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115[18:49] * Rabbit Steve exists! And it's been a busy several days, with hiring a janitorial crew to... do janitory things. Which isn't really accurate. He hired Besom. Hatari was already working with him for obvious reasons, and... well he kind of hired Xiu, but it was largely just an excuse to try and keep her close and keep her around so he could find excuses to spend time with her between jobs. He hoped he wouldn't end up making Maurice jealous, but he'd deal with that if it came. But, he had another major development in the last few days that needed some upkeep. And so he stops by the shop on his way downstairs and grabs a couple cans of food, which he is adding to some warmed up leftovers of something Hatari had made for dinner the previous day and they'd kept in a fridge. He then makes his way further downstairs to the basement. Karl had been kept downstairs in the mini-beginning-hive room... Given... more or less free reign of it. But all the exits were heavily and securely locked, so it wasn't like he had a way out. Since Karl had only ever seen Ivy, he stops in the little... 'airlock' type place to the hive-room and transforms into Ivy, then opens up the final door to the hive room and pokes her head in to see... well if Karl was still there. She wasn't so secure in her trust of locks as to think it was impossible he might escape. Though it hadn't been billed as a 'jail', so much as it had been sold as a 'temporary home'.
204[19:11] * Maurice_Plumacuerno didn't think he would get jealous, besides, Xiu was kinda cute, actually, in a she can kick your ass with her hooves alone, sort of way. He was playing it by ear really, and it made Steve very happy, so he wasn't sure there was much harm in it. He'd been somewhat busy with the store itself, orders that he would attend to personally, and making sure things with the ship were squared away 
304[19:11] * Maurice_Plumacuerno before it was to set sail back off towards, well, wherever it was to sail off to for trade. He likely snuck in a little nuzzle as Steve grabbed the food from the store, then made his way out to do priority deliveries. 3In the basement Karl had found himself a bit restless with being couped up in such a small space, but he felt somewhat reassured by the prospect of being offered better living 
407[19:11] * Maurice_Plumacuerno 3arrangement with a bit more patience. He was already seeing the caps promised, so he could hardly think to complain, it was a lot more than Rip had managed to pull in the last few months since shit went down back home. He felt some pang of grief for his dead handler, but it was faint and overshadowed by the relief from finally being free of him, he didn't like the buck, hated him, and hated that 
507[19:11] * Maurice_Plumacuerno 3he didn't do something about it sooner, but he brought enough food to the table to keep him complacent, at least. It was actually a little frustrating having so much time to think, not that he hadn't have moments like it before, but the thoughts were different. One thing was pretty firm in his mind, though, 'what have I gotten myself into?' Even with the equal arguement of, 'you're alive' and 
607[19:11] * Maurice_Plumacuerno 3'you got a place to stay, caps, and food.' But it still nagged at him. He picks his head up, having been prowling around the basement, just moving for the sake of moving itself was better than sitting around, and looks towards the door as Ivy walks in. He can't really help the half smile that creeps in the corner of his beak, she'd done something, he still wasn't sure what... but it felt... 
707[19:11] * Maurice_Plumacuerno 3great when she did it. Now, though, he watches her enter, and then realizes that there was food with her, and his stomach growled at the sight of it.
815[19:21] * Rabbit lets out a little 'hmm' when she sees Karl there, and he looks... at least somewhat excited at her presence. She enters, then closes and locks the door behind her. "Good morning, Karl. I hope you've been doing okay." She turns back towards him and walks across the resin floor. When she gets closer, she takes the plate of Hatari's leftovers and holds it out, offering it to him. Probably consisting of what was essentially deviled eggs and a small steak. "And this is for you. Griffins are carnivors after all, right?"
907[19:48] * Maurice_Plumacuerno 3Karl was... actually a little bit scrawny, or at least lean, definitely malnurished for the last year. His plumage rather dull, beyond the layer of dirt and grim that's built up over the last few months of being perpetually broke, white around his head and black beak, further down towards his shoulders it grew more speckled until it filled out with a darker brownish color... maybe. 
