>>192961The captain scrunches and crosses his hooves
>>192965The captain is still displeased with Kira, standing up, taking one, two steps further away from her, facing her, scrunching, and also lowering his tail to tuck between his legs. Some aspect of his eyes still makes him look dazed and confused, like he can't focus on anything in particular.
Yet he takes Kira's question seriously
"I..." His eyes go up towards the right, his mouth opens slightly, his ears tend slightly back, and he tilts his head ever so slightly upwards. "Don't
know." Drawing out that last word, and eventually settling his eyes on that shape looming over the dark, green waters in the distance, the SSRS
Kostroma.
"But I did hear from
him. He craves friendship, as surely as we do. For so long he was alone... Now, it's like a drug. He can't help it, you know. As he dreams, his dreams intermingle with our thoughts. Not much more than we can help being overheard talking to ourselves walking through the garden. Not that much more, anyways. It was a mistake, he thinks, trying to reach out on the ship. This next time he will play dead longer. Feign a defeat by those who do not understand. You know he sleeps, right? Though his dreams are powerful, maybe too powerful for the good of his friends, he wishes to awake. When he awakes, he will bring Elysium. He will bring Father to me."
He stares at the Kostroma
"It's just..." His ears twitch and move forward "I don't know, you know? When I was small my father took me to the Zoo in Sunset, and they had a Manticore. It was a big, ferocious beast. I could see it beyond the steel fence, and I knew I didn't want to meet it without those steel bars between me and him. And yet... somehow... I could imagine meeting that Manticore in the forest and... coming to an understanding. You know? Like what we want, deep down, isn't all that different. Like maybe he's not so scary afterall....."
He stares at the silhouette of the
Kostroma>>192980Mala moves forward from his position on the edge of the beach, closer towards Posey. He reaches into his saddlebag, and produces a ring of keys that he hangs from his paw
"These?"