How to People

Kaytee couldn’t help her curiosity. Al told her what he saw in Roxils memories, but she had not seen it herself. A man that became a beast, this was a thing she wanted to see. As soon as he was through the door he changed in an instant. It was an amazing thing to see. Of course, she still did not comprehend how siblings could exist in separate bodies. More, she did not comprehend a person that had no siblings, to her people only children were a taboo. Many things about humans still confused her, but she believed this man was human only in appearance. He was both monstrous and adorable. She now saw that Als door was wide open. His chair faced away from the door, but the seat with his guest looked straight in the hall and at the VIP room. She only hope the girl did not see Roxils transformation. If she saw, Kaytee could not think how to explain a dragon and a cat-man. If she did, maybe she would think some special illusion set up by Al. For Roxil it would probably not matter, he was to excited for his fur and for the full moon coming that night. It was already late in evening, Kaytee admitted to self she wanted to see if maybe something more amazing would happen.

"I also need one of those, Kaytee."
"We saw you hatch earlier, you can't be old enough."
"I'm a dragon, how old do I need to be?" She replied quietly enough that human patrons wouldn't hear her.
"Well you look like a child so you'll need to drink in the VIP room. Roxil, you should go back there as well, the VIP room is where you can let your fur out if you want to. As Kaytee said that Roxil's expression changed drastically to one of excitement causing Alexia to laugh. She didn't know what that meant, but it clearly made Roxil happy.
The door to Al's office, which opened directly to the VIP area was not entirely closed. Neither of them noticed when they went into the back. Alexia shed her disguise, she had grown already during the time she appeared human. Her true dragon form was now just over three feet in height. Roxil seemed surprising un-shocked. She could not say the same for herself when he removed his clothing before growing a few feet taller. She saw fur seem to sprout from his skin and his face stretched to a cat-like muzzle. Whatever he was now was neither cat nor human but both. His tattoos still showed on his black fur as well. Her ancestral memories contained many strange things, but nothing at all like him. There were only a few other people back here which all shot odd looks toward the pair. Alexia didn't care, she was just happy to be back in scales, it was so much more comfortable than being a person.

“You’re the worst Mercy I’ve ever seen!” Roxil yelled at the screen. He had only been playing for a short time but already he was feeling very competitive. “Where the hell is my healing? I kill their healer for you, I block the Reaper ultimate for you, I distract their tanks, where the hell is the love?”
“Calm down, Roxil. You’re going to scare away our customers if you keep yelling like that.” Kaytee scolded him.
“How can I not be mad? Zenyatta is healing me more than she is and he may be powerful, but his healing isn’t.” He stepped away from the computer, this was infuriating him. “Why can’t it be sunset already?” He pulled the little leather pouch from his pocket again and held it near his face making a contemplative expression, but he put it away without opening it. “Kaytee, I need beer! Or wine, if Al has anything better than the trash he tried handing off to me earlier.”
“So harsh, yeah he keeps the good stuff hidden. At least he says it’s good. We wouldn’t know. She produced a bottle and poured him a glass. After taking a few sips and not looking entirely dissatisfied he made a curious face. Someone had mentioned a place only a mere few hundred miles away, a forest. Al had told him there were no forests around. Why would he lie? Or did he just not consider a few hundred miles to be around? He had mentioned it to Alexia on the way back from the mall, but the game made him forget. Kaytee cut him off, ignoring the line of questions entirely. “Why are you so eager for sunset? It’s weird.”
"The full moon is when I can be closest to Luna. I can almost feel her touch me like the first time I saw her."

Kaytee could see that Roxil was not happy when he came back from the mall. She could also see that he and the dragon did not come back alone. There was a very young human girl with the two, a girl that had question for Al. She opened the door to ‘VIP’ room only a little, not wanting humans to see what kind of people were in back, calling for Al to come forward. He was in his office preparing for a delivery, so he invited the girl in. It was up to Kaytee to deal with Roxil’s bad mood, but she was busy with bar. Instead she turn on the computer and opened her favorite game.
“Here, you just play this for a while.” She say, planning to let him be distracted for a while. She called a regular from their table to help him understand controls. “Roxil has never played a game on a computer. Show him what to do, we think he will have fun.” She continued her work, looking over from time to time while her friend showed the man how to move and explained what all the characters did. Roxil had many strange questions.
“What button is ‘W’? What person is Winston?” These were all things he should have been able to see. She watched her friend carefully show Roxil all the important buttons and laughed while he ran around dying for a long time. After not long he seemed to understand more but she had customers to help and could not keep watch. At least she her plan was working, he did not seem so upset now, this made her feel good.

