"Jaromira won't tell you?"

"I don't think she's sure. Or Daphne. They...I did talk to Jaromira about it. The short version is that they had a moderately confusing conversation about their feelings the only productive conclusion of which was that they 'weren't using labels,' for whatever that's worth."

"Huh. That would drive me nuts."

"Part of the circumstances are that Daphne was spending most of her emotional energy dealing with the aftermath of her first transformation. She..." he trails off. "It isn't my place to tell the whole story, but when she acquired her medallion, it led to some other things becoming known that were harder to deal with."

"Oh... I can see how that would be awkward. I'm not sure which of my parents it is. And it's a little expensive to try to find out."

"Yes. ...Which one do you think it would be better if it was?"

"Ren, definitely. She'd like it. Charlie would as soon not bother."

"It does sound fun. Wyverns seem like the best thing to be, to be honest. Various kinds of avians as well, but I prefer scales to feathers. I'd say dragons if they weren't extinct, probably." He pauses, going over what he just said and winces. "...In terms of, you know, fun--please don't tell anyone I just said that, it must sound terribly speciesist or something."

"I don't think I'd mind having fur or feathers," says May. "And I don't have enough immersion in critter culture to even say if that's speciesist or not."

"Under the circumstances, I think it would be unwise to assume it wasn't. Knowing less about the culture means I ought to be more careful, not less." After a moment he adds, "I don't think I'd mind fur or feathers either. I find scales more aesthetic, but I wouldn't be displeased with feathered wings."

"Maybe when I make friends who've been in critter culture longer I can ask."

"That seems likely. How did you find out what you were, if it's not too personal?"

"Literally found my medallion outside on the ground. I'm just lucky nobody saw me except an old bugbear lady. She calmed me down and got me back into shape."

"That must have been frightening."

"Well, I thought I was probably dreaming for much of it, but yes, I was sure startled."

"Ah. That would probably help, yes."

"I wasn't totally sure I was awake and in reality until I was able to show Ren after going to sleep and waking up again."

"I think under similar circumstance I probably would have taken the fact that turning into a large mythical creature did not make sense as evidence that I was awake. I might have been startled in a dream, but not likely confused."

"Oh, I'm sometimes confused by things in my dreams," May says. "...Not always by things that don't actually make sense, but confusion is part of the available emotional palette to be mixed and matched."

"For some reason things in dreams always make perfect sense to me. At the time, that is."

"I wonder why that is."

"I have no idea."

"I guess it's sort of like people who only dream in black and white or something."

"Probably. I don't believe I was aware of that particular phenomenon."

"I only remember vaguely hearing of it, it might or might not be really a thing."