tenipuri_xp | RP Log: Karupin, Niou, Ryoma

Backdated: Sunday arvo (23.10) before Ryo's mission with Dan. :D
Rating: G :D Karupin's debut! How could it possibly be bad? ;D <3
~~Warning: ...excessive dorkmuse? :D;~~
Summary: Solve for x given ( x = SoPwned^5 ) and ( x < Karupin ) are both true.

This place sure was strange. And very, very big, with lots of people and lots of different smells. She'd managed to stow away in the car when that loud old man left, hoping he would take her to find her little boy. He hadn't seemed to notice that she was even there, and she'd slipped out of the car and darted into the bushes when he'd arrived here; she'd spent the last two days tracking one scent from building to building, avoiding detection by hiding whenever someone passed by.

She was getting close, though - the scent was much stronger in here. She followed it up two flights of stairs, glancing at the many doors on either side of the hallway she was now in. The first door had a rabbit behind it - tempting though it was, she didn't have the time to wait for someone to open that door so she could chase it. She smelled her little boy close by, and she was going to find him.

His smell was strongest at the very last door on the other side of the hall - this must be it, she thought, tail flickering about excitedly. Stopping in front of the door, she raised one paw and scratched. "Meow~!" He'd know it was her and let her in and feed her. She was sure.

Niou blinked; looked at the closed door. What the hell–? Was that a cat? As far as he knew, there were two cats on campus. Kaidoh’s stray, Neko, and Yamato’s eyes, Luis. The former had an owner too careful to let something like this happen, surely. Especially after Niou’d not-quite-promised to keep quiet about the little thing, having long since discovered it (and the rest of a veritable zoo in various rooms) on regular cleaning rounds. Luis… he hadn’t seen yet. But from the news, she was only a kitten. And (and there it was again, the Meow~! *scratch* combo) if regular-sized cats were mice, this one sounded like a rat.

No offence to it, of course.

Standing, he walked over to kneel behind the door. And briefly poked his head through.

She stopped mid-meow and blinked as she came nose-to-nose with a human she didn't know. That wasn't her little boy. Skittering back a step, she meowed again, confused. She swatted at the nose of whoever it was, wondering why he hadn't opened the door properly - she couldn't get in and she wanted to. "Meow!" Her tail twitched as her paw went through thin air - that wasn't supposed to happen.

Cautiously, she stepped forward, trying to sniff him - but that wasn't working either. "Meow~" she repeated, plaintively. He should let her in. Where was the person she was looking for?

Niou pulled back as the animal started sniffing him. Okay. O-kay...

Whatever that was, it wasn’t a cat he knew – was it even a cat? Because, by god, up close and decidedly personal, it looked more like a raccoon than anything. But it – okay, she – was still there and still scratching and still wanting in, and his brain was ticking over and wondering how the hell it was coming to the conclusion that this was Echizen’s Himalayan he’d said he’d had to leave at home…

Because it made perfect sense.

Only none at all.

Cautiously, Niou opened the door just wide enough to admit an anorexic Chihuahua.

That was all she needed - Karupin streaked into the room, pausing once she was far enough in that this strange person couldn't shove her out again, and looking around for her little boy. She sniffed the shoes lying beside the door, then moved on to the pile of clothes in the corner. The chair, the bed - yes, everything smelled right. This had to be the place - his scent was all over it, but he wasn't here.

"Meow," she told the person standing in front of the door, looking up at him as though he might know where her boy was. Cautiously, she sniffed one of his feet. Hm. She nudged cautiously closer, keeping an eye on him and sniffing again. He smelled a little like her boy too...

Niou tried very hard not to… do something, when Karupin closed around the vicinity of his ankles, having lapped the room in record time.

Hell if he was going to lose face to a cat.

Really.

Please.

…no?

He ended up stepping carefully over her when she didn’t back off, moving to sit against the end of the bed. He curled his legs up to his chest. The cat had scary eyes. “Karupin, right?” Yeah… she looked like she understood. Trust the brainiac kid to have a brainiac cat. “If you’re looking for Ryoma, he’s not here right now. I think he's doing the ritual thing with those stinky salts…”

Hm... This boy didn't seem to like her much. But he smelled like her boy... so he must be all right. Tail still swishing back and forth, Karupin eyed him a moment more before turning and padding over to her boy's shoes, curling up beside them with her eyes on the door. Her little boy would be back soon, she was sure, and then things would be right.

The staring contest with the door went on for a while until she heard noise down the hall - ears perking up, she trotted over to the door in time for it to swing open and yes, her little boy to come in, hair wet and smelling like clean.

