[center]
[h1]A Friendly Chat[/h1]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/tTVHMCk.jpg[/img]    [img]https://i.imgur.com/qdJ8I7l.jpg[/img]    

[h2][color=B0C4DE]Brent[/color] | [color=red]Chris[/color] [/h2] [/center]

[center][sub]Collab with [@ERode] [/sub][/center]

After securing Siena in the APC, Brent found himself outside once more. A burden had been lifted from his body, not merely a physical one, but something else. His hands clenched into fists and then slowly released, before he slapped himself on both sides of his cheeks. A slightly red blush emerged as he broke off into a jog, towards Chris and Lawrence. There was still work to be done, still people to help, still more chances for him to lessen the weight on others and the burden on himself.

Slowing down as he approached the curled up dragon, Brent said, as he pulled Lawrence up and over his shoulders, "Yo, Chris, didn't you hear? We need to get going now."

The beast let out a groan as he stood upright. With someone to carry Lawrence he didn't have an excuse to lie around anymore. A part of him wanted to crush Brent, Jealousy combined with the thoughts of a monster that if it hadn't been tamed, perhaps would have drove Chris down that path. It was better to just ignore it if anything, and Brent was of course right, they needed to move. Instead of reverting to a mortal body, he just marched down to leave without waiting for Brent to catch up.

Well, that was easy. Shrugging at the dragon arbiter's lack of shits given, Brent trudged on behind him. Was he just planning on flying back to USARILN? Or was he just going to lay on the APC for the ride back? He would have scratched his head if he could, but ultimately, the brunette picked up the pace, calling out, "Yo, Chris! There's a bunch of regulars in the APC, so maybe you should transform back or something? Don't want to give them more heartattacks and all!"

He was right, if they were harboring anyone not used to friendly subnaturals, his form would certainly put them on edge. Although he didn't want to be naked for the whole ride, maybe someone has a towel for him. The dragon shifted his form, letting out a small cry as its body shriveled and contorted slowly. It swirled slowly with shattering scales and blood until the biomass took a smaller humanoid shape. The process took about 3 minutes, but once the body ceased its stirring, Chris remained in a naked body. He did not bear any of the wounds his beastial form had taken. 

The arbiter stood up with a sigh as he wrapped his arms around his chest. He didn't like being exposed like this, but he had to get used to this kind of thing given his power. 

Interesting. Watching from behind as Chris shrivelled into a human form, shedding scales onto the ground, Brent used this chance to catch up to the pale shrimp. Before the pale youth could start causing a whole different set of trauma towards people, the brunette quickly and efficiently removed Lawrence's pants,

"Here ya go," he said, handing the pair of bloodied trousers over, "Learned this trick from Lawrence. You need my jacket too, or naw?"

The kid redeemed himself. Chris took the pants and quickly put them on. If it was any other situation he would have refused to wear such dirty clothing, but it was serviceable nonetheless. [color=red]"No, I don't like wearing someone else's clothing. The pants will be serviceable enough."[/color] He continued to walk with his arms crossed over his chest again. He didn't have much else to share in words.

"Alright then," Brent replied. It must have been the melancholy of that final fight getting to the pale arbiter, wasn't it? He remembered Siena's own words, her own gratitude, and nodded to himself. Better to pay it forward. "You did good that fight, Chris," the brunette said, with a lopsided grin, "Thanks for dealing with those birds. Was shitting myself during the first ten or so minutes with those things flying about."

Chris's face nearly twitched into a smile, had he not kept a firm expression facing forward. A compliment? Now Chris's disdain towards him was mixed. He certainly wasn't trying to offend him, at least thats what he could pick up on by his persona. Maybe he was just overreacting to the whole scene. He shouldn't be so focused on trivial social matters on the battlefield anyway. 

It took him a while to exit his train of thought and reply.[color=red] "I do my best, if I am to make this curse any use for the rest of us." [/color]He glanced back to Brent briefly before staring into the ground ahead of him. [/color=red]"I..I do my best to save people, but I can only do so much as a giant monster, I'm glad you were there to help Siena get back on her feet, it means a lot to me."[/color]

"Dude," Brent said with a laugh, playfully kicking him in the knee, "You can do a hell lot as a giant, flying badass flame-lizard. Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that everyone else was already doing their best with dealing with the whole triple sub threat, I would have just told you to fly in there and flamethrower them all!"

