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Post by Alma on Jun 13, 2023 11:50:16 GMT -6
The door hissed shut as it slid into place, the wall-mounted screen informing her that the room was now sealed. And that the usual airflow was being maintained, the presence of something alive detected, and all other bits of data that could be summed up as ‘everything is fine’. Yet she hesitated, tapping the screen and looking at the slightly grainy image of the catharion hovering in the room. He wasn’t exploring it, checking for gaps or vents to sneak through like she had half expected when she first thought to remove him from stasis. When he did move, it was after she had stepped away, returning with a few simple items filling her arms, the catharion now bobbing in the center of the room. She hit the button for the release anyways, watching him dart back into the cage as the door hissed open. He foated there as she stepped back in with a smile, idly wondering if the catharion had any understanding of expressions.
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Post by Alma on Jun 13, 2023 11:50:31 GMT -6
The room was not a large one, not compared to those that held the enclosures for beasts like her wiurn, and it took her only a few minutes to arrange it as she liked, speaking to the catharion as she did. “Not sure if this bit will be any good for yah,” she told him as she set down a small trough, one more commonly used for things like curious sarane hatchlings that might tip over something lighter, or risk drowning in something deeper, “but ya’ll like water. You can have some in here.” A panel slid aside to reveal a small watering station, and she angled the trough under it, removing the objects she had stuffed in it for easier carrying. One turn of the knob later, and the trough began to fill.
The thin fleece blanket was left near the center of the room after a few waves of it failed to entice him to leave his cage, the spigot turned off shortly after.
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Post by Alma on Jun 13, 2023 11:50:43 GMT -6
The colorful tennis balls, taken from her bursting stock of hound toys, were bounced around the room, but the catharion did little more than change how he was floating, returning to his ‘ears up, arms down’ orientation. When even an encouraging, “Go get it” failed to make him so much as turn his ‘head’ to track the final ball as it ricocheted off the wall, soaring just over his cage to bounce once against the floor before it met the other wall, Alma decided she really did have other things to do. Finding that ‘psychowire’ salesman might be difficult if he had sold all his stock, but if he had not realized she was a sentinel, there was every chance he would still be at the same spot, counting on some paid bribe to keep them looking the other way.
“I’ll be back later, Nocturne,” Alma said, nudging one of the balls with her boot so that it rolled to the blanket.
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Post by Alma on Jun 13, 2023 11:51:04 GMT -6
“Not sure what you do for fun, ‘sides the wrestling the pad said yer kind is likely to do.” Alma looked at the sorry floating jelly-thing, and shrugged. “But I figure you might find these things a bit more entertaining than waiting in an empty room for me to come back. Even leaving some water,” she jerked a thumb in the direction of the small trough, “to play in, drink, or even jus’ splash all over the floor. Up to you.” One of the tendrils, one of the pair that she could not help but think of as his arms, bent and moved similarly to her own motion, then dropped back to rest along his body.
There was nothing else, and she let out the breath she had not known she was holding. “Right. I’ll leave you to this. Probably be back tomorrow with a bunch of bottled up rage and annoyance for you to chow on, so just have some fun.”
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Post by Alma on Jun 13, 2023 11:51:16 GMT -6
Alma left again, closing the door with a few jabs to the screen, and walking away the moment the door had locked in place. She would be back, and she was sure that the catharion was not going to start phasing through walls and latching on to critters to drain them dry of all emotions, no matter what the protestors had claimed. And if he did come out somehow, she thought as she walked past the brown drakes and their unending rage at being denied the sky and the nearness of each other, there was no doubt that a rage-eating emotional vampire would not need to travel far.
Nocturne, though he did not know what the word was supposed to mean him, waited. He saw the balls, the blanket, the trough, all things still and unmoving now that the human was gone. He considered waiting as boredom started to eat at him, considered remaining still and quiet in his hiding place as he drifted over to the nearest ball. It did nothing. He reached out, slowly stretching out to it, and slapped at it, darting back into the empty cage as it rolled a few inches and stopped.
