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After a few hours of laying there until he was fairly certain there wouldn't be very many others awake, Dev finally pushed himself up to head to the bathing area. Alright, he staggered and smeared blood and bodily fluids along the walls on his way. But he got to the bathing room on his own two feet!

As he got into the bathing room, he headed straight for the deep tub set into the floor in the center of the room. Only then did he hesitate and consider the 'smart' move. Okay, okay, he should have asked for help. But he couldn't think of any reason to lower his pride that much right now.

He'd already made such a mess of things...

He looked around the room with a small frown and remembered where he was, turning his frown to the pool of water at his feet.

Getting into the tub the smart way. Right.

He eased himself into a sitting position on the edge of the tub and eased himself into the water with a pained hiss but did it anyway because he had to.

Once all the way in the water, he moved to the center of the tub and let the warm water ease his hurts until it all stopped stinging. He even ducked under the water a few times to clean his face of blood and rinse his hair clear. But when he came up for air, he found himself staring at the bottle of bathing oil Hal had put together for him. The one that allowed him to heal better when he had moments like this.

But all he could do was stare at it as the water swirled around him, cleaning him and revealing the damage that had been done to his body in order to get his cats back under control.

Of course, finding out that he had a HellCat in him too was a surprise he hadn't been expecting. Yet another tiger, the one the other tigers were reputed to have bred down from, and one of the most vicious creatures known.

He could feel it moving inside of him even now. Thankfully, it was nothing more than a 'stretch' and didn't indicate any problems for him at the moment. But it was enough to make him shiver nervously. Then the shiver turned into a wince and a whimper he stopped short.

He might have overdone it with that last cat. Maybe.

But as he stood there in the water, he had to wonder what he was supposed to do now. So he headed for the edge of the tub, intending to head back to his playroom and catch a nap, (probably not the best of thinkers at the moment) but found that he was having a little bit of a problem that was new to him.

He couldn't get out of the tub...

He lowered his head to the rim of the tub and considered his next course of action. He could do the sensible thing and call for help. But he wasn't feeling sensible. That left him with two other options, though: stay where he was until someone found him and helped him anyway, or go through a bit more pain and get himself out of the tub on his own. The second option was also sensible. The last one, though, could have been considered stupid but suited his current frame of mind.

He raised his head and set his hands on the edge of the tub and flexed his muscles~ Which didn't work out as he'd hoped it would... Nope. Not a bit.

Instead of getting out of the tub, he fell right back into the water with a splash that someone had to have heard. Which meant that he was now caught. As if the bloody smears on the walls hadn't already given him away, but it was the point of the thing...

Allistair
Allistair watched Dev with an amused look on his face. He reached down and took his hand. But instead of simply helping him out, he lifted him out and pulled him close, kissing the weretiger for several seconds. He broke the kiss and then sat him down so that Hal could tend to him. He sat next to him and made Dev look over at him. "I've decided on something, Dev," he said. "Giving Hal all of my love and ignoring you has been quite unfair. So I have decided to give you the same amount of love, if you'll accept it."

Before anyone could do anything about the WereTiger, a guard rushed into the pillow room and babbled something about Esabel being back and in a bad state. He also said she'd come back without Ren and Gin and looked like she'd been through hell.

When he added that she was crying, the place cleared out of all guards and regular 'clients', all wanting to go see what this one was talking about.

Whatever news Esabel had to deliver seemed to be bad in an apocalyptic way.

Then the guard approached Allistair specifically since everyone knew he knew Lily, "Master Allistair, sir? We need Miss Lily. Esabel probably won't talk to anyone else and we need to know if we have to go collect casualties or something..." he said hesitantly, knowing Allistair was prone to not liking interruptions...

Of course, he'd announced everything else loud enough for everyone in the pillow room to hear of it, so....

The guard was grateful for the assistance, but knew that Allistair didn't understand the implications just yet. Still, he'd get it when he thought it over. After all, Esabel had left with Ren and Gin and the other two hadn't returned with her...

Still, he left, following the ball of shadow since it was imperative that they find Lily before Esabel finished going off her rocker.

((Guard exits, just go ahead and post Lily showing up with Esabel with the guard following. At a distance.))

Meanwhile, Dev managed to get back to his 'playroom' and collapsed onto a clean cushion, curling up facing away from the doorway. He knew he had to clean the room up, had to do so many things really, but couldn't seem to find himself doing anything but closing his eyes and trying to force himself into sleep.

He knew he needed to go to sleep before he could think about what he'd just done, needed to go to sleep before Allistair tracked him down again. But he still found himself curling up tighter and wishing that his cats weren't too tired to shift right now.

But as he started to relax, he found himself shifting anyway. Into the HellCat.

The cat didn't like the pain he was in but looked beautiful in a feral way. Black-tipped red fur with solid black stripes, ears with thick tufts, razor-sharp claws, and teeth that would have looked short on a saber-tooth but long on a normal tiger. Thankfully, his slave collar had shifted with him and wasn't choking him to death.

Unfortunately, shifting had ripped his bandages to hell...

Dev had raised his head when Allistair came into it but lowered his head at the scolding. After another moment he raised his head again, but at a lower level and shifted it towards the other man a bit hesitantly but like he was wanting attention.

It was a very hesitant movement, one that spoke of him not knowing what kind of reception he'd get, one that spoke of getting smacked down a few times too many. After all, very few knew much about the tiger's life before he came to the Re, but his actions were probably telling Allistair quite a bit...

He didn't shift over yet, knowing he needed to be quiet and let Allistair do the talking for now. After all, he'd already said enough for now...

Dev relaxed into the attention until he was actually purring loudly and shifting onto his side so he could lay there easier. But he did listen to every word Allistair said and was forced to take it to heart that it was true.

In the end, he shifted himself up into a sitting position and stared into Allistair's eyes for a long moment, then pushed his massive head under his chin to rub against him briefly.

The rubbing turned into him shifting to his human form. His injuries were already a bit better, proving that he really was that good at healing himself. It also made him rather durable for events like he'd just gone through.

Yes, he wanted to be Allistair's permanently, but wasn't too sure that he couldn't resist some of those who came into the pillow room... Like Lily, for instance, or even Morrigan. But he'd always stayed away from Esabel on general principle...

"Yes, Master..." he said in a whisper of sound, giving Allistair something he hadn't yet given to anyone: complete submission...