This mess is a place. (Pobody's nerfect) [Open]

[princerat]

(Takes place a few days after this)

Discarded items stream constantly into the sewers, generally in the form of rubbish, creating small isles of filth that build up to block pipes and decay and erode away by pieces. The underground's citizens pay little attention to anything that isn't edible, and the rest is nothing more than landscape. It is not

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[sophicsulphur]

Luckily enough for Saul-- if one small miracle can be considered lucky, in all she's unwittingly put him through-- Iris is leaving work through those very hallways, humming jauntily to the music thrumming from the earbuds in her ears. As such, if he makes a sound, she doesn't hear it; but she's paying enough attention, at least, to notice when a dog-sized horned rat decides to cross her path, something dangling from its huge, sharp teeth.

It only startles her for a moment, and even then more from surprise than any real horror at its form. She's encountered plenty of non-humans before now, and even with its fearsome appearance, there's no reason to believe this one means her harm. Looks aren't everything, after all. And besides, there's something... familiar about it. A subtle energy, like shadows.... Shadows. Her heart rate picks up as she reaches out mentally, probes the energy further. Yes, it's definitely so: this is one of Saul's rats! She'd recognise that energy signature anywhere

[princerat]

He sees her look of recognition, hears the change in heartbeat, but she can't possibly know it's him, can she? No, if she knew it was him she'd know this isn't even his body. She'd be alarmed, right? He's not even sure what he looks like now, though it clearly isn't himself. This isn't normal, not even in his version of normal. Keep telling yourself that or you're going to forget again.

The problem, of course, is going to be communication. He can understand her, thankfully, but as he tries to verbalize a reply, it comes out in squeaks. He has not thought this one through enough. He hasn't really thought much at all through this ordeal, just recently regaining self awareness and a sense of time, so the gears are a bit rusty up there. At least she seems willing to help. He gives a slightly frustrated snort, then turns tail to follow her.

He'll tag along to wherever she decides to take him, and hopefully he'll formulate a plan by the time they get there.

[sophicsulphur]

They'll be meandering in the direction of Kaden's apartment, then: thirty floors up, in one of the fancy downtown high-rises with shiny-floored lobbies and locked gates on their elevators. About halfway there, though, it does finally dawn that a giant rat in the elevator might not be quite so acceptable to the staff at this complex as it would be in the Kashtta; so once she arrives outside the complex, she turns to him and, taking the talisman gently from his mouth, asks, "Could you wait there? I won't be too long."

Not that a giant rat waiting outside the apartment complex looks any better, really. But this one made it to the Kashtta; it surely knows how to hide itself if need be. Probably a magical rat, from the feel of it, with some of Saul's magic about it. She bets it could slip into the shadows at the first sign of trouble, no problem

[princerat]

The giant rat nods when she asks him to wait. While she's gone he nearly forgets what he's here in this neighborhood for, out in the open and all, but the sight of his own strange shadow brings him back to the present. He crouches down low, trying to shrink into himself and hoping any passerby mistake him for a garden statue. But no one comes, and Iris returns.

He lets her slip the cord around his neck, and he opens his mouth, about to try to explain himself again when she begins to write. At this he spins around in a circle a few times with some excitement, because this might be his best and only chance.

Carefully he accepts the note with his ridiculous teeth but then drops it on the ground, smooths it out with his paws and reads it. And then he sighs. One claw touches the name Saul. He looks up at her with those deep black animal-intelligent eyes to make sure she's watching, and then he points the claw at himself. Now he studies her with some amount of anxiety, with ears and whiskers twitching, because if she doesn't understand

Welcome back! :D

[starryeyed_cass]

Cassie has been busy giving out Christmas Presents, she’s down to her last few now. Most of the people she knows live in Kashtta, so it’s an easy enough job. For some people, it’s just a hope of meeting them in the street. Although she’s never asked Iris where she lives now, she can find her over the journals, but she’s not really sure what to do when it comes to Saul. She hasn’t seen him in some time, which does worry her. But she knows his rat heritage is a big part of him just as his humanity is. She’s sure she’ll work something out.

