welcome to your new hell, Welcome to the Menagerie. Or as we like to call it, Dome Sweet Dome! We are an eight-year strong futuristic shapeshifter and sci-fi creature roleplay, dedicated to bringing you a world unlike any other; a world in which your character has become an experiment and must fight for survival in a domed city, cut off from the rest of the world. Choose to be any animal in your fight for survival in an artificial world built by the Keepers as they subject you to experiments beyond your control. Choose to wander the world inside the walls alone, as a Rogue, or find safety in numbers in one of the groups known as Rings. How will you survive?
60 - 65 ºF
blustery with scattered showers spotty sunshine
YEAR 2309
shift bans.
» Cougars (aka Puma, Mountain Lion, Panther)
» All Tiger Species
» All Lion Species
» All Wolf Species
» African Leopards
group bans.
none.
encouraged !
FEMALE CHARACTERS! create a RETRO or ANTHRO and get 250 CP + a free skill! read me for more info!
last updated: april 19th, 2016
Click on each Ring or Retro group image to view their ranks!
GROUP UPDATES
CARNARING
Jocelyn Edelwolfe is the new Alpha! Seija Mulviene is the new Beta, and Grey is the new Delta. Lead Hunter is now Boone Haywood, Head of Border Patrol is now Noelle Ndango!
FALLENRING
-
FULSIRING
Fulsi has a standing treaty with the Nakoma, granting limited access to their fresh water.
NAKOMA TRIBE
-
ANALOYA PRIDE
a while back, the Analoya suffered a suspicious poisoning of their river, luckily with few casualties; the Bellator are suspected of having taken part in it, and there are whispers that Pride leader Wanderer is talking alliance with the Nilda for access to their clean water.
BELLATOR HERD
As new leader of the Bellator, Loril has instituted some rank changes. See this thread for more information!
LAWAII FLOCK
no updates!
NILDA PACK
no updates!
CARNARING QUICK STATS
ALPHA -- Jocelyn Edelwolfe, Clouded Leopard, played by IronChild
BETA -- Seija Mulviene, Spotted Hyena, played by Seija-chan
DELTA --Grey, Mackenzie Valley Wolf, played by Kriss
_______________________________________________
It’s not possible to go back, to change things. If she could, she would have started with that night. No, before that … the morning before they were all of them, broken apart. When things were normal, when things made sense.
“Ohayō gozaimasu!” The girl said as she flopped to the breakfast table, folding her legs beneath her and snatching up a fork. “Itadakimasu!” She called, and began shoveling eggs into her mouth. As usual, Akane was in a hurry to get to school.
“Sakki, itta no wa nani desuka?” The woman behind her asked in a chiding tone as she turned from the stove and planted a firm kiss on the side of Akane’s head, then placed bacon on her plate with a spatula.
“Nandayo?” The girl responded through a mouthful of eggs and snatched up a piece of bacon.
“English. I need to practice too,” her mother responded with a Japanese accent. It had been years since they had moved to the United States, but Sakura liked to keep both languages fluent in the house. Each day they switched to the other language, and today was English.
Akane rolled her eyes as she swallowed, took a sip of juice and watched Sakura as she sat down beside her.
“Good morning. Ooooo FOOD!” She said in light sarcasm, and took another sip of juice as a car honked outside.
Sakura gave her a quelling expression, but the banter was lighthearted – tinged with amusement. The girl smiled, and pushed back her chair as she tied her dark brown hair back into a half pony-tail.
“Breakfast was good Ma,” she said as she pecked her mother on the cheek and grabbed her backpack in the same swoop. “I’m late for practice. See you later!”
“Be safe!” Sakura called, then shook her head fondly and tucked a strand of near black hair behind an ear. She chuckled to herself, then sighed and sipped her tea as she settled back to read the news tablet.
Oh the way out the door, Akane almost slammed into her father coming down the stairs, toothbrush stuck in the side of his mouth.
“Konnichiwa!” Husher chimed in what his daughter said was 'a horrible American accent', and stooped his plus six foot height down to accept Akane’s half hug and hasty peck on the cheek in route to the door.
“That’s 'hello', not 'good morning', there's toothpaste on your shirt, it’s English today and I swear I’m gonna be late!” She said in one breath, the last part of the sentence yelled loudly and through the door as she dashed off the porch, down the driveway to her friend’s waiting car, and disappeared into the beat up Jeep.
Husher scratched the back of his head, huffed a breath as tires screeched, and walked to the kitchen. Sakura looked up as he leaned in the doorway, pulled the toothbrush from his mouth, and waggled his eyebrows.
“Konnichiwa,” he said in a deep suggestive tone, and his wife cracked a smile.
Akane awoke with a start, gasping for breath as her light eyes flashed around. Where was she? What was going on? She was shaking, and looking at her hands realized why she was so cold - she was in the snow. A melting blanket of white covered her, and she struggled to stand.
The hazy mix of her dreamed memories and the disorienting reality that she had no idea where she was seemed all too much for her stomach, and she turned to retched bile. Her stomach riled in complaint as she coughed and spat once, then scooped some snow to clear her mouth. Once aright, she hugged her arms around herself tight - both in comfort and warmth.
Wasteland, nothing but a stretch of endless white, random shrubs and the whistling wind surrounded her. Immediately she knew (despite the fact that there was snow) that she was not in Alaska, but her brain seemed sluggish to supply answers.
She turned a slow circle once, spied what looked like a pile of rocks in the distance and took a breath. If she could make it there, it would provide at least some protection. Looking down, she realized she was in flats and before much thought went into the matter she shifted, calling her form into that of a red vulpine.
Immediately she sensed something strange to her foxform as she wasted no time scurrying across the snow to what seemed to be taking shape into a structure. She would deal with it later, first things first. Broken down, covered in snow, and half ruined it was little more than a shack, but it was better than the elements.
It took a bit of digging but eventually Akane cleared a hole to a window, shifted, and fought the pane glass up with human leverage. She crouched down, slipped inside, and struggled to close it behind her. Her breath fogged the air as she huffed and the window closed with a last heave. Exhausted she crumbled to the floor, remembering vaguely that as a fox she would be warmer ... and shifted back into a small, red, two-tailed vixen.
