[div style="width: 310px; font-family: palatino; color: cornflowerblue; text-align: left; padding-top: 15px; padding-left: 10px"]

The petite arctic fox looked ready to drop.  A pair of unmatched hues flickered dully, rimmed red from pure exhaustion.  With nearly ever step her paws seemed to shimmer in and out of existence, ghosting away only to become corporal again a second later.  Every once and a while, her entire body disappeared, only to reappear a few feet away, legs swaying, eyes watering.

Since the child first opened her eyes, things have been like this.  Her physical body has never been stable.  It was no fault of her own, though Kiira had no inkling to there being a reason.  It'd been moons after all; moons and moons.  The scrawny vixen had begun to pay less and less mind to the passage of time.  There was no point in marking each day when things stayed the same.  No answers.  No reasoning.

So it had gone, and perhaps always would go.  It made no difference to her anymore.  She was not sure why she was still going, perhaps looking without thought for a new place to stay.  She was tired, but she was lonely too.  Unfortunately, the canine was also terribly shy.  Whenever another sentient soul had crossed her path, Kiira had been too startled and nervous to actually say anything.  Then her 'glitch' managed to move her far away before she could do much else.

But her body had limits.  Though not comfortable - everything seemed rather... squishy out here - Kiira slumped, spent, on the ground, indifferent for the moment, to the mud sticking to her fur.  It was not too bad... Maybe she could just... Nap here for a second...

© MADI

[div style="width: 310px; font-family: palatino; color: cornflowerblue; text-align: left; padding-top: 15px; padding-left: 10px"]

It was an oddly familiar situation.  Perhaps it had happened to her once before.  The vixen never meant to get so close to others' lands, but after wandering so long, it was bound to happen eventually.  Often case, it was for the better.  At least then there was a pair - or more - eyes watching the glitching child.

Kiira probably would not agree with the sentiment.

Instead, she was rather quickly alarmed.  Mind wide awake at a foreign touch; her body managing to move at least five paces away in the fraction of a second, without her meaning to.  She really had to stop all of this ghosting and teleporting... It left her completely drained, dazed and weary. 

It was warily, the child finally focused on her surroundings, on the voice's owner, her eyes dancing with panicked light.  Was she okay? Really? No, she'd suppose not.  It wasn't her fault of course; she couldn't control her body's strange mannerisms.  It wasn't her fault she did not know exactly what she was, or where she came from. 

"I-I du-dunno," she mumbled, lips quivering.  It was the honest answer afterall.  Besides, even if she had been, she was scared witless by strangers.  "W-who're you?"

© MADI

[div style="width: 310px; font-family: palatino; color: cornflowerblue; text-align: left; padding-top: 15px; padding-left: 10px"]

Kiira was on the verge of hyperventilation, although she was doing her best to handle it.  Her heart was fluttering so hard in her chest she had to wonder if the entire swamp could hear it.  For the moment, her body seemed mostly stable, although her trembling paws kept ghosting without the rest of her.  Her frightened eyes darted to each Tangler in turn, ears flattening at the... Cheery threats.

Some part of her was angry.  She was a frail creature, but she was not helpless and she did not need anyone to take care of her, or anyone to pick on her.  However, Kiira's second nature was held back by the mountain of anxiety she was fighting with at the present time, uncertainty lining her brow as the options danced in her terrified mind.

She had a feeling she would not get far if she tried to say no and run.  Joining did not seem too terribly better either; Kiira did not appreciate the eyes on her, nor the not too discreet promises of death.  She was not too sure how she felt about staying with such individuals.  But she was also exhausted, pushed to her limits and she was not sure she could find a way out if she wanted to.  It'd probably be safer to stay in one place for a time.

"I-I'm Kiira." She stared fixedly down at her ghosting paws, hoping for the best, "I-I'll j-join p-please."

© MADI

The only thing he could think of as he came closer, listening to everybody give vague, ominous threats to this mere child, was shame. Even if it was meant in jest, as a fun joke, it seemed inappropriate to threaten to kill a child, especially one as apparently nervous as this. For shame, truly. Or perhaps he was over-reacting and his fatherly instincts, which he had despite having no sex drive, were making him pass unnecessary judgement. He would have to wait and see what the future held, how this child reacted to the barrage of meaningless nonsense that could potentially cause the girl to burst into tears, which nobody needed right now. "All subjects require teaching. Speech to lone, nervous child on border, unnecessarily violent," said the spider, smaller than your average cat but huge for an arachnid, as liable as any threat of death to make a child cry. Unfortunately. Hopefully he wasn't made out to be a hypocrite. As the child spoke once more, staring down at the paws that seemed not to want to be anchored in reality, he tried to figure out what to say to her. Probably not best to ask about the noncorporeal thing, or about how she got here - she wanted to join, so he supposed he would just let her feel like she got something out of her life, that she could have a little bit of a home here in this out of place hellhole. "Doubt any subject has problem with subject Kiira joining. Welcome. Abathur Everman, nurse - can help with any medical problems subject has, regardless of relative low rank in medical staff." It was mostly due to his lack of activity in recent time, he reasoned, and possibly because he hadn't had much opportunity to prove his skill. Why else would he be considered just a nurse?

He still did worry about this child, though, even when he was reasoning about his standing.

tags - "speech"

[div style="width: 310px; font-family: palatino; color: cornflowerblue; text-align: left; padding-top: 15px; padding-left: 10px"]

The fox shuffled back a little bit as yet another arrived on the scene.  Fortunately, he seemed more like Esmeray, in his apparent disapproval.  He was a bit... Scary looking though.  Kiira had never, ever, seen a spider that big but something... Seemed familiar about that.  A part of her soul said yes, she had met someone under the category of big spider before, though she could not recall name or face.

She would file the both of them to 'friendlier faces' in her mind for the time being, though it was clear the vixen did not desire to fully relax around any of her current company.  The tension in her shoulders did loosen a little, the child subconsciously recognizing the word 'nurse' as something to feel safer around.

So this group had medics then.  Kiira doubted they could help the matter of her oddities, but it had to mean that there were individuals around more like Abathur, who would not toss around death so casually.  And maybe they could help find ways, at the very least, to lessen the amount of glitching.

Maybe.  They were still who'd she'd no doubt be hanging around when it got bad; wearing her body completely out and accidentally glitching her way into trouble were not unlikely situations.

"T-Thank you."

© MADI