The water felt cool against his skin. It was cleansing in a way, and not just in the literal sense. The chill liquid surrounding his being was like a cooling salve that washed away any lingering phantoms of pain and ache.
Or maybe it was just the slight draining effect that still baffled him dulling his senses. Still, that thought was a good reminder to not let his mind relax toomuch.
Cain Abel forced his body into action, standing on his two feet as he breached the surface and rose from the small lake he'd immersed himself in. He stood in a shallow where the lake was only waist deep. Already the man could feel the draining effect lessen now that half his body was out of the water.
"Haaa~," Abel exhaled deeply, eyes closed for a moment longer until he allowed himself to see once more. And what he observed first and foremost was his reflection in the water.
To his immense relief his strange ability to 'regenerate' proved just as potent as he'd postulated. Even if it took hours to achieve, both his arms and his leg had reconstructed themselves. Now it was as if they were never damaged in the first place. Just like all his other injuries.
It was damn near miraculous. And bizarre. And gave him questions that he had no earthly idea how to even begin unpacking, so he did his honest best to not think about it. The results were mixed.
Within the water's reflective surface the being named 'Cain Abel' was staring back at him. Skin so pale it was a miracle he didn't make people blind for staring at him in daylight. Black hair short enough that it was just a few inches from being a buzz cut, which he honestly wasn't a big fan of. Eye of a pale cold blue color stared back with discerning sharpness, giving him a subtle cold, calculating vibe.
Also, he was pretty. Really god damn pretty! Soft and delicate features contrasted by his narrow, sharp eyes that gave him a mature edge. That, combined with the soft curvature of his body, with his thin waist and somewhat wider than usual hips, made it all but impossible to identify him as male even at a discerning glance. Allowing himself to be crass within his own head, Abel couldn't deny his inner narcissist that he absolutely would.
Only his obviously masculine voice gave the game away. Of course, that was something he was somewhat confident he could work around for the purposes of deception.
"Haa-ha-haa-ha-aaa," Abel intoned, modulating his voice and heightening the pitch to sound softer and more feminine. As with most other things- as he was starting to discover -it was fairly simple for him to adapt to. After some testing he also felt certain that he held a quite wide vocal range, so he filed that tidbit away for later.
Leaving his gorgeous appearance aside for a second, Abel registered a faint sensation on his forearm. Raising the limb from out of the water he immediately spotted a black, squirming thing attached to his arm.
"...Ew," Abel deadpanned as he identified it as a leech. Mortification aside, he didn't panic or become that distressed over it, merely raising his arm, and the black worm-like thing with it, closer to his face. "Kind of a dry well there, buddy. Sorry."
The bloodsucker was in for the disappointment of its life, and after a bit seemed to realize that there was no food to be gained from the...whatever Abel was, eventually letting go with its suction and dropping back into the lake.
Observing the pale surface of his arm Abel saw the tiny opening that the leech had tried to feed through fill in quickly. A reminder that his body, while bearing the appearance of skin and flesh, was something entirely different.
As far as Abel could wrap his head around this whole... thing, he mentally envisioned his current being as less a human being and more a human-shaped, fully mobile statue. His body held no blood or contained any internal organs, and instead of a layer of skin, flesh, and bones, he was a solid mass throughout. His composition was of an unknown substance that was crystalline in nature, which at least mimicked flesh and skin in appearance, texture and feel. Well, kind of. His skin still had a smoothness to it that stood out as mildly abnormal.
He still had all five of his senses and could still experience the sensation of pain. Those two facts were all that was 'normal' about his state of being. It was... vexingly irregular.
That was to say nothing of his 'ability'. Holding out his hand and imagining the knife he had in his possession a few hours ago, he observed the process that took place. Originating from around his palm area tiny crystalline shards materialized and rapidly congregated into his desired shape until a copy of the knife in his mind lay in his hand, feeling as real as the original.
'Well', Abel mused as he flipped it in his hand, 'Maybe it's not exactly identical. It's lighter for one and feels to have slightly less overall mass.'
Not to mention it was just as fragile the rest of him. One good hit was all it took to shatter it to pieces. A trend Abel assumed anything he created would share. And speaking of that idea...
