Corey Jackson (followthesigns) wrote in downfallrpg, @ 2010-05-25 22:59:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2015-09-07, corey, corey and dhaval, dhaval |
Intimidating the Locals
Who: Dhaval and Corey
Where: The lobby
When: Early-ish morning
Dhaval was onto the third book Tayne had brought him. He was trying to take it as slowly as he could, but he felt starved right now. Back in the world that was, he'd stopped by the library on the way home from work twice a week, and when he wasn't typing away on his computer, he was buried in some novel or other. The selection he had now was rather random, of course, a couple generic spy novels, a children's book (probably miss-shelved, and luckily an old favorite) with unicorns, something about dragons, something else about pirates, only in space, and an Agatha Christie. Most of them he wouldn't have picked out himself, but Dhaval required words the way most people needed food, and he had to fight not to devour what he had.
He'd wheeled himself out into the lobby to read in a bit of sunlight. He didn't want to ask anyone to take him outside, and though he mostly felt better physically, he was a little weak, low on energy. He needed more sun, something to keep him warm at night. Well, preferably someone... He was trying not to drive himself distracted with worry, but Tayne was all he had to focus on outside his attempts at writing and the books he had to ration. He looked half asleep where he sat, eyes flickering quickly back and forth on the page.
The room was small but adequate, and the first thing Corey had done the night before was set out food for the cats and Blitz, fed himself from a cold cup of soup, and set about unpacking. Today, the goal was exploration. Because it was habit, he had his rifle with him, but it was held loosely, not in any kind of ready position. Blitz, of course, was with him, because he didn't trust her yet not to try haring off on her own and eating someone. That, and he liked the familiar company in the unfamiliar surroundings.
Rather than starting from where he'd begun, his room, he took the stairs down to the first floor, which he imagined was more interesting and useful than hall after hall of closed doors for individual rooms. Plus, he might be able to find the power sources and see what he could do about those.
Heading out into the lobby as the most effective starting point, he stopped at the sight of a man in a wheelchair over by one of the mostly-boarded windows. One of the survivors was in a wheelchair? How had he managed that one?
Another reason to be out in the lobby was the hope of socializing. Dhaval didn't think it was polite to bother people while they were eating, never mind take up all the space his chair needed in the kitchen, so he didn't wait there. That left precious few opportunities to catch a moment's conversation. Sleepy as he was, it took a moment to internalize that he'd heard someone approach. In no special hurry (probably Taylor or maybe Pepper), he finished the rest of the current paragraph and marked the page with a corner torn from the second legal pad he'd filled. He looked around with a slightly strained smile. That the man was a stranger and a bit alarming didn't worry him particularly. All strangers were alarming and almost everyone was essentially a stranger, so everything else was a matter of degree. He let the book rest on his lap and waved a bit. "Um, hello. New?"
"Yeah," Corey answered, unable to be quite as suspicious as he might otherwise have been. A guy in a wheelchair really wasn't much of a threat, not unless he had a gun hidden on him somewhere, and even then, Corey could probably shoot him before he shot Corey. Or hit him, even. He approached, slowly and warily regardless, and added, "Since last night. Take it you're a hotel-group veteran?" If he was asking about newness.
Blitz slunk out from the hallway, behind him, her tails twitching and one of the tentacles on her back unwinding to trail along the wall, almost like a child feeling at the wall to keep herself on course. Her eyes were fixed on Dhaval, though since she wasn't hungry, it was more in animal suspicion than actual hunger.
"Uh, hmm, I guess I was pretty early. In the scheme of things." Dhaval considered. He wasn't quite sure when he'd arrived. He'd lost track of days a little before Pepper found him. Not entirely, but enough so he didn't bring up exactly how quickly he'd gotten here. "Lucky me. I wouldn't, um, have made it. Well, much longer. Alone." He really wasn't sure. He might still have been alright in his apartment, unless some monster had busted the door down. He'd have been alright, physically, until the water gave. Mentally? He didn't want to guess. Dhaval was about to continue, ask about Corey's name, maybe, when he spotted Blitz. His eyes followed the cat in return, frightened, but just as interested. No natural creature, but Dhaval still loved animals, especially the peculiar ones.
"Huh." Corey would've been just fine alone, thanks, but here he was, anyhow. "I was off by myself, too, but I knew this was coming, so I was ready, anyway." He snorted at that, at the whole rest of the world, not seeing this coming... the signs had all been there. The end is nigh, and all that crap. He half-turned to follow wheelchair-guy's gaze, and added, "Wouldn't pet her, if I were you. Not all the way tame yet, and even then, well, she looks like a cat. Some of that cat-stuff is still there, like being picky about who touches 'er." That pretty much gave it away that she was his, but the more people who knew that, the better, even if he'd prefer not to outright say it. He couldn't have said why. He just didn't want to.
Dhaval was so confused by that set of statements he didn't have a reply right away. He was about to start sputtering about knowing this would happen. He'd have been inclined to call the man crazy, but nothing really seemed crazy when there was a monster tentacle-cat nearby, and maybe there'd been some kind of clue. He would certainly miss it if there had been. Secret conspiracies or alien judgments or massive viral mutations didn't advertise on city buses. And while the blogosphere had certainly been full of such ramblings, Dhaval had stuck to book reviews, handicapped support groups, and rambling essays about nothing. But before he could even try to comment, he was being warned about a monster the way he might have been about a pesky child or a temperamental dog. He nodded and collected himself, deciding the cat thing was okay. After all, he slept with a tiger when he had the chance. "Uh, you... You knew?"
"Knew something would happen," Corey shrugged. "The government experiments with what they don't understand, something gets away from them. They've been messing with biological weapons for decades, and now it finally bites them in the ass. And everyone else, too. --Blitz, no." He'd caught the impulse in her head to take a leak in a corner. "'Scuze me, I need to take her out before she stinks up the place. C'mon, cat." He should've brought a litter box for the actual cats, but he simply hadn't had room. He'd bring them out later, too.
"Oh, okay." Just in a general way, then. Dhaval had enough imagination that it didn't sound completely insane to him, and he knew his history well enough to bring to mind LSD experimentation, refusing to treat syphilis patients and lying about it, poisoning industrial alcohol during prohibition... "You're, um, right about that..." Dhaval watched him with the cat, intrigued. It definitely boded well for his and Tayne's plan to raise their monsters. "Um, are you headed outside?" He knew he was something of a burden, but he hadn't had full, direct sunlight for days now. "Could I maybe... Could I, um, follow? It's just, well, I metabolize light and heat instead of food... Haven't, uh, been able to get out in a bit..." Worst power ever.
Corey, halfway to the door already, paused to stare incredulously at the wheelchair-bound man. "You what?" he asked dumbly, unable to properly process that. "You metabolize... light and heat?" How the hell did that happen? Currently, he hadn't really called what he did a "power", or really even noticed it much. It just happened, and he half-assumed, when he did think about it, that everyone had the same connection to the new "animals" as he did. There hadn't been much else he'd really witnessed to suggest changes in people who survived-- not yet.
Dhaval hadn't considered that the guy might not have been told about the "power" thing. They really needed a better name for these things. One that sounded less like they were all characters in a summer blockbuster. But some people had pretty quiet little abilities, and he hadn't even guessed that making Blitz behave was Corey's. Dhaval was willing to behave she was just a pretty tame monster. "Oh, um, did you not get that message? It, um, seems like all of us have... Powers. Like, um, a friend of mine turns into a tiger." Tayne was a weird example, but he was definitely at the top of Dhaval's list. "Or... There's a kid with wings, I think, and someone who makes electricity... I don't eat. I, well, I guess I sort of... photosynthesize? Worst power ever..." He was still mildly embarrassed by it.
That was insane. But Corey had no reason to think the guy was lying-- not if he seriously didn't eat, and seriously needed to go outside into the sunlight. After a moment longer of staring, and Blitz giving him a very impatient sort of look, he shook himself a little and went to open the door. "Uh, sure. I suppose I don't mind if you come outside. It's not like it's private property." Hand on the door, he added, "Someone really turns into a tiger. And someone else has wings." This was the weirdest conversation he thought he'd ever had-- and he'd had some very weird conversations before. What made it weird was that it was serious-- and he was pretty sure he wasn't hallucinating.
Which reminded him: "Like that little girl with four arms."
Dhaval had to think for a moment before he remembered her. He hadn't seen anything of the few children here, but it was hard to miss that little one. "Um, yes. If I remember, the guy with wings is her brother..." At least the kids weren't alone for the most part. "There are others... I, uh, I don't socialize a lot. I can't get off this floor and, uh, people don't usually come down without a reason... I'm not exactly, uh, the person to talk to for news. I'm usually, uh, the last to find out." He wished he could remember more powers. Someone was a telepath, weren't they? And Loren did that sonic scream thing, which sort of made him glad he'd gotten something so quiet.
Finally opening the door-- Blitz bolted out-- Corey answered, "Well, you know more than I do. So there's that." He held the door open for Dhaval, in a moment of semi-politeness. He wasn't stupid, and his mind was working over the concept of "powers" and changes, frowning as he tried to grope towards the thought he was trying to have. "And everyone has these... whatevers? Powers? Nobody doesn't?" If that was the case, maybe this "monster sense" he had wasn't so normal.
"I don't know. I don't think, um, that anyone's more special... Some people, well, hadn't noticed anything yet. But some of them, uh, are pretty subtle... I don't know. I think everyone's got them? Most people, uh, at least." He didn't exactly feel like an expert on the subject. Of the people he saw regularly, Pepper was large, Taylor hadn't mentioned anything, and Tayne was a tiger. Not exactly a good sampling. "Well, like, uh, like I said, I miss things." He started to knot his fingers together and winced at the broken one's twinge.
"Right." The guy also stammered a lot. Corey gestured towards the open door. "You comin' out or not, kiddo?" Everyone was a kid to Corey, technically, around here. He hadn't really registered the splinted finger-- or rather, hadn't considered its impact on his mobility-- so he didn't offer to help. Besides, he'd had worse; broken fingers were nothing, and he fully expected this guy to require no allowances for it. "Think talking to monsters counts as a power?"
"Well, I can't do it. Huh, wish I could. That'd, um, be real useful for when the eggs hatch..." He'd been planning on mostly just relying on food and physical affection and hoping the babies would impress on him or Tayne the way baby birds might. Someone who could talk to them would be much more useful. "That sounds about right to me. As a power, I mean." He was actually glad to be left alone to wheel himself behind Corey. He didn't even much like it when Tayne pushed him, let alone a complete stranger. Speaking of which... "Oh, I'm, um, Dhaval Singh."
Eggs. Those eggs were this guy's? Corey followed him the rest of the way out with a frown, this time of interest. "Corey Jackson," he replied absently, staring off towards the truck and the little nest he'd found. From the... sense of them, he supposed, they still hadn't hatched, which was probably a good thing. "That's yours, then?" He pointed with the barrel of the rifle towards the truck. "I found 'em when I stopped by yesterday."
"Well, not exactly. They're, um, Tayne's. The guy who turns into a tiger. I've been helping, um, well, a little..." He realized that with Tayne gone and him sick until this morning, the eggs hadn't been turned. And Tayne had the keys, not him. "Oh, I hope they're alright... He's with, um, the missing group. And I've been sick. Without, um, the keys..." He was already very fond of the babies, even if they had yet to be acquainted, and he could only hope they were safe. "Um, wait... The trailer's locked. How did you...?"
Tapping the side of his head, Corey grinned just a little. "Felt 'em. That monster-talking power, I guess, did it. And there was this kid, Jasper, who can't talk but who picked the lock for me when I told him there was something in there. You don't have the keys? That's a pain. Suppose I could track down Jasper again." Because he would love to check on them again, himself.
