Roll for Initiative

[The_Vizir]

It was a clean, clear day in early spring. The snows had mostly disappeared from the forests, and the branches of trees were covered in buds and bloom of greens and floral hues. The air smelled of a fresh rainstorm... crisp and refreshing. A perfect spring afternoon. One where it would have been a crime to keep two teenagers locked up indoors doing repairs on a ship... as well as neigh impossible in a practical sense. So, Norad had let the Twins have the day off from work and study, and the two of them quickly made for the forest, to put some distance between themselves and wreck of their father... they didn't need him changing their minds on them again, and assigning them yet another menial task.

That was how the two Terran Hybrids ended up on the shore of the Forest's river, in a peaceful sloping meadow. Leigh was perched high in the shadowy reaches of an early budding tree, hiding herself in the shifting shadows as she leaned against tree's trunk, while her pale twin was located on the ground below, slowly circling a three dimensional holographic grid projected into the air by a small, metallic orb resting in the newly greened grass. Lev was staring at this hologram with a great deal of interest, taking in each little facet of the various colours, numbers and symbols floating around in the grid. Finally, after a great deal of silent deliberation, the pale-furred experiment reached out a hand, and indicated a certain square on the grid. That one square expanded, the image of the grid became one of a star system coloured red in hue. A series of green dots appeared in the hologram, blinking into existence. They were swiftly met by a similar series of red dots, and one by one, these dots began to blink out of existence, until all the green ones had disappeared, electing an annoyed groan from Lev "Oh come on!" the young Terran exclaimed in frustration, hands flying up in frustration as the hologram announced decisively "Red victory". Lev looked up at his twin "How the heck do you keep doing that?"

Leigh looked down with a slight smirk on her face "Oh, luck I guess... that, and knowing you better than you know me" she winked mischievously "So, my turn again?" she asked, not really expecting an answer. She rolled over onto her stomach, so she would have a better view of the hologram. A string of readouts and announcements flashed up, causing Leigh to grin darkly "Well... this'll be fun!" she announced with a great deal of joy.

Lev, for his part merely groaned. This was going to be one of those days, wasn't it...

[Gaius]

"Picturesque" described the scene quite well. It would have been a natural fit for a postcard photo. Not that this wouldn't have been true the month or two before, of course. A snow-coated landscape with frozen river beneath cloudy skies has a beauty of its own, and many would have loved to drink it in. But... Well, something about flowers and trees in bloom, a sun smiling through partly cloudy skies, a coursing river from which fish might leap into the air once in a great while, and the general feeling of life returning... It just seemed more likely to put Deep Forest on tourists' "To Visit," lists. If there was bigotry or fear of the unknown involved, whether on the part of merchant or customers, the two artificial lifeforms and their holographic toy could be edited out.

If the shot was panned back sufficiently far, a third, grayer individual might also be removed to 'improve' the image. Though the bipedal animal might get to stay, if the marketers intended to push the 'whimsical' angle of the magic forest. Alternatively, his image might wind up in rather a different context, tightly cropped, likely in too poor a quality to tell what is actually pictured, and subtitled with, "Weredonkeys: What else isn't the government telling us?"

To be fair to conspiracy theorists, 'weredonkey' was certainly the look Devon sported. As usual, he was trying not to think about that. And, the day being as nice as it was, he was having a pretty easy time of it. Walking alongside the river, it just felt good to be alive. The sun was comfortably warm, without causing the donkey to overheat in his winter coat (which already seemed to be shedding a bit). The rush of the water was relaxing, and, as a bonus, dulled the sound of his hooves as he walked. To round it off, the fresh grass on his left looked appetizing enough to have a sample, though he'd had his fill earlier. 'Might be good to see if it's nicer, though. Still, probably won't be as good as the clover in that meadow...' he thought, fondly remembering the flavor. His slight smile turned to a frown as self-awareness reasserted itself. '... You are not turning into a connoisseur of grass. Just... No.' His tail flicked in annoyance.

Fortunately, someone's frustrated cry broke Devon from those thoughts. Ears perking, he looked ahead for the source. Squinting a bit, the former human spotted a figure under a tree, throwing up his arms in front of... something mostly red before turning his attention to the trees. Devon followed this, and thought he saw something up there. Some movement and faint green lights in the shadowed branches, he thought. Turning back to the illuminated one, the donkey made out what he could. 'Hmm, gray and white clothes... yellow-white fur... Green hair... Hmm... Back th-- wings that... make me think of Tales of Symph-- Oh!' At the pleasant surprise, he smiled and his tail gave a swish behind him. 'Right, from that Fighting class. What was his name... Lell? No, Lev.' Devon properly attributed the glow in the tree to the experiment's sister, Leigh. 'Probably in a better mood than he is,' he thought, smirking, and not missing his guess.

Glad to see some familiar faces, he picked up the pace and made for the pair, giving a wave of his hoof when they noticed his approach.

[The_Vizir]

Leigh noticed the waving donkey-boy before her brother, her vantage point granting her a better view of her surroundings than her brother. Sighing reluctantly as she took a look down at the game she had been dominating, she realized this interruption would likely mean pausing the game and thus loosing her groove. Couldn't he arrived a few hours later, when she could have wrung a concession out of Lev? Well... that would just have to wait. Holding her palm out, and revealing the slight web of wires and sensors wrapped around her hand, she pushed towards the glowing cube. The holographic game flickered slightly, before fading out of focus to the point where the data was unreadable.

Lev looked up at his sister in confusion "Hunh?"

The dark twin pointed down at the donkey-boy "Comp'ny" was her simple response.

Lev, of course, wheeled about to face the stranger who had stumbled onto the siblings' game, and was surprised at what he saw. A donkey... standing on two legs, wearing pants of all things. Wait... that couldn't be a donkey. Donkeys walked on two legs, and didn't wear cloths. Well... couldn't be a hybrid... where were it's hands? Lev spent several long moments staring at the donkeyfolk, before his mind latched onto the first logical conclusion... "WEREDONKEY!" he yelped, and jumped backwards, only to stumble through the holographic game and over it's projector, causing it to flicker as he fell through it's matrix and landed sprawled on the grass with an "OOPH"

I'm sorry, did I say logical? My mistake.

Of course, Lev's rather bizarre reaction was exactly the distraction Leigh needed, as one second she was in the tree above, and the next... she was several feet behind the donkey-boy, slipping through the shadows. "Howdy" the black-furred twin spoke mischievously from behind the strange fellow. "Now, who're you and what's done brought you 'round here, fella?" Leigh's eyes twinkled with dark humour as she spoke. She loved scaring the dickens out of folks like this, and it had been a while since she last had the chance...

