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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!

Comments

[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.

[toaflame]

...I think I get it. Kindof.

[It makes sense enough, anyway. Or...maybe it's more that it doesn't have to make sense. It's just a thing she can do, here. Just like how he could control fire back home.]

Y'seem pretty good at it, too.

[waitingforplayer2]

It's... kind of similar to... how I could move water, as a merperson.

I mean, it's different, too! But... water as a merperson, and plants as a nymph... it's like where I belong, right? Or it's like... the element and I, are the same thing, now.

So controlling that element... it's just like controlling me. Like you, with your fire!

[toaflame]

Yeah, it's just...you know how to do it. No real way to explain it otherwise.

[It's like breathing, or being able to move your limbs. It becomes an extension of yourself, regardless of whether it makes any sense or not.]

Guess its kinda a miracle I ain't burnt half the woods down by now, but Foggy would bite my ass if that happened for sure.

[waitingforplayer2]

[ Well, Nanami has an absolutely visceral reaction to that. Her heart hammers a little at the thought! ]

I'm glad you didn't too! There'd be so many trees that would get hurt! Maybe animals and monsters, too!

[toaflame]

[Ah. Adrian seems to realize in that moment he’s shoved his paw in his mouth.]

…sorry, I- I won’t actually do that. You ain’t gotta worry.

[Normally he wouldn’t care, but with Nanami it’s different.]

[waitingforplayer2]

I won't worry. She'd probably be way more upset if you did that than I would.

[ Said casually, in part because - well he's one of Her followers now, so She'd probably be more lenient with him anyway. ]

[toaflame]

Yeah, prob'ly.

[Adrian can't say he's scared of her, persay. He knows she's got a lot of power, and she could easily destroy him for his insolence, but...he also understands that she cares about him for some insane reason and probably wouldn't kill him unless he fucked up real bad on purpose.

Which is weird to think about. Is he projecting? Maybe he's projecting.]

It'd suck if I did that anyway. I like to come here.

[waitingforplayer2]

[ She nods, and looks around. ]

I might come back here more often too... if that's all right. It's nice to be around trees and nature, like this.

[ It feels like being underwater as a merperson: right. ]

[toaflame]

Mm...? It ain't up to me whether you come here or don't, so...do what'cha want.

[He does pause though, peering at her through one eye.]

I'd just be careful. It's not really a good place to be if you ain't got a deal with the Fog.