Collab between Lumiere and Jojo
Cider and Kaite
Proceeding down the road, Kaite's head appeared to be turned in a direction somewhere between watching the city and the road in spite of the darkness. The intermittent moonlight between the trees made navigation disturbingly easy for the construct who merely shut out what their senses could not manage in order to paint a rough picture of their surroundings.
...'Disturbing' being a term used also strongly associated with how one of their eyes focused on the town while the other vigorously scanned across the ground as they walked. Like having a lazy eye...on purpose...with effect. Gross.
At a point in their travel, they simply stopped and turned on their heels to face the gates in the distance.
Cleaning their gear was hardly a challenge, having become highly proficient at it in the nearly hundred years of service before their imprisonment in the sunken wreck of an old war machine now reclaimed by nature. However, this was with the understanding that locals of this region were willing to barter for soaps and rags. A risk Kaite was willing to take in spite of having nothing to trade with, not even their sword which was smashed unto an unrecognizable pulp under a ton of dead metal, somewhere. Regardless, cutting through the swamp seemed as rational and efficient as the construct was willing to reason. Besides, there seemed to already be people in the region, so how trecherous could-
~SPLAT~Kaite moved to take a step into the swamp which was unfathomably more viscous than he'd counted on, causing him to
immediately and stiffly faceplant onto a slime.
The slime was snoozing then, merely a puddle sitting on the surface of the water. Suddenly disturbed by a mass passing through his body, instinct took over and he quickly surrounded the body of the intruder with his entire volume. This would normally be the part where the slime would begin digesting whatever stumbled into him, but he quickly noticed that this was not typical prey. His lavender gooey body became as thick and sticky as tree sap as it worked its way around his would-be meal's entire figure. When it finally gave up on getting a meal out of the situation, he pulled himself from the face of the victim.
"ⁿᵒ... ᵉᵃᵗ?" A voice called certainly from the slime but from no mouth to speak of, instead it was a series of incredibly accurate audible vibrations. "ʷʰᵃᵗ. ʸᵒᵘ..."
Being drenched was...unfavorable. However, something else took hold as his vision went dark and a liquid Kaite concluded had to be water rushed over him.
Sