His complaining had all but fallen on deaf ears but that angry yelling, well, that gave her room for pause. The green thing that she'd been aiming to touch, perhaps grab, was violently snatched out of her reach. Before she could even say anything about it the other gembound was up on his paws and yelling at her. She hadn't heard yelling before --not surprising since she was only minutes old-- but she knew immediately that it was something that she didn't like at all. The horse stepped back, head raising as if she'd been struck on the nose.

"Break... Break... Break... It..." She parroted almost absently while the words washed over her. Oh no... She didn't want to break it. Was he angry? Yes... yes he was angry. At her. Oh no... She was a bad horse... She was terrible. The realization hit her that what she'd done was awful and that now she probably wasn't his friend anymore because of it. A small whimpering sound erupted in her throat followed shortly by big tears pooling and finally falling from her eyes. "Sorry... sorry... This One no break. No break it. No... Sorry. No mean it!" She sobbed. Oh no, she didn't want to break anything she didn't want him to be angry at her! Before she could stop it the squeaking words were out of her mouth."Eh? Kooheero'eh? Kir? Kir?" Oh... He wouldn't understand that...

"Ki'Eh? Kir--Yes? Yes? Please? Friend? We still friends? Please?" She just wanted everything to be right again, she wanted to be his friend and she didn't want him to be angry at her anymore!

_____________

words| 274
tagged| @Tukluk
ooc| hover over text for translations
muse| 7/10

"Talking looks like this!"
"Eekii eee!"
Thinking looks like this...

Tuck was so mad at Saga! So mad! But as he continued staring at her angrily, watching her break down and start crying, he realized he just couldn’t stay angry at her. Besides, her bawling was making him feel really awkward. Then she started wailing at him in both his own language as well as… whatever the other language she spoke was. She was blubbering away, and the more she blubbered, the more guilty he felt. I mean, he she had been about to touch the bag he’d worked on painstakingly for more than a day, but… but he’d just made her cry. He’d never made another Gembound cry before. He wasn’t used to this sort of… gross feeling in his gut.

“Hey,” he said quietly. “Look… just don’t touch it okay? And we’re still friends. Just stop crying. It’s weird.” Okay, so that wasn’t exactly the best apology in the world, but… it was better than nothing, according to Tukluk. He just hoped she would accept it so they could move on to more fun things!

Words: 177 @Saga - Tuck sucks at apologizing lmfao

Oh, this was the end. It was all over! There was no way that her friend was going to be okay with what she did. He was going to be too angry and she would never have him as a friend again and she was going to be sad forever! The thought made the tears flow even faster while she started whining. Oh, this was the end!

But then... Then he forgave her and the best part was they were still friends! She just had to stop crying! Joyfully she nodded her head, smile forming on her face. "Oh! Oh! Ki'Eh! This One happy we friends still! She's sorry! So sorry she almost break. No almost-break again!" Thoroughly excited at the turn of events she began to laugh and lift her legs in a sort of prancing dance. She just had to stop crying now...

But she couldn't...

No matter how hard she tried the tears kept bubbling out of her eyes despite her laughter, what was more she seemed to be producing them faster! However, she wasn't sad this time. She was downright happy! "No can stop crying! This One too happy! Water falls from eyes but is happy water!" Her disjointed and strangely spoken words trilled out to the tiny critter. "Saga want show Ki'Eh she happy!" With that she lowered her head and started to push her muzzle towards Tuck but stopped with eyes wide and questioning. "Can touch Ki'Eh?" Didn't want to make him mad again.

_____________

words| 250
tagged| @Tukluk
ooc| hover over text for translations
muse| 7/10

"Talking looks like this!"
"Eekii eee!"
Thinking looks like this...

Oh my God… This horse was quickly becoming one of those friends that you only have out of pity — you know, because no one else wants to be friends with them and you don’t really wanna be friends with them either, but you don’t wanna crush their poor little souls so you pretend that you love their company? Yeah. That was… that was what this was turning into, and Tuck didn’t know how he felt about it. Tuck got the feeling that maybe there was something wrong with this horse, but that might have just been because he was already turning into an impatient asshole.

