Equinox nodded as the lizard bluntly accepted her full name, without question. Equinox appreciated that- a small smile toyed nervously at the edges of her lips. Equinox took a step back as the lizard- Ghanyarah, he called himself- approached, and the great slime creature lowered her head, the elastic flesh stretching so that they didn't have to stretch to be eye to eye. "Ghanyarah. I underssstand," Equinox nodded her appreciation for the name.

Though the reptile didn't seem to realize it, their gazes were now locked, with her darting cat's eye looking over him as well.

With their question, a rumble began in her chest and she closed her jaws, nerves clearly visible in a vibration that rippled over her skin. Did they mean that in a bad way? In a moment she was reprimanding her response, however- was she not used to this, by now? They weren't afraid, after all, despite what she'd almost caused. She couldn't blame them for being curious. Was she not curious about certain aspects of the world herself.

After a moment, she opened her jaws again, this time to speak. "Go ahead. Jussst don't touch thisss... Ssslime. Unlessss, you... know what to do with it."

Not likely. But if there was the tiniest chance... she might as well put it out there.

"Speech looks like this."
"Thoughts looks like this."

tags: @Ghanyarah
notes: If he looked hard enough and in the right light, he'd be able to see a slit pupil like a cat's!

When she bid him permission to take a look at her gem, Ghanyarah took her instruction and carefully nodded. He'd seen what her slime could do - it could alight in an instant, and it clung stubbornly to everything it touched. It was a wonder how it wasn't covering the entirety of the cave already. Ghanyarah wondered if he could dispel it with water, but he didn't want to douse her, nor did he want to offend her by zealously figuring out ways to get rid of the slime she left behind. His focus went into the red gemstone lodged in her throat. He leaned forward, narrowing his eyes to try and catch its details in the shadow of her jaws.

Beyond the veil of red diamond, he saw something move. Just barely, it twitched like it was alive and sentient. Ghanyarah tilted his head, trying to lean closer - at this point, his head was nearly in her jaws, but curiosity was sweeping away his discretion and if she'd intended to do him harm, she likely already would have. He stared at the gem again, saw movement again, now he could barely distinguish a slit pupil behind the translucent stone. An eye?

Ghanyarah withdrew, staring up at her - then back at the gem. "Is that your eye?" He gawked, unable to stop himself from leaning forward again and inspecting it.

@Equinox

This felt like the first time she'd held eye contact with another being for a long period of time, and it was... well... awkward. There was nowhere else to look, and with their face lodged almost between her jaws, there was no way she could even blink. Of course, she noticed the flickers over Ghanyarah's face whenever she tried to glance away for a split moment. With every moment that passed, Equinox was more and more aware of the slime running down her beak, and she just longed to pull away so that she could wipe it way, to make sure they didn't get a rude awakening with a big, black drop of tar in their face...

Then, abruptly, their voice cut trough her panicked thoughts... her gaze flicked back to them, and she was forced to raise her head away anyway, to speak... but not before a large globule of tar dripped from the tip of her beak and towards the komodo dragon.

She panicked slightly, a shudder running through her skin from her head to the tip of her tail. "Uh... Yeah. Never had anyone look at me like that before..." she gave an awkward laugh, trying to make light of the situation, despite the fact that it was clear to see how awkward she was with such a long period of silent eye contact, without breathing or blinking. But she felt like she owed Ghanyarah something for not being upset with her after her little mishap. She found it flooring that he wasn't even slightly angry with her, and it made her a little paranoid, admittedly.

Yet at the same time, giddy was another way of describing it. Emotions were an odd part of life....

"Speech looks like this."
"Thoughts looks like this."

tags: @Ghanyarah
notes:

He blinked, so engrossed in his examination of her gem-eye that he hadn't noticed the globule of tar eddying from her beak until it splattered on his face. Ghanyarah jerked slightly, withdrawing from her mouth as she mused about having never been looked at like that before. He briefly missed that comment, most of his concern on the thick black liquid that now stained his maw. He backpedaled, raising his clawed foot to try and brush it away, only to end up smearing it further across his snout with a quiet scowl. It was unfortunately sticky. Out of instinct, he tried to eject what little water remained in his body through the pores in his snout.

He'd just barely managed to squeeze enough water through his skin to pool around the smear. He rubbed it clean off his face again, blinking down at his foot that was now darkened with tar. But that was less concerning. He could no longer feel it's thickness on his face, so he glanced back up at Equinox. "Do you naturally produce this slime?" He asked purely out of curiosity.

@Equinox

"I'm... so sorry..."

Equinox panicked at the sight of Ghanyarah trying to get the slime off his face, and cowered away, her long neck semi-retreating into her shoulders like a turtle's head into it's shell. she peered nervously out at him through her beak, watching as they struggled with her secretion. She showed visible relief, however, as they seemed to make progress- getting it mostly off of them, except for the smear on their paw.

But it served as a reminder not to get too comfortable- with herself, or anyone else. A sigh brushed past her gem.

