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xp_logsBackdated to May 24 Shatterstar and Sharon end up talking about sex and romance after he finds her sulking.
Sharon had chosen another tree, this one with less competition for space. The previous day's interaction still aggravated her. Why appear together in a public space only to balk at what Sharon thought to be very natural inquiries? To her mind, such displays were no different than an unlocked door. If Sharon's investigations were not wanted, the appropriate precautions should have been taken.
Grumbling, the cat settled deeper against the branch and flicked the tip of her draping tail.
Clearly if Sharon wanted to sulk privately, she would not have decided to sulk in a tree. Shatterstar stared up at from his spot on the ground and when it became clear she wasn't going to come down, began to climb up.
She'd seemed annoyed all day, and somehow Shatterstar cared a lot about her.
The cat's ear flicked at the sound of movement against the trunk. She opened her eyes and saw the younger boy working his way up the tree with practiced ease.
"Oh, is Shatterstar," she remarked, settling back down. "Your company is acceptable."
Shatterstar took a branch slightly below her, not wanting the test the more precarious branches where Sharon made her seat. "Who are you upset at?" Shatterstar asked, knowing Sharon for long enough now to recognize that she rarely became upset for internal reasons- at least ones she couldn't blame on someone else.
"Is human nonsense." Sullenly, Sharon crossed her human-like arms beneath her muzzle and stared into the trees. "I was told some questions may be asked in certain circumstances only. Am I meant to know these circumstances? These differ by individual also. Unpredictable." Her tail gave a lash. "Consistency is too much to ask?"
"Well, everyone is different," Shatterstar said, though he sounded like he was parroting something he had heard and didn't fully believe it. He paused. "I assume cats are all different too." He paused again. "What was the question anyway? Maybe I can help?"
Sharon pondered this. "Is maybe," she said. She craned her neck around so she could fix him with her huge yellow eyes. "You have had sexual experience?"
Shatterstar spluttered and grabbed the trunk to steady himself. Of all the questions he had expected, that was not one of them. He could feel himself blushing. "I mean kind of." He said finally, avoiding her face altogether.
The cat gave a chuff that sounded very like a human snort. "This is what is meant by human nonsense. Always people act as if I intend to question preferred sexual positions and private anatomy, but these things are not interesting. These details I do not require" Then, because she was still Sharon, she said, "What is meant by 'kind of'?"
"I know you wouldn't ask that sort of thing," Shatterstar glared at her. He knew Sharon well enough for that. The fact that she was asking about private matters meant she wanted the meat of it, which is the sort of thing Shatterstar wouldn't want to share. "I've kissed some. Broken someone's nose while sitting on them." He had offered to be Rictor's weapon, too, but Sharon didn't need to know that.
Sharon's feline expression was unreadable, but the stare she gave him did go on for slightly too long.
"This last indicates an error in technique, maybe, but this is unimportant." She rose to pivot wholly in his direction, settling her hind legs beneath her in a more comfortable position. "The desired line of inquiry relates to human sexuality and romance. Why does the latter complicate the former? Is not always so, but very often. Until now I had seen it represented in media only and thought it artistic license, but even relationships that might be termed friends-with-benefits seem unnecessarily complicated."
Shatterstar would have corrected her, told her that his fist in the other boy's face while he knelt on his chest was in anything but error and instead was in exhilaration, but Sharon hadn't given him the opportunity to speak.
"Things become complicated when you care." Shatterstar said, rolling the thought around in his head. "You get feelings." He said the word feelings as if it was a disease- one he had been infected by.
"Oh, 'feelings'," said Sharon with equal dismissiveness. "Oxytocin and vasopressin, these are neurohormones that encourage emotional bonds. Sexual activity provokes their release. But surely to know and to feel are two different things. Emotion does not change objective reality. Why can people not see this distinction?"
"They make you not know," Shatterstar said, thinking of the feeling of Rictor's hand in his, his power moving through him. Shatterstar hated not knowing, but it felt alright, with Rictor. "You aren't sure of anything," he said wistfully.
Sharon was hardly an expert at reading people, but she found Shatterstar less difficult than most, particularly when she was concentrating on it. She ducked her head to scrutinize the boy.
"You speak of your attraction to Rictor?"
If Shatterstar had been red before, he was crimson now. "No!" He said automatically. "I mean. I don't know."
