respect your rocks!

HARRIET didn’t have the heart to harm the little sniffy guys who got into her flower shop. But every time they got in, every plant in her store lost its beautiful fragrance, and her customers simply left and bought their flowers someplace else. Yes, she needed to do something with the little sniffy guys. Harriet had managed to shepherd at least a dozen of their small, fleshy bodies into the back of her van. She’d purchased the Toyota only a couple months ago and had been enjoying that new-leather-smell, but now her nose picked up only its absence. 

“Alright,” she said, pulling up to the beach. “You all ready? This’ll be your home now. Not my flower shop.” One sniffled. “Do you all understand me? Right here; you’ll stay here.” She looked over her shoulder and saw all the little sniffy guys shuffling about in the trunk, the tips of their noses pressed against the glass. A few vibrated with anticipation. Harriet realized she didn’t smell that pungent, rotten eggs algae the state always had to scrape off the rocks each summer. Maybe these creatures belonged here after all. She slid out of the car and opened the trunk. One by one, each little sniffy guy rolled out and tottered across the beach, nostrils flaring. She watched them trip and sniff up sand and disappear from view. 

Her eyes weren't the sharpest, but from a distance, she could see a growing gathering of people, and what looked like a firepit, craft tables, food, and... there went her little sniffy guys. Oh dear, wasn’t that bonfire happening soon? 

[Little sniffy guys here: https://wickedsrest-rp.tumblr.com/post/793319132889235456/astomi ]

REGAN felt like she passed some unspoken test. Several people had asked what she planned to bring to the bonfire this year. Presumably, because the pile of festering fish she so carefully curated last year was a great success. She remembered how everyone had looked upon it, commented on it. She couldn’t help but be a little stressed about this year, though, which was quite human of her, really—how could anything she brought this time possibly be better? For weeks, she’d been asking Jade for thoughts. But Jade ranked all of her ideas highly, which didn’t leave Regan with much feedback. She could ask others, but humans enjoyed surprises, she’d learned. Or she could ask Dr. Rickers, except she refused and needed cite no reason. 

The answer came to her at 3am, as Jade’s arm draped over her. Arm. Arm! It was so obvious. Plus, it wasn’t a leg—Regan didn’t wish to traumatize anyone (humans were possessed of great trauma; she, of course, was effortlessly stable and couldn’t conceive of being so afflicted, because of the effortless stability that was so effortless and stable). It took a few tries to find an arm, and unfortunately, the distinction of forelimbs and hindlimbs wasn’t significant to the lay human. Mooses had four legs, they thought. To Regan, the bleeding limb she cradled could just as well be called an arm. Shredded strips of the extensor carpi radialis stretched past the edge of the fur, swaddling broken bone. Yellow-red marrow plugged up the center like the congealed top of a creme brulee. Who could look at that and call it a leg? No, she had nothing to be concerned about. The smell would be appreciated if nothing else.

Before LIL had left for six months she really had never thought about events like this in Wicked’s Rest as anything special. After all, they were pretty normal and she had skipped many of them, but after coming back and especially with not knowing where most of the Ballard’s were, it seemed almost necessary for her to be at events. After all, she didn’t want to be a ghost haunting the town and part of her felt obligated to roam. 

As she got to the bonfire Lil relaxed stretching as she brought marshmallows and other stuff to share. She wasn’t at all cook, but she was patient enough to not burn the marshmallows to a full roasted outside. “Hey - if you want one I’ve got plenty of supplies,” Lil said to the others around, hoping to at least not make them as paranoid as they could be. “Even got the good chocolate and the stick things.”

ZACK was excited when he saw the flyers for the Bondfire around Downtown. It seemed like it would be the perfect opportunity to reconnect with the town and its citizens, and maybe make some new friends along the way. Upon arriving, he quickly loaded up with a complimentary can of Sharp Claws (apparently blood orange flavor, though there was a typo on the can, declaring it as "Blood. Orange!") and mingled through the crowd, trying to keep a friendly smile on his face. Zippo was riding on his shoulder, but kept swiveling his little head toward the firepit, black glossy eyes reflecting the flames. 

"Do you like s'mores?" Zack murmured to his familiar, grin widening. He made off toward the firepit, scoping out the assembly line of chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmallows. He grinned as Lil, a familiar face from his first stint at Wicked's Rest, announced that there were plenty to go around. "Hey, thanks!" he greeted, spearing two marshmallows (one for his s'mores, one for Zippo) onto a skewer and holding it toward the bonfire. "I'll never say no to a sweet treat, but this is the perfect day for s'mores." 

A private smile crossed his face as he considered his own abilities in spellcasting. He had never tried, but Zack was confident that he could make s'mores anywhere, anytime with his magic. And if the marshmallows he had on his skewer didn't roast precisely how he liked, he might even try the trick right then and there -- assuming he could do so sneakily. "I'm a charred on the outside, molten on the inside guy myself. How do you like your 'mallows?" he posed to Lil, and any of the others around the fire as well.

MADISON had decided that she needed to 'get out and about' more. It would help her find people who were like her, and it was also recommended by not only Marielle, but Brooklyn too. Her other siblings had agreed, and she wasn't going to not do something they thought she should do, even though she'd texted Salem separately to say how much she wished that she could be there too, especially. Salem was starting college this year, but Salem was back home in North Carolina. 

She hoped that maybe she'd run into someone who she knew here, but if not she could just vibe and eat good food.

JADE had to take it upon herself to find a winter coat to sacrifice to the bonfire. It was just… You know, way harder to convince Regan to buy one for the occasion. Once Jade saw that bright* 'I have an idea'* look on her partner’s face at the concept of arm all bets were off. (It was a powerful look, one that made it hard to ever contradict Regan) (The life of a simp wasn’t easy, but it was totally fulfilling). Besides, that didn’t mean she was letting go of Baz’s brilliant idea to commemorate the event at last. Nuh uh! Nope, she could celebrate it by herself. After all, she was the person who won the most out of the last coat exploding into a billion pieces. The reasons why this coat burning ceremony was so important were irrelevant right now, she knew it would be confusing to explain, what with the wings and the pixies and the cabins in the forest, but it was a year in the making, and that was all anyone should know. 

She carried the coat in her arms, with a lot less care and love than Regan did her arm (even though it looked like a leg) (the arm, not the coat. The coat looked like a coat). Mostly cause she didn’t wanna get attached to the soft fabric and the puffiness. This was a coat meant to burn. Not one to comfort. She strolled toward the gathering, memories of last year’s making her heart soggy with fondness (she’d even worn the ‘societal menace’ bracelet Vic had so nicely made for her). This was gonna be just as great. Even better, probably. Cause a coat would become dust.

DREW wasn’t a fan of social gatherings but she’d agreed to participate more so for the sake of monitoring the amount of trash and debris that failed to find its way to the proper disposal sites than to actually have fun or interact with anyone. As she approached the growing crowd of residents she slid her usual scowl into place to discourage anyone from approaching her and began to slowly make her rounds, eyeing all of the plastic that was sure to cause some trouble if she didn’t stay on top of it. The company she worked for had suggested sending out a large group of people to help with the efforts to keep the area as safe for the local wildlife as possible but Drew had insisted that she was more than capable of getting the job done on her own. It was hard enough to get the general public to respect what marine conservationists did for a living, she didn’t think that showing up in large numbers and being seen as “party poopers” would really do anything to benefit their cause. So, comfortably alone and concentrated on the task at hand, she began monitoring, listening in on the interesting conversations and rolling her eyes at the awkwardness of others meeting for the first time.

ELIAS hated the idea of showing up to this bonfire, but he also knew that he needed to leave his house before he lost his mind completely. As soon as he rolled up and saw everyone present, he decided to stick to the outskirts of the gathering, idly picking at his nails as others began conversing with one another. Maybe if he stuck to the shadows, no one would see him. He's... admittedly had worse ideas. Out of the corner of his eye, he noted two familiar figures. Oh, that wasn't good. Best keep his head down. Nothing to see here, folks.

THEA was confident in the powers of Lumpy Dog. Was being the operative word here. Once Lumpy Dog was completed and she spun around, looking down the beach at the other sandcastles, she realized that what she had was a nothing more than a pile of sand with a carrot in it. It was a very cute pile of sand though, wasn’t it? She certainly hoped someone thought so. 

Thea stared out at the water like a forlorn sailor. She turned, contemplating walking away, when she saw them: astomi waddling. Well, just the one; he looked a little lost. Thea couldn’t exactly tell if his beady eyes were filling with tears at this distance, but it gave that impression. Thea only bent to grab her bag but when she looked up, the astomi was gone. This, if anything, was a job for a Scribe! It would be catastrophic if the astomi sniffed up all the smells… or so Thea assumed. 

She marched down the beach, toward the main gathering, her eyes peeled for noses. Her nose peeled for smells that she actually couldn’t smell, so, really, she had her mouth peeled open to ask everyone about smells.

At the question LIL shrugged as she carefully turned her marshmallow in the fire keeping an eye on the sugary confection with a rapt attention the woman usually didn't have “I kinda like them fully roasted you know the nice brown. At least the first few before I just want to eat them quickly.” She eyed the creature but decided to let it be. After all, everyone was allowed to go to a bonfire in Lil’s humble opinion and Zack hadn't ever caused her problems. It wasn’t quite cool in the air yet, but Lil was already in the mood for fall.

MOLLY, who'd been trying to get out and about more in Wicked's Rest lately heard a few students in one of her classes talking about the upcoming bonfire. Molly asked one of them about it on their way out and immediately knew it might be another good excuse to get her out of the house and meeting new people. For someone who had been living in Wicked's Rest for an entire year, she hadn't met too many others, at least not outside of a simple catch up and a few interactions online. 

So when the day of the bonfire came she slipped into one of her favorite pairs of ripped jeans and wrapped herself in one of a red and black flannel that seemed appropriate for a beach bonfire. After she arrived at the beach, she rolled up the cuffs of her jeans and headed straight for the water, standing out to admire the horizon just where the waves could barely reach her bare feet. She was startled for a moment by the sounds of tiny splashes beneath her but her gaze wasn't fast enough to catch a good glimpse at the little creatures that scurried away down the beach.

Looking ahead at the group, REGAN'S throat swelled. She never liked things like this. And she saw more people than she’d been around in… possibly since the previous year, actually. Then, she had managed not to scream or do anything that drew undue attention. Since then, Regan had only improved, hadn’t she? But the clams… no, no, focus. Her fingers tightened around the bag’s handles, moose limb safe within. Her other hand found Jade’s and squeezed just as hard. She could feel the heat coming off her bone partner—Jade was likely excited, but Regan suspected she might be nervous about running into certain… people. Or she was just really looking forward to setting that winter coat alight. It wasn't even one Regan had worn before, but its meaning was obvious. “Here we go. Maybe I’ll stick by you. If people think we’re literally stuck together, they may neglect other questions.” 

"Who are we trying to avoid?" Regan said, perhaps a little too loud (if there was such a thing) as they neared the fire. "Siobhan... Elias." The name scorched her stomach and burned up her throat. "He wouldn't be here, would he? No, no, probably back in California again. I'll walk into the ocean if he shows up. Clams. You know how... passionate I have become for them. And... Emilio? Where are you with--" Regan tripped over someone's sandcastle.

