oh mother things ain't going so well

[changechild]

Who: Nyara and OPEN
What: you know how when you adopt a cat you gotta accept that it will probably want to hide for a few weeks?
Where: Pole generally
When: ambiguously throughout the month
Warnings/Notes: she Struggling. oblique reference to coming from a bad home situation.

Nyara is not taking this in stride.

Is the Pole different from her father's fortress in winter? Yes, absolutely and in many ways, but feeling the tropical heat and knowing it's cold outside, seeing the bright colors and lights and luxury, and smelling reeking stomach-turning things like peppermint... it's filled her with dread and had her looking over her shoulder and flinching at shadows. She wants badly to run away to somewhere plain and peaceful, to return to quiet and hunting for her meals, but is also afraid of consequences should she act out. She doesn't understand what's out there, what could get her, so she hasn't made a break for it. Yet.

catnap: Instead of the appointed quarters, Nyara's made a few nests for herself lower down, where it's cooler and darker and the smell is less powerful. You can most easily find her in the sleigh room bundled against the cold, maybe moving an armful of straw, probably looking at you with feline alarm. She sleeps lightly and doesn't want anyone seeing her in that vulnerable state, but it can't always be helped especially if Need is doing work on her - then the girl buries herself in straw and blankets and twitches, like she's dreaming.

catfight: She can also be found in the training room, firing arrows into dummies or fighting them with Need in hand. Usually for hours at a stretch as she tries to exhaust herself. She's alert and nervous and stops what she's doing if she notices an observer, but if she's been at it for long enough that she's glazed over, panting, pushing through the pain of exertion and moving more slowly, she won't notice.

catnetworking: If Need knows you, you may be interrupted in your non-urgent business at some point by a Mind-voice both concerned and deeply irritated, asking, :Could you please tell my girl that she should eat?: Need is perfectly capable of making Nyara feel okay with the dramatic change in circumstances, and with just making her take care of herself, but she hates to do that sort of thing.

Comments

catnetworking

[millenyal_pink]

:On it. Where is she?:

Elle goes to the dining hall and grabs a smorgasbord of options. Meats, cheese, fruits, vegetable; nothing too heavy or too processed. She's not sure how Nyara is adapting to this world's food but she doesn't want to take any risks.

Then just it's a case of tracking the girl down.

[changechild]

:Nothing with alliums or grapes or lemon. Nothing sweet, she can't properly taste that anyway, as little spice as possible. She can eat bread and rice,: Need informs Elle briskly, watching through her eyes. Lurking behind her voice is a simmering anger, not directed at either girl. :The ideal would be a whole raw animal carcass but I'm sure they're low on those. She tried some kind of soup and it made her sick, so she's pickier than usual.:

:And she's in a storeroom with wrapped packages. Are you fine without a coat? It's cold down here.:

[millenyal_pink]

:I'll be okay, I run warm.:

Elle makes the appropriate modifications to the plate, grabs a loaf of bread, some bottles of water, and makes her way to the area she thinks Need is talking about. She'll be able to track Nyara from there. One her way she grabs several large pillows and two soft blankets.

Nyara's scent leads her to a closed door. Elle makes sure her footsteps are loud enough to be heard as she walks down the hall.

She knocks gently on the door.

"Hey, I've got some food and water to share and could use some company if you're up to it."

[changechild]

It is indeed quite cold down on this level. Elle's breath will steam. Nyara doesn't sweat as much as a normal human would, but she's been sponge bathing rather than showering and has never heard of deodorant, so her scent isn't hard to follow. This is one of several bolt holes, apparently, and doesn't have the concentration of Nyara's smell that it would have if she'd been spending this whole time here.

There's silence for a long moment when Elle knocks as Nyara considers pretending she isn't there. Then, muffled and soft-voiced, she says, "I am sorry, but - who are you?"

[millenyal_pink]

Shit, Nyara wouldn't recognize her voice like this. Elle should've thought of that before.

"I'm Elle. We met in the theater. I was a giant bipedal cougar at the time, but it's still me. You can scent me if you want to check."

Part of her wants to ask Need to vouch for her, but for now she'd rather earn Nyara's trust herself.

[changechild]

Oh. That is a very different voice, she doesn't say.

Nyara comes to the other side of the door but doesn't touch it, ears apart, waiting for Elle to get impatient and do... something. Need stirs and remains silent.

"You do not have to bring me food. I... I do not have to eat any longer." Wait, she should try to sound happier about it. "I will not suffer from hunger." She doesn't like this Myth trait, even if it's convenient. Even here, things happen to her body without her say-so.

