Welcome to Gaia! ::

WHO: MIX and... whoever. 8D
WHERE: Just outside the labs.
WHEN: ...Random late morning?
WHY: Just to RP my Layhr finally? 8D;

~~~~~

MIX glanced over to make sure Nyhali was still where he left her, safely tucked in a lawn chair with a book. She'd brought him out to get some fresh air, and he was enjoying this taste of freedom, however limited. It was much nicer being cared for by her than stuck inside the labs, anyway. He lounged contentedly under one of the trees in the "yard" at the front of the labs, listening to the pretty green of the grass before pawing briefly at a particularly loud little red flower.

Colors made such interesting noises. He'd figured out a while ago that he was the only one who actually "heard" them, though. Apparently it had something to do with why he was put in Nyhali's care. Not that he'd minded it even before hand, but now he was rather glad he had whatever "problem" they'd found. It's not that the scientists had been particularly mean, they were just so... detached? most of the time, and MIX just needed more personal and friendly attention than they gave him. He may not be a super social butterfly, but he enjoyed being sociable and having friends, which he wasn't really allowed before.

Speaking of being sociable... he looked around, wondering if anyone else was out with a Layhr that he could try to pal-around with, or at least talk to.

Nyhali looked up from her book. "Ah, yes. MIX has been out of his crate for a few days, so I thought I'd bring him down for some exercise."

MIX jumped slightly when XV spoke, his attention elsewhere. It was more the strange set of flavors the sound vibrations set off in his mouth that made him jump than the actual fact of being spoken to. "Oh! Hello! I'm called MIX." He flicked his head to get his mane out of his eyes and proudly displayed his shoulder. "My handler calls me Mixxy, which is odd. I guess MIX actually makes a word in their language."

Thirteen tread over the finely manicured lawn gracefully, silently; orange-furred paws crushing countless blades of grass beneath them. A change from the sterile cold floors of the inner-labs, though neither a wanted change nor one that was undesired. It made little difference to him which he tread upon.

There was no friendly, smiling handler to accompany him; no book-weilding girl in a lawnchair, no one keen to strike up converation. Though he'd had a so called 'handler' once, it was a long time ago, and but temporary; now he was back in GeNtech's care, shuffled between random technicians and personel as they saw fit. It was one such technician that stood back several paces, nearer the facility; he had merely been given orders to 'take Thirteen outside, get [him] some excersize and interaction, and make sure no one stirs up any trouble'. Nowhere in that was he told to exchange pleasantries with any other handlers that may be about, so he stood back, content to merely observe this strange Layhr from a distance and to occasionally scribble a note or two down on his clipboard.

Thirteen himself did not mind this. He had spotted the other Layhr and, much preferring to be around those of his own kind, had padded gracefully up beside them, bowing his bone-clad grinningskull face much like one would tip a hat in greeting.

"Hello, ladies~"

..Well, hopefully that was more directed at XV than MIX, unless he was just being mistaken. He had heard their introductions, voices carried on the wind, so thought little of joining the conversation.

"I am Thirteen. Let me guess-" A quick glance at XV, eerie-face contorted in a perpetual grin by the bone mutation covering it, "-you're Fifteen, or some variation thereof, and you're..." And now he turned his head sideways at the fire-tailed Layhr, "...MIX. A mix of what, though? You look all Layhr to me."

It was hard to tell if he was smirking out of sarcasm, or if this was how he always spoke. Either way... "Mixed nuts, perhaps. ...I do like your coloration, though." He seemed to be admiring the other Layhr's mixture of black and orange markings fondly, perhaps they reminded him slightly of his own? A curling wisp of green-glow smoke wafted upwards from the gaping nasal cavity, matching the greenfire eyes that watched them both with interest from beneath bony sockets.

XXX had forgotten the texture of grass underfoot; the field nearest the apartment she graciously permitted her handler to continue living in and her handler called home had been reduced to mud and weeds by two semesters of schoolchildren--and anyway, even had it been in more respectable shape it couldn't have proven much competition for the manicured perfection GeNtech demanded of their lawn. ...well. "Perfection" was a relative thing, but it was certainly much closer to perfect than the desultory, bedraggled strips of the stuff to be had elsewhere in the neighborhood.

She nosed a divot of turf, nostrils flaring to capture the scent. It actually smelled like something, too, rather than chemicals and dirt-- A nice smell, sharp, and a little less toxic than the houseplants got when she chewed on them. Snorting her satisfaction, the dark-coated Layhr threw herself down on the grass, rolling and wiggling vigorously. It was nice to be able to stretch out, too, on something that didn't promise to put a kink in her spine or foul her fur with unpleasantness to be groomed out later.

Another wriggle and XXX flipped herself onto her feet once more, shaking fragments of grass from her flanks with satisfaction writ large in her eyes. That had been pleasant, and made her feel altogether more--

Well. "Human" wasn't the word. But it did feel better. She smoothed a rough patch on one shoulder with her tongue, before picking her way toward the aggregation of Layhr that had sprung up around MIX. "Inside? I'd say we're all outside from the looks of it. Nice day, too," she opined as she took a seat at a polite distance from the others. Her tail stretched out behind her on the lawn, bladed tip flick-flicking in short increments of interest across the turf. Meeting new Layhr was always interesting.

