12-13-2019, 01:42 PM
And the silence broke.
The door opening was enough to break Abathur out of his reverie, making him glance up, even though he was facing away from the entrance. Quietly, the spider braced himself for some dialogue - it seemed more likely than not, since every time someone else waltzed into the library they wanted to have a nice chat with the giant spider. He couldn't understand why, but he also couldn't understand a lot of things people did. They were so strange, he thought to himself, listening to quiet pawsteps and trying to figure out the owner of them.
They were familiar, but he couldn't quite place them. So soft and quiet, but not quite silent, until they were almost silent, as if they had seen something they were trying to sneak around and avoid. Three guesses as to what that was, he glumly thought.
The conversation never came, though. He felt someone settle down very close to him, but ultimately, he wasn't approached. That was good, at least, though it left him with a tense feeling of anticlimax in his thorax. It felt off, given how the clan's inhabitants normally operated.
Perhaps he should stop complaining, and just enjoy the silence.
So he did, for a time, letting the discomfort float away - but that discomfort was quickly replaced by a new feeling, a sixth sense that rang out in his brain. He felt like he was being watched. Truly, he didn't believe in that sort of thing; sure, there might be people who could manipulate fire or any other sort of ridiculous magical thing, but the idea of a psychic ability to notice certain things didn't agree with him. And yet he was still disturbed by that feeling. Just paranoia, he told himself, no real cause for concern. Try as he might, though, he just couldn't shake that urge to look behind him - if only spiders had been gifted some sort of neck, then he might be able to do it inconspicuously. Instead he was stranded, forced to formulate a plan to somehow get up and turn around enough to look at his strange visitor.
Abruptly, the spider arose, closing his book (which the keen eye would notice he wasn't near done with), and crawling down off the table, back to the shelves. A good enough excuse, he assumed, to conceal his motivations while still allowing him to get a good look at this person - and upon looking at them, he was left feeling a bit silly as to all his paranoia and discomfort and other such silly emotions.
It was just Roy.
He settled back atop his table, now with a new book that he didn't bother checking the name of (it was by the same author, but strangely was about the purpose of fungi in ecosystems), this time turned so that he could keep an eye on both Roy and his book, and heaved out a quiet breath he didn't know he had been holding. Now, Abathur could settle back down, returning to the comfortable silence of before, and reading about some mushrooms, a topic he truly did not care that much about.
The door opening was enough to break Abathur out of his reverie, making him glance up, even though he was facing away from the entrance. Quietly, the spider braced himself for some dialogue - it seemed more likely than not, since every time someone else waltzed into the library they wanted to have a nice chat with the giant spider. He couldn't understand why, but he also couldn't understand a lot of things people did. They were so strange, he thought to himself, listening to quiet pawsteps and trying to figure out the owner of them.
They were familiar, but he couldn't quite place them. So soft and quiet, but not quite silent, until they were almost silent, as if they had seen something they were trying to sneak around and avoid. Three guesses as to what that was, he glumly thought.
The conversation never came, though. He felt someone settle down very close to him, but ultimately, he wasn't approached. That was good, at least, though it left him with a tense feeling of anticlimax in his thorax. It felt off, given how the clan's inhabitants normally operated.
Perhaps he should stop complaining, and just enjoy the silence.
So he did, for a time, letting the discomfort float away - but that discomfort was quickly replaced by a new feeling, a sixth sense that rang out in his brain. He felt like he was being watched. Truly, he didn't believe in that sort of thing; sure, there might be people who could manipulate fire or any other sort of ridiculous magical thing, but the idea of a psychic ability to notice certain things didn't agree with him. And yet he was still disturbed by that feeling. Just paranoia, he told himself, no real cause for concern. Try as he might, though, he just couldn't shake that urge to look behind him - if only spiders had been gifted some sort of neck, then he might be able to do it inconspicuously. Instead he was stranded, forced to formulate a plan to somehow get up and turn around enough to look at his strange visitor.
Abruptly, the spider arose, closing his book (which the keen eye would notice he wasn't near done with), and crawling down off the table, back to the shelves. A good enough excuse, he assumed, to conceal his motivations while still allowing him to get a good look at this person - and upon looking at them, he was left feeling a bit silly as to all his paranoia and discomfort and other such silly emotions.
It was just Roy.
He settled back atop his table, now with a new book that he didn't bother checking the name of (it was by the same author, but strangely was about the purpose of fungi in ecosystems), this time turned so that he could keep an eye on both Roy and his book, and heaved out a quiet breath he didn't know he had been holding. Now, Abathur could settle back down, returning to the comfortable silence of before, and reading about some mushrooms, a topic he truly did not care that much about.
tags - "speech"