WHO: Dinah and a friend
WHAT: Summoning an entity who's been knocking from beyond
WHEN: 1943 FEB 4 morning
[07:33] Dinah (dollihead) had been used to seeing the signs of something that wanted to be let through. Sometimes, she'd even heard one or two whispers or seen fleeting things in her periphery. This...this was different. she had never had something so *vibrantly* insistent. The signs in the stars with them spinning all over, the music. She had smiled whenever she turned on the radio, listening raptly for another message from the unknown and scarily *aware* contact she had made. Her horse was hitched up nearby and she wasn't afraid of leaving him unattended as she set up the ancient silvery candlesticks and candles made from the ash and tallow-fats of people she'd had killed however many years past. The ritual circle was normally a simple enough component, drawn in powdered copper. Today, though, she had felt it ought to be different and so, the violently pink substance etched into the ground at the tip of her obsidian knife. Taking a deep breath, she opened the little glass candy dish at the head of her ritual circle and grabbed a handful of the seeds of her favourite psychoactive plant, the datura, lighting the candle as the world around her began to swim and shift, quietly humming 'fly me to the moon' to herself. The stars were right. Soon, she'd be able to reply to whoever had been sending her messages.
[07:39] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): Dinah had likely gotten the idea about the color from the one night she'd looked up and Orion's Belt had been glowing in precisely that shade of pink. Gasses or Aetheric interference perhaps... but along with everything else, it certainly seemed pointed. The rattle of candy on glass seemed to echo, trees carrying noise like they were playing telephone. It took a few hummed verses for anything to happen - and when it did it was a quiet, creeping sort of thing. There were wisps of the fog that covered the ground that seemed to cling to the circle she'd etched, coloring where they came into contact with its pink-tinged pattern before turning an odd, ruddy shade of brown, then black. The 'smoke' that began to coalesce in that circle was wet and heavy, more like vapor... and the echoes that seemed to emanate from that smoke were myriad and overlapping. Crooners and cover artists and amateurs all singing the same song over millennia, all made possible by the distinct and very recent weakening of the veil between worlds.
[07:45] Dinah (dollihead) grinned as she saw the smoke beginning to gather and she stepped around her lectern. it was more tradition that she set THAT up, just in case she brought something through that was big enough and dangerous enough that she needed to defend herself immediately. She turned the obsidian knife in her hand and she stepped closer to the circle, picking up the glass chalice, cradled in place by the permanently wet-looking tendril of similar looking, gold-chased obsidian.
""̢͙̜͓̝̥͙̬By the blood of my forebears and those who walk the darkened paths... by the virtue of these names my will be accomplished" she murmured, lifting her arm and her knife. The intricate runes were neatly carved with the wickedly sharp stone blade, scything into the sickly, nebula bruised skin of her forearm with a low hiss. The datura and her own willpower forcing the wound to remain open longer than her natural regenerative powers would normally consent to. She dropped her hand to her side, letting the blood trickle down her arm, down her fingers, pooling into the cup held between her digits.
