(no subject)

[doodlebuginette]

Who: Marinette, Adrien, Snake, Shin, Dust, whoever else would be likely to be around Fortuna's temple/Bast's temple.
When: the entire month of December
Where: the area surrounding Fortuna's temple/what will later become the combined temples of Fortuna and Bast.
What: Stuff and things.

December had always been a happy time, at least for Marinette. But December here brought with it a handful of changes to her already topsy-turvy life that she hadn't seen coming. Adrien had become a god, Bast specifically, and his temple had popped up right next to hers.

She'd named a third shinki shortly after naming Snake, and wasn't quite sure how to feel about that just yet. At least he seemed to be settling in well enough.

Comments

The Dust Top-Level

[mithrarin]

Moving into this temple sure had been an experience. Like night and day from his old one, and Dust was wondering if he could find a way to fit in.

His room looked close to unlived-in just because he didn't have many things, but a deeper look offered a little insight -- almost all of his possessions were souvenirs of some sort. A bundle of arcade tickets, a photo from the roller coaster in Capyba Land and a pair of the capybara ears for some bizarre reason, a few to-go menus scattered about...

When he was in the temple, he could be found there often enough -- or otherwise, exploring the grounds to find a spot he could use for a training area. He couldn't always go off to Bishamon's temple, after all, and he had a new student now.

Curious fellow Shinki~

[silentscales]

The first day Dust had moved in Snake was following him around the house, staring. He would stop whenever he noticed Dust looking, at least trying to be polite. It takes a few hours, but Snake does finally actually approach Dust to speak. "'Do you ever feel awkward about your fur?' says Martin," making the ball python in his shirt suddenly turn to look up at snake. He almost winces, "'I don't mean that in a bad way,' says Ayn."

[mithrarin]

That's... quite a question to start a conversation out with. Dust hesitated a moment, between the question itself and the curious way it was asked, before deciding to skip the latter and handle just the former.

"Sometimes," Dust said. "There are times when I'm -- very, very aware that I'm the only person here like myself, and I feel isolated. But honestly... no one treats me different because of it. So there are times I forget myself."

[silentscales]

Snake lets out a soft sigh, "So I'm not the only one." There's a brief pause before he adds, "Says Ayn." It was a relief in some ways to not be alone in that fear. "'Marinette and Adrien have been the kindest about it,' says Ayn," Snake says proudly. Welcome to the household of one of the best gods ever, at least in Snake's biased opinion.

[mithrarin]

"I think everyone here has been good about it, honestly. Maybe people are curious, but no one's acted like I'm weird or a freak. I have friends and people I trust, so... Mostly, I don't think it matters."

That wasn't entirely true. On the one hand, he did sometimes still feel apart from others, as he said. For the other, some things were still a burden that wouldn't be a problem if he were human. But on the majority... yeah. Everyone is good to him.

[silentscales]

Snake nods, "I keep expecting it to upset someone," he admits. "I didn't know if it was just me, says Martin." He lets out a little sigh, glad that he's not alone in feeling out of place sometimes, even though he had no reason to have that fear since he arrived.

[mithrarin]

"if it does upset someone, that's on them, not you. We are who we are." That was the closest Dust had ever come to accepting his own personal nature, though he had a much better handle on his species.

[silentscales]

Snake listens carefully to him, considering his words. He nods after a moment, "I don't know why it scares me so much, says Martin."

[mithrarin]

"Stuff like that... probably comes from when you were alive." No easy way to put that, but no sense hiding it either.

Hunting Marinette

[letteropener]

Having heard Adrien's half of things, Celestia knew she really ought to check in on Marinette. And though at this point only duty and obligation compelled her to stir, those were powerful forces inside her indeed.

And thoughtfully, she sent a text ahead, advising Marinette she was on her way. Much less of a chance of running into Adrien that way, which would have been awkward when she was trying to tease information out of the other half of that trouble spot. Or possibly third?

[doodlebuginette]

The text wasn't a huge surprise, but she was still kind of dreading the conversation she assumed was coming. Marinette had been in the middle of making another batch of macarons when it had come in and she'd just put another tray into the oven, so the kitchen was where Celestia would likely find her. With that thought in mind, she went to put some tea on while she waited.

[letteropener]

"Hello, Marinette." Celestia announced herself with that greeting as she paced in, looking at the young mare with gentle warmth and concern. "I hope I'm not interrupting."

[doodlebuginette]

"Hi Celestia!" It was easy to be cheerful despite the way she was feeling, because she'd come to think of Celestia as a really good friend. And honestly, they didn't see enough of one another, so she was going to think of this as a good thing.

[letteropener]

She'll take that as a no, even though it might possibly be a yes.

