fightingevilbymoonknight | Annexed: IC Inbox

"This from the man who's already memorized half the magic library." Her tone's gently teasing, but her side of the tether is pure fond warmth. "You're sweet."

The little statue nuzzles his fingers again, and she opens her eyes, letting her senses return mostly to normal so she can appreciate the scene.

He scritches the stone cat a little more, not looking up to see her watching. "Not half the library," he protests, amused. "I still have a lot to learn. Which is fine. What would life be like without lots left to learn, after all? Pretty boring, I bet." He picks the stone sphynx up and finally looks back at Layla. "Maybe we should get a real pet," he suggests. "Not right away. But eventually."

The little creature's paws flex against his palm, kneading without the prick of claws that would come along with a real cat, then curls up, wings daintily folded, nose tucked beneath its little stone tail.

"Maybe," she says. "You know, I've never actually had a pet. Helped look after livestock on a few expeditions - there's no way out of that part of the chore rotation - but that's not quite the same thing."

"Goats and camels, huh?" Steven agrees, petting the little statue idly. "We had a fish, I guess. A couple fish," he corrects, a little sadly. "But we hardly had any time to even make sure we could really take care of them before we went here."

He's confronted and accepted, with much regret, that those poor fish are probably dead by now. It's not like they have anyone to look in on them, and even the automatic feeder he installed will only last so long.

"I remember the fish." It had struck her as strange, the first time she'd seen his flat - one of the little idiosyncrasies that, in retrospect, should have been a clear sign that he'd been telling the truth even then. Marc had never shown much inclination towards getting a pet.

"Are you thinking fish again? Or something a little more terrestrial?"

"Oh, I don't know," Steven says thoughtfully. "Fish would probably be best, if we're going to be in and out a lot for work and missions and things, right? But there's two of us, now. Three, with Marc. And no crazy gods dragging us around. We might be able to keep something bigger alive, this time."

"Maybe a bit smaller than a cat, though," she says, with a fond smile and a glance at the little statue in his hand. "I don't know if we'll ever actually find a way home, but if we do, it wouldn't be fair to take in something that would pine away."

"At least here we'd have a landlord who would probably check on something bigger than a goldfish if we didn't stop by for a few days," Steven muses. "Or it could be a mostly outdoor pet, like the cat downstairs."

He pauses. "What's between a goldfish and a cat, though? A rat? Rats are cute."

"They are cute," Layla says. "And clever. We could probably teach one tricks."

The little statue in his hand rouses, and catches one of his fingers gently between two stone paws.

"Or maybe something local? Like those tiny little blue bats that're all over the Xin market."

"You know, there are more animals here that are similar to ones on Earth than I'd have thought," Steven comments. "But that's an idea, too. We'd have to research what kind of animals make good, easy pets-- oh, hello." He tugs very gently on his trapped finger, but smiles warmly at the same time.

"It's not that surprising," Layla says. The little cat clings to his finger for a moment longer, then releases him, managing to look predator-smug despite being palm-sized and made of stone, and with no real consciousness of its own.

"A world that can sustain human life is probably going to bear enough of a resemblance to Earth that the animals are going to develop along similar lines. And they had interstellar traffic before the Sylphid arrived - I'd be willing to bet a lot of the smaller animals that resemble Earth wildlife actually got their start there."

"That's what I thought!" Steven exclaims with a bright smile for the theory. "Not the bit about human life, I actually think that's really weird that another world somewhere else in the universe evolved the exact same life form, but that some of it must have come from Earth originally. Or some alternate Earth, since ours doesn't have space travel yet. Maybe the humans did, too, sometime in the really distant past."

Layla can't help but smile in return, though she shakes her head slightly. "This world definitely wasn't the origin for humans in this universe - it was originally just used as a spaceport, and developed a stable population over a few generations. It took a bit of digging, but I managed to turn that up while I was looking into the history here. I meant more - the kind of environment we can live in is actually pretty narrow, if you're looking at the possible range of planets, yeah? Temperature bands, atmosphere, that kind of thing. So that limits the kind of life that would thrive on a planet we'd find habitable."

"Okay, when we're done here, I'm going to the library to find those books, I want to know about this place's history, too," Steven decides, and puts the little statue down at last. "We're signing the lease, yeah? I mean this place is perfect."

"I've still got a couple back at the apartment," Layla admits, though it's less 'still' and more 'checked them out again to cross-reference a few things'.

The little statue resumes its previous posture, animation seeping out of it as Layla withdraws her focus once more.

"Don't you want to see the rest of the apartment before you make up your mind?"

"I should say yes," Steven says, coming over to stand beside her. "So come on, why don't you show me the rest so we can sign already?"

"Smart man," she says, linking her arm with his once more. "The place really is gorgeous."

The rest of the tour is lacking in animated knick-knacks, but the space is - if cluttered - pleasant, and the lease goes off without a hitch.

Quite lucky, that.

Annexed: IC Inbox

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wrap on this one?

yes, let's