ADRIAN IVASHKOV + LAUREN STRUCKER (+ HOPPER!)
LOW | COMPLETE
Adrian had no clue why he’d started following a rainbow, but he did. He’d been on his way home from one of his art classes at the college when he spotting one and had the random urge to follow and see where it ended. He’d never actually seen the end of a rainbow before, but he was pretty positive that leprechauns existed. People might have fought him over the idea, but he was sure of it. It wasn’t even one of those Atlantis things but more of an Adrian Ivashkov thing. It didn’t matter how much it didn’t make sense. He’d still believe it if he felt strongly enough about it.
Regardless of his leprechaun belief, he followed the rainbow anyway. At first, he thought he was going crazy or had ended up inside of someone’s dream, but each time he stopped to question himself he knew that he was two things: sober and had hardly used spirit at all that day. The two didn’t always happen in tandem on the same day, but today happened to be one of those days.
He wasn’t sure how long he walked, but after a while, he was sure he was getting close. Other people were joining him at the end, and sure enough there it was. A pot of fucking gold. He wanted to pick up several handfuls of the stuff and be on his way, but he stayed put until a few more people showed up after following the rainbow just like he had. A moment later, a leprechaun appeared and held out its hand. Adrian looked at him confused but decided that when a leprechaun offers you something, you probably ought to take him up on it. He didn’t want the little guy getting pissed off and jinxing him into a lucky charm or some shit like that.
“Okay…” he said finally and opened up his hand. A little figurine was placed there. It was like a little mini dragon from what Adrian could tell. He just looked at the leprechaun with a confused expression, but he’d already moved onto the next person who seemed happy to receive what they’d been given. He stared down at the statue again and shortly after leprechaun walked away, the dragon came to life in his hand.
“Holy shit!” He exclaimed and accidentally dropped the dragon to the ground. It screeched and looked up at him with what he could have sworn were sad eyes. “Uhh… sorry?” The dragon came closer to him and stood right in front of Adrian’s shoe. What in the hell was this thing and why was it looking up at him like that?
Leaning over, Adrian picked up the thing and almost immediately it crawled up and settled on top of his shoulder. Well, that was… different. “Comfortable up there, are you?” He asked and started back towards the main part of the city. People were going to think he’d finally lost his last marble.
Atlantis was becoming home, and now that she felt better and freer she explored further out of the city on one of her daily runs. Atlantis really seemed to promote healthy living and even though it was Sunday and Lauren could have taken the day off she decided to go for a run instead.
On her way back she slowly started to slow down to a walk for her cool down, and that's when she caught sight of a little figure on a shoulder. Was that a dragon?
"That's a cute little friend you've got there," Lauren commented as she fell into step with Adrian she'd seen him around but hadn't talked to him much. They lived in the apartments next to each other, so it was hard not to notice him, he was hoy after all. Not that she was going to tell anyone she thought so.
Adrian paused and gave a glance to the weird dragon resting on his shoulder. The little guy looked as content as he could be up there. “Yeah…. he is that, isn’t he?” He had no idea what he was going to do with the thing, but he didn’t want to just leave it somewhere on its own. Not when it was looking at him with those eyes. How the hell did a dragon manage to have sad eyes?
“Funny story,” he said. “I followed a rainbow to find the pot of gold and all I got was a toy dragon.” He looked over at her and gave her a one-shoulder shrug so not to bounce the thing off of him. Being around Atlantis long enough and you knew that he wasn’t even being the least bit sarcastic. “I just have no idea what to do with him now.”
Lauren tilted her head giving Adrian a curious look when he focused on the dragon for a second. If she didn’t know better she’d say he looked confused by the little guy.
“You followed a rainbow and got a little toy dragon? He doesn’t really look like a toy though, he looks…” Lauren paused looking closer at the little guy. “Alive.” It was a really cute little guy but she wasn’t really sure what to say about it.
“What’s his, or is it a her? Name?”
“He looked like a toy when Lucky Charms gave him to me but then… it showed signs of life.” Adrian didn’t understand what this thing was even a little bit, but as long as it didn’t try to burn off his eyebrows with any fire coming out of its mouth then what was the harm? Other people in Atlantis had pets, right?