He sighed quietly to himself as she babbled on and on about crying and being happy and friends and stuff — and then she leaned down towards him and he jerked so hard backwards that he fell over, still cradling his precious backpack. His eyes were squeezed shut, waiting for her to lick him happily to death or something, but she stopped. And then asked if she could touch him.

He opened his eyes and looked at her confusedly, still lying on the ground. “Why do you wanna touch me? I don’t even know you!” Uh-oh, that was gonna make her be sad again, wasn’t it? With an annoyed sigh, he quickly pushed ahead. “How about I touch you? Would that make you happy?”

Words: 229 @Saga

When she lowered her head down her tiny friend fell over backwards, looking for all the world like he was frightened or annoyed or afraid she was going to break his toy again. She didn't want to elicit that response! She just wanted to touch him because she was happy and she wanted to give him a big ole horsey-nuzzle to show she was excited that she'd been forgiven! The question he asked had her confused for a moment. "Why not touch? Saga is happy... she want to show Ki'Eh that she is happy he no mad at her no more." That was right, right? The words were coming easier after speaking in this non-whistle tone but the thoughts in her head were still sluggish with them. It was much easier to use the squeaks and squeals. "You know Saga. She is Saga and you is Tuck! We know each other." How could they not? They were just introduced! It made perfect sense to her. Unless... He didn't want them to know each other... Was he still mad at her? She could feel the tears --which had just started to dry up-- begin to pool at her eyes again at the thought. But nope! He was asking if he could touch her!

The horse bobbed her head up and down excitedly. "Kir! Kir! Much happy kir! All the happy for Saga is happy! Much kir!" She didn't care of it didn't make sense! She wanted her Ki'Eh to touch her! Joyously she shoved her muzzle at him, resisting the almost overpowering urge to lick him.

_____________

words| 265
tagged| @Tukluk
ooc| hover over text for translations
muse| 7/10

"Talking looks like this!"
"Eekii eee!"
Thinking looks like this...

Oh good, his offer to touch her had turned off the sad waterworks just in time. Seriously, he needed to avoid this overemotional horse at all costs. Still… she was a lot bigger than him even at just a day old, so fully grown, she would be huge. And having a huge friend would come in handy, which he already knew from his meeting with Baratheon. Besides, as mean as he was being in his own head, he couldn’t stand the thought of actually trying to be mean to anyone unless they were mean first. So… he supposed he was stuck being her friend now. Might as well make it work.

He reached out a tiny paw to touch her soft, velvety nose, and found that he rather liked the sensation. He smiled a bit and rubbed the end of her nose for a few seconds, sort of lost in a trance from the fuzzy feeling. Then he snapped out of it. “Okay, but look,” he said, pulling his hand away. “You can’t just go reaching for other Gembounds’ stuff or trying to touch Gembounds without asking. It’s weird and some Gembounds might respond even worse than I did, and there are creatures here who are a lot bigger and scarier than me, too. Do you get what I’m saying?”

Words: 220 @Saga

The tiny primate's paw reached out to touch her own the nose and she immediately let out an excited squeal but managed not to cry in her overjoyed state... but just barely. She had to admit having someone pet her on the nose felt nice, it reminded her of... of something. Some vague sensation in the back of her mind. A hand rubbing her snout, someone telling her she was a "good girl", and her trotting around a closed area in bright sunlight but it was simply a wisp of memory before it was gone. She snapped to attention, ears pinpointed on the little creature in front of her. "Gem. Gem. Gem... booouuunnnd?" Oh! Was that what they were? She and him? It made sense. So, that meant there were others? Oh! How exciting! She couldn't wait to meet others too and make friends of them! Still, she would have to head her friend's advice. No touching without asking first! "Kir!" She said enthusiastically while nodding her head.

"No touch! No touch! No touch without asking! But... Ki'Eh no is scary? If Ki'Eh no is scary are other... gem gem gembounds no is scary too?" Her head tilted slightly to the side at this. If other gembounds were bigger and scarier than him and he wasn't... Then what did that mean? Were they marginally scarier than him? Still, she didn't want to upset them no matter how not-scary they were. However, if they responded worse... Would she get yelled at again? She hoped not. Yelling was the absolute worst!