“Of course I know Al’s. I think everyone probably knows that place.” The attractive young cashier was saying to Roxil as Alexia walked in with the new girl. She had put on her new dry clothes in the other store’s changing room and looked much more comfortable now.
“Well, Al is a good friend of mine, so good in fact that I drink for free.” It was only partially a lie. “Maybe you’d like to share a few of those drinks with me tonight?”
“I think that sounds wonderful,” She looked away from him for a moment. “Oh, is there anything I can help you little girls with?” Roxil followed her gaze to the girls behind him.
“Did you forget about me again big brother? We were so scared walking around the big mall all by ourselves! What if a scary person tried to hurt us?” She honestly wasn’t afraid of any human, but the reaction on the woman’s face was hilarious to her. The woman was so upset about a brother that would forget about his little sister. She demanded he pay for his clothes and leave. When he had his back and left store he said something about Alexia being the worst sister, made him glad he didn’t really have one. What he didn’t say was that he was concerned. He could feel a full moon coming tonight, what if it didn’t feel like it did at home? He didn’t want to experience it alone in case it had no effect. Izumi muttered about the cashier not being wrong, if he really was Alexia’s big brother it’s his job to watch over her. He would have protested on the grounds of not actually being related, but remembered he was talking to a human. Al wanted him to protect his cover.

“So I don’t really know anything about shopping for clothes? What do you like?” Alexia asked awkwardly. Roxil somehow made sense to her, but humans… most definitely not in a world where a dragon shouldn’t even exist. She started browsing a shelf with several dresses in a variety of different colors hung on it. All of these things looked so silly to her, she much preferred scales. Eventually an adult showed up asking if they were here alone. Alexia told the woman that her big brother brought them to the mall, she made up some story about how the three of them wanted to buy new clothes for a birthday party. Technically, it kind of was her birthday, and they were here to buy clothes so it wasn’t really a lie. “I guess you can get whatever you want. Roxil’s friend gave me this … thing,” She presented the credit card. “I guess it’s worth money.” After mentioning him Alexia wondered if Roxil would be alright wandering around the mall by himself. Regardless she waited for the girl to find something she liked, and gave the credit card to the woman at the desk before declaring that she had to find her brother.

“Do I need an adult?” Roxil tried not laugh, it started as a small chuckle but he couldn’t contain it. He nearly doubled over in laughter exposing his unusually sharp teeth. He was probably the oldest person this little girl had ever met. “I’m so sorry, I promise I’m not laughing at you it’s just, I may look young but I assure you I am an adult.” Wait. Roxil stopped laughing quite suddenly. This could be a problem, he instinctively reach for the pouch in his pocket but stopped. “You sa… cat costume? Right! Of course it’s a costume! It would be ridiculous for a man to have a perfectly groomed fluffy tail. That’s not a thing that happens.” He decided the best course of action would be to change the subject entirely. “I don’t know anyone called Nerve but I bet if someone does it’s Al. He seems to know a lot of things.” He grabbed the cell phone from Alexia and proceeded to repeat the girl’s inquiry about NERV. The device didn’t respond, and there were no new voices in his head. “I think this thing is broken. I thought it was supposed to let you talk to people in other places? Doesn’t matter, let’s get those dry clothes and then if you want, we can go talk to Al.” He sent Alexia into the store with the girl while he went to find a store that had something for him.

Under his breath, so soft even Alexia could barely hear him, Roxil growled, "I know that smell. She smells like blood. Heartsblood."

Startled out of her reverie, Izumi flipped back towards them. "My- parents? Look, you're the one in the cat costume, aren't you the one who needs an adult?" She reflexively wrapped herself up in her jacket, before scrunching her nose. "And quit talking about smells - when was the last time you washed this jacket anyways?

