The Nest [Open]

Hiyan was bored, his face pressed against the arm of the chair as he sat curled up on it, a circle of blankets making a little nest for him to be snuggled into, staring at the random soap opera that he had managed to turn the TV to. One arm was thrown over the side of the couch and while it seemed like it wasn't the most comfortable position...He was practically a cat - laying in what should be uncomfortable position was what he did. Mostly when he was to lazy to even move. He was tired, he had finished his homework for all of his classes - shoved off to the side of the coffee table - and now had little else to do. Honestly, what annoyed him the most that there wasn't any good sunbeams in the Spring common room! His room had a pretty nice one - he had moved a desk underneath it so he could sleep away in his cat form...But moving to his room seemed like to much effort.

Also, this soap opera? It was pretty interesting...The drama was superb even thought he was confused on everybody's relations. He was pretty sure the 'villain' was the main character's long-lost half-brother who had been abandoned by their mother for one reason or another and was coming back for revenge, by trying to seduce the main character's girlfriend who might be related to them...Of course maybe it would be easier to follow along if it wasn't in Spanish. Ah well, such was the price of his laziness to change the channel or even try to see if there was subtitles he could turn on.

Chrome was walking alongside Argenti as he walked towards the Common Room. Sometimes, he'd lean over to scratch Chrome's head. Then, as he lifted his head up, he spotted a guy laying on a chair in front of a television, surrounded in a force field of blankets. His position reminded Argenti of the way Chrome would lay on his lap while he studied or surfed the web on his computer. Chrome also seemed intrigued by the guy, his ears perked up and he took a couple of sniffs at the air. Tilting his head in curiosity, Chrome quickly padded over to the chair where the guy laid, jumped up on the armrest of the chair, and took some more sniffs around the guy.
    "Hey, Chrome!" he called to his cat, but Chrome gave nothing more but a turn of his ear. Argenti sped-walked over to his cat and gently scooped him up. "I am so sorry. He's usually curious about strangers, but he seems really interested in you..." embarrassment pulsed through him like blood. Chrome still watched the guy intently. "I'm, uh... Argenti by the way. This is Chrome... if you couldn't tell, haha..." that didn't really help the embarrassment or the anxiety.

Hiyan had failed to notice the new companion until a silver cat leaped onto the armrest, simply causing him to blink in surprise as the cat gave him a few curious sniffs. it was always a joy when he got to see one of the many cats that different students owned.He gently turned his head, giving the cat a few slow eye blinks of trust, a smile on his face at the new companion - mostly when he was pretty sure he hadn't seen this cat before. As a boy hurried over, scooping up the cat, Hiyan laughed as he stretched out in the most over the top way. "Oh, its no trouble! I'm...A bit of a cat person, you could say," he said with a grin, fixing his cat-like brown eyes on the fellow student. "Its nice to meet you, Argenti, and Chrome as well. I'm Hiyan."

Argenti just smiled slightly and set Chrome on the floor, who looked up at Hiyan with slight surprise as he blinked at him. Curling his tail at the tip, he looked up at Hiyan and gave a short "mrow." Argenti looked down at Chrome. "Heh, I think he's taking a liking to you..." he mused. Then, he turned back to Hiyan. "So, um. How have you been? You seem... comfortable." watching Chrome being friendly helped sooth the anxiety, well, Chrome would always help with that. That's why he'd take him along when he went outside most of the time. Chrome started to lick his paw and groom the top of his head. 'What, you gotta look proper for this person, Chrome?' he thought to himself, almost chuckling a bit.

"And I've taken a liking to him back!" Hiyan beamed, looking down at the feline. He gave a soft shrug at Argenti's question however, leaning back on the armrest with a lazy grin. "Ha! Talking like we've met before...But things have been fine - school is stressful and homework is stupid so I am just taking time to relax. The days I can curl up and relax are the greatest...All I am missing is a sunbeam," he mused, before he paused, eyeing Argenti with a curious stare. "...Say, are you new here? I don't think I've seen you before and it doesn't take long for me to meet all the new cats in the dorm."

Argenti scratched the back of his head. "Huh, well... I don't really do ice breakers a lot, if you couldn't tell already..." and here comes the embarrassment again. He didn't show it, but it was very much real. "And, uhh... Yeah. I've only been here about a week or so. It's pretty out of the ordinary, but I'm getting used to it," he explained. He stared off towards a window. "It is kinda weird seeing all these people with powers. At first I thought I was the only one, but y'know, I'm not..." he nervously chuckled. 'Oh man, what am I doing?" he anxiously thought.

