Rogue Sloth

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

When Iris set the water glasses down on the table, Cas murmured a quick ‘thank you’ and lifted one to his lips to drink. The cool liquid washed over his tongue and throat pleasantly on its way down, quenching a thirst that he’d been too distracted to notice until now. He hadn’t been paying attention earlier, but it had been hours since he’d last had anything to drink. Probably not since lunch at noon, he mused as he tried to do the math in his head. Fortunately, there was a restaurant on the first level of the resort that they could order from almost any time of the day, so they had good food and drinks at their fingertips as long as they stayed in the suite.

“Being conventional is overrated anyway,” he said in reply, setting his water back down to start on his dinner. “We may have skipped all sorts of steps, but I’ve never fallen for anyone like I have for you.” He casted her a fond smile and took a bite of his lukewarm-but-still-good food. While not ideal, going through mutual trauma had a way of drawing two people close together. It felt like they’d been partners for a lot longer than just a few weeks. After they had been on the run together in the districts, he trusted her with his life and was determined to do everything he could to keep her safe too. In a way, he even relied on her more than his own father, whom he had been slowly distancing himself from since he’d gotten back to the capital.

“Well that’s good, I think,” he mused when she said nothing was forgettable when they were together. Truthfully, there were a few moments here and there that he would have liked to erase from his memory, such as the image of the corpses in Bel Bicis that was imprinted on his mind forever. However, when it came to their relationship, he treasured every second. “Tonight is definitely one of my favorite moments for us,” he told her after he swallowed a mouthful of lobster. “No crippling amnesia, no rebels trying to kill us, no hospital, and no Miles.” He laughed at his own joke, taking a sip of his wine. The Spanish red was richly flavored, and he savored it on his tongue.

Her following comment gave him pause though. He didn’t want to think about anything bad happening, but it was impossible to deny that his rebellious move to get away from Atlas could go wrong. He’d never run from the mansion before, so he could have overlooked something important. “We’ll be fine,” he shook his head, trying to reassure her. “I booked this room completely anonymously, disconnected every GPS that could have tracked us here and haven’t told a single person where we are. I’m sure there’s no way anyone can find us. We’re safe until I figure out what to do next.”

When she asked about his food, he glanced up at her again with a half-smile. “Mine is good too.” The ominous feeling of her last comment still lingered inside of him, and he took a breath. He didn’t want to let worries ruin their evening. Even if something happened, there was nothing they could do to prevent it, so there was no sense in stewing over it.

In an attempt to lighten the mood again, he picked up one of the half-shells on his plate and separated the oyster from it with a spoon, then held it out toward Iris. “Here, try this. I’ve been told oysters are an aphrodisiac,” he winked at her playfully. “So is red wine and chocolate... Maybe we can order the molten cake I saw on the menu earlier for dessert.”

New World Contention [AnnaWinters & Summer]

Currently Azdrei'in isn't thinking about the possibility of a human and an alien being together romantically, but he'll get there later. He also doesn't have a motive for protecting her, since they barely know each other. As they get closer, he'll start to care about keeping her safe too.

New World Contention [AnnaWinters & Summer]

Azdrei’in found it strange that humans would show preference to the males of their species if there was nothing particularly special about them. Among his people, males were more often trained to be warriors because of their brawn, but even females who were athletic or quick on their feet could fight too. Almost every other role was filled evenly by both sexes. Gender wasn’t a factor in determining value or leadership skills, since it only had a bearing on an individual’s role in carrying on their family lines.

Because of how often miscarriages occurred, pregnant females were restricted in what they were permitted to do and had to undergo medical exams frequently to monitor the baby’s health. If they managed to keep the fetus for the full term, they would later feed and care for the infant until it was old enough to be weaned. Males contributed as much as they could during this time to carry some of the burden of childrearing, and once the baby was mature enough to care for itself, it would be moved to a room with other young Lunvalgans, and the mated couple would begin trying to conceive again.

Of course, he didn’t know enough words to describe that to Artemis though, so he remained quiet as she tested out the Lunvalgan word he’d said to her. Her pronunciation was surprisingly clear, and he nodded, impressed that she was so quick to mimic the way he spoke. She even repeated his language more accurately than he did hers. He found it much harder to form English words with his lips and tongue, struggling to precisely match the position on his palate that he needed to voice some of the syllables. If he taught her more, he wondered how quickly she would pick up the language his people spoke.

When she explained that she’d had an emotional response to seeing him change clothes, he stared at her, bemused. His people didn’t change in front of the opposite sex often either, but he’d assumed there was nothing wrong with it because they were of two different species. Apparently she didn’t feel the same way. “I will remember that,” he assured her. “I did not think you cared because I am not a human. Now I know better. Do you not change in front of your bunny too?” He added the last question after a brief pause, curious if Earthlings were bashful around all creatures.

At her comment about the temperature of his skin, Azdrei’in tilted his head slightly in thought. “I was sleeping not long ago, so I was not moving. I ate food too. My warmth could be here.” He placed a hand over his midriff. While he was digesting, it made sense that his blood would have collected around his stomach to aid in the process. Consequentially, the rest of his body would have grown colder. It was a normal function, so he wasn’t uncomfortable at all though.

Pausing in the doorway, he was perplexed by Artemis’s sudden assertion that she wouldn’t help his people unless he stayed with her. It seemed like she was more fearful than she’d let on, but he didn’t understand why she thought he was more trustworthy than any of the other Lunvalgans. He was curious about her species, but he was still loyal to his own kind. He had no intention of keeping her safe and comfortable on the mothership if he was asked to bring her on board. That wasn’t his job.

However, the rising sense of urgency in her voice made him reluctant to respond to her so callously. He looked at the video she showed to him, uncertain why she was telling him about human relationships. He grasped that she was telling him that her kind preferred to be with a partner that they cared about, but it didn’t seem relevant when there were no other humans around. Is she afraid of being forced to mate with a Lunvalgan male? He wondered, glancing up at her again. It was the only explanation he could think of. “I don’t think you will have to be with a male,” he clarified, trying to put her mind at ease. “If my leaders want to use you, they will have you carry a baby for a female and a male who are together.”

As she went on to show him another video, he felt like he comprehended her fears a little better. She was worried about becoming a lab specimen. “I don’t think so,” he shook his head. “You will have a room, food, and specialist doctor to help you.” Finding himself without words again, he explained by showing her an image of a pregnant Lunvalgan female who had her own private space on the ship with any amenities she could need to be comfortable. Any females that became vessels for new life were treated with the utmost care and respect among his people. Their health was important, so they were given the best of everything in the hopes that they and their babies would thrive.

Her fixation on him was confusing though. It sounded like she only wanted to act as a surrogate if he was the father of the fetus. He sighed, “You will not help me. I don’t have a female, so my leaders will not use my family line. There are other males who have females who need help from you.” Sensing that Artemis had a very different perception of what it would look like to help his people, he tried to reassure her as he ushered her along to the common room, “But they could not need you to make babies. I am not sure. Zalla has not told me what will be done with you. You know many things, so my leaders may use you to learn more. I am sure there are more female humans here that can be used too.”

New World Contention [AnnaWinters & Summer]

“Are they better?” Azdrei’in wondered aloud when Artemis told him about leadership among humans. “Lunvalgan males and females are the same here.” Trying to indicate that they had the same cognitive abilities, he tapped one clawed digit to his head. “Both can be leaders if they are good at the work. Colors don’t matter too. That is only…” He trailed off as he wracked his brain for the words to explain that skin tone only mattered in terms of physical preferences. Their mates were selected for them based on reproductive compatibility, but they all had different tastes when it came to what they found aesthetically appealing.

“Some males like females with gray skin; large here,” he gestured to his own chest. “And some females like males with black skin and large… Bhanleq.” Assuming there was no word that would translate directly to English, he used the Lunvalgan word for the crest on his forehead, lifting a hand again to point to it in indication. “Those are common likes but not all Lunvalgans have the same ones. And it does not matter for leaders; only for pairs.”

Beauty standards of their kind could make a male or female more desirable as a mate or even as just a partner to have for a night if he or she wasn’t committed to anyone else. After all, young member of their species weren’t dissuaded from being intimate with each other before their lifelong mates were selected for them. Sometimes casual encounters resulted in chance pregnancies, which was always a good thing for a people that was slowly dying out. If that happened, the Om’phaers would have the couple that managed to produce a fetus mated in the hopes that they would have more offspring.

After he changed into the borrowed shirt, Azdrei’in looked at the image Artemis showed to him on a screen that fit in the palm of her hand. “You are small,” he agreed amusedly, once again fascinated by the diversity of the human race. Every individual in the picture was very different, from the color of their skin to the shape of their noses. His people were far more homogenous with less features that varied from one Lunvalgan to the next. Their heights weren’t as drastically different either. Males were taller and more muscular than females, but they usually grew up to reach similar statures in general.

