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[waitingforplayer2]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, CHIAKI NANAMI.

FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX

*** galagamer has joined XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
<galagamer> This is Chiaki Nanami.
<galagamer> I'll get back to you as soon as I can!

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[waitingforplayer2]

[ She sits for a while, quietly. She doesn't hear anything. She doesn't see anything.

But she can sense something in front of her. The more she concentrates, the more she's sure of it. Something's pressing down on the grass, something is brushing against the trees, where she can't see.

She doesn't know how she knows it. She just does. ]

... Hello? [ She calls out softly. If it's real or not, if it'll hear her or not... either way, it's the polite thing to do, right? Greet something that's visiting you.

Surely there's nothing in this forest that could actually hurt her. ]

[toaflame]

[It's the voice, being called out to, that snaps Adrian out of the trance he'd been steadily slipping into. He was on the hunt, and he would have likely gone after anything he deemed "prey" if he wasn't stopped. Fortunately for Nanami, her voice is familiar...and a Nymph also isn't exactly the most appetizing thing one could go for, monster wise.

His ears perk as he peers into the undergrowth, only to realize that even though he heard her, he can't...actually pick her out. She's just as camoflauged as he is, here.]

...s'that you? The lil octopus?

[waitingforplayer2]

[ Oh, there he is! Nanami sees him first, the liger's great big head poking into the small little clearing where she's been sitting.

It takes her a few moments to place the voice, but the stripes help. ] Adrian-kun! Yeah, it's me!

[ She waves to him with one of her leafy hands-- he's clearly scanning back and forth but not spotting her. ] You changed again!

[toaflame]

[A rumble echoes from his throat through the foilage as he pads his way into the open clearing, shaking his mane out to free it of twigs and leaves. It's still a little hard to see the edges of her form clearly, but he's able to make her out somewhat now that she's actually provided him movement to track.]

In some kinda way, yeah.

[He's glad to know at least this is temporary, having seen others do it by now.]

The hell you doin' out here? This forest ain't for just anyone to waltz into yaknow.

[waitingforplayer2]

[ Nanami sits up a little from where she's been resting. Her pink backpack falls into view, slipping lower on her back where it was concealed while she was napping.

She's staring at his impressive form as he prowls into view, which means she catches the little wisps of fog that trail him into the clearing. Her hollow eyes briefly flick to them. ]

It's nice out here. [ She stretches and yawns, fronds rustling. ] I was exploring...

[ Though now she clearly is not. ] What about you? ... You pledged to Her, huh?

[toaflame]

Nice, huh...

[He wonders how many others who aren't Fog aligned could say that with a straight face. He guesses it has its good parts though, or else he wouldn't even be out here.

Adrian takes a seat some distance away from her, lifting one of his paws to groom idly.]

"Pledged" is a strong word. I just wanted to get stronger, s'all. The changes are happenin' slow as hell, so I needed somethin' to give me a boost. It's a miracle one of these monthly surprises ain't killed me before now.

[waitingforplayer2]

She gave you powers?

[ Now she's even more interested, staring at him curiously. Also, it's not every day you get to see a liger, especially one that is also her friend. ]

What can you do?

[toaflame]

[It's easier to show than tell, though he does have to be careful in an area this forested. That's why Adrian turns his head to look upwards, as if he's gazing at something far above them in the sky, before exhaling a sudden stream of fire. The build up causes his throat and inner-jaws to glow bright in the gloom, though it all only lasts for about a second or two. Like pulling the trigger on a flamethrower.

He looks back at Nanami after that, licking his lips as smoke trails between his fangs.]

So? What'cha think?

[waitingforplayer2]

[ Nanami actually yelps and crawls backwards very quickly. When Adrian's looking at her again, she's peeking out from behind the tree she was just napping against. ]

That's very cool!! [ She's genuinely impressed but also very startled and fire is very scary so she's extremely glad he aimed the flame UP rather than at her or any of the other plants in the forest. ]

[toaflame]

[Whoops. He probably should have been a little more careful since Nanami clearly isn't an octopus right now, but at least he did aim the jet away from any part of the forest. He licks his jaws, the acrid taste of the smoke after the fact still strong on the back of his tongue.]