_____________

words| 259
tagged| @Tukluk
ooc| hover over text for translations
muse| 6/10

"Talking looks like this!"
"Eekii eee!"
Thinking looks like this...

Tuck studied Saga for a moment after she’d talked and asked her question other Gembounds being… ‘no is scary.’ He sort of grinned at her in amusement, trying to remember if he’d been so hopeless at talking after he’d just come out of his chrysalis. Honestly, he couldn’t remember. He remembered the large wolf who’d nearly stepped on him and squished him out of existence, but he didn’t remember exactly what he’d said to her.

“Well, not all Gembounds are scary,” he told her. “Even the really big ones can be nice. And sometimes even if they’re not scary, they can still be mean to you. Just be careful and you’ll be okay, probably.” Tuck thought about all the Gembounds he’d met so far, and decided to give her an example. “Like, look at me and you,” he began. “You’re huge compared to me, but you’re not scary, and you’re not mean, either. But there was this one time I met some kind of weasel or something and he was a jerk, but we were almost the same size. Basically, just don’t automatically go up and trust every single Gembound you meet. You gotta be cautious first, and then if they seem friendly, you can let your guard down.”

This was ridiculously sage advice from a one-cycle-old, but this was one of the only things Tuck had any experience in — judging other Gembounds and testing for danger. When you were this tiny, you had to be careful around others or you could end up as monkey paste on the ground.

Words: 262 @Saga

The little horse, despite her apparent excitability, seemed able to keep her attention focused on Tuck and soak up the information like a sponge. Some gembounds were scary? Others weren't? Gee, that was a lot to remember. Why couldn't all gembounds not be scary? Why couldn't they all be nice to each other? Wouldn't that be the best? "Why some scary? Why we all no get along? All... All friend? Like Saga and Ki'Eh?" This was all making her poor little head spin.

In any case she supposed she could ask first to be sure that a new gembound wanted to be her friend. The naive young foal figured that this would be the best way to see if someone was friendly or not. "This One ask first? Ask if gembound is Eh-- is friend? That good yes?" Surely someone would tell her straightaway and if they said no --gods forbid-- then she would know to... to... "What Saga do if gemboud no is Eh?"

_____________

words| 165
tagged| @Tukluk
ooc| hover over text for translations
muse| 6/10

"Talking looks like this!"
"Eekii eee!"
Thinking looks like this...

Tukluk tried to remember if he had been so full of questions when he’d first been born, but he hardly remembered his interaction with the wolf who had nearly squished the life out of him — besides that one important detail, of course. He shook his head and smiled in amusement at this horse, much like a father finding amusement in his infant daughter. Sure, he was only a cycle old, but Tuck already felt like he was growing up. Part of that was because he was pompous and arrogant a lot, and part of it was because a lot had, admittedly, happened to him already. At any rate, he was quickly losing his terribly mean attitude towards this Gembound, and he found himself thinking she was adorable more and more.

Still… he wasn’t very smart when it came to explaining how the world worked. Things that he knew as simple fact were things that Saga, perhaps, had zero knowledge. Like the fact that not everyone ate plants like them. “Well… we can’t be friends with everyone because some Gembounds like to eat other Gembounds! They’re meat eaters! And we’re meat. But… then again, I’ve never met a Greater Gembound who wanted to eat me… But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen! That’s why I’m trying to learn all the spells I can! So I can defend myself from the scary Gembounds!” Oh, lord, Gods only knew whether his words were terrifying this horse or if she even understood him at all…

Saga asked what she should do if someone didn’t wanna be her friend. “Well, it depends on if they just don’t wanna talk to you, or if they’re actually trying to hurt you,” he began. “If they just don’t like you, you should leave them alone. Or maybe… you could tease ‘em a little, rile ‘em up.” He chuckled mischievously. “That’s always fun. But be careful! They might go after you and if they do you only have two options: run away or fight back! And you gotta think quick or it’ll be too late!” Hopefully he wasn’t scarring this poor Gemling for life…

Words: 355 @Saga -- long post is long