Forests and Forestry Accessories

Your name is TARSUS HOLTES. You are a greenblood and a FORESTER - Alternian forests are, of course, DEADLY AS HELL, but you're still alive. In fact you have a nice side gig selling timber, antlerbeast meat and other forest products to anyone who wants them, plus the results of your hobby brewery, which may or may not actually be any good. Attempts to get you or your TAWNY OWL LUSUS out of your forest against your will will likely be unsuccessful. You know the land well and intruders will probably fall foul of your BOWKIND before they find you. You I)on't have much in the way of a quirk, except that you tenI) to aI)I) your bow, anI) the face of your lusus. 8>

[hypotheticalwoman]

Stuff that should have been up forever ago. We’ve moved on at least three AUs by now.

Tarsus is mine, Pirika belongs to sixthdimensional and Kaitos belongs to doctordischordia. But you probably knew this by now.

[arborealbrewster]

[Pirika Alburz! Who is the lucky individual Tarsus and Kai are jetting off to visit, she does not know this yet. She belongs to sixthdimensional!]

[arborealbrewster]

[Tarsus and Kai - expressions at the top and buying winter clothes for tropical highbloods at the bottom. Kai does not like mittens but does not want to lose them.

Also Kai belongs to doctordischordia ]

[arborealbrewster]

===> Be Tarsus

[krakencuddler-blog]

"no, no i killed him.." Your tone is like how you might mention the weather. You don’t say that he was in bits by the time you were through with him, even if you kind of want to. You’re not sure why. To tell him he got what he deserved? It hardly matters now. "kenzil was never much of anything even when he was alive.. but there’s always more like him.."

You sneak a frond out of the blanket to hold his in yours, your phalanges chilly and shaky. “i don’t mean to doubt your ability to look after yourself.. i just don’t want other trolls like him coming after you.. it’s what seatrolls do to eachother..” Your disgust for your own sub-species creeps into your voice. You kill and scheme and betray and crush. That’s all any of you ever do.

[arborealbrewster]

'Well, that saves me a job, then,' you say, twining your fingers with Kai's. 'Although I was kind of looking forward to making an arrow out of that tooth you gave me and shooting it through his eye so the last thing he'd see would be your bite.' You grin. 'Never mind.'

[krakencuddler-blog]

You blink, process the information you’ve just been given, and break out in a wobbly smile.

"that’s… really sweet of you.. thank you, for the thought, at least.." You lean in and kiss your darling moirail on the cheek, because  really, pledging to kill or otherwise maim your moirail’s enemies is just about the sweetest thing.

[arborealbrewster]

You kiss him back, and untwist a tangle of hair from around his horn. 'It's going to be alright, I promise. But we should probably go back and get a couple of hours' sleep while we can, before we set off. What do you think, could you sleep now?'

[arborealbrewster]

===> Be Tarsus

[krakencuddler-blog]

You blink and smile weakly, though it’s mostly obscured by the snuggleplane. You have absolutely no idea what a siege bow actually is or what it looks like, but it sounds cool.

"i just… worry.." You refrain from wiping your sniffnub on Tarsus’ blanket, though whether simply doing so on the back of your hand is any better is debatable. "like i said, they did it to get to me, you know?? they knew that going up against me personally wasn’t possible, so they targetted people i pitied.." And it’s not as if that’s a concern unique to you. You knew several seatrolls who swore off lower-blooded quadrants partly because they could be targetted, for various reasons. "and i regret trying to be the decent troll, because it gets my friends hurt.. it got als killed.. if i’d just done something about him before or.."

You sigh and shake your head. “but i’m not a very good seadweller.. i believe in second chances..” But not third. You don’t say that, but Kenzil paid the price. Too little, too late, but something, at least. Alscia would have never forgiven you if you’d let him live.

[arborealbrewster]

You put on your best practical face, despite the fact that Kai can’t see anything higher than your chin, and set your mind to make-it-better.

'Well, I've got a lot of practice in protecting myself. Usually people don't even get to see me before they die. Is this arsehole still alive?'

[krakencuddler-blog]

"no, no i killed him.." Your tone is like how you might mention the weather. You don’t say that he was in bits by the time you were through with him, even if you kind of want to. You’re not sure why. To tell him he got what he deserved? It hardly matters now. "kenzil was never much of anything even when he was alive.. but there’s always more like him.."

