isleofavalon | In like a lion! Or dragon. Whatever.

🧙 WHO: Barbara and anyone who comes along
⚔️️ WHAT: Training, exploration, camping, farming.
🕒 WHEN: March
🗺️ WHERE: Various places around and about Avalon.
⚠️ WARNINGS: Possibly some animal violence with the hunting prompt.

a. FarmQuest

[Barbara remembers farming. She didn't actually do much of it, because she was Abel's daughter and spent many of her hours as a child learning how to poke things with pointed sticks, but she remembers how she would help with certain tasks to build her strength, and her stamina, and how everyone--even the dragoons--helped out when it came time for the harvest.

So there's a strange sort of feeling in picking up a hoe--a sense of warmth that's almost sad. She's trying to investigate this mood as she tears up the weeds or hauls sacks of seeds out or chases away birds, getting bits of field all over her and in her hair in the process.

If you catch her at this, she'll acknowledge you with a look, but you're going to have to start the conversation yourself. Or maybe just help her pick up sticks.]

b. Training

[Mostly, Barbara has gotten used to the idea that her magic has been replaced by something that belongs to this world, but there's something that she can't abide losing--the signature skill of the dragoon, jumping. But she has elemental magic. And that means control of the winds. So surely she can use that to recraft her ability.

Her moogle is patiently standing by as she makes use of a fallow field outside the city limits. Taking a deep breath, Barbara summons her magic, crouches, and--UP!]

Hyaaaah--!

[--not so up wait wait no CRASH.]

c. Hunting

[The City of Camelot is full of places that sell food ready to eat, that sell food ready to make, and that sell the raw ingredients of food. Barbara has investigated them. Barbara has even bought some fruit and also, a bunch of carrots. But she doesn't like the look of the raw slabs of meat that they sell in that unnatural clear film. It's cold and dead and strange, totally divorced from the creatures that made it.

That's why this morning, she's in the outskirts of Dusklight Woods with her spear, quietly waiting for prey. She's not about to take anything as big as a deer; she doesn't need all of that, but pheasants and rabbits and other such-sized animals should be careful. She's being very quiet--but a twig snap will make her whirl into view to see just what snapped it.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Glad you remember!

[Jump... it must be something like that, then. Irhya smiles, putting a hand on her hip.]

You're a dragoon, right? Perhaps landing will be easier if you use the wind under you to soften your descent, like a parachute. It seems we're at the mercy of gravity without our abilities, but I think you might be on the right track with that.

[Barbara doesn't hide her surprise when Irhya uses the word dragoon.

The technique she suggests seems sound, too--sounds like what Alisaie did to cushion their landings when they were hopping from shelf to shelf in the library--but the first matter is taking precedent in Barbara's thoughts now.]

You know dragoon?

Yes. There's a bunch of them in my world, though they seem to have turned out very different than most other worlds I've heard of that also have them.

[She smiles a little, having expected a bit of surprise there. Perhaps the whole "war against dragons" thing was the exception rather than the norm for otherworldly dragoons...?]

So, tell me about the ones in your world! Are there a lot of them? How did you get to be one?

[Her eyes widen. When her father was alive, the dragoons had been the pride of Deist, but she wouldn't have said there were so many of as to say a bunch of them.

And after the Empire's first betrayal? Well.]

Barbara last dragoon of Deist. [and as upsetting as the loss of her father was, there is a certain pride in the way Barbara declares that.] Father's drake raise Barbara. Wind drakes, Barbara family.

Oh... the last one?

[Her ears perk up.]

So that's why they're so precious to you, huh... I'm sorry to hear about your father, but I'm sure he'd be proud of you. Having to re-engineer your jump is tough under these circumstances, but you're making good progress!

Hmm... and to hear you have such a close relationship with dragons... that lines up with everything else I've heard of other worlds, too. But Ishgard's dragoons are a little different, at least up until very recently.

[Barbara wasn't expecting that response. Though, thinking about it, she's never had a response to expect. She's never had cause to tell anyone about the fate of her father and the dragoons before, even the Warriors of Light knew it already when they sought her out.

