[OPEN MINGLE: SEPT 8-16]

[oneandmikleonly]

[So what are you up to as we pass out of the first hectic week of September and into the second? Calm strolls with alien elephants or fast swims with alien sealife? Flashing your sunglasses at crime scenes? Dreaming and building dreams? Waking and building...buildings? There's always a lot to do here, whether it's formal missions or just shenanigans with friends.

Zenning out is fine too!]

Comments

ota

[onethousen]

i | falling sea stars

[ It's difficult carrying creatures which are much larger than Chihiro herself is, for all they're lighter and quite decidedly thinner. The massive sea star is being jumped along by Chihiro, who has taken to leaping in long arcs through this part of the shallows. She's got enough weight that she's coming back down to touch on the seabed again before pushing off, the long armed, curious sea star bundle in her arms trailing some of its own arms behind like a misplaced cape.

She's about to touch down next to another person out in the waters when she calls out: ]

Incoming!

ii | when do you learn not to put weird things into your mouth

[ Pearls are fairly interesting. After all, they're what, irritants that have been layered over several times to generate a calcified spit-ball that people pay lots of money to wear, either for being perfectly round, or for being imperfectly lovely.

Chihiro rolls her sew imperfect, grainy pearls around in her hand, sitting at one of the round egg tables in the kitchen. She's still wearing her wetsuit, but her hair is down for once (drying out), and her hairtie in all its purple glory catches the light from where it lies around her wrist.

She picks up one of the pearls, regarding it curiously. Then she picks up one of those pearls between her fingers and opens her mouth... to either make a Great Mistake, or a Great Discovery. ]

iii | wildcard

[ Hit me up for a randomized/custom prompt by commenting with "wildcard" and specifying, if you'd like something with the rabites, exploring out in the ocean, in the dreamscape, or during her gardening misadventures! ]

ii

[splinten]

Isn't that just to test if pearls are real?

[Like he isn't stopping her but. As he grabs some jelly rolls from the fridge, it occurs to him that this is unnecessary and maybe not safe.]

[onethousen]

[ She pauses, looking his way. ]

Is it?

[ She knows where these really came from, but she hadn't thought about why people tested them for being real or not. ]

I'm not sure these are as solid as the pearls I'm used to.

[ She's squinting down at the one in her fingers instead of biting it, so far. ]

[splinten]

They're not something I know much about.

[He holds his hand out. Can he look at it?]

[onethousen]

[ She obliges, dropping the one she'd almost had in her mouth into the palm of his hand. ]

Pearls in general, or these pearls in specific? They came from really pretty clams. I've got a bunch of then living near the kitchen right now.

[ ... on the outside of the base. There are no clams visible on the inside. ]

[splinten]

[He. quickly glances around behind his shades just to be sure because people on this base WOULD put clams inside.]

Both. Why did you have them living near the kitchen?

[onethousen]

They're pretty, and no one's moving the kitchen around right now. It's stable.

[ It's mostly the stability. ]

i

[classwarfare]

[ At first it seems like Nagisa either didn't hear, or just isn't going to move -- but a moment before she touches down, he makes a leap out of the way, diving into a neat roll before he comes back up on his feet again, watching her come down with a bit of a wide-eyed expression. Someone hasn't seen sea stars get that big before. ]

--what the--

[onethousen]

[ She's impressed by his underwater acrobatics, hefting the sea star up and keeping its arms from wrapping fully around her legs. Stopping her movement leaves her hair and the trailing sea star limbs moving forward without her. ]

Sorry! It's awkward carrying these guys.

[ That's clearly the problem. Right next to the fact this thin sea star (that looks like nothing more than a collection of countless sea stars) is definitely larger than the girl carrying it. ]

[classwarfare]

[ Did he just find someone who has super-strength? At this point, honestly, he'd believe it. He'd believe just about anything he encounters at this point. Still, even if it is heavy, the polite instinct kicks in before he can really stop to think about it-- ]

Do, ah. Do you need any help?

[onethousen]

[ The totally normal strength of a ten year old is mighty indeed... but only when buoyed by water. ]

... If you like?

[ She's not going to turn down assistance when freely offered, so here, have the sea star offered out toward him. He'll find it's not that heavy, because of its thin nature, but "not that" is relative to, you know. Carrying a blanket of about equivalent mass. ]

I'm bringing this one to come live around the base. The whole place seems to feel better when it's got more of nature kind of in touch with it.

[classwarfare]

[ Oh no, it's -- not actually heavy at all. Well. Now he feels a little bit silly, but he's not going to take back the offer. He does at least try to gather up all those long spindly arms as best he can, if only to keep himself from tripping over them. ]

Ehh, so -- we're taking this to the labs? [ That's the only place he knows of off the top of his head where there's nonhuma-- non-crewmember life. He still remembers that tiger plant from his first day. ] Or d'you have somewhere else in mind?

