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+--- Thread: And the World's Alright with Me (/showthread.php?tid=11135)
And the World's Alright with Me - Pip - Mar 03 2023
Today was a bad day to be in Canis. Pip wasn't sure what was happening. She'd scurried in to check on some old friends, only to see bugs like her everywhere. Only these were huge. Massive. Gigantic. The size of Morpho! They didn't seem too interested in her for now. Or perhaps it was her size that prevented them from noticing her. Either way, Pip had been ecstatic to see more gembound like her! The only thing that kept her from approaching them to talk was Little Blue.
They seemed to be nervous for some reason Pip didn't understand. She'd oblige Little Blue for now, but once she'd visited her friends, Pip thought it was a good idea to talk to them. Her abdomen flickered in thought as she scuttled along the ground. She glanced back at Little Blue. They hurried behind her on thin stick-like legs, wobbling all the while. Googly eyes swaying to and fro.
Maybe Little Blue had a reason to be nervous, but Pip knew some nice people in Canis, like the Collector! These bugs were in Canis, so whatever they were doing couldn't be too bad. All the holes everywhere were new, though! And the fire too, now that she thought about it. Lost in thought, Pip hadn't given thought to where she was walking. Which she should've. Pip fell face first into a divot in the ground.
"Pip...? Came the small, worried voice of little Blue.
"I'm okay!" She called back. Pip began lifting herself up with her forelegs. She paused. "Ooh. Ooh ooh! Little Blue! I found a weird rock!"
"Weird how...?"
"Look--its got a weird shape! Weird divots! Is that normal for rocks?"
"Huh...I don't think so. I've never grown any weird divots...will I?" Little Blue said, helping pull Pip up. She glanced from Little Blue to the dried mud beneath her. One large print spot, and a few smaller around one end.
"Mmm, I don't think so. You're a different color. But lemme check! We can visit our friends after!" With that, Pip placed a purple forelimb on the mud, and forced her will into it.
RE: And the World's Alright with Me - Relic - Mar 03 2023
Relic hadn't been too attached to Canis - at least, she thought she wouldn't be. It was her birth place, the first thing she saw. Where she had been first adopted (only to have been left behind). She pondered what had been buried beneath Order's spread. If she dug by the walls, would she find the speckled shards of her chrysalis, or the bones of the rabbit she and Bayo had caught the day she was born?
Was it possible for a cave that was already dead to feel like it was rotting?
She didn't want to risk tearing at the fungus with her teeth - the stuff already smelt disgusting, and she didn't want to know what would happen if she ingested it. Anything that'd been hanging of those bugs was not something she wanted in her mouth, let alone her guts. The compromise was searching Canis for stragglers, those not yet infected, and maybe in need of help. "Hello? Anyone there?" She called, as she had done for a while now. There had been no answers yet.
A voice - small, distant? They turned, unable to rotate their ears as they had used to. "Hello? Unable to see the mantis yet, she reached out with her magic - the new spell this time, just in case. It worked this time, if only barely. She walked toward the speck of energy, one that hugged the floor. The magic told her it wasn't anything she should worry about, not immediately at least. She squinted, searching for the source.
@Pip
RE: And the World's Alright with Me - Game Master Dark - Mar 03 2023
The thud was soft, rhythmic, in Pip's mind. It might be confusing, should she never have used this magic prior: the echo of ancient vibrations thrumming through unknown memory.
A heartbeat, calm and strong. Measured breathing. A voice, reverberating from somewhere distant: "I think they're over here..."
The pace quickened slightly. The heart rate rose just a tad.
The memory faded.
A heartbeat, calm and strong. Measured breathing. A voice, reverberating from somewhere distant: "I think they're over here..."
The pace quickened slightly. The heart rate rose just a tad.
The memory faded.
