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Post by Noa on Feb 25, 2020 20:11:11 GMT -6
Or maybe it was just that he'd crouched, and that looked particularly interesting when Nightshade usually saw him standing up. "You got any idea what this stuff might be?" Aster said, indicating the box. No, of course Nightshade didn't; and even if he did, it wasn't like he could just say what was on his mind.
It didn't look trapped. If it was, then it was beyond Aster's ability to figure out. "Here goes," he said, placing his hands gingerly on the lid and waiting a moment to see if anything would happen.
Nothing did, which only served to make him feel incredibly paranoid for having expected something. He'd be relieved the one time he was right, but in the meantime he supposed the price he paid was feeling silly every time he was wrong. Still, it wasn't as though finding or springing a trap was something to look forward to.
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Post by Noa on Feb 25, 2020 20:14:22 GMT -6
And this meant that he could open the box, which was what he had wanted, wasn't it? Just as gingerly, he lifted the lid, half expecting something to spring at him anyway. Again, no dice.
What was inside seemed perfectly harmless, even if the assortment of items was a little eclectic. There was another box of what was probably chocolates, based on the style of the packaging--- though then again, since this was the mansion, that was hardly a guarantee. There was also a heart shaped wreath woven through with purple flowers, like the kind that you might use to decorate a home. Upon closer examination, the wooden part of the wreath was wrought into the shape of a snake, so this had definitely been crafted to some purpose, though maybe not necessarily by a person.
Then there was a sprig of a real flower, a little dry at the edges.
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Post by Renathan on Feb 25, 2020 20:18:19 GMT -6
A little Lilac bunch is hidden nearby, along with a little glass rose.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2020 18:09:15 GMT -6
A new month, a new... Well, a lot of things, Aster supposed. He was here with a different creature companion, for one. He wasn't usually one for Malii, but one had wound up in his care, and out of curiosity if nothing else, he had decided to take it--- him--- out for a little walk. And, because he apparently didn't learn from his own mistakes, his path led him eventually to the mansion, which was absolutely definitely the place you wanted to take a creature you were completely unfamiliar with.
And didn't this one have some Foxfire blood in him? Didn't that mean he could talk, theoretically? He didn't, of course, presumably because he'd never been taught how, but knowing that he could and that he was as clever as any of the Hara was a little unsettling.
Which, Aster supposed, was a little unfair. He didn't feel unsettled by the likes of Rhys.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2020 18:12:40 GMT -6
And Rhys was, in theory, not any more unusual than this Malii. In fact, he was, if anything, more strange, since there was no existing breed of Felusine, rare or otherwise, capable of speech or telepathy. And Rhys was modified so heavily that most people couldn't have pegged him for a Felusine on first sight anyway.
By contrast, the Malii looked like any other Malii. The structure of his body was much the same as a specimen anyone might see in an encyclopedia, and he had only his colors to mark him out as even a little unusual. Aster wondered what exact mix had managed to produce him; he knew of Foxfire parentage, and the white coat suggested Zeni blood, but the red points weren't something that could have come from a Zeni or Foxfire parent. More likely he was the result of several generations of breeding or, barring that, had some sort of custom parentage.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2020 18:16:35 GMT -6
Well, neither of those things were particularly unusual either. Malii were often bred, and they made for popular companions. Even he knew that, despite not often interacting with them. Magic, fluff, a face that looked vaguely like a feline or canine... That kind of creature was bound to be popular. It was some wonder they weren't modified to hell and back the way some creatures had been already.
"I wonder if you'd be able to tell me if you could talk," Aster mused aloud. The Malii turned one ear to him, as though he were listening as Aster spoke. Aster waited a moment, for... He didn't know, maybe some sign of comprehension. Part of him was still in disbelief about the whole thing, especially since this Malii didn't look especially like a Foxfire, and there was no sure way to tell with Malii whether they would be the talking kind or not.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2020 18:19:15 GMT -6
But he waited, and waited, and nothing seemed to happen; and after a time, the Malii turned his ear away again, listening for other more interesting things. And Aster sighed.
"Well, maybe you wouldn't, even if you could talk," he concluded. "You guys are all made in test tubes anyway, right? Maybe you've never met your parents." That seemed equally likely, all things considered. Aster certainly had no idea where the Malii's parents would be now, or if they cared about that kind of thing, even the sentient ones.
A new month meant a new appearance for the Mansion too. It was April, so... No, Aster didn't remember anything about April. He supposed it would be a surprise.