"Meow!"

Ryoma blinked. "Eh - Karupin?" He stopped in the doorway, looking from Niou, sitting against the bed, to Karupin, meowing plaintively at his feet and winding her way endlessly between his ankles. He squatted, still confused, petting her and scratching behind her ears. "How did you get here?" He glanced up at Niou, who was much more likely to give him an understandable explanation.

…how? Apart from the fact that I opened the door? “She’s your cat?” the phaser snickered, in response to Ryoma’s questioning eyes. Because that made perfect sense, didn’t it? And the cat was acting more like a cat now, and less like a governess-cross-greyhound… it was cute, really. Sort of.

Okay, so it would take a bit of getting used to.

But he was definitely amused. “You don’t look so terribly surprised.”

"Yeah... this's definitely Karupin," Ryoma said, shutting the door and sitting down to lean against it as Karupin tried to rub aganst every inch of him in turn. Still petting, he glanced up again. "Well... I mean, I am surprised. But my old man musta brought her or something... but he woulda said..." He rubbed under her chin, grinning and looking his cat in the eyes. "Did you sneak over here without him knowing?"

Karupin was very happy to have her little boy back, purring loudly and rubbing against him happily. "Meow!" Of course she'd snuck over - it wasn't hard at all, the loud man was also stupid and didn't pay her much attention.

Ryoma just shook his head - that was just like her - and looked back up at Niou. "She followed me to school once, anyway." The grin slipped into a smirk as he noticed the way the other was sitting. "How come you're all the way over there?"

…what? Only because he’d forgotten creatures about yea height were liable to manoeuvre around undesirable places? And because this phaser’s notion of undesirable was somewhat different to standard, and perhaps three feet lower down? And apart from the fact that Karupin looked (from the right angles) like a goddamned featherduster on legs (albeit a smart one with an… interesting face)? No real reason <3

“I was standing there–” he snerked instead; cue point to where Ryoma was sitting. “And her nose was looking for you.” It didn’t make much sense out of context, but Ryoma could fill in the gaps.

It took a moment, but finally Ryoma was able to piece together what he thought Niou meant. The smirk turned back into a grin, and he hid his laughter in Karupin's fur, scratching behind her ears again. "She's not gonna bite your ankles, if that's what you think," he said, gathering the cat into his arms and getting up, bringing her over to Niou and kneeling next to him. "She only bites my dad. And he deserves it."

Lifting the cat up a bit from beneath her shoulders, he turned her to face Niou. "Karupin, this is Niou," he said slowly, as though speaking to a small child. "Be nice to his ankles and I'm sure you'll get along just fine." He glanced up at Niou, tilting his head just a bit. "She can stay, right?" Really, he wasn't going to take no for an answer - and he didn't see any real reason Niou could give for sending her home. But it was only polite to ask, after all.

Niou snickered at that. “Naturally. You wouldn’t have it any other way.”

And besides, it wasn’t so much the bite that concerned him as the sheer furry. Bites, he could handle. Or his power could. Tickles were just… big-sister torture devices from hell. Though he was decidedly glad to hear he didn’t fall into the same category as the old man (because that would’ve been pretty bad in more ways than one..).

“Good day to you, Karupin,” Niou said, tipping his non-existent hat with a mock half-bow from his place on the floor. “Pleased to make your formal acquaintance.”

"Heh. 'Course not." He settled down into crossed-legs position beside Niou, stroking the cat and letting her sniff at Niou's hand as opposed to his foot.

"Meow~" Karupin sniffed along the stranger's arm, deciding that yes, all of him smelled like her little boy and he seemed to be all right now. She rubbed against the inside of his wrist and up his arm - she would have to mark him, too, if he was going to stay - and meowed again, requesting attention in return.

"Well, she likes you all right," Ryoma remarked, glad Karupin didn't seem to mind Niou in the least, and hoping the other really didn't mind her either. Karupin really hadn't met many strange people - mostly because he hadn't had many friends for her to meet.

“Mm, that’s good to know then…” Niou said, hand automatically moving to scratch the cat under her chin, the way it did for Ryoma himself (amusing, the pets-and-their-people similarities, sometimes). He watched as she closed her eyes and sort of… squirmpurred… Okay, so his animal vocabulary was sorely lacking. The apartment where he’d grown up hadn’t allowed pets other than fish and… turtles… and other such benign things behind glass that didn’t move much.

However he did know that one did not ask a cat owner how long they have had their precious. Because one did not have a cat so much as… accommodate for it. “She been with you long?”