Abel willed the knife in his hands to shatter into a fine crystalline dust that disappeared into the wind. Looked pretty; glittered nicely in the rays of the twilight sun that broke through the jungle canopy.
Then he discarded the image the knife from his mind to test something. Because all things were just shapes at the end of the day, so in his mind's eye Abel visualized the 'shape' of a knife, and then used his ability to manifest it in his hand.
It was a solid vaguely metallic mass that sure looked like it was supposed to be a knife alright. A handle, a small hand guard, and a straight, pointed blade. Except it lacked any form of depth or definition, not to mention any form of cutting edge. It was basically just a knife-shaped slab of stuff.
'My mental image really matters that much, huh?' Abel squeezed the handle and it cracked and broke with barely any effort, his eyes trailing the shards as they fell and dissolved into the water. 'So, the strength and definition of the image has some say in its durability. I only imagined the most basic of basics, so the result was appropriately poor. With the knife and the katana I at least saw and held them, briefly though it was. That made the image already more concrete, even if it was from a quick impression.'
So in theory he should be able to make something less prone to breaking at the lightest contact. It all seemed to stem from his mental image in some way, this power of his. Which did bring up an idea that piqued his intrigue.
Wading through the water until he exited the lake to stand on dry ground, Abel could feel the wetness almost slide off his bare skin due to how unusually smooth it was. All that remained was a slight residual dampness. He found it much less irritating than when it was absorbed into his clothing to create a soggy mess.
Speaking of his clothes, or the remains of them at least, they were hanging from a nearby low branch in all their ruinous glory. The man cast them a frustrated look.
"Yeah, that's not going to fly anymore," Abel murmured, looking at the- to be charitable -torn rags. He could imagine that before all the damage and seawater had torn and crumpled them the whole ensemble was charmingly gothic. The outfit was not really in any condition to be worn, even if Abel could swallow the indignity of being seen in a mess like that.
Besides, black was universal, but also a bit basic. He could do better.
So instead he got a crazy idea, but with how his day had gone so far why not indulge in some more madness as a cherry on top?
His 'ability' could manifest objects based on his mental images, with the fidelity of that image corresponding to its durability to an extent. Said objects were composed of the self-same crystalline material his whole being was made of. So, if he followed that line of thought to its logical conclusion...
Cain Abel, standing by the lake within the jungle of Wildegreen Archipelago, as bare as a weird 'statue'-like being like him could be, closed his eyes and allowed his mind to form images, feelings, and sensations. Into this image he poured his full attention to detail about a topic he found himself deeply invested in... with some minor adjustments.
And then, once the image in his head was as clear as to be reality itself, Abel's will brought forth change!
X~ = = = = = = = = = = = ~X
⸶Imagine Dreamers!⸷
...
Episode 4
Departure; First Steps Towards a Brand New Dawn!
X~ = = = = = = = = = = = ~X
An ear flicked as she opened her jaws wide for a big yawn, waking up from her nap. Currently in her Base Form, the tiger was laying at the seaside near the big wooden thing that was partway on land.
What had the nice-but-mean person called it? 'Ship'? What was a 'ship', the tiger wondered? It was clearly the wooden thing that was supposed to float on water, so maybe it was like a cave that moves in water? That sounded weird, but also exciting!
The nice-but-mean person had called her Tigre, but also 'tiger'. Which was silly, because those sounded the same! But apparently were different? Tigre wasn't sure. But she liked it!
Tigre wasn't sure about a lot of things. Not after breaking out of the 'cage' the nice-but-mean person had kept her in. She thought that the strangeness started after that weird fruit just sort of...landed in her mouth. It tasted so yucky! But she still swallowed on instinct, because she was so hungry...
Actually, she was still hungry. She'd just gotten...focused on something else. And now it felt like she could focus on a whole lot of things, even if it didn't make that much sense a lot of the time. Like when the nice-but-mean person talked to her and she understood. She didn't think she understood that much before...
Tigre was not sure what to think of the nice-but-mean person. They had kept her in a that 'cage', which wasn't fun and kinda scary, and given her this thing that made her head go all fuzzy. But they also saved her from the bad water, twice! And they apologized, and promised to get her back home! To mommy and daddy...
