tushanshu_logs | Housewarming, housebreaking

Entry tags:

Housewarming, housebreaking

Characters: Residents of MU-HAO
Date: June 26th, when they get home for the day
Location: MU-HAO
Situation: New flatmate is a disney princess
Warnings/Rating: None

When Zatanna Zatara, Jack Frost, or Armin Arlert get home on the 26th - at whatever point they individually get home - they will find much the same situation each time. All the lower floor windows are open and a rather large gathering of the local wildlife (birds mostly) have congregated within the lower level living space. What furniture is around may have a surprise sitting on it in the form of birds, rodents, or their droppings from when they were there earlier. And crumbs.

Lots of crumbs.

Crumbs being fought over at times.

If the kitchen is inspected, it seems that all the bread in the house is gone. All of it. Anything with bread on it, has been stripped of it's breading and the remains carefully packed back up. The rest of the food has not been raided as of yet.

This small avian army with the random ground support seems to be concentrated outside the formerly empty upper bedroom, which also is now softly lit from within. Should this oddity be followed up on, they will find their new flatmate sitting on the floor next to his new bed, quietly passing out breaded crumbs to the animals gathered there. Somehow enforcing rules of fairness and sharing with his soft smile and murmured words that everyone should share because there was plenty for everyone.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Many of the animals scattered to allow Armin to pass, but they were far too bold with the fulfilled promise of food that Wan had given them over the last few hours to care about his actual presence. Wan, on the other hand, looked up in surprise, having lost track of the time while making his new friends.

The next moment he scattered the last of the treats he had in his hands to the floor, which drew all the animals to it. Including the few birds that had decided Armin made a fine perch. The young man stood and moved away from the free-for-all to give himself enough space to bow in greeting.

"Hello," he said kindly before straightening and then looking around sheepishly. "I was sure this was the room they said was mine. Did I get it wrong?"

Armin bows back a little, having grown used to the custom from the Kedan. Despite the disastrous mess, Wan seems like a perfectly nice person, and it brightens Armin's disposition towards him. Plus, he got those pesky birds to stop trying to find nibbles in his hair.

"This is Mu-Hao, so if that is what you were told, then yes, you're in the right place," he replies, offering Wan a small smile, "I'm Armin, and I live here too. What's your name?"

He'll deal with the pet problem in a second.

"My name is Wan," He replied, still a little confused. "Do we share this room or just the lower floor?"

"No, this room is just for you. My other roommates here and I all have our own personal rooms as well, and we share the space below."

"This, um..." Armin gestures to the animals literally all around him, "are these your pets, or do animals just follow you around...?"

Heck, he didn't know, it could be some sort of power or magic that Wan had no control over. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing he's seen on the turtle.

Edited 2014-06-27 22:35 (UTC)

That was a relief. With how the guy had come in all confused looking, Wan thought he'd made a critical error about which bedroom he'd been given.

The smile returned to his face and he laughed the question off, "No. I just invited a few in because they were hungry and then some of their friends came and then more of their friends... and then it got like this. The animals around here are really friendly. I like them."

Nah, he was just confused because the flat looks like it's gone through a bread crumb and bird-poop tsunami. And he barely seems to notice. Armin wants to get off on the right foot with Wan, so he has to approach this gently.

"Oh... How did you know? Can you talk to them?"

"Anyone can talk to an animal." Another laugh as he clearly didn't understand the hint he was being given. "But mostly I know because of well, how friendly they are."

Wan gestured at the gaggle of animals. They were standing around mostly getting along and not attacking either of the two of them. So, yeah... friendly.

"Maybe people can in the world you come from, but I can't," he replies politely, making sure his tone isn't condescending, "although they do seem friendly enough. Small animals are generally like that."

Wan blinked, not sure how Armin couldn't talk to an animal. It was right there. After a moment he bent over and held out his hand, enticing one of the birds to come over and let him hold it. He lifted it up and held it out in front of Armin and grinned, "Now say hello."

Edited 2014-06-28 00:53 (UTC)

Armin blinks in return, unable to do anything but comply.

"...Hello?"

...Oh. Oh.

He puts his hand to his forehead.

"No-- no, I mean, of course I can talk to an animal, I meant understanding them. That you can have conversations with animals."

"You can do that, too," he moved his arm out and gave a quick lift to send the bird off to a different perch. "Unless you mean having them talk back, then no. Can't do that. But understanding them is possible. How they move, how they react. That sort of thing. And you can have conversations, too. I talk to my catdeer all the time."

Wan's smile faltered and he looked down, "Or I did. She wasn't brought here with me."

That time was basically 'stopped' for him while his spirit was in this world was the only consolation for Mula being left behind.

Cat... Deer? Did he mean a cat or a deer? But Armin doesn't find that detail particularly important, and brushes past it.

"Are you alright?" He reaches forward a little, like he might pat Wan's shoulder or something, but stops himself short, "you must've just gotten here; I know that it can be quite a shock. When I first came I could barely tell up from down."

Wan rolled his shoulder out of the way before Armin stopped himself, already moving to avoid it at the first sign of the gesture. It was unconscious and automatic. But Wan's smile returned as he shrugged and looked back up at Armin, "Sure. I'm fine. I woke up in this place several hours ago. I'm not sure how many at this point. But it's not my first time living in a city on the back of a Lion Turtle. Well, I guess this isn't a Lion Turtle. Just a Turtle. But it's about the same so far. Except that I've been given a house to live in and it's stocked with food and is not as drafty as I expected from a house in a tree. So... a lot better than the Lion Turtle City I used to live in."

