WA Kitty Kops wrote:"Hello!" it said brightly. "I's the Junior Inshpekshuuner of the WA Kitty Kops. I heard you's got a leafsnake here, and I just had to come look at it. The Chief Inshpekshuuner said they's much nicer than the usual snakes in the ventatilotion tubes, not hissy at all."
The leafsnake in question fluffed up its scales a bit, but then lifted its front part up, and touched noses with the half-grown cat in a cat-like greeting.
"I's heard they change colour and everything," the cat continued in a happy chatty tone of voice. "I wonder how difficult it'd be to see one inna forest or something. I think they'd be great toys - I mean, if they wasn't friends, I'd never wanna hurt a friend. But if there was a colour-changing toy that looks a bit like leaves, it'd be a lot of fun trying to find it! Especially as it only smells like plants do, so couldn't find with smell either..."
Then the feline went on about hunting toys and hunting "tasty squeaky things", apparently intent on talking until his company went selectively deaf or tried to throw him out of a window.
With the Cat's landing, Markhov was startled out of his newsreading, he hesitated to ensure that the cat was in fact talking, and, moved to pick up the cat and return it to the ground mid-sentence, until he noticed the Note it had been carrying. Quickly transitioning from attempting to pick up the cat, to opening the note while the Cat transitioned to talking about hunting various camouflaged creatures.
He payed little attention to the yammering feline while reading, glancing at it only to ensure that it had not begun attacking the Leafsnake. He had some reservations about removing the various devices he carried with him, not the least of which was the amount of time that would inevitably be spent returning them all to position. In order to properly do as the Hivemind asked, however, he would be required to disable a number of implanted systems, mostly conveniences and networking systems that could be done without for a brief period; the issue arose in that he would also need to disable his positioning and spatial awareness enhancement systems, both of which had long-since eroded his sense of direction. It could be easily passed-off as a side-effect of his negligence of maintenance, but presented a particular difficulty in navigating the labyrinthine halls of the World Assembly.
However, his mind was made, he reached back out to the cat, taking a brief moment to awkwardly pet the creature as it continued to ramble on about it's potential dinner. With his intent hopefully clear, he placed both the Tablet he had been communicating with the Hivemind on, and the Note into one of the many pockets on the interior of his coat, and made his way back to the Imperial Offices.
The, for once, actually gold orbital that was the Imperial Emblem stood out quite nicely on the dark wood of the Door. Markhov, however, had neither interest or time in admiring it, having done so quite enough during his tenure here. His return went largely unnoticed by the Staff of the office, who were quite absorbed in their examining of Draft Copies and Imperial Laws. Ducking under the diagonal support beam that bisected the Office, he turned to his own partition, almost sitting down at the desk out of a mental-autopilot. Remembering his mission, however, he simply elected to hang his coat on the Chair, and spend the few moments required for the uncomfortable task of disabling internal subsystems.
With that task complete, he exited the office, as quickly and unnoticed as he had entered. He then proceeded to walk in circles until his path was corrected by various signs that eventually lead him to his destination.
