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Post by Noa on May 25, 2021 15:02:13 GMT -6
For a moment, Noa simply stared at Fiera as she spoke, his eyes wide. Then, slowly, he began to giggle, before breaking out into full on laughter. He laughed and laughed, his body shaking with it; after a minute or two, he began actively gasping for breath. Rhys, who had thus far been occupied playing a game of keep-away with the sandwiches and Walnut, turned to look at Noa, tapping the man's shoulder with his tail.
{Hey,} Rhys said. {You're going to scare people like that.}
Noa slowly came down from his laughing fit, though by the time he stopped he was nearly bent double from the exertion, and even Walnut had left off chasing sandwiches to express her concern. "Oh, that's very good," he said. "I haven't heard anything that funny in a long time. No, you're right, I don't know if it's people or not either." He didn't seem perturbed by the idea that it might be though. "There's not much about magic that isn't strange, if you view it through that sort of lens."
And then, he picked up a clipboard and began filling out his own side of the paperwork, as if nothing had ever happened.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 25, 2021 15:32:20 GMT -6
She was shocked at a moment at the laughter- perhaps she went too far? A note of confusion? She could always save the conversation. But minutes, plural, of it, and the general nonchalance at his denial... Fiera wasn’t actually speaking all that literally when she implied that there could be people in there, but the way he didn’t really seem to care about it in the end upset her in a way. Not that she’d show it externally. But she couldn’t help but to think about home. Her old home, back in another place and another time. How she had fought, bled to make it better but in the end, they had to keep making... concessions. To people like this. “Oh, he’s not that bad.” “We won’t be able to win this fight without her.” “She has too much support in the ranks, we can’t get rid of her now.” Eventually there were more people in their forces that just cared about getting to do war rather than the whys, and when she tried pulling rank to call for their removal...
...She ended up in a chunky, colorful building breeding weird dogs as a hobby. Hmm. Fiera admittedly didn’t have much to say after that, letting the conversation sputter out on its own while Noa focused on paperwork. She was sure the faeron would pipe up on its own again soon anyway.
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Post by Noa on May 25, 2021 16:01:16 GMT -6
While Noa was occupied with the paperwork, Rhys stared at him, tendrils drooping, his demeanor uncharacteristically troubled. Most likely he thought Noa had taken things too far. But it hardly mattered; this was a low-stakes affair, and perhaps it was arrogant of him to think so, but he didn't think this would come back to bite him. And if that was the case, then what cause could there be for concern?
{I'm... sorry,} said Rhys, presumably to Fiera. It wasn't the hurried, flustered apology that Noa was used to, the kind he usually gave when Noa had said something particularly insensitive or ghastly, but something heavier, almost as if it were weighed with... guilt?
"Let's just get this over with then," Noa said. Even he had sensed that the mood had soured, though in some sense he was almost glad for it. If the other party wanted to be rid of him as soon as possible, that tended to speed things along, which was just how he liked it. He handed off the finished paperwork to the staff at the front desk, filled out in the usual careless scrawl that passed for his cursive, then caught Walnut's attention with a treat and led her down toward the rooms.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 25, 2021 16:29:34 GMT -6
Well, that wasn’t what she had expected. Fiera hadn’t read the little dragon as well as she had thought, apparently. She was expecting another bright fountain of small talk she could latch onto, but instead the damn thing had clammed up. “I don’t know what it is you’re apologizing for, love, but it’s appreciated regardless.” She said, giving a wink in an attempt to lighten the mood a little bit. Connections were valuable things, and she didn’t want to burn this bridge completely. At the very least, she didn’t want to judge a book by its cover, even if just to find out what the book was really about. She snapped her fingers at Dayo and the houluh was up in an instant, happy to stretch his legs a bit and do his duty. “Indeed! Let’s see what these two end up making, eh?” She said casually.
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Post by Noa on May 25, 2021 16:39:21 GMT -6
"There, look, she even forgives you," said Noa, in the same bland tone that he usually used. Rhys didn't like it, said it made everything sound sarcastic, even when Noa didn't mean them that way, but he couldn't be bothered to inject his voice with false cheer. It also didn't work; if anything he found that people reacted worse when he faked it.
But Rhys didn't seem heartened by Fiera's words either. Gamely, he did wave his whiskers a little, in a less energetic version of the way he usually carried on. {Right! Puppies! I love puppies...} And yet, somehow, it fell a little flat.
At least this woman wasn't making a scene of it. Really, things could be so much worse. He didn't know what had Rhys's spirits so dampened.
He walked briskly until he reached the room they had been assigned, then opened the door and led Walnut in. It wasn't difficult, now that he had the flying sandwiches to use as bait. Did she chase them because they were food, or because they flew, he wondered? Probably a little of both at this point. Well, either way, it saved him the trouble of wrangling her in there by some other means.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 25, 2021 17:00:29 GMT -6
Noa’s response didn’t exactly convince Fiera otherwise about his personality, but she wasn’t going to let it get to her. Besides, she felt bad for the faeron- Rhys, right? More than anything, and didn’t want to upset him too badly. As a result, she followed behind Noa with only a LITTLE bit of fuss when he didn’t hold the door open for her, and trotted right along to the breeding room. Meanwhile, Dayo was a nice houluh. Calm. Level headed. Obedient. But even he had limits, and that limit was apparently throwing an object with meat in it away from a houluh that was trained to track and chase down fast moving meaty objects. He was off like a shot, barreling past Walnut and into the room in an attempt to get there first. Fiera blinked. “Well. That ones your fault, I told you he was a hunting houluh. At least they’re in there now?” She said, shrugging as she followed them in.
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Post by Renathan on May 25, 2021 20:23:12 GMT -6
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