Firefox [Closed]

Brant awoke with a gentle force to his nose - rough but with soft fur around the edges that tickled his nose. He responded with a moan as he blinked his eyes open. Blue eyes surrounded by white and orange fur met his green eyes before he closed his eyes to drift off to sleep. However, the rough surface disappeared for a quick second before returning, followed by a drawn-out meow that shattered the silence.

“Go away, Kindle,” he growled softly, causing the paw to draw away. However, when he made no more movements it returned - this time on his cheek. Her tail whacked his side in a rhythmic pattern as he opened his eyes once more to glare at his cat as she stared down at him with an uncaring look, her paw still planted firmly on his cheek as she sat on his stomach. A sigh escaped Brant, happy at least that she didn’t have her claws out this time.

With the fact being clear that he was not going to be left alone, he let out a soft moan as he pushed the ragdoll off of his chest and forced himself upright. He let out a yawn as he rubbed his eyes, Kindle pacing around him as her tail tickled his bare chest as it brushed against him. “Are you hungry or something, you little shark?” he grumbled as he swung his feet off the side of the bed and stood up.

Kindle quickly hopped to the ground to circle his feet - which gave Brant the answer he had been looking for. It wasn’t like this was a new thing - it was something he had to deal with every since she got smart enough to know that waking him up tended to get her food. Of course, that only raised the question of what time had she decided to wake him up. Sparing a glance at the digital clock next to a bed, he saw that it was seven in the morning.

Another moan escaped him as he lumbered toward the door, Kindle padding after him without a sound. Kindle was a lucky cat that she was so darn cute because otherwise he would of been going back to bed. When he reached the door of his room however, he stopped as he glanced down at his bare chest. Wearing only a pair of sweatpants, he wondered if any of his roommates were awake and if he should put on a shirt. However, he quickly decided that he was to lazy to put on a shirt and didn’t care enough about what his roommates might think. Opening up the door, he stepped into the living room with Kindle close behind.

Inari hummed to herself as she laid on the couch, her eyes darting across the pages of a book. It was a type of book she normally didn’t read - one she had already read before. A look of disinterest filled her eyes as she flipped to the next page, already aware of every single world she was about to read. She had woken up a while ago, but had been unable to fall back asleep. She didn’t happen to have any new books on her, so here she was stuck reading the same-old same-old.

Her ears perked as the sound of a door opening interrupted her tune, causing her to close her book as she forced herself to sit upright to see who exactly had awoken. She wasn’t surprised to see it was Brant, but a faint blush flashed onto her cheeks when she noticed that he was shirtless. Did he not sleep with a shirt on or something? Her eyes quickly darted down to see the cat that was circling him as she nervously cleared her throat. “Hey Brant,” she said with a twitch of her tail. “Did Kindle wake you up again?”

Brant paused when he saw Inari’s head pop out from behind the back of the couch, blinking at her in surprise. When he spotted her blush, a similar once flared onto his face as he raised a hand to rub his neck in a nervous fashion. Well, this was awkward. “Sorry, Fly. I would of put on a shirt if I knew if anybody else was awake,” he apologized as he turned and headed toward the kitchen as Kindle followed along faithfully. “And yeah, she did. She’s gotten smart about how to get her food when she is hungry,” he noted with a sigh as he started to open up the cupboards, trying to recall which one he had put the wet cat food in.

Inari couldn’t help but smile softly when Brant used her nickname. She had been trying to get people to use it but she hadn’t been very successful. At least Brant was willing to put up with the silly nickname she had decided to give herself. Leaning on the back of the couch, she ran her finger over the fabric as she gave him a soft shrug. “It's fine - it just took me by surprise is all,” she hummed softly before she flickered her eyes up at him. “So how are you doing?”

“Ah-ha!” Brant grinned as he finally found the collection of wet cat food, taking one of the cans from the pile as he shut the cupboard door. He blinked as he glanced over at Inari as she asked how he was doing - surprising him. Clearly she was just attempting to make small-talk, which was fine with him. It was better then silence after all. “Tired, very tired," he yawned before glancing around and cursing under his breath. Dammit, now he needed a plate. Setting the can of cat food on the counter, he turned to sift through the cupboards once more to find a small plate he could put the cat food on. “How about you? Why are you awake so early?”

Flickering an ear in response, she spared a glance toward her room as she let out a sigh. “Just woke up randomly and couldn’t fall back asleep. Been awake for a while now…” she paused in her words, lifting the book she had been reading to show it off. “Been spend my time reading instead.” There wasn’t much else for her to say as far as she was aware.

