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 Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 6:18 pm
Akira frowned. Not wanted? Why were there people like that? Himself for example, and now someone as sweet as Cerceris. He couldn't find a single thing wrong with her, except maybe her shyness, but that was only temporary.
He didn't realize how alike they were until that moment, and he couldn't help but smile, and move his hand from hers, to around her shoulder, squeezing it lightly in a half hug, but he kept his arm on her, it was comfortable, and he didn't think she would mind the gesture.
"I know what that's like; not being wanted I mean. But you're wanted here, I can promise you that. I'm glad I met you, though. I didn't think there'd be someone similar to me here. Someone who feels the same thing, who wasn't wanted..." He was rambling again.
He gave a light chuckle when the aanida's spider-leg moved his hair, she took the thought out of his head, he was about to do that.
"Thanks for that," He said with a toothy grin.
"Hmm. Other things I eat, are nachos and buritos. They're oldearth foods. I think from a place called Mexico, or something. The nachos are a mixture of cornchipstuff with meat and sometimes, spicy sauce, called chili sauce. Mixed through it is cheese. Burritos are a salad of some sort, with meat or chicken, and the same sauce. With a layer of cheese on top. The chicken here is really nice," He paused, remembering the tasty white meat.
"The chicken here isn't soggy. When I was at the shelter, we used to have chicken and it'd always be soggy... and I didn't even know chicken could be soggy."
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Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 11:39 pm
Cerceris smiled, leaning slightly into Akira's comforting warmth as best she could while still moving forward. A promise... wanted. The words rolled pleasantly through her mind. Similar... Her thought process reached a hitch there. Akira wasn't wanted either? But he was kind, and aesthetically pleasing, and special enough for Anubis to choose him to bond with, which should be enough for just about anyone.
Pushing her nagging confusion to the back of her mind, the Aanida focused on what the wolf boy was saying. Nachos, burritos, potatoes... he liked food with the "oh" sound at the end, evidently. A pleasant enough sound, but not as much fun as "ooh"s. The food sounded interesting, an entire meal's worth of variety crammed into a single unit. The tastiness was debatable in her mind, but Akira seemed pretty enthusiastic about it. She frowned at the idea of soggy chicken. She had been lucky enough to have never encountered the horror that was soggy meat. It definitely didn't sound very appetizing.
"If the mess hall can give you whatever you want, it makes sense that everything would be delicious." Cerceris decided that she would try all the foods in turn, beginning with the potatofries and ketchup. If she kept to small portions, she could try a different meal each day or so and possibly finish everything available in the academy by the time she graduated. Or she could continue sampling teas forever, which would not make her feel as bloated as a full meal had a tendency to do, but would probably have less in the way of variety. A mix and match solution would be best, she concluded. Eat and drink as each becomes necessary, perhaps proceeding alphabetically if a menu is available. The Aanida found herself growing more interested in the mess hall as she thought about it.
A half-forgotten thought resurfaced in Cerceris's mind, and she voiced it aloud. "Did you ever clear up what was confusing you the last time we met?" The incident had seemed like such a long time ago, though she knew that it couldn't have been much more than a day or two. She supposed that growing a few years in the span of a single night could skew a person's sense of time.
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Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 1:21 am
"What was confusing me?" He asked, cocking a brow slightly in thought. He thought back to their initial meeting, and nodded, remembering.
"Not really, I'd need to see Lines to get it straightened out. But I guess I figured it out on my own, so it's not as confusing as I thought," he said finally. He was curious about Clerise, he wanted to know how RA, this AI program, could have hurt her.
But, he decided against it, it seemed like the source of her worry, and main reason for his comforting gestures. He felt it'd be uncalled for to shatter her comfort, after only just building it. His wings gave another twitch, and Akira was surprised that it didn't hurt.
His tail hit the backs of his legs as he walked, wagging every now and then. The only reason it was under control, was because if he didn't control it, it would accidently hit Cerceris, or irritate her spider-legs and spines.
"What's it like being able to crawl along the ceiling and walls?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 8:59 am
Cerceris thought for a moment. "It's a lot like being able to walk on the floor, but the gravity goes in a different direction. I like it because I can move a lot faster without having to worry about running into someone. My spider legs can walk much faster than my human legs can, because they're a lot stronger. I might be able to pick you up with them, but I'd have to be very careful with the claws on the end. They're sharp, and I don't want to stab you."
