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[truth_is_cold]

[Spam | Deck]

[A massive, nearly 900 pound big cat sidles his way onto the deck (easier to get to than the CES and feels more open somehow. He has a very faint fluff of fur where a mane should be, and spots on his forehead, and the dimmed stripes of a tiger that only came half-way through. Gaheris can talk, to either humans or animals. He's just basically not feeling particularly inclined to.

In fact, he feels more inclined to pace around for a bit, intending to lay down, until he finds a head of lettuce that's been left out near the greenhouse. He goes over to it, sniffs it, flicks the dark tufted tip of his faintly striped tail to and fro.

That's an unusual urge that he's feeling.

A moment later there's that same massive 900 lb cat rolling around on his back, and then hopping back up to pounce at the head of lettuce. Batting it, and then going after it as if it might get away.]



OOC: Rhade is a Liger. He mostly will be friendly- he's a big social kitty. Be warned, he might clean you. And his head is this big.

Comments

[charmingex5]

[Perhaps not, though Ben is holding himself very small and tense while he braces to take a hit that never comes. Ears back and eyes barely slitted open, he doesn't move for even a few moments after nothing happens and Rhade is talking to him.

He opens his eyes, whiskers twitching forward and sniffing back in unconscious confirmation, but doesn't relax otherwise just yet.]

Rhade. ...I can't say I'm surprised.

[truth_is_cold]

[And then there's just the tiniest lick to Ben's head. And by tiny, the tongue covers it and combs it for a milisecond, before Rhade stands upright quickly, tail raised and flicking.]

There's more room up here. The hallways are cramped and confining.

Hold still. I'm going to take you somewhere.

[And then he picks up Ben and carries him to the greenhouse. He can hide better in there. He's guessing with all the dogs running around, that's what he'll want to do.]

[charmingex5]

[Ben doesn't even get a chance to protest, just enough time to clamp his eyes closed again before the rough tongue is sweeping over his head; when Rhade picks him up, the massive liger's mouth easily fits over the much smaller wildcat's neck and he can't quite stop the reflexive hiss - both his own aversion to being touched at all, and the wildcat's indignation.

Of course, there's another instinctive reaction and Ben doesn't fight or even move again, hind feet and tail curled reflexive under himself, until he's set down once more. Once released, he whips around and swats out with a front paw, but no claws to it, and no power - not that it would do much good against Rhade anyway - before he slinks just enough to one side to be closer to cover in case he needs it.]

This exercise makes no sense.

[truth_is_cold]

[He chuffs at the bat, because he can't purr. He's too big for it. But it's a pleased sort of noise, and he waits for him to skulk into a more secret space before sitting in the doorway to talk to him.]

Practice resistance. We have our minds to go with these new instincts. Some are safe to indulge in. Some are more hazardous.

[charmingex5]

These aren't new instincts. [Ben is looking keenly around the greenhouse - he's never been in here though he has glimpsed it through the doorway - ears up and whiskers sweeping back and forth. Okay, that's new, as is the actual form of course, but the rest?]

Feline DNA has been used to produce four of the five series of transgenics, including X5s. Of all the things I have felt compelled to do, attacking lettuce has never been one of them. [He's looking away when he says it, but it's that same super-dry, almost hesitant, barely there sense of humor that he's exhibited so rarely before.]

[truth_is_cold]

But you've not been entirely a cat and had the body to match those instincts. [And he stands up, tail and head both held high.] Nietzscheans have evolved a few different ones than humans.

[Also, due to neoteny Ben looks very much like a kitten to him right now. It's taking some self-control to not try and clean him.

[charmingex5]

[There would definitely be some struggling if that happened, to be honest, and Ben would probably hide forever in the greenhouse; his attention darts back when Rhade stands.]

I wouldn't really expect any different.

[truth_is_cold]

We have different standards of social hierarchy and group organization. We've spent so much focus on individualism and also perpetuating our genes. [Also, they're bred to be devious and selfish.]

[charmingex5]

But you were... engineered... by humans?

[truth_is_cold]

So were you.

But we've been breeding for centuries since. The greater part of that separated from humanity. [He cleans his own face fussily.]

[charmingex5]

We have not. And we were never expected to have anything like social hierarchy let alone differing from humans.