""M̪̯̟y̳ ̺̥̼͇̣̙̟h͉e̙a̭͖̥̦͇ͅr̬̤t̲̩ͅ ̯̙͕͇͔̟i̩̭͉s͖̲ ͍̥̭̳̝ca̻ll̯͙͓̠̥̲i̗̰͎̞n̫͔̱͔ͅg̯̥͕̺̜͇ ͍̠̗̝y̳͉͎̗̰̰ou̯̝̫r̗͈͇̖s̰͔̺
͙͈͙͇̟
F͚͖̘̻͙r͔͔͓͉̘̖o͓̪̞m̹̯̰̖̗ t̖̤͓̮h͚̟̬̮̹̠̞e͚̳ ̺̻ͅd̟̰̗͙̖̯͉ep͙͓̦̟t̬h̖͉̫s̳͓̠̭̘
͈͈̯̥̞f̯͈r̤̯o̼͔̤̩̖m̺̠̙͈̦͔ͅ ̲t͔͓̱̘̝̜̹h͙̬̠͓͖̤e̙͉̪͖̣̙ ̠̣̰s̤̞͖͉͖o̙͖̳u̥͇̣̜̣͉͍l͔̯̫ͅ
̤̖͍̯̪̬͔
̺̭̰̱̳C̞̻̟̖o̭̞̯̞̦̹m̪̖͉̻̳̫e̺̜̫͉̰̯̯ ̲̳ț̹͍o̟͇ ͖̥̯͙m͔̝͇̥̙̼e.͓͕̤̭̖"
[07:53] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): The smoke began solidifying, congealing almost into coils of writhing appendages. Blackish and shiny, they curled up from the circle she'd inscribed in a wild tangle, larger and thicker until they seemed at once to 'smell' the blood on the air. The loose ends swung to point in her direction, each one opening with a sickly-wet pop to reveal an eye. The sclera was remarkably white if bloodshot, the irises momentarily visibly as a strange yellowish green before the pupils dilated wide. The eyestalks only stared at her for a fraction of a second before lashing out, attempting to coil and wrap around her wrist and TUG, tug, tug her towards the circle.
[07:57] Dinah (dollihead) had never had that reaction before. The fact that it so easily twisted through her circle was interesting to say the least, but she wasn't *too* afraid. She was difficult to kill, after all, and as long as she didn't trip and stumble into any portal that took her from this realm. With her bloody arm still holding the glass that had caught much of her blood, she stepped closer at the insistence of the tentacle, lifting her arm to proffer the glass. She dug her bare heels into the mulchy earth before it meant she would be bodily pulled inside the circle itself, though, and her grip solidified on her knife. Obsidian wasn't the best for slicing through sinew like that but she would if it was THAT necessary. Already, she could feel the acidic bile-tang of bloody ichor welling up in her throat. Opening the doors was never something that the reality of the universe preferred, after all.
[08:09] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): Dinah's willing approach to the circle meant the grip on her wrist slackened, the tendrils unraveling to rise up and peer at the contents of the glass instead. This entity she'd made contact with was... hungry, and relatively young - or perhaps relatively inexperienced with such contact. It felt impulsive, curious - not jaded or guarded in the way most Older things happened to be. It dunked an eyeball into the chalice before retracting it, blinking - because one simply couldn't drink through the eyeball, or simply didn't know how. The tendrils pulled back into their tangle ... where they seemed to swell up and pull more of that dark vapor-like smoke into themselves. The eyes shifted, arranging in lines one on top of the other, the pupils and irises seeming to melt towards one edge until they formed glistening, dark sets of gums. The eyes became teeth, and one smoky tendril lolled out to form a blackened tongue. There was a very distinct, "Aaaaaah" that sounded from it.
[08:13] Dinah (dollihead) watched the smoke and tendrils with wary interest. The inexperienced might have recoiled from such a thing but with her practice, and the added benefit of the datura coiling its' way around her mind, she couldn't help but watch it, thinking of the non-euclidean knots she'd tied into the seaweed and of fat, slippery leeches. As it shifted its' shape a little further, she grinned, pale lips pulled back in an almost-proud smile.
"there. I see you. Follow my shape" she tilted the glass again, though the blood was already cooling and would be relatively unpalateable by most soon enough. Her knife-wielding hand reached forward to pierce the flesh at the mound of her thumb with another soft hiss of pain, another fresh red blooming coiling down into the glass.
[08:19] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): The tongue pulled back, those inhuman jaws shutting and grinding for a moment in -- thought? Contemplation for sure. When they opened again the mass of wriggles stretched upwards so the maw could try to fit itself around the cup, teeth clacking on metal until they decided the cup it self was inedible. Once it tasted that blood though, via a wayward splash, it didn't seem to care if it was lukewarm or properly body temp - the tongue lolled out and splashed into the cup's contents, seeming to just start... soaking it up like a sponge. The red liquid visibly filled that mass, revealing the tendrils as semi-translucent until something else began to form in the inside of that writhing formation. Flesh-toned appendages, contours of bone came together, fueled by the offering of blood until the thing was too heavy to remain stretched up toward the cup and sploshed onto the floor like a sack of meat, where it began to bulge and writhe as the entity inside it finished forming.