You sneak a frond out of the blanket to hold his in yours, your phalanges chilly and shaky. “i don’t mean to doubt your ability to look after yourself.. i just don’t want other trolls like him coming after you.. it’s what seatrolls do to eachother..” Your disgust for your own sub-species creeps into your voice. You kill and scheme and betray and crush. That’s all any of you ever do.

[arborealbrewster]

'Well, that saves me a job, then,' you say, twining your fingers with Kai's. 'Although I was kind of looking forward to making an arrow out of that tooth you gave me and shooting it through his eye so the last thing he'd see would be your bite.' You grin. 'Never mind.'

[arborealbrewster]

===> Be Tarsus

[krakencuddler-blog]

You snort and sniff miserably. “she was, um.. she was als.. she was loud and shouty and blew things up with her mind..” You lean your head against Tarsus’ chest, staring into the middle-distance.

"i just.. i couldn’t do anything.. i.." You grit your teeth together, feeling the misery give way to panic. "i couldn’t… if something happened to you, i…" You hiccup another sob. "how can i even deal with t-that?? to me you, y-you all seem so fragile.. i-if i could keep you away from t-the rest of this… this rotten… FUCKING world forever i would, i’d…" You look up at your moirail miserably. "i don’t know h-how to deal with that, tarsus, i, i’m terrified something m-might happen to you like it did with als.."

[arborealbrewster]

You startle a little as Kai raises his voice - you are suddenly aware that this is the first time you’ve heard him do that, and you would be a whole lot more scared if the owner of said voice wasn’t currently sniffling into your shoulder.

'Shoosh… I'm going to be fine. They won't even get near me, I'll use the siege bow if I have to. Have you ever seen a siege bow? They leave craters.'

You have never actually had to use the siege bow so you don’t know if that last fact is actually true, but it sounds reassuring, so that’s enough for now.

[krakencuddler-blog]

You blink and smile weakly, though it’s mostly obscured by the snuggleplane. You have absolutely no idea what a siege bow actually is or what it looks like, but it sounds cool.

"i just… worry.." You refrain from wiping your sniffnub on Tarsus’ blanket, though whether simply doing so on the back of your hand is any better is debatable. "like i said, they did it to get to me, you know?? they knew that going up against me personally wasn’t possible, so they targetted people i pitied.." And it’s not as if that’s a concern unique to you. You knew several seatrolls who swore off lower-blooded quadrants partly because they could be targetted, for various reasons. "and i regret trying to be the decent troll, because it gets my friends hurt.. it got als killed.. if i’d just done something about him before or.."

You sigh and shake your head. “but i’m not a very good seadweller.. i believe in second chances..” But not third. You don’t say that, but Kenzil paid the price. Too little, too late, but something, at least. Alscia would have never forgiven you if you’d let him live.

[arborealbrewster]

You put on your best practical face, despite the fact that Kai can't see anything higher than your chin, and set your mind to make-it-better.

'Well, I've got a lot of practice in protecting myself. Usually people don't even get to see me before they die. Is this arsehole still alive?'

[arborealbrewster]

===> Be Tarsus

[krakencuddler-blog]

The pile makes you feel a little less exposed and you gratefully curl up in it until there’s only the hair that Tarsus is fussing with, your horns and your puffy, purpled eyes showing. Even though the air is hot and humid you feel clammy and shivery and are more than glad for the blanket and Tarsus’ fussing with your hair.

"y-yeah.. i… um.." You look down. Your voice is more muffled than usual because of how far you’ve burrowed down into the pile. "it was one of the other seatrolls that killed her, you know.. my matesprit, that is.. because th-they wanted to… t-to teach me a lesson.. i… i f-found her one day, just… j-just dead.. on the beach.. full of bullet holes.. i keep seeing her, when i sleep.."

[arborealbrewster]

 You hug the only part of Kaitos visible, which is the top of his head, and nearly poke your eye out on his horns. ‘Kaitos, I’m so sorry.’ You shoosh him quietly for a moment, trying to think of something you can possibly say. This is why you have not had any quadrants up to now, you suppose.

'She must have been really nice.'

[krakencuddler-blog]

You snort and sniff miserably. “she was, um.. she was als.. she was loud and shouty and blew things up with her mind..” You lean your head against Tarsus’ chest, staring into the middle-distance.

