Mocha

'Cause I'm having a good time

Mocha was having the time of his so far very short life. He had made some friends, although none of them were present at the moment. He had discovered a spell that let him stay out of water comfortably without having to scratch every two minutes. He had even learned how lesser friends were made. And now, the biggest reason for his joy and subsequent splashing, he had discovered Leo. A cave filled with so much water he could barely see the end of it, and warm water at that! It was like a spa day for the little guy, but better, given how many pretty colours he could see all around. In the water were shiny and colourful fish, which he found delicious, and out of the water there were hundreds of brightly coloured shells from long-dead lessers. Could they be crushed to make paint? Maybe, but that would require something to do the crushing, and Mocha was enjoying the water.

With a dramatic splash, the shark-dog went from paddling around the surface of the ocean to diving deep, looking for... something! He certainly didn't know, but there had to be something down there if there were so many pretty things near the surface, right? He wanted to start collecting things, physical reminders of the places he liked. Oh, and the gembounds he liked! He would make paint to remember Fahl by, someday, and he would... Do something... To remember Pride... They had not talked much, but Mocha considered anyone nice to him a friend. Maybe they would grab a shell that looked like Pride's stone?

Finding nothing during his dive, Mocha kicked at the bottom to make his way back up, surfacing with another dramatic splash just to see the light catch the water droplets. He might try again, later, but he preferred the shallower water if he could help it. He might be a predator, but he was certainly not the biggest of them, especially since he wasn't even half-grown.

@Diem Dark

Diem was not far off. Leo had been lovely to visit once, and she thought that where she'd enjoyed the sun and water before, maybe she could do so again. Last time, she'd been here for a reason: to meet the Blacksmith.

This time? It was a VACATION. (In all capital letters.)

She was, at first, sprawled out on the sand buck-naked. Which wasn't an issue, really, as there wasn't anything to see: just a wolfish sprawl of fur and strange, cartiliginous pale flesh for lower legs, more "monstrous animal thing" than anything. She was, in fact, sunbathing although she was rapidly coming to suspect two things: first, that the light-orbs here weren't really enough to tan with and second, that the pale skin of her form wouldn't do too well with that either way.

Her little familiar--the tiny alligator hatchling, but translucently ghostly--was happily splashing in the surf. She'd named him Bitey, and Bitey was incorporeal but adorable, swimming around loudly. When the splashing subsided, she sat upright and stretched, yawning a broad vulture's beak and eyeing where he'd been. A gesture with one hand returned her magic to the fading hatchling, and he brightened, his splashing growing louder again. She smiled, eyes flaring brighter blue with the magic, but--what was that other splashing?

Diem squinted down the shore. There was, she realized, another creature here. A Lesser? She kept squinting, thinking, unable to quite make Mocha out over the sparkling light. Squallfangs don't live here, right-? That was a worrying thought. She remembered them, remembered their HUGE bodies, why had she-

Oh. It was not, in fact, a Lesser. In fact she thought maybe she recognized them: one of those who'd taken part in that big 'thing' in Orion recently. Diem had watched from the stands with Bitey.

She pushed up, stretching again and yawning, and pulled her t-shirt, pants and cloak on. Then she fluffed out her feathery mane, and set off to say hello.

"HELLO!"

Well--she yelled it, more than said it. She picked her pace up, jaunty, though trudging through beach sand was as hard here as it'd been anywhere else. I'm outta shape. A pause, as the cogs of her brain caught up. Oh yeah, I can fly here!

She lifted up, black wings flapping hard to take her airborne, and she was at once reminded of why she didn't fly so much: it was hard. She'd not really been designed with flight efficiency in mind. She was heavy, not light, and it was work to flap vulture-like down the beach and thud down on the wet sand just on shore from Mocha.

After bending down and leaning on her knees a moment, panting, she straightened. (Bitey was swimming alongside, rapidly, chirping.) "Hello!" she called again, waving cheerfully toward Mocha.

@Mocha

Mocha

'Cause I'm having a good time

Mocha had been entirely focused on his game, the splashing and the diving in the warm water, attention drawn every so often by a passing fish. That was until his attention was drawn instead by a voice. A friend! And Mocha dropped everything (including the poor fish he was about to eat) to greet them back.

"HELLO! Hello!" Mocha chirped back with the same energy he was given, happily paddling on over to the shore. Not that he needed to paddle -- his tail was designed for locomotion in the water -- but he enjoyed the little splish splash of water, both the sound and the feeling as droplets hit his face.

"Who are you? I'm Mocha! Who's your friend?" Every paddle was followed by a question until Mocha was standing in the shallows, which, despite being the shallows, still rose up to his neck. He could stand here, though, so he could hear the other better without the splashing. "Woah, I like your face!" He declared, seeing no problem with the comment, as he finally looked up (wayyy up, since the little guy was only about a foot tall now) at the friend-to-be.

