Panic Mode Engage [Katie!]

[Blue]

Something was pulling him from sleep, some nagging thought that just wouldn’t leave well enough alone. As he rose out of the blissful abyss of dreamless sleep, his internal clock felt alarmed at the idea of waking then - it wasn’t even remotely close to morning yet. Sure, waking up a the asscrack of dawn every day sucked pretty hard, but it wasn’t even close yet.
Still, that nagging thought kept bouncing around, pulling on his brain like an irate child pulling on their parent’s shirt.

What was bugging him so much that he couldn’t just keep sleeping in his comfy bed!?

…Wait. Suddenly it began to dawn on him just what exactly was wrong.
He shouldn’t be in his bed.
He fled his home earlier.
…Oh crap.

Sky blue eyes popped open wide and then stayed that way, his entire wiry frame frozen in place on his side. Where once he had been cozy and warm and comfy, he was now freezing as his blood turned to ice. This was wrong. Where was he??? Last he remembered, people had found his little farm and home, and so he’d grabbed his emergency bag and jumped on his horse to flee.
How long had he ridden for anyway? The people had chased him on horseback, so he could remember being panicky as he fled. And he remembered at least a day had gone by, and that it had been blistering hot, and that he’d not had any water…
Was it possible he’d just passed out?? Had they caught him then!?

He sat bolt upright in bed, looking around frantically, large wild dog ears swiveling like satellite dishes. They’d sprung up as soon as the three moons had risen, and though he was currently sitting on it, he also had the brown-black-and-white mottled tail of his were form. As far as he could tell, he wasn’t bound or chained to anything - of course, even if he was, the ability to turn into a dog generally enabled a quick escape. Still, this was too weird…he was definitely in someone’s house.
Shoving a few dreadlocks out of his face, he realized his whole body was trembling, his heart going a mile a minute in his chest. Even if they hadn’t taken him prisoner, it was way too dangerous to stick around if he could help it - somehow he was gonna have to find a way to sneak out.
Problem was, he could hear others in the house - and he had no idea the layout of the place.

[Katie]

Ly heard a rustling sort of noise from the spare bedroom down the hall. Sounded like the kid was awake. Poor boy had collapsed right at the edge of their land, a couple meters out from the fence. (Lucky he hadn't collapsed onto it, the thing was topped with razor wire.) And, well, what was an upstanding pair of ranchers to do but take him in? Besides, he might feel he owed them, and what with Lack down and out they needed all the help they could get. There was a reason Lissa had just finished with the cows ten minutes ago.

Ly put down the pencil and flipped the ledger closed and got up. Kid was going to need some explaining, since he probably didn't remember a thing and they were total strangers. Couldn't have him flipping out all over, after all. Hey, ask him if he's hungry, Lissa sent from the kitchen. Making dinner.

You got it, Ly sent back, and opened the kid's door. Cautiously, cause you never knew. And, uh, whoa. Ears. Those hadn't been there before. Suited him, though. "Hey, welcome back to the land of living," he said, leaning against the doorframe. "I'm Vasily Galkin, call me Ly, and don't worry, you're safe. You hungry?"

[Blue]

Skylar jumped a good three inches into the air when the young man appeared in the doorway, and when his rump hit the bed again he was stiff as a board. His already large pale blue eyes were stretched open to their limit, making them even more obvious against the tan of his skin. Both large ears were pointed directly at Ly, the slender young man on high alert at the appearance of another living person.

Crapcrapcrapcrapcra pcrapcrapcrapcrap. Now what was he going to do!? Sneaking out was one thing - being face to face with the owner of this house was quite another! People only equaled one thing to Sky - absolute trouble and a high probability of death!
He really didn’t want to deal with that if he could help it!
Unfortunately, he didn’t really have a choice right then. Who knew how many others there were, or if this guy was armed or something. At 5’9” and lanky, Sky wasn’t particularly confident in his ability to take most other people on in a fist fight.

Guess that meant for now he was going to have to stay put and try not to get himself killed or enslaved.