Still, Leigh did feel there was something kinda familiar about the bipedal donkey here... had she met him when she had first been in the forest? Could have... but twenty eight months was a long time, and if there had been a name attached to the guy, it had long been lost to make room for other titles and faces. Lev might remember though, Leigh thought to herself, but she figured he was probably not moving right now in an attempt to stave off embarrassment for as long as possible.

[Norvilion]

((mind if I join in?))

[Gaius]

((Sure thing, Norv. Just bring the Dragonborn into things whenever you'd like))

Devon noticed the glowing eyes in the branches focused in his direction, at which point he gave his wave. He was still a little ways off, but near enough to hear their one-word exchanges. Then Lev turned in his direction and gave a look of surprise, followed by a stare. 'Ah. He must think I look familiar.' He couldn't hold it against either of them for not remembering him immediately; while he had only spent two hours/days/weeks/months/???? ('Screw you, Faerie realm time...') away from the Forest, the Twins and the rest of the world had seen two years' passing. Now that he could see Lev more clearly, the experiment's growth was an obvious reminder.

So, seeing the thoughtful gaze, Devon gave an encouraging nod. Given the conclusion to which the lighter-furred experiment jumped, however, this was not constructive. The donkey's ears flicked back and he winced slightly. Partly from the unexpected volume of the cry, and partly from the content. Despite his reluctance to inform others that, despite all evidence to the contrary, he was human, he... well, didn't like being referred to based on all evidence to the contrary. ... Which, someday, he might even think through a bit better. ('Yeah, screw you, too...') Still, his frown was tempered slightly as Lev made just as poorly thought-out a dive to safety. Which got a wince from Devon for a different reason.

"Okay... Not the best greeting, but it could have been wo-- Dah!" This last was accompanied by a jump, and in response to Leigh's surprise "Howdy." Well, not technically. As had become very familiar to Devon, but only slightly less frustrating and embarrassing, the intended "Dah!" came out instead as a surprised, "Hee haw!" He was glad that his speaking voice had been unchanged, but it still distressed him that a definitely animal braying voice chose to pick up the slack from time to time. It had not escaped donkey-boy's notice that it did so most often when he was making others' acquaintances or when he was flustered (which was, well, often). 'Lame...'

So, having given the darker experiment more amusement than she might have been expecting, Devon whirled around, muzzle and cheeks slightly pink and ears flat against his head. Possibly giving her yet more amusement. 'Huh. So I guess she can teleport now. ... Is that a good thing?' It made some kind of sense; he had picked up some new abilities in his time away, and he could hardly expect everyone else to learn nothing new in two years. 'Eh, just... look a little less ridiculous.' He took a breath and tried to get those ears into a more natural position, with some success. "Oh, uhh, just an old acquaintance passing by. Saw your brother, and I thought you two might not mind a familiar face." The donkey-boy stared at her a bit as he spoke. It wasn't intended to be creepy, it was just weird to have not seen someone in at most three months and find they'd grown two years' worth. He chuckled a bit as he noticed how she seemed to be looking him over, too; while he looked for little things he'd expected to see in her, she tried to place little things she might possibly remember. "I guess not that familiar, huh? You've definitely changed."

Devon smirked, and, deciding what was good for the goose was good for the gander, focused on his best known magical talent. A slight wind kicked up about him, putting a slight rustle in the grass and blowing his tail a bit, with a similarly localized breeze starting a few feet behind Leigh. Within a moment, the former human had faded from his spot and reappeared at the other little zephyr, which quickly abated. His aim could use work; he was a bit more to the side than he'd meant. Ah, well. "But good to know your sense of humor's about the same, at least." The smirk gave way to a more proper smile. "Hiya, Leigh."

[The_Vizir]

(Aye, Norv, bring your toon in whenever you feel it's most appropriate)

Leigh broke out laughing at the bipedial donkey's surprise braying. Well, not exactly unexpected, it was amusing nonetheless. As he wheeled about, the ears and expression on his face just made it for her, and Leigh doubled over, barely able to to keep standing as the laugher shook her entire body. "Perfect!" she gasped between peals of laughter. She couldn't have made it better if she'd planned it out in advance. She was laughing so hard she barely registered what Devon was saying... but she did take her laughter down a notch, only to see the donkey-boy had faded from existence. "Wait... what?" she asked in confusion, looking at the vacated location... where the heck-

Then the voice sounded behind her, and Leigh's training kicked in before she really thought it through, spinning down while crouching, picking up a handful of dirt, infusing the dirt with her shadow power, and tossing it at the voice. The cloud of particulate shadow flew at the speaker, granting Leigh a few moments to see who the speaker was before he got a face full of shadowstuff "Oh my gosh!" Leigh squeaked slightly as she realized what she'd just done. It wasn't harmful... but getting a cloud of shadow to the face was rather inconviencing. "Uhh... shoot. Sorry, sorry, sorry! Uhh... sorry!" Leigh panicked slightly "Uhh... don't... don't move. It's just psionic darkness... uhh... shoot. Sorry! Really sorry. Uhh... should, it should go away in a few moments, uhh... shoot. Lev?" the dark twin looked over her shoulder at her mirror "Uhh... Lev, you wouldn't be able to come over here, and uhh... negate this could you?"

Lev looked up at his sister, and then the shadow-headed donkey beside her "I... well... uhh... ain't we just the best welcoming committee ever?"

Leigh's ears drooped slightly, and she nodded meekly "I told him I was sorry! Really!"

[Gaius]

The laughter... Yeah, Devon wasn't enjoying that very much. He was always glad to bring a smile and humor into the world, but he would have preferred it be more... intentional on his part. It came through clearly, too, giving Leigh a pinker muzzle to look at, as well as ears that flattened back further than he'd thought they could go. He also kinda staggered his speech a bit around the bigger guffaws, in the hopes of actually being heard. While it did sting a bit to have someone the donkey boy knew laughing so hard at his expense... well, they hadn't even had much conversation, he knew he must have looked ridiculous and might have been doing the same. Sure, Devon might have tried for some restraint, but so it went.

