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 Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 10:22 pm
When things got worrying, Ash did what came most natural for her... she buried herself in circuits and wires until the worry went away. Tech always had a method, a purpose, a design. Things you could puzzle out with enough time and effort, even reproduce. Minds, magic and people were not as easily dissected and understood. Dreams, for example, could come sleeping or awake and could cover any number of topics with no rhyme or reason or pattern. When Ash's dreams shifted from a repeating cityscape in destruction to a life of hiding in fear searching for something with desperation, she had left the comfort of HQ to seek out the hidey-hole Thraen had set up and the stash she had hidden there.
It had been a while since she'd dropped in to visit her babies... Making the trip out to the safe house was a bit of a jaunt for a cat without transportation. Sneaking onto buses or into the back of trucks was a hit-or-miss sort of thing... there was the risk of discovery coupled with the chance that the vehicle wouldn't go the direction you needed it to.
Despite that inconvenience, though, the safe house was ideal for keeping things she didn't much care to share. The place was used, but not often, and most usually by humans. The way he had stacked up the furniture had created wonderful little hidey holes that were just cat-sized... and those two things meant that the beings who came around were unlikely to disturb her cache simply because it was inconvenient to reach. HQ, for all its wonderful safety and computer access, could not boast that and Ash was always a little worried about stick paws getting a hold of her stuff.
Humming happily to herself, the silver cat tugged a tablet out of the pile under some desks and dragged it into the open next to the smart phone she'd already pulled out. It lay in a disassembled pile of parts, but what an outside viewer might think was a random scattering was really an advanced sorting system, because of course the little tech guru would NEVER take something apart without a way to get it back together again... The humming continued as the Mauvian worked the tablet casing open as well and began to take it apart, spreading the controlled chaos across the floor while she had the luxury of having the area to herself.
Working some connections apart, a jolt ran through the cat as stored electricity discharged from careless handling and she puffed up with a squeak, giving the tablet an offended look. "AH! Goodness..." She burst out, arching and stretching to shake off the more-surprised-than-hurt. "Warn a Mauvian, why don't you? Silly thing..."
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 2:19 am
Patience and care taught some cautions- the muffled sound of little scuffs an words as he came to the window through the convoluted paths through the bushes brought Thraen to a pause. There was the faintest feel of an Order Aura, probably a Mauvian, but a security officer, teacher or student could be checking at the piled end of the room he'd converted. No follow up. He looked in through the panes, finding scatters of shapeless bits and blobs consuming the floor in the hacker-haze of other LCD lights. What in the world? He carefully slide the window open, no longer squeaky from having seen to it with WD40, and dropped into the room with the thonk-scrape of stone on flooring. The window was pulled to immediately after, to prevent seasonal draft. Scanning, he found the cat shape among the rest, the visor and slender grey body recognizeable. Dry humor came of the mess then, "Not starting an electrical fire, I hope." "It won't be easy to find a new place to sleep on such sort notice. "
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 7:17 pm
The small silver body, already extra fluffed with winter fur, puffed out more in indignation as Ash lifted her nose into the air and gave her tail a disdainful flick.
"I only started one fire, thankyouverymuch, and it was in an office building scheduled for demolition... no one will miss it." She said haughtily. Still, there was a hint of a smile and she could not keep her face solemn for long. Too soon, she was grinning, bounding over to weave herself between his boots and arch her silver sides against his calves.
"Thraen! I thought that might be you. If you're planning to sleep, you're going to have to go do it over there, out of the way." The cat said as she waved a paw off towards a corner her mess had not reached yet. Tail lifted to rub against his leg, she padded forward again to lower her nose to her bits and pieces, assessing the placement she had set them in. She felt weirdly energized today, finding it harder than usual to focus. It was probably just worry, really. That's what had pulled her out of sleep, after all.
"I was just playing with my babies. It soothes the nerves, you know? Like little puzzles..." The guardian cooed, patting a bit of circuit over a fraction. "Beautiful little puzzles. Perfect bits and pieces that fit together just so. Made to be that way. Technology is really a wonderful thing... the product of creative minds, always reaching, striving and dreaming. Progress! Off into the great unknown! Where no man has gone before!"
Ash broke out in a giggle at her own theatrics as she lifted her head, tilting it to the side to give her companion a playful look. "I wish space ships were still a thing. I'm sad they went the way of everything else. I want to see more of space, but the only way to do it now is to harass some poor senshi or knight to let me tag along."
