(no subject)

[speakveryclearly]

[It's some time in June or May, the time ambiguous analogously to the game canonicity, and Kanaya has found herself on Nepeta's couch in one of her less formal dresses. Though like everything she wears in Exsilium her collarbone is covered, her arms aren't, which complements her likewise egregiously casual posture.]

...but they said that going anywhere other than when you left your universe of origin would take even more months or years to perfect, so it's pretty much a non-issue for both of us, isn't it.

[She's getting so thirsty, to the point where it stretches her lips too wide and darkens the space beneath her eyeballs. It's been over two months since Gamzee cartwheeled out and she was on mission a month before that.]

Comments

[moirailcompass]

[Nepeta was in an oversized shirt and boxers, wearing a towel around her shoulders. Her hair was still a little damp from a recent shower and she's seated on the other side of the couch, facing Kanaya.

Her nose wrinkled at the news]

It is--though for those who it does matter, I don't know how much they should be playing around with that kind of thing. It never seems to end up going right.

[She looked down at her mug of tea, nursing it]

But at least if they are able to give out that infurmation, it means they are hopefully getting closer to sending people who want to go home.

[Assuming of course the information was reliable, which Nepeta had her doubts about but hey. Who knew.

Kanaya's less than healthy appearance did not escape Nepeta. She worried, but she still wasn't sure how any questioning might be taken.]

[speakveryclearly]

Yeah. We'll see how it goes for Elmer C. Albatross. The people who never asked to be anywhere but home, they're the ones that will probably get out first. [She follows Nepeta's gaze down to the and finds she has to stay there. Her eyes are only figuratively green, in actuality just a silver as sharp as the day she pupated. The blood in her veins is just there, it should yet doesn't pool around her feet, and so it does't rise into her irises, or her cheeks, at anywhere near the same rate a normal troll would experience. Troll Stephenie Meyer said in an interview once that rainbow drinkers didn't have their own blood, which is why they felt the need to drink others'. She said a lot of things, not all of which were even self-consistent, and a rather disappointingly large fraction of which have not proven to be true.

Then again, maybe that only held in the Alternian empire.]

Isn't it strange? That syllable between his given name and surname. At first I had only heard the name and thought it was trisyllabic, Elmersi - but no, in print it's just a single initial.

[moirailcompass]

It hadn't really occurred to her before, but now that Kanaya brought it up it was kind of strange. She smiled, letting out a small huff of laughter.

"It is. I think I've seen other humans with a letter like that but I don't really know what it's about." Just another human quirk, she supposed. Doubtless there was a reason but it kind of seemed to be an unnecessary addition.

"They really seem to like naming their wigglers after themselves as well--tacking on junior."

[speakveryclearly]

"Are you serious??" Her mouth opened wider, her fangs parted and became visible as four spikes instead of two, and she was definitely trying to smile. The muscles around her eyes weren't as good at going through the motions, strained as they were by her thirst.

"I'm not even surprised by that. It's a logical enough corollary to that tradition of surnames shared between the biologically related." Her grasp on that entire aspect of human society was shaky beyond belief. "Though I've never known anyone involved in the institution of parenthood personally, so I haven't known of any 'juniors' or..." She paused to make an attempt at the right word. "Senior? Is that how it works?"

[moirailcompass]

Nepeta nodded, though the smile became a smidgen more concerned at how tense Kanaya seemed to become.

"That's right. What I always wondered was if that purrson stayed a junior when they got older--and what if they named their wiggler by the same name? Junior Junior? Junior Senior?" It also caused her to wonder just how many people of the same name could be in one family. She supposed there probably weren't any regulations but it seemed pretty impracticable and...well....unimaginative to say the least.

As she looked at Kanaya she couldn't help but notice her fangs. They had always been kind of sharp but. Well there was a significant difference here that couldn't be missed.

"Kanaya, are you feeling ok? You seem a little stressed." She still wasn't really certain how sensitive the whole rainbow drinker thing was--Kanaya had answered questions before when Nepeta's curiosity got the better of her but she was trying not to let herself be ruled by nosiness. If rainbow drinkers could get sick was one of the things she had never gotten around to asking.

[speakveryclearly]

The question somewhat caught Kanaya by surprise. There weren't a lot of people left around who made a priority about paying attention to Kanaya's feelings and knowing when they fluctuated, whether by design, because of their species, or some other separation. In fact, it wouldn't be a huge stretch to say that Nepeta was the only one in Exsilium. She had increasingly close friends among the transports, but still presented a mask to them.

"Uh..." This perhaps was also the main reason Kanaya did not exactly go out of her way to hang around the other trolls in person. Repairing the damage her feelings about reproduction had done to her reputation was hard enough without juggling a now-unsatisfiable bloodlust. And if the wrong pair of ocular globes set sight on the wrong set of puncture marks? She'd be socially done for.

"I guess I am if you put it that way, but this 'stress'..." She lingered uncomfortably, not liking to face just how unhappy her day to day existence was in some ways. "It's pretty normal for me."