Translations and OOC___ ((Hope this works for you! I wanted to get a little backstory in, hope you don't mind! <3)) • Ohayō gozaimasu! ”Good Morning! • Itadakimasu! "Let’s Eat!" or I accept the food! (Commonly said before a meal in appreciation.) • Sakki, itta no wa nani desuka? "Wait, what did you say?" • Nandayo a sharp, "What?" u.u with a bit of a tude
"Vash otets trus!" Slansky kept walking, despite the insults hurled at his back being sharper than knives or harsher than any bullet. The boy, his constant tormentor, closed the distance between them to spit on Slansky's shoes.
He tried to remind himself what good people did. He tried to think,
[/i]what would my father do? but he knew that no man would tolerate such disrespect, and even at thirteen he wasn't about to bother with it. Alik was laughing behind him, and Slansky whipped around to punch the older boy in the face. Slan watched him reel back, clutching his jaw, more surprised than hurt. "Vy nemnogo derʹma!" He spit, and came toward Slansky with fists up.
It was a relief to finally have something to take his anger and frustration out on. Alik hadn't stood a chance, and by the time the brutal fight was over there was a ring of other teenagers watching dead-silent. Slansky had blood dripping from his fists, and he was fairly certain he had cracked a knuckle, but the pain was dull. Later, they took him to the police station on Alik's request--the other boy wanted to lay down charges.
Slansky normally took the early shifts. It was still habit to wake up before the sun rose. With a quick splash of water to his face proceeded by the lacing of his boots (he typically slept in his clothing to stay warmer), he was off by himself. People continuously insisted he needed a partner, but Slan shrugged it off. Out into the rising dawn, he stretched, feeling the ache in his right fist, which he hadn't just cracked, but had broken in several places. With a few strides, Slan shifted into his akhal-teke form, something that he had adjusted too well during his time in the Menagerie.
He started off at a trot down the tracks, thinking of going toward retro territory, the border of it perhaps. His hide was metallic in the bright morning son, his haunch or shoulder twitching now and again, air billowing through his nostrils as he picked up speed. He had learned that he could go on forever like this--probably from one side of the Menagerie to the other, if he wanted.
He would have kept going, save the fact he stumbled across the scent he was all-too-familiar with. Sterile. There were few things in the Menagerie itself that smelt like that, but the laboratories were all clean, smelling like antiseptics and cold steel. He halted abruptly, trotting in a semi-circle, his eyes scanning the ground. Slansky's ears were at attention, erect, and his head was held high as he tossed it back. It smelled like... a new comer, not even a trespasser. With a sigh--or more like a whiny--he started off in the direction of the scent, and soon discovered a mess of tracks, a pile of bile, and human footprints leading off into some sort of canine ones.
He followed them for some time, his eyes locked on the structure in the distance. Of course they had gone there. Slansky prepared to give some speech starting with, "It's okay to be disorientated." When he arrived to the building, however, he realized she must be inside. Slansky shifted, knowing that she must be in shock, and resisted the urge to heave another sigh. He wasn't the sort of man expected to give pity. Whatever he was capable of--mercy, pity, sentiment--had been weeded out of him the night he shot a man dead, for revenge and not for justice. "Hello? Are you alright?" He spoke in shiftertongue, and after a pause he crouched to work open the window, sliding in. He was surprised to see that the Keepers had already had their way with her. She sported double tails, something unnatural for a fox. "You are in Fallen territory." Not that Slansky figured she cared, at the moment.
It was timeless when she closed her eyes. She could have been asleep hours or minutes, but it had not been long that she huddled on the floor before the shifting of the window roused her. Focusing was hard, her vision sliding away from her with a maddening tilt every time she attempted to see. Instead, she squeezed her eyes shut - curling into a small red ball and hiding her face in her tails.
His voice was rough in her sensitive ears, but somehow she understood his words. They meant little enough to her in concept, Fallen like … lost? Akane’s head swam and she tried hard not to breathe too loudly. She was cold, and sick, and smelled weird. His scent drifted in, and he smelled weird.
Part of her mind jeered at her for being so helpless. Get up Baka ne! What if he’s here to hurt you? With that thought the vix struggled to her feet, black paws whispering across the floor as she scurried into the corner and under a half collapsed side table. Her eyes glowed in the darkness as she watched him from her hole.
What did he want? Without realizing it, she had been mumbling half of what she though aloud. It came out as nervous fox-chitter and barks that would make little or no sense to even another fox, but once she felt safer in the hole she quieted.
It became apparent that she was not in her right mind. Slansky rose a hand to his face and ran it down the length of it, feeling tired before the day fully began. He listened to her nervous sounds before she slunk into the corner. With a sigh, Slansky knelt to level himself with her. His eyes were drawn to her double tails a second time, because he was sure that would be fun to explain once she came to.
He tried to think of what to say to her. He had never been very good with frightened people, being that most of his experience in Moscow had been with the high-end drug dealers or con artists, not the kids who were lost or kidnapped or things such as that. No, any police officer there was willing to work with them, because it was rarely involved with significant people. His mind skimmed over these thoughts, trying to decide how to approach her. Confusion was evident, and the rank odor of drugs was too strong in his nose. "Promiňte, miláčku." He said, softly. "I am not here to hurt you," he followed with a spurt of shiftertongue, before leaning back on his heels.
He closed the distance between himself and her very slowly, making sure not to move too quickly. He didn't want to startle her. Slansky's eyes lowered and he extended his hand, like he would to a child or an animal. "My name is Slansky. I'm here to help." The words seemed awkward to him, if only because of the fact that he was so used to being either gruff or demanding.
His voice rumbled a few words in ... what was that russian? The next round of words she understood somehow. Never had she heard a language like it, but he said he was there to help. When his hand moved out, hesitantly, her sharp face peeked out of the darkness and her black nose gingerly sniffed his hand.
Light eyes the color of the ocean settled on him wearily, their shade unusual for a fox of any breed. Her stare was solid, and slowly her flattened ears rose and just then ... there was a change, a transferring of energy was the best she could describe it. Or maybe, just maybe ... she was tripping hard core. Yes ... that was more likely.
Never the less, his scent in closer proximity smelled arid like the desert, but clean like fresh snow. The pleasant musk of a large animal and the echo of other beasts also passed through her senses but by then she had forgotten some of her fear and had slowly climbed out from her hole, almost without her own notice.
When she looked away the world seemed to spin again, and her stomach clinched as she almost toppled over. She whined once, so quietly it was almost a whisper and promptly buried her head into the crook of his elbow, efficiently hiding her eyes from the tilting world.
So warm... was the last thing she thought before her tails curled beneath her and she relaxed against him in sweet darkness.
