Topic: Prowler

Faenix

Date: 2008-04-27 14:30 EST


Faenix shouldered the door to his upstairs inn room shut and plopped down on his bed. The room was still fairly bare, the bottle of bourbon he'd been drinking with Eva the only new addition to his belongings. It had sat on the table in the tiny room since the night he had walked her home and left her sleeping peacefully.

And he hadn't seen her at the inn since.

Izira didn't seem to have seen her, either. Then again, Izira didn't seem to like him very much as of yet. Perhaps in time. Couldn't hurt to keep being nice to her.

It probably wouldn't do to go traipsing around Eva's place just yet....as himself.

Faenix leaned forward and slid a box out from under the bed. It contained one of the only possessions he'd kept with him and taken pains to retrieve on running from Earth.

He took the lid off the battered box, and inside was his inert first vessel. Slightly more than 9 pounds of slightly-frazzled, green-eyed, yellow tabby, with a simple black collar and a tag that read "Nicksy." Neither alive nor dead as long as he wasn't inhabiting it (never mind the box) the vessel was simply there until he decided to animate it.

The cat-body was gently lifted out of the box and placed on the bed. Faenix got up for a moment and made sure the window was open, the desk under it and the single chair in the room sideways before that. Then he returned to the bed, picked up his cat-self and lie down letting the feline form lie on his chest. Hopefully anyone that came in while he was gone would simply assume his human self was sleeping.

He closed his eyes....and his green cat eyes popped open. He stood and stretched on top of his human vessel and its rumpled suit. It was like putting on an old comfortable set of clothes.

He double-blinked. Speaking of old comfortable clothes, did he really look like that all the time with the rumpled suit' Maybe that Lucy lady had been right. He'd have to take care of that later...

When did I start caring about my clothes" People must be getting to me.

Faenix shook off that thought and bounded down to the floor and back up his preset path to out the window. A few well-timed leaps and he was down to the street in front of the inn. People and their social bafflements forgotten now that he was back in his element, Faenix trotted past the people on the porch and headed off to Eva's place.

...

For once, one of his plans was going off without any problems.

It was a short walk from the inn to the marketplace even for a cat. He just kept moving and no one seemed to even think him worth bothering.

Until he met that kind-of dog about a block away.

It tromped out of the alley into the street right in front of him. Faenix had operated as a cat for years, normal dogs he could handle. Usually just territorial or curious, they could sense he wasn't a normal cat pretty quickly anyway. Then they'd just leave him be.

This one either wasn't right, or didn't care. Or maybe it was a special Rhy'Din breed.

Faenix stopped dead in his tracks but the thing was on him before he could even think to run. It got his right front leg in its jaws with too many teeth and shook him back and forth like a toy.

He whipped back and forth, the dogthing anchored on its muscled haunches, until his leg slipped out and he flew across the road and rolled to a stop. The leg was punctured, cut and bleeding; he could barely stand. Shock seemed to keep the pain at bay.

Head back up, he looked to see if the dogthing was coming to finish him off...

A yelp and a meaty thud from across the street. A man in some sort of uniform had the dogthing in a pole-noose and was shock-prodding it...

Good grief. Rhy'Din actually had a dog catcher!

Faenix blink-blinked and looked at his injured leg. Could have shown up a few seconds sooner, but....I better not complain....I hope Eva knows some vet medicine...

He was already standing in a small pool of blood. He limped the remaining distance to Eva's door.

...

Now Faenix saw he had a problem. Eva's hopefully upstairs....but he knew already he'd never be able to jump up to a window or anything of the sort.

He felt woozy. How much blood did he have to lose in this vessel, anyway' How much had he lost' There was a trail of spatters behind him leading up to the door. It'd been a long time since he'd been hurt in this form; before he'd been able to expend essence and use his song of healing to patch up, anyway.

Dead in an alleyway like an unloved stray. What a stupid way to lose a vessel.

He did the only thing he knew he could do safely - he wailed as loud as he could - hopefully Eva would hear and come down to at least shut him up. So much for charming his way in.

She didn't show up. He kept at it, getting weaker he thought.

He got dizzy. His vision started to go black. Such a stupid way to die...

"Shaddup, you stupid cat!"

And a mighty thwump against the door...

Faenix fell over and looked at the thrown object that rolled to a stop beside him.

Is that a potato"

He could have sworn the door started to vibrate when everything went black.

Luna Eva

Date: 2008-04-29 02:48 EST
The sun was going down, and Eva squinted as she read a book in the fading daylight shining on her desk through the window. The book was another of those enormous medical texts that she seemed to enjoy lugging around. Her pen scratched the pages as she took notes. Emergency medicine was one thing, but she never got much variety in her work and liked to keep as sharp as she could. Or at least as sharp as reading from a text book would let her.

The thud at the door was loud enough to interrupt her, though. She sighed and set down her pen. Another patient. The chair scraped the floor as she got to her feet. She flipped on the lights as she crossed towards the stairs and padded down. At first, she didn't notice the cat on the doorstep but just as she was shutting the door, she caught sight of the small tabby.

"Oh come on." Eva stared at the cat for a moment. Animals now" Really' Even animals knew to come to her" It would be nice if some of her patients could actually pay her. Eva sighed and knelt beside the cat. He was unconscious, but she could see his small round belly rising and falling. With a hand, she carefully turned the cat and then spotted the wound on the right front leg. Ah well. A wound is a wound. Eva rolled her eyes and scooped up the cat then let the door shut behind her as she climbed the stairs.

