Closed Catch All

[belligerentwarrior]

Who: Fang, Ozymandias, Alex, Kaede; others to add
When: Throughout Mareuer
Where: Throughout Aefenglom
What: Fishing, cats, and Fang being Fang
Warnings: n/a

[Ozy] It takes a village (to raise a cub)

[The giant sphinxes posted outside were... new. Even if Fang expected no trouble from them—and part of her was confident she could take one on—her jaguar's instinct pressed her to pass by like a shadow, and downwind. It was kinda a fun challenge, trying to get around the sentinels.]

[Even with the intermittent rain, there's enough track-like shapes around the back to indicate that one patrolled the perimeter. The cat-shifted Turnskin waited for it to pass before darting in, poking her head up to peek through the windows, looking for a certain someone. Ah, there—]

[A faint bap bap as she pawed the window to alert the growing starry sphinx and rouse it from its nap. Once Fang had its attention, she stood bipedally in order to work at undoing the window. Fang had stayed out of the mud (largely, as much as anyone could in this weather) as much in consideration of the mansion as it was for her inner jaguar's fussiness, tracking very little in. She had a gift for the little dude.]

[As so she finally dropped the squirming, panicked beast from her jaws. It's like a hare—on the large side, about the size of the starry sphinx, and... bearing a pointy rack of antlers on its head. Fang quickly shut the window keep it from leaping back out (it tried, resulting in a rattle as it hit the window before scrambling off elsewhere into the room. Go, little cub.]

[And Fang has the presence of mind to shut the door leading into the room. The cub's master would probably pout up a storm if the antlered rabbit-thing escaped into the rest of the house.]


[Alex] I don't have anything clever about quailfish

[The ocean. They're fishing in the ocean, just outside of the harbor. The wildlife here was simpering and weak compared to Gran Pulse, that was a given, but... the ocean. Fang had never imagined swimming out in that wild, open body of water. Others had gone. No great leviathan of creature had risen up to swallow them whole, or swarms of frenzied, bloodthirsty fish descended upon them.]

[Fang had a net and hooks in the little boat she'd taken out, and some of the coveted quailfish she'd been sent for. But after a while, she couldn't help indulging. She dove into the water in her jaguar form, chasing the shadow she'd seen flickering under the surface, coming up with one of the fish in her jaws. The cat paddles back to her boat, plopping the catch in, and dives again.]

[The ocean, honestly, reeks. The currents were strong and more multi-directional than the rivers she grew up swimming in, and the salt horribly stung her eyes—and especially her silverburn scars, now uncovered but still raw, rings of warped flesh around her wrists and neck.]

[But fishing like this, though ineffective, was delightfully satisfying.]

Comments

A Reconciliation Appears

[long_live_the_queen]

[Places Witches frequented tended to pick up a bit of their energy too; never enough to do much with, but like a faint, lingering echo. Without refreshing, the presence faded, a scent after the passage of days.

But the magic around Chariot's apartment was still new enough that Kaede had difficulty distinguishing between that, and the Witch's still-weakened presence proper if she was across the city or further. But though it was still daylight, there were enough clouds in the sky that traveling was no issue for the Chimera. A wisp of shadow lofted up to the balcony, uncurling into a feathered shape as Kaede shook out her shoulders on her way to the door.

If the Witch wasn't here, then the infirmary was her next reasonable guess. Using the Watches would have made this simple, but this was hardly important enough of a visit for that. And...it might give Chariot the impression she was trying to avoid Fang.

Which she was, as if that wasn't abundantly obvious in how "conveniently" she always seemed to appear when Fang was absent. But today, Kaede had gotten a bit lax about it.

Opening the door, the Chimera's knuckles rapped against the doorframe as she peered inside, eyes taking a bit longer to adjust to the change in light.]

Chariot? Are you here?

[belligerentwarrior]

[Fang's ears, in her unshifted form, were where they always were on a human. Still, at the quiet pad of feet on the balcony, the faint click of claws and the knock, she could've sworn she felt a phantom ear swivel about.]

[She blinked awake, groggily sitting up as her consciousness snapped out of her nap. Ah. Kaede. The Turnskin looked towards the balcony, meeting her eyes. There's almost no evidence of the bloody tatters from their last encounter, but for the break in Fang's right eyebrow, and a short diagonal scar in the soft skin under her eye.]

[The silence is heavy in the beat before Fang spoke.] She's out with Monika.

[long_live_the_queen]

[It only took a moment, and something icy raked its claws down through her guts. Movement was what her eyes could pick up first, colors second. And recognition came long before she heard that voice.