Where were they? Where was she? Was it far? When her head was fuzzy it was hard to tell the sunrises from the sunsets. How long was she like that?
Tigre had a lot of questions. Way more than she'd ever had before. Before it had been: Hungry? Hunt. Tired? Rest. Bored? Play!
Now it was so much more complicated and confusing. But it also wasn't...bad? It was like something she couldn't describe was...bigger? Something like that.
She could also become taller, or smaller! It was so weird, to stand on her hind legs instead of all four. And it had been so scary to see her front paw look and move so strangely...but then the nice-but-mean person had calmed her down and helped her figure out how to change back! That made her like the nice-but-mean person a lot more!
After that it just sort of made sense when she tried it again. It was so easy, to become small and then be her again! Even if moving on her hind legs still felt really weird. Maybe she would get used to it? She hoped so. Being small was new, and kinda exciting too!
Her ear perked as something rustled in the jungle that was kind of like home, but not. Maybe the nice-but-mean person was coming back? They told Tigre to wait here after their limbs grew back, which was still so awesome! She wasn't sure her limbs could do that, that's for sure.
Except the two-legger that walked out looked way different, alarming the tiger to stand and growl at the stranger. Tigre was almost ready to lunge and defend the 'ship' from this intruder when they spoke in a familiar voice.
"Oh, calm down, you dumb tiger!" the person snapped at her with a flat expression. "It's still me! Just made a few changes."
Tigre doubted that for a second but was unable to ignore her curiosity, so she stalked closer while keeping a wary eye on this two-legger. She still growled, though not as openly aggressively. But then, once she got close enough, she got a whiff of their scent. Though somewhat washed out and weirdly lacking in a concrete smell profile it was still unmistakable!
Tigre's posture visibly relaxed as recognition filled her. This was the nice-but-mean person! But they looked so different!
For one, their torn black removable fur that went down to their hind legs was replaced with a shorter green one that reminded Tigre of moss, along with adding white color to their forelimbs. They also had this other green thing around their neck that reminded Tigre of a snake. Oh! And also, the black fur on their head was so much longer. Did it grow back along with their limbs?
The nice-but-mean person glanced Tigre's way for a moment,before walking over to the wooden 'ship' and started looking at it closely. Curious, Tigre shifted into the smaller form, the gifted brown removable fur enveloping her properly rather than being draped over her back, and awkwardly stumbled her way over. Might as well practice moving on her hind legs!
"... not unsalvageable," Tigre heard the nice-but-mean person mutter under his breath as his fore paws touched the side of the 'ship' with the big wound on it. "Gonna need something to plug the gap. Maybe plant fibers mixed with resin? Yeah, that should at least stop it from sinking for a while. Might even be able to use sap as a form of weak glue..."
Tigre didn't understand most of the words the nice-but-mean person used, but she did gleam that they probably meant to heal the 'ship'. Which she now fuzzily remembered she hurt in the first place. Oops!
"Aaugh..." Tigre vocalized her oopsie, catching the nice-but-mean person's attention as he looked over his shoulder which she was basically peeking over.
"Damn right you better be sorry," the nice-but-mean person guessed her intent, giving her a mild reproaching glare. "If this had broken beyond repair we wouldn't be leaving this place anytime soon."
So this 'ship' was how the nice-but-mean person meant to take her home? And Tigre almost broke it! The tiger girl felt appropriately horrified and ashamed once that thought registered. "Raaugh~..." she whimpered.
"..." the nice-but-mean person stared at her for a while before he sighed and turned to face the meek tiger girl and loudly making a snapping sound with two appendages from his paw. "Hey, chin up!" he gently commanded, enough to perk her up and demand her attention. "I said if it had broken. I can deal with this, at least for what we need. Just means I need to alter some travel plans, that's all."
Tigre took a moment to digest what the nice-but-not-as-mean person said, before her eyes brightened and her mouth twisted in a pleased way. Her whole body tensed as she hunched.
"NO!" The nice-but-still-mean person shoved his paw right in front of her face, the gesture and the sharp command stopping her attempted pounce on its tracks. "No pouncing! Just..." He grumbled something unintelligible under his breath before his paw moved from the tiger girls face and on top of her head. And then the head rubs began. "Just...don't do that out of the blue. Things are fine."