Scanning the parking lot and finally spotting Blitz, he added, "There's people missing?"
Dhaval sighed and nodded. "Tayne, a couple of the younger kids... Not the little ones, um, teenagers. Keith and, um, Verity? Odd name. And this woman named... Jasmine. They went to look for some others who were missing. They've been found but, uh, we lost some more in the process..." Dhaval closed his mouth firmly. He wasn't going to think of Tayne as lost. Just missing. Temporarily. And those others, too. He'd have to make a point to meet more people so he would be able to recount more than shakily remembered names if something like this happened again.
"As if 'Tayne' isn't a strange enough name, itself," Corey commented, vaguely amused at the distinction, but he gave the truck one more thoughtful look. He cared vaguely about the missing people, but the truck and the eggs within were probably more pressing, unless there was a search party leaving that minute. "You think this Tayne took his keys with him when he left to go missing, then?"
"I, well, I'd guess... He, um, he usually kept pretty good track of things. I guess they could be in his room, too." Tayne's room was, as far as Dhaval was concerned, about as far away as his friend. He didn't even know which was Tayne's. He'd never asked. "I, uh, wouldn't have any way to know... He, um, goes out all the time. Mr. Hero." His smile was fond, but he couldn't help but wish Tayne would be a little more careful. "Didn't expect this to be, well, different."
Well, damn. "Guess if I want in I need to either find the lock-picking kid or track down your friend's room to ransack it for keys. Which, I guess, I'd need the lock-picking kid to get into, anyhow...." All of which meant he wasn't likely to get at those eggs any time soon. "Or find your friend. However likely that might be." Probably not very, going by himself, even with his monster-talking. He didn't imagine he'd be very good trying to talk down a whole pack-- if it even was animals he'd have to talk down.
Dhaval felt he should object in principle to ransacking Tayne's room, but he was pretty sure his friend would rather the eggs were kept safe. Even so, he was awfully territorial in that tigerish way of his, and he might not take kindly to the incursion into his personal space. "Um, well, sounds like finding him would be the best plan." He'd far prefer having Tayne home to any other options. "There's, uh, a search party going out. Well, I think. It's not as though I could go. I mean, even if I weren't... just going to, um, slow everyone down... Obviously... Um, Tayne has my gun and I can't really use it anyway."
"Oh yeah?" Corey glanced back at the hotel with some interest. "You might not be, but I figure I would be." He had his rifles. He had his monster-sense. He had Blitz. He imagine he could be pretty useful, indeed.... "Where they leavin' from, and when? Think they'd take another hand?" Even an untried and unfamiliar one who probably wouldn't trust any of them and would probably make them all uncomfortable. Whatever.
"Probably." Dhaval was willing to believe just about everyone had something to offer such a party. Had it not been for the general uselessness of the lower half of his body, he knew the gist of boyscout tricks, was observant, and, at least in his more mobile days, had been pretty good at sneaking. Enough to win at hide-and-seek with his cousins, at the very least. He'd have been alright, if not for the major liability. "But I, um, I don't know the details. No reason anyone would bother to tell me, after all." One had to just accept and move on. He tried to bask in the outdoor light, but the thick, foggy day didn't feel that nourishing. A lot better than nothing, though.
"Guess I'd better find out, then," Corey decided. "See what I can do about getting you your friend back." And, a little more importantly to him, find out more about those eggs, and get access to them somehow. They really did need people to keep the human race going, but Corey wished he didn't have to deal with them, himself. "You gettin' enough light, there?" It wasn't exactly a sunny day, and he had no idea how much he could suck up. Plants didn't really like cloudy days, either, did they? Hell, he had no idea.
"Better. More than I've had since Tayne went missing, anyway." It was a risk to have him outside. Following Corey was one thing, but asking someone to come out and risk a monster attack just so he could get the equivalent of a nice meal was selfish. At least this man seemed perfectly capable of taking care of himself. And perhaps capable of shoving Dhaval aside and running back inside to leave him to an attack, should it come to it. Maybe he shouldn't think of it, but he was oddly neutral about the whole idea. Pragmatic, after all.