The Chimera's ears flattened to her skull--and that seemed to be all, were it not for the stressed line her mouth had formed and the huddled stiffness in her shoulders. For Kaede, all those little gestures might as well have been a shouted message.

The details were last. At first, Fang's face looked as it always did. For a brief instant, Kaede could almost pretend that was all just a bad dream--

That notch in the Turnskin's brow, an unmistakable line carved under Fang's eye. In a moment, she could feel skin tearing under her claws and warm blood on her fingertips all over again. Kaede had done far worse, so many times death became just another numbed, distant statistic. But to people she didn't care anything about, to obstacles, to those she despised. Hurting someone...important, to her, was--

There was no pretending here.]

Oh.

[Her voice reduced in an instant to something small, soft; a nothing-whisper.]

Sorry.

[She could just leave. Close the door and fade away, like she was never here.

But Kaede wavered. Regret pulled at her ankles, kept her hand tight on the door.

She'd done a terrible thing. And this time, she could actually do something about it--before something dire, before further grief. Before anyone vanished into the dark, unable to be reached by apology or forgiveness.

Kaede wavered.]

[belligerentwarrior]

[There was nothing to call this except awkward.]

[Fang ran a hand through her hair in the silence that followed. Eventually she shrugged, a half-hearted gesture, before laying down again.]

You can wait for her.

[There wasn't enough inflection for a question, but there was too much to be a statement.]

[long_live_the_queen]

[Kaede could do that. Or she could disappear into a hole in the ground.

When Fang laid back down, her head out of sight, it took a few moments for the Chimera to unfreeze. The door shut, quietly.]

...okay.

[Kaede's voice was still inside the room. Her feathers hissed against each other, and her claws clicked away on the tiles until she could curl up on one of the empty windowsill ledges near the kitchen. Her back was against the wall so she could peer out of the window if she liked, her tail spilling over the edge. Its feathery end twitched above the floor, betraying her unsettled mood.

She could have left. She could have just...kept her back to Fang, and ignored the other Monster's presence until Chariot returned. But her mind wouldn't let her rest.

Was it something of Chariot's, these emotions rattling around her chest? Or some knot of things that had always been there, repressed and quashed until she forgot them?

The moments dragged on, and on and on until the silence Kaede once found solace in was a weight too heavy to carry.]

Fang. [Her voice was still quiet, but didn't wobble this time.] I'm...

[A frustrated sigh.]

I'm bad with words.

[In case that wasn't obvious.]

[belligerentwarrior]

[The Turnskin wasn't nearly so bothered. It was awkward, and she could just about feel the tension in the silence. That was a perk of growing up in a crowded space: you got good at not talking about unresolved things until the danger or rest period was over, or just to flat out preserve the peace.]

[She'd just about dosed off again when Kaede spoke her name, and once more there was that phantom sensation of a swiveling ear. She rolled over on the bed and sat up, leaning back on her palms.]

[Fang leveled her gaze at Kaede. Not accusatory, not irritated—just observant, and waiting.]

Little bit.

[And?]

[long_live_the_queen]

[Kaede shook her head, her antlers mostly. Just...fucking, say the words. How hard was this supposed to be?

The words tumbled out all at once, blurted out before her mind could trap them behind her teeth again.]

I'm sorry.

[There. She said it.

It'd be great if she could calm down now.




The cold, awkward, squiggly knot of a feeling was still there, somewhere just in front of her spine.]

[belligerentwarrior]

[Fang let out a long breath. The fingers of one hand scratched at the back of her neck this time, grazing through the fur above her burn. What should she say here? Fang wasn't even sure how she really felt about the incident, other than it was a miserable affair.]

[The wound hurt like hell, and Fang was growing tired of hurting. Still, even having found her metaphorical footing, a part of her was still convinced she deserved that much. Choice, consequence. Action, reaction.]

[But it had to end. She couldn't let the smoke from the ruins of that incident choke her. Fang had to stop punishing herself, unlike Vanille. Unlike Chariot.]

[Maybe if Kaede had gotten her eye, it would be different—maybe Fang would be furious, or resentful. No, all she wound up with to show for it was scars. Like from her hunts. Like her silver burns.]

[Like Chariot's leg. Scars to be carried and borne; proof of survival, as written on her body. Proof of healing—and if her flesh could knit back to together, despite its trauma and how it was rent, her soul could, too.]

[They're only scars.]