"So your world is similar to this one?" Armin tries to take that in objectively, "You also live on the back of a Great Turtle... Lion Turtle, as you say. That's curious. Most of the people brought here are from vastly different lands." Like he is. And Jack, and Zatanna.

"Well, I suppose that's a good thing. You'll get used to everything much faster. Although... we generally don't let so many animals into our homes like this."

"Sort of. We don't have any of the computer things and only Lion Turtle I've seen swim is a Water Lion Turtle, but yeah. I know about living on the back of one," he nodded along before turning his head to look at the animals, "Why don't you?"

"Yours live on land? Oh, that's even more fascinating-- how do they even move, if they are so heavy and not helped by the water?"

"Err..." that's a good question, he hasn't thought about it before, "I suppose there are animals that are wild, and animals that are pets. These are wild animals. I honestly don't know how you got them all in here, usually they are quite wary of people, but wild animals live outside. Pets live inside, but people usually only keep one or two pets. As you can see, lots of animals kept inside make a great mess."

Wan raised an eyebrow at the question, "They walked. Some of them. Air Lion Turtles could fly. But Fire and Earth Lion Turtles just walked."

But at the rest of it, Wan didn't really see the problem. Of course he was used to animals following him around, "So we'll clean up. It's not that hard to wash stuff. And I just left the windows open. They came in on their own."

"Amazing... So there are different Turtles for different... Elements? And people live on all of them? Your world sounds very magical."

Armin tilts his head.

"Thank you for offering to clean, we'll need to do that. But there must be something special about you that attracts animals. Even if you leave the windows open, normally they don't come in."

Wan didn't see it as anything special. Though truthfully, he'd always had a connection with animals that others didn't seem to have. But it was normal for him.

"I don't think so," He said, again shrugging before moving to head downstairs. He saw no reason to chase the animals out of his own room. He'd be more conscientious about the common area, though. If it really was such a problem. The birds and other animals watched him go, then a moment later immediately started to follow. Wan remained oblivious.

"But my world is a very special place, yes. It's not magical the way this world is, but it is special. There are dozens of Lion Turtles. Each one holds the power to gift the power of one of the four elements to humans. They're the protectors of humanity."

Armin didn't mind what he does with his own room either, but... Dear Walls, they're following him! His jaw goes slack for a moment as he can't believe what he's seeing. This procession may become a problem. He hopes his roommates come home soon, he's not very good at dealing with situations like this on his own, when he wants to be nice, but knows that a compromise must be met.

Conversation. Right. Just focus on having a conversation for now.

"To me, that's quite magical. But I understand. Asti-- that's the name of the Great Turtle we are on now-- also can give people similar gifts. He recently blessed me, as a thank you for helping to take care of his offspring."

"What did the Great Turtle give you," Wan turned his head back at the bottom of the steps to the courtyard to look at Armin. It gave him a moment to notice the small procession of birds and other animals that had decided to follow him out of his bedroom. Frowning, Wan shoo'd them back toward the room, "Armin doesn't want you out here. Go back up."

A few of the birds fluttered and a couple of the rodents jumped back, but for the most part they just stopped and stared at Wan. All of them with eyes that got bigger every moment Wan keep looking at them. Bigger and cuter and obviously in need of more food because they were soooo hungry.

At least, in Wan's interpretation of their stares.

He slumped his shoulders in defeat and looked at the ground. He had the hardest time saying no in situations like this, "Okay. Okay... just... let Armin get into the house first. You guys can stay in the courtyard."

He looks between the animals and Wan quizzically as they seem to have a conversation, where Armin only understands one side. Was he certain that he couldn't speak to animals? Because this was absolutely uncanny. They even seem to obey him, to an extent.

"He came to me in a vision, looking like a child just a little younger than I am. We talked a for awhile, and then he told me he could give me a gift."

Armin takes off his cowled cape, a dark green color with a peculiar winged insignia on the back.

"My world is... Well, there is no magic, or technology, or much of anything in the way of human advancement. Compared to most of the foreigners here, or even the local Kedan, I am behind. I often have trouble getting from sector to sector with any amount of expedience. So Asti told me he would enchant this cape to allow me to fly."

He puts it back on, and demonstrates by floating about a foot off the ground. As he does so, there is a faint shimmer of wings behind his back, ghost-like and transparent, one light colored and one dark colored.

"Wow. That's really cool," He grinned up at Armin, eyes going to the wings that weren't quite there. "The Air Lion Turtle could grant humans the power of air, but it couldn't give us wings."

He walked closer, reaching out with one hand to try and touch the wings. He stopped himself before he got too close, though, just letting his hand hover there for a moment, then dropping it.

"What other gifts can the Great Turtle give us? Does he do it often? Does he talk to people often? Does he like to talk?"

Armin smiles and comes back to the ground, wings disappearing. They are totally cool, even he can't deny it.

"I'm not very sure, but the possibilities seem endless. He doesn't talk directly like he did then to us very often, but I've heard that if you sit near his head for long enough, he can make you feel calm."

"If talking is what you like though, you can always talk to one of the babies. They're very sociable, if nowhere near as powerful as Asti yet."

"I've already talked to one," he laughed and waved at the door to the common area to indicate Armin should go through first. "She started calling to me right after I left the Welcome Center and I had to go find her. Her name is Rio'era and from what some of the other people I talked to said on the computer thing, she's adopted me."

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