Just shy of Normality

The sun would be slowly setting as Lanta lays down on the bench he had found, watching the last rays of light fall onto the ground in front of him, retreating back slowly. Life had been hard since he caught his illness that left him unable to work for a while, even now he was feeling the after effects of it; his usual extroverted and casual nature replaced by a new intense difficulty to even talk to anyone after so long of isolation; he had yet to even return to the house his mentor was in due to his fear of socialising, and so it was that he found himself laid back on a bench, his head cradled in his hands, jet black hair not combed like it normally would have been before, but instead a wild mess, his shirt untucked and his waistcoat unbuttoned. He sighs as he tries to relax {Come on, nobody is looking at you, so that's a good thing. Alone.} he thought to himself.

If the alignment Chaotic innocence existed, that would be Chloe's morality. It even showed as she wandered the town of Clover with not so much as a care in the world. Though on the upside, at least she was fairly dressed and not nude. Though that didn't mean she wasn't on one of those fickle moments that made her question many things of reality, especially since she had recently acquired a rather interesting book full of picture diagrams.

"Fluffies"

She spoke out, not intending the word for anyone, but she was truly stubborn, even the book was about animals, but on the cover she crossed the word 'animal' out and wrote 'fluffies' above it instead. How was this related to the topic at hand, it really wasn't, but it did make her feline tail sway back and forth, both happy and agitated about what she was reading. At least it kept her attention and gaze away from her surroundings, which soon would provide a bad error to judgement as when she placed one foot in front of the other, Chloe would soon find herself colliding with a solid object. This object in question would be a bench that Lanta was sitting on, and Chloe was now falling over with a 'thud' onto the ground.

"owies"

she complained before dusting herself off and sitting down on the bench. Not even phased she fell over, it seemed to happen quite a lot when she was paying attention to something else. Though regardless, she still tried to be nice and turned her head to Lanta "Hi" she exclaimed, before going back to her book titled 'Animal Fluffy communication through behaviors'. Which once her attention went back to the book, her cat like ears twitched gently as a soft sound seemed to vibrate from her body, similar to a purr. Strangely enough she wasn't afraid or curious of the person sitting next to her, as she was far too absorbed.

Lanta was starting to nod off, his eyes getting heavy until suddenly he hears a 'thud' and suddenly finds his side taken up by... by a catlike humanoid, he turns his head, his exhausted and sunken eyes looking her over carefully, blinking slowly as he tries to figure out if this thing was real or just his mind starting to lose it.

Eventually he decides that it was real, mainly from the pressing against his side and the purring coming from her, he smiles awkwardly to her with a nod "Good evening miss." he says, as he tries to look over her shoulder at the book she was reading, a possibly unfortunate effect of that being that his face was now very close to hers so he could look at the pages too.

Not really aware of what being called 'miss' meant, she knew it was to not hit something, so what did she not hit? Though it was not the first time she heard it being used to refer to another figure in the past when she observed others. To Chloe it was all just a strange abnormality really. She understood it, but did not entirely accept it. She preferred to just be called the name she came up with for herself.

"Chloe"

She would respond casually as her tail twitched to the side and wrapped around to her lap while she kept on reading, her purring casually picking up as she noticed out of the corner of her eyes how close Lantra was to her face. Normally this would be cause for her to be skittish, even potentially afraid enough to flee. However this time around she seemed content, as if her fickle personality allowed such an interaction. Though out of kindness, tilted the book closer to Lantra without making it difficult for herself to read either. The book itself was quite detailed with pictures so a turn of the page wasn't that far away, and she was currently reading up on a feline species behavior about kneading, which she didn't understand herself why she saw kitty fluffies do that, since she had no urge to do it herself.

"What about you whats your name?"

She finally broke the silence again, speaking up, and asking Lanta a question to get the conversation started.

Lanta notices the look on her face as if cogs in her mind were turning at being called 'miss' by him until suddenly she said what he assumed to be her name, Chloe, rather nice name; and evidently a person who preferred first names over formality.

He reads along with her with a content smile; it was not often something quite so normal and casual happened so it was a welcome change in his opinion. He looks over the section she was reading as he blushed slightly red considering her form and what he knew the action of kneading was meant to do; it was a bit of an odd subject to be reading about alongside a feline type person. But nonetheless, must just be a general topic in amongst all the other behaviours.

He holds a hand out for her to shake "Lanta. That's my name, a pleasure to meet you Chloe, just tell me if I am too close and I'll back away a bit, okay?"

Chloe's purring never stopped even for a moment as she oddly felt comfortable with the random invasion of her personal space. Perhaps just a stroke of luck that she didn't instantly extend her nails in a hostile way or maybe even scoot away but rather sat there and purred about it.