Anyway, his little vanishing act seemed to kill the laughter. 'There we go.' Feeling a bit more confident, he proceeded. Only to be interrupted by Leigh for the second time in as many minutes. A distant part of him assessed it logically.
Downgrade: having a faceful of shadow (and dirt) hucked at him, turning his expression into one of alarm and, as he unsuccessfully tried to weave out of the way, his intended words into, "But good to know your sense of hu-- Ngh!"
Upgrade: "Ngh!" wasn't an especially donkey sound.
This distant part of him concluded the interruption was thus not much worse, very nearly a wash.

Devon hadn't known what was coming at him, and quickly noticed something: he couldn't see anything. ... Granted, as he'd shut his eyes in reflex, this was no surprise. But there wasn't even the dark red one usually 'sees' with eyes closed in the sunlight. He knew his eyelids hadn't gotten that much thicker. All opening his eyes did was show him the interior of a swirling cloud of psionic shadows. Which meant the donkey almost wasn't sure he'd opened them. This was a bit distressing, and he wasn't sure the apologies that the darker-furred individual was peppering him with were helping. He started, with as much delicacy as they allowed, lifting his hooves to his face to try to wipe the stuff off.

However, donkey-boy went rigid at the words, "Uhh... don't... don't move." The recent surprises had left him about as likely to jump to conclusions as Lev, so... "... The darkness'll rip off my face if I move at all!?" It wasn't impossible; her skill with shadowstepping clearly showed she had new mastery in shadow manipulation. If it was holding his face in place, then... Though that wouldn't fall much in line with "it's just psionic darkness,", he thought. "... Yeah, no, that was kinda dumb..." he mumbled. Devon calmed considerably once he realized this and Leigh assured him it wouldn't last long, anyway. Which brought him up to 'relieved, with a dash of annoyance.'

Devon then heard the girl's call to Lev, and the brother's voice joining them. "Well, interesting times with you two, at least. I mean, I didn't see this coming." After a beat, the Twins got to see the cloud of darkness dip into a (gently) approaching hoof, in as close to a facepalm as donkey-boy was going to get without the requisite palm. "I hate puns." At Leigh's insistence on her apology, he sighed. "Okay, okay, it's fine. Really. Just... take this gunk off." The former human went back to his attempts to paw it off. "I feel slightly more ridiculous than usual." And, as not just a bipedal donkey in pants, but one with tail clearly twitching in irritation behind him as hooves dipped into the umbral nimbus where his head should be and ear tips poked and flicked out from the top of said cloud, he wasn't wrong. A little smile went unseen. "Besides, I'd like to honestly say it's good to see you guys, again."

[Norvilion]

((Sorry, seems still have to stay on the edge for a while longer. Y'all have fun ))

[The_Vizir]

(no problem, Norv! Invitation still remains, though!)

Leigh nodded meekly at the donkey-folk's insistence that he was alright. It was a relief that he wasn't harmed or anything due to the power, but that did very little to diminish the reddening of her cheeks or the lowering of her ears. She had become way to jumpy over these past two years... they all had, actually, but that was no excuse to give the guy a face-full of shadows. He was just trying to show up her with his own teleportation skills... a little annoying, maybe, but not an excuse to harm him in any way. Looking keenly at her brother, she had to repress another embarrassed sigh. Yeah, having to rely on him for help wasn't exactly enjoyable either. She loved her brother, of course, but all too often it was him stuck fixing her mistakes and slip-ups. Leigh groaned slightly and lay her hands in her palms, a mutter of "Smooth, L-8, very smooth" heard from behind her furred hands.

Lev, for his part, slowly walked up the umbral-headed donkey "Uhh... yeah. Don't worry, just me approaching, nothing there sneaking up on ya" he assured the bipedal animal. He was obviously sentient, of course, but no telling what instincts he had, and donkeys, while rather cute little pets, were known for their kicking powers, and Lev really didn't want a startled hoof to the ribs. "Or... at least I don't think there's anything there sneaking up on ya. If there is, I don't see it... nor don't I hear it. Which means either that there's nothing there, or that something's really good at hiding. And anything that's that good at hiding likely ain't all that friendly, and uhh... I..." Lev realized he wasn't exactly helping the situation "I'll shut up now" he announced, somewhat ashamed himself, and walked up to the donkey-boy "Right, so... uhh... just... I'm just gonna generate an aura of light round your head here. Uhh... it'll be a brief flare, shouldn't go and affect you much at all, but it'll go and counteract my sister's shadows here... she's shunting photons into hyperspace via her power right now, so I'm gonna go and shunt 'em all back into this space here. Not exactly hyper-astrophysics, but psionics is almost as confusing"

Lev reached out and stuck his hand through the shadowy cloud. Concentrating, he formed a slight rift about the equine lad's head between normal space and hyperspace, drawing photons through. For a brief moment, the donkey's head was outlined in a halo of light, and then, with a slight flicker, the halo, and the shadows, disappeared, leaving only dirty fur in their wake.

The pale twin grinned triumphantly, but was cut off from announcing his success by a slight chuckle from his sister. Lev looked over at her darker mirror, and saw she was biting her lip in a rapidly failing attempt to keep laughter in. Blinking a few times, Lev stared at his sister and asked, quite defensively, "What did I do?"

Leigh pointed at the donkey-lad, then made a motion around his head, like a ring, before doubling over once again in laugher. "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?" her twin asked pleadingly, ears drooping as it became his turn to be embarrassed.

"Donkey..." Leigh made out, before laughter overcame her again. After several seconds she tried again, this time repeating the gestures "Donkey...". Not helping at all, the third time she collected herself, she was able to get out both words before collapsing to the ground, laughing the entire way "Donkey Jesus!"

Lev looked at his sister, then back at the wandering donkey-boy, then at his sister, then back at the donkey-boy. Then, something clicked in his mind as he stared at the donkey boy, a grin spreading across his face. "You... you're right. He was looking like Donkey Jesus for a few seconds there, wasn't he?" he grinned even wider "We made Donkey Jesus!". Then came the chuckles, and then the full blown laugher "We made Donkey Jesus! Above and Below, me done made Donkey Jesus! HAHA!" Lev was having difficulty standing, but he did make the effort to raise his hand and hold it up for the donkey-lad to high-five... or at least high-one. "That was right awesome!"

[VPhoenix]

((mind if I hope in at some point with Dragontron?))