1007[19:48] * Maurice_Plumacuerno 3His cat half was likely a tawny golden color speckled with spots, but again covered in grim it was hard to tell exactly what it should be. He sniffs, reaching up to scratch through his neck feathers, speaking a bit hoarsely as he probably hadn't spoken since she'd seen him last, "good morning." Her furrows his brow and clears his throat a few times before continuing, "been worse, that's for 
1107[19:48] * Maurice_Plumacuerno 3sure. Not, that I'm complaining." He watches Ivy approach carefully, and then settles on his rump, reaching for the plate eagerly, "yeah... well, meat and veggies... but we need some meat in our diet otherwise we go soft." read that as 'frail'.
1215[19:58] * Rabbit Ivy lets Karl have the plate, and as he takes it she spends a few moments looking him over. Specifically at just how... dirty... he was. What to do about that... "You aren't the only griffin around, so it isn't a dietary problem I don't have some experience working with. Have you slept well?" She motions with a hoof to the room at large, "What do you think of the place? As I think about it, I should have brought you something to read to keep you busy the other day."
1307[20:17] * Maurice_Plumacuerno 3Karl doesn't exactly waste much time in scarfing the food down, though he does try not to do it in a slobenly manner, it's sort of hard when you're particularly hungry, but he manages, probably. He sniffs a bit in a lull of food stuffing to give a little nod, "well, true. Your friend... and I'm sure you know others. We're not exactly rare in this city." More food gobbling as he follows 
1407[20:17] * Maurice_Plumacuerno 3her hoof and then looks towards his surroundings. He's sure to swallow before he tries to speak, "I've slept ok... I think better than I have in a while." He sniffs softly reaching up to wipe his beak, "it's... well it's different from what I'm used to. Doesn't smell as bad as some of the places Rip took me to." He grows quiet for a moment, looking thoughtful, "I guess I wouldn't mind something 
1507[20:17] * Maurice_Plumacuerno 3to read... but it's not like I'm real good at it. I mean, at least I can do it."
1615[20:26] * Rabbit Ivy blinks a bit, slightly caught off guard at the implication that this place smelled anything but good. After a moment she looks back at him and says, "I think you are smelling yourself, Karl. But that is something we can take care of as well." She reaches back and gets a can of that general preserved food and offers it to him as well. "If you're still hungry." She takes a breath and then says, "After you are finished eating, we need to get you cleaned up. But on that note, how are you feeling? I'm certain you were quite tired after we first met, but how are you feeling now?"
1707[20:48] * Maurice_Plumacuerno 3Karl blinks and is sort of taken off guard by Ivy's quip, but he lifts a wing and cants his head so that he can take a sniff of himself then winces, head recoiling from it. "Oh! Ugh..." he sighs and groans, "lords that's... that's foul. I guess that is me." He gives her an apologetic look, "no... I meant... I meant it was nice. Sorry." He perks up a bit when she offers him canned food 
1807[20:48] * Maurice_Plumacuerno 3and he clicks his beak lightly before reaching to take the can, "thanks." He brightens a bit whens he says they needed to clean him up, then blinks a bit before looking back toward himself, "I'm... I'm fine, I'm pretty tough, I don't know if you've noticed." He gives his head a little shake, "I'm still not sure what happened, but I got better quick." He's trying to put on a brave face, it'd be 
1904[20:48] * Maurice_Plumacuerno 3pretty easy for Steve to tell
2015[21:00] * Rabbit Ivy raises a brow and nods a little when Karl realizes he does, indeed, stink. She smiles a littl when he clarifies that he meant it was nice. She glances around again and says, "Thank you. I made it this way myself. Partially... mostly." She lets out a breath as she looks back to him after he speaks again. "Would you like to know what happened?"
2107[21:09] * Maurice_Plumacuerno tilts his head a bit and looks around again then back to Ivy, "you did? How? Uh..." he looks a bit thoughtful, clicking his beak lightly in thought when she asks if he wanted to know what happened. Truth was, he did want to know, but... did he really? Like, was this one of those trick questions where he was going to die if he said yes? Ultimately he decides he doesn't have a lot to lose 
2207[21:09] * Maurice_Plumacuerno and gives a little nod, "I'm... yeah, what did happen?"
