"Oh yeah? What, did you idiots just not shoot it with big enough lasers this whole time? You probably wasted half that time trying to debate it or something," Beljani rolls her eyes and huffs, "Thanks for the history lesson, Captain Sparky. [i]Obviously[/i] it listened to me. It knows who Mommy is. Don't you, cutie?" The dragon feels warm, curled up in her palm. It's tiny head feels nice on her finger where she rubs it, like brushing glass full of frosted etchings, and the tiny little horns are such a lovely stim that she might actually enjoy it more than the laser dragon does. It makes a sound that's half like a purr before it curls up into a ball and hides behind its glimmering wings, and even that's it's own kinds of mesmerizing. Beljani smiles with the quiet bliss of a first time pet owner. And then her eyebrow twitches, and her jaw clenches, and her spine locks unpleasantly stiff. Ugh. Gods above, why did she say it like that? Knows who... damn it all, what is she gonna do with a pet? She didn't do anything! She didn't do anything! She just said stuff, just like always, and the stupid thing obeyed! Just like always! It didn't mean anything when it happened, even speaking these stupid ultimatums out loud was a dumb habit. Her virus did everything. This isn't. Doesn't. What is the [i]matter[/i] with her? Just because it's from really far away, why should she feel bad about using it until it stops feeling good and then throwing it away? It's not like she's going to be the one putting any work into caring for the stupid thing. But that thought opens the stupid hole in the pit of her stomach. So that's why, is it? "Fine then, whatever. If that's how it's gonna be, I'm gonna name you 'Bella'. But you're not allowed to tell anybody, got it? In company it's 'hey dummy' or 'you little twerp', understand?" Little Bella yawns through a crackle of energy that makes her entire arm uncomfortably warm. Beljani glares at the stupid lizard, but there's no point. It tilts its head curiously and nips at her nose, before it steps backward onto her fingers and spreads its wings to write more nonsense on itself. Beljani stops and stares in disbelief. The ramifications of life from the other side of the Rift are lost on her. The idea that something could have made it through that yawning nightmare in the sky is so baffling and incomprehensible that she's not sure she even believes it's true. This is probably just some dumb thing a hermetic cooked up in a lab and forgot about when they lost their notes or something stupid like that. Or it's a, a... thing that fell off a spaceship a while back after someone tried to cross the Rift and burned to dust. It's not some new thing, Sparky has no idea what he's talking about, shut up. She's busy. She's busy, ok? There's only one thing that's important right now, and that's what made her go for a walk in the first place. "No. No. Never mind. Never mind what I said just now. As far as the Empire's concerned your name is Scribe. Scribe, do you understand me? Come on, we're gonna go figure out what you eat. And then I'm gonna work on you until you sparkle. You're gonna shine, little star! My precious darling! My perfect, final apology letter, yes you are, yes you are!" She spins around as fast as she'd like to imagine she could if she were born a Diodekoi instead of... herself. Her feet are lighter than the air around her. She tears through the room like a blade on the wind, knocking over the Magos and his half-attached legs on her way. What was he thinking, do it it [i]there?[/i] She skids to a halt in the hallway, and pokes her head back into the workshop. "...Get a [i]move[/i] on already Sparky! We're doing science over here, and I need someone to tell me how it works! I've wasted so much time already, hurry up or I'm snapping all your limbs for good!"