13th Day of Summer, 514AV
Thinking back to the day where he had worked on a relatively familiar poison at Ino Vations, the day he had met the woman, Vanari, Verin thought in his use of the equipment and implements he had used. The job was much easier, yes, with what Master Parnell's facility had to offer him, and he was glad of the chance to take advantage of it. It wasn't even as if he was being deceitful in his use - Nolan Parnell himself had asked him to inform the little apprentice Vera and that Burke kid of his a sense, and even mind the shop. He was fulfilling that askance by using what was available to him. He wanted to head down there today, knowing that, now Parnell had been released from his imprisonment in the Black Hole, it would be worth a meeting for them to... catch up with each other.
The two had, for the past few seasons, operate only a working relationship. Verin wouldn't go as far as to call himself a friend of Parnell's, nor Parnell a friend of his, but there was trust there, and they were more than mere acquaintances. a relationship somewhat akin to that of master and apprentice had developed, as his honorific to the professional poisoncrafter might suggest. He had been baffled to watch Parnell be dragged away, which so little of an explanation from the soldiers who took him. He had gone willingly... had he expected it? There were clearly many things that he did not know about the elusive poisoner. But even when they did finally meet together, he would not ask any of the questions he was burning to ask - it was not in the nature of his relationship with Parnell, or in the nature of any sensible beings who inhabited Ravok. It was not a city where gossip and open conversation was strife.
But today he would not be visiting Ino Vations today, or even the Nitrozian-Moletta Sanitary Station, though he do desperately wanted to pay off his debt. Today he would devote his attentions to the small red fox curled up in the corner of the room.since purchasing her, Verin had seen her well fed and bathed, but he had had a job to attend, even one so menial as bar tending as he had. The Kelvic had been left alone in his room at Tarsin's Boarding House for the majority of the day, still collared, and the collar was attached to a chain which looped around the edge of his bed.
There was not even a blanket beneath her - her animal form likely did not require such a thing, but Verin was acutely aware that his new property had a status above senseless animals, and that had to be reflected in how he treated her. Eventually, he imagined that she might curl up at the end of the bed, but he did not know her, and she did not know him. The girl had seemed pleasant enough at the research facility, but now she was free of there, he was not sure what temperament would rear it's ugly head. Until then, chained she would remain whilst he slept, though, for the day's excursion, he would trust her to be well behaved and walk beside him as a human.
“Rowan, wake up, we're going out today.” he rose from his chair and padded over to where the Kelvic slept. Which a quick jostle of his hand, he removed the silver collar around her neck and stood up again. “Shift, please, there are clothes waiting for you on the chest.” The clothes were nothing special; part of the deal what Verin had forced from the handler at the Kelvic Research Institute when he had bought her, but they would do for the time being - the girl would not walk around the city bare as if she were some common whore.