EVE would never say no to a party (except for all the times when she did). She'd even brought food to add to the potluck table not far from the bonfire. A chateau Marcel even sounded fancy and French (Henri better be impressed), but it was actually incredibly easy to make taste good. Presentation, on the other hand? She'd made finer work. It looked a little like a mud pie. Her back began to burn, but considering how many town's people there were, that wasn't so surprising. Anyway, tonight wasn't hunter night... or at least, not until she spotted the young woman who had been weird about Rangers online. She walked over, offering a slice of cake. "Can I bribe you? I need people to think I'm not serving them something I dug out of The Pines. It's just chocolate, I swear!"

As much as she tried, there was nothing that could keep DREW away from the water for long, even when she was supposed to be working. She slipped off her shoes and went to stand a little ways away from Molly, close enough to strike up a conversation but far enough away so that it didn’t feel intimate. She’d also heard the tiny splashes and looked around for the source but couldn’t find anything, so she decided that it was just some of her fish friends coming to say hello.

“Did you enter the sandcastle competition?” She asked Molly, her eyes glued to the water. She wasn't good at small talk but she’d give it an honest try. If it didn't work out all she had to do was walk away, now that was something she was good at.

Raul was thriving in the sunshine. Sure he was technically here to check if the telluric currents between the new island and the mainland shore matched. However, after some half-hearted surveys and some substantial pre-gaming, Raul had decided a break would obviously help the research along, definitely. 

So it was that Raul had spent most of the morning surfing, with of course the occasional thought about the research he was going to get to any moment now after the next wave. Yet, hours had slipped by and on coasting onto the shore Raul had noticed the gathering and remembered those community posters he’d seen around town. Original purpose forgotten again, Raul jogged lazily towards the bonfire, surfboard under an arm.

Someone came over to her and MADISON briefly startled, before recognizing the lady online who seemed to know something about rangers. Or maybe Rangers. Madison wasn't entirely sure. Either way, she was talking to her now and offering her cake and her eyebrows knit together. "I mean, sure? But I've been told not to take food from strangers... but I guess this also is a potluck a little bit too, so I probably can have it?" She shrugged. "It doesn't have nuts or whatever in it, right?"

Even though his last attempt at a large social-ish event hadn't gone so well, GUILLERMO felt determined to try again. If he gave up after every bad experience, how many good ones could he actually have? Anyway, he'd gotten here early to avoid tripping over anyone, and was plopped in the part of the beach designated for sandcastle building, still working on his masterpiece. Which was mostly just some mounds in the shape of what hinted at a building, with a bunch of sticks jutting out of the edges. You know! How building are decorated! (He didn't know what a building looked like, to be fair. The sticks just felt right.) His hands brushed over sand, poking holes here and adding foliage there, hoping that it might come out looking half-decent. If he didn't win, that was okay. He'd gotten a little more used to not winning things that were easy for people who could see.

When MOLLY heard Drew's voice over the sound of the waves lapping against the shore, she looked over at her. "Oh? No, I didn't enter." She replied, shaking her head before looking out at the water once more. "I'm afraid I'm not too creative when it comes to building with sand." She couldn't help but chuckle, "Though I could probably offer some pretty good decorations to one that's already up if I had some fun shells to add. What about you?"

If there was a social gathering in town, then MONICA was going to be there. Nothing thrilled her more than getting to bond with the humans - and maybe even some fellow fae! Though as she arrived at the beach, she scanned around for any familiar faces to no avail. She was far from a shy person, but the thought of having to infiltrate one of these existing friend groups made her a tiny bit nervous. She kicked some sand around as she tried to decide her first move, finally deciding that the actual bonfire itself would be a good place to start. "This is so nice!" She exclaimed rather loudly to no one in particular as she sauntered up to the main group.

TEAGAN found herself struggling to strike up any conversation. The last time she'd attended that bonfire, Felix was there, having a hard time because someone hated them. Then she quickly discovered someone detested her presence too. 

That year was different though. People were gone, and people were pushed away. Teagan was alone, struggling to make some sort of effort to speak to literally anyone. She grumbled some Welsh obscenities to herself, plopping down on the sand to at least enjoy the sun quietly while a few others enjoyed the water.

DREW shook her head. She was admittedly very good at building sandcastles as it was something she’d done her entire life, but she was there to work not engage in childish activities. “No, I didn’t. I think some people teamed up though, you probably could’ve joined with someone and decorated after they’d actually built it. Maybe you can do that next time.” She glanced over at Molly, trying to decide whether or not she wanted to continue the conversation or go on her own way. In the end she decided that it couldn't have hurt too much for her to continue talking until she actually got bored. “Don’t think I’ve seen you around before. I’m Drew.”

"That's fair," ZACK said, nodding to Lil's marshmallow choice. The top marshmallow was only starting to get crisp on the outside and soft, hardly taking on any color, but Zack withdrew his skewer from the fire. Even though Zippo was a fire salamander, he still didn't want to give him something too hot to eat. "Here, bud." He swiveled the skewer up and around so his familiar could munch on the confection. Zippo gripped onto the marshmallow though, toasting it a little further and drawing a laugh from Zack.

He looked up at the excited shout from the girl who just drew up to the fire and gave her an enthusiastic nod back, hoping to match her energy. As he looked up, his eyes were drawn to the surfer jogging up the shore. No, he wasn't moving in slow motion. It was just that Zack had perhaps watched a bit too much Baywatch at a formative age. His eyes lingered before he deliberately set his attention back to the fire.

THEA watched in horror as Lumpy Dog became more lumpy, a woman with a bloody bag (literally bloody, not in the British way) tumbled into it. His carrot nose fell down. Were Thea capable of crying, she might’ve. 

“Murderer!” Thea called out. “Murderer on the beach!” It did not occur to her that this was a bad thing to yell on a beach full of people. “And she has a leg! Contraband leg!” This was such a lawless Bondfire! Who was keeping the sandcastles safe? Or all the smells? The astomi were going to sniff everything up and this woman was going to destroy all the hard, lumpy work of the good people.

“Quite a - pet you got there,” LIL said fascinated by the creature on Zach’s shoulder but not enough to say much more. Lil turned slightly to the new person and nodded, “Yeah the bonfire this time isn’t too small at all. Do you want to make a Smore? They’ll be pretty tasty this time of day.” She asked offering Monica one of the long sticks she had pilfered from her families garage and cleaned before coming down.

EVE shrugged, barely mollified. "I mean, there's a full pot luck over there, which is all food from strangers." She shook her head. "No. It's just eggs, butter, chocolate, sugar." Her eyes flicked over to some movement on the far end of the beach, where noses were starting to move around. Even Eve recognised them: Astomi. Shit. She shifted her weight, so the woman she was chatting with ould have to turn away from them. "Have you been to one of these before?"

“Yeah it’s deec” Raul replied to Monica’s general address with a sun-flushed grin . “We’ll need to build it bigger though, start jumping over it and whatnot. If someone’s gonna call fire hazard or whatever we’ve got to make it worth it first, thems the rules”

There were tons of beautiful, familiar faces gathering around. (There was Lil in the s’mores station, and oh! Eve looking gorg, and wait… was that Elias trying to hide his practically 7 feet tall frame from them?). JADE was itching to go say hi to literally everybody, but she knew that everybody would still be there in five minutes, so pacing herself wasn’t so bad. Plus, she felt the tight squeeze of Regan’s hand, and she immediately knew her partner had to be feeling a little overwhelmed by the number of people and whatever her banshee senses might be picking up on. “I can definitely be your social lube, baby. Before you know it, you’ll slip right into every convo,” she pressed a kiss to Regan’s cheek and continued to pull forward. Who did they have to avoid? Considering last time she’d gotten to hang out with literal nemesis Vic and Metzli, she figured everybody was aware that this was supposed to be like a conflict free zone. So she had no intention of avoiding anyone. 

“I think Elias is trying to avoid us,” she mumbled, looking at his head peak from above the crowd despite his best efforts. She got it, she knew she had to give everybody time. Maybe they could approach once the vibes were confirmed to be awesome. She was gonna comment on the fact that Emilio hadn’t answered her text asking if he was coming to the bonfire, but before she could, Regan was gone. Literally gone. She’d become one with the sand. And sure, she knew her partner loved the beach, but not like this. She crouched to check up on her, “is the leg— I mean, the arm okay? Your arm…not, you get it” she craned her neck, wondering if the owner of the messed up castle was around. She didn't have to wonder too long, cause someone started screaming murder. "Um, she fell! It was an accident."

MADISON grinned. "In that case, how can I say no? The best thing about being in college is I can do whatever I want and eat whatever I want! Not that my parents ever put a stop to that back home, but eating cake just because feels so wild I could burst! Not literally, because then I'd be dead and that's not what I am or what I want to be, so yeah!" She turned toward the other woman. "I have not! I-d-k if there was one last year, but I've only been here that long so yep! This is new for me."

A wave of uncomfortable needles spread up TEAGAN'S back at the loud mention of a murderer on the beach. The nix whirled her head around a bit frantically, not seeing any faces she could recognize as murder-y. She continued to look, unsure of what the screaming was about, and when she landed on Zack, she stiffened. If he was there, perhaps Arden would make an appearance too. She stood up and shuffled her way around, seeing Jade and Reagan as couple-y as can be. She sighed, wiggling her way into a conversation with strangers. "Eggs, butter, chocolate, sugar...what about flour?"

To be honest, MOLLY hadn't considered joining anyone on a sandcastle build. She hadn't considered joining anyone because she really only knew a handful of people around here and this was one of her first big events she'd really paid any mind to since moving. "Yeah, you're right." She agreed, "I guess I'm just still new so I wasn't sure who to reach out to yet." She offered a shrug of her shoulder, the one that wasn't sore from her encounter earlier this week. And when Drew introduced herself, Molly looked at her again. "It's nice to meet you, Drew. I'm Molly," She said with a smile. "I've lived here for about a year but I don't get out much, until now. Or, rather I'm trying to get out more now."

At the outcry of someone being called a murderer, ELIAS couldn't help but look up. Sure enough, there was Regan, tripped over a sandcastle. Ah, so it wasn't real murder. Just sand-related murder. He took a step over toward Jade and Regan, overhearing his name. His heart sank. Of course that's how he was being painted in their eyes. He had to get over himself. 

"I think murder is a crazy word to jump to," Elias finally spoke, looking over toward Thea with a bemused expression. Hiz gaze flickered over to Jade and Regan crouched in the sand, then gave a single nod of his head. Hopefully that would be enough for now.

ZACK grinned at Lil's comment, casting his eyes to the side, watching the little guy happily devour his marshmallow. "Isn't he neat? His name is Zippo." Turning back to Lil, he shrugged sheepishly. "I'd offer to let you pet him, but unfortunately he...ah...runs kind of hot, so you might get burnt." Which he knew was something like an insane thing to say, but he didn't want Lil to get hurt. He had gotten scorched a few times, early on after adopting Zippo. 

Zack turned at the sound of someone screaming about murder, but that seemed to be more about sandcastles than actual murder. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Teagan, heard the lilt of her accent... But he wasn't exactly sure where he stood with the woman, and so he let himself focus on the surfer instead. "You're asking for a visit to the burn unit, with that." He wanted to comment that he could help in growing the flames but, obviously, that would be saying too much. "Unless you're the Jackof 'nimble' and 'quick' fame."

