As celebration for [Cycle 9's] first companion, let us look back;
To the many companions gained, and lost, throughout [Lost's] many lives.
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[Cycle 8], his name had been Shiratori, "government given last name", Kurisu, Japanese lawyer wannabe that had somehow been dragged into the position of a political advisor to a 200+ year old revolutionary leader, currently in high school (and suffering for it):
Syouma had never been more confused by a sight in his life, and that was saying something, seeing as he solved alley crime on the nightly.
His most troublesome student (somewhere, somewhen, certain ghosts snorted in agreement), the one and only, Shiratori Kurisu, was seated on the shoulder (one mind you, not both) of a man taller than Mighty Heart.
Taller than Mighty Heart! The white-haired man must have been over 7 feet! At minimum!
Dressed in an expensive-looking gray business suit, the only thing about him that would be out of place on a news or fashion magazine, would be the fluffy cat-eared black jacket he held in his arms.
One clearly not in his size, to add.
“Sin! Are you done with your meetings early? You didn’t have to come pick me up! I was going to the office after this anyway.”
Syouma kept quiet as he watched his student's interactions with the much-talked-about “Sin”.
It was surprising, Shiratori was never one for excited and outgoing speech around his classmates. How strange to witness this side of his student with a stranger.
The teen had even been snuggling into “Sin’s” hair and rubbing a cheek against the top of the man’s head.
Maybe it was time to break this up.
Taking a step forward, Syouma interrupted, “Though its interesting to see this new side of you, I would like to know what your friend is doing in here, Shiratori. Visitors usually aren’t let in during school hours.”
The pair stilled, his student’s joy suddenly silenced when reminded of a strangers’ presence.
After a beat of somewhat-tense silence, the man gently held up a hand to steady Shiratori before addressing Syouma's statement-question.
“Hello. You must be Kurisu's homeroom teacher. If you’re asking about my presence. Please bring it up with your principal. He was the one to approve my visit and will also explain my ties with this institution.”
The voice that came out of his mouth held up to his appearance: deep, smooth, and businesslike, full of an undertone common to the politics of money- and- its owners.
Even within the innocuous sentence, the inclusion of the principle, could be understood as a bait, and threat, all rolled into one.
And Syouma… did not want to deal with that right now.
(timeskip)
They usually drived in companionable silence, but with how Kurisu was acting, burying themself into the jacket that still held Sin's scent, it didn't take long for that to change..
"Sin-yah, can we go to the Hokkaido house today? We've both been swamped in meetings and work and-", voice uncertain but clearly hopeful, "-we deserve some time together...no?"
A replying hum as Sin reached a hand over to reassure the not-teen.
"You know that sometimes it's unavoidable. But- since you've asked so nicely-" smirk nearly audible in the tease but tone so very soft, "-let's get to the house. We'll teleport there after that... we'll need to get groceries on the way, it's been a while since we've gone."
Their companionable silence descended once again, they would be okay.
Things have been busy, but they would be okay.
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[Cycle 6], their name had been Kurial Lorhoth, young apprentice of the Thriving Thorns Sect, just done exchanging goods at the Beast Taming Hall after their first, out of sect, mission:
We waited impatiently, thinking excitedly of how many eggs we’ll be able to bond, and keep, with our current supplies. The elder came quickly and we only had the time to settle on trying to bond with as many as possible by the time we reached the bonding room.
The bonding room was as expected, a room settled with an array and some tools useful for the process, and after some back and forth, gauging goals and experience between us and the elder, the ritual was a-go. After a question by the elder and some thinking on our part, we had decided to bond with the Evergrown Jelly Viper egg, for our first bond. For one, the Jelly Viper had two out of our three affinities and had a, theoretically, infinite growth potential and for two… we needed the venom for our technique (desperately). If we had had access to it in the previous fight with those thieves, it wouldn’t have been a fight.
