Kitty, Harps, Lucca, Lauryn

[Lucca]

Eldy nodded to Fi, a bit awkwardly. Had no one taught these children to talk properly? All their strange turns of phrase were giving her a little headache. She picked up the silver key again, tossing it from one paw to another. She still wasn't sure what it was going to unlock. At least the children were no longer fighting, though she couldn't decide if watching them with their messed-up pets was cute or disturbing. Or both? Yeah, she'd go with both.

She let out a breath of relief when Fi started walking out of the shop. "Come along, Cal," she told the other boy, and followed at the rear of the group, to make sure both boys got out of the shop safely. Outside, Nova and Lariel were lying in a huge puddle of goop. Great. So there were more large ink monsters around, too. Eldy wrinkled her nose and walked towards them. "You guys okay?" She stepped on something that squelched, and her fur stood up in a line before she saw that it was a bone. Or something. She made a slight face, but it was tingling slightly...a magic...body part. Great. As if today wasn't weird enough.

Her ear twitched as Fi yelled...

"Ah, damn, Cat's run off again?" She looked around the area quickly. "She can't have gone far..."

((Taking the rib.))

[Harpsdesire]

Cal gave a shuddery sigh when Fi professed his love, feeling relief and a warm sensation sweep in and replace the cold dread that had gripped him when he imagined being exiled back to the woods. If Fi could forgive him, Cat might be able to, also. He hadn't actually done anything mean to Cat, after all. He would have to go after her and say he was sorry for using a mean-angry voice to her, even if wasn't that mean, and she had hit him first. Sometimes it was necessary to make sacrifices for love.

He was pleased that Fi liked the name he had selected, and agreed heartily, "Like make mess, like book get wet and words blurry... Like Fi's fur!" He pointed to the dark residue on his brother's white coat, smiling happily. Fi seemed happy with him, and both the bloblings looked as pleased as it was possible for a little sticky black glob to look. Cal was a little bit happy with himself, too. He was good with names, that was how all the siblings got such great ones. Except Hereliescaptainunderwood; Someone had given him that. Personally, Calamity thought it was a little much. ((XD))

Although he was a little hesitant to approach his sister so soon, Cal and the newly-named Trouble followed the other boy out into the street, obedient to Eldy's urging. The first thing he saw was the large black ink creature looming over a black-smeared pair of cards. Fi was right, it looked like a huge version of Smudge, almost. "Gooey-squishy... M-mother?"

Cal knew in a general sense that little creatures somehow came from larger versions of the same thing-- he had learned this in a book called "Animal Babies on the Farm", which was little square book with very thick pages. Maybe this meant that his and Fi's blobs had come from that one. "Trouble, you love big squishy?" The gurgly-grumbly sound his blob made was inconclusive. "Love me, then?" This was answered more clearly by a grating purr sound as his pet squished from his head to his shoulder and rubbed against his cheek.

Cal looked up as his brother made a sound of distress. The he rushed to Fi's side as the boy wailed. "No-no cry, Fi! Cat not could go far, like Eldy say!" There was a faint edge of panic in his voice, as if he was as much trying to convince himself as the other boy. He rubbed his beak against his brother's affectionately. "Cat always find again, or we find Cat."

((I suppose I'll take the toes. ))

[Nathalia]

((Sergei's rock hit the pipes and they seemed to shatter, water streaming out more quickly than anticipated, all over the floor, the giant mass shuddering and letting out a terrible moan of agonized terror as he did so, flailing and frothing madly, still stuck to the floor.
The box behind it begins to float a little in all of the water, while the metal something sits stubbornly...and leaks...a dark fluid pooling into the water.

Outside, Lariel's voice seems to catch something in the beast, it shudders and stares at her.
"Taaaaaaaamisssssssss..." It whimpers, as though confused and lost.
"Broken, b-broken, broken..." It hisses, as something around its base seems to boil.
"Sheeeee...she isssssss.... Sssssssuviussssss." It whimpers, eyes falling back into its head as it shudders and collapses into a puddle.
Slowly, the eyes re-emerge on top, floating about horribly as it froths from its middle.
It seems to be struggling with its speech, as though every syllable is an incredible and painful strain for it.
SLowly bubbling back up, the overpowering smell of ink filling the air, it tries to speak again, when it catches sight of the Bloblings with the two little Cards.
It screams. The sound is horrific and never ending.
"No nooooo! Not myself....not! Not me, lossssing, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone...!" It screams, sinking back into a puddle and writhing in a mass.))


