[come_sailaway inbox]

[prince_of_beasts]

A synthesized woman's voice picks up the call.

"Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system. Two - Zero - Two - Nine - One - Eight - Two - One - Three - Two -- is not available now. At the tone, please record your message. When you've finished recording, you may hang up or press the # key for more options."

Dimitri hasn't figured out how to customize the thing yet.

Comments

[prince_of_beasts]

"Darcy. Can you take a deep breath?"

[saltwaterlungs]

"No," he answers automatically.

Which isn't strictly speaking true, because a second or two later he painstakingly sucks in a breath like blowing bubbles in tar through a straw.

Which he chokes on, sputtering into more sobs.

Sorry, Mitri, you might need to let him ride this one out a bit.

1/2

[prince_of_beasts]

Well, that's it. Dimitri's exhausted his skillset. For all that he'll insist emotions don't have to make sense, and they don't need to be fixed, he's not actually any good at helping with problems that don't respond to solving.

The arm of the couch creaks as Dimitri gets up.

2/2

[prince_of_beasts]

A drawer opens. Fabric shuffles. A few moments later, a much softer patapat precedes a solid fifteen pounds of housecat stepping onto Darcy's shoulders, where he settles into a loaf and begins to purr.

[saltwaterlungs]

The sudden weight on his shoulders causes Darcy to jolt just a little, but he quickly identifies what on earth could be curling up on him and relaxes. Just Dimitri. As a cat.

"God- okay- I'm going to turn over so I can pet you, okay?"

He sniffs again, then slowly shifts over onto his back, giving Dimitri enough time to settle himself on his stomach or chest.

"You're really soft."

[prince_of_beasts]

Oops. Human Dimitri would have given Darcy some warning; the cat brain didn't think of it.

"I know," he says smugly. Ship translation means he can 'talk' without interrupting his purring. " ... does this help?"

[saltwaterlungs]

"It does," even if honestly it would be better if he wasn't talking right now. Makes him feel weird. Still, Darcy does his best to do that slightly hesitant 'wasn't raised around animals' head to tail pet, using his other hand to rub a little at his face. God, Dimitri is a huge cat. The strays he'd see occasionally on the street weren't this big. It's nice to have something else to focus on aside from the idea of his world collapsing again.

"Scale of one to ten, how weird is it if I just put my face in your fur."