Chapter Text
---------- Geno ----------
Shutting down became his lifeline. Every time the world became too much, Geno would shut down until the feeling subsided a little. It was never enough, but it helped. Eventually he would be able to function for more than a few minutes. But for now, he would cope.
A few days passed. It was boring. Granted, the Save Screen was also boring, but at least he had his windows that he could watch. On this boat, there were three walls and an ocean view. It wasn’t captivating. He routinely shut down when he got overwhelmed. Shut downs were not remotely healthy. He blocked out everything his body told him and then turned off his mind. No thoughts. No feelings. Just a vague sense of time passing and the ability to rouse when something happened near him. It helped him somewhat moderate the assault on his senses.
He contented himself on the first day with examining his body. He had two slender, silvery wings. As far as he could tell, the silver color bled into his back, but it faded to a blinding white on his underside. There was a large gash on his chest. It was crusted over with red blood, but every so often, he would shift wrong, and the scab would crack in some places and bleed a little more. He didn't want to stick his fingers (talons) in the wound to figure out if his bones were still broken or if his soul (heart) was actually open to the air. At least it wasn't bleeding non-stop now. The edges of the underside of his wings were a soft gradient of blue and red. He had a sharp set of spines on his back, right between his shoulder blades, but they tapered out before they reached his tail. He wasn’t entirely sure how far up his neck they went. His neck was fairly short, but his tail was long. His body was streamlined, and his stance and walking patterns were more like a cat’s than a salamander’s. His tail was very thin, whiplike, and a line of frills trailed down both sides of the tail. He still couldn’t see out of his damaged eye.
The second day, he entertained himself by watching the other dragons. He studied them as much as he could, noting their behaviors and features. Unfortunately (fortunately for the dragons themselves) there weren't many.
The two spikey two-legged dragons were cooped up in the same cell. One was a dull teal color, and the other was a vibrant red. They looked and acted like large, scaly birds, even going so far as to squawk at the captors.
The silver dragon in the cage next to them looked like it desperately needed a bath. Its scales were scuffed and dull now. Just days ago, it had shone like polished metal. It also seemed quite timid. It stayed at the back of its cell and never approached anyone.
Just barely visible from Geno's cage, the two-headed dragon was frankly annoying. The heads were constantly fighting, and the gas they let off while they were sleeping made Geno nauseous. The human crew seemed to find the gas just as nasty as he did because they'd wake up the dragon the moment the gas started regardless of the time of day. Unfortunately, they also woke up the rest of the ship because of the noise.
The third day was completely uneventful. Geno laid himself down to sleep the day away. He was awoken several times by the noise of the humans.
Fourth day. He’s still sleeping. He has barely moved except to take care of his body's needs.
Fifth day. The humans were taking notice of his apathy. Then a storm began in the late evening. The boat began rocking, but Geno was able to ignore it.
Sixth day. He was hungry. He ate what he was served. The storm worsened. Geno spent all of his time and energy trying not to be thrown into the walls. Now his chest hurt.
The day… is… unknown. The storm kept him from keeping track of the time. He had been soaked by the water splashing through the small window in the side of the ship, and now his scales were crusted in salt. His wound started bleeding again from all of the jostling. The salt water got into it at some point, and it stung like hell. Geno awoke to a change in the air. The smell of salt and all three things that lived in it was now accompanied by something else. It smelled green in a less waterlogged way. He heaved himself to his feet in the cramped cage, and he chanced a look outside. He couldn’t see anything other than the blue ocean, but the smell had definitely changed.
Something clanged on the bars behind Geno. He flinched and looked at who had disturbed his thoughts.
It was a human. It wasn’t weak, but it wasn’t an insanely buff brute like the others Geno had seen. Geno shuffled to the bars. He glared at the new human. It leaned closer to the bars. They stayed there for a moment, eye to eye.
The human spoke in a soft voice. Geno still couldn’t understand the spoken language, so he paid close attention to the body language. The human was acknowledging Geno, though his attitude was that of a superior speaking to a lesser.
So Geno wuffed a greeting of his own. “Human.”
Of course the human couldn’t understand Geno. Geno was stuck roaring and making other dragon noises. Not to mention, Geno did not speak the man’s language. For monsters, language should be intuitive. Communication massively relied on reading the other’s emotion. Intent carried through magic. With humans, that was not so. They could communicate with words alone. There was body language that could be read, but they by and large could not project like monsters could. And so, even with all of Geno’s experience with reading body language, he could discern nothing more than this man thought he was better than Geno.
The human also didn’t understand Geno, so he was doing what Geno was doing, reading body language. Geno did not speak with any notion of being superior to the human, but he did include plenty of attitude in his remark.
The human leaned back with a pensive look on his face. He smiled and started talking as if he were informing Geno about something. Probably about Geno’s situation. Then his voice lilted slightly, taking a more threatening tone.
Geno snorted derisively. “Try me. I’ve seen hell before.”
The human paused again. He spoke with a slightly reverent tone, reaching a hand toward Geno’s blind side.
Geno moved so that the man couldn’t touch him, but he didn’t shy away and maintained eye contact the whole time. “Careful. Wouldn’t want to break anything.” He snarled at the human.
The human smiled with approval. It spoke again. Geno had the feeling that the human was happy with his own fortune, and Geno also had the feeling that the human didn’t have anything good planned for Geno.
The human left, ending their conversation. There were a few muttered threats from the other dragons as the man passed. Geno was slowly starting to understand the nuances of dragon speech. He returned to watching out the window.
He could see at the very edge of his view land rising from the water. It looked forested. He also noticed other ships arriving and leaving. Some looked official with that same insignia that was painted on Geno's ship. Others were smaller and sported many different symbols.