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 7:28 pm
"At least so far along as it remains 'out of the way'. I expect in another hour or so even yonder corner will be consumed be the 'blackwater' tech is creeping along the tile." Thraen crouched as she wove, administering precise scritches on her ruff and spine. Winter had many glorious advantages with cats or catlike beings- thickened coats to run fingers through being the first. The second being increased lap times as chilly kitties proved to be cuddly kitties. Ash's mentions of nerves, and the state of the mess didn't promise beanfeet for the half-asleep touching in near future. "Making a spaceship, then? It begs reasoning, but on the surface it makes sense that if the technology exists to harness the long distance planetary energy between senshi and their home to travel, and Knights are able to travel however they do with their magic, that some piece of that could be fashioned to either create wholly new Knights or to make passports like the moon pearls or the disks to the Surrounding. It is something that the watch should look into for stockpiling and safe zones, among other uses." "Or is there some other source for your nerves and extra energy?" As per his own protocol to keep the place safe, Thraen henshined down at the last. It wasn't safe to sleep powered, not without dedicated lookout, cloaking, or 'foolproof' security. If sleep it could be called anymore.
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 6:02 pm
The guardian cackled.
"Just lay still like a good boy and let it quietly consume you... you won't feel a thing, I promise." She grated in her best evil-scientist voice. Her head tilted as she considered her precise layouts, turning her head back the other way for another angle on everything.
"I'm not making a space ship, just playing take-apart-and-put-together with some of my babies... but that is a curious thought, isn't it? Its Mauvian technology that takes you to your planet now, surely a Mauvian could engineer a way to make... guest passes? Something I shall have to look in to, I think. Now that the phones are done, I do need another pet project."
Nervous energy had Ash's tail flicking back and forth, pushing her to her paws before too long. She paced around her layouts with her ears flicking forward and back, tracking Quenton's question even as she investigated a bit of something she thought she saw on the floor.
"I had a bad dream." She said when she finally came opposite him, the restlessness appeased enough to sit for a moment. "Not the normal kind of bad dream, or like the dark column that ate the world. That one stopped a bit ago... No, this one felt way too unpleasantly real. The whole world had gone inside out... the Negaverse was in charge and I spent all my time hiding in HQ, afraid to set a paw outside the door for the fear they would swoop down and snap me up. But more than that, I spent all my time searching for something rather desperately... I can't quite remember what it was, but it involved all the deepest database spelunking I'm so good at, trying to find some hint of where it was being kept."
The cat shrugged as she sprung to her paws again, more restless circling bringing her around the spread as her head moved side to side, tracking things she'd probably already seen a hundred times. Too much energy... like she'd down a red bull, a monster AND a five hour energy all at once. That's what it felt like, anyway. She needed some way to burn it off or she was going to start climbing the walls.
"I don't know, I'm weirdly energized too and I'm not sure why..." Ash said as she bent to sniff at another bit of lint or dust on the floor, her nose wrinkling up as it tickled the delicate organ. "Its been getting worse all day and I just..."
Ash huffed as she felt the tickle crest, her lips pulled back from her teeth.
AH... chuu!
The sneeze was rather small and delicate, but with it came a sudden expelling of energy and bits of technology went skittering across the floor. Silk rustled as it settled and in place of a small silver cat... there was now a small, blue-haired young woman kneeling on the floor of the safehouse.
Wide green eyes blinked a few times in surprise at the sudden angle change and the girl instinctively lifted her hands as she glanced downwards, starting at what she saw.
"Oh goodness." Ash said, her fingers wiggling as she stared at them. She turned them over as her brows drew together in a frown and she pressed them to her chest as she investigated her new form, excitement transforming her face. Suddenly a sound broke from her that was something between a squeal and a scream, steadily rising in pitch until it threatened to be something only dogs can hear. Her hands shook in fists before she threw them outwards, excitedly waving them about.
"Quenton, look, I did it!" She squealed, hands-and-knees-ing it across the floor to more scattered tech before she was close enough to grab him by the cheeks in light pinches. "I have fingers!! Oh wow... I can feel your face.... your face feels weird..."
She clapped her hands to her own face, smooshing her cheeks about as the delicate grey ears above her hair flicked back and forth. "I can feel my skin... I can feel EVERYTHING!"