[08:25] Dinah (dollihead) remained guarded just a bit longer; a blood drinking creature with jaws like that could easily just snap an arm off or worse at a moments' notice. But the description was thusfar like nothing she had ever encountered from her studies. Except... tendrils, leechlike, mostly invisible but for the smoke.. Her expression lit up and she stepped around to her book as the wet mess of forming viscera dropped to the vivid pink ritual circle, flipping the pages. One she'd not encountered yet.. a star vampire? no, surely not. The pages had always said that *they* would be heralded by the sound of laughter. She inched closer to the circle again, careful not to cross the lines of the outer edges but leaning closer in rapt fascination so she could see what would be birthed from the squirming mass.
[08:33] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): The limbs broke through first. Familiar, writhing - black tendrils with eyes filling the gaps, all of them dazed for a few moments then looking at her the next. They were heralded by a vision- a hill and a circle of stones, a name shouted from the summit - and in the center of that circle a figure, naked and bound on a table, belly swollen and discolored from the writhing within. The thing that stretches and stands from the mass is humanoid, or human-shaped, made of those tendrils until they look at Dinah enough to seem to realize they should look... elsewise. So the black recedes, a fleshy flat chest with imprints of those eyes criss-crossing its skin, that maw grinning from a human face, sunken eyes and a tangle of mussed hair. When he speaks there are... semblances of understandable language. "Tasty..... gn'th'bthnk. Girl. Yaah. Yaah ymg'." It doesn't sound terribly hostile, and from the way he teeters and totters on the coils of blackness still forming legs beneath him he doesn't seem terribly mobile at the moment either.
[08:39] Dinah (dollihead) felt her fingers tighten, her free, bloody hand digging her sharp, gilded nails into her palm without any conscious hesitation and the other that gripped her knife tensing around the blade. As the vision hit, she reached upwards, pressing the heels of her hands against her natural eyes, though the rest...except the fist-sized silver one that was currently concealed by her jewelry... all watched the mass. She took a deep breath as her mind made sense of the scene and she lowered them slowly. The eyes on the back of her hands blinked slowly as he became so much more humanoid so much faster than the LAST being she had summoned through... and instead of trying to speak to him just yet, she hummed again, 'fly me to the moon' in a dreamy, lilting little singsong voice as he steadied himself in this corporeal realm. She picked up the glass again, opening another wound across her hand to rest against the rim of the glass, in case he needed another. It must be exhausting, making an entirely new body.
[08:47] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma) perked up, those ears he'd made expanding a little in response to the sound. Bigger meant better hearing right? Obviously. The creature-boy swayed as he listened, teetering on legs too long and flexible to be proper legs - but he figured out pants eventually, and feet. Even if the toes seemed to move independently of each other. He took a few shaky steps before toppling over onto the grass with a sprawl and a giggle of a laugh, tilting his head to look upside-down at Dinah and wriggle a singular tendril in her direction. "Kaye," he said. The cut and the cup drew his attention and he smacked his lips. "For me? Kaye?"
[08:51] Dinah (dollihead) watched as fragment of shape came after fragment. The last time she had brought something through, she had offered her mind to the creature, let him 'see' some of her memories in a means of at least a crash course in 'learning to human'. Offering the same now would be... perhaps something she would do in a moment or three. Instead, when he spoke again, she smiled and she nodded at his wiggly-tentacled gesture to the cup and she offered it.
"you must be tired. It's alright. Take your time" Despite the fact that she had literally pulled *something* from another realm into this one, that it drank blood and formed a human form and so by all rights she should be careful of him, her voice was patient and softly spoken, like to a creature she didn't want to spook. "it was you, wasn't it? spinning orion, and the singing I heard. It was you"
Either that, or someone else would be right behind him.
