hit me with your best shot

If Yona had seen How to Train Your Dragon, Daniel really had no idea what she thought he was so lucky for. “Erm-” he wasn’t really sure how to answer these questions. “I suppose a hybrid might count as a dragon? I’m really not sure, though.” If it was all made up then he didn’t see why not. “I reckon a donkey and dragon hybrid would… look like a donkey and dragon hybrid, not an unusual lizard? That’s what happened in the film, right?” 

“I mean, there’s hybrid animals that you can’t really tell quite what their parents were. When you see killer bees, you’re not just like, ‘oh! I know where you came from!’ Mostly you just run away from the meaner-than-usual bee. Not that I’ve tried. But I’d run from that bee.” Someone had told her not to run away from the bees when she was growing up, but it had worked all right with her thus far most of the time. “Do you think that a horse/dragon hybrid would be better or worse than a donkey and dragon one? I think that the donkey one might be hardier and happier.”

❛ It’s okay… ❜ Sasha spoke serenely to Yona, trying to assure the brunette she does not need see her transforming into a wolf, the blonde could see the other seemed a bit ‘nervous’? Her eyes landed at her surrounding walking by her side and listening to her ramblings. This time was easy to understand her phrases, the last time things were rather complicated. ❛ It’s not a problem. I do not understand, what they don’t care about? Why is it scaring you? What if they weren’t pretending, and it’s being really supportive?! ❜ The Russian can’t judge her family, and she doesn’t know them. It was for her, scary to be vampire, in her family.

Daniel thought that ‘some countries’ was a rather odd way to describe places where Wyrms were a part of the local mythology, considering they were in one of those countries as they spoke. It was perfectly possible that Yona wasn’t sure if this was one such country though - especially considering it didn’t seem as though she was from around here originally, if her American accent was any indication. He didn’t have time to consider that any further though, before he was thrust into an entirely new level of confusion. For the life of him, he couldn’t work out what Yona meant when she said that he was lucky for having seen dragons - she must have seen some depictions as well, right? It wasn’t as though such imagery was particularly rare or guarded. Still, who was he to deny her request? “Erm… I’ve seen a few different sorts? Mostly just drawings I suppose… I’m afraid I’m not quite certain where to find the exact ones. Or if you wanted a movie, maybe How to Train Your Dragon? Or Shrek, but I think it’s just the one dragon in that film.”

Yona wasn’t really sure what the Ethereal Realm was like, but it sounded like it had dragons. Yes, based purely on this brief, confused conversation, Yona assumed that Daniel was a fae. What else would make sense? Mostly drawings... What else was she supposed to think? “How to Train Your Dragon is like my favorite movie. Or, well, I have three favorite movies. No, four. It’s difficult to pick. Anyway, there are definitely multiple dragons in the Shrek franchise. Hybrids count, right? Do you think that donkey/dragon hybrids would be able to pass as a a weird lizard in the human world?” It was very important to clarify that she meant ‘human’ rather than ‘real’ because fae had their own rules that Yona hadn’t bothered learning about. If they had actual dragons in there, who knew what pets looked like? Ugh, she wanted to know now.

“You should not consume strange substances if you’re allergic to anything.” Ayla pointed out. “And I assure you their hands are as clean as they can be. We do not need foodborne illness in the orphanage.” She had that problem once when they all got food poisoning from some store bought lettuce. It would not be happening again. “If you insist, though they care little for whether you have answers or not. They already ask me plenty.”

“Hm, maybe you’re right. I have very few known allergies, so everything’s a risk. I might suddenly discover I have a whole new allergy. Maybe I’ll have your kids to thank for bringing this to light with lemonade, so I should probably get some,” Yona said, being a little brat just because she was enjoying it. She didn’t need to get a rise out of someone for the conversation flow to be interesting. Saying whatever came to mind had gotten her this far, and she was content to continue. “Truth be told, it’s important to ask a lot of questions and see what happens. I think all the kids have the right idea. I think it’s cool when nobody knows the answer to a question because maybe it means nobody else in the world has ever asked it.” This was not coming from a place of being a little shit, though. It was how Yona navigated the world herself.

