WHEN: Monday, 21 August 1943 - morning
WHERE: Outside Windgrace Manor
WHO: Sato and Dorian
--
[08:59] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes) was just home from paying out the dive team in cash. The family made sure their loyal employees stayed that way by paying a wage even when conditions did not allow for work. It kept the best of the best angling for positions and assured the crew their fidelity was being rewarded even in difficult times such as the present day. Given the elder twin's having fallen out with his stellar half he was not aching to head inside, but instead reached into his jacket pocket, took out his cigarettes and lit one up, loitering near the pillars outdoors. He'd re-sling his jacket over his shoulder before lighting up and closing his eyes to deeply listen to the house for signs of who was abroad.
[09:04] Naoki Sato did not often linger down near that area of town. He had been hard to pin down when the fog rolled in, seeming to stick to the Dashrix estate and the Academy - likely to keep a close eye on Thirteen amid the odd behaviors the fog instilled. It was a rarity to see the Professor's protege lingering near the ramshackle building that neighbored Windgrace property. He stood silently at a corner of the fence, staring up at the windows with his brow furrowed, dressed in the Academy's black and gold. When a keen nose picked up the scent of cigarette smoke Sato turned, cocking his head toward a shoulder as he observed Dorian by the pillars. Sparing a last glance to the Kitty Kisses house he began crossing the Windgrace manor lawn, the sprawls of veins and bloodshot eyes more visible the closer he got - though he neither reeked of alcohol nor looked particularly old. "Windgrace," he stated rather than asked. "You're the one who befriended Blake. Have you seen him?" Sato had no discernible accent - perhaps something that bordered on British, if one had practiced the English language enough to be very cognizant of enunciating.
[09:18] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes) was so rapt in listening that he could hear his one of his rabbits hopping a series of binkies at his approach, but he did not hear obvious sounds of Dinah. He was on the verge of reaching for her psychically just to see how near she was which would give him away, but it'd have to do. His plans to reconcile had not materialized yet. Until then he'd keep up his surly sulking ruse. There was plenty to actually sulk about, if he wanted to be selfish, self-involved. Thus he was distracted from anyone or anything approaching him. So when his name was called out he'd turn like a cat that was snuck up on and with wide silver eyes and a flop of golden hair exclaim, "Bloody HELL! Blake? Who-wait I.... I have seen your face." Sato was afterall not easy to forget with his shock of silver and red hair not least among his standout qualities.
Once his heartrate started to approach regularity rather than racing, he'd manage in a less startled and shouted rendition of his urbane English accent, stomping a booted foot on the cigarette below the fog layer which he'd dropped from his mouth, "Let us start again. I am Windgrace, who are you?" His expression followed from surprise to something approaching friendly filtered through embarrassment, and he'd hold out a large warm hand to shake.
[09:23] Naoki Sato was unaware of the complications of the household beyond a certain point. His eyes scanned the windows, snagging once or twice on fleeting glimpses of squiddle on the upper floors before he turned his focus back to Dorian. There was little reaction to the blonde's outburst despite the volume of his exclamation and the offered hand was observed with the same blankness of expression. "Sato," he answered, tentatively reaching out to briefly, firmly shake Dorian's hand before pulling away again. He always felt rather warm thanks to the way his blood circulated, constantly close to the surface and on the move, ready to be used at the blood mage's whims. Once he'd reclaimed his hand he inclined his head toward Kitty Kisses, where he knew a wandering Jermyn often ended up. "Blake may have used the word Sharkey. He was injured and I asked Hunter to watch him while I tended to the tailor. I haven't heard from him since."