[moirailcompass]

Nepeta was beginning to get an inkling of what the issue might be. Kanaya's fangs were protruding more than usual, she seemed tired and claimed the ailment to be normal. Thinking on it now, Kanaya had once told her that Gamzee was her usual source for blood and he had been gone a while now.

It was a strange realization to suddenly have. For all her curiosity about Kanaya and rainbow drinkers in general, she had never really imagined her actually drinking any blood. Yes, on some level she knew it was what Kanaya required as sustenance and that she had done it before but...actually imagining it? The process? Not quite so much.

There had been times, especially during the colder season when Nepeta had had to be sparing with her rations in order to survive through it. She knew what it was like to be hungry--truly hungry, and knew what it could do to you.

"Is there something I could do to help?" She didn't ask the question directly, since she still wasn't sure she was on the right track. It also felt like something rather...intimate to offer and so a part of her was also embarrassed about asking.

[speakveryclearly]

"Uh..."

The factually correct answer to Nepeta's question was of course "yes". Whether that would be socially correct was another matter. Kanaya's fangs pressed into the white skin underneath her lip, contrast clear in the increasingly flickering light she supernaturally cast. There was no blood drawn - not when she was so dry, everywhere, that she could imagine strong enough fingers peeling off the glowing layer like dried paint. On the one hand, she'd been told more than once that she didn't deserve to mark the possessions of other trolls, creating quite the dilemma when she belongs to nobody and nobody belongs to her.

On the other hand, she knows that in exile Transports are more than extensions of the people with whom they were aligned at home, that their wills are their own, and she has never once heard what Nepeta has to say herself about the matter.

"There might be..."

[moirailcompass]

The more she saw the more Nepeta felt she was right in her suspicions.

"Well. I'd like to help if I can."

To be honest the idea of being fed on was a little. Well, unnerving to be honest. She had seen the marks on Gamzee when they two of them had been swapped and being the prey instead of her usual role as predator was something that would take getting used to.

But obviously it did not kill a person to be drank from, and she didn't want Kanaya to starve or continue to feel any of those terrible effects.

[speakveryclearly]

She couldn't remember the relative blood volume tables she had looked up on the grubnet once out of idle curiosity, an entire sweep ago, but she'd never once fed from the oliveblood and her tolerance had to be higher than Sollux's at a minimum, right? She certainly could bear it.

Her arm made a rainbow-drinker-rapid motion towards the pocket where she always kept spare bandages in preparation for this sort of increasingly rare possibility, jerked back to her side awkwardly - before she repeated the action more slowly, a very clear "No Sudden Movements" mindset guiding her, and this time successfully extracted a bandage to place in her lap.

"So you think you can, then."

[moirailcompass]

"I do." Surprisingly the rapidity with which Kanaya seemed to comply with the suggestion was more amusing than unnerving. If anything it served to calm Nepeta, since it reassured her that she wasn't breaking some sort of protocol.

Not that she especially cared for such things, usually, but in this case she felt like she was wading into deep waters with no life line. What would be okay to say or do? What wouldn't? Knowing Kanaya was okay with it made her much more okay with it too.

"How do you usuall do this?"

[speakveryclearly]

"I don't do this usually, that's kind of the problem at prong." She couldn't help a hint of laughter entering her words at the implication. There was a sort of truth to the matter, however: Kanaya would never treat Nepeta and her body the way she had Gamzee... and her meetings like this with Sollux were more mechanical.

"The neck is the traditional location, but the wrist is another option. It depends on where you feel stronger - have or haven't been wounded recently - or easier to hide."

[moirailcompass]

Her bit her lip to suppress a small smile.

Fortunately enough, Nepeta almost always wore baggy clothing so it would be fairly easy to hide either place. Continuing to dress as she always had would draw no unwanted suspicions. Choosing the wrist would probably further ensure no one came to know of this exchange but that sounded like it be more uncomfortable than her neck. Not to mention that since her hands were essentially her weapons--even when using her claws, she'd rather not make them vulnerable.

"The neck, would be best, I think."

[speakveryclearly]

"I was kind of hoping you'd say that." A second, throatier laugh can't be suppressed by her this time; the tone of voice that comes out is thicker than what she cultivates. More raw. Very few things since Gamzee left and the timeline truces fell apart have been real for Kanaya rather than some sort of elaborate repressive facade. Here, the senses she suppresses are finally coming out again.

She moves closer, on the couch, and puts her hand on Nepeta's shoulder. "So... if you don't still have tea left, I definitely recommend getting a snack afterwards. Your body will complain less about the loss that way."

[moirailcompass]

"Is it easier there?"

Nepeta lifted a hand to place it on top of Kanaya's, let her know that she was ready.

"I'll definitely do that. We have plenty." Her little excursions to the outlands had brought up some rare treats. She didn't plan to make a habit out of it considering how sparse wildlife was as it it.

With her free hand she tugged done the large shirt so it slipped over one shoulder, exposing her long neck.