“I know you’re worried because you love me, that’s like totally okay. I’ll like do my best not to worry you when I can.” HJ assured Yona. She felt bad when she worried people. It’s not like she did it on purpose but she knew her lack of intelligence often got her into trouble. “You’re super important to me too.. I’ll make sure to like avoid not dope chocolate or anything else.” She broke into a grin. “I am like super strong.” To prove this she picked Yona up and more or less threw her over her shoulder. HJ was being ridiculous to lighten the mood. “Isn’t this like so relaxing?” She joked before putting her down. “We could go like, watch a movie or something.”

“It’s not about not worrying me it’s- agh, sometimes things just happen.” Yona did stupid stuff all the time too. She just usually didn’t keep eating floor chocolate if she didn’t like it. This could have happened to a lot of people. Maybe. “I think you’re messing with me, but it’s hard to tell because you are the chillest, coolest person in the entire world.” Yona wouldn’t characterize herself as an anxious person, but she was very concerned about making sure that the people she cared about were safe. “Yes, let’s watch a movie. Something very relaxing! Is Air Bud relaxing? I liked Air Bud.” Yona wasn’t out here looking for catharsis or political dramas where there was a good chance that she and HJ would have to look up the plot on Wikipedia to know what was going on.

HEARING someone call out to her, katerina looked over her shoulder and offered a smile when she saw her packmate. “ hey yona! ” she greeted tenderly as the other approached her. when asked if she was doing anything later, kat thought for a minute before shaking her head. “ i don’t think i have anything going on. why? ” she asked before listening as the other mentioned open mic, causing her eyes to light up almost immediately. “ first off, how dare you not tell me about open mic. you know how much i love those. secondly, i will definitely help you find something to wear. pink is absolutely not the vibe of the day. ”

Yona raised her hands up in relief when she heard that Katerina didn’t have anything going on. Phew, she was a little worried she was going to have to make Dominic help her. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but it just seemed more likely that he would be a little more out of sorts in the situation. “I’m telling you now, aren’t I? ...But okay, fair, I’ll have to tell you when I know we’re having one. Text okay? Thank you so much! Can you come over now to help me look over stuff? Fair warning, it’s exactly organized, but I promise everything in the closet is actually clean.” Yona had a thrifting habit, so she had quite a lot of clothes. She also had a carefree attitude toward organization, so she had a pile of clothes on the floor of her closet.

Daniel really had no idea what was happening in this conversation - first Yona thought he was a psychic and was talking to him to avoid the ramifications of a prank she seemed to have played, then the subject had rapidly changed from there to his haircare to… dragons? There really was no way to make sense of it, as far as he could tell. “Erm - I reckon it’d still be a dragon?” Mainly because he wasn’t sure what else it might be. “There are some dragons that don’t have wings and they’re still dragons, right?” He didn’t have the faintest clue if that was right or not, but it made about as much sense as anything else that was happening right now. “I suppose I’m not sure though - I’ve never seen a dragon without legs,” he admitted.

“Depends on the country. Dragons that don’t have wings in some countries are called wyrms. With a y. I think it’s a stylistic choice.” Yona mainly meant England, actually, but didn’t quite say the name. She also didn’t feel like pointing out that Daniel sounded English because he could have come in through any door, honestly. “But whoa, you’ve gotta tell me everything about the dragons you have seen, though. You’re so lucky.” What she would give to ride a dragon... Or, well, hang out. Even get a glimpse! Anything dragon-adjacent was very cool. Good to know, though, that the dragons that Daniel had seen all had legs.

-

“Good. Best keep it to yourself since I wasn’t asking in the first place.” They were puzzled by why Yona was still standing here talking to them despite continuously spitting out mean and snarky remarks, in all honestly this felt like fan behavior. There was no way they would be spending this much effort around someone who tried to rob her last time they met. She was a great example of the sucker bleeding hearts around this town who were putting way too much effort into the wrong cause. 

