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Post by Skylos on Nov 3, 2021 5:34:19 GMT -6
Nobody enjoys constant hard labor, and it was time for Skylos to get out of the sun. Fur or not, he'll suffer a sunburn murder eventually, or heatstroke; neither being an optimal choice. The worm needed to get out of the sun too. Might just plain disappear into the foliage if he left it alone to its own devices. Now that it was out of the sac and fed, the worm doesn't protest being picked up beyond a trilling squeak. Under his paw pads, the worm is... almost leathery feeling, like having another sack, but this one isn't fill with anything else. Almost... segmentedly squishy. No no, dont' squash the bug, bug won't like that much, he has to squash down the curiosity of how it felt to squish a bug under his paws thats so large. So he lets the creature sit on his shoulder. What a totally great idea to do.
He's walking back along the road when some sort of.... thing... catches his eye. His magic sense goes off like a switch. A pause, the bug having to cling with tiny sickle claws to avoid falling to its doom. What had he just seen... a flicker of wings?
g.m.g. 1
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Post by Skylos on Nov 3, 2021 5:43:38 GMT -6
The vespa doesn't know what just went on, aside from a very short feeling of paws squishing its long body, and now the cat has stopped to watch something flit by. He's not imagining things, because they see it too. The flitting beat of wings of a butterfly, one that can be seen right through, falling and catching the air like some weird bug kite. Except its a ghost? Was there a butterfly in that kodoku sac? Its... kind of mesmerising to watch it... there's a yank beyond its tail end.... and with a subtle -pop-, the vespa vanishes from the cat's shoulder.
He feels the weight of the bug on his shoulder disappear suddenly, and its not fallen off, he'd have felt it fall onto his back or his tail or something. Skylos looks about for the bug... confused? Worried? The flitting wings seem to shift a hard left in the corner of his eye, and head for a building in need of repair at least once... Curious... he's been here before. Looking up at the building, the cat reads the APAA sign... this is where he'd come to adopt the weaver twins back when he was just a kitten.
g.m.g. 2
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Post by Skylos on Nov 3, 2021 5:56:29 GMT -6
Well, this just went from annoying, to bad. The vespa reappears with a pop, and plops on the cold ground. A chittering laugh echoes above the vespa's prone bug body, still a bit in shock from the sudden disappear reappear. It doesn't blink persay, but twitches, realizing its no longer floating in noplace again. The vespa looks upwards... and instinct is still a thing, as a worm with sickles. Half as tall as a human, the bird's wings are... dare it claim... tiny in comparison. Not enough to give it lift off the ground. It has unusual 'handsy' front legs, and the back legs of a cat. Instead of a long tail like a cat, a horselike fluff arches occasionally like a scorpion's tail over its hindquarters. But its none the less, a bird. and the vespa's instincts tell them this is trouble.
Skylos pulls the door open, and enters the not nearly as cavernous as he thought front hall of the apaa. Doesn't appear to have changed much while he grew up, it seemed. The door shuts behind him on a weight operated mechanism, tinkling a little bell.
"Hold on, hold on, one second..." someone comes out from a side room, juggling what looks like a blue elephant calf and a large bottle of milk, wearing a volunteer's tshirt.
g.m.g. 3
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Post by Skylos on Nov 3, 2021 6:05:40 GMT -6
Now take the picture of this ...bird with a cat's butt, and give it the acting movements of a young chick, seeing its first meal. Gleaming pale eyes wide, its practically grinning, with a beak. The vespa worm freezes in place, naturally. The handsy paws rub themselves into themselves like watching soemthing with hands.
"Hello, welcome, are you here to -urph- adopt?" the volunteer asks, struggling as the blue elephant leans its weight into the large bottle, latching on with all the force. "Drink slowly Bubbles, you'll choke and give yourself colic."
"N..neither. My vespa... ...vanish here." he has to think on how to translate what he wants to say to the volunteer. The volunteer, who jsut looks like an average joe of a human, not even enough descript to say guy or girl, looks...confused. Then snaps their fingers briefly while hefting the bottle so theres no bubbles going downwards as the elephant suckles. In fact, they sigh.
