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[ She tilts her head from side to side, squinting as she considers it. Her first thought is that it sort of looks like a fern, but she doesn't think that Nanaue would make that.

Finally she settles on a tentative, ] Is it a spider?

[ It's the only other thing that immediately jumps to mind. ]

Spider man! [ he exclaims - close enough! He doesn't elaborate though, instead turning to look at her again. ]

You draw. Me guess!

[ It's his turn! ]

Spider man? [ But she doesn't question any further. She assumes it's something he's simply imagined, or gotten confused.

She hums thoughtfully, and then clouds begin to form. She's careful to not make the clouds too defined, but it's not quite as nebulous as his clouds have been. ]

Okay, take a shot.

Edited 2023-07-21 14:00 (UTC)

[ His eyes seem to grow wider as he stares up at her cloud sculpting, gears turning within his massive skull. But he doesn't want to seem like he's struggling, so after a few seconds he blurts out the first thing that comes to mind, just like he did during the Masquerade. ]

Hat!

Not quite. Keep guessin'.

[ Her tone is encouraging. She decides to help by refining the ears and the haunches of the bunny a little bit. Then she adds a very small top hat just above the head. No reason it can't have a hat too. ]

There, see if that helps. Probably my fault anyway. I'm not a very good artist.

[ At first he seems discouraged by his wrong guess, evidenced by the way he begins muttering frustrated curses at himself. His black eyes search the sky as she refines her clouds, and he makes some wordless noises of exclamation as he points.

! ]

Bun-ny magician!

[ He glances at her with a happy, toothy smile. ]

[ She doesn't want him to feel bad, so she's glad her additions were enough to help him out. He guesses correctly, and she laughs, giving him a small round of applause. ]

Got it! [ The bunny magician -- who was not initially intended to be a magician, but she gets it -- seems to suddenly spawn a small cloud bouquet next to itself before the sky wipes clean. ] You wanna draw this time, or guess again?

[ He seems satisfied with his correct guess, but at the question he quickly and decidedly rumbles: ]

Guess again!

[ He's determined to get it right on the first try this time... ]

Okay!

[ She says it with another laugh, then looks back at the sky. Overhead, another cloud takes shape. This time, she goes ahead and makes it pretty blatant for him, leaving wispies only on the tail and feet. ]

Ready.

[ OH, this one is too easy. He points to the cloud and gleefully says in that deep voice: ]

Kit-TY!

[ He turns to her with his wide, open-mouthed shark smile. ]

Kitty friend. Eat bad mice.

[ This is how it had been explained to him the first time he tried to eat one of the half-feral barn cats that roamed the settlement. The mice get into the settlement's nom noms, so the cats hunt the mice.

The cats are strangely attracted to Nanaue and his barn.

(it's probably the fish smell) ]

[ She cheers and applauds him, the way one might congratulate a very small child for doing something basic, but it's just as genuine. She nods approvingly. ]

Right. Kitties are friends. Dogs too.

[ Are goats friends in Solvunn? Probably. But then again, Julie doesn't really understand anything those people get up to. She is pretty positive that Nanaue has been taught not to eat them, though. ]

[ Goats are on very thin ice with Nanaue... ]

No dog friend. [ He means that he has no dog friends, not that dogs can't be friends. He's open to dog friendships.

Then, a thought! ]

Cleo make rat friend. SOOOOOO MANY!

[ He holds his arms out wide to try to show how many, but this is not even close to the amount of rat friends Cleo had. Cleo is the best at making friends, and he doesn't think it's even only with rats. ]

No dog friends? [ Julie instinctively understands the way Nanaue speaks. If he meant that dogs can't be friends, the words would be in a different order. No dog friend means he has no friends that are dogs. Dog no friend would mean that dogs can't be friends.

All of this says something about Julie, but she does not examine that thought. Instead, she sinks her hands into the damp sand and begins molding it together. As if she suddenly wants to build a sand castle. ]

Who is Cleo? A friend from home?

[ Nanaue nods. Pointing at the sky he makes a vague (to be generous) shape of a rodent out of the clouds above them. ]

Cleo first friend. Ask 'no eat friend?'

[ And there it is, the origin story. ]

Fight bad starfish.

[ The clouds swoosh around to reform in a lumpy star shape. ]

[ Julie pauses in her sand gathering to look up at the clouds. ]

Cleo sounds real nice, Nanaue. She had rats?