It was quiet. The morning light filtered through the dirty window, stinging Akane's eyes when they opened. Her small jaws opened in a fierce yawn before she curled up again in the man's arms to sleep a little longer.... Her eyes snapped open and she suddenly exploded, slamming ungracefully into the wall and backing into a corner.
"Nanda! Where the hell am I? Nanda yo omae-wa? What is this?" In the jumble of Japanese and English, only the last question had been in shifter-tounge. She looked around wildly for an escape route but had no idea where she was. Her mind had not caught up with the situation, and angry chittering escaped her before she could stop it.
Translations and OOC___ • Nanda! What the the hell! • Nanda yo omae-wa? Who the hell are you?
The gradual approach of the fox left Slansky thinking that he was not too suited for this. He was growing antsy and impatient, although he did well to hide it, even when she shoved her face into the crook of his arm. She had seemed unstable to begin with, and her entire body seemed intent on collapsing in that instant, pressed against him. Slansky raised his hand to his face, running it through his hair. How, exactly, did he manage this? He leaned against the wall of the shack, slowly reclining into a sitting position, his legs kicked out in front of him. The fox was curled against his side, and after a moment's consideration, he left her there.
Slansky wasn't too intent on leaving the stranger there. He might not have been pleased with the situation, but he certainly wasn't heartless, and from the smell of it there was a storm rolling in. He craned his neck to get a view of the window, and his fears were confirmed--there was a storm rolling in, a mess of dark, thick clouds.
By the time he turned back to the fox, she was trembling, perhaps from cold. He had to admit that he wasn't oblivious to it, despite the thick jacket he wore, and after a few seconds of watching her shudder he reached out to ease her fully into his lap, wrapped in his arms. Her coldness abated eventually, and Slansky resolved himself to wait for her to wake up again. He shifted his weight, leaning his head back--a nap wouldn't be too bad, considering he didn't get enough sleep as it was...
Ah, what was that? Was she stirring? Slansky's eyes cracked open from his doze, just as the small red fox launched herself from his arms. He was startled, stiffening all over. "Nanda! Where the hell am I? Nanda yo omae-wa? What is this?" What the hell was she saying? The last bit was the only thing he understood, and that didn't make sense. What is this? Slansky snorted and stood, crossing his arms over his chest, noting dismally that there were red hairs streaking his forearms.
"You were freezing," he said in his own defense, his eyes glowering. She obviously wasn't disorientated any longer. The sleep had done her miracles. "Khrista radi! You were... ah, disorientated. You approached me first, and by the time you fell asleep it was getting very, very cold." He pulled his collar up around his neck. "Vozmozhno, vy dolzhny blagodaritʹ menya za pomogaya vam."
translations:Vozmozhno, vy dolzhny blagodaritʹ menya za pomogaya vam. - maybe you should thank me for helping you. i]Khrista radi!
Black ears flattened in worry as his mix of language drifted through the air, the shifter-tongue understandable but strange. Blinking a moment in thought, she observed the room, the sound of the storm outside buffeting against the window, and that she was indeed quite warm. Plumes formed on the air as he talked, and the floor was almost ice.
Akane had no memory of this. Scraps of the past few hours were abstract and hard to concentrate on. What was more, his words felt true. Her gaze narrowed and she took a breath. Maybe if she understood this shifter-tongue she could speak it.
"Okay," she tried and was surprised that it made sense. "Sorry, I just ... What is this place? Where are we? Who are you?" She was not about to bestow a thanks unless she was sure he deserved it. "And, Nanda is this gargley language that I some how magically speak?" It was obvious she was skeptical.
Akane had always been good with languages. She was picking up that he spoke Russian. Were they in Russia? She tried to recall ... just then her gaze settled on her tails that curled around her feet. At least she seemed to be in one piece. The fox froze, her reaction delayed and looked down once more. Tailsssss?
She whirled in a circle then looked behind her. TAILS, How? She had begun the chittering again why were there two? What else had changed!? Without warning she shifted into her human form mid spin.
In place of the fox was a young woman with long, dark brown hair, light eyes, and pale skin, Her features echoed oriental, though a strong caucasian overtone mixed into high cheekbones, large lovely light eyes, and generous down-turned lips. Her teeth caught skin as she whirled once in human form, the transformation seamless.
"AM I WEIRD? Do I have three eyes!? Am I weird!?" she demanded in panic as her hands traveled over her limbs and butt to make sure she had no extras.
She was dressed in jeans, flat shoes, and a fur lined white coat which she peeled off hurriedly and flung to inspect her middle. The coat landed on the man as her hands traveled to her head, neck and stomach.
"This is the Menagerie," Slan replied in shiftertongue, his tone a little wary. He didn't want her snapping at him again, or lashing out. "I'm Slansky Kirov. The language? Shiftertongue. I would talk to you in English or whatever, but I don't speak it. Just Czech and Russian and this. It is natural instinct to speak it, like how in your animal form you can make the noises without, say, a fox ever teaching them to you."
Slansky had never been very good at teaching. He kept thinking this as he looked at her, thinking on that one word she had said. Nanda. What was that? Something weird, like Chinese or... Japanese. Probably the latter.
She stopped moving or looking at him, her gaze half behind her. Slansky was bewildered for a moment, and then she began to spin, looking at the tails--yes, the tails. Shit. The Czech-Russian rose a hand to rub at his temple, exasperated. Of course he had to find some girl who didn't know where she was and who didn't even realize she had multiple tails. He wasn't that pitying. There were worse places than the Menagerie and that was a fact. She should be thankful she didn't end up on the Carna border or something.
Slansky patiently waited for her to calm, but that didn't happen. She just shifted into a human. She was pretty and young, and Slan had the irrational urge to make some comment before her panic bled through into words. "AM I WEIRD? Do I have three eyes!? Am I weird!?" She was still speaking in shiftertongue, for which he was grateful. Slansky leaned against the nearby wall and smirked a little. He caught her jacket when she threw it at him, probably a little too amused by her distress.
His eyes were on her face first. He looked at her long and hard, as if he were honestly considering her question. And then his gaze descended, studiously looking at each part of her body, from the top of her head to her feet, until he raised his eyes again and met hers. His smile was broadening now, and he was on the verge of laughter. Heh. Poor girl. "You look fine to me. Sometimes the Keepers decide to uh, give people mutations, y'know? They splice you with other DNA, and in your case it looks like they spliced you with another fox. Made you into a living, breathing kitsune, right?"
