Je t'aime... moi non plus

  • Thread starter Synthetic Seraph
  • Start date
Harley wrinkles his offworlder nose and snorts derisively. "That's the most backwards people I've ever heard of, no offense to your elders and all that. With my folk that'd be proof you led an active life. Better the power totem that travelled the world than the trinket that stayed on the shelf." His brow furrows slightly and he bites his lip before trying to impart his message again in the engineer's terms. "Better an automaton that can move than a statue stuck against a wall?"

Reluctantly the stuck pet realizes he's enjoying this human. Certainly the physical space is nicer than a pen at the pet shop, but the conversation is much improved also. Of course the goal is still to win Vivian's trust to get that barrier dropped willingly. But if he likes Vivian also, not only might it make captivity more bearable but also make his routine more convincing?

"But you were ready to rest, yes? You deserve some companionship... but not the sort to make you fret. What of the cat, warm and comforting as a glass of tea?"
 
She shrugs, " my parents wanted a pretty child who could follow their every whim without putting thought into it, I was supposed to marry some noble. Posh ass. But whatever, I don't need them I did better then they would ever hope to on my own right here." She melts back into his hands clearly not used to being touched or massaged or any of this. She was a hardened woman.... when he asks her if she was tired she shrugged, " I could stay up longer. You can do what you want. You know that."
 
The feral one listened intently, counting his blessings that the human who'd taken him in had grown up so open and without preconceived ideas, unlike her parents and the shopkeeper. It made his circumstances that much more permissive and comfortable. A mew of surprise let loose as the woman melted and proved quite malleable, but the humanform clouded leopard covered it quickly. "Lie and talk then?" he compromised, reclining on his side with his head propped up, free arm carelessly dropped across his hip, and furred tail swaying. He left sufficient room for Vivian should she choose her own space - or occupy his. "And what of your mentors, peers, clients?"
 
She shrugs and looks at him , " if you'd like. I have no mentor, no peers really, my clients just use the product. In sure they're happy I invented it but beyond that we have no relationship. All in all I would have to say that I am pretty solitary" she stays next to him, she liked the feeling of being physically close to someone
 
Harley digested that information, and as Vivian's cool, neutral words sank in, he found her lack of connections to anyone or anything as bereft of life as one of her robots. Was she real herself, did she even have a soul? His body lied there like a tense board. But he stabbed that line of thinking immediately. Saying the inventor had no heart simply because she chose to live as a voluntary exile was about as reasonable as saying the same of himself because he allied with the ecosystem over civilization in his own world. And yet she'd welcomed him and was opening up. In fact he might be her outlet, her source...

The druid or shaman recognized those impulses to fix, to mediate, and checked himself with a rasp and a twitch of his lips in a not-quite snarl, though earth only knew what his owner would make of that out of place gesture. Even if he stayed willingly, her wholeness meant his withering in an inorganic box of all right angles. But... Either way, sending forth affection improved his position as both permanent companion and escapee. The feline-like bishoun stroked Vivian's hair and molded himself against her as a warm, live cuddle pillow, wilderness-survival-fit and smelling of pet shop incense and faraway grass plains. "Then that leaves your inventions, but I'd rather save that for tomorrow with a fresh mind and a demonstration. But there is an entire world to talk about, yours and mine. I'd like you to know mine and see it for one minute as clearly as I do..." His voice went wistful, wondering if there were pockets of unspoiled land on this world that might offer him an echo of his lost home. "Or instead, your world has books, songs, movie acting. You could simply tell me your favorites."
 
She couldn't believe it when he snuggles up close to her, no on ever was this affectionate with the likes of her. She looks up her eyes looking at him.... searching " what... why are you being so nice to me... why are you being so nice to me now?" She pets him and it is clear she isn't upset by this fact, merely confused and even a little frightened. Her long aqua hair fell in her eyes and she looks away, at her plain blankets, plain just like her.

" Can you show me your home? Is that even possible?" She blinks looking up at him confused, " my world is..... strange and crowded and loud and none of these things are good. I live here because I can make money doing the only thing I am good at. I don't live here because it is nice"
 
"Hmm." Harley's mouth turned down at the corners considering that first question. Gaining her confidence was the obvious answer, but to be honest with himself, he was alone in this world with all his connections and dear ones lost, making them bereaved even though he still lived, disappeared from their realm. And Vivian's emptiness for the druid/shaman to heal called to him like magnetism. He sighed, his chest shifting against her as he gathered his words. "You're... worthwhile, Vivian," he answered. "In contrast to others' unwise opinion of you. And you can see my world in words only, no more magic than imagination. Close your eyes?" The shifter's voice was lyrical, peaceful as the turning of the stars in the celestial wheel above.
 
She shrugs not quite sure she believes him n that but she wanted to feel the warmth and the affection he is offering so she nods, " alright. I am closing my eyes" she settles against his chest and closes her sparkling eyes. She leans into him and her shoulders slump as she calms herself down
 
The part clouded leopard bishoun made himself a comfortable and reassuring harbor for the woman estranged from society and to some extent her own world. The closed eyes token of trust brings out a thrumm from his chest, a vibrating purr that ended soon for the visual to begin. "You walk up to your home. Except instead of the building, in its place is a tree as thick around as this room. You dwell in chambers around the outside where it's hard to tell where the living arbor ends and your handiwork begins. And each year your home rises a few inches higher as your host grows. But that's alright, because you can climb the trunk easily, as I do." The male moved one leg to wipe his peculiar shaped foot, a bit more flexible than human, along Vivian's leg. Intending only to give the impression of health and ability unlike the ground-crawling humans he'd met thus far, he thought nothing of the action for the moment. "And there are other giants all around, a forest where sunlight is jade thanks to the canopy, and nighttime is onyx dusted with the luminous hue of your hair. Grass grazers and sometimes even hunters pass right beneath you while your legs dangle from your veranda. And in every direction is kin you know you can depend on. And this was the closest I got to a city." Harley stops there with a grim smile. He stared up at the ceiling - four right angles, another square in this box! - to ground himself from the memory he'd painted for Vivian. If he'd closed his eyes also, even with the feel of the different bed beneath him and the undoubtable human nestled in his side, the echo of his absent home would make the loss a spear through his rib cage instead of just a stone upon his chest.
 