She turns the corner to head down a hallway back to her room when she stops suddenly, coming face to face and jumping a little at... she has no idea what that thing is. It just seems to be sniffing and scratching its way down the hall. It’s a.. no, she seriously doesn’t know what. It can’t possibly an actual rat, could it? She’s heard of them being as big a cats, but not dogs. Besides, it also has horns

Thank youuuu :D

[princerat]

There are so many cats in this building that it's hard to keep himself focused on the scent trail he's been dutifully following. The kittens aren't bothering him, but their odors are all over the building, each one demanding his attention so that his nose can properly categorize it. And then a new scent, one he knows well, not the one he was looking for but it's, it's Cassie

Haha, ready to play the nodding game?

[starryeyed_cass]

And for the tiniest of seconds, she does think he’s going to go for her. She a shiver runs through her limbs, the hand hold the cookie shakes a little: ‘Oh god, it’s gonna go for me. Oh god, oh god it’s going to actually rip my face off.’ But instead it happily sits down in front of her, which she’s a little relieved at. She grins as the creature takes the cookie and reaches up to scritch behind its ear. “Good.. well, I don’t really know what you are,” she says with a laugh. “Sorry, mate..”

She frowns at the sound of something hitting the floor and reaches forward to pick up what looks like a tiny necklace, or a bracelet. Cassie hadn’t noticed it before, but that’s because she didn’t want to look at the creature’s teeth. She examines the little charm on it, trying to work out just what it is

OH BOY A GAME! :D

[princerat]

He's a bit uneasy when she takes the talisman away, he needs that, and he begins to pace. But then she starts with the magic word 'Iris' so he stops and gives her his full attention. She outlines the rules for a game! He loves games, or at least he's pretty sure he does. Well, he likes puzzles best. Now he's totally forgotten what was making him anxious before.

Oh right, the questions. Is he looking for a person? Two nods.

[xandtheman3]

Xander is eating.

AND NO ONE IS SURPRISED.

He stops at the sound of laughter and turns back to the alleyway to see the person there.

"Uh..."

He looks around to see if there's a comedic act that he's missing, but he is not seeing anything.

"What's so funny?"

[corpsedisposal]

Her breath catches up with her and, while he's busy looking around, she slips all the cash out of the cop's stolen wallet, and slides the wallet under the lid of a dumpster. She wanted to throw it up on the roof, but now she's got an audience and it might have taken a couple tries.

"Oh, lots of stuff. Cops are funny. Humanity, as a whole, is funny." A pause. "Nuns. Nuns are hilarious. We had this one stand-up comedy nun, Sister Rufus, where I'm from and. Well let's just say you guys are missing out on some great jokes about how we're all going to hell." She moves away from the wall to join him.

[xandtheman3]

Xander stares at her, and he eats his hamburger. It's a very good hamburger.

"Look I know funny, and nun humor can be funny. Cop humor too, but I don't see a cop or a nun around here unless... you were thinking back on those jokes that you mentioned," he says, and then he actually does smirk cause the thought of a nun doing stand-up is pretty funny. "And I'm always... so disappointed to miss out on a joke about me going to hell. Did she carry around a ruler to use as her drum to signal the end of the joke?"

[corpsedisposal]

She looks over her shoulder. "No no. No cops here. No nuns either. C'mon guy, let's walk and talk." It's a bad idea to be standing around so close to where she ditched the wallet. So she motions for him to follow her down the sidewalk.

"Sometimes," is the answer to his question. "She had this one special on TV where the stage was set up like a Sunday School, and she did all her jokes with a completely deadpan delivery. There was this big guy up on the stage dressed up in little kids' clothes in this tiiiiny desk. She was talking to the audience the whole time, so she mostly ignored him, except that every time he started to laugh at the end of a joke, she'd come back over to him and smack his knuckles with the ruler; WHAP! As the show goes on, he gets more and more pissed, I mean it's like an hour and a half of getting hit on the knuckles, I'd get pissed too. At the very end of the show he draws fang on her, tries to get up to bite her-- and of course he's stuck in the desk, and her ruler's made of wood, so she stakes him with it."