@Diem Dark

It was fantastic having everyone she met prove to be friendly and open. It wasn't, truth be told, at all what she'd expected. She waved cheerfully again as Mocha came to shore, eyeing the way the creature paused and half-stood in the shallows.

"Hey, Mocha! Good to meet you! I'm Diem Dark, or just Diem or whatever--oh, him? That's Bitey," she answered cheerfully, kneeling at the waterline. The little ghostly gator hatchling swam into her arms, and she cradled him higher for Mocha to better see. "And--thanks! I like your face, too," she responded, amused.

The hem of her robe was wet, and sandy--gross, and it'd dry mucky and stuff. But honestly, wasn't that cooler for appearances? Or was solid clean black better..? Gotta think about that.

"You live here?" she asked, mind coming back to the here and now. Her demeanor was happy and open; maybe she'd make a new friend, today.

@Mocha

Mocha

'Cause I'm having a good time

"Whatever is a silly name!" He chirped, possibly his only intentional joke to date as he burst into giggles, blowing bubbles in the water when he doubled over from the intensity of them. It was unlikely that he would grow out of his childish humour. "It is good to meet Diem and Bitey too!" He eventually followed up with, once he caught his breath again.

Mocha's eyes followed Bitey's ascent, studying them and wondering what it would feel like to be lifted. They didn't mind being short, really, but they did wonder about what the tops of things looked like. The top of the spire, for example. Or did it go so high that it connected to the ceiling? Mocha couldn't look up that far. And Bitey was a whole other slew of questions. They weren't a greater, but they didn't look like a lesser, either. Were they some kind of magic thing, like Nemean's illusions? They made sound, too! He tried to call for his magic, just to be sure.

He was instead left with a loop of feedback, his own heartbeat and Diem's intermingling, rising to an echoing crescendo of sound. The proximity of the pair was simply too much for the magic to handle, and his sensitive ears began to ring, loud. He grimaced, burying his head under the water until the crashing of waves drowned it out. He hated it when that happened.

"I'm okay." He offered as he resurfaced, smiling again despite the ringing still in one ear. It would clear, eventually, and he would not let it ruin this otherwise awesome day! He still wondered what Bitey was, though, given the lack of a third heartbeat in the mix.

Ah, he was being questioned!

He did not live in any one place. He simply lived, everywhere and anywhere, especially if there were friends to be made! Oh, and paints! He hadn't forgotten about paints! "Not always!" He answered with his eternal smile, one that seemed to stretch too far back on his face. "Here for now, to find things! Paint-making things! And treasure!" That seemed as good an answer as any. Maybe Diem knew where they could find treasure? Maybe it was high up on the rocks! But he also needed something to crush paint-making things... Maybe Diem could choose! "Do you like to paint? Or treasure hunt?"

@Diem Dark

For a heartbeat, she thought Mocha meant it literally--that he'd misinterpreted her name. But then he called her Diem, and she relaxed from "about to hastily and humorously correct that" to a simple, easygoing grin.

...Another confused moment followed when he abruptly vanished below the surface. Diem opened her beak, about to ask if he was okay, when he preempted her to assure her that he was. "...What happened?" she asked, blinking bemusedly.

And here came his smile again; it was infectious, she found, and she was once again grinning back. "I love to paint," she answered, and then paused. I do? She queried her mind, her memories; it seemed an instinctive thing, but a moment later she could remember old, vague images of actually-okay-for-a-beginner sorts of artwork. And--Treasure? That sounded cool. Fun. It brought to mind images of big wooden chests bound in iron, sat crooked in a dank cave, filled with shining gold coins and rubies and sapphires, with big ornate golden goblets and crowns, strings of pearls... "Treasure's cool, too. -You want to go on an adventure? Art or treasure," she went on, flopping into her butt in the wet sand, oblivious to the effects on her robe. Bitey scrambled into her lap and she petted him absently. "Either's fine by me! -If you want, I mean. I haven't gone on an adventure here, yet! I've done some exploring--that's what I'm doing now, really. There's some really cool places in the caves."

It was spur-of-the-moment, but that's why she was here, really. To have fun with all of it.

@Mocha

Mocha

'Cause I'm having a good time

He wouldn't get away that easily, it seemed, as Diem asked to know why he had become an ostrich for a moment. "I wanted to know what Bitey was." He admitted, a little sheepish about his lack of knowledge. Everyone around him seemed to know so much! He didn't want to feel left out. "So I was listening for a heartbeat! With magic. And I heard mine, and yours, and they got really loud." He tried to explain, using his paw to rub at a sore ear now that he wasn't allowed to change the subject.

