_|_ come at me, bro _|_

[arborealbrewster]

Tarsus: Wake

[krakencuddler-blog]

You are walking on a cloud of little pale diamonds, so much that when you get back to the respiteblock down the stairs, you walk pretty much straight into the indigoblood from last night just leaving it, flail, and fall right on your ass again.

You have got to stop doing this.

"oof, ow, ow, i’m sorry, sorry, i wasn’t looking, ow ow.."

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

You’re checking your palmhusk again, looking for a response from your darling rust sister, when you are damn near barreled over by the big seadweller. You start, ready to fight, but are surprised instead by her falling over backwards. You blink at her, nonplussed.

"It’s fine, sis," you say after a moment, when you recover from your surprise. You extend a hand to her, pull her up with an effort, and clap her on the back. "No big deal."

[krakencuddler-blog]

You wobble back up to your feet and smile sheepishly. You are the most graceful. Yeah. You rub your sholder where you bonked into her.

"ari… ariona, right?? sorry again.. i’m uh, not the best on land yet.." Hello, understatement of the sweep. You scoot to one side to let her by and not take up the entire hall when you remember Tarsus’ flailing, kicking, biting fit earlier. "oh, um.. i don’t suppose you ran into my moirail earlier?? or, uh, his teeth?? or know who did while he was doing his mad freakout weasel scramble up the stairs??" You’re trying to look over her for obvious chomp-marks without being rude.

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

"Nah, it's cool, I was clumsy as fuck on land for a longass time. I'm a river swimmer, right? And I can't see for shit." You aim to lightly punch her on the shoulder, diverting course at the last minute so you miss. "Oh shit, where'd it go?" Then you start cracking up at your own joke.

"That snarly motherfucker?" You hold your wrist up and rub it. "Yeah, I ran into him, and regrettin' it. Mad freakout weasel indeed."

[perspicaciousfeline]

PF: Reply to the petulant Indigoblood

Newly awake and clean, you settle down and open Trollian

—perspicaciousFeline [PF] began trolling cetaceanHyperesthete [CH]—

PF: <umm>

PF: <s0rry ab0ut earl1er>

PF: <what was 1t y0u were say1ng>

PF: <adventures and b1t1ng and n0t murder1ng any1>

PF: <s0unds fun>

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

CH: _|_ SO MANY ADVENTURES. so many. _|_

CH: _|_ sis that is actually a fuckin’ lie. i have been wandering around in the woods for fuckall-forever finding empty hives and shit _|_

CH: _|_ i have got to find somethin’ more interesting _|_

CH: _|_ is your hive near here, rusty? =:D _|_

[perspicaciousfeline]

PF: <1 d0nt kn0w where y0u are>

PF: <but 1 l1ve 1n a desert>

PF: <s0 n0 pr0bably n0t>

PF: <vts 1n a ra1nf0rest 0r s0meth1ng th0ugh>

PF: <she m1ght at least kn0w where y0u are>

[ceruleanvulpine]

CH: _|_ fuckin’ HELLLLLL _|_

CH: _|_ i’m in the forest up north. northish. near the north _|_

CH: _|_ it is cold and, like, boreal? _|_

CH: _|_ dude i think i got GPS or some shit on my palmhusk _|_

CH: _|_ one sec _|_

—cetaceanHyperesthete [CH] is sending perspicaciousFeline [PF] file coordinates.gpx—

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

[whoops wrong blog]

[perspicaciousfeline]

PF: Reply to the petulant Indigoblood

Newly awake and clean, you settle down and open Trollian

—perspicaciousFeline [PF] began trolling cetaceanHyperesthete [CH]—

PF: <umm>

PF: <s0rry ab0ut earl1er>

PF: <what was 1t y0u were say1ng>

PF: <adventures and b1t1ng and n0t murder1ng any1>

PF: <s0unds fun>

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

CH: _|_ SO MANY ADVENTURES. so many. _|_

CH: _|_ sis that is actually a fuckin' lie. i have been wandering around in the woods for fuckall-forever finding empty hives and shit _|_

CH: _|_ i have got to find somethin' more interesting _|_

CH: _|_ is your hive near here, rusty? =:D _|_

[arborealbrewster]

Tarsus: Wake

[krakencuddler-blog]

You squeeze one of Tarsus’ hands. The feeling like you want to hide under a pile and cry thinking about Alscia fades pretty rapidly, and then gets knocked out of the park when Tarsus calls himself a bone bulge. You can’t help the scandalised bout of laughter that comes out of you, because Tarsus can be so lewd and you can’t help but find it hilarious.

