Small Lurker in Milliways

[lurkingkobold]

Here is a kobold.

To people familiar with the species, it's obviously a young one, not quite three feet tall to the adults' three and a half foot average. Its fur is blueish-grey and relatively dull, a sign that it hasn't been eating properly recently, though it's not thin. It's wearing a simple animal-skin skirt and carrying a stick, not quite long enough to serve as a walking stick, but useful for shielding itself from the worst of the undergrowth at least.

It is moving through the forest at speed, not following any path, and then suddenly it is elsewhere. After a few minutes, it notices the difference in the light; after a few more, it notices that the trees are subtly wrong - wrong species, wrong growth patterns, wrong in subtler ways that defy describing, but that tell the kobold that it is not in the forest where it grew up.

After even more minutes, it stops, having come to a clearing. There is a building, which, despite not being alarmingly large, cannot be traveled around.

The kobold does not have permission to enter the building.

The kobold cannot go back to where it was.

The kobold sits, and waits.

Comments

[lurkingkobold]

This is not an especially gruntled kobold.

She emerges from the bush and falls in beside Tyche.

[scatteredstars]

Tyche considers this, and then leads her inside. Ze conducts a conversation with the bar, and leaves some more trinkets.

Ze then walks her up to her room, stopping outside its door. "Put your hand here, and it will open," ze says.

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold does so.

The door opens to reveal a small cave, with the air inside cool and moist and smelling faintly of smoke and leather and kobolds. The walls are lined with striped flowstone deposits, and a formation of stalagmites hides a nest of leather and cloth blankets. A shallow basket by the door holds three more candy bones.

The kobold goes slightly wide-eyed at this, in wonder, and looks curiously up at Tyche.

[scatteredstars]

Tyche is watching the kobold for her reaction. When it proves positive, ze smiles. "Not what I would have chosen, which just proves how good Millways is at what she does, apparently."

[lurkingkobold]

Tyche is happy. Kobold is sleepy. Tyche is not sleepy. Kobold goes to use the sleep.

She burrows under two heavy leather blankets, the rest of the nest providing padding and insulation from the cool rock below, makes a small noise of contentment, and falls asleep immediately, utterly relaxed.

[scatteredstars]

Tyche closes the door, makes sure it locks, and heads back downstairs.

Ze will be sitting at the Bar when the kobold wakes up.

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold appears, making a small noise of greeting as she closes the last few yards between them, and nudges Tyche, hoping to be petted.

She's smiling, faintly, and seems dramatically more relaxed than she was yesterday.

[scatteredstars]

Tyche gives the kobold a brief puzzled look, and then comprehension. Ze pets the kobold.

"You are a person, you know," ze says, almost conversationally, as ze does so. (There's a hint of determination in zir voice).

[lurkingkobold]

Barstools are rather tall and the kobold is little; this makes for some awkward petting. The kobold solves this problem by climbing the stool and settling into Tyche's lap.

She looks up at zir, makes a vaguely skeptical 'hmm' noise, and then after a moment's thought, speaks: "Reason of think?"

[scatteredstars]

Tyche freezes and holds absolutely still while the kobold is climbing, and for a little bit thereafter. Ze seems to calm, though, after a little while, and resumes petting the kobold.

Ze smiles slightly when the kobold speaks, but this quickly changes to a thoughtful expression. "You have opinions on things. You have your own wants and desires, even if" (this elicits a rather distressed expression) "you seem to be trying to suppress them as thoroughly as possible. You have chosen whether or not to do things, rather than just going with your basic biological programming. --You can make decisions, even if you hesitate to. You have and have used the ability to learn. You can use tools, including language. You can self-analyze. You can communicate, although that's not very good as an absolute indicator. You can navgiate social systems. And that is all just from what I've seen."

[lurkingkobold]

(The translation magic renders this as: You think about things. You want things; I see that you don't want anyone to see you want things, and that you don't want to think that you want things, but you do want them. You make choices, to do things or not do them; you choose like a person. You're scared to choose, but you do it. You learn. You use things; you use language. You think about yourself. You talk - some things that don't talk are people, but most things that do talk are people, and you talk. You think about other people. Those are the things I've seen; there might be more things.)

The kobold listens to Tyche talk, and cuddles zir when ze looks upset, and considers.

"Other of person no do of see," she eventually asserts.

[scatteredstars]

Tyche nods sadly. "Sometimes they don't pay attention. Sometimes the premises they start out with are too hard to look past. Sometimes they just don't want to see."

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold nods, and takes a moment to consider her next words. (Also, cuddles Tyche. That's pretty ongoing, at this point, even if it's not apparently working.)

"Person of no of see - kobold do of tell, person do of danger...?"

[scatteredstars]

(It is helping a little, actually, Tyche would be even less calm talking about this normally)

"Sometimes. Especially if you not being a person is good for them. And sometimes they take their distress at being wrong out on the person they feel caused it. Sometimes they just try to do what they can to apologize, though. And it can be very hard to predict which beforehand."

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold nods - she's making a sour, wryly amused face, at the last bit, but given her position on Tyche's lap it's unlikely that ze can see it.

She thinks for a little longer, but doesn't produce any more questions before settling into calm observation of what's going on around her.

[scatteredstars]

Tyche is happy to let the kobold think for as long as she wants.

In the mean time, ze continues petting the kobold, since she seems to enjoy that. Occasionally ze stops briefly to do something to the air with that hand.

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold does enjoy the petting! She's also curious about Tyche's gesturing, making a small noise to that effect the second time zie does so.

[scatteredstars]

"Haven't quite gotten this AR interface to stop insisting that I use my hands yet," ze says. "I think my muse thinks it's good practice."

Ze looks at the kobold. "What's your world like, in general?"

[lurkingkobold]

Confusion: "world?"

[scatteredstars]

Tyche considers where ze found the kobold. Ze considers the fact that Millways seems to have had trouble translating that.

"The place you're from," ze says, "on a very very big scale. But how things are where you're from on a smaller scale is an equally good question."

[lurkingkobold]

This gets a small noise of comprehension. "Kobold place is of forest."

She considers the rest of the question, then comes up with "kobold do of tribe", and looks to Tyche to see if she's on the right track.

[scatteredstars]

"What is your tribe like?" Tyche asks. (Apparently that is the right track, or at least close enough)

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold spends an unexpectedly long time considering this question, and makes a small distressed noise before speaking.

"Am not of know. Is... am do of go of tribe." She snuggles closer against Tyche. "Tribe do of go of place, tribe maybe do of come of place, maybe do of go of other of place, am not know of."

[scatteredstars]

Tyche knows just enough about this kind of thing that the kobold gets a hug, and more petting.

"Why did you leave the tribe?"

[lurkingkobold]

This question also requires thought, apparently, and it seems to involve more than a little internal struggle. Eventually:

"Kobold do of curious of tigerperson, kobold do of go of tigerperson tribe."