Tigre barely registered what the nice-and-not-mean-at-all person said, too swept up in the sensation of a paw rubbing the top of her head. It wasn't as good as when he scratched her behind ear or beneath her chin, but it felt so nice! Tigre was in heaven!
Then moments later the sensation was gone and the nice person was walking back towards the treeline, leaving the tiger girl yearning for more head pats. Still, momentary dejection aside she moved to follow the nice person. Because he was nice! He even gave her a gift: the a second set of fur, removable like his was! It was a bit weird and itchy at first, but made her feel warm when she was small, so it had to be good!
"Okay, plant fiber is easy," the nice person mumbled, but Tigre had good hearing. He also created a jaw-like thing to hold his long mane back, like some sort of tail. "Sap and resin, both simple enough. Let's see..." He rubbed his chin. "It's a pretty basic mix of two shapes. Add in a sharp enough edge... Imagine: Axe!"
A thing wooden thing with a shiny thing at the end appeared in his paw as the nice person swung his appendage and the thing in it at a tree, the shiny thing at the end of the wooden thing sinking into the tree's skin. Almost immediately after the whole thing broke.
"Eh, good enough," the nice person shrugged and then made another, smaller shiny thing. "Imagine:...Cup? Yeah, sure. This works."
Tigre watched as the tree began to bleed and the nice person collected the tree blood into the 'cup' thing. It was a bit boring because very little happened, but the power of curiosity could carry a feline far.
The tiger girl would tail the nice person as he worked from that point on, always looking over his shoulder. He made something he called a 'mortar' and 'pestle', which sounded very weird. He put some plants and leaves into the 'cup'-shaped one and used the stick to crush them until it all turned into mush. Afterwards he poured the tree blood in and mixed the resulting mess.
Then the nice person worked on the wound on the 'ship'. He took his mushy stuff and put it into the 'ship's' wound, creating a thin stick to shove it deeper and slowly filled in the wound with the mush. When he ran out he repeated the process and made some more.
After that was done the nice person jumped onto the 'ship' and then climbed through a hole deeper into the 'cave' part, repeating the process inside the wooden cavern. Once that was done he mixed up another kind of mush that he used to 'glue' some of the leftover 'cloth'(the thing her gifted fur was made of!) over the wound.
It all went mostly over Tigre's head, but it sure looked like the nice person was helping the 'ship' heal. "Haaugh..." the tiger girl 'wow'ed' enraptured throughout the entire process despite occasional bouts of boredom.
"Hmm... not perfect but it should at least hold for a little while," the nice person muttered. "Would like to deal with something firmer, like planks, but can't really figure out a way to do that. Nails would be wildly impractical if I made..."
The nice person was quiet for a moment before he slapped his face with his paw, to Tigre's confusion. "I'm an idiot if they have a quick-fix kit," he said as he got up to search for something. Tigre watched him leave, still puzzled, and a bit later a single angry yell sounded from above the wooden cavern.
The nice person came back with a box before sitting in front of the covered wound and started to hit small metal spikes into the wood to attach smaller pieces of wood over the wound. All while radiating simmering anger which admittedly made him seem less nice in the moment.
After a while more of work the nice person seemed to have finished healing the 'ship's' wounds and was much calmer.
"Okay. That should hold. Tigre," he addressed her directly for the first time in... a long time, "Once that dries I need you to transform and-"
A growl released into the air, cutting him off. The pang in her stomach made Tigre realize it was from her tummy. She was hungry before, but now she was really hungry!
The nice man blinked as he stared at the tiger girl who fidgeted as she touched her tummy with her paws. "...Right. Food's an issue." He tilted his head and nodded towards the jungle. "You still got enough in you to go hunting?"
Tigre had never been faster to affirm anything in her life. She was pretty hungry, but never too hungry to hunt! Besides, it was fun! It took her no time to return to her normal four-legged form. It felt more comfy to hunt as herself.
"Right then!" The nice person clapped his paws together and jumped onto her back, gripping the brown removable fur that in her true form was splayed out on her back. "Let's go! I'll show you something neat after we catch something."
Tigre was on the move well before he was done talking.