Looking at the dragon on his shoulder, Adrian figured he should try to give him a name. “I think it’s a he.” He wasn’t sure how he knew, but it looked like a he. “I’m not sure on the name though. What do you name a dragon? Elliot?” The kid’s movie dragon was the only name he could think up on the spot, but that likely wouldn’t stick.
“It’s looking at me like it knows me or something. That’s weird, yeah?”
"You aren't naming him Elliot. He doesn't even look like an Elliot." Lauren studied the little guy for a second. "He looks like he doesn't think his name is Elliot either." She decided. She had no idea if she was right or not, but why not suggest it?
Looking back at Adrian she shrugged. "Maybe, I mean what he does know you, and you just don't know him yet? There are people here with future kids they didn't know, so it is possible. Maybe he knows you and you don't know him, yet." She'd been thinking a lot about people coming from different times and hoping if her brother ever came he was from before stuff.
It probably should have been his first thought, the timeline thing, but he hadn't thought of it until Lauren mentioned it. He wasn't sure what he thought of her slight comparison to the dragon being his kid, though. That was some kind of trippy.
“Yeah… the future kids and people being from different times I'm familiar. Most of my friends are lightyears ahead of me.” He supposed he could check with Jill or Eddie to see if they remembered anything. Though, Eddie wasn't much different in time as Adrian was. Jill could know though.
All of a sudden the dragon started to screech. With him still resting on his shoulder, Adrian winced at the shrill sound and took him down, holding him in his hand. The look he gave Lauren was one of slight panic. “What's wrong with it?” he asked as if she was a tiny dragon expert. Had he broken it already?
Jumping at the sound, Lauren didn't get a chance to comment on the comment about people being so far ahead of Adrian. She looked from the little dragon back up to Adrian.
"I don't know!" She answered but opened and shut her mouth a few times before trying to come up with an idea. "Maybe it needs a hug, or it's hungry, or it needs to shoot fire or something! It is a dragon after all!"
Adrian really hoped that this thing didn’t randomly start shooting fire. He wasn’t so sure about the hug, but food? Maybe it did need food. Everybody got a little cranky when they were hungry, right?
“That better be it because I doubt there’s handbook on what screeching sound means what for miniature dragons.” Thankfully, it wasn’t a constant screech, but it did go off every minute or so as they walked back towards town. He’d probably stop by Snoozle and see if he could get Emilia to figure out what to make the thing. If anyone could, it would have to be her.
“Want to see if he’s hungry? Might as well try, and if not, we can get something to eat anyway.”
“Maybe someone will know something about him? Seems like some kind of possibility with magic and everything.” Lauren shrugged. She wasn’t really sure she knew her world with mutants had powers but magic was a whole other thing to her.
“I think food is a good plan, where to?” She kind of wanted to see if feeding the thing made it stop or just see what the heck happened next with it. “What do you think miniature dragons eat?”
That was a good question. “Um, I’m not sure. Hopefully it’s not, like, my fingers or something.” As tasty as Adrian figured his fingers were, he preferred them to stay attached to his hands rather than end up as dragon food.
“Let’s stop by Snoozle. We can get a handful of things, and if he doesn’t go for anything there then, well… I guess we can go to a pet store. This is Atlantis. Pet dragons must be a thing, so they might have some ideas about what he’s supposed to eat.”
Lauren squinted her eyes as she looked at the little dragon. “He doesn’t look like the finger eating kind of dragon, but I don’t really know that much about dragons…” She really didn’t think that was too helpful.
“It can’t hurt to try, let’s do it!” She said turning slightly in the direction of Snoozle hoping that they could find something. “The pet store after, if it doesn’t like anything at Snoozle?” She offered.
“It’s as good of an idea as any,” Adrian said with a shrug. This was his first go-round with a dragon, so he didn’t know what else to do besides give it a whirl. He just hoped that it stopped the intermittent screeching once the thing got some food in him.
“Here goes nothin’.” Even with the screeching, Adrian was strangely already growing fond of the little guy. Weirdest pet ever, but maybe it would turn out the coolest pet ever.