"How long you need?" Corey asked, aware he was basically being a bodyguard, at the moment. Since Blitz could use some time to stretch her legs, and he knew he'd never be able to coop himself up inside all the time, he didn't really mind. Besides, he couldn't sense anything dangerous nearby. Sense. That was definitely strange to think about so frankly, that he was actually sensing them, not guessing or otherwise making his presence known to them. He'd just never really seen them as all that dangerous, really-- something to be wary of, but not to be terrified of. "Don't cut yourself short on my account. Blitz is enjoying her run." He actually didn't know where she was, anymore, though he could vaguely tell she was off towards their left, across the street now in the parking garage. That seemed about as far as he could stretch it.
"I could probably soak up sun forever..." Dhaval pulled himself together forcefully. Blathering aimlessly had gotten to be too easy a habit over the time he'd spent sick, and he'd have to pull back on that again. "But, uh, I'm fine to go inside whenever you want to. I really don't need much... Technically don't need any. I can get by on ambient heat and the little bit of light that gets through the windows." He understood why everything had to be boarded up, but what he wouldn't give for a nice big picture window, at least... "She's pretty," he said vaguely, nodding in the direction he figured the cat... thing had to be.
"Hrm? Who?" Corey glanced back at Dhaval, then realized he must have meant Blitz. He hitched a shoulder. "Oh. She's all right. Different-- took some getting used to, really, at first. I have cats, you know. She's like someone took a cat and twisted it around, and tripled its size... took me some time. Though 'least she doesn't always act like a cat, too. Else I'd never've trained her, at all." Everyone knew cats only did what they wanted. They learned some things, but only acted on them if they felt like it. Blitz was more obedient than his cats ever were.
"My Mom's cats came when she called and did a couple tricks apiece... Maybe just her, though. Scary lady." Dhaval realized that once again he'd been talking about them as though they were still present, still alive. And he didn't exactly want to stop, but he as good as knew they were gone. All he could hope was that they'd been together and that it hadn't been painful, that they'd just died, not become those twisted messes. He assumed that Corey did something similar with referring to his cats in the present tense.
Not exactly, but Corey wasn't exactly going to correct the thought if he couldn't tell it was there. "Or perhaps they just loved her. I'm not sure Blitz likes me at all." He smiled very faintly. "I just feed her and keep bigger monsters from eating her, so she hasn't abandoned me yet, and does what I say to some point." He just hoped she kept it in her head to leave the people in the hotel alone. That wasn't something he thought he could smooth over. Maybe he could make her a cat door out the window... she could climb down well enough. Though it'd be a pain to keep anything else from getting inside, too. It would take some thought.
"Well, cats like being admired." Dhaval considered. "And, well, once you get beyond the strangeness, she's very pretty." He was talking about a monster. There was no obvious reason he shouldn't be. He was hoping for dragons to hatch from Tayne's eggs, for heaven's sake. But it was still strange to admire one of those twisted things. He wondered for a moment if he really should be hoping his parents were dead and not changed, and then wondered again if he might still be a tad bit feverish. He turned his face toward the sun, knowing its position despite the haze, and closed his eyes to enjoy the light.
Smirking with mild amusement, resting the butt of his rifle on the sidewalk and looking out in the direction Blitz had gone, Corey asked, "So you think I should start complimenting her and she'd start liking me more?" ... though actually, now that he could actually make himself understood by those animals, if he could make her understand what a compliment was, that was a little possible. It was a thought, anyhow. It'd make the little family a little more comfortable if she actually felt affection towards him rather than tolerance.