The start of the ritual felt strange, as we cycled our cultivation technique to sync our Qi's wavelength with the egg’s and get our blood as close to the egg’s as possible. The slow but smooth transfusion then led to a tense period of us sending out Qi tendrils to connect our clusters together. We had 79 clusters, a total of 15 clusters more than the viper’s 64 and during the process there were a few times we had watched as the viper’s signature fluctuated and had to split our attention to make sure we had matched the new, slightly different, signature and still kept on matching clusters. Eventually, it was over, we had done it.
The viper’s hatching was an enthralling process, when he broke through the shell, we had watched, and felt, his pinkish-white, wing-like, tentacles spread out and we had thought that, if only there was a sunset to highlight this beautiful moment. His scales a matte dark indigo, his eyes a glowing, sickly, yellow... fitting.
I named him, “Krolos... named after time.”
I was enthralled, almost escaping the incoming sensory overload by focusing on him alone, but eventually, I closed my eyes and followed the instinctual process I had, somehow, gained, and tugged Krolos into my spirit sea. He was suprisingly calm during the move, quickly settling on my soul island and resting to regain energy after all the work he had done during his hatching.
I left Krolos to rest and tried to reoriented myself for one more bonding, this time, with the dual-affinity raptor egg I had lucked upon. I acknowledged that this might be a bad decision, but I felt sure that my cultivation technique and now familiarity with the process would help to mitigate, or even negate, my now winded state.
The next bonding process was indeed both similar, and easier, to the one with Krolos, but still difficult in its own way. The difference was really within the amount of nodes I had needed to connect with my own. Raptors had a total of 49 nodes compared with my 69 and, in truth, the difference those 20 made, compared to the difference of 15, was truly massive. I felt it was almost akin to threading a needle everytime I wanted to connect nodes together without risking overfilling the egg and killing it.
So this was what they meant when they said having higher ranked roots were both blessing and curse ey, well yea, we see the point.
But this did have a benefit, we completed the bonding in a little over 20 minutes, not even close to the hour needed for Krolos. As such, we truly could rush through the next raptor eggs if we wanted, but the mental strain of doing so would surely cause mistakes.
We would come back tomorrow. Anyways, we were discussing business on a happy occasion, excuse us.
As the egg hatched, we watched in awe once again, and as her senses started to connect with ours we fully focused on her as her features became clear. Her head came first, eyes locking straight onto me, orange, layered with yellow-red, befitting amber, truly, a gift. Her skin, was the next to catch my attention, somewhere between fur and scales, I would compare it to hide, if I had to pick a word for it. A vibrant deep brown and darker red, not camouflaged at all for her species' peferred forest habitats, but she probably won’t need it after she trains up her affinities. Finally, I noticed her small, almost nonexistent, feathers, fluff really, they were red, a much more vibrant, showy color, of which I would say gave a spark of life to her character outside of her eyes.
I named her, “Ignis... named after fire... and loyal knight”.
We were more easily able to incorporate her senses this time, as we had experience with Krolos. We were even able to keep her out with us for a while, until we had to go back to our dwelling and it became too much.
The rest of the day was spent trying to incorporate everything that we had gained with this mission. Practicing living with two or three senses shared between us and our bonded. We had difficulty at first, it felt so overwhelming even when it was just us and ours in an enclosed space. But eventually, we found a way to moderate the flow, envisioning it as a slowly turning valve, works well for us, it was akin to switching screens to focus on different items, keeping one sense suppressed and things moderated.
We would have to learn how to live with all senses on full blast at some point but it didn't have to be right this moment.
No, this moment; wherein Ignis had decided to squirrel (how that term can fit so well a, half meter tall, hours old, baby raptor, Fool only knows) all our rune-scribing equipment away, while Krolos did his best attempt at a scaly scarf impression against our neck, as we scramble around trying to stop her.
This- we will entomb into memory.
We rarely deliberately work to create [record-blossoms] in Alexandria. But this- moments like this- will always be worthy of a place among Trishlamor's branches.
