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

[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."

[scatteredstars]

"Oh," Tyche says. The kobold gets another hug.

Ze seems to consider zir next question carefully. "Do tigerpeople not think kobolds are people?"

[lurkingkobold]

Nod.

[scatteredstars]

"That's awful," Tyche says. "Do you want to talk about what your tribe was like before you left, or is that too upsetting?"

[lurkingkobold]

There is pause, a small sigh, and a companionable nudge of Tyche's arm, and then the kobold says "is okay of ask of."

[scatteredstars]

Ze nods. "What were they like?"

[lurkingkobold]

"Kobold tribe is of many of kobold," she says, making a series of hand gestures that work out to mean 'about 85 or 90'. "Is of live of forest, live of cave of forest, live of river of forest - is do of change of place; is do of go of place of many of tribe, do of stay, do of go of place of tribe, maybe of do of change of place."

The description of the tribe's migration is illustrated with hand gestures along the top of the bar, and as she does so, a napkin appears, just far enough from where she's looking to avoid startling her.

[scatteredstars]

Tyche looks at the napkin, still listening to the kobold.

[lurkingkobold]

The napkin reads 'I can loan you some figurines, if you'd like; that might make this easier to follow.'

The kobold continues: "Chief do of choose of place - is thing of all of tribe, chief is of choose of thing."

[scatteredstars]

"Bar says," Tyche intersects, in a break in the kobold's speech, "'I can loan you some figurines, if you'd like; that might make this easier to follow.'"

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold blinks, and twists around to be able to see Tyche's face - she seems confused and skeptical. When Tyche turns out not to share her skepticism, though, she shrugs, "okay."

When she turns back to the bar, there are a few dozen figurines there, arranged neatly. Each one is a realistic depiction of a kobold similar to this one, on a round green base to let it stand easily. They vary in fur color (most are grey or brown, but a few are blonde or reddish or black), height (about a quarter of the figurines are noticeably smaller than the others, which are all about the same height), and other details, painting a picture of a society with a fairly complex set of roles and behaviors. There's also another napkin, reading 'let me know if you'd like any other sets'.

The kobold blinks, and cautiously examines the figurines from Tyche's lap. After a few moments, she makes a startled noise, and leans forward to pick a figurine that looks just like her from the collection.

[scatteredstars]

Tyche also reads the second napkin aloud, indicating it to smallbold. "Bar writes on the napkins," ze adds.

Ze also inspects the kobolds. Ze does not fail to notice that the figurine that resembles the kobold is one of the smaller ones, but is uncertain what the conclude from this other than that she is smaller than usual.

The proportion is wrong for it to make sense as sexual dimorphism. And with the variance in the smaller ones...

Tyche looks them over again thoughtfully. They all appear to be biomorphs without much in the way of augmentations, and all of the tools are wood, bone, copper, bronze, or some variety of stone. The copper and bronze tools are oddly sized for the kobolds, as are the metal parts of the weapons. There is no other visible technology.

The kobold apparently does not come from an at all high tech society.

[lurkingkobold]

One might say that, yes.

The kobold, meanwhile, seems to be a little stunned at her figurine, examining it from various angles and using the tip of one claw to poke at the short length of knotted rope it's carrying.

"...magic?" She seems very confused. "Magic do of kobold? Magic no of do of kobold, am do of see of."

[scatteredstars]

"I don't know very much about magic," Tyche admits. "Not nearly enough to know how that works. Bar?"