[The_Vizir]

((no offence v, but both Gaius and I would like to try and work on getting our posting speeds back up to semi regular, and the more people in a thread, the clunkier it gets. So, as we've already got the third spot reserved for Norv here, it'd kinda go against our plans to add in Dragotron as well. Sorry
However, there are still a few thread I know will be looking for a few more characters, heck... a big plot's about to start up soon, so... best of luck, eh ))

[Norvilion]

((As it is it may be a while before I'm actually able to get character accepted. Profile is accepted but still have to RP more in the joining topic to get in (From what I deciphered from a few posts). I posted last and that will have been two months ago this Friday. Debating on whether or not to switch out or make a new thread, but I've only had two characters ever make it past the edge and don't want to add another character to the passerby list ))

[The_Vizir]

((Just waiting for forge, right? Don't worry, we'll bug him... repeatedly. Only fair ))

[Gaius]

((Yeah, Viz said it all, V. Sorry this one didn't work out, and good luck with another.
And aye, Norv. If you're still up for it when Edwin's approved, we'll be glad to have you. Glad to see his joining thread's back from the grave))

An ear tip flicked above the darkness at the groan and mumble from Leigh. The words spoke to Devon of a guilty conscience, which meant that 'Operation: Rub It In' was a no-go. Just as well; most cracks he might have made would have probably fallen into 'punny' territory. "Hey, it's not that big a deal, right? Cheer up," he advised her, trying for his part to sound a bit more cheerful than he felt. This thing hadn't been his fault, and he was still miffed, but he didn't exactly want the veil lifted to reveal someone feeling bad on his account. So, at least one of the donkey's wishes was going to come true that day.

Speaking of which, the one to grant it began to approach... cautiously? '... This is about that 'weredonkey' thing, isn't it?' If it was, he thought, it manifested in a very strange form: assurance that the steps were only Lev's, and that nothing was sneaking up on him. With the darkness about his head, the confusion on Devon's muzzle was impossible to see. His long ears were quick to work around this; one dropped to the side to form a right angle with the other, acting as a stand-in for an arched eyebrow. "I... know," he answered, as though he was trying to be patient after being told the sun was still shining. ... A slightly imperfect analogy, what with the former human's 'Blind' status ailment, but hey, it wasn't going to set that quickly.

L-11 then continued talking until he realized he had elaborated his encouragement into a downward spiral of awkwardness. This immediately earned the donkey-boy's sympathy. It was just so hauntingly familiar... And was quickly followed up by an explanation that, while comprehensible enough to Devon, brought techno babble to mind. 'Right, the genre-defying tech level,' he reminded himself. The cloud of darkness dipped and rose in a clear nod, as he gave a small smile inside it. "Heh, still, interesting stuff."

Devon heard the experiment's fur against its coat as Lev extended his hand. Appreciative of the fair warning, the former human's eyes were closed, shielding his dilated pupils from the psionic light and the sun. It only hurt his eyes a little, causing him to close them a little tighter. A slight grimace shifted his smile into a more neutral expression. Which, for the moment of the halo, left him with a look almost of serenity, making Leigh's interpretation even easier to draw.

Blinking into the light, Devon said, "Ah, thanks. That's be--" At which point an ear perked at the chuckle. "Huh?" If the dark twin was able to divert any attention from the struggle to hold back her flood of laughter, looking at the two guys next to each other would have probably been bad for the dam: the movements of their muzzles and ears were practically synchronized. "Umm... You okay...? The former human was actually a little worried. 'Does... bringing the protons back have some kind of effect on the one who sent them awa--'

And the answer came. Devon blinked. "What?" Despite there being nothing technological about the guy, there was a line in his head that read: "Your search - Donkey Jesus - did not match any documents." The slightly less biological Lev certainly seemed to have some idea, with the repeated looks back and forth. Quickly followed by a dawning realization, and a match for Leigh's reaction as solid as the earlier one for Devon's. This left the former human all by his lonesome, out of the loop. But he felt like he shouldn't be. The word was too familiar, somehow... 'Something to do with jebus? No, that's gotta be a coincidence... Hmm, they've gotta have their own society... Maybe it's something cultural of theirs? Might have overheard it during class...' What with the laughter, his tail flicked as another option jumped to mind: '... Maybe Jesus is an inside joke?' No, though 'Donkey Jesus' was probably going to be.

But it was hard to focus on puzzling it out. Within its psionically dark cocoon, Devon's face had time to stop its blushing and so emerged... Well, looking as dignified as a slightly dirty, supernaturally aesthetically-pleasing donkey head can look. So, more than you'd think, but less than he'd like. Anyway, all the laughter sent it rocketing back to the pupal stage, the pink shining very obviously through his fur, and his ears moving to the full, prone, and locked position. Thinking things through clearly was... not happening. Devon oddly felt it was even nearer the tip of his mind after Lev's mention of 'Above and Below.' He wasn't able to give that much thought, though, before the light experiment initiated a high-"five." The donkey boy looked up from being adrift in his sea of thought and embarrassment. And noticed he had already lifted his forehoof in the familiar gesture, despite the unfamiliar body. 'Umm, he's not going to hurt his fingers on it, is he?'

[The_Vizir]

Lev caught the rising of a fore hoof out of the corner of his eye, and clapped his own hand against it, before remembering hooves were quite a bit harder than fur and skin. Eyes widened in brief, momentary pain, and he began waving his hand to stop the stinging "Ya know..." Lev shook his head, laughter replaced with self-deprecating chuckles, "Really shoulda seen that coming" he smiled a small grin at the donkey, feral fangs glinting softly, before realizing the confusion evident in the anthropomorph's face "Oh... oh right. Sorry, right yeah. Uhh... right. Ya wouldn't know 'bout Jesus, would ya?" he blushed slightly and shot a look at his still laughing twin, "It's... sorry, yeah. Ya ain't from my homeworld, right. Well, not my homeworld. Uhh... the central world of my... oh, you might not get that either. Uhh... shoot. This..." Lev began rubbing the back of his neck is embarrassment, ears drooping once again to their customary position of self-consciousness "Dang, you might not even know what a star is. I mean, really is. Right big ball of thermonuclear fusion-fuelled plasma all done bound together by astronomical levels of gravity and... wait, do you even know what gravity is?" Lev's gaze had now reached the forest floor, booted feet shuffling on the greening soil as his voice became a completely incomprehensible mumble.

Leigh had picked up on her brother's growing embarrassment, and had felt her own mirth dwindle because of it. Part of the problem of being so closely linked mentally and emotionally. She huffed in frustration and walked over behind her twin, giving a moderately exasperated and significantly apologetic look at the donkey-boy, before punching her brother softly in the arm "What're ya going on about?"