[09:39] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes) didn't need to worry about the lawn getting plucked clean of butts, someone else did that. Though he didn't light up another just took his hand back, resettled his jacket upon his shoulder and listened to the sparse verbiage of the other. He did this while unabashedly and keenly peering at him, and responded immediately, "You think my friend is in trouble of some sort?!" Another moment's thought with a face full of concern and it'd relax a bit as he'd relent, "Trouble follows him as it does m--, but the gods have a special place in their hearts for him. I have not seen him since our little 'do' and that was some weeks past by now. You.... I remember.... you accompanied the red haired skater with the-- Thirteen, I believe she is called, am I wrong?" The epiphany had come just as he finished his remarks about his raven haired chum, but at least he was polite enough not to point. Instead he shoved both hands into his pockets.
[09:47] Naoki Sato Truthfully Hunter probably often scoured the lawn of refuse when he did his squiddling about. He had grown rather fond of the rabbits after all and sought to keep their environs clean. Sato frowned at Dorian's response. "I know he was injured. I saw the injuries, partly tended to them. I'm unsure what condition he's in now," he corrected - though there was neither irritation nor impatience in his voice. "Blake finds trouble," he added with a little shake of his head. "He's like his father; trouble is attractive to him." Blue eyes lifted to study Dorian's face as he spoke of the party, narrowing a little as conversation turned to Thirteen. "Skater... oh. The ice." He only just recalled the winter festivities. "Yes, she's called Thirteen. She does not skate often. She is pregnant and resting." Blunt and to the point, this one.
[09:55] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes)'s head tilted to an inquisitive 50 degree angle as he blurted out his first questions without finesse of any sort, "You know his father? Oh oh, my congratulations to you, how does it feel, hm?" The thought of children had been intermittently on and off his mind since Dinah had asked him, since Drystan had informed him, and here he had a chance to presume to ask. After the protectiveness he'd seen, he'd presumed away with a great big grin amid two days' worth of unshaved shadow upon his cheeks and chin. It might be unclear which question he was more invested in as he asked them both with equal inquisitiveness. All the hackles that had been raised when Sato approached seemed to have smoothed to admit casual curiosity.
[10:02] Naoki Sato stared at Dorian for a full few seconds before nodding. "I know his father," he restated without any sort of clarification or further explanation. There was a flicker of something over his features though - a tightening of the jaw, a furtive glance aside of his focus. He was distracted from it by the next question though, the up-frontness of it all catching him off guard enough that the blood mage let his mouth hang open for a moment. "It feels... no different," he answered eventually. "I am not bearing the child." Clearly he didn't realize Dorian might have been referring to the emotional side of things, dense as he was to that world.
[10:10] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes) reached up a ring bedecked hand to scruffle through his hair as he had during the pause in answering. Only when Sato concluded he was also shaking his head at the same time before he apologized, "Beg your pardon for prying, but I meant not the poor woman's body who carries the child. Rather I meant..." The way he was shaking his head might lead one to believe he'd trailed off to speak no more. Only then he stopped doing so and tried to catch Sato's eye, and further inquired, "Are you not excited? To teach and share the world with the child?" Clearly the presumptions hadn't been shaken loose by the other's apparent reluctance in the face of his blunt quandaries. He'd wink a very obvious wink to punctuate, as if to assure the other anything said was just between the pair of them, the better to coax an answer from him. He kept anything he knew about Blake's father to himself, unsure of how any of that all worked but certain he did not want to think about a certain svelte German aspect of it all.
[10:18] Naoki Sato listened and looked down at his crotch when Dorian trailed off as if guessing what the blonde might mean. When he specified the poor young man looked a little lost. "I don't think I'll be allowed," he said simply. "She is under the Professor's care and I am assisting the Professor's father. There are conflicts." The explanation was given as deadpan as the rest of his speech, the only real hints to Sato's slight upset about the situation being the pauses between words, the slight hesitations. Sato took a step forward after a moment of thought, looking up at Dorian searchingly. "...you. Or your household. You've not met him. Not been... influenced by him, have you? I don't see his mark. Don't sense his influence here. Why is that?"