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Post by Alma on Jun 13, 2023 11:51:31 GMT -6
The next day, Alma found her mood much improved. The seller had cringed upon matching the uniform to the sentinels and the face to one of the idiots he had sold to, and when the dragon-like beast at her back had idly asked about melting the fat from the man to make into candles in loud thoughts the man could not have blocked out if he tried. Alma would admit it was likely more of the last one that convinced the man to give her back her money, but she had been the one to come up with the idea and told the beast to repeat it. Errol didn’t even know what a candle was before that point. She sighed as she locked him away, musing how unfair it was that folks feared mad beasts more than a sentinel.
It was late when she finally returned to check on Nocturne, tired and wishing only to go to sleep. She opened the large door, and glanced inside at the floating creature.
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Post by Alma on Jun 13, 2023 11:51:52 GMT -6
He was in the cage. A wave of annoyance swept her then, and she held onto it as she looked at the catharion. “Been eating well, I see.” Alma said looking at his greatly inflated self, his form matching that of the healthy catharion in the scroll. She waited another beat, then looked around the rest of the small room, noting the water pooling around the base of the trough, the blanket twisted around itself in a corner, and the scattered balls on the floor. A good sign that, or so she could hope.
“We’ll try again tomorrow. See if yer a bit friendlier then.” Alma covered her mouth as she yawned, then blinked at Nocturne. “Will have more time to spare then, and you look like yer already full up on fury.” She closed the door without entering, returning to the small room and her hammock that was waiting for her.
Nocturne held one of his hands to his face, waggling it. Then the other hand came up, and he squished his face, the circular bubbles stretching into ovals. He released his face, and it slid slowly back into its normal shape as he floated out of the cage to the balls.
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Post by Alma on Jun 13, 2023 11:52:11 GMT -6
She did not get to him as early as she had hoped the next day, a brief false alarm forcing her to don her armor and drag the three balgor halfway across the city before an all clear was called. What she expected the balgor to do alongside wiurn and gallor was thankfully never tested, the supposed scouts little more than some battle club that had scared a few farmers. That the old, crotchety bastard thought Genevi scouts would contain a seven foot tall ungulate was the favorite subject of many jokes on the way back, and Alma slipped away before too many grew tired of that target and started slinging them at her choice of beasts. Any arguments starting with “To be fair,” and pointing out that invaders would not realize that the big cat’s auras and flowing manes were mostly for show would have only prolonged the jokes, the offers to sell her a shiku if she was so dead set on fluffy beasts.
By the time she reached Nocturne and opened the door, she was glad she had no intentions of trying to use him in her work. Bringing a living bomb would earn her more than a few jokes at her expense.
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Post by Alma on Jun 13, 2023 11:52:26 GMT -6
The ball made a pop sound as it bounced off of her stoneskin armor, repeating the sound a few more times as it bounced on the tile floor. She froze, as did the catharion locked in her gaze, his arms still held slightly apart as though he was holding them out to her. Several seconds ticked by as she tried to kick her mind away from the frustrations of the early day, no matter how nutritious they might be for him, and tried to decide how to react.
Alma settled for a slow, somewhat graceful collapse as she tried to avoid landing badly on her armor, a shrill cry thrown in as she dropped the last few inches to the ground. Nocturne did not bob so much as he twitched in the air, first towards her with his tendrils held out, then violently backwards as though he had been smacked. She lay there, watching him as he repeated this twitching dance, then shot to a point only inches away from her head. He reached out with one of his arms, poking her exposed face as she tried not to blink at the sensation of being patted by a cold marshmallow on her nose.
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Post by Alma on Jun 13, 2023 11:52:49 GMT -6
“Right,” Alma said, and the catharion shot back into the air, stopping halfway to his open cage. Alma pushed herself up on her elbows and shook her head, smiling at him. “Not dead yet,” she told the catharion, watching as he bobbed towards the cage, then slowly slid back into his former spot, “though I’d prefer you did not make a habit of tossing things at me. Really don’t want you to drop a spell on me.” Now sitting, she crossed her legs and reached for one of the balls. Alma tossed it into the air and caught it, repeating the action as she talked. “All that said, good shot. Hoping to never need’ya in an actual fight, but good aim should help for the contest.”
She babbled on, and he floated closer, batting the ball away as it reached its peak to send it bouncing away. ”Maybe I should have called you rude.” She raised an eyebrow as he darted after the ball, batting it and sending it rolling back to her.
[Nocturne-4.0 Alma-269.0]
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