Exploration! Yay!

[nottheredsea.livejournal.com]

It was a fact: Stacy was the most awesome place in a universe full of awesome places.  Yes.

There were people, and it was scary that they looked at him and saw him, but they were nice!  Hardly any screaming or crying at all, and best of all, they stayed there and talked to him for a long, long time before fear and/or revulsion drove them away.  And there was food!  Perfect food, made just for him.  He'd never had food made just for him, not when he was in his bloody form!  It was wonderful, and it had come in a vat-sized portion, and he was happy.  So happy.  Much bigger, and so, so happy.

And there were places to explore!  Lots and lots and lots!  He'd never thought there could be a place so big.  There wasn't enough room in his imagining for it.

That was what he was doing now: exploring.  He had fed, and now there were pieces of him washing along in several locations, building a mental map.  To someone with a distant perspective and the right kind of mind, there might have been something pleasing about the intricately branching path of his wandering and the thoroughness with which he explored every surface he could.  In time, he came to the city, and then he all but exploded with enthusiasm.  Big!

To someone with a more personal, immediate perspective and the unfortunate timing to be right there when Duuv came through, it looked like street was suddenly awash with blood.  It swept along in low-crested waves, coiling up walls and anything else that looked climbable, and it had an unfortunate tendency to launch itself off of things, squirting up into the air and expanding into a huge, drifting, happily laughing sheet.  The only mercy was that he was careful to leave a healthy gap between himself and others - though there were many who would say that three feet of personal space was not enough when the other person was a large piece of Duuv.

"Whee!"

Comments

[brustriese.livejournal.com]

Signum, having been interrupted in a casual walk around the city, is busy staring at the mobile pool of blood and wondering where it came from. Signum knows from blood, and that's not how it's supposed to flow. Plus it's not normally that bright but for a few seconds after being bled. After a short while of surprised staring, she looks around for someone who could be telekinetically controlling the red liquid.

[nottheredsea.livejournal.com]

The bulk of it continues down the street. A piece about the size of a large dog remains behind, drawing up into a sluggish shape that doesn't appear to have any sort of head or front end.

"Hi! Hihihihihihi! Hi!"

The thing's voice is small, whispery, and devoid of anything that might hint at gender. It makes up for this with a great deal of happy enthusiasm.

[brustriese.livejournal.com]

Signum's startled stare returns when it communicates.

"Some...are you some kind of construct?" she asks, warily. Blood doesn't faze her, but talking blood is pushing it.

[nottheredsea.livejournal.com]

He is quiet a while, moving in a small and restless way that looks an awful lot like fidgeting. The rest of him reaches the end of the block, then pauses and splits into three parts, one going each direction.

".....struc...? Wh.....?

"Duuv. Am Duuv. Duva. Hi?"

[brustriese.livejournal.com]

"Ah...hello, Duuv," Signum replies. Well, at least it's friendly. "My name is Signum."

She hesitates another second, wondering where to look to maintain 'eye contact'. "If it's not a rude question, may I ask what you are?"

[allnaturalseed.livejournal.com]

Blood. Cagalli smells it before she sees it, having been around quite a few bleeding people in the two wars she'd seen, and it's a bit shocking for it to suddenly hit her. Curious and cautious, she turns around... only to barely hold back a scream at the red flood, her eyes shooting wide open as she jumps to the side.

"Wh-what... what the hell?!" she asks no one in particular.

[nottheredsea.livejournal.com]

Duuv is rapidly learning a new reaction: when someone jumps away from him, he jumps away from them as well. This has the effect of putting double the distance between them.

Much of him washes away from her, moving in a straight line to put as much distance between her and his bulk as possible. A lump about the size of a grapefruit is left behind, sitting about six feet away from her. It forms a slug shape.

"Hi? Hi? Hi."

[allnaturalseed.livejournal.com]

Cagalli stares in amazement at the... blood. It moved like it was... like it was a living thing, and left this lump behind. And the lump is talking to her.

"Hello? Um... you're... another one of the... the people here?" she asks nervously, still plenty weirded out by the idea of a sapient pool of freaking blood.

[nottheredsea.livejournal.com]

He fidgets. This mostly takes the form of moving in a tiny circle. It is difficult to link words to ideas, like pushing great stone blocks through mud, but he can tell from her tone that she's asking a question.

"...people..?"

It's a very abstract thought to fit into a mind as presently tiny as his.

"Duuv. Am Duuv. People."

[allnaturalseed.livejournal.com]

So it can only barely communicate on top of being a motile bodily fluid. At least it hasn't attacked her yet, though - it seems curious, more than anything, and hopefully it isn't curious about things like what her innards look like laying in the street.

"Duuv? That's your name, right?" She eases her stance, to seem as calm and friendly as she can manage right now. "I'm Cagalli."

[bio-boosted.livejournal.com]

Sho was happily walking down the city streets when he suddenly came across a peculiar sight. It appeared to be a pool of blood jumping and flying everywhere followed by strange, whispery laughing. He pinched his cheek and could feel the slight pain.

"Alright. I'm not dreaming. Did I walk into a sensorium? Maybe this place is finally making me go crazy."

[nottheredsea.livejournal.com]

As if to answer Sho, a dog-sized clot split off the rest of it and arranged itself into a slug shape a few feet in front of him. The rest of the thing continued down the street, drifting off of a building in floatingly thin curtains. The slug shape's surface was perfectly smooth, except for a pair of dimples that danced erratically across it when it spoke.

