Magali stretched out on the bed, one of those stretches that came in waves of warmth throughout the body. It extended to the tip of her tail and the fur floofed up as the stretch hit the apex, and a lazy smile stretched on her face. She didn't have to go to that horrible man this evening, and she knew that right about now he would have been just finishing with her had it not been for Fikri stepping in when he did. She was careful, though, to only take up half the bed laying longwise so Nokra could join her if he so chose. After all, the bed was his now as well, the two sharing one if only because she'd decided it was a good idea. She'd had her eyes closed as her best friend spoke, but the moment he thanked her, her cheeks colored and she turned to face him her cheeks still red. “Thanks to me?” she squeaked, “Really?” If she really did help keep him from going full cynical, then that meant that she helped him as much as he helped her, and that meant everything to her. She was useful, and useful to the one that had been her everything through it all.
Nokra's self doubt seeped through the pleasant feelings. She wished he could see himself the same way she saw him. He was her rock, her foundation, the one thing that kept her master from finding her corpse along with whoever she'd been forced to sleep with that evening. Of course, she'd never tell him that she actually had those thoughts, that it was his face in her mind's eye that prevented her from going through with the drastic measures that made up a bulk of her inner thoughts when going into particularly hard 'customers'. She sat up, the bed squeaking slightly at her shifting weight, moving her legs to dangle over the end and she reached over, cold hands grasping Nokra's own, “You're more than a fighting machine, Nokra. I've seen it. The training I got? It wasn't for freedom, it was to train me to be a better slave to my next master. Now you get the chance to try something else. Isn't that great? You don't have to fight anymore. You're going to have time to learn something else. There are options now! I mean, we could even ask Fikri what he did to adapt to life as a free man. He was a slave at one point too, if I remember correctly and that wasn't just a drug-made hallucination.” She chuckled a bit, repressing a snort when Nokra called Edensians the skanks of the universe, “I thought we were the skanks of the universe. Besides, I really think we don't have to worry about them.”
Her eyes glistened with the mention of her making food. It had been so long. True, it was something she was trained to do, but with her now former master, she'd only been used for the sexual aspect—never the partner-slave that her former master had intended. She never had access to a kitchen; customers didn't want to waste valuable time eating her food when they could be eating...her... “I can...try!” she said happily, her smile spreading just a bit further, “It's been a while, but I can see what they have in the stores on this ship, see if I can make something!”
–
Fikri was shaking when Riola entered, slowly turning his head to see the man, half fearing that he'd been hallucinating and half-fearing that he wasn't. “I...I did. I heard her clear as day. I wouldn't mistake her voice for anyone else's.” His voice was soft, unsteady, like one who couldn't believe what he'd just heard and felt. That anger that manifested and coursed through his entire body...that wasn't Fikri. His eyes, too, once settling on a spot just beside Riola didn't move, like he was speaking in a trance.
“What...is a ghost ping? Is Vail in pain? I need...I need to know. Is she...is she still alive?” Now, he tore his eyes from that spot, his brown eyes boring into Riola, a new sense of desperation awakened in him. But Vail was dead, right? He'd seen her himself, he'd felt her blood cool on his hands. But if she was still out there, if there was some semblance of her that still remained and that bit was in as much agony as he heard...he needed to find her, and fast.
He listened as Riola explained everything to him, or at least, what seemed to be everything. Viora. That was the name of the woman who had taken everything from him. The woman that would ideally die by his hands. He would kill her if it was the last thing he did. As he was explaining, his eyes moved back and forth as if trying to decide on something focus on as he intook all of this information. He was to get involved in a war, a war that a felis had no business in...until now. “I...understand,” Fikri murmured tentatively. But...if Vail was there as well, if she was being kept by something, he'd have to find her, right? Rescue her?
–
Ashi smiled at Shaldag, aware that it was his own version of a joke. She was slowly but surely acclimating herself to this type of humor. “If you need it back, you can...” Ashi said slowly, hoping that what was in her right now would tide her over for even just a couple of hours. She listened as they discussed her fate. Whether it was on planet or off, she'd be taken care of. Hyun wouldn't let her go untreated. That, at least, she could put faith in.
“You kind of overpaid her with the ship though, right? She might give us a free ride anyway,” Ashi said, thankful that her voice was no longer shaking. Aside from the knowledge that her appendages were all but shattered, she felt no pain and could communicate with relative ease now, excepting the fact that she couldn't sit up by herself. “And if she doesn't, I brought money when I ran away. I can pay,” she offered, hoping that they wouldn't treat Rosalind poorly. She'd treated them all well, and pretty much let anything run on her ship. She liked the woman quite a lot and would hate to see her stressed. Regardless, she still said, “Being a fake hostage isn't entirely too bad. I was, once, and look where I am now!” She offered a bloody toothed smile for comedy's sake.
When Atrix disappeared to go devour one of the girls, Ashi shuddered and looked up Hyun with an eyebrow cocked, “Why would they call your face ugly? Are they blind?”