Still I'm spinning like a roundabout in motion

[allmydiredreams]

On the front of the Kashtta, there is a small heap of angles, knotted hair, and tattered clothes. It's up against the Kashtta's wall, one hand pressed flat against the building's wall and face totally obscured by tangles. For a good few minutes, it doesn't move, but then with a small gasp, the hand balls into a fist, hits the wall, then uncurls

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[quiettotheend]

"They don't talk," Tabitha says, more to herself than to Babel. "But they are very good kittens."

She has two small black ones curling around her ankles, acting rather clingy. Many times she's tried to dump one of them back, but it hasn't been working. Next thing she knows, there are two of them, and there's nothing she can do about it.

"Are you sick?"

[allmydiredreams]

Babel doesn't stop bopping the kitten's nose for a little bit; it's as if she hasn't even heard Tabitha. The kitten mewls, standing up and turning around in the way cats do when they're trying to get comfortable, though this process makes the tiny ungainly kitten stumble around the torn fabric on Babel's lap more.

Then, suddenly, Babel brushes the hair out of her face, and in the same movement looks up and grins at Tabitha. "She is only frayed and finding," she says, then knocks her head against the Tower. "It's quiet but it feels the same. On the outside."

She can feel Tabitha's bodybeats when she concentrates, when she tries to pick them apart from the noise around her. She has to pry them loose from the Tower's beats, and from the tiny kitten's. But they're there, unsure footsteps. Babel frowns. "You are, aren't you?"

[quiettotheend]

Tabitha doesn't really know what to do. Something's wrong here, and she can't place her finger on it. So she sits, even though this isn't really a place for sitting. One of the other two kittens goes to play with a string on Babel's clothes. The other curls up in Tabitha's lap, kneading her leg. It's a little uncomfortable, a bit too much claw, but she doesn't push the kitten away.

"No," she lies after a long moment. "Just tired."

Sometimes, it feels like that's the truth. And this may be the most convincing lie Tabitha's ever told. That's not going to help, though.

Part of her wonders if she should be scared right now. The kitten doesn't seem to mind, though, and really, she's just too tired for scared.

[allmydiredreams]

Babel frowns at the lie, her brow furrowing. There's something off -- demon, definitely, but something she hasn't run into before other than that. "You lie," she accuses. "You're different under the demonsound."

She makes a surprised, but happy, squeak when the kitten starts playing with the strings on her jeans. For a moment, she watches it bat it around, then waggles her fingers at it. "Happy little one," she murmurs at it. And then the kitten in her lap bats at her knee as well, tiny claws attaching themselves to the denim -- or what's left of it, anyway -- for a moment.

And then Babel picks up the kitten in her lap and plops it down right on top of the playing kitten. Kittenfight!

"Such a scared little liar," Babel whispers again, her eyes on the kittens and her head on the Tower. She doesn't sound angry. She just sounds sad. She's a scared little liar too.

[quiettotheend]

"Scared," Tabitha echoes, just watching the kittens in Babel's lap. She strokes the kitten in her own lap, not entirely sure how the purring makes her feel better. But it does.

"Don't want people to know it's coming," she says after a moment. "If I let them know, they'll be sad longer."

They knew with Luke. There was only so much time. She can't do that to anyone else. She'll die, and she'll die soon, but she won't worry anyone but herself in the process.

[allmydiredreams]

Babel nods, her hand stilled on her own kitten. She moves to press it against the wall again, then balls it into a fist. She remembers Luke -- a warm, recent memory, a strong bodybeat, something she held onto when she was lost before. She wishes fervently for a moment that she could have him -- well, the bodybeat that she remembers, anyway. She's not coherent enough to put that to a memory of a person just yet.

"But then you will be all alone," she whispers. "Sad and quiet and alone." She blinks up at Tabitha. "Do you want it?"