takes place minutes after this thread

m for swearing

Serendipity had seen rain before, but never in her life had she seen this shit. From the sky fell not water, or frozen water (snow?) but strange, buttery pieces of... fuck knows what. It was tasty, but Dip had quickly found that the shit got stuck in her hair like no one's business, and her hair was a mess as it was.

Only a few minutes after taking shelter did she have to take it again, before she got the strange oily taste-gunk all over her jacket and hair. It was fine. She wanted to eat but it'd give her a minute to figure out tea, first.

From her pocket, the humanoid produced the sachet of herbs. It was sweet-smelling but oddly earthy. She held it to her nose and sniffed it-- and sure enough, it smelled like the Tea that the Collector had given her before. She looked down into her teapot of cold water.

And in the teabag went.

Serendipity sniffed the teapot again as the water began to stain brown. It was smelling more like tea, at least. It just needed to be heated up. Unceremoniously, her calloused hand went underneath the porcelain, gemstone scraping against the polished bone.

And then, some seconds later, her hand was alight and smoking. The teapot seemed to bare the heat well, at least-- and she could hear the water rumbling within, boiling, getting hotter. It should be noted, at this moment, a boiling kettle was not the worst thing Dip had touched with her bare hands.

It was a relaxing process, in fact. For a few minutes, her eyes had begun to shut-- until the pot started screaming. Serendipity almost dropped it in that instant but managed to save face-- she caught it, only spilling a small amount of the tea onto the ground as she fell out of her squat to nab it again.

A few more seconds passed before Serendipity was chugging boiling tea right out at the pot.

And then she grabbed some popcorn and crammed it into her mouth.

Oh yes. She could fuck with this.

@Attikias

The way he was running, you'd think he was trying to dodge the... Whatever the food was. Most of what he passed under tangled in his hair and the scent was cloying around his senses. At least he still had his vision- and the ringing in his ears from a rather sudden screeching that'd filled the air.

He wasn't far, at least. When he'd fallen to partake in the feast he spent a good few minutes simply enjoying himself, but now with the origins of his fear silent, he only rushed ahead faster in order to find out what'd just happened.

When he came to the fortresses, he smacked his shoulders between them as he weaved to and fro. "Hold on!" Oh, how dumb he sounded just as he ran right past the exact scene he was looking for.

Wait. Back up- that darkness form looked like a gembound, and he backpedalled to bring himself back to the particular hut holding a particular being. This seemed to be the right place, but were they attacked? He'd look around if his eyes weren't stuck purely on the humanoid across from him. Granted, he didn't look to great, with popcorn stuck to his long hair and him heaving for breath in the doorway of this establishment.

Shit, was this the humanoid Azure mentioned? Did she give a name? They were living together, he remembered that much, but why were they in Canis? It was here he realized he was staring a bit dumbly, and he tried to stand up straighter, tried to place his hand on an errant bone of the door-frame before it popped out from under his pressure, leaving him to stumble in surprise.

He felt like he should be more surprised, in honesty, but he gathered himself and tried to muster up a "hi" if she hadn't said anything in those long, awkward moments herself. His eyes turned to the kettle- was that a... Thing that she just injured? Or was there a lesser in it? It looked like the pots he'd found... But, he shook his head and took in another deep breath, looking back to the humanoid.

@Dip

Serendipity glanced up as the figure darted by. Whatever it was yelling for she cared very little about-- but right as she turned to tip more tea into her mouth, it came back, and was staring at her.

It-- he --stood there, panting, doubled over. Dip, in turn, stood there, too-- popping a squat on the cave floor, her hand slick with bottle and the other-- still warm and smoking --clutching the teapot.

Hi, said the humanoid.

"... what up," responded Dip.

But for a moment, she said nothing more. For a very long moment, in fact. The seconds trickled by into a minute as amber eyes looked between the ground, the teapot, the other humanoid, and then back to the ground. It was uncomfortable, in a way-- to see something that looked so much like yourself but not quite for the first time.

Azure had told her about it. She just hadn't expected it. What were you even supposed to say to that-- Dip had no family, she came out of a wall, she only had Azure. Where had this one come from?

