ORIGIN

Had Oka the ability to, they would've tilted their head. They had never been called slime-kin before. Then again, they'd never talked to another snail before. Perhaphs this was how all snails talked, and Oka was the odd one out. Though they supposed they were slime-kin. That was...accurate. They were slimy. And a snail.

"Yeah, slime time?" Oka said.

Oka watched, quiet as Sunny made her way over to them, sliding over the ground. And kept sliding. She was still moving. She hadn't got far. Figuring that this would take a while, Oka slinked from the edge, closer to the group. Their foot rippled as they walked. Oka was faster just from sheer size. When they reached the group, Oka lowered their black, stalk eyes. The snail crawled upon the bear, Tema. They seemed to be friends? Though it was beyond Oka for guessing how long. Oka wanted to get a closer look at them. Oka was much taller. Oka couldn't remember if they had been that large when they hatched. But they'd probably get bigger, right?

"What do you, um, mean by slime time?" They said. Oka made slime, but they hadn't the faintest idea what slime time would've meant. They felt like they were missing out on an important part of snail society that they'd never known of. They were kind of embarrassed that a snail much younger than them knew of it. Their eye stalks raised, and they turned their attention to the rest of the youngsters. "Are you all here for slime time?"

@Madhukar ((Im sorry this reply took so long yall jkghj))

Madhukar watched, feeling only half lucid, as Sunny explained "friend-kin". Tema is kin, Oka is slime-kin, Little-stone and Carja are friend-kin. Got it. Honestly, Madhukar didn't completely understand... even a single word of that explanation, but the emotions welling within her were positive, so she felt she understood. She certainly couldn't object. What was it about this little Sunny that had enchanted her so?

Tema (the kin), the pretty blue one, Carja (the other friend-kin), and Oka (the slime-kin) seemed to be speaking of a Slime Time, and Sunny of a Snail Time. A very... very slow collision appeared to be transpiring. Madhukar could only watch as though witnessing a crime in a dream; shocked but with a languor, like moving through peanut butter.

"Slime time..." she said softly, mostly to herself, still having no idea what had overcome her. It was all just a slurry of events, tracing a path down which the kitten had no other option but to walk. She followed in the slimy trail of the one who called her "Little-stone". She didn't even realize that she hadn't given her actual name.

For all she knew, she could've been Little-stone this whole time, and it wouldn't have mattered an inch.

Because it was Slime Time now. What mattered was... slime.

@Sunny

Sunny gently touched Tema's paw with one of her tentacles, thankful for the help even if she felt a little silly being carried. Carja was close enough to also receive a gentle touch, so Sunny gave one, but then she was being moved closer to Oka who made an effort to face her. Sunny's eyestalks waved excitedly and she touched both of the tentacles on her face to the nearest part of Oka's foot. "Snail-kin solidarity!" she declared proudly, but then decided to try and explain herself. Being around Tema had given her a rough understanding of how actual language worked beyond the instinctual gibberish she spouted, so Sunny tried her best.

"Snail-sense," she began, knowing that 'smell' wasn't a good way to describe her understanding of the location of a slime-trail. "Snail-sense of slime. Slime is... slime??" The word she was looking for was 'sacred', but that wouldn't have been any clearer. "Big snail has big slime. Sunny has snail-sensed no other Snail-kin. Stone-kin in Tema, yes! Friend-kin in Carja and Little-stone, yes! But Snail-kin, Slime-kin? Only Oka. Only Oka." Sunny hoped that she'd expressed herself well enough. It actually made less sense to her than her gibberish did... thankfully, Sunny would pick up language in the coming cycles and sound less ridiculous.

She glanced back (notably, just by moving one of her eyestalks, not the edge of her body which could be deemed her head) at Madhukar and made a trilling noise remarkably similar to a purr or chirrup. "Does Little-stone have snail-sense? Can she smell-see the slime?"


@carja

@Tema