route_1065 | In which kittens come from eggs, apparently.

Entry tags:

In which kittens come from eggs, apparently.

Who:

explosivecombat
Where: Mahogany Town
When: November 8th
Summary: Archer hatches a kitten from an egg. Kimblee takes this news wonderfully.
Rating: PG-13 for shrieking histrionics.
Log:

Finally. Archer's been carrying around that egg for the past few weeks and it's finally hatched. As expected, it's a kitten - Meowth, was it? Anyway, Archer's currently outside the Pokémon Center, crouched down to play with the newly-hatched kitten, Murkrow still on his shoulder and eyeing the scene disdainfully. His Golbat has been recalled for the time being, if only because it's no longer beneficial to keep the thing out. It's nearly his height - there's never any room for it.

Anyway, the kitten is rolling around, being quite the ham as kittens do; she seems quite pleased with all the affection she's getting in the form of belly rubs and stupid noises anyone in the close proximity of a cat is prone to make. It won't be long before Kimblee shows up and Archer can finally show off the thing he's been carrying around for so long.

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It won't be long indeed, as it's pretty much a given that Kimblee does stop by that Pokémon Center frequently - as long as that disturbingly perky person behind the counter is willing to heal his Pokémon free of charge (and, thankfully, free of judgement), Kimblee sees no reason to not utilize the service. And he's been utilizing it a lot lately, given that he wants to render the new additions to his team a bit less utterly useless. Carlisle has been doing well in that regard; Dorian, on the other hand...well. Fighting the local grass-types has managed to gain him a few levels, but has mostly just ensured that the Vulpix spends more time poisoned or asleep than actually battling.

It's lovely, really.

Regardless, the Pokémon Center is well-versed in not giving a damn what state that Vulpix is in when he's brought in for healing, and so back into town it is, where -

...oh, there's Archer.

It would seem, upon closer inspection, that Archer is currently in a state that most from Kimblee's world find themselves in eventually - namely, the state of "oh god a kitten it's so cute I wanna play with it!!!"; it's a bit of a chronic condition afflicting practically everyone but Fullmetal, but at the same time, Kimblee hadn't exactly expected Archer to be quite this susceptible to cute. As such, he's rather content to watch for a short while without saying anything to interrupt, keeping his distance with his hands in his pockets; after a moment, however, he has to approach.

...it's adorable, okay, even if Archer making dumb noises at it is a bit disconcerting.

"Oh, and what's this?" he says, his tone light; there's a bit of a teasing quality behind it, but it isn't malicious. "I never imagined you to like this sort of thing - is it a new addition, or did you just happen to find it?"

Archer glances up once Kimblee approaches, expression immediately shifting into the usual self-confident smirk from something that was decidedly more gentle. The kitten doesn't seem very pleased with losing the attention and claws at Archer's pants while making soft "nya" sounds. Archer shushes her and gently scolds her for attempting to ruin his pants before replying to the alchemist.

"I've always liked cats, Kimbley. I'm a bit surprised, you didn't come over here with the intention of harming it in some way?" From his tone it's quite clear that he's very pleased with himself, and the teasing is certainly being returned. The other version of this man used to blow up the neighborhood cats for fun; but this man isn't similar to that one outside of their names and alchemy.

"This one finally hatched from that egg I've been carrying around. It certainly took long enough." He picks the cat up, earning a small squeak of protest from the kitten before she settles into his arms, glancing over at the newcomer curiously. "I do hope she'll be useful, though I haven't attempted to battle with her yet."

Kimblee shifts a bit at those initial remarks, cocking his head to the side, though he doesn't take his eyes off of the creature in question - why in the world would he have come over to harm the thing? He's put up with enough stupid to last him a good long while here, and he's only been here for a month; surely, this thing is no more vapid than anything else he's dealt with, even if it does seem a bit needy attention-wise.

However, he lets it go for now, instead getting a better look at the creature now that Archer's picked it up; one of his hands slips out of his pocket as he considers reaching out to touch, though that thought is quickly shoved aside in favor of realizing what Archer just said.

"...this is what's been in that egg, then." It isn't a question, not really; Kimblee is a bit too distracted by thoughts to make that a proper question.

He has no idea what it is about this situation, but this would be about when he starts fully realizing exactly how removed from normalcy this world really is.

"Yes," The reply is simple and Archer's attention is once again drawn away by the kitten, who seems eager to play and is squirming around. The bird on his shoulder makes an indignant noise when the cat attempts to get at it, and Archer sighs; clearly he has his work cut out for him. He returns the bird and shifts the kitten in his arms until she's once again content and focusing her attention on Kimblee. They're not close enough to touch, but she paws in his general direction anyway.

"What's the matter?" Kimblee's been silent for entirely too long; Archer knows that this one doesn't let the silence last for too long, either he says something or starts singing to himself. It's an odd quirk that was horribly annoying at first, but he's grown accustomed to it. The silence is bothering him more than anything else at this point, and he quirks an eyebrow at Kimblee.