"Did you see something kind of flitty right before the vespa disappeared? The kind of thing that catches your eye but you don't actually understand what you saw? Wings, per chance?" the cat nods twice. The sigh becomes a grimace.
g.m.g 4
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Post by Skylos on Nov 3, 2021 6:11:23 GMT -6
"I know exactly who's to blame here. Hurry, because your vespa might be lunch if we don't catch them in the act." the volunteer hurries to say, depositing the blue elephant on a blanket near the door, positioning the bottle. "Stay there bubbles, staaaaay. Good." The aforementioned Bubbles, the blue elephant doesn't seem to care one wink about being put down on a blanket, and is trying ot suck down as much milk as possible per gulp. "Its a older resident here at the APAA, and its a hell of a pain in the neck, if you pardon the expression." Pulling open the door, the volunteer practically ushers Skylos through the small animal territory into the 'medium' animals territory, and raises their voice. "MOCKER" They were in front of... a birdcage sitting about two feet off the ground, but tall enough to put a house cat inside.
Captured! The vespa squirms from the grip the creature has put it in, struggling... and then it stops, the beak slamming shut about an inch from its head. The parrotlike head turns, and sees two things. The volunteer human who feeds them, and a cat. A big cat, but not a 'mean' cat.
g.m.g 5
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Post by Skylos on Nov 3, 2021 6:17:26 GMT -6
"That is not your bug to eat." the volunteer lectures the bird-cat thing inside the cage. "I fed you already, why are you stealing someone elses bugs."
MY BUG, MY BUG! The bird opens its beak and speaks, very clearly, in common. Skylos isn't expecting the bird to talk back like a raven does. The creature which clearly looks so botched up naturally must be a lab animal, holds his vespa worm close to its face. EAT MY BUG EAT MY BUG. The parrot's beak is large and wicked and will cause major damage. He growls at the creature. Put my vespa down. Right now.
"Mocker, I feed you next after the babies get their bottle. You know how the schedule works, and do not give me the baby eyes." the human tries to reason wiht the bird cat thing like it can understand him.
MINE MINE MINE. The bird squawks at them, clawed fingers gripping onto the worm like its some sort of plaything. The pale eyes sweep the feeder, to land on the cat. Land on the cat's eyes per specific. A loud squawk, and it scoots away into the corner, still clutching the vespa worm to its chest.
g.m.g 6
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Post by Skylos on Nov 3, 2021 6:25:45 GMT -6
The human runs a free hand through their nondescript hair with a groan. "Mocker, fake panicking is not going to get me to feed you any faster. I will not let you starve, so please give the nice cat man back his bug and I can get the babies fed FASTER." The parrot cat is making worried chirp noises, keeping well damn away from this cat of insanity. Those EYES... those eyes are terrifying! "You sure thats your vespa, cat man? Its just a worm..."
"Hatch..today." he manages to explain. The 'ohhh' face motion is made. Even if they still appear to be a bit disbelieving. For them, the vespa are giant murder wasps that live in the back of the building, in their own bug boxes so they don't murder anything dragon. Constant buzzy anger. "What is vespa"
"You're jokin', right?" the volunteer asks, with a weak smile. The cat just blinks back at him, with those unusually jewel bright eyes. "Uh... those little worms grow up to be bigger then the tallest human you've ever seen, and they fly and buzz. Giant wasps, and they are rumored to ahve been special ordered to kill dragons by another country."
g.m.g. 7
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Post by Skylos on Nov 3, 2021 6:34:47 GMT -6
The perplexed look the cat's giving the worm in "Mocker"'s grip and back at the human like they're joking him is evident. The creature is still frozen in place, and hoping against hope with its complex amount of instincts that the bird is going ot put it down and get the heck away. Not like its going to sprout wings and bite off its head, but thats a wishful thought. How did a mocker even taste. The worm's head tilts down, and spits something clear onto one of the closest fingers. Immediate effect.