"i just.. i couldn’t do anything.. i.." You grit your teeth together, feeling the misery give way to panic. "i couldn’t… if something happened to you, i…" You hiccup another sob. "how can i even deal with t-that?? to me you, y-you all seem so fragile.. i-if i could keep you away from t-the rest of this… this rotten… FUCKING world forever i would, i’d…" You look up at your moirail miserably. "i don’t know h-how to deal with that, tarsus, i, i’m terrified something m-might happen to you like it did with als.."

[arborealbrewster]

You startle a little as Kai raises his voice - you are suddenly aware that this is the first time you've heard him do that, and you would be a whole lot more scared if the owner of said voice wasn't currently sniffling into your shoulder.

'Shoosh... I'm going to be fine. They won't even get near me, I'll use the siege bow if I have to. Have you ever seen a siege bow? They leave craters.'

You have never actually had to use the siege bow so you don't know if that last fact is actually true, but it sounds reassuring, so that's enough for now.

[arborealbrewster]

===> Be Tarsus

[krakencuddler-blog]

Eventually the shooshing gets through to you and the periods between sobs becomes longer, until you simply feel drained and dried out and like your face is entirely swollen up. Like an emotional purge, eventually there’s just nothing left in you to cry anymore and you feel numbed and hollow, still shaking and shuddering from the occasional dry sob or hiccup but no longer a fountain of plum coloured tears and snot.

The snuggleplane is stained something ridiculous and your frantic clinging has left little fingermarks on Tarsus’ arms. You sniff and whimper and generally feel wrung out and pathetic. “…m’sorry..” You mumble miserably. You don’t even know who you’re apologising to right now.

[arborealbrewster]

 ’Shoosh, it’s fine,’ you say, and then feel silly. ‘Well, obviously it’s not fine, but it is now, I have you, you’ll be alright.’ You give up and kiss him on the horn nearest to you, and try to wipe his face again, but realise that the snuggleplane looks… ugh.

You throw it away and pull every easily accessible blanket out of your modus that you can, as well as a few pairs of socks and hot water bottle covers and pillows. Never let it be said that Tarsus Holtes makes a substandard pile.

You pull Kaitos into it and carry on your ongoing quest to tidy up his hair. ‘Daymares?’

[krakencuddler-blog]

The pile makes you feel a little less exposed and you gratefully curl up in it until there’s only the hair that Tarsus is fussing with, your horns and your puffy, purpled eyes showing. Even though the air is hot and humid you feel clammy and shivery and are more than glad for the blanket and Tarsus’ fussing with your hair.

"y-yeah.. i… um.." You look down. Your voice is more muffled than usual because of how far you’ve burrowed down into the pile. "it was one of the other seatrolls that killed her, you know.. my matesprit, that is.. because th-they wanted to… t-to teach me a lesson.. i… i f-found her one day, just… j-just dead.. on the beach.. full of bullet holes.. i keep seeing her, when i sleep.."

[arborealbrewster]

 You hug the only part of Kaitos visible, which is the top of his head, and nearly poke your eye out on his horns. 'Kaitos, I'm so sorry.' You shoosh him quietly for a moment, trying to think of something you can possibly say. This is why you have not had any quadrants up to now, you suppose.

'She must have been really nice.'

[arborealbrewster]

===> Be Tarsus

[krakencuddler-blog]

It’s the sort of crying that’s utterly ugly and impossible to stop once you’ve started. Every so often your breath catches in a gasp and you cough and choke on your own sobs, violet tinted tears and snot running down your face in a constant stream, your cheeks blotchy with the effort. And every time you think you might have a handle on it, you remember some stupid moment when she dared you to climb up to join her on the roof of her hive, or when she looked after you when you ate that undercooked spiderleg, and then the thought of her mangled body flashes in front of your eyes and it overwhelms you again.

You’re not sure how long Tarsus has been there when you’re actually cognizant of his presence, but when you do notice you turn, maybe to say something like you’re alright, or it was just a bad daymare, but instead all that comes out is more bawling and you bury your face in his shoulder and clutch at him, shaking like a leaf.

[arborealbrewster]

You hold him and shoosh him, and you pick things out of his hair and pap him and shoosh him some more. Your daymare has clearly had nothing on his, his face is completely purple with tears and snot.

You wipe it a bit with the corner of the snuggleplane - this is not one of yours so you’re not worried about it much - and shoosh him again, ready to wait forever if that’s how long it takes for Kaitos to calm down. Well, maybe not forever. You are actually pretty alarmed by this and if he doesn’t stop crying soon you’re really not sure what you’ll do.

