His hand just hangs there; he's not entirely sure what to do with it while she's holding it because he's never really had to navigate these kinds of social etiquettes.
Kisa. The sentiments are, as weird as it feels, received. Somehow.] You... don't have to worry about it. No one should be stuck in a hole. Anyone would have helped you out.
[Um, hopefully.]
Did you find the place you were supposed to be staying yet? The one where your laptop was? I can walk you back.
[Damian is okay with this, sure. He would let her ride Ace's back, but Ace isn't a doberman like Titus and, therefore, not quite that big. Even someone as small as Kisa probably wouldn't be able to ride him.
But he's a helpful dog. Ace is glad to cart her along at whatever pace is easiest.
Damian, on the other hand, isn't sure what to do still. She's--mute? Talking is cumbersome between them while they're walking, he thinks. She's tired. It's likely not the right time to pry.
So he kind of just... continues on in silence, focused ahead of them but walking on the opposite side of Ace as they go, his face pensively thoughtful. He looks so serious for a thirteen year old.
The direction toward Flavo reminds him: Bruce stays in Flavo. He can swing by after dropping Kisa off to tell the man to keep an eye on her.]
[ He looks so serious?? And she's sure by now that he's either around her age or some kind of adult stuck in a kid's body, but obviously she's not about to ask.
Kisa will keep glancing in his direction, though, because she's very curious. How does he know so much? Does he think she's strange? There's no real way to tell, and she's too tired and hungry to dedicate much thought to it now.
[A lovely walk between two tweens. The best walk they could have.
He spends a lot of time in his head, okay. Something he gets from his dad, thinking about everything, planning, making arrangements. He has to take care of Kisa first, then tell Bruce what happened, then try to figure out who built that damn hole someone could fall into.
He can't believe she didn't get hurt. What if he had found her with a broken arm? leg? neck? The most he can be thankful for is the hole hadn't been armed with something lethal. It wasn't a killing trap, only a capturing one.
Suddenly, he focuses, remembering he's literally walking along beside Ace and a strange girl all the while not saying a word. He cuts a look at her and then quickly looks away when she looks back.]
[It's been long enough. He's about ready to speak up when she just White Girls it and trips over her own feet. Doing so startles both him and Ace.]
Watch out!
[And they pretty much both react at the same time. Ace shoots forward to try to block the fall, and Damian leaps to try to catch her from behind before she gets hurt. He thinks it's less she tripped and more she's so exhausted she may have fainted or her legs have given out.
Catching her arm at the elbow, the only thing he can really think to do to make sure she isn't face first on the ground is to pull her against himself and wrap the other arm around her shoulders.]
[ Kisa's already trying to reel back, as though this will prevent her from hitting the ground/the dog (the more important thing to avoid), but she wasn't expecting Damian's stupidly fast reflexes.
It's shock when he catches her arm, but when he pulls her against him, the shock turns to dread and terror, except by then she can't pull away. His arm wraps around her shoulders, and that's trigger enough.
The clouds of smoke seem to appear out of literally nowhere, more like actual clouds than the sting of smoke, but much thicker. The weight of a small twelve-year-old girl seems to have diminished incredibly as well, and if Damian is observant (of course he is, goddammit), he'll notice he seems to be grasping something much smaller in shape and weight.
And furrier.
Regardless of whether he waits for the smoke to clear or waves it away himself, well. There's a dress on the ground by his feet and there's a tiger cub now dangling a tad awkwardly in his arms.
Honest to God, this is one of the wildest things to happen to him, but not necessarily the worst. The smoke is worrying, and he's quick to wave it away with the hand now strangely free from a girl's small elbow.
???????
Fuzzy... Smaller...
He starts when the smoke clears and a tiger child is now in the place of where a girl was just moments before. He glances around, looks back at her, exchanges a look with Ace, looks back at her again. The fur is the same color her hair had been? The girl is gone.]
You...
