[Library] The bad day (Tock)

[Fiera]

Disconcerted by Ticks closeness, Fiera pulled back a little. Why did she need to be so close, anyway? Fiera tried to avoid eye contact, instead, letting her eyes travel the length of the library. Tick’d been staring at her like this for quite some time now and Fiera worried that she would overgive – obviously still not very competent with the craft. That wouldn’t fare very well with either of her supervisors. “Err… Tick? You might want to take a break now…” Silence “Look, you can’t focus like this for too long or you might overgive,” unsure if Tick knew what that meant, Fiera added, “And get very tired.” Augusta came into view again, clutching another stack of books. With a bewildered look, she strode off, huffing. What did Tick want? Did she even understand the concept of personal space? Apparently not, Fiera thought as the girl pulled her head closer. Feeling like a rare specimen of plant under examination, she grimaced and tried to figure out how to regain the freedom of her head.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Feeling tired, headache growing, and dizziness starting to disorient her, Tock sighed and released the Djed flow. She had sensed the girl's discomfort, her worry and concern. But nothing that screamed Kelvic. Maybe she just wasn't skilled enough yet to sense that deep. If she hadn't seen the girl shift the other day, she wouldn't even have a clue right now that she WAS Kelvic. She felt inadequate for failing to sense it. And did the girl just call her 'Tick'? Tock stuck her fingers in her ears and wiggled them around, thinking her hearing must have been affected by Overgiving. Sensory loss was supposed to be one of the side effects. "'Ello? 'Ello?" she said, trying to see if she could still hear her own voice clearly. "Oy, Sook, ya wanna maybe does yer shifty thing fer me? Oy, cause see, I done ain't gots no practice what fer sensin' 'ows ya works, an' maybe I figgers, if'n yer switchied up, I can figger what I's doin' wrong, aye?" She sat back in her chair, rubbing her head, not realizing she was smearing ink all over herself. She'd need to wait a few minutes before she tried again. But she was extremely curious about the Kelvic. She had only met one once before, and having another specimen in front of her, well, it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. Besides, the girl worked here, right? That meant it was her JOB to help people with their homework! She recorded some notes on the things she'd learned so far, the sensing of emotions, the taste of salt in her mouth. She also recorded the side effects: Headache. Dizziness. Tired. Thought Sook called me 'Tick'.

[Fiera]

OOCSorry this took so long! Relieved that her head now had full freedom, Fiera leaned back onto her chair. Her eyes fell on Tick, who seemed to have lost her hearing temporarily. Strange. Strange that she should be so unusual. Strange that she was calling her Sook. Strange that… “Shift?” comically wide eyes replaced her previous look of comfort, “Shift here? Here in the library?” The rest of Tick’s speech sounded quite jumbled to Fiera, but she got the general gist of it. Tick wanted her to shift so that she could understand how Fiera worked. With the air of someone very lofty, Fiera thought about it. Something told her that wasn’t right. Animals were not allowed in the library, but she wasn’t an animal… technically. Plus, if she shifted, she’d finally get to clean herself up properly. Fiera prodded her sodden hair and grimaced. Water. She hated water, “alright, I’ll do it” Skipping the middle step of nudity, Fiera morphed with her clothes on. Fiera had never wondered exactly how she could shift forms so easily; whether it was a physical initiation or a mental one. To her it had always seemed like any other movement, something entirely natural. Looking up from a bundle of clothes for a second, Fiera started to groom herself.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock focused her attention on the Kelvic girl again during the shift, but suddenly felt like her vision had gone cross-eyed. She closed her eyes and once again cut off the Djed flow, wondering what had happened. Then she glanced in the brass dish and saw the smeared ink all over her head. She sighed, scrubbed her face clear with some spit and scrubbing with her shirt sleeve, and started over. She had to wait a few minutes for her vision to clear, resting her aching head while the big kitty cleaned herself. Then once she could see straight again, she re-sketched the Glyphs, carefully tracing them on her head once more. Since the barrier Glyphs on her temples had created too much pressure, she moved them inwards a bit, closer to her eyes. With them moved closer, she found they restricted the Djed flow more cleanly. As she focused her mind and concentrated on reaching forth with the energy, she found her field of vision narrowed to the tight focus of a magnifying lens. She looked Fiera over again. With her narrowed sensing field, she had to lean close and study only one part of her at a time, but she got much better focus on the aura thus way. She grinned as she felt the tingle of knowledge flowing into her mind, briefly feeling the rough sensation of a cat's tongue brushing against her own skin. Her focus made easier now with the aid of the adjusted Glyphs, she concentrated on studying the aura around the girl's face, ad she had before. Except it was so different now. She could sense the fur, feel how soft it would be if it were under her fingers. She felt a curious twitching on her face, indicative of the cat's whiskers. The only similarity she could sense, the only thing that showed this was still the same girl as before, was the aura of dampness and the slight taste of salt. She sighed and cut off the Djed flow, then cleaned her head off again. Unaware and uncaring that she still had quite a bit of ink smeared across her face, she took notes on what she had learned, feeling inadequate. It had been a learning experience, to be sure, but she just wasn't good enough yet. If she couldn't sense the Kelvic soul inside the girl, how was she supposed to learn enough to fix poor Cutty? Frustrated and tired, her emotions unraveling due to how tired the magic made her feel, she leaned her face onto her hands with her elbows on the table. Digging the heels of her palms into her eyes, she quietly began to cry tears of frustration.