Okay, yes, this human could stay. His hands were bigger, and a little colder, but they knew the right places to scratch. Karupin purred happily, half in her boy's arms and half in the new one's, thoroughly enjoying the attention.

"Mm-hmm," Ryoma hummed, watching Karupin and grinning. "Since I was... five or six, I think. Don't really remember, but at least that long." He honestly couldn't remember much of a time before he'd had Karupin; he'd gotten her when he was so young and spent so much time with her it felt like forever. "She's prolly the only thing I missed from home," he admitted - it certainly hadn't been his father or his schoolmates, and yes, he missed his mother, but not quite in the same way. "You never had a cat, huh?" It was pretty obvious - he wasn't sure Niou had ever had any pets at all, though he'd probably had something, sometime.

Apart from you? “No…” Niou chuckled. “No animals. Fish weren’t worth the pain in the ass of cleaning the tank for their entertainment value. You’re a funny one,” he told Karupin. Clearly also a very pampered funny one from Ryoma’s semi-nostalgic tone of voice, but hey. That could be all the more amusing in the long run… “Going to call your cousin or whatever back home and say she’s here?”

"Mm, yeah, she decided not to stay after all, so Mom was taking care of her. Guess I should call though..." Ryoma was sure his mother wouldn't mind in the least - and she was so absentminded sometimes that he wondered if she'd even noticed Karupin wasn't there yet.

Karupin, in the meantime, was eyeing the mop of spiky silver hair - it looked fun to play with, she decided, and possibly nice to nap on. She wriggled out of the smaller hands and into the larger ones, climbing her way tentatively up to the taller boy's shoulders, purring and rubbing her face through silver hair.

“Yeah, okay…” Niou said somewhat absently. His brain was currently occupied with a thought process along the lines of, ‘what the hell..?’ And wondering briefly if Karupin thought his hair was a creature like Dan said it looked like.

“…hello? You comfortable up there?” He tilted his head just slightly, obliging her a little more hair to play with.

"Meow~" Karupin agreed, rubbing her face through it and chewing on a few strands. It did look nice to nap on, she thought, standing up on the shoulder with two paws on his head, finally trying to climb up on top to test it out -

"Hey!" Ryoma just barely caught Karupin as she slid off of Niou's head; she meowed pitifully and he snickered behind one hand. "She must really like you - never tried that one before," he informed Niou when he was able. "Karupin, that's not a good bed." She meowed again and curled up in his lap, indignant. "Though this's a good toy," he whispered conspiratorially, tugging on the ratty lightly and grinning, stroking his cat to rid her of any wounded feline pride.

Niou looked positively aghast. “If she kills the ratty–” he said, but stopped. Then what? This was a cat in question… and this was the bad thing about being bigger, (supposedly) more intelligent and less fluffy. It was a significant disadvantage in some circles.

And she was staring at him like ‘>o.o< *blinkblink* >o_o<’. What the hell could one say to that?

“…nevermind.”

Ryoma snickered again at the look on Niou's face. "She won't kill your ratty," he said lowly, shifting to lean against Niou's shoulder while still holding Karupin on his lap, twirling the ratty around in the fingers of his free hand. "I wouldn't let her."

He closed his eyes a moment, thinking it would be nice to pass the afternoon right here (baths always relaxed him and made him want to sleep) - until he realized that he had to report to Hanamura. "Ah, damn, what time is it?" he asked, not really expecting an answer, and shoving Karupin gently off his lap so he could get up. "I gotta report to Hanamura. Witch said she had an assignment for me." He stood and went to pull on his shoes, glancing back at Niou. "You gonna be okay in here with her?" he asked with a bit of a wicked grin.

One which the phaser returned in kind. “Ryo-chan, we both know the real question is if you’re going to be alright out there with her.” But then on went the gaga-speak as he picked Karupin up: “But of course ee’s gunna be awwright. Ishn’t he~? Ishn’t he~? Yesh, he ish, ishn’t that right, Karu-chaaan~ yeas…” Cue Evil-Eyeing Ryoma from over Karupin’s ears. “The cat says you’d better not die, or she’ll piss on your Ponta cans.” …god forbid.

"I'll be fine," Ryoma replied, rolling his eyes slightly (though he was amused) at Niou's antics. Well at least he and Karupin really did seem to be getting along fine. "And I won't die. Hm. Though I guess I should get her a litterbox and stuff." He sighed. "I'll do it tonight. Don't kill each other." He ruffled Karupin's fur with one hand and Niou's hair with the other, grinning once more. "Seeya later." And left, already dreading whatever it was Hanamura wanted him to do.