trans_9 | Houston, We Have Pounce Off. - [ Open Like An Open Thing ]

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Houston, We Have Pounce Off. - [ Open Like An Open Thing ]

Title: Houston, We Have Pounce Off.
Location: Stacy; The Sensoriums

Epiphanies have been known to both be false and sometimes, not so wonderful. However, considering what had so recently transpired, a few things had come to light.

Now, after not only a welcome dose of laughter but a few sneaky bits of white chocolate (Billy, kill him later), there are a couple of impromptu, badly written, badly spelled "signs" done in raised-relief ink scattered about.

"Prince of Pounces. Challenge me, who dares?"

And yes. The Sensorium chamber which currently holds the writer of said messages is suitably fluff-ified and otherwise turned into a chamber ideal for such a challenge.

[[OOC: I blame this on very old logs, tea, chocolate and an intrepid starship captain-times-three. ]]

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It’d been an odd week for Rose, which was saying something considering what her usual was like. Woke up naked and covered in weird alien slime, met the Doctor while both were naked and slimy, got cleaned up by tentacles and dressed in something that was alive, was told she was chosen to help save the multiverse, ran into a fellow Doctor’s companion, and finally found her Doctor (one of them, at least). And that’d all happened on her first day.

Eventually, the initial madness of podpop died down and Rose was able to adjust to life on Stacy relatively easily. She had taken to exploring and was wandering the hallways when the sign caught her eye. It took her a minute to puzzle out what it said.

Prince of Pounces?

Curious, Rose walked into the Sensorium.

Pretty much any message written in this raised ink is...well, frankly it looks as if a ten year old (if that) wrote these. Still, it's somewhat readable and while English is the oddity's second language, a curiously happy chirp is a curiously happy chirp. Hear that? Yes, that, and the scuttling across the bouncy, cushy floor.

That's a blue oddity coming to sniff at you, Miss Tyler.

Her first impression of the room was of generally squishiness, like the inside of a bouncy castle. The chirp drew her attention to the little blue creature making its way over.

Rose dropped down into a crouch so she wouldn't tower over and offered up a hand, palm up, for its (his?) inspection.

"Well, hello there." She pitched her voice to be soft and non-threatening. "Are you the 'Prince of Pounces' I've heard about?"

There's probably a reason nature doesn't have many gender neuters or androgynes running about. It's all bloody confusing! Ah, well.

Chitterbouncing, the oddity's skin gives off a brief little display of vibrant flashes. Curiosity, living literal curiosity leaks off of him like too much perfume. Upon finding the Human, this oddity quite immediately sniffs, then gives a little lick with its tri-forked tongue.

And yes. Oddity lifts its head up all proudly when she inquires of the Pouncing Prince.

"Eeee! Wha-t yeu is?" Sniff. "Is...Hew-mahn, is...Fee-male. Yeu is Paown-ce?" Chirp.

The color-changing skin caught her eye and Rose wondered exactly what it meant. Not camouflage: it didn't match the room. Some sort of signal?

She smiled; its behavior reminded her of a curious dog and she had to stop herself from scratching those ears. Remember: sentient creature that is NOT a dog.

"No, my name is Rose. What's your name?"

"Eee. Rrrowse. Is Rrrr-enne" Sniff.

Pardon this oddity as those big ears perk straight up. And yeah, he squeaks. Really does squeak. And that skin's flashing again, this time with a thin stripe of...blue? Teal? No, is that a bit of marigold?

"Yeu go-t Dohck-turrr smell!"

"Hello, Renne."

Rose blushed at the comment; it sounded... intimate? Well, she wasn't sure exactly what it sounded like, other than awkward.

"You know the Doctor? Um... One of them." Because calling them both 'Doctor' wasn't going to be confusing at all. They should have been designated by number or something, especially if any more of him woke up.

"Eeee. Is two Dohck-turrr. Or....mohrrre? Is mohrrre Dohck-turrr."

Yes, Rose, he's met more than one incarnation of...more than one incarnation. Seriously. Two chirps later and he's sniffing at the Human again, then very carefully trying to grasp something with his teeth.
Be it a sock, shoe, pantleg, anywhichway. It's gentle and a wee bit playful.