"Well, who doesn't enjoy a little adulation?" Dhaval smiled a bit. He missed pets. Not that he'd ever had a proper one, but he'd liked visiting. If only some animals had made it, too. Not only would super-powered dogs be fantastic, but they'd be great for morale and help with guarding and hunting and such. Dhaval turned his chair a little toward slightly stronger sun. The air was so wet and heavy with the warm fog that he could feel moisture beading on his skin. What an odd day, weatherwise. A depressing sort of Labor Day. Pity, between the illnesses and disappearances, that party he and Tayne had meant to plan had just never come close to fruition.
"Creatures who don't understand what it is," Corey answered the rhetorical question with a little snort. "But we'll give it a shot." It was worth a try, probably later when he was by himself so he didn't wind up looking like an idiot in front of anyone. Like this wheelchair guy.
Blitz was making her way back, he could just barely see her leaving the building across the street and trotting back, both tails in the air and a couple tentacles waving around on her back, like even more proud flags that just happened to be in the middle of her back rather than the end.
"I guess I, uh, see what you mean. About her being something other than cat, too, but I can't think of any cats I knew that, well, that wouldn't have liked a bunch of weird cilia." The possibilities were endless. Annoying people, knocking things over, displays of great catty glamor and desirability. He was so busy being amused at the idea that he didn't bother to be cowed by Corey's dismissal. Or maybe he was growing a slightly thicker skin. Not only did Blitz and her companion represent a good distraction from worrying, but she represented hope that his plans for the eggs would pan out, and at least that was one hope alive.
"Cilia?" Corey repeated, glancing away from the growing brown and purple figure in the distance, and back down at Dhaval. "What the hell is a cilia?" He had to guess maybe the tentacles, but biological sciences had never been his thing-- he'd been more of an engineering type, all the way-- and besides, school had been decades ago, so even if he'd learned the term, he sure didn't remember it now.
"Oh, um, little projections on cells." He didn't remember the details himself. "Just, well, lots of them, and all about the same length and kind of neatly arranged... I don't know, I guess that's just what they look like to me." Not very accurate. Just one of those vague impressions and a reminder that he shouldn't let his mind have quite such a direct conduit to his mouth if he didn't want the whole surviving human race to think he was a huge lunatic. "Um, well, authors are funny people. It's probably, you know, safe to ignore most of what I say..."
"Uh-huh," Corey said, letting it go when he realized the guy was talking pretty much nonsense, or at least nothing Corey knew or cared anything about. "I compared them to vines, myself. Little less heady than cell-pieces." He focused back on Blitz, who looked like she was dragging something in her mouth. "Looks like she killed something. Wonder if it's edible." While Corey himself hated to shoot the monsters, since he could literally feel them die, he wasn't above eating from Blitz's kills. It saved his canned food for longer.
Dhaval looked over, interested. He found himself sometimes wondering (what did he have to do most of the time but let his mind wander?) how the monsters would resolve themselves into just a new sort of animal. They'd shown every sign so far of learning to cope, use their new bodies and senses to survive like any other creature that had ever lived. What would one of those small monsters look like? Just as weird as some of the big ones? Would there be small generalist monsters that had lots of babies and were the general diet of big ones? "Well, um, probably. Every one they've eaten around here has been fine." Not a lot, admittedly.
"Well, if it's a bug-monster, it'll really only be something Blitz can eat. Which I guess will save on the cat food, anyway." Corey shrugged. "Do the ovens and stoves and such here still work?" Though if Dhaval didn't eat, he might not know what worked and what didn't, if anything. Corey could always find out himself; it just might result in a wasted trip, if so, that was all. "Since you obviously don't have power, if the stoves are electric...." If they were gas, they might still be okay.
"I haven't really been in the kitchen much... But it must be gas. Um, people have been cooking all along. Well after the electricity went. Can't last forever, though." He added a future gas leak and the fun of wood-burning to feed everyone to a list of worries. If he couldn't add much else to everyday survival, at least he could try and fret productively. "Insects are edible, though. Um, pretty nutritious, too." Not all of them, he figured, but his boyscout manual had stated that grubs were more nutritious than steak and he'd eaten silkworms once. Pretty good.