"There'sss nothing I can do about it. It's a curssse... It never stops, and I can't do anything about it," she answered their question guiltily.

"Speech looks like this."
"Thoughts looks like this."

tags: @Ghanyarah
notes:

Ghanyarah noticed her sheepish withdrawal and straightened up, reclaiming the distance he'd created. His tongue flicked with idle surveillance of her and their surroundings, constantly monitoring for changes in the air, mostly keeping an eye out for embers that might rise back into flame. But so far, it seemed they were safe. "Do not apologize. Perhaps there is some way you can make use of it." He suggested. Evidently, the slime was highly flammable, so in that sense it could serve to protect her. As long as she sought to set everything else on fire. But that could be destructive, and Ghanyarah worried about her burning down the jungle or injuring someone or herself.

The slime seemed to cling to things too. It layered the ground and stained rock, which would make it a decent agent for leaving behind markings and messages. Much like the carvings he made in the bark of his tree. "I wonder if you can change its colour. With dyes from berries, or something else." He mused out loud, stepping back again to look her over.

@Equinox

Again, with that odd calmness. Equinox found it hard to understand why this was going the way it was... She was being harsher to herself than this other creature was, and she'd almost burned them to ashes! and yet somehow that scared her just as much as it would have had if they'd yelled at her. Sure, it would have been soul-crushing in rather a different sense, but at least she wouldn't have stuck around and made things worse with every passing second. But she felt like she had to be here; running away from this would be just as bad as hurting them in the first place. She had to face them, she had to make things alright again...

"...Make usse of it? how... how would I do that?" Equinox asked feebly, racking her brain for ways in which she could use it... but unable to think of anything that wouldn't endanger others.

She didn't know why she'd want to change her slime's colour either. She'd never really thought of anything outside of the practicality of it; artistry and creativity weren't things that she even knew existed. "And... Why would I wanna change itsss colour? That wouldn't do anything... would it?" A hopeful twinge came into her voice, though she highly doubted it.

"Speech looks like this."
"Thoughts looks like this."

tags: @Ghanyarah
notes:

Ghanyarah remained silent with thought, looking over her as he tried to analyze the qualities of her slime. It was viscous enough that it would be easy to manipulate with a claw, or a leaf, or something that would prevent it from tarnishing his skin. And it was sticky too, which meant it would adhere to a surface easily, and probably not wash away after it had dried. The thick black would make it easy to bring out characteristics or details in his drawings, but what if it used it to fill in the spaces between the lines too? Could he achieve any other colours than black?

"Let me show you something. You seek to do something about it, yes?" The reptile asked, but didn't give her much time to answer. She'd already said she couldn't do anything about it, which implied she wanted to. So Ghanyarah was thinking of a solution. He stepped back and cocked his head down into the dirt, but it would be difficult to draw and leave a recognizable pattern. The trees would provide an infinitely better canvas, so he waddled over the nearest one, climbing the trunk with his front feet so that he stood upright, supporting himself against it.

Then he glanced at her, taking a good, long look. He memorized the shape of her head, the jagged opening of her mouth, and the gem. With careful precision, Ghanyarah began to carve her likeness into the bark.

@Equinox

The few words that were shared made the silence feel so long, but those few words said so much more than one would assume from just the space in between them. She blinked, closing her jaws and nodding vigorously as Ghanyarah asked to show her something, confusion rolling into her head. it didn't take long for her jaws to open once more, and focus. She followed a few steps behind as the reptile approached a tree, young and smooth compared to the many around that were old and gnarled and charred with ash.

She met his gaze once more as they looked back at her, again. The slime being tilted her head back, curiosity growing. Then they began to use their thick claws to carve markings onto the tree's surface. Equinox stretched out her neck until it was thin, and peered over Ghanyarah's shoulder.

Slowly, but surely, something began to take shape... something that was looking back at her with the same expression. A texture rippled over her in curiosity, and she stretched closer with a rumble. "what... are you doing?" she asked softly, hardly daring to breathe.

"Speech looks like this."
"Thoughts looks like this."

tags: @Ghanyarah
notes:

He etched the general shape of her head into the bark, continuously looking back at her and comparing what he'd done. This was common practice for him, to draw into the bark, but so far he'd only managed to sketch lines and shapes. He'd never filled it in before. But from how it was turning out, he believed he could make the image stand out much more, and even match her likeness even more closely. Drawing her open jaws with a round circle at the back of her throat denoting her gem, Ghanyarah leaned back to examine it. With a satisfied nod, he looked to her, reaching out and attempting to wipe some of her dripping slime from her neck onto his claw.

With the slime, he began to dab it onto the image, filling in the bark within the lines that made up her head. He smeared the blackness into the drawing, leaving her gem blank. It would look better if it was red, but he didn't know how to obtain red colouring quite yet. With the drawing filled, he dropped back onto the soil and backed away, allowing her to get a closer look. "It is you." Ghanyarah declared proudly. "I used your slime to give it your colour. If I had a red slime, I could colour your gem too."

@Equinox