He thought that was Japanese. Or maybe Chinese. It wasn't like he cared all that much. "Come on. I'll take you to Fallen headquarters. See if someone there can help you better than me. It's quite the walk, though." Slansky looked at her for a moment, making sure that she would follow, before he turned and went through the process of crawling through the window. He stood outside in the wind, his arms wrapped around himself, and waited.
Her palms went to her eyes in frustration, spreading into her hair were she grabbed fistfuls and gripped lightly, her head tilted down to look at the floor.
The hedge of amusement caught her attention, her eyes snapping up to stare back fearlessly as he looked her up and down. Her arms dropped to her sides and she slumped with a sigh and shifted her weight as she considered. Kitsune huh? It was not the first time, or the last she was sure she would hear the reference.
When he mentioned going somewhere, she hesitated - thinking about whether or not he was someone she could trust. Stupid question really, she decided quickly. If he wanted to harm me he had ample opportunity already. Unless he's just trying to mess with me, she thought as she climbed out of the window.
Once outside, the wind bit at her thin layers and she took a step toward him, chin up to stare up at him in close proximity. Her study was similar to his, accept she threw in a hint of glare and suspicion. Without looking away, she snatched the coat from his hands, turned on her heel and took a few steps away to don her white jacket.
"Alright then. Let's get to it Slanny-Boy we don't have all day and I have a lot of questions that need answering,"
[/b] she was loathe to admit it, but she was scared. Akane waited for him to pass by her and take the lead as he knew (and she did not) the way to go to ... Fallen, was it?
One thing at a time. First order of business was to find someone more helpful than this douche-nozzle. Her memory went back to his smell. He smelled quite good, and was easy on the eyes too, what a very bad boy. Akane smiled to herself and sighed ... maybe, just maybe this could get interesting later.
Translations and OOC___ [/div][/td][/tr][/table][/center][/color]
She snatched the jacket away, and Slansky arched his brows. At least she wasn't an idiot, blindly trusting him. She was cautious enough to send him a glare, and Slan thought that there might be some hope for her yet, even if she was weird (he thought that note with a tinge of amusement, of course).
"Slanny-Boy, eh?" He snorted but added nothing else to the comment. He stared at her for a moment, noticing her eyes on him, thinking that it was about damn time she assessed him. If he had been someone more hostile, Slan was thinking that she would not have been nearly so lucky. He'd have to teach her the ropes--he cut that thought off immediately. He wasn't going to teach her anything. He was going to dump her unceremoniously on someone else as soon as they got to the Express.
"Answer one of mine first. What is your name?" Slansky asked this as he started to walk away from her, back toward the Express. After a moment of wind-chill, he was fed up with it, and shifted abruptly into his horse form. He did this in between one step and the next, and he continued his stride with much longer legs and two more of them.
"What do you want to know?" He inquired, after a short pause, his voice gruff. He paused in his walk to flick his ears toward her, rolling his eyes to get a glance of where she was around him. If there was one thing he loved about his shift form, it was the ability to see at so many angles. After another pause, Slansky turned his head, one lock of his mane tumbling into his eyes. She seemed especially tiny like this.
Akane stretched her stride to keep up with him. Luckily, her father had a large stride as well and though she took more steps kept up decently.
Her mouth opened to expel her name, "Ak-" but as he shifted into a golden horse she froze, mouth open and eyes wide. She blinked hard but the equine's steady gaze was still on her. The shock didn't last long. "Kakkoii," she said in an awe voice, and just like that she snapped out of it.
"NO WAY," she yelled at him in English and spun in a circle with a huge grin. "Oh my God! You can change too?!" she cried in shifter-tongue as she closed the space between them. Her hands were on his nose and neck in an instant, fingers rippling over the muscle covered by an almost metallic liquid gold.
Akane stepped back, her smile so wide it lit her eyes. She had never seen another shape shifter before, and though she had heard of them through the grapevine (despite her parent's effort to keep her ignorant on the subject) she had never actually seen one with her own eyes.
"This is AWESOME," she said seeming to herself and only a half second went by before an avalanche of questions filled the air. She had shed her fear and suspicion instantly, heedless of personal space and lacking any self consciousness about her rambling. Questions bled into each other, melding the three languages together until ... she took a breath.
"SORRY," she said with a visible wince. A hand went to gesture to herself. "I am Akane. I am so very pleased to meet you!" She bowed once, then straightened keeping an almost tangible rein on her spiraling mind.
"And ... everything. I want to know everything!" she said enthusiastically. Not only was he a shifter, but Akane had always adored horses, and it was uncommon that she got the chance to see them up close.
Translations and OOC___ kakkoii - "cool/neat/flash/stunning/awesome!"
Slansky wouldn't have shifted if he had anticipated her reaction, smiling and suddenly emboldened or awed or something. He jerked his head back from her touch out of reflex, snorting through his flared nostrils, but the second time she attempted to touch him Slansky stood and took it, his hooves clipping into the sand and snow, just because of that damn smile. It was the first time he had seen that expression on her, and it was the first time that she seemed to show even a remote amount of trust. So he supposed that it was progress.
She shifted through several languages before she calmed herself enough to actually address him. Sorry! He snorted but said nothing. Akane, eh? It definitely sounded Japanese, and her comments in the language only proved this fact. She was at least half oriental, which he could honestly care less about. "Yeah. It's a pleasure." He replied in shiftertongue, eyeing her impassively for a moment before he jerked his head up and began to move again, this time slightly quicker than prior.
"You're in the Menagerie," he began, deciding to cover all the basics. He knew he set a fast pace verbally as well as physically, but Slansky was accustomed to rapid-fire information. "It is a... zoo... for shapeshifters like you and me. There are three... groups, kind of like gangs. Fallen, which is full of the more peaceful shapeshifters, Fulsi, which is full of the more ambitious ones, and Carna, which is full of the more violent ones. They are all sort of similar to... families. Each 'Ring' as they are called has a leader, of course, and subordinates of varying ranks. I am a Hunter, which is self explanatory, and there are Scouts, who patrol borders and make sure others do not trespass."
He snorted, a very equine noise, and turned his eyes to glance at her again without breaking stride. "There are many shapeshifters, just so you know. You seemed rather... ah, amazed... to see that I was one, too--there are some of every animal imaginable, lions and birds and wolves and dogs and reptiles." He paused to look at her again. She seemed much, much more coherent, so he supposed he would offer her a choice before they made it fully into the heart of Fallen territory. "If you would rather join one of the other Rings, or try to make it on your own, you're able to do that. Fallen is just the best of the Rings, and if you try to go it alone you die."