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[Cycle 5], ze had chosen the name Kurin, and were gifted a surname, Redforge, "temporarily" staying with of the duke of Ruby Duchy, now in the midst of realizing that ze might have gotten a bit more attached to the owner of Redforge Manor then ze had thought:
Laughter reverberated through usually quiet halls, interrupted only by the pitterpatter of little feet and the mock-angry snarls chasing after them.
"Get back here you miscreant! I don't care how annoying you find baths! Your introduction banquet is tommorow-"
Grumbling snarls were cut off as a blur of red and purple took the chance to pounce upon their target.
"Caught you!" A childish voice said, cutting through the string of reprimands.
The mock snarls immediately stopped, baritone voice now much calmer, scarred arms wrapping around a small body like it was a treasure and kneeling down before speaking, "Yes, you caught me, little eyas. Now. Will you tell me why you're so against your introduction? The real reason, not something I'll expect to hear."
There was a long pause, a heart that didn't need to beat still speeding up against its' owner orders.
Unable to truly lie or keep silent when faced with concerned eyes and an eminanting aura of love-worry-please-letmehelp, shoulders dropped as clawed fingers carefully moved to return the hug.
"You don't have to do all of this. I know you care but all I needed was a cover and- just- you're doing a lot for a mons-"
This time it was ze's turn to be interrupted, "Stop. (...) I don't care how many times it will take, but get this through your thick skull, I don't care if your "true form" is a blob of flesh or a nation stomping warbeast. All I care about- is that you are a child. My child. My eyas."
Claws ended up ripping up clothes after all, though no one present cared.
Eyes still clear dispite the sudden hitch in zirs breathing, ears fully flat against zirs head no doubt.
Voice rougher than it usually is, they replied, "If you're sure. (...) If you're sure, sire."
With all fight drained from their body, it was simple for the duke to pick them up, one arm acting as a seat while the other brushed over messy wings, and start their way back to the baths.
Aura swirled around them, protection-happiness-thankyou-willnotbetraythistrust.
Face smushed to a chest, Kurin felt as rumbling purrs started up beneath it, muscles relaxing under the love of someone it felt it could-would-will learn to love back.
Its aura moved under its skin, wanting to join in and show its sire its own contentment (safe-caredfor-thankyou-please-letmehavethis).
He didn't let it. Couldn't. Not right now. Not so soon after-
But- he could do this.
Could purr right back, tail swinging even as a a good bit of it wrapped around the arm holding zir up.
Later, they would talk about expectations. The things ze would need to know if ze was to be a real son of a duke.
But, for now, this was enough.
Everything else will wait, let himthemzeit have this.
Just for a moment.
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[Cycle 2], its name had been Shinkai, an orphan that (somehow) ended up with too many last names, young war hero of a village that is annoyingly held together by threads, now supposed to be relearning peace again after the long war it had grown up figting:
His sworn patted his head then, rubbing trembling ears with a kindness that felt almost patronizing, with the words he spoke next.
“Now, pet. Sit. Look pretty. And hush... I’ll take care of everything else.”
His tail flicking to acknowledge the command, hands loosely resting on thighs while kneeling at the foot of his sworn’s chair.
Stilted purrs came from him, cheek rubbing against a knee before, finally, he settled.
A knock on the door.
Polite of her to knock, they’d almost expected an inquisition when they realized exactly how much of a ruckus their sworn would be making of the situation.
“Come in, Hime.” Their sworn called.
There was a disgusted, “blergh,” at the sight of them before the sound of someone moving to sit down.
The unusually hushed voice of his sworn’s teammate quickly followed, “I can’t believe you did that! Do you realize the absolute clusterfuck this is gonna be?! When did you even file the paperwork for that?!”
Ze decided then that it was time to check out of the conversation. Zirs sworn was right, this wasn’t zirs battle to fight. Ze’ll just sit, look pretty, and enjoy zirs sworn’s absentminded petting.
