ORIGIN

Bowie had taken a nice dust bath in the sand after arriving in Canis, having ventured from Eridanus in search of something to do. As nice as hanging out with dangerous lessers was, they wanted to hang out with someone who didn't try to eat them every ten seconds.

The pup trotted forward before reaching a nice little pool, and darted forward to splash into it, head creaching the water as they shook it out. They paddled to the other side and lay there, half-submerged on the shore, ears perked up and eyes half-lidded.

After a while they sighed and stood up, shaking water off before padding off in a random direction, searching for someone to interact with.

@Catafay

Was that a log in the pool?!

No, that couldn't possibly be a log in the pool. It had to be a rock!

And Catafay was gonna splash it!

The puffin perched from a mound beside the pool and, not necessarily when he felt the time was right, but rather as soon as the "rock" began to move, the puffin leapt in!

CANNONBAAAAAALL-- sploosh!

Catafay peeped his little orb of a head up and scanned around to find the "rock" he was supposed to have splashed. It wasn't there! Instead, there was some weird-lookin' fellow orb creature. It had moved out of the pool! Where in the heck did it think it was going?!

"HEEEEEY! YOU ARE A ROCK, YOU WERE S'POSED TO BE SPLASHED BY MEEEEE!!!" he called after it. "COME BACK AND GET SPLASHED! YOU THERE! WITH THE FUNNY HEAD! YOU WERE MEANT-- NO, DESTINED TO BE SPLASHED BY ME! SPLOOSHINO ROCKASAURUS!"

Splooshino Rockasaurus "explained".

"OR YOU CAN JUST CALL ME SPLOO I GUESS. BUT ONLY IF YOU GET BACK HERE AND GET SPLASHED!!!"

Guess it's Sploo now. But only if you come back there and get splashed!

@Bowie

Bowie blinked slowly as they turned around, facing Catafay. They watched him ramble on and on for a few minutes, before smiling gently.

"Hello, Splooshino Rockasaurus,", they said, "I'm Bowie. I'm sorry I moved."

They made their way back into the water and settled down, remaining as still as possible, "You can splash me now, if you want."

They weren't a rock, but at this point they didn't want to correct the odd bird. They were perfectly content to do as told and come back to be splashed, since they loved water anyway.

"Is that your real name?", they asked, "It's very interesting."

@Catafay

The rock came back!! A very cooperative rock!!! Named Bowie-- no, that simply would not do. "Well since you moved back, you can call me Sploo! And since I'm Sploo, you have to be uh... Boo now! Because it rhymes and now we're friends so we have to rhyme." "Sploo" liked this one. They played along!

Once "Boo" was in the pool again, and even gave permission for the splooshing, Sploo nodded enthusiastically and haphazardly waddled his way to the same spot where he'd originally dove off of.

Just as they were about to take a running leap off, Boo asked a question, thus forcing Sploo to abruptly pause and consider. "Why YES! Of course it is! And it is extremely interesting, I'm glad you think so! I come from a loooong line of Splooshino Rockasauruses. It'd be real hard to list them all, and all of their great and brave and heroic feats, but uh, if I had to guess... I'd say I'm probably the twentieth of my kind!"

Twenty was a good number, right? Even, easy, sounded long enough. Sure! If the numbers weren't convincing enough, than the tone would have to be! And Sploo could have a very, very convincing tone.

With that, Splooshino Rockasaurus the Twentieth went for another cannonball. SPLASH!

@Bowie

Bowie hummed and nodded, "That's a big number. You must have a lot of splooshing to live up to."

They simply closed their eyes as the wave of water crashed over them, and they shook their head, unfazed, "I don't mind Boo. I think it's nice, though it sounds awful scary, since you yell it when startling someone. Though I think it fits as your nickname, since you're very loud."

They watched 'Sploo' paddle in the water like a duck, finding the motion oddly adorable. Though that awkward wing made them think for a moment. Hopefully it wasn't painful.

Wait.

"We're friends?", they asked, before nodding, "Okay."

@Catafay

Sploo nodded with such pride that his already-pretty-puffy chest looked about to burst open with it. "I do! I really do." Of course, in reality, Sploo didn't think about how much splooshing they had to live up to, because thinking ahead was boring and dull. But Boo didn't have to know that.

Boo might figure it out on their own.

Boo provided some deep insight into the origin and usage of their name. They were right, Sploo WAS very loud! But Boo was Boo's nickname now... wouldn't that be confusing? Why yes! Yes it would! And that would make it all the BETTER! "You're right! We can both be called Boo then! But you better call me Sploo or else we'll be talking to ourselves!" Sploo chuckled at his own joke. It was a good joke! Boo should be able to get it.

