Nearby the other shops, there was a large boulder. One with art upon it. Lovingly rendered cuts of meat, drawn with red or brown mud. Complete with a glistening shine of pink. One could only guess what Effluvium had used for pigment for that. The art felt almost real. Next to it was a line, leading to a tongue with teeth. Much less effort had been put in. Crude, quickly drawn shapes. And beneath all that, sat Effluvium. On the dirt. It dripped onto the substrate, mucus puddling beneath it. A tongue sticking out of its mouth in a 'blep'.

No other gembound stopped by. The smell likely scared off other gembound. If the appearance didn't do it. Gembound passed, but did not stop to interact. It noticed the severe lack of interaction. Of feeding. Effluvium, unaware of the fact it was repulsive, was puzzled as to why no one approached. Ah! It had it! "GIVE FLESH," It screamed, startling a lesser bird into the air. And then, quieter, "I taste you."

"When I speak."

When I think.

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?"

Effluvium had caught the scent of something dead. Already, its mouth began to water. Its' eyes were focused on the the rabbit within Carja's jaws. It barely paid the owner of the jaws any attention. Focused on the rabbit, as it dangled back and forth. It only realized the jaws had an owner, when it recognized Carja's voice. "Carja." Effluvium said. Miraculously, it'd remembered her name.

It helped that Carja gave it the most food. It had trouble processing the concept of 'miss you.' Time wasn't really something Effluvium noticed. Its life was a constant stream of hunts. The scent of the rabbit grew closer as Carja leaned forward, offering the rabbit. Excited, Effluvium snapped it from her with barely a second to spare. Its jaws ground the rabbit, content. Its skin began to blossom into grey fur. It shook once, before the majority of its limbs were covered in the same grey fuzz. Fuzzy pants.

Wholly unbothered, it listened to Carja once again. Eager to find some nugget of food in her words. It turned its face to the rock above. Effluvium snorted. Proud."Effluvium make."

Effluvium said. It turned back to Carja, muzzle lifted in a show of pride. "Cant eat." It said. It sounded sad. Almost...no. Actually disappointed. "Effluvium tried." It'd had to repaint the rock twice after trying to eat it. All it got was the taste of mud. Effluvium had never been one for taste, but it could tell it wasn't meat.
""Effluvium make booth. Like others. Effluvium tastefor meat." It nodded to itself. It had been curious of what not-foods tasted like. It found it harder to remember why it wasn't supposed to eat them in the first place.

"When I speak."

When I think.

@Carja

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?"

@Effluvium

Effluvium didn't react as Carja touched it. Nor did it really care about the fur growing on it. It took an itchy limb growing from its back and placed it in its mouth, grooming it. "Cant taste?" Effluvium said. The limb folded against its back. Effluvium growled. Annoyed. "Effluvium want to eat." It began to conspire. Effluvium could agree, and then do it anyways when Carja wasn't looking. It grumbled, but did not say any more on the subject. It sniffed the ground, searching for any remnants of the rabbit.

Kissing sounded pretty close to eating, though. It wiped its face with a tongue. Maybe it could bite while it kissed friends. The word had come out of the blue from Carja. "Frrreind." Effluvium said. Effluvium tried to remember the meaning of the word. The tiny white dragon had said that. "Eat friend bad." It said. If eating friends was bad, then it came to a conclusion. "Carja friend. Bring food. Effluvium like food." It wasn't entirely sure what the word entailed, but it guessed it meant someone it did not eat. Like not-food.


"When I speak."

When I think.

@Carja

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.

@Effluvium

"Orange meat?"Effluvium said, curiously. But before it'd gotten it out, Carja was off. "Effluvium stay." Effluvium said. It watched her retreating form for a moment. Then, with its source of food gone, turned its attention back to the gembound passing by (or lack, thereof). It drew in a big breath, and unfurled its jaws. "FEED!" It screamed.

There was no reply, not immediately at least. A few lessers scattered off. Effluvium gradually settled down. It placed its head on its newly-fuzzed limbs. Blinked once. Twice. And began thinking of what orange meat tasted like. Or even looked like, in the first place.

"When I speak."

When I think.

@Carja ((idk if carja was temporarily exiting or nah so i didnt know whether to reply or nah kjghjkg sorry))

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.

@Effluvium

Effluvium was too stupit to think much of Carja's unhappiness. It briefly blipped in its mind that she acted strangely, but too much of its brain was dedicated to hunting, and not enough to interactions. It didn't help that its mind was wholly occupied by the new morsel of food before it. Effluvium sniffed the pumpkin.

"Orange...," it repeated. Effluvium picked the pumpkin up in its jaws, and bit down. Surprisingly, it found the taste enjoyable. It swallowed the mess of pale orange gore. Then crawled around, looking for the bits of shell it'd missed.

"Angry?" It seemed to think for a moment. It wasn't drawn to anger by gembound much. "Effluvium bite back. Eat them until they give food back. Not eat whole. Not supposed to eat not-foods whole." Then, it went back to searching for crumbs. Of any kind, really.

"When I speak."

When I think.

@Carja

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.

@Effluvium