[08:57] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma) snorted. He laid there on his back for a while before lazily pulling his appendages into Orion's pose. "Spinning," he repeated before sprawling out again. The cup was offered and he leaned up on an elbow to reach for it with those lanky limbs, tentacles curling around it and her hand and wrist until he frowned, tugging it and her again. Instead of letting go and retrying properly he shuffled himself over and sat himself up, lowering his whole face over that cup so his tongue could drop down into that drug-laced blood and slurp noisily.
[09:01] Dinah (dollihead) laughed at the very appropriate constellation pose on the ground and she nodded. finally, she slid her knife into the chain of her many amulet belts to 'sheath' it for now. As he tugged at her arm, already on the boundry of the circle, she sat back onto her haunches a little to resist the tug until he started drinking at the glass again and she grinned, holding the glass aloft. "you will feel strange, i suspect." she tapped the little glass candy dish of datura seeds. "for a few hours. but after that, better" she glanced at his many, many eyes and she smiled a little brighter. At least he had more than she did.
[09:08] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): There was little ceremony or decorum to the way he rose his head, blood on his upper lip and chin, dribbling messily from his tongue, which made a circuit around the mess and only nominally cleaned off the liquid. He made an effort at letting her go... which was really more of a grunt and another tug followed by a wild flail of tendrils and popping open eyeballs away from her arm and off to one side. His whole arm spasmed for a moment like he'd been shocked before he calmed it down and spilled off to one side, out of the circle and into the grass. "Heavy. I am heavy." He scooted himself around and vaguely towards her when she tapped the candy jar, feet pushing and butt raising in a reverse worm - but he seemed to be refusing to stand outright. "....ehyeeog ehyeeog sweeet taste..."
[09:13] Dinah (dollihead) wobbled a little at the extra tug and she giggled, standing as he extended past the rim of the circle. "you're flesh. Flesh is heavy. Mass of bone and blood and sinew. the world demands it" the latter words almost spoken with scorn, but she smiled again as he inchwormed across the ground.
"you don't want any of that. you already had some in my blood." she turned her arm over to check. Already the marks carved into her skin were healing to silvery scars. they'd be gone entirely by lunchtime.
"Can you stand?"
[09:17] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma) let out a dejected huff at the idea of standing. He lifted one 'leg' into the air, then the other. They remained airborne, indicating that perhaps his anatomy had not quite gotten accustomed to the idea that 'head' was up and 'feet' were down. Apparently this was standing. and his arms and back sorta hunched and tensed and scooted him across the grass. "...heavvvy. Kaye. Flesh is heavy."
[09:20] Dinah (dollihead) grinned and she made a loop gesture in the air beside her head. Other way. Feet to the ground. Like me." she lifted herslf up onto the balls of her feet and bounced a few times with a clattering of amulets and beaded charms on her ritual clothing. "These are hands... these are feet" she gestured to each in turn, then offered her hand towards him "I will help you. here." she spoke gently. "feet against the dirt... then up. It will feel strange. I will help you"
[09:25] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma) moved his feet all the way over, folding in half to plant them on the ground... by his ears. Because that was the logical way to do that. When he straightened up it was with a bit of a spring and quite a lot of squelching from his insides, momentum making him bend back and forth. It was dizzying, so he reached and clutched his black appendages at the ground, sticking them to the grass for a moment. Being on hands and feet was... better than springing around. Slowly, he crawled those "hands" back up his legs until he was upright and making the most petulant scowl of a face. "Too. Much spinning." Being upright landed him significantly taller than Dinah so he looked down, frowning. "Ahnah.... Kaye. Where did your inches go."
[09:29] Dinah (dollihead) watched the strange, liquid behaviour of the new man with fascination. did he even have bones? he definitely didn't move as if he had bones.
"that is the datura. I take it before rituals so my brain can help make sense of things" and the 'reality' of things being 'just a hallucination' meant she wouldn't implode or go incurably insane. just a *little* insane.
