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Post by Briar on Oct 13, 2019 11:32:40 GMT -6
Yeo-reum's final growth spurt to adulthood happened in quite a curious way.
Rabbit, Aster's TROD, had been by a few days ago with a package for him. She mentioned that Aster had wanted to give it to him personally, but the business of the tournament had left him too much occupied. Aubrey, who had grown up with the man, smiled and accepted the gift, knowing that the reality was more likely that Aster couldn't bear to be in the city more than he absolutely had to. And if that was where Aubrey was currently living, then Aster wouldn't see much of him either.
But long acquaintance had blunted the blow. He was hurt, but only a little. Gamely, he had recognized that it was the thought that counted; and in truth he hadn't expected anything less from Aster with regards to visits anyway.
It was only when Rabbit explained the gift, and the purpose behind it, that he caught Aubrey by surprise.
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Post by Briar on Oct 13, 2019 11:33:59 GMT -6
Aubrey had been, he realized now, a little naive. It was true that Yeo-reum had remained a fish for a curiously long time, but he knew, too, that many lab creatures were slow to grow. Sometimes it took years, though sometimes it was a matter of mere months. More unusual was that Yeo-reum was a good deal younger-looking than most Tat-lung in the area, even though as far as anyone knew, he was a perfectly ordinary Agate. It had honestly just never occurred to him to question it. He knew so little about all the goings-on of the labs, and all the disparate creatures and their husbandry, let alone the magical items that people used to help manage or train them.
Yeo-reum had been fed a potion some time before Aubrey's acquisition of him, one designed to keep him small, or maybe even regress him in age. And the gift, so Rabbit explained, was to help undo all that.
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Post by Briar on Oct 13, 2019 11:34:31 GMT -6
She had mentioned that he could, of course, keep Yeo-reum the way he was, but advised that there were many benefits to having an adult Tat-lung around. Namely, he could stop keeping up with a massive aquarium in his very small studio apartment, which wasn't really big enough to be much fun for Yeo-reum anyway.
Put that way, there was hardly even anything to deliberate.
"Are you ready to be big?" Aubrey said, standing in front of the tank. Yeo-reum was swimming in lazy, bored circles. Aubrey felt a little guilty watching him do it, for all that he had been doing his best to take extra trips out to the docks with Yeo-reum whenever he could spare the time.
As he held up the potion, the glimmer of it, translucent in the sunlight, caught Yeo-reum's attention. Aubrey wondered if he thought it was a gem at first, or if Yeo-reum had some idea as to what the potion was.
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Post by Briar on Oct 13, 2019 11:34:44 GMT -6
Either way, the Tat’s attention caught, and held. Aubrey moved the potion this way, then that way, and Yeo-reum’s gaze followed.
“How am I supposed to feed you this anyway?” Aubrey said, sighing a little as he propped his chin on his hand. Did fish… drink? Would it be alright to simply pour the contents into the water?
… No, this seemed like an expensive potion. It was probably inadvisable to do something like that. Aubrey shook his head, then stood to fetch the stool that he needed to access the top of the tank. He could feel the force of Yeo-reum’s interested gaze following him as he moved, until Aubrey had returned to the tank again, flipping up the lid as he did at feeding time, or when he needed to get Yeo-reum out for one reason or another.
Yeo-reum swam up to the surface, turning one large eye on Aubrey.
“Say,” Aubrey said. “Could you open your mouth?”
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Post by Briar on Oct 13, 2019 11:34:55 GMT -6
Yeo-reum was not always obliging. Aubrey had known him long enough to know that Yeo-reum understood what he was saying, but as to whether Yeo-reum would do as he asked, that was a different matter entirely. Yeo-reum was… Well, willful was one way to put it, but it struck Aubrey most of the time more as whimsy instead. He had to remember that Yeo-reum was still a young creature, after all.
This time, however, Yeo-reum obliged readily. Again, Aubrey wondered if he knew what the potion was, what it was for. Uncorking the bottle, Aubrey poured a little into the Tat’s open mouth.
Yeo-reum didn’t move, and held perfectly still. He only closed his mouth after a long moment, as though he had expected more. Aubrey watched him swallow, then open his mouth again for more.
“Does it taste good?” Aubrey mused, pouring the rest of the potion into Yeo-reum’s mouth. “It looks like it’d be bitter…”
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Post by Briar on Oct 13, 2019 11:35:12 GMT -6
Yeo-reum didn’t give him an answer, and only focused on swallowing the rest of the potion. After the last mouthful was gone, Aubrey waited with bated breath. How would it happen? Would he get to see Yeo-reum transform before his eyes? Would there be a flash of light, and…?
