[Log] Fuzzybits Who: Kamizuki Izumo and Uchiha Itachi When: July 12th Where: Outside in the woods What: Izumo and Itachi discover the results of the experiments... They have a civil little chat. Open or Closed: Closed Observable: No
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Now that he was certain his cousin was alive and in one piece (mostly), Itachi went in search of his other invalid friend, Izumo. This was more business. Itachi had a few profiles on those he’d been working with he wanted to let Izumo know about. Also, he wanted to ask about Nikev, the organ sampler and see if he’d been trying to gross Itachi out or if he was actually going to try sampling Itachi’s organs next time he fell asleep without a knife in hand.
That was part of the reason Itachi had been sleeping with Shisui last night.
There was also the problem of Itachi’s....tail...
Pants were a small problem. Now that he was aware of it, he didn’t like having it inside his pants. It wiggled and twitched in accordance to his mood. Since Itachi didn’t lack a tailbone, he thought they must have just stuck the tail on just below the dimples of his hips. However they had done it, the tail worked. It was awkward for pants. For now, Itachi had resorted to letting his pants sit low on his hips. He wasn’t sure how cutting a hole in his pants would work. He didn’t want lots of pants with holes in them.
Itachi was prowling around the grounds. Izumo should be around somewhere.
Izumo was curled up in a tree, wiggling his new additions, surprised that he could actually hear more. It was...strange, and they moved and he was figuring that out. Little muscles in his head and neck fluttered as he twitched them. He was draped over an oak branch, healed-stiff leg dangling. He had his chin propped in his hands, his other leg curled under him, and he was wearing a grey T-shirt and his ninja black pants. They were more forgiving than jeans.
A small bird landed on the tree behind him. Izumo’s new ears twisted around to focus on that, and he marveled at the instinctive reaction.
Better to be astonished than totally freaked out, after all.
Itachi came up behind Izumo and decided that jumping into the tree would scare him too much. Instead, he simply walked further, passing under Izumo, then turned and looked up at him.
Izumo glanced down at the movement, ears flattening back into his hair. “Oh. Itachi. Good morning.” He blinked. Those were...oh damn. Those were cat ears.
Izumo really didn’t like cats.
His lips curled a little before he smoothed them. “Oh, they got you too, huh? I knew all that money was too good to be true.”
Itachi blinked, ears twitching forward. “You got paid for this?” Maybe they assumed that Itachi had so much debt he would do anything to get out of it. That was true, but he would have objected to having a furry tail attached to his butt.
“Did they ask if they could put ears on you?” Itachi cocked his head and crossed his arms. He could feel his tail lashing. This...this was weird.
“Well, no, but they offered money to anyone who would volunteer for an experiment. A fourth of your debt. I knew there was a catch, but...” Izumo shrugged a little and eyed Itachi. “You didn’t volunteer?”
“I fell asleep on a transport and woke up with them. I guess I could have agreed to anything on the ride over or right before...” The drugs they used to knock them out for the rides still played hell with Itachi. He was hung over for about fifteen minutes afterwards, and he tended to forget what happened right before he was knocked out.
A fourth of the debt, though...
Itachi sighed. “Mine’s so big, I guess that’s why I got extra...”
Izumo frowned. “Mmm. That’s a lot less fair than I was supposing.” Granted, he hadn’t thought they would be fair, but at least they’d asked for volunteers. They hadn’t given a full disclosure, but... Izumo shook his head. “Extra?” he queried.
“Extra.” Itachi wasn’t sure what kind of ears Izumo had. It sounded like izumo had some, but Itachi wanted to know what kind of ears Izumo had. His own twitched, which made his head ache a little.
Itachi smiled. “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” Share and share alike.
“I thought you’d already seen mine,” Izumo asked, but mildly. He hadn’t been hiding them, exactly, when Itachi had been walking up, but... He peered down at Itachi curiously. “I suppose you can come on up....”
