[PRP] An Act of Mercy (Panili x Leeroi)

[Sypon]

panili x leeroi

Panili takes action against the unwholesome cruelty she witnessed at Bloodfest.

 

[Sypon]

Something had been on Panili’s mind since the moment she stepped into this horrendous booth.

She stood to the side, watching as trolls came and went. The festivities were over and the boothowner had – assumedly – left to celebrate. His booth had turned out to be quite popular, and while she hadn’t spent much time memorizing the faces of those who had stopped by the booth to cheer on his abominations she was sure not going to forget his plug ugly mug. Panili slapped on a smile as she slipped past his lusus under the guise of a fan wishing to see the champions in the flesh. Inside of the GerBRAWL booth, the gerbils had been returned to their pens – awaiting transport to a fate that would continue indefinitely.

Panili paced around the room. One, two, three, four… There were nearly too many to keep hold of, and some would be dangerous to misplace. She would do the best she could – do the most damage quickly, where it hurt. Peepaws – where was that little chubber?

The multi-limbed “modifications” were easy to spot. A lump caught in Panili’s throat as she stepped up to Peepaws’ pen, looking down at the creature sleeping and cuddled up in the corner of its enclosure. She looked around, opened the pen, and reached in. Panili’s lip twitched as she made contact with the warm, wiggling creature. “C’mon, little guy… Let’s get you to a better place.” Panili mumbled.

With two hands, she could transport two at a time. Panili nudged open another pen – containing Lifts – and extracted the gerbil. She began to creep out of the booth.

Kimbley Kitty

emotion_kirakira

 

[zeflamigo]

The gerbils peeped in Panili's grasp. It wasn't to say that they were upset at being held, but they were certainly confused. Especially so when they had left the tent, and the cold air hit their tiny, warm-blooded bodies. Immediately, they squished themselves inward to be shielded by Panili's tiny hands.

Leeroi passed by Panili on his way back into the booth, but was too cold and wet from diving in the ocean to pay any close attention to her. He rushed into the tent for a blanket to cover himself in (all while evading his lusus' notice), and then made his way to the gerbil's pen.

He immediately noticed the drop in numbers. Peepaws was his star, and Lifts was the largest of his gerbils. It was very obvious they were missing. A sense of dread and anger fell over Leeroi. Was this a gerbil-napping?

Frantically, he ran outside, surveying the area for anyone suspicious. Spotting Panili, he rushed up to question the girl. "Hey! Hey you! Have you seen anyone with two gerbils looking suspicious?" Leeroi shouted after her, trying to get her to turn around.

Sypon

ask and ye shall receive

 

[Sypon]

Oh gog. Panili was grateful for winter wear, and she was grateful for having huge sleeves to store small mammals in. She drew her hands into her sleeves and swallowed the huge lump in her throat. Would she lie? Or fess up? She hadn’t gotten far enough to do any good with the gerbils. Unfortunately, she had run out of time. Panili turned around.

Yes, there he was. Just as abrasive in his physical features as the voice that came out of his protein chute. “Ah!” Now was the time to decide. “I saw someone with a lumpy shirt go that way,” she said. She gestured with a tip of her head (making sure not to disrupt the wiggling creatures in her clothes) to the opposite direction. Frankly, it wasn’t a lie? Maybe? Maybe she did, some trolls were lumpy. “Hope you find them!”

She started to stalk away. Faster. Oh, dear goodness, the contents of her sleeves were shifting. In the struggle to make it look like she wasn’t carting live cargo, Panili looked like she had to use the restroom. In fact- aha! There was a portable ablutionblock. She turned as though she was going to enter it, walked right past around the corner and broke into a full run.  

[zeflamigo]

"Oh, thanks!" Leeroi looked for the lumpy perpetrator, but didn't see any trolls with particularly gerbil-shaped lumps. Huh.

Leeroi turned back to the helpful orangeblood, only to see her walking away at a brisk pace. "Hey! Come back!" He really needed the help, surely she would understand. Only, she started moving faster. Leeroi ran to catch up.

She turned to use a portable ablutionblock. Oh. That made sense now. Leeroi stopped in place, considering his next plan. Contact security, maybe? That seemed like a shortcut.

Out of his peripheral, and through the cracks between the ablutionblocks, he spotted the small figure running past, and faster. Where was she going, and why was she in such a hurry? Was she in trouble? Leeroi picked up the pace, sprinting after her.

"Hey! Are you okay?" Leeroi shouted between breaths. "Why are you running? Is someone chasing you?"

Sypon

 

[Sypon]

“Oh, geez, I’m—“ Panili began to explain. To come up with anything at all, really… But it was too late. The wiggling creatures wibbled and wobbled out of her sleeves, and her only reaction was to shriek. In a swooping motion, she half-set and half-tossed them underhand onto the ground.

“BE FREE!! RUN, GERBILS, RUN!!”

Kimbley Kitty

 

[zeflamigo]

Gerbils? Gerbils! Those were his gerbils! Leeroi immediately panicked for the little creatures, his running only picking up in speed as he saw them hit the ground. Peepaws started to scurry, frightened by the sudden cold on her metal feets. Lifts, however, was never a gerbil that moved very fast. He remained stationary.