"You're fine, Lanta, but why are you red?"

Her words indicated she noticed them blush, but yet she didn't understand what a blush was or what it meant, despite she had been able to do it herself. Then again, not even 'that' made sense. What ever made sense with Chloe though? Her question indicated she understood a person normally didn't go that color for no reason, but she understood it wasn't a dire circumstance because she saw it a couple times before, and probably the best time was when she was sitting on a windowsill looking into a home and having caught a couple doing something which made them blush before yelling and throwing stuff at her... how rude.

Back to the situation at hand though, which made Chloe turn the page skipping past a few pages with a 'nope' expression on her face, which mean the next page made her not want to read it just from the picture alone. Nothing sexual was even needed to trigger that response as simply Chloe didn't feel like going into obsessive 'meowing' behaviors as she had to break herself of saying meow instead of 'now'. A behavior she found irritating. Now on a new page, it was more on wild cat dominance behaviors, which seemed interesting but not as much to hold her attention before she closed the book.

"book of fluffies needs more detail." she spoke, indicating she wasn't keen on the book's lack of in-depth words, signaling that while childish at times, her mind required much more complexity.

Lanta would also be feeling oddly comfortable with the purring, feeling more content than he had in a while. It would come across as even more obvious as instead of tensing up he seemed to look a lot more relaxed and loose, taking a deep calm breath.

As she asks about his blush he chuckles "Ah it's nothing, just... The knowledge of why felines knead while sitting next to a feline lady like you, Chloe; is just a bit of an embarrassing thing to have to think of." he smiles to her.

He tries glancing at the pages as she turns them, skimming the words as they went past, taking in fragments of information from it, he was wondering if she actually did read this quickly, but a look to her face said it all. He reads over the page she stops on as he manages to avoid blushing this time, reading it over and also watching her face for reactions to it as she finally closed the book. He nods "I suppose it does, Chloe. So tell me, are you a mage? And if so what guild do you belong to?"

At first Chloe wanted to just shrug and dismiss the topic of the feline kneading. From her understanding it was a milk obtaining method in young kittens that when they get older would to mark their territory or to show contentment. Looking at her own hands, Chloe began to show curiosity, wondering if she possessed the scent glands in her palms as well or if she was supposed to mark territory in other ways. Which dragged the question as to why it was done this way. Do all homes get owned by territorial marking? Such unknown things such as this only made Chloe feel like more research had to be done.

"Im a fluffy, or Chloe not a feline"

she responded in curt tone of voice, showing her dislike of being called feline instead of fluffy. To her feline was a full blooded, pure cat. Fluffy was a being that possessed animalistic traits or was another word for 'animal'. Trying to understand her own lingo would be hard depending on how analytical you were about the situation. By now her purring had even stopped, it showed she had some irritation but not a lot at this point.

Though she was asked a question, about being a mage. To her, she already found out mages were those that possessed magical power or spells, and typically resided in groups called guilds, or were just wandering mages that belonged to no where. Yet she had access to magic, but would she consider herself a mage?

"I guess I'm a mage, I can use magic, but no guild for me"

Lanta nods to her with a slight withdrawl from her change of tone "Fluffy, got it. Fluffy Chloe, right." He smiles awkwardly to her as he tries to analyse the situation; she didn't seem too angry, but she certainly wasn't comfortable anymore after that.

At her revelation about being possibly a mage, but not having a guild he nods with a sigh of relief "That's good, it's nice to meet another mage even if I am not currently all too well." he blushes a tiny amount "Well perhaps me and you could work together? I definitely need someone helping me along at this point, heck even a friendly fluffy like yourself and I'm stumbling over my words."

Curiosity drew her attention for one reason, she was considered someone who could offer help? Such a strange abnormality to be considered as such. Did they know how how unreliable a fickle chaotic being could be? One shiny object, one butterfly it didn't take that much before Chloe's attention could easily be diverted even in a hostile situation with blades drawn. In fact that was perhaps why it was almost impossible for her to go on a job alone, simply because she couldn't keep her attention long enough especially if a job began to bore her.

"work together? on what?" she began to question then figuring she might have to reveal how her magic worked, which was something she was not too keen on as of right now either. However to demonstrate at least one thing, Chloe would start by having a faint green and black hue shine across her body for only a split second before she teleported from next to Lanta, right over to the other side of them before poking them gently. "I can't find any books on my magic, but I alter space a lot with my magic". In fact, that was partially a lie, it wasn't that she can't find any books, its more like there wouldn't be any books on her exact magic, only books of pieces of it, considering her magic was quite chaotic as well as she had witnessed before.

"What about you, and what can I help with?"