[Ace tilts his head to one side, breathing paused. It dawns on him quickly. He doesn't think she's a girl at all. Maybe the girl was some kind of corporal form for a tiger god. That explains the muteness, right? That explains--why she didn't want to be touched.]
[ For once, the question surprises her enough that she doesn't immediately try and sink her teeth into his arm or lash out with her claws.
Well. That, and he'd just saved her from spending literally the whole day trapped inside of a pit, and she should probably not give her savior bite marks as a show of gratitude.
But she's never been called a deity before, and she's never witnessed this bizarre kind of reaction where it's not immediate shrieking or yelping or some other manner of fright or horror.
Not until this place, anyway.
All she can really do, stuck as she is, is shake her head once. ]
[Wow, not only is it a girl(?)--or tiger(?)--who can transform, but it has verbal coherency too. Holy shit.
Damian exchanges another look with Ace, and, slowly, the dog's tail lifts and begins wagging. Damian--doesn't know what to do? Why has he, of all people, genius as he is, been stupified by this one simple girl from the moment he's met her? It makes no sense. She's... an anomaly clearly. He did not prepare for this.]
Alright, not a deity. [Carefully, he puts her down on the ground. Just because she's a tiger doesn't mean she suddenly wants to be touched.] A splicer? Did the town do this? I--
[He's talking to a tiger. Fuck.]
--Nevermind. We'll deal with this later. Let's just find the house where you belong. You can still go, right?
[ He's really okay with this? He's really okay with this??
Okay, maybe not that okay, with how bewildered he appears, but he didn't immediately fling her back into the pit and he seems to be trying to understand what's going on with her.
... Which really just makes her miss any one of her cousins who could have explained it a lot better. Even if she's not entirely sure how well Damian would take to talking animals.
For now, in response, Kisa carefully pads over to her dress and picks it up in her mouth. She can't exactly carry it without it dragging a bit, but it's not exactly something she can leave behind. There's a long, considering look at Damian but she ultimately decides to think about it later-- as he said.
And she'll set off, still moving gingerly, but faster than she was as a girl. ]
Literally, he just stands there for several long seconds as she takes off, Ace hurriedly following after. Now he has to tell his dad he found a girl in a pit who also turns into a tiger for some reason.
Finally, he also takes off after her and the dog. Ace is excited, if anything. The dog hops playfully up and down as he gets closer to Kisa, but then seems shy or maybe mischievous as he bounces away. Ahead, Ace will run only to stop and wait for them to catch up, tail wagging.] It's getting dirty.
Here, give it to me. [Damian picks up his speed so he can bend to take the dress, keeping it from being dragged the whole way through the dirt.] There's other clothes, but we'll have to tailor them.
I don't know where you're from, but Chroma probably isn't like any place you've been.
[He still thinks she's possibly some kind of deity. Listen.]
[ You just saw her trip over pretty much nothing! Damian!! Deities aren't like that!!
At least Ace seems to be having fun, and if she was anything other than tired and aching and distinctly uncomfortable, Kisa might pounce or playfully bat at him. But nope, just trotting for now, tail flicking in acknowledgment when Damian takes the dress from her.
The tail flicks again.
It's true that Chroma isn't anything like home. Or if it is, it's a part of Japan she hasn't seen before. A lot of her life was centered around the estate, and this is definitely a far cry. The colors being highly lacking... that's odd, too.
It makes her ears go flat, briefly. This... isn't home. It's a sad, dull place with random pits and no one who knows her. ]
[Look, Damian has seen more powerful beings do stupider things!!]
Don't worry. [Even with Ace hopping around like an excitable idiot, Damian still sees the change in her ears. He's been with enough animals and loves enough animals to know when cats are perturbed.] Everyone is looking for a way back home.
No one seems to have any ill intent here, and we plan to keep it that way. You don't have to worry about being hurt. [If she's a god, does he have to reassure her about injury...???
He glances down at his hands. ACK. How fucking suspicious does it look for him to be walking through town with a dog and a tiger with a girl's dirty dress in his hands? HELP HIM.
