[Public | Audio]

[truth_is_cold]

I've been hunting [there's a rustle] though most of the game I was able to obtain is feathered, and bipedal with a counterbalancing tail. [They are dinosaurs. He caught small(ish) dinosaurs.] Along with an extremely large cat that attempted to attack me. Though I'm reasonably sure that these creatures were once native to Earth but are extinct as I know them. I even happened across a much smaller one.

[There is a little mewling noise. It doesn't sound much larger than a kitten.] Unusual, that they exist here, but I've not seen anything that didn't originate on Earth yet. At least to my knowledge. [And now he's curious.]

Who here isn't native to Earth? Even if their founding stock came from Earth, whose species or subspecies didn't evolve or was created there specifically?

[Locked to Dylan | Audio]

[There are any number of matters irritating Gaheris Rhade at the moment. For one, he is still on an unfamiliar alien planet without invitation or consent and is likely the subject of native resentment thanks to being located here, which is not conducive to ultimate success. He's been witness to an unprovoked attack. He despises the limiting collars that have been placed on people, and believes it to be a sign of technological dependency and possible weakness on the parts of their enemies that is unfortunately effective because none of the people he knows to be collared have had theirs removed. And now that his captain is here, his captain is not only not congruent with his time period but he is somehow from 300 years in the future after Rhade's betrayal and what he assumes to be death at the hands of the Systems Commonwealth (because that was how that would have worked, certainly). And said captain seems oddly tolerant of his former first officer aside from this?

He also knows he's not as irritated as he should be because of some outside influence that he can't detect, but had to be informed of.

So he's turned himself back towards the practical; immediate needs such as more clean clothes, pots and pants of some sort, soap and other especially essential items. Because he is vaguely stubbly and his hair is a bit more tossled and flat laying than usual he's just going to make this all his messages audio.]

I'm going to go Edmund's shop to see about some trading, sir.

As there's a storm coming I'm going to start investigating some of the abandoned homes for a more comfortable sleeping location. I heard mention of a Southern City, as well. When the storm passes I request permission to visit it and make inquiries into the history of the area as well as observe how permeable the dome is.

[Formality makes this easy, right? Because humans can't be friends after something like that, though Nietzscheans expect treachery always. So he'll just wait for approval or ideas, because right now he's High Guard, and he'd rather like to avoid becoming dead. He just needs to work out how, if Dylan still exists.]

Comments

[diziet_sma]

I'm not Earth native. I've heard of it [cough visited once cough] but my ancestors aren't from there.

...what was that noise? [The mewling.]

[truth_is_cold]

It's the noise the cat is making.

[He moves the comm closer but- there's a bit of silence. Then he speaks again.]

I stopped for- [It mewls at him while he's talking.]

[diziet_sma]

[Amused:]

Have you acquired a friend?

[truth_is_cold]

I have at least acquired someone that is a fan of feathers from this dinosaur.

Whatever it is. [More adamant meowls are heard towards the end there. He pulled a feather out of its reach.]

[diziet_sma]

[Sma laughs. It's making her miss her hralzi, though.]

At least it sounds friendly.

[truth_is_cold]

[He turns on the camera- away from himself, because scruffy right now. But points it towards the scraggly looking kitten which is getting a mouthful of feather.] It's playful. And sharp. It wants to kick my hand when I get it close enough.

[Poking tiny sharp alien creatures. Rhade = not a naturalist.]

[diziet_sma]

[There are any number of cat-like species across the worlds inhabited by the Culture, so Sma recognises the kitty for what it is, more or less. She has to think a moment to come up with the English word for a baby feline.]

It's a kitten. A baby cat. It's probably sharp because it hasn't learned yet to not use its claws when it's playing.

[truth_is_cold]

That would make sense. Nietzschean children take a while to learn not to catch their boneblades on their cloth- ow ow OW! [because mid-sentence the kitten lost interest in the feather and started scaling Rhade's leg. Mt. Rhade is much more entertaining. There's a wobble of picture and then the comm turns off for a bit, as he has to detach pointy kitten from climbing up his leg.]

[diziet_sma]

[There's a muffled sound that may actually be Sma laughing so hard that she almost snorts. She's actually trying not to laugh at you, Rhade.]

Everything okay there?

[truth_is_cold]

[He's back after a moment, and to only audio. Because... scruffy.] I seem to have survived. [No more kitten mewling. He left it with a feather to take back to its playmates.]

[diziet_sma]

That's good. I was worried that it might have done some damage.

[Because it's, you know, the size of your hand. Snicker.]

[truth_is_cold]

[And all claw.]

I'll give it points for bravery.

[diziet_sma]

They're like that. Amazing what you can do when you don't actually think about how small you are.