Lexx shifted away from Chel, his skin taking on a pale glow and sparkling. Chel's eyes widened. "What is that?" She blurted.
"What?!" Lexx growled, knowing full well what it was and not really wanting to acknowledge it.
"You're glowing!" Chel stared at Lexx, openmouthed.
"Oh! Lexx rolled!" Damian piped up, always happy to answer any question, even if it wasn't directed at him. "What level are you at, Lexx, and what did you just get?"
"Side 6,… Speed." Lexx grumbled his reply.
At about that moment, Fluffy reached them and plopped her paws up on the rock between Chel and Lexx, tilting her head and in one motion swinging her head, pink tongue hitting both of them in excitement. Chel giggled and tried to push the 'dog' away, "So.. what was Fluffy?" She decided to be considerate and let the subject drop on Lexx's 'condition'. Lexx didn't say a word, just letting the animal lick him and setting his jaw to the torment.
Damian grabbed Fluffy around the neck with both arms, "She's a stealth dice, I think she landed on something you call a stilt legged Fox. Her original base is a Kiya from Zadoon!" And then.. Damian brought out the most horrible thing that Lexx could imagine, his holo projector. A very fluffy creature with two legs, a pair of huge black ears and a plumed tail bounced through the air in front of Chel.
"Cool!" Chel squealed in excitement. Damian was definitely a lot more fun than and social than Lexx, even if a little too excessive in his desire to invade everyone's personal space.
"You like that, look at these! I have a set of 75 dice myself, grand master set! I add five every year for variety." Damian was thrilled to be able to talk about the game with someone who knew nothing about it. Lexx simply faded into his thoughts as the two spoke. The last thing he wanted to do was sit here and look at the slide show of Damian's dice, his world, his ship.. and most likely there were shots of Lexx among those reels in the holograph.
Fly landed lightly on Chel's shoulder, taking up residence up there with a flick of his tail and rubbing his head against Chel's cheek. He chrrrd, then looked back at Stealth, trudging through the sand. Chel smiled at the squirrel, unaware of the response it got from Stealth. She flattened her ears back as far as they would go and glared at Fly, hopping up onto the rock between Chel and Lexx. She flopped down, settling to glare at the squirrel, sending him mental threats of harm. Fly ignored her, confident of being safe on Chel's shoulder.
Lexx stared at the ground the entire time, thinking and trying to keep the cat out of his head. That was the problem with the stealth dice. One of her abilities was to speak without being heard and right now, she was using a choice string of words toward Lexx. 'Stealth, shut up. Stop it… don't pry in there!' Lexx could see her skulking about in his thoughts. 'If you're that bored, go chase something, leave me alone.'
The cat blinked her large golden green eyes and tilted her head in his mind's eye. 'It's more entertaining in here.'
'I don't want you in here. I don't want YOU in here either, beat it, Damian.'
Damian went on speaking vocally, his thoughts elsewhere. Stealth wasn't the only one who could speak this way. It was merely a way of speaking that Damian's people were well learned in. He appeared out of nowhere in Lexx's thoughts, something like a book in hand. 'If you didn't want me in here, you'd cut the link, now wouldn't you?" He spoke as cheerfully as usual, thumbing through the book.
'Damian…" Lexx sighed internally. He knew the value of leaving all links open in case of an emergency, but he was sorely tempted to think Damian's link closed so he couldn't mill around in his thoughts. 'You shouldn't be telling Chel everything you know.'
'Not like she won't see it with you?" Damian held up the book, 'Oh, now this is a very … very interesting image, Lexx. She's cute when she sleeps? You filed it away under things that make you smile… small file, but I quite agree, her ears are strange, but she passes for attractive physically and best of all, she's a listener! See how she's paying attention to me?"
Stealth chuckled, hopping up onto Damian's shoulder in Lexx's thoughts, 'I knew it!'
'Both of you, out!' Lexx snarled internally, setting up a temporary block. Visualizing it by closing doors and locking them out. Daydreaming was just as dangerous as really dreaming. They could get back in and poke around if they wanted to and that was how Stealth knew so much about him. She had all the time in the world to prowl through the alleys of Lexx's mind, but when he was awake, it was easy to push them out.
