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]

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."

[carillons]

"What makes it less squishy, then?"

[alicornucopia]

"This sign says it has something a little like a shell inside of it. It's called a cuttlebone, but it's not really a bone." Ranata picks her up for a better look at the sign.

[carillons]

Helen oohs at the sign and reads it carefully. It contains knowledge about the squishiness of cuttlefish!

[alicornucopia]

It does!

This section also contains small squids.