The mocker screeches in pain, and THROWS the vespa worm to the ground. It bounces on impact, and rolls like watching pastry dough logs into the cage bars, stunned. The creature is shaking its paw back and forth, flicking the toes and trying to get whatever the bug had spat on it off. BAD BUG BADDDD BUG! Its howling practically. Screaming in a small space. Naturally everything else is freaking out now from the noises.
"QUIET!" The human manages to yell loudly. Some creature stop screaming, but the mocker isn't done yet, still rattling around in its birdcage and rubbing its paw on everything to get the stuff off.
g.m.g. 8
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Post by Skylos on Nov 3, 2021 6:40:29 GMT -6
The human is muttering to themself as they fish out a ring of keys, and unlock the mocker's cage. With a quick trained hand, they reach in, pull out the stunned vespa and shut the cage door again, locking it. Thank god the mocker wasn't completely telekinetic. Just with food. Dropping the stunned vespa larvae into the cat's suddenly waiting paws.
"Come back into the other room. Mocker's just having a temper tantrum." Like this is a normal thing, the human ushers the cat and his worm back into the other room without another look at the oddball bird screeching behind them.
The door is shut, and the human relaxes visibly. Scampering over and extricating the blue elephant from chewing on the empty milk bottle. "There there bubbles. Nice and full." Tickling the blue elephant's bulging belly as it kicked little feet, about the size of a small dog really, "Be right back." they ducked out.
Woo... pretty stars... the vespa's vertigo is so pretty... and they dont' blink. Slowly the world rights itself from being on a spinning course, and focuses back on the cat. No crazy parrot in sight. He seems to have been holding his breath, and exhales in relief.
g.m.g. 9
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Post by Skylos on Nov 3, 2021 6:46:28 GMT -6
"Sorry 'bout that, I really am." the human apologizes as soon as they return, blue elephant free. "But you don't know what a vespa actually is?" A shake of his head no from the cat. A pamplet plops down between them. "Read up then. They eat bugs, but are claimed to eat dragons at one point or another. I think its because they've got some nasty paralytic venom in that sting when they grow up." It's almost comical to see the cat carefully angling his head to examine the worm's 'butt' for lack of a better term, looking for a stinger. "That grows in once they're cocooned up for the winter. Come spring, they'll hatch and you'll have a giant wasp on your hands. If you've given em a bit of tender loving feeding and care, you can actually get one to let you ride it. Faster then a stupid horse, thats for sure." The human seems like they're none too fond of horse creatures, Skylos notes, as he watches the vespa larvae recover from its impact. "Anyhow, I'm sorry about Mocker. They're a head case on a good day. Labs came out with a... Tiken Takal version of a gallor."
g.m.g 10
Kotoku lv/loy 5
Skylos lv 13
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Post by Skylos on Nov 3, 2021 6:55:39 GMT -6
"Trick month?" the cat asks, confused. The human nods.
"Yeah, they're basically a miniature package of chaos, and can repeat what you say, just like a real parrot could." At least, thats what the idea was. "Owner couldn't handle their antics, because those flits of wings you saw out of the corner of your eye? Are a distraction. You'll find yourself with less food on your person real fast. And gallor will eat a good chunk of almost anything. Bugs, fruit, raw meat, you name it. I caught that cluster cluck chewing on a bone it stole from one of the seekers once. It can summon food to it from a short area around it. Glutton for punishment, I'm glad its kept in its own cage. No wonder it wasn't wanted."
Skylos is in thought while the human talks, mostly badly about the parrot cat...gallor. He's seen them in picture books. but the look of this one is just off handle enough to be weird. Constantly stealing the food of other animals. Did those paws have thumbs?
An apple is put on the table, already broken into pieces. "Here, for your vespa. They like sugar, but dont' forget to give them plenty of bugs to eat."
g.m.g. 11
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Post by Skylos on Nov 3, 2021 7:04:31 GMT -6
"why" he finally asks.
"Why? To be an ass. Its hungry. Wants to be a pest,. I don't know really, cat."
"Call me Katze." Skylos interrupts.
