Getting to Know (private)

[Keres]

Morning, 39th of Fall 510

Keres awoke shortly after the sun had risen. Although it had been his habit for years now to sleep during the day, the fatigue of the last weeks had taken its toll on him and he had collapsed the evening before shortly after he and this strange man-thing he was with had returned from wandering the strange streets of this city called Sunberth. He glanced over at the man-thing as it continued to lay motionless on the bundle of cloth that was Keres' cloak. Perhaps it was sleeping the way a creature did, but Keres could see no way that this thing was like any other creature that he had ever seen before.

Keres quietly crossed the room, taking his steps careful not to let the claws on his toes clack on the floor or the boards creak, to his pack. He carefully withdrew a bit of the food he had left and silently ate it while looking around. The room seemed to be without feature to him. It seemed to have no more personality than a box would other than the lingering smell of the human that had previously resided within it. The smell sickened him to a degree: Something will have to be done about that, he thought as he pushed the smell from his nose with a slight sound.

Suddenly, he saw movement from the corner where the man-thing lay. As he watched, the movement continued, but it was almost impossible to make out. Keres crept closer so he could see it more clearly, and to his astonishment, it made no more sense. The man-thing was melting, as it had done the day before, but as soon as he started, his head changed shapes, then his entire body shuddered in a way that was inexplicable, and nearly unfathomable.

Keres stood quietly above the thing as its movements and alterations slowly began to hasten over time before it finally lay still. After a moment of stillness, its eyes crept open and it lay silent (for once) looking up at him.

“Perplexing,” Keres said in Zithanese.

[Verduth]

Verduth was filled with delight as his audience burst into applause. He shifted perfectly into another shape, and another. There was no end to their uproar. He flashed them his smile and they all cheered. “Thank you, thank you my fine ladies and gentlemen!” He bowed and bowed but when he looked up the second time, the audience was gone and he was alone. He sank slowly to the stage and sighed. The next thing he knew he was groggily looking up at Zitharta. The man spoke a strange word at him. It rolled through his sleepy mind. “Wha? Vurth?” He rubbed his eyes in a sleepy gesture. He'd never been sure if you were supposed to do that before you went to sleep, or after, so he always made sure to cover both bases. “I'm sorry my good friend, I think the sleep has rattled my brain. I'm not quite sure what you said.” The man repeated the word, pronouncing it more distinctly. “Ooh, Ver-duth, well no one's ever called me that before.” He sat up, “Don't worry Zitharta my good friend, I was only sleeping. No need to go to the effort of waking me.”

[Keres]

Keres had certainly not been trying to wake the man-thing. He would not have spoke if he did believe that it had already woke up, as that is indeed what it now claimed it had done.

“No, not Ver-Duth,” he said sharply before re-pronouncing the Zithanese word for 'perplexing' a third time placing as much emphasis on the letters not contained in 'verduth' while intentionally leaving out the letters in 'verduth' that were not in the Zithanese word.

“And my name not Zitharta. My name Keres.” Just to be safe he pronounced 'Keres' again.

[Verduth]

"Exactly! Verduth... I do like the sound of that. Verduth, Veeeerduth. Vvvvvv. Why I would never have considered such a thing, and Keres you say? What a name. Short and simple, it sounds like you!" He smiled widely, oblivious to how insulting his words might sound. "Well Keres, my good friend," the Pycon pulled himself into a standing position and brushed himself off, "what shall we do today, hmm, now that we have this fine room, and an amiable arrangement." He stopped talking and looked around, "it is quite a nice room isn't it? They provide so much space!" He walked to one wall before turning and trekking to the other side of the room. For someone his size, it was a lot of space.

[Keres]

Yes. Perplexing is the word for it. The little-man was still failing to pronounce the word anywhere near correctly, and Keres began to fear the very thought of trying to teach him any language.