Glancing at her face, he noticed her kind apparently changed colors too. “You are red now,” he observed out loud when she moved closer to him to fasten the ‘buttons’ that he hadn’t bothered to secure. “What does that mean?” There were a few species on Ashad’te that could change the color of their skin, but they did it to blend into their environments. He’d never seen one that would do it for seemingly no reason, and he was curious about what could have caused Artemis’s pink-white flesh to turn vermillion. Oddly, he found the color visually pleasing too.

“Cold? No,” he replied to her question thoughtfully. “I have not yet been cold or hot here. Why? Are you?” His pellucid eyes swept over her as he wondered if humans had a more limited range of temperatures in which they were comfortable. He supposed it would make sense if they were more vulnerable to changes in the weather. Her skin was much thinner and more delicate than his was, so it was probably difficult for her to regulate her body temperature.

When she explained why she wanted to leave her planet, he listened quietly. Some of the words she used were still unfamiliar to him, but he understood most of what she said. She was fascinated by space and his people. “I would have killed you,” he reminded her with a wry smile, crossing his arms over his chest. “But I don’t think my leaders will. I think they want to study you. You did not die from our virus, and you told me you know how to help us. They want to know more.” Reaching out, he touched the tip of one claw to her belly to indicate that she might be made into a surrogate. “They could want to use you too.”

Letting his arm drop to his side again, he stepped back from her and strode to the door with a lazy wave of his hand for her to follow him back to the common room. “You don’t need to fear being alone now. I am staying here until Zalla tells me what to do with you.”

New World Contention [AnnaWinters & Summer]

We managed to get everything sorted out! Everybody is fine and no one got hurt, fortunately. I also squeezed in a post before bed :)

New World Contention [AnnaWinters & Summer]

Observant as always, Azdrei’in studied Artemis’s reaction to what he had just said. The way she lit up and smiled at him was encouraging, signaling that he’d spoken fluently enough for her to understand him. He was unsure if she was happy because of his newfound ability or because he’d told her that his commander had given him permission to let her live though. Perhaps it was both. She had been eager to talk to him since he’d first woken up on her furniture—or rather, sofa, now that he knew that word too—and anyone would be relieved to find out that they’d been spared from immediate death. He was glad that he didn’t have to kill her too. At least, not yet.

When she asked him a question in return, he was pleased to find that he understood her better as well. However, his vocabulary was still limited, and he didn’t know the name of the device he’d used to practice her language, so he couldn’t answer her with a specific word. “That,” he said instead, gesturing at the small screen he’d left on the table next to the sofa. “After my first sleep I was awake, so I looked for English. There were lessons. I learned them.” And now that he’d figured out the basics, he planned to keep studying the language to improve his skill. It would be beneficial for him to know more if the Om’phaers decided that Artemis’s knowledge of fertility treatments would be useful to their people. Someone had to be able to communicate with her if he brought her on board the ship, after all.

At her inquiry about his commander, he nodded. “Yes, one of many. Her name is Zalla, and she is the leader who talked to me when I called at night. But I have more leaders. Some are males.” The leadership among his people was complex, so he couldn’t easily explain it to her with the few words he’d learned so far. That would have to be a discussion for another day if she expressed interest in hearing more about it.

“They are like you,” he told her about the females of his kind. “Not fully the same. They are bigger and have colors like me, but their shapes are like you.” To further clarify his point, he showed her a mental image of a Lunvalgan female with silvery gray skin and long, white hair that had been pulled back in a top-knot on her head. She had clear irises, clawed hands and fangs but lacked the gendered crest that dominated the foreheads of males. Her hips were also wider than an Earthling’s, suited for childbirth that wasn’t as painful as what humans experienced—as far as he could tell from the pained sounds the human female had made in the video Artemis had shown him.

An amused smile curved his lip when she asked if she would be able to see space now that she’d been allowed to live. Her excitement about it was humorous to him. After he’d lived his entire life on a spaceship, the cosmos had lost some of its charm, but he supposed it could be interesting to someone who’d only seen it from a distance. Whether or not he took her on board the mothership would depend on the decision the Om’phaers made though. It wasn’t up to him.

