[PRP] Meow Squeep Squeep (Alg/Rabbit/Sirens)

[Smerdle]

Rabbit needed a cage.

He wished he didn't, but the squeeps were growing more destructively curious by the day, and he couldn't expect p***k to keep them out of trouble all by himself. It was a wonder the cat had done as well as he had with the eggs while Mynn had been here as it was. Rabbit had to work so he couldn't be around all the time either, and even though Olivia knew about them now, he couldn't burden her with the birds, not when they were still so small and slippery.

So. A cage. Maybe some toys. It was for the best.

He was stalling now, standing in the cat aisle looking at a row of feathered baubles that p***k would never lower himself to play with. One hand was in his hoodie's wide front pocket, providing fingers to gum at or wrestle with, the occasional muffled squeep prompting him to shush his own stomach.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Alg mostly just needed litter but having been away he felt a bit like spoiling the cats. It wasn't like they'd truly known the difference, though they seemed to sense he and Jeremiah's distress lately and had been particularly sweet.

He strolled into the same cat aisle that Rabbit was browsing, not immediately looking at the young man until he heard strange noises. Several catnip mice were dropped into his basket as Alg glanced over. He recognized him from... various otherside shenanigans but most notably as one of the young men taken to court. That meant he was- or his fetch had won.... he didn't know. It wasn't like it made a difference now.

"You're cheeping," Alg leaned in to mutter softly and then back to be polite and not invade space. He offered a smile and hoped, at the very least, Rabbit recognized his face so this seemed less random.

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Rabbit did recognize him, but not from the ball. He too had seen Algernon in the otherworld before, as far back as the first time he'd been there.

"Oh, hey! Yeah," he replied softly with an answering grin. "I've got..." Rabbit carefully slid one of the bird people from his pocket and held it out just long enough to see before returning it to safety. Being the rowdier of the two, it flapped its arms in crisp little arcs while it was free, sending a couple of tufts of down slowly drifting to the floor. "I've got passengers."

He wondered if he should be telling someone who was essentially a complete stranger that he had the sirens, but his apprehension was short lived. Even if he was talking to a fetch, what would it do? A fetch's beef was with the one who it was replacing, not a pair of babies on the mundane side of town.

He raised his voice a little when Alg moved away, even though he wasn't very good at disguising the abnormality of their conversation. "I don't want to give my sister more to worry about by asking her to watch them when I'm at work, and I feel bad locking them up, but I think I have to. Regular birds don't have... fingers."

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Alg's jaw actually dropped when the bird person appeared. It was small, and by the movement it seemed like there was more than one of them

"What-?" Alg got close again, conspiratorially, "What are they?"

And then, having forgotten his manners, corrected himself, "I'm Algernon by the way. Or Professor. We haven't actually formally met." He offered a warm hand, something about it was very reassuring.

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"We haven't." Rabbit took Algernon's hand, and since he was already surprisingly at ease with the man himself, a little of his guilt over caging his kids melted away at his touch instead. "Rabbit Vaughn. 'Professor at the college' professor?" He nodded once, eyebrows raised. Impressive.

"They're called sirens, according to The Peaceful One." His voice was low again. "They're my responsibility." Rabbit glanced down the aisle, shifting his weight. "So. You wanna help me pick something out?" Cage. Cage. Cage. He couldn't say the word out loud, but he was still determined to go through with this.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Exactly that kind of professor," Alg chuckled. "English and literature."

Sirens? Hopefully not to lure men to their deaths. They didn't look like they could do it right this moment but who knows about the future.

"Sure-" Alg may have been peering at the pocket hoping for another glance, "It seems a shame to cage them though.." He wondered how they were with cats...

"Something large I think? How fast have they grown?"

smerdle

he said the c word - 'caaaage'

 

[Smerdle]

The good feelings wavered, his smile compressed between his lips.

"Yeah, I agree, but..." He drew the other bird out, the differences between them apparent when it remained still in his palm, staring Alg in the face. "They haven't gotten much bigger, but they haven't been hatched for very long either. I mean, I guess it's long for a bird, but for a person, not long at all. Maybe something with a lid that comes off instead of one of those little doors? I don't know."

iloveyouDIE

o nuuu

 

[iloveyouDIE]

The professor nodded but seemed to awkwardly rock on his feet.

"So... why are we in the cat aisle?" If he was looking for a bird cage.

He did lean though, to see the little squeep, and give it a finger wiggle and perhaps a head pat.

