Having separated from his new frienemy in his explorations of the city, Diamond eventually found the border with the forest. It was much more intimidatingly large than expected; somehow ‘forest’ made it sound small and soft.
It was not small or soft.
He rambled at the border for a bit, the hum of the city in the back of his skull with the blessedly empty forest to his front. He wasn’t quite brave enough to venture out there yet. Not alone. Maybe he’d track down Scanner again and poke him until he ran this way.
Chi readjusts the pack on her back and tries to tamp down her excitement. Streetlights! Food you don’t have to prepare yourself! People to annoy!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not that there’s anything wrong with holing up in the woods, mind- but anyone she and Dol had met on their travels wasn’t particularly prone to hobnobbing it around with a pair of tiny gremlins, and Chi is bored. Bored!!!!!!!!!!
They’ve been walking for a couple days and now they’re finally, finally at the outskirts of Koh. Chi turns to Dol and grins wide, bouncing up and down on her heels.
Dol smiles faintly, reaching over and squeezing Chi’s hand. They’re not particularly enthused about lights and noises and people for their own sake, it overwhelms them easily, but Chi missed -is missed the word to use, when you don’t remember your past?- having other sources of entertainment.
And that’s about when they stumble over the grey dude dithering at the edge of the forest. They’ve got that newbie look, and, perhaps more tellingly, the newbie bag. Chi, true to form, skips forward a few feet, grinning, and shouts out a hello. Dol lets go of Chi’s hand and hangs back a couple-ten feet, watching.
“Hey fucker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You going to pace around like a zoo animal or come over and say hi???????????????”
You can hear the abuse of punctuation.
Diamond heard them before he saw them, too distracted by his own uncertainty to really notice movement in the trees. He turned his head and then squinted, taking in the tiny things. Maybe not so tiny. Tinier than him, at least, which was pretty tiny. Maybe?
He was smaller than buildings and trees, so Diamond was struggling with that a bit.
“What the fuck is ‘hi’? What the fuck is ‘zoo’?” he shouted back, swinging the bag over his shoulder and edging out into The Wilds anyways. If there were other people out here, it probably wasn’t that dangerous. And they were rude too! Which meant they were almost definitely friends, and Diamond had a feeling he could always use more friends.
And if they weren’t friends, maybe he could steal something off of them. Win-win!
Chi rolls her eyes, not bothering with his questions, while Dol snickers softly in the background.
“What the fuck are you??????????????? Other than new??????????????????”
She comes closer, close enough to jab Diamond in the chest.
“You glow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it’s glowier than our glow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
The tiny lights on her forehead and under her eyes light up for emphasis.
“Fuck you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
They were super rude. Diamond was feeling happier about this by the minute. He poked her hard in the forehead in return, jeering a little at her glow, which was absolutely nowhere near as impressive as his glow. He was the king of glowing. Whatever the fuck a king was.
“Fuck you!” he returned gleefully, squinting at her partner before poking her again. “I’m Diamond, which is basically the best name ever. And I’m the best at being Diamond. You ever been that? No? Fuck off then! With your shit glow!”
“Diamond, like the stupid rock???????????????? It’s basically the shittiest name ever, while the best names are Chi and Dol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Names that totally coincidentally belong to us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
She jabs him equally hard in the stomach.
“So!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nightlight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why are you dipshitting around at the edge of the woods?????????????????????????? Don’t you know there are monsters in there????????????????????”
Chi grins, clearly teasing.
