This Kitty is Mine; There Are Not Many Like It, But This One is Mine [Private/Ania, Chifuyu]

When Aria dodged and fled, and it felt like she got some dirty looks, Ania felt at a loss. What'd she do? Reading people was never in her field of expertise. Why couldn't they be more like animals? Ania had no problems getting an idea of what they were thinking. The vibe felt prickly. She'd been in plenty of in situations before where she was told she did something wrong, but could never understand why or how. Usually when she got picked on or beat up by the bullies. This sort of atmosphere had her looking confused, and frankly a little fearful. Ania took a step back herself and rescinded, not really saying anything--just waiting for a response to respond to.

Cautiously, she received the water. Her perspective changed, and to be quite frank Ania was frightened. She never did drugs before, but she had hallucinated from dehydration whilst out in the ocean. It wasn't pleasant; in made her feel anxious, she felt dizzy afterwards, and a feeling of disorientation lingered behind.

In fact, as soon as she came back to herself, Ania ran to the side and dropped down, regurgitating all the food she just ate by the campfire. Lawrence got up and walked over to her, leaning back on his hind legs to sit up vertically. He put his paw on her back and held her hair back with the other arm.

When the missus asked her why she wanted to see the trick, Ania took it as condescension. She finds a girl, she gets told about a cool water trick, it fucks her up, and this lady basically tells her, "you get what you fuckin deserve"? The fuck?

She wanted to lash out, but the nausea took precedent. It took her a moment to regain herself, but she hadn't the energy to really vent out this betrayal. A wave of exhaustion washed over her for it.

"Ye know... I tot de water trick was... well, someting else... Maybe I could learn someting from it, get a power from it or... I donno..."

She would've had more to say, probably with some aggression, but the circumstances weren't for it.

CHIFUYU YUUDESHI

END POST | DIAMOND'S BEST FRIEND

There it was again. Someone her age shouldn't be looking for power.

"What do you know, huh..."

She said it with a low voice, probably loud enough to hear still. She felt a bit more receptive to Aria, though. She seemed genuinely interested in the reasons. It wasn't often Ania had someone willing to actually listen to her. They always acted like they were listening, but they were only hearing her, and there was a difference.

At first, Ania thought Aria's inquiry was a bit off-putting, but two sides to a coin and all that, huh?

"Hahh.... Eh... If ahm protecting anybodi, it'd be myself. Nobodi gonna protect me, maybe Hobbs but das it."

And to beat people up.

"What else is dere to use power for?"

CHIFUYU YUUDESHI

END POST | DIAMOND'S BEST FRIEND

Ania wanted to spit at the question of having any family, but she was worried there'd still be small spots of stomach acid still in her mouth, and she wasn't fond of the taste. She did get up, though, and slowly at that, into a sitting upright position and her legs spread out into a 'V'.

"As far as ahm concerned, Hobbs is my only family."

Her time alone with Lawrence only deepened this feeling. Maybe a year ago, when she freshly left the coasts of the Solomon Islands, her lingering cravings for affection and dependence on the adults in her life might've had her answer differently. This far in, though, that craving for attention was mostly replaced with distrust and distaste for adults, and probably to just other people in general. Micaiah wasn't even part of the picture here; she disliked her sister before even leaving the islands, and with time for these thoughts to fester in her with nobody to confide in but Lawrence, that dislike evolved into a hatred.

The mention of power being a responsibility really lit her up. Good lord, the amount of times she heard that was incalculable. The best part was, pretty much everyone who told her that seemed pretty damn irresponsible with their power! What cruel reality is this? If there was a god, she'd pull them down to eye level and curse them out. Tsk. The audacity of these folk. She recalled telling one of those people that just an ounce of power would've meant she could've had a family. That's all she needed. Not a lot, just a little.

"Ye know how meny people wit power tell me 'dat, den don' at all demonstrate responsibility wit dere power? De last time somebodi told me 'dat, dey cursed me! De damn witch put a hex on me, and because she was de mayor of de city, there ain't nobodi for me ta complain to! Matter of fact, why do ye feel de need to tell me 'dat, huh? Do ya just assume I'm goin' ta not use power responsibly? Is it cause ahm young? I paid attention in history class, you know. Ninedy-nine percent of de woes in de world are caused by irresponsible adults wit power. What, do ya tink Aria here is gonna use her power irresponsibly too? Huh?"

She barely took a breath through that whole spiel, and by the end her whole face was red, her body rising and deflating as she huffed, and her eyes turning red pink and watery with anger.

"Wen I get power, and I will get power, ain't nobody gonna know how to use it better den me. 'Cause I know what it's like to not have it."

CHIFUYU YUUDESHI

END POST | DIAMOND'S BEST FRIEND

"I dunno who de hell you tink you are, callin' my desire 'cheap', or tinking I'll abuse it. Why do you tink you have any reason ta make eny judgements, huh? Ye don' know anyting about me or my desires. I tink makin' sweepin' judgement about me is an irresponsible ting to do. If I was like you, I'd tink you were irresponsible for tinking yer experience wit power had anyting to do wit me. Saying not having power won't mean anyting is just stupid, someting only someone wit de privilege of havin' power would say, so I don' know where ye get off sayin dese tings when you don' have any understanding of what it's like, clearly."

Fuming was putting it lightly; it's like this lady knew all the wrong things to say. To the point that Ania just outright wanted to walk away from here, despite having so much more she wanted to say. But that wouldn't do. She got here first. Even set up camp and everything. This lady should be the one to go; not Aria, though--she could stay. But how to make that happen? The lady didn't seem like the type of person to just go away if Ania said "shoo!". She could maybe get Lawrence to scare her off, but it's not like he had an ounce of genuine feral courage to him. At most, it was a scare tactic that couldn't be backed up. Maybe if she just started ignoring the lady, that'd be enough.

With some of the nausea clearing up, Ania stood up and drudged back to her camp. She turned her back to Chifuyu, not pouting--because that would be childish--but clearly dismissing the woman's presence. She reached into one of her bags and pulled out some more food, this one a bit moldy as it was a long-time emergency reserve. The food from earlier was all the fresh stuff they had, and she wasn't going to let Lawrence eat half a portion.

Of course, she didn't forget about Aria. Ania turned just her head around to look at the girl.

"'Ey Aria, are you hungry?"