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Ylva had been lurking in the parks she knows Fox frequents wanting to say thanks.
She is dressed in her ever casual outfit of booty shorts and a leather jacket. Hanging around in the woods, sitting on a stump using it as a scratching post. Claws taking out gouges that they should not be able to.
Foxes are largely crepuscular and nocturnal, so it's probably not too surprising that -- sooner or later -- a red shape comes slipping through the woods.
The little vulpine is good at not being seen if she wants to, so it's probably a good bet that she intends to be seen, moving from shadow to shadow with the briefest flashes of auburn fur caught by moonlight. Circling around, curious.
Ylva tilts her head looking at the red shape that is circling her with a raised eyebrow.
"Evening Fox."
Sometimes knowing Fox is a little bit like being in Studio Ghibli film. She flits between late-November trees and then slinks into the clearing where Ylva sits; her tail curls around herself as she sits up straight. There's a sort of ... stored-energy feeling to her, as if at any moment she might burst off in one direction or another without warning. Her voice manifests in the air next to herself as her gold-green eyes blink once, slowly.
"What did the stump do to you?"
There is a bit of a shudder to body as fox just starts talking before she continues.
"Uh, it was a comfortable seat and I have anxiety. Its either that or I pick at my skin and that is a bad idea these days."
It would probably be less weird if her mouth moved or something. No, it's just Fox's voice, there in the air. "Do I make you uncomfortable?" she asks, her head tipping slightly to one side, ears swiveling.
Her tail flicks once, twice. "Generally speaking, yes," she agrees, and then looks up at the trees, left and right at the shadows between them; the gesture is a question in and of itself.
"Everything makes me uncomfortable. There was a couple that walked past earlier and I had like 50% jealousy and 50% snack urges. So yes."
Ylvas tails wiggle in delight watching Fox's move a smile on her face.
"That sounds exhausting," Fox offers sympathetically. "If you dislike it, why are you here?" Another flick of her tail, and she looks off into the woods, as if listening for something, or perhaps just keeping an eye out.
Ylva shrugs her shoulders with a sigh. "Because I really need to get used to it before I try to meet my wife again and I wanted to thank you for taking care of Klaire."
A soft sound of assent from Fox. She can't see Ylva's tail -- maybe she could, if she tried, but... and so she guesses at body language. "Get used to -- people?" she asks. "Being a people?"
Her ears swivel left and then forward again. "Oh -- that's my job. You don't have to thank me for that."
"Both. Being around people. Being human around people."
She nods with a smile. "Still, thanks, I appreciate it. Makes me feel better that she is safer."
"Mmm." The Orphan stands for a moment and does a full stretch, paws out in front of herself, and then sits up straight again and curls her tail around herself. "Safe is relative. Still, I think Vasya will try to keep her as safe as possible. You are welcome -- we do our best for each other, neh?"
"I know. Safer than she was knowing all the things I told her without any protection."
Ylva mirrors her curling a few tails around herself.
"Yeah, we each support each other. We have enough to fight against without fucking with each other."
Her eyes close slowly and then open again. "Yes, that is true. It is hard to learn the things you should say and should not say when you're also trying to learn how to be a people and be around people again. So it is better when you are not fully responsible for cleaning up the messes that can result." The fox's shoulders rise and fall in a very human gesture. "We try, anyway. It's better in Philly than it's been in a lot of cities I've been in. So much sniping."
"Well, im glad to be in Philly then."
There is a smile on her face as she talks, knowing Fox could stop her if she lost it kinda makes it easier.
"I just kinda thought she was a baby mage. Like me compared to Vorp or something."
A low chuckle, then, and Fox turns her head to look off into the woods again. She raises her nose and sniffs at the wind, just checking the air. Maybe she's looking for something in particular, maybe she's just keeping an eye on things. It is her way, after all. Her vulpine little head swings back towards Ylva again. "It makes sense. But now you know to be a little bit more circumspect, maybe ask one of us. So you have learned something. It was not a waste, and no long-term harm was done."
Fox and Ylva are out in Wissahickon well past dark, as is Fox's rite and custom when she's in the US and not off in Ukraine. She's also being a fox that uses Forces to carry on speaky-talk conversations.
"No long term harm no and now ive got a person who I can talk about things with, most things anyway. I know I cant tell her everything."
If you've never seen a spirit materialize, it's a heck of a thing. It's a bit like walking out of a moonbeam, which is sort of what Vasya does in materializing. He sort of just walks out of the moonlight, somehow, until he's all present and solid and real. The stuff of spirit falls away from him like fog. He's got a spirit of some sort tucked up in his arms, like he's carrying an injured animal. The Wissahickon is a city creek, so he probably is.