There was some commotion further up the beach that caught DREW’S attention but once it died down she was able to pull herself back to the conversation at hand with Molly. “Sometimes it’s best to stay as far away from the goingson in this town. I’m honestly only here because I’m technically working, but I might grab a s’more later if I’m really feeling crazy.” She joked. She would have much preferred to slip into her pelt and go swimming but she knew that with so many witnesses around that wouldn’t have been a good idea at all. “I’ve been here a couple years but still don’t know that many people and sometimes I think that’s a good thing.” Another splash, closer that time. Drew became a statue as she tried once again to figure out where it had come from. “Were you feeding the fish?” She asked Molly. “Because I think something’s really trying to get our attention.”

REGAN landed on top of at least two sandcastles, the moose limb bag clutched to her chest. Unscathed. And she didn't even scream. At least two positives, right? But then a finger pointed at her, and a child started screaming (unimpressively). Regan bristled. "It's mine. And it's not technically a leg!" Regan climbed to her feet. Addressing these lies was more important than anything else right now. "What was it that you were making anyhow? Not a human being. I'm no murderer." She looked emphatically toward Jade, who always had her back (not literally). "Maybe you're the murderer. You call that art? Perhaps I improved it, now that it's been in the presence of a moose limb. That was missing before. If you had introduced it to some decomposition, maybe I would've noticed it in front of my feet. You killed art." Regan didn't know anything about art. 

There were a lot of eyes on her right now, weren't there. "Stop shouting," Regan hissed at the child. First time she'd ever said that. "People are starting to--" Tall, anxiety flying off him, half-trying to duck away even as he spoke. Regan's arms went slack, and she almost dropped the moose limb. "It's... fine," she said to Jade. But her eyes were on Elias. Her voice was quiet. "I should have stayed in the sand. I can make a convincing cadaver when necessary." Too late now.

MONICA wasn't quite sure what she was expecting as a response, but she beamed when someone nodded back at her enthusiastically, then even more so when their companion offered her a stick of her own. "Sure! I love smores! Thank you, nice people. I'm Monica!" She said, plopping down next to Zack and Lil. As she started to skewer some marshmallows, she raised an eyebrow at the surfer who had strolled up beside her. "Well if someone were to call a fire hazard on this, then they'd be a certified party pooper!" 

As Monica was about to hold her treats over the fire, her head whipped around at the sound of commotion near the sandcastles. She wasn't quite sure what was happening, but between the people yelling and people on the floor, there was clearly some destruction happening. "Oh shit! Our sandcastle!" She yelped at the thought of her and Estella's sandcastle getting caught in the line of fire. As quickly as she had inserted herself into the bonfire group, she dropped her marshmallow stick onto the sand and bolted off. "Sorry!! You guys are super cool but I need to check on something," she called out to her momentary acquaintances at the fire as she headed towards the sandcastle commotion.

EVE's spine itched as more people walked past. It felt like as soon as one fae had walked a little further out, another fae passed close by. With so many people milling about,it was impossible to parse out who was was, but it was uncomfortable. Someone screamed about murder, and Eve glanced over briefly, but it looked like it was just about a sandcastle. (And it was Thea doing the yelling. No thanks.) No one she recognised as a Ranger either, damn it. She glanced back at Madison and her enthusiastic energy. "I wouldn't want you to burst, but have as much as you like! And oh my god, welcome to town! This is a good time of year to be here!" 

Just then, someone else joined. Eve looked over at the stranger with a smile, shifting her weight again to keep the Astomi out of view for both of them. "No flour, so it's totally gluten free! Do you want some?"

LIL chuckled and shook her head, “Nah I don’t want Zippo to feel uncomfortable. And it’s nice to meet you Monica.” She said handing over a stick and the bag of marshmallows. At the idea of jumping over the bonfire she raised and eyebrow but pulled a fire extinguisher slightly out of her bag. She had learned from her older siblings, and well demons that it was pretty good practice to have one when you were going to be around fire. “I mean go ahead I got a - yeah it’s not expired.” Admittedly at the idea of murder Lil looked up and saw that it wasn’t anything that was her business and shrugged instead making her smore. She was sure it would calm down and she saw Jade over there. If they needed help someone would go holler she was sure.

“Nah,” Raul waved with jocular dismissiveness at Zack’s caution, “Besides, that’d just help sterilize the sunburns right? Healthy, hygienic. Wait,” he frowned, “Jack Quick? That you,” the Spaniard asked pointing at Zack. “Oh I see how it is,your the fire jump champ trying to psych me out! I’ll take you up on …” Raul looked over at Monica’s compliment “oh uh thanks! Do you wanna ….oh ok, bye “

With her jeans cuffed around her ankles, Molly was on her way to the water along the outskirts of the bonfire gathering. She figured she'd have plenty of time to mingle but wanted to give herself a slow start as to not overwhelm herself too quickly. A comfortable smile settled across her lips as she spotted Madison arriving too, and Molly couldn't help but feel proud of Madison for getting out and about too. "Hey!" She waved and approached her, "I'm glad to see you decided to come today! I'm proud of both of us for making it out of the house." She added with a laugh. 

No flour? TEAGAN almost grimaced, but kept her face free of disgust. It wasn't fair. Some people couldn't handle that delicious gluten. It was actually thoughtful to bring something for dietary restrictions. On top of that, the woman was cute and appeared to try to be the center of attention. Teagan could play along. "Cute." She smiled, "What is your dish exactly?"

He was hearing a few voices he recognized (and many he didn't), but GUILLERMO wasn't sure about getting up and wandering around without an escort at this point. He had his cane, but the warmth and smell of the fire was a bit off-putting, not to mention that people could be sitting literally anywhere and he wouldn't know until he ran into them. 

Besides, someone was yelling about murder, and he'd just as soon stay out of that. He was feeling a little peckish, though, and had no idea where the food was. Of course the ocean was a fair bet in that regard, and he could definitely listen and sniff his way there. His stomach grumbled and he decided to give it a go, getting up from where he was sitting and dusting off his shorts. Then he started to wander toward the sound of the waves, moving slowly and carefully so he didn't end up stepping on anyone else's sandcastle. Finally, the sand turned wet and the waves hit his feet, and all at once he felt better. Folding up the cane and tucking it under his arm, the shifter quickly shuffled his way into the water and sat back down where it came up to his chest. He could just... wait for the fish to come to him, right?

There were a lot of people talking to her, and MADISON wondered if this was what it felt like to be popular. She did feel more than a little bit overwhelmed, but she could feel her heart relax. "Hi Professor Hiatt!! How are you?" There was another person too. "This is real nice, I think! I did bring one of my books on Linear Algebra in case I have some time just to hang out. Unless any of you fancy some neat math on the beach?"

Before ZACK could offer a greeting to Monica, she was off, running toward the sandcastle massacre. Secretly, he was grateful for Lil's caution. He was fairly certain he could tackle any fire related problems that might arise, but back-up was always smart to have. 

The surfer's optimism about fire and sunburns didn't sound right to Zack, but he didn't know enough about medicine to dispute it. He did laugh as the other man turned it into a challenge. "Oh, you got me. I won the National Fire Jump Championship the last five years. I'm not Jack Quick, though I do rhyme. I'm Zack." He offered a hand to shake, swinging his skewer around with the other hand to get his marshmallow back into the heat.

"You're working?" MOLLY asked, "What kind of work are you doing here? If you don't mind me asking." She asked Drew curiously. "And I've heard that from several people lately, mentions of keeping quiet and not asking questions around here." For Molly it was a struggle because she was innately curious but at the same time tended to avoid awkward situations at any cost. "But a s'more sounds great so if you want company, I'm down for that kind of party." A sweet treat was going to be necessary this evening. Then, Molly heard the splashing again. She noticed Drew go rigid, as if attempting to pinpoint the source. "Uh, no." Molly said. "I don't usually feed things, unless it's ducks at a pond.." There was splashing again. "What'd you say we go and get those s'mores earlier than planned..." She offered, now feeling a little uneasy at the repetetive sound of something lurking around the water.

“You’re only saying that because it wasn’t you who was murdered,” THEA said to the extremely tall man. He must have been, like, a billion feet tall. Of course, Thea was taller unglamoured but the only competition here was for sandcastles. Thea gestured to the leg—it was obviously a leg. Then to Lumpy Dog, obviously deceased. The sand had the imprint of the woman’s face, almost perfectly, like a fossil. 

“Sand has feelings! But I don’t expect someone with a contraband leg to understand the nuances of art and life and love and liberty and another L-word. But not like the TV show.” Thea huffed and then sensed something in the air. Something… dare she think it… awkward. Thea was very good at sensing personal history, mostly because she didn’t have any. She looked at the woman who was with the murderer, and the tall man, and then the murderer. She nodded slowly. “I’m sensing unease, at least a five on the THEA UNEASE SCALE(tm),” she said, stepping back. “Maybe even, like, personal regret.”

Daniel showed up later than originally planned, but it wasn’t as if he minded. He preferred moving through the area unnoticed and joining in with the commotion happening all around the beach. He heard someone yelling about murder, but seeing the lack of reactions from everyone else, he decided it probably wasn’t the most important thing at the moment. He glanced around the area, and he spotted a few familiar faces. He thought maybe he could swing by and chat with some folks, but then he saw Eve. He felt more comfortable with her than the others. He saw others were with her, but he assumed he could hop into whatever conversation they were having. He probably wouldn’t have much to say anyway. He moved through the people towards her. “Hey, Eve,” he greeted, always a man of many words.

DREW snorted and shook her head. “No thanks, I wasn’t planning on doing any kind of math tonight as a way to relax. If anything it would make me more stressed than I already am… but thanks for the offer, I guess.” She chuckled again at the odd request that Madison had made. “I promise I'd be of no use to you when it comes to school work."

Suddenly, somebody else was by their side. It wasn’t surprising that Elias came out of his failed hiding once she noticed Regan’s fall. Like, sure things were awks and a lotta stuff had to be discussed between all of them, but he had a heart as soft as hand butts, of course his heartstrings were pulled seeing his bestie in need. JADE nodded at him and left it at that, deciding it was better to join forces against whoever was claiming Regan was a murderer. Three against one felt a little bit like bullying, but who cried murder first? “Right? It’s literally sand. Like, what’s next? Claiming that killing dead people is murder?” She huffed at this person, who also looked vaguely familiar. Maybe they’d talked online before. She had no way of knowing they felt so passionately about sandcastles.

Jade helped Regan get on her feet, predicting the verbal smackdown that was about to ensue when the sorta stranger came for her leg (the one in her hands, not her literal leg). If she felt some type of way about Regan going full Karen, that was neither here nor there. Except it was definitely here. But again, Jade subscribed to the ‘no conflict during bonfires’ policy, so she did look to diffuse the situation. “Okay, guys… nobody killed anybody here, come on,” least of all, herself (obviously). She sensed the vibe shift once Regan realized who had also come to her aid, so now things were extra tense. The stranger, who came with their own personal scale, now spoke some sense. (She was gonna need to hear more about this scale, too.) (Like how was it in comparison to the her scale of bad vibes from 2 to 9?). “Right! Why don’t we all put our hands into rebuilding the castle?