She listens to his words intensly and she shivers when his leg grazes hers and she eventually looks up at him and she smiles at him kissing his cheek softly, " it sounds beautiful. I am sorry.... that you were torn from that. If I had a way to get you back... I would.... I would free you if the world would let you live.... but it is harsh out there" she sighs and looks at him, " I did not choose you ya know.... I asked her to give me whoever would not find a home. Whoever would rot away in her shop"
 
Several long vocal breaths let forth, neither purrs nor snarls. "You're right. It is a much nicer box," he snapped, finally putting his response into words. Rot indeed! But... that fool of a shopkeeper for a conversationalist, the limited space and the restraint of one form, ugh... The druid schooled himself into settling his emotions down before he might end up phasing to the cat and bounding away to some high cabinet to feel secure and aloof. "Yes. Everything you said is true. I apologize."
 
" For what? You have nothing to apologize for... you were dealt a shitty hand,... and I... I will do my best to make your life as happy as I absolutely can." She strokes his cheek softly then yawns falling to sleep
 
Harley sank deeper into the bedding also as he tried to relax... but no. Even with any loved one on the other side of a fluke rift, and that none would know but himself, the spirit he carried with him refused to abide sharing a nightly embrace at the first encounter. With a burst he reappeared as the housecat and treaded a hollow for himself on the bedding wedged against Vivian's chest. Not like he pestered her with anything kinky or objectionable about it like a muzzle on the breasts, but he gave her the security of a small weighted body and miniature heat generator.

The act was much more socially lenient this way. Achieving animal forms was rare enough among his people that there were no taboos on their animalistic behavior. A wolf greeting a friend with a leap in the lap and slurp on the chin was a whole different ballgame than a hulking man....

Meditating on the present and future, Harley drifted to sleep also.
 
She smiles as he shifts and snuggles into her chest, she pulls the blankets up and kisses him softly, he was adorable, and she was growing to be truly fond of him. She pulls the blankets up and yawns, even in her sleep she could feel these things since having a bed mate was so new and strange to her
 
Harley woke first then after a night of companionable contact, the first since his exile and welcome in the emotional sense that it was given. Rather than lie stiffly he extracted himself carefully from the sleeping woman's arms and stretched like a drawn out spring. After examining this and that feature around the house a bit he sprinted for exercize, his small cat size multiplying the free space in the home and making mundane parts of the layout an obstacle course. Best to get this out of his system without upsetting his host, though on second thought the female might react positively to him saving stamina for a few bishoun pushups on the floor.

Perhaps an hour later, insistent beeping summoned him warily back to Vivian's room. He shifted to manlike form standing at the foot of the bed, eyeing both the lady and the device of uncertain purpose sounding upon the nightstand.
 
She was still asleep at that time an hour later, she felt the eyes of someone staring into her and she blinks looking up at him " mmmmm what is it!" she reaches over retrieving her eye patch and a brush, first brushing her hair then putting the patch on covering up her scar once more
 
The shifter pointed to the electronic device at the nightstand that had now switched over to music after the first minute of discordant beeps. "Nothing's the matter - assuming that thing is meant to do that," he reported, now convinced the wake-up alarm was not some household warning tripped by his mad dash activities. "Going out today?" Harley queried, jutting his chin in the direction of the patch. "Because if it is just you and me in this house, neither I nor the robots require you to cover yourself, nor prefer it..."
(( Using that as a symbol of self-acceptance; perhaps Vivian may become reconciled with herself at the same time as Harley accepts a role in this new world. ))
 
She chuckles and turns the alarm off " if it didn't go off I would never wake up. I'm frightfully lazy." she reaches over and pets him behind his ears watching him and listening. When he mentions her patch she touches it and looks at him " without this.... I am ugly. I'm not much to look at as it is... And yes I am going out today actually. I wasn't planning on having someone live with me so I'm frightfully unprepared"

(( its fine I'm eating so replies will be slow))
 
At the pet behind the ear Harley stands still as a tree in a windless glade, even his tufted tail halting its waft through space. Affection was coming at him, not so easy to have the upper hand over his emotions when he wasn't the one masterfully doling it out. "Your face beneath it is far from ugly. It is a map to who you are and have been," he insists in assuring measured tones, casually easing down to the edge of the bed and crossing one ankle over a knee. "Hmm, unprepared as far as food stocks? If only there was a body of water at hand, I could treat you to a meal so fresh you could fry it before it even knew it had been captured. But instead, I could keep you company... like this the entire time, I swear." With that he sprang up, shifting as he did so, to land upon her shoulders as the small clouded leopard cat, rubbing his ribs and flank against the back of her head and twining his tail about her forehead and neck.
 
She smiles and even blushes at his words and when he shifted so close and comfortable with her.... Her heart skipped a beat... " well food and clothes and.... Anything else you may need..." she mumbles and it was clear his actions pleased her greatly
 
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