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 Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:37 pm
Well, she liked not freezing to deEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!
Ah ha ha, they were probably keeping other rooms up now, dur dur, that was if the Innkeeper had been dumb enough to put anybody else in rooms near them. So perhaps not as many heard her little shreik of half-surprise, half-horror as she was suddenly scooped up off the floor.
Either way, the flop onto the bed earned a slight hiding of her face from the nose down in the blanket, his 'ineffective' glare actually doing it's job just fine to intimidate her as it always did.
"It's not like I generate enough heat to keep myself warm, even with a blanket." she mumbled, though it was an accurate enough observation. What with the whole 'PALE THING REFLECTS LIGHT AND HEAT AND HAS NO FUR AND WILL FREEZE TO DEATH' system of..
..
Whatever.
"Now you answer, what are you after? You get nothing out of helping me."
Except a pain in the a** an-....
...
More forehead petting it seemed, as she just seemed to have the itch to do so, wiggling her arm out of the blanket to run her palm across his forehead and up through his hair.
Good kitty.
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Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 11:39 pm
Yeah, ow, that shriek had definitely given his ears a nasty sting.
It was a good thing he'd payed off the Innkeeper at that point, too, lest the man downstairs think he'd suddenly decided to MURDER his no-breed company or something. At least it hadn't lasted long enough to blow out an eardrum, though, and Niko could (not so) happily distract himself with frowning and glowering and--
... Okay, maybe she really did have a point with the lack of fur there; it made sense enough anyway (even if he still failed on the empathy level with being furless). Still... shouldn't the blankets have been enough?
And now more questions. Great.
"I just--" ...
Fdajfkalsfjfkdsajf h-hold the phone just a damnable second, she hadn't given him time to finish that thought before the petting started, breaking off mid-sentence with a... sound... of surprise. It wasn't quite a growl or a hiss or a purr or a squeak, just a...
Yes, 'sound' fit it well.
... It was quite possibly the most hilariously befuddled he'd ever looked-- and to think, a simple bit of grooming had been the thing to do it.
"W-what are you trying t--" ... s**t, the voice had just lost all power too.
Something was horribly, horribly wrong with him.
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 7:19 am
Well it wasn't as though she had ever seen a Koshka (or anything) with such nice hair at their age (older men, yes, but Niko had to be in his mid twenties..... so it was unnatural to see) and that she could actually reach out and touch without getting her arm snapped off.
As a nobreed she'd never really had any experience with fur. Parental or otherwise.
However, she did pause, her hand still placed against his forehead when he asked her (or tried to ask her) what she was doing, Tamara's own ears perking slightly before she withdrew the hand and buried it back into the blankets.
Shiver shiver.
"I'm sorry.... I can't help it...." she offerred with no explanation as to why the given fact was so.
But the look on his face had so been worth it- and was she just settling in where she'd been planted as the 'new arrangement'? Seemed as though Niko had just volunteered himself into being a heater.
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:09 am
He would've called shenanigans (... or BS, or whatever) on her little comment if he hadn't still been stupified right then, so torn and unsure of just how to respond that it must've come off as hilarious to the one 'responsible' for it. Surely, one could help playing with the hair of a total (and TERRIFYING!) stranger, right?
And just what was making her so damned confident that he was 'safe' to do this to, either? Hadn't she been suspicious of his motives earlier?
There wasn't even a good excuse like the cold for it. No, one could stay perfectly warm in a bed with someone without doting over their (admittedly soft) fur and hair.
"...Nn, whatever," was all he wound up mumbling in response to her, ears flicking back in a very strange (almost confused?) manner before, without further prompting, he-- O SHI-- rolled over to lay on the mattress instead of just sit there atop it... and practically took her with him by force, sob.
Because he needed to get some sleep (not everyone was Superman) if he had any inclination to sneak out in the night for dock-raiding and, dammit, if she was going to be clinging to him for heater abuse then... she'd just have to deal with the inconvenience.
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 3:11 pm
And it seemed she was along for the napping ride as well, somehow NOT squeaking upon the curl-up session and offerring a very weak smile, snuggling her face into the blanket she'd coocooned herself in and...
....
Turning Niko into a pillow, albeit with the blanket between the two of them for whatever 'safety' sake it may have held, and closing her eyes to at least be compliant enough to feign sleep.
Maybe she'd even FALL asleep despite her qualms against wanting to sleep until she was at least.
.....
....
Well, maybe she'd last until her body just made her pass out...
...
.....
But then again, she didn't really..like..tha-...
...
It wasn't long until, despite her best efforts, it was obvious the snoozer inside the pillow was very much conked out, her breathing nice and even and her stirring very little. Probably much to Niko's relief.
