“So the whole supersenses thing. Is that because you’re a Dragon.”
“Basically yes, sort of. Dragons aren’t actually a very sight dependent species, in our true forms, we mostly rely on our other senses, so when the accident happened it was really just a matter of rerouting my dragon senses into my human form. We’re very sensitive to heat variations.”
“And you’re still blind in Dragon form.” Foggy double checked.
“Yeah, I mean I don’t miss it as much as when I’m in human form, but injuries carry over. If you’re blinded in one form you’re blind in the other. Stick actually had it the other way ‘round to me. He was blinded in Dragon form, some knight back in the time of the crusades heard the eyes were a weak spot and went for it. He was right but Stick ate him anyway, killing old Dragons is hard.” Matt has this slightly impressed look on his face as he said this, which Foggy found worrying. Eating people was not a valid conflict resolution strategy. He didn’t feel quite up to discussing the morality of eating people though so he decided to home in on the second most disturbing aspect of that sentence.
“The crusades?”
“Dragons age slower than humans, it’s a thing.” Matt looked slightly shifty, which meant. Oh hell no.
“Matt how old are you?”
“In Dragon years, or human years?” Matt tries to avoid the question.
“Matt”
“Ok, ok, so in human years I’m about fifty, which in Dragon terms makes me a fledgling. Basically an older teenager. Old enough to drive, cause trouble, and be trusted with adult responsibilities, not old enough to vote, avoid trouble, or have kids of my own.” Foggy kind of wants to bang his head repeatedly against the wall because this explains so much.
“So your really about…”
“The equivalent of about eighteen or nineteen yeah. Although that’s slightly misleading. Dragons don’t actually calculate age in years. We do it more in terms of developmental milestones.”
“Developmental milestones?”
“Right, so it goes like this. First of all you’re an egg, fairly self-explanatory, then you hatch and become a Hatchling (basically a kid), this is where it gets complicated. At some point within the next hundred years you learn to fly, and become a Fledgeling, at which point you’re considered a teenager, and largely left to fend for yourself. I mean your parents still keep an eye out but you’re responsible for your own life and choices. Then at some point within the next five hundred years you start developing the urge to hold territory, once you’ve managed to carve out a piece of territory and defend it from an older Dragon you’re considered an adult, and you can, like vote in council meetings, have kids if you want them, and are generally trusted to be a functioning member of society. It’s sort of like the dragon equivalent of leaving home and getting a job.”
“So the daredevil thing, is basically you trying to learn to be a responsible adult?”
“Kinda.” Matt looks embarrassed. He should be.
“You know I try to be accepting of other peoples cultures and everything Matt, but I’m just putting it out there. If you really want to be part of human society maybe dressing up in a silly costume and going out at night to beat up criminals isn’t the way to do it.”
“Humans do it, look at the avengers. Clearly fighting crime in costume is a perfectly acceptable way for people to work through their issues in today’s society. Just like in medieval times a duel to the death was a totally reasonable way to settle an argument.”
“Yeah but Matt, the avengers have also been known to build killer sentient robots, work for nazis, unleash alien invasions on New York, and allow Tony Stark to sing karaoke, are these really the kind of people whose example you want to be following.”