[krakencuddler-blog]

Eventually the shooshing gets through to you and the periods between sobs becomes longer, until you simply feel drained and dried out and like your face is entirely swollen up. Like an emotional purge, eventually there’s just nothing left in you to cry anymore and you feel numbed and hollow, still shaking and shuddering from the occasional dry sob or hiccup but no longer a fountain of plum coloured tears and snot.

The snuggleplane is stained something ridiculous and your frantic clinging has left little fingermarks on Tarsus’ arms. You sniff and whimper and generally feel wrung out and pathetic. “…m’sorry..” You mumble miserably. You don’t even know who you’re apologising to right now.

[arborealbrewster]

 'Shoosh, it's fine,' you say, and then feel silly. 'Well, obviously it's not fine, but it is now, I have you, you'll be alright.' You give up and kiss him on the horn nearest to you, and try to wipe his face again, but realise that the snuggleplane looks... ugh.

You throw it away and pull every easily accessible blanket out of your modus that you can, as well as a few pairs of socks and hot water bottle covers and pillows. Never let it be said that Tarsus Holtes makes a substandard pile.

You pull Kaitos into it and carry on your ongoing quest to tidy up his hair. 'Daymares?'

[arborealbrewster]

===> Be Tarsus

[krakencuddler-blog]

"mm hmm.." You peep one eye open from your spider-leg induced stupor. You really kind of want to just stay where you are, but Tarsus is right - even with the cloud cover you don’t really want to risk staying out here when the sun gets higher, and the spiders get more bold during the daylight hours. "yeah, my uh, um, als’ old hive isn’t far.. there’s not a working recuperacoon anymore, but there’s plenty of sleeping platforms and i have sopor patches to spare.."

"Onwards, then!" Tarsus says, prodding you into standing. You stretch, kick some sand over the dying fire, and head back into the jungle with Tarsus, Polina and Lynxmom in tow. The route you take is more obviously worn, like it was once a proper path, and a slightly ramshackle, sunbleached hive comes into view after only a few minutes, surrounded by a spiral of rubbery blue trees. You pause. It’s been a while since you’ve visited, and the sleepy contentment of dinner rapidly vanishes. You put on a smile all the same and give the hiveportal a good shove to get it open. Lynxmom saunters inside and immediately sprawls across the dusty stone floor, flicking an ear. The hive itself is modest and obviously not lived in, but not exactly neglected. You’d made sure to keep it from falling into disrepair.

"polina, you can take the respiteblock, me and tarsus can use the combination lounging and sleep platform in the livingblock.." You look over to make sure Tarsus looks ok with that. "Just no sleep-cuddling, you’ll wake me right up and I will shove you off.”

You can’t help but smile. “best behaviour, promise, i sleep like a wiggler..”

"That’s really not necessary, chaps, I can sleep on the floor just fine-" Polina starts, but you’re really kind of tired of this by now and just shake your head.

"please, i insist, i want to know you’ll have a good uninterrupted sleep so you can fly tomorrow.." She purses her lips but doesn’t argue with you, and simply takes your offered sopor patch and goes when you point out where the respiteblock is.

Then you sigh and rub your forehead a little. Maybe you can just get some uninterrupted sleep and put the ghosts of this place behind you by evening. Unfolding the futon is fiddlier than you remember, but the linen is still where it ought to be and you set up a respectable sleeping futonpile with plenty of space for the two of you. You give Tarsus one of your sopor patches and a quick, tight hug, feeling strange and choked for a moment but unable to put it into words. You just need to sleep. “sleep well.. pity you..”

You’re barely able to crawl into your side of the futonpile before your eyes droop closed. Despite the patch, the daymares soon follow.

You jerk awake in an icy sweat and the sight of Alscia’s bullet riddled body still clear as the burning daylight behind your eyelids. You manage, just barely, to stumble out of the pile, rip the patch off your arm and make it to the old battered porch before the sobs begin to wrack your body so hard you fall to your knees, shivering and blinded by tears.

[arborealbrewster]

You had had a little trouble getting to sleep - sleeping on a platform is not something you’re used to, and sleeping with someone else, that makes it doubly hard. And then there’s the daymares, and you wake from a dream of being crushed under the corpses of everyone you’ve ever known or cared about under miles and miles of rock, and you take a huge gulp of air, bloodpusher hammering-

You’re alone. You’re lying on your face, arms and legs spreadeagled across the platform, and Kaitos is nowhere to be seen.

You wrap a snuggleplane around your shoulders and go looking for him. You are not going to sleep much more today.