[onethousen]

[ She cants her head to the side, looking upward to think about where it would be best placed... really, what aesthetic sense does she have? (Whatever she throws together, to be honest.) ]

I was thinking outside, near the lower levels? You know, where you can kind of see out to where the base is attached to the ocean floor.

ii

[tentaculled]

-- Ack! Don't put that in your mouth!

[ the call of the wild Korosoensei, who only enters the kitchen just as she's about to chip a tooth on that pearl. He came here to mooch food off of whoever's in here, no doubt, but even he never considered eating a pearl! He flails his big yellow tentacles in alarm. ]

I-if you're that hungry, Sensei will cook you something!! There's no need to go swallowing choking hazards!

[onethousen]

[ If there is one thing she was not expecting to have happen, it was to have a large, tentacled person appear in the kitchen just as she's about to test out the grainy pearl of (possible) doom.

The problem is her surprise translates into biting down on the pearl, one of her fingertips, and part of her tongue all at once. She jerks her head back, cracks the pearl between her teeth, curls her fingers around the rest, and looks surprised as hucklebees while also pained and shooting up out of her seat and dancing around, both hands at her mouth.

It's a very ... sweet moment, as it were. Turns out those pearls? Are more like sugar cubes than anyone had a right to expect, though she just learned this in the most ridiculous way possible. ]

[tentaculled]

[ oh, shoot. he keeps forgetting that people are going to have this reaction to him. As soon as the pearl disappears into her mouth, he lets out another strangled "nyua?!"-type noise, alarm only increasing as she leaps up and starts dancing around. ]

Oh no!! Crap! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!! It's okay, I know the Heimlich maneuver! Okay! Hold on--

[ in a move that probably also doesn't help, he apparently disappears and reappears almost instantaneously in front of her, reaching out to try and pick her up with his tentacles to heroically save her from choking, theoretically........... i'm so sorry ]

sib i burst out laughing

[onethousen]

[ He sounds concerned, which is why she's not flailing and trying to run away (that and she hasn't met anyone on base to run away from, he's just managed to so totally startle her that she'd reacted based on that surprise before her head caught up with her) and is instead only jerking her head back because it sure looks like he just teleported right in front of her.

By reflex, she swallows, eyes wide as saucers. There's a faint taste of blood in her mouth as she holds her hands out and issues a: ]

No! I mean, I'm okay! I'm not —

[ — choking...! Even while he's reaching out and actually picking her up THIS IS A MAJOR SURPRISE ALL AROUND? She doesn't fight him off, though, more hopes that at some point he'll be assured she's okay and they can get to introductions instead of really awkward first encounters of the "I swallowed a pearl" kinds. ]

[tentaculled]

[ he's so fast that he's basically already picked her up by the time she tries to correct him. Fortunately, he's not trying to force any imaginary swallowed objects out of her gullet via tentacle pressure yet - and he does catch what she says. Considering that she wouldn't be able to talk if she was actually choking, he believes it. ]

Oh, really? Thank goodness -- but!! But you're bleeding! Did you bite yourself?

[ glancing at her hands now. he can smell the blood, mostly. also, he's not putting her down yet, because now he's all worked up. ]

ii

[checkoutmyttk]

Uh, I am pretty sure you aren't supposed to eat those. [Like. 99% sure. Maybe 95%. No less than 90% definitely.]

If you're like, really hungry or something, I can find you some food.

so sorry for the delay!

[onethousen]

[ She lets her hand drop down a little, giving the young man she doesn't recognise a surprised look. ]

I'm not trying to eat it.

[ ... child you had it in your mouth what else were you doing? (Testing it to see if it was solid and firm but that was also a very odd decision to make.) ]

np!

[checkoutmyttk]

[But why else would she be putting it in her mouth??? Kon stares at her and raises an eyebrow.]

Are you sure?

<3

[onethousen]

That I wasn't going to swallow? Pretty sure.

[ She lifts it up again. ]

I just wanted to test how strong it was. It doesn't feel or look like the pearls I'm used to, you know?

[ aka her mother's pearls ]

[checkoutmyttk]

Oh. [He moves a little closer, narrowing his eyes at the pearl as if he can figure out how strong it is by staring.] Huh. Didn't know people did that.

You just bite it an' see if you can dent it or something?

i;

[inyourlight]

[Moving out of the way is no problem for Killua, who hops to the side a few feet as easily as if he weren't standing on the bottom of the sea floor. A spin, a kick, and he starts to float next to her.]

Chihiro?

[what is that]

[onethousen]

[ It is impending doom... that, or a sea creature, but Chihiro looks to the side and shoots him an approximation of a smile. Mostly, she crinkles her eyes. ]

Hey, Killua!

[ She shifts her hold on the sea star as its legs come to rest all around her, twitching and patting at her sides in their own lazy, curious fashion. ]

It's amazing how big these get, huh? I've never seen one this size on Earth.