"For real though," he continued, a little more seriously, "Your power's not a curse. It's not even a x-marked power. It's hella useful as the only ability that grants flight, durability, super strength, long-ranged attacks, AND a form of healing. If you learned to control your strength more, you'd be able to do way more than Sander or Callan."

"And as for Siena, don't mention it. She's a..." What? "...friend to me too. Us Unit B kids gotta keep tight, after all."

It wasn't just his persona, the conversation with Brent gave Chris a sense of nostalgia. It felt like he was 12 again hanging out with his friends....when he had friends. The reminder caused him to smile briefly to himself. [color=red]"Yeah. I won't lie I do have that sensation of being immortal or unstoppable after I transform...Theres also some sort of...cathartic feeling when I get to destroy a monster or two." [/color]

He sighed. [color=red]"Though the innability to communicate properly is a pain. I was thinking about starting to train my normal state too just in case if I can't transform or if my transformation isn't needed. I can still breathe fire and even grow armor-like scales when I'm not transformed too, I just want to get a weapon first before I even start to train myself with that."[/color] As he conversed, his arms lowered to his sides, no longer was he so reclusive about the situation.

Chris's loosening up didn't go unnoticed by the observant arbiter, and Brent grinned at that. It was interesting, that he had access to his draconic heritage even without transforming, but that was talk for another time. Powers were interesting, but the brunette decided that it was better not to think about it for now.

"Eh, that sounds just like procrastination to me," he replied, "Gotta get some meat on your bones before you consider actually fighting, you know? All the CQC in the world isn't gonna help you if you don't have muscle to make your attacks matter. And as for being unable to communicate..."

"...how about you learn morse code? Short roars for dots and long roars for lines?"

He laughed at his own joke, wondering how odd it was for him to be able to laugh at all after such a dire situation.

He chuckled a bit at the comment himself. [color=red]"I tend to roar a lot as it is, that just seems to much effort for me to deal with."[/color]  He looked up for a moment. [color=red]"The only solution we got down so far, as you recall, is Siena being able to translate what I'm thinking. Only, I can't rely on her for that all the time, she needs to take other names too to be effective."[/color] He paused in thought. [color=red]"Though my form has been taking rapid changes, so maybe I might evolve something to help out with that problem."[/color]

"Or maybe you really should consider using your dragon form only as a last resort," Brent suggested, "And focus your attention on controlling your non-transformed abilities."

[color=red]"That would be easier if the transformation was a lot faster and less painful." [/color]He commented. [color=red]"Though if I can be useful without having to go through that suffering every battle, then yeah thats something I want to start practicing."[/color]

"Get yourself a lance as well. Become the Dragoon to your Dragon." He wondered a bit. "Wait, can you like...use your dragon scales as building materials?"

[color=red]"Never thought about it. The scales seem to disappear when I go from dragon to human but I haven't tried to shed any scales in human form."[/color] He put a hand on his chin.]
[color=red]"Given the fact that the scales are impervious to heat, It'd be difficult to mend them in anyway. Though with your powers maybe you could craft something with it?"[/color]

Brent shook his head. "No way man, can't do anything with magical objects...but hey, that's all things to think about for our next training date with Siena and Angelic, eh? Real shame we didn't get to pull off the flying death fortress, but you lose some you win some."

[color=red]"Well there is always next time. The flying fortress idea sounds good on paper but we should try to work on that on our next training session too."[/color]

"Maybe you'll grow even bigger next time, and we can start dropping Sanders and Callans like nukes."

[color=red]"Fun idea."[/color] He smiled.

"Genius idea." Brent corrected. "On par with Grant's legendary pantsing techniques."

Entering the APC awkwardly with Lawrence still on his back, Brent found a nice little corner to prop the older student against, before stretching out his spine. It had filled up again, hadn't it? Eyeing the unconscious, bandaged Angelic and the one seat that remained beside her, he made a conscious decision not to take that seat, and instead, settled for the one by Siena once more.

After such a rough fight, as well as her tumble with Hazel, no doubt this would be a perfect time for Chris to bond with the heavy metal screamer.

He shot one last, encouraging smile towards Chris.

[i]Good luck, bro.[/i]

He was a bit confused at Brent's gesture, but didn't want to think much of it. In truth he wanted to sit next to Siena, however it wasn't that important for him to argue over it or anything. Instead he just took the seat by Angelique in silence. His thoughts now focused on what the hell they were fighting back there.
 [color=red][i]We had one casuality and others were severely injured...I guess thats better on paper then our last fight but..they sent us to fight other subnaturals?[/i][/color]
The thought made him a bit sick, so he tried to focus on other things.