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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2672670" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 292: Orbital Tails“Loki, what the hell is the difference?! Its cold in space, too!” Jyren yelled at the bulkhead at his left as he walked from the bedroom back up to the cockpit where Shadow was supposedly still at. Tobias was in tow again, but instead of being carried was scurrying around Jyren’s feet and just tempting fate to be stepped on. In fact, it seemed to have been some sort of game to avoid losing his tail to one of Jyren’s feet.    [It’s different.] Loki answered stubbornly. [There are different kinds of cold.]    Sighing, Jyren tried his best to hold back any more annoyance, “Isn’t space worse, though?! I mean, if you can stand that what’s a little ice and snow?”    [It’s different.] Loki repeated in the same tone.    For some reason, Jyren just decided to give up. At least there was the X-Wing...which was probably a good part of the reason Loki was refusing. Out loud, he grumbled, “You’re as bad as Shadow.”    “Who’s as bad as me?” Shadow’s voice echoed down the corridor, causing Jyren to realize just how close he’d gotten...and how good Alraxian ears were.    Suddenly, Tobias jumped up and out of his game, charging straight for the open access into the cockpit happily yelling, “Lokilokilokilokiloki!!!”    “By the Force!” Shadow screamed as Tobias disappeared from Jyren’s view and, from the feeling through the link, pounced her. The loud Tobias-like growls and laughs were also evidence of this...along with the curses, “Claws, dammit! No claws!!!”    Jyren arrived in the cockpit just in time to see Shadow pry the little Alraxian off of her and hold him away at arms length. Sliding into his usual seat, Jyren laughed, “Having trouble?”    Tobias growled playfully and Shadow simply shook him as he tried to dig claws into her wrists, “Stop that!!” immediately, though, her head spun around to glare at Jyren and in a second she threw Tobias at him, “You deal with it!”    Typically, Tobias laughed in mid air and then growled while half-extending claws just before landing. Though Jyren managed to catch him, he winced as the small claws found his wrists instead of Shadow’s. And, of course, Tobias laughed and ‘grrred’ a lot. Jyren gave the child the best stern look he could manage and grinded out, “No. Claws.”    Amazingly, it worked. Claws were retracted(which hurt, too, annoyingly enough), and Tobias stopped squirming so much. He did, though, put on the perfect sad, ‘pity me’ face immediately afterwards. Jyren was learning to ignore that one, though, and finally turned to look out the viewport. Though the usual blackness covered half of the view, one entire side was now encompassed by a great blue-white sphere. Carefully putting Toby down, Jyren said to Shadow, “Don’t tell me you’re going to be like Loki and stay up here.”    “Oh, I’d like to,” Shadow said with a half-grin and a shrug, “Loki’s obviously the smart one among us. But someone has to keep you from freezing.”    That got a grin on Jyren’s face...a slightly devious one, “Oh, really? Now this is sounding much more interesting than it was at first...”    Shadow just rolled her eyes, “Don’t get your hopes up. You know I meant that you’re likely to stand out there looking around and forget that your body is shutting down due to the cold.”    Jyren managed a weak shrug, “Can’t blame me from trying.”    “I can,” she answered flatly, “And I did.”    This was one thing that was already won. Sometimes, Jyren was smart enough to let things go and not fight a lost cause. This was, almost to Shadow’s surprise, one of those times. Instead, his mind went straight back to business and he said, “I don’t suppose you have a collection of heavy jackets and other warm clothes.”    “You know the answer to that one already,” Shadow said under her breath as Toby started to play a game of ‘Pounce the tail.’ It was very hard to resist the natural urge to flick one’s tail when it was swatted at, and Tobias was an expert on taking advantage of this and using it to drive Shadow mad. For the moment, at least, she was ignoring that her tail was flipping around and Toby was bounding left and right after it.    Jyren tried not to watch Toby and sighed, “I wasn’t sure. It would seem that with all the...the...other clothes you have, you’d have at least a few warm clothes.”    “I don’t need them,” Shadow nearly snapped at him, now getting annoyed with Toby, “I’m not stupid enough to go to freezing spheres of ice.”    Actually understanding this and having expected it anyway, Jyren nodded, “I’ve got at least one flight suit in the X-Wing’s cargo hold. Probably a spare in there, too.”    Shadow’s silvery-purple eyes narrowed, “Those things are as thin as our morphsuits.”    “But they’re airtight,” Jyren said quickly, “Can keep you alive in a vacuum for a good few hours. Internal heat and everything.”    “They’re...orange,” that was ground out now, as Tobias was becoming more persistent in his attacks and Shadow’s usual ability to ignore anything was quickly disappearing.    That raised an eyebrow on Jyren’s face, “Since when did you gain a fashion sense?”    Again, Shadow rolled her eyes, “You’re forgetting to use that brain again. Bright orange...white snow...its not exactly a great way to go unnoticed.”    “You’d rather freeze?”    “Of course not!” Shadow was now glaring turbolaser blasts at him, “But its still not—AHHH! TOBY!!!”    The child had finally caught her tail...with claws. He wasn’t a complete fool, however, and the second he had latched on was already letting go and scampering out of the cockpit and down the corridor at lightning speed. There was the hint of a giggle following him. For a short half second, Shadow looked ready to charge up and murder the small Alraxian, but that passed quickly.    It was replaced by a whimper as she held her tail and tried to ease the disturbing amount of pain those small claws could cause. This lasted for at least a five minutes before Jyren finally got up and put a hand on her shoulder, “Come on. Let’s get out of here before you recover enough to kill him.”    Shadow got to her feet and managed another glare in his direction, “Oh, I’ll kill him...doesn’t have to be now, of course. You’re so interested in freezing your tail off, we might as well get that over with.”</blockquote>

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