subnautica | [OPEN MINGLE: SEPT 8-16]

[OPEN MINGLE: SEPT 8-16]

[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!]

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[ 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. ]

[ 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. ]

[ she is being held up by a very concerned yellow octopus. no, he has too many tentacles, and he moves fast and looks wrong for an octopus.

but he's very concerned, and it's the continued concern that she finds makes this okay. ]

Just my tongue, it's okay. I've done it before.

[ what person hasn't? it'll heal in a few days, or a week or two. her hands appear fine, and they are, only a little wet from where some of her spit got on one in her surprised reaction. ]

It doesn't hurt much at all?

O-oh... Is that all?

[ after a blink or two and one last cursory glance, he slowly sets her back down on the floor. Then, after a moment of staring, he... clasps his feelers together and lowers his head apologetically. ]

I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you! Sensei just got really worried, seeing an innocent young girl in danger...

[ when her dangling feet meet firm floor again, she breathes out in a sigh of relief. it feels best when she's on her own two feet, unless she's out with someone flying or something.

for all his visible oddness, the way he moves and gestures is far more familiar than the way many of those on base move. it hearkens back to a familiarity she identifies with as being from home. even the way he calls himself Sensei... it prompts her to bow in return, her own apology for having unintentionally given him a scare. (nevermind being scared in turn.) ]

I didn't mean to scare you either, sir. Sensei?

[ Still more of a title than a proper name, but... she's not sure if it's how he'd like to be referred to or not. She straightens, one hand still closed around the sugary pearls. ]

My name's Ogino Chihiro. It's nice to meet you.

[ what a polite young lady. He's used to - or, rather, he expects to be treated with scorn or laughed off after being melodramatic, but she's taking it completely in stride. He's almost touched... Though not much shows on that perpetually-smiling face of his. Korosensei is quick to wave his tentacles to dismiss that apologetic bow. ]

There's no need for that, Chihiro-san! You've done nothing. [ except... eat a rock. He'll get to that in a second. ] Sensei is fine. Now, please tell me why you just ate a semiprecious stone. Even if you did not choke, I'm rather concerned.

[ she opens her palm to stare down at the pearls (the sweet, sugary pearls) clutched there. picking one up between two fingers, she offers it over to sensei even as she answers his question. ]

I wasn't trying to eat it.

[ not before she was surprised, though had she bitten down to realise what she now knows, she might have tried anyway. ]

I wanted to check if the pearls were real sturdy like the ones on Earth. Only these aren't like those at all. They're sweet, and they crumble, like a sugar cube.

Eh? Seriously?! Let me see!

[ if so, this could be an IMPORTANT DISCOVERY. Or, at least, important to a sweets-loving sensei. He plucks it out of her hands with his feelers as she offers it, popping it into his mouth without hesitation... and his reaction is pretty immediate. ]

Nyuah... It's true! It's like sugar! Sweet, heavenly sugar...! You've finally found it, Chihiro-san!!

[ She smiles at his response, taking the whole strange, yellow sight of him and being glad that someone else is likewise appreciating what she's accidentally discovered. Here she thought mostly she'd give the pearls to someone to make into jewelry if they wanted.

Discovering they were much more precious than jewels (sugar is far more appealing to her, too, at least) alone is a bright spot in a very foreign sea. Her excitement at his reaction is pretty much spontaneous and complete; she's enthused and enthusiastic in that moment. ]

It's amazing, isn't it? Who knew a clam could make such a thing!

[ Moreover, while it's not sugar cane by any stretch of the imagination... ]

In knowing, we can do something about it too. [ Her fingers curl around the remaining pearls. ] Sensei, it's possible if we feed the clams who made these, they'd be able to make more, right?

[ he is honestly so happy... they've been using whatever substitutes they could find, but this is by far the closest thing to the real deal yet. He's practically sparkling, nodding with enthusiastic agreement when she says it's amazing. ]

Well, it's possible... However, the process of making a pearl is something that takes years back home. We'd have to study how these little sugar pearls are formed more closely before Sensei could say for sure. After all, these are aliens we're talking about!

[ a beat. ]

But still, the possibility of being able to gather more is very real!

Mm!

[ The pearls bit is news to her, though she's hoping that sugar pearls... honey pearls... go much faster. Much much faster. Or else they just ate like, two years worth of sugar right here and now. Looking up at Sensei's big, round, yellow face, she hopes he's a very broad subject certified sensei, because she sure isn't all that broadly knowledgeable about things like studying clam biology.

She is, however, jazzed that he's jazzed. These are two excited people here RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW. ]

Is that something we can study here? In the lab?

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[OPEN MINGLE: SEPT 8-16]

sib i burst out laughing

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