You gasp for breath and squish his hand again.

"it’s ok.. you couldn’t have known.." You smile, still tinged with laughter and a little sorrow, but it’s ok. You feel ok, and that’s more than you can usually say when you think about your past quadrant forays. "best moirail.." You say emphatically, making a little diamond at him with your fingers.

And wow yeah you’re getting a couple of looks at the shameless pale orgy going on down here. You nod and wobble to your feet. “i’m going to check i didn’t leave anything in the downstairs respiteblock first, ok??”

[arborealbrewster]

You grin warmly and return the diamond. ‘So fucking pale. Yeah, you do that. I’ll just go outside and get the truck out, alright?’

It’s a good thing you put your truck in your modus yesterday, otherwise it would be battered to little bits by the hail. You drop a kiss on Kaitos’ head - or at least his hair - between his horns and straighten up. As you leave, you comb your hair and tie it up, because you are the best multitasker, it is you.

[krakencuddler-blog]

You are walking on a cloud of little pale diamonds, so much that when you get back to the respiteblock down the stairs, you walk pretty much straight into the indigoblood from last night just leaving it, flail, and fall right on your ass again.

You have got to stop doing this.

"oof, ow, ow, i’m sorry, sorry, i wasn’t looking, ow ow.."

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

You're checking your palmhusk again, looking for a response from your darling rust sister, when you are damn near barreled over by the big seadweller. You start, ready to fight, but are surprised instead by her falling over backwards. You blink at her, nonplussed.

"It's fine, sis," you say after a moment, when you recover from your surprise. You extend a hand to her, pull her up with an effort, and clap her on the back. "No big deal."

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

After you make it through the queue (FINALLY) and slough the sopor off, you slink back to the underground room and pull your clothes from yesterday back on- they’re battered, but whatever, it’ll do. You fish around in your pocket until you find your palmhusk.

—cetaceanHyperesthete [CH] began…

[perspicaciousfeline]

You narrowly resist the urge to throw your urgently blinking husktop against the wall. It is far to early for things to be happening (The facts that you boarded up all of the windows in your hive sweeps ago and don’t habitually keep any variety of timekeeping device nearby are notably absent from your thoughts). You eventually give in and check Trollian, while draped awkwardly half out of your cupe. You squint blearily at the screen for a moment, and your desire to use the damn thing as a makeshift discus returns in full force.

PF: <ch<

PF: <ar10na<

PF: <whatever<

PF: <d0 y0u have any 1dea what t1me 1t 1s<

PF: <let me check<

PF: <0h l00k<

PF: <1ts way t00 fuck1ng early f0r me t0 g1ve a sh1t<

—perspicaciousFeline [PF] ceased trolling cetaceanHyperesthete [CH]—

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

—cetaceanHyperesthete [CH] began trolling perspicaciousFeline [PF]—

CH: _|_ RUSTYYY IT IS A PERFECTLY HEALTHY HOUR OF THE EVENING EVERYBODY HERE IS GODDAMN AWAKE OK _|_

CH: _|_ THE SUNS HAVE SET THE MOONS HAVE RISEN IT IS TIME TO GET YOUR ASS OUT OF YOUR FUCKIN CUPE _|_

—cetaceanHyperesthete [CH] ceased trolling perspicaciousFeline [PF]—

—cetaceanHyperesthete [CH] began trolling verdantThigmotrope [VT]—

CH: _|_ vt i was JUST tryin' to tell your girlcrush about my BADASS ADVENTURES and she is bitching me the hell out

CH: _|_ doing her little goddamn angry brackety thing and all _|_

CH: _|_ and you should definitely give up on her i think because she is terrrrible _|_

CH: _|_ and she sleeps WAY too late _|_

—cetaceanHyperesthete [CH] ceased trolling verdantThigmotrope [VT]—

With that you sigh a long-suffering sigh, shove your palmhusk back in your pocket and wander upstairs. You'd like to feel the moonlight, you think. 

