KF - Jayja, what are you doing? (RP)

Featuring:
 Jayja | Female | Metal | Level 8 ( tinyStarSnail )
Mao | Male | Fire | Level 7 ( moonlightwalk )

With mentions off:
Neithhotep
Ashe and Marshy
Muscovy
Eiden
Malak
Yoka
Yuugure
Ainu
(All the gossip it seems, lol)

Summary:
Jayja finds Mao sleeping, the two catch up. //Awesome, plot//

Warnings: None

---

Jayja trekked down the sewer tunnel, her metal rod loosely held in her mouth, and her thoughts wandering.  A scent from something oddly familiar crossed her path, and she stopped, sniffing a few times.  The stout vixen straightened suddenly.  "Mao?" she called.  She scampered in a circle with her nose to the ground, trying to locate which way the scent led.  She followed it down one tunnel, but- no- the scent was getting fainter.  Jayja scrambled around in a full turn and barrelled the other direction, following the scent trail down the opposite tunnel it led to.


Mao had found a comfortable little spot in makeshift hole which had been formed by the debris of a collapsed wall. Currently he was dozing off, happy to get a little break. He liked napping, when you napped time went by more quickly and you felt stronger afterwards. Not only that, but with time passing by more quickly, it was the perfect thing to do when things got boring. So after walking around the sewer for forever without seeing one paw or tail -not even of a rat to hunt- he had decided to take one. Right now he smiled in his sleep, playing some game with Ashe and Muscovy. He couldn't quite pinpoint what they were doing, but it was pretty fun.


Jayja leapt down the tunnel, covering as much distance as she could with each hop.  It had been a while since the last time she saw Mao!  She did not doubt for a moment that he had made it out of the recent mission fine, since he was bigger and more experienced than herself after all.  He had a lot of good friends that would take care of him, too.  Maybe his team even found a way to kill a hunter!  The stout vixen stopped in her tracks as the scent of Mao drew near to a cubbyhole made of debris from a collapsed wall.  It did not occur to her that Mao might take a nap in a spot outside of the safe room, so she eyed the cubbyhole entrance suspiciously.  A rat could easily be hiding there in wait to ambush a passing fox, so she did not want to walk near it, but the scent she had been following led closer to it.  Jayja crouched down and crept around to peer into the cubbyhole at a distance with her ears on the alert.


Still caught up in his 'game' Mao turned over in his nest. This resulted in a pained yelp from the red pelted fox as a piece of debris poked right into his still healing wound. Still half asleep he tried crawling out of his hiding space - for he did not quite register it was just a piece of rock that was paining him, it could well be something else - but was met by a familiar fox. He blinked, sleep muddled brain trying to register what he was seeing. Was that...? "Jayja?"


As Jayja heard the sound of pain from a voice she knew, then saw the brightly colored Mao crawling out of the hole, a wave of pink filled both her eyes.  Her metal rod dropped from her mouth, clattering to the floor forgotten.  The vixen raced over and hastily sniffed her friend's fur, searching for any sign of injury, and softly whining in worry as she did so.  She even stuck her head into the cubbyhole to check for something that may have harmed him there, but quickly returned her attention to the older fox.  Her concerned frenzy ceased when she noticed the healing marks on his side.  "Mao," she whimpered, "what happened to you?"


Mao tried to crawl all the way out which proved difficult when Jayja decided to sniff him. "Jayja?" Feeling a only a bit awkward, he chuckled as she even tried to squeeze herself in alongside him. "Jayja, what are you doing?"

He frowned at her whimper. Glancing to his side, he quick to wave it off. "Oh, this? I just got a bit hurt going on mission. Nothing to worry about," he said with a tone of lightness that really didn't suit the situation they had been. He just didn't want to frighten the little black kit with tales of monsters. Though...little...? He glanced past her, noticing something odd sticking from her tail. He blinked. "Jayja, did you..." He kept his eyes locked on her tail or was it tails? He couldn't quite tell so he hoped she would interpret in whatever positive way she liked, be it an extra tail or another thing she did.


Jayja glanced over her shoulder, but seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she looked back to Mao.  She waited quietly for him to finish his sentence, at full attention for the moment.  As the moment crawled by without any continuation, she attempted to finish it for him.  "Do the mission?" Jayja prompted.  "Yes, I did!"  Her two, mismatched tails waggled.  "I met three of our kin who weren't your friends.  They wanted to fight instead of doing the mission, and we got chased by a hunter!"

The dark vixen paused, noticing that Mao didn't look particularly comfortable.  Jayja leaned over the larger fox and carefully took his scruff, then lifted him as much as she could manage, attempting to help him out of the cubbyhole.  Despite the size difference between the two Aeniama, the stout two tail was strong enough to lift the three tailed fox.  However, due to her short legs, she was not able to lift him very high, and only succeeded in raising him a few inches above the ground, but she tried to help him forward anyway.