Lev's mumbles became a little more coherent "Sorry, uhh... forgot that, well not everybody near well comes from the Dominion" his gaze shot up to Devon, and committed to not letting the outsider miss out on any future references, set about explaining it. In typical Lev rapid fire manner... something he did indeed inherit from his dad. "Uhh... the Dominion is the name of m- our" he moved his hand to indicate his twin and himself "It's our home country, I suppose. Well, full name is the Terran Dominion, but, uhh... don't think that'll help ya much" his gaze drifted over to his twin "I kinda forgot that he wasn't Terran, with him speaking Standard and all... forgot this forest translates everything for everyone, or uhh..." Lev looked back at Devon, blush rising once again "Uhh, Standard is-"

"Standard is Dominion Standard English," Leigh interrupted her twin with an annoyed sigh "The official inter-cultural and inter-species language of the dominion, descended from old American English, and it's got significant influences from British English, Indian English, Chinese, Russian, T!kati, and Spanish. That about what ya wanted to say Lev? 'Cause I'm right certain it's about as clear as mud for the xeno-" Leigh caught herself as she said the derogatory term, and mentally cursed herself. Lev being as flustered as he was now was causing her to mess up herself. She really needed him to calm down or else they were going to get nowhere "Uhh... dang. Sorry, uhh... mean xeno in the nicest way possi... I think I'll just be... uhh... well, you see, psionics, right? And twins, so... we're linked, and him being all flustered is causing me, well, you see exactly, I... I'm actually making this worse ain't I?" Leigh's own shoulders drooped in defeat, her ears following suit as she attempted to refocus herself and pick up what little of her dignity remained off the floor.

Lev sighed a shuddering breath "Sorry, guy, uhh... what I was trying to say before I stuck both my feet in my mouth was that the joke done used a figure from a right big religion back on Earth, er... Terra. Called Christianity, right? And uhh... well, founder and central figure in that faith was a guy named Jesus, and since the religion's so big and powerful, and been that way for twenty four hundred years, it done near generates it's fair share of parodies, including donkey Jesus, and, uhh... here..." Lev turned around and looked at the holographic game still floating in the air between the small group and the river. Lev's slightly flickering wings suddenly stretched out, and became streams of symbols, a cascade of digital data betraying his partially artificial origin. The pale hybrid began searching the computer the projector was linked up for, shifting through the encyclopedic data stored within for an image, and... there! The datastream in his wings stopped for a second, and the game flickered out, replaced with what appeared to a paintingof a long haired, middle aged human male, dressed in robes, with an aura of light emerging from behind his head. Lev gestured weakly at the hologram as his wings returned to their typical amorphous appearance "That's the guy. So... uhh... with the light appearing behind your head all halo-like thanks to our mixing powers, you kinda appeared like him, only with a donkey head, like Donkey Jesus from an old show called-"

"Too much information..." Leigh cut her brother off "'Sides, don't explain the joke" the dark twin smirked slightly, then looked up at Devon "Sorry 'bout all that. But like Lev said, kinda hard to remember not everybody's from Earth 'round here... even though not nobody's human." the Terran experiment held out her hand and looked at it "But then, I am half human, and I wasn't born anywhere near Earth, so that don't help nobody" her datastream eyes returned to Devon's "Just proves the universe is a right strange place. 'Least it was last time I checked. Makes it all exciting though" her smirk grew into a fanged grin, and her ears picked up again, returning her face to it's typical mischievous cast. And if things weren't exciting, it'd get right dull after a few days. Not like it was now... exciting was fun!

[Gaius]

Devon winced at the hand to hoof clapping, partly from the odd sensation, but mostly in sympathy with Lev. There was some relief, too; his body began shutting down the present embarrassment cycle once it knew it bore merely most, not all, of the attention. "Eheh... Sorry, I should have known better, too." The donkey gave a small smile. Clearly not enough to hide his perplexity, though, as the experiment proceeded to start a crash-course in the existence of other worlds.

This, Devon felt slightly insulted to note, included asking if he knew what gravity was. Understandably, a donkey's form made him a little sensitive to perceived implications that he was stupid. And, freshly embarrassed as it was, his head simply wasn't cool enough to reason the trouble away. So, as his ropey tail swished testily behind him, he mumbled a short reply: "About 9.86 meters per second squ--" Cut, ironically, short as the donkey realized he had no clue if this world's acceleration due to gravity differed from Earth's. Or if Lev and Leigh used the same measurement units. Or if they were randomly not using the metric system ('They do sound Southern...'). Or if '9.86' was some obscure command code. Or a number of other questions with varying levels of sense behind them that usually occurred to him before he opened his yap.

Mercifully, Leigh cut in. After which, Lev's reasoning laid bare, Devon's reason caught up with him. 'Oh, duh. What, was he supposed to presume everyone he meets in the magic forest knows about basic modern physics? This wouldn't be his first time...' It was fortunate the donkey-boy didn't dwell overlong on those thoughts; he would have hated to miss the coming tidbits. Terran, for instance. His ears perked up high. 'Terran Dominion? Like in StarCraft? ... No. Gotta be another coincidence. Unless they mention Korhal...' There dawned a better idea. 'Oh. Kinda sad that StarCraft comes to mind before 'of Earth'...' Still, he wished to pick his next words with care. So, with raised brows, ears, and interest he listened to the duo.

Discovering that the Forest played the dual role of setting and Babelfish was interesting, and answered a longstanding question of his (and quite a bit more nicely than the old 'because that's how Fantasy settings work' explanation), but was quickly overshadowed. Devon's mouth dropped, though the corners began lifting in a smile. 'Okay, wasn't ready to rule out the coincidence chance before, but now... Sure, the word hadn't actually come up, but if a world's people quacked like Earth's (or in some fusion of dialects therefrom), the former human was willing to ignore their not looking like Earth's, and to conclude, with a delighted swish of his tail, they were Earth's. Granted, the mention of other species made this more tenuous, but still a breakthrough.

Less of a breakthrough came with a certain disparaging term. Devon felt insulted, alright, but... well, not too much -- 'xeno' simply didn't hold for him the same history and connotations that it might in the Dominion. The dark-furred one hadn't done herself any favors, though. As a frown dampened his forming smile, it was a small hypocrisy that it and the Southern accent brought 'redneck' to mind. He might have been too polite to say it, especially to someone who seemed as sorry as she did, but, as psionics got another mention, he wondered if saying it was strictly necessary. On a lighter note, obviously non-human telepathic creatures capable of (Devon presumed) hiding in the shadows and hailing from a technologically advanced society had him thinking about StarCraft again. It would only get worse if and when he learned they were genetically engineered lifeforms capable of forming energy blades. With an admonishing look, the donkey tilted his head sideways, sighed, and told her, "Well, you owned up to it, and I believe you didn't mean it, so... water under the bridge, I guess." He was about as eager as Leigh to move beyond it.

