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Post by Lucca on Nov 6, 2010 14:37:03 GMT -5
Splat!
Just his luck. Arkady shut his eyes tight, not wanting to see all the mud and grime that surrounded him. This was why he never wanted to take initiative in anything. What a stupid idea he'd had, wanting to roll down the hill without checking if he'd get dirty first! He could feel the cool mud seeping into his thick fur, and he had to swallow to keep himself from losing it (which would be even -more- unhygienic, ick!)
His skin was crawling, and he heard a splat next to her, and knew his brother must have made it down too. He squelched his way out of the mud and ick, his skin crawling at the thought of how long it would take to wash all this out of his fur, and shook himself to at least negate some of the potential damage. "Cool...but dirty!" he complained, pulling a face...and gagging as this got a bit of mud into his -mouth-....EWWW.
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Post by Bee on Nov 6, 2010 22:51:25 GMT -5
"We all end up back in the dirt eventually," he told his brother, reassuringly, for Arkady seemed to very much not like the mud. This wasn't exactly dirt but what was mud if not very wet dirt. Yuri himself made no real attempt to get out the mud. It conformed to his body and was almost rather comfortable, actually.
"Unless we get burned, of course," he added, thoughtfully. "Then we get to float and land all over the place."
Would they be burned or buried if they died? Buried, probably. He knew that burning wasn't exactly standard operating procedure in the Bog, what with all he gasses. And Dad had been buried. There was probably just something comforting about going to a tombstone and knowing that the name on it was a person and they used to walk around and talk and love and everything, even if all that was left were bones. He looked up at the blue sky broodingly and pondered this.
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Post by Lucca on Nov 7, 2010 15:48:18 GMT -5
Arkady blinked, not comprehending what Yuri meant. "I try not to," he muttered sullenly, shaking his fur again. But it was no use; the mud was starting to dry already in the sun and stick in his fur. He could feel it still, and it felt like a million tiny bugs were crawling all up and down his skin. Ew ew ew.
His frown only deepened when he realized that his brother wasn't talking about getting dirty, but about death. His ears pulled back. He'd never understood why Yuri was so obsessed with death...never! It wasn't something Ark himself liked to think about, especially the thought of it happening to a member of his family. Or should he say, another member of his family. Bad enough not knowing his Father for real without losing any of the family he still had left.
"Yuri, please don't talk like that," he pleaded, for once not begrudging the fact that such an opinion couldn't be conveyed nonverbally. "You're not going to be burned or buried for a long long time." Especially not if he had anything to say about it. Arkady knew he needed to look out for his siblings and protect them. Laika came first, since she was his twin and it was only fitting, but his other brothers and sister were also important, and no harm would ever come to them on his watch!
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Post by Bee on Nov 7, 2010 23:06:04 GMT -5
Yuri looked over at his brother, saw that he seemed to be in rather deep distress over the whole issue, and gave him a sheepish smile.
"Okay, I won't," he said. He couldn't completely fathom why Arkady had such a problem with it--he couldn't be certain that he wasn't going to die for a long, long time, and there was no point in pretending they were going to live for gratuitous numbers of years. He figured it was better to take into account all the given ways one could perish in a given situation, and then be grateful if none of them came to pass. It wasn't morbidity. It was just being prepared and knowledgeable.
But he would respect his brother's wishes, or try really hard to. He didn't like seeing his siblings upset. So he would not be upsetting! Easy.
"We should get Makenna in the mud," he suggested. "It's supposed to be good for the skin!"
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Post by Lucca on Nov 8, 2010 8:41:13 GMT -5
Arkady relaxed a bit as soon as Yuri agreed, his ears settling back into a more normal position. Of course, he wouldn't be able to fully relax until he was clean again, but he knew that would have to wait. It was the price he was paying for his own stupidity, and hopefully it would be enough to teach him a thing or two about making his own plans instead of following those of his siblings. Though if Yuri's plans involved talking more about death, he'd probably want to pass.
An eyebrow went up at the suggestion. "It is?" Ark was skeptical. How could mud be good for the skin? There were all sorts of nasty little things that lived in it, and he got goosebumps again because he was thinking about it and ugh. The little Coyote shivered, despite the warm sun. He thought of suggesting they find a lake (though there were also a bunch of nasty things living in most standing water, unless it was pure like a spring, but at least he'd FEEL cleaner) but remembering how his last plan had turned out, he stayed quiet.