Splooshing was so fun! Sploo moved away from his paddling and began splooshing around in the shallows of the puddle with their little waddle-y feets. Just because Boo had reminded him that he had much to sploosh! That was his duty, as Splooshino Rockasaurus the Twentieth, after all!

Sploo noticed that his new friend seemed surprised at the new relationship status they'd been given. "Well of course we are, Boo! Our names rhyme, and you're fun, and you're face is funny so I like it!" Boo chortled once more, as if to emphasize the funniness of Boo's face. Sploo firmly believed that a funny face was a good face indeed.

"And since we're friends, once we're done splooshing around, I'm going to climb on your back and then we're going to ride around!" The order was given! How could Boo possibly decline?

@Bowie

Bowie simply cocked their head, "But what if other people want to talk to us? We can't both be Boo then. If you say my name, you're loud enough that you could accidentaly startle someone, and that could be funny. I'm not loud, so I think Sploo is just fine."

Bowie gently flapped a paw in the water, splooshing gently so that Sploo wasn't splooshing alone, "Oh? Okay. Where do you want to go? Just around?"

They were so... easygoing. They didn't believe a word the other said about the history of their name, but you know what? They'd roll with it. They wanted a friend anyway.

"Do you have any other friends?", they asked, curious to know if anyone else liked the puffin as much as they did, "I don't have any, actually. I hatched alone and was rather frightened, but I'm okay now. Nothing happened and I calmed down."

@Catafay

Sploo considered the valid point of his new friend. He liked the confusion two Boo's could bring on, but alas, confusion might drive some away from their merry brigade! And what a shame that would be. Well, personally, Sploo thought it would be funny; priceless expressions abound. But if Boo was worried about it, then shouldn't Sploo try to accommodate that? Boo had been accommodating for him, so...

"Shall we switch names then? When we talk to others you can be Sploo, and I'll be Boo. And I can scream at them! And you can just be yourself, because yourself is pretty nice." Sploo-- or, maybe it was Boo now? Who knew. The puffin honked out another laugh, although at what he didn't quite know. His friend was pretty nice, that hadn't been facetious. Maybe he was just laughing because laughing was fun! Yeah!!

And then the question of direction came, and the puffin once again had to stop and consider. "Oh, uh..." He didn't know a single thing about where they were or where they could go. He wasn't born for answering questions, he was born for asking them, you know?! So, um, yeah, he didn't know... until!

"Other friends?" Before he could answer, the puffin chick listened to the other. That story... it was so sad! And in all honesty (a rare thing for this particular bird), he himself didn't either.

So perhaps... yes!

The puffin imagined it then: himself, riding valiantly on his funny friend's back, chasing the breeze through the valleys, over the mountains, gazing only for a brief few moments at the beauteous light of alpenglow, before being called back to follow uncharted paths, unknown marvels, on their epic quest... their mutual quest for FRIENDSHIP!

"WE'LL LOOK FOR FRIENDS TOGETHER!!!" he squealed. "That's where we'll go! Friend-looking! Looking for more friends!! You and me, and then me and you and more and more, and we'll go on a big, fabulous journey--" What did 'fabulous' even mean? "--and it will be GREAT!" Heck yeah! Perfect plan. The puffin splooshed around even more in the shallow part of the pool and giggled even more to express his excitement.

@Bowie

Bowie blinked.

"... Can I keep Boo?", they asked, a bit embarrassed, "I like it. And... you're pretty great, too."

They perked up at Catafay's speech and stood up, shaking water off. They made their way out of the water and looked to Catafay expectantly, "Let's go on this fabulous quest. Right now."

They didn't really picture valleys and mountains and alpenglow, but they did picture naps on shorelines and feasts of their favorite fruits and grasses, with Catafay eating whatever they ate. That sounded lovely.

"Let's go find friends,", they said happily, tail shaking in glee.

@Catafay

Boo wanted to be Boo. Well, that was marvelous then! Sploo nodded vigorously to both Boo's request, and Boo's observation. Boo should be Boo, and Sploo was indeed pretty great!

Simply smashing! Now came for the QUEST! Boo was so prepared; my gosh, was this match made in heaven? Sploo giggled in delight! YES! Boo was a VERY good friend, they'd go on a VERY cool quest together, and make MANY MORE good friends! "Yes! Yes yes yes! Fabulous quest time now!"

Catafay would hop onto the shore and waddle over to Boo. "Let me ride on your back so we can be away on this quest as fast as possible!" Was that really why Sploo wanted to ride on Boo's back? No. Aha. He wanted to do it because it sounded fun. But hey, maybe it would help them be faster!

And the faster the better! Didn't want to let any potential friends get away!

@Bowie