[millenyal_pink]

Elle does not get impatient. She calmly stays outside the door, not making any indication that she wants to force her way in.

"Just because you don't have to doesn't mean you can't. Or shouldn't. For me it's kind of comforting, you know? Even if it isn't strictly necessary. Access to food means safety."

Elle's not thrilled about the changes made to her body either. Asking wouldn't have hurt, he probably would've said yes, but the lack of consent bothers her.

[changechild]

"Before I was here, Need taught me to forage, and use weapons to hunt for food. I... knew the catching of vermin, not true hunting. It was a good thing," she says wistfully. She'd liked the consistency, she'd liked understanding why she ate well on some days and more poorly on others. "But I cannot hunt or gather here, and my stomach is too changed to eat what they give to normal people and not be sick. So. Please do not worry for me."

Nyara does enjoy food but she tends to bolt it and eat as much as she can before anyone can take it from her, and that had turned out to be quite a bad idea recently.

Catfight

[favoritefearlesshero]

Puss wants to know all the facilities available to him, and not just the ones that allow him to lounge in the lap of luxury. So of course he needs to check on the training room.

...Oh, that's the footwook of someone who needs a nap in a sunbeam and a dish of cream. Even if sunbeams are at a premium here.

"Perhaps you should have a...catnap? Eh? Eh?"

[changechild]

Nyara startles and looks a bit wildly across. Nothing! Where- Oh. Right. She has to cast her gaze down by a few feet. It's just Puss. She lowers Need, panting, trying to derail her brain into conversation mode.

She doesn't sweat as much as an unmodified human, but the pads on her hands are slick, and there's some dewing in the thin fur on the insides of her arms, and in scattered spots where other sweat glands still function to try to cool her off. Nyara can push herself to ignore a lot of discomfort that's now making itself increasingly known.

Catnap

[bestbrotherever]

Loki wants to go outside. It's not that the base is stifling, but knowing that the snow and ice are just outside, the closest he's ever been to them since he stopped considering being a Frost Giant to be a horrific curse... He needs to be out there, feel comfortable in the cold.

The sleigh room seems as good a place as any to try to find a door to the outside. It must have one, so the vehicle can enter and exit, and it's probably not in use that often, so others won't complain about the rush of cold air from his passage.

He's not watching for anyone, and also not being particularly quiet. Just moving with purpose towards his goal.

[changechild]

There's a man walking around. By now Nyara can identify the yeti and elves by the sound of their breathing and footsteps. The outsiders are more diverse and variable. She thinks this one sounds familiar and lurks a little closer.

This close to the outside a bucket of water soon becomes ice-rimmed, so she's bundled up and shapeless in this or that; reindeer-blankets made into a kind of tunic on the outside, with duller colors so as not to stand out, with Need belted over them. Over her shoulders is a fur cloak made from several rabbit-pelts stitched together, that she'd brought from the tower and is a little acid-eaten and worse for wear now. Straw is scattered over this collection, with a few pieces showing bright in her messily-braided hair.

"Loki?"

[bestbrotherever]

He stops, not expecting to hear his name. But it's not accusatory, and it's familiar, too. He looks for her. "Nyara? Are you venturing outdoors as well?"

[changechild]

"Ah - no. It is bitter cold." She's made a couple of attempts, but no matter how heavily Nyara layers herself, the temperature is too low. Painful low, and she can ignore quite a lot of pain, but Need doesn't think she should go out unless she has enough of a reason. "But not for you?"

[bestbrotherever]

"No, not for me," he says softly. He's dressed in his usual leather outfit. "It never has been, though I did not understand the significance for most of my life."

He breaks out of his mini-reverie and looks her over. "Why are you here, then? The cold may not be harmful, but it cannot be comfortable. This is not a room where living beings are meant to linger."

[changechild]

A god thing, Nyara's going to assume. She has no particular thoughts about gods. They exist. In Velgarth they are distant for all but their most chosen people. She isn't one of those, and has never prayed for their intercession; she knows none would answer her. Need has plenty of thoughts on gods that she keeps to herself.

"Ah. You should not worry about me, I have clothing." She brushes at her makeshift tunic, dislodging some of the reindeer hay. "It is not comfortable perhaps but... here is better than much of this place."

[bestbrotherever]

Quite the contrary, it marks him as not truly one of the gods. But maybe that's not such a bad thing.