Was he attracted to Rictor? Rictor was his best friend. He had even, in his own mind alone, taken to calling him Julio.
Was it attraction to offer yourself to someone?
"Physical attraction, this I have found to be as common in humans as in animals. By itself it is no reliable indicator of sexual or romantic intent. Is part of my confusion. Many I thought to be attracted to each other on a physical level do not engage. An emotional component is absent, maybe? Or practical concerns such as existing partnerships. I do not understand what dictates these things, or what brings such arrangements to an end." Sharon peered at Shatterstar's reddening face with curiosity. "This topic is uncomfortable for you?"
"No," Shatterstar lied tersely, glaring at Sharon with a flush still across his cheeks. "And these seem like Mr. Gibney questions. I don't think I can help. I've never had a desire to go further than kissing." At least not before he met Rictor.
Sharon considered her options. Bodies often reacted involuntarily to certain stimuli, and if that were the case Shatterstar's assertion could be taken at face value. Then again, she also knew Shatterstar to be like her: a predator who did not show weakness if they could help it. If he were lying, the socially appropriate response would be to discontinue the conversation. While considering the feelings of her conversational partner was not something that came naturally, the memory of upsetting Mel loomed large.
Humanity gave her a headache.
"I desire not even to kiss," Sharon said, picking delicately at the bark with her claws, "so all concepts are equally foreign to me. If I wish to be petted or held, this I may have without expectation or complication. Is simple. Better."
He leaned against the trunk of the tree and let out a breath. "For that, I'm jealous of you. It would be much easier if all these things could just be ignored wholesale."
Shatterstar closed his eyes a moment, an act of trust to a creature that could rip out his throat. "I don't understand any of this either."
"Then this is a relief, because is not me only who sees how little sense is here." Sharon padded across the branch and pressed her nose briefly to Shatterstar's forehead -- a feather-light display of affection her mother had always called "the love boop".
"Is tragic for you, yes, that you cannot enjoy the simplicity of Cat also," Sharon continued, withdrawing, "although even for cats this perfection is not guaranteed. The existence of Liam must be considered."
Shatterstar moved to press his forehead against Sharon's for just a split second to return the affection.
"Liam was raised by humans. It's not his fault," Shatterstar half-joked.
Sharon had chosen another tree, this one with less competition for space. The previous day's interaction still aggravated her. Why appear together in a public space only to balk at what Sharon thought to be very natural inquiries? To her mind, such displays were no different than an unlocked door. If Sharon's investigations were not wanted, the appropriate precautions should have been taken.
Grumbling, the cat settled deeper against the branch and flicked the tip of her draping tail.
Clearly if Sharon wanted to sulk privately, she would not have decided to sulk in a tree. Shatterstar stared up at from his spot on the ground and when it became clear she wasn't going to come down, began to climb up.
She'd seemed annoyed all day, and somehow Shatterstar cared a lot about her.
The cat's ear flicked at the sound of movement against the trunk. She opened her eyes and saw the younger boy working his way up the tree with practiced ease.
"Oh, is Shatterstar," she remarked, settling back down. "Your company is acceptable."
Shatterstar took a branch slightly below her, not wanting the test the more precarious branches where Sharon made her seat. "Who are you upset at?" Shatterstar asked, knowing Sharon for long enough now to recognize that she rarely became upset for internal reasons- at least ones she couldn't blame on someone else.
"Is human nonsense." Sullenly, Sharon crossed her human-like arms beneath her muzzle and stared into the trees. "I was told some questions may be asked in certain circumstances only. Am I meant to know these circumstances? These differ by individual also. Unpredictable." Her tail gave a lash. "Consistency is too much to ask?"
"Well, everyone is different," Shatterstar said, though he sounded like he was parroting something he had heard and didn't fully believe it. He paused. "I assume cats are all different too." He paused again. "What was the question anyway? Maybe I can help?"
Sharon pondered this. "Is maybe," she said. She craned her neck around so she could fix him with her huge yellow eyes. "You have had sexual experience?"
Shatterstar spluttered and grabbed the trunk to steady himself. Of all the questions he had expected, that was not one of them. He could feel himself blushing. "I mean kind of." He said finally, avoiding her face altogether.
The cat gave a chuff that sounded very like a human snort. "This is what is meant by human nonsense. Always people act as if I intend to question preferred sexual positions and private anatomy, but these things are not interesting. These details I do not require" Then, because she was still Sharon, she said, "What is meant by 'kind of'?"