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

Ariona: Have weird night

After you make it through the queue (FINALLY) and slough the sopor off, you slink back to the underground room and pull your clothes from yesterday back on- they're battered, but whatever, it'll do. You fish around in your pocket until you find your palmhusk.

--cetaceanHyperesthete [CH] began trolling perspicaciousFeline [PF]--

CH: pf!!

CH: pf!! goddammit rusty why will you never tell me your damn name

CH: i am having the weirdest fuckin day. night. whatever.

CH: i was adventuring

CH: (as you do)

CH: and i got trapped in this bigass hailstorm and bashed my way into a building and met a tiny greenblood and a huge seadweller and slept and woke up and got in a fight! and the the fuckin greenblood bit me

CH: and i totally coulda culled him but i DIDNT aren't you proud of me haha

CH: cause i know you an VT woulda bitched me out and also he and his moirail are HELLA cute

CH: so anyway

CH: lost in the middle of nowhere

CH: sup with you

[arborealbrewster]

Tarsus: Wake

[arborealbrewster]

The evening milling-around of trolls in various states of wakefulness in their quest for an ablution trap is significantly disrupted by your noisy, shoving passage, and a few of them try and take umbrage to the fact that you just knocked them over.

You are not having any of it. You can see the staircase ahead of you and you kick and punch your way towards it until someone grabs you painfully by the wrist and you are suddenly making no more progress. You kick them in the shame globes, despite being vaguely aware that they are both higher-blooded than you and much bigger.

This does not get you towards your destination any faster. In fact it gets you slammed up against a wall while somebody snarls in your face.

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

You meander into the hallway, gently pushing the other trolls out of your way- you mostly only HAVE to push gently, ‘cause as soon as they see you  they get out of the way a little. You tuck the ends of your blanketgarment in around the edges so that you can use your arms more freely.

Hey, it’s your green bro!

…Hey.

You shoulder your way through the rest of the trolls in between you and him and tap the big highblood on the shoulder. When he spins you grab him by both shoulders, give him a big, toothy grin and headbutt him out cold. Then you turn, carefully lower him to the ground, and step away with your hands raised in case this pisses anyone off. (It did not, at any point, occur to you that you could have avoided pissing people off by just not punching anybody.) No one starts yelling- everyone is mostly preoccupied with getting upstairs, and you weren’t too loud- but you’re just hoping no quadrantmates show up.

Tarsus (you think that’s what the seadweller called him) looks a little freaked. You would be too, if that giant had been growling at you. You grip him tightly by the shoulders in an attempt to calm him down. “Hey, bro- hey, calm down- it’s okay, dude, hey-“ 

[arborealbrewster]

You are released by one troll and grabbed by another, even more higher-blooded than the first.

You scream at her, bite her in the wrist as hard as you can and make a break for the staircase.

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

"Fuck!" you yelp, letting go in surprise. You clench your hand around your wrist; a few drops of blood squeeze out between your fingers. Tarsus bolts.

You turn to follow him, then about-face. Clutching your blanket around you, you set off in the opposite direction.

Where the hell is the ablution trap.

Where.

[arborealbrewster]

Tarsus: Wake

[arborealbrewster]

The evening milling-around of trolls in various states of wakefulness in their quest for an ablution trap is significantly disrupted by your noisy, shoving passage, and a few of them try and take umbrage to the fact that you just knocked them over.

You are not having any of it. You can see the staircase ahead of you and you kick and punch your way towards it until someone grabs you painfully by the wrist and you are suddenly making no more progress. You kick them in the shame globes, despite being vaguely aware that they are both higher-blooded than you and much bigger.

This does not get you towards your destination any faster. In fact it gets you slammed up against a wall while somebody snarls in your face.

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

You meander into the hallway, gently pushing the other trolls out of your way- you mostly only HAVE to push gently, 'cause as soon as they see you  they get out of the way a little. You tuck the ends of your blanketgarment in around the edges so that you can use your arms more freely.

Hey, it's your green bro!

...Hey.

You shoulder your way through the rest of the trolls in between you and him and tap the big highblood on the shoulder. When he spins you grab him by both shoulders, give him a big, toothy grin and headbutt him out cold. Then you turn, carefully lower him to the ground, and step away with your hands raised in case this pisses anyone off. (It did not, at any point, occur to you that you could have avoided pissing people off by just not punching anybody.) No one starts yelling- everyone is mostly preoccupied with getting upstairs, and you weren't too loud- but you're just hoping no quadrantmates show up.

