VLDfest Day 1, Favorite Character
And hello to you all for @vldtenyearanniversaryfest !!! I don't know if I can be forced to pick a FAVORITE favorite but OF my faves I know which one needs the most love <3
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Narti's tail flicked in tandem with Kova's, observing the salvaged sentries as they worked. Kova liked watching them, and Narti didn't mind letting the cat's attention wander where it was wont. As far as service animals went, some might question the choice of a domestic housecat, given how stubborn the animals could be when asked to do anything outside their own feline preferences, but Narti liked Kova plenty, agreed with his mental state far more than she might have with a canine, and took a certain amount of pride in being the one trusted to watch over the prince's childhood pet, the only possession he'd carried with him through the millennia that wasn't the armor on his back.
She leaned back on the roof of the ship and stretched her arms out far above her head, Kova lifting up onto his paws and bowing low with his front legs out, his toebeans spread, in an echo of her. He then placed himself neatly on top of her belly, the thick armor of her chestplate a bad spot for naps, and curled up in a sweet little ball. She scritched idly at his ears and if she'd had eyes, she would've closed them, enjoying the warmth of this planet's sun and the sun-warmed metal of their ship beneath her. She yawned, showing this planet's sky two rows of very sharp teeth, and listened.
Ezor and Zethrid were testing the waters with Acxa again, prodding her and poking at her until she snapped at them, a favorite pastime for the two rowdies. Prince Lotor was overseeing the repairs with a sort of irritated restlessness the other three didn't know him well enough (or long enough) to discern, his affect outwardly unchanged. The sentries were moving with their mechanical whirring, programmed to be ever so slightly imperfect to help with the uncanny valley of it all and prevent Galra soldiers from attacking them reflexively, and these sentries, having been either stolen or repaired (or both) even more imperfect than most.
Off, way off, in the distance, there was a gathering of denizens, chattering loudly enough that Narti could hear the murmur of them whenever the wind carried this way, likely primitives that couldn't fathom life beyond their own atmosphere and were gearing up to make first contact. Probably one of the things Lotor was worried about happening. Not as much as he was worried about the people who'd damaged their ship relocating them, that would've taken top priority, but a bunch of curious denizens would've just been another headache to add to the list.
Narti, for her part, wasn't worried. If their opponents relocated them, they'd load back in the ship and engage again, and they'd win this time. Lotor never lost the same fight twice. If Acxa ended up snapping at Ezor and Zethrid, they more than well deserved it, and they were big girls, they could handle themselves. If the primitives approached them, eh. Their ship was mostly repaired by this point. They could just fly away and avoid them.
But this sun, though. Narti was not going to let anything interrupt her enjoyment of this planet's sun. It was just right, hot enough to have her more mammalian friends sweating in their armor, absolutely baking the metal of the black roof of the ship, utterly perfect to her lizard hindbrain and Kova's cat physiology. As she exhaled with satisfaction at the warmth, Kova began to purr.