LIL's eyebrow raised at the idea that the two were actually going to jump over the bonfire, but then again it seemed pretty tame with everything else seemingly going on. Munching on the smore she just said, "Might want to wait for later when it's further down." She saw - something scampering and her eyes narrowed to see a ... nose? It looked kind of like a nose with a body and not the other way around. Still, she kept calm letting the little creature scamper on the outskirts of the bonfire. It didn't seem demonic, and it was a ghost. Simply it wasn't her day to deal with it.

ELIAS Took in a breath, then nodded in agreement with Thea. "Yeah, me too." He muttered to the girl before giving a two-fingered salute to Regan and Jade before striding off to where someone sat, looking out toward the ocean. Yeah, that's definitely more his speed than dealing with a THEA UNEASE SCALE (TM) rating. 

"What's the plan here?" Elias asked as he waded into the water beside the serene-looking stranger. "Whatever it is, it's better than ninety percent of what's happening over there." He looked over to Guillermo, then took a deep breath. Maybe he shouldn't have come. Maybe he should have stayed indoors.

"I'm doing alright!" MOLLY told Madison, and she found herself shaking her head. "And it's okay if you call me Molly, I don't mind being on a first name basis with students." She encouraged all of her theatre students to call her by her first name. It was how everyone had greeted each other across the professional world of theatre so as long as the respect was there, Molly had no problem encouraging that among her students. And she couldn't help but laugh as Madison mentioned her Algebra book. "I also have a book in my bag, but it's Shakespeare, which is way more my style than math. Unless we're counting shells I'm not sure math on the beach is a task I'm up for." It was never Molly's strongest subject. "Have you tried any of the food yet? I'm starving."

“I’m a marine conservationist, I’m just making sure that the beach is properly cleaned once this whole thing is over with.” DREW was still preoccupied with searching for the source of the splashing but Molly’s comment about feeding ducks instantly grabbed her attention. “What’re you feeding the ducks? You have to be very careful that you’re not harming them, their stomachs can be really sensitive.” She nodded, looking out at the water one more time. “Yeah, sure, let’s go. We can bring your math friend too so long as she doesn’t ask me to solve any equations.”

Madison was distracted by someone else approaching, so EVE turned to the other woman with a smile. "It's a gateau Marcel! My mom taught me the recipe when I was a kid, it's half cake, half mousse." There was an Astomi snuffling around her ankle. "I love your skirt, by the way! I have a dress with that patchwork style in blue, it's so cute." Eve pointed down at the detail, aiming to draw Teagan's eyes away. When she looked back up, oops, that Astomi would be nowhere to be seen. And if it splashed into the ocean next to where a couple people were fishing, hey, that was free bait, right?

GUILLERMO lifted his chin in the general direction of the new voice, brows raised. "Huh? Oh! I'm fishing!" He stuck his arms out in front of him, clenching and unclenching his fists a few times underwater, then he laughed. "I... might not be very good at it, though. I was kind of just hoping they'd ccome to me--" He let out a surprised squeak as there was a large splash beside them, then reactively tried to grab for it. "A FISH!" he yelled, catching something... not covered in scales. Ew. What was that texture? He held it up, looking at the stranger standing next to him. "What is it?"

Rushing up to where she and Estella had left their sandcastle entry, MONICA let out a huge sigh of relief to see that it was unharmed. She couldn't say the same for one of the sand creations a few spots down, where several people seemed to be having a particularly tense standoff beside a crushed sand pile. Her intention was to sneak past them as quickly as she had rushed over here, maybe return to the nice people at the fire and brush off the sand from her marshmallows, but the mentions of "murderer" and "contraband" caused her to let out a surprised squeak. "Oh! I'm sorry! Pretend I'm not here," she said to the seemingly grumpy group standing before her, a little bit more weary of what was going on here. However, at the mention of rebuilding a sandcastle, Monica couldn't resist herself. "I can help with that if you want!! I love building sandcastles!!"

"Okay, I'll call you Molly if you're really truly sure about that." MADISON sighed. The other woman didn't want to do math either, which she supposed she should have expected, but that didn't make it any less disappointing. "Okay. I guess no math on the beach right now. Also no, I haven't really had food, but that lady," she gestured at Eve, "was offering me some sort of cake, but I'm starving." She turned the other woman too. "Do you wanna come and get food with us?"

Raul smiled and reached forward to shake Zack’s hand, the motion hopefully not clotheslining some poor sod with the surfboard under his other arm. “Raul, honored to meet the reigning beach gamer here,” he said with an inclination of the head, affecting iron awe at Zack’s status. “So like, if you iguana ruts hot, is it going to sshhlep” Raul made a motion that seemed to suggest Zippo had a chameleon tongue. The wizard knew and was confused by the presence of a salamander here, but had decided to opt for stupidity’s natural camouflage. “And cook some of these mallows with its tongue….can I throw one for him to catch. That’d be sick.”

Ah, so the dish didn't need flour at all. How awful it was for TEAGAN to assume. "Do love a good mousse. How long did it take for you to make?" Sadly, her attendance had been up in the air up until the last moment, Teagan had nothing prepared. "I like to cook and bake myself, but didn't think I was coming so unfortunately you don't get to taste my work."

REGAN was preparing to do... something. She wasn't sure what yet. But her mouth was hanging open, her finger was half-pointed in Elias's direction, but now there was no one there. He just left. How could he do that? Sure, Regan had specifically wished to avoid him--there was too much there--but that... he just left! 

Jade was trying to diffuse things, Regan could tell, but if she were to try to build a sandcastle right now (which she wouldn't, because she wasn't a child, unlike the child) her hands would build an Elias-shaped clump of sand. Or maybe his organs. Him, though. "Let's just burn the coat," Regan mumbled. She looked over her shoulder at Elias, then away, then back. He looked like a buoy in the water, but covered in skin. "I'm going to unwrap the limb, let it air out a bit. The smell should be a nice reprieve from all of this." She pressed in to Jade, intertwining their arms. Was Jade at least having an... engaging ti-- fun time here? That mattered more than the insistent prickling of her skin and fog of grief that drifted over her in Elias's place. 

They headed toward the fire, and Regan set the bag down and lovingly pulled out the limb. The moose limb and Jade. She wouldn't let anything else get to her-- those were her two loves right there. She'd wrapped it in plastic (the limb, not Jade). Something was wrong though. Like it dried out or... maybe the plastic was effective at keeping the smell contained. Regan gave it a puzzled look as she freed the not-leg.

ZACK nodded at Lil's warning -- not actually intending to do any fire-leaping at all. He hoped Raul was only joking about that as well. He did laugh again as Raul turned his attention to Zippo. "He's a salamander actually. I don't think he has quite the same kinda tongue..." Not as long or accurate as an iguanas, anyway. "But he did already have a marshmallow and he seemed to really like it, so he might still dive bomb for one." Raul didn't know how close he was to guessing Zippo's abilities. "We're probably better off sticking to the bonfire to cook these things."

THEA shook her head as she watched the murderer go—though she felt she did like the murderer’s more sensible, hand-holding friend. She waved but tried to indicate that the wave was only for the nice lady, not the murderer. “Wow, those two are such good friends,” she mumbled. 

Then, she turned to her hero: this new, spunky stranger. “Hi! Thanks! Let’s rebuild! I’m thinking lumps and bumps, but cute!” Thea stuck out her hand to this cool, new, amazing, awesome person who would never destroy a sandcastle. “I’m Thea!” Dimly, Thea was aware that she had another mission. Something about… Ass-toe-me? Eh, it probably wasn’t important. Look at this cool new friend that she was totally going to make!

“I’m LIL”, she said as Raul introduced himself ducking slightly as the surfboard got close-ish to her. “I’m not much of a fire jumper. She didn’t jump a whole lot anyway, after all she usually had wheels on. Lil raised an eyebrow as Jade and Regan got closer to the bonfire with a - leg? She had heard sometimes people roasted things on bonfires but she hadn’t seen it here. “Uh what’s up?” She said looking at Regan trying to connect exactly what was going on and if she was going to have to do something.

"Oh, that's neat!" MOLLY replied with a nod, now it made sense. Otherwise Drew seemed to blend in perfectly with the other eventgoers so she wouldn't have realized she was on the clock. "And uhm, my mom would make a mix of corn, oats, and birdseed when we'd go. I got a lecture from her about never feeding them bread or anything else. But I haven't been to feed anything since I was a kid." Molly really didn't get out much. But she also took one more glance towards the water before turning to the bonfire. "Okay, no solving math equations, promise! But she did say that someone else was offering cake and I think cake always sounds better than doing math.."

It almost felt like Elias's presence had been an illusion or something, or maybe he was truly spooked by THEA’S UNEASE SCALE (™) (so that definitely meant this situation was a solid 8 in her scale). But just like he’d come, he peaced out on them. (Honestly, she was sensing a theme) (But at least he wasn’t gone to travel the world; he was like, right there, a few feet away, talking to somebody else near the water. JADE didn’t let her disappointment show, cause at least Elias was out there being social, which was a total plus in her book, and cause they had the matter of the sandcastles to rebuild, if Thea wanted it done.

And she would’ve had so much fun building a castle with THEA (should she scream their name anytime she mentioned it?), but alas, Regan seduced her with the prospect of finally burning the coat. Yup. 13 out of 13, right there. “Let’s go do that, babe,” she said, but glanced at THEA with an apologetic smile on her face. “Super sorry about this accident, though. A total non-murderous accident. Hm? I definitely plan on making it up to you. I’ll build all the castles you want, pinky promise. There’s just the thing I need to get to first. I've been meaning to do it for a year, you understand...” And so she walked away, with Regan by her side and the coat clutched in her hands.

ELIAS made a horrified sound as the Astomi was brought up to his face, causing him to stumble backward and stare at the thing. "It looks like a sentient nose." He exclaimed, shaking his head. He felt wrong, like he should leave. Everything about this place was quickly becoming more than he could handle. He looked over his shoulder, noticing Regan staring at him, but couldn't quite make out her expression. He messed up again, hadn't he? He looked back towards the other, shaking his head. He'd deal with it later, just like everything else.

"I'm definitely sure about it!" MOLLY told Madison with a confident nod. And she glanced at Drew, too. "No math right now," But maybe she'd let Madison impress her with some of her math skills later. She felt a little bad now that no one seemed to take her up on the offer. "But I think cake sounds like an excellent plan!"

EVE smiled at Madison and the woman she was talking to. "Food would be great, let's!" And began to move with them, inviting Teagan along with. Her gait was awkward, the prosthetic leg struggling more with the dry loose sand than she usually did, and the bright sun was warming the black plastic on her thigh and making her warm. A cool drink would certainly help. She answered Teagan's question, "About an hour, with overnight setting. What made you come by last minute?" She looked to the three of them. "I didn't catch your names, by the way! I'm Eve." There were more Astomi by the pot luck table. For fuck sake.

"A... sentient nose?" Well that was a confusing statement. It sort of explained the weird skin, though. Sort of. "So not a fish. Okay." GUILLERMO shoved to his feet, reeled the creature back behind his head with both hands, then threw it as hard and as far as he could out to see. "I don't have anything against noses, but that's just a little too much for me, I think." He turned to face Elias, scrunching his nose. "I know there's food here, um... I'm just worried about getting there on my own. Could you show me the way? I don't think I'm going to catch a fish and I definitely don't want to catch another nose."

