Setting
As he moved along his way, Wren picked a pebble up and lightly pinged off the back of his head.
"Hey you," the felinoid woman called out to him. "You look lost. Not from around here?" she asked mischievously.
At his inquiry into information she tilted her head curiously once more.
"Might be I can help," Wren answered. "What sort of information are you looking for?"
He wondered for a second if this was a smart decision to reveal so much. He knew that he shouldn't trust every feline thing he meets, but trying to gather information is never easy. Nare used his eyes to look around, trying to see if anyone was paying any particular attention to the pair.
"I know the name," Wren remarked thoughtfully before she slipped from the side of the wall to land nimbly on the ground. She was smaller than she had looked from below and only stood about five feet tall at her full height. "Information like that is likely to cost someone though," she remarked. "And what's in this for me if I help you?" she asked.
"Don't get me wrong, you look like a nice enough guy. But around here a good deed is just as likely to get you shot as it is not," she pointed out. "I should know. I was shot twice, stabbed, blackmailed, and sold to space pirates all in the span of a year."
"Come on," she said as she turned and led him off back through the gardens the way he had come. "I know a guy who knows a guy. He'll find you what you need, but he doesn't come cheap."
As he lifted his snout, shaking the moss and dirt that had covered him like a small hill, and tasted the air, he picked up the scent of fire and death, blood and steel. His jaws pulled into a snarl at the harsh smells, but he could only imagine that the humans had been in one of their wars again. It could only be fate, he thought that had kept him from meeting death at the hands of any number of things during his slumber.
As he opened his midnight eyes, looking around to see if there was anyone around, he noticed that a thick cloud of smoke hung over the city, no more than a thousand feet up.
~Disgusting creatures, humans. One day, perhaps, they'll learn to live with nature. Not likely anytime soon though, if my guess is any good.~ He shrugged and began stretching as this and other such thoughts played across his mind. While he'd slept, he'd dreamed of himself, but it wasn't him as he knew. He'd been a single part of a whole, and that whole was slowly pulling its pieces back together. He'd been but a shard of something greater than anything he'd known before.
And though there was excitement in the dream, it had been filled with trepidation as well.
"Since I'm here, oh little 'Piece', lets have a chat. I'm bored, and its been ages since I last talked to one of my own kin. Wakey wakey."
In case the dark scaled beast before him proved angry, he was more then ready to Leap away, as far back as his antique shop. But the diva had gone too long without antagonizing anyone, it seemed.
And, as if to show this lack of care, he let his form ripple and shift, turning into the tanned human form he'd come to use so long before.
"And my greetings to you, though I'm not sure we've met. How did you find me?"
Vokun took a step back to grin, admiring his word play. It'd been awhile since he messed with these poor souls.
Though he was in a rush. No telling when another calamity would strike Terra. Especially now. He wondered how long it would take the elders of Orak Ma'az to realize what he'd done...
"You speak as if I'm no more than a charlatan's puppet. Please, explain. I have more than enough time to listen, I assure you." He was interested, but more confused than anything. Some strange man rambling odd words to him after he'd woken for several months was less than sensible.
"Listen, whatever your name is, come by my shop, and soon. We'll finish this chat there, alright. Thing is, I'm extremely busy today. Good info about another big thing coming to roll this poor city over into its...well...whatever grave its on. Here. Address." He flicked his a card. Kind of hard to read. Dark violet paper with dark violet font, only legible due to the letterings pale lavender outlining.
"Meet me there. Its not far. Near the library, just around the corner."
And he was gone. No smoke, no clap, just a quick burst that sounded like air being sucked out of a paper bag by a hyperventilating ninny.
"Who knows," he replied. It wasn't a question; a certain sternness in his voice that stopped it from being one.
"Who was she?"
"She wasn't a 'she'," he answered. "Not really. She was some form of biological experiment, a mass of organic gloop that could just happen become a human woman, if she wanted to."
"Will you miss her?"
"I don't think so."
"As cold as ever, I see."
"I'm not cold, you just put me in a bad mood when you started talking."