Tarsus (you think that's what the seadweller called him) looks a little freaked. You would be too, if that giant had been growling at you. You grip him tightly by the shoulders in an attempt to calm him down. "Hey, bro- hey, calm down- it's okay, dude, hey-" 

[arborealbrewster]

Tarsus: Wake

[krakencuddler-blog]

You get plapped right in the face and go a little crosseyed, with the sort of dazed look of someone still seriously sopor’d. You try to blink the world into focus and just about manage to figure out pointy triangle horns and greenish eyes.

You flop your head down on Tarsus shoulder and emit a totally bewildered “yaaaay..” in response. You have no idea what just happened but this seems like as comfy a place as any to sleep.

[arborealbrewster]

And now you actually do have something collapsed on you, but somehow having it be Kaitos is alright. Or at least, it is until you discover he’s actually really heavy and you’re having a problem moving him.

However, you haul antlerbeast carcasses around all the time and he weighs about the same, so you heave him off without much ceremony - now you have enough clarity to go looking for air, so you do so. The fact that you’re wearing a singlet and your boxers and both are soaked through with rapidly-drying sopor has not yet become enough of an issue to register, not even when you run out into the crowded hall and start pushing trolls aside in your quest to reach the staircase.

[krakencuddler-blog]

You barely stir when Tarsus rolls you off him, laying in a pool of drying sopor, snoring quietly on the floor for Ariona to trip over when she wakes.

You dream you are a cuttlefish.

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

You wake up.

You startle awake, actually, sitting up with a start and flinging sopor off of your head and shoulders. You bang a horn on the inside of the 'cupe and start cursing loudly, wipe a hand across your face to try and get the slime out of your eyes and end up making it worse, and blink at the green-tinted world outside.

Where are you?

The hail-inflicted bruise on your forehead twinges. Oh, right. You'd thought you could make it to PF's house before it got light out - and also before the hailstorm hit- but you were wrong, you remember that now. Stupid past self.

You pull yourself out of the 'cupe one limb at a time, trying to shake off as much of the sopor as you can. It's only because of this care that you don't trip over the passed-out seadweller sprawling on the floor in front of you. You peer at her in confusion. Huh.

You root through the clothes and stuff you took off last morning to make sure your money is still there (it is). Then you realize that you're still all gross and slimy and pulling on all your clothes over that does NOT sound nice.

There doesn't seem to be any door in the room other than the one leading to the hallway- no ablution trap, not down here, at least. You grab the blanket from the lounging platform, wrap it around yourself and venture into the hallway.

[krakencuddler-blog]

Be The Ridiculous Seadweller

[krakencuddler-blog]

Satisfied the indigo isn’t about to fall down the steps from severe head trauma, you start your way down into the underground part of the hiveblock, a firm hold on Tarsus. You figure by now it must be the thought of being underground that’s bothering him, and your bloodpusher flips at his poor frightened hiccup. You can’t really feel him pulling your hair - there’s just so much of it and you’re used to all manner of things getting caught in it. Tarsus gets bits of sand and a small shiny seashell in his hands as well as hair.

You gently pap his back, trying your best to sooth his frayed nerves, looking only briefly over your shoulder at the indigo because your balance still isn’t the best and you are so not walking down stairs with a troll in your arms while looking backwards. You figure Tarsus’ nerves are speaking for him more than anything.

"i’m sure there’s no problem, tarsus.." You say calmly, with a faint, firm note of if there is a problem, the indigo will have a very large seadweller to deal with. But you’re relatively certain there wont be a problem, right?

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

"No problem," you say, and rein in your impulse to mess with the greenblood as you realize how fuckhuge the seadweller is. Objective 1: do not antagonize seadweller. Or the blueblood with the knife. You almost trip down the stairs solely because of your blurry vision, but you catch yourself before you tumble into the other trolls and, as you continue downwards, put a hand on the wall to feel your way along.

[arborealbrewster]

The underground rooms of the rental hive are, in reality, not much smaller than those aboveground, but there are no windows, and there’s fewer of them so everyone is much more crowded together. Logic tells you that the ventilation is obviously the best that Khubla can afford, and he’s doing pretty well for himself, but all you can think is that there’s no air, the walls are going to collapse on you any second but that won’t matter because you’ll already have suffocated by then.