“Yeah, there are more Doctors, but I only saw two on the ship.” So far.

Rose watched with amusement as Renne investigated her jacket; the combination of leather, stretchy cotton, and zippers was probably more interesting than the nearly-ubiquitous plant-suit she was also wearing. As long as he didn’t munch on her, she was fine with it.

He really was cute. But back to the topic at hand. “I traveled with him, before. Did you met him here?”

Oh yes, initiate investigative sniffs, snuffles and careful nibbles at the jacket. And..wait. What is...? No, Rose, he's never encountered a zipper before. So pardon him as he tries to pull the thing up and down its track.
And giggle at the sound it makes.

"Eee, noh. O-therr Dohck-turrr, lon-g ti-me 'go. Rrrr-enne bi-te Tahrrrr-diss." Zzzzzzzip.

His general adorableness eventually wore down her resolve not to scratch and she reached out a tentative hand to gently scratch at the base of one of his ears.

Huh. An alternate universe Doctor? That was something to consider.

“Really? You bit the TARDIS?” Rose tried to think of a reason for such an action and fell short. “Why? And didn’t it hurt?” The TARDIS was designed to travel through space and the Vortex; in a fight between teeth and a TARDIS, she’d always put her money on the TARDIS.

Skritch? Oooh, that earns a good loud, long purr. Eerily harmonic but, come on. He's weird. The skritching hand even gets a very catlike nuzzle. Careful Rose, he's worn down tougher folk.

"Noh do harrr-d. Rrr-enne noh kno-w wha-t it be." Chirp.

By now, a webbed hand/paw is...basically petting the odd leather-stuff that is her jacket. Pardon him. Canvas, silk, velvet, cotton and armour-type leather are pretty much the only fabrics he's familiar with.

At the positive reaction, her scratching became surer. Really, Renne was reminding her of a big blue alien cat.

Ah. That explained it, though she still wasn’t clear on how biting something would help identify it. Perhaps it was a non-human thing, like the Doctor’s licking of things (though she half-suspected he did it to embarrass her/weird her out, depending on what he was licking and if they had company).

“Don’t get blue boxes around there often?” Assuming this alternate TARDIS was stuck as a police box. “Or blue leather?”

Purrrrrr. She even gets a wee bit of a lick about...now. Yeah. Tri-forked, silvery-blue tongue, don't be surprised.

"Eeee. Buh-loo? It be bocks bu-t wha-t be Buh-loo?"

Oh, right. Explain a visual concept in a non-visual means. Soon as he asks that, the beastie shakes his head a bit. Synesthetes. Gotta love 'em.

"Buh-loo noh be harrr-d. It be soff'."

She giggled; the licking tickled.

"It--" Rose started to attempt a description, but abruptly stopped, desperately wishing the Doctor were here to explain as he was apt to do. Blimey, this is harder than talking about time travel. "A sorta... color? Not related to how hard or soft somethin' is."

"Um..." Really, how did you explain a concept that seemed so natural? "Do you know what light is?"

"Eee? Lie-et?" Trill.

Now he's really confused. That little hint of a blush on his face doesn't hide that either. A moment later, the oddity leans in to try and sniff at the strange jacket textile. Yes, he's sniffing it, licking it a bit too. Snakish tongue and all.

"Tha-t noh be Buh-loo. It be..." Sniff. Lick. "Tha-t be...Guh-rrrrray?"

He wasn't the only one; Rose looked a bit lost herself.

"I'll... ask the Doctor to explain." Yep, that would probably be best; she had a feeling this was way out of her depth.

She watched curiously as he sniffed and licked her jacket, a rather mad idea forming in her mind. "This may sound stupid, Renne, but how exactly do you tell if something is blue or gray?"

"Eee. It go-t s-mell ahn-d feel." Trill. "Yeu noh do tha-t?"

Squeaking, the oddity momentarily finds the zipper-pull on her jacket and very carefully nips at it. It's the kind of slow, careful movement one might expect from one whose eyes simply don't work. In his case? Optic nerves just plain aren't there.

"Not as such, no." Rose processed that new bit of information. He wasn't human, so it really shouldn't have come as a surprise that he didn't do things in a human way.