[Eventually, Fang shrugged again, just as lazy as it had been last time, as if that alone could transform the magnitude of what transpired between them into something smaller.]

...Don't sweat it. Everything turned out fine, yeah? Guess we both had some things we needed to get outta our heads.

[long_live_the_queen]

[Though Kaede wasn't looking at her, not completely, an ear had turned back to listen. To Fang's words, to her movements.

As with Chariot, hearing...acceptance, was hard to grasp. It was a relief--and doubt sprang up immediately afterwards, snapping back like an elastic band. Did Fang mean it? Was it something just to paste over a wound, like--

...like a bandage? To heal from?



Kaede breathed out a self-depreciating noise between a harsh sigh and a snort.]

There's a lot of shit in my head.

[Still. Always.

She shifted a gangly arm to lay it across her torso--something stuck into her ribs, and she knew what it was before her frown deepened any further. A measure of that Bonding potion--with a second vial tucked into her vest beside it. Yes, she remembered. She'd gotten used to carrying around medicines and sedatives to ward off the Moons before--now set aside or replaced, for the most part.

The Chimera held the little glass thing between long talons, staring at its gossamer silver contents instead of anywhere else in the room.]

I can...prove it.

co-parenting is tough work, man

[fulgency]

[Upon Fang initially rapping on the window, the sphinx cub is not all that alert and still quite visibly groggy from its disrupted nap. In fact, while she's fiddling with the window trying to get it open, the cub doesn't bother with trying to keep its head up. It just rests his head back down on its paws with every intention of going back to sleep. But it does appear to be observing, its ears trained in the direction of the window.]

[It's maybe a little too young to be as effective of a sentinel as its currently-larger cousins.]

[Oh, but the game is immediately afoot the moment Fang drops the jackalope on the floor and it begins its desperate attempt at escape. The kitten lifts its head and rises to its feet in one motion, but does not launch immediately after the beast. Instead, the sphinx starts stalking it from above, trying to find a good position to make its first assault.]

[It seems though that the sphinx is not the only one suddenly a little more alert with the jackalope being set loose. On the second floor is the distant sound of furniture moving slightly shortly after the solid thwack and rattle against the window. There's no sound of a door, but footsteps move around upstairs towards the top of the stairs. There's a slight pause before they start walking down. Meanwhile, the sphinx is in position finally and takes a leap, spreading its wings to help guide its pounce, but damn. The jackalope is faster. The ensuing scrambling and knocking against an end table picks up the pace of the footsteps until Ozymandias opens the door and there is immediately so much for him to process.]

[Which is perhaps made only all the more difficult to process by the fact in allowing himself to have a day off, Ozymandias is having a bit later of a start to his morning than usual. He only managed to get so far as brushing out his hair in his morning routine before Fang brought along her present for the sphinx cub. Likely this is the plainest Fang has ever seen him with no perfume, no glittering jewelry, no makeup, and dressed only in pajama bottoms and robe. And it's probably the most stupefied she's ever seen him, his mouth not even attempting to make sounds and just hanging slightly open instead.]

[His eyes track the sphinx and jackalope as they dart around the room, sending it already into mild amounts of disarray before his gaze lands on Fang. There are a handful of questions all fighting to be the first one out because there are several things for him to be aggravated with this morning, and so he says nothing immediately until finally,]

What are you doing?! [The jackalope lets out an angry noise as it dives under some furniture that it can fit even with its antlers. Ozymandias gestures with one hand towards where it just disappeared and the sphinx is quickly trying to get to the other side before it can run away.] Why is that thing in my house?!

[He gestures at her with both of his hands.]

Why are you in my house!?

Especially when one spoils the kid

[belligerentwarrior]

[Fang lazily blinks back at the wild gestures, slow and catlike, her tail tip curling languidly in content. She's no longer bandaging her silverburns, and the gaps in fur makes the two new little nicks (one above her eye, another just below) plain to see.]

Brought the kid something. He's gettin' past wrestling with those little ones you call up.

Thought about lettin' him do this outside, but with the rain, you'd just get a muddy cub. Close the door.

[What, do you want the jackalope in the rest of the house?]

you can't just show up once a month and be the cool mom, fang! that's not how u parent

[fulgency]

[Fang's physical recovery and the latest addition of harms, for the moment, escapes all of Ozymandias' notice. There is a little too much going on right now as the sphinx is unsuccessfully trying to wedge itself underneath the sofa to get at the jackalope. The sofa, instead, is slightly being pushed back until it bumps into the rug. At which point, it is not moving much of anywhere. The jackalope, wisely, is keeping as far to the opposite end of the sofa from the sphinx as possible until it's once more forced to wriggle its way back out and the chaotic chase begins anew.]

