The tremors had come and gone, but the effects lingered regardless. Moth was dead, Vigenere had been injured, and Alaric's vision in his left eye was no longer spoken for, among others. He'd neglected to tell anyone about his affliction out of a sheer lack of real trust for any of his fellow Tanglers.

    His medical journals had listed off many potential symptoms of suddenly becoming monocular, including the loss of depth perception and an inability to track moving objects. Judging distances accurately was a thing of the past. No longer could Alaric hunt for his prey as he usually preferred to do; he'd miss his mark by a wide margin each and every time. He now had to result to the food stores in the tavern to sustain himself. Reaching out to move things was difficult as well, and oftentimes he had to try to reach for a particular object two or three times before he would finally grasp whatever he happened to be trying to get.

    Embarrassingly, Alaric had also begun to bump into things on the afflicted side. He was sure that under his fur was a number of bruises, each earned from a bump into a wall or the door of his home. No, it wasn't pleasant, and no, he hadn't adjusted. He was unsure if he ever would fully quite adjust to it, either. How the hell did Aurum do it?

    How no one had noticed was beyond him, honestly. To him, his change in behavior was dramatic, but perhaps it wasn't quite as drastic of a change for everyone else as it had been for him. His demeanor had certainly changed, though; he'd been a bit more temperamental lately, and he'd also been even more guarded than he usually was. Noticeably so, in fact. Coping with such a large change in his life was something that he needed to deal with on his own, although for the most part he tried to suppress any feelings of incompetence or anger that came as a consequence of his injury.

    To that end, Alaric had made the decision to leave his home for the day. Because of the collapse of many houses within the town, he'd reluctantly allowed a family to move into his home for the time being until they had either located a new home or rebuilt the one they already had. They mostly kept to themselves, but they were incessantly loud. On occasion they would attempt to reach out to him for casual conversation, and each and every time Alaric had managed to scramble for an excuse to take the emergency exit to that situation. Today was one of those days.

    Presently it was not yet nighttime, but instead that period of twilight where the sun's final rays are just barely holding out above the horizon. As a result there were not many creatures milling about aside from himself and the occasional Tangler. This was fine with him.

    One of Alaric's least favorite things about losing his eyesight was the fact that it was now significantly easier for someone or something to sneak up on him. So much so, in fact, that Alaric had been completely unaware of the Tangler that was approaching him on his left side, and at a rapid pace, too. This particular NPC had a penchant for catching his tribemates off guard, as well, judging by the "Boo!" that the NPC called out to Alaric with.

    The sudden intrusion into Alaric's thoughts, which would have previously been impossible but now was due to the loss of sight in his eye, caused him to recoil in fright. Recovering nearly immediately, he turned to the NPC with his ears pinned back and his lips peeled in anger. "What the fuck!" came his initial shout. "Are you kidding me? Who the fuck sneaks up on people like that?" The NPC promptly retreated upon becoming the brunt of Alaric's fury. The tabby watched with one eye as the Tangler left, his anger subsiding just as soon as it had come. His wrath had been yet another product of his tendency to bottle up his insecurities and emotions, truly. But what he didn't know, was that he would have almost certainly seen the NPC coming had his sight been in tact, a fact which was likely very evident to any onlookers.

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    A strange chirruping noise emanated from behind Alaric, once more startling him albeit to a lesser extent. He whipped around only to face Octane, someone whose presence did not outright irritate him but did often grate on his nerves. The tabby had been fine with the cheetah's extended stay before, but the longer that he lingered around, the more Alaric grew annoyed with his frankly childish nature. This was one of those times.

    "I don't believe that's any of your business," Alaric hissed, making very clear that he was not fond of those who made attempts to pry into his personal business. He doubted that Octane would get the memo, but now he would at least know better now.

    Ivan and Aurum approached next, and upon their arrival Alaric found himself calming. Turns out that a friendly face and a couple deep sighs were all he needed to calm himself down. But now he was at a crossroads: admit his blindness, or continue on about his day and be branded as someone who was prone to randomly snapping at anyone that crossed his path? He supposed the answer was obvious, then.

    Another exhalation escaped his lips before he began speaking again. "Ever since the meteor hit, I haven't been able to see out of my left eye." He allowed a brief pause. "Traumatic optic neuropathy. I think that's what it is, at least. It's incurable, and it's the reason why he was able to sneak up on me like that. ...Sorry for shouting."

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