"they flip the siren, hit the lights" ✭ ── Angelembrace's opinion on his mother was...complicated. Obviously, yes, he was not a fan of her parenting style, or lack thereof, but Angel gave credit where credit was due. Aphra may have been a rather piss-poor mother, but if he could give her anything, he would have to admit that her many forms always came out rather objectively majestic, nice to look at he assumed. Perhaps he was genuine about his compliment, or perhaps he was just hoping the genetics passed down onto him.

Actually, he was in the middle of trying to desperately clean some excess mud off his fur by the time Aphra returned in a brand new form, eyes looking up as the roar beat the everloving hell out of his eardrums. She wasn't the largest dragon, though he couldn't be totally sure, he wasn't exactly an expert on dragons, but the presentation of the white and pink lead him to believe it was mostly for looks before, say, offense. "That's quite nice." Angelembrace mewed simply, lacking the usual malice or snark he often had while speaking directly to his mother. He didn't feel any need at the moment. "The pink is charming."

Well, well, well. It seemed that somebody else was showing off a brand new form, just as Byriath had shown off his – somewhat intimidating – war pig form. This time, however, the body was as a result of possession, rather than shape-shifting. Arvid wasn't able to tell the difference as he approached, however. The only possible hint he could've grabbed onto was the fact that Aphra's new dragon form didn't have the same strong scent of The Coalition on it. He wasn't really focused on the dragoness's smell, however. Instead, he was just staring up at her with a bit of wonder, his mind racing as he thought about how, well, everything about her worked. He had been aware that dragons existed ever since he had first been dropped off on the island, but he had only ever really seen them from afar before. And before even that? He had thought of them only as nonexistent mythical beasts. So, it was certainly a surprise to get to see one quite so up close and personal.

Speaking of personal – Arvid had evidently forgotten all about personal space due to the presence of a dragon. The dire wolf moved forward slowly, pressing his brighter paw against Aphra's scales as he spoke, "Huh. You almost actually look kind of impressive in this body." It was a backhanded "compliment," but it didn't have the usual humorous or cynical edge that the canine's comments possessed. He seemed too fascinated by the actual living, breathing dragon in front of him to be too focused on insults. When he finally did step back from Aphra's side, he questioned casually, "How far do you think you could fly in this body? I wonder if you could make it around the whole island..." How much energy did dragons have, anyways? It was a fascinating subject, but not exactly one he could study in depth – it wasn't as if Aphra would let him run tests on her.

She couldn't manage the whole island, huh? That was too bad, but Arvid wasn't about to complain too much. After all, Aphra had a point about the body being smaller than most other dragons. The small canine found himself nodding before he muttered, his tail wagging behind him as he spoke, "I see... still, that's pretty impressive. I have to admit that ever since I found out about dragons being real, I was fascinated by the physicality of them. Other mythical beasts, too. I wonder if I could find others in the Coalition... Like a griffin, or a manticore. Hell, pretty much anything qualified as mythical would be an interesting case study. He could make incredible discoveries, considering he hadn't stumbled across any published hard research on such things during his travels.

Anthem's arrival brought with it another interesting question, at least in Arvid's opinion. Although the male's words were simple, they did cause the dire wolf's multicolored gaze to light up. Turning back towards Aphra, the boy questioned curiously, "Oh, the sun! That reminds me... do you think that you're cold-blooded now? I'd assume dragons would work off of the same rules as other reptile creatures, but then again, dragons can breathe fire... although, can you breathe fire?" He didn't know whether Aphra breathing fire would be as a result of simply being a dragon, or having some kind of fire elemental. He had to wonder if being a dragon and having fire elementals would result in even stronger, more brutal flames. So many questions, and really no way to study or answer them, not without the perfect circumstances... God, that was frustrating.