And you thought that would somehow be worse to me than a wild animal in my house? [It's not quite a slam, but the door is most certainly closed with a little more force than necessary. Ozymandias is undoubtedly annoyed with this disruption to his morning.] Wehem-Mesut, to me.

[Almost instantaneously, the sphinx cub skids to a halt at hearing those words. Oh, but it's so torn. The jackalope has hunkered itself down again and if it could just...]

Now.

[Dangit!!]

[As much as the sphinx clearly does not want to, it abandons its hunt (for the moment) to sit before Ozymandias. Ozymandias casts a look down at the sphinx that clearly communicates his disappointment and displeasure with its behavior and it has the very good sense not to give in to temptation and look over its shoulder at the jackalope. (If there was ever a question that Ozymandias was a father during his lifetime, that look right there likely proves he absolutely was.) With his sphinx cub under control and not creating a further mess of the room regardless of how the jackalope is fairing, Ozymandias turns his attention back to Fang.]

If you're going to insist on this, you can move it outside. [His gaze moves over towards the window where Fang crawled in. A face of one of the sphinxes is now peering inside from the other side of the glass. Some part of the commotion clearly caught its attention and it came as soon as it could, but it's also far too little too late. Ozymandias huffs to himself as clearly he will need to rework their orders for guarding his home if Fang was able to slip in so easily like this. Ozymandias waves it off and the creature bows its head slightly before moving on. He looks to Fang again.] They won't disturb you unless I command otherwise.

[He's referring, of course, to the sphinx's larger, less celestial-looking brethren. Such as the one he just dismissed.]

He always has custody!!

[belligerentwarrior]

[The black jaguar tilts her head a little, honestly considering the question.]

Didn't think much about it, really. It felt right. [All aspects of it. Catching something and deciding to bring it to the cub. Bringing it into this room (den) instead of letting the cub out. Keeping the cub clean out of the muck. All from one driving force, lurking in the shadows of her mind, seeping through the gaps in the stilted flow of magic Fang's been scraping by on. She'd forgotten how strong the instincts could be, without a steady well of magic to draw on.]

Sorry 'bout that. Moons've been knockin' more screws loose than ususal. [Fang doesn't say why. She's getting better about her guilt, but talking about anything that happened to Chariot is still difficult. No reason to voice it when Ozymandias was informed.]

[The turnskin takes a moment to stretch, paws forward, peeking under the sofa before she straightens back up again.]

No sense in lettin' a good hunt go to waste, yeah? Don't you worry, I'll fix the place up after.

[She pads over to the sofa, peering down at the trembling prey, formulating the smoothest way to snatch it up.]

maybe if she'd show a little responsibility she could have overnights!!

[fulgency]

[Ozymandias comes very close to saying something. He goes so far as to start to open his mouth, to draw the breath necessary, but then he stops. It isn't his business what she does even if he thinks she's a fool not to at least consider a temporary measure. She made that abundantly clear the last time she was here.]

Make it quick, [he says instead. Ozymandias bends down to pick the sphinx cub up, holding it to his chest as he straightens. It settles in somewhat now that it's much easier to watch Fang (and the jackalope) without drawing attention to the fact it's watching. Plus, it's getting chin scritches out of the deal.] I've other things I'd like to do today that don't include any of this.

Weekends or bust

[belligerentwarrior]

[There's a chuffing noise that could either be a single laugh or a huff—it's difficult to tell.]

What, havin' a cloudy day, Sunshine?

[Her tails swishes a few times thoughtfully before Fang ultimately lifts the sofa with one paw-hand, swiping under and grabbing the jackalope with the other. Sorry, cub, she's cheating. She sets the furniture down delicately, so no to upset delicate sensibilities.]

[fulgency]

[The cub lets out a little huff when she pulls the jackalope out from its hiding spot. There's really no telling if it's out of disappointment that nothing exciting happened or if it's trying to restrain itself from gearing up all over again now that it can see the prey much more easily.]

[Ozymandias struggles somewhat by comparison. He doesn't really know how to respond to the incongruence between the casual use of that nickname and where things were left between them. Or how long they were left like that. It's somewhat needling to Ozymandias, but he already made the decision when he chose to walk away from her to let it be. There was no point in addressing it any further, not when she was clearly the sort of person who bulldozed ahead without looking behind herself.]