Later, after a tussle with a really big bird that ran on two long legs with sharp talons on them, the nice person showed her the neat thing. On the downside he didn't allow her to eat her hunt immediately, and so was a quite-mean person for a bit. He cut the bird to bits with one of those sharp pointy things and made a fire and started BURNING THE FOOD WITH SCARY FIRE WHY DID HE PUT BITS OF GRASS ON IT WHAT WAS HAPPENING WAS HE CRAZY?!
...
The upside was literally everything that came after! The bird meat after the nice person was done 'cooking' was the best thing she'd ever eaten in her life! It was so warm, and juicy, and so, so...IT TASTED SO YUMMY!
Tigre now realized that the nice person wasn't just that. He was the most-nice-and-amazing person ever!
After devouring the food with ravenous joy, the most-nice-and-amazing person and her hunted some more for what the most-nice-and-amazing person called 'provisions', which Tigre assumed meant 'food to eat later', before the two returned to the shore with the 'ship' as the sun was starting to dive into the sea. The tiger in particular was in very high spirits, if starting to tire out a bit.
"Right, as I was saying before," the most-nice-and-amazing person spoke to her, a big bag over his shoulder with the spare food inside. "The sap should have hardened properly by now. Transform into that tall form of yours, then lift and push the ship back into the water. After that, we can leave immediately!"
Tigre wasn't sure what the tree blood had to do with this, but she did understand the rest. She willed herself to transform into the state where she was somewhere between her true self and her small form and grabbed hold of the 'ship' with her front paws.
"Carefully!" the most-nice-and-amazing person reminded, to which Tigre tried her best, lifting the wooden thing up and then giving it a push until it partly sank into the water once again. The most-nice-and-amazing person jumped onto the 'ship' right after, rushed inside the 'cave' and coming back in a few moments. "Okay, it holds well enough. Now, turn small and hop on!"
Tigre turned into the small form as told with a peppy, "Rawr!" and was about to leap... until what she was about to do registered to her mind. To get on that 'ship' thing meant being surrounded by a lot of the bad water. And bad water was...very scary. It made her feel weak, helpless. The memory of the water getting into her mouth, and nose, of slowly choking... it made her shiver.
But...the nice person saved her when she did. He was staring at her, even now, waiting. Would...he would save her again, surely? That thought gave Tigre the courage she needed to leap onto the wooden ground of the 'ship'.
"Good girl," the nice person gave her head pats, which immediately made her feel better. "Alright, we've got a lot of distance to travel and not a lot of time!"
The nice person pulled something heavy out of the water and played with some ropes until a bit 'cloth' unfurled and the 'ship' started to move to Tigre's wonder.
But as the jungle became more and more distant and the sun disappeared into the ocean, some of that fear returned. She was well and truly surrounded by so much of that terrifying blue...
X~ = = = = = = = = = = = ~X
Abel keenly observed things below deck, keeping a keen eye out for any leaks in his handiwork. Stuffing a mixture of plant material and tree sap into the crack to serve as filling was a slap job, but it kept the water out for the most part. It wouldn't hold forever and even the cloth glued over it and the planks he nailed on top that would not last in the long run.
Which is why he needed to alter his initial travel plans. And he was both lucky and not, because his purloined map showed that there was a port town on the relatively nearby Anchorpoint Island. The unlucky part was debatable, but it would take about four days of travel to reach it under good conditions.
On a rough estimate his patch job should last just long enough if he was being optimistic. If the weather stayed fair, it just might. But if it didn't... well, as long as the crack didn't open up completely he might be able to squeeze out some more time just by bailing water out faster than it got in. But best not dwell on maybes, lest he jinx himself.
Abel pulled out the map and compass, firmly maintaining a habit of checking his course every now and then. Seeing that they'd deviated a bit he climbed up to the small cabin and used the lever that adjusted the rudder to correct the course.
When it came to navigation he was by no means a master, but by god at least he wouldn't get lost at sea. His pride wouldn't allow it.
Once done, Abel locked the lever in place and allowed himself to just indulge. "Imagine: Mirror." Keeping the mental image simple, Abel created a simple round slate- "Oh." The surface, while technically reflective, was incredibly blurry. It utterly failed at being a mirror. "...Well, reflection is complicated."