Quickly, he starts folding it up neatly... so it's... less noticeably a girl's dress.] I'll explain everything later.
[ She's definitely not a god, and she's definitely been badly hurt before, so while he thinks he may not have to reassure her, she appreciates it regardless.
But maybe she should have let him carry her, or found some way to warn him (somehow??), because right as they actually enter Flavo, there's that helpful poof of smoke and she's back to being a girl.
Which is great! Except she's naked and instantly trying to cover herself with her hands. ]
[It's amazing how you have one rocky, bad moment and then things just progressively begin to careen unsteadily downhill without any kind of stop in sight.
Damian almost trips over her when the cloud of smoke explodes up from the ground when they get into Flavo. Ace gives a startled, short bark and leaps back, and Damian is left swinging his arms to try to get the enigmatic fog to vanish.
NEVERMIND, BRING THE ENIGMATIC FOG BACK!!!
The neat folding he just did on the dress is torn apart as he hurried flaps it back open and shoves it quickly out at her. He really doesn't mind the nakedness in a way adults would, but it's incredibly awkward to be concerned about someone--a tiger?--only to have them suddenly be naked.
If and when she takes the clothes, he hastily turns his back to her so she can have some privacy. Ace is looking? Ace is a boy.] ACE!
[ And verily did Okuni inadvertently ruin two days without even realizing it, like a true pro.
But this has been a Day, and Kisa is 7% less mortified than she'd normally be because she's 93% more drained today. Still, there's not a peep from her, just the rustle of clothing before she taps Damian's shoulder.
[Okuni should get one of the better prizes for killing two birds with one stone, honestly.
Even when Kisa taps him on the shoulder, he's hesitant to turn around. It's very slow, very cautious, and then his shoulders immediately drop when he realizes she is, in fact, fully clothed.] Alright. Enough.
[He's still embarrassed.]
What are you? Why do you keep transforming back and forth between a girl and a tiger?
[ If she looked ashamed before, Kisa looks downright miserable now. That's probably it, then. If she hadn't tripped, maybe he never would have found out. She would have just been a strange, silent girl and not a "what".
But he saved her. If nothing else, she owes him an answer.
Her lips barely move, fingers clenching into the front of her dress.
[In the end, that one word tells him enough, and it's all he needed. His lips draw into a thin frown. She's so... upset about it, but here, it's laughable at best. Cursed? So is the whole damn town.]
You'll fit right in then.
[For a moment, he just looks at her. His hand starts to rise, but stops, lowers again.] Forget about your house right now. I'll take you to Father's instead. There's food and water, a fire, and we'll find you some clothes or blankets.
Come on. Ace. [He turns to lead the way now, letting Ace stand to wait and herd Kisa. The dog offers her a soft whine.]
[ Fit... right in? Are other people cursed? It's so bizarre to consider; she's lived with this curse her whole life, hidden it as best as she could, and here he is, still sternly fussing.
It's... a lot. Maybe not to Damian, but tears are already sliding down her face. Still, she moves to rest a hand on Ace's back again. No use refusing now. ]
[Ace at least, being a good doggo, lifts his head to give Kisa's face several sloppy, wide licks. No crying.
Damian doesn't look back only because he doesn't want to make her uncomfortable. His focus is ahead, even if he isn't walking too fast. His stride is certain, steady. Ace happily takes up the back with Kisa.
Bruce's cottage is on the outskirts of Flavo, so it takes them a few minutes to get there. The man has decides to make a nest near the forest--dangerous, maybe, but secluded. Except for... the multitude of animals who greet them when they arrive.
Near the front on one side is a goat and a brown-spotted cow sharing a fence. The cow doesn't really give them any kind of bellow, too engrossed with munching, but the goat greets them with a shrill, silly scream. This stirs the fire-breathing geese who are likewise in a fence, only at the back of the house and further away.
They're rather strange. The four of them waddle quickly to the edge of the fence and huddle in a group, peering beady-eyed out at Damian, Ace, and Kisa as they approach. They're not breathing fire thankfully, and they don't make any noise aside from the occasional grunt.