Unfortunately, as he opened his mouth to introduce a new topic, Lev wanted to finish an old one. The donkey-boy took a deep, mildly irritated breath through his nostrils. Despite wanting to tap a foot he no longer had, he decided to let the little guy go. 'It's not like they're going to get any less associated with Earth. Besides, Jesus still sounds familiar... Maybe I'll learn something interesting.' Devon had no idea.

An official namedrop of Earth was nice enough, but hardly the point. He was a small child in a dark room, standing on a stool and reaching for... something just out of reach. Li'l Devon didn't know what it was, didn't know a thing about it, but it was rightly his and he would own it! Each fact L-11 gave him added another piece of furniture to the scene, eventually forming a tower that cried out for a 'Don't Try This At Home!' caption. Meanwhile, outside the metaphor, the Twins might have noticed the mildly strained, 'seriously, it's on the tip of my tongue' expression donkey-boy was giving. The expression gave way to surprise, with a dash of awe, as Lev pulled quite a trick with his wings.

And the image itself... In the dark room, a large platform swiftly pushed upward, bearing the man's face on its side, and pushed the little tower -- with its little architect -- into the air. There was a rumbling, then, as other parts of Devon's mind reached certain conclusions about the wings. A herd of creatures -- impossible to identify for sure, but smart money was on donkeys -- tore through the darkness below, each bearing a question or statement on its side, such as, "Wait, his wings can access the internet?" "I bet the Borg would have people lining up for assimilation with those," and "Oh, yeah, it was Zelos with the golden wings." These incidental creatures splintered the furniture in their wake, but not the boy.

Leigh's "half-human" declaration barely registered. He had grabbed hold of his something, and found it more like a rope than expected. But he didn't need to know what it was, nor how it worked; gravity did the rest. The string pulled taut, and little Devon heard a hum. He looked up to see a shape of red loops, gradually growing brighter. Before the bulb burst into light, illuminating the pull-string from which he hung, and everything in that bit of his mind.

And that, in a way, was how Devon found Jesus.

"Ah!" the former human shouted, raising his forehooves somewhat, his face a mask of epiphany with a dash of concern. But mostly indignant confusion. "You forgot about Jesus H. Christ? Seriously?" His ears were flattened against his head, as they might be on an enraged predator. "Even if you hadn't sat through God knows how many serm-awwww--" As a testament to his focus, the mid-word bray barely slowed him down; Devon was going to let the world know how stupid this was, and involuntary animal noises couldn't stop him. They could add an extra edge of annoyance, though. "Just...! Just, how!? You remembered Laotze for cryin' out l--" Devon stopped, apparently realizing he was crying out loud. Before an audience, no less. 'Oh. Spectacular...'

The donkey's ears flattened back for quite a different, and more familiar, reason than the moment before. They were joined by a pinkish hue to the muzzle, and a nervous swishing of his tail. Devon inclined his neck toward the twins, but found his head and eyes weren't too keen on that direction. "I... Look, uhh... ... Sorry..." Though in mild disagreement with Leigh's assessment of 'exciting, the ellipses-riddled mumble was something. It was the most he could manage, while most of his mind was shouting various iterations of "Idiot!" at him. Shouting wasn't all his mind was doing, though. While the incident was largely written off as the brain fart of the century, a small but patient faction tried to nag him about it. The small pile of furniture splinters was the least of what they had.

[The_Vizir]

Both twins were caught off guard by Devon's response... it was, quite frankly, not what they were expecting at all. A mild nod of understanding, an idle dismissal of religion, something rather subdued like the donkey's personality seemed to be. The outburst left both staring at Devon, as their minds tried to create some kind of explanation for what the heck just happened...

"I..." Leigh started, looking cautiously at her twin "Was it somethin' I sai-"

But, Leigh's question was completely ignored as Lev's mind finally formed one of it's own: "How the heck do ya know 'bout Jesus?" Lev shook his head, still staring at the donkey "Ya, ya can't be from Earth. We... there's no record of talkin' donkeys anywhere in our history, and I don't think... aside from fairy tales and movies, right?" he looked over at Leigh "That... that kind of stuff would be included in the textbooks, don't ya think?"

Leigh shrugged "Unless donkey-guy here was part of some top secret government experiment to test out blendin' humans and animals... though" she smirked over at Devon "I don't know why they'd think making humans any more ass-like was a good idea." the grin cracked her face wide open, as she looked over at Lev for some form of encouragement. Instead, her twin had crossed his arms, cocked his head slightly, and looked rather unamused at her attempt at humour. "What?" the dark twin asked, as Lev nodded towards the self-proclaimed Terran donkey "Whaaaaaaaaaaat?"

Lev shook his head and sighed, mumbling something rather unpleasant under his breath, and Leigh's ears drooped "Oh come on... it was a joke!" She looked over at Devon "Ya know, I done think they plugged his humour chip in backwards, as that's the only explanation I can come up for him..."

"Or it just wasn't funny..." Lev grumbled with some degree of annoyance to himself

[Gaius]

((Wheee hilariously unfortunate 3-month delay, much of it when I should have had free time~ >.>
Thanks again for shortening the post a little, Viz. Helped a ton. ))

Devon could understand the Twins' confusion; he wasn't usually one for such displays. But, with the excitement building from learning about the tie to humanity, and the sudden revelation of his memory, an outburst was reasonable enough. He listened to Lev's thinking aloud, forced to nod in agreement about donkey-people's mysterious absence from Earth's history books. "Yeah, there... there wouldn't be," he said, feeling slightly uncomfortable implicitly referring to himself as one of the donkey-folk. "I'm... kind of a special case." Devon's ears flicked briefly as one of those last musings struck him. "Actually, funny you should mention f--awwww-ee." His eyes widened slightly, ears... going right back as he shut his still pink trap. 'Really, Fairest? So paranoid I can't even say it's like I'm in a fairy tale!?' Joined by an irritated twitch, another sigh and "Sorry..." went mumbled, while he collected himself, letting Leigh proceed with her own theory.