MONICA watched the tense crowd disperse one by one until only one other person remained. "Were you the owner of this...this?" She gestured to the crumpled creation. "Don't worry, we'll build it back even better than it was! Lumpy, bumpy, and very cute!" She happily shook the other's hand, grinning at them before kneeling down onto the sand. "I'm Monica! It's very nice to meat you, Thea!" As she gathered a sizeable mound of sand in front of her, she couldn't help but let her curiosity get the better of her. "Erhm, what were you talking about with those other people? Something about murder and legs?"

Raul gave Lil a pleading look, as if concern for potentially charbroiling people was cruel and unusual. “Hey but like, we gotta take up the challenge,” he told Lil as if their real concern was just intimidation at Zack’s hyper hops. “Otherwise Zack’ll just rest on his laurels, get soft, have no character development,” Raul shook his head, wet hair flopping about mournfully. “The worst part of every sports movie.”

“Woah a wild snoot…” The hell was that feyish nostril goblin doing here! What!? “ Ooooooh yeah I forgot …iguana reptile, salamander mammals,” Raul nodded at Zack’s ecological correction, keep his face amiable. “Eh alright,” he commented at Lil’s demurement. “Bet your better then you think though”

ELIAS made a face, then sighed. "Yeah, I don't think I could explain it if I tried," he admitted sheepishly. "It's definitely too much for me too! Let's... go eat things, yeah!" He looked toward Guillermo, then nodded. "Yeah, I can help you. Can I take your arm?" He asked, unsure of what the boundaries were when helping someone who was seeing impaired.

"Alright, then I'll believe you!" Because otherwise her nerves would get the better of her (as it was, this already seemed well on its way to happening). "Food is good. Yes. I hope they have at least something with potatoes. You can't go wrong with potatoes. At least I think." MADISON tried not to let herself be bothered by people's refusal to do mathematics with her. "Let's go eat!"

“Thanks. I like it, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do.” Completely unsure of how she’d gone from wanting absolutely nothing to do with the gathering to somehow being accompanied by two people on her way to grab some food, DREW exhaled sharply but decided that she was too far gone to turn back. Nodding to both Molly and Madison, she begrudgingly removed her feet from the water and turned to join the rest of the residents further up the beach. She remained quiet, much more comfortable with listening to the other two speak and only paying attention enough to know if and when a question was pointed towards her. By doing that she was able to pick up that Molly was some kind of teacher and Madison was a student. She enjoyed learning things about people, especially if she was going to be able to use it in the future.

REGAN leaned back and breathed deep, expecting to be met with glorious decomposition, but there was nothing. "It's a limb," she said to Lil. "But it's..." She held it up a bit. It dripped fluid onto her lap. "It's in the wet stage now, but I don't smell a thing." In fact, she couldn't smell the fire, either. Or any of the food. Or sweat or perfume or anything. Had she lost her sense of smell? Regan turned to her side and pressed her nose into Jade's hair, but she couldn't scent her shampoo at all. "Nothing..." She swallowed the warning in her throat. It wasn't time to panic yet, but the offense of losing those particular smells cut deep. "Can you smell it?" Regan held the weeping moose limb closer to Lil's face.

GUILLERMO beamed and stuck out his arm when asked, nodding enthusiastically. "Please! Sorry I'm all wet." They made their way carefully back across the sand toward where the tables of food were, and the shifter was surprised at how little of the food he could smell. "Hm... is there anything here that looks seafood-y to you? Seafood is my favorite. If there's shrimps, I'll go apeshit." He chuckled. "I'm kidding. I just learned that word last week and wanted to use it."

MOLLY smiled as Drew mentioned that it was a job she'd always wanted to do. Molly loved when people were able to find something that they enjoyed for work, and Drew's job seemed like it was fulfilling for her. As she walked between Drew and Madison towards the main gathering, she smiled at Madison. "You really can't go wrong with potatoes," She agreed, and noted two others joining on the other side of Madison. She caught that one of them was named Eve. And it wasn't until they got closer to the potluck table that Molly noticed the incredibly odd looking creatures milling about. Was it just a big walking nose? Molly thought. She leaned closer to Drew and nodded her head in the direction of the creatures. "I wonder if those were the source of the splashing we heard..."

LIL raised her eyebrow looking at the fire and then back at Raul. “I’ll let Zack have this one.” When the other came closer with her to the limb, ordinarily Lil might have done something like scream or leave the area, but the genuine confusion and the distress made her lean in to take a sniff. “Uh - no it doesn’t smell like anything - that’s so weird.” She said curiously. She wasn’t a stranger to decay and rot, and she knew what it should smell like. Frowning she saw another one of those nose scuttling around and tilted her head. “Something's afoot - or maybe a nose?”

Monica was actually the coolest person ever. THEA just casually had to seduce Monica into being a friend. No biggie! That was so easy to do. Thea crouched into the sand and started pushing the lumps and bumps together. “So, uh, you come here often or….” At the mention of the previous interaction, Thea shrugged. “Y’know, it’s like… the haters and stuff y’know, y’know,” she said, trying very hard to sound unaffected. “This lady with a leg—by the way, a full contraband leg—just like, totally murdered Lumpy Dog. See! You can still see her face in the sand!” Thea pointed it out. “Memorize that face, Monica, for it is the face of sand-murder.” Thea continued pushing sand into a general lump shape.

Linking his arm with Guillermo's, ELIAS ignored the sinking pit in his stomach as he guided the shifter towards the tables dedicated to the food people had brought. "Being wet is the least of our worries in place like this," Elias admitted with a deep sigh. As they reached the tables, he looked about. "I see a shrimp cocktail, yeah." He then said, bringing the man to stand in front of it. "Right in front of you, reach straight out and you'll touch it."

TEAGAN felt relieved. "Figure it would be good to get out of the house." And it was. She was meeting all new people and even got invited to continue on to the next stop, happy to see that food would be involved. And apparently some of the more pest-like kin. Since she didn't know who was human and not, Teagan decided to pretend they were simply normal. It was easy considering Eve was enjoyable to look at. "I'm Teagan." She walked side to side with Eve, asking "Do you need something to help with the sand?" Eve seemed fine, but sand was incredibly invasive and difficult even without a prosthetic.

ZACK gave a little bow as Lil decided to let him keep his entirely fictive title. Offering a salute to the two, he made his way back toward the table to assemble his s'more. He kept one eye on the crowd of people, looking for a familiar face, or just someone who looked like they could use a friend (or a flirt).

Sticking his hand out as instructed, GUILLERMO wiggled his fingers around until he touched a shrimp, then grinned and snatched it up. "Yes!" He popped the whole thing into his mouth, tail and all, happily munching away. His hands went out again, this time to grab a fistful of the shrimp, and he detached himself from Elias. "Sorry, you can have your arm back to get yourself some food now too! What kinds do you like?"

To DREW’S great pleasure even more people joined their party and things officially started to feel overcrowded. As a way to keep from turning around and going back to the shadows where she was most comfortable, she busied herself with twirling her necklaces around her finger and keeping her eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary which, thanks to Molly, wasn’t hard at all. 

Drew frowned as she observed the strange creatures that appeared to just be... noses? “What the hell…?” She wanted to get a closer look but decided that it was probably best to keep some distance. “Yeah see, this is exactly why I keep to myself in this town. Eventually you’ll learn that it’s the best thing to do. The weird shit is kept to a bare minimum whenever I'm safely at home."

Raul solemnly returned Zack’s salute. “And so the champion departs to lands unknown,” he intoned with gravitas broken by a soft chuckle. The surfer promptly plopped on the sand beside the fire. “Yeah asnoot,” he replied to Lil, but kept his peace as it become clear that we were sniff testing stray body …parts? Raul looked at one of the passing little creatures, wondering if one of them had assumed the human form of Regan. Was she their alpha? Was the nose-pack circling for a limb feast? “Huh.. guess the sand-pipers are molting he said,” eye to eye with a passing nose goblin.

MONICA frowned. "Screw the haters! They just hate seeing other people succeed, you know?" She said as she recalled some of her own biggest haters. "Contraband leg? Like a turkey leg for the potluck?" She simply couldn't imagine what other sort of leg Thea could be talking about. As she gazed over to the faint imprint in the sand, Monica squinted hard at it before giving a determined nod. "Right! We shall get justice for Lumpy Dog! We can't just let leg lady get away with this," she said as her eyes darted over to the bonfire where the pair had gone. Seeing the nice fire guy and marshmallow lady and surfer dude from before still there, she momentarily thought about going to warn them, but forced herself to focus on one thing at a time. 

"As for your other question, I do come here often! The beach is soooo nice in the summer, don't you think" She said to Thea, packing some more sand onto the back of Thea's lump and poking some indents into it.

"Amen to that. Anyway, it's good to get out and meet the neighbors, right?" EVE agreed. "Community spirit goes a long way in a town like this. And hey, now we get to enjoy your company too." She grinned, noticing Teagan's appreciative looks. She smiled and shook her head at the offer. "I'm fine, just slow. It would be easier if it had rained this morning, but I'm not going to complain about the sunshine while it lasts." They reached the pot luck tables, and eve carefully nudged an Astomi under the table and out of sight.

"Asnoot - That's a lot better," LIL said with a laugh sighing slightly as she stretch letting the fire keep warming her. "In anycase I don't think their hurting anyone." She looked around at other people nodding as Zach disappeared and said, "Still free smore stuff if anyone's interested." Settling into the position Lil felt pretty good that no weird demons would come to the bonfire, and for once the chaos seemed just a little bit more manageable then normal - or at least out of her wheelhouse.

MOLLY's eyes narrowed as she studied the creatures from what was hopefully a safe distance for now. Drew seemed just as surprised and Molly wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. "Have you ever seen those before?" She inquired. "It's just... a nose?" Maybe Drew was right. Up until recently Molly would say that outside of a few hiccups, she'd had a pretty normal experience living in Wicked's Rest so far. Now that she was trying to get herself out there, she was noticing more and more very odd things. "Yeah, I think I'm seeing what you mean by that." Surely these things seemed harmless, though? "It's a shame though because I'm really trying to get back out there and meet people again. Finding a balance of comfort and not wanting to become a meal for something is honestly not something I'd considered would be necessary before I moved here."

Staring blankly at Guillermo, ELIAS shook his head. "Sorry, I... need to leave." He decided instead. "Enjoy your shrimp, I... I'm sorry." And with that, Elias's anxiety finally got the better of him, and his arm slipped away from the stranger's to instead make way to his car. Everything was too much. At least he could escape to his car while he still had the chance.

"Oh! That's okay! Um, have a good rest of your day!" GUILLERMO shouted after him, rocking back onto his heels while he munched on the shrimp, wondering what he was gonna do now. Eat, he supposed. Hopefully people wouldn't mind him putting his fingers all over everything. Salt water was disinfecting, right? Right. He'd totally heard that somewhere before.

THEA pushed everything together and stood up. In the end, her and Monica had… a much more phallic looking Lumpy Dog. Thea followed Monica’s gaze. “We should join them,” she said softly. “Now that we’ve successfully repaired Lumpy Dog.” She nudged Monica, smiling. Her chest—where her heart would be, if she had one—felt warm. “I need a beach expert like you to help me navigate,” she said, trying to wink but it was more like a very slow blink. Maybe the two would raise awareness about the evil leg lady, maybe they would make new friends, maybe they even partake in a s’more. Thea caught sight of Eve and her evil blonde bob and suddenly remembered the astomi. Maybe they would deal with that. The world was their sandcastle and anything was possible with Monica—a girl she literally just met but now was unhealthily emotionally attached to; such was the way of the beach and of Lumpy Dog.