He pushed himself into a sitting position, carefully, wincing as his hip twinged. It was muscle-sore, not aching-hurt, but still. It was tender. He shifted back, putting his back against the tree’s bole, making room for Itachi to join him. He wasn’t exactly truly comfortable with Itachi, but they had a truce at least.
“All I saw were circles.” Itachi didn’t know what they were. He walked back under the tree a bit and kicked off the trunk, allowing him to get high enough to grab the branches. Itachi then scrambled up onto the branches and easily made his way to the branches where Izumo was. Itachi couldn’t exactly sit well. He was hyper aware of snapping his tail off.
“Mouse ears?” Itachi asked, wrinkling his nose as he stayed crouched on one branch, tail twitching back and forth.
Izumo scrunched his nose, which had the wierd effect of making his ears come to attention. he didn’t know the how or why of it. He only knew what worked. He eyed Itachi, noting immediately the awkward way Itachi was crouching. His ears laid back once he stopped concentrating. “Yeah, I think. And you have calico cat ears.”
Itachi sighed and twisted around. “And that. At least I’m lucky.” Itachi gave the little tail, which twitched irritably in circles, a pointed glare. Did this mean he got paid extra? He had been badly injured and then died--did it matter if a quarter of his debt had been paid? He was probably very deeply in debt.
Izumo's eyes widened before he smoothed his face. He was instantly grateful that he only had ears! He eyed the tail carefully, and was amused by the calico pattern.
"Well, I guess that is extra...." Izumo mused.
“Yes. That is extra. Have you seen anyone else with a tail, or are they making a special spectacle of me, Izumo-san?” Itachi asked, leaning back a little. “Also, so you have suggestions for how to modify clothing for a tail?”
Itachi, for some reason, shied from cutting holes in the seats of all his pants.
“I...have not seen anyone with tails, but I haven’t been looking. I came out here to, um, get used to these.” Izumo shrugged. He had very nearly panicked, but after sitting out here in the safety of the trees, he felt much better. More composed. Nearly ready to go back and get back to work, gathering information.
“Shame, not looking for tails. What kind of informant are you?” Itachi asked. He leaned forward as little to better look at Izumo’s ears. They were very large--not as large as Shisui’s, but larger than Itachi’s. Itachi was beginning to appreciate the size of his ears.
“Having trouble adjusting to double hearing?” Itachi asked with a cat like smile.
Izumo considered his answers, then shook his head a little and told Itachi, blandly, “More alarmed by having extra ears at all. The hearing thing isn’t so bad.” Izumo’d had sharp ears to begin with, honestly, and there wasn’t a lot of difference? Just the range, he thought, but he was still figuring this out.
“And you?”
“People keep trying to touch my ears, and it is very hard to sit.” That, and when Shisui had gotten his hands on Itachi’s ears, Itachi had almost died. They were very sensitive. Other than that, they were just an odd funnel for sound. Maybe they would help him get better tips at the Domus, which was where Itachi would be for a few days while he recovered from his last game.
“If it helps, I have no desire to touch your ears,” Izumo confessed. Honestly? No. Cats did nothing for him. He despised them. They were wicked little beasts who ate mice and were constantly where they shouldn’t be. Izumo liked mice. He considered that, and face-palmed with a groan.
Apparently someone in with the Scientists knew he’d been taming mice.
“No, I’d be pretty cool with that...” Itachi trailed off and grimaced. Dave was wearing off on him. This was not a good thing. He did not want to start talking like....whatever Dave talked like. That incomprehensible babble did not need to spread.
“....um. Alright?” Izumo blinked. What kind of offer was that? Or permission for...what? How did he take that?
“Meaning I wouldn’t snap your fingers,” Itachi returned with a moderate growl. He flattened his ears, lest Izumo take that as an invitation.
“The real reason I came to find you was to ask about someone I played in a Game with,” Itachi added, vowing to staple Dave’s lips shut so he’d stop talking in his sleep and subverting Itachi’s speech patterns.