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:35 pm
Niko, too, eventually just gave in and gave up his frustrations in favor of lulling off to sleep, one ear keenly tuned to the surrounding environment even as his mind drifted off to the black abyss, sinking slower, deeper into the darkness that felt like a sludge on his memories...
... And he dreamed of cats.
Or rather, just one cat, actually-- the name of which he couldn't hear and the appearance both foreign yet familiar. It was a strange dream-- the kind that seemed so damned significant without being clear and... no, for the life of him, it just wouldn't click together. Little bits and pieces were lost forever from the moment he woke again.
Except the feeling.
Yes, the feeling of that hand running through his fur... Or its fur? Wasn't it an it? Surely, but...
He woke up with the first light of dawn and immediately cursed himself for it, inwardly swearing and wondering just what the hell had possessed him to sleep through his internal alarm-clock for midnight sneaking.
They were sure going to have a hell of a time making it out of there now.
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 10:20 pm
She'd dreamt...
...
of nightmares. Certainly it had started off nice, with a wedding and all, but she'd been stolen away from that and there was a cage. It was horrible. But she'd had a kitten.
Not like, literally birthed one, but a pet. One that she fed and pet (Neko..... sounded familiar), and.
...
.....
And something.
The very tail-end had been very... hazy, to say the least, leaving her to just remain sleeping, for Niko's convenience, with a very perplexed look on her face.
That was probably exactly how Niko had felt upon waking from his odd little dream.
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Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 12:48 am
... Perplexed didn't even begin to describe it, no.
But all the befuddlement and sincere confusion took a back seat in Niko's brain to the ANGRY SELF-LOATHING of his own failed planning, blinking the sleep from his eyes and leering over towards the window where cool dawn light had just barely started pouring in...
Yes, another few DAMMITS were in mental order, and more still. Granted, while it could have been worse (thank god they hadn't been broken in on during the night by the police force or something), movement during the waking hours of the day would inevitably be difficult.
He needed to make his decisions quickly; either they bailed for the docks in the very near future, or spent another day more or less trapped in the little Inn. One left them risking capture in the other, and the other... well, it at least risked freezing on the woman's part if he didn't keep playing the damn heater.
Of which he was still doing right then, he belatedly realized, glancing down at the blanketed heap of person curled up against him and... suddenly feeling unsure whether or not to wake her.
Really though, she'd slept enough; why did he even care for such thing?
"... Tamara?" Well, at least he could test the waters with a whispergrumble in her ear, anyway. Then his conscience wouldn't be all grouchy.
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Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 8:23 am
From a bystander's point, what happened next might have been hilarious to watch. But for the more informed, it was just pathetic.
Tamara stirred ever so slightly at her name, mumbling in turn the name 'Tamaki', before pausing, as though even in her subconcious dreaming state the mental image of the only one who had ever called her 'Tamaki' had invading, earning an abrupt wakening before she shrieked and ...
...
Well, she would have flailed if she hadn't been partially held in place, but she did roll out from the blankets and hit the floor, suddenly curling up like a porcupine in a 'self defensive' manner, hands over her head and every sensitive or more painfully broken limb curled underneath her.
"Neko...Neko...Niko......."
And then there was sobbing to be had. It was possibly the most pathetic sight to behold.... well...
...
EVER.
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Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:53 pm
He didn't even know just what was going on and still, still, it far surpassed words like 'pathetic' or 'terrible' by a landslide.
Niko wasn't used to sobbing. He wasn't used to seeing it and he wasn't used to dealing with it, either, but this... There was just something sickening and frustrating and inexplicably overwhelming about this, so much so that his mind just STALLED the moment after he sat up, and it felt like all he could do for the longest time was just... restrain himself and watch it.
The shrieking hurt his ears, but it was the sobbing part that actually got to him in a weird way... and that mumbling. Sounded almost foreign, except... not.
"... Hey." And god how hard he was kicking himself when he finally scooted over to the bed corner and reached down to give her an (awkwardly "gentle") tug on one arm, perhaps in some effort to get her OFF the floor or... catch her attention or... distract her or something else helpful.
"Come on, snap out of it..." He was at a hopeless loss for what to do but talk at her like that, ears flat back and frowning deeply. "I--" s**t, what was he even getting at? Did she not realize he was sitting right behind her? Was that why she sobbed out his name? "I'm... here, alright? We're just fine. It's morning."
God, feeling hopeless sucked.
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Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 2:35 pm
Oh how she cringed on contact, but it was enough of a jump to earn a glance through the space between her arm and her side, seeing the growing so ever familiar dark face frowning diapprovingly at her ANGSTFACEING.
....
........
....
However, it did earn Niko's arm as a cling-on for a few minutes while she composed herself, a frown painted firmly on her face.
Niko felt... comforting, and she wasn't absolutely sure what it was that was tickling that little 'CAN HAS BE SAFE' bit in her either. But it took very little outside of his words to earn her silence, the girl soon releasing his arm and sitting back down on the bed.