"How are you doing?" she asked, with just the right amount of inflection to make it clear that the question wasn't the shallow social kind. She actually wanted an answer.

[doodlebuginette]

"Don't worry, you're not interrupting," Marinette insisted, because she realized she hadn't actually answered her before. Oops~

That question gave her pause, though. Because on the one hand, she was generally okay. But on the other, she felt like it might be nice to actually be able to talk about how she felt with someone who wasn't so close to the situation.

"The short answer is not really?" Which probably made it sound a lot worse than it actually was, but such was life.

[letteropener]

"Well, I'm glad for your honesty," Celestia said, smile still gentle. Unconsciously echoing Marinette's thoughts, she added, "I thought you might want a sympathetic ear, after everything I've heard."

[doodlebuginette]

Marinette was nothing, if not honest. Except with Adrien, it seemed. Part of that couldn't be helped before, and she honestly had no idea how she'd managed to go so long without accidentally telling him something she shouldn't. But she'd spent so much time having to keep things from him that it had pretty much become a habit. She was good at it, and she couldn't decide how to feel about that.

"I'm not sure what I want."

Visiting Marinette sometime between Intro log and event log

[swordofzero]

It had been a few days since Suzaku had been reassigned as Kija's shinki, he hadn't taken Kotetsu with him at first as he had wanted to get to know his new god and check that having a kitten wouldn't be a problem.

Luckily it wasn't and so Suzaku was heading back over to Fortuna's temple to collect him. He could have just text Adrien but he wanted to thank Marinette properly for the kindness she had shown in letting him stay a few days and also to check she was alright. Adrien becoming a god was probably very strange for her.

He knocked on the door, a little more confidently than he had the first time he had come here.

[doodlebuginette]

With everything else that had happened, Marinette hadn't even been keeping track of how long Kotetsu had been with them. He was a good kitten and, aside from a brief stand off with Fleur over her part of the sofa, it was pretty easy to forget he was around.

She'd still made a point to show him a little extra attention because she didn't want him to be upset over being separated from Suzaku.

As it happened, she was sitting on the floor and playing with Kotetsu when there was a knock on the door. Adrien and Snake were elsewhere, and she hadn't really stopped them to ask where they were off to. So she just blinked and glanced over at the door. "It's open!" she called out, not really wanting to get up and leave Kotetsu long enough to answer it.

[swordofzero]

It was strange just entering but it had been Marinette's voice who had called him inside so he entered smiling as he saw Marinette playing with Kotetsu on the floor. He had definitely made the right choice in people to look after him, he seemed to be thriving.

"Hello lady Marinette, I'm sorry to disturb you." Maybe he should have called ahead after all.

[doodlebuginette]

She glanced up in time to see Suzaku making his way inside, and gave him a bright smile. "Kotetsu, look who it is!" The comment was mostly for Suzaku's benefit, because Kotetsu had already started to pounce his way over to Suzaku as soon as he'd heard his voice.

"Don't be silly, Suzaku! I promise you're not disturbing us. It's okay."

[swordofzero]

Suzaku went to one knee to greet the kitten who happily bounded into him and sunk his teeth into Suzaku's hand. Suzaku winced slightly but smiled, it seemed the kitten had missed him.

"I hope Kotetsu has behaving himself. How have you been?" His other hand came to scratch Kotetsu's ears and the kitten started batting at his hand playfully.

[doodlebuginette]

Marinette smiled as she watched the kitten bounce right over, and then she blinked. "That's not very nice, Kotetsu," she pointed out, blinking. And certainly not anything she'd had to worry about in the time she'd been fostering him.

"He's been fine, I promise," Marinette told him. "Do you want me to look at that?" His question made her pause, though, because it wasn't really a simple answer. "I've been alright," Mari told him after a moment of deliberation. "How about you?"

[swordofzero]

Kotetsu just purred, seemingly not concerned by the telling off at all. Suzaku just smiled at Marinette, "It's alright, he hasn't broken the skin. I'm afraid cats do not like me as much as I like them."

He petted Kotetsu's head and smiled again though he sensed she was just being polite.

"I am fine. I wanted to thank you again for all your help.... I know you don't know me well but I know things must be strange for you. With everything that has happened. If you wished to speak I would listen."

[doodlebuginette]

It was a little odd, the way the kitten seemed pretty content to just gnaw on Suzaku that way. As far as she could tell, the boy had never done anything to warrant that sort of treatment. But who could really tell with cats? "Well, for what it's worth, I like you well enough," she told him. Mostly, she was trying to make up for the kitten's behavior, but it was the truth.

"Don't be silly. You don't have to thank me for helping you. I wanted to do it," she pointed out. His offer was an awfully tempting one, but she wasn't sure she wanted to take advantage of it just yet. "I'll keep that in mind. And I could say the same to you, just so you know."