With a click, she placed the teapot down. "My sister told me about you," was what she went with, eventually. "Found your kid, right?"

An oil-slick hand was wiped on her jacket before the thick sleeve was rolled up to her elbow. And then, the dried, calloused hand was offered out to Attikias-- just like the Collector had taught her to. "I'm Serendipity, or just Dip. I have hands."

Because how else would you introduce yourself?

@Attikias

And she talked. This only rattled him a bit more, even as he'd finally gained his breath for the time being.

And so commenced the awkward staring, interspersed with a kick at the bones and then to the pot and to the wall, eventually finding a faux interest in how the bones were cobbled together to create the hut.

"Um-" He tried to get something out, shuffling in place and overall feeling quite rude for even glancing back to her. This had to be real, if she spoke, but what of that screaming? He opened his mouth again only to close it, still getting rained on by the corn and being thoroughly pelted by it at this point.

Well, he wasn't here to just gape, and he considered stepping forward when finally the silence was broken. He blinked rather rapidly and suddenly, mind refreshing when he finally looked to her, and struggled to find a place to put his hands.

Forget his hands, he'd just noticed the sheer amount of stickiness in his hair. His sandal tapped on the floor just as he silently realized it, his eyes going wide and him stepping in when she finally asked him about the circumstances of their shared knowledge.

"Oh, uh- yeah," he spoke as he tried to run his hands through his clotting hair, grimacing at the awful feeling he'd gotten in return. "Azure, right?" Not her name, but her sister's, of course.

His eyes lit up with excitement at the hand offered. "Call me Attikias! Or Attik." Even with his hand stuck he tried to reach forward, tugging his head to the side with a soft grunt. "Ah- shit- hold on." And he yanked again, only getting his hand thoroughly stuck even further.

At least his dominant hand was free. Giving up with his dilemma, he clasped Dip's hand with his (sticky) own, making a face at the oiliness imparted despite the grin. "Nice hands." As if that was also an appropriate compliment to give in return to someone pointing them out. "Uh, do you have anything sharp?" A feeble nod was given to his stuck hand while he returned his free one to it, holding the loose, buttery remnants of the hair below the entanglement out. "I might've been out in the rain too long."

At least, it seemed like rain? He wasn't going to contemplate it, though, as his grin turning slightly sheepish at the situation he got himself in.

@Dip

Atikkias's general anxiety was beginning to make Dip a little anxious, too, but she tried her damnest not to show it, and a good few cycles of sticking around Azure and being brave for her helped with that much. Though it wasn't easy-- her amber eyes blatantly followed the movement of the elf's hand going through his hair, and then consequently getting stuck in there.

Uncomfortably, her tail flicked across the cave floor.

"Yeah, that's my sister," she responded, and found that she was just a bit too late to withdraw the handshake. She shook regardless, as the Collector had taught her too, and she tried not to grimace as she unstuck her hand from Attikias's butter-palm. "She's great. Said your kid was nice."

Because you should probably pass on compliments to some guys kid, right? Dip popped out of her squat and checked her hand for a moment before she dove into her pocket and yanked out a small, shiny knife, offering it out hilt-first to Attikias. "Dunno if it's rain, really. Though I don't know what that stuff falling out the sky is either-- just that it tastes pretty good."

Also that it made Attikias pretty fucking gross-looking.

With the knife hopefully taken out of her hands, Dip half-turned them away from Attikias for the sake of politeness. "Yeah, thanks," she answered, in the meanwhile. "Your are like mine, too-- have you seen the Collector's? They're like, fluffy. It's weird."

It was weird. Uncomfortably weird. She went to start casting but her mind was caught up in how weird this situation was-- Attikias looked so much like her, but with no horns and his hair was pretty straight and darker than hers. When she cast, she felt the magic spit right back at her, and with a yelp she withdrew her hands from one another.

She shook her gemstone-laden hand out with a painful hiss. It felt hot to the touch, and for a second she wondered if she cast the wrong spell entirely.

Mid-shake, Dip looked back to Attikias. "So-- uh--- you got any brothers?" She asked, partially to try to distract from her fucking hand, which somehow, felt greasier.

@Attikias