Khubla follows you down the stairs, shooing the last few guests ahead of him, and points them with his machete to where he wants them to go. ‘You three get that room.’

[krakencuddler-blog]

You can hear Tarsus’ breathing getting rapid and shallow like he’s having a bloodpusher attack, and you gently shoosh him as you head into the block Khubla directed you to. The layout is similar to the block you were in earlier, except the viewscreen’s a little smaller, and there’s three cupes. None of which are likely to hold your entire mass, you note internally. Looks like you’ll be sleeping with your feet sticking out today. Whelp.

You gently settle Tarsus down on the lounging platform and see if there are blankets here like in the other room - only one, but it’ll do. You drape it over your moirail and sit next to him, ready to deliver on-demand paps and shooshes as required. In the meanwhile, you look up at the other troll and smile.

"sorry, i never introduced myself.. i’m kaitos medusi.. this… this is my moirail, tarsus.."

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

"Hey," you say. "I'm Ariona. And- A+ moirailing, sis, pap that butt. He looks pretty freaked." You yawn. "Goddamn, I'm tired. I'm gonna turn in. Sorry for not providing y'all with my usual sparkling conversation, I promise I'm funny." You strip down to your underthings and climb into the 'cupe. You're out like a light in five minutes.

[krakencuddler-blog]

Be The Ridiculous Seadweller

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

You snicker at the sight of the seadweller picking up her- moirail? definitely moirail, after the veritable goddamn pale orgy you just saw. 

"Nah, I’m fine, just a little knocked around," you say reassuringly. When the seadweller turns towards the staircase, you follow. Over her shoulder, you catch the greenblood’s gaze. You raise your eyebrows and widen your smile from “friendly” to “unnerving.”

[arborealbrewster]

You protest your ability to walk down that staircase, but it’s kind of token, and you’re hanging on to Kaitos’ shirt as if your life depended on it.

So you’re actually kind of grateful when the indigo shoots you that look, it means you get a distraction from how much of a wiggler you look. You narrow your eyes at her. ‘And what’s your problem?’

It should sound threatening, but being carried down the staircase into the windowless corridor below makes the sentence end in a terrified little hiccup, and you find you’ve got two fistfuls of Kaitos’ hair without really being aware of it.

[krakencuddler-blog]

Satisfied the indigo isn’t about to fall down the steps from severe head trauma, you start your way down into the underground part of the hiveblock, a firm hold on Tarsus. You figure by now it must be the thought of being underground that’s bothering him, and your bloodpusher flips at his poor frightened hiccup. You can’t really feel him pulling your hair - there’s just so much of it and you’re used to all manner of things getting caught in it. Tarsus gets bits of sand and a small shiny seashell in his hands as well as hair.

You gently pap his back, trying your best to sooth his frayed nerves, looking only briefly over your shoulder at the indigo because your balance still isn’t the best and you are so not walking down stairs with a troll in your arms while looking backwards. You figure Tarsus’ nerves are speaking for him more than anything.

"i’m sure there’s no problem, tarsus.." You say calmly, with a faint, firm note of if there is a problem, the indigo will have a very large seadweller to deal with. But you’re relatively certain there wont be a problem, right?

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

"No problem," you say, and rein in your impulse to mess with the greenblood as you realize how fuckhuge the seadweller is. Objective 1: do not antagonize seadweller. Or the blueblood with the knife. You almost trip down the stairs solely because of your blurry vision, but you catch yourself before you tumble into the other trolls and, as you continue downwards, put a hand on the wall to feel your way along.

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

((also, clarification))

((i'm only putting "she" for kaitos because ariona is a troll who assumes a lot about everyone she meets))

((that was in my tags at some point but it might have got lost))

[krakencuddler-blog]

Be The Ridiculous Seadweller

[krakencuddler-blog]

You’re pulling Tarsus down the hallway when you hear another almighty racket from the door, and for a moment you’re wondering if that’s the hail that’s crashing through when another troll, an indigo, you think, suddenly clambers in. Your initial thought is alarm - of all the times for some subjuggalating, this is not it, when you realise that is stupid and the other troll is bleeding and honestly just looks kind of relieved to be out of the hail. Of course they are. Unless someone has a real want to get crushed by friggin ice blocks falling from the sky (landdweller weather, seriously), why wouldn’t they?

