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 Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:01 pm
The home was empty. Empty and quiet and peaceful and perfect for evil. But even the face of evil seemed content. Tepin couldn’t help it-- she was excited, and she was alone. When those things mixed, it usually led the way to singing.
Squeaky, off-pitch, and often missing any kind of coherent words: that was what ‘singing’ to the girl was. But it made her happy, it felt good, and if no one was there to hear how bad she was, then there was no problem to it. No harm, no foul, after all.
Well… She couldn’t say no foul. Not really. Her red eyes peeked all-too-anxiously into the oven, a mischievous smile coating her face. Not only had she followed (Or thought she followed) the recipe to a T, she had also gone out of her way to add in a few special ingredients. Tonight was going to be horribly entertaining, if anything.
All that it needed was one missing piece and the laser pointer hidden away in her pocket, and everything would be perfect.
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Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:24 pm
The next time someone asked what happened to his eye, he was going to strangle them.
At the hospital, Seamus had taken one, long look at him, and started laughing. And laughed, and laughed, and called Murphy in.
Murphy had come, taken one, long look at him as well, and soon they were both a snorting and cackling heap on the floor while Valeriu stood miserably at the foot of the bed.
And then the entire Carnegie family had been invited, and he'd fled.
Jerks.
It wasn't funny! It was uncomfortable, and painful, and he was half blind. His depth perception was shot to hell, and the worst part was that he couldn't do anything about it. Tezcatlipoca couldn't do anything about it; even if the wound had been inflicted in his realm, he could only heal damage that had been dealt by him, directly or indirectly.
An intern passed him in the hall, stopped, stared, backtracked; a brief conversation later, and Valeriu exited the hospital, the proud owner and wearer of a brand new, pirate-y black eyepatch.
He growled and stomped home, making sure to glare at Quinn's house the entire way. Uppity little ********. Acting like a p***k - it wasn't that much of an achievement to kill that jaguar. Especially when you cheated and used powers. Tezcatlipoca certainly hadn't used any powers, now did he?
Jerk.
But he was home. He was safe. And he could smell something delicious cooking that had his mouth watering even before he opened the door.
"Tepin?"
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Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:31 pm
The moment she heard his words, her mouth clamped down with a panicked squeak. He’d heard. He’d heard-he-- oh geez! Bright red as she was, she turned quickly, hiding the oven as best she could with her body.
“Welc-Ohgod--” Why? There was no logical reason why a Vale who looked like he had been through hell and back should be here. He wasn’t-- he--
“You got in a fight-- didn’t you?”
That was the magic of the Game. At any point, you could be attacked. Even from work and back; from the hospital and back; from the next block over, you were never really safe. Even if you were powerful, there was still a chance of being ambushed…
Suddenly, catnip seemed horribly out of place. Now was not the time for jokes and laser pointers.
“Did you… Win?”
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Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:59 pm
He kept his mouth zipped at the urge to tease her about her singing, poking his head into the kitchen (following that delicious scent).
He ambled in, blinking at her words, before scowling in annoyance down at his scorched body; even the sharp new claw marks digging into his shoulder paled in comparison.
"Sort of," he grumped, sidled over to the kitchen chair, and gingerly sat himself down.
Oh god - his future children were still screaming in agony.
"V'e v'ent swimming," he elaborated. "In Tezcatlipoca's v'orld. It v'as fun, but then Quinn ran off, and my god attacked him. I caught up, v'as killing the jaguar-- v'hen Quinn hit us both v'ith a giant lightning bolt."
He scowled.
Oh, how he scowled. He tapped the eyepatch, hesitating, before pulling it up so that she could better see his zonked-out eye.
"I'm just - I do not know v'hat to do about this. This paralysis. Do you think it v'ill v'ear off?"
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Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 4:12 pm
She turned, following a few steps behind as he got himself comfortable.