It's fairly come and go; Damian heads right for the door to open it and hold it for Kisa... and Ace, he guesses. The dog will probably try to squeeze in with her anyway.]
[ Ironically, the goat shriek and the very disconcerting stare of the geese don't seem to bother Kisa at all. She even seems to relax a little when she sees the cow. Familiarity, maybe.
But also... this seems familiar. She hadn't really paid attention to where she'd gone the first day, but something about this house...
She'll think about it later. She's still sticking close to Ace, giving a little instinctive "sorry for the intrusion" bow as she steps inside. Damian's dad must really love animals, though. ]
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Her lips move, forming her first name--
And then she grasps his hand in both of hers and lowers her head a bit, squeezing carefully.
"I'm sorry" and "Thank you." Not spoken, not mouthed, but hopefully still conveyed. ]
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His hand just hangs there; he's not entirely sure what to do with it while she's holding it because he's never really had to navigate these kinds of social etiquettes.
Kisa. The sentiments are, as weird as it feels, received. Somehow.] You... don't have to worry about it. No one should be stuck in a hole. Anyone would have helped you out.
[Um, hopefully.]
Did you find the place you were supposed to be staying yet? The one where your laptop was? I can walk you back.
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Maybe a little slowly, though, if Damian is fine with that. ]
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But he's a helpful dog. Ace is glad to cart her along at whatever pace is easiest.
Damian, on the other hand, isn't sure what to do still. She's--mute? Talking is cumbersome between them while they're walking, he thinks. She's tired. It's likely not the right time to pry.
So he kind of just... continues on in silence, focused ahead of them but walking on the opposite side of Ace as they go, his face pensively thoughtful. He looks so serious for a thirteen year old.
The direction toward Flavo reminds him: Bruce stays in Flavo. He can swing by after dropping Kisa off to tell the man to keep an eye on her.]
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Kisa will keep glancing in his direction, though, because she's very curious. How does he know so much? Does he think she's strange? There's no real way to tell, and she's too tired and hungry to dedicate much thought to it now.
What a nice walk. ]
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He spends a lot of time in his head, okay. Something he gets from his dad, thinking about everything, planning, making arrangements. He has to take care of Kisa first, then tell Bruce what happened, then try to figure out who built that damn hole someone could fall into.
He can't believe she didn't get hurt. What if he had found her with a broken arm? leg? neck? The most he can be thankful for is the hole hadn't been armed with something lethal. It wasn't a killing trap, only a capturing one.
Suddenly, he focuses, remembering he's literally walking along beside Ace and a strange girl all the while not saying a word. He cuts a look at her and then quickly looks away when she looks back.]
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Because she'd been looking at him? Had she stared too long, or had some sort of strange expression? Had her eyes unnerved him?
("Why are your eyes so orange, Sohma-san? They match your hair perfectly. Contacts? Do you dye?"
"That can't be natural, right? Isn't that weird?"
"It's freaking me out. Stop staring at me, already!")
She can't control her hair or her eyes. But Kisa also looks away, a little desolate, but if he doesn't want her to look at him--
She'll just trip over a loose pebble or something in her path instead, and topple forward. ]
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Watch out!
[And they pretty much both react at the same time. Ace shoots forward to try to block the fall, and Damian leaps to try to catch her from behind before she gets hurt. He thinks it's less she tripped and more she's so exhausted she may have fainted or her legs have given out.
Catching her arm at the elbow, the only thing he can really think to do to make sure she isn't face first on the ground is to pull her against himself and wrap the other arm around her shoulders.]
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It's shock when he catches her arm, but when he pulls her against him, the shock turns to dread and terror, except by then she can't pull away. His arm wraps around her shoulders, and that's trigger enough.
The clouds of smoke seem to appear out of literally nowhere, more like actual clouds than the sting of smoke, but much thicker. The weight of a small twelve-year-old girl seems to have diminished incredibly as well, and if Damian is observant (of course he is, goddammit), he'll notice he seems to be grasping something much smaller in shape and weight.