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Post by Bee on Jun 30, 2011 17:16:16 GMT -5
"Yes!" Yuri said. "It, um. It does something for your pores I think. I'm not sure." Pores were a pretty nebulous concept to him, too. He knew what they were, more or less, little holes in your human-skin, but he did not have human skin, so it was all pretty far removed from his interests. Actually, did animals have pores? He never thought of himself as having them, all the little holes had hair coming out of them...
This is a silly thought track, he told himself.
He gave his brother an appraising glance. He looked awfully unhappy to be so muddy. Yuri suspected that he was going to be a little less happy with his own filthy state when the mud began to dry in the sun; he didn't much mind being dirty, but he did not want to get all stiff. "Maybe there is a pond nearby," he said, speculatively. "We can go swimming and wash the mud all out."
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Post by Lucca on Jul 14, 2011 8:45:04 GMT -5
Arkady frowned in clear disapproval. "Well, it doesn't do anything good for my fur," he returned petulantly, trying to get some more mud out of his poor mane. The last thing he wanted was for his mohawk to be ruined by all that crusty, drying mud. Ewww. Of course, all this really resulted in was Ark's paws getting dirtier and the mud being spread around even more.
When Yuri suggested the very fantasy he himself was harboring, Arkady blinked in surprise. Well, if his brother thought it was a good idea, then it was no longer just his own stupid plan. It was an actual good idea. He nodded eagerly. "Yeah, let's look!" He put his nose to the air and sniffed. If there was water really close, he should be able to smell it out, right? Of course, that was assuming his nose wasn't just clogged with so much mud he could actually get past it. Arkady huffed and sneezed a bit before--his tail wagged a few hesitant beats.
He looked at his brother and tilted his head, indicating that Yuri should follow, and took off over the grass. His large, clumsy paws carried him at a quick rate, but hopefully not so quick that his many-legged brother would have trouble following.
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Post by Bee on Jul 14, 2011 13:36:30 GMT -5
Yuri moved with all the grace and fluidity of movement that only six mud-encrusted limbs could supply, which was to say not very much. He didn’t have much difficulty keeping pace with his brother, though, and he was perfectly content to let him do the navigational work.
It didn’t take long for the sound of running water to accost his ears. “Ah ha!” he said. “I think we have found something.”
They found not a lake or a pond but a narrow offshoot of a river, a decent depth but not fast-moving. He gave them very good odds against drowning and even better ones against unknown, vicious river-predators. None of the rocks even looked particularly threatening. It was, in short, perfect frolicking terrain. He found himself getting a little excited by the prospect of a swim.
“Ark,” he said, with a little bit of dramatic flair, “let us befoul this pristine pool with our filthy limbs!”
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Post by Lucca on Jul 19, 2011 9:33:45 GMT -5
Arkady's large ears perked as he heard the sound he'd so been hoping for, and he sped up a bit--and tripped over a rock, limbs all flailing and airborne for all of two seconds before he landed. Before the pup had the time to be truly embarrassed about the accidents caused by his overlarge puppy feet, he opened his eyes and saw the river in front of him. Perfect! His tail started wagging and he leaped to his feet again, listening as his brother came padding up beside him.
He turned his head and found Yuri grinning. He grinned back. Though at the other boy's words, it faded slightly. "I wish you wouldn't put it like that," he said softly. "It makes it sound as if we're doing something wrong." Despite that, of course, he couldn't resist the siren song of the water for too long, and he put in one tentative paw, then another, then slowly started to wade into the cold water. The temperature didn't bother him very much, since his thick hide could even insulate him a little while wet...though it always did take forever to dry. Sunbathing after this, perhaps.
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Post by Bee on Jul 29, 2011 18:54:06 GMT -5
Yuri gave Arkady an inquisitive look, a little perplexed and saddened that his effort to be lighthearted had fallen so flat. His brother did seem quite sensitive to his word choices; or maybe Yuri was just bungling things even worse than usual? It was difficult to tell; his seemed to be the odd sense of humor out. He thought about explaining that in flowing water their mark on it would be fleeting at worst, but that would probably be missing the point?
Oh well, he thought, he could just press on and frolic and let his flailing limbs do the talking. Wash away your sins! And he dove into the water, completely submerging himself in one go, pushing off the bottom and enacted a series of acrobatic movements designed to remove some of the mud from himself, but mostly because he thought it would be fun. He twirled and shook his limbs and thrashed about in the world's most inelegant underwater ballet, enjoying the feeling of weightlessness.
Finally he came up for air, with his mohawk showing remarkable persistence in fighting off the effects of water. He had apparently been carried a bit downstream, and he paddled his way back to his brother.
"Are you refreshed?"
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