“…” He had no idea what to say. When was the last time he’d actually talked to another person?? Wasn’t the polite thing to introduce himself…? But then, he didn’t want this guy to know his name! Er…on second thought, it was unlikely to really matter. Once he could get away, he was just going to flee deeper into the undeveloped frontier. Knowing his name probably couldn’t hurt, right?
“…er…uh…Skylar…”
He shivered all over, his tail still tucked under him and happy to stay there.
“…um…” To be honest he was hungry, but he didn’t want to eat. And with these nerves, he’d probably just throw up anyway.
“…N-not really….”
If his huge eyes and sitting-straight-up and stuttering weren’t clues enough to his abject terror right then, the fact his knuckles were white from clutching the comforter as tight as possible to the point of making his arms tremble was likely going to clue Ly in.

[Katie]

The kid looked like he was about ready to jump out of his skin. Probably shouldn't have been a surprise, since he'd been running from something so hard he'd ridden himself (and his poor horse, currently recovering in the stables) to exhaustion and had then woken up somewhere he'd never seen before in his life. But somehow Ly had expected him to be a little calmer.

And less shaky. Shit, was he--Skylar, if that was his name and not the name of his settlement or something--sick? Ly hoped not, they had a hard enough time handling one invalid. Might explain why he said he wasn't hungry, though. Don't look like fever shakes to me, sent Lissa. Probably just scared. Gonna need a closer look, though. Be in in five with some water.

"Alright," said Ly. "You're gonna have to drink something, though. Dehydrated yourself." He was going to go on, tell him about Lissa so he wouldn't get even worse when she showed up, but he had a feeling Skylar wasn't really taking in what he was saying.

Maybe it was the way he was clutching at the blanket like it was a life preserver and he'd fallen in the Karidja, or maybe it was the way his eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his skull, or maybe it was the way he hadn't yet gotten out a complete sentence. Whatever it was, Ly could definitely tell the kid was terrified.

"Look," he said as gently as he could. "Skylar, right? You're okay. Nobody here is gonna hurt you. Wouldn't have said you were safe if I didn't mean it."

Ack. Neither of them were real good at this kind of thing.

[Blue]

Cue a really  nervous laugh here. Right, they weren’t going to hurt him. Of course not.
As if he could actually just take their word for it! Everybody on the frontier was out for themselves - nobody was safe, nobody was kind. Everybody needed or wanted something, and it only got worse when other people were involved. People naturally used one another, but Skylar was of the opinion it was always the bad sort of ‘use’.
Not to mention, he was an earth mage - he knew exactly what sort of things he could expect once he was found out, and none of them were good.

Thus his terror.

He swallowed the lump in his throat, albeit with some difficulty, and tried to steady his racing heart. It was true that he needed at least water - the longer he sat here the more he realized how terrible he felt. His body was sore and his mouth was paper dry, and he was probably still covered in a lot of red dust and mud.
The more he noticed, the more icky he felt - he hated sleeping in dirt! Ahaha, of course, bigger issues here…
Hm, well, it should be safe to at least drink something…right? They wouldn’t bother drugging him when they already had him conked out in a bed all this time. Ok, yeah…he could do this! He’d just have to make sure he didn’t seem remotely useful to them - definitely don’t let them find out about his power - and then slip away as soon as he got a chance.
It’d be tricky - he had to get his horse and his emergency bag before he could go. That meant he should probably try and…er…be at least a little pleasant.

Man when was the last time he talked to anyone other than his horse…
“…uh…right…um…okay…”
He wasn’t sure what he was even agreeing with…erk…
“…w-water…sounds good actually….”

[Katie]

Lissa chose that moment to come along. She had the med kit in one hand and a plastic glass full of water in the other. "Damn straight it is," she said, ducking around Ly, who turned sideways to give her more room to get through the door. She walked up beside the bed--slowly, with her hands in sight, couldn't have him any more scared, right?--and held out the glass to Skylar. "Drink this," she ordered. "But do it slow. Don't want you pukin'."
What about the dinner? Ly sent, and she sent an image of cooling canned ravioli back. Didn't care to get fancy, twin mine.

There was a soft groan from the next room over, and both their heads snapped up. That was Lack. Neither of them had to say or send anything--Ly was out the door and into the hallway and then into the room where Lack was in seconds flat. He sent her a picture--Lack, half-awake, but otherwise no change. Both invalids awake in the middle of the night. Yeah, just what they needed. Kid didn't look sick, though, even up close. Better check, though. Two fevers in one house might just do 'em all in. And she oughta get him cleaned up, after. He was filthy.

