Freeloading is a bonding activity

[runs]

Ryoji's place has become busy lately, since both Casper and Kitty drop by regularly. Usually they aren't around at the same time at least, and thus Kitty doesn't expect anyone to be around when she wakes up from a nap and raises her head, a ruffled mop of hair surfacing from under a pile of blankets and pillows that looked nothing like a child was sleeping under it.

For the moment, "surfacing" is saying a bit too much. Right now, there is only a pair of (as far as Casper can see) dark eyes peering out from the pile of blankets, observing the activity in Ryoji's bedroom.

Comments

[helborn]

He holds his hands up. "It's not like that. I still have my mind. He just... was a spirit. And he didn't have a body. And I had... room. My soul's still safe."

[runs]

"Why did you have room for someone else in your head? You're not that dumb."

Look, he at least doesn't seem to be dumb. He's not a troll or a dog, and she's not prejudiced at all.

[helborn]

He snorts at that. That was actually pretty funny. "I... uh. My soul's not... in my body. I died."

[runs]

"You look pretty alive." She's seen ghouls. She's had run-ins with vampires, both there and here. She knows what dead people smell like. "So where is your soul then?"

[helborn]

"... Somewhere else. It's safe." He trusts Kitty, but he doesn't trust her curiosity. "It's okay, though."

[runs]

That is a very wise way of distributing his trust.

"...Okay.

So why did him possessing you give you scales?" She'll inch closer now, not quite ready to try and touch them but definitely eyeing them closely.

[helborn]

It's a little harder to see under his shirt, but he shrugs. "I don't know. He's kind of dragon-y, so maybe that's why?"

[runs]

She'll pull that shirt up, making sure to not touch the scales as she does so.

"So are you slowly turning into him then?"

[helborn]

"I don't know." He doesn't pull away, though he looks down at Kitty. "... What are you doing?"

[runs]

"I want to look at them." Obviously.

"So you might be turning into a dragon?" Please don't. Dragons are too powerful and intelligent to trust them.

[helborn]

"I don't... know? I hope not. That would be really weird to explain when I get home." Why this. Fine. He pulls his shirt off again. Enjoy the skinny, scaley nerd.

[runs]

Because she is a cat.

She will poke at it now, run one extended index finger over the scales carefully. They are warmer to the touch than she expected, but well, there's a human underneath, isn't there?

"You think he'll come with you when you go home?"

[helborn]

He shivers a little bit - he's not used to people touching him. And yes. Partly human, at least.

"I... don't know. Maybe I can get him back to his world?"

[runs]

"But he would still need your body there. So you would have to stay with him."

Her fingers wander up towards his neck and then she lays a hand flat against the scales. They're really curious.

[helborn]

"I don't kn - okay, Kitty, can you... stop that, please?" He's starting to get kind of uncomfortable.

[runs]

"Why?"

She drops her hand, though, because she's not dumb. People getting uncomfortable has a high chance of them lashing out soon, in her experience.

"They're cool, though. You could try to pass them off as bodymods."

[helborn]

"Bodymods like that aren't really a thing, though." He pulls his shirt down a little bit, and sighs. "... Sorry. I just... I'm not used to people touching me outside of a fight, and fights don't feel like that."

[runs]

"They are. Maybe not where you're from, though.

...You don't cuddle with people?" She has to think of Malicia, and frowns at him. Dude, do you have issues?

[helborn]

Um.

"No?" Is that a problem? That's normal, right? ... Isn't it?

[runs]

No, it's definitely not.

"Why not?"

Because the only person whom she knows who doesn't do cuddles at all is a person who actively tries to be as little of a person as she can because of issues that Kitty doesn't really understand.

[helborn]

"... Because I didn't grow up in a family that cuddled so it's weird to start now? And..." Oh gods, does he really have to explain this to a child?

"And because someone tried to touch me in a way I didn't like even when I said no. So touching is weird."

[runs]

She doesn't remember her birth family and she's not sure if her and Chantalle count, so she can't really speak on the topic of the relation of cuddling in the family and later cuddling habits.

But she thinks she gets the second one. "Did they do it to make fun of you or to show you that they were stronger?" Whenever she's seen metahumans do that to one another, it seemed to be some form of that. There's of course the form that she has experienced herself - people picking her up and not caring that she didn't want them to - but she's not sure why they do that. It seems to be more like they don't understand that a cat has a legit will, too, and that's just metahumans being dumb.

[helborn]

"... The second one, I think. Sort of." He sighs and crouches a little so he's closer to Kitty's height. "I don't really want to get into it, but just... I'm not really a touchy person."

[runs]

"Did you get to hurt them in return?" There's a great satisfaction in scratching people as she gets away, even though it doesn't make up for having been picked up like that. But it makes it a bit better.

[helborn]

"No." He did get to run away, though. He has that at the very least. "And I... I don't know. I don't think he'd have learned anything from me hurting him, anyway."