Jorden

[ginger_firebird]

~Outside~

“Do you know what this is? It’s a wolf. I worked with a woman who loved wolves. She would follow people from a distance before taking them out. I liked her, but she was scary.”

Mantis is in front of the apartment building again. He’s dressed and bundled up in white from the scarves covering his head and mouth to the jacket, scarf, pants, shirt, and shoes covering the rest of his form. Yaga is playing with some votive candles as they sail out of a box and settle into a loose ring around an assortment of objects. In the middle of the ring are several small figurines of animals and related objects: a nest with an egg in it, a white snake, an octopus, a raven, a wolf, and a praying mantis. He adjusts some of the candles by hand, but only with one hand. In the occupied arm is a small and fuzzy looking animal with grey fur and wide purple eyes.

“Watch this. This is the important part.” The little animal chirps with surprise as Mantis waves his free hand over the candles, setting all of them alight at once. He laughs at the noise and sits down, holding the small animal against his chest. “Don’t worry. You’re safe here.”

This seemed to soothe the little animal who trills and nuzzles its face against his chest.

“I’m pretty sure you’re a boy. What kind of name can I give a little boy like you?”

 ~Indoors~

Up in his apartment, Mantis is in the kitchen. The new friend is clinging to his chest and held up in a sling tied around Mantis’s body. Yaga meows quietly and sits on the counter as Mantis cracks open a window to set out several baking trays with cake in them. He looks out onto the world outside and sighs. Yaga walks onto his lap and sniffs at the little friend, getting a scared chirp. Mantis hugs his little friend closer and sighs again.

“I’m never going to enjoy this day, am I?”

Comments

[making_sacrifices]

"I understand. Is dressing in white something done for rememberance?" she asks

"I can introduce you even today."

[ginger_firebird]

"I was raised to understand white is a color for holy days and remembering people. Even if I don't believe, I can still be respectful."

"Can you?" The espurr shifts and climbs his way up to Mantis's shoulder. "If they're up for it, I wouldn't mind company. This isn't a day to be left with my thoughts."

1/2

[making_sacrifices]

After talking to Mantis some more, Allura then leaves and later comes back with another Altean woman. And with the space mice on shoulders, because they've missed Allura. The other Altean woman, well, maybe more a teenage girl than a woman, has a light skin and is a blonde. Definitely seems a few years younger than the princess.

"Keith wanted to go and ask Hiroki Shiro about something, so I left him to that. Mantis, this is Romelle, she's from an Altean colony. Romelle, this is Mantis, from Earth... another Earth? Some reality's Earth," Allura says.

[ihadmydoubts]

Romelle nods in greeting, looking Mantis up and down as if deciding whether he's a threat.

"Hello," she says. "How does everyone already know you? I know I've heard about you here. Do you pilot anything? By the way, I don't. Although, I do some helping on Atlas."

[ginger_firebird]

Mantis stands this time, now in the presence of royalty and someone who said princess clearly put a lot of faith in. He's distracted by the multitude of little...mice? Creatures? Espurr trills happily seeing the princess come back.

"My reputation always precedes me, and my usual outfit is...striking, to say the least. I have a very distinct mask I usually wear." He's not surprised that knowledge about him has started to spread far and wide. "I'm not a pilot. I think I'm better at crashing airborne vehicles than anything else to do with them."