Fur and Feather [Feral, Cinder]

Feet still swinging, Feral’s ears swivelled to attention well before someone entered the waiting room from the back end of the agency. The footsteps didn’t belong to anyone she knew well, but the bright-and-pale figure that emerged wasn’t entirely unfamiliar. Someone recent, but not someone she’d talked to. New hero? Sidekick, anyway. Feral generally didn’t have attention to spare for them. Was this the person she was waiting for? Hard to say, even if the feather-armed girl in overalls was looking directly at her, at least until she spoke and crossed her bird arms at her. Could she fly?

Cinder. Easier to say and remember than Haruka. Feral nodded, to confirm that she was indeed Feral, and slid from the chair to rise smoothly to her (urk) booted feet. ”It’s nice to meet you, Cinder,” she said, carefully formal as she shook out her tail to compensate for the time spent with it stuck through the back of a chair. ”I don’t... know much about this. Blue Weaver - she said I was supposed to...” She trailed off a bit, struggling to explain something she didn’t really know while still remaining polite and formal, but brightened obviously when Cinder suggested they go outside. Outside was much better, as long as she wasn’t cold or wet. But that would not be the case today. The weather was much too nice, and besides, she knew she’d be able to warm up again afterwards even if something did happen. That reliability did wonders for the mood.

”I’ve been on patrols with Blue Weaver before,” she offered hesitantly once they were outside, her amber eyes quickly adjusting to the sunlight leaning comfortably on her skin and fur. ”Not recently, though.” She had been much too busy with school. UA asked and expected a lot of its students, and she had extra work on top of that. But she’d mostly been keeping up on it all lately. True, she had more to do, as usual, once she finished with this thing today, but that was something to worry about later. For now, she was out in the streets, warm and fed and dry, not with her pack but with the knowledge that they were safe and well, and as such she moved smoothly, alert but calm and content, and only a little bit like she’d happily break into a run on the next step, simply for being outside and on the move.

Cinder’s irreverence was at both welcome and utterly confusing. If it was slang she knew, she was fine. If it wasn’t.... or if it was followed up by something completely out of context  Fairy? Was Cinder calling her....

Oh.

Feral. Ferie. Was that also a way to spell Fairy? Fairy had too many As and Is; it was too much like Akiko, even if it didn’t have any Ks.

This train of thought sustained her until she was outside and the warm sunlight sank into her hair and fur and skin, even as her ears soaked in the noise of the street. Voices and footsteps and engines and bike chains and hanging signs shifting in the faint wind. Nothing concerning or too loud for comfort. She darted after Cinder, a half step behind once the pro hero actually started moving. The older girl’s hero suit rustled a little differently than most fabrics, especially where the legs brushed against each other on each stride. Staying too close was... toasty, like she’d fallen asleep in full summer sun, but in such light clothing it would be a while before she overheated. Besides, it made Cinder’s fieryness even more obvious, as well as clearing a path for them to move in the crowd. That was a little bit disappointing. Feral rather enjoyed darting through swarming masses of people, especially with a moment to stretch her joints into a more predatory agility.

Should she do that now? She couldn’t maintain it forever, though, not without sacrificing something else... and it would be dumb to deafen herself. It didn’t take too long to make the change, but it wasn’t instantaneous, if something were to happen...

Through all of this, one of her ears roamed about, constantly changing angles to pick up on and filter in any concerning sounds, and the other stayed more or less trained on Cinder... although Feral was busy enough in her head that she wasn’t quite completely following every word. Most of it came across as not new information that was in statements and did not imply that she had to answer with more than the occasional nod. When they turned down a quieter street, though, an actual question flew out and interrupted Feral’s musings on whether it was better to be proactive or patient.

”Sign up? With the Lunar Agency or UA?” The answers were slightly different. Cinder probably wanted both, and it wasn’t like Feral really hid it, especially from people who actually worked at the Lunar Agency and would end up knowing anyway, if they didn’t already. ”The agency was first. Blue Weaver. Got my pack off the street, and then it turned out that Lunar Judge knew one of my dads. Worked with him. Something like that.” Old details that didn’t apply to much these days, and still had a few shreds of memory that were especially unhelpful. ”They helped me get into UA because of that. Keep helping.”

She paused, keeping her feet in place to stop the annoying boots from adding noise. She had heard... something. Faint and far, not at all clear, and she couldn’t tell what it had been. Her ears shifted slightly, and then she softly exhaled and moved forward again. She trusted that she had heard something, but it wasn’t overtly threatening and they were moving in the right direction anyway. If it came again, her ears were ready.

As she continued moving, quickly catching up though her own steps were a little bit softer, Feral considered Cinder’s reaction. Quick, and not panicked, but maybe reliant on sight. That was fair. She didn’t have big ears like Feral. Did birds even have good hearing? How bird was she?

Anyway. That was unimportant right now. ”Not sure what I heard, too faint. We’re in the right direction.” She probably shouldn’t come across as too confident, though, to an actual graduated pro hero. ”Might be nothing.” Even if she trusted her gut and her senses, and some of that probably seeped into her words. Of course, if someone else were listening in, and they thought that they’d escaped serious notice, they’d be more likely to make another mistake and start moving again. She shrugged her narrow shoulders, hoodie bobbing, hands still in its front pocket. Cinder had asked something just before. Continuing the conversation would help mask their attentiveness. Right, the question about her reason for going to UA.

”I want streets to be safer. People who don’t have much are just as vulnerable to villains, and more likely to be mistaken for them, or punished for trying to protect what they do have.” They approached another intersection, and Feral casually scanned the different directions. Her ears lingered to the left as she looked back to Cinder. ”Which way next?”

There it was again! A lower noise, grumbly-growly, not very loud at all. Scuffling too. There was something very..... odd about it all. She tried to lean toward the left road, smaller and narrower and even less busy than the one they were on now, hoping that Cinder would get the hint without making it so obvious that someone else watching would get suspicious.