I appreciate that you were trying to do something...helpful for my sphinx. [Ozymandias finds labeling this "helpful" a bit of a stretch, but if she really is having a little more difficulties in managing some of her instincts there's a degree to which that's not totally off-base. Her feline instincts would tell her this is the best way to instruct the sphinx on how to hunt by bringing about a controllable prey.] But you could have said something beforehand.

[Granted, he would have vetoed it. Or, at the very least, made them take it outside from the beginning. But a heads up of any kind would have been appreciated. He would at least have been properly awake and dressed.]

[Ozymandias stops petting the sphinx cub and opens the door behind him.]

[belligerentwarrior]

Yeah, probably could've.

[Something for next time, then. No point in getting hung up on it now. Standing bipedally now, the black jaguar heads through the offered door.]

[But Fang casually pauses as she passes Ozymandias, meeting his eyes as if she didn't have a squirming hare-deer-thing in one hand. Her cat-headed shifted form doesn't lend well to expression, but she doesn't seem to be scowling. It's a still expression, perhaps closest to curiosity, that keen-eyed focus of searching, simple observation from a trained hunter.]

[The moment is short-lived, Fang's usual flippancy back as if there'd never been a break in it; her easy posture resumes as she carries on towards the front door.]

You gonna join us? Bet he'd want you to watch.

I AM HERE. It's okay, this quailifies

[sing_for_me]

[ Alex wasn't quite fond of the seawater out here herself. It was dark and murky...but it was more open than the lakes and rivers. It was a good way to make money, and an excuse to get out there. There was just such a strength she felt while she was in the water, a feeling she rarely ever felt.

She hears--so much better down here-- someone swimming not too far away. But the smell wasn't that of a merrow. It's a smell she
a come to be quite familiar with, in fact, and lures her right in. She stops behind some corral, watching the jaguar swim around at first. The last time they were in the water together, Fang didn't seem to be a fan of it, but here she was diving and hunting like a natural.

The merrow waits until she goes back to her boat to drop off her catch, and only then does she push off from her hiding space, swimming up towards Fang...then playfully pulling on her tail before diving back down. ]

[belligerentwarrior]

[Well, it certainly gets a reaction. Tension shoots through her body and Fang spins about, sending the boat rocking perilously. For a moment, her hackles are raised and ears pressed back, but after tense moments of nothing coming out of the water to swallow her whole, her body language edges closer to suspicion or annoyance. It's hard to tell on a cat's face.]

[Ears alternating between forward focused and scanning about, Fang peers over the edge of the boat, tail swaying over the other side.]

[sing_for_me]

[ Alex swims down and away, giggling as she sees the boat rock and Fang looking for the perpetrator.

The tip of the Jaguar's tail flits about in the water like a line and bait, just making it all the more tempting for Alex to float upwards and tug at it again. ]

[belligerentwarrior]

[Alex remained unobserved; looking down into the sea from above only offered limited results. The jaguar turns, peering over the other side briefly. Was it her imagination?]

[A part of her wanted to shrug it off and keep fishing. The part of her that still had Gran Pulse in it wasn't quick to dismiss a potential danger. Fang settles into a crouch, scanning the water for the quailfish—but her ears are still darting about cautiously.]

[sing_for_me]

[ Alex floats beneath the boat, just out of Fang's sight. She really can't help the giggling, the air bubbles floating up towards the top. She turns carefully, waiting for just the right moment...

Then flicking her tail upwards, splashing water right into the big cat's face. ]

[belligerentwarrior]

[It's a shame that, from Alex's new vantage point, she can't witness the way Fang's ears and eyes focus forward, her attention drawn to the strange little air bubbles popping up around the boat's hul—]

[And then a slap of salty water smacks her right in the face.]

[The jaguar recoils sharply, but where she's sitting in the boat, it's at just the right angle to rock the thing precariously and send the turnskin reeling backwards into the bay.]

[sing_for_me]

[ Alex's hands go right over her mouth when she sees the large cat fall back into the water, not having expected that at all. She wants to laugh, but she also does feel a little bad, and swims over to help lift the jaguar up towards the surface for some air. ]</small. Sorry, sorry...that was too much, huh? You alright, Fang?

I just now realized you wrote "quailifes" not "qualifies" in your subject line....

[belligerentwarrior]

[Fang rapidly shakes her head once it breaks through the surface, coughing. Her ears pinch backwards as she fixes a glare at Alex. She coughing too much for words, so Fang settles for swatting Alex in the forehead with a paw.]

[Sans claws, of course, but there's just enough of her strength in it to make it a solid bap.]