Walk and Talk

[Ssezzkero]

45th of Spring, 515AV

The days were growing hotter, for which Sezkero was increasingly thankful. She intended to let herself change and go on a hunt soon, she only had to wait for a time to do so. The past few days have been nothing but a flurry of worry for the orphans and now she, Hirem, Ayatah and possibly this new Kelvic, Kyo were starting to plan for real this time. Before the two strangers had happened upon them, most of Hirem and her plans were talk. The journey seemed impossible and the mission was hard. It was daunting, even if they had both fully intended to go through with it, or at least he did. Sezkero merely hoped to help the Benshira get on his feet and then she would leave, scared of gaining responsibility for the children.

But at the moment, she tried not to worry about those things. Two days prior she had found Ayatah's convictions were true. She knew Hirem's were, and she found that her new friend Tim was surprisingly excited to help. But this Kyo... Kyo was still a mystery to her. Maybe she was already preparing to protect the children, but she dared not risk involving someone who was not committed.

So now she waited on the corner of her street. She was in sight of the entrance of Riverfall's Bazaar, and also in sight of her own apartment. She and Kyo had agree to meet there, and although she was early, she couldn't help but eye the small clock tower that rested on the entrance of the Bazaar. For a second, she thought she saw a flash of fur, which only heightened her senses as the snake lay in wait. She was uncertain of the Kelvic's animal species, as she hadn't paid much attention to the furry creature that first happened upon their meeting the days before, until he returned as a man of course. She knew that he was some sort of canine...

Sezkero only readjusted her headscarf, pulling the teal clothe a little further up so she could shield her eyes from the sun and continued her wait.

Common | Snake-Tongue | Tukant | Thoughts | PC/NPC Talking

[Kyo]

Streets streets and more streets. Kyo had learned a lot about this city from sight and simple exploration. But he had learned much much more based on his sense of smell. Normally he used his nose to find his way, following a scent as it grew stronger and more there until he came to the right place. In human-form, though... his human-nose was not nearly as good as his coyote-one, and so he was having trouble finding the right place.

The problem was that the place called the bazaar had too many scents and it didn't help that he was coming from a different direction than he usually did. His coyote-nose would be able to take the scents as a whole, as something that came all linked together, instead of a bunch of little things that scattered into too many directions on the soft breeze. With his human-nose he didn't know which to follow. Should he go after the cloth-smelling one that could be from the bazaar but could be from a clothing place somewhere else? The one that could be food from the bazaar or food carried in someone's hands or from one of the eating-buildings? The hot-metal one that might be new-made metal weapons that the human-forms used and sold, or the heat of the sun bouncing off all the sharp knives that the blue men carried? The coyote-man shook his head, grimacing, and walked on and on and on. At least he wasn't lost and alone. Brother was with him, and the brown-red dog constantly ran ahead and back, doing laps around the people he passed, making it a game. They continued walking.

Finally it got bad enough that the young man grabbed his shirt and was just about to give up and shift coyote... when the slight breeze lifted and his ears picked up a particular sound, bouncing off the stone walls next to him. Putting a hand to his head in relief, he turned and jogged after the noise, tilting his head to catch it, and he was happy that the wind chose to stay and lead him where to go. Finally he rounded a corner and saw them-- the tents with their bright friendly colors ducked in along the rocks. The wind played with their material, slapping and snapping it to make that particular sound.

Now where he was supposed to be, Kyo sniffed again, and he thought he smelled the one he was looking for, the strange snakey-scent that didn't have to do with saltwater like the Iyvess, but with something else. He turned and whistled once for Brother, and together they followed his nose.

The snake-woman was waiting on the corner of one of the streets near the bazaar like she'd said, and Kyo raised a hand when he saw her and waved like the human-forms did. Brother bounded up to her, tail whipping, and snuffled at her feet before dancing around her, looking for petting or food. He had used to fear the human-forms, though he had never not liked them like Sister. But not any more. Now Kyo had to whistle again, more softly this time, to get Brother to get back and not try to jump up on the snake-girl.

[Ssezzkero]

There he is. Sezkero caught sight of the man seemingly in his mid twenties. Surprisingly, the snake had little issue recognizing the man, although she was not usually good at remembering faces. Maybe it was the excitement and adrenaline of the other day that had ingrained the man's image in her head. He reached up to wave to her, and she returned the gesture before catching sight of a particularly terrifying dog bounding towards her. A shriek of fear flew out of her lips and she coiled into herself, quickly shuffling backwards.

In an instant, Kyo had whistled, calling the dog off, much to her relief, but she still stood curled as if ready to spring as she watched the dog wearily for a few ticks. But by the time Kyo had neared her, she managed to compose herself, mostly. "Kyo." She greeted as warmly as she could managed, still in a little bit of shock by the dog. Her voice came out shake-y, and although she would have preferred to appear less frightened by the slobbering mammal, it took great effort to calm herself down.