And Devon found the first half very close to the truth... before the second got under his skin. The girl needn't have looked at her brother's face; each lighter-furred figure had gone back to mirroring the other's expression, facial structures and emotive means not seeming so different, all of a sudden. Though Devon's more personal feelings about it came through his ears' position, flat against his skull. Donkey references didn't make him happy, but he knew they were pretty unavoidable. Comments about his being an ass also didn't surprise him, but still stung pretty harshly. Leigh's was even worse than that; talk of (to his ears) someone already quite like a jackass becoming one... struck rather deeply at insecurities* he harbored about the reasons for his shape.

So, she looked his way -- 'What, she wants sympathy?' -- and Devon snorted and glared as Lev spoke his peace quietly. Devon wasn't so subdued. He found some of the hurt apparent in his voice as he snapped, "No, I'd say someone's humor chip went in the wrong way..." He brought a hoof to his temple, and rubbed a bit. It was about as effective as giving a massage with an irregularly shaped rock, but it was something. "Honestly, if I had a nickel for every time I've heard somethi--" The former human paused in his cliche, as an internal adding machine resolved that account to five cents, maybe ten, in memory. "... Nevermind how much I'd have." The hoof dropped. This was followed by noting the irritating asterisk on his 'Hypothetical Nickels Possessed' total: forehooves are bad at digging coins out of jean pockets. 'Rub it in, why don't ya...'

Devon closed his eyes, took a breath, and then looked directly into Leigh's swirls of green numerals. He was still a little heated, but his gaze had softened. "Look. Just... a touchy subject, okay? Still not really used to all this..." He paused a moment, mulling something over, and then figured the fuzzy -- 'And part-human? Did I really hear that?' -- cyborgs deserved an explanation, despite his peculiar embarrassment at the coming reveal. Devon coughed, and looked between the two, tail swishing nervously. "I, uhh... umm..." As his face became an answer to the corrupted riddle, "What's gray, and white, and red all over?" the donkey turned it away some, and got out, "I was... human, a few months ago."

* Yes, more of them. >.>

[The_Vizir]

Leigh's ears flicked in annoyance as the bipedial donkey returned her snark to her, glowing eyes hardening slightly as she watched the donkey rub his head with his hooves. Part of her mind wondered how effective that was, as it didn't look all that effective as a stress release method, but most of mental processing was on somehow reclaiming her dignity after having her attempt at humour shot down. Biting back a retort about how her performance wasn't being affected by having wetworks between the ears, she instead began to formulate a few hundred quips and snipes at the donkeyfolk and her brother in an attempt to reclaim some face in this situation. She was witty, and intelligent, and a natural leader to boot! These two... dweebs wanted to shoot down her wit? Well, she'd show them both, she would!

Leaning back and crossing her arms as the donkey looked strait at her, she huffed dismissively. Right, touchy subject, she thought dismissively to herself Dude's a gorram donkey-boy, how could he not be used to this. She shot her brother a glance, thinking how the bipedial donkey was acting the victim much like her brother had on occasion to get out of a conflict. Of course, she did that as much, if not more than Lev, but she was her father's daughter, and her own pride would have never let herself admit to that kind of failing. An eyebrow cocked at the donkey's stuttering, but that lasted only so long as it took for his revelation to sink in. At that point, it was met by it's companion, and she blinked in surprise "Wait... what?"

This was echoed at the exact same point in spacetime, with identical intonation and a mirrored expression by her twin, who was in identical shock as the being he had been identifying with made the unforeseeable announcement that the two at least shared a homeworld. He had been feeling grateful that the donkey, whose name he couldn't remember and that was driving the hybrid with computers-for-brains nearly up the wall in frustration... had there been any walls. Anyhow, he was feeling thankful that someone had spoken up and put his sister back in her place.... Lev really did think she had a rather inflated view of herself, and so anything to bring her back onto equal footing with him was fantastic, in his opinion. After all, he was the smarter of the two, obviously, and the one with the dedication to go the distance. If only he would grow a backbone and stop avoiding problems he didn't want to face... ahh, this was not the time for self critique. This was time for "Wait... what?"

"No no no no no no" Lev, shaking his head slightly "Used to be human, but... that... that's impossible. Well, unless that's an animatronic body and you're an uploaded AI, but... that wouldn't really make any sense as to why you chose that form, unless of course you had a thing for..." Lev's gaze passed over to his sister, who was looking at him now with shock at where his train of thought was heading, and his rambling devolved into embarrassed mumbling as his ears drooped and their tips flushed. A slight awkward pause and Lev coughed quietly before brining up his tirade again "This, I... unless ya been messed on by some alien tech or somethin', but that would be right near improbable, as rebuildin' a living, sentient creature from the ground up like that is right impossible! It would take way way way too much time and resources, and even a single lil' mistake in the recodin' or rebuildin' of genetics could cause some mighty nasty consequences. I dun' know any race that would invest any amount of research into that kind of tech! And then to use it on humans... I... I mean why? What kind of purpose does that serve?"

"Ahh, but yer avoidin' the most obvious answer, bro..." Leigh held up her finger, eyes twinkling with a sudden realization "Alternate realities!"

And with that, Lev's face went strait into his palms "Oh, fer cryin' out loud..."

"No, no, hear me out!" Leigh insisted excitedly, looking between ex-human and her twin "See... this fella here's from Universe A, and in Universe A, he's a human. And he's walkin' along one day, mindin' his own buisness, and poof! He falls into this universe through some sort of rift here in space-time, and his form compensates for the new reality he finds himself in. Well, y'all noticed that this place is home to lots of unicorns and other horsey-folks, right? Well, makes sense then as the humans are the dominant race is his reality, or corner of creation, or whatever, that when readjustin', he goes for the dominant race in this reality! Equines! He kinda kept his human form, 'cause he prolly didn't want to change in the slightest, so found some sort of happy medium... though loosin' yer thumbs must be tough boy..."" She gave the donkey-feller a sympathetic grimace as she looked at his hooves and wrung her own hands slightly to make certain all her fingers were still there...

Lev looked up at his twin, his mouth open slightly in awe "That is the most...ridiculous theory I've ever heard!" Lev shot at Leigh, a significant amount of nerdrage building in the geeky hybrid's chest "I mean, seriously, sis? Science don't work like your Star Trek, or Battlestar Whatchimicallit, or whatever that British one is... a rift in space-time that transforms folk into donkeys? 'Cause this forest is full of unicorns? Really?"