2315[21:18] * Rabbit Ivy's head tilts every so slightly at his first question, and then his second again. She takes the lat can of food and sets it on the floor, then takes a few steps back from Karl. After a few moments, and without a word, she is engulfed in green flames and is suddenly replaced by her full, queenly, natural form. Her wings buzz for several seconds before she says in her deep voice, "What do you know about changelings?"
2407[21:29] * Karl_Swifttalon had done that last post, and isn't sure what happened with the nicks. He's still watching her intently, not the most confident that he could simply tackle her and have his way, so he's trying to be respectful, it was good for not dying horribly at least. He blinks when she gives him yet another can of food, and he reache to take it, tempted to hoard it, not that he really had any place 
2504[21:29] * Karl_Swifttalon to hide it away. He blinks though when Steve's guise falls, or rather burns away, and he's maybe a little bit scared. He opens his mouth to speak, but no sound really comes out. It's probably a half minute before he stammers out, "n-nothing, n-never r-really heard m-much, other than... than they exist and can ch-change shapes. Th-the usual boogyma-are stories, y-you know?"
26[21:31] <Karl_Swifttalon> "n-nothing, never... never really heard much, other than... than they exist and can ch-change shapes. The usual boogy... boogymare stories, y-you know?"*
2715[21:46] * Rabbit Steve patiently waits the minute it takes Karl to collect himself and thankfully not scream. And hoping that perhaps this would be definitive proof that he indeed could not tackle her and have his way. Her head dips slightly, and there's a bit of an apologetic look on her face. She takes a step forward again, approaching him, and leans her head down further to touch the side of her muzzle to his cheek for a moment before pulling away slightly again, doing her best to adopt a... motherly tone. "We do change shape. And our dietary needs are even more specialized than yours. Sentient living beings have powerful emotions, and those emotions create equally powerful magic. That specific kind of magic is what we feed on. It is what sustains us and allows us continued life. The answer to what happened, is that you willingly opened yourself and allowed me to drink of your emotions. That is why you felt tired after. But that instance allowed me to collect enough energy to keep my children alive for another week."
2807[21:54] * Karl_Swifttalon didn't really think that this could get any weirder than it already was, but here, he was face to face with... well the only changeling he's ever seen, and she was big! He's particularly still when she leans forward, not exactly sure that she wouldn't just gobble him up, though probably not with how badly he stank... of course that was a rational thought and those were sort of far and 
2907[21:54] * Karl_Swifttalon few in between at the moment. When he's more able to compose himself, her soft motherly tone helping to facilitate that, he's left to digest her words for a moment. He sort of blinks and then wilts ever so slightly, "s-so... that feeling I got... that... sex... was you feeding off of me?" Well, he's not terribly slow, at least.
3015[22:04] * Rabbit cants her head a bit, moving it slightly farther away from Karl. "Yes, it was. Sex is not a necessary part of feeding. But doing something that heightens emotions can result in more food. I worked with what I was given." She straightens her head and lifts a forehoof up, planting her hoof firmly in the middle of Karl's chest, now going with the rather sterm mother voice, "You -had- just finishing talking about how you were going to rape me. Which I do not like. I understand that it's how you were raised, and it was all you knew. But you will never threaten or imply that again about anyone, understood?" She puts a little bit more pressure on her hoof for emphasis.
3104[22:19] * Karl_Swifttalon wilts a bit more, feeling a bit ashamed of himself, though less than a week ago, he would have felt that there were more things to worry about than how consent was established. Arguably, he still there were more things to worry about, but being scolded, it's importance seemed a bit more significant. He gives a little nod towards Steve, though he remains fairly wilted, his gaze firmly on 
3207[22:19] * Karl_Swifttalon the floor, not really sure he can look her in the face. "I... yeah... won't happen again." He picks his head up, though he still doesn't really focus on her, "it's not like that... not exactly. It was just sort of... 'understood' in the matches that I was placed into... you fucked your conquest." He falls quiet for a moment before adding in a much quieter tone, "but that's... over."