"I suppose you're right. More often than not, I find that the neighbors are awful, but I can't just give up when people like you are around." TEAGAN shrugged, "As long as it's not too much of an obstacle." They got to the table and Teagan picked up a plate to fill it up with fruit and the mousse Eve made. She took a bite with everything combined and her eyes rolled back in satisfaction. "My, this is delicious." Teagan looked over at Molly and the astomi she was referencing. "I wouldn't pay those...kids much mind." She took another delightful bite, calculating her next words. Carefully, she spoke again, picking everything so it wasn't a lie, but still misleading. "You know how elaborate costumes can be around here."

DREW shook her head. “No, never, and I hope that I never see another one after tonight.” She’d run into her fair share of “oddities” around town since her arrival and while each one was disturbing yet fascinating in its own way, she much preferred to stay as far away from the strangeness as possible. She was a little happy to hear that Molly was more or less thinking the same way and she offered a small smile. “At least you’re aware of the fact that there’s things around here that wouldn’t hesitate to turn you into dinner, there’s a lot of very oblivious people around here and they’re almost as dangerous as the things hunting them. Stupidity is a threat to everyone involved.” She glanced at the strange creatures again before deciding that she’d had enough. “Alright, I’m gonna grab something to eat then go around and make sure everyone’s cleaning up after themselves.” This was always the awkward part, thanking someone she hadn’t intended to meet for hanging out with her when she’d planned to be alone. “It was… nice meeting you. See you around?”

Though MONICA had no clue what the original Lumpy Dog had looked like, she was ecstatic at their final creation - and the fact that she made a new friend! She was a little confused why Thea was slowly blinking at her, as if she was sending her some sort of secret message, but she just blinked back with a smile. "I would totally love to be your beach expert," she said with a mock salute, then grabbed Thea's wrist as she dragged them back to the main group. "Now come on!" 

Upon her return to the fire, Monica was thrilled to see that her first friends were still there. "Hi! Oh my god, I'm so sorry I rushed off like that. So rude of me! I just had to make sure my sandcastle was okay after some murderer went on a rampage," she said apologetically to the group, then giving a dirty look in the vague direction of wherever the leg lady had gone. Glad to see that her discarded skewer was still on the ground, she brushed off the sand nonchalantly and stuck it in the fire. Though she could've sworn she saw something run at her feet, she was not going to let something else distract her from her tasty treat.

It took Thea two hours to decide which of twenty identical tweed jackets to wear. First impressions were important, so she kept seeing in advice articles. She spent another hour changing in and out of tweed jackets that had no discernible differences while Biscuit and Porkchop wheeked in displeasure (their normal state of being). As guinea pigs, they could not care less about what Thea wore. As condenado, forced into cruel and unjust second existence not only as guinea pigs but as prisoners of Containment, they really could not care less. Still, she asked them over and over again until Biscuit and Porkchop curled into each other for safety—their sworn animosity forgotten—and slept as the only escape from the torture of Thea. She interpreted this to mean that tweed jacket #3 was the winner.

By the time Thea showed up, she was more than a little confident that this new friendship would unfold perfectly (internet arguments aside). Maybe they’d even exchange a platonic hug (a stone could dream)! She adjusted her leather satchel, building with the weight of all of her things, and knocked. Under her breath, she practiced: “Hi, it’s me, Thea, from the internet. You’re Rory, right? I brought you meat because you said you liked meat. I’m going to eat your ooze. Be my friend.” Again and again and—

The door swung open, Thea looked up, eyes wide. “Hi, it’s meat! I brought meat from the meat!” Thea’s glamour bracelet burned and she felt the skin of her cheeks prickle as a blush formed and then vanished, as she had no blood anyway. She was holding out a tiny meatball on a toothpick. “It was a sample from the butcher,” she explained sheepishly. She’d tried to buy meat but the Containment budget for friendly meat purchases was zero dollars exactly. Threatening to cry was a very effective alternative payment plan, however. She got a whole meatball! Even if it was about the size of a pea. —

Making friends was really not Rory’s strong suit. It never really had been. She was argumentative, and she often dug her heels in long after she should have given up. She was quick to anger, often burning herself to ash over things not big enough to even blink at. She was sarcastic, never quite capable of keeping smart remarks from slipping out no matter how undeserved they might be. And she was more than a little odd, so obsessed with her own quiet goals that she often lost sight of everything else. In high school, these qualities had often come together in a way that had other kids her age keeping a wide berth, as if there was an invisible moat surrounding Rory. What few friends she managed to make were often lost just as quickly, because high schoolers had a tendency to gossip that Rory had never enjoyed. The end result saw Rory spending most of her time either alone or with her siblings, uncaring if they found her clinging more than a little annoying. 

But her siblings weren’t here now, and Rory was a little tired of being alone. She had a few people in town, sure — Mickey liked her enough to let him live with him, though that might have been more about the rent than anything else, and Guillermo agreed to help her with her shifting — but she was still sort of lacking in the friend department. So, sure, she’d invite the stranger who was way too passionate about worms over to eat some ooze. She was curious about the ooze, anyway, and Thea didn’t actually seem so bad. A little worked up about rocks and maybe a touch naive about the goodness of the world or whatever, but she didn’t strike Rory as the type of person who’d gossip about her the moment her back was turned, and that meant something. Plus, odds of this particular person thinking she was weird were probably slim to none.

She opened the door when Thea knocked, taking in the sight of them. She looked about Rory’s age, or maybe a couple of years older. That was a relief, too. She’d assumed Thea was close to her age, but it was hard to tell for certain online. Rory didn’t have quite as much interest in befriending people a good deal older than her. She always felt as if there was some quiet imbalance there, no matter how much the other person might try to pretend it wasn’t. The second thing she noticed, after the note that Thea was an appropriate age, was the meatball. If… you could call a piece of meat on a stick, roughly the size of a pea, a meatball. Rory blinked at it, a little taken aback. Okay. Chances of Thea thinking Rory was weird had just dropped to zero. “Uh… thanks. That was… really nice of you.” And weird as hell. “What kind of meat is it?”

—

Rory had a face! Thea loved when humans had faces. She was no judge on the quality of the face—Rory was no Signourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in Alien—but a face was a face and Thea loved all faces. Look how there was a nose! And two eyes! And lips that moved! How soft were Rory’s cheeks? What did her skin smell like? What did her hair taste like? How many teeth did she have? Could Thea ask to count her teeth? Oh, wait, her mouth was still moving—a sign of dialogue! What was she saying? 

“It’s…” Thea stared down at the meatball. This was a prime joke-opportunity, and according to the literature on making friends, joking was a key aspect. “It’s human meat!” Thea said cheerily, her smile—at the appropriate smile length, thank you very much—did not waver. Thea lowered her hand slowly. “That’s a joke,” she said in a softer, less put-on tone of voice. “They wouldn’t sell human meat because that’s illegal although I believe the technicalities on meat classification might really allow for some amount of human meat to be sold under a series of loopholes. Not that anyone should!” She paused. “It’s probably just pork. Probably.” 

She flicked her gaze to the line on the ground that separated the public-outside from the private-inside of the apartment. Thea wasn’t used to using her eyes. In her true form, she had no eyes; just a cavern in the skull-line chiseling of her face. So, her vision was always wide, always exactly where she was facing. She could stay perfectly still and watch a whole room, which was her instinct as a grotesque anyway, especially perched up on a wall. Thea loved a good wall. But these were human eyes and now she had human vision: the narrow, fuzzy-around-the-corners, forward-facing sight. She brought her gaze back to Rory’s face. “Are…” Thea shifted on her feet. “Are you going to invite me inside?” she asked, worried that maybe Rory changed her mind. Maybe the meatball was too much—or too little, considering it was the size of a pea—or maybe she was too strange, too weird, not normal enough. 

Making friends was not Thea’s specialty, though not at all for a lack of trying. Being nine feet tall, thousands of pounds, and technically—please don’t ask about the technicality—a murderer (technically twice, please don’t ask), made even the Scribes, who were always cautious, extra-cautious. She never knew what she was doing wrong; no one ever wanted to fill out the “Thea Friendship Exit Survey™”. Her mission wasn’t to make friends, but would it be so terrible if she added some new faces to the roster? Right now it was just Wynne and two guinea pigs. 

—

Rory’s eyes widened, and she glanced down at the meatball and sniffed the air as subtly as she could. It smelled like pork, but she didn’t think she’d ever smelled cooked human meat before, so how would she know it didn’t smell just like pork? She was weighing everything in her mind, trying to figure out if she should slam the door or call someone (who did you call about human meatballs?) when Thea added that the ‘human meat’ thing was… a joke. Of course. Because why wouldn’t it be a joke? Fuck, Rory was on edge lately. A few months ago, when she was living in New Mexico in her parents’ house with all six of her siblings in spitting distance, she’d have known that the statement was a joke without needing it explained. But this version of Rory — the one that lived in Wicked’s Rest, Maine, with a doctor she didn’t know very well and ooze in her fridge — was a little less laid back. She wasn’t sure she liked this version of herself. She wasn’t sure anyone could.

Realizing she’d been quiet a beat too long — and probably staring at that tiny meatball — Rory let out a laugh that was just a little too forced to sound believable. “Human meat. Right. You know we’re still a little way’s off from Halloween, right?” Desperate to recover and maintain whatever chance she had left of looking cool, she plucked the meatball off of the toothpick and popped it into her mouth. It was too small to chew it more than once without swallowing, but she tried to make a show of it all the same as if to say, look, see how I’m eating this? I wouldn’t do that if I’d ever believed it was human meat, would I? She swallowed it, resisting the urge to stick her tongue out just to prove she’d eaten it all. “Pretty good meat. Maybe I’ll check out that butcher.” 

Thea was looking at the ground as if there was some invisible barrier preventing her from entering the apartment. Rory smiled, feeling a little fond in spite of herself. There was something kind of endearing about Thea’s awkwardness. “What is this, the Vampire Diaries?” She asked, shaking her head with a huff. She stepped aside, allowing room for Thea to step by her and into the apartment. “You can come in, Thea. It’s cool.” 

Once Thea was inside, Rory wasted no time in showing them to the kitchen. “So, full disclosure, I haven’t started cooking the ooze yet. I thought… I don’t know. Maybe you’d want to cook it with me? That way if the burger thing doesn’t work, we can reevaluate and figure out what the best move is. Right? Like, I don’t want to make ooze spaghetti just for you to get here and be all ‘spaghetti killed my grandma’ or whatever, right?”

—

Thea watched Rory eat with the concentration of a scholar; most Scribes rarely ate in front of Thea, for some odd reason. Maybe it was the constant questions, or the intense look on her glamoured face. Thea’s fingers twitched but she resisted the urge to make notes. She did that mentally instead. Subject eats like she is trying to convince me of something. “Something” not determined yet. More observation needed. Subject chews nicely; healthy jaw. Ask subject to chew more things but, like, ask in a normal, cool way. Thea looked at the toothpick. She was aware that most humans would find it weird if she bagged that toothpick so she could keep it as a souvenir—”First time I saw Rory eat!”—but she couldn’t just throw the toothpick away. She slipped the toothpick into her pocket and stepped inside the apartment.