Leeroi shoved the orangeblood aside, scooping up Lifts and sticking him under his arm like the gerbil was a sports ball. Knowing he couldn't catch up to Peepaws on his own, he called out to the gerbil instead, cooing her name and making kissing noises to try and convince the gerbil back over.

Sypon

HEWWO

 

[Sypon]

While Panili’s typical reaction would be to flee, to talk her way out of it, to do - something intelligent or to assist in her self-preservation at the very least - she couldn’t help but stand and dumbly watch Peepaws scuttle around.

“R-run! BE FREE!” She squeaked, finding that tears had suddenly sprung to her eyes. She wasn’t sure what to do now. Her plot of freedom, her jailbreak, had failed. Maybe she could just…

Panili sped towards Peepaws, her sleeves flapping as she raised her arms and shook them. If she couldn’t encourage her to safety, maybe she could scare her far away!!

Kimbley Kitty

HEWWO!!!

 

[zeflamigo]

Panili's attempts to scare the gerbil easily outweighed Leeroi's attempts to calm her. With a terrified squeak, the faster gerbil scuttled away from the strange flapping creature. Leeroi, on the other hand, was not scared. Leeroi got mad.

Teeth bared, Leeroi pocketed Lifts and turned to the orangeblood. She was trying to free his gerbils? Gerbils didn't work like that! They were totally domestic! And they loved him! What was this orangeblood thinking? Peepaws would die out there in the snow without him! The thought of it made him so angry that he started to cry.

"Stop it! You're scaring her!" He screeched, and launched himself at Panili. He attacked her, clumsy and kid-like, smacking at her and pulling at her hair.

Sypon

 

[Sypon]

“You-- you’re hurting them! You’re doing experiments on them! Gerbils shouldn’t fight!”

As Leeroi bolted towards her, Panili shrieked. She tried to run a bit of a distance before Leeroi quickly caught up, and put her hands up in defense. He tugged at her hair, and tears of pain sprung to her eyes. Panili balled up her fists and tried to shove him away, to very little effect. She stumbled, opened her eyes for a second to look for Shmothma. The white shape of the fauna was moving towards her, and Panili squinted and squeaked. “Sh-shmothma! Help!”

After a moment’s hesitation, Shmothma jerked into awareness, seemingly suddenly recognizing what was going on. She flapped towards the two, hovering and diving into the fray.

Kimbley Kitty

 

[zeflamigo]

Whatever point Panili had, Leeroi didn't want to hear it. There was nothing she could say that would make him think he was in the wrong. At this point, he was barely listening to whatever point the orangeblood tried to make.

"You're going to get her killed!" Leeroi argued back, still fighting. "The snow's gonna make her feet rust, idiot! Predators are gonna eat her when she can't run!" He shoved her back, with enough conviction to push her down. Unaware and indifferent to the approaching lusus, Leeroi readied a punch.

When cut off by the moth lusus, he huffed with indignation. Baring his teeth, he glanced around the lusus to watch Panili for any sudden moves.

Sypon

 

[Sypon]

"W-well!! Why did you give her metal feet?" She yelled back, realizing her mistake. Panili hit the ground with an 'oomph!', feeling pain rocket through her body. She had made a huge mistake. This was a blueblood, and she was... Small, and orange.

Shmothma screeched, bell jangling and buzzing as she released spores and dander everywhere. She wasn't in a mode of attacking the blueblood - she just seemed reactive to whatever was around her.

Meanwhile, Panili struggled on the ground attempting to get to her feet in the snow. Her hands were ice cold, now as frightened and miserable as the gerbils she'd foolishly tried to release.

zeflamigo

tapdances

 

[zeflamigo]

"Robotics is a constructive hobby unlike video games and life-threatening stunts!" Leeroi prattled off as if it was something his lusus had told him repeatedly. He quickly backed away from the orangeblood's own lusus, instead running off towards Peepaws, who had taken to hide under the fold of a nearby booth tent.

Leeroi approached carefully, forcing himself to be calm. Having no qualms about looking like an idiot in front of strangers, he cooed at Peepaws with gerbil-ish sounds, tsk-ing and eek-ing in an attempt to make her comfortable.

Sypon

 

[Sypon]

“...Video… Stunts?” Panili had no idea how that was relevant, but she quickly realized that nothing was more important than getting the heck out of there! This was a blueblood, and she was officially some kind of tiny criminal. She stumbled to her feet and ran - ran as fast as she could, away from Leeroi and his horrible experiments.

Shmothma dumbly followed, seeming to get the picture only after Panili looked back at her and gave her the hand signal. The large beast snuffled with vague distress and followed after her charge. In no time at all, they were specks in the distance.

Panili couldn’t believe she had done that. Well… No. It had to be done, hadn’t it? Maybe the blueblood would think twice next time… Or not. Perhaps the event would solidify his distrust, his love of awful experimentation. As she slowed down, taking a roundabout turn to get back to the Lightseekers booth, Panili’s eyes began to well with tears. She’d failed outright.

zeflamigo