~Nathalia

[Kitty]

His head slowly tilted to the side as he watched the creature before him, pity welling in his chest despite being eaten by them twice today. Them was all but solidified in his mind when it denied the two bloblings as part of it and melted into a puddle. So this wasn't the one he'd accidentally caught on fire and caused to explode? How many of them were there, exactly? And who was this.... Suvius?

He turned his gaze over to Lariel, confusion clearly painted on his face.

[Have you ever heard of someone named Suvius?/b]

He knew she dealt with more goings on in the Capitol then he ever did, so maybe, just maybe she might have heard this name somewhere else before.

His ears flipped backward when he heard one of the strange children start to wail, now what? Oh.... the female was gone again? He sighed lightly, that girl needed a leash.

He turned his gaze back down at the puddle at his feet, lifting a paw and carefully well, pawing at the mass of goo to see if it was dead or not. But, hell... how could you tell?

[carcinoGeneticist]

There was a hiss of steam when the water hit the heated floor, and Sergei took a deep breath. Already, the room was starting to cool. But now, he was presented with a much more serious problem. The creature was flipping out and still didn't seem to be able to move... And the water level was rising quickly. Aww, hell, maybe this wasn't as much and improvement as he'd hoped...

"Stay calm, I'm coming to get you," he instructed, speaking loudly so that his voice would carry over the sound of the water. He glanced around the room quickly, spying the box and wading over to it. There was something dark leaking into the water, and for a terrible moment, Sergei thought that perhaps the creature itself was dissolving... He shook his head quickly to clear those thoughts, coming up to it. "I need you to pull," he said gravely, trying to look the thing in its... Eye. "It's going to hurt, but I'm going to get you out of here. We needed the water to cool the floor down and maybe to help... loosen... yeah."

He took a deep breath, then stuck his head under the water, trying to get the gloppy creature free. (14)

((Cat is about a block away, feasting upon Slugger <3 and I will take the LUNG))

[Callypso]

Fi sniffled and then wiped his snotting face on one of his bandages. Was it possible Cat was just around the corner? Probably. Brother Cal was probably right. They had never not been able to find Cat before, and she had wandered away in much worse places. Like the Scary Woods.

He sniffled again and tentatively suggested, M-maybe Cat in Other Place?
He brightened a bit. Strangely enough, when Cat was in the Other Place she never seemed to get into too much trouble. She caused her brothers trouble, being lost and such, but she managed to return or be found in one piece every time. Yes. Cat had probably gone to the Other Place.

Most likely, the little cannibal was just feeling overwhelmed. It seemed like today had gone on forever, like a million days rolled into one big long day, and they had the gooeys and Fi’s bandages to prove it. He just hoped she hadn't gone very far, because his feets were starting to get achey. He had tromped all over the Outer Bazaar in search of his siblings.

Fi sniffled again and managed to stand up again, trying to place more weight on his tiny hindquarters rather than his tender paws. He looked over in time to see that the giant gooey had oozed into a puddle, squirming pathetically and leaving the Orange Not-Cat and Fish-Cat standing and covered in sludge. His face broke into a grin and he pointed excitedly toward the group, sad feelings all but forgotten in the face of this new adventure.

Talk to Big Gooey? Then find Cat? Smudge say hi?

The blobling gurgled and weaved its inky neck into an impossible upside-down angle as if questioning whether its master’s idea was a good one.

((I'll snag the left hand!))

[Bee]

Zhenya was severely stifled by the heat and he had more Selkie in him than Solandrian, so he couldn't imagine what Sergei must have been feeling under all that pure Solandrian fur. Zhenya had felt terribly useless as the heat had climbed; his Spadeness was the only thing he could have contributed to the situation, and he couldn't even make water. But he could do something in the water that was already there, so he dived in after the other boy, determined to help pry the thing from off the floor, so all of them could make their escape.