[ Fight bad starfish. That's one that Julie can't say she instinctively understands. She is accustomed only to starfish that are both smaller than humans and also not from space.

Quickly, she draws a five-pointed star in the sand with one finger; the shape glows gently and then stands up on its own. A little starfish, reminiscent in shape to Patrick Star, though it doesn't have a face or shorts. It wanders on two legs to Nanaue's knee. ]

How did you fight a starfish?

[ ~~She assumes the answer is nom noms.~~ ]

All rats. Sebastian go to club party... no disguise...

[ This is a deep point of contention, marked by the way he grumbles some curses under his breath. Sebastian didn't even have an idea for a disguise, but he got to go to the club.

He sits up and turns to watch what she's doing. Gives a low rumbling heh heh heh at the starfish she makes as it approaches, and pokes it in the 'belly'. ]

Starfish big! [ He throws his arms out again to illustrate. ] Friends say 'that not nom nom!' [ he points at nothing ] 'that not nom nom' [ more pointing ] Giant starfish nom nom!

[ Which is his long way of saying yes, he did try to eat the giant starfish.

Nanaue pokes the sand starfish again and suddenly it changes with an audible pop! An all too realistic eye sprouts in the center, and it starts to float in the air. ]

Bad starfish.

Edited 2023-08-07 04:16 (UTC)

[ Hm. For the first time since they met, Julie is genuinely having trouble understanding what he's talking about. It's probably not his fault -- it's not exactly a story that seems to make much sense even better told. Cleo is friends with all rats? What does that mean? Sebastian, who Julie assumes is one of the rats, didn't wear a disguise? What?

She does not press him for more details. She knows they won't help.

Instead, she watches his gestures with a giggle. This part, she understands. His friends (Cleo and her rats?) directed his hunger toward the... giant starfish. Which, again, is a mystery, at least until he changes the little sand starfish and sends it drifting into the air.

This is the point at which Julie realizes that he is not talking about any kind of starfish she has any knowledge of. ]

Is that what starfish are like in your world? [ She asks with round eyes, clearly not having been expecting this twist. ] In mine, starfish are real little. Not big enough to fight.

[ Burying her toes in the sand, she resumes packing damp sand into a large mound. ] How did it taste?

[ That's okay, Julie. Nanaue doesn't notice that she isn't following his story. He gets distracted by his floating sandy starfish, filling in all the colors as best he remembers: pink and blue and yellow. It blinks at Julie as it floats by, but its limbs remain mostly inanimate. ]

Nooo! [ He draws out the word and chortles, finding the question about what starfish in his world look like inexplicably funny. ] Bad starfish in tower. Make people dumb. Want eat face.

[ That's how he interpreted it.

He tries to remember how the giant bad starfish tasted, and as the floating starfish drifts his way again... he abruptly chomps it in one bite. ]

Salty!

[ Oh. Wow. She doesn't really know what to say to that. Want eat face? She can't even really imagine it. But then, she's sure Nanaue would be unable to fathom the world she's lived through, either. Julie doesn't need to ask him more questions about it. She's all right without an explanation. ]

Makes sense. [ She giggles as he bites the fake starfish. ] I can see why it'd taste like salt. They do live in saltwater.

[ Patting some more sand onto her mound, her hands suddenly glow pink. The pile of sand begins to mold itself, steadily moving until there's a full-sized, albeit small, dog. It looks like a little terrier, with floppy ears and a tail that begins to wave wildly as it comes to life, flicking grains of sand in every direction. Its eyes open and then its mouth, a sand tongue lolling out.

The sand dog yips and prances over to Nanaue, where it dances back and forth playfully, bowing and barking. ]

Now you can have a dog friend.

[ Julie always seems to know what he's talking about! She is his favorite (except when Wanda is his favorite, or Claire and her houses for bees, or....)

(he has many favorites)

Nanaue watches with deep interest as Julie uses her magic to conjure another strange creature. He's about to yell excitedly that she made him a giant rat, but then she calls it a dog and he starts clapping his hands. ]

Tiny friend! [ Like her weird tiny friends! But more sandy! As it yips at him he hauls himself up, guffawing. Soon enough he is being chased and chasing the sand terrier along the shoreline, leaving Julie to herself. ]

Don't forget to name him!

[ Julie calls after him with a laugh, then sits back to watch him for a bit before she leaves. The dog will melt back to sand once Nanaue is done playing, unless he manages to register the idea of it sticking around like a pet, in which case it will remain present. ]

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