The growl made Izumo twitch. His ears pressed flat into his hair. “Um. Alright. Who do want to know about?” He tipped his head, ruffling through Itachi’s latest opponents. He tried to ignore the little niggle of alarm about the growl and the cat ears and...uh, not thinking about it.
“Nikev--he’s a little taller than me, olive skin, blonde hair, and he has a earring with a black stone in it. He fights with a hand scythe.” Itachi hadn’t seen much of his fighting style in the previous game, but he’d heard enough about what it could do while they were all trying to sleep.
“And he may or may not eat people’s organs for fun...” Itachi added as an afterthought.
“Oh. That guy. It’s onyx, by the way, and yes, he’s a cannibal. Apparently where he comes from that’s the culture - you eat what you defeat. He’s tough and he doesn’t have a lot of friends, but those who do, well, let’s say I’ve met wolf-packs only slightly more friendly.” Izumo grimaced. “He’s five-foot nine, close to two hundred pounds, and that’s pure muscle. He really likes vodka, he takes his coffee with milk, he’s currently dating Krysta the ice yeti from the second floor. I haven’t see a lot of his style, and I can’t name it, but I could probably talk to Kliklik and get more information if you’d like. Nikev’s got a good following and he wins a great many of his games. I don’t think he could beat you at full power, though.”
Itachi took a moment to sort through all of that and discover the tidbits that were important to him--not that they all weren’t important, to some degree. “Oh, so he was serious about eating my intestines. I suppose that was some kind of challenge, saying he’d like to fight me.” Itachi sighed. They had been forbidden from shedding blood in those Games, or maybe it would have come to blows between them. Itachi played by the rules because he was already in debt. With what had happened to Shisui, he was probably even more in debt. Injuring someone outside of a Game wasn’t allowed, after all.
Itachi sighed. “How likely is he to make a try at taking me on?” Itachi asked. If they ever faced each other in a Game, it would happen. Itachi was learning that most things could be arranged here with the right leverage. Itachi was beginning to see that he didn’t have much of that.
“If he’s fought you before, very likely. If he hears about your following or your strength, very likely.” Izumo frowned a little, and the dark rounded ears twitched upwards. “But I’m pretty sure you can take him.”
Itachi had been hoping Izumo would say no, the man wouldn’t. Itachi added that to his list of things to worry about and wondered if he should just kill the man and get it over with. He also wondered where that sharp, nasty little thought came from, but he pursed his lips and shook it away. He’d deal with it when it became a problem.
“Thank you for the vote of confidence.” Itachi rubbed the collar around his neck. He paused a moment. “Have you heard anything about getting a wish by the pond?” Itachi had only learned of it this morning.
“Uh, yes I have. I’m not sure I’d try it...no-one really wants to talk about it. Mostly because it’s pretty personal, I think, if you’re that desperate...” Izumo shrugged. “One interesting thing I did learn is that they have moons here. Plural. And they have different cycles.”
At least, Izumo had found that really interesting. He wanted to know if the tides pulled to different moons.
“It’s rather bad to be an informant with no information,” Itachi decided. He wasn’t that interested in the moons right now. The place could have as many as it wanted, he was only curious about one thing. With a simple shove, Itachi pushed himself out of the tree, landing neatly on his feet.
“It looks like I’ll have to go see for myself if those rumors are true.” Itachi glanced back up at Izumo and grinned.
“And when you get turned into a chicken, don’t come crying to me!” Izumo retorted, and peered at Itachi over the edge of the branch, ears flattened into his hair. That grin was...most definitely alarming. And honestly Izumo didn’t trust or otherwise believe in any supernatural forces or anything. It was probably a trick of some sort.
“I’ll let you know.” Itachi waggled his fingers at Izumo. He really had no idea if the rumors were true. He could waste a night and feel foolish, but, really, what else did he have to lose?