He was taller than her though, and she couldn't help but frown just a little up towards him. "...you could make yourself shorter, easily. I cannot make myself taller much" she sulked a little, before reaching her foot out to just... smudge a gap in the ritual circle. It was mostly a 'landing pad' more than anything binding anyway. She didn't usually believe in trying to restrict what she called down. As he called her kaye again, she smiled faintly. Telling Them her name was usually a bad move, but...he was here because he'd literally been schlorping down her blood a few moments ago. He was practically half a windgrace by now.
"Dinah. I am called Dinah" she explained quietly.
[09:35] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma) frowned at her again. "Datura. Datura." He looked at the candy jar, making the connection as he clicked his teeth together. The darker eye scrunched shut and he bent over to one side to watch her smudge out a bit of the circle, seeming at least to be listening to her speak about height. Bulges formed in his legs as they readjusted, shrinking in on themselves until he sorta matched her height, making him oddly proportioned considering nothing else of him changed. "Dinah. Hm. OH." His grin split wide and he straightened back up, leaning forward towards her. "Someone's in the kitchen with Diiiinaahhhh," he sang, gritty and off-tone and echoey, like the knowledge of what that was came from elsewhere.
09:43] Dinah (dollihead) nodded, reaching to pick up the little glass covered dish full of seeds. "these." she gave it a little rattle and chuckled before setting it down on the dirt once more. she almost missed him adjusting his height to match her own, but she beamed as he did so when she stood upright and could meet his gaze eye-to-eye, and she laughed. "see?" she gestured towards him "that might become harder, when you are more accustomed to being flesh. as you say...flesh is heavy" she tilted her head at the strange little tune he sang and she swayed a little from foot to foot. That one at least made some sense to her.
"You are not bound to me now, I only opened the door for you to come through. But. If people in the town give you trouble for being different, or try to take you to the big place on the hill. find a Windgrace" she extended a hand towards him "I can show you." . another ill-advised risk of opening her mind to something beyond the stars. The girl would never learn
[09:47] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma) squinted both eyes at the seeds. He opened his mouth, tongue extending until he realized she was not offering those seeds, only showing him. He huffed. The lips drooped into a pout that showed his rows of teeth. He did take some time to wander around a little, feeling the grass, mimicking her feet with the shape of his own - only adjusting a bit, for ease of balance and not toppling over. He returned at the offer of... showing. The outstretched hand had the attention of all of his eyes, even the imprinted ones in his skin seeming to shift to 'look' at her. "...Show, ka-dinah. Dinah." He lifted an appendage to make a more human shape out of it and took her hand.
[09:53] Dinah (dollihead) giggled and shook her head "no more for now. you've had some in my blood, and I don't know how you will metabolize it yet. Eating them too might make you more heavy." she couldn't help but be a little giddy at the sight of those teeth, at his curiosity as he wandered. As his hand became more human, she grinned and nodded again. A brief inhalation and she reached out to take his hand. Her own hand was slightly tacky from drying blood, but as she did, she opened her mind and reached for his. How would the memories of a very mortal, albeit very long lived woman compare to his mind? She wasn't sure. The mental connection established, she recalled her memories of being a child and learning to do things like walk, run, climb and swim. She showed him the city from her eyes, the windgrace house and household, and the asylum. "be careful of that place" she murmured, her voice a whisper. "if they try to lock you away"
[10:01] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma) was not careful with what he showed. How could he be? He had no idea how to meter himself so when she connected, she was flooded - noises and images in overlapping waves. Smoke preceded strings and planes of flesh, pus-like substances oozing from sacs that all seemed full of flickering memories. Strings of tendons like timelines, stretches of nerves like lifelines from infant to aged and all the memories in between. He tried to focus on the city, the structure she was showing him but he could barely hear her whisper over the many voices speaking at once.