Never mind the fact that Quinn had even entered his god’s realm but-- defending him? This was just one bad idea after another. For Quinn… What had happened to making Vale happy?! To giving him what he wanted? That was-- it-- just the complete opposite! He was a traitorous, lying, a** of a man.
It only sunk in deeper when she saw the eye and how wrong it looked.
Wait-- wait-- It was this bad? This was serious. If Vale couldn’t see right, if he were to get jumped-- if anything were to happen--
She darted in, a hand gripping to stabilize his head as the other held the patch away from his face. It looked horrible.
“Can you see?” Probably not if he had to cover it, “And what about blinking? If you’re paralyzed then… Your eye’s gunna dry out like this!”
Eyedrops. Eyedrops. She mentally ran through the medicine cabinet, trying to recall if there were any tucked away for such an occasion.
“You have to go to the doctor’s!” That just seemed obvious, “You can just leave it like this.”
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Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 4:20 pm
"No," he confessed, letting her inspect the strange appearance, even as he slung his arms around her waist. His ear twitched at the word doctor.
"I don't....think there's much they can do, you know?" Probably the same thing that was running through her head: eyedrops, eyepatch, maybe some experimental procedures that could either make it worse or make it better. "It v'ould just be a v'asted visit. I'd rather v'ait a few days, anyv'ay, just to see."
It had only been a few hours. He'd gotten a big shock - there could be improvement by tomorrow. And if not--well--
He'd go from there.
He scooted his chair closer, none too slyly.
"I think," he asserted, calmly and sedately and seriously, "that it might get better after a good, v'arm meal." His ears twitched more eagerly, giving him away. "Like the one I smell. Yes, yes. Exactly like that one." He craned his neck to see around her back, to the oven-- "Smells like healing, right there."
And then his body tried to follow his neck, attempting to slink around her in order to inspect and taste-test the meal, of course.
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Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 4:31 pm
“But--” She wanted to protest, and to argue, and to physically force him if need be, but she knew that he would have none of it. His mind had gone elsewhere, and there was little to stop him now. She doubted that even Tezcatlipoca himself could stop his Godling, given how focused Valeriu seemed to be.
“It’s just shake-n-bake--” She confessed, trying to beat him to the oven as best she could, “And--and I think it’s burnt-- so--”
So they could have something else. Something less laced with catnip.
(Now was most certainly not the time for catnip, right?)
“So we should go out!”
There’s no way he’d go for that.
“That way there’s no dishes!”
They couldn’t wash them anyway, with the sink busted.
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Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 4:36 pm
By the time she started talking, he was already before the Heavenly Gates, mitten in hand and peering into the oven to check on the status of the thing that smelled so good.
"It's ready!" He opened the oven, swiped the dish, set it on the counter to cool, tail swishing busily at the thought.
God, it smelled really good.
"No v'ay! And v'aste your cooking?" He stole a plate, and a fork, and didn't wait too long before the taste-testing commenced.
"It's really tasty," he complimented after a forkful of the shake-and-bake, happily nomming the fork to his heart's content. "Really, really tasty."
So very tasty.
Weird, he'd tasted this before---
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Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 4:52 pm
“You know I don’t cook goo--” It was too late. He had already let himself be taken over. The smell had taken control. And that-- that was only the first step. He was eating it now. Eating it. Which meant that the dose was only going to get that much more powerful.
“You do like it, though?” Hovering as if nearing a cornered beast, she looked anxious, apprehensive. While the box had spelled the directions out simply enough… There was always room for error. And food, real food, was always something that seemed the hardest to make. “It doesn’t taste weird?”
Weird like pot made specifically for cats?
At the very least, she could try it herself.
She looked apprehensively at his plate, and then back to the stove. Shifting glances, and a quick step to the counter to grab a fork, she fluttered back with a mixture of curiosity and fear. Should she? Was it safe?
Her questioning look turned on Vale.
“Can I have a bite?”
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Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 5:05 pm
He was purring, munching away on his food - "Not at all!"