He didn't think she had the skills to survive on her own, if he was being blunt. Slan waited for her reply, his body still despite the cold.
Determined not to be left behind, Akane half-jogged to keep up with Slansky’s long legged strides through the snow. Shoed in the flats she had worn when she had been taken, the slush soaked through the loud print material quickly, and too soon her feet were frozen. The girl shivered, but sustained her pace to catch every last word Slan peppered at her.
The Menagerie, a vision of a personal zoo Kings of old use to keep flashed in her mind. She filed away the information hungrily, and when he commented on her astonishment about his shifting she nodded and another wide grin spread her face when he mentioned other shifters. Biting her lip did nothing to help the obvious excitement she attempted to contain.
When he stopped she did, panting slightly and shifting unconsciously from foot to foot. His offer for her to join any of the other rings had her shaking her head before he had finished the sentence.
”Oh no no, I’ll stick with you,” she said with a wry smile as she waved him off. She liked his no-nonsense disposition and had already committed herself to both finding and removing the branch lodged up is posterior. Besides, there was a lot of backtracking for her to figure out. What had happened, what she was going to do, where her parents were. She leaned over putting her hands to her knees to catch her breath, exhausting large clouds into the cold air from her panting.
Once she had figured those things out, and (despite her desire to the contrary and ignore them completely) she would ponder the idea of these rings. For now, she wanted to get to wherever it was that Slan was taking her, get warm and dry then assault him for more answers.
”Besides,” she said in shifter-tongue as stood up straight. ”Where else am I going to be lucky enough to find such a good looking man to curl up with at night?” Flashing him a smiled she looked down to shake a wet foot, effectively dislodging the snow and continued walking.
”Oh no no, I’ll stick with you.” Slansky, for a moment, wanted to let out a groan. But he dismissed the urge and came to a simple conclusion: it was good to have new recruits for Fallen. Besides, he should be feeling good that he had rescued some innocent girl from the wilds of the Menagerie, right? Heh. He was thinking of all the other possibilities. She could have been caught up with Carna or Fulsi just as easily, and he had a feeling that they might suit her differently. Maybe the... the muzhestvo would go out of her, as Slan's mother used to say, a word that she had picked up from Aleksei before he died.
As a horse, he merely nodded his head, a strangely human gesture. He was about to continue walking, had it not been for her next comment, which sent Slansky's eyes in her direction. His ears flicked and he snorted, a huff of air from his flared nostrils. "I don't know if you'll be lucky enough to find one here," he commented, dryly. "Why do you think I keep rugs on my floor?"
They were nearing Fallen territory by now, and Slansky slowed his pace somewhat, to make it easier on her. He did not make this transition obvious, but he had found her alright in his eyes. Thus far, at least. "As for literal sleeping arrangements," he announced, sobering some. "There are usually two or three to a train car--that is where we live. You are welcome to room with me until we find somewhere better." It was not so much that he didn't trust others in his Ring. It was merely that Slan supposed that this girl was becoming his responsibility, slowly but surely. He had seen plenty of people drag in recruits and end up training them from then on out. He wasn't sure if that's what would happen, but it was good to be prepared. And it had been some time since Slan had had a tenderfoot of any kind.
The two of them crested a snow-covered dune at that point, and the tracks stretched out in front of them. Slansky shapeshifted mid-stride into a man again, preparing to lead her into Fallen territory graciously enough. He looked at her sidelong, and asked, "Do you have any injuries? Cold toes or hands?"
The equine halted in his tracks and cleared his nostrils soundly in shock. Akane managed to bite back a wolfish grin though her blue-grey eyes danced with delight that she had managed to get a reaction from him. She kept walking, knowing that he could easily catch up to her when he had ... recovered.
Once he again strode beside her, the girl looked up as he remarked on the lack of finding an appealing man to curl up with and she smiled at him before giving attention to her footing through the snow. Why do you think I keep rugs on my floor? That was interesting, did he mean he preferred male company? It bothered her little enough and with a mental shrug tucked the information away for later. At least he’s nice to look at, she thought to herself and shifted her focus as he spoke about sleeping arrangements.
A million niceties floated through her mind, ’Oh I wouldn’t dream of the imposition.’ Or, ‘Surely there is a bit of room with another girl or two in another car?’ but no. Without much consideration to the impulse she decided she was perfectly happy to room with him. After all, she was already use to his scent and likely she would sleep better for it. Besides, she was having too much fun. She nodded in approval.
“Sure, sounds good,” she said nonchalantly. They had slowed the last mile and when they stopped atop a hill Akane yawed and stretched. When Slansky shifted, she watched him openly. Akane was pretty sure it would take a while for her to get use to another person shifting – especially to and from a horse.
Meeting his gaze, she realized how tall he was. They seemed to fit him well these forms, and when he asked her how she was, she couldn’t help but smile cheekily. She couldn’t feel her fingers or toes, but knew the exposure was not so bad that she would suffer from frostbite.
As for injuries she shrugged, “Nah I don’t think so. I am cold but until I can get dry there’s not much to do about it.” Her voice spoke plainly. She was not much of a complainer, but neither was she prideful enough to keep quiet if it were dangerous to her health. Her parents had taught her to be quite sensible … when she decided to be anyhow.
Taking in the scene before them she sobered as well, suddenly lost. The countryside was nothing she was familiar with. The snow she was used to, however, the desert she was not and the dryness of the air had her rubbing her hands together unconsciously as if rubbing lotion into her chapped skin.
She couldn’t think of everything right now she just couldn’t. Her mother had always told her that she had taken after her father when it came to emotions. Her mother was Japanese, and taking after her culture had always been calm and stoic in the face of stress, whilst her husband and daughter would tromp around cross and worried – feeling the need to take action.
Only the fact that they had been mobile and the mercy of a lot to distract her had kept her from panicking about the situation Akane had now found herself in. Her features softened a moment, the facade that she had been dealing well with the involuntary hardships threatening to break and she took a shuttering breath.
From her peripheral she was suddenly aware that the man’s eyes were on her and all at once she was fine again. Instead of meeting his gaze she looked down, side-stepping closer to Slansky as she reached a hand up to his shoulder for balance. Lifting a foot, she peeled the wet shoe off and shook the snow from it her face quirking as she bit a lip. She smiled up at him impishly as she replaced it, then started walking again.
Over her shoulder she called, “Well we don’t have all day! I don’t know about you but a rugged floor sounds amazing.”