And furrier.
Regardless of whether he waits for the smoke to clear or waves it away himself, well. There's a dress on the ground by his feet and there's a tiger cub now dangling a tad awkwardly in his arms.
Said cub appears a bit shell-shocked. ]
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Honest to God, this is one of the wildest things to happen to him, but not necessarily the worst. The smoke is worrying, and he's quick to wave it away with the hand now strangely free from a girl's small elbow.
???????
Fuzzy... Smaller...
He starts when the smoke clears and a tiger child is now in the place of where a girl was just moments before. He glances around, looks back at her, exchanges a look with Ace, looks back at her again. The fur is the same color her hair had been? The girl is gone.]
You...
[Ace tilts his head to one side, breathing paused. It dawns on him quickly. He doesn't think she's a girl at all. Maybe the girl was some kind of corporal form for a tiger god. That explains the muteness, right? That explains--why she didn't want to be touched.]
Are you... a tiger deity...?
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Well. That, and he'd just saved her from spending literally the whole day trapped inside of a pit, and she should probably not give her savior bite marks as a show of gratitude.
But she's never been called a deity before, and she's never witnessed this bizarre kind of reaction where it's not immediate shrieking or yelping or some other manner of fright or horror.
Not until this place, anyway.
All she can really do, stuck as she is, is shake her head once. ]
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Damian exchanges another look with Ace, and, slowly, the dog's tail lifts and begins wagging. Damian--doesn't know what to do? Why has he, of all people, genius as he is, been stupified by this one simple girl from the moment he's met her? It makes no sense. She's... an anomaly clearly. He did not prepare for this.]
Alright, not a deity. [Carefully, he puts her down on the ground. Just because she's a tiger doesn't mean she suddenly wants to be touched.] A splicer? Did the town do this? I--
[He's talking to a tiger. Fuck.]
--Nevermind. We'll deal with this later. Let's just find the house where you belong. You can still go, right?
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Okay, maybe not that okay, with how bewildered he appears, but he didn't immediately fling her back into the pit and he seems to be trying to understand what's going on with her.
... Which really just makes her miss any one of her cousins who could have explained it a lot better. Even if she's not entirely sure how well Damian would take to talking animals.
For now, in response, Kisa carefully pads over to her dress and picks it up in her mouth. She can't exactly carry it without it dragging a bit, but it's not exactly something she can leave behind. There's a long, considering look at Damian but she ultimately decides to think about it later-- as he said.
And she'll set off, still moving gingerly, but faster than she was as a girl. ]
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Literally, he just stands there for several long seconds as she takes off, Ace hurriedly following after. Now he has to tell his dad he found a girl in a pit who also turns into a tiger for some reason.
Finally, he also takes off after her and the dog. Ace is excited, if anything. The dog hops playfully up and down as he gets closer to Kisa, but then seems shy or maybe mischievous as he bounces away. Ahead, Ace will run only to stop and wait for them to catch up, tail wagging.] It's getting dirty.
Here, give it to me. [Damian picks up his speed so he can bend to take the dress, keeping it from being dragged the whole way through the dirt.] There's other clothes, but we'll have to tailor them.
I don't know where you're from, but Chroma probably isn't like any place you've been.
[He still thinks she's possibly some kind of deity. Listen.]
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At least Ace seems to be having fun, and if she was anything other than tired and aching and distinctly uncomfortable, Kisa might pounce or playfully bat at him. But nope, just trotting for now, tail flicking in acknowledgment when Damian takes the dress from her.
The tail flicks again.
It's true that Chroma isn't anything like home. Or if it is, it's a part of Japan she hasn't seen before. A lot of her life was centered around the estate, and this is definitely a far cry. The colors being highly lacking... that's odd, too.
It makes her ears go flat, briefly. This... isn't home. It's a sad, dull place with random pits and no one who knows her. ]
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Don't worry. [Even with Ace hopping around like an excitable idiot, Damian still sees the change in her ears. He's been with enough animals and loves enough animals to know when cats are perturbed.] Everyone is looking for a way back home.