You can hear Lynxmom purring from the respiteblock where Polina is sleeping, and also Polina’s thunderous snores and the occasional mutter of ‘yes ma’am’ and ‘I’m sorry sir, there was nothing I could do’ and ‘report malfunction in engine room’.

You are not ever going near that.

Eventually you find Kai, crying his eyes out, and you wrap your arms around him in a snuggleplane batwing hug and trust that your head won’t get eaten by his hair.

[krakencuddler-blog]

It’s the sort of crying that’s utterly ugly and impossible to stop once you’ve started. Every so often your breath catches in a gasp and you cough and choke on your own sobs, violet tinted tears and snot running down your face in a constant stream, your cheeks blotchy with the effort. And every time you think you might have a handle on it, you remember some stupid moment when she dared you to climb up to join her on the roof of her hive, or when she looked after you when you ate that undercooked spiderleg, and then the thought of her mangled body flashes in front of your eyes and it overwhelms you again.

You’re not sure how long Tarsus has been there when you’re actually cognizant of his presence, but when you do notice you turn, maybe to say something like you’re alright, or it was just a bad daymare, but instead all that comes out is more bawling and you bury your face in his shoulder and clutch at him, shaking like a leaf.

[arborealbrewster]

You hold him and shoosh him, and you pick things out of his hair and pap him and shoosh him some more. Your daymare has clearly had nothing on his, his face is completely purple with tears and snot.

You wipe it a bit with the corner of the snuggleplane - this is not one of yours so you're not worried about it much - and shoosh him again, ready to wait forever if that's how long it takes for Kaitos to calm down. Well, maybe not forever. You are actually pretty alarmed by this and if he doesn't stop crying soon you're really not sure what you'll do.

[mycatsaymiumiu]

Miles McMillan for EDUN's Birds of Prey Campaign F/W 2012 filmed by Ryan McGinley.

[arborealbrewster]

[this guy is basically human Tarsus. complete with owl accessory]

[arborealbrewster]

===> Be Tarsus

[krakencuddler-blog]

Poor girl. She looks a little more grey than is strictly normal. You fuss with your modus for a moment, which spits out about 5 different bottles of random things (pancake batter? how long has THAT been there?) before you find your traitoraid, appleberry blast flavor, and hand it to her.

"it’s no problem, really!!" You are all guileless cheer and trying really hard not to make Polina feel weird or threatened. Lynxmom rumbles a deep bass purr and rubs her head against Lina’s knee. "oh, um, her troll was a psionic too, i think she can sniff out telekinetics in particular, so it’s probably familiar to her.." The lusus settles her chin on Polina’s knee and seems content enough to stay there, occasionally flicking one of her four furry ears.

[arborealbrewster]

You stare at the huge cat for a moment, then reach out and scritch behind one of her impressive rack of ears. She flicks all four of them and presses closer, purring hugely.

Well, then. It seems you’re being given orders. You keep up with the scritchings with a huge sense of relief.

===> NOW be Tarsus

You eventually come back and unload a beer crate of driftwood out of your modus onto the beach. What you had thought was the sound of a boat engine was actually a very happy lusus being attended to by Polina, who looks like she’s feeling much more relaxed, although she’s still that funny drained-psi colour.

Kai looks up and flashes a mouthful of razors. ‘Hey… I think Lina made a friend.’ He nods at the huge purring feline and grins. ‘D’you need some help with the fire? I’ve got kindling and a lighter in my modus somewhere.’

You shake your head. ‘No, it’s fine, this fire won’t need much in the way of kindling - look at this, it’s dry as tinder already.’ You get out your flint and steel and build the fire, and sure enough it’s quickly crackling merrily, and the spider legs are well on their way to being done.

And before you know it they *are* done, that stuff is so moreish you think you could easily eat another spider all by yourself, but instead you look around at the others, belch hugely - Polina looks disturbed and slightly betrayed - and say, ‘That was delightful. Kaitos, did you say something about there being somewhere to stay around here? Because if we don’t take cover the remaining spiders will come and get us while we sleep and they won’t even have to fry us first.’

[krakencuddler-blog]

"mm hmm.." You peep one eye open from your spider-leg induced stupor. You really kind of want to just stay where you are, but Tarsus is right - even with the cloud cover you don’t really want to risk staying out here when the sun gets higher, and the spiders get more bold during the daylight hours. "yeah, my uh, um, als’ old hive isn’t far.. there’s not a working recuperacoon anymore, but there’s plenty of sleeping platforms and i have sopor patches to spare.."

