May. 5th, 2024 10:33 pm
NERF's up, nerds
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Who: Little Cato
What: Not-quite-adjusting to the Pole
Where: All around the Pole
When: In the days after the Memorial
Warnings/Notes: mild mention of child cruelty/imprisonment
[Little Cato hangs back from the Memorial, hiding in some rafters on the Pole side and watching it through the door. He wants to pay his respects but...]
[He's also the reason a few myths didn't walk out of that facility. Even if they tried to kill him he doesn't want to face anyone that might look like they're grieving them.]
[Beyond that, he stays away from people at first. He knows that he's possibly safe now. He's had this happen before - being freed from imprisonment and losing the only person he knew. Being trapped in a place with strangers. The last time that happened, it worked out about as well as it possibly could. He found a crew, people willing to fight against the Lord Commander and the monsters he was allied with. He met good people like Quinn, Nightfall, HUE, and Mooncake.]
[He met his second dad. Who loves him. Who was willing to be shot at to try to convince him to stay, and was willing to walk into hell for him in Invictus' lair. And - unlike, Avocato, who claimed the same thing, and did the same thing - who hasn't failed him the way his other father has.]
[But it feels awfully lucky to have had the same thing happen twice. Imprisonment, cruel treatment, being rescued, being surrounded by good people. They reassured him over the comms, and it almost took, but his life hasn't been easy, and recently, his trust has been broken. Before, he might have taken it at face value, thanks to the rescue.]
[Now? Now he knows that even the man who raised him could lie to his face. For his entire life.]
[Still, even though it feels dangerous to stay, he knows it's not safe to leave. Not with Prometheus out there. So he waits and he watches, hiding in crawlspaces and crawling through the rafters. Sneaking through rooms to grab food or useful things and scampering away when someone looks in his direction. He's waiting to see if someone chases him, tries to capture or hurt him. He's watching how the group treats each other and any myths brought there to heal.]
[Basically, he needs to figure out the vibes. Vibes are important. The group at least passes his passive vibe-checks, seemingly being kind to each other, helping heal the injured, rescued myths, and sending them home. But he still needs more than that. So he decides the situation needs some active vibe-checking, too. If he vibe-checks people and they still don't react really strongly, if they show patience, maybe it means they're okay.]
[So he starts a series of slightly annoying behavior. Some people will see a grubby paw reach over the edge of a table and steal food off their plate or knock over their glass. Others might have something small and mostly unimportant stolen to see how they react. (He'll leave it out for them to find later.)]
[Each time, he scurries off to hide in the interconnected crawlspaces that can be found in some places or might hide in darkness of the rafters nearby to see what the person will do. They'll at least be able to see the eyeshine of two eyes. He might even talk back for a while, depending on what they say. For any that are the types to hide in crawlspaces or hang out in the rafters, they might get the jump on him but he won't hurt them, maybe just back away and hiss at them in surprise. The situation might need to be defused.]
[In some cases, he takes the vibe-checking to it's inevitable conclusion. After seeing the Elves testing out certain toys, he steals one. From the rafters or the shadows, they'll hear him call out:]
Vibe-check! Checkin' the vibes!
[And then high-velocity NERF balls will come pelting at them. How they react to that will definitely tell him about their vibes.]
What: Not-quite-adjusting to the Pole
Where: All around the Pole
When: In the days after the Memorial
Warnings/Notes: mild mention of child cruelty/imprisonment
[Little Cato hangs back from the Memorial, hiding in some rafters on the Pole side and watching it through the door. He wants to pay his respects but...]
[He's also the reason a few myths didn't walk out of that facility. Even if they tried to kill him he doesn't want to face anyone that might look like they're grieving them.]
[Beyond that, he stays away from people at first. He knows that he's possibly safe now. He's had this happen before - being freed from imprisonment and losing the only person he knew. Being trapped in a place with strangers. The last time that happened, it worked out about as well as it possibly could. He found a crew, people willing to fight against the Lord Commander and the monsters he was allied with. He met good people like Quinn, Nightfall, HUE, and Mooncake.]
[He met his second dad. Who loves him. Who was willing to be shot at to try to convince him to stay, and was willing to walk into hell for him in Invictus' lair. And - unlike, Avocato, who claimed the same thing, and did the same thing - who hasn't failed him the way his other father has.]
[But it feels awfully lucky to have had the same thing happen twice. Imprisonment, cruel treatment, being rescued, being surrounded by good people. They reassured him over the comms, and it almost took, but his life hasn't been easy, and recently, his trust has been broken. Before, he might have taken it at face value, thanks to the rescue.]
[Now? Now he knows that even the man who raised him could lie to his face. For his entire life.]
[Still, even though it feels dangerous to stay, he knows it's not safe to leave. Not with Prometheus out there. So he waits and he watches, hiding in crawlspaces and crawling through the rafters. Sneaking through rooms to grab food or useful things and scampering away when someone looks in his direction. He's waiting to see if someone chases him, tries to capture or hurt him. He's watching how the group treats each other and any myths brought there to heal.]
[Basically, he needs to figure out the vibes. Vibes are important. The group at least passes his passive vibe-checks, seemingly being kind to each other, helping heal the injured, rescued myths, and sending them home. But he still needs more than that. So he decides the situation needs some active vibe-checking, too. If he vibe-checks people and they still don't react really strongly, if they show patience, maybe it means they're okay.]
[So he starts a series of slightly annoying behavior. Some people will see a grubby paw reach over the edge of a table and steal food off their plate or knock over their glass. Others might have something small and mostly unimportant stolen to see how they react. (He'll leave it out for them to find later.)]
[Each time, he scurries off to hide in the interconnected crawlspaces that can be found in some places or might hide in darkness of the rafters nearby to see what the person will do. They'll at least be able to see the eyeshine of two eyes. He might even talk back for a while, depending on what they say. For any that are the types to hide in crawlspaces or hang out in the rafters, they might get the jump on him but he won't hurt them, maybe just back away and hiss at them in surprise. The situation might need to be defused.]
[In some cases, he takes the vibe-checking to it's inevitable conclusion. After seeing the Elves testing out certain toys, he steals one. From the rafters or the shadows, they'll hear him call out:]
Vibe-check! Checkin' the vibes!
[And then high-velocity NERF balls will come pelting at them. How they react to that will definitely tell him about their vibes.]