Anyone could tell Fritz they wouldn’t be able to do something, their own father used to do that all the time, but it didn’t mean that it would ever discourage them for going after what they wanted. The old man eating dirt and worms while they were still standing was enough to show that they were going to do what they wanted even if it could kill them. “ Sure, I’m probably the same age as you but I’m better and stronger. I’ll make sure to bring a camera to film just for you when I stab him like a pin cushion. Think it’d make a great cruddy horror movie for the humans anyways, they eat that shit up thinking it’s just some weird indie vampire versus werewolf film.” The council didn’t seem very useful in Fritz eyes, Ethan was able to lock them up but everyone was arguing if it was ethical. If they had any proof of any of their other crimes this whole ordeal would most likely being going in a very different direction, for now though they were making it easy for the troubled werewolf to manipulate their way out of this. “Eh, I’ll just get lazy and go off my gut feeling. Think first impressions are enough to decide if they go on the chopping block.”

What was so important about being a strong werewolf, anyway? Yona had no plans to go into construction or super heroics. This conversation just made her frustrated and want to keep trying to stab the bubble. “I don’t care if you’re stronger. This isn’t a video game and we don’t have to fight to get to the next level, and it’s not a bad movie either!” Yona often assumed romance and sitcom tropes on real life, but she’d want to impose anything monstrous on herself. It was just so jarring and unhelpful. “Do you want people to let you out of here or not? I still think you should be released because this bubble is ridiculous, but no wonder you’re in here. You really just casually talk about offing people on a whim.” Yona had always liked Traceless because it was supposed to be a nice place where people didn’t fear or hurt each other because they were different. And Fritz... talked like it was nothing about hurting people without any good reason. It was like the other werewolf didn’t want anyone to want to help. Well that wasn’t going to do any good if that Ethan creep had his way and could drum up enough support. Why did it have to be Fritz of all people at the center of this

“Oh, yeah, huh, like how TVs have RGB lights in them.  See, I know.  Hey, wait,” David paused in his syrup-pumping, “’Spirit of the drink?’ I came up with the drink.  Whether or not I put the green in there, green’s gonna happen, you know?”  He opened the wheatgrass canister and put what he considered maybe 1/16th of a teaspoon in there.  “So, you’re more of a ‘let other people make all my drinks’ kind of person,” David commented.  “What do you do when you don’t want to go out?”

“Oh, hey!” Yona waved excitedly when she noticed Katerina, very relieved that she saw someone who could actually lend her a hand here. She had taken a walk because her room had started to feel stifling and she wasn’t getting any good decisions made in there. “Kat, are you free right now? Or even a little later? I need your help.” She didn’t wait for a response before jogging over to greet her packmate. Unless Katerina was really busy, Yona assumed that she could at least make a request and get a response. Maybe a good chat would be helpful. “It’s open mic today at the cafe, and I literally have no idea what to wear. I’d ask HJ, but there’s a good chance she’d just pick whatever’s the most pink. And I don’t thin that’s the vibe I want to project for today.”

As much as it piqued her curiosity to see Yona transforming herself into a big wolf, or small?! She never saw a werewolf closely anyway, only by pictures… Sasha didn’t want to her feel uncomfortable around her, or do something she isn’t in mood for. ❛ You don’t have to do that if you don’t want. I was just curious. ❜ She explained to her, assuring her that any decision would be okay with her. The Russian wanted Yona to be well, and very comfortable with her. She grabbed her hand and gave a slightly squeeze on it, as if the simple gesture would calm her nerves down. Upon telling her things about her past, she sighs deeply, and chuckled a bit at the other’s response. ❛ I think, you wanted to show me something or going to somewhere… Unless if you want to talk about your family, I’m a good listener. ❜ It was a way of her saying: ‘if you want to rant, I’m here’.

“I dunno, Wikipedia maybe?” Mike really had no idea how to go about sleuthing for the writer of The Parent Trap or their family, but it seemed like Yona probably had enough ideas to be able to figure something out without much help from him anyway. “Who’s the first person you’d expect, though?” He didn’t have a first person he expected personally but it sounded like Yona had thought this all through a lot more than he had, so he figured her opinion on the subject was worth listening to.

“Mm, I’m not supposed to cite things on Wikipedia. Gotta look at the footnotes at the bottom of the page, but yeah, that’s a really good start,” Yona agreed, pulling out her phone to go looking through Wikipedia. Unfortunately, there was a good chance she was going to get distracted by some other page along the way. “Dracula,” Yona said even though she hadn’t actually been thinking of any other candidate for perpetuating the body swap. She actually had no idea if Dracula had really been a vampire or not, but history wasn’t her strong suit. “Someone devious and unpredictable. But you know they’re unpredictable. It’s only what makes sense.”

