Welcome to Gaia! ::

Naeria found it difficult to stop touching her ears.

Using this technology to change one's appearance was not unheard of, but there was generally no purpose to doing it on Velencya, and so Naeria had not had the opportunity to try it before today.

After watching the sunrise, investigating some of the local plant life, and discovering the existence of fungi, Naeria was determined to learn more. Of course she could begin running her own investigations and keeping her own records, and she would, but that would take time, and there were duties to attend to here besides solely investigating Earth. She was becoming more and more curious if the humans had some kind of database of their own that she could access and bring back notes on some of their research, instead.

That meant heading towards the city, which meant using her disguise.

She'd programmed the appearance to be as close to her natural one as possible, but her skin came out duller, with brown tones, unlike the pinkish lavender she was used to. The ears were what really got to her, though.They were sqished into a different shape, and even when she wasn't touching them, she could feel the difference every time her ears brushed past where the tips should have been.

She stood near the edge of town for a while, trying to adjust the ears somehow or at least tuck her hair back so she didn't notice them so much.

A voice came from below. That in itself wasn't surprising. Naeria was above average height for a Velencyian, and all of the humans that the Vanguard had encountered were quite small. However, when she glanced down, it was not a small human that she saw.

It was some kind of animal. A feline, it looked like. This was one of the animals that had been in the notes that they'd gone over, one that it was common for the humans to keep captive for some inexplicable reason. If they saw one in a home, they were not supposed to comment on it as to blend in better. She knew that much.

She did not know they were capable of speech.

She blinked three times, then said, quietly, "You speak."

The records had been clear that only humans were capable of speech. Naeria's mind whirled, searching for an explanation. The records were about a thousand years old, which, while certainly outdated, was hardly time for an organism to evolve significantly enough to develop verbal capabilities.

Were the records incorrect?

If the records were incorrect, Naeria was about to blow her cover by staring so intensely at this talking cat.

"You speak to me," she corrected, then swallowed and rearranged her words farther into a question. "I mean, are you speaking to me?" she asked.

There. That was a normal request for clarification. It didn't change the fact that she continued to stare, though.

The creature was looking at her strangely, but not quite angrily, so that was something. She'd managed not to completely mangle the human, or feline, social norms.

Although she was also saying that other creatures that looked like her could not speak, so perhaps she had just expected Naeria's surprise.

At least there was confirmation that the records of Earth cats not being verbal communicators were still mostly up to date and correct, even if she would apparently have to add some sort of caveat when she got back to the ship. That was fine, though. She found herself curious about what her conversation with this individual was going to uncover, and what information she could bring back to Lyndin.

"Please," she said, squatting down on her long legs in order to get closer. She still towered over the creature, but it was some improvement. "Explain how you're able to speak."

Naeria blinked as she processed, although there was certainly no anger in her gaze and not even an explosive amount of surprise.

Instead she was combing through records in her mind. In recent months, most of her research and training had been to prepare for this mission to Earth, but knowing that there would likely be senshi here, she had at least skimmed the history databases and the records of fallen worlds.

She thought she'd encountered the name Mau there, and the feline's comment that she was not from around here did seem to imply that she could be from another world.

That meant she wouldn't have to update the database on Earth cats, but perhaps add a new page on other visitors to this fascinating planet.

"I'm from Velencya, myself," she admitted, lowering her voice and settling into a more comfortable cross-legged seat. While she was aware that this was probably not helping her attempts to blend in as human, it seemed they were still on the outskirts of town enough that no humans were around to watch her.

"I studied Earth before I arrived, but our records are outdated," she said with a small shrug. "I expected to be surprised, and confused at times. I was not expecting other outsiders, but it's understandable. Thank you for your clarification."

This was one of very few living planets around, after all. It made her wonder if there were other outsiders here.

Naeria nodded. She might be in the human guise and attempting to blend in with among humans, but it did not seem worth it to hide her true identity from someone else who was in from off-planet.

"Velencya is comparatively new," she said, after only a moment. "Velenia is our species' true homeworld, although I've never seen it."

That might not clear things up for someone with memory loss, but it seemed worth mentioning just in case it would spark something. At the very least, it would make sure this Mauvian had the right information.

The second question, on the other hand, made Naeria freeze, not because she was afraid, but because she did not know how to respond. She'd been told how to interact with humans. Avoid the ones in black, with weapons, try to keep good relations with the Senshi and Knights, keep a low profile among the rest.

There were no orders for how to deal with other outsiders.

For five seconds, Naeria tried to decide what Commodore Lyndin would do. She still couldn't come up with anything.

"We are here to make contact with a subset of the humans," she said. "If you want more information, you're free to speak with our leader, Commodore Lyndin. He's taking visitors at our camp."

There. He could answer. She wouldn't say the wrong thing.

Naeria looked up to the sky, then to the left and to the right down the street that she was standing by the edge of. There were no land vehicles coming in her direction, and there was nothing coming from the sky, either. Finally, she glanced behind her, in case there was something she'd missed.

Then she turned back down to the Mauvian.

"Dodged?" she asked. It didn't seem like there had been anything she needed to get out of the way of.

Was this one of the quirks of their language that the translator did not fully pick up on? That seemed likely.

Since she did not seem to be in danger, Naeria moved on. "Velencya is nomadic, you could say. Traveling keeps us safe and helps us look for resources while we seek a way to restore Velenia."

Her last question got another long pause out of Naeria. Again, they were not supposed to speak openly of the senshi and knights with the humans, since most humans were apparently not aware of their presence, but that might not be an issue here.

"They are called senshi," said Naeria simply, "And knights." If she seemed confused, Naeria would just not give more information.

“Ah,” said Naeria as the Mauvian provided the correct definition of dodge, given the context.

She didn’t understand all the words she used as she went on, either, but she understood the general direction of it. The Mauvian was trying to infer what their purpose in seeking out the senshi and knights might be. Naeria’s lips twitched. Maybe she should not have given even that much information.

“Are you trying to dodge my dodge?” She asked. “Our business with the Senshi and Knights is with the Senshi and Knights. I’m sorry, but I cannot give you more information than that, even if you are a fellow visitor to Earth.”

Although on the other hand, the fact that some senshi had seen success in restoring worlds seemed important. The concept of databases, Mauvian or otherwise, was a fascinating one.

Naeria stood still for a long moment, torn between curiosity and nerves at the thought of revealing the wrong thing to this clever cat. In the end, the nerves won out.

“If you have thoughts on rebuilding planters, I very much suggest you speak to the Commodore,” she said, and took one step away, then another, then another.

“I must go,” she paused, “Obtain food.”

That was a logical excuse, yes?

If this Mauvian worked as closely with the senshi as she said she did, and if she aided them, than it was highly likely that the Commodore would talk to her about everything that he was planning and perhaps find some things out about this Mauvian database that she was speaking of.

It was even possible that Naeria might be able to allowed to talk to her about some of the plans, but she wasn't sure, and that made her hesitate, especially under the intense barrage of questions.

She wasn't sure what noodles were, but if it was some kind of food than talking about it was much lower pressure than talking about the various magical entities that were in the city, or the Velencyan's plan to free Earth from the influence of Chaos. Naeria gave a relieved nod.

"I will look into this," she said.

The library also sounded useful, if it was a place where records were kept. She had only put on this disguise in an attempt to find out more about the humans, after all.

She headed into the city at a fairly brisk pace, before the Mauvian could think of any more questions, but she did remember to turn back to say, "Thank you. Goodbye."