And then Tarsus decides he wants to fling himself at the newcomer and you have absolutely no idea why but you’re pretty sure it’s for no sensible reason, and you don’t think, you just turn into a one seadweller pale-papping apocalypse. Before he has a chance to go hacking into the indigo you scoop him right up around the middle, and it’s probably a good thing Tarsus has his back to you because you’re raising your voice just to be heard over the chaos and give the newcomer troll and Khubla an unintentional flash of at least 2, maybe 3 rows of serrated teeth.

"hey, hey, HEY.. TARSUS.. SHOOSH.." It’s easy as anything to have him scooped up with one arm and give him a sound papping with the other. You will pap this silly little greenblood until his head spins if you have to. "shoooosh, shoosh.." You look over at Khubla, who is once again machete happy, and the indigo. You are generally rather more generous in your opinion of strangers than you ought to be, but for goodness sake the sky is falling on your heads.

"i’ll pay for them staying.. the sky is trying to murder anyone outside right now, for goodness sake.."

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

You were entirely prepared to fight the little greenblood because goddammit you are NOT going back outside, and also because the exploded water bottle made you even more drenched and therefore more pissed, but- this is definitely simpler. You force your smile back on your face, since getting filleted by a bunch of well-armed strangers is not exactly part of your plan.

"Jeez, sis, I’m not a charity case. I can pay, machete dude, I fuckin’ swear it, but at the moment I’d like to get somewhere safe, k? Let’s— do you have a shelter, or some shit?"

[arborealbrewster]

All the air is knocked out of you as Kaitos catches you mid-leap, the knife goes spinning across the hall and you struggle briefly, but that is an industrial-grade papping you’re getting, and gradually you go limp and become aware of what an idiot you just made of yourself.

You don’t want him to put you down - you’re still scared and short of breath - but you still give him what you hope is a reassuring smile and say, ‘I’m OK, I can walk, you can put me down.’

Khubla, on the other hand, just looks the new indigo up and down, grunts and gestures towards the staircase at the end of the hall. ‘Come on, then.’ And to Kaitos, before stalking off to collect the other guests, ‘Make sure he doesn’t try that again.’

[krakencuddler-blog]

"don’t worry, i’m on papping duty.." You say to Khubla. And then you just sort of. Look. At Tarsus. You can be a little oblivious sometimes, but Tarsus’ attempt at looking stoic is paper-thin at best. You save him the indignity of actually telling him that.

"i can, but i’m not gonna.. hang on.." Not immediately preoccupied with papping, you scoop him up in both arms like he weighs nothing and smile at him serenely. Maybe you can do this pale thing afterall. Being underground does not bother you one bit, and the total lack of bothers is pretty much rolling off you right now. You smile at the indigo and nod towards the staircase, starting in it’s direction with your new moirail bundled in your arms like a mewlbeast. "this way, i guess.. is your head alright??"

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

You snicker at the sight of the seadweller picking up her- moirail? definitely moirail, after the veritable goddamn pale orgy you just saw. "Nah, I'm fine, just a little knocked around," you say reassuringly. When the seadweller turns towards the staircase, you follow. Over her shoulder, you catch the greenblood's gaze. You raise your eyebrows and widen your smile from "friendly" to "unnerving."

[krakencuddler-blog]

Be The Ridiculous Seadweller

[arborealbrewster]

krakencuddler:

You yelp and startle straight off the lounging platform when the shutter buckles inward. Right, giant hunks of ice falling from the sky. You barely register the banging on the door for a few moments, until you realise that means you need to be doing something and going somewhere and you need to extract yourself from the tangle of blankets on the ground.

You wriggle to your feet and are about to open the door when you realise Tarsus hasn’t moved. You frown, not entirely sure what the matter is, but you scoot back over and offer a webbed hand with a gentle smile.

"c’mon, we better go.."

cetaceanhyperesthete:

You bang on the door.

You realize that to whoever the fuck’s inside it must sound like the hail (FUCK this hail) is suddenly alive and banging sideways on the door, but if they would open it they wouldn’t have this problem, right?