[10:29] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes) was simply baffled about this professor business and the misunderstood lack of agency over the coming child, but while he was telling himself that he'd pried quite far enough and not to nose his pointy schnoz in any further, he was being more closely approached. He stood his ground, signs of alertness alighting on his face in tight lines around his eyes and in the tension of his shoulders making ready for anything. Withstanding scrutiny was just fine for him, though it was unusual to do so up quite this close from strangers, and he'd been the one transgressing the bounds of propriety himself moments before. Only he couldn't give a satisfactory answer since he was, as his looked, utterly confounded, "I am sure I do not know what you mean, Mr. Sato! The only professor's father I know was lost at sea."
Though, Dorian had been having strange dreams of late and stranger. He'd attributed those to his sister's and his own gods, the Eldritch world-ending ones.
[10:37] Naoki Sato furrowed his brow again. "Lost at sea?" he repeated, relaxing to stand a pace or two back from the befuddled Windgrace. "...Professor Windgrace. I see. You're not familiar with Professor Dashrix," he concluded after several moments of thought. Sato shook his head, for the first time showing some nervousness or agitation as he began to pace back and forth across the lawn. "You and your family. Hunter speaks of you. Of your sister. Of what you're capable of doing," he said after a few passes back and forth. Sato stopped in front of Dorian and peered up at him. "Would you help with something?"
[10:46] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes) untensed once more when the other man stepped back, but the blond head followed Sato in his progress to and fro. He'd clarify, "I am familiar with Dashrix, but only from a distance." That and his vague recollection of Dinah saying positive things about the man were nearly all he had to go by. BUt since he didn't really understand what Dashrix had to do with it, and was being baited to do something he liked to do: help he moved past it, his expression tightening with both gravity and interest. Thinking with his limited information and capacity, he'd offer, "Shall I get you some cigars? Balloons? We still have some somewhere I am quite sure." He was pretty sure something to do with welcoming the baby was what was intended as a client to a merchant, even with Hunter's name being evoked, likely because he was still thinking about the confusing and confounding topic of offspring.
[10:52] Naoki Sato waved a hand. "What? No. I don't need those things." He ran a hand over his face before pointing it at Dorian. "Your face. Your appearance. It isn't truly you, is it? Your family... it's something else. More than human. Like me, like Hunter. But you hide it. Appear... human, because of the magic settled over this place." He lifted his eyes to the balcony above them where a certain black rabbit was folded over the railing, staring down and watching the conversation. "Would you help to change that?" he asked, slowly returning his attention to Dorian. "Make it so people like you could exist freely."
[11:05] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes) was taken aback when his japing offer wasn't taken seriously because of such a turn of questions. Dorian with his lack of a poker face had his jaw drop and just stared mutely for a long few heartbeats. Here he'd thought he needed better news to spring on Dinah than the mere fact that he had come to his senses again, and he was presented with this? This potential quest to see his twin's fond dream come to fruition? From that mute open mouth the first thing to issue was a laugh, a dry barking that was infused with mirth as it went on from considering it to be too much of an Atlas-like task to one that might actually be undertaken. He maybe looked a bit mad, especially when the conjuring of his other image by Sato's tongue caused him, thinking about his other more glorious self, to flash through all golden and resplendent and with that fury of unlight flaring for a spare moment with great bursting wings reaching out and up toward Hunter for just a moment before he was instead the man he'd been at nineteen again. For a family touched so much by their gods, his self-sense was often grand enough for him when he was merely Dorian. Wealth was another sort of godliness, and worldly aristocracy was what he was accustomed to. But not his twin, she had such grand notions and world shattering dreams. Ones he'd do anything for. Almost anything anyway. So finally when he sobered he inquired low and conspiratorial, looking this way and that before settling his gaze on Sato again, "I would. I would like to see that time come, you... you have an avenue to this?" There was a fair amount of disbelief that had been laughed off, but still some rang though in his voice.