She stopped herself, glad that at least someone was help. Uh, thanks, I guess. And yes, I do need new clothes, but... Do you know where the closest NERV base is?

Alexia cocked her head to the side and said "Nerve base? What, is that some kind of food? Does it have a flavor?"

It didn’t take long for Alexia to notice that Roxil was distracted. He kept looking behind them as though he had seen something that made him extremely uncomfortable. While she had only known him for a matter of hours there was one thing she learned quickly, he loved people. The distress got to him quickly and he walked away from her. Not far behind them was a small girl shivering in some kind of skin tight costume. He removed the thick leather jacket Al had lent him, unfortunately he didn’t have a shirt under it so more of his tattoos were exposed as well as the two stones embedded in his torso. Alexia was sure that was the last thing he was thinking about when he dropped the jacket over the girl’s shoulders.

“Where are your parents kid?” He asked her, though he made a slight face at the smell of whatever she was soaked with. He was asking the girl all kinds of questions about any way he could help her.

“She doesn’t smell right, Roxil.” Alexia looked around for a moment and saw a store full of children’s clothing nearby. She didn’t understand why Roxil had asked about the girl’s parents, she didn’t know that human children were dependent on adults. Instead she thoughtlessly reached into Roxil’s pocket to obtain the phone Al had given them. Inside the case was the debit card they were supposed to use to buy clothes for Roxil. She pointed to the store she had seen moments ago. “She needs new clothes right? So she doesn’t smell like … that.” Neither she nor Roxil understood that it was usually creepy for strangers to offer to buy things for random children. “Roxil go find the store you need, I can stay and help here. I’ll come find you later.” She thought she made good points but Roxil muttered something about it being more important for her to stay healthy.

The girl in the plugsuit quickly found her way to a payphone, ignoring the odd looks of passersby. She was still drenched, and needed a towel if nothing else. She fumbled for the sopping wet change in her pocket, and used it and dialed the number for Marsha, her operations director.

"The number you have dialed is not in service; please hang up and try-"

She didn't wait for it to finish. Doubting herself, she tried Elizabeth's number. No answer; it just kept ringing. She tried Sam's; someone who didn't speak English picked up the line.

She was out of change.

She slammed the receiver back down, and went looking for someone, anyone who could get her in contact with operations. Where am I, anyways? she thought. The city looked familiar, like she had seen it in a dream, half-remembered, that something important was here. She shook her head, the sleep of reason and all that.

Heading around another alleyway, she found a crowd of people and a parking lot and -

Wait.

Why is-

Why is that man playing with the door?

Why does he have a girl sitting on his shoulder?

What- what's with those tattoos?

...

IS THAT A TAIL?

As the realization hit her, he was gone, and she was left bewildered in a parking lot, as a cold wind made her shiver. She really needed to find a change of clothes.

It was officially test time. Al wasn’t confident the two had actually retained anything he tried to teach them but there was only so much he could do. With a heavy sigh he watched Roxil and Alexia leave the bar, heading down the street to a nearby shopping mall. Their job was to buy clothing with a budget of $200. Alexia didn’t actually need clothing, she could cover herself with the same type of illusion that changed her shape. In the end they had settled on a human appearance for Alexia similar enough in skin-tone and structure to pass as Roxil’s young sister, she looked no more than 14 years of age. Roxil walked down the street with Alexia seated on his shoulders looking at the map Al had drawn for them. Roxil claimed he wanted her to navigate because he was too distracted by the loud vehicles, this was only partially true, it was her ability to actually read the map that was invaluable.

They made it to the mall without any issue, at that point Roxil was stumped. He observed what seemed to be the door from a distance, it didn’t have any obvious handle. He approached it cautiously eliciting confused looks from a group of people smoking nearby. When he got close, the door slid open causing him to jump back. For several minutes he stepped up to the door watching it open, and back allowing it close again.

“How amazing is this?” He shouted to his new dragon-friend. “Al said there was no magic, how does this work?”

“It’s probably electronic, Roxil.” Alexia responded having ancestral knowledge from a world with advanced technologies.

“Elec… what?” His invisible-to-most-people tail twitched and his also-invisible-to-most-people cat ears slanted back.