"Onwards, then!" Tarsus says, prodding you into standing. You stretch, kick some sand over the dying fire, and head back into the jungle with Tarsus, Polina and Lynxmom in tow. The route you take is more obviously worn, like it was once a proper path, and a slightly ramshackle, sunbleached hive comes into view after only a few minutes, surrounded by a spiral of rubbery blue trees. You pause. It’s been a while since you’ve visited, and the sleepy contentment of dinner rapidly vanishes. You put on a smile all the same and give the hiveportal a good shove to get it open. Lynxmom saunters inside and immediately sprawls across the dusty stone floor, flicking an ear. The hive itself is modest and obviously not lived in, but not exactly neglected. You’d made sure to keep it from falling into disrepair.

"polina, you can take the respiteblock, me and tarsus can use the combination lounging and sleep platform in the livingblock.." You look over to make sure Tarsus looks ok with that. "Just no sleep-cuddling, you’ll wake me right up and I will shove you off.”

You can’t help but smile. “best behaviour, promise, i sleep like a wiggler..”

"That’s really not necessary, chaps, I can sleep on the floor just fine-" Polina starts, but you’re really kind of tired of this by now and just shake your head.

"please, i insist, i want to know you’ll have a good uninterrupted sleep so you can fly tomorrow.." She purses her lips but doesn’t argue with you, and simply takes your offered sopor patch and goes when you point out where the respiteblock is.

Then you sigh and rub your forehead a little. Maybe you can just get some uninterrupted sleep and put the ghosts of this place behind you by evening. Unfolding the futon is fiddlier than you remember, but the linen is still where it ought to be and you set up a respectable sleeping futonpile with plenty of space for the two of you. You give Tarsus one of your sopor patches and a quick, tight hug, feeling strange and choked for a moment but unable to put it into words. You just need to sleep. “sleep well.. pity you..”

You’re barely able to crawl into your side of the futonpile before your eyes droop closed. Despite the patch, the daymares soon follow.

You jerk awake in an icy sweat and the sight of Alscia’s bullet riddled body still clear as the burning daylight behind your eyelids. You manage, just barely, to stumble out of the pile, rip the patch off your arm and make it to the old battered porch before the sobs begin to wrack your body so hard you fall to your knees, shivering and blinded by tears.

[arborealbrewster]

You had had a little trouble getting to sleep - sleeping on a platform is not something you're used to, and sleeping with someone else, that makes it doubly hard. And then there's the daymares, and you wake from a dream of being crushed under the corpses of everyone you've ever known or cared about under miles and miles of rock, and you take a huge gulp of air, bloodpusher hammering-

You're alone. You're lying on your face, arms and legs spreadeagled across the platform, and Kaitos is nowhere to be seen.

You wrap a snuggleplane around your shoulders and go looking for him. You are not going to sleep much more today.

You can hear Lynxmom purring from the respiteblock where Polina is sleeping, and also Polina's thunderous snores and the occasional mutter of 'yes ma'am' and 'I'm sorry sir, there was nothing I could do' and 'report malfunction in engine room'.

You are not ever going near that.

Eventually you find Kai, crying his eyes out, and you wrap your arms around him in a snuggleplane batwing hug and trust that your head won't get eaten by his hair.

[arborealbrewster]

===> Be Tarsus

[krakencuddler-blog]

Poor girl. She looks a little more grey than is strictly normal. You fuss with your modus for a moment, which spits out about 5 different bottles of random things (pancake batter? how long has THAT been there?) before you find your traitoraid, appleberry blast flavor, and hand it to her.

"it’s no problem, really!!" You are all guileless cheer and trying really hard not to make Polina feel weird or threatened. Lynxmom rumbles a deep bass purr and rubs her head against Lina’s knee. "oh, um, her troll was a psionic too, i think she can sniff out telekinetics in particular, so it’s probably familiar to her.." The lusus settles her chin on Polina’s knee and seems content enough to stay there, occasionally flicking one of her four furry ears.

[arborealbrewster]

You stare at the huge cat for a moment, then reach out and scritch behind one of her impressive rack of ears. She flicks all four of them and presses closer, purring hugely.

Well, then. It seems you're being given orders. You keep up with the scritchings with a huge sense of relief.