He noted the substance leaking into the water and was also quite determined to help the operation move faster--the last substance he had seen, quite recently, had been those fiery blobs, and he had no reason to believe that this could be anything completely benign. But if he were in for the goo, he may as well be in for the glob.

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Bristol watched the rock the kid threw hit the pipes, and as the water started gushing out onto the floor and over the burnt blob monster. What was worse was the sound the thing was making. Was it angry, scared, hurt? With a moan like that and the spraying sound of the water the Chameleon/Tiger Mix had no idea what was going on with the thing. But he watched as the thing stared violently moving about, twisting and turning with no success as it was still melted to the ground beneath it.

He watched as the water started slowly rising. The floor was now covered in it, though not standing high yet. Something catches his attention away from the gyrating thing. A box floats into view and Bristol frowns in confusion. Was it part of this basement or did it somehow belong to the creature? Then, also, he started to notice a dark substance slowly reach it's tentacle like "arms" out from its originating point. That confused him more since it wasn't the sludge like thing leaking, but something metal.

Bristol had been too dumbfounded and paying attention to anything else to react quick enough to stop Sergei from going further into the room, and the rising water.

"Wait!" he shouted, rushing in after him. The cold water felt like an electric shock running up his body after it had gotten used to the humid steam. He ran after the boy, stopping just short of reaching them since the thing was still wildly thrashing about. The boy was going to get hurt being that close to it! Gripping the long pipe in his glaws tightly he considered the idea of bashing the thing over the head, grabbing Sergei and getting the hell out of this horrible hole!

But...what if by some odd chance this thing wasn't whatever had attacked the others before? What if this was some poor, horrible creature that needed their help and hadn't ever hurt anyone before?

Hearing a splash behind him he whirled around, pipe-weapon raised high in the air and prepared to strike, but lowered it once he realized it was just the other boy coming joining them. Realizing that the thing had not yet offered them violence, and the children were so keen on helping to rescue it, Bristol decided not to bash it over the head. But as stuck as that thing was to the ground they were never going to get it off the floor.

He looked down as something bumped against his leg. It was the box he'd spied earlier. Picking it up out of the water he turned it over in his claws, thought for a few moments, then opened it. Perhaps if this thing belonged to the creature, maybe somehow whatever was inside could help the situation. It was a long shot, but Bristol tried to keep hopes high as he looked inside...

-----------------------------------

Lariel had actually chucked at the sight of Nova wagging his tail at her. Then the reality of the situation sunk back in when he began also asking the thing questions. Good questions at that.

Hearing someone shouting though she looked around, and saw one of the creepy kids running around in the street, apparently looking for one of his siblings. Great, did one of the kids wander off? Lariel wondered briefly if she should go help find the missing one, but knew that whatever was going on today had something to do with this ink blob monsters. They all needed answers.

"Yeah, I think we're okay," she answered Eldy.

Anything she was about to say caught in her throat as she realized the thing was staring at her. Then it spoke. Its voice wasn't like anything she'd heard come from a living thing before. Every silable seemed to cause the thing pain and it hurt her just listening to it. Part of her felt as though she wanted to put it out of its misery.

The creature actually seemed to speak aloud this time, a pleasant change from before, but the Bobcat's jaw drops open in surprise when it melts right before their eyes. Just a few seconds later though, even if it shouldn't be possible, the thing's eyes reemerge and continue to look at them. It seemed to be trying to pull itself back together, so to speak, and Lariel feels pity well up inside of her. What horrible agony this thing's existance must be.

The Ranger almost chokes on the overpowering smell of ink right before it screams, sending Lariel a few steps backwards in sheer fright. It wasn't attacking them, but she had no idea what was causing it to yell so horribly!

Just as it starts to shout that it's gone, gone, gone, it finally goes and leaves in the form of a horrible ink-smelling puddling of sludge that is no longer alive. Lariel finds herself feeling guilty for realizing she's relieved. Talking to such a creature, unable to help but unable to stand the sight of it...

She had been staring at the "remains" when she heard Nova speaking. "No, no I... I've never heard that name before."

