Phony Pirate Practices

Mage looked over at Soul, just to make sure he didn't want to say anything about what he had just revealed.

"What's the mystery?" Soul asked. He didn't make any move to put his helmet on. It was...nice knowing that he'd actually get to see Soul's face for once. Mage was good at reading his body language, but seeing his face instead was so much easier.

"We need to figure out how that dragon got here," said Harry.

"And since we're not currently on duty, peeking at the past is not an option, so its going to be some old fashioned detective work," supplied Jennifer.

Mage and Soul both blinked.

"That was a dragon?" Mage got out, incredulous. That hadn't looked anything like the dragons in the stories that Kiera had read him! It was powerful and big like one, but didn't really look the same. Still, Mage couldn't help but grin at the thought that he had finally seen one. That had always been one of his dreams.

"Kind of," said Harry, "It looked vaguely like one, but it seemed more like the product of a really badly done genetic modifying program."

"It was a mix of a lot of animals, including a dragon," explained Jennifer.

"Genetic...modifying?" Soul slowly and hesitantly repeated, confused. Mage stared on in confusion, too. Neither one of them had ever heard that combination of words before.

"Yes...its like when umm..." began Harry, trailing off.

"Its like building something out of legos, only the legos are like wings, or fire breathing or something that makes a species unique," chimed in Vankous.

They both continued to stare.

"...What are legos?" Soul hesitantly asked. He wasn't sure if the answer he received would make things more or less confusing.

"Toys. Colored bricks you can build things from?" asked Harry, frowning. "Have you really never heard of legos? I thought every world had those."

Soul glanced over at Mage right as Mage did the same. Neither one of them had had a normal childhood. Soul was an automaton that had been created after his partner's childhood had already ended, and Mage's childhood had been a secretive one after he left Infernum.

"I don't think we have any," Soul said.

Mage nodded in agreement. "I've never heard of legos before."

Harry shrugged. "Happens I guess. Its not important to solving this mystery. At least I don't think so."

He looked to Jennifer and Vankous.

They both shrugged.

"I can think of barely any situation where it'd be important," said Vankous, with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Let's just go for it and see what happens. That's usually the way to go with this sort of thing."

"Okay," Soul relented. He'd ask more about them, later, but wasn't going to question it now. "You mentioned going to a front desk earlier?"

"Yup, that's where we should start. Just a general notice is probably good anyway. This is a resort, and the management needs to know what just went down. And we should tell them we're looking into it too. We don't want to clash accidentally with any investigation they want to plan."

Soul nodded. That made sense.

"...It feels like we're detectives," Mage said, giving a tiny smile. Mysteries weren't his favorite type of story to read with Kiera, but he still had enjoyed them when they did read them. They were their own kind of advantage. He looked over at Soul. "Is this what you do with Zogin when you help people?"

"Sometimes," Soul said. "It really depends. Zogin usually fights first and asks questions later."

Mage could imagine that from what Soul had said about his creator and partner.

"We're ready to go if you are," Mage said, turning back to Harry with a tiny smile still on his face.

"Well we are," said Harry, with a shrug. "So...I guess you guys are going to be civilian consultants then."

Vankous nodded. "I forgot about that part."

"Enough about that. If you're ready, we should get going soon," said Jennifer.

Soul slipped his helmet back on out of habit. He knew he could keep it off, now, but he was just as used to hiding being an automaton as Mage was used to hiding that he was a demon.

"Lead the way," Soul offered, gesturing at the door. Mage and him weren't from here, after all, and didn't know where they needed to go.