She was quick. Slansky had to hand that to her. Even freezing cold and disorientated she was quick, not taken aback for long. Slan glanced at her, waiting for some kind of reaction, but she merely watched him shift and proceeded to smile.
"Good," he said, inspired by her cheekiness. "You might need your fingers and toes, living with me." He mumbled this, his eyes glinting. It was hard to tell just how serious he was being. Slansky had grown up with a sharp sense of humor, if nothing else. It was how he had gotten by.
He didn't say anything as he took in the sight of the train-cars. He just looked, feeling both proud and defensive. It wasn't very much. It wasn't... It wasn't very much at all, in fact, but it was still home. He waited for her to insult it, and was bristled for some reply, whether it may be sarcastic or serious. But nothing like that came. The girl reached out, smiled that foxish smile again, and balanced herself on him as she took off her shoe and shook it of snow. Slansky stared incredulously.
"Alright." He was short. He was caught between being surprised by this girl and annoyed by the chore she presented. He momentarily chastised himself for even asking her to stay with him. He didn't know what had possessed him. Maybe it was just pure impulsiveness... Slan had started down the hill by now, reaching out to steady the girl with a hand against her forearm in case she slipped on the icy hillside.
He took the lead again, thinking too late that it might be important for her not to see so deeply into the territory without a blindfold. But he didn't really think she was going to be a threat. She looked wet and cold and tired, and he felt bad for her. It didn't take long for Slansky to steer her towards a train-car at the end of the line. He nodded at a few omegas as they walked by, mumbling something about a new recruit in shiftertongue.
His home was no different on the outside from any of the others. He only knew that it was his because there was a scraggly bush growing up in the corner of it, and because of familiarity. He heaved the thick sliding door open, and with a flourish of his hand gestured inside. Shortly after she climbed into it, Slan followed and slid it closed with a metallic bang that may have been foreboding had the circumstances been different. He navigated the dark with his hands and through memory, hitting his shin on the edge of something regardless, before he grunted and flicked on an oil lamp in the corner. It flooded the train-car with light, dim and gold.
It was the bear minimums. In one corner, a collection of milk crates that acted as shelves. Near that was a sleeping bag spread out on pad, to soften the floor. He had a collection of wooden boxes, three in total, two small and one large, that acted as chairs and a table.
"Home sweet home," he declared, kind of darkly. "Let me get some dry clothes for you." He had a system of shelves in the left side of the train-car, milk crates that were stalked on top of one another and then screwed into the wall as they gained height. They were three wide and three high, and the left of them had sections of clothes organized. The uppermost was a little odd, however, because they were very clearly a woman's clothing. He grabbed a tee shirt and a pair of jeans. He moved to hand them to Akane. "Here. They should fit you. She was small like you are." He said no more.
"Want something to eat?" He looked down at his hands, which were chapped and scarred, and meticulously scratched dirt out from under one thumb nail. When he glanced up, it was from under his brows, his irises colored a shiny black by the lamp. "We can get you a sleeping bag or a cot, I'm sure. And, like I said, I can find you some place else to stay if you don't like this set-up. If it makes you feel better, I used to be a cop, not a rapist." He smiled, but it was a wolfish smile, all teeth.
Akane rolled her grey-blue eyes with a smile when he walked away, but followed readily lest she get left behind. She rubber-necked the whole way as they walked past people, train cars, structures, and animals with sounds and smells she had never been exposed to. When he had described the Fallen, this is not what she had pictured. What she had expected, she didn’t quite know but their living arrangements reminded her more of the classic apocalypse films from the early twenty-first century … only there were no zombies. Hopefully.
Slansky stopped in front of a box car, hefted the door open and demonstrated a crazy bow she assumed as some kind of Russian thing. She stared at the black hole then realized he expected her to get in. Before he could say anything she stepped up to the floor, which was promptly as tall as she was. She looked up for a hand hold, then looked down for a step up. Nothing.
Biting a lip, she decided for a jump. Backing up, she danced a few steps forward and leaped, catching her elbows on the floor then hauling herself up. She puffed from the effort, and by the time she had stood Slansky had already appeared inside … begrudgingly she had no idea how. When the door roared shut, it guttered everything into total blackness.
Akane took a small, sharp breath inwards and began to shake. Somehow, it seemed colder in the dark. She closed her eyes and remained where she was, rationalizing that it was impossible for Slan to see either and that light would be given soon. After a grunt from the darkness and shuffled footsteps, light indeed ignited the car.
With the light came an easing of her stress, and she looked around as Slan spoke, busying himself with this and that.. Here he said, offering her clothing. She was small like you. No emotion was given. ‘She’ could have been a sister, a lover, a friend, or a rock. She took them without question, and shook her head at his offer for food. The drugs from the Keepers were still lingering and even the thought made her want to heave.
Her brow arched with interest as he eyed her, offering another arrangement, then attesting his background with law enforcement. She was not unsettled, rather – she couldn’t tell whether he minded her being there or if he was trying to ditch her. Too bad, she was staying.
Deciding the rapist thing was a dig, she shrugged her shoulders and stepped to the corner where the light was more scarce. With her back to him (the most modesty she would bother with as cold as she was and to get back at him), she stripped and changed clothes ditching and hanging up all but her underwear. The shirt fit fine, the pants however she had to wriggle into – pulling at the belt loops then taking a breath before zipping them up. She whoever she was, was tiny. The legs were too short, but she was already warmer for the change of clothes and didn’t really care.
Turning back to him, he had been busing himself with God knew what and instead of pressing upon him even more inconvenience, she simply snagged a less than clean thick blanket, wrapped herself inside and watched him fuss about until her eyes closed and she was asleep before she realized it.
She opened her eyes blinking a few times before she remembered where she was, and that it was just really dark. Akane waited for whatever it was that had awoken her, (other than that fact that she was freezing) and when she sat up, she knew. Never in her life had she been so angry at her bladder. She had to pee – bad. She stood up too quickly, almost toppling over. She did the quietly did the 'I have to pee dance' as she decided what to do. Leaving the blanket on the floor, she crept to the door of the box car silently.
The girl froze, listening to the man’s breathing before putting her shoulder to the door and pressing as consistently and hard and she could … trying her best not to make any noise. The door crept open, but would not budge past six or so inches. Outside, a couple people passed, chuckling aloud and Slan’s breathing altered. Akane remained frozen for several moments before he seemed to have returned to sleep.