"Hi! Hihihihi! Hi! Hi!"

[bio-boosted.livejournal.com]

Sho looks from side to side to make sure no one else is talking to him. He raises a hand and waves to the clot.

"H-Hi there. Are you talking to me?" He asks, still very confused.

[nottheredsea.livejournal.com]

"Hi! Yes, yes! Hi!"

He edged forward a few inches, nice and slow and ready to dart back at any screaming or tears.

"Duuv. Am Duuv. Hi!"

[bio-boosted.livejournal.com]

Sho blinks a few more times before replying.

"Hello, Duuv. I'm Sho." He crouches down to get a better look. "Duuv, are you made out of blood?" Sho's seen enough blood to know it when he sees it. He's just making sure.

[8wings.livejournal.com]

All Anwei wanted was some simple grounding wire, as hooking the line to Stacy seemed a little rude. But the inventory showed too much elaborate, sensor-laden, curlicued and fibrous and entirely dubious wire. So she just hauled down to the City and found her own.

As she walked back with the heavy coil of wire over one shoulder, she suddenly saw the intersection in front of her flood with red, and a mouthwatering warm smell rose into her face. Either a giant had just been murdered, or-

"Is that youuuuu, Duuuuuv?" she sang.

[nottheredsea.livejournal.com]

Anwei! All of him rushed to her, gathering up and dancing around her in swooshy, splashy glee. There was already quite a bit more of him.

"Hi! Hihihi! Hihihi! Hi, Anwei! Hi!"

He wasn't able to make a noise like '♥', but by golly, he could try! It mostly sounded like a buzzing squeak.

[8wings.livejournal.com]

"Hi, hi, hiiiii, Duuuuuv!" she said, putting down the wire and spinning in place, watching the blood spiral and flutter around her. Duuv just - well, the word had never been more appropriate, Duuv just bled enthusiastic happiness into the air around it.

She still wasn't quite certain how it saw, without any eyes. Then again, she didn't know how it ate either.

"You're so big!" she exclaimed, grinning. "You like the foooood?"

[nottheredsea.livejournal.com]

Oh, spinning. It seems to make Duuv dance with greater enthusiasm, adding little flourishes and arches of spray above her head.

"Yes-yes-yesyesyes! Food! Big!"

"....little. But not-little-little. Big-little."

[8wings.livejournal.com]

Anwei laughed, arching her back and raising both hands above her head. Like a demented ballerina, she pirouetted under the arches of blood.

Dario Argento would have hired her in an instant - especially with that smile.

"I am happy to see you, big-little." She wondered what its big-big would be like. Could Duuv be big enough to fill, say, a room? The Obs Deck?

But there was a question she hadn't asked it yet, simply because she'd been so frazzled when she came here. "Duuuuuuv, should I talk about you with boy words or with girl words? Do I say he or she? Like, he is big and red and happy, or, she is wet and splashy and dancing?"

[needs-release.livejournal.com]

Sam had been with Alex. They were talking about nothing in particular, when suddenly Sam caught the scent of blood. It came on him so fast, that his eyes briefly flashed bright red. He shook his head to clear it, and they returned to normal. Sam'd fashioned himself a bit of a bachelor pad out of a building in the city. In his mind, it was much more comfortable than Stacy's bunks. Not that he used his very often.

He looked toward the door. "Do you smell that?" he asked as he stood and opened it.

But the answer was right before his eyes. Blood. Gallons of it. Flowing down the street. "Am I actually seeing that or am I finally going mad?" he asked Alex. His eyes flickered somewhere between their normal blue and red.

[hack-rat.livejournal.com]

Alex looked up at at Sam inquisitively. Did Sam's eyes flash red? Before he could be sure Sam closed them and shook his head. He knew Sam's sense of smell as a great deal better than his own, but he sniffed at the air anyway, shaking his head, "I d-don't smell anything."

He stood, walking up behind Sam curiously. His expression quickly changed from curiosity to terror. Shaking slightly he took one hesitant step back, so that he moved behind Sam, just peaking around his shoulder. He had thought that whole meeting was just stress getting to him. Apparently not. "N-n-no... I th-thought... D-Duuv?"

Being able to put a name to the pool of blood only made things a little better. The fact that it seemed like Duuv had gotten larger overshadowed that little consolation.

[needs-release.livejournal.com]

Sam glanced back at Alex. "What did you just call it?" He looked back out at the curiosity while he waited for Alex's answer. He also started walking toward it. His fingers were twitching. His behavior was a bit like a cat that knew that mouse was around here somewhere, could smell it, but was being forced to ignore it by its human master.

[nottheredsea.livejournal.com]

Oh! It was Alex! Hooray, a friend!

Who was terrified of him!

Duuv came to a sudden stop like some trick of photography, surface striating and fluttering as momentum made his internal portions churn. His great mass hesitated, then drained backwards. There were plenty of other streets to explore. He could move along some parallel track, and not bring Alex to tears again.

He left behind a grapefruit sized portion of himself, all small and lonely in the middle of the street. This poured towards them, stopping about ten feet away.

"Hi! Hihihihihi! Hi, Alex! Hi!

[hack-rat.livejournal.com]

Alex squeezed Sam's shoulder, though he was relieved to see that most of Duuv decided to move on. He decided to not dwell on the possibilities that that created. Still standing behind Sam he stuttered, "H-h-hi D-Duuv."

Alex still fought to keep himself from thinking of his mother, though he probably couldn't hide from Sam the fact that his heart was pounding.