3315[22:34] * Rabbit Steve lets Karl feel all bad, because that was the point of it. If he felt bad about it... that actually meant a lot. This was about building trust, and trust required an understanding of how the other person thought. So, after he speaks his piece, she lets her hoof pull away, but only to reach up to the underside of his beak and lift his head up to help encourage him to actually look at her. "That is over, yes. But is that such a bad thing? You got to fight. You got to be excited. Adrenaline rushing. You got sex. But you also got to be a slave. And to be with people you didn't like, doing things you didn't like. You can do all those things you loved without all that stuff you hated. Fighting. Fun. Excitement. Sex. Just for different reasons. But still get your heart pumping just the same."
3404[22:57] * Karl_Swifttalon doesn't exactly fight Steve's hoof when she tries to lift his head, he still wasn't sure he should really look her in the face. Really, he still wasn't sure what was going on here, Rip had intended on killing them, and he was along for the ride. But now Rip was dead, and he was there, getting paid to... exist, so far as he understood. He furrows his brow a bit, processing what she was 
3507[22:57] * Karl_Swifttalon saying, "I don't gotta kill anyone, right? I was never really... I... I didn't really have the stomach for it, it's why I ended up where I was." He draws in a breath, letting it out slowly, "I mean, if I don't... then yeah... I think it isn't such a bad thing."
3615[23:12] * Rabbit Steve shakes her head. "You do not have to kill anyone. You don't even have to fight. Unless you want to." She lets go of his head and says, "I have not brought you here to fight. I have not brought you here to be a slave. I have brought you here... because you can be important. I am a queen, Karl. And as a queen, it is my job to create more changelings, and to give them food, and help them grow and flourish. Feeding off of people's emotions, when done in small amounts, as you know, can be recovered from relatively quickly. As you did. But baby changelings require a large amount of energy to let them grow. And so I need more sources of food for them. That is why you are here. I want to keep you happy and healthy, so that you can do your part to keep them happy and healthy. We work off of positive emotions. The happier the world is, the more food we have access to. Pain, suffering, those are things we want to avoid. We want to be successful, and to do that, the rest of the world and everyone around us has to be successful."
3704[23:29] * Karl_Swifttalon when Steve takes her hoof away from his head, he manages to keep looking at her, she was still somewhat frightening, not that he hadn't seen strange things in the Arena, but that this was one of those things that parents told stories to their children in order to get them to behave. The irony was that, she was perhapse less of a monster than anyone he'd ever known, less so than his own 
3807[23:29] * Karl_Swifttalon parents. He sniffs a bit and gives a little nod, "if... uh... if you need to be protected, I can do that, I can fight. I like it... it's... fun. I just don't like... it doesn't feel right. If I don't have to, I won't." He leans in a bit, assuming she was in reach, and tentatively touches his beak against her chest, "I'll... I'm not much good at... but, you're paying me, I'm willing to learn 
3907[23:29] * Karl_Swifttalon whatever."
4015[23:39] * Rabbit Steve nods slowly at Karl. "The truth is I do need to be protected. From all the people that tell those stories about how evil we are. And all the people that believe them." When he leans in closer to touch at her chest, she lifts a foreleg up and around Karl, in almost a sort of half-hug, reaching to rub gently at his back in a hopefully soothing manner. "The first thing I would like you to do is to relax. And to learn to not be afraid."
41Session Time: Thu Dec 08 00:00:00 2016
4207[00:15] * Karl_Swifttalon sniffs and closes his eyes as he tries to do what she told him to do, and he's quiet for almost a minute before he grunts softly, "could you maybe give me something easier to do?"
4315[00:15] * Rabbit Steve answers Karl, "How about taking a bath? Does that sound easy?"
4407[00:16] * Karl_Swifttalon lets out a soft chirp then nods, "yeah... I... really need one."