Multi-pup post!

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

Matilda has an armchair by the fire, a mug of hot chocolate, and a copy of Beowulf in the original Anglo-Saxon. By her standards this counts as non-academic relaxation. Do say hello.

Jhalak is hanging from the rafters by one arm, surveying the bar with two eyes, the remaining two arms tucked close to its body. It's not sure it likes being away from Ray for this long, but it would be delighted to make your acquaintance nonetheless.

Logan is parked at a table with a coffee, lost in thought. Come distract him from his unpleasant daydreams.

Aaron found himself a booth with a good view of the bar at large and is sitting with the back of said booth between himself and the Window, watching all the people. He'd sure love some company.

Raz has discovered an unforeseen fondness for cream soda. Catch her sitting on (not at) a table by the door, blowing fizzy pink bubbles and giggling to herself.


[tiny tags: Jhalak, Aaron Stampler]

Comments

[basic_powers]

Given the nature of the rafters in Milliways, it's a surprise more people don't pay attention to what's up in them.

Some people just know better, and sometimes you see some really cool things in the rafters.

[facile-fivefold.livejournal.com]

Jhalak spots Tyler looking and waves.

Its digits wiggle: a Jotoki grin.

[basic_powers]

"Hi Jhalak!" Tyler calls up, waving back, grinning. First time he's seen her/it awake before.

[facile-fivefold.livejournal.com]

"Hi!" "Knows me." "Knows Ray?" "Small human knows Ray?" "What's your name?"

[basic_powers]

"I'm Tyler, and I know Ray, I've helped him a couple of times!"

[facile-fivefold.livejournal.com]

"Approve!" "Helping Ray is good. Approve, approve." "Help with what?"

It considers for a second or two, then swings out and drops neatly onto a table a few feet away from Tyler.

[basic_powers]

"A couple of things," Tyler replies, moving over to the table with a Jotok on it. "One of them was a big Halloween thing involving Walter Peck."

[facile-fivefold.livejournal.com]

"Halloween!" "October." "Walter Peck." "He's a fish." "Walter Peck was October thing, before fish?"

[basic_powers]

"He was a big year-round pain-in-the-butt before he got turned into a fish." Jhalak hasn't heard about Peck's misdeeds and tortures towards Ray? "One time he kidnapped Ray and stranded him out in the middle of the wilderness with no technology at all for a month and a half!"

[mapmakerchur.livejournal.com]

Chur (the bipedal, tailless, leonine person) goes up to Bar to refill her mug of gfi, and as she turns around she notices something out of the corner of her eye.

Her ears go back as she stares up at Jhalak, and her mouth works as if she's trying to say something but isn't sure what. (She knows she's being rude, but she doesn't see very many nonbipedal aliens anywhere, much less here...)

[facile-fivefold.livejournal.com]

Jhalak waves a five-thumbed hand.

"Hello hello!" "Hello strange person!"

[mapmakerchur.livejournal.com]

Chur's mouth works again, and she manages, "H'lo," and then her eyes narrow a bit and she asks, "Are you a chi?" She follows this question by a whistle - the first tone of the idea "chi" in the t'ca language.

[facile-fivefold.livejournal.com]

"Chi?" Jhalak copies the whistle, too, for good measure. It's an excellent mimic.

"What's it mean?" "Jhalak is Jotok." "Name Jhalak; species Jotok." "What's your name?"

[mapmakerchur.livejournal.com]

"Chi - it's a race from the galaxy I'm from," Chur explains. "They breathe methane, but they look something like you, except much brighter, and they're usually found with t'ca." Chur whistles the first tone of that idea, too. "The t'ca have five voices and their words have to be sung in unison by all five voices, but for some words they understand if an oxy-breather makes the first tone."

Then she answers the rest of Jhalak's commentary: "I'm Chur Anify par Chanur, species hani. I go by just 'Chur' here, or ker Chur if you feel the need to be formal." She smiles a feline smile.

[facile-fivefold.livejournal.com]

"Good to meet you!" "Good to meet Chur." "Five-tone voices?" "Fivefold symmetry, and not Jotok? Jhalak didn't know that's possible." "Everybody in Bar is bilaterally symmetric." "Even Lemurians aren't five-armed. Many arms. Not five."

[mapmakerchur.livejournal.com]

"Five-tone voices," Chur confirms. "T'ca are bilaterally symmetric, I think, they look like enormous snakes, they just have five mouths and a whole lot of eyes. I haven't seen a chi up close to know what kind of symmetry it has. Good to meet you too, Jhalak."

[facile-fivefold.livejournal.com]

"So t'ca" (whistle) "is snake, chi" (whistle) "is like Jotok, hani is like Chur. Jhalak will remember. Thank you! Jhalak likes new vocabulary."

[candied-rabbit.livejournal.com]

Ooh, fireplace. Warmth. Very nice.

Momiji makes a beeline for it, after he's gotten a drink and a snack - a few cookies and a big cup of coffee, respectively - before slumping down to the side of one of the various pieces of furnitute around the hearth. Actually sitting on chairs and couches is overrated.

As it happens, the furniture in question is Matilda's armchair, and he cranes his head to the side, smiling.

"Hi, 'Tilda!"

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"Hi!"

She looks up from the book and grins.

"How're you?"

[candied-rabbit.livejournal.com]

"I'm good! School's almost out for the holidays, back home."

Which, given that it's already been Christmas and such here, makes him feel a tad tardy. But it's a very pleasant fact, even if it has been a long time coming.

"What about you? Oh...cookie?"

This latter question presumably refers to the sweet he's holding at her over the arm of her chair, a little round thing with almond and honey, on top.

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"Oh! Cookie!"

Yoink.

"Thank you! I'm doing quite well. School's nearly out for the year, for me."

[candied-rabbit.livejournal.com]

Cookies are only about nine-tenths as good, when eaten without the aid of someone else. So, it was a necessary exchange, in the process of tastiness maximization.

"Neat - what kind of school do you go to, anyway?"

Matilda is, after all, almost a year or so shy of being a decade younger than him and also reading Beowolf. This would muddle his intuition on the matter, even if schools weren't already weird in other places.

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"The university kind. At Cambridge. It's terrific fun."

[candied-rabbit.livejournal.com]

"Oh, wow. You're in college, already."

Yeah, Momiji, that's what she just said. But he can't help but be surprised - he has trouble just imagining his older cousins going off to college, and they're only a year or two away from it. Kids attending college is even weirder!

"Do you get breaks a lot? I heard people get more days off of school, when they start college."

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"Yes. I'm used to it by now, though; it's my second year."