No one seems to have any ill intent here, and we plan to keep it that way. You don't have to worry about being hurt. [If she's a god, does he have to reassure her about injury...???
He glances down at his hands. ACK. How fucking suspicious does it look for him to be walking through town with a dog and a tiger with a girl's dirty dress in his hands? HELP HIM.
Quickly, he starts folding it up neatly... so it's... less noticeably a girl's dress.] I'll explain everything later.
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But maybe she should have let him carry her, or found some way to warn him (somehow??), because right as they actually enter Flavo, there's that helpful poof of smoke and she's back to being a girl.
Which is great! Except she's naked and instantly trying to cover herself with her hands. ]
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Damian almost trips over her when the cloud of smoke explodes up from the ground when they get into Flavo. Ace gives a startled, short bark and leaps back, and Damian is left swinging his arms to try to get the enigmatic fog to vanish.
NEVERMIND, BRING THE ENIGMATIC FOG BACK!!!
The neat folding he just did on the dress is torn apart as he hurried flaps it back open and shoves it quickly out at her. He really doesn't mind the nakedness in a way adults would, but it's incredibly awkward to be concerned about someone--a tiger?--only to have them suddenly be naked.
If and when she takes the clothes, he hastily turns his back to her so she can have some privacy. Ace is looking? Ace is a boy.] ACE!
TURN AROUND!
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But this has been a Day, and Kisa is 7% less mortified than she'd normally be because she's 93% more drained today. Still, there's not a peep from her, just the rustle of clothing before she taps Damian's shoulder.
She's decent! Very shame faced, but decent! ]
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Even when Kisa taps him on the shoulder, he's hesitant to turn around. It's very slow, very cautious, and then his shoulders immediately drop when he realizes she is, in fact, fully clothed.] Alright. Enough.
[He's still embarrassed.]
What are you? Why do you keep transforming back and forth between a girl and a tiger?
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But he saved her. If nothing else, she owes him an answer.
Her lips barely move, fingers clenching into the front of her dress.
"Cursed." ]
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You'll fit right in then.
[For a moment, he just looks at her. His hand starts to rise, but stops, lowers again.] Forget about your house right now. I'll take you to Father's instead. There's food and water, a fire, and we'll find you some clothes or blankets.
Come on. Ace. [He turns to lead the way now, letting Ace stand to wait and herd Kisa. The dog offers her a soft whine.]
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It's... a lot. Maybe not to Damian, but tears are already sliding down her face. Still, she moves to rest a hand on Ace's back again. No use refusing now. ]
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Damian doesn't look back only because he doesn't want to make her uncomfortable. His focus is ahead, even if he isn't walking too fast. His stride is certain, steady. Ace happily takes up the back with Kisa.
Bruce's cottage is on the outskirts of Flavo, so it takes them a few minutes to get there. The man has decides to make a nest near the forest--dangerous, maybe, but secluded. Except for... the multitude of animals who greet them when they arrive.
Near the front on one side is a goat and a brown-spotted cow sharing a fence. The cow doesn't really give them any kind of bellow, too engrossed with munching, but the goat greets them with a shrill, silly scream. This stirs the fire-breathing geese who are likewise in a fence, only at the back of the house and further away.
They're rather strange. The four of them waddle quickly to the edge of the fence and huddle in a group, peering beady-eyed out at Damian, Ace, and Kisa as they approach. They're not breathing fire thankfully, and they don't make any noise aside from the occasional grunt.
It's fairly come and go; Damian heads right for the door to open it and hold it for Kisa... and Ace, he guesses. The dog will probably try to squeeze in with her anyway.]
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But also... this seems familiar. She hadn't really paid attention to where she'd gone the first day, but something about this house...
She'll think about it later. She's still sticking close to Ace, giving a little instinctive "sorry for the intrusion" bow as she steps inside. Damian's dad must really love animals, though. ]
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