Posts by Insanejane

Name- CYRUS
Age- 17
Race- 90% human, 10% unknown. Has a tail, and alternates between animal personalities slightly. Sometimes he is the joyfulness of a canine, sometimes the ferociousness of a feline. His senses are sharp, and he's quick to tell when someone is being untruthful, because of them.
Appearance- 5'10, has a tail that varies in species, very skinny but very strong, nice eyes, slightly shaggy hair. Wears a medieval leather coat and wrist guards, but long flowing pants, which he finds more comfortable.
Personality- Changes with the different animals that he is hinting towards. They don't affect his BROODING, COMPASSIONATE, FRIENDLY personality that loves GAMES and COMPETITION, but they can manipulate it in small ways. The dog likes chase more than the cat, who enjoys hide and seek most of all.
History - Grew up on the streets with a number of small animals, and some larger ones. He had a family that loved him and fed him, so he grew up knowing humans well, but he never told them that he didn't have a family or a bed to sleep in. That would've been a lie. He had his strays, and they had the streets.
Other - Is intensely afraid of ice cubes

Cyrus was awake before the sun was. The mist of the mornings always put his mind at ease, and this morning he took the opportunity to glance out into the horizon, seeing the small town of Nan Ratan, the Marketplace. It would be busy, bustling even, and today he felt like that was the kind of atmosphere he needed to surround himself in.

He needed to check on a few things with the local vendors. First, he would go to the apocathery to get some disinfectant. He was always hurting himself and needed to apply some of the life-saving salve to his small scrapes and cuts. Then he really should go to the jewelers... he'd been carrying a few jewels with him at all times, in case of an emergency came and he needed to strike a bargain, but he worried that the gemstones weren't as illustrious as they could have been - and therefore would not have struck quite a pretty price. After that, he was free to allow his mind to wander, looking at the shops and breathing in the scent of fresh baked bread as it intermingled with mulled wine, the smell of stable, and cut grass in the city air. So unique, nothing quite like it and quite like nothing else.

So, with the sun still shy from the sky, their lover's quarrel from the night before not quite resolved, he began to walk to the city. The roads were well packed from consistent travel, but the dust still got to travel up his legs. It lingered on his flowing pants, but did not stick to his leather coat. His tail became more and more stiff as he got closer to the town; was it because the sun was reaching higher and higher in the sky, or because he was getting excited? He couldn't know. He was just a man. How could a man know anything?

The city... IT WAS SO BUSY! How could it be this way, he asked himself. The streets were more crowded than usual, and he saw that the marketplace had expanded as well. Ah, how it's been a while, he thought. So he walked. His bare feet made no sounds on the worn stone. He shimmied between people and ducked around couples before they could make way for him. He didn't want anyone to see him, just out of habit. But the couples, they WERE cute. They held hands. They looked at the same items in the market. They smiled. Sigh. His thoughts went back to other times, and he retreated back into his mind, brooding, like he always insists he never does. He thoughts of friends and family and all the noble reasons he has to not tell them what his life is like, and kept on thinking about them until the smell of the bread he so dearly loved shocked him from his faded memories and brought him back, chasing bread and basic pleasures. That's what the market is best suited for, after all.

Who are you? He asked. She saw him a minute ago. He saw her see him out of the corner of his eye. Maybe it was a testament to her smile, but he let her catch up after they broke gaze. Sure. She intrigued him. She wanted something, obviously, but who didn't want something in the crazy world they all mutually inhabited? We want as much food as our friends can carry, as the saying goes, not just us.

Survival was an instinct. While some had claws, others had fangs... perfectly white, good-for-grapes, smiling, not-sharp-at-all fangs. She had *those* kinds of fangs. The ones that bit deep into your mind and left a bite mark on your neck from where she had her fun with you. Those fangs were never hungry, because everyone loves a pretty smile. She wanted something, but that was okay. So did he. He wanted to know. And although at the time he didn't notice the way she could simultaneously watch him along with everyone else, or the ease with which the kids flocked to her in glee, he knew it in the back of his mind, and that's what made it so interesting. They might just be able to play a game, and maybe he'd even let her win, like a cat that keels over at the roar of the newborn kitten who hunts.

His tail twitched and he pulled out his jewels. Two tiny emeralds, enveloped around a glass encasing the left them circular and perfectly symmetrical. They both fit within a single palm. In the right light, they glowed. Dimly in the city, but when he canvassed along the forest trails at night with only the most predatorial of companions, they shone so brightly that the darker of the creatures had to fly away, while all of them had to adjust their eyes. Sorry, he'd tell them.

He fiddled with them in his hands. "Mmmm, I'm not so sure. It's been a while since I've been here." He eyed her up and down once. How curious, she had a tail like him. Had he ever seen that before? "Want me to help you look for them? I wouldn't mind a fresh mongo melon!" He wouldn't have minded a chance to learn a bit more about this curious character, either.

He didn't care about the dirt on her hands in the least. Life was never clean, not for anybody. Not for the people in the nice houses scattered throughout this city, and definitely not for the two of them, he imagined. She looked capable.

Their eye contact was brief, but in the split second that it held intensely, he couldn't help but smile his biggest smile as his posture opened up and he relaxed around the young woman. He took her right hand with his and gave her the formal handshake she wanted. "Cyrus," he said, and then raised her arm above her head and twirled her once, smiling broadly as he felt he added to the light seriousness of the situation a more playful touch. She elegantly spun, light on her feet like a prancing cat ready to dance. As she spun, he realized how pretty she was. Her pale skin shone in the light, and her outfit, although casual, spoke of a moving grace and warmth that was likely the source of her seemingly infinite popularity here in town.

She interested him more and more with her mannerisms. Her confidence was alluring and the way she looked so at home in the town made him more comfortable there, just by being with her. He still felt reassured, even as he laughed at himself and realized that SHE was the one, technically, being escorted by HIM right now. But it didn't feel that way.

They talked as they walked, laughing from time to time as they checked the stalls and he offered her goofy hats to try on, dared her to eat the world's spiciest pepper, and told one of the jewelers merchants that he was a relative of the king, dressed up as a common citizen to inspect the quality of the marketplace and the merit of the king's citizens. YOU FAIL MISERABLY, he said, loudly enough for everyone to hear. WHAT PRICES ARE THESE, FOUL MERCHANT, THAT YOU INTEND TO PAWN ONTO THESE UNSUSPECTING CITIZENS. THE KING WILL NOT HAVE IT. They giggled tremendously as the people looking at his wares looked at them with new found horror, before walking away and cursing under their breath that "I knew they were no good.."

He thought of how he ate at home. Well. Not home. In the forest, he thought to himself, is that a place or a home? He picked berries off of trees, he stood in the river until he could sink his claws into a fish, he ate his mongo melons on top of the tallest trees, when he could get them. Every night was filled with fire and his thoughts. All his friends were far off... in the war, in far away towns, heads inside their own a$$es too much to talk to anyone with some measure of civility. Everyone had something, leaving him with nobody. It left him mostly alone, but the city marketplaces around the kingdom were grand displays of entertainment. So many people to watch!

He thought about why she wanted this food, as well. Fresh ingredients, but for who? He asked her about it. "Who are these ingredients for?" He said. He wondered if she had any siblings, or if there was someone else in mind for what they were looking