[11:16] Naoki Sato watched. He was careful and inquisitive, soaking in the information like a sponge as Dorian showed him in a blink a hint of his true form. Angelic, almost. Very different from what he'd expected, considering Hunter's own account of the family's dabblings with the Elder Gods. There was a chitter of glee from the balcony above them and a soft PLAP! onto the porch steps as Hunter descended, neither bothering to fly nor to slow his fall. He simply splatted onto the stone, black ink puddling until it coalesced again into a little black rabbit that hopped around them in a circle. Someone was excited about the prospect of collaboration, clearly.
Sato's own changes were not quite so grandiose. A five-pointed star, inverted drew itself onto his forehead like a carving. His lips spread wide, splitting his cheeks into a garish maw that likely resembled Hunter's own - or did Hunter's resemble his? Those teeth were not human, instead shark-like and ridged and triangular as they filled that space. Blood painted its scent upon the air thickly, heavy as if some wound somewhere hidden by the smaller man's clothing had opened up wide. "I do. Not strong enough on my own," came the wet, throaty sort of growl he spoke in when parts of his face and throat were so shifted. "But I know how. Where." It took a while for his face to knit itself back together as his human visage overtook the Jikininki's true features again but even when it did the metallic tang remained in the air.
[11:30] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes) knew only enough of sigils and signs to recognize that they were such and so when Sato revealed himself. He also knew that of all the types of supernatural person he'd known that he had known, this man was something new. There came no terror in the beholding but a deeper layer of understanding and kinship from Dorian revealing and seeing revealed and he'd be nodding with interest at the other's offer with his usual sparse verbiage. It was all he could do not to exclaim how extraordinary Sato was, but he somehow held that commentary back and drove to the point instead, "I would lend my strength and more to such a cause and consider it the gods work. You have only to call on me, to see me at your side to turn this tide in a new direction. Having his endorsement is a good sign by my reckoning."
The he that had been referred to was Hunter, who had landed nearby and the squiddle got a fond smile from the middlest Windgrace who then turned his attention from waving to their Eldritch house guest back at Sato
[11:30] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes): with that smile lingering. He forewent introducing the two since the pair already clearly had an acquaintance.
[11:42] Naoki Sato reworked his jaw like a snake might when his face was back in place. He licked his lips, nodding to accept Dorian's pledge of assistance and aid. The mention of Hunter's endorsement raised his brows though. Sato hummed then bent down to put a hand out to the squiddle, who after some moment of hesitation clambered up his arm and onto his shoulder, staring at the Jikininki in wonder as if unused to being invited for such contact. "Your family is very fond of him aren't you?" he mused and lifted a hand to Hunter. A circle of red ringed around the second digit of his finger, eventually revealing itself as blood as it dripped and scored through the skin, severing the finger at that joint and lifting it up for the rabbit like a treat. Sato watched the innocuous-looking bunny chow down on his offered flesh with a placid expression on his face. "...Thank you. For taking care of him," he said eventually, something softer in his tone. Sato didn't elaborate. But he did set Hunter down at Dorian's feet as the stump of his newly-severed finger sealed over in clotted blood. "He'll benefit from a changed world. He and his father. Speak to your siblings. We can meet to discuss details then."
[11:54] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes) offered a slight incline of his back and head as his service in this was accepted, and looking from Hunter's feeding up to Sato's face once more he'd answer, "Extraordinary... I know not how you knew this dream to be so dear, nor how you know Hunter, but we do care for him and he for us. He is as family to us by now and we needn't any thanks. And my family would be glad of this turn. How fortuitous of you to have come by this day, sir. It is clearly not for nothing that our paths kept crossing, hm? I can hardly wait to talk to my kin. Where should we find you, if you wanted to be found? Should I see Blake I will let him know you inquired after him as well, and I shall be looking for him."
Though they'd started out as near strangers, Dorian having watched and learned so much of Sato addressed him warmly, as he might do a friend.
