Lazy Cat Nap [Moonie]

Oddly enough, for being a giant intimidating wolf made of metal, animals didn't seem to run away from him like they did from humans or other large animals. He figured it was because him, being inorganic, was "hidden" so to speak from the sixth sense that most animals had that let them know when there was somebody else nearby. In fact, some animals such as cats and dogs often mistook him for simple machinery; Cats would try to take naps on him or climb him, and dogs... well, let's not talk about that.

That being said, this supposedly "abandoned" alleyway didn't seem quite as abandoned as the millions of other alleyways that Selenus used to get around Endymion undetected. A lot of cats had been brushing up against him for a while, and there seemed to even be houses for them. Maybe someone was keeping them as pets? The thought was endearing, but it also meant that the robot wolf was prone to run into somebody here.

And run into someone he did. As he turned a corner, Selenus laid his eyes upon a familiar face. It was the boy he saw during the Eternal Divide! He remembered that Professor J. mentioned him once or twice while he was repairing him. Zavie Bryce, was his name. He figured that if the boy was working with 8D, Callie and J., then he could trust him just as well to keep him a secret.

Silently approaching the boy from behind, Selenus would take a quick glance at his homework and speak up. "The answer is 392."

Did he think his voice was coming from that cat? That was... odd, to put it lightly. What kind of cat had his deep voice? Or could even talk, for that matter? Well, it was amusing, if nothing else. Selenus figured he'd just keep talking. Eventually he'd notice that the voice he was hearing wasn't coming from the caught he thought it did. "I'm pretty sure. If it'll make you comfortable, I can explain how I got that answer." Not like it was complicated enough to warrant an explanation, though. It was simple algebra! Maybe he just didn't understand the function of variables? That seemed to be the most usual mistake children committed when being introduced to algebra.

"Well... I guess you could say that." If his inner CPU calculator counted as a math genius, then it technically wasn't a lie. He chuckled. "What're you doing here though? Aren't you supposed to be tending to your bakery's customers? Grins insisted I drop by sometime several times, despite the fact that he knows perfectly well that I physically can't eat anything." In all honesty, it felt more like 8D was taunting him over the fact that he couldn't experience food like a human could.

If the platoon of cats hissing at him was supposed to intimidate him, they failed miserably. In fact, it was downright adorable. What were cats gonna do, meow him to death? If they tried to scratch or bite him the durability of the metal comprising his body would make sure their claws broke. "Oh, come on, kid." Selenus stuck out like a guy in a fursuit at a business meeting when in public, how could he not remember him? Come to think of it, Callie didn't seem to remember him either... this might be worth pouring some investigation into. "Don't you remember me? We met five years ago. You tried to pet me, I let you, and things went really downhill from there." He didn't exactly feel like throwing around the words "Eternal Divide" was a good idea in front of a child, even if said child was at the heart of it when it happened. "Grins was a watch back then, and Callie was there too, I believe."

"Look Zavie, let's calm down. I'm not here to hurt you." If anything had changed from the last time they met, the boy had certainly become more feisty. Though, his first instinct five years ago was to pet him and now it was to fight him? What happened there? "And before you ask how I know your name, Proffessor J. told me." That hissing was starting to get really annoying. "So now that you know I'm not an enemy, could you please tell your friends to calm down?"

The silence that bringing up the words "five years ago" summoned upon the boy did not go unnoticed by Selenus. He assumed it had, in part, to do with the unpleasant memories that dretched themselves up whenever the subject was brought up. Selenus found it hard to relate to people who feared the Eternal Divide so much since, by the time it happened, Selenus had already seen much worse. Nevertheless, he could understand how bringing it up had made Zavie uncomfortable, so he decided to refrain from mentioning it again for now.

"Do what to you, exactly?" Zavie's distrust of him was starting to take its toll on his morale and his patience. He knew he was intimidating at first sight, but being polite snapped most people out of thinking of him as a threat. Not that he had any real effective wat of proving himself as an ally. Except maybe... "Look Zavie: No offense, but if I'd wanted to do something to you, I would've done it already. Think about it: I was standing right behind you and neither you nor your cats had noticed me. Don't you think I would've taken that chance to do "something" to you?" He was sure that his logic was easy to follow, even to someone as skeptical as Zavie. "Besides, if I wanted to hurt you, why would I have tried to start a conversation and on top of that helped you with your math homework?"

Selenus sighed in relief "It's fine, I'm used to people being afraid of me. Trust me, I'm intimidating, I get it." Though he insisted that it was fine, it really wasn't... but politeness always came first. "I'm Selenus. It's nice to see you again, Zavie." Though he tried to put on a cheerful tone (and it would've worked on most people) somebody with enhanced hearing would be able to hear the very small portion of his tone of voice that revealed how he was lightly offended. "Anyway, how have you been?" The robot canine would ask "It's been a long time since I last saw you. I understand you're working for Grins now, or something like that?" He didn't pay much attention to the details of it.

"What's with all these cats?" Now that he noticed, the cats had stopped hissing at him when Zavie had started to listen to reason. Did he somehow have control over them? "Do they live here? I noticed the many houses I'm assuming you made them all around this alleyway. What, does your mom not let you keep pets?" That seemed like the most rational explanation at the moment.

Selenus's life up to this point, though short, had prepared him for quite a multitude of scenarios: He could fight, sneak, negotiate, investigate, socialize and do a miriad other things with ease. What he was not prepared to carry out, however, was succesfully comforting a crying child. He could barely handle happy children, and now he had no choice but to handle something much, much more difficult. He wasn't exactly built for coddling; Hell, he had to remove several parts of his body just to hug Nola when she got upset over her influence in the world without inflicting her with multiple stab wounds.

Selenus would simply approach Zavie slowly and sit beside him. "There there... it's fine, really. I'm used to people having extreme reactions to me. Most people either love me or hate me. I've come to terms with the fact that there's usually no grey area with first impressions when it comes to me." He would use the wires on his tail to rub Zavie's back. It was the least he could do without bringin serious physical harm to him other than nuzzling him. "Look, if you want to make it up to me, then stop crying. I'm starting to feel bad over you feeling bad for making me feel bad."

Seeing Zavie apologizing so sadly even after he'd told him it was fine was heartwrenching. "I already said it was fine, Zavie. No need to apologize. I know it wasn't your intention." This time he was being completely honest. If Selenus had thought that Zavie had been intentionally making him feel bad, he would've walked out on him mid-conversation, not wanting to waste his time on such people. But he didn't, that's why he stayed to comfort him. "Look, I forgive you. Just cheer up, alright?"

"Kitty cat... mercenaries?" For some reason when he uttered those words, he couldn't stop thinking about a bunch of anthropomorphic kitties covered in bandages holding daggers and guns. "That's an odd name to give to a clowder. What, do they steal stuff for you?" Selen us chuckled at his own joke. He wondered if the word "clowder" might've been unfamiliar vocabulary to Zavie, but... he seemed to know his cats well, so maybe he was versed in cat terminologies? "I'll take your word for it. They look really happy, at any rate."

Selenus was pretty sure that animals weren't capable of naming things, or that they could even comprehend the concept of a verbal name, for that matter, but over the course of the last few days he'd seen much, much stranger, so Selenus would let it slide for now. For all he knew these cats were also Persona Users. Wouldn't that be a laugh? "It might be in bad taste, but you do know that cats bring critter corpses to people they respect or love, right? It's how they share food with other cats, and for all they know everyone in the world is a cat, so though it might seem cruel they're trying to be loving." Leave it to the robotic dog to be an expert in cats, amirite?

"So, how have you been these past few years? Staying out of trouble, I hope?"