"I know you wouldn't ask that sort of thing," Shatterstar glared at her. He knew Sharon well enough for that. The fact that she was asking about private matters meant she wanted the meat of it, which is the sort of thing Shatterstar wouldn't want to share. "I've kissed some. Broken someone's nose while sitting on them." He had offered to be Rictor's weapon, too, but Sharon didn't need to know that.
Sharon's feline expression was unreadable, but the stare she gave him did go on for slightly too long.
"This last indicates an error in technique, maybe, but this is unimportant." She rose to pivot wholly in his direction, settling her hind legs beneath her in a more comfortable position. "The desired line of inquiry relates to human sexuality and romance. Why does the latter complicate the former? Is not always so, but very often. Until now I had seen it represented in media only and thought it artistic license, but even relationships that might be termed friends-with-benefits seem unnecessarily complicated."
Shatterstar would have corrected her, told her that his fist in the other boy's face while he knelt on his chest was in anything but error and instead was in exhilaration, but Sharon hadn't given him the opportunity to speak.
"Things become complicated when you care." Shatterstar said, rolling the thought around in his head. "You get feelings." He said the word feelings as if it was a disease- one he had been infected by.
"Oh, 'feelings'," said Sharon with equal dismissiveness. "Oxytocin and vasopressin, these are neurohormones that encourage emotional bonds. Sexual activity provokes their release. But surely to know and to feel are two different things. Emotion does not change objective reality. Why can people not see this distinction?"
"They make you not know," Shatterstar said, thinking of the feeling of Rictor's hand in his, his power moving through him. Shatterstar hated not knowing, but it felt alright, with Rictor. "You aren't sure of anything," he said wistfully.
Sharon was hardly an expert at reading people, but she found Shatterstar less difficult than most, particularly when she was concentrating on it. She ducked her head to scrutinize the boy.
"You speak of your attraction to Rictor?"
If Shatterstar had been red before, he was crimson now. "No!" He said automatically. "I mean. I don't know."
Was he attracted to Rictor? Rictor was his best friend. He had even, in his own mind alone, taken to calling him Julio.
Was it attraction to offer yourself to someone?
"Physical attraction, this I have found to be as common in humans as in animals. By itself it is no reliable indicator of sexual or romantic intent. Is part of my confusion. Many I thought to be attracted to each other on a physical level do not engage. An emotional component is absent, maybe? Or practical concerns such as existing partnerships. I do not understand what dictates these things, or what brings such arrangements to an end." Sharon peered at Shatterstar's reddening face with curiosity. "This topic is uncomfortable for you?"
"No," Shatterstar lied tersely, glaring at Sharon with a flush still across his cheeks. "And these seem like Mr. Gibney questions. I don't think I can help. I've never had a desire to go further than kissing." At least not before he met Rictor.
Sharon considered her options. Bodies often reacted involuntarily to certain stimuli, and if that were the case Shatterstar's assertion could be taken at face value. Then again, she also knew Shatterstar to be like her: a predator who did not show weakness if they could help it. If he were lying, the socially appropriate response would be to discontinue the conversation. While considering the feelings of her conversational partner was not something that came naturally, the memory of upsetting Mel loomed large.
Humanity gave her a headache.
"I desire not even to kiss," Sharon said, picking delicately at the bark with her claws, "so all concepts are equally foreign to me. If I wish to be petted or held, this I may have without expectation or complication. Is simple. Better."
He leaned against the trunk of the tree and let out a breath. "For that, I'm jealous of you. It would be much easier if all these things could just be ignored wholesale."
Shatterstar closed his eyes a moment, an act of trust to a creature that could rip out his throat. "I don't understand any of this either."
"Then this is a relief, because is not me only who sees how little sense is here." Sharon padded across the branch and pressed her nose briefly to Shatterstar's forehead -- a feather-light display of affection her mother had always called "the love boop".
"Is tragic for you, yes, that you cannot enjoy the simplicity of Cat also," Sharon continued, withdrawing, "although even for cats this perfection is not guaranteed. The existence of Liam must be considered."
Shatterstar moved to press his forehead against Sharon's for just a split second to return the affection.
"Liam was raised by humans. It's not his fault," Shatterstar half-joked.
