Policeman and the cat

33 - Attraction patterns

"Are you cautious of Tiamat or someone around her?" Ian asked.

"The first being we are cautious against is Purple and he is Tiamat's best friend," Grandpa replied. "He does both buy and sell gem hearts. But to be fair, he buys and sells anything of value, including information like tastes in the opposite sex."

Ian started to feel like he might have made a whoopsie - "I actually teleported to the bus-stop nearby using Purple's wisp."

"I don't think that's a problem," Dad noted. "That's plenty far away. As long as you don't summon him in this house or territory going from--" He pointed at landmarks that indicated the barrier's limits. "There's no issue. He snoops around any house or place he has been summoned into."

Meaning Purple likely knew his apartment from a to z then. Since Ian knew Purple as a small convenient violet wisp he didn't feel upset about it. Whatever the wisp would snoop it would likely be something it would try to use in negotiations - that's the feeling Ian got. Or maybe he was wrong to think of it as something akin to a dustbun-- because that was a tiny piece of a huge and powerful mythical beast, but... it was a tiny piece still, with a slightly mechanical sounding voice, like it was programmed rather than there was an actual consciousness talking with you.

"If it's not uncomfortable to tell, how much are you using his services?" Dad asked. Not that Ian had a problem telling them that they were getting breakfast each morning and that they took him on a hunt to cover teleportation to and from here and bought a good recipe. Dad asked what recipe and Ian didn't mind sharing that either. They hadn't gotten to talk about this much, but-- right, Dad was the one cooking, they might have far more in common than Ian thought.

"All this talk about food is making me hungry, but it feels like such a waste to eat regular stuff--" Trinity said, peering at Ian.

"We need to go hunt something first in that case," Ian had barely recovered a quarter of his aether.

"Can I--" Trinity and Harmony both spoke up at the same time, exchanged looks and Harmony asked - "Can we go?"

Trinity's mom, Dad's younger sister, Lyra, and Melody said - "No." At the same time.

"Didn't you hear they were hunting Yuads' before and it's night now-- the heck might come out," Melody said.

Right-- "Can we eat dark aligned things?" Ian asked to Nelly, while his cousins both went 'but moooom--' at their mothers.

Nelly looked up. "Yuads were dark aligned and we ate them."

Huh--wait wait wait-- "But they didn't feel uhh--" Now that he thought of it they did feel a bit-- if Ian had to describe, the taste felt kind of like if you compared milk to cheese or a fresh piece of beef to matured steak, there was that pleasant kind of maturity to the taste. But he wasn't scared at all. Those things they found with Brielle were pretty uncomfortable feeling.

"You won't feel the chill if they are too weak," Nelly said.

"Without Chilli we'd be ambushed nineteen times," Ian said, he wouldn't call that weak. And - they were very filling.

Nelly tilted her head. "A cake with tentacles would not feel scary even if does surprise attacks. Yuads' only tried to eat us," she said, then added that "things get scarier the more capable they are to play with prey."

"Not intending but capable?" Ian checked.

Nelly nodded. "Like Tiamat. No intent to hurt at all."

"This presence deal is cruel, Tiamat has such a cute, gentle smile." Ian really felt it was a sorry thing. Mandy might be one of the nicest people he knew as well and her presence was also-- yet the skill Mandy picked to learn was turning into a little bird. How could a cute short girl who picks to turn into a little bird get a presence as horrid?