"Then why did you answer the phone, eh? You know what your problem is?-"
"-goodbye, Jonathan.-"
"-you're a dick."
He put the phone down, then leaned back into the cheap outdoor chair and drank from the coffee he had ordered. He was sitting outside a cafe, overlooking a particularly sensual part of the garden. There weren't many people around, and he had to say he enjoyed the peace.
Her cotton-wrapped feet clad in soft leather carried her toward the back end of the café – where she knew they sold the most delicious green tea. Daydreamy thoughts passed through her mind, mostly relatively unimportant things: Where was she going to find herself a new reader? The new girl had no talent for flowing with advanced texts. To employ her as a ward would never do, no matter how sweetly she acted. There was also a monologue to be prepared. A sigh escaped her lips as she passed the small building on the left hand side, fingertips tracing over the weather-worn bricks.
Such thoughts were interrupted when a voice broke the tranquillity. It was not a particularly irate voice, but it lacked relaxed friendliness. Nora could not block out such things, these sounds and tastes and feel were all she had been gifted with, and so her ears trained themselves on the speaker with curiosity. Each step brought her closer. Being so sensitive, she could easily identify the change in dynamics as she approached.
From what she gathered it seemed to be an attempt at consolidation from the other party. A failed attempt, as the male speaker brushed off any emotional connection to a something she was not certain of. This was not so peculiar; it was undoubtedly a man, after all.
Was everyone as nosy as her? She found that hard to believe.
“Privacy is an extremely valuable thing” Nora spoke as she stepped out from the shadow of the café, head turned in the direction she sensed the other person, expression amused.
"There are many species of flowers, animal, trees, insect and man-made object besides here, so why are you finding me more interesting than any of that?"
“Why, would you believe it, I happen to be ‘looking’ at nothingness.” She also did not know what he would take the silk band tied around her eyes for. However, it was not an unusual thing that she did, other blinded persons were said to do the same to stop the staring.
She thought his question silly, not thought through. How nice it would be to be able to speak so freely. Her reply was analysed by herself before she replied to him, the seconds slipped past whilst her brain tested her options.
“Mr, they are not conscious”
"All life shares some form of electromagnetic force bonding us all together. Who are we to say they don't have their own form of consciousness?"
He placed the flower close enough to Nora for her to be able to smell it. "Take it. I don't want to hold it anymore."
She could sense movement and tensed some, her head turned, as if to get a better position for hearing. The slight creak as the plastic chair was relieved from strain and settled back into its original position told her he was on his feet. A shuffle, a rustle, the sound of fabric stretching and folding and rubbing as he straightened up.
“I wouldn’t describe a certain primitive intelligence to be consciousness.”
Take it? Take what? A breeze tumbled through the air, carrying the fragrance of the flower along with it on its journey. She inhaled faintly, breathing in the rare perfume. Taking into account the direction the wind had blown from she reached out a hand and found the flower without much fumbling.
She twisted the stem between her thumb and forefinger, making the blossom twirl then shed a loose petal without her noticing.
“For example, I doubt this flower can discern self from other through introspection and reason.”
“And what of your ‘mass of organic gloop’?” She began inquisitively with a sort of cockiness.
"So you're blind, then? What are you doing out here alone?"
And so her curiosity over that was not to be perused, not yet at least. She would forget all about it with his next flurry of words which encouraged a flash of annoyance and an agitated curl to her lips. The question alone sounded patronising to her, something one would ask a child. Almost instantly she wanted to snap back with ‘Why not?’ but restrained herself from the childish retort which to her, would seem hypocritical of herself after recent musings.
Listening intently to his movements from a short distance away, her arms folded across her chest. A movement which she had been told was to close off social influence and expressed her inner feelings to the world way too easily. Privacy was a valuable thing, and she untangled her limbs from each other into a more neutral position.
“I’m perfectly capable to do so. I see no reason why I shouldn’t.” She wondered for a fleeting moment whether that had been a worse choice of reply, but it was hard to hide the offence. “What are you doing out here alone?” And there went any veil that could have convinced him otherwise that she hadn’t felt insulted…