the clock stopped ticking forever ago [...] joiner

[aya]

[div style="margin: 0 auto; width: 55%; font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; text-align: justify;"]Aya was surprised at the almost scolding tone of Abathur's voice. Her tail flicked, still, considering his words as she watched Kiira. She sighed a little, before responding, "All right, you're right. I'm sorry, little one, welcome to Tanglewood." She glanced at Malphas and Arrow too, as she spoke, with a "you too" look in her eyes.

The tortoiseshell wasn't totally sure why the thought of Abathur being annoyed with her made her so distressed. She supposed it was because she considered the birdeater her only good friend - and with how neutral he usually sounded, it was almost uncomfortable to consider him being angry. ..Frightening, nearly.

[ABATHUR .]

The concept of someone having met him before only shocked him for one reason - he hadn't been here for long. Here being this reality, of course, but he just hadn't existed in this place for long enough to warrant even semi-widespread knowledge. So for someone to know him from before when he got here, it would mean that other people were hopping over to this reality, and that was just a whole other problem that he didn't feel like working through, even mentally.

He gave Aya a thankful glance, before returning his attention to Kiira, who seemed more at ease, thankfully not freaked out over his mere existence. "Does subject Kiira require anything? Food, water, tour, bed?" That line was something he had said so many times, talking to visitors and joiners at the border of a strange grasslands, trying to be as inviting as he could despite being a giant spider, although now he didn't have the benefit of a voice laced with emotional manipulation to make people calmer, or his presence exuding calm to those close enough to him, nor was he big enough to cross the threshold between "abnormally big spider" and "massive, unmistakeably giant spider."

He just had to adapt to the lack of helpful things he had built up over the years, he supposed.

tags - "speech"