"Kyo," She repeated, trying to remember what she wanted to talk to the man about while she just stared at his dog. "Thank you for coming. I'm sssorry that our lassst meeting wassss sso... dissassssterousss." She almost chuckled at the under estimate, it took her a moment to realize she had yet to remove her headscarf, and old habit of hers. She proceeded to do so, letting the scarf fall loosely around her neck instead. As discreetly as possible, she tried to re-position herself so that she was on the other side of Kyo, away from hid dog. "It'sss a nice day. Care to walk with me?" She spoke softly, motioning down the smaller lane of road that was her own and held much less traffic than in front of the Zhongjie Warrens.

If Kyo walked with her, she would walk for a few chimes, at a leisure pace, before speaking again. Her eyes stayed mostly to the ground, glancing up at the man every once in a while. It seemed impossible for her not to note the height of people when she met them, and now that he stood close to her it was hard not to notice. He was just as tall as Hirem, but his build was slimmer than the muscled Benshira, which only made him appear taller to her. Even the humans of this city were giants. "I wanted to talk to you about your interesst in the orphanage? Lassst time we met... well there wassss not much room for conversssation was there? Ha." She huffed out, glancing up at him once before shyly returning her gaze ahead of her, keeping a leisure pace. She had done this before with Ayatah, and yet the day that passed in between, it seemed new and hard again.

"As you may guessssss, I care deeply for thesssse children. I just want to confirm that if you do have interesssst in helping usssss, you will be of no danger to them?" She did not intend to be intimidating, but she couldn't help her voice lowering. On the word danger, she nearly switched to a full on hiss, and she turned to eye the man down. Some instinct told her to be protective, even if it was irrational. She actually really liked Kyo, liked him better than most strangers she met, but she had kept the children a secret for so long, that when he had happened upon their meeting, she was a little fearful, although unnecessarily so.

She wanted to apologize immediately, to explain or go on, but she knew she shouldn't. Ker knew it was best if she left it at that and allowed Kyo to take it as it was, she may learn something then. But she did hope he wouldn't take it too badely.

Common | Snake-Tongue | Tukant | Thoughts | PC/NPC Talking

[Kyo]

The snake-woman --her name had been Sezkero he remembered suddenly-- flinched back from Brother as if he'd snapped at her. At this Kyo stepped forward, the hand he had waved now outstretched, his back bending slightly down so that he might look to see if she was okay, and so that he might reach to brush Brother behind his legs.

The big dog rubbed against his knees and made to go towards the snake-woman again, maybe because of her odd, not-human scent. Kyo made a sharp noise of air between his teeth, not a whistle but something like shhht, and finally Brother backed down. The dog turned and padded down the street to find someone else to sniff at and beg from. Kyo watched him go, then looked at Sezkero and said, voice soft, "I'm sorry." He nodded his head when she asked him to walk.

They wandered for a while, going slowly. Kyo kept his eyes on the snake-woman, waiting for what she might say, curious as to why she had called him to this place. She kept her eyes down, and he wondered what she was looking for. Finally she spoke. "I wanted to talk to you about your interesst in the orphanage? Lassst time we met... well there wassss not much room for conversssation was there? Ha."

The coyote-man blinked a little at the sound of her odd words. He couldn't remember if they had been that way before, or if he had just not noticed. She was right about that other night, how there had been not enough talking between them because of what had happened. Just thinking about that day still made him feel like his fur should stand on end. "No," he agreed, voice gruffer than usual when he spoke, "No room for conversation."

It was bad, though, what he said, though he didn't know why. She seemed to take his tone as a threat, for when she spoke next she sounded different. Less... good, pleasant. More angry? The coyote-man automatically shied a half-step away, holding up both his hands to show that he wasn't bad. At her hissing sound and dark look, Kyo thought he heard a soft growl in response... though it came from behind and back a ways. Brother. There was the clack of nails on the hard stone road as the dog got closer.

Kyo didn't know what he'd done --besides use that tone, and he wished he hadn't-- to make her think that he might harm the children. Now he spoke softly again, trying to make her understand as best he could. "I don't want to danger children. No. Kyo... I care for children, yes. Yes, interest in helping them, you. Helping children good. Orphanage good. Make children... good, smile, belong." He didn't know if that was a good enough answer, if his words were good enough. So he added, "I... Kyo... friend." Behind, Brother had gone quiet at the sound of his voice, though Kyo's neck prickled. He could feel the dog following after, watching, though when he looked he didn't see him right away. His dogs were very protective of him, as much as the snake-woman was over the children.

