{PRP} Bump in the Night (Pavlov & Zahavah)

[Angelique DelaMort]

"Well..." he said frowning thoughtfully. "No, no I guess I hadn't really thought about that. Uh - the way I see you might just be an illusion. You're smallish, um, very bright in coloring. Your markings look like scars a breath away from coming to life. Oh and you look a little tattered and torn, rough around the edges you could say...." he paused for a moment. "I guess you're right, my visions must be overlapping every part of my experience, even what I perceive as being real."  

[divena]

“Nah, actually, sounds like you’re seeing me just fine,” Zahavah chirped. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t miss-see everyone else. Is that a word? Miss-see? What’s the right way to say that, anyway?”  

[Angelique DelaMort]

"Oh..." he said shifting nervously. Why was it he could never get these things right? Or more importantly, why did the scary things in reality always manage to find him? Wasn't it bad enough that he saw the nightmares before his eyes in his waking moments...let alone his actual nightmares. At least this scary one seemed nice enough. Maybe that was his lot in life, finding the scariest Soquili who were in reality kind - or at least not overly cruel.  

[divena]

“I know! Why don’t we test it? We can get you among other Soquili and you can tell me what you see and I can tell you what I see, and we’ll figure out how far your hallucinations go?” Zahavah was getting into this idea. She was actually curious about what this strange and terrified stallion saw that had him shaking in his hooves.  

[Angelique DelaMort]

"You...you want me to go among others?" Pavlov asked timidly. "How many others? Maybe two or three other soquili or...or more like a crowd?" he shifted uncomfortably at that thought. He had avoided others for as long as he could remember. If nothing else could be said of him, at least he learned quickly that others didn't like what they didn't see, or understand, like him, and if they didn't like him they weren't usually very nice to him. Actually, some of his first encounters with other Soquili had gone very badly indeed and he had no desire to repeat the process. What were the odds of them acting differently anyways?  

[divena]

Zahavah studied him, trying to gauge just how much he would take before he bolted. “Well,” she said, slowly, “I was thinking a crowd, but maybe just a handful at a time? Like two or three, or just one at a time. I could lure them to you so we could just chat for a bit. You don’t even have to say anything, really. Just stand there and watch and then tell me what you saw when I shoo the other fella off.” Of course, her version of shooing the other fella off would probably involve a brawl, so it was all good in her book. It was just a matter of getting him to go along with it. That was definitely the harder trick, she was certain.  

[Angelique DelaMort]

"Just one at a time?" the stallion asked, almost hopefully. "And I wouldn't have to say anything to them either? But what if they ask me something? Or if I see something really really scary....or dangerous? If it's not real then they'll think I'm crazy...like they all do eventually, but if it is real and I don't say anything....then what would happen?"  

[divena]

All very valid points that she pondered carefully before answering. “Weeell, I’ll do all the talking. If you don’t wanna say anything, you can keep your mouth shut if they talk to you, and I’ll answer for you. If you think you see something dangerous, you can say something to me, in a whisper like. I’ll be able to see if it’s real or not. Or, if I see the same thing, I’ll act on it and you can just do your imitation of a log. Unless I tell you to run, anyway. If I say you should run, then you should prolly run. I wouldn’t say it unless it was important,” she nodded firmly.  

[Angelique DelaMort]

He frowned slightly at that last part, "Wait, why would we have to run? I thought we were just going to talk to the others..." He added quickly, "In small groups!"  

[divena]

"Well, yeah, but sometimes others aren't so friendly as I am," Zahavah grinned impishly.  

[Angelique DelaMort]

Pavlov shifted nervously, "Um, alright, I understand that. But Zahavah, are you sure Those are the types we want talk with for this, um, experiment? Maybe just some nice, peaceful family type soquili would do just as well? What do you think?"  

[divena]

“The problem with the nice, peaceful, family type soquili,” other than the fact that they were boring as hell, “is that they usually travel in groups. I thought you wanted to just meet one or two at a time for now? I mean, if you want to go get chatty with a family, that’s fine. We could probably find one with two or three screaming little heathens… I mean… children… that would like to run around you in circles and play yank the tail with you. But hey, that’s entirely up to you. Should we go find a family?” she asked, innocently.  

[Angelique DelaMort]

The stallion visibly cringed, "Perhaps that's not the best idea..." The mere thought of a multitude of snapping jaws and hooves prodding at him, no matter their size, was incredibly distasteful to him. "You'd be there the whole time?" he asked with uncertainty. "H-help me if, well When, I start to flounder?"  

[divena]

“Of course!” Zahavah assured him, quickly, with an impish grin. “Besides, we were going to have me to do all the talking first, remember? You can’t flounder if you’re just watching and learning. But if you really want to flounder, then I’ll definitely be there for you, one hundred and sixty-seven percent!” She didn’t bother to let him think about the math of that, instead bouncing off a few steps. “Come on! Let’s get going already! If we just stand around and talk about it all day then you’ll never get anything done! You want to defeat this pesky shyness and become a well balanced member of society, don’t you?”  

[Angelique DelaMort]

"Not really..." Pavlov said quietly. "I would just like some idea of what's real and what's not...to really know for once, and not just guess." He swished his long tail and added impatiently, "And....and I'm not shy. Just reasonably cautious..."