[12:04] Naoki Sato bowed from the waist in return. Dorian had likely seen the gesture among the residents and merchants at Seiiki frequently. When he straightened up again to listen to Dorian speak he hesitated, looking to Hunter then to the blonde. "I... am. Was," he began but shook his head. There was something far more familial, more tender in the way the Windgraces dealt with the squiddle than anything he'd ever maanaged to do, after all. Dorian's excited curiosity about fatherhood was enough of a testament to the family's much more suitable state of being as a permanent fixture in the squiddle's circle.
Sato stared at the blood-stained black rabbit until Hunter provided the rest himself. < Bthnknythgof'n, nglui, > came the squiddle's voice in both of their minds. Along with something of a vision, of a table under a light, of hooded figures and a writhing body surrounded by ribbons of blackish-brown smoke, of flesh being consumed and sundered in the joining of something unholy. But Hunter's designation for Sato was... fond, in a word. The Jikininki blinked at the sudden intrusion. He seemed stalled by the memory, looking up at Dorian uncertainly as if unsure if he had seen it too.
[12:18] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes) did tend toward attempting to treat the Seiiki side of town with their own customs as if he cared about those protocols. In his prevailing love of all things Callisto from his earliest days here he'd wanted to make every part of this place home, leaving Cheriton far behind (with its ghosts, copses and corpses). He'd thrown himself headlong into the language and indulged in learning the culture so he'd not be like so many Victoriana side residents clinging so much to half the island. The place had proven rich and potential filled beyond belief, just when he needed it most and today was just another incident to prove 'the Path' Dinah often spoke of to be true. Dorian was marvelling when suddenly Hunter's thoughts and words came through and after a sharp look the squiddle's way he too would seek out the man before him with questions ablaze in his face. Instead of really asking one he'd just ask the peremptory parts of one, "Did y-- ...?" The eye contact he was getting made him think yes, but he was still analyzing this thought too much to say much more.
Brow scrunched with the effort of having two conversations at once, he'd think to the otherworldly bunny friend, <That was you was it not, dear Hunter?>
[12:37] Naoki Sato broke that eye contact readily. "You saw," he confirmed quietly. His gaze went to Hunter then, his head cocked to one side as he appraised both Eldritch spawn and the only currently present member of his adoptive family. "He trusts you with the truth- " Sato began. There was a little air of surprise and of approval from the Jikininki but he nodded as he realized Hunter was about to explain, speaking only to pause as Hunter responded in their minds. < Yes. And the bthnknythgof'n. And gnaiih yar. When I began. Not in shogg. Not this world. But hupadgh-yar. My beginning. > It was fortunate for Dorian that the squiddle seemed to at once be speaking to them both, for it signaled Sato to stop speaking aloud that Dori might understand the thoughts being spoken at him. Only when Hunter was finished did Sato speak again. "I am not human now. But before my transformation - when I was. I was... taken. For that. For his creation. That is how he knows me."
[12:53] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes) often tried to hold onto the impossible words Hunter said, but they were impossible, so he sought instead to tangle with the concepts. It took Dorian some moments to assimilate what he could of what Hunter explained, enough that he began to sew the two narratives together. Thus the Englishman asked, "So you became, you were not born thus? Same as me. Only my becoming was not, I do not think, tied to Hunter in such fashion. Worry not, for even if I wanted to, which I do not, I would not know how to tell anyone all that I have learned. His thoughts are so sudden, so all encompassingly devastatingly different from the mundane, no? But... I would rather know than not know, rather be than not have become. I hope that is true for you too."
He was one to talk about Hunter's communiques, when he tripped over verb tenses so haphazardly.
[12:58] Naoki Sato nodded as Dorian grasped at the concept. "I became," he affirmed. "My body was used. Hunter's father was.... summoned. I should have died in the process. I did - I ... think. It felt that way. When I awoke again I was... whole. Untouched. But changed. And Hunter had been created, but... he escaped then. They couldn't hold him. I was surprised when... someone else managed to summon him again. Your sister must be special." He reached out again, the neighbors to that still-healing finger scritching at the black rabbit's head briefly before pulling back. "I would rather be as I am. Truly, as I am. So... I want to change things. Remove the limitations."