“I’d like definitely prefer not having to go to the hospital.” HJ said because hospitals were not her favorite place. She’d ended up in one before and it was never a good time. “I’ll like totally drink more water than usual, but not too much. A little more than usual.” She confirmed, though that was some confusing phrasing. HJ pulled Yona into her arm and ruffled her hair. “It’s going to take like way more than some bad chocolate to take me down. I’m like way too dope for that.” She laughed. 

Keeping HJ out of the hospital was preferable, yes. Honestly, Yona did not think that putting HJ together with doctors asking questions was the most stress-free idea. “Yes! Yeah, you’ve got it. I know it sounds weird, but this is really important to me. You’re important to me.” Yona squirmed a little bit, and tried to fix her mussed hair. It was meant out of care, so she wasn’t too upset. “I know you’re really strong and stuff, but I can’t let chocolate get close enough to stand a chance. What do you want to do now that’s more relaxing than this?”

Truly it was Ayla’s usual company of children that had her patient enough to continue entertaining the woman in front of her. “It would not be a secret ingredient if I simply shared it with you.” She raised an eyebrow. “I could produce one of the children but you would then be captured by their charm and the never-ending question of ‘why?’.” 

“I could be allergic, though. To dirty children’s hands, or whatever weird secret ingredient you have. Wait, is the secret ingredient lime?” It seemed like the most likely candidate. A little lemon-lime twist was fun, right? She tilted her head to the side in confusion. “...Why? Children don’t have power over me. I don’t know the answers to their questions, so they could just ask you the questions instead.” 

“No…?” Daniel was so taken aback by Yona leaping to the conclusion that he might be a psychic that it took him a moment to figure out how best to respond “We’ve met, briefly. I’m Daniel,” he reintroduced, feeling a little awkward about the matter. He didn’t mind that Yona seemed to have forgotten, but he did hope that she wouldn’t think him rude for pointing out that they had met, nor feel embarrassed over it. Concerned as he was about sparing her feelings, he still couldn’t help but frown slightly in concern at Yona’s unwillingness to divulge any further details about what had happened with the employee. Perhaps he would check in on the people behind the counter on his way out, and make sure they were alright? In any case, for the time being it was probably best if he answered Yona’s question. “Sort of? It - gets partway there on its own. I do use some product though.”

“Uh... Okay, I guess.” Yona looked at Daniel with a vacant expression. Okay, maybe the two of them had met briefly, but Yona sure didn’t remember it. Where could this have possibly been? Or was this guy some sort of weird stalker? Both were real possibilities here. How many people were out there with her appearance and unusual name? Not so many. “Mmkay, that’s cool. So... how do you feel about dragons? Like the different kinds of dragons. I’ve been thinking about how it’s not really a dragon if there’s no legs, but sometimes they look really good if you draw them without legs.” She was just trying to keep busy and deter those Watchers.

“I cannot help if you do not wish to trust me, but it is regular lemonade made by a group of young children.” Ayla explained, unsure if this was getting through to the woman. “Some of them originate from the U.S. I don’t drink beverages like Sprite myself but this is not that, flat or not.”

“Regular lemonade made by children that aren’t even here... a likely story,” Yona said, more interested in being a little shit than believing that this was probably the truth. It was such a weird situation to observe. “Are there any secret ingredients in the lemonade? Besides unwashed hands.”

“Was I like not supposed to swallow it?” HJ asked, confused. Theoretically you shouldn’t eat bad food but it was probably fine, right?. Probably. “I was just gonna like rinse out my mouth with water to get the not dope taste out.” She said. “Maybe the hospital will have dope chocolate!”

“You weren’t supposed to swallow it, but it doesn’t really matter now. It can take a little while for bad food to kick in.” Yona looked from side to side, trying to consider her options because she was a little concerned that HJ might have an... odd time there. “We don’t have to go to the hospital, but after you rinse it out of your mouth, you have to promise me if you’ll drink more water than usual. But like... only a little more than usual. Does that make sense? And can you promise me that? Please? I can’t lose you.” Since HJ wasn’t amazing at numbers, Yona had to make sure that she kept her aunt away from overhydration.