It's not as though Kimblee doesn't understand how these things work - after all, Carlisle and Dorian had to have come from somewhere; he'd purchased eggs from Xanxus, he'd hatched said eggs that he'd received from Xanxus, and he'd spent the next week and a half trying not to think of the fact that he had hatched a fox and a completely literal ground-hog from eggs. It was abnormal, but it was just the Way Things Were and Kimblee had every intention of dealing with it.

Adapt and overcome.

Adapt and overcome.

Adapt and oh, to hell with it, Archer, you just -

"You just hatched a kitten out of an egg, that's all." Kimblee pauses for a moment to try to get that to settle in - not necessarily for Archer, for himself. "Kittens from eggs, and you see nothing wrong with that?"

Oh great, there's that expression again. Archer immediately wonders what he's done this time to warrant that wide-eyed expression from Kimblee; he's certain he hasn't done anything too ridiculous in the past few minutes. Was it something he said, then? No, normally Kimblee points it out immediately. So what the hell--?

"Yes, I just hatched the egg. I don't see what you're getting at--"

That's about all it takes for him to stop and evaluate what he just said. He hatched the egg. This kitten was inside the egg. He just hatched a kitten from an egg.

That's about the moment when the very obvious look of oh sets in.

Oh sums this up beautifully. It sums it up magnificently, actually, and in some way he's pleased that Archer's expression is getting that general sentiment across rather well - it would have been almost worrying if he had to explain exactly why this entire situation is problematic.

Because clearly, it is problematic. Very, very problematic. This entire world is problematic. The fact that they're in it is problematic.

"Yes...well, I believe you understand my point."

Archer doesn't say anything for a long time, staring at the kitten who... seems to have picked up his tendency to look anywhere but at the person focusing attention on him. The kitten might be looking somewhere over Kimblee's left shoulder, but that could just be a coincidence.

When he finally finds something to say, it's so simplistic and devoid of any sort of inflection or tone whatsoever that it sounds stilted and forced, "Yes, I believe I do."

He just hatched a kitten from an egg.

Well, at the very least this one seems to be following the general tradition of adopting some traits from its owner - after all, there was the smugness and the tsun tendencies, and now there's the blatant lack of eye contact.

Kimblee actually reaches out and pets it a bit after a moment; it gives him something to focus on, other than how hideously awkward this is.

"Yes, well. At least it..."

He trails off then; he hadn't exactly had a direction in mind when he'd started that, and he isn't entirely sure where to go from there.

Stating the obvious? Stating the obvious.

"There really are no words, are there?"

The kitten reacts quite happily, rubbing up against Kimblee's hand and purring loudly. Archer doesn't seem to notice and his gaze is now focused somewhere over Kimblee's left shoulder as well - though it's deliberate this time around as he's actually thinking. What the hell just happened basically sums up his thought process.

"Not... at all." He finally seems to snap back to reality and looks at Kimblee for a moment before he loses eye contact again. "That was... unexpected. I hadn't thought of it that way." He seems perfectly fine, at least.

This has kind of done a number on his head, but he'll be fine once he gets over the fact that he hatched a kitten from an egg.

Well, at least the kitten is content; Kimblee, on the other hand, is not - though he actually manages to keep his usual complete lack of a poker face under control, his gaze does flick rather pointedly back to Archer's face at that. He doesn't like the idea of Archer simply accepting completely bizarre things like this with no question; he's well aware that Archer has been trying not to question too much, but to be blunt he would have preferred the usual 'There's no point in questioning it, Kimblee' that this sort of thing tends to receive as opposed to 'I hadn't thought of it that way at all.'

"I have to admit that I don't see how," he says eventually, though he doesn't stop petting the kitten while he speaks - she's an affectionate little thing, isn't she.

Yes, she certainly is, and since her trainer isn't giving her any affection, she'll take it from this man! She either doesn't understand the topic of conversation or sees nothing wrong with it, either way she's paying much more attention to Kimblee than she is to whatever it is they're saying at this point.

Archer doesn't respond, taking more time mulling the statement over than is really necessary. "...It wasn't something I would have thought about." He gives a half-shrug, disrupting the kitten from her position which earns a small hiss of frustration; she's quick to rub back up against Kimblee's hand.

Kimblee freezes briefly at that frustrated noise, but he's returns to the general offerings of pettings once she settles again; it's at about that time that Kimblee decides that there's really no sense in both of them just standing around and slowly dying.

"Right. Well...shall I leave you to your own devices, then?"

He'll just be offering the usual smirk; it's much calmer than he actually feels.

"Yes. Yes, of course."

Archer finally shakes off that blank stare, forcing a smirk instead. "I'll see you later, then."

"Of course."

Yes. Yes, well. Kimblee will just be going to heal his currently dead-asleep fox and trying to process that entire...whatever that was just now, if no one minds.

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In which kittens come from eggs, apparently.

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...now with less html fail

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