She shifted into her fox form. Even as a vulpine she was exceptionally small – and slipped through the space easily outside. Landing a bit awkwardly, the fox slipped behind the wheels of the train car and waited. When no one seemed around, she dashed out to a bush and relieved her bladder not a moment too soon. Quickly, she dashed back under the train and a few yards past before flipping U-turn and leaping to catch her paws upon the floor of the box car, and scribble herself back in. Her tails barely managed to slip past before the car door slammed shut, and Akane jumped three full feet in the air.
A very sleepy, annoyed Slansky eyed her and crossed his arms. The fox’s tails tucked beneath her, her ears flattening as she looked away… wait a minute, she didn’t do anything wrong! Shifting, she crossed her arms as well, cocking her hip and giving him an impressive arched brow.
”What? I had to pee!” she said defensively. Slansky took a breath and sighed before shaking dark head, and returning to his nest in the corner without a word. Akane stood there for a long moment, internally fighting with herself that if she has to pee its none of his concern, and countering that it wouldn’t have been a big deal to tap him and let him know. She yawned, realized she was barefoot and went back to her blanket.
The night was no easier after. She shifted six times, rearranged herself another dozen before admitting defeat and sneaking across the floor to tuck her fox self in with Slan. Curling her tails around her nose, she took a breath and was instantly asleep the moment she exhaled.
It hadn't taken her long to fall asleep. She basically crawled into a blanket, closed her eyes, and was out. Slansky had smiled to himself when he turned and saw her there, slouched in a way that seemed uncomfortable, and before he himself had gone to sleep he had rearranged her, spreading her out and making sure that she was suitably warm on the floor.
He laid there for a long while, thinking about what he had done. It was impulse that had told him to invite her into his home. He felt responsible for her, something that Slansky chastised himself over. He was an independent man, and he didn't know why he felt any desire to change that, even slightly. The sound of her breathing in the darkness was foreign, and it unsettled him. He fell asleep thinking about that, about how it was so, so strange for there to be someone else in the train-car with him--
Clang. He started in his bed (if you could call it that). He laid there in the dark, regulating his breathing and trying to figure what had made the noise. Intruder? No. His eyes cracked open to see the slight gap in the doorway, and he immediately thought of the girl. Slansky was up in a matter of seconds, slightly panicked, because what was she doing? She would freeze to death out there! He peered out into the dark, not seeing her, and stepped back from the door. He didn't have to wait long. The fox clambered back into the train-car, and he stared down at her, a mixture of bewildered and annoyed.
What? I had to pee!
Well, this was going to be an interesting partnership. He eyed her before heaving out a sigh. He couldn't deal with this right now, not half-asleep and confused with why this girl was there and what he had been thinking and why this was happening and why, in Christ's name, she had gone out in the middle of the night to pee when she was in a zoo, not some house. Okay, the last one might have been a little irrational. Slan ran a hand through his disheveled hair and returned to his corner of the train-car, collapsing. It didn't take him long to fall asleep again, feeling like the whole event had been more of a dream than anything...
* * * * *
Slansky woke up at the crack of dawn, like he usually did. It was still and quiet and he felt warm and content and... strange.
What... the... hell... was against his back? His eyes opened abruptly, and he stared at the wall of the train-car, trying to decide what was so warm and positioned directly between his shoulder blades. It was an unfamiliar sensation. He didn't want to turn around, he didn't--
Akane. That girl. He heaved a sigh and pulled himself into a sitting position, letting the blankets pool around his waist. In the winter, he slept in a shirt, but it was still freezing cold once they had fallen. He eyed the fox in his bed, a little incredulously. She wasn't a very shy girl, was she? He reached out a hand and jarred her awake. "Comfortable?" He asked, his voice cool and distant. It was hard to tell if he was angry or not. In reality, Slansky was only mildly annoyed. It was simply having a virtual stranger sleep against him that unsettled him, not that he hadn't slept next to stranger people than Akane.
He stood up without another word. "I have some errands to run today. You can stay here or start looking around camp. You'll probably need to talk to Skye some time." He said this all slowly and clearly in shiftertongue, looking at her only once but holding her gaze while he did it. Slansky then turned to the corner to grab a work shirt. He stripped of the long-sleeved sleep shirt he had been wearing, perhaps a size or two too large, to replace it with this well-fitting, gray one. He had slept in his jeans for warmth's sake, and went to sitting on one of the nearby crates to lace his boots. "Any questions?"
Akane had finally, blessedly fallen asleep – however, when Slanksy moved the fox remained curled and at peace. When he shook the fox, one grey eye popped open in irritation. When he asked the question if she were comfortable, she merely shut the eye and shift slightly into a more comfortable position as if to say, ‘Well I was.’
He might be getting up, but the stresses of the day before had taken a harsh toll on her body, and she felt as if she hadn’t slept in a month. It was a testament to how tired she was that she hadn’t even bothered to sneak a peek as he changed his shirt. She wasn’t a morning person on her best days. There was a weighted silence, and Akane felt his steady gaze.
The red fox sighed, and raised her head to look sleepily at him offering her full albeit begrudging attention. Any questions? In answer she yawned, half rose to stretch, and promptly curled into a ball again to sleep more. Small even for a fox, her two tails were almost as large as she herself was, and in the spare light it was hard to make out the little red, white, and black fox from the blankets.
Her ear twitched when she heard the door slide open, and an eye again slitted open to see him vanish into the gentle light and close the door once more before too much cold air got in … and she was out.
Upon waking hours later, Akane felt only slightly better and only slightly more prepared to take on the day. Still, her stomach was growling and the anxiety that had held itself at bay in Slan’s presence now began to pound against her defenses like a battering ram. Questions she could not answer, and worries she knew would do nothing for her. Where her parents? What the hell had happened?
When they had taken them, it had been at night … Her bedroom door crashed open, awakening Akane as her mother slammed it shut behind her and locked it.
“Mama, what’s wrong?” She had asked as Sakura had rushed to grab her daughter, and haul her out of bed.
“No time! People are here, your father is keeping them back-“ a crash downstairs made both women gasp and look toward the door. Sakura hurried her daughter to the window, lifting it open while she continued to speak. “Bad, bad people. You must change!”
[/b]
“Wakarimasen!” Akane cried desperately. There was yelling, then a strange snarl and a yelp … then footsteps on the stair. Sakura pushed her through the window onto the rooftop, then gestured to the ground.
“Kitsune! Change, and jump! Hayakusiro!” she demanded, then smiled brown eyes into Akane’s light grey and ducked back into the house with a whispered, “Aishiteru!” before closing the window.