Mao gaped, his initial question forgotten. "What? fight?!" Who in their right mind wanted to fight on a mission. He growled. "What's their names? They didn't hurt you, right?" He looked over her, assessing for injuries.

Then she grabbed his scruff. Right, now it was really awkward. "Jayja.... What are you doing?" This was plain weird. He wasn't sure how to react.


The young vixen instantly let go of his scruff, the pink in her eyes leaving, and returning her gaze's color to one red and one blue eye. "You were crawling out- I was trying to help," she said hastily, and hopped out of the cubbyhole. As she passed by in front of Mao, a set of scar lines engraved on her rump were visible. After giving the older fox a respectful amount of elbow room, Jayja sat down in front of him. "My team members only said a lot of mean things to each other and one tried to leave, though there were a couple of tense moments too. I didn't focus on what they said, but it seemed like they were fighting over who would lead better. Their names are Malak, Yoka, and Neithhotep. Neithhotep saved my life, even if she was mean at first," Jayja finished, taking a break from her burst of chatter, either avoiding or forgetting Mao's other question.


"Right..." It was pretty weird of her to try help an older fox like that. But she said she wanted to help, so he he let it slide. Now with proper room to move, he worked himself out of his little hiding space and into the open air of the tunnel. Well, or as open as it was. Eyes still on Jayja, the scars she sported were not lost on him and it made him frown. He listened as she talked about her teammates, not recognizing any of their names. He supposed if Neithhotep saved Jayja's life she couldn't be too bad. Still they were stupid for arguing when they should rely on each other.  The thought Jaiya actually needed to get her life saved didn't sit well with him either. "Is that how you got those?" He eyed her scars. "The mission?"


Jayja tilted her head at first, perplexed by the question, until she caught where his eyes were pointed.  "No," she answered quietly, shuffling her paws.  Her red and blue gaze fell to the floor, and she cringed as she continued explaining.  "I got these later...  When I wasn't being careful enough.  But... I made a similar accident during the mission, too."  The short vixen bowed a little and hung her head.  Her scars had not been given to her by a hunter, like Mao's probably was.  Hers were the marks of her mistakes.  Most of them had been simple mishaps which could have been easily avoided.  If she was not able to improve soon, others would eventually be able to discern how weak and foolish she was simply with a single glance at her scar-riddled hide.


Alright, so not the mission. Mao noticed how she cringed, but wasn't about to let it slide. With a softer voice he continued. What happened then? Did someone place you in danger?" He would not be happy if someone did. His ears flicked forth and back as he waited expectantly for her answer.


Jayja's tails curled around herself, and she huddled down into a small, furry ball.  "It...  They..."  She shook her head, and straightened back up, squaring her shoulders, although her tails were still wrapped around herself.  She looked up to Mao, her eyes a pale orange now.  "I...  It was me- I put the others in danger.  By showing off my affinity carelessly...  And- also- from relaxing too much in the slums.  But at least I was the only one- they didn't get scars."


"Oh." Mao didn't know what to say to that. He could scold her, but by the sound of it she had already done so herself. It almost sounded like she thought she deserved the scars unlike the others. He gave her a sad frown. "We all learn from our mistakes Jayja, nobody's perfect. I should no 'cause I set my own tails on fire using too much of it." The last admission was a bit mumbled, but he felt like he should show that everybody made mistakes, she, him, probably even Ainu. The frown made way for a soft half-smile. "But you got away, right? Did some of your new friends help you? Or did you do it by yourself?" He hoped the former, he really didn't want Jayja going up there alone, two tails or not. He guessed he was a bit hypocrite, having gone up there to scout himself when having one less tail than now, but he couldn't help but feel like she was younger than him and he felt protective. It was not logical and he vaguely wondered if it was because Ainu had sent her his way or maybe because he found her without totem. Speaking of which... "Hey Jayja, you went on mission, so you found your totem, right? What is it? What's your affinity?" He was curious, not believing he hadn't asked this before.


Jayja's ears were brought up by Mao's mumble, her eyes quite wide with curiosity and bafflement, but she remained quiet and frozen to the spot as if awaiting a punishment.  At his smile, however, her posture started to soften.  Even though a yellow spark and bit of energy had entered her eyes and tails, her silence dutifully remained until he had not only finished asking his first set of questions, but voiced his second round of inquiries as well.  "They did," she replied.  "Help, I mean.  When we got trapped in the elevator with Yuugure and a cat... and when I got myself hurt showing off to Checkmate."  Her head had drooped downwards, but she brought it up again a moment later with a half cringe, half smile, eyes beaming more yellow than orange now.  Barreling right into her next round of answers, she continued with a more cheery tone.  "I found my totem!  It was in the pool we stopped next to.  It wasn't easy to get it out since the water kept biting my nose.  My totem's a... thing.  Made of something black, and.. um...  Here, I'll show you!"  She dug her paws into her thicker tail, but soon discovered that the fur at the center had matted and knotted too much to bring her totem out.  Jayja pushed aside what fur she could, so that at least a patch of her totem was showing.  "That's it!" she declared.  "It helps me move metal - the element I have an affinity to," she added, pointing her nose to the metal rod which was still clinging to her tail with the magnet in it.