Irhya is still essentially a stranger to her. Her saying that Abel would be proud, and being encouraging is... something? It feels--well, it feels kind of nice.

She's not sure how to respond, so she gives a short nod.]

How Isghard different?

[She can't help but be curious about what dragoons of other worlds are like, after all.]

They engaged in a war against dragons, for about a thousand years of their history. All over a betrayal by those mortals the dragons had come to trust, no less. The techniques and battle styles of the dragoon were developed while fighting upon the backs of dragons, yes, but they eventually were turned against them in their crusade to conceal the truth.

[Irhya looks off into the distance, thoughtful.]

Dragons in my world are effectively immortal. So the conspirators killed one of members of the First Brood, hoping to partake of her eternal life. Her murder shattered the peace between them and incited the rage of her brother, who vowed a never-ending vengeance upon them for many generations to come.

And to think, the eternal life thing didn't even work out in the first place. It just made everything worse for their descendants.

[A war against dragons?!

Barbara's lip curls in disgust. She thinks of Avalon--not this place, but the Avalonian empire of Luxendarc, coming back ten years later to destroy the wind drakes after having wiped out the dragoons.

And to hear that the dragoons of Irhya's world were the ones to betray--that they turned against their own allies, used their skills against them--whatever the motivation, and what use is eternal life anyway, it's--it's--the sound Barbara makes is as close as a human throat can get to what a dragon would say about it. Human language isn't adequate.]

Vile.

[The noise does make her reel a little bit, though knowing what she knows, it isn't surprising. The depths of a dragon's sorrow and fury are like that, too; she can truly fathom neither.]

Yeah. It doesn't make a good bedtime story, that's for sure. The truth about it was hidden from the public for those thousand years, so once it came out, the most noble of them sought to make amends, in whatever capacity they could.

Things have smoothed over a little, and the war is over, but it came at the cost of a lot of blood, both dragon and human. Both of them are slowly unlearning their grudges, and have a stable relationship now.

[If she were to talk about the good aspects -- she thinks of kind Vidofnir swooping to save Maelie from a deadly fall; of Ehll Tou and her insatiable curiosity; of Marcelloix, who had long become a dragon heretic, longing to go home to his family only to eventually be accepted back into the fold.

In an effort to try and soothe Barbara's anger, she reaches out, puts a hand on her shoulder, and smiles.]

If you were raised by dragons, then yours is a unique perspective indeed. Your pride, your abilities, your history -- I hope you never lose those.

[A few sentences to explain a thousand years of blood, betrayal, and vengeance. Barbara both can and cannot picture it--language is a strange thing. But she finds herself curious about it. It will take time for the wind drakes to trust humans again in her own world. She wonders if it will ever be possible to visit Irhya's and see how the dragons and humans manage it there.

But the hand on her shoulder elicits a look of surprise, and Barbara stares at it. It's not an unfamiliar gesture. She would see Aigis give the other three a reassuring pat now and again, Sol jostling Aigis and Dusk, Sarah doing it as a quiet gesture of support after a tiring battle. But it wasn't something they did with her, specifically. They always seemed a little afraid of her, a little wary. Which was fair, because Barbara had attacked them before they proved their intentions.]

Barbara always proud. [Proud of her father, proud of the wind drakes, a justifiable pride in her own abilities and refusal to let the way of the dragoon die.] You--very friendly.

[That doesn't feel like quite the right word? She's not sure how to phrase it. Irhya has asked a lot of questions and given a lot of answers and seems--well, interested, even though there's no pressing reason for her to be. Just, interested because she is.]

[Even so, she gets the message anyway, grinning.]

Thanks. You know, when I first left my home to go adventuring... I wanted to be a lancer, myself. In the end, it didn't work out, so I ended up doing other things. But a part of me still has a little interest in it, I suppose.

[It's part of why Estinien so fascinates her, too, beyond the intensity of his former obsession. His skill with the lance is peerless -- hell, his skill in battle period is peerless. Now if only she could get him to stay in one place for more than a few days at a time...]

I can tell you've come a long way just by having spoken to you like this. If you ever fancy fighting alongside a dark knight, give me a call, yeah? I'd love to see you in action.

In like a lion! Or dragon. Whatever.

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