please feed the strays

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Date & Time: Let's call it not too many days after Feb. 1
Location: Transport-Run Clinic
Characters: Kariya & Anders
Summary: Kariya mistakes the clinic for a soup kitchen goes in search of noms. This is a hazardous endeavor.
Warnings: Fate/ZERO HAPPINESS, possible body horror, Fyre writes about food while hungry


[It's funny how easily the human body adapts to things; this is one base attribute that humans and magi will always have in common, no matter how much the magic community tries to breed itself farther away. The ability to adapt to misery; to Thaumaturgical Crests; to famine; to an expectation of death; to war; to family duty.

Likewise, Matou Kariya's body has already become accustomed to the new and hostile climate of Exsilium -- after the Crest Worms, the basement, a little cold and damp is nothing at all. Having the Initiative do something completely unknown to his body had required barely a moment's thought. He can take much more than these people have to offer, no matter how much they tend to break the laws of nature.

He's a magus, after all. (There's not much more they could do to him, anyway.)

The other funny thing is how badly the human body takes to hunger. The dizzy spells and irregularities in his heart are nothing next to how hunger makes his whole body weak and dazed, wracks his abdomen and shakes his limbs. He still dreams of food sometimes. Real food, to warm away the hollow feeling in the belly. He probably has a lot of space to fill up.

It's hunger, finally, that drives him to seek out the clinic he'd read about on the island's network. It takes some asking around (the locals are accommodating even when they get a good look at him; they must have seen a great deal), but he finds it eventually. He hadn't wanted to use a familiar.

Are the Transports more trustworthy than the Initiative? He hasn't been here near long enough to answer that. It's not especially rational to instinctively seek them out rather than the official clinic. Still. Kariya doesn't hesitate until he's already inside; he hadn't thought as far as the exact procedures of getting the supplies he needs. He doesn't require a needle for now, but it would undoubtedly look strange if he just started rummaging through their supplies. Using hypnotic suggestion would be easier, but rude, and he would likely need to come back in the future. For the moment, he lurks indecisively in a corner, a thin, crooked shadow trying to stay out of the way but very distinctly hovering.]

Comments

[birdhousesoul]

[A thin, crooked shadow can remain unseen by humans bustling busily about the clinic ... he can't remain unseen by the feline who rules this roost, however. Ser Pounce-a-lot has always possessed a certain uncanny facility for detecting Unwellness in party members, and it would seem that any Transport has the potential to be counted within his party sooner or later, with the Initiative's missions so haphazardly composed of conscripts tossed together at random.

The orange cat is significantly larger than average by now -- with each mission he grows larger, and he's been on four or five; he's more the size of a medium-range dog. His meow is louder to match, and even in his kittenhood he was always disproportionately loud. He weaves over to Kariya, tail held high, and gazes up at him with lambent eyes.

MROWR! he announces his appraisal.

Anders comes hurrying over not long after.]

What's wrong, kitty? We've just fed you -- oh, I see you're playing receptionist today.

[Since Merrill left, they've been without a receptionist. Anders never had one in his Kirkwall clinic. He's still unused to the concept, and is of the mind that people will make their needs known without prompting. Pounce apparently has other ideas.

To Kariya, Anders says:]

I see Ser Pounce-a-lot has introduced himself. I'm Anders; I work here. Are you here to help or to be helped?

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[That... is a big cat. Kariya had been a little wary at first, especially after his prior encounters with animals in this city and back in Fuyuki; they don't like him, and he is quite content to leave them alone in return for the same courtesy. He doesn't blame them for it. The Worms are an abomination of nature, a distillation of predator instinct that eats and eats and eats and eats.

Animals, however, don't always leave threats alone.

He's pleasantly surprised, then, when the cat simply seems to appraise him -- is it a familiar of some sort? -- and crouches to greet it. He'd always got on well with cats, before.

Ironically, Kariya's more hesitant with the man than the cat; he doesn't rise just yet.]

... Hello, Ser Pounce. And-- [to Anders] --I won't take up much of your time. I just need a week's supply of glucose solution, if you have it. If you can't spare it, the Initiative probably can.

[The request doesn't sound quite as harmless as it did in his head -- in fact, it would undoubtedly sound more suspicious if not for the ruined state of his throat, and the halting way in which Kariya delivers it.]

[birdhousesoul]

[ Anders takes the request with equanimity, because: ] Well, if they can spare it, we can. We do get most of our supplies and equipment from the Initiative -- there isn't much we can make ourselves as yet, so we've got no better option. We test it all, mind you, to the extent of our capability, in case they've decided to tamper with anything.

But why do you need glucose solution? [ Mercifully, Anders knows what that is by now. ] Maker's breath, what's happened to your throat?

[ Pounce, on the other hand, shows no apprehension, and makes to butt Kariya's hand with his head. Scritches are being demanded.]

[itsmagicallydelicious]

[The cat's soft insistence makes him smile -- it's a twisted expression, with the obvious scars on his left side, but luckily animals are less particular about human expressions than humans themselves. Scritches are obligingly distributed before Kariya speaks up again, voice no better than before--]

The same thing that happened to everything else. Don't mind it. [That's not what he came for. At the same time, he's not sure how much to explain, since it all ties together in the end.] But it does mean I'm on a liquid diet for the moment.

[And for the foreseeable future, though he refrains from disclosing that part.]

... It does help to hear that your supplies check out.