[Fiera]

An animal in the library! What horror! Contemplating Augusta‘s overblown response brought a rumbling chuckle from her chest. Her very character was overblown so much that Fiera wondered whether it was fake. Fiera had forgotten about the girl who was supposed to be studying her, and instead started to pull a well concealed splinter from her right paw. By the time Fiera was splinter-free, Tick had already begun to cry. She saw Tick bury her head in her hands, but thought nothing of it until her superior hearing informed her of the soft whimpering sounds coming from that direction. Confused, Fiera looked over and grew even more confused. She hadn’t even hurt herself! What was there to cry about? The last time Fiera cried was… no more than two weeks ago, when she indirectly confessed her attraction to Leigo, then realised it was probably a stupid thing to do. How did she feel then? Alone. Absolutely and utterly alone, with no one to talk to about anything. And for that one time in her life, she actually wanted to talk to someone. Maybe Tock was feeling alone? Fiera hooked her front claws into the soft wood of the table leg and stretched before padding over to provide Tick with some comfort. She prodded Tick’s arm with her nose, rearing up to put her front legs on her thigh. Her actions seemed more mechanical than sympathetic, but perhaps that was because Fiera was not well versed in the arts of compassion.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock blinked in surprise and looked up when the cat suddenly pushed against her. She raised her head, looking down at the animal half leaning on her. "What?" she asked, not sure what the cat wanted. She wasn't good with animals, especially cats. Her last experience with a cat had been an ongoing problem that led to her getting thrown out of Syliras onto her rump. She wiped away her tears, ashamed that she was showing such weakness. She wasn't supposed to be a crier. She was just under so much pressure lately. School, work, Mikey, Cutty, her breakup with Satevis, getting into fights with Kaeson... Not to mention trying to squeeze in time for her statue, and her Animation projects. She had too much on her plate. She never relaxed, never just spent time with friends. But then, she barely HAD any friends. The only thing she did that wasn't some sort of work was near-daily trips to the bar. Drinking, in excess, was about the only release she got. As she composed herself, she idly scratched behind the cat's ears, figuring that was what the animal wanted. In her distraction, she had practically forgotten that this was a person, and she worked here. She'd also forgotten that she had a goddamn essay to write... She sighed heavily when she remembered that, not sure at ALL what she was supposed to write now. Maybe she could write about studying the Kelvic. Pretending like she hadn't just been crying or making a fool if herself, she picked up her quill and said to the Kelvic, "I's gonna write an essay on ya, 'kay?"

[Fiera]

Cocking her head at Tick’s surprised expression, Fiera hopped back onto four paws. She had done her part, and now as a reward, she got a pleasant scratch behind her ears. Tick didn’t seem very confident and quickly stopped, so Fiera was forced to press her head against her companions hand so that she would resume the scratching. Gods, she should have people do that more often! Only when Tick announced that she would be writing an essay on Fiera did she wake from her scratch-induced trance. She couldn’t fathom what the girl could find to write about her, but at least she had stopped crying. Rearing up once again, except this time putting her front paws on the table top, Fiera read the essay question. In this physical form, any academic task was hard to undertake. Her thoughts seemed slower and less complex, and in a way, more animal. Fiera fumbled with the letters until she rung some sense out of the whole question. The word colour jumped out at her – on her first attempts at aura-reading, Fiera had seen things only in various shades of grey. Fiera finished grooming herself and once again pressed her head against Ticks hand. There was nothing to do now but wait until Tick finished her essay. A mouse-haired student walking passed stared so curiously at the pair of oddities that he almost ran into a bookcase. Half the books toppled from his hands and Fiera scowled; intent on the original peace. With trembling hands, he pulled them off the floor and apologised while looking at Tick all the while, as if Fiera could not understand his apology. Infuriated, Fiera snapped her jaw at him and turned around. She buried herself in her clothes and shifted, before her could warn the librarians that there was an animal in the library. The shirt was the most difficult part, and Fiera struggled to put the appropriate extremity in the holes. Whether her head was meant to go there of her arm was a mystery to her, yet it was necessary to shift without exposing herself. Stuck in the shirt, Fiera looked to Tick for help.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

When the Kelvic pushed her head under Tock's hand again, she smirked and obediently resumed the scratching. It was a nice distraction from her sorrows, having a warm body there, feeling the soft fur beneath her fingers. Even though she hated cats... but this wasn't a normal house cat. Not only was she a big, fierce predator, but she was a Kelvic was well. Which meant she could clean up her OWN damn poop, was probably smart enough not to eat things that would make her puke all over the place, and she could actually be useful, instead of lazing around all day and being generally worthless. She continued giving the cat rubs with one hand, while with the other she began writing her essay: I met a Kelvic and her aura tasted salty. It tasted salty in her person form and her cat form. But she were wet from taking a bath or something so that's probably why. I gots a headache from putting Glyphs on my head but then I figured how to does them right and then it was less headachy. Her aura sensed curious too but that's just cause she's a cat and cats is always curious even though she was a girl when she were curious. Then she sensed Djedy but then I got tired so I stopped, and then she was a cat and it felt like she was licking me even though she wasn't so that was her aura I guess. But it didn't have any colors which I think is stupid cause it's supposed to. Tock paused and checked the assignment again to make sure she wasn't missing anything. She had no idea what 'citations for all research sources meant.' Tock was a genius when it came to magic and engineering, but she hadn't had any schooling as a kid, and didn't get this book-learning. So she took her best guess and added a notation at the bottom: I's citationing Fire-ya the Kelvic what works in the library cause she's the one I researched. She gave a satisfied nod, then turned to see the trouble Fiera had gotten herself into. She frowned in confusion, not sure what had possessed the big cat to get all tangled up in her shirt. She pulled the shirt off and said, "Oy, Sook, if'n yer cold goes back fer yer girl form 'fore ta put'cher clothes on!" Considering Fiera had bared all down at the docks the other day, she didn't figure it was an issue of modesty.