[10:05] Dinah (dollihead) didn't pull away. She SHOULD have pulled away, her mind struggling with the sensation of being overloaded and flooded with memories of things and places and *time*, the things that she had seen in glimpses from the family ritual as she sutured the sinew of her kins' lifespans. She jerked her hand back after a moment or two longer than she could handle and she toppled to the floor, puking up a gutful of half-digested datura seeds and black ichor, a similar fluid leaking from all three of her eyes on her face. She muttered and mumbled to herself, digging her clawed fingernails into the dirt to try and ground herself to the present, to the insignificance of her mortal shell once more.
[10:08] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma) pulled back into himself, letting go of her as she toppled and puked. Taking that little trip did not do wonders for his own human facade - those eyes in his chest were eyes proper again, black tendrils writhing beneath the skin, his anatomy more fluid than solidly human. He bend over in a curve, one of his arms waving its tendrils in her direction. "Dinah. Dinah? Is it pain? You lost datura Dinah," he said. It was hard to have a proper emotional tone so he likely didn't. Not yet, beyond what he'd gathered form their conversation thusfar.
[10:11] Dinah (dollihead) managed to get her breathing in order, though her gills in her side did open, shut and flare like she was gasping for a moment or two. She shook her head when he asked if it was pain, though she couldn't really physically describe what it was that had caused her the issue. It was *wrong*ness. She wiped her mouth on her palm, shaking her head
"its fine. its fine" she mumbled, trying not to blink so her mind wouldn't try to reprocess the mess of what she'd seen. "humans are not meant to see it. Do...this" she gestured back towards the ritual circle. For a moment, she just...flopped on her side at his feet, taking another few grounding breaths. Well, at least now she knew what form her nightmares would take. At least until the ritual.
[10:15] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma) furrowed his brow at the circle and went about smudging at the rest of it with his feet. "Human Dinah. How sad. Losing datura," he said. Of course he was a little bit beholden to her - he'd had quite a bit of her blood by now and the drug certainly made a mess of any of his already wild perceptions about people and how to interact. When he got back around the circle to her he stomped his feet in the grass. "Feet on the ground, Dinah," he insisted and reached his arms down to try and help her up.
[10:20] Dinah (dollihead) took in one long breath and let it out slowly, watching him with the eye in the back of her hand as he went around knocking the pink dust into the grass. she remained flooped onto her side, though she nodded and turned her feet so she could plant them against the ground and she reached for him to help her stand again. "thank you" she murmured. As soon as she was upright, she would be fine again. "there is always more datura. I grow it at home, in the greenhouse" she held onto his arm for a moment longer until she was sure she was steady, and she wandered the ritual site, picking up the candlesticks at the stem. Her work was hardly 'leave no trace', but she did at least prefer to not leave her lovely antique candlesticks out here. The chalice and the datura dish followed, all clutched tightly to herself.
"did you see my house? I tried to show you. I have family there. Four of us. my brothers, and delilah. I will see if any of the boys' clothes will fit you, if you like."
[10:24] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma) held her awkwardly, tendrils wrapping around her without any semblance of being hands proper. Once she was upright he backed up, tilting his head to listen. "Green... house. Green. It is green? Can I see the green datura house?" he asked, the grin wide even if his voice didn't quite know how to be 'excited' beyond being louder. He wiggled, wobbling back and forth on his feet as she went around collecting her things. "Mnno? Yes. Here. House is here." In this plane, he meant... but he couldn't really clarify that. He simply stuck a foot out... and started walking in the vague direction of town, exactly as he was.
[10:28] Dinah (dollihead) smiled and she shook her head, gathering her ritual parts into one arm and wrapping her other around her lectern. She'd use it to help keep her upright.
"mmn. no. greenhouse means... a house made of glass. plants like them because theyre warm, so they're called green because the green lives in there, i think" she said thoughtfully "but you can see it, of course. It's one of my favourite places. Especially at night, you can see the stars through it" she paused as he started walking "Wait~" she followed after him. At least, she needed to go in that direction to load her belongings to her horse.