This was a very exciting development.
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Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2014 12:05 am
"At least I could dream of electric sheep, " consumption by electronics in actuality had to have some benefits, if all the inspirations of cybernetics and cyborgs were prophecy. He traced a careful path in much-worn boots to his usual pallet in the corner. The dream she described sounded like it might relate to the 'Bischofite as General-King' floundering Ida had been going on about when enacting the most wet-blanket, passive-aggressive, partially suicidal attempt other than double cup poisoning to execute another living being possible. Some future setting, bleak and frightening hinted at or overwhelming in dream. With nothing better to do while mulling over this tertiary source, even light as the matter was presented, he crouched and then settled to sitting with his back against the wall and was pulling a blanket over his lap when Ash not only sneezed but then started making a far too loud and noxious sound. At least by way of his frayed sleep schedule and generally quiet manner it was much too much sound. And then there was a girl coming at him where a cat should be and she was pawing at him. It still sounded like Ash. Like *********. Like that cream colored cat. It must be Ash. 'I did it'- she is surprised? She's not been a person before? Despite his cheeks being mooshed, and then her mooshing her her own, Quenton's expression remained deadpan. "You couldn't always be a biped? I thought Mauvian's just preferred their felid forms, even despite lack of opposable digits. " Experimentally, he leaned forward to touch-stroke a finger on one of the grey ears- "Is your fur the same still? Where you specifically trying to be a biped that you say 'I did it' instead of 'it happened'? "
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Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2014 8:54 am
The grey cat ear flicked as his stroking tickled it and Ash instinctively tilted her head to butt it into his palm, unconcerned if such an action fit her new form or not.
"Of course I couldn't do it before, or I would have." She laughed, his distraction a momentary one as she set to examining herself. Her visor was removed to uncover deep green eyes and she rolled it over in dexterous hands, it's new human size studied minutely before she set it aside. The cape was next, the weight and tug of it as she moved drawing her attention to holding it up and eying the circuit pattern around its edge.
"Despite how mature and knowledgable I endeavor to appear... I haven't been self aware as a Mauvian for very long." The girl admitted with a grimace. "I knew ********* could do this and I've seen Zirconia do it... Though she has a thing without the ears and tail that's different because of the double soul thing... But I either didn't know how or wasn't experienced enough or I don't know..."
Her attention had shifted to the ring about her waist and she contorted childishly to get a view of it. It couldn't hold her attention for long though and she was twisting back the other way to reach for her own tail and run her hand along it.
"Oh wow, my fur is soft... I mean, I knew it was soft, I'm a well-bred lady after all, but... Wow. I never knew human hands were so sensitive." Turning back around, Ash set to her bodysuit next, fiddling with the tiny hidden zipper that ran down the front before tugging it all the way down to her navel and baring a strip of new, white skin.
"Omigosh, these things are so much easier to work with fingers!" Ash laughed. "I wasn't specifically trying to turn into a girl, but I had all this extra energy that was shorting out my nerves and I just wanted to... Release it, and it's not like I've got a grounding or anything... So it just sort of came out..."
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2014 1:35 am
And 'self awareness' no guarantee of actual helpfulness. 'Guides', in name only in so many cases, pleasant as any such company may be. Faust won't be informing any senshi any time soon of the nuances of Silver Millenium history and court life. As the title of royalty flows so indiscriminately."And they both gave off huge auras in doing so, even if I can no longer feel yours out of my own uniform. " Is it good or bad to encourage puritanical body shame on a being who has no knowledge of it? Nakedness means nothing to some cultures of humans as it is, let alone to a species who regularly switches modes between felid and hominid. He considered the revealed navel briefly before switching gaze to her hands and their fluttering hither and thither in discovery of the bipedal, mostly furless shape and clothes. No. I have no interest in breaking that part of cultural innocence. "I wonder how much of locomotion comes by instinct. Human children have to learn upright, bipedal balance as much as any other animal trained in a circus to do so. *********, the blonde cat girl, and Zirconia all seemed well adjusted to the feat. " And none of them in any more possession of shoes than yourself. Why do you have no shoes in your uniform. That will not be well for winter. "Do you still feel overfull of energy?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2014 4:21 pm
Ears pressing back into her hair as she frowned, Ash left off playing with her zipper and teasing her companion with flashes of skin. The zipper slid smoothly to the top and she rolled onto her hands and knees, getting her feet under her.