......
...
"How long are we going to stay here?"
Well, Tama, that was dependant on how long it took Niko to get there and back and smuggle you out of town, sweetie!
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Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:58 pm
O SHI--
.... Okay, so she wasn't only word sensitive, but expression sensitive too (as if he hadn't already picked up on that)-- of which Niko's hopeless frowning probably just exacerbated all the more. He couldn't help it; this was... yes, frustrating was a good word.
He was only good at things that were solvable through violence. Gentle felt way too foreign.
Although really, given the circumstances and the fact that she was clinging to him so boldly without permission or 'actual' prompting, he did pretty well to just sit there and let her, not even bothering to comment (what could he say, anyway?) as she worked out whatever pathetic anxiety from whatever odd nightmare she'd suffered until her composure was... sort of a little restored maybe.
"... If we hurry, we can make it to the docks before the rest of the city wakes up," he offered flatly, and rather hopelessly, too. "But... I probably need to go down and check it out first..."
Yeah, and make sure there was a vessel he could bribe to get them both to neutral territory. It'd be horrible if they wound up cornered out there and without a way to escape. Agh.
But anyway--
"... You should eat something." That was a good point to make; after all, there was still cereal and water and some leftover apples (... hell, even an orange or two) heaped on the nightstand that he hadn't touched since yesterday, too-- and who knew, maybe her hysteria had just been from lack of sustenance or something?
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Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 7:11 am
Okay, so that rundown had been the most flip-floppy thing she'd heard from him yet. Yes they were leaving, that hadn't changed, however he had left one little detail lingering as if it were just a thought he was entertaining.
"So am I just staying here?" she asked foremost, then frowned and continued her thoughts to bring up another excellent point. "And if we can't leave that way, what are we going to do instead?" Omai, Niko had picked up one with a brain.... and one who had resumed shivering in her blanket.
It wasn't late enough for the sun to make her 'not freezing' at the time being.
Later she'd probably warm right up and all would be HUNKY DORY A-OKAYYYYYYY. Well, at least in the warmliness of the non-fuzzy one department. There was hope for her yet!
"Mmmmn..."
She glanced over her shoulder at the cereal and fruit that was still congregated, before moving over from sitting next to him to camp out in front of the 'offerring' and taking one of the apples.
Well at least she was eating willingly.
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Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:42 am
All the better that she was smart, too, because Niko... Well, it wasn't that the Koshka happened to stupid in any way, shape or form, but at the same time, he wasn't the type to think things through. Tamara's questions were a fine example of just such things.
"Probably," was all he could offer to the girl's first inquiry, brows knitting up in something sort of (vaguely) close to a thoughtful look... before he shrugged. "I can't move as well if I'm not alone..."
Not in the secret sense, anyway-- and doubly so if his 'sneaking' partner was a far less fit and very-nearly-emaciated hairless no-breed girl. Cruel as it sounded, she'd just be a burden for him as he took the "back roads" of the city, scaling walls, prowling rooftops, vaulting fences and... yeah. Doing things meant for a freakishly overpowered Koshka with the appropriate reflexes.
His knees would make that hell enough by itself, anyway...
"But that's how we're getting out." Wait, what? Not even attempting at a backup plan at all? No, he just seemed hellbent on making Plan A work through whatever means necessary, and dammit, he'd just force his will on it until it yielded. "People are greedy. They'll do anything for enough money."
(... And hell, if bribery failed, they responded even more vigorously to the threat of having their guts ripped out.)
On that note, though, it was time for him to get off the bed (ooooow bad knees were cracking horribly) and go rummage through the dresser for another change of clothes-- pants, shirt, everything. He needed to look as nondescript and 'average' as possible before he snuck out...
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Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 12:16 pm
Well, he answered her first question well enough to earn a frown of.. understanding, even if she wasn't slightly concerned, nodding and not pushing it any further than that and quickly going through her 'breakfast' (see: Apple and some of the cereal) rather quickly..
...
Even if she wasn't assured with his comment which belied NO backup plan. Well, if he didn't have one, she certainly had an idea or two of where to get them to for a time.
Tamara, in the meantime, got up to toddle off to...
...
Well, strip and go into hiding in the bathroom to clean up while Niko was making himself incognito. He'd probably be off and gone before she came out. Which was good and fine by her while she got to investigate the state of her body from the affairs of the day before.
Hmmm, she had a bruise on one hip, probably needed to unbandage her hand to clean up her bloodied fingertips, and...
...
She overall just felt disgusting, looking at all of the little faults with her body and knowing very well that a portion of them would always be there in some shape or form.
But even with that, she did retreat with one of the washtowels to scrub down her body to the best of her ability, hopefully not enough to take her skin off, though.
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