Carja had been trotting along, trying her best to not step on anyone, a rabbit swinging from her teeth. She was going to eat it, but she'd forgotten, and the commotion of the festival distracted her from the horrible memories attached to Polaris.

She skid to a stop and turned to face Efflu, perking up immensely. She knew that hunk of meat anywhere!!

"EFF!!", she squealed, galloping forward, tail wagging as she dropped the rabbit, grinning, "I missed you!!"

She offered the rabbit, now glad she had an offering to sate the beast, before looking at their murals, cooing in awe, "These are so pretty!! They almost look like you could eat them!"

She tapped one with a claw just to make sure, either way.

Carja lay herself down next to Effluvium, tucking her paws under herself and flopping her head on top of them, purring away, "What are you doing?"

Carja cooed as the figurehead of all eldritch horrors suddenly turned furry, "You're fluffy now!"

She reached out and touched the fur, marveling at the softness. Just like a rabbit. She pulled her hand away and peered at the other in interest.

"Taste for meat?", she said, before huffing, "You're not supposed to eat people who can talk like you and me, Eff. But... you can kiss them! That's a thing!"

Her tail wagged innocently, "It's when you bump noses I think. Or mouths if you have lips! But you can bump your mouth or nose to someone's cheek or head. I do it to my friends all the time. Then you don't eat people and it's fun!"

On the plus side, she supposed, it would be thrilling to try and kiss a creature with so many teeth and claws. Some Gembounds might be interested in that.

"Efflu," she said suddenly, "Are we friends?"

Carja nodded, "Yes! I am your friend!"

Her tail wagged happily as she crossed her paws, "I can bring you more food! There are orange things in a patch over there, I can get you some to try to eat."

They were big, smelled edible, and Effluvium didn't have a sense of taste anyway, "I'll be right back. Don't eat anyone while I'm gone!!"

She raised her wings and took flight, wind blowing up and ruffling any debris or loose feathers or fur. She disappeared over the crowd momentarily, to return with some pumpkins.

Carja quickly returned, a bit huffy over something, steam curling from her nostrils. She put a pumpkin down in front of Effluvium and sat down heavily, frowning.

"Here," she mumbled, pushing it closer, "It's an orange, it's good."

Well, hopefully it was good. She didn't really eat vegetables. She flopped down and set her head on her paws, clearly upset about something.

"Hey Efflu, if someone makes you mad, what do you do?", she asked, already expecting the answer to be something along the lines of 'eat them'.

But maybe Effluvium would decide that today was the day to be philosophical. Maybe.

Carja huffed and offered Effluvium a pat as they passed, "I knew you'd say something like that. Reliable, as always."

She set her head on her paws and batted over a piece of the rind, stretching her wings high above her head as she yawned. They were quickly tucked back in and she scratched her jaw, looking away.

"Have you ever gotten angry?", she asked, her face slightly displaced due to how it was leaning on her paws, making one eye squint and her lip press up against her nostril.

She couldn't help but compare Effluvium to a hippo. A large, muscular body with a massive head. Really, if they had skin and less limbs, they'd be very similar.