Lissa flipped open the med kit and pulled out the thermometer. Cap off, click the button, ready. "Alright," she said. "Skylar, you mind puttin' this in your mouth? Wanna make sure you ain't got a fever."

[Blue]

He honestly couldn’t help it - he started and jumped again at the woman’s sudden appearance, his heart again practically in his throat. It was a knee jerk reaction if there ever was one - people terrified him, there was no two ways about it. Breathing hard, he struggled to get his frantically racing heart rate back into normal (and probably safer) levels. Blinking his large, sky blue eyes a few times, he wondered briefly if these two were related - they certainly looked and smelled similar enough. It would be good if they were family…that was a good thing to have.

Swallowing with difficulty against his dry throat, his ears flipped back timidly as Lissa approached him. He was grateful for her using some level of care when she walked toward him though - he was at least perceptive enough to see that in her body language, and he appreciated it.
“O-Okay…” He stammered, taking the glace with a trembling, slender hand. He nearly dumped it into his lap with his overwhelming nervousness, but after clutching the cup with both hands he managed to keep control of it all the way to his parched lips.

Drinking sweet, cool relief slowly was easier said than done - in the end the only compromise he could come up with was to just take one long, slow, continuous sip until he ran out of breath and had to pause. Probably not exactly what she meant, but triple moons was he thirsty!!
The moan made both his large ears flip around, though the twins’ sudden movement made him jerk again and snort water. Trying not to look a complete fool as he sputtered a bit, his ears swiveled and strained to seek out the sound - but there were no further groans to be had. Still, that meant it was likely there was one other person…and that sound generally wasn’t a good one. Immediately his mind started to race around a whole lot of nefarious ideas about these people and what they may have done to the third mystery person.

The thermometer snapped him out of his panicked thoughts, and he glanced back up at Lissa nervously from over the rim of the cup - he was practically hiding behind it. Fever? Well…that was a pretty common worry…although for his part, he’d hardly been sick a day in his life. It was probably due to being a were-creature and all, since as far as he could remember his family wasn’t prone to illness either.
Still, explaining all that was probably futile, so the nervous young man simply nodded, a few dreads sliding over his face.
“S-Sure.”
Dropping his arms and letting them rest in his lap, cup still in his hands, he finally opened his mouth and lifted his tongue a bit so his temperature could be taken. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a part of his consciousness had noticed the woman calling him ‘Skylar’…but he couldn’t recall when (or if) she’d ever been told…

(ooc: I feel like they're adopting a stray puppy or something lmfao)

[Katie]

She'd thought it was just the normal weird that came with paying attention to both sets of eyes, but nope. Kid was actually that scared. Like a tiny lost puppy. Or maybe that was the ears giving her that image.

Skylar drank the water down faster than she'd've liked, but he didn't look to have taken any ill from it. She half-went to pat him on the back, then thought better of it. No use spooking the kid any more, and that was all a touch'd do. Long as he didn't start choking.

"Good," she said, and very carefully stuck the end under Skylar's tongue. "Alright, mouth closed." She counted to five under her breath, then did it again. Then the thing beeped and she took it out. Normal, thank god. One sick man per house was enough.

Course now she had to get all the mess off him. Lissa hoped he was feeling up to getting out of bed and washing himself on his own, cause if she tried to do that he might just have a conniption. "You need to get clean," she said. "Think you can walk?"



[[Well, he can stay as long as he likes, as long as he helps out, so it kind of works xD]]

[Blue]

He sat perfectly still with the thermometer in his mouth, but he couldn’t bring himself to even look at Lissa, his large blue eyes instead wandering around the room. Finally it beeped, and if only by her lack of a negative response, he had to assume it had come out regular. Not surprising, but still nice know. He’d hate to suddenly, somehow, get sick on top of everything else.