He simply grinned as he leaned back in the chair, kinda enjoying watching how adorable the boy was. Hiyan enjoyed talking to people...But didn't tend to socialize that much, mostly spending time on his lonesome and bathing in the sun...He liked Argenti, there was something...Refreshing about a new, somewhat shy face that made him want to protect him like a little kitten. That might have just been his cat instincts talking thought.

He raised an eyebrow as Argenti spoke about how weird it was, giving him a small smile. "I'm afraid I can't sympathize much with that," he admitted, giving a soft shrug. "I grew up here, surrounded by Gifts. My whole family, and our extended family, all live her and are raised knowing each others' gifts..." He actually found himself, pausing before he shook his head. "Only second through, perhaps I can relate. After all, for most of my life I only really knew about gifts Clan Mutata Figura had...I honestly find it weird how varied others are when ours are so uniformed. So simple in a certain regard."

Argenti blinked in curiosity. "Clan Mutata Figura? I never heard of clans here." he shrugged. He just assumed everyone had a different gift. In retrospect, it did make sense for there to be a group of people with the same power. He did read about the nature of gifts appearing while studying one time, but he never thought much of it afterwards. "So, umm... What kind of gift does the clan have?" he asked, "I mean, I can bend and move metals, in case you wanted me to tell you first...".

For a second, the confusion over the name threw Hiyan off as he blinked. Right, he had only been here a week. Of course he wouldn't know about the CMF. Well, no time like the present for a history lesson he supposed. "Right, right...Clan Mutata Figura is a large clan of animal shapeshifters made up of smaller Bloodlines or clans by the type of Alternis they have...Er, I mean the type of animal they can turn into." Finally, a nervous laugh escaped him. He wasn't used to explaining this type of thing, most people he met already knew what the CMF was...And so he couldn't help but keep slipping in the words that he was raised to know but the common public would have no idea of a meaning for.

He pointed toward his cat-like eyes, giving Argenti a large grin. "My Bloodline, Felis, can turn into...Well, house cats, which is why I think your darling Chrome seems to like me. But manipulating metal? That's..." he let out a soft whistle, shaking his head in disbelief with a grin. "That is impressive! Outright amazing, to be honest. The type of Gift I could only dream of being real when I was just a kitten..."

Argenti lifted his head up in realization. "Oh, I see. I had a small hunch it'd be something like that. Since I think the clan's name is latin, for change shape, have I got that correct?" he asked. He lowered his hand back down from his head. "You see, I sometimes would teach myself a bit of latin for the fun of it. It's cause my name is latin for silver, so I figured why not learn a bit more?" he smiled a bit, "I wouldn't call myself fluent, but I know a bit.". After Hiyan showed his amazement, it certainly caught him off guard, and left him a bit flustered. Nobody he met prior was that impressed with his gift. "Oh! Well, I mean... it sounds cool on paper, but really it's kinda hard to control. Like, I've cut myself on knives before, and uh... whoo..." he took a moment to calm himself down, "It's just that, uh... nobody really showed that much amusement about my ability before. But um, I guess it is kinda impressive...". He wasn't really so much as embarrased as just a bit unsettled.

There was a new excitement that flickered in Hiyan's eye as Argenti revealed he knew a little Latin. "Tu sunt rectam," he praised, smiling widely. "That is what the Clan name means. Its rare to find others who speak Latin - even a little...But due to the Clan's history stretching far so back, its a common lesson for us to be taught it..." he stuck his tongue out a bit at that. For most lessons, he had been a focused student, eager to learn the lessons...And while he was practically fluent in Latin, it hadn't been a rather joyful learning. For some reason, learning another language was just not easy for him but it had been done in the end.

He shook his head, turning his focus back onto Argenti's bashfulness about his Gift. He wanted to laugh about how adorable it was, simple giving him a smile. "No Peculiari has complete mastery over their Gift when its first awoken, not even the Clans. You'll grow into your talents, its why you are here after all. But, if you want, I am more than happy to change the subject." He paused, glancing behind Argenti at where his soap opera had carried on. "...Say, you don't happen to know Spanish along with that little bit of Latin, do you? I'm a bit lost in my show and I can't understand a word of it in the first place," he admitted with a sheepish shrug.

Argenti just shrugged. "You don't have to change the subject if you don't want to, you just kinda caught me off guard..." he said. What Hiyan was saying about gifts did make sense. "I suppose that is true though. But I have to admit, sometimes I'm a bit afraid of my own power. It's kinda scary when your own power can harm you." he rubbed his right palm with his thumb, where a scar laid. Shaking off the worry, he just chuckled a bit, 'But, anyways. No, I don't speak any Spanish. Just English and a bit of Latin.". He eyed the television for a bit. "Why not just change the channel?" he laughed a tiny bit.