Mao's ears perked at the mention of Yuugure. He remembered the fox from when they helped the human kits. He seemed pretty okay. Checkmate he had never heard of before. "I'm glad they helped you," he said with a smile. "Friends are very important."

When she tried showing her totem, he had to peer closely to actually spot the thing. It was pretty small. "That's great, Jayja! So metal, huh? That's pretty cool. I've never met a young metal fox before, so I guess there's not much foxes with that affinity around. Did you know one of our elders is metal affinity too?" He looked at her, trying to gauge if that made her proud. He always felt so, knowing he shared an affinity with Ainu. He wanted to become strong so he could protect all aeniama like Ainu did.


When he complimented her affinity, Jayja's ears came up and her head tilted, but she kept listening.  When there was a pause, she asked, "Then have you seen an older fox with an affinity for metal?  Besides Eiden," she added hastily, and contrary to Mao, she sounded rather embarrassed at the mention of the Elder she shared an affinity with.  She had met Eiden in person during her first mission, but she had only witnessed him use his smoke affinity, twice.  Perhaps there was a reason he favored smoke over metal, she thought to herself.  "If you have met another metal affinity fox," she said slowly, "did you see that one use their affinity at all?"


"What? No. I mean... I meant Elder Eiden. Did you meet him yet?" Mao asked a little confusedly. "I don't think I ever saw him use his metal though... Why?" He frowned thinking. "I don't know if the fireworks were metal..." He mumbled absent-mindedly.


Jayja looked down and shuffled her paws for a moment before answering.  "I met Elder Eiden.  I didn't see him make use of metal, either.  I guess... metal just isn't useful," she stated, plastering a small smile over her face, then tried to switch the subject.  "What's a firework?"


Mao frowned a bit, the statement about her affinity not escaping his attention. "Jayia, don't say that," he muttered softly. Then he smiled, deciding to talk about it sometime later. Their conversation had been already grave so far and the red aeniama didn't want to spoil his younger friend's mood. "Well, it is really great, like fire but it explodes up in the air with many colors. Elder Eiden and Elder Ainu showed it to us kits one time, it was amazing." His eyes sparkled a bit as he recalled the fantastic display of light. It had left the fire fox breathless in his wonder.


Jayja's eyes swirled with yellow and electric green.  She tilted her head, tails sweeping slightly as she was baffled by the fantastic imagery described.  The most fire she had seen so far was the spirit flames from the safe room, and those were all the same color, and never moved around, let alone explode in the air.  "Many colors?" she asked, hesitating before asking further, "Do they change colors too?  Like... purple becoming yellow, or blue becoming.. um, another color," she finished hastily, then she blinked a swirl of orange away.  She paused again, and this time asked with a more serious tone, "Why did they change color?"


Mao smiled sheepishly "Yeah, some did, like red and then gold, but I don't really know how the elders did it." He admitted. Something she said perked his interest though. "What do you mean "too"? have you seen something like fireworks, Jayia?" He was curious. Were there any foxes capable of making them? If so he'd really like to talk to them, maybe they could teach him how to do it.  


At Mao's question, Jayja froze up.  Her eyes, however, swirled with a myriad of colors... much like the fireworks they were talking about.  "I didn't- did not- um..."  She stuttered to a stop, then after another quiet moment of conflicting colors in her gaze, the hue settled on purple.  "Marshy," she said.  "We saw Marshy's colors change like fireworks."  There was a yellow gleam in Jayja's eyes as she forced a smile.  She couldn't let Mao find out about her eyes.  Then he might get upset with her like Malak had.


Mao gaped. "Wow, Marshy did? That's so cool." He grinned, wondering if Marshy knew about fireworks. "Does Ashe know how he does that? I only ever saw him looking yellow."

He seemed a bit disappointed that he didn't get to see the color change. Then he blinked. "My fire used to be a different color too. I wonder if I can control it myself." The notion interested him, Mao staring off into nothing.


"Marshy did," Jayja echoed, as her voice dropped under the weight of guilt that came from intentionally steering the topic away from her own color changes.  "Ashe knows.  ...We do not remember all the colors we saw."  She stopped with a fidget, and glanced around.  "Oh- we... we should go.  Neithhotep may be expecting us.  We can talk again later!"  She bobbed her head, and lifted her metal rod with her affinity, then hopped away, but turned back.  "...Stay safe until then, Mao."


Mao blinked as his little friend suddenly turned and started walking away. "Euhm, I see you later then!?" He called, confused by the swift change. He sat there for a while, feeling kind of at a loss. Eventually he shook his head. "Weird kit," he mumbled as he set off towards the saferoom himself.