Brant paused mid-way through his search to glance over at Inari to spot that she was holding up a book. His eyes narrowed as he tried to make out a cover before he smirked before resuming his search. “A fantasy novel? Strange, all I thought that you read was the dictionary,” he said with a chuckle. “Anyways, is it any good?”

Pouting, she dropped the book back onto the lap as she glared at him. “Of course I read other things then the dictionary. The dictionary is boring - I only was reading it to see if it would help me get another tail.” She sighed loudly as she leaned onto the back of the couch. “Hours of my life, wasted.” Her tail twitched as she glanced down at the book, before shrugging. “It was good the first time I read it, but it isn’t much fun of a read when you remember every twist and turn that happened but I got nothing better to read so…” She grew quiet, wanting to really talk about anything but this book. She had been reading it because there was nothing else to do but at least now that Brant was awake she could talk to somebody. There was something that she wanted somebody’s option on...So, she lifted her gaze toward Brant as she cleared her throat. “Hey Brant, have you ever thought about how our gifts work?”

Brant shuffled through the cupboards before finally pulling out a small plate. Setting it down on the counter next to the can of cat food. Picking up the cat food, he was in the middle of opening it up when Inari spoke, causing him to pause mid-way with the lid half open. ‘Um...No,” he responded with a shrug, returning to tearing off the top of the can. The scent of the wet cat food that wafted up into his nose caused him to winkle his nose in disgust as he turned the food upside down and gave it a few good shakes before gravity did its thing and the food hit the plate with a disgusting thud. “Guess I never did give it much thought. Why, have you?” Setting the plate on the ground, it was quickly attacked by the ravenous beast that was Kindle. Brant watched with meal be devoured with a slightly amused look, waiting for Inari to respond.

Inari shifted as she stared at Brant, her fox ear flickering. “Of course I have.” It was a simple enough answer that didn’t truly highlight how much thought she had really put into it. As far as she could guess, it was a mutation of their DNA but that only answered a small part. Many gifts didn’t just affect the gifted but other people and the world around them. That was something her DNA theory didn’t answer. Then there was the cavern. She had never been to the cave near the lake herself but she had heard about it and and oh how did it wonder her. A cavern that canceled gifts...How did that work? She had struggled for an answer but when only one remained, she didn’t want to believe it. Her logical side hated it - in the world that so many people believed to be true, it was an answer that would of gotten laughter and mockery. Magic. Her only answer she could see was magic.

Her ear flickered back on her head as she folded her arms on the couch’s back, resting her chin on top. "It just makes no sense,” she muttered, her eyes glazed over as she was lost in her thoughts. "Our gifts make no logical sense and it vexes me.”

Between Inari’s answer and her muttering, Brant had decided to move to the kitchen to the couch, leaving Kindle to enjoy her feast. Settling down next to his young roommate, the Prefect watched her with a curious look as she was lost in her thoughts until she finally spoke. His response was to stretch out, resting his arms on the back of the couch as he reclined next to her. “No,” he breathed, his lips curled in a small grin. “No they don’t, but i think that is why I find them so charming.”

“Charming?” Inari echoed back, a sneer on her face as she tilted her head just slightly to the left to stare at Brant in disbelief. “What do you mean by ‘charming?’” That response greatly confused her as she thought about her words. She...Didn’t like not understanding something but the fact that Brant enjoyed that aspect of gifts bothered her. Also...Charming? Surely he could of thought of a better word to use. Prince Charming was Charming. Gifts were not. Unless you had a gift to charm people, then they were charming she supposed.

Brant opened his mouth up, ready to spout out an answer before suddenly realizing he didn’t have one at the ready. This repeated a few times before he frowned, letting his body go slack as he thought deeply about what he wanted to say. “Well,” he started as carefully as he could. “So many things in this world have the type of belief that if you can prove it, it is real. If you can’t, is isn’t. But our gifts is prove that wrong. I guess I find it ‘charming’ because it opened up a type of open-mindedness that you just can’t have now-a-days.”

Inari raised an eyebrow when she saw that Brant had no response at first, quietly waiting until he finally found the words to say. When he finally finished, she ran those words through her mind before she finally gave him a soft nod. “I...See what you are saying. This is a time where science is the main way of thinking. I suppose you do have a point, but this bothers me none-the-less...Maybe because I want to have that kind of viewpoint.” A sigh escaped her. “I want to know everything and understand how it works...And I just can’t do that with gifts.”

Oh, good, she understood what he was saying. Cause truthfully, he had lost track of what he was saying about halfway through and just ended up making it up as he went. “Well, I see where you are coming from as well,” he said with a soft nod of his head, forcing himself to sit upright a bit more. He paused, a thought coming to him as he gently tilted his head just slightly. “Say, has this what has been bothering you for the last few days?”