Finally, with one simple phrase, the young man instantly perked up. A bath?? He could bathe!? Oh thank the moons, he wasn’t going to have to sleep in all this dirt and grime again! Ears straight up, his tail even threatened to pull out from under him in his enthusiasm.
“I-I would love to get clean! I...I should be able to walk…”
Swinging his legs off the edge of the bed, he slid onto his bare feet and slowly stood. His tail was slightly less tucked under him, but it certainly wasn’t wagging - still, despite a slight wobbling, he seemed pretty steady.
Glancing at Lissa again, he nodded slightly to her. Even if it was just the idea of a bath helping keep him upright, he was able to walk.

[Katie]

Looked like "bath" was the magic word here, then. "Good," Lissa said, doing her level best to not stare at the tail. Manners were a virtue, after all.

She walked him to the door--didn't touch him, though. Oughta wait a long time for that with somebody this skittish. "Bathroom's down the hall to the left--" she pointed "--and we might have to go and burn what you've got on, but Ly's sure to have somethin' that'll fit you. And there's food in the kitchen, which you oughta eat. Hope you like processed cheese."

[Blue]

He followed along behind her somewhat nervously, wobbling now and again, but otherwise seeming to handle it all pretty well. It was a good thing Lissa had the foresight not to touch him - he was like a wound up spring, and he might have jumped clear out of his skin at any abrupt touch or loud noise. Glancing down the hall in the direction she pointed, his ears swiveled about - luckily it seemed like the house really only held three people (not including himself). That was still three too many, but at least it wasn’t a huge group - he might have had a panic attack otherwise!

That last sentence didn’t go over so hot though. He clutched at the front of his clothes, giving her a wary look.
“N-No…th-they’re ok…”
His clothes were precious! He only had a few pairs, and when you never went into cities or towns, getting new clothes was basically impossible. Even the outfit he had on (overalls and a shirt, colors hard to see due to the red dirt) was rather worn out and heavily patched and re-sewn in several places. He was confident he could wash this set - after all, it wasn’t like he didn’t always have to scrub dirt and sweat out of his clothes every day anyway.

[Katie]

Lissa chuckled. "That was a joke, kid," she said. "Just leave 'em outside the door and I'll cycle 'em through the washer. You can wear some of Ly's stuff while you're waiting." They reached the bathroom door, and she stopped and turned to look at him. "Hot water is the red tap, cold is the blue. Turn to the right to get more water, left stops it up. You want a shower and not a bath, you pull the little knob on top of the faucet up. It'll stop on its own if you run a bath, there's a limiter. That's about it. Knock yourself out." She smiled her best smile, which was not very wide, and went to see Lack.

He was awake--actually awake, not half-asleep and delirious--and sitting up, holding a glass of water and smiling at something Ly had just said. Lissa nudged him gently--go eat, twin mine--and took his place next to the bed when he went out.

In the kitchen, Ly got himself a plate and some food and sat down to eat. With two sets of ears, he heard the water turn on.

[Blue]

“…O-oh…” A joke, of course. He’d forgotten about those…erk, awkward again. His ears tipped back somewhat, a visual cue to his embarrassment as his bright blue eyes flicked away from her smile. Sheesh, this was a lot harder than he first guessed…well, it wasn’t like fighting against such a life-saving habit should be particularly easy though. He just…didn’t recall talking to people being so difficult.

He nodded slightly a few times as she explained everything to him, trying to stifle his surprise and jealousy at their plumbing system. He’d always had to build his own homes from scratch, so they were usually tiny and barebones. He hadn’t had a shower or bath this fancy since before his family was killed…
Usually it was a bucket and a wash rag for him.
Hm, he should probably enjoy it while he could…it sounded like he was going to get a free meal too, right? So really, if he tried to look on the brighter side of things, it wasn’t so bad! Sort of…well, it was something ok??

“Th-Thank you…” He was actually pretty grateful, but barely managed a mumble as she walked away. Sighing slightly, he shuffled into the bathroom and shut the door quietly.
Peeling off his dirt-caked clothes, he was all too eager to get into the tub - but he opted for a shower to start with. No use stepping into a bath when you were likely to turn it into a mud pit!
There was a bit of fiddling with the faucet, since he was a bit rusty even with the instructions, but finally he got it all worked out.
His shower was quick and fierce, scrubbing with blunted nails to get the dirt and grime off of his tanned skin. Once that was done, he set to filling up the tub before sinking into it with a quiet whimper.
A hot bath. This was just…ugh this was completely worth the panic and dread of the situation.
Content for once, he idly began to preen his tri-colored dreadlocks, eyes closed as he just soaked in the brilliantly warm water.