“It has a sensor that detects motion to tell it when there’s a person nearby so it opens automatically.” His ears tilted even further back when Alexia started entered the building without him. He didn’t want to go in. The door made him suspicious for reasons he couldn’t identify.

“Maybe you should just go for now and I’ll wait here,” He already knew the answer. Maybe it was his own stubborn personality making him nervous, any reason not to acquire more clothing was preferable. Any reason not to wear more clothing was better yet. He considered going back and telling Al there was nothing large enough, but Alexia pointed out a store listed on the back of the hand-drawn map that specifically catered to larger people. He also considered flat-out refusing, but his free apartment and alcohol were contingent on his wearing clothes in public, though he really didn’t care for the idea of living inside.

“No, you’re the only one that actually needs clothes. Those loaners from Al are way too small for you, it looks ridiculous.”

“You look ridiculous! I’m sorry, that wasn’t nice. Maybe we can find another place? What if the magic door closes on my tail or something worse? People can make magitech do some really weird things. Maybe there’s … no Al said there aren’t any gods. Are you sure it’s safe?” He looked in through the clear doors at how crowded the mall was and all the people staring at strange glowing devices. Frankly he found it all a little overwhelming. After standing there for several more minutes he finally felt ready to go in. He carefully wrapped his tail tightly around his waist stepping up to the door once more, as soon it opened he went through as quick as possible.

Alexia wasn't sure why the human wanted to talk to her in private. Not in private really, he also made the darker human with silver marks on his skin come. She liked the darker human, he gave her alcohol when the other one wouldn't. The darker one, Roxil, sat uncomfortably in a chair. Alexia perched herself on the empty seat next to him folding all four of her legs under her body. There were several other empty chairs, she wondered if Al had intended for anyone else to join them.

"Alright, so my name is Al, and I am a human. Not really a human but I look like it and that's close enough. I need the two of you to also be close enough. Lizard,"

"Alexia." She said, she was certainly not a lizard. "My name is Alexia and I am a great and majestic dragon."

"Well Alexia, great and majestic dragon, you said you could change your shape? How does that work can you look like a human?" Al watched with just a little bit of shock when the twelve inch lizard turned into a full sized adult man, one that looked exactly like himself.

"Now I'm a people. That's it right? We're done here and I can go?"

"No, you look like a person but that doesn't really give me any confidence. Yes, Roxil what is it?" The other one had been raising his hand.

"Why am I here? I'm already a people, or was, or something. My point is I've lived with humans for ... well not for most of my life, but enough."

"You're here because you say things like 'I'm already a people' you're a person, a person. Lizard, can you look like someone that isn't me? Here can you look like this?" He held up his phone for her to see the screen, he had pulled up a picture of his cousin. She did as he asked turning into the woman that no one from here would have met before. "And Roxil, I don't even know where to start with you right now. I told you to wear clothes," Al sighed, the Lunar was naked.

"I'm more comfortable like this," He shrugged and stood to put on the pants Al threw at him. "That also isn't fair, you only said I had to wear clothes in public. No one else is here. And why does the lizard get to shapeshift? That's my thing and you told me not to!"

"Just wear the damn pants, and she get's to do it because she's using it to blend in, not to be a giant furry freak. Now both of you, stop calling people humans, or mortals, or anything like that. We refer to each other as people, or men, or woman, or by name. Roxil stop talking about gods, I already told you there aren't any gods. Lizard," He went on and on for hours about the proper ways to talk, eat, drink, and so many other irrelevant things. Alexia had been so excited to hatch, but this wasn't the world she expected, she might have preferred to stay in her egg. That wasn't an option anymore, her egg was broken into pieces that were probably still in the bottom of Sam's bag. He claimed to already know who she was, where she was supposed to hatch, and how awesome she would be when she grew up in a few weeks. He also told her to stay out of sight of other people for the next few hours, her first growth spurt was supposed to happen really soon. For now at least, the tiny frustrated dragon was content to sneak some of the beer from Roxil's glass while he was intently listening to the human. It was easy enough for her to sneak her long snake-like tongue into the cup without him noticing, but Al sure did. "What is... that's not right. Humans don't have tongues like that,"

Alexia wished there were more people at this lesson so the human could focus more attention on them. She really wasn't interested in being a human. Though if appearances were really that important here, she would at least pretend to try.