At her desk, she closed her book and pushed aside her notes before gently setting the cat down on the desk. Little thing looked like he was sleeping. Which for her was a good thing. Easier to treat a thing with claws when it was sleeping. Eva stepped to the closet and pulled out the supplies she would need. With her latex gloves on, Eva carefully cleaned the wound, and then bandaged it up. Easy peasy. She pulled off the latex gloves, petted the sleeping cat gently, then cleaned up the mess.

When she was done cleaning up, she saw the tabby cat start to come around. "You finally coming back to me, you big wuss" It was just a scratch." She rubbed the cat on the head softly and looked down at him. Gently, her hand reached around his neck to his collar. She turned the silver tag towards her and read the name.

"Nicksy, eh' Who do you belong to little Nicksy?"

Faenix

Date: 2008-04-29 23:51 EST
Faenix came around to head rubbings, which was much better than getting dumped into trauma or snapped back to his other vessel. Mission not failed?

He looked up to Eva and decided to ignore the wuss part. His purred response to her question of ownership would have translated to something like, You, at the moment.

He tried to stand up and lean into her but stumbled a bit on the injured limb. He might have been a bit of a wuss but it still did hurt. Eva did do fine work, though. It was nice and clean and currently decidedly less painful than many other wounds he'd had before. If he was willing to risk the disturbance, he could just heal it himself....but it wasn't worth the risk, especially not right here in Eva's own home. He'd have to spend some time in this vessel and let it heal somewhat on its own.

Which meant he now had an almost-legitimate excuse to stay! Faenix did a little happy-dance in his head.

He decided to play it up a bit and held the leg up in the air while doing his best "forlorn kitty" look at Eva. He was in his element now, few mortal humans could truly withstand the withering fury of a feline "Halp!" look. With any luck it would be good for a night's stay in a nice warm bed curled up with a warm, soft Eva.

Luna Eva

Date: 2008-04-30 13:55 EST
Eva looked down at the tabby cat and raised a brow. Somehow, she felt like she was being conned. "Come on, cat, it isn't that bad. I've seen worse anyhow." Eva looked at him, at his pathetic little injured limp step, and she melted. Ah, hell. She reached down and scooped him up off her desk with an arm around his middle and carried him towards the kitchen flipping lights on as she went. "You hungry?"

From a cabinet, Eva pulled out a dusty can of tuna and looked at it. "Should be okay." She set Nicksy down on the counter and reached for a little bowl, then produced a can opener from a drawer. The kitchen looked bare. The stove was so clean, it could not possibly have been used in the last six months, except to heat up water in the kettle that was taking up one burner. Once the can was open, she forked the tuna out into the bowl and set it in front of him. Then she got another shallow bowl, a mismatched one, and filled it with water from the tap and set that beside the tuna.

"I'm feeding you better than I feed myself, Nicksy." She reached out to rub his head again, then headed back in the direction of her desk and her book.

Faenix

Date: 2008-05-03 19:37 EST
Nicksy stood on the counter and watched the whole operation intently. Such service!

He accepted the head rub with grace, and waited politely for Eva to make her way back to her main room.

He then proceeded to rapidly consume the food before him. He might have paused to breathe a time or two. How long had it been since he'd fed in this vessel, anyway' Too long. He found he had been starving once he paid attention to it.

This was turning out to not be such a bad day after all. Prompt medical attention, being fed for free....being a cat could be the good life at times, as long as you found the right good people.

Feeling better and a bit more plump, Nicksy took a moment to look around where he'd been left. The counter wasn't up too high and it would have been an easy leap down uninjured....but then, he'd already been called a wuss once today, and he could probably take the landing.

And he did, without too many stumbles after. Shaking his head and favoring his injured leg, he hop-padded in the direction Eva had went and found her sitting at her desk, nose in a book. Well, this explained a lot. No adventure, and a decided lack of feline companionship in her life. At least he could do something about the latter.

He brought himself up beside her, unnoticed for the moment, and lifted a paw to push against her leg for attention, please. There was a lap there that needed warming, and a fed cat in need of a warm napping spot!

Luna Eva

Date: 2008-05-06 18:37 EST
Eva felt Nicksy pawing her leg from the floor, and, setting her pen to rest in the book, bent down to pick him up. For a brief moment, he could see the pages of her book, including explicit photographs of a surgery in progress, muscle tissue spread open, and a variety of metal instruments poking around in the ambiguous cavity.

She settled him in her lap, listening to him purr while she worked, absently petting his back until he fell asleep. Darkness settled on the Marketplace outside of her window, the small desk lamp illuminating her work.

An hour later, Eva shut the books and turned off the light, then carefully disturbed Nicksy from his resting place. She brought him up to hold against her chest and looked out the window.

"What do you say, kitty' Feel like going out?" She scratched his head gently, then rested her cheek against it, sighing softly. "Me neither. What's the point right?" She kneeled and set Nicksy down on the wood floor. "How about a bath, yeah, Nicksy?" Then she grinned. "For me not for you."

Eva stood up, peeling her tank top off as she headed for the bathroom. She discarded her clothes in a small pile on the linoleum floor until she was stripped down to her bra and panties. She wasn't wearing anything fancy, just plain black cotton, a hint of lace on the bra. She sat on the edge of the tub and leaned over to start the water. On the left side of her chest, just above the lace hem of her bra she had a small black tattoo in the shape of a crescent moon, normally hidden beneath her clothes. She put her hand underneath the flowing water, checking the temperature, and then straightened up again, looking out the bathroom door, right at Nicksy.