[13:10] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes) could not help his immediate answer, "To say my sister is special is to say the sun shines but leave off the heat of the star. She is brilliant and gives the warmth of her very genius to this world. She is... peerless." And though a fond brother would speak that way, perhaps it'd take more than fondness to heat a voice to impassioned as his had been. But he carried on, cheeks and eartips under hair pinkening a little to think of what a glorious creature he adored in his twin. To think of how he intended to reconcile with her. He steered his train of thought back to the present company; however, and grinned a one-sided rendition of his smile over the somehwat gory warmth between Sato and Hunter. "Are you... that makes you something like brethren, does it not? Then Mr. Sato it seems you are to be a friend at the very least. Do you reckon you will miss being underestimated?" Another presumption from Dorian, who knew what it meant to have an incorrect conception applied to him.
[13:18] Naoki Sato watched Dorian carefully as he spoke. The tone of voice was not entirely alien to him, neither was the shine in his eye, the look on his face. "I see," he said simply but there was a touch of understanding in the brief utterance and a hint of respect in the nod. There were, after all, things that Sato obsessed over. "Brethren don't use Mister," he corrected, both confirming Dorian's assumption of some relation there and abolishing the need for formality at once. He peered again at the house for a moment in thought. "I think. I will continue to be underestimated," he answered with a definitive amount of confidence. "If not by you or your family then by others. At least until hiding what we are is forced on us."
[13:30] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes) had a sense that he'd given the game away with Dinah, and though the old pangs of panic over oversharing threatened him for a moment of tension that rolled through him, it was shrugged off with a kick at some curling fog. This only mixed up the ankle deep soupy mist a little bit while he rejoined, "Well, there is a certain sweetness to it. To being underestimated, that is. Having had this conversation it is unlikely between us two, yes? So are we to be Windgrace and Sato then or Dorian and....?"
Dorian wasn't the negotiator, nor the ruler of his clan, but he was, at times, the one people talked to. His mien could make that easy when his smile lit up his face like the sky on a blue fogless day. His smile persisted and one brow raised up under curling golden fringe as he asked this last.
[13:37] Naoki Sato nodded his agreement. He was oblivious to Dorian's turmoil and panic over what he may or may not have revealed about his sisterly feelings - though he wouldn't have judged, something Hunter seemed two pick up and chitter-chuckle about in his odd bunny-like way. He sprawled himself over Dorian's shoulder like he was stretching, only to tumble to the grass and land with a little thump. Sato looked down at him curiously. "Dorian is your... given name. Is that what you prefer? Few people call me Naoki," he answered with a shrug and a bit of indifference that said he really didn't seem to care... so long as no one attached odd titles to it.
As he spoke the squiddle was... morphing. Black fur rippled and bulged into inky black masses of goop until it took the shape of a humanoid female... and then began to add details. Very familiar details - to Dorian anyway. Sato had seen Dinah before as well but he was certainly not familiar enough with her to see the spawn as anything other than 'Hunter' no matter what he looked like. Most of the time. "...he is learning new faces," Sato observed.
[13:46] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes) was prepared to answer jocularly and even to make a joke, and that was in his voice when he began replying, "Dorian is my given name. As is Windgrace, so I shall answer to either. I only asked because should you be in the presence of me and my brother or sist--" As Hunter made his way into Dinah's shape Dorian went silent and stared at his new twin, boggling and agog. Hunter's abilities were often jaw-dropping, but this one... held such promise and potential and sisterly refulgence, down to the pellucid shade of grey in th eyes. Somehow he couldn't bring himself to say anything else, just stared a little dumbstruck, a little lovestruck.