Screw it. You shove your shoulder into the door with as much force as you can muster, which is difficult when you’re holding a piece of metal above your head in a desperate attempt to hold off as much of the ice as you can.

You slip through the door and slam it behind you, lowering your makeshift shield. Your hair is stringy and wet and hanging in your face and you are SURE your face paint is smudged. Can’t win ‘em all. You are, at least, not currently dying of blunt force trauma, which is a plus.

You peer nearsightedly at the snapped deadbolt. Oops. You look up from it to see, blurrily, three trolls staring at you: a bigass seadweller, a much shorter troll in green, and a third one emphatically pointing a machete at you.

"I’ll pay for the bolt," you offer with a grin, raising your hands in the air (pausing to wipe a smudge of indigo blood away from your eye). "What’re you all in such a hurry for?"

Your question is answered by another loud crack as more hailstones slam into the walls.

You stare at Khubla, who rolls his eyes and mutters something about ‘not this again’ but somehow he and Kaitos succeed in getting you halfway down the hall despite the fact that you can’t get signals to your feet - well, that’s not true, if you told them to run as far as you could away from the enclosed windowless concrete hole in the ground, they’d obey with a quickness, but right now there’s nowhere to run to, nobody you can fight and so your instincts have you freeze, despite the fact that the crisis has already noticed you and you will not escape.

Then the outside door is barged in, and not by the weather. Khubla brings up his machete and snarls at the intruder - as far as he’s concerned you don’t get protection if you didn’t pay - but all that matters to you is that now there’s someone you can fight.

There’s no room in here to shoot, so you pull your working knife out of your tree modus - it’s a branch down and so a blanket and two bottles of water erupts out of it as well, and you burst one of the bottles on the blade mid-swing as you launch yourself at the indigo with a weapon that you hardly qualify as a weapon at all, and absolutely no judgement of the situation whatsoever.

[krakencuddler-blog]

You’re pulling Tarsus down the hallway when you hear another almighty racket from the door, and for a moment you’re wondering if that’s the hail that’s crashing through when another troll, an indigo, you think, suddenly clambers in. Your initial thought is alarm - of all the times for some subjuggalating, this is not it, when you realise that is stupid and the other troll is bleeding and honestly just looks kind of relieved to be out of the hail. Of course they are. Unless someone has a real want to get crushed by friggin ice blocks falling from the sky (landdweller weather, seriously), why wouldn’t they?

And then Tarsus decides he wants to fling himself at the newcomer and you have absolutely no idea why but you’re pretty sure it’s for no sensible reason, and you don’t think, you just turn into a one seadweller pale-papping apocalypse. Before he has a chance to go hacking into the indigo you scoop him right up around the middle, and it’s probably a good thing Tarsus has his back to you because you’re raising your voice just to be heard over the chaos and give the newcomer troll and Khubla an unintentional flash of at least 2, maybe 3 rows of serrated teeth.

"hey, hey, HEY.. TARSUS.. SHOOSH.." It’s easy as anything to have him scooped up with one arm and give him a sound papping with the other. You will pap this silly little greenblood until his head spins if you have to. "shoooosh, shoosh.." You look over at Khubla, who is once again machete happy, and the indigo. You are generally rather more generous in your opinion of strangers than you ought to be, but for goodness sake the sky is falling on your heads.

"i’ll pay for them staying.. the sky is trying to murder anyone outside right now, for goodness sake.."

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

You were entirely prepared to fight the little greenblood because goddammit you are NOT going back outside, and also because the exploded water bottle made you even more drenched and therefore more pissed, but- this is definitely simpler. You force your smile back on your face, since getting filleted by a bunch of well-armed strangers is not exactly part of your plan.

"Jeez, sis, I'm not a charity case. I can pay, machete dude, I fuckin' swear it, but at the moment I'd like to get somewhere safe, k? Let's-- do you have a shelter, or some shit?"

[krakencuddler-blog]

Be The Ridiculous Seadweller

[krakencuddler-blog]

Tarsus has a face on that isn’t quite disgruntled mewlbeast, more like anxious baby barkbeast, and you kind of just want to roll him up in a blanket and take him somewhere he wont make that face. And punch anyone who gets in your way.

Oof. So that’s what a palecrush feels like.