===> NOW be Tarsus

You eventually come back and unload a beer crate of driftwood out of your modus onto the beach. What you had thought was the sound of a boat engine was actually a very happy lusus being attended to by Polina, who looks like she's feeling much more relaxed, although she's still that funny drained-psi colour.

Kai looks up and flashes a mouthful of razors. 'Hey... I think Lina made a friend.' He nods at the huge purring feline and grins. 'D'you need some help with the fire? I've got kindling and a lighter in my modus somewhere.'

You shake your head. 'No, it's fine, this fire won't need much in the way of kindling - look at this, it's dry as tinder already.' You get out your flint and steel and build the fire, and sure enough it's quickly crackling merrily, and the spider legs are well on their way to being done.

And before you know it they *are* done, that stuff is so moreish you think you could easily eat another spider all by yourself, but instead you look around at the others, belch hugely - Polina looks disturbed and slightly betrayed - and say, 'That was delightful. Kaitos, did you say something about there being somewhere to stay around here? Because if we don't take cover the remaining spiders will come and get us while we sleep and they won't even have to fry us first.'

[arborealbrewster]

===> Be Tarsus

[arborealbrewster]

You can't be Tarsus, he's gone to collect driftwood. You'll have to be the rustblood for a little while instead.

===> Be Polina

You are aware that you are not presenting a full parade front, and this is irritating. You have strained your psi much worse than this before - with a good days' sleep you'll be in top-notch condition for tomorrow night's flight, of that you're absolutely certain, so nothing at all to worry about there.

Your clients are both higher-blooded than you are - one of them is almost high enough to be worrying about Imperial assassination - and they are completely ignoring the chain of command at every single interaction. You tried to make things clear to the greenblood, but he simply took it as a black overture and... goodness, no.

But you have been in worse situations before. In fact, this hardly qualifies as an inconvenience. Oksoko would be disappointed in you if he knew you were allowing some silly little thing like this to rattle you.

The highblood offers you a drink and you snap to attention. 'I... thankyou, that's very kind,' you say. Accepting is polite and anyway, maybe he's right and it will help.

And then the lynx lusus with the big yellow eyes rubs up against your side and the highblood says *that*, and you make what is probably the most unprofessional face of your career.

'She does? Goodness me. Well, I... I wonder why?'

[nododisangue]

[luna-intheforest]

☽♡☾ Pagan, Viking, Nature and Tolkien things ☽♡☾

[arborealbrewster]

===> Tarsus: Have a rude awakening.

[krakencuddler-blog]

You just watch, totally bewildered, as Polina immediately jaunts off to collect firewood. Your fish-gutting doesn’t skip a beat, at least, and you shrug in response to Tarsus.

"i guess i probably am.. i only ever met one person higher blooded than me, and she was so deathly afraid of being taken as a potential usuper to the throne that she went into hiding.." You make a face. "i wish it wasn’t such a big deal to her though, but it’s not like i can tell her to stop, because she’d just take that as following orders from a superior or something.."

Thinking about it makes your head hurt. You opt to instead tug the net of spiders over to you and get started on those now that the fish are gutted and cleaned. You make quick work of removing the venom sacs and the poisonous organs, which lynxmom rightly has no interest in.

"see how the flesh is slightly green??" You point at the raw leg meat with the tip of your knife. "you gotta wait until it turns white from cooking before you eat it, or you’ll get really sick.. i once ate undercooked spidermeat and spent three nights thinking i was the sea…"

[arborealbrewster]

You snort at the mental image of Kaitos lying on the beach and Being Ocean, as you pull out your own knife and help hack the legs off the spiders.

'Better cook it properly, then - who knows what it'd do to less sturdy types like Polina and me. Do we just eat the legs or can we cook the thorax as well? You can with the ones at home.' It's times like these you really wish you bought that cookbook that you saw at the outpost a couple of sweeps ago, the one with the cerulean blooded troll cook with the enormous horns on the cover.

Oh well, you probably never would have read it.

[krakencuddler-blog]

Who knows indeed. Your gastric sac clenches a little at the thought. As if you could forget how dangerous it is out here for them. You blink when you realise Tarsus has asked you a question and smile, though it feels a little weak.

"yep, the thorax is edible too, i just prefer the…" Your eye catches Polina’s shape further up the beach, or rather, the fact that from here it looks like she’s sat down rather abruptly, complete with sand cloud. "i um, i just prefer the legs.." You finish with a frown. You wipe spider goop off your knife and stand up.