"Fine...? I dont' know Katze, why the bird does this stuff. But its a pain and has been here for a long time. I highly doubt anyone's gonna want it at this rate, if you dont' mind me speaking badly of the beast." To the cat man, there had to be a reasoning the mimicking bird cat was having so many behavioral issues. He has little empathy for the volunteer human's personal problems with the animal. Who cares if they didn't like the animal, its no reason to paint them in a bad light, right?
The vespa kotoku hates everything right then, once the world stops spinning. Stupid bird. Theres a brief blossom of gratitude towards the cat and the human for being fast on the uptake of 'missing' and 'about to be eaten'. Then theres apple. Sugar. Theirs. The cat nudges a slice in their direciton, and the larvae latches on, nibbling happily. Practically curling around the apple slice, which is quite a bit smaller then it is. But none the less, food. Food is good.
g.m.g. 12
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Post by Skylos on Nov 3, 2021 13:37:08 GMT -6
“Well, if you are interested in adopting something, feel free to look around. Might want to watch getting close to Mocker’s cage. They’r prone to repeat tricks at least once.” The volunteer warns. “Come back and find me if you end up deciding to play with someone or adopt something. Uh… yeah.” They shuffle off, and probably back to their blue elephant. At least it wasn’t pink, Skylos thinks to himself. Pink elephants appear in your drunk dreams, in clown makeup.
The worm is eating the apple happily on the table, more like a serpent wrapped around something tough to eat then a worm eating an apple but seemed pleased enough. Thats good. The vespa appeared to like fruit for now. how was the cat man supposed to procue buts to eat. Bugs to eat, maybe theres bugs in the garden he coudl collect up.
Once the pain spitting worm was gone, the mocker shakes its paw hand, hissing through its beak. So much for an easy find of early food. Spitting bugs weren’t on the menu. Flexing its paw hand a few times, the spit is painful and hadn’t completely gone, but still was painful.
G.m.g 13
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Post by Skylos on Nov 3, 2021 13:54:59 GMT -6
This wasn’t his smartest idea, remaining in this place full of animals that most certainly will freak out as soon as look at him. Or at least looking into his mismatched eyes. But the rough things the human had to say about the mocker bird wouldn’t leave him alone. A nibble at the side of his mind as he watched the vespa worm eating. Just little scraping nibbles. He sighs, and opens the pamphlet about vespa, splashed with a large image of a bright multicolored wasp with jeweled compound eyes. Size, larger then a human. Ridable, with the right training. What, like training it to withstand a load on its back? Briefly, he imagines himself riding a giant wasp around the city. Beats out riding an easily spookable horse.
You will grow up and fly huh… he inquires to the vespa, like its going to answer him back. He angles his head back and forth, trying to actually see it, but just can’t see it in his head. He’ll be surprised then. What do you think about that bird. Do you think its lonely? He asks the bug.
The kotoku vespa looks up at him, angling its tiny bug head.
G.m.g 14
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Post by Skylos on Nov 3, 2021 15:13:27 GMT -6
Too bad he hadn’t brought Lav along, the weaver at least might have been able to translate thoughts by talking head to head with the little vespa. The worm has no opinion to voice, but bites into the apple again, more interested in the meal then with a conversation. The occasional shift of attention that he can’t see to the cat, so the vespa kotoku is listening but isn’t answering.
I think this place is bad for the mocker… misunderstood, really. He’s gonna do it. Its a bad idea, really. Gathering up the vespa worm and its apple slices and goes back out to the medium animals area. Everything’s calmed down now, except in its birdcage is the mocker, who’s faking an exagerated limp. It looks up at his paw steps, and hisses.
I’m sorry for scaring you. It was not right to take my bug. He tells the bird.
MY BUG. YOU TAKE! MY BUG! The mocker squawks back at him. Flaring partially molted wings that wouldn’t hold it aloft, it backs up, but sees the cat pull out apple slices.
Don’t take my bug, and you get food and can get out.
G.m.g 15
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Definitely loving all those tiny updates that where made with the rest as well! <3