The mention of their supposed arrangement made Keres grumble to himself. This was still something of a mystery to him, as he had brought it up several times before the arrangement was settled only to be told that they would work it out in the end. Now that the arrangement was being referred to as settled, Keres desperately wondered what it was that this man-thing had decided had been agreed on, but Keres wasn't going to bring that up now. As it stood, he hadn't payed for anything yet, not that they had done much more than sleep and eat since getting the room.

The question remained, what were they to do this day? He considered while watching the man-thing pace back and fourth across the room as if it was some kind of expansive space, which it wasn't. If he was going to stay in this city through the winter, he was going to need some things. He looked down at himself. The man-thing had commented on his sandals, so to deal with that he would need to acquire whatever kind of footwear these people wore, which also meant that he would need a metal rasp to grind down his tow claws. Also, his pants and shirt were obviously of a different sensibility than the utilitarian clothing most men in this city seemed to wear. His cloak was fine, but his hands would need some gloves because of those claws.

He considered this last point. The idea of grinding down his finger claws was unappealing. His toe-claws were basically useless because his feet were not as agile as a full blood Zith's, but his finger-claws were very functional. Thus, he considered that he would have to shop around for some glove-wear that would allow for his claws.

Having already taken more time than he intended to ponder the day's events, he answered, “Need shoes. Need not look odd.”

[Verduth]

Verduth stopped and looked at Keres' feet. "Yes, I'd say you do," his gaze traveled up, "and more even." he turned and began climbing the bed, his little legs flailing in the air as he struggled to pull himself over the top edge. Once he found himself more safely situated at the top of the bed, he began to examine Keres more thoroughly. He utilized his best thinking look, one hand on his chin and one hand on his hip. It was a look meant to instill confidence in his abilities, after all, what did a Pycon know about clothing? "You don't want to look so different do you? No, you don't. I mean, most of the humans I've seen don't have blazing red hair, or claws, or... isn't that fur? That is quite strange I must say. I've heard of a thing called shaving, perhaps we could try that and OH! I have the most wonderful idea!" He proceeded to scramble back down the side of the bed and hurried over to his bag to rummage around in it, a moment later he produced a bottle of black liquid. "This never works very well for me, but it could work for you! I bet if we just dump this on your hair, then it will change colors!"

[Keres]

Keres bent down to the small man holding the bottle up, and gently took it. He held it up where he could see it better before popping the cork and carefully dipping the claw on his right index finger into the black liquid. He examined the liquid on his claw, then recorked the bottle and handed it back.

“No. No ink.” he said forcefully. “And what 'shaving'?”

Keres continued to consider this man-thing at his feet. It was not intrusive in its manner, but this may still not be a good idea. Even so, he had no other way of interacting with the city around him yet. So he resined himself to submit to its methods. Just not to the point of putting ink in his hair.

[Verduth]

"What is shaving, ol' chap.' He put an emphasis on the 'is' obviously trying to correct Keres. "We're going to have to work on your Common if you want to get along with people." He took the bottle of ink back and placed it back in his bag. "Well, if you won't dye your hair, what else do we have to work with? I'm sure if we wandered around long enough we would run into a clothing shop." He swung his bag over his back and started to head for the door. "In fact, it probably won't take long at all! I've really begun to learn my way around this city." He stopped and stared up at the closed door, frowning to himself. He hadn't exactly had to open a door yet and wasn't entirely sure what the best way to go about it was. He dropped his bag to the ground and started to rummage for his hook and line.

[Keres]

Keres seriously doubted that this man-thing had learned his way around the city at all. As it appeared to him, it was only two days ago that it had lead him around on a convoluted path in search of this room they were now staying in. However, truth be told, Keres was growing fond, in a manner of speaking, of this thing's way of behaving.

He Keres, upon seeing the man-thing's dilemma involving the door, slowly walked over and opened it. He reentered the room momentarily to secure a few things and collect what little was there that he felt had value before leaving the room and closing the door behind him. Now, with the help of this man-thing, he was ready to begin this new life of his.