That was encouraging, that other people had been cooking things. Snorting a bit at the rest, Corey said, "Well, suppose you're right, there." They'd eaten bugs in 'Nam. Not that he wanted to ever, ever do that again, though.... "Whatcha got, Blitz?" he asked, dropping to a crouch to see. The cat-shaped monster dropped a centipede-like creature covered in feathers and with two heads, one eye apiece, onto the pavement in front of them. "Well, that don't look very appetizing."
Dhaval didn't think it looked much less appetizing than a lot of things he'd seen through his window, or what his imagination made of the sounds that left him on edge all night. At least it was small. "Careful of it. Um, we had this... Well, it um, seemed to be an illness, but it was poison from small spider-thing bites. Knocked me out for, well, days. Only now feeling mostly all here. Uh... Well, I guess, as all here as I ever can be... Um, anyway, could be it's venomous, and stingers can, well, hold onto poison after the thing's dead."
"I'll make sure there's no stingers," Corey assured him dryly, and eyed it critically before picking it up by a clump of feathers. It looked like Blitz had already taken a few bites out of it, or at least mauled it pretty well while she was killing it. "Shame to think of these guys being poisonous, though. One more danger to worry about." He straightened, taking what was probably going to be breakfast with him, and said, "Guess it's about time to head inside, again. If you've got enough of this dank sunlight to last you, anyway."
"Well, I think they took care of that nest, anyway. Though if you have a, um, a sort of round rash, well, it's not fatal... Not pleasant either, though." Dhaval sighed. He was running out of steam here. That Corey thought he was kind of a waste of carbon was pretty clear. On one level, it was better than the fake friendliness he often earned by dint of his wheels, but he'd gotten a little overused to having slightly easier conversations. Spoiled. Oh, well.
It wasn't even Dhaval's fault that he was being treated like a waste of carbon. Corey treated most people like that. The fact that Corey was giving him the time of day at all was mostly to be chalked up to the fact that he found Dhaval relatively harmless and mildly amusing. "I'd offer to cook this up and share," he said, making his way back to the door and opening it for them both, "but since you don't eat, and this probably would make a pretty small meal for two people--" And probably a pretty small meal for one person, if the person was Corey's size. "--probably best I don't."
"Vegetarian, anyway." Dhaval shrugged a bit as he followed Corey inside. "Raised that way. I, um, didn't have meat until I was ten... and it didn't go down so well." The silk worms were so little they'd hardly seemed to qualify as animals, and he'd only had a very few, just to say he had. Though this thing looked like insect life, its sheer size made it seem much more like a proper animal (well, for a given value of proper). He wondered what it had been before. Maybe a largish bug. Maybe a squirrel, for all he knew. Dhaval wasn't sure how far the mutations could go.
"More for me, then," Corey said with some satisfaction, holding the door open for Blitz. When she hung back, he barked, "Move, cat." She gave him a surly hiss, but she did slink inside. "I'll even cook this up for you in some sauce, if you stop dawdling. Not that you even know what I'm saying unless I make an effort." He let the door fall shut and took a moment to make the effort, picturing a sliver of the meat smothered in alfredo sauce, which he'd found she liked after she stole half his pasta one night. That worked, and she perked up with obvious interest, making him chuckle.
He wouldn't have expected that to work, but maybe mutated monster cats were inclined to the gourmet. Dhaval wasn't inclined to question. He couldn't help but notice the man wasn't even paying attention to him anymore. He didn't exactly mind, but he wasn't sure if he should just settle back into his sunbeam again and keep waiting for Tayne or if he should try and extract himself politely. "Um, so, thanks for the escort. I don't quite dare go out alone. I guess I'll... see you later?"
"I'm hard to miss, so probably so," Corey agreed, giving the outside one last thoughtful frown. "I'm off to the kitchen for this, then I'll see what I can do about that search party thing." Starting off in the general kitchenly direction, he waved the rifle he still carried in a sort of farewell. "Thanks for letting me know about it." The sooner they found the guy, the sooner he could look in on those eggs.