Shrugging and accepting defeat(for now), the crossdresser willed the failure to break down into fine crystal dust that disappeared before it landed on anything. Shame, he would have preferred to gaze approvingly at his incredible looks. He worked hard for them, he felt.
With a bit of prodding he'd discovered he could alter his appearance to a degree. That's how he altered his hair to make it longer(about lower-back length), currently tied into a sleek ponytail with two bangs to frame his face. He probably could change the color, but chose to stick with his natural black.
Now, the outfit... that was a different beast altogether. In reality, it was was no outfit at all and more of an secondary layer, an 'extension' to his own form. Rather than accept his ratty black dress back like it was a jilted lover, Abel had chosen to test the limits of his abilities. Hence the discovery of his new technique to alter his own form that he cleverly called [Self-Image]. Adding clothes to the mix just took more effort, as it was a wholly more complicated image to manifest properly. But by god, he had done it in the end!
A deep green petticoat and white dress shirt with ruffled, slightly flared sleeves worn under a waistcoat that matched the petticoat. The waistcoat, along with the corset worn underneath created the illusion that he had something going on in the chest department, which mostly existed for his own amusement. Around his neck he'd gone with a green necktie with a streak of white going straight down the middle. For leg covering he went for basic black tights and fashionably adventurous brown boots.
His first instinct had been to go with a predominantly white-green color scheme for some reason, but in the end he decided for something less blinding to look at, switching it up for green-white instead.
The ensemble was feminine, stylish, dashing, but also held a slight masculine touch if one looked at it like that. A good in between of the sexes. Part deception, part fitting his tastes, and a large part simply because he felt like it. It was perfect!
Also, yes, the projected nature of the 'clothes' meant that he was technically 'naked', if you had a stick up your ass, were a pervert, or/and hated fun. At least this way if he broke so would his clothes, which meant they'd also regenerate and grow back rather than cost him a fortune to replace any wrecked set.
Pessimistic? Absolutely. Practical? You bet it was!
Still...all of that did bring up a fairly big question.
'If I could do this, then why was my past self using normal clothing and wearing a wig for a disguise?' Abel was forced to once more contemplate his past. And this one point felt strangely vital due to how the questions it brought forth just did not fit. 'Did he just not think to? No, I refuse to believe any version of me is that dull. Was this ability a new development? I can't imagine so. So then...why not use it?' The man frowned deeply. 'Did...my old self not know they could do this? If so...to what extent?'
The more he learned of himself, the less he felt he knew. What a headache...
But leaving his own dashingly good looks aside. Looking out from the round window on the door at the dark ocean lit only by the moon and stars above, Abel spotted the form of Tiger still outside, seemingly looking up towards the night sky.
Frowning slightly as his instincts told him something was off, Abel double checked their heading before exiting the cabin into the cool night air.
"Enjoying the late hours?" Abel asked, closing the door behind himself, not expecting an answer to his query.
"Raaagh..."
...An answer he could understand. Ms. Tuesday may have been trying to murder him dead, but at least there was a conversation going on. Not this...one-sided nonsense. "...Riiight."
Rather than hope for water in that dry conversational well, Abel turned his gaze skywards at the seemingly endless blanket of darkness. An ominous endlessness brightened by the full moon and the twinkling sea that stretched on forever. In a way, the night sky was an ocean of stars, if one felt poetic about it.
"...Myuugh..."
The despondent, almost pathetic mewl damn near forced Abel's attention to drift back down from the skies above to the tiger girl on the deck. The cloak/shawl was bundled to cover her up completely, but just by shape alone he could tell she was hugging her knees close to her chest. And her expression as she gazed up at that starry sky was filled with sad melancholy.
'Oh,' Abel realized with a slight frown. 'A sight like this is probably the only thing left that reminds her of home.'
Yup, that sure was some hard homesickness alright. And Abel had no clue what to do with that. On his own self-observed personality traits, empathy wasn't that high up the ladder, so he just sort of stood there, watching this sad display out of the corner of his eye.
Actually, now that he paid mind to her, she was not just huddled on any part of the deck, she had settled dead center, which Abel managed to deduce translated to 'as far from the water as possible'.
His second realization was, 'Of course I've somehow managed to give a big cat a fear of the ocean. Why am I not more surprised?'
