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 Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 7:24 am
Treading cautiously toward one of the parks on the outskirts of town, Paris kept a careful eye on her surroundings, prepared for a confrontation at any moment. The sun was setting, throwing orange light between buildings as the skies directly above them faded to a slowly blackening purple. She had a few hours of night left before anyone might become suspicious about her wanderings, yet one could never be too careful these days. Particularly one in her position.
She carried her purse and a mid-sized canvas bag with her, slipping into the park and following one of the walking paths deeper in. She made an effort to appear engrossed in the trees and the flowers that lined the trail, humming a popular tune to herself as she went. Just another woman on an evening stroll after work.
A few joggers passed by as she went, but otherwise the park was notably unpopulated. Most people knew better than to linger out once the sun had set. The city was a dangerous place to begin with, but the late night hours tended to increase that danger tenfold. Even innocent civilians still got caught up in the crossfire, some accused of aiding the enemy, others accused of being one themselves.
Paris slowed in her approach toward a thick patch of undergrowth. To anyone else it might look inconspicuous, but Paris knew otherwise. She began to make beckoning sounds as if calling an animal to her.
“Tomlin!” she called, carrying on as she might for a normal stray cat. It was important to keep up appearances, after all. “Toooomliiiiiiin!”LokisRose I hope this is okay for a start!!
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 7:29 am
Tomlin missed the city streets. He missed wide roads to guide his steps, crisscrossing back alleys to hide in, cars whizzing by. Parks had been a place to shortcut through, not to linger. How things changed. The ginger tabby guardian lurked among scrubby plant roots, a very small thin tiger, still but for the twitching end of his damaged tail where his nervousness was focused and expressed. He scanned the rendezvous site meticulously, senses stretched for any sign of a chaos signature. There was always a small thread of fear on missions, that the one he was waiting for would somehow not appear, would never appear again. He tried to push it down – he had faith in their strength - but it never quite went away. It was unbearable. He didn’t relax when the civilian stepped into view, but the tension shifted from his tail to his front paws. Even un-henshined, he recognised Paris, and he was anxious to spring from hiding and run out to make sure she was okay. But he remained in place until she began to call his name. Playing the role assigned, he stepped cautiously out of the undergrowth. His paws were muddied, but his eyes were bright, mirroring the fading orange sunset in luminous copper. He hesitated at the edge of the path, reconfirming that they were really alone before approaching. Then he butted his head gently against Paris’s legs, winding in a tight circle around her. “Good to see you,” he whispered, a voice so low it all but merged into the rumbling purr that followed.
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Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 3:26 pm
“There you are!” Paris said, as if she'd not expected him to be around. For the moment, her voice retained the tone it would have carried had she been speaking to a normal cat.
“Good boy! Are you hungry? I brought some food for you today,” she continued, kneeling down to be more on his level. From her bag she pulled out a tupperware container, prying the lid off and setting it down to reveal a helping of leftover chicken. She offered Tomlin her hand to sniff before settling it upon his head in a brief greeting.
Tentatively Paris glanced around the immediate area again, ever cautious, but she didn't see anyone that looked suspicious or seemed over-interested in what she was doing, so she felt slightly more confident. The city was dangerous enough these days without incurring any additional suspicion. The ruse of looking out for a mangy stray seemed to be working well so far.
“How are things outside the city?” she asked in as low a voice as possible. “I brought some supplies but didn't want to weigh you down too much, so it's mostly small things. Money, bandages, some extra sutures. I wasn't sure what else was needed. I haven't head from anyone in a while. It makes me nervous.”
Stubbornly she shook off the unsettled feeling that often dogged her.
“Have you seen any of the others? Tallulah?” she wondered, hesitant to use powered names in the city. “Penelope? Christa?”
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Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 5:11 am
Tomlin snorted softly, sniffing the offered hand. ‘Good boy’ wasn’t the sort of thing most civilians called him. ‘Hey you, get out of that!’ was more common. The camp was actually good for him in that respect, hardly anyone yelled at the cats, however bad things were. He could live with the rough lodgings, he was an alleycat at heart. The shortage of food barely bothered him, and he didn’t even miss the Guardian’s command centre with all its technology. Not everyone adapted so easily to the refugee lifestyle. He did what he could, which mostly ran to handing off any food he was offered to others who needed it more – but chicken wouldn’t keep and couldn’t be carried, so he tucked into Paris’s offering gratefully, nipping small quick bites from the container, as if the lid might go back on at any minute. Not that Paris ever would, he was just keeping up the stray ruse. It had nothing to do with how hungry he’d let himself get. “Supplies are always needed, don’t worry about weighing me down. I’ll get it back safe.” He smiled reassuringly, licking chicken off his whiskers. “It’s alright out there. A bit rustic, but we get by. Nice scenery! We’re still hidden,” he added, because that was the important thing. On the subject of the camp’s inhabitants, Tomlin was less sure. “Tallulah’s still at the hospital, I think. I see her around, always so busy.” The Oasis was always busy, but Paris didn’t need to hear that. He didn’t hang around the hospital much. He had keep reminding himself it was full of survivors, not casualties. And better they were injured, or even dead in the Oasis than corrupted out in the city. He pushed aside the dark thought. Maybe he’d spot Europa when he went to drop off the bandages. “The others I haven’t really seen… but I’m sure they’re doing just fine.” It was the best he could offer. As far as the cat knew, Pasiphae and Kallichore were still inside the city, but if Ganymede hadn’t had word from them, he didn’t know who would. It would be a lie to say it didn’t make him nervous too.
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Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2014 7:16 am
Paris kept her position kneeling on the ground but kept her hands to herself to let Tomlin eat in peace. He'd never struck her as much of a touchy-feely cat, in any case. Which certainly helped the stray-cat ruse they had going on.
It relieved her to know that things were going as well as could be expected outside the city, though her sense of unease did not abate entirely. How long would that last? It wasn't exactly easy to hide a large gathering of Senshi and Knights here on Earth, even with a stalwart group of Guardian Cats working tirelessly to conceal their energy signatures. She wouldn't put it past the Negaverse to start making the cats their primary targets.
That thought shifted her concern from the rest of her teammates to Tomlin himself.
“I hope you're being careful,” she said, “and getting enough rest.”
She thought he'd always had the look of a cat who wasn't used to being pampered, nor well taken care of, and it left her feeling somehow inadequate to suspect how much he must be pushing himself to do his duty. Tomlin was the first cat she'd developed any sort of fondness for; he was as much her teammate as any of the others.
“Tell everyone out at the camp that it's going to get harder to cross back and forth in and out of the city,” she continued. “The government... the Negaverse,” she corrected herself, and frowned deeply, “is instituting a system of clearance permits. No one can leave the city without one. They'll be questioned and fined if they try. Or so the Negaverse says. I doubt they'll be as tame as that. Something tells me a long imprisonment awaits anyone they catch, if not outright death.”
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