… Nothing happened.
One minute bled into the next. Five passed, then another five. Yeo-reum returned to swimming bored, lazy circles in his tank, still the same as before, just as fish-shaped as ever.
It felt like a bit of a let down. Was the potion defective, somehow? He looked at the bottle, but he didn’t know how to tell. He’d always been interested in herbology, but he hadn’t had a chance to study it properly yet…
Maybe the effects were just slow. He stepped down from the stool and up to the glass of the tank, peering in to see if he could spot the faintest bit of change along Yeo-reum’s long, scaly body.
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Post by Briar on Oct 13, 2019 11:47:04 GMT -6
Just a claw, just a hint of the emergence of legs…! But no, there really wasn’t anything. Yeo-reum looked just the same as ever.
“Oh well,” Aubrey said. Maybe it had been too much to hope for. “I guess it’s time to turn in, isn’t it…? Alright, goodnight Yeo-reum. You have a good sleep too, alright?”
Aubrey bid Yeo-reum his customary goodnight, then turned off the lights in the little studio. There was only one room, if you didn’t count the bathroom, so when he went to bed, the whole apartment went dark. He wondered sometimes if Yeo-reum disliked having to abide by his bedtime, but it was what it was.
He knew his way around well enough that he could find his own bed even in the dark, and now he tumbled into it, sinking into the thin mattress and pulling his covers over himself. What did he have to do tomorrow? Maybe he ought to go to market and pick something up…
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Post by Briar on Oct 13, 2019 11:47:51 GMT -6
Just like that, Aubrey drifted off to sleep. And woke, minutes or hours later, with a heavy weight pressing down on him. “Uhn…?” His thoughts were still muzzy with sleep as he blinked open his eyes, only to find himself face to face with something… orange. At first he couldn’t make any sense of what he saw. Then a huffing sound, the sensation of something warm tickling his face---- nostrils, he realized, still a little dazed. Those were nostrils flaring. “Wah!” Aubrey scrambled backwards, tumbling out of bed--- falling to the floor with a thump, at which point he looked up and saw the full scope of the thing that had just now been sitting on him. The thing that was still sitting on his bed, watching him with shining gold eyes. It was a long creature, covered in orange and grey scales, with a great red mane trailing down its neck…
Aubrey blinked, then turned to look at the tank.
Empty.
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Post by Briar on Oct 13, 2019 11:53:19 GMT -6
When he turned back to look at the creature, it had risen up on its hind legs, holding out its forelimbs spread wide, the claws wiggling back and forth in a gesture that looked surprisingly like… jazz hands?
Ta-da!
“Yeo-reum!” said Aubrey. “It is you, isn’t it? You got so big!” Rising to his feet, Aubrey took a turn around his bed, surveying Yeo-reum’s new body… or, well, the body he’d always had, but just changed. Still, it was hard to reconcile all of this. He hadn’t expected the transformation to be so… dramatic.
He’d wanted to see the new and improved Yeo-reum from different angles, but Yeo-reum had other ideas, turning with Aubrey as Aubrey moved around him. Aubrey laughed. “Hold still, would you? I’m trying to get a better look at you.”
At those words, Yeo-reum puffed out his chest and preened, though he did hold still as Aubrey asked. Mostly.
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Post by Briar on Oct 13, 2019 11:56:44 GMT -6
There was maybe a little shifting and posturing as he tried to show himself off in the best light, which only made Aubrey laugh more.
Yep, this was Yeo-reum alright. He didn't know how he had ever missed it, except maybe because he had just woken up.
"Is it fun being bigger? There's so many more things you can do now that you don't have to stay in that tank anymore, right?" Aubrey sat on the edge of the bed, smiling. Yeo-reum glanced at the tank, then tossed his head dismissively. "I guess you were really sick of that thing, weren't you?"
But then, Aubrey supposed he would be too if he'd been confined there for so long. Even if it was because he didn't have a choice, Aubrey felt a little bad about it.
At least those days were behind them though.
"What do you want to do first? Ah, I know, how about you come with me to the market? Oh but you have to behave, okay? Just because you can walk around now doesn't mean... Hey! That's my coat! Don't put that in the tank!"
... No matter how big Yeo-reum got, it looked like some things just never changed.
(exit; posts counted)
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