She hugs her arms to her chest, feeling cold from the inside out and takes a step closer to Nova's Animal form, the fire from his wings a welcome source of heat. But then he was moving, stepping a paw on the puddle. She reached forward to try and stop him, but realized stepping in the thing wouldn't matter now. It was gone, right?

Lariel heard one of the children talking to them and turned around, walking a bit closer to.... well, crap. She couldn't tell those creepy kids apart. Fi or Cal, she thought, remembering Cat was female. And Cat was the one missing. Now that the creature had died, so to speak, they could concentrate on finding the other child.

"We, er, kind of talked to it. It didn't really say much. We'll find Cat," she said, trying to smile at the boy reassuringly but probably failing, "I promise."

Squeezing her hand she realized she still held the heart. Grimacing, she walked back into the Meat Shoppe, grabbed a handful of plastic bags and clips and walked over to everyone who'd grabbed a body part. Why were they grabbing the parts again? She put the heart in the bag, pushed all the air out, twisted it and sealed up the bag. At least she wouldn't have to feel the smooth and squishyness of it now.

"Alright," she said loudly, trying to get everyone's attention. "Does anyone know which way Cat went? Did anyone see her?"

[Harpsdesire]

”In Other Place, I think yes.” Cal agreed, glancing around for his sister with barely-concealed anxiety. ”We find.” He said again, glancing at Fi’s bandaged paws.

He felt a little guilty about that, since it was in some way sort of his fault. Not that he had wanted Fi to smash the jar, but… still… He bumped his shoulder against Fi’s gently in a gesture of affection. He would try to be a good brother from now on. A better brother. He never wanted to fight with Fiasco again.

When the other boy spoke, he was quick to agree. ”Can talk to.” He poked a claw at his blobling. ”Trouble, you talk to?” The blackish glob made a non-committal sort of bubbling sound, which Cal cheerfully took as a yes.

He trotted happily over to where Nova and Lauriel had gotten the same muddy cuddles from the big squishy that Fi got from Smudge. Trouble seemed to be made of a little stiffer stuff, and left a bit less residue, although the spot on Cal’s shoulder had an oily gray-iridescent sheen were Trouble had rubbed up against him.

The large ink-creature seemed to be melting as Cal approached, and his familiar made a sound that could very well be interpreted as concern, although if the concern was for the frothing blob or its master was impossible to tell. ”Big Gooey! Is hurt?” He made a sad little sound as the thing collapsed entirely into a puddle. ”Eldy fix? Fixed Fi’s feets!”

When Nova spoke, Calamity just shook his head sadly. ”Went outside. Then not could see.” He was reasonably sure Cat would make it back on her own… but doubts still nagged at the back of his mind. Was she so mad at him that she would never come back? He whimpered at the thought.

[Lucca]

And now the giant gross monster was talking. Sort of. Eldy's nose wrinkled as she eyed the thing. She tried to offer it the rib. She had no idea what it was saying, and she didn't recognize any of the names it was saying. At least it didn't seem to be attacking anyone, though she sure as hell wasn't going to get close and give it a chance to swallow her. She'd gotten enough gunk in her fur that day, thank you very much! Plus, it was just creepy, the way it was melting all over the place. She hissed in surprise as it screamed, her ear pinning back against her head at that absolutely horrible sound.

What had scared it so much? She shot a half glance at the two odd children with their mini blobs, and got a horrible, sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Trying to ignore the melty thing, especially with her sudden, horrible thought it might once have been an actual CARD, Eldy went to plant herself in front of Fi and Cal. "Hey, boys...I think the...big Squishy doesn't want to see the little squishies right now, okay?" she said, tail twitching in worry.

And then...then Fi said...Eldy's eyes widened and she let out a snort of laughter before she could quite help herself. Clearing her throat she tried to look sympathetic instead. "Uh, Fi, I'm afraid I can't do anything for it. I'm not really a doctor or anything...sorry." She shrugged awkwardly and sat on the ground, feeling oddly sad that she had to disappoint the child with special level intelligence. She'd love to see what even a Court doctor could do for something like that, though. Sheesh. She glanced at the rib that was still by her paw. If it was losing body parts left and right and melting all over the place...yeah. Yeeeaaaaah.

"Maybe we should...wait here for Cat or...wait, what 'other place'? Do you know where she is then?"