ORIGIN - I used to play piano by ear. now i use my hands!

The place was kind of a mess, huh?

Forgraves house usually had a slight air of cozy clutter to it, some areas being too cramped and some too open, but warm and inviting nonetheless. right now, though? it was kind of a wreck.

discarded moss bedding covered a small hole in the dirt, filled with the families belongings till relocation. the house itself was incredibly empty, save for some cooking supplies forgraves hadn't yet moved, remaining in the house until they were ready to call for the blacksmith. flowers still covered the walls, but nobody slept in them at the moment, the family, save for Forgraves himself, taken on a trip into the forest by Banshy for supplies.

tea and bonsai plants were carefully stored in the same room as usual for now, another thing he'll move when the blacksmith arrives. he cant risk damaging them! too precious.

overall, it's been busy. but right now, aside from the clutter, a pleasant, savory smell wafted from inside. hot tea cooled in the teapot, and kebabs were being slowly toasted over an open flame, smells of rosemary and cracked pepper among the alien vegetables and meats.

he sighed, smiling tiredly but happily. soon, things would get alot more eventful around here, but hopefully happier too.

his door was pushed open, and birdsong accompanied the sound of the breeze.

@Attikias
"Speech." Thoughts.

It's a wonder that nobody's invented a lock yet.

Yes, Attikias has returned his infrequent visits to Pegasus; he needs to refertilize his garden and start it over again, plant new plants, but he needs the seeds for that. Without plant magic, he's not going to get as far as he could with it, but he's still getting somewhere. Most of his food's still from hunting anyway. He'd like to diversify his diet someday soon.

Though, a doorway, a home is... different. It's civilization. Intelligence. Like a wary cat, his interest is piqued; someone's out here instead of Draco? Not that he doesn't blame them of course, Draco is disturbing and he doesn't like it because it's unsettling and—

The point being, the doorway is worthy of investigation, and investigate he shall. He doesn't try to muffle his steps; the inverse is his goal actually, as he doesn't want to entirely spook anyone who might be in there. Hopefully there isn't a lesser rooting around in there..?

But... it smells good. Smells like food. Sounds like a person inside. Looks like a lived in place. Definitely not a lesser.

He doesn't want to particularly invade a stranger's privacy. Leaning in, Attikias holds his hands up for a moment before reaching over and knocking at the pushed-over door. "... hello. I... hope I'm not intruding?" Clearing his throat, Attikias fumbles with his satchel strap before swinging it forward and pulling out a leather bag of jerky. "It's not much, but— uh, I have venison? Jerky? For your cooking. It smells nice."

... nice introduction, dork.

@Forgraves

Forgraves ears flick towards the door, as hands turning the kebabs over the fire take pause. a visitor? my, he's had alot of those lately.

He brushes his knees off, dirt flinging from his fur, as he turns to face the sudden guest. "ah, hello! come in, come in!" he greets, a bit of a foxlike rasp in his voice. "You're just in time, the tea's still hot!"

he pokes his head around the door corner, eyes trailing up attikias' form as he searches for his eyes. catching his gaze when he cranes his head, he smiles. "hi there, stranger! just reach that down here, will ya?" he chirps, hands grasping in a futile effort to reach the jerky.

The inside of the house is... empty, all things considered, stripped bare aside from the cooking utensils and a few remaining jars of spices. a teaset rests on the mud countertops, surprisingly clean and fancy for the setting.

the house isn't small though. attikias easily fits inside with feet to spare, the ceiling and doors around 12 feet tall, one of the seeming DENS in the wall being just as tall. lived in, definitely, and by many people from the looks of things.

Above a simple stone firepit cooked 2 sets of kebabs, something that smells atleast slightly similar to venison and mystery vegetables in thick slices on wooden skewers.

when there was a brief moment of silence, a lull in the pleasantries, he would ask; "You can call me Forgraves, if you like! what could i call you, my friend?"

@Attikias

"Speech." Thoughts.

Oh. Small.

Not that Attikias is unused to this. Too many people come in too many sizes for him to bat an eye at how far he has to crane his neck down. Bending over to deposit the leather bag of jerky into Forgraves's awaiting hands, Attikias offers him a warm smile. "No problem." He's got enough to cook at home, and he's not worried with lunch; his bag has some spoils of gathering, even if his main quest was for replanting.

He straightens once the jerky's given, looking up towards the counter. "Tea?" He glances back down to Forgraves, hands wrapping around the strap of his bag as he stays out of the way. His tail flicks once, twice, curls close to his leg; he has room, but he just feels so crowding around beings smaller than him.

It's been some time since he's had tea that wasn't his own. It smells good, but he can't pinpoint what's exactly in it with his dull sense of smell. He leans in a little more. Ah—

"I'm Attikias. It's good to meet you." He debates for a second, looking down to his hands before abruptly squatting to be closer to eye level. One hand is held out for Forgraves to take. He has hands, right? "... do you know how to shake hands?"

@Forgraves

Forgraves mutters a cheery "thank you!" as he takes the bag, shoving a small piece into his mouth as he sets it on the counter, a happy noise and a tail wag at the flavor. stronger than he's used to, but VERY good. "Delicious!"

the tea smells vaguely floral, if he were to get close enough. slight splashes of pinkish water on the side of the tray. theres also a small, half empty jar of round, red petals sitting nearby a discarded clay pot, which given the fact its the ONLY sort of flower petal still on the shelves, are likely whats in it.

