[catch-all] old friend, I think of you still sometimes

[afoolsgold]

Characters: The Fool, Kit + you fine people
Date: Throughout April--dates specified.
Location: Throughout Aifaran: a textile shop in Malimo; Tamfen Row; the Union Quarter
Situation: Monthly catch-all for Kit and the Fool as they navigate various twists and turns in the Seaglass City; starters to appear in the comments.
Warnings/Rating: None currently, will warn as needed.



Kit!


The Fool!

Comments

[redlightgreenlight]

Anani arched his back against Kit's hand, mewing and turning back and forth. Valdis watched the two, her soft gaze only for moments like this. Her cat seemed to put most people at ease. Even Devin pet the little creature.

"He managed the storm better than most," she replied.

Anani reared up to rub his chin against Kit's, bracing his paws against the bent knee, still purring.

"It's normal for people to come and go," she continued, "You get used to it."

Lie. But not the first one she had told and it wouldn't be the last.

"You seem...different."

[bestofthevein]

"You seem...different."

His hands slow but don't still as they stroke Anani's soft fur. He doesn't answer Valdis right away; he needs a moment to let the residual stink of rotting fish and dank sea water exit his nose, to let the sudden whirl of thoughts that can't possibly belong to him settle like disturbed silt. They'll come back when the next tide disturbs them, but for now--

Kit glances up at Valdis again and chuckles. "New haircut," he says, instead of the truth, and something in his expression pleads in silence for her to let it go, just for now.

[redlightgreenlight]

There it was. Pain, fear, a memory that he didn't wish to discuss, so they wouldn't discuss it. Valdis tried to make a point of not using her empathy against those she considered friends.

"It looks nice," she replied, crossing the remaining distance between them and looking out at the water.

"Any particular reason you've decided to visit the pier?"

[bestofthevein]

It's easier to address Anani, somehow. But Kit appreciates, very deeply, that Valdis will leave this one alone.

"Any particular reason you've decided to visit the pier?"

"I like the water," he says, and looks out across the bay again with a pensive frown. (He used to like the water.) "Was thinking about looking for a place down here. Maybe some work helping out with fishing boats. Something along those lines."

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis watches him out of the corner of her eyes, unconvinced, curious, but unwilling to push. Kit didn't need needling to function, unlike a certain vampire. Anani mews loudly, upset that no one is currently paying him their full attention, though he was an intelligent creature, there might be more to it.

"I'm sure someone is looking for help," she replies, "They always are."

Anani darts away, jumping onto a box near Valdis and launching himself over to her shoulders. Scratching her neck with his claws as he scrambled to right himself. It smarted, but not enough for her to do anything but pull him off her shoulders and settle him in her arms.

[bestofthevein]

"--whoa," Kit exclaims, startled by Anani's sudden departure, and he stands up to look at the cat, bewildered. "Is he all right?"

[redlightgreenlight]

Anani started purring, the tip of his fluffy white tail twitching back and forth as Valdis stroked him.

"He's fine," she replied, though just how fine a creature like him could be when they had been touched by life magic, she didn't truly know. "Do you want to hold him?"

[bestofthevein]

"Do you want to hold him?"

"Ah--I'd better not, Flekk might be too scared to come near me if I smell like a cat." It's a good enough excuse to cover up his uncertainty; cats were a topsider pet when he was growing up, a luxurious animal that he only saw in person once he'd left the Deep Roads and gone to the surface to combat the blight. How do you even pick them up without getting scratched?

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis sighed. She knew Kit, not as well as some, but well enough to know that he wasn't being elusive on purpose. Such things were reserved for people like herself, people who lied and manipulated, people who had secrets. Kit acted more like someone who was hiding for some other reason.

"Flekk doesn't mind him," she replied, "They interacted some while you were...gone."