(pov change)
Yashagoro could practically feel the headache building from this conversation. But- needs must-
“Hime. Look at me right now…deep breaths…now, ask your questions again.”
Pointed silence followed before a long sigh escaped the Sugyou princess.
“I just- you’re stepping in dangerous territory Oro. You’re usually more cautious than this. Why?”
There was a lot he could answer to that; built up resentment over years of mistakes, the fact that sensei’s wishy-washy attitude to diplomacy is killing alliances that his pet is jobbed to maintain, even the way words have spread that the Elder of Shiroi Hane's Yang-Realm identity doesn’t have the smell of a blooded leader on him.
But all of that only circles around the heart of matter. And he’s learned better than to lie about this.
Fingers pinching the tip of an ear and rubbing down the side edge absentmindedly before letting go, knowing that speaking out the reason directly would not be that helpful, he started with his thought process.
“He is the hokage, leader of this village, commander of its’ shinobi. I recognize that. But I, am the sworn of its’ lynchpin, the one thing without which the village would fall apart. Before him, it was the Nidaime, now, it's Kai.”
Then, he looked the granddaughter of the God of Shinobi, the Shodaime, herself, a revolutionary medic, in the eyes, and said-
“And he almost got that lynchpin killed. Over what? A little bit of instability in the capital? …I can respect using a weapon as it was intended. Swords will get rusty without use and all that… but, intentionally disregarding the advice of the Nidaime… and hypocritically using tactics from the Clan Wars… in the midst of a long-awaited ceasefire?”
A beat to calm down, as the later part of his sentence contained a good bit of killing intent.
“That. I cannot forgive.”
He lets the weight of his words linger, waiting for it to sink in for his friend exactly what he had told her.
Taking the down time to reassure his pet he was fine and that the anger wasn’t directed at him (not that his pet's ever likely to make him angry).
It didn’t take long, the sound of grinding teeth and creaking wood was what signaled it.
“I see… that would do it.”
Deliberately deep breaths were again taken.
“I’m gonna go to punch a few things. I’ll come back for a scan tomorrow, but since you hadn’t kidnapped me to heal him, I’m gonna assume he’s fine to wait a bit.”
It was only when standing in the doorway had she turned to say, “…oh. And expect the two toads soon. Your talk with sensei traveled to the summons, so they’ll be back in a day or two.”
Only the *thump* of the door followed.
(pov change)
It was its sworn's chakra felt that brought it back.
Smooth coolness and the reassuring feel of, protection-care-comebacknow-mine.
"Welcome back, pet..."
The back of ashy fingers pressing against their face as they pressed into it, like a wolf to moonlight, "...we probably have one more guest to entertain today. So no sleep until we're done. But I want some food in you before that."
A whine caught in the back of his throat, chakra cautious in pressing towards his sworn an impression of, no-comfortable-please.
Tutting at his response, lightly pinching his cheek in reprimand before voicing how unimpressed he was at the disobedience.
"Bad pet. I know I've talked to you about chakra communication when you're clear headed enough to use genjutsu."
A pause before continuing, "You're a genius. If you don't want us to move, use that genius to get us diner without it."
Unable to deny zirs sworn much of anything, ze did.
Chakra moving to poke the seal at zirs arm, all it took was a moment before there on the side table, was a steaming tea set and warm bento.
"There we are... now. Since you've been good before that little mess up, I'll let you pick whether you'll be fed by yourself, or, by me."
His brain stalled, surprised at the choice presented before him.
His sworn waited patiently for his answer, picking up a cup to try and pierce the source, 'Iron? How much did he buy in that damn country?'
Eventually, it sheepishly "spoke" up.
"The second please... bento has sushi and egg rolls...", its' genjutsu voiced.
Zirs sworn accepted with his usual grace and the following meal continued in that fashion, zirs sworn eating while periodically handfeeding zir bits from the bento.
Warm contentment blanketed the room.
Though the coming times promised a storm, as long as they were allowed this, they wouldn't mind the icy winds.