Forgraves seems vaguely distracted, and jumps back a little as he turns back to face attik, who is now kneeling on the floor in front of him with a hand extended. he smiles anyhow, taking the offered hand with a fluffy paw of his own. "ah- yes! i can see why it wouldn't be obvious though." he chuckled. he hasn't had hands for too long afterall.

hm. that hand looks familiar. now that he thinks about it, so does the voice. and the face. he blinks at attik's hand for a moment, before he meets his gaze again, a curious flick of his ear.

"have we met before? you seem awful familiar." he asks, wracking his brain. he looks kind of like angela, but...

before he can even begin to let attik answer it hits. he snaps his fingers, another neat new trick!, "fornax! everyone was going underwater, you took something i was giving out!" he exclaimed with a toothy grin.

@Attikias

"Speech." Thoughts.

A soft huff of a laugh falls from Attikias as he firmly grasps back, shaking Forgraves's hand once. Not a lot of people have hands, do they? It just seems proper to greet that way. Once he's done, he stays squatting, hands at his knees.

His mouth opens and closes in the time it takes for Forgraves to find the answer. Fornax? Where had he seen this person there? ... they didn't have hands last time. "Right, you were handing out the— ..." He touches his fingers to his thumb as he struggles for the word. "The capsules. I still have rods from that." His laugh is looser this time, more readily given as he stands back up. The tea is drawing his attention, and he flicks his tail to and fro as he meanders closer to the table.

"You didn't miss much. Lot of fighting, and it was hard to even see anything. Has anyone told you what happened?" Eyes cast up to the ceiling for a split second. "How many cycles ago was that, even?"

As he talks, he looks back to the tea— he'll be patient and wait for Forgraves to either pour or give him the go ahead, but the flowers do interest him. He typically crushes them up like spices... Though, does leaving the flower intact give it more of its flavor? He'd be glad to stop having to waste tea because of the remnants of the leaves.

@Forgraves

As Attikias speaks, Forgraves remembers his cooking momentarily and spins back around, hissing as he nearly burns his paws while taking the kebabs off the fire and practically dropping them on the cramped tea tray. "ah- yes, yes! oh goodness, i don't know how long ago that was at this point." he admits. "was never good with time"

"truth be told i didn't stick around very long after everyone went under!" he chirps with a bit of a nervous chuckle, as he grabs the tray and waltzes it over to the hard mud table. as he sets out teacups, he elaborates. "i uh.. got chased off the shore by a crazed leopard seal, she very damn near tore my leg off trying to get to the rest of the capsules, the hours before i retreated to my chrysalis are a bit blurry nowadays. I don't think i ever got the rest of what happened, i didn't really know anyone there personally."

he pours some of the tea into a cup opposite him, motioning for Attikias to sit if he wishes. "there we go! help yourself, sorry if the kebabs are a bit charred." he hums, only flittering about a moment longer to find something to hold the jerky in. he makes a triumphant noise as he finds a (relatively clean) clay bowl on one of the shelves, dumping the bags contents inside and setting in on the table with the rest of their lunch.

He reaches a hand out to offer Attik his bag back.

@Attikias

"Speech." Thoughts.

The hissing activates immediate protectiveness in Attikias. Eyes widen as he suppresses the acute urge to jump forward and grab the kebabs for Forgraves, but... it's fine. They're fine, it's just hot food. He even laughs a little to himself, at how stiff he'd gotten in preparation to help.

A hand raises to rub at a jaw as he goes to sit at the table. Despite the roughness of his laborer's hands, he's delicate with the teacups and blows softly over his as he hums. A seal? Chrysalizing? Attik shakes his head. "I don't mind charred," he offers as assurance. Eyes track Forgraves move about the home as he takes a careful sip of the tea.

It's very nice. He takes another before putting the bag back into his satchel.

"It was dark, first off. Some— hm." He pauses, thinking to himself as he frowns into the tea. "... definitely some remnants of Order, I'm pretty sure. Not alive, just... bugs, at least. Sort of like if they tried to get to Draco, or something. That kind of feeling. We had to look around for a key to open a door, but there was a giant kraken inside that'd already cracked it open. Like, those— ... tentacle things, but huge. Way bigger than me, and most people there, actually."

He sips a little more as he eyes the kebabs. He'll wait for them to cool. "It had some kind of disease. We all fought it— bunch of us, magic, electricity. Farina came down and killed it off. I stabbed it." His tail flicks to and fro at the thought of its remnants being in the knife. "We got Artio's gem. And she knocked us out and made us mutate as... a gift, I guess."

He holds up his right hand, palm up before turning it over to the back. Faint stripes across it glow blue. "I glow now. 's cool, I guess. Um, I don't really... do much with it, though. And my spit's sticky. ... which is gross. But hey, it works in a bind when I can't get something to stay."

Attik clears his throat, hiding his mouth with the teacup. "... don't tell my kids I spit on things." His grin is a little obvious. If it works, it works, right?

@Forgraves