@Pip
RE: And the World's Alright with Me - Pip - Mar 03 2023
Pip's eyes stared blankly at the mud, unable to close, as she concentrated on the vision. The rhythmic thudding was strangely familiar-- it reminded her of what she felt in her hairs when something larger than her walked by her. Coincidentally, something larger was approaching now. Pip's head shot up as she felt the padding of feet. It wasn't anyone she recognized--but gembound with that shape tended to be nice!
"Oh! Hello there!" Pip said, waving her forearms about. Little Blue parroted her, giving a small 'hello' of their own, waving stick-like arms about. Pip stared agape at "Wow, your head is really cool! Is that a fruit? Or your face? I've seen people with weird faces before but yours glows! Oh, um, down here! Hold on--" Pip crouched, pushing magicka out from her gem and into her feet. She sprung up before Relic, waving her arms about.
"Hello! I'm--" She dipped out of view, then back up. "I'm Pip! And this is my friend Little Blue!" As Pip bounced, Little Blue spoke up. "Hi..." They said. "I'm a rock....with legs. Pip did this."
"Sure did!" Pip chimed in, still bouncing. Pip had gradually slowed herself, and now she was gently bobbing on the ground.
"So what're you doing here? Are you from here? I came because haven't been here in a while, and I've got some friends here! This cave looks a lot different from what I remember--Its very organized! And there's a bunch of bugs! Big ones! Ooh and I found this weird bump in the ground--and when I tried to see why it was weird I heard footsteps and a weird voice saying--" Pip's voice lowered and she waved her claws about, trying to mimic a sinister figure. "'I think they're over here...' Weird huh?"
@Relic
RE: And the World's Alright with Me - Relic - Mar 03 2023
Relic finally caught sight of tiny figure, lowering her head to get a better look at the creature. It brought to mind a Praetor in miniature - She wasn't sure how to feel about that. Her magic had told her the insect wasn't affiliated, and she was way too small to be a considered threat, physically at least.
Pip - a fitting name. Her head followed the mantis as she started bouncing, nodding along to the little speck in a bleary confusion - too much visual and auditory input for the hyena to process all at once. Still, she tried her best. "I think its my face?? I don't know how to like - check that. How did you give a rock... legs?" Had they wanted legs in the first place? Had it been a request? Wait - how was it talking to begin with if it was a rock? Was there meat inside it?
Huh ???????????????
This was a lot.
"You heard something? From where?"
@Pip
RE: And the World's Alright with Me - Pip - Mar 04 2023
Pip tilted her head. "Umm, I'm not sure how to check your own face either. Oh!" Pip said, her head and tail shooting straight up. "You wanna know how Little Blue got legs?" Pip glanced back at Little Blue, who was nervously shuffling their noodly legs. "Oh yes, yes, I can tell you that! I know that! I found another rock, and I asked it really nicely to give 'em legs!" She paused as she realized that didn't explain much. "It was a shiny rock that gave me good feelings!" Much better.
"There were a lot of gembound there..."
"Yup yup! Little Blue is afraid of other gembound! But Little Blue wanted to be a rock and roll!"
Then, without explaining that comedy crime, Pip switched topics at mach speed: "Ooh, the voice? It came from...mmmh--here!" Pip said, tapping her claw rhythmically against the footprint. "I put my magic in the stone, and heard a voice come out! I'm good at stone magic--watch this!"
Pip's flower shaped tail began to sway. A single discordant rattle shook out. Little Blue, to whom these discordant tunes were the norm, let out as enthusiastic a 'woo' of encouragement as they could. Pip tapped her forelimbs together. "Erm, well not all the time, but most of the time I'm good at stone magic! Anyways, whoever came through musta been a while ago, because I don't think anyone here is looking for anyone. Well, you were looking for me but your voice isn't that scary! I dunno how long ago someone was looking, though." There was a rare beat of silence as Pip thought, absently cleaning a foreleg.
@Relic
RE: And the World's Alright with Me - Relic - Mar 06 2023
"There are other talking rocks?" She studied Little Blue and their littler legs. Was there a beating heart somewhere in there? Blood beneath the crust? She had to know - she had to understand. After examining further with the help of (normally stubborn) magic, the answer appeared to be no. Relic heard only the fluttering beat of Pip's circulation. Maybe rocks have a heartbeat that's just really, really slow?