A flick of his curling ear-tips at MIX's response, and a tone of underlying amusement in Thirteen's voice as he responded. "Tell me then, why?" At least this Layhr seemed to be playing along with the play-on-words at his own name's expense; that much couldn't be said for some others. Thirteen approved.

The skeletal-looking Layhr grinned slightly at the compliment, flexing his spectral-bone energy 'wings' as if to further emphasize his unusualness. "Thank you." XV's slight un-ease didn't go unnoticed, either; he silently acknowledged the way she was staring at his skull-face, making a point to look directly towards her, so she could see that the only things in the shadows of socket and nose were the eerie green flames and glow. "And thank you as well, my dear." With a leery grin he took a few steps closer, that odd face coming unnervingly close to her own, and blew wisps of green energy directly against her muzzle. "Smoke kisses."

The question brought Thirteen's attention back to MIX; inside? Property of GeNtech, he meant. The question made his eyes narrow, and his grin grow even wider, as thoughts assembled into the rant that was about to spill forth from his tongue; only to be interrupted before he could begin by a newcomer, another Layhr approaching. He was put out slightly by the sudden disruptive voice, subtle annoyance playing across his face as he turned, and vanishing just as quickly once he saw her.

There was... something different here, in the form of the black-furred female who stood before them, bladed tail flicking at the grass. Though he had no sense of smell with which to sense it, there was a definite palpable something about this Layhr; it was an air about her that, while it may invoke unease in others such as XV, to Thirteen himself it was almost... kindred. His interest was, suffice it to say, sufficiently piqued. He turned to her, making eye contact and nodding as if in greeting, before continuing with what he had been planning to say earlier. Thirteen would be watching this one.

"Inside? In a sense, I suppose. But I wasn't always. I have been beyond these gates, I have been farther than the shadowed forest's outline you see from here. I've seen the castle of bones it hides, monument of death, GeNtech's pride and GeNtech's failure, unmarked grave to the masses. I have seen what awaits us all, in the rotting bones and forgotten faces of our many, don't you think we'll end the same? I've heard the murmurs of ghosts that lurk beyond the forest edge, rumors that not even the scientists here dare speak of." As Thirteen spoke, there seemed to be a growing rush of intensity to his voice, though the volume itself remained low. One paw was held up slightly, toes outstretched, in a gesture of his excitement, subtly mirrored by the growing smirk across his muzzle. "Though I may be 'inside' now, I've known more of the outside than you ever have."

MIX took a moment to figure out how to answer Thirteen's queery about his mix-up. "Well... I'm not actually sure what it is, but I like to listen to the color green, and your voice tastes salty and sweet at the same time." He shrugged, grinning somewhat apologetically.

Then the talk of bone castles and mass graves came up. It was an unusual topic for the usually cheery Layhr, so perhaps it was trying to wrap his mind around the topic enough to make some sort of sensible reply triggered it, or maybe it happened for some other unknown reason like so many times before, but just as he opened his maw to say something he suddenly uttered a squeel that was almost a shriek and fell over.

His limbs failed for a moment before he managed to find the ground and dug his claws in, every sensory nerve in his body shooting random sensations into his brain in rapid-fire succession. "Stop it!" he wailed before instinctively pulling his tongue back from between his teeth and clenching his jaws together painfully, trying to use the pain as a compass to sort out the rest. Eventually he stopped shaking and tentatively opened an eye, looking at the other Layhr nervously. I slightly hysterical little chuckle issued forth from his maw, followed by an embarrassed sounding "Ah heh..."

"... nothing", replied XV. The smoke kiss had left an salty after-taste. Sugar? Unlike MIX, she barely felt it with effort. That wasn't so bad, after all... she may not mind a second ethereal kiss. It's almost embarassing, and twitched her cartilage again, instead of blushing like a human would. The Layhr is like a schoolgirl, the most awkward is the situation, the most awkwardly she acts.

The panic crisis startled her. A faint scream of surprise escaped her lips. XV looked down, trying to smell the problem. With relief, when he opened his eyes, she pushed her nose against his side, softly poking his ribcage. "You hurt? What has happened?", she asked, a bit worried.

"You've heard ghosts?" Okay, he had a point... but ghosts are such a problematic matter. You can't smell them, you can't see them, they can't touch you, no, 'cuz they're just ghosts. Right?... yes, the matter is that they don't seem to mind any of these laws, unlike humans. Living ones. XV's poor mind can barely make up about it. "Bones, rot, shadows... it's all what's left in the end, but they may slowly forget about what they have to say, or lose their mind. Is that... is that really necessary to mind what's dead?", she mused, sitting normally again near MIX.
For some reason, XXX's presence suddenly oppressed her, making her feel uneasy... but that's just XIII's morbid speech. It had to be it. And she can't look like a coward and plainly avoid the subject.

"You're still feeling alive?", asks XV, as to counter the Reaper-like Layhr's fatalist comment, "You still feel your muscles, the grass, the air? Then you must be all right." But indeed, MIX didn't look so ill anymore, he'd be fine. Poor guy, all the same.