Not knowing light, relying on taste and touch and smell so much, having an entirely different concept of colors. "You... don't see, do you?"

"Seeee?" Trill. Ear-twitch.

It never fails, however many times he hears that word, he never has understood it. The whole concept of sight is something completely out of his league. It's much like attempting to explain electricity to a Dark Ages monk.

“I’ll take that as a ‘no’.” Well, he seemed to be getting along just fine without sight, so who was she to judge?

Rose gestured to the room at large, getting back to her original reason for entering the Sensorium. “So, Renne, what’ve you got set up here?”

"Rrr-enne be Paown-ce Kingh! Rrrraowrrr."

Yeah, he means that, can you tell? There's a grin on his face and a mischief-filled shimmer in his useless eyes. Occasionally, thin stripes of 'hyper, bouncy happy' roll across his skin.

A moment later, the oddity straightens up, lifts his head and strikes the most ridiculous, "hero" pose he can manage. He's hamming it up to the extreme. Rowr.

Rose matched his grin with one of her own; that much cuteness had to be illegal in some places.

"Renne the Pounce King, huh? Funny; the sign said that you were only a prince." Her tone was one of gentle teasing. "Where's your crown?"

"Rrrr-enne go-t to beat in Paown-ce fohrrrr to be Paown-ce Kingh."

That's said so completely matter-of-factly that...well, it's like a four year old knowing the absolute certainty of that monster living in his closet. In Renne's case? He simply must win the Pouncing War to become the Pouncing King!

"So, how many people have you beaten in Pounce so far?"

She tilted her head, curious. "For that matter, how exactly do you play Pounce?"

"Rrrr-enne beat two Hew-mahns, frrrree Drrrrraow." Chirp.

And then a cheeky little grin. In answer to her second question, the Renne mock-growls, spreads his big feet out a bit and springs forward.

Pounce!

That's how.

Two wins and three ties; that wasn't a bad record.

Rose had just enough time to notice Renne's mischievious grin before she was promptly knocked onto her arse with a rather startled laugh.

Ah; well, that explained why the room was so squishy.

"Did that count as our match? Because I was very not ready." Though, in hindsight, she should've seen that coming.

"Eeee, if wahn-t. Rrrraowrrrr."

Grin. Okay, so he's holding back giggles and trying to "rowr" while doing it. Offering a gentle sort of nose-bump, the little thing scampers back like a playful pup.

Really, the outcome wouldn't be any different if they had a rematch; Rose didn't have the heart to make a real effort when his reaction to victory was so cute. "Nah. The element of surprise is always a good idea."

Though, she was curious. "How exactly do you manage a draw with this?"

"Eee, Sai-rrrrus be big Gahrrr-goy." Squeak.

As if that explains it. To him, it does, remembering the eight-foot-tall mute Gargoyle with fire-engine-red hair. What had been sniffing at one another (and Renne swinging on Syrus's tail) had turned into an impromptu "pounce off".
Renne's speed versus Syrus's sheer size. Yeah, that was a real draw.

Okay, Rose understood maybe half of what he said. "So, um... the other guy was bigger than you?" Though, Renne looked to be smaller than the average crewmember, so she wasn't quite clear on how that made a difference.

"Eey-ess. BIG-big! Strrrrong, is fohrrr he Gahrrr-goy. Rrrr-enne be tie-nee."

Squeak. The ears flick forward, then back, then out to each side. With his ears perked like that -- left ear flaring to the left and right ear to the right -- he might just barely give the impression of a freakish blend of Stitch and a Papillon-breed dog.

Rose guessed that this 'Gahrrr-goy' was some species that wasn't human (or passing for human, like a Time Lord) and much bigger. "If he's so much bigger than you, I'm impressed that it only ended up in a draw."

The motions his ears were going through reminded her of those blokes that directed traffic and she stifled a giggle.

"Hee. Rrr-enne be luck-kee."

Don't look now, Rose, but he's got a very faint flicker of mischief crossing his face. It's likely the only warning anyone gets before the oddity gently springs, fully intending to pounce the Human.

"Rrrraowrrrr."

He's two steps away from unleashing Phear The Adorableface.

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Houston, We Have Pounce Off. - [ Open Like An Open Thing ]

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Sweet gods, I am slow!fail!