#im supes excited about this no lie

[dykerory]

Dragon!Defenders Headcanons

@jq-piccadilly​ <3

It’s no wonder they thought he was the devil, at first. Matt’s dragon form is terrifying, especially in darkness. He’s a deep, blood red, with amber eyes that seem to glow in the dark. He has two, beautifully goat horns on his forehead, and a wickedly sharp arrowhead at the end of his tail. His scales are leathery, which is great for maneuverability, but bad for direct defense. Matt is littered in scars, which only serves to terrify his enemies more. Matt doesn’t fly, as his radar sense is no help to him in midair, so he prefers to climb, jump, and glide around the city. As a result, his legs are particularly muscular. Matt uses his tail like a fifth limb, and one of his favorite intimidation tactics is letting people dangle from his tail off the side of a building. Matt is about the size of a tiger.

Jessica, on the other had, was built for stealth and speed. Her feathers are an inky blue-purple that allows her to disappear into any shadows, and she’s only about the size of a cheetah. Because of her lack of scales, Jessica is the most easily damageable defender. However, Jessica is also the fastest of the group, as well as the best flier. She has a graceful, swanlike neck, a slightly beaky snout, and intense, black, bird-like eyes that shine with mischief and intelligence (when she’s not drunk off her ass). Only one (1) person has ever touched Jess’s feathers, but according to legend, they’re supernaturally soft. Not that Trish would ever spread that rumor, of course.

Luke is the complete opposite of Jessica. He’s a tank in every sense of the word- his scales have never been pierced (yes, even the leathery wings) and he plans to keep it that way, thank you very much. He’s the largest (about the size of a rhino) and slowest of the group, so he focuses on defense and using himself as a battering ram. HIs claws and teeth are the hardest as well. He has short black horns that line his jawbones and temples. Patrolling the streets of harlem, he makes a splendid sight- a gleaming, golden giant glinting in the sunlight. More often than not, you can spot the younger children climbing on his back and catching a ride, warmed by the fire within during those old new york winters.

Danny is a light green, with glittering emerald eyes and a lion-like head, complete with a  long tawny mane that lines his head and neck. He’s only slightly smaller than Matt, but it annoys him to no end to be the second smallest of the group. His antlers resemble that of a stag, including the velvety texture. He’s a decent flyer and fighter, but his real specialty is healing. Danny posses a unique breath attack that allows him to heal any physical wounds his teammates have gotten almost instantly. This unique ability was passed on to him by Shou-Lao. Danny would rather not talk about the time he got gum stuck in his mane and colleen had to shave it off, while not laughing her ass off.

Danny is also the only one who knows anything about dragon culture, having been raised among the last great colony of them in K’un Lun. Matt, Jess, and Luke were all remnants of the last wild magic in the world, and were all raised by human parents. Matt knows a little from what Stick taught him, but he never had any use for it, as he’d never met any other dragons besides Stick.

He teaches them that as humans, they retain certain draconic characteristics, which explains Jessica’s strength, Luke’s impenetrable skin, and Matt’s radar sense. He also explains to them that any injuries they get in one form carries to the other, and that if they retain great damage as a dragon, they need to stay in that form an heal for a little bit, or else their human forms would die almost instantly, unable to withstand the wounds.

When he tries to tell them about the flock instinct inherent in all dragons, Jess and Matt scoff at him, rolling their eyes and telling him that they’ve been lone-wolfing it their whole lives, thanks, and they don’t need anyone slowing them down now. When they both show up at his and Luke’s door, looking pathetic and lackluster, Danny doesn’t even say he told them so. Externally. Internally he’s totally shoving it in their face. Surprisingly, dragon flocks can include any species, so the human friends, family, and lovers of the team slowly become a common sight in the frankly ridiculous penthouse Danny bought as dragon HQ.

The other dragons take Matt out for a fly one night, despite him never having flown before, unless you count that one disastrous attempt with stick. He’s nervous and thinks it’s a bad idea, but his teammates assure him that his instincts will take over, and that it’ll be as natural as anything. Plus, Luke promises, he’ll be there to catch Matt if he falls out of the sky like a stone. This doesn’t reassure Matt. But when he’s finally in the air, feeling the rush of the wind over his face and the starlight on his back, with Jessica beating Danny in every kind of race or acrobatics competition he can suggest, with Luke watching with a secret smirk that says he’s amused and endeared, Matt feels safe.

About a year after the events of the defenders, a small, pitch black dragon the eyes the color of snow shows up at danny’s door, bedraggled and suffering from lack of a flock. Elektra has scales of obsidian and has the rare advantage of being both heavily armored and fast. Jagged black spines line her neck and back, and are so sharp that just looking at them might give you a cut. She doesn’t have a breath attack per se, but a bite from her will fester and infect within a matter of minutes. Elektra is larger than Jess, but smaller than Danny.

It takes a while for the flock to trust her, but after a while, it’s not uncommon to see Elektra nestled under one of Luke’s enormous wings, humming contentedly, or play-fighting with Jessica, or discussing some obscure draconic poetry with Danny. Matt and Elektra avoid each other as much as possible, each thinking the other must want nothing to do with them, until finally everyone is sick of it, and locks them in the meditation room (unofficially dubbed the ��naughty lizard time-out room” by the humans).

When they finally let elektra and Matt out later, they’ve made up and forgiven each other. Danny is proud of himself, until he realizes later that Matt and elektra are a deadly pranking team. He finds this out because Elektra and Matt had convinced him that “fisting” someone meant helping them in any way, and he’d looked Claire dead in the eyes and asked if she wanted him to fist her. Jess had laughed until she cried and couldn’t breathe, and Karen and Foggy kept offering to fist everyone for the next week, then bursting into giggles. Claire accepted Danny’s increasingly frantic apologies with grace, but as soon as he was out of earshot, she and Luke fucking d i e d.