Leigh glared at brother "Okay, two things. A... that "British one"" the dark twin punctuated this with air quotes "Is called Doctor Who, and it's right awesome. And B, why not donkeys? They're domesticated, smart, cute, and resourceful little fellers, like humans, and 'sides, humans call each other asses all the time. So it-"

Lev interrupted his sister with a disbeleivng stare "Cute?" he said in confusion "Donkeys are not-" Lev's glance passed over to the donkey-man, and stopped himself from completing that statement. 'Cause that would be rude and all, particularly as the guy seemed really sensitive about that. Prolly rightly so, as how donkeys were commonly portrayed and all, being stubborn farm animals. That really wasn't fair to have to force upon a guy. And there was that entire ass thing... equating an entire species with a part of human anatomy usually used in a derogatory manor was bad enough, right? And then making that word equal idiots and jerks... completely unfair. Then there's all those slangs which have ass added to them... badass, wiseass, bigass... how racist was that? How derogatory was that to equate an entire species with these ideas and concepts, to use such a hurtful slang against them. He had thought humanity had moved beyond most of that for most species and ethnicities, only the ignorant and stupid using racist slangs, but here was the entirety of society, from generals to authors to musicians to scientists, using these phrases! Even his own dad had used them in the past! Even Lev himself had in the past! Oh... oh no... oh no oh no oh no! Lev's eyes widened in panic. That meant... oh no! "I'm a racist!" Lev shouted out in horror, before realizing his mistake, and clamping a both hands over his mouth.

Leigh blinked at her sibling, mouth open and at a loss for words, before finally managing to mutter out "Well, that done makes two right startlin' revelations in as many minutes..."

[Gaius]

((Greh... -_- Need to work on getting the length down. At least I'm fairly happy with it, and the turnaround wasn't so ridiculous. Progress!))

There was, Devon found, always an uncomfortable pause whenever he dropped his little bombshell. A brief period when the oddness of it settled, and listeners sorted out what to do with it. Scrutiny was usually next. And, as the irritation of one and the gratitude of the other gave way to symmetric gazes of surprise and exclamations, the Twins followed that usual pattern (admittedly, 6-7 people old at the most). 'Yep, spotlight effect cranked up to eleven...' In the awkwardness, he swished his tail and shuffled his hind legs a bit. The guy knew he would probably do the same kind of study in their positions, but didn't enjoy the attention. 'What, do they think they'll see a human part someone forgot to zip up on the costume, or something?' Granted, a zipper would actually be a pretty mighty roadblock for his hooves, given the trouble they'd had with his old pants' zipper when... nature called for an urgent unzipping. But, digressions aside, the donkey knew the eyes were looking more for signs of dishonesty. He'd find out soon if they found any.

And, surprise, surprise, the more factually-oriented of the two proved the most outspokenly skeptical. A robotic theory made sense, given the speculator. As Lev trailed off, the donkey found an eyebrow and its matching ear perking, while the other pair sunk a bit. His confusion telegraphed, he looked between the siblings. "Mm? What is i-- !!" There were surely innocent ways to take Lev's words. Devon didn't stumble onto one of those. His ears perked over a shocked expression. In a more comedic universe, his hair, mane, and tail's tuft would have also risen and spiked out dramatically. Regardless, his ears then flattened hard against his head in the shift to blushing horror. "What!? Ew, jebus, no! Just... Eww! Why would you even th-- Okay, I can kinda see wh-- No! Not into that..."

Coming down from this bit of insistence, the former human heard a theory that, had it used 'magic' in place of 'tech,' hit the nail on the head. The following elaboration on the impractical and difficult nature of the technological route to transformation just served to underline to Devon how easy the fae had it. Their magic, if his case was unexceptional, seemed to have all the complexity and difficulty of saying, "X happens," and then watching X happen. The alternative put an enormous, flexible, and speedy intellect behind the somewhat childish wants of The Fairest, and was worrying to contemplate. Anyway, he considered piping up as the spiel neared its end, but the last question struck him. "'Fun with magic,' it sounded like," he mumbled, bitter.

Then it was time for Leigh's more fanciful speculation. At which Devon's ears perked. In its way, it was pretty close, too; his shape came about to help him fit into the Forest, and by a force The Fairest said wasn't under her control. At the expression of sympathy, he nodded, frowning and glancing at the useless things. "Thanks. Probably the worst part of it awww-eee." A sharp breath in surprise, a sigh, and then a perturbed, "Though that noise is a strong contender..."

Leigh's brother seemed less convinced. Devon flicked an ear in annoyance, but was glad the girl was quicker on the draw than Devon on the geeky TV shows front. 'Rrrrreally weird to hear she knows about those.' His mind would likely connect the dots soon enough and prompt a question about the depths and availability of their electronic library. However, much as he found some parts of the idea accurate, the donkey-boy did have to admit that a spatial-temporal phenomenon that turned people into donkeys did sound... stupid. Really stupid. SyFy original movie stupid. Perhaps with a title like, "Betelgeuse Burros." Only stupider.

Leigh's description of donkeys with positive adjectives garnered a similar reaction to Lev's. Devon gave the girl a surprised look, and asked, "Smart?" in time with her brother's dubious remark. He appreciated the curbing of that remark, incidentally, but wouldn't have taken offense; he didn't think of himself as a donkey, and had never considered them especially cute animals. Actually, the former human hadn't spent any time around a donkey before, until all element of choice had been removed. As with Lev, he had only the stereotypes and symbolism to characterize the species: stupid, stubborn beasts of burden. Since the girl spoke praise of donkeys as though knowledgeable, a corner of his mind began dusting off a long-abandoned project labeled: "Jackass at heart: not so bad?" Devon spent a period in contemplation, as did Lev, though emerging a bit sooner. A bit dubious, he began, "Heard it was into something appropriate, bu--"

The bit of quiet reflection came to an abrupt end with the male experiment's... declaration. At which point it was Leigh's turn to receive the donkey's duplication. "Uh, I guess so..." Devon agreed, not sure what to say. There were a few moments of awkward silence. Again. '... Waaaaait a minute... Is it...?' The ears flicked as an idea dawned and, after analysis, he chuckled a bit. "Guess I'm not the only one who thinks too much and leaves the conversation behind?" he asked, giving a small smile and a slight swish of his tail.

The donkey boy was sure he saw the shape of Lev's thought process, if not the precise path, but hoped to put off any direct questions about why and how he was what he was; a certain speech impediment always made that tricky, or outright unsatisfying. Investigating racism seemed as good a way as any to change the topic or stall. "So, um, how did you wind up there?" Devon asked, trying to sound friendly.