Lacking a straightforward answer to give her, Azdrei’in said nothing as he followed her back to the room she’d lent to him for the night. He watched her open a closet and pull out a shirt from inside, mildly surprised that she was offering him a replacement for the one he’d stained during his hunt. She was incredibly considerate for a creature that was supposed to be a brutal savage. “Thank you,” he said, taking the shirt from her hand. Briefly, he pondered why she seemed to have had an emotional reaction to the clothes, but he decided not to ask about it.

Setting the shirt she had given him on the bed, he took the one he was wearing by the bottom hem and pulled it up over his head. In his culture, males and females didn’t usually change in front of one another unless they were a mated pair, but since Artemis was a human, not a Lunvalgan, he assumed there was no issue with it. He tossed the bloodstained shirt onto the floor and picked up the new one again, sliding the sleeves over his sinewy, dark-skinned arms. It fit well enough, and he was glad that humans were built similarly enough to his people that they could share clothing. He would just have to remember to change back into his own shirt if he left her hideout, since the sleeveless design of his vanguard uniform offered him better mobility if he needed to fight.

“I don’t know if you will come to our spaceship,” he answered her last question belatedly, rolling his shoulders to adjust the way the shirt laid across his back. Lazily, he left the fastenings on the front of it undone, so the garment was still open, exposing his torso rather than covering it. Finished dressing himself, he turned back to her curiously. “Why do you want to go? Are you not afraid? Even I don’t know what could be done with you if I am told to take you there.”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

We just got everything sorted out in the best way, fortunately. Nobody got hurt and things should hopefully start going back to normal now! ^^

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

“From me?” Cas made a face at Iris jokingly. “You make it sound like I’m your dad… which would be disgusting and make what we just did very illegal.” Walking over to the cart, he grabbed the handle and rolled it toward the dining table to set their food up properly. By now, there was no doubt that both of their meals were cold and that most of the ice in the wine bucket had melted. It didn’t matter though. Sacrificing the freshness of their dinner had been worth the release of finally sleeping together. The memory of how their bodies intertwined was burned into his mind forever. Even though he hadn’t been able to perform as well as a man who had previous experience under his belt, he felt like being intimate with her had brought them closer. Besides, getting better would just take practice, and he was more than happy to keep trying with her.

“Maybe I should,” he agreed with an amused smile when she pointed out that she’d thought of booking a hotel room before. After everything that had happened with his father, he’d completely forgotten about that. However, even if he’d remembered, he probably wouldn’t have done it sooner. Without the unintentional push from Atlas, he would have kept abiding by his midnight curfew every night to stay on good terms with the king. It was only because his father had threatened to lock him up at Eternity Meadows that he had felt the need to escape. And it was a good thing I did, he thought, glancing over his shoulder at Iris as she slipped her black dress back over her head.

While she retrieved glasses from the cupboards, he set up their dishes on the table. At home, he was used to having maids around to do menial tasks like preparing for supper, so it was interesting to him to need to do the work by himself. He didn’t dislike it though. It was easy enough to do, and he was still relaxed after their tussle in the sheets, so he had no qualms with helping out.

“Sure, thanks,” he replied to her question. He enjoyed red wine, but the fermented beverage wasn’t nearly as thirst-quenching as plain water, so he preferred to have both.

Popping the cork off the bottle, Cas poured the wine into the crystal glasses that Iris had set down, filling both up about halfway before he set the rest back in the bucket to stay chilled. “You know, this is our first real dinner date,” he mused with a grin, taking a seat in front of the dish that contained his food. With the low lights, gourmet food and Spanish wine, it was almost as nice as the ambiance they would have paid for at a five-star restaurant. “I probably should have dressed a little nicer for the occasion, huh?” he added jokingly with a glance down at his own bare torso. While Iris had put all of her clothes back on, he hadn’t bothered with more than his underwear. “At least you can’t tell me this date is forgettable.”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Not right now, but it should be later. It's a situation we've been dealing with for about two weeks that escalated unexpectedly like an hour ago. We already have a plan to deal with it if/when we need to though, so hopefully we'll be able to sleep at home by tonight. If not, we'll probably book a hotel to wait until tomorrow!

New World Contention [AnnaWinters & Summer]

Yeah, I figured ^^

And thanks! It's just a situation we've been dealing with for a couple weeks that escalated unexpectedly. I think things will be fine (we have a plan in place to deal with it if/when we need to) but today will probably just be rough for a while. Hopefully everything will be resolved by tonight.