'But Little Blue wanted to be a rock and roll!' Woosh. Weren't legs for walking?
Pip's little body erupted with discordant chimes. If Relic had still had ears to flick in discomfort, she would do so now. Little Blue seemed to enjoy it at least. "Did you see what made the voice? Did it sound... I dunno, buggy?" She hadn't seen or heard the Praetors speak, but she assumed they could. She'd seen greater gembound that looked similar talk before - though she had failed to make out a stone on either of the drone's bodies.
@Pip
RE: And the World's Alright with Me - Pip - Mar 07 2023
"Well there was one, but I think it's gone now. And Ummm...buggy?" Pip's head tilted. Seemingly forgetting that she, herself, was a bug. "Well it's hard to tell cuz I couldn't really see it, only hear it And I don't remember Morpho's voice sounding too much like that." She made an odd, arrested movement as she tried to avoid visibly drooping at the thought.
"And, um, it didn't sound like my voice either. Buuuut, um, let me check! Maybe there's another voice! Little Blue!" Pip called. With the ease of a well practiced maneuver, Little Blue crouched and Pip hopped aboard. The world's tiniest piggy back ride. She whirled about on Little Blue, little claws soundlessly tapping as she searched for another strange depression.
"There!" She peeped, pointing a claw, and Little Blue wobbled towards it. She sprung off, driving her claws into the dried footprint. Then, once again, Pip pushed her Magicka outward. As she channeled it, Pip absently spoke to Relic.
"Hey um, let me know if you see a big thing that looks kinda like me around? They're all brown and green. I haven't seen them in a while."
@Relic
RE: And the World's Alright with Me - Game Master Dark - Mar 07 2023
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Soft, but heavy. Certainly not buggy, not if Pip were a decent judge of the clack of exoskeletons. Given that she were insectoid--one might hope so. After the passage of these feet, there came a silence--and Pip would feel that she had become one with the stone. An ageless moment passed--seconds, but millennia; moments, but an age. In that time, the wind swept across the rock, dust scattering. And again. Rain fell, and she felt the dampness of being wet stone. She came to know the changing of the winds, the thousand different forms of rain, even a rare snowfall blanketing her back. The strange sense of being gradually eroded by air, by water, by time itself. The occasional, unusual passage of tiny feet across her surface.
...And then she awoke.
Soft, but heavy. Certainly not buggy, not if Pip were a decent judge of the clack of exoskeletons. Given that she were insectoid--one might hope so. After the passage of these feet, there came a silence--and Pip would feel that she had become one with the stone. An ageless moment passed--seconds, but millennia; moments, but an age. In that time, the wind swept across the rock, dust scattering. And again. Rain fell, and she felt the dampness of being wet stone. She came to know the changing of the winds, the thousand different forms of rain, even a rare snowfall blanketing her back. The strange sense of being gradually eroded by air, by water, by time itself. The occasional, unusual passage of tiny feet across her surface.
...And then she awoke.
@Pip
RE: And the World's Alright with Me - Relic - Mar 10 2023
She watched, still dumbfounded, as Pip jumped onto the little limbed rock, toddling around before apparently finding a desirable spot. "Okay. Let me know what you find." As the mantis did her thing, Relic sniffed at the footprints, hoping to find a scent - maybe there was a trail, and they could find whatever creature had been there - but her nose brought nothing but dust. She sneezed, displeased but unsurprised. These were ancient, after all.
"Big, brown and green - got it." She knew no one of that description, and it'd be a miracle if she remembered to mention Pip. Or maybe not, because a bug and her walking talking rock would definitely be hard to forget.
"Big, brown and green - got it." She knew no one of that description, and it'd be a miracle if she remembered to mention Pip. Or maybe not, because a bug and her walking talking rock would definitely be hard to forget.
@Pip