[Ssezzkero]

A trace smile sidled between her lips and she looked up at Kyo again, and then quickly down at his dog before back up to him. "Ssssssorry," She murmured, looking back down at the ground before them. She wasn't quite sure what had come over her, but she didn't want to discuss such things with a stranger either. Even a stranger with a heart as kind as Kyo. It was clear, even though the tall man couldn't quite properly fit his sentences together, that he meant to convince her. The snake had never really been a suspicious creature, and given the series of events in which she met Kyo, Sezkero had little trouble believing what he was trying to tell her. But Ker couldn't simply perk back up and start blabbing on again. She was still curious about the pale man. Less of his intentions now, but she wanted to juice him for ideas.

Having already done so with Ayatah, Sezkero was able to pull her topics together a little simpler as she introduced them to the man. She had no intentions of structuring a conversation, but before they departed, she wanted to get a few questions out. "Have you met any of the children before now?" Sezkero tried to remember which child had payed particular attention to the man. She had noticed that this was so, he didn't scare the kids like she did upon first meeting them. Some had been familiar with him. "They did not fear you." She stated her observation with more confidence now. This wasn't a risky topic, after all, if he was truly interested in the orphanage, they were in it together. "It took me nearly two moonsss to earn their trussst." She gave a breathy laugh, trying to find a familiar ground with the man. She liked him, but the Iyvess was not a social butterfly, so when she didn't try she knew she might miss her chance to get to know him.

oocI'm going off of your post in Home for All. You mentioned something about a kid petting you. Feel free to let me know if I am totally off, haha. XD

Common | Snake-Tongue | Tukant | Thoughts | PC/NPC Talking

[Kyo]

He must have said something right, this time, because the snake-woman smiled, though as she did she looked down. Once more Kyo followed her gaze, trying to figure out what it was she was looking for down on the ground. Had she dropped something and was searching for it along the street? But he couldn't see anything down there.

It was when she was speaking that he realized that maybe she was what the human-forms called shy...? For dogs and coyotes, looking away from each other's eyes sometimes meant not wanting to challenge or get into a fight. Was that what this was? Kyo wasn't certain. He didn't want her to think he was not a friend. He had said he was, but he never knew how much people could understand him.

At once he shifted his posture, trying to show that he was calm and not angry. He smiled and nodded when she spoke of the children, though after the first question his smile faded and his brow wrinkled in a frown.

"They don't fear me," he agreed. "I know them. I see them in gardens, in city, other places. Shai, Mouse, Tarik. The children like... they like me. They like the other Kyo. Other me." He didn't have a word for his other form, coyote-form, and he didn't know if she would know what he was talking about. To help with the meaning, the moment he said 'other' he bent and put a hand by his knee to show his height in coyote-form, and then motioned somewhat towards Brother, to show canine. "Children welcome other me. They see him, their friend. They don't worry, they don't fear. They trust. I... help them. Help them to smile? Help them other, help them live or help them know they belong."

He wasn't really happy with that explanation, but he couldn't really explain it all with the words he had. Mainly the kids --the ones he knew, since he didn't know all of them-- liked him because he played with them, sometimes helped them do whatever it is they wanted to do, whether it be fishing or finding something or just being together or anything else. He acted as a friend. Mostly they knew his coyote-form, and they seemed to like the coyote, didn't fear it as they did the adult human-forms or the blue men, though many of the kids had seen him in this form too.

They were just children, just pups. They just liked having someone to be around sometimes. They just wanted to play and be happy like everyone else. But sometimes he knew it was harder for them. They could get sad or angry or afraid very easily, especially afraid. They needed someone to help them.

"Will orphanage care for them, help them? I worry for them, for the children. I worry they... they 'in danger'. The city..." He shook his head, then said, frowning heavily now, not liking this part, "The city no help them, 'no room for conversation.' No room for children like them. No care." If the orphanage was what he thought it was, a place for the children to live and to take care of them, then that would be good. Pups needed to be pups. They needed to learn how to live, yes, but also... they needed to be able to play freely and be silly and make mistakes. These children didn't have that. And that worried him more than anything, that they wouldn't be happy and healthy. That they wouldn't know how to be happy at all if they kept being how they were right now, on their own.

[Konrad Venger]

Nice job! Your work has pleased The Sloth! Sezkero XP: Observation - 2 Socialization - 2 Intimidation - 1 Lore: Kyo: An Unknown Quality Dogs: Slobbering and Unpredictable Intimidation: Sometimes Unintentional Click Me! : Kyo, lemme know when your expenses are paid and you TOO will be rewarded! Well... not much else to say, but I like how Sez didn't just act the typical Dhani and snap and bend him to your will. It's rare you see someone play a Dhani as an empathetic individual, struggle as it might be. Impressive. Oh, and please make sure you go back and edit your post in the Request Thread to reflect the fact this one is now done and dusted. PM me with any questions and later 'tater!