The information was staggering: every shelf, every speck of dust, every dent in the ground told her something about Rory. If she could cry, she would’ve. She fought back every urge that seized her limbs, which begged her to take out her notebook and magnifying glass and crawl on the ground. Thea’s normally gravelly voice was squeaky, “nice place!” They went into the kitchen and then there were so many cabinets to pull on! So many secrets contained in those dark corners! Like what expired cans did Rory have? What spices did Rory use? What—Oh, Rory was talking again.

Thea blinked, looking at Rory. She relaxed, something that rarely happened for Thea—she had no muscles, and no way to feel tension at all, and still she relaxed. Her shoulders dropped and her face changed—she didn’t know what expression she was making but she could pick the feeling out of her chest. It was the same way she felt listening to the Ted Lasso opening song; charmed, wistful, a little disbelieving that anything could be so nice. “Rory, that’s really sweet,” she said. “That’s really kind of you. To let me…” If Thea could cry, she probably would’ve.

Instead, she forced herself to perk up before she started to feel the other thing that tended to happen when she’d watched Ted Lasso. Y’know. Staring at a wall contemplating her empty life. “I know everything about cooking! I’ve seen all of The Great British Bake Off! And the Canadian one, but it’s not as good—sorry Canada. I’ve only seen the first two seasons of The Bear though, the yelling really stressed me out. And I got really into watching Claire Saffitz bake things! And of course I’ve read The Food Lab front to back. We can make ooze burgers—” Reel it in, Thea. “Yeah. I mean, it’s like chill. It’s, y’know.” Thea shrugged, leaning on the counter in a way she hoped was cool. “Like, whatever. Like, yeah, I’ll like, cook with you. What do you want me to do? ‘Cause, like, yeah, y’know, whatever, I don’t even have a grandma.” —

Thea stared at her with a strange intensity as she ate the meatball. Rory felt a little uncomfortable, like an animal in a zoo. There was certainly something odd about Thea; before, she’d mostly just chalked it up to an online persona — nobody was entirely themselves on the internet, which Rory often thought was the point of the internet — but it seemed there was something a little deeper to it. Maybe she was the kind of person who didn’t get out much. Or… didn’t get out at all, judging by her expression. It was as if she’d never seen another person eat before. Rory was struck with the desire to ask if Thea was okay, if she was, like, being held prisoner in some creepy basement or something, but she quickly pushed the inclination away. Thea was here, which meant she probably wasn’t a prisoner anywhere. Prisoners weren’t allowed to go over to other people’s houses for ooze dates, probably.

Still, there was this strange fascination on Thea’s face as she stepped into the apartment. Rory tried not to let herself feel unnerved. She got the impression that Thea was lonely, and while Rory was more than willing to drag someone when they were annoying, she tried not to bully people who seemed vulnerable. It was fun enough to fuck with people who could handle it — and people who deserved it a little — but not with someone like Thea, who seemed like she’d probably have a breakdown if someone pushed too hard. And she so did not want to deal with someone else’s breakdown.

She also didn’t particularly want to deal with any other big emotions, but it didn’t seem like Thea did small ones. All Rory did was not do any work before Thea’s arrival, but the look on their face spoke of something far grander. She was looking at Rory as if they’d just handed her the moon or something. It made her feel… weirdly guilty, somehow, even if she hadn’t done anything wrong. Like she should have known that this gesture was big when she’d made it, somehow, like it should have meant more to her than it did. (It meant next to nothing to her, actually.) “Hey, don’t worry about it,” she said quickly, hoping to nip Thea’s big feelings in the bud. She was not equipped to deal with all this. Not even a little. 

Thea seemed to recover, though the touched expression was replaced by a burst of excitement no less overwhelming. She watched baking shows, which was probably good. “I like Cutthroat Kitchen,” Rory offered, “but that one’s not really about the cooking, I guess.” It was more about watching contestants sabotage one another and laughing at the results — like someone being forced to stand in a canoe while cooking, or someone forced to chop their vegetables with a chainsaw. Not exactly helpful for ooze cooking. “Uh… Sorry that you don’t have a grandma.” She assumed that meant Thea’s grandma had died, which was a thing grandmas tended to do. “Mine died a few years ago, too, but she was kind of a bitch, so…” She trailed off, pulling open the freezer to get the ooze out. “Anyway. I figure we can, uh, form the burgers first? Or, you know, try to. We can probably just do that with our hands. After we wash them. Obviously.” She probably wouldn’t have washed her hands had Thea not been present, but she was, technically speaking, an animal. 

—

The expressions on Rory’s face were new—they weren’t the sadness, happiness, anger that Thea had observed and charted on other humans. When in doubt, it was safe to assume that Rory was thinking something unpleasant. When in doubt, it was safe for Thea to assume she was being too weird. Being human was hard, she had to admit. It was easier with the Scribes, who forgave her eccentricities knowing that she was a grotesque. If she could tell Rory that she wasn’t human, that she had never tasted anything, or gone over to anyone’s apartment, or that this glamour was only months old and she was still getting used to blinking, then maybe Rory wouldn't feel whatever she was feeling. But Thea couldn’t tell her. Thea couldn't tell anyone. 

Okay, analysis mode. What had she done that was weird? Probably everything. Damnit! Okay, pivot. “Yeah, Cutthroat Kitchen is cool,” she said, still leaning on the counter. Thea didn’t like Cutthroat Kitchen, it was too stressful for her. It wasn’t good for a nine foot tall statue to be stressed—she didn’t have any lungs to take deep breaths in with. “I like how they’re, like, so cutthroat.” She hated that they were cutthroat. “Sorry your grandma is a dead b—“ Thea stumbled on the word. Cool people didn’t stumble on swears. “B-bitch,” she coughed. “A dead bitch.” 

Rory turned, pulling the freezer open, and Thea stopped leaning. She had about two seconds, she guessed. She hooked her finger around the handle of a drawer and pulled, revealing the secrets of… spoons. She got the spoons drawer. She closed it sadly, then thought maybe she would really like to know what spoons Rory used, but didn’t open it again. Was she being weird? 

Thea turned to the sink, busying herself with washing her hands appropriately, as outlined by the CDC. First, wet her hands. Then, turn off the tap and apply soap. Then, scrub her hands for 20 seconds—Thea hummed “happy birthday” twice, to keep count. Then, she rinsed her hands and dried them off. Thea knew she had the mannerisms of a robot, stiff and perfectly coordinated like she was executing code in her head. Humans had many stories about liking robots and androids though, where were the books on being best friends with a statue or with giant creatures? Gargoyles the cartoon was too emotional for Thea to watch, and she couldn’t finish The Iron Giant, but it was easy to tell how it was going to end. It was hard to seem natural doing things she was never designed to do, even if they were the things she wanted so desperately to do. She spun back around and smiled. 

“At your service, chef Rory! I am ready to form balls,” she said. “How big do you want your balls? Like, a two inch circumference? I could do five inches, even. Or do you use the metric system?” Thea forgot that it was ooze they were dealing with and not beef. 

—

“Maybe we could watch it sometime,” Rory offered with a shrug, as if she didn’t really care one way or another. She probably shouldn’t have. She worked pretty hard on her outward persona, the one that didn’t really give a shit what anyone thought about her, but it wasn’t entirely genuine. Rory did care what people thought about her. She was pretty sure everyone did, on some level. She cared what Thea thought about her, too, even though Thea was weird. And… maybe it helped that Thea seemed like she could use a friend just as much as Rory could. And that she was probably weird enough not to think Rory was weird, and weird enough not to have other friends who wouldn’t like Rory, either. 

Thea displayed a little more of their weirdness with her grandma comment, which had Rory letting out a small, shocked laugh. “Thanks,” she said, flashing a grin. If she noticed the way Thea seemed to stumble on the curse word, she didn’t mention it. Maybe Thea had grown up sheltered, in some uber religious household. It would sort of make sense, given her outward demeanor. People who grew up in houses like that did tend to be a little weird, struggling to unlearn whatever cult-like bullshit they’d been forced into. 

It only occurred to Rory when her sharp ears picked up the sound of the silverware drawer being opened while her back was turned that she had no real way of knowing that Thea wasn’t here to rob her or something. There was every chance that the practical stranger she’d invited into her home had some kind of shady intentions, though Rory wasn’t too worried about it. If Thea tried to murder her or something, she was more than capable of taking care of herself. She was sure Penelope would pop up under threat of mortal danger, even if nothing else ever seemed to do the trick. And any attempt to rob her would probably leave Thea leaving disappointed, too. Rory didn’t have anything worth stealing, and she didn’t think Mickey did, either. For a doctor, he seemed to live a humble life.

By the time she turned back around with the ooze — wrapped in plastic wrap, for storage — Thea had already started washing her hands. Rory waited until she was finished before stepping up to the sink and following suit, much less meticulous than her guest had been. Her hands were under the water for only a few seconds before it was shut off, then dried against her pants. It probably didn’t matter too much, anyway. They were cooking the ooze, right? The heat would kill whatever germs were there, probably. That was how things worked, wasn’t it? That was why boiling water sanitized it, or whatever. 

Figuring Thea was making some innuendo — and immature enough to find humor in said innuendo — Rory laughed, shrugging a shoulder. “Honestly? I’m not sure how big we can make them without them falling apart. If you can get it to five inches, great. If not, just do what you can. We’ll just see what happens!”

—

“Yeah, I would love to watch Cutthroat Kit…” Thea stared at the ooze. Their brain clicked and clicked, like a car switching gears. The awkwardness evaporated. She wasn’t sure what she expected ooze to look like, she wasn’t sure what ooze really was. Maybe she’d imagined green Nickelodeon slime, or that ooze was just slang she didn’t know. Cold, the globster’s glob was contained. But even wrapped up, Thea knew what that was. Or thought she knew. If it looked like a glob, that didn’t mean it was a glob. It just meant there was a ninety percent likelihood of it being a glob! She was doing a disservice by not accepting the ten percent, really. Then again, anything ooze-related in this town was always a bad sign. In the back of her head, the screams of Scribes being swallowed by the abnormality replayed just once before she severed the memory. Thea frowned. She really would’ve loved to cook with Rory. 

The fantasy played out vividly: she’d roll five inch beef balls for Rory. Rory would squish them down in the pan, fat sizzling and smoke rising, while Thea prepped buns. She would watch Rory eat a burger, her own untouched. Maybe they’d watch Cutthroat Kitchen and Thea would pretend to enjoy it so much, and maybe she really would, because Rory did and Rory was there with her. 

But it was only a fantasy. The thing in front of her might not be a globster, but it definitely wasn’t meat and until Thea knew it was safe, she couldn’t allow Rory to even attempt to eat it. The plastic-wrapped “ooze” sat—for now—still and quiet on the counter. Thea turned serious, slipping easily into the same commanding and assured tone that she led Containment with—this she understood well. But this didn’t make her friends. This meant that whatever she hoped to create with Rory was dead now. 