"But it's okay! A little ringing doesn't hurt!" It was annoying, but Mocha could handle annoyances! He certainly was an annoyance, to some. "What's important is adventure! Treasure! Paint!" It was beginning to seem like his smile was a permanent fixture, almost as if it took more effort to make a neutral face. He would not make a good doctor. Could you imagine? Oh, Diem was letting him choose! But he was no good at choosing! He couldn't even choose a favourite food!

"Maybe-" Mocha's feet pitter-pattered under the water, creating little waves. Even he wasn't sure if the excitement of adventure or the anxiety of choosing made that happen. "Maybe both! We can- We can walk! And if we find treasure-things, we can share them! And if we find paint-things, we can- We can paint something together!" What better way would there be to remember these new friends?! A shiny trinket to hoard, or a mural to return to! Maybe Leo would become home, if he had reason enough to stay - like upkeeping a painting! What would they paint?! Oh, another choice- A later choice, though, which made him feel better.

@Diem Dark

She burst into laughter. "Backfired, huh? -Sorry about that. Bitey's, uhh-" She glanced down at the hatchling, who stared right at Mocha before emitting another laser-chirp baby-alligator-sound. "...Conjured familiar. Made of magic, but I think he's got a mind of his own," she added, smiling easily (which was weird, on a fleshy birdskull face).

As Mocha spoke, she listened, then squinted down at him. She could sort of see his body but not... all of it, and the paws--well, she couldn't make out details. "You're okay with walking-?" she asked, tipping her head to one side. "Like-... uh, you have... feet? -Oh! Can you do a high five?!"

Diem brightened as she asked this, setting Bitey down and then kneeling in the sand to hold up a palm. "Like, slap your paw to mine! -To my hand, I mean," she hastened to correct, and laughed. "It's--uhh--enthusiastic... approval! Because hell yeah let's go on an adventure. To art, or treasure!" she crowed, making it sound sort of like a toast.

@Mocha

Mocha

'Cause I'm having a good time

Mocha nodded and then widened his eyes as Diem explained. He had seen lesser familiars and magic lights, but nothing with a mind of its own! Bitey was one of a kind! "So cool..." He murmured, examining the not-so-solid alligator. He wanted to do cool magic things too! He wanted to do everything, if he was being honest.

Mocha's own smile was strange. He had seen it in reflections and it looked nothing like others', but that made him special, and he found Diem's own strange expression comforting. "I am!" He reassured, plodding around in a small circle to show her. "I have magic to keep my skin wet so I don't get itchy!" He watched patiently as she looked him over, and giggled at Diem's excitement. It rivalled his own in the way that he didn't get a chance to ask what a high-five was before she had already explained, dropping into the sand and further muddying up her cloak.

Mocha lifted a paw out of the water and examined it. It was vaguely paw-shaped, with three undefined 'toes', but clawless, unlike other pawed creatures he had met. It was mostly cartilage and acted as a shock absorber as he walked, containing the minimum amount of bones necessary for function. It was some odd combination of water and land creature, after all, and only his chrysalis knew what ones it had determined important.

Mocha wondered where the name 'high-five' came from as he lifted up onto his back legs to tap his paw against Diem's hand. They had five digits, whereas he barely had three. Was that why? He wondered if high-paw would be more accurate to him, but not everyone had paws either. Maybe it was nothing more than a name. "Like this?" He asked as they made contact with a wet smack. "To adventure!" He added in solidarity.

@Diem Dark

Diem didn't seem as intent on examining Mocha's limb, at first, until she actually saw it. She did a double-take, then leaned in as the high-"five" occurred, before exclaiming "High THREE!"--maybe answering Mocha's question quite by accident.

Then she pushed up, brushing off her cloak. "Cool hand-things. Flippers. Ish," she remarked, and looked around, squinting. "SO! Where should we go?" She seemed to have stalled out right after 'adventure,' immediately lost as to how to proceed. "Like, uhh... how dangerous should we go?" she asked, drumming claws on her clothes. "There's probably treasure hidden down in those tunnels in... fuck, what's-it. The ocean cave. But we might die doing that!" she added.

She sounded completely unconcerned, even excited. But then her gaze fell on Mocha's flipper-hand-things, and she squinted. "Or if you want something closer to home, we could check out the Forge up the mountain, here-? There's supposedly a lot of stuff down under it, stuff nobody's really picked through yet!"

There was Ursa, too, but... even she, with her odd confidence, felt it shaken at that idea. No; no fucking with Hive, not today, thanks. She liked free will, or what little she might have, anyway.

@Mocha