Chomp, chomp, chomp.
"Tastes good, but the smell, I really like---" He couldn't quite place it. "V'hat herbs did you use?"
Whatever they were, he wanted more.
He let her have at the rest of the food on the stove, instead contently winding around her and rubbing his cheek against her hair affectionately.
"Thank you for making dinner, Tepin," he purred, and rubbed, and his plate was empty and he was so happy. Happy enough that he didn't stop winding, twisting and curling around her while standing like a cat rubbing against someone's leg.
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Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:55 pm
She looked back to the stove hesitantly, where the box loomed ominously.
“Uhm… Whatever’s in there. I just followed the box.” Drop in the chicken, shake, bake, and bam! Dinner was complete. “It’s not a big deal-- Hey! Don’t change the subject. Your eye is blind.”
That seemed wholly more important than whether or not Tepin had spiked his dinner with catnip. By the looks of it, her plan was successful.; though now, she felt mighty guilty for taking advantage like that.
Well… At the very least, he was in a better mood.
She wriggled, twisting as best she could to keep track of the boy. While the affection was mostly because of the drugs, it still caused a bright blush to spread across her tanned face.
“Hey--Hey!” She was grabbing now, trying to get a grip on his face and get a good look at him once more. “Don’t-- Hey!” It was more difficult to keep track of him than she would have guessed. “Don’t do anything like what you did today again.”
Which included brining Quinn to his realm. Just what could they have been doing in there?
“Promise?”
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Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 11:04 pm
He grinned, silly-like, agreeably letting her hold onto his face once more.
It just meant she had to sacrifice her nose to a swipe of the tongue. He wound his arms around her waist once more, purring like a madman.
"I v'on't." Hm. His legs weren't holding out anymore - he slid, grip sliding with him, cheek dragging down to her tummy, and then to her legs, as the floor called to him.
Ha! He had her legs now. This was a glorious achievement. He nosed her knees, and rolled on the floor until he was twisted up like a curly-tie, arms still wrapped securely around her legs - and then he untwisted, and curled the other way.
Back and forth, back and forth.
"V'hat am I promising not to do again?"
He couldn't remember. Everything was so pleasantly fuzzy. And it was such a nice feeling to rub his cheek against her knees.
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Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 11:17 pm
She groaned, tugging her legs futilely against his far greater strength.
“Nothing, nothing-- I’ll tell you later, just--” Another tug, and she had to flail to keep from face faulting onto the floor. Her smoothness was unparalleled.
“Can we go sit on the couch?”
At least then she wouldn’t be in danger of falling down again.
“I’ll scratch your chin!”
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Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 11:23 pm
He contemplated her suggestion from his position on the floor, foot pushing against the tile thoughtfully.
"Hmmm---"
Chin scratchies.
He'd never had those before.
"'Kay."
He liked the sound of them. He released Tepin, rolling onto his side. He slunk over to the couch in a series of strange movements: sliding along the floor, pausing to roll and rub himself against the ground happily, before resuming his trek. He climbed the cushions, up to the top of the backrest, balancing expertly on the narrow material with all four limbs, ears pricked, alert but happy.
"C'mon!" he urged, pacing back and forth on the top of the couch impatiently. Cuddles! He must have them! She was slow, too slow!
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Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 11:46 pm
She felt comparatively sane as she walked (On her legs, no less!) to the couch, flopping down with an only semi-relieved sigh. From her chair, Mr. Slinky glared at the imposter, feeling almost neglected compared to the attention that this new rival cat was getting.
The girl tried to stretch and bend in such a way as to reach his chin from her comfortable spot, but to no avail. Her hands scratched the air vainly, before she made a small whine that she hoped he would understand to mean ‘Come here, I am too lazy to move to pet you.’
Her hand flopped uselessly against the cushions, and her head leaned against the backrest to give him a pleading look. It was so far from here to his chin… If only… If only his chin were a little closer…
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