[Katie]

"How you feelin'?" Lissa asked, pressing the back of her hand to Lack's forehead. He wasn't burning up no more, which was good. Didn't mean he was fixed, but it was good.
"Better," he said. And there was that smile. Been too long since she'd seen it. "Think I might be actually fit tomorrow."
"You mean you'll be up and walkin'," Lissa corrected him. "Ain't having you relapsin'. You try to get in serious work tomorrow and I'll tie you to this bed."
"That a promise?"
She laughed. "You are feelin' better."
"Said so, didn't I?"

Ly'd planned to put the kid's clothes in the washer once he'd finished eating, but Skylar hadn't put them outside the door. Well, wasn't like it took that long anyways. He could survive wearing some of Ly's stuff for ten minutes longer. Probably be a little too big in the shoulders, but there wasn't much to be done about that. Ly went and fetched the necessary stuff and left it outside the door.
"Hey, kid." He knocked. "Can't stay in there forever."

[Blue]

The foreign voice again shocked him out of his happy place, and he squeaked rather audibly even as his jerk of surprise caused him to slip and snort water beneath the surface. Coming back up with a cough and a sputter, he wiped water and stray dreadlocks out of his face frantically with one slender hand. What was he saying?? He flicked both large ears hard, spraying water every which way, in an attempt to clear them out so he could properly hear. Ah, guess his delightful soak in the tub was at an end…he sighed, resting his chin on the edge of the tub. Possibly the single most depressing thing to happen to him today…maybe even more than losing yet another house…
Boo.

“O-Of course, I-I’ll be out in a m-minute!” He cried back weakly, feeling odd trying to raise his voice. Unplugging his tub, he stepped out onto the floor of the bathroom, his toes curling a bit. His wet tail looked a bit ratty all drenched as it was, and it hung limply behind him. He spotted a towel, and took to trying himself off, taking special care with his finally-clean dreadlocks, then paused when he spotted himself in the small fogged mirror. Woah…when was the last time he’d seen his reflection in something other than a pool of water?? And clean no less??? His own colors startled him, the white-black-brown of his dreads popping now that they were not coated in dust. His skin was brown rather than red from mud and dirt, and he rubbed at it a few times as if curious about his own skin.
….
….maybe he’d been living as a hermit just a bit too long, eheh.

He eyeballed his atrociously filthy clothes, hugging the clean towel more tightly around his spindly frame. Yeah, he would rather not put those on…toddling over to the door instead, he opened it a crack and peaked out. His sky blue eyes lit up upon spotting the clothing, and he snatched it up lighting fast before shutting the door firmly a split second after.
Much rustling later, and he was dressed in truly clean clothes for the first time in a loooong time. They were way big on him though, even though he and Ly were the same height. Skylar was naturally slender, and though he had a lot of wiry muscle thanks to years of manual labor, he simply didn’t have it in him to bulk up. On top of that, he was generally in a state of half-starvation, and so he was bonier than usual, his ribs alarmingly apparent. After shoving the shirt back onto his shoulders for the billionth time, he finally gave up and let it slouch off his frame, showing way too much of his neck and shoulders to be remotely comfortable. It made the sleeves baggy too, but those he flopped around a few times out of pure entertainment before finally shoving them up to his knobby elbows to get them out of the way. Plucking up his usual garments, stiff as they were with dirt and mud, he finally crept out of the bathroom and then just stood in the hall, completely unsure as to where he should go or what he should do next.

[Katie]

Kid looked a lot better clean. Still skinny as a rake, still with that perma-freaked look, but at least he wasn't covered in dirt any more. Ly's stuff was way too wide, but that was what happened when you had more shoulder and were a decadeish older.

"Right," said Ly. "There's ravioli left in the kitchen. You go have some of that. Don't have to eat much, just a couple bites. You need to have somethin' in your stomach, we ain't havin' you keel over again." Two invalids was one too many. "I'll take those, stick 'em in the washer, see what I can do." Might not be much, the rags looked like they hadn't been washed in ages. "You need somethin' while I'm busy with that, Lissa's down the hall, third door on the left. Got all that?"

