to whatever's in the kitchen too, if you need it.

"Yeah, so any ideas about a plan?"

To Adele~~
Your phone dutifully pulls up a selection of fan fiction websites, many of them with ‘helpful’ images of young Asian women that tell you the site itself will not be helpful to your situation or your brain in general.

“P’esntly?” Galwix asks, dipping his hairy hand into the offered food. “I’ds be sayin lay to ‘da dow. M’eppin t’morrie we’ins ken make t’aks to summer elz.”

"Thanks, I'm sure I can find something." I moved to the pile of clothes, making sure not to touch Adele as her focused remained on the phone. Her clothes looked nice, well taken care of. I find a pair of high-waisted cargo joggers and a purple short sleeve shirt. I unpeeled a black beanie stuck inside an unselected shirt and put in on my head. Comfy.

Once fully clothed, I watched my hands become opaque again. "I like the skirts, but pants hide the tail better."

"Ideas. Well. I suppose laying low wouldn't get us additional attention. My main strategies boil down to run, fight, or hide. Mostly hide," I said, moving to Adele. I pointed at her art supplies. "Those giving you any ideas?"

"Oh, goodness," Adele sighs at the content of the search results - not exactly what she'd been hoping to find. Even scrolling down a few times doesn't seem to bring up anything helpful.

She tucks the phone into her pocket at Yarden's question. "Hmm? Oh, these. Um, not really. Not yet... Maybe lying low is a good idea. See if we can research this thing at all. Probably should keep an eye out the window though, in case we can see it coming?

"Should we discuss what we can each bring to the table? Maybe figure out what our strengths and weaknesses are?" She glances back and forth between the other two.

“Strengths and weaknesses?” I repeated. “Sure, sure.”

“As you know already, I’m not human. Not all of me, at least. My genes were pulled from Earth’s predators. I was grown in a lab to fight-” I looked back at Adele. “Well, I guess to fight whatever you are. The metas.”

“I survived the lab. Escaped. I’ve been wandering or working around OKC for about half a year.” I smiled, thinking of my days in the library. After shaking a clump of granola from the bag into my hand, I broke it into smaller, more manageable pieces.

“In my current form I can camouflage and have astonishing balance.” The smile faded. “And my sweat can kill.”

“Which I tend to do quite a bit when I’m around fire, so I recommend you draw that particular element with caution,” I warned.

I traced my fingers along the windowsill. “Weaknesses… I don’t sleep regularly. When I do, I don’t know how long I’ll be unconscious. Day before yesterday I slept over 24 hours. It had been six months since I last slept. That time I was out cold for a week. Soon after, I changed into the striking figure you see now.”

Plopping myself on the floor, I turned back to Adele and Galwix. “In summary, I bring the instinct of animals, the intellect of humans, and unhealthy coping mechanisms to the table.”

Adele's face expresses a range of emotions as she listens to Yarden. Why would someone want to fight metas? Wait, is that what I am?

"Right, okay, less fire. Sorry about that, it was the only thing that came to mind at the time.

"And ... going back to that thing about metas... You were grown in a lab to stop them? Sounds awful and unethical... Sorry, not that you don't have the right to exist, but that just seems ... cruel.

"And you think I'm a meta? I ... really? I'm just a normal girl whose life and sanity are spinning wildly out of control. I don't want to fight anyone!"

She presses one hand to her forehead as she attempts to process this information. The little dragon bounces up to her shoulder and nuzzles its face into her cheek and chin with a concerned and comforting little trill. She moves her hand from her forehead to scratch the dragon's head before continuing.

"Okay. So, I'm a meta. You're some sort of form-changer intended to fight me. There are probably others like you too. And we've got some octopus monster that believes he's immortal wreaking havoc on our city and probably wanting to hunt us down." She turns to Galwix, "Got anything crazier to add to the mix?"

“Sa’ger? Nah luv, no sa’ger.” Galwix grins mischievously. “I be jus a ‘unble mis’ian wit a ‘arp n’ ‘orwd.”

“And fire was quite effective at the time as it allowed our escape,” I said, winking at Adele. I shook my head, suppressing a laugh. “So you don’t want to fight anyone? I’d say you were born into the wrong species. Fighter or not, meta or not, I do think you’re special. The people in the lab described metas as those who appear human, yet inside they’re something more. Something else. Kind of with that paranoid they could be anywhere insinuation.”

I loved how the light accentuates the dragon’s scales. Squirt clearly cares for Adele, which was reason enough for me to trust her.

“If normal humans could conjure life like that, “I said, pointing to the cuddly creature, “they wouldn’t have devoted such extensive resources to produce me.” I moved closer to them, testing the comfort levels of my self-imposed bubble.

“You can be confident the lab wasn’t ethical. My survival doesn’t justify all of the things that didn’t make it. I didn’t ask to exist. But I might as well try to live while I do.”

“And that living, so far, has developed a certain level of suspicion.” I turned to Galwix and looked him over again, seeing if I missed anything that could give me a hint about his intentions. “I like you, Galwix, but I’m not buying you’re a care-free companion along for the ride. Unlucky wormhole victim doesn’t suit you either. Come on, give us something.” I crossed my legs and rested my hands on my knees.

“What are you doing here?”

Several expressions flicked across Galwix’s face as he clearly considered the implications of his next words. Then his face got deathly serious and his voice dropped all but the hint of his accent.

“Aye? That be a rater direc question luv, one I be ‘avin a direc answer to if ye want it...” he began.

“But be warnned, once ye know, ye canno unknow.”

“Subtlety makes me itch,” I quipped.

I made note of Glawix’s solemnity and considered what I knew about this creature so far. Having lived only three years and most of that in guarded captivity, I didn’t trust my people skills to be a reliable gauge of Galwix’s expressions. Even if I was an expert at human interaction, none of that may translate fully to whatever is. Still. I trusted my instincts.

And they made my palms sweat.

“In my world, knowledge is power. If you have some, I’ll take it.”

I hope that sounded brave.

Galwix wordlessly looks to Adele for consent before beginning his tale.