[13:51] Hunter grinned wide, ear to ear at Dorian's reaction. 'She' clapped her hands together and jumped up and down in her glee, sending golden curls and... other things bouncing. Hopping to Dorian she reached a hand out to pat him on the shoulder. "It works, it is good, right? Close enough? I was tweaking," she said, her voice still bearing Hunter's cadence and bounce but certainly higher in register, closer to Dinah's vocal tone and accent. Turning back to Sato she set her hands on her hips, beaming at him proudly. "I had a Windgrace-face, like the face I wore for the gnaiih yar. One for Dinah. One... for Dorian. I will see, if I should make a Drystan. And see if I can make one for you," he said with a nod and a wiggle of his eyebrows in Sato's direction. The Jikininki took a few steps in and seemed to examine the body Hunter was showing off. "I haven't seen this much of her. But the eyes remain, like my veins. The covenant does not hide them, does it?" he observed.
[14:00] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes) moved once he stopped being suprised to put himself between Hunter and Sato's appreciative eye. Forgetting he even had a jacket to throw over her he'd just attempt to form a screen with his body as he found his voice, and raised it with some alarm, "What?! Don't look at her veins! That's my sister, sort of... Hunter! Did you forget something, clothes, perhaps?!" It never occurred to him that Hunter had seen Dinah naked but he clearly had because he got so many details correct... ...in the bouncy parts in particular that Dorian had to not stopped himself staring at. Not even to turn and look to see if Sato was still looking.
[14:05] Hunter blinked at Dorian in precisely the way Sato blinked at him from the other side of the body-block he imposed between them. "Clothes?" the squiddle echoed and looked down at herself. She did often wear pants when the need came... so why not pants? She shrugged and her bottom was at least covered in the same sort of clinging black layering she often wore in her male guises, the top remaining quite bare. "There. Pants! Like before. Is that better? It's never ACTUALLY clothes Dorian!" she said with a little giggle, the grin never fading. Morphing such was a newfound amusement for her, after all. Sato hummed. He had, at least, pivoted to be looking away - causing some distance in his voice. "I think he means a shirt, Hunter. You have breasts now. Most cover those."
[14:16] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes) stopped staring at his sister's tits, because he was not going about it in an innocent way. In fact, he had to turn his face away and think about cricket because parts of him were stirring which should not in polite company. This made him go quiet as he concerned himself with being presentable without pitching a tent in his pants. Sato got a firsthand experiencing of what embarrassed Dorian looked like when he couldn't just run away. His face was deeply reddening from its usual ivory and roses, and his voice suddenly went quiet though he did speak to say, "Yes and pants, it's never clothes! Blimey. Fuck."
After several moment's redirecting blood flow through mainly willing out of his mind what he'd just been looking at and thinking of he'd spin on his heel to face Sato and explained and asked at once, "He is altogether very good at mimicry, is he not?"
[14:20] Hunter KNEW that look now, which was an awful thing to know because the moment Dorian turned away form her Hunter was creeping up behind him and draping her arms over his shoulders, the softness of a very familiar chest pressing against his back. "Dorian - wait! I see your face. Your eyes! Do you need help? I can help - I have learned," she proclaimed proudly, looking up to grin at Sato in a way that made the poor observer of a yokai slowly nod. "...I see," he found himself saying again. And gently, almost hesitantly as if he might've been reconsidering getting involved, blood seeped from the sleeves of Sato's shirt to coil around Hunter's shoulders and lift, trying to extricate her from poor Dorian in all his flustered mess. Sato was, after all, very acutely aware of when blood moved places, sensitive to its location and veracity as he was. "Let him be, Hunter. He... needs time."
[14:33] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes) gulped when his 'sister' openly sidled up to him all supple and wanting to do carnal things. It was an act of mercy that Sato interceded allowing Dorian the space to dance away from touches that were winding him up. That of course left Dinah's tits there for anyone to see. He had flashes of thoughts of the real sister and when they'd dared take their chances in a near public place and his cause was getting lost away from the boring exercise of listing technical cricket terms in mind. Once again he needed some flustered moments of steering his thoughts to that neutral space before he could manage to even be where he was. He'd been without Dinah for weeks now and his appetite was rapacious. "Th-thank you Sato," the man's surname seemed to be what Dorian settled on in the heat of the moment, attempting to surreptitiously reposition his jacket from his draped over his shoulder to just in front of him.