He seems surprised to find Yvla present, as though he hadn't counted on that. "Oh. Sorry. Am I interrupting? I can exist somewhere else."
Ylva shakes her head.
"No, just chatting and thanking Fox for her help. I could do to thank you so this is quite fortuitous."
Vasya sets the spirit, a river salamander, down on the bank. It skitters off and fades into twilight, probably to find itself more of whatever trouble it had been in. "Thank me?"
He seems genuinely suspicious. This has never happened before, this being kind to people where they can remember it later thing.
Speaking of rites and customs, when Fox sees Vasya start to materialize, her ears turn sharply forward and she gathers all of her muscles tightly. That wound-up energy from earlier suddenly bursts forth as the Thyrsus leaps up... and then realizes halfway up that Vasya is already carrying something in his arms. She twists in mid-air rather awkwardly, manages to right herself, and her body unfolds in the air like some sort of very elaborate origami, backwards.
His suspiciousness makes the short, grubby woman in the brown tank top and cut-off jeans twist the corner of her mouth up in amusement as -- now bereft of his salamander -- he gets a human-shaped vulpine as a limpet. Leaping on Vasya, take two! "Yes, that happens sometimes," she informs him sagely, arms around his neck. (edited)
Ylva tilts her head confused. "Yes?"
She seems genuinely confused. "You helped in part to convince Klaire to join your group and are now offering her protection. I can never thank you enough for that."
Vasya doesn't know quite what to do with all of that. So instead, he catches Fox and offers her an appropriately affectionate squeeze. Once that's seen to, he looks back to Ylva awkwardly. "You're welcome. It's the very least I could do and still sleep at night."
"Vasya used to be a spy," Fox says, leaning in against Vasya the way that a dog croissants against a beloved person's legs. No one point this out to her. Her arms loop lazily around his waist. "He doesn't know how to be thanked. But he is learning." Her head bonks against his shoulder. Bonk. "How is Klaire doing with all of this?" she asks Ylva.
Ylva nods.
"I understand. Im still learning how to take a compliment or a gift."
There is a moment of contemplation before she answers.
"Good? She has finally admitted it was good to join you. It took a while but meeting people that can do stuff like her helped."
"I'm still a spy," Vasya admits with some regret, "I'm just exclusively in the counter-espionage and insurgency business, these days. Keeps me closer to home, mostly." He's probably even being serious.
"She saw the computer lab, didn't she. That's usually what does the trick."
"Okay well you used to be a lot less happy about the things you did and a lot more suspicious of everybody, with good reason." Her head bumps against his shoulder, and she takes in a deep breath, letting it out. A subtle shape appears curled underneath her tank top, and then she yelps as the tiny claws of a rat clamber out from between her small boobs and up to her shoulder. "Goddammit, Ratthew," she laughs, as the rodent burrows into her hair. Why? Because sometimes rat. "It is a good lab." A beat. "I'm glad she knows it was a good idea."
A pause. "Oh, wait. Who'd she meet?" Fox loves gossip.
"I dont know what the Lab is but I think part of it was meeting Jay. He can do telepathy kinda like she can."
A pause as she thinks. "She has met, that I know of, Jay, Bones and Jane."
"I like Bones. Eager. Genderfluid. Erudite. The dangerous kind of smart, too. Good one to watch." Vasya's opinions are offered mildly as he just keeps an arm around his rat infested wife. This is all very normal. "I can try to introduce her around. But, you know. I am used to being found off putting. I didn't think she cared for me much, so I had been keeping my distance."
"Jay? Oh! Jeremiah. He's nice. I like his cadre. They're all very good. He's in a cadre with Mary, who was my apprentice once. Also with Hearth, who makes the best cupcakes, and she doesn't even do it with magic, she's just very good at baking." It apparently is very normal to Fox to have a rat suddenly appear and climb out of her boobs. "Ratthew, knock it off, or I'll tell Agoston it was you who got into his treats bag and not the pigeons."
The rat is suddenly quite still. "Bones is nice, too. And I like Jane."
There is a little bit of a blush as they discus Bones. "They are also kinda cute and I want them to stand on me. Easy to make them flustered."
She tries her best to un distract herself and re focus.
"Vasya, I dont think it was you perce that bothered her. It was everything that was scaring her. She hated having to pick a side."
"I've been in The Game so long now, Ylva, that I've came to think sides was all very much... a framework for understanding. Like taxonomy. That, really, all you had to do was uncover a person's motivations and you could control which side they seemed to be on. It wasn't until recently that I came to ser things in those sorts of terms. I wasn't encouraged to be a team player, you see." Vasya puffs out his cheeks a bit, and let's out a gradual sigh. "Picking a side means having allies, at least. Glad she's feeling better about the decision at least."
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