nexus_crossings | (no subject)

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Molly had liked being a cat, for the most part. It had been interesting to see things from that perspective, and he'd rather enjoyed that people were quite willing to lavish attention and ear-pets!

But what he hadn't been especially thrilled with? Was how difficult it was to communicate, aside from a scarce few. And the lack of opposable thumbs had meant there was plenty he couldn't do without help.

So back to normal he was happy to go back to drawing cards- while it wasn't unusual to find the tiefling taking over a corner of a bar or a cafe, or something of the sort, he'd decided to go right back to his roots this time, coat spread out like a tapestry, one he plunked down on, tail flicking back and forth behind him as he was easily shuffling his well-worn deck between slim fingers, red gaze flicking over those who passed.

If someone was familiar, or just looked like they'd be fun to talk to? He'd be piping up. "Come friend, have a seat! Keep a troublemaker company! Or maybe you'd like said troublemaker to draw a card or two for you?"

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"Gods, I did the same thing, and some of the others about laughed themselves to tears. By the time I got to an apple I spent over an hour trying to peel the skin with my claws. I'd learned real quickly!"

Molly had no shame about his mishaps. He'd had a lot to learn after all, and well, clearly some things didn't just come naturally!

Caleb smiled slightly as he put the card aside and gestured for Molly to draw another one. "You were lucky to have friends willing to help you learn from your mistakes....I had only those who had come from my village with me and they had to learn the same things I did." He sips his drink again. "and not everyone was kind when we struggled."

"I think aside from Yasha, a lot of the kindness was mostly because being mean to me was like being mean to an especially mobile and chaotic toddler at that point." Molly admitted with a chuckle, flipping his card to reveal a three.

"But now I've got you and your seemingly infinite patience for my nonsense."

Caleb flipped over a six and considered what to tell Molly..he leans on the idea of keeping things easy and then nods as another memory occurs to him. "There was a real Frumpkin," he says, "before my familiar...he was one of the barn cats on my family's farm...and he took a shine to me when I was a child. He was the first real pet I ever had."

"I am used to the Nein's nonsense at this point....what is a little more in the end."

And it means he has Molly back, which is worse than the headaches it may cause.

"I bet you two were the cutest." Molly hummed, setting his chin in his hands with a smile at the idea of a young Caleb running around the family farm with his loyal companion hot on his heels. "And of course he took a shine to you. Who wouldn't?"

Haha enjoy the sudden Compliments, Caleb!

"I had a garter snake for a little while. Found her in one of our wagons and she liked how warm I was more than likely, so she just... curled around my wrist. Named it Ribbon, would feed it whatever little vermin I could catch for it." He smiled, tilting his head as he thought about it. "Ribbon would just... wind around my fingers, or sun herself on one of my horns, her little tongue going at whatever caught her interest."

Caleb reddens again this time ducking his head to hide his blush. Even after all this time he is still easily embarrassed compared to most given the oddness of his life. He looks up after a moment. "Animals are wiser than most will admit....they know when they are safe and when a human needs them."

He smiles. "A snake is fitting for you....but not in a bad way..."

"I had to let her go in the end, we were headed into colder country and she wouldn't have liked it much. But I found a nice little wildflower field for her. Plenty of little things for her to snack on and lots of sunning spots." He remembered how sad he'd been to leave her behind but also the delight that he felt thinking about how nice she'd find her new home.

Smiling fondly he flipped another card, showing a seven, before taking a drink.

Caleb flips over a card with a one on it and then takes a longer drink himself. "My mother used to say sometimes to love something you need to let it go, if it is meant to be it and they will come back to you." He is starting to feel looser than when he arrived and he leans back, snapping the Fey Frumpkin into his lap and petting him gently.

"Your mother sounds like a smart lady." Molly mused with a smile, that widened faintly when he spotted Frumpkin appear in Caleb's lap. "Hullo there ser Frumpkin."

Sitting back, he pondered his options, before snapping his fingers with a chuckle. "The first heavy snowfall I saw. Like I said we were travelling and we moved to colder climates. It dumped snow on us overnight and I absolutely refused to touch so much as the tip of a hoof in the snow. Yasha probably should've just pitched me into a snowbank but she let me ride piggyback for a couple days until I decided the white stuff wasn't going to swallow me up or something."

The tiefling's grin scrawled light and easy. "I mean I spent most of the time braiding her hair every which way I could think of so it wasn't a total waste."