“If it starts moving, what you have isn’t edible. Even if it doesn’t move, I’m not sure it is edible.” She turned and looked into Rory’s eyes. “Rory, I can’t let you eat that. Do you understand? You can’t eat it. I can’t let you eat it. I don’t even want you to think about eating it. No burgers, no spaghetti, no other dishes that would’ve made your dead bitch grandma not-proud. And we will not be rolling this into balls, five-inches or not.” Thea picked at a thread on the strap of her bag, shifting as she looked at the ooze. “I’m… an ooze-ologist and your ooze resembles ooze with nefarious intentions… maybe. Probably. It’s hard to tell without the ooze tests. Has it ever tried to eat you?” 

—

Something shifted the moment the ooze was out of the plastic. On some level, Rory got it. The ooze looked pretty gross. In all honesty, that was part of why she’d bought it. She could have found another grocery store to shop at when the one closest to her apartment revealed they had no meat to speak of, could have gone to a butcher or just resolved to make vegetarian meals for a week or two until the store restocked, but the ooze had been there and it had been cheap and it had looked gross and Rory was intrigued. She liked the idea of eating something like that, liked the idea of convincing other people to eat things like that. It reminded her a little of being in fourth grade and mixing together strange foods on her lunch tray, trying to convince her classmates to take a bite or to give her their pudding in exchange for sampling it herself. 

Thea didn’t look very intrigued, though. Thea didn’t even really look disgusted, now that Rory was looking a little closer. There was a steely resolve to her expression, like she was preparing to do something unpleasant. And while she could just be incredibly disgusted by the concept of touching the ooze but determined to do it all the same, that wasn’t the vibe Rory got from their expression. Whatever it was that was going on in Thea’s mind, it wasn’t something Rory understood. 

When Thea spoke, it was firm. It was final, it was to the point. They spoke with a sort of authority that didn’t match anything else Rory knew about her, even if the list of things Rory knew about Thea wasn’t a very long one. Rory’s brow furrowed, confused as to why the sight of the ooze was so much more daunting to Thea than the concept of it. Hadn’t they been talking about ooze all this time? It didn’t even look as bad as it sounded, in Rory’s opinion, wasn’t as jarring as it probably could have been. It did look like the sort of thing you could probably eat if you really put your mind to it, but Thea seemed so staunchly against it, as if she knew it was dangerous somehow. (Did she? Did she know more about the ooze than Rory did? That felt a little unfair. It was Rory’s ooze.) 

“Uh, I’m not exactly asking for your permission here, Thea.” She bristled a little. If there was one thing Rory disliked, it was being told she couldn’t do something. Maybe it all stemmed from being the youngest of a large family, or being so different than everyone else in that family. “An ooze-ologist? Come on, you just made that up. It’s not going to eat me. I’m going to eat it. It’s dead! If it was ever even alive, which it might not have been. I bought it at the supermarket, Thea, come one.”

—

Oh no, Rory was upset. It was the furrowing of brow, the hardness of voice, that look that definitely communicated that Rory did not like this. Thea nearly whimpered. She didn’t have a tail in this form but even still she felt the ghost of it flatten and try to tuck itself between her legs. She stared miserably into Rory’s eyes. Wasn’t it a Scribe’s duty to pursue knowledge? Remain neutral? Remain on the sides? Shouldn't she just let Rory eat it to observe results? And then they could be best friends forever and watch Cutthroat Kitchen all the time and hold hands and—

Thea frowned. A long time ago, Theo had explained to them that the pursuit of knowledge was not the pursuit of agreeable answers—a Scribe could never conflate the two. Though they hadn’t understood it then, the words sat in their head for such a time when they could. And what is it that Carl Sagan said? …our willingness to embrace what is true rather than what feels good. You couldn’t do what you thought was easy, just because it might make you a friend. Especially not if that friend might hurt themselves. And who would she be if she allowed it to happen? Yes, it would be easier to give Rory the truth, but who would account for the harm it might cause later? This wasn’t about what Thea wanted. 

“I am an ooze-ologist, which is totally a real job,” Thea insisted. She poked the ooze and it jiggled like Jell-O. She peeled a corner of the plastic off the ooze and watched it stretch one thin, gooey tendril towards Rory. Globster, then. And what did it take to make sure Rory wouldn’t get eaten? Getting her wet (not a euphemism). 

She dropped her bag and it clattered to the ground with a loud THUNK. “And ooze hasn't been approved by the FDA,” she said as she pulled her metal water bottle out of her bag, a chunky 32oz thing—hydration was important! Not for her, obviously. Thea unscrewed the bottle and sighed, looking at Rory. Well, the sorta-friendship was nice while it lasted for, uh, about ten minutes. She angled the bottle towards Rory, water sloshing inside. This time, she did whimper. “Oops,” she said robotically, before anything had actually happened. “Sorry, my hand slipped.” 

And then she jerked her hand and tossed the water towards Rory’s face. 

—

This certainly wasn’t what she’d expected when Thea agreed to come over and eat ooze with her. Sure, Rory had understood that, despite her enthusiasm, there would be every chance that Thea chickened out at the sight of the ooze. But this? This weird, stubborn insistence that Rory not eat it either? This was the kind of thing Rory expected more from nosy adults than from other people her own age. They were supposed to be a much more chill generation! The kind of generation that let each other eat ooze, if they wanted to! Hadn’t Thea gotten that memo?

Evidently not. Thea was still pretending to be an ooze-ologist (which definitely wasn’t a real job, no matter what they said, because Rory definitely would have known. Ooze-ologist was the kind of job she would have actually been interested in during those stupid events in school where everyone had to take online tests to see what kind of careers they’d be suited for), was still insisting that Rory couldn’t eat the ooze. Rory hadn’t even wanted to eat the ooze, really, but now that someone was telling her she couldn’t, she really needed to take a bite.

“Why are you being weird?” She demanded, crossing her arms over her chest as Thea reached out to poke the ooze. “If you, like, know something about the ooze, you can just tell me. You don’t have to be all…” She trailed off, waving her hands in a vague gesture. “About it.” 

But Thea was being all ‘vague gesture’ about it. In fact, Thea was being beyond weird. They dropped their bag with a thunk, they pulled out a water bottle, they apologized, and then they dumped it all over Rory. And Rory would have rather she done just about anything else, because there was always this weird, musty smell when she got wet, and she was dripping on the kitchen floor, and Thea was being weird, and — and this really wasn’t how Rory had wanted things to go. She’d kind of thought she and Thea could be friends, maybe, but… Was this all just some weird excuse to come into her apartment and dump water on her? Some stupid prank? A betrayed, hurt feeling ached in her chest, and she hated that. 

“What the fuck is your problem?” She snapped, throwing her hands up in frustration. She moved back over to the sink, grabbing the dish towel that had been flung over the faucet. “If you didn’t want to eat the ooze, you could have just said that. You didn’t have to — ugh. Whatever. Look, if you’re so bothered, you can just go.”

—

Thea didn’t have a heart and she knew—because she’d been told—that a broken heart wasn’t a literal thing. Still, she imagined a rupture down her chest, rending her terrible body. She wanted to curl up on the ground and pretend like she could cry. She had no stomach to feel sick with, no organs that could churn and no water in her body that could dry up or curdle or whatever was meant to happen with this feeling. Online, Rory had mentioned that it was better to do away entirely with bad feelings but Thea would’ve given anything to have the pain go somewhere—in sweaty palms, in a fast heart, in a dry mouth—than be stuck roiling around her head. The body was meant to share the pain; emotion wasn’t made to be stuck. 

When Rory turned around to grab a dish towel, Thea shoved the ooze into her water bottle and stuffed it in her bag. “Yep, there’s so much wrong with me,” she said with a strained laugh. She slung the bag over her shoulder again and wished she could cry. “Like, really wrong. So wrong. Never been right. All left—ha, wait sorry, bad time to joke.” Thea watched the pool of water on the floor expand, slipping into the grout. “You should… uh, stay wet. It—um—You look good wet. Sooo good, like a… wet supermodel. Stay wet for at least three hours, I think.” Until it was safe enough to assume the globster was gone, at least. What was the likelihood that Rory would listen to her now? Low. Very low. “If you see ooze, think ‘wow, I would love to be wet right now’.” 

Thea couldn’t look at Rory as she spoke, nor as she slowly crept towards the door. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” So much for Cutthroat Kitchen. 

—

When she turned back around, the ooze was gone. She could only assume that Thea had taken it, which only served to annoy her further. Why steal the ooze if they didn’t even want it? Now what was Rory supposed to do for dinner? She was too irritated to call Thea out further, too… disappointed. She’d really thought that this would go differently, really hoped that she might end this interaction with an actual friend. Instead, she was annoyed, wet, and oozeless. What a fucking day. 

Thea went on to talk about how she looked good wet, and Rory knew when she was being made fun of. She had plenty of experience in that department. Thank you, public high school. She sighed, trying to keep her frustration from boiling over. It was difficult. Rory’s temper had always been short, and the only two real outlets her body seemed capable of engaging in were explosive rages and angry tears. Neither was ideal, especially not right now. She’d find some way to let it out later, after Thea left. Which… apparently they were doing now. Thea inched towards the door, and Rory stood dripping in the kitchen, watching them go.

“Whatever,” she muttered irritably, rolling her eyes and waving them towards the exit.

—

Thea picked at the strap of her satchel, watching Rory. She opened her mouth, and then closed it. She watched Rory drip, opened her mouth once more, and decided better again. She’d wanted a friend—a cool, awesome, amazing friend. Which she knew Rory would be, because Rory had seemed like she was all of those things. Granted, she didn’t know Rory well, but despite thinking she was weird, she’d invited Thea over. And that was it, that was all it took—that was more kindness than most people had ever given Thea. For that alone, she would’ve given Rory anything she wanted. Instead, she gave her lies, splashed her with water and stole her ooze. 

She wanted to say she was sorry again. She wanted to explain—It was a globster!—and she wanted to offer the ooze back—sorry I wanted to save your life, so stupid of me. She wanted, in that moment, to be anything but a Scribe. Thea shivered, she’d never thought something so terrible before; being a Scribe was all she knew, and she loved it. Except for now. Rory continued to drip like a puppy left in the rain and Thea’s nonexistent muscles twitched to hug her, but she was getting the impression that Rory would bite her if she tried. To Thea, Rory looked both sad and angry at once and the mix was so perplexing that it only served to amplify the wanting-to-hug feeling. If she wasn’t a Scribe, maybe it would’ve been okay to do. To try. To salvage what could be salvaged from this. To give the truth. 

“You… really do look good wet, Aurora,” she said softly. Thea wasn’t sure why—her earlier “compliment” was only to get Rory to stay wet for the globster (a sentence that never should be spoken out loud, probably). Of all the things she wanted to say, it was the most mild. Could you compliment someone on their wetness if you were the reason for that wetness? God, Thea really wanted to stop thinking about wetness right now. She wasn’t sure why she’d used Rory’s real name either. Jesus, even to Thea’s socially inept ears it just sounded like she was adding salt to the wet-wound. Everything was a disaster. Leaving Containment was a mistake, Containment was safe, this would never happen in Containment. 

But then she never would’ve met Rory and for those glorious two seconds when it really did seem like they could be friends, maybe it was worth it. Well, for her. Rory probably didn’t agree. Still, at least she’d left Rory with a true statement—even if Thea had no scale at all for who did or did not look good while dripping water. Even if it was probably the worst compliment to have genuinely given Rory. Actually, now that she thought about it, she probably should’ve kept her mouth shut—she guessed that Rory would’ve liked that more.