... And it was. Coming up to the gate, he nearly had a heart attack at the state of the place. "What the hell is all this?" he said, rubbing at his eyes as he spoke.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2020 18:22:22 GMT -6
Because he couldn't have seen right, could he? Sure, the Mansion was weird, but it wasn't this weird.
When he opened his eyes again, what he saw was different from the brief but incredible snapshot he remembered. It was also still insane. Which somehow made it worse--- that it had done all that changing in the moment that Aster had taken to make sure his eyes were working. Which, come to think of it, he still wasn't sure they were.
"Great," he muttered under his breath. "This would be the month that it loses all semblance of coherence, wouldn't it?" He considered going home right then and there. It didn't look right in there, and he wasn't sure whether he'd come out of it alive and with his health intact if he went in.
But the Malii, by contrast, seemed interested. Maybe it wasn't sentient after all, if it didn't even have that much common sense.
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Post by Renathan on Apr 7, 2020 18:59:35 GMT -6
There is a strange mirror sitting next to a glass bottle over there... How weird?
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Post by Noa on Apr 9, 2020 23:08:47 GMT -6
... No, Aster thought, after a moment; he supposed a lack of wisdom wasn't really a mark against the possibility of the Malii being sentient. In fact, if anything, it was rather a mark for sentience and not against. An animal with enough wits to use their senses but not too many thoughts in its head generally listened to their senses and instincts, but it took a special kind of cerebral foolishness to talk oneself out of that good sense. He'd seen enough people do it, after all. Sometimes he was a bit of a fool himself. It just always seemed like a good idea at the time, something he had thoroughly thought through, except the reality of the aftermath would prove him wrong. Hindsight being 20-20 and all that.
"Hey," he said, trying to shoo the Malii away from the gate, where the Malii was staring intently at the interior of the space.
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Post by Noa on Apr 9, 2020 23:11:18 GMT -6
But the Malii merely sidled away from him, barely paying him any attention. Aster tried a second time to similar effect, at which point he sighed and wondered if he ought to just... give in. He had the feeling he was really going to regret this if he did, but the blatant disregard that the Malii was showing him was also kind of discouraging. he could take it from a big hulking beast like it was nothing, since he knew his way around them, but something of this size, with a somewhat cat-like bearing... And knowing that it had the wits to judge him wasn't helping.
It felt a little bit like hanging out with Dami, except he knew most of Dami's quirks, and Dami could be convinced to listen to sense most of the time, eventually. He had no idea what to do with this creature, who was blithely ignoring him.
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Post by Noa on Apr 9, 2020 23:14:48 GMT -6
"You're probably going to bolt for something as soon as I open the gate, aren't you?" Aster muttered under his breath. He wasn't really speaking to the Malii, even though there was some possibility that it might have understood him if he did. Summer did, and so did the gargoyle that he had been mining with as of late, though it had taken the latter some time to achieve it, in a way that was vaguely reminiscent of someone acquiring a passive understanding of a foreign language. The gargoyle certainly seemed like a foreigner enough, especially with how humanoid it looked, in terms of a general shape. Some of the kappers that lived around here didn't look all that different, excepting the part where the gargoyles had wings.
As for Summer... He really couldn't remember if there had been a period where she hadn't been able to understand him when he spoke.
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Post by Noa on Apr 9, 2020 23:17:08 GMT -6
But with Summer, there were also a lot of confounding factors. One of which was the fact that she hadn't always had a proper shape; for a time, she had existed as a mote of light that blinked in and out of existence, following Aster around. It was hard to get any sense of comprehension out of something like that, where there wasn't even body language to read.
For another matter, Aster and Summer had been able to sense each other's feelings about as long as Aster had been able to sense her period, so it was hard to tell whether she was reacting to what he said or how he felt. And at any rate, it had been such a long time since that point that it was honestly hard to remember.
Still, Aster doubted this Malii would listen to him, for one reason or another. If not comprehension, then certainly lack of desire.
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Post by Noa on Apr 9, 2020 23:19:26 GMT -6
But the Malii wasn't going to listen to him either way, so it would be a bear to try and get the creature to come home with him again once its interest had been piqued like this. He could probably manage it, but it would be a real hassle. Why did he come here in the first place? They could have had a nice stroll through the back woods of the property, if Aster had wanted.
Well, what was done was done. And maybe, just maybe, heading in would let the Malii get it out of his system, have a good ol' sniff around, whatever it was that Malii did. Aster really didn't know enough about them to be making a judgement call, but he did know that the smarter a creature was, the more enrichment they needed. So would coming here and exploring this weird place count as a form of enrichment?
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Post by Renathan on Apr 9, 2020 23:27:01 GMT -6
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