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Because I'm stalling." Rabbit sighed. "I have a cat, but he does his own thing. You know, he even sat on their eggs while I was away? It was wild."

The siren wiggled its fingers back—though it was more of a slow curling and spreading of all of them at once than anything particularly dexterous—and squeeped at Alg's touch. Rabbit shushed it softly, looking down the aisle instead of at either of them.

"Okay. Cage time." He didn't move.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Well why don't you try and get them watched.." Alg apparently would take the initiative and his coaxing hand curled around Rabbit's tucked in elbow and began lead him down the aisle.

"You know you could.." Alg's voice very suddenly dropped, "..have your fetch watch them."

There was some insinuation of knowledge there that he wasn't overtly saying.

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

He glanced down at Alg's hand when he felt it touch his arm, then shifted his attention to the man's face as he fell into step beside him. The squeep was repocketed with a comforting pat.

"My fetch. Yeah." It didn't really surprise him that other people had heard about Oroh and everything that came with her, not after Juniper, but it did leave him feeling oddly exposed. His voice was low again when he replied.

"I could, I guess. She likes them all right. I'm just not great at walking over to the other side whenever I want." He'd already figured out that Thorne had that skill, based on some of the things he'd said, and now it seemed that Professor Algernon did as well. "I know my bathroom's kind of a... weak spot? A door? I wander in from there a lot. I could walk out of my bathroom a million times before work, but I'm sure sometimes nothing would happen and then I'd..."

He was rambling. Rabbit stopped himself and took a breath as they rounded the corner.

"I'd still like to have something I can count on all the time. For emergencies."

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"I understand," Alg nodded. He felt like he'd invaded by mentioning the fetch but at the same time he felt like he should share something of it with Rabbit. They were both nobles now and it would only be a matter of time before something of The Court would reveal the truth anyway.

"I can't pass over myself without my husband finding me a door. Besides the usual accidental ways anyhow.." They passed through cat stuff, dog stuff, and small rodent supplies. Thankfully the store was near empty at the moment so their hushed talking wasn't privy to anyone's ears.

"The truth is I'm," Alg's fingers rubbed over the knuckles of one hand, pink with scrapes as if he'd been fighting quite a bit, "I'm a noble of the court now myself."

He did look a bit slimmer, as if he'd been away on some extended holiday, but it hadn't been very long since the Ball so it made sense if he'd been taken.

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Rabbit paused. "No s**t?" he breathed. "I'm sorry." He noticed the scrapes now only because they had context, but even with that evidence there was no guarantee that the man had won, only that he had fought. He had only known Algernon in the most distant way before, so if he was a fetch now, Rabbit was sure he wouldn't be able to tell. He supposed it didn't matter. The people who loved him would figure things out sooner or later.

"Who took you? If you don't mind me asking? I don't know what's polite when it comes to this stuff."

Up ahead, Rabbit could see several plain cages, large but less special than he wanted, somehow. It wasn't that he was trying to turn the sirens into some sort of spectacle, but he did want something more for them than a boring wire enclosure.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"No sorry necessary," Alg's shoulders rose and fell in a short movement, "I agreed to it in a sense.." He'd agreed to something that would help him get stronger, it only turned out in retrospect that meant the noble trial.

"I'm not sure I should say but I can assure it was probably as least traumatizing as it could be," Though he'd clearly been put through something with the weight loss and the battle wounds. Alg lifted his brows, "Not someone who took any of you." Which meant it was one of them.

"But you would find out eventually I'm sure," Should any courtly matters pop up, "So it's only right to tell you. And if you need anything.." He wasn't sure what exactly was any different than before between them, they were still nearly strangers, but this was a common connecting thread.

Alg's hands slid into his pockets as they approached and looked at the cages. He even frowned himself, "They look a bit like jails don't they?"

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Each individual statement that came out of Alg's mouth, from him having agreed to his service to being tithed by someone other than Melany or Ezra to his offer of aid, was already too much to digest on its own. Together they rendered Rabbit temporarily speechless, which was probably good, considering his first response to the jail thing was a petulant, I know, okay.

Instead he managed, "You too. Thank you," and took a couple of shuffling steps past the first few cages. He ran his fingers along the top of one that looked like it was made of wrought iron, tracing the bits of metal. Not iron, but more interesting than most of the others.

"Yeah, they do. But it's only for a little while, until..." He looked past Algernon and lowered his voice. "...they look like people. And if I put toys in there, maybe they won't mind. I think they sleep most of the time when I'm gone anyway."

iloveyouDIE