"if you walk into town like this, you will be stared at and considered a leper. Or a madman. we need to look more... human. I do too. They would think me monstrous if I was seen as i am" she muttered bitterly. granted, she too thought she looked monstrous. "we will have to focus our shape *human*"
[10:32] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma) paused in his awkward march. His ears had sort of tilted back towards her as if that helped him listen more attentively so when she mentioned they needed to *change* he turned around altogether, slumping his shoulders stare at her. "Human? Hands, feet human?" He looked down at himself and poked at his chest, squished at the cheeks on his face. Then he started shaking his arms a bit. "....less... eyeball?" he offered. The black smoothed together, eyes closing to become the same imprinted lines he had on his flesh. The skin was still... dark, so he worked on changing that, matching the color on his chest - though he went a few shades of pink and green first thanks to their talk of greenhouses. "...have to be human, to see the glass datura house," he said, convincing himself more than anything - or helping himself focus.
[10:37] Dinah (dollihead) smiled as he turned towards her and she chuckled, nodding at his words. "hands, feet, two eyeballs. Too many eyeballs frightens people." she watched his transformation "When we get to the house, I will find some clothes from my brothers that might fit you. Drystans will almost definitely be too big, though." she said thoughtfully. She closed her eyes and focused as he changed, bringing her own glamour up as if paint were being poured over her. thankfully, her own 'differences' were not as drastic except for the vast bruising of the corrupted flesh and her many eyes.
"you will be always welcome at my house. you can visit the greenhouse whenever you please."
[10:40] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma) looked over himself carefully, eventually poking at the sides of his face to determine- yes, just two eyes. He closed and opened his hands, curled his toes and stretched up on tiptoes before relaxing. "I could get bigger," he offered helpfully, though he seemed tired from the whole shifty process of attempting to look more humanoid and did not attempt it that moment. Instead he started walking again until he came upon the horse, which he rushed at and wobbled around reached out to poke and prod in inquisitive excitement.
[10:46] Dinah (dollihead) chuckled at his offer and she nodded. "you could, but it will tire you out, keep changing all the time. You might want to find a height you like and stay with it. People might think you strange if you are growing and shrinking too much. People do not do well with strange. *I* do, my family does, but not everyone" she spoke as she walked.
His excitement upon seeing the horse had her smile but speak a little more sternly than she had prior. "Be careful" she warned him "horses are skittish. their kicks hurt a lot. Brigand, still, still~" she approached her beast from the side to dump her armful of ritual paraphenalia into the saddlebag first, before attending to the head-end of her grumpy stallion. "He is called brigand. he is generally bad tempered, so avoid standing behind him, and his mouth. he might try to bite you" she said playfully, petting her horses' snout. small wonder the creature was always angry, being left in close proximity to the things she did. Di wasn't even a hundred percent sure the mind inside that thing was stilll a horse anymore.
[10:51] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma) took a few skittery steps back, hunched up and a little cowed. "Brigand is rude," he said as Dinah went on over and placated the beast. He did as he was told though, avoiding the mouth and the backside. He took a moment to stretch himself back out, shaking feet and popping joints until he was at the height he had been - more or less - when he first came through. "Feels better, being higher. BRIGAND called be a cockroach. It felt small. And wrong." He tromped on slightly to the side of them, eager to give the horse a wide berth as they went on.
[10:54] Dinah (dollihead) chuckled softly and she nodded, loading the lectern onto the horse too. "is he now? I've never spoken to him beyond giving him orders. A fine one to talk, then, considering he is my beast of burden. Dont let his words discourage you. You're no cockroach" she plucked up her coat from his saddle, wrapping it around herself and taking his reign to lead him back towards the city.
"you will need to think of a name for yourself, by the by. What people can call you by." she pointed out helpfully "they will come up with something by themselves otherwise, and that is not always terribly flattering"
[10:59] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma) moved his hands into Orion's pose again. "Hunter. Like this one," he answered, though his hands did little wiggles instead of actually 'looking an arrow' in mime. "I thought it about it... over and over, in there. Over there." He hummed. "Yar syha'h. Where things... cross. Together." He followed along after her, getting more accustomed to the motion of 'walking' the more he did it.