Still, that meant that some of the tenseness in her posture was undoubtedly from nerves. Looking out at the sky was just actively not looking at the ocean, childishly trying to pretend it didn't exist. And if he wasn't wrong, those small twitches of the eyelids seemed like something someone wishing to sleep would do when actively trying to not fall asleep.
The tiger girl was not just sad and homesick. She was also tired and too afraid of the surrounding ocean to sleep.
'...I'm not a damn babysitter!' Abel lightly glared down at the tiger. But his glare couldn't grow more heated than mild annoyance despite his attempts. '...still, you're really just a kid, aren't you.'
Rolling his eyes- mostly at himself for being so damn weak -Abel let loose a halfhearted sigh and sat criss cross apple sauce next to the tiger girl. "So," he started halfheartedly, "..." and promptly stopped dead as he realized he didn't have much to say that wouldn't sound absolutely inane.
He tapped his legs with his knuckles just to feel like he was doing something-
...
Or...perhaps words were not necessary to make this current grievance of his go away? It worked once so it should again, right? He just had to bear with it and this would just disappear...hopefully.
Opting not to twiddle his thumbs and give himself opportunities to talk himself out of it, Abel reached out with his hand and utilized his secret, super effective weapon.
Tigre jolted out of whatever fear-tinged melancholic reverie she had been in when his hand touched her head, and just as quickly succumbed to the absolute power of head pats. It took a few second for her posture to relax, and about a minute before she began leaning into the touch and started purring.
'I feel ridiculous,' Abel complained in the privacy of his mind, but continued regardless. 'It's fine! This is just because the dumb cat is seriously harshing my mellow- eck, ew!'
The man cringed, hard. That verbiage was horrendously bad and now banned from his lexicon forever. But he wasn't left to wallow in that horror show, because now another body was pressing itself closer to his own. "...Uh..."
Still purring serenely, Tigre had started to lean on Abel more and more, his head pats bearing with them the consequence of not just easing her mind and helping her relax, but now were also lulling her steadily to sleep. Lost for what to do, Abel just kept patting the tiger girl's head on autopilot while giving her weird, akward looks until her head rested on his shoulder, out like a light and breathing softly with the occasional purr.
"...Right then," the crossdresser whisper-sighed. Now instead of being lost and annoyed he was just plain lost. A look at the tiger girl's peaceful rest was just...ugh, too precious for him to muster any fire to feel spiteful with. At Tigre at least. 'Curse you Past Me for putting me in this circumstance!'
As Abel contemplated how to find this annoyingly soft part of himself and kill it, he gently picked Tigre up with difficulty because he was not made to carry this much weight and moved the sleeping tiger girl within the cabin, depositing her to one of the two hammocks as softly as he could. The tiger girl almost instinctively snuggled into the pillow placed in there while wrapping her cloak closer because it was essentially a blanket.
Which left Abel stewing in his accursed sentimentality and...not with a whole lot to do, actually. Despite the...eventful day he'd been forced through he still couldn't feel fatigue in the traditional sense. Oh, his mind felt done with all this nonsense, but physically he was fine. He didn't feel tired at all.
Despite this, Abel did try to get some sleep.
He gave up after about two hours of his efforts failing him, having come to the conclusion that not only did he not need air, he didn't seem to need sleep either. He assumed he could, but there was a trick to it he just couldn't figure out. What next, not needing food or water?
…
He wasn't about to stop! Good food was good, need or not! And water was refreshing! Though he'd file the idea away if there ever was a need to conserve resources.
Abel sighed, his frustrations mounting with no proper outlet. So without recourse he went about wasting his time the only constructive way he could think of.
Abel once more checked their course and made the necessary adjustments before making his way back to the open deck. He willed a rough shape of a blade to manifest in his hand, more of an open concept than a hastily made copy of Tuesday's blade. Ready to be molded into whatever shape he wanted it to be.
He unmade the shape, honed his mental image and manifested it anew. Manifest, dispel, hone image, add detail. Rinse and repeat as long as he had things to improve upon. Once in a while he changed the object he focused on to broaden his 'pool' of options, while also making a mental folder that he filled with 'blueprints' that he could reach quickly with enough practice.
