The Perk, Saturday morning

[betterthanaplan]

"Right," Duke said, staring at the rat nibbling on a slice of coffee cake across the table from him. "So. You're a rat."

"Clearly," said the rat.

"Named 'Fallacy'."

The rat nodded.

"And you're a demon."

"Daemon."

"Did Lucifer send you?"

The rat facepalmed. Duke didn't know they could do that.

[open!]

Comments

[firstofitskind]

"Morning, Annie," Liam greeted, holding up his cup of tea in greeting. With the arm that had an alien scorpion-thing curled around it, yes.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Good morning," Annie said, her eyes widening slightly at his arm.

And while Annie was totally polite enough to try to figure out a nice way to ask about the scorpion, Joan had more pressing concerns. "Is that thing eating you?" she checked.

[firstofitskind]

"No," Liam shook his head. "'That thing' is Kestrel, and she's fine." It was a little weird how quickly he'd accepted that. Mostly because he figured there wasn't any way this could be permanent.

"I like it here," Kestrel informed Joan primly.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Hi Kestrel," Annie said in a patient, I'm-setting-an-example voice as she pointedly looked to Joan.

"Hi," Joan replied, though she was still eyeing Kestrel a little curiously.

"This is Joan," Annie added, gesturing to her companion, "and today is the weirdest day, yet." Especially if 'today' meant 'the last twenty-four hours.'

[firstofitskind]

"It'll get weirder," Liam said, with the confidence of someone who'd been here a while. "But this is, admittedly, a new one for me."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I think I'm just gonna go with it," Annie decided. "There doesn't seem to be a lot of point in denial."

"You totally tried," Joan pointed out, panting happily. "She tried to pretend I wasn't there for so long this morning."

Which was a trick and a half, considering Joan weighed more than Annie did.

[firstofitskind]

“Yeah, that seems like an exercise in futility,” Liam agreed with a laugh.

“You say that like you weren’t entirely... surprised... to see me this morning,” Kestrel pointed out.

‘Surprised’ was putting it mildly.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"No offense, Kestrel, but you're kind of surprising. At least to me," Annie replied. "Like, at least dogs are an Earth thing."

"Talking ones aren't," Joan sniffed, indignantly.

"Are you not from Earth?" Annie frowned at her.

"That's irrelevant."

[firstofitskind]

“Skrills are an Earth thing!” Kestrel protested.

“They are now,” Liam said. “They weren’t always. They came with the Taelons,” he told Annie, though she’d probably made that leap, yes.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Native to Earth," Annie amended, holding a hand up apologetically. "Do you - uh, Skrills - normally talk, or is this new?"

"Do dogs normally talk?" Joan asked her, rhetorically. "Use your brain, honey."

"I don't know anything about aliens, Joan! The only way to learn is to ask questions!"

[firstofitskind]

“Where I’m from, skrills communicate using- images, impressions, rather than words. Or sometimes, they use light,” he added.

“We don’t normally speak out loud,” Kestrel confirmed. “We don’t have mouths.”

Not that the presence of a mouth was what enabled any of this weekend’s other visitors to speak. But whatever.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"...do you have a mouth now?" Annie wondered before she could stop herself.

Annie was going to need a journal or something to write down all the sentences she'd never said or even conceived of before coming here

[firstofitskind]

"No," Kestrel said. "But the important part is you can hear me all the same."

Because she wasn't actually a skrill, after all, just a physical manifestation of a soul that happened to look like one.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"This place has, like, permutations of weirdness," Annie said, splaying her hands out in a show of exasperation.

"Just go with it," Joan soothed her. "You're not going to get anywhere by denying it all, remember."

Said the talking dog. It was a bit compelling coming from her, Annie had to admit.

[firstofitskind]

"Remember at the beginning of the week, when you thought the lack of superheroes was the strangest thing about this place?" Liam teased.