Yeah. Pretty sure it's s'posed to make me more scary, which I ain't gonna complain about. But I really just wanted my old powers back, and this was the best she'd do for now.

[Maybe he can ask for an upgrade, but he's going to have to do some work for her before then...]

[waitingforplayer2]

[ The licking is interesting-- does he taste the fire? How does that work? She's interested enough to crawl back out to where she was sitting before, watching him with fascination. ]

She likes that, huh?... Making us scarier.

[toaflame]

Seems that way. Wants us to be all...intimidatin' and shit. As if a fuck-off huge lion wasn't already, but how do I know.

[He stretches his paws out in front of him, massive jaws parting as he yawns. His mouth is huge like this, capable of enveloping a human's head and then some if he wanted.]

[waitingforplayer2]

But nobody'll mess with... a fire-breathing lion.

[ As if to contradict her own statement, she rises from where she's been sitting, and slowly crawls over to him on her roots, so she can sit down next to him. ]

You seem... pretty comfortable, like this.

[toaflame]

[Adrian's ears flick at the comment, and though she comes to sit by him...he doesn't move away, instead just looking on into the forest.]

Yeah, well. When you've been a monster half your life, and had paws for hands at least a week of it, some of the crazy bullshit just stops bein' so crazy anymore.

[Like, why NOT be a lion, or a tiger, or some mix between the two, right? And besides, even if it's different, and he doesn't carry himself the same as he did before...there's something weirdly comforting about it that he can't explain. It never comforted him back home, but it was all he had. He was all he had.

Now, it's the norm. He's the norm here. That's...something.]

[waitingforplayer2]

Maybe it's okay... to feel comfortable like this.

[ She leans back against the tree she's sitting against, closes her eyes. Feels the breeze through the plants around her. It would be easy, she thinks, to lie here for hours and let the moss and grass cover over her, just to rest for a while embraced by nature. ]

[toaflame]

[...]

Are you comfortable like this?

[waitingforplayer2]

[ She opens her eyes again, looking at the sky. ]

I don't know. [ Jury's out, she supposes. Her leafy hand drags idly through the grass around them, playing with individual stalks. Wisps of fog wrap around the tree behind her. ]

Right now I am. It's not so bad, out here. ... Maybe I'm starting to learn how to be.

[toaflame]

...guess you kinda don't got much choice otherwise, here. You either hate it, or learn to deal with it. Maybe learn to love it.

[Which, he hasn't gotten to that point yet, but...who knows what the future holds.]

Havin' some tools at your disposal for protectin' yourself in this place is better than the alternative, anyways.

[waitingforplayer2]

[ Her hand rests in the grass, at that, stopping from slowly dragging back and forth. ]

I'm getting... a little better at that, I think.

[ She places her hand on the ground, listening and feeling. The grass in the patch around her palm starts to grow taller. A couple of flowers blossom, from seedlings that had been hidden there. ]

[toaflame]

[Oh...Adrian lifts his head now, not really realizing that his big paws had started idly kneading the earth a while ago while they were talking.]

S'that you doin' that?

[waitingforplayer2]

Sort of...

[ She rubs one of the little flowers, gently fluffing its petals and silently congratulating it on a grow well done. ]

It's kind of like... I'm asking the plants to grow.

[toaflame]

[That's...interesting. Adrian wouldn't exactly be the right person to make this sort of observation, but tending to and growing plants at will...it doesn't feel like a very monstrous or scary thing at all.]

How'd you figure out you could do it?

[waitingforplayer2]

[ Maybe it's not - or maybe it is, just under the right circumstances. In the meantime, a power that doesn't necessarily make her scarier works just fine for Nanami. ]

I was talking to some of Atem-kun's lotuses... and then they started growing for me. I talked a little with the Tanabata tree, too.

[toaflame]

Tanabata...

[That sounds familiar, and it doesn't take Adrian long to remember why.]

That big tree in the park. You talked to it, for real?

[waitingforplayer2]

Yeah. Sort of?

[ She's not explaining this right. She plays with a blade of grass while she thinks about how to word it. ]

It's more like... feeling like I'm in tune with the tree. Or the grass. I can sort of understand it that way.