Akane bit her lip as she often did when stressed or thinking, her eyes watered and her throat strained as she heard her bedroom door bust open. She gasped and slipped beside the window out of sight, listening to muffled commands and her mother’s yelling In Japanese. Her hand went over her own mouth to stifle her sobs as she sucked breath after breath through her nose in panic. Her heart thundered as she tried to collect herself.
The window flew open, and for a moment she thought it was her mother. A black arm and gloved hand reached around the window frame when she heard Sakura scream, “IIEE!” the hand vanished. Akane couldn’t help herself, the anger and fear in her mother’s voice shot directly into her heart and she ducked back around the open window in time to see Sakura whirling her and there, dancing from one astonished man to another before a dark figure cracked Akane’s Keroppi alarm-clock against the back of her head.
A scream of protest, anger, and pain resonated from Akane’s being … [/i]
All at once she was awake, and sitting up. She panted as the fear from her dreamed memory clutched her lungs, and her hands shook as she licked her lips tasting salt and wiped her tears away. She looked around, realizing both that she was human and that she had never left Slansky’s bed.
Immediately she was on her feet, trying to push the memories -all of them to the back of her head while she rushed remaking Slansky’s make-shift-bed and folded her own stuffy blanket that had been discarded across the floor.
Looking around, she suddenly somehow felt strange here by herself. She took a breath and took a step forward, then looked down. Her shoes were off … her head tilted, had they been off last night? She couldn’t remember. She shrugged, found them next to where she had fallen asleep the night before and slipped her feet in. As she stepped to the door and levered it open, she couldn’t help noticing that she wasn’t hungry anymore.
The day (or, afternoon she should say) had been interesting. She had seen so many people, so many animals, she felt like she was in a cross between a shelter camp and the zoo. Most people were pretty nice, some acknowledged her and others simply carried on with their business.
She had gotten lost twice, talked to three people, a gazelle and, promptly decided that was enough for the day. Despite the fact that she had woken up late (she guessed passed noon), and that she had stayed close for a bit - she was exhausted already.
Akane yawned as she topped the small slushy sand-snow hill, and half slid down the other side. When she neared the box car the sun was already setting, and she could see a less than happy Slansky leaning against the train’s door frame. His expression was … she pondered through her vocabulary in both languages, and stopped a few feet short of the platform with her eyes slitted and a nail in her teeth in thought. She stared for only a moment, before smiling and snapping her finger with an “ah ha!” expression.
“Fukigen na kao!” She laughed and shook her head, then noticed the stool. Her arms lowered, and her head tilted … the expression insanely reminiscent of her foxform. Her eyes rose to Slansky, and her brow rose in question a wordless, 'what the hell is that?'
Translations and OOC___ “Wakarimasen!” What is going on!? "Kitsune" Fox "Hayakusiro!" A harsh, almost mean "Hurry Up" "Aishiteru!" I love you "IIEE" NOO! “Fukigen na kao!” Grouchy Face
For all intents and purposes, it was another average day. Aside from waking up with a fox in his bed, nothing eventful had happened. Slansky had laced his boots up in the same fashion as always, had gone to get his rations at the same time, had went on a routine hunt and brought back a handful of hares and a single wild turkey, etc cetera.
There were a little things different from the norm, however. For one, he was continuously bothered about his new "pet". Jacobi, one of the Fallen who he partnered with, continued to say something about Slansky being a cradle-robber. That was a difficult notion to convey through shiftertongue, but Jacobi managed it and Slansky had just about given him a black eye for the insult. He was brooding over the entire conversation now as he trekked his way back to his train-car, looking for any signs that his pet (this was thought with intense resentment because, really, Jacobi was thirty years old and should have been more mature about the whole subject).
"Heard that you picked yourself up some pretty Tenderfoot."
"I'm helping her out."
"Heh, I'm sure she's helping you out Slan. Don't act like I never heard about you and whatshername, Gin."
"Be quiet, Jacobi."
"I heard this new one is real young, too--what, like, eighteen? nineteen?"
"Jacobi. I will hurt you."
Jacobi's laughter was still a brand in Slansky's mind. His shift fit him too well, a spotted hyena that seemed to convey a manic cackle into his human form as well. Slan was glad to be rid of him for the evening, and his shoulders shuddered a bit at his lingering anger. He hated it when people were immature. He was helping her, and even in Fallen other's were having difficulty believing his good intentions.
He made it back to the train car before she did. He guessed she had taken his advice and had gone out to explore their territory. Slansky was holding her white jacket in one hand, careful to keep it from touching the ground. Silly girl had forgotten it somewhere, and when he had passed through the center of the base one of the omegas had handed it to him, smirking and shaking her head. "Didn't think you were the type of man who liked roommates, Slan."
The Czech-Russian didn't know how long she was going to take, and so he thought of something to busy himself with. He ventured a few train-cars down and asked to "borrow" a stool from one of his neighbors. It would probably end up being used as kindling, so they happily agreed and back Slansky came. He set it down at the doorway of the car and proceeded to lean against the door, holding her jacket in one hand.
Luckily, he only had to wait a few minutes before she tumbled over the crest of a dune. She was studying him. Slansky's serious expression relented, and he arched a brow as if to say, well, out with it! And out it came. In rapid-fire Japanese that left him thoroughly bemused. But Slan was used to it, so he simply shook his head and cracked a rueful smile. "I thought you could use some help, short-stuff. You almost have to have a running start to get into the car." It was apparent it was more of a joke then anything. Slansky walked closer to her, holding her jacket. "Forget something?"
The feel of it, plush against his fingers, brought to mind memories of his mother. She had had a jacket similar to this one, something that she had garnished throughout his childhood. He remembered it better then her face. For a moment, he was silent. "My mother had a jacket like this." But Slansky said no more.
He was figuring that he would show the rest of Fallen just how good and pure (yes, pure) his intentions were. He wasn't going to be rude to her. As soon as she took it, he turned back to the train-car and slid open the door. He hoisted himself up to the edge and sat there, swinging his legs, feeling like a child. Slan leaned his head against the doorway, his bangs falling forward and across his brows. He regarded this stranger before him. "Come have a seat."
It came out sounding like an order. He didn't mean for it to, and he tried to soften it with a smile. But that was... well, it could simply be said that if he was wearing a suit instead of worn-down jeans and tee-shirts, he would look more like a gangster then a friendly neighbor.