Hiyan smiled at him, but decided to keep the subjected changed - talking about ones Gift could be overwhelming for new people, he could respect that. More lighthearted subject would ease Argenti's mind. "That's a shame," he grumbled, although in a light-hearted tone as he motioned to where the remote had fallen off the edge of the armrest...Oh, it had to be about two hours ago that it had tumbled from its perch. "The remote is out of my reach," he explained, giving a feeble attempt to reach it, wiggling his fingers for emphasis, before dramatically giving up as he sprawled across the chair. "And what kind of cat would I be if I gave up my comfort just so I could do something like changing the channel? Besides, the drama in this show is great! Even if I can't understand it, the acting is just...So over the top that its amazing. Besides, I kinda want to see where it goes. I think I'm almost at the season finale."

Argenti chuckled a little bit as Hiyan desperately but also feebly reached for the remote. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure Chrome would say the same thing if he could talk..." he shrugged. Speaking of Chrome, he was wandering around the room, looking and smelling around. Argenti went onto his knees, gently called to Chrome, and rubbed his fingers in a sort of "show me the money" gesture. Then, Chrome's ears perked up and he walked on over to Argenti and sat down in front of him. Argenti scratched Chrome's head. His gaze softened as memories crept back into him as he talked, "I've had him since he was a kitten. I found him on the streets, with no mother in sight. Since then, he'd pretty much always be by my side." Then, Chrome brushed up against Argenti, circling him. "Having to suddenly move to Beata was pretty scary if I'm being honest, but he still helped me through it... he said, "I suppose that's why I'm not as anxious around pets as I am with humans."

Hiyan watched Argenti with a gentle smile. Seeing such an honest, kind soul was...Nice. Not that he didn't think people like that existed...But he had grown up in a society where it was rare to trust outsiders. In the end, all you could depend on was your own skills...Even allies could turn against you. But Argenti? Hiyan couldn't help but respect how open he was...And Hiyan knew he wanted to be sure to talk to him again in the future once they went their separate ways.

"Wellll.... Think of me the best of both worlds then!" he practically purred, throwing his arms open as he threw a lazy grin at the other Spring. "I like to think I am rather easy to talk to...And I can turn into a cat whenever the need strikes me! A perfect one for cuddles and pets, if I do say so myself." As he spoke, he pushed off of the chair. He pulled his blankets with him, before he disappeared into it...And a few seconds later, a giant maine coon wormed his way out of the pile that had collapsed at the foot of the chair.

His long brown fur was sleek and he towered in size when it came to Chrome, being nearly the size of a dog rather than a normal cat. His brown eyes glimmered with the same light as it did when he was human, and he happily strutted forward, giving Chrome a gentle sniff before he brushed past Argenti, bopping his head against his leg in an affectionate gesture as he circled him, before settling on the loose piles of blankets like it was his very own throne, his whiskers twitching in amusement.

Argenti reared his head back slightly in surprise as a maine coon emerged, but he soon calmed down. At the same time, Chrome's eyes dilated and his tail slowly went back and forth. As Hiyan brushed up against Argenti, Chrome's fur bristled and his hackles raised slightly, as if he was trying to appear a bit bigger so he could stand a chance to the huge maine coon in front of him. Argenti gently placed his hand on Chrome's back, who turned around and let out a long trill as he held a confused look in his eye. "Heh, I guess he wasn't expecting that..." he laughed a tad bit. Honestly, the long and sleek fur felt comforting, although it was a bit awkward knowing the cat was also a human.

At Chrome's reaction, Hiyan couldn't help but let out a soft chattering noise...Perhaps one of the closest ways for him to laugh as a cat. He shook his head, allowing his form to release back into his human one. "I'm sorry, Chrome," he replied as he crossed his legs, sitting awkwardly on the pile of blankets. Slowly, he put out the back of his hand for Chrome to sniff - a soft symbol of apologize. "I get it, I get it. Argenti is your human - I'll be mindful of your territory in the future," he hummed, although there was a bright smile on his face. "Maybe at some point we can bond over a sunbeam together, eh?"

He turned his attention up to Argenti with a playful shrug. "Like I said thought, best of both worlds. I'm sure my sister would frown upon how...Freely I use my cat form. She is a stickler for rules, but I suppose that is why she is the next-in-line of our Clan..." He paused, giving a thoughtful look for a moment. "Or maybe it was because she is older than me...Ah well, rules are still her lifeblood." For some, he supposed being so close to being the heir would have been nearly painful - so close to power but out of ones' reach. But being the second-in-line meant that he wasn't as pressured in things. Sure, there were certain rules that still bound him but he was still more free than his eldest sister would ever be.