If he had these powers he might as well get accustomed to them until using them was like breathing!
X~ = = = = = = = = = = = ~X
Unbeknownst to both our wayward travelers, two individuals went about their respective evenings in a closer proximity to one another than either would realize.
...
One was a statuesque individual with shiny black skin, with white area on her front from her lower jaw to her groin, and a fin on her back sat by her remote seaside home. The sound of a hammer lightly tapping a nail in place filled the quiet night air as the woman worked well into the night.
"Burnin' the midnight oil again," she mumbled to the wind, a couple of nails held by her sharp teeth. "Work's never done. That's what you always said."
Finishing up the repairs on the fence of her porch, the woman stopped for just a moment to gaze at the full moon with distant longing for days long gone.
"Just 'nother day in the life. Ain't that right...pops?"
The wind would never answer her, just like stone couldn't. But work soon called her back. She still had some broken windows to replace.
And so her night passed, like so many before it.
"...Just 'nother day..."
On her left shoulder blade, revealed by her backless swimming top- in contrast to the moon above -a red sun burned with old, dying embers.
...
The Other stood at the helm of a small cargo vessel, gaze forward at the island in the horizon.
"I'm very sorry about the late arrival," the captain of the vessel, Pikkard, sincerely apologized, smoking his pipe. "we'd been there yesterday noon if not for running into that freak storm-"
"Incorrect," spoke up the near monotone, matter of fact voice as the person at the helm turned to face the man. Only being used to the sight during the trip stopped the captain from being caught off guard at how those electric yellow eyes seemed to glow eerily in the low light. "It is erroneous for you to take blame for unpredictable meteorological events. You lack culpability for complications due to weather conditions."
"Well, if you say so, miss," the captain relented, knowing a losing battle. "Still, arriving to Anchorpoint at this hour...might be tricky to find a place to rest this late."
"We will manage," the monotone woman stated, standing eerily still as she tended to do. "You will receive due compensation for services rendered, as per the terms of the agreement, with a bonus of 40,000 Berry for the unforeseen weather as hazard pay. We can procure accommodations for the purposes of energy conservation on our own."
As what had become a bit of a routine, the captain just raised a brow. "...Alright then! We'll make landfall in about forty minutes. It's been a pleasure to have you on board, miss."
"Affirmative. The trip was most optimal," the woman nodded, finally moving to turn on heel to face the distant island in silence once more, utterly motionless save for the ocean wind fluttering her dress.
Captain Pikkard only briefly rubbed his bald head awkwardly before he went back to instructing his crew, ordering one last account of all the materials they ferried, just to be absolutely sure the storm hadn't done more damage. And while only for a brief time, he felt like he'd remember that peculiar passenger for a long while to come.
"What an odd lady."
X~ = = = = = = = = = = = ~X
-Author's Notes-
Well, this is no longer short because a certain tiger demanded some spotlight! How great is it that Tigre so far hasn't learned Abel's name. That's just Nice Person! She's smart, she obviously knows what's up!
Time to depart from Wildegreen Archipelago and head out towards the next step along the journey of Cain Abel(now with a new look!). With a little peek at what, or rather who we'll run into next. One may or may not be vaguely familiar to those who read The Cronicler, while the other...that's a secret : )
Now with that out of the way, it's time for me to be the worst kind of person I can think of. A Shameless Shill!
It's out, folk! I binged the One Piece Live Action, all 8 episodes. And after digesting it, I gotta say: By far the best adaptation of a manga property done in...essentially ever! The sometimes necessary changes made to the story make sense while still feeling like One Piece, especially considering how they had to compact most of the East Blue Saga to make it all fit without feeling too rushed.
And the fights! *Cheff's Kiss* For what is even possible for live action, hats off to the action crew! And Mihawk, my man! Holy hell did they sell that man's presence!
If you haven't watched it yet, and the word of a nobody fanfic writer means anything to you, I fully advocate for the show and am fully in favor of a second season! This show and the crew behind it are something special!
…
Okay, enough of that. Next chapter...will not be Episode 5! Before that we have something called Episode 4.5. Or as I like to call it: The first of the Sideline Episodes! And what those occasional Sidelines tell...well, you'll see ; )