He does look worried about her. "Are you staying here, not simply passing through? Surely there must be some place that is more comfortable, or could be made so."

[changechild]

"I am passing through," she temporizes, not noting his expression. Nyara's looking down. She's not lying but she has been mostly staying on and around this level of the, she thinks of it as a compound. "You should not wait on my account, I am well enough."

All visible fur is standing on end, too short to actually help trap heat but long enough to soften her outline. It doesn't necessarily mean much that her hair is unwashed and in a braid that's surrounded by flyaway strands, messy hair happens and her dexterity isn't really as good as someone with typical, slender fingertips. She's clearly not in regulation-issue cold weather gear and has been in at the reindeer bedding, but maybe she doesn't like fashion and hay is comforting to her as a pseudo-medieval. And she's a bit jealous that Loki isn't bothered by the cold.

catnetworking

[branchifer]

Branch lets out a little yell of alarm after the voice talks, looking around in alarm, body language making it clear he's ready to bolt if he needs to.

"Who said that?"

Nyara isn't the only one who's on edge in this place, even if he's less on edge than he was.

But...that's all the more reason he wouldn't be the worst person to talk to her.

[changechild]

Need says nothing more. Nyara, who'd been lurking in the shadows of the banquet hall with her arms crossed low over her chest, busily tormenting herself by looking at all the things she can't eat, startles. "Who- ah, I am sorry?"

She frees her pointed, fur-tufted ears from her hair to spread wider and pick up more. It's useful to be able to hear footsteps and breathing, though, less so in an enclosed place as crowded and busy as this one.

[branchifer]

He could've sworn he heard a voice that sounded sort of like it was in his head. Wondering what was behind it takes a sideline when he gets a good look at Nyara.

When he does, his eyes widen a little. His own ears had started scanning around for the source of the noise. He sees she's doing the same, as if also listening for threats.

She's much bigger, and cat-like, two things working against her in how nervous he is around her, but...

She looks a little lost.

"I thought I heard someone telling me to try to get you to eat? Do you have a friend hanging around or something?"

He looks around confused.

[changechild]

Nyara's looking several feet above Branch's head and startles when she finally looks down and, there! She takes a half step back, pupils becoming slits; she's not inherently afraid of things that much smaller than herself but her startle reflex is pretty well developed and a Troll is, frankly, a bizarre entity to see for the first time.

And he could be a threat, she's not ruling that out. Mostly her father likes large, obviously dangerous creations but he has such a range of monsters and traps, particularly in the winter when he is bored and confined to his fortress, that she's learned to avoid. Her father is not here but she is still convinced that whimsy is dangerous.

"You..." hmm, 'you talk?' is probably not the correct response. "I heard nothing. I have a magic sword, but... besides that, I am alone."

Need, being highly secretive, didn't loop her in on that message.

[branchifer]

"Oookay."

He knows he didn't hear things. You get used to figuring out if you're hearing things when you live alone for as long as he once had. Your mind can play tricks on you so you need to learn how to not fall for them.

One thing is clear, though, she seems a little cafey.

His confusion softens to an expression of empathetic concern. He's not always the most sensitive but he's far from heartless.

"Are you okay? You seem kind of on edge and I - I get that. I kinda...maybe freaked out? A little? When I first woke up here?" He holds his tiny fingers a very tiny distance apart. "Tiny bit."

[changechild]

Nyara blinks.

"Oh. Yes, you... the pain dust. I see." She'd never encountered chili powder before and has no tolerance built up for it. After finding out, which fortunately only Need had been a witness to, Nyara had retreated further and became much more reluctant to explore or reach out. This place is already confusing and overwhelming and frankly often unpleasant for her overtuned senses, and that didn't help it feel any less so.

She always feels she should make nice, not rock the boat, appease people who have or might hurt her. They won't care about her feelings, except to enjoy it if she's struggling, so those should not factor into how she responds. So she says, "That must have been frightening."

[branchifer]

Branch doesn't need her to spell it out. "Pain dust," means she probably figured out the deal with the pepper bombs first hand. Great, that means he spooked someone else that's possibly freaked out like him and made it worse for them?

Tim remains not the only person he has to answer for.

"Yeah, it was...it was pretty bad."

His eyes cast at the floor, expression tight with guilt and he awkwardly twiddles his hands together.

"If I got you with some...pain dust, sorry. I didn't...I didn't really want to actually hurt everyone else, but I thought the only way I could leverage a way out was if I caused enough trouble."

He shakes his head.

"Still, I hate that I took it out on people that were probably freaked out, too."