i might as well be the man on the moon

[truthwright]

Their Isabella having just gone to welcome a new Bell into the peal, Kas and Petaal snuggle up together and take a nap. They'll want to be well rested for the party.

When they wake up, she still isn't back.

[Jane?]

No response.

Kas teleports down to the Janepoint, Petaal wrapped snake-shaped around his shoulders.

The display reads: error 7788: lycanthropy

"...So that's new," he says.

"No shit," says Petaal. "Now what?"

He shrugs. She coils tighter.

"Hang around and wait, I guess."

Comments

[alicornucopia]

And whenever they want to move on, there are plenty of neat creatures to see! Ranata picks up Helen so she can see the higher informational plaques and helps her pronounce words.

[carillons]

Ooh, pickings-up! Ranata is best grandma.

[alicornucopia]

She is pretty great! And she can send Castarilan humming through the aquarium to get a better feel from the place than the map affords, and they traverse it efficiently but at a leisurely pace, never lost or backtracking.

[carillons]

It is fuuuuuuuuuun. Helen is the most delighted of children.

[alicornucopia]

That's the idea!

Here is an octopus. It wafts around its tank like a particularly purposeful, solid plastic bag on the wind.

[carillons]

"Awwwww," says Helen, clapping her hands. "It's pretty!"

[alicornucopia]

"It is!" Ranata agrees. Kalavar isn't allowed to play with this one, but they can watch it. It gloms onto the near glass, showing off suckers.

[carillons]

"And squishly," says Helen. Kalavar turns into an octopus-like fantasy creature with bright green-and-gold tentacles and pokes the glass where the octopus is.

[alicornucopia]

The octopus mirrors this motion, peering curiously out.

[carillons]

Kalavar wiggles her tentacles. (There are seven of them. She is only octopus-like.)

[alicornucopia]

The octopus loses interest and wafts away and squeezes into its tiny little hideyhole, which should not be able to accommodate so much octopus.

[carillons]

"It is very squishly," Helen observes. "Look at it squish!"

[alicornucopia]

"It doesn't have any bones," says Ranata. "It's an invertebrate!"

[carillons]

"No bones at all? Wow," says Helen. "No wonder it squishes!"

[alicornucopia]

"Well, lobsters don't have bones either, on the inside," says Ranata. (They saw lobsters a little while ago.) "They have exoskeletons - their shells hold them together. But octopuses don't even have those."

[carillons]

"I like octopuses more," she says. "Because they squish up."

[alicornucopia]

"They do! They can get through really tiny spaces."

[carillons]

"I saw!" she says. "It's coooool."

[alicornucopia]

"The next time we come to a saltwater swim tank maybe Kalavar can try." It won't make any difference to the inhabitants of the tank whether Kalavar is an octopus or a shrimp or a shark; daemon is daemon, exactly the same threat level as attached person and less edible due to their habit of disappearing.

[carillons]

"Squishy!" says Kalavar, twining her green-gold tentacles in Helen's hair.

[alicornucopia]

"Yep!"

Next is a tiny cuttlefish, its little beard of tentacles constantly flexing.

[carillons]

"Wiggly!" says Helen, thoroughly charmed.

[alicornucopia]

"Yep! This is related to the octopus. They're both molluscs."

[carillons]

"Does this one squish too?"

[alicornucopia]

"Not as much," says Ranata. "A little, though, it still doesn't have any bones."