The Aanida's mind began to wander. "Lines is a teacher, Aerin told me. Or he sent it to my feed... I didn't really feel like looking at the information at the time. He was one of the teachers who went to see Clerise when I was in the ACR." She sighed. "I really didn't want to leave her alone, but the advancement message sounded urgent. Plus, I'd been meaning to visit the infirmary anyway because Clerise said she'd been there." A little belatedly, Cerceris realized that Akira probably had no idea what she was talking about.
"Let me start from the beginning. Clerise is my roommate, I've already told you that much. She's the first person I met here, aside from RA, who met me at the gates. It gave me an injection that put me to sleep so it could put my Feed in, and Clerise was standing over me when I woke up in our room." She smiled. "She was poking me in the face with this leg, actually." She waved an arachnid limb. "She's a human like you, but with pretty red-orange hair that hides one of her eyes like yours, except hers is gone. And she has cat ears and tail. She taught me some games and things to do with my Feed, and we talked, and I really like her. She's... my first friend, I guess. But one day she went missing, and I couldn't find her, and she wouldn't respond to pings, and I was very worried. She was gone for about a week. And then she came back and she was all different."
Cerceris had a vague notion that she was talking too much, but she hadn't really spoken to anyone yet and the words just kept flooding out.
"Taller, like I guess we are now, but very changed. She smelled different, and her ears were sort of split, and she had one wing with black feathers, and her left arm was all black and painful looking, and her teeth were really sharp. She cut herself on them. And she was exhausted, she said she had run away from the infirmary. I thought she might hit me when I asked her to go back. And then she passed out and I put her in bed and stayed with her for a while."
"When I went to the infirmary, Aerin told me what happened. The computer RA is based off of a real alien scary thing that killed a lot of people and destroyed most of a planet. They kept its personality and fused it with the AI here at the school, but the computer RA wasn't working properly and it let the alien get out somehow. It lured Clerise up to its room, which probably wasn't too hard. She likes exploring things, especially where she shouldn't be. And then it injected her..." Cerceris wasn't entirely sure how this part worked, it confused her. "... somehow fused with her, and now she's turning into the scary alien thing. I'm scared for her."
The Aanida squeezed Akira's hand, rubbing at her eyes with the back of her other hand. "I'm sorry for running on like that," she said quietly. "I haven't really talked to anyone since it happened. I don't know what to think. I don't know how much she's changed. I just want her to be okay." She brightened a little. "She might be awake by now. Maybe she'll even be in the mess hall. She did say she was hungry."
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Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 9:43 pm
Akira nodded, listening to Cerceris explain walking on the walls, his nose twitched when she explained that her claw could stab him if she tried lift him up, he nodded in agreement.
"I think I'd rather not be stabbed, too. Doesn't look like it's much fun," He replied, jokingly.
He hushed, as Cerceris explained the whole story behind Clerise. Which was a little too fastly said for his preferrence, but he caught everything, lupine ears were sensetive to sound and his feed kindly replayed the story slower for him.
He didn't know what to say, and even if he did, she didn't look like she wanted opinions. She looked like she wanted comfort, and a lot of it. He stopped them, and turned her to face him.
He smiled gently, and ran a hand over her hair, then wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug.
"It'll be okay. Everything has a way of working out in the end... Clerise has you, and I can try to help where ever I can, she'll get through this."
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Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 10:56 pm
Cerceris heaved a shaky sigh, nuzzling her face into Akira's shoulder. He was warm and comforting, and it felt surprisingly nice to have her hair touched. She hugged back with six arms, being careful not to jostle his sensitive wings. Hugs are Good Things, she decided. They were warm and close and nice, and frequently accompanied by comforting words as well.
Akira's murmured words brought more solace to the Aanida than she expected. She found her mind growing clearer, as though clouds had lifted. It seemed like everything would somehow be okay. Clerise would be fine, RA wasn't going to kill everyone, and life would continue as normally as it could with the changes that had already taken place.
"Thank you," she mumbles into Akira's shirt. Then, a little clearer, "I feel so much better after saying everything. I think you might be right. I hope so, anyway." She pulled back and smiled at the wolf boy, traces of moisture still clinging to the sparse eyelashes that lined her main eyes. "We must be close to the mess hall by now. I'm looking forward to the fried potatostuff." This smile wasn't forced.