Caleb laughed quietly at the story. "My mother was the one who taught me to make snow angels," he says, "we would go to the fields and lay down to make them while watching the clouds in the sky. We would try to find the shapes and stay there until the stars came out and we would try to find the shapes there too. My father always fussed at us...afraid we would become ill staying out so long."

He laughs again. "A few snowballs thrown his way would convince him to join us."

"Snowballs are fun, it's true." Molly mused with a warm smile at hearing Caleb's laugh. He liked this. Hearing the wizard talking about happier times, good memories.

A bit amused when the next card he flipped sported a one. "If you somehow manage to lose this one I'll be most impressed."

Caleb pulls a ten and thinks of what he wants to tell Molly. "I learned Celestial to impress someone not because I wanted to read books in it ."

Astrid had been so much smarter than him..so much more driven and he'd wanted to show her how dedicated he was to his studies...to her to the Empire.

"As if you aren't just as impressive even without the extra language under your belt." Molly replied with a warm chuckle.

"I..." Oh. Oh it was actually a little embarrassing to admit this to Caleb of all people. Caleb was so smart after all... "Well, I'm fairly close to illiterate."

He shrugged faintly, hiding his flush behind taking a drink. "I mean... I know numbers well enough, a few names, 'danger' and 'keep out' you know, that sort of thing but..."

A short, self-depreciating laugh. "I don't think I'll be impressing anyone with that."

Caleb lets the card spin in his fingers as he thinks. "I would be happy to teach you if you wished to learn," he chuckles softly, "after all I taught myself to read when I was a child. You might think I went to a village school or something like that, but I did not. I was curious about the books held by one of our village's clerics so...I drew letters in the dirt until I knew how to put them together."

He sets the card aside and sips his drink. "It was the first sign I was meant to be more than a farmer."

"Somehow that suits you even more than the good little schoolboy vibe." Molly mused with a fond smile, imagining the idea of a younger Caleb, with a halo of red hair carefully scratching out letters in the dirt of the yard of a little farmhouse. It was incredibly cute, which was also fitting.

"I... think I'd like that though," Definitely would, given it was an excuse to spend time with Caleb without seeming too desperately clingy. "I mean I can't guarantee I'll be a great student but I don't think there's any harm in trying, right?"

Caleb smiles slightly and finally puts the card aside. "Then let me know when you would like to start Molly and I will come back to teach you. And do not...be so hard on yourself...we all have our skills, but we will not always know what they are unless we try something new."

"Well I've got plenty of time to learn so whenever you've some time to be stolen away."

And he couldn't help but flush faintly at Caleb's reassurances, smile warming in response. "I couldn't have said it better myself, knew you were a smart one."

And something occurred to him, the tiefling brightening visibly. "Also! I got some new pets I think you'll be interested to see! They're so weird." Which the tiefling adored if the pleased tone was any hint.

Caleb laughs warmly. "And what sort of odd pets do you have," he asks knowing whatever they are, Caleb is going to be delighted by them. He's enjoyed the weirder aspects of his friends not to.

"Vampire pumpkins." Molly replied, entirely enthused, both by his weird little buddies and that warm laugh that had his heart doing backflips. "They're the cutest things you'll love them."

Caleb laughs again, clearly delighted. "Pumpkins...who are vampires....I did not think such a thing was possible," he muttered, "but in the Nexus who knows what might appear."

"Apparently it's a superstition- leave a pumpkin out in the full moon and it'll become a vampire? But in this case it was a whole patch worth!" Molly whisked the cards off the table and they vanished into a pocket before he was reaching to pluck at Caleb's sleeve. "Come on, back to my place and you can check them out."

Caleb finishes his drink and gets up to follow Molly delighted at how happy the tiefling was. If Molly is happy, then Caleb is happy. "Lead the way my friend."

It wasn't hard to find the tiefling in a cheery mood, but he was always even more happy when Caleb was around. He really did have it bad for the wizard, if just the sight of him had his mood boosting, didn't he?

"Can do!" He killed the last of his own drink even as he was scooting out of his seat, mug back on the table before he reached for Caleb's hand without even thinking about it, like he was going to lead the way hand-in-hand.

Caleb turns a bit pink again as Molly takes his hand given what he'd just been talking about with someone else. But he doesn't pull his hand away. content to give his friend this little thing.

If Caleb wasn't drawing attention to it, Molly wouldn't even think about it, just enjoying the hand in his as he led the wizard back to his apartment.

"Lucky and Gourdie are pretty calm, all things considered but Barbar is kinda aggro. I think they kinda wanna kick my ass in some weirdly affectionate way, but they don't have teeth so all they can do is roll really aggressively into my ankles and such."