"what is she even… um, do you think she’s alright?? maybe i should go over and check.." You nod to Polina’s shape in the sand, ready to head over.

[arborealbrewster]

You turn and look. She's just sitting there with her hands to her head. Funny.

'No, I'll go, you're the big scary highblood, remember?' You're not sure exactly what she thinks of you but you are at least lower on the hemospectrum than her matesprit, so you jog over to Polina to see what's up.

She's breathing very slowly and rubbing her temples, and her eyes are closed.

'Everything alright?' you ask, and it makes her jump violently.

'Good grief, don't sneak up on me like that,' she says. 'Yes, I'm just peachy, I'm... resting. Yes. Resting.'

'Well, you'd better go back to the fire and rest there where it's safe. I'll get the firewood.' You offer her a hand, which she waves away before attempting to stand up and then, reluctantly, accepting your help. 'So what happened?'

'It seems I've strained my psi,' she replies stiffly. 'I'll be right as rain after a day's rest, I just shouldn't have gone on a hunting trip so soon after a long flight. Dashed stupid mistake.'

'Oh.' You arrive back at the fire and she sits down across from Kaitos. 'Alright, I'm going to get that firewood. Don't let her do anything. See you in a minute.'

[arborealbrewster]

===> Tarsus: Have a rude awakening.

[krakencuddler-blog]

You feel your fins going plum and smile bashfully. “oh, uh, i’m mostly just used to dealing with the spiders out here i guess.. that and hitting things really hard.. i’m not really any good at a particular weapon or anything like you are..”

Then suddenly the weight over your shoulder seems to vanish, and you blink in confusion at Polina.

"yes?? oh, uh, i mean, it’s ok, i can carry it… um, i mean if you want to i guess that’s fine, but you don’t have to, really…”

Arguing is fruitless. You let her take the spiders. Maybe it makes her feel better or something. It makes you all the more glad that Tarsus doesn’t seem to buy into the caste stuff anywhere near as much.

You’re back out of the jungle in another five minutes or so, to lynxmom still in exactly the same position, eyeing your fish with the intensity of the sun. You shoo her away gently and sit yourself down on the sand so you can gut and clean the spiders and fish, when it occurs to you.

"oh, tarsus, you wouldn’t happen to have fire wood in your modus?? if not i can collect some driftwood, plenty of it washes up on the beach, i just didn’t think to ask earlier.." You make quick work of gutting the fish you have in the net - done with the speed and accuracy of someone who’s done a task thousands of times. You toss the guts to lynxmom, who happily snaps them up.

[arborealbrewster]

'Sorry, no,' you say. 'I can get some, though.'

You’re mostly watching Polina, who dumps her bag of spider down on the beach and dusts herself down. The only reason she’s not starting to weird you out is because that happened back when you met her.

'Oh, don't worry about that, I'll do that,' she says cheerily, and sets off down the beach before you can stop her. You watch her go, then turn back to Kaitos and say, 'Do you think she's always like that or is it just that you're the highest blooded troll she's ever met?'

[krakencuddler-blog]

You just watch, totally bewildered, as Polina immediately jaunts off to collect firewood. Your fish-gutting doesn’t skip a beat, at least, and you shrug in response to Tarsus.

"i guess i probably am.. i only ever met one person higher blooded than me, and she was so deathly afraid of being taken as a potential usuper to the throne that she went into hiding.." You make a face. "i wish it wasn’t such a big deal to her though, but it’s not like i can tell her to stop, because she’d just take that as following orders from a superior or something.."

Thinking about it makes your head hurt. You opt to instead tug the net of spiders over to you and get started on those now that the fish are gutted and cleaned. You make quick work of removing the venom sacs and the poisonous organs, which lynxmom rightly has no interest in.

"see how the flesh is slightly green??" You point at the raw leg meat with the tip of your knife. "you gotta wait until it turns white from cooking before you eat it, or you’ll get really sick.. i once ate undercooked spidermeat and spent three nights thinking i was the sea…"

[arborealbrewster]

You snort at the mental image of Kaitos lying on the beach and Being Ocean, as you pull out your own knife and help hack the legs off the spiders.

'Better cook it properly, then - who knows what it'd do to less sturdy types like Polina and me. Do we just eat the legs or can we cook the thorax as well? You can with the ones at home.' It's times like these you really wish you bought that cookbook that you saw at the outpost a couple of sweeps ago, the one with the cerulean blooded troll cook with the enormous horns on the cover.

Oh well, you probably never would have read it.