Whatever help Hunter was offering was not something Dorian could let himself think about for more than
[14:33] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes): half a second before he thought: handle, splice, shoulder, blade, the parts of a cricket bat. He was trying no to appreciate something hard and wooden, but rather the inanity of it over the otherworldly attraction he had to a person all of a sudden. Dorian was half a mess and about two heartbeats away from running away and excusing himself. The house with his own room in it was just right there and upstairs he could address his... issues. His lifetime subscription to Dinah.
[14:59] Hunter at least covered up the chest area with a stretch of tight black - something, much like her pants. She looked down at it, twisting back and forth a little to make sure it stayed when Sato moved her, taking a moment to hop... up and down, up and down to test the stability of this thing she'd just morphed out of her own self. "Is that better Dorian?" she asked, circling around the hiding twin to peer up at his features, almost perpetually on tip-toes because really, he'd only ever seen Dinah in heels of some fashion. "The breasts are covered, see?" he exclaimed, making Sato shake his head. "He understands. But does not understand. If you are bothered, just tell him so. Or I can take him elsewhere for the time being," Sato offered, stepping over to Hunter as the tendrils that had picked her up from Dorian wound around her waist and torso, intending to lift and carry her off as if the squiddle couldn't simply teleport.
[15:13] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes)'s eyes could be seen following the obscene and beauteous bounce of boobies but he was really trying very hard to be good. Even Hunter's questions were like catnip to an unsated appetite. He'd take a few steps back, settle his arse on stairs and jacket on his lap as he wrung his fingers through his hair and muttered to himself. "Get a hold of yourself, man. For the gods' sakes and your own."
He took a moment and closed his eyes to clear his sister's visage from his thoughts, and after he was able, he'd speak more vociferously, if shakily to the others, Sato in specific, "He means well, he ahhhhhhh.... Hunter, thank you for showing me that you can look like my sister. You did a very decent job of it." Decent wasn't the right word, and he knew it, but he also hesitated to use the word good when Dinah's tits had just been bouncing all over creation for anyone to see. "As regards the other thing... you will keep us posted and I shall ready my kindred hn?" Rousing a thought as breaking the covenant was, at least it was not likewise arousing.
[15:26] Hunter looked a little put out as he hung there like a blood-bound pinata but he nodded, seeming at least to understand that he had caused the other twin some distress. "Wait - wait I can show the other! Is that better?" he said and wiggled a little until Sato set him back down onto the grass. Hunter actually seemed to wait until the Jikininki nodded and gestured at him before sucking in some air into himself and remolding, chest sinking and broadening, face squaring, hair shortening. When he stood before Dorian next it was with a... passable? Facsimile of Dorian himself, though with much less curl, and much less stubble. Hunter cleared his throat and coughed a few times before repeating Dorian's - "I shall ready my kindred!" with... a bit more chipperness than the man himself had shown.
[15:41] Dorian (alexandros.lycomedes) looked up from the stair at his new new twin and again his mouth gaped. For a few heartbeats he just stared until finally he managed to utter: "Blimey... you look just like me, Hunter... you..." Dorian shook his head and fell to laughter. At least that wasn't boning up anymore. It was all a bit funny if viewed past the abject embarrassment. He'd look from Sato to Hunter and back again, revealing, "He is even better at it than I knew! Is that really what I sound like? Blimey."
He wanted to thank Sato more properly because the opportuntiy presented to them through him was one that his sister was going to be glad of, he just knew it and at the moment he needed every bit of good cheer to win back her good graces. So he stood, and once again he'd bow toward the man, excusing himself, "I shall go make ready, thank you again Sato. I am glad we have well and properly met. I do remember Blake saying something about you being 'totally super cool' or some such, I am glad to know he was right... whatever that meant." Without looking behind him, he'd take another step toward the door, announcing his intentions that way too.