[Blue]

Gah it was still so nerve wracking to have to talk to somebody face to face, but he managed to keep his fidgeting down to a minimum. After all, these people had been incredibly nice to him so far, right? If they were planning to hurt him, they could have done it at any time, right?
Well, unless they were trying to get him to lower his guard so they could make him into their personal mage-slave!
…though he wasn’t sure where they would have found out he was a mage. Unless the people chasing him had caught him? His memory of how he got here was kind of hazy…he had been riding for days straight by the time he passed out…recent events were blurry at best.

“O-Oh, okay…um…th-thank you…again…”
He handed over his stiff, dirt caked clothing. Unsure what else to do in this sort of situation, he managed a weak smile at Ly before scampering off down the hallway toward the smell of food. He did not need to know where the kitchen was to find it, that was for sure!
Hmm…he had said something about ‘just a couple of bites’ so…guess food was a rare thing here too. He wouldn’t dare disobey, terrified as he was of everything, let alone the repercussions!
Thus he grabbed the spoon out of the pot, and ate straight from that - it was maybe three mouthfuls at best. That was pretty good…whatever it was. ‘Ravi…Raviolo’? Something like that. He was more used to eating the vegetables he grew in the field, so this was quite the rarity for him!
Setting the spoon down on the counter top, he glanced around nervously. He could make a run for it, right? He could sniff out his horse and be gone just like that, while everyone was busy…although leaving behind his precious bag of seeds was too great a sacrifice even for him. Even if he escaped, without that, he wouldn’t be able to start up a new farm and feed himself.

For now, it seemed he would have to go along with these people, and hope for the best. Licking sauce off his bottom lip, he toddled back into the hall and searched out Lissa. Third on the left right? Uh…one…two…three. He knocked meekly on the door, toes curling as he drummed up the courage to force his voice out loud enough to be heard through the wood.
“…H-Hello…?”

[Katie]

"No problem," said Ly absentmindedly. He headed for the washer, tried to check the labels, failed, and figured a couple times through on the middle setting'd do more good than harm, at least. He chucked them in and started the cycle. Get some sleep when you've put 'em in the drier, Lissa sent him, with the fuzziness around the words that meant she needed sleep too. Neither of them was getting much sleep these days.

---
"We got guests?" said Lack.
"Sorta. Passed out and fell off his horse right outside the fence." Lissa raised her voice. "C'mon in!" Huh. Wonder what he needed her for.

[Blue]

With his huge wild dog ears, he could hear them easily through the door - Lissa need not have raised her voice for his benefit. His slender tail was tucked up between his legs nervously, just the knowledge that there was yet another person here making what little bit of food he’d eaten want to crawl up his throat.
They might keep being nice, they might keep being nice, they might keep being nice…
Swallowing hard, he cracked the door open just enough so one large sky blue eye could peek through at the two in the room. Just the idea of stepping over the threshold was like a punch to the gut, and ultimately he couldn’t force his way past the fear.

The best he could manage was to poke his head in, a few dreadlocks of white, brown, and black falling into his face - he was no longer caked in red dirt and so his natural shades and hues could actually be seen.
“…er…uh…w-what…what should I do now…?”
With his large ears back, tail curled up, and skinny frame in Ly’s too-big clothes, Skylar really did look a bit like a stray puppy given human form.
…a stray puppy afraid of being kicked again, if nothing else.

[Katie]

Lack raised his eyebrows at Lissa, who shrugged as if to say what can you do?

"Dunno," she said. "What d'you want to do? We've got some books, cable's spotty but there's some recorded stuff on the box, or--" She looked at him for real, and then nudged Ly. Kid is terrified, she sent. For real, I mean. You think there's somebody trailing him? I think you better ask, Ly sent back. The transmission was fuzzier than it should be. They were losing the break in between. Lissa shook her head, bringing herself back to herself. No point in going all unified in front of the poor boy, it's freak him even more than he already was.  

"Or you could tell me what you were running from." Her voice stayed gentle. No need to be cruel.

"Think you'd better do it away from me," Lack added. "Swear to god I can look after myself, Liss. If bandits raid my room for some reason I'll yell." She rolled her eyes.

"Well, kid?"