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Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 11:09 pm
Akira smiled back, taking a moment to wipe her eyes. He let the hug, and their limbs unfold on their own, and his wings stretched out, flapping once.
He gave a meek chuckle, they didn't hurt.
"Yep, oh, and I heard that food can be good to comfort people... Like icecream and stuff... I don't actually know. I know that the milkshakes make me feel all nice and calm and stuff, but they fill the bladder up waaaay too quickly."
He chuckled again, smiling at Cerceris. He wanted to make her laugh, and smile again.
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Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 11:33 pm
Cerceris reluctantly released Akira, moving her arachnid legs back to their folded position behind her. She briefly admired his wings as they flapped, wondering how soon he would be able to use them to fly.
She tilted her head at 'milkshakes'. "Does milk taste better when you shake it?" Perhaps the shaking released calming nutrients or something. And maybe a similar effect could be achieved by putting ice into cream. Or maybe humans just drank weird beverages. Her stomach made a barely audible gurgle, reminding her that eating food was preferable to discussing it. She would try a shaken milk drink, especially if it had comforting properties. There were no circumstances she could think of in which there could be too much comfort.
She smiled, black mandibles framing a flash of white teeth. "Enough talking about food, let's go have some."
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Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 12:06 am
Another chuckle and Akira nodded, his stomach definitely agreed with her. He took her hand again, and they continued on their way.
"Milkshakes, um, I think they put icecream in them, and some sort of flavouring. The strawberry ones are especially nice."
"And Icecream is... weird. It's like frozen milkshake, but not like ice, it stays like cream. I've always wondered how that works."
His wings gave another flap, and stretched out again, rested, and deciding that soon they would want to fly, they flapped again, a little more aggressively, and Akira looked back.
"Would you guys stop that?"
He wasn't aware that he was talking to his own appendages.
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Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 12:32 am
Ice cream is like frozen milkshakes, and milkshakes contain ice cream. How very odd. It was like explaining an Aanida to someone who had never seen a spider and had only a vague idea of humans.
Cerceris couldn't help but chuckle at Akira and his argument with his wings. "I hope they don't try to take off without you. That would be weird. I wonder if it's possible that they know how to fly even if you don't." She supposed that asking what flying was like would be like asking what walking on ceilings or seeing with six eyes was like. They were natural things that evaded accurate description.
Having been cheered by the cathartic unbottling of thoughts and the following more physical comfort, Cerceris began to hum without a particular tune in mind. Her voice was nothing special beyond the basically pretty sound all young girls have, but for once she was not self-conscious about it. She began to swing Akira's hand back and forth.
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Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 1:03 am
"Haha! I think it'd hurt a little bit if they tried to take off without me. Probably me more than them... I'll have to learn how to control them, but I think they'll be like my tail and ignore me anyway," He said, after a whole-hearted laugh. He couldn't wait to test them out, though, he supposed he'd have to ask Lines or Hiro how to work them, unless what Cerceris wondered was true, and they did know how to fly.
"Maybe they're like baby birds. They know it, they just need to practice."
He heard something that caught his ears, Cerceris humming, and her hand swinging his. He smiled; this was nice. Someone who wasn't overly hyporactive like Hiro, or mean like Luke, or always calm and collected like Astrid and Lines.
Someone like him, and energetic, but calm at the same time. He would be sure to treat her like he would a younger sister. Which care, and protection. Although, maybe she was older than he?
They rounded a corner, and he could see familiar doors. The mess hall was in their reach. Wolfish senses picking up on the food prapared, the aromas of an assortment of meats and vegetables, even snacks and chocolate. His stomach gave a final violent growl and he chuckled.
"Almost therrrre~" He said in a sing-song voice.
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Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 8:23 am
Cerceris stopped humming and finally grinned outright. She could also smell the food smells, though it was more a very faint "stuff to eat" scent because most of the foods were not yet known to her. She supposed that the doors were familiar, and scolded herself internally (again) for depending on her Feed map so much.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go eat! I hope I still know how to order." Her voice indicated a wink, though her eyes did no such thing. The expression was alien to her, but the sentiment was there nonetheless. She marched happily through the doors, quite ready to get some food in her belly.
[moving on to the Mess Hall]
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