"I'm sorry, I completely forgot about the aura... I know you don't want people to be powered in here. I'll shift back in just a moment..."
Precariously balanced, hips were lifted to straighten knees before Ash lifted her hands off the ground and got her first taste of standing on two feet. Her hands were outstretched, but it quickly became apparent that she didn't need the balance help. Her tail did a lot, and there was a natural sort of ability already... magic granted, maybe? Ash grinned as she braced her hands on her hips and rocked on her heels before she shifted and spun on one foot to the swirl of her bi-colored cape.
"No problem at all, of course! If ********* and Zirconia can do it, well, no reason why I can't! And the energy seems to have returned to normal. I feel pretty good actually." Being human was quite delightful, actually. This view was so much higher than she could get unless she got on top of something. The motions swept her hair about and Ash caught it in her hands, tugging it straight with interest. This would be a lot more to deal with than normal fur... and she had a hard enough time keeping that in perfect order. Suddenly a thought occurred and Ash darted a look about, becoming frustrated quickly. The small woman scrambled back towards Quenton with a concerned expression, both pigtails grasped in her hands.
"Quenton, this is very important! I need to know; Am I a pretty human?" She said with an entirely serious expression. Jeez... if she wasn't, this entire thing was a complete bust. "Honestly, all of you just sort of look... human, so its really hard to judge attractiveness. I mean, if you were cats, it would be easy, but I just assume you are an attractive man, because of course you are, you're one of mine."
Okay so, maybe she hadn't awakened or ever upgraded him, but still. She had decided, therefore it was true.
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2014 4:33 pm
Quenton slow-blinked, taking in the deeply concerned face and held pigtails. I am likely the least ideal person to answer a question like that."Attractiveness is not a simple yes or no, really. Different time periods, different cultures and different ages define 'beauty' in different ways. The earliest definitions were tied to physical signals of health and capability to breed successfully and often. As time has progressed it has, in some cases, altered to different priorities of aesthetics. " "You are moon-faced, youthful and energetic in eye and cheek with long limbs, clean complexion, smooth brow, small waist, wide hips. Yes, you would be called some version of beautiful- 'cute', 'comely', 'enchanting'- according to most definitions of feminine aesthetics." Though I am not, with as scarred as I am. I expect many senshi and knights no longer qualify on that account. "Your sense of style is ...more in line with science fiction, but there are plenty of humans into that sort, if you were looking to catch the eyes of humans with your looks."
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2014 7:17 pm
The response she got in the beginning got a frustrated noise and an expressive eye roll from the cat girl. It had been a yes or no question and instead, he went on about the definition of beauty for different cultures and times? Honestly, there was only one culture and time period she thought was applicable right now... and that was the one she wanted the answer for. At least he followed it up decently enough, listing off the traits she possessed that humans apparently found appealing.
A radiant smile graced her face as she released her hair, her green eyes crinkling up in delight.
"Well then! As long as I'm not repulsive, I think I shall get along just fine in this form then." Ash said as she gave him a wink, a playful finger placed beside her mouth as though this were a secret for them two. Settling back on her heels, her form burst apart in a bit of glitter and spark to leave her a slim gray cat once more and the Burmilla bounced forward to claim Quenton's lap with every sense of entitlement. The flexible spine arched as she rubbed her stripped side against him, a purr rumbling up from her chest.
"I'm not looking to catch a human man as a mate, darling. It simply important to me to be appealing in general. Being unattractive is... well, unacceptable." The dainty paws worked up and down, smooshing the muscle in his thighs in time to her rumbling. "Thank you for humoring me, though. "
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2014 9:04 pm
The eye-roll, pronounced with accompanying noise could have earned a more volatile reaction from plenty of sources. As it was, Quenton ignored the show of immaturity, self-indulgence and entitlement. Cats were cats, even if they were Mauvians, he guessed. It was another instance of someone just wanting pandered to, rather than actual answers. Why should anyone want anything else. The purr and claiming of his lap in felid form did plenty to curb the rise of any actual externalized coldness, and quelled any sustention of mild annoyance. I'm too verbose anyway.Quenton set to administering long strokes from ruff to rump, which slowed gradually as he drifted in mock-sleep to whatever rest he could manage.
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