Then you get distracted by the question. What’s it like? You don’t have an enormous basis for comparison yet, but…

"mmm.. it’s… more stable, i guess.. i mean you can look at the sea from land and it can look really rough and changing and chaotic.. but underwater, um… well, for example, you the weather and the temperature don’t change nearly so quickly.." You sound like a dork to your own finned ears, geeze. "it’s hard to get a body of water that large to change.. and it’s louder, too.. sound travels much farther in water.. you might think it’d be quiet and peaceful but it can be the opposite.. whales in particular, oh my god they can be so loud if a pod of whales goes past.. and… mm, it can be scary too.. my hive, it’s built into the edge of a marine trench that goes really deep.. i’ve never actually found the bottom.. there are some really weird things that live in the coldest, deepest parts of the ocean, and the climate can be hard even for seadwellers to tolerate..”

You can ramble on about the ocean all night if left to your own devices, really. You try not to talk about weird, nameless horrors that live in the deepest parts of the ocean and sing eerie, psychic songs that keep you awake for days, though.

"it’s much easier to get around, though.. well, for me, anyway.. having a high centre of gravity is weird.. in the sea it’s so much easier, and it’s not like you can fall off a great height and break something.. being tall on land is more awkward than i expected.. and walking on land is just so… inefficient!!"

[arborealbrewster]

'If I'd known you were coming I would have come and met you in the truck. We landdwellers don't actually walk everywhere. Not for the most part, anyway.’ You think about the marine trench so deep that even Kaitos has never seen the bottom, and quickly shove it out of your thoughts. Don’t need to be thinking about any more scary sucking black holes right now, no way.

'You should see the lake in my forest sometime. It comes out of a bunch of caves and I'm not sure whether they come out somewhere else or if they just end somewhere - I never managed to go look - but it's so deep and clear. Full of fish you'd think were this far away-' You hold up your hands, '-but then you go for them and find out they're actually really big and really far down.'

[krakencuddler-blog]

"mm hmm.. i’ve never been in a truck before… or any kind of land vehicle.. when i was a wiggler i uh, used to call them land-boats.." You grin sheepishly, then perk up at the mention of lakes.

"oh, i’ve never swam in a lake before.. i always wanted to, though.. swim with quackbeasts and croakbeasts and such.. kind of like a piece of home inland.. i bet a lake actually would be quite quiet and peaceful, too.. well, unless you swam into a quackbeast.. i hear those things are noisy.."

[arborealbrewster]

Land-boats. You crack up. ‘Oh, god, that’s adorable. Yeah, there’s not too many quackbeasts on my lake - there’s a few downriver, though, and plenty of honkbeasts in the shallows. You’d have to watch out for them, though, they bite.’

You had almost successfully forgotten about the storm when there is a horrifying BANG and the shutter not only warps, but cracks open a little too. You sit up and stare at it, and then whip your head round at the sound of Khubla hammering on your door.

'Relocating downstairs! Let's go!'

It is suddenly very hard to breathe.

[cetaceanhyperesthete-blog]

((OOC: if you don't mind me showing up? [this is ceruleanvulpine.] i could postpone or whatever if you'd prefer, don't wanna crash your pale-party -- well, ok, i do, but while it's pretty clear the characters are gonna be unhappy no matter what, i'd prefer their players weren't. :P ))

You bang on the door.

You realize that to whoever the fuck's inside it must sound like the hail (FUCK this hail) is suddenly alive and banging sideways on the door, but if they would open it they wouldn't have this problem, right?

Screw it. You shove your shoulder into the door with as much force as you can muster, which is difficult when you're holding a piece of metal above your head in a desperate attempt to hold off as much of the ice as you can.

You slip through the door and slam it behind you, lowering your makeshift shield. Your hair is stringy and wet and hanging in your face and you are SURE your face paint is smudged. Can't win 'em all. You are, at least, not currently dying of blunt force trauma, which is a plus.

You peer nearsightedly at the snapped deadbolt. Oops. You look up from it to see, blurrily, three trolls staring at you: a bigass seadweller, a much shorter troll in green, and a third one emphatically pointing a machete at you.

"I'll pay for the bolt," you offer with a grin, raising your hands in the air (pausing to wipe a smudge of indigo blood away from your eye). "What're you all in such a hurry for?"

Your question is answered by another loud crack as more hailstones slam into the walls.