He smiles in relief as she considers his offer "On jobs and the like. We can be partners to get through them easier." He whistles at the glow on her body before jumping as she pokes him from the other side, he smiles with a clap "That is truly an incredible magic, Chloe." After her explanation he nods "Well you may be the first with it in this degree. Might end up being you who writes the books on it. As for me... well. Let's just say I offer." he takes out one of his cards, seemingly hidden up his sleeve "A twist of fate. And you can help just by helping. My magic is normally mid range so I can get in a lot of danger should I be left too far or too close to an opponent. And you can basically help me by being company."

a soft nod of the head as she raised up a hand. "My magic is only part of me. I can uses these" the moment she said the word 'these', her hand would be brought up to Lanta's face, her nails would extend out an inch and a half becoming razor sharp in the process almost like a cat whome extended out their nails, but instead of a hook'd nail, it would be closer to flat and razor edge sharp like a dagger. Eventually the nails even grew up to a total of two full inches as she smiled before retracting them back to the length they normally are.

"Or my teeth if I so desire to bite, but that gets too messy so I prefer my claws or magic." This was the reason Chloe was actually looking to pick up a martial arts style, knowing it'd aid her, but at that same time she also knew it was soooo boring to sit there and study things. Then again, why have this internal mental conversation at all? Chloe's fickle actions may or may not even ever allow such a thing to happen, especially since she never exactly had to fight for real aside from out of protection. Any fight she was in so far, was more so because she had to, not because she was trained to, nor was it in a peaceful setting. Not to mention, everyone she ever had to fight, was dead so far except for the man who she defied and ran from. That man... was still alive and she was sure of it. Even the thought of him made her want to turn pale from fear.

"I don't know about fighting. I guess I could. From what I've studied, I fight solely on instincts alone right now, so if we had to fight on a job I'm unsure how I would be of any use."

Lanta watches the claws extend, very impressed by the talent of this girl, but also by the hints of innocence that showed through; he couldn't let someone who would use that take her; it would not be right. "That is very much a more impressive variety than what I have." he chuckles with his usual warm smile "I understand not wishing to use your teeth in battle. After all nails tend to be better rooted in, right?" he shudders at the thought of biting an enemy who would flail backwards, could cause some real agony for both parties. He nods at her talk about her fighting "Well I am sure we won't be fighting for a while. Probably rescuing puppies and following people around knowing the jobs everyone else seems to go on." he chuckles "And to be honest, your company would be more than use enough to me. First person I have felt comfortable around in a long while."

A nod showed that she was content with the ideas they had, but also her mind drifted off to what would happen if she decided to want to eat the puppy. Puppies were loud noisy fluffies that for some reason got really quiet and began to shake a lot when she was near them. Could animal sense how dangerous and how much malice potential she possessed? It would be truly a nice thing to find out simply because Chloe was tired of certain fluffies hiding from her and peeing on the ground out of fear from her presence when she hadn't even thought of eating them - yet. Though the ones she did think of eating typically bolted away anyways.

"Where do we go to get these jobs? Do I get to eat the puppy as a reward for rescuing it?" Her innocence indeed began to shine through but at the same time a low purr showed she was happy at the thought of potentially eating a prey. Heck even right now Lanta looked edible to her, though she learned from that rock eater that people aren't meant to be eaten, so she defaulted back to only eaten people if they were mean to her.

"I'm a fluffy, not a person" she added happily, as her tail wagged side to side before finding a resting spot on Lanta's lap without her even realizing that was where she let her tail fall onto. "fluffy see" she poked at her own cat ears with a gleaming smile, tilting her head almost a dark malice showing through, as if she dared Lanta to tell her no that she was bad or that she was wrong. Though this aura of malice was not intentional, it was simply tapped into as many wildlife animals possessed the primal aura to show when they challenged another creature, and this was no different when Chloe called herself a fluffy and smiled about it. In short she was challenging Lanta to say otherwise without her even saying anything or indicating it.

Lanta chuckles at her question about jobs and puppies, remembering that she was animalistic, and that animals would typically hunt and eat other species much in the same way that humans did, only without the care for domesticity in prey. "We can get jobs from the guild hall, and no; I do not think it would be right to eat the puppy. But I'm sure after jobs we can go out and get some fish, maybe some chicken, rabbit, and things that people offer for you to eat, almost like them sacrificing it to the fluffy after I sacrifice my money to them." he smiles with a slightly wider and more cheeky grin to her.

He nods at her gesture to her ears "Fluffy, got it." he carefully reaches up towards her feline ears, hesitating to see if she would allow him to go further and touch them or if she moved his hand away, trying to ignore the fuzzy weight on his lap, it feeling quite comforting. "Most definitely a fluffy."

Chloe for the most part seemed to follow the conversation along pretty well, even when she was about to be touched her eyes darted to the hand, normally she would think they were offering to feed her but this seemed out of the normal as it could get she allowed them to touch her as so long as they remained gentle without brushing their hand towards her face she would remain fine, and if they scratched her ears she would instinctively tilt her head and purr gently.

"Whats money? Someone mentioned that word when I grabbed this book. Said I had to pay money for it, so I simply warped away with it"

Clearly admitting to stealing, she was unaware of what she had done was wrong, her most common 'thief' was food but it tended to trace to other mundane things too such as the book, or if she really wanted, she had stolen pets before... for food. Thus was the nature of an innocent chaos though. "You have to pay money not sacrifice it, don't you?" she questioned, wondering why someone has to pay money for food when she could easily warp to her pray, tackle it down, and end it's life right there which she had commonly done to many wild game animals before.

He would be gently scratching behind her ears as he listens to her talk about money with a chuckle and a shake of his head "Well... how to explain this. Most people have to work quite hard to get money, then they use that money to get something they want or need, it's like a way of making sure that nobody is ever short of anything, at least in theory. Someone works, they make money, they use money to buy an amount of what they want, the person selling it makes money and can buy more to sell. So it's like a cycle; the more you buy from someone the more interesting things they will be able to sell to you." He smiles to her as he finishes his explanation.

He nods to her question about his turn of phrase "Well, that was meant as a verbal mirror if you will, since I already used the word sacrifice I thought it would work well as a comparison, and in a way you do sacrifice your money when you buy something, like how you sacrifice your time to work. It's just different ways of saying different things. See?"

Listening to Lanta explain everything Chloe began to purr but when they were finished Chloe would only nod her head and let out a soft 'mew' in response. What she actually 'got' out of the lecture was unknown, it was clear she learned something but maybe it wasn't good what she concluded, maybe it was, who knows?!

"Alright, so when do we go do this job?"

she began to question as she stood up seeming eager for no apparently reason and starting to walk forward with he tail swishing side to side as she walked but a few feet forward.

"Perhaps go look now maybe while I'm in a good mood to do so?"

Lanta smiles slightly at her mew, deciding not to comment on the overwhelming cuteness factor this woman had going for her. Nicely dressed, innocent and very cute; any other man may have been diving head over heels at her at this point, and Lanta in the past may well have done that. But for now he had yet to regain his confidence. "Well I suppose we can go search for a job whenever, would you like to join my guild as well to work as an official team? I cannot think of a team name yet, but you certainly seem to have a nice grasp on humour and the like, what should we be called?" he stands up as she walks, following her "I suppose we can go search for one now, sure. Get ourselves on the map, so to speak. Who knows, someone with similar powers to you may eventually find out about us and come to you."

A sly grin on her face signaled she was either thinking something dirty, something naughty, or something fun. Heck, perhaps it was something in between or a mix of the three.  Though when asked to join a guild she took that as a strange question to ask her, one she didn't feel comfortable saying yes to right now on the simple principle fact that she wasn't like most mages.

"I'm fine being guild-less for now" she spoke in a softer tone, trying to show she didn't mean harm from what she said. Though if one thing was about to sound harsh it was what was coming next as almost a low growl escaped Chloe's mouth. The growl showed great hostility almost as if she felt backed into a corner. "I don't want to be found on a map". One reason and one reason only had proc'd this kind of response from her.

...Her creator.

A being she did not know the name, motives, or who they even were, but yet she knew that man had some how, by fluke accident or a miracle, had created her through magic and then she managed to finalize that process. Honestly the whole situation was full of holes, and 'hows' but no matter how many questions were asked, she still existed, and felt fear of her creator finding her, even if said creator meant no harm or even gave a shit.

Though to lighten the mood, Chloe giggled a bit "if you were like me, I'd call us team fluffies!"

He eyes her as she does her grin, going back through what he said, he couldn't figure out anything that he said that may be taken in any duality, perhaps it was just him interpreting her smile as something else. "Okay then, I won't force you to make any decision you don't want to." as she growls he just stays patient with her, knowing that if she wanted to cause him harm she would already have done so. "Okay then, no guild." His mind gets to work as he stars to wonder what she had been through in the past to get to this state of fear of being found by someone, whatever the case; he would make sure nobody who wanted to cause her harm got to her without first going through him. Chloe was now his friend, and one he was willing to take a blow for. He laughs at her joke, smiling "I suppose so. Shame I'm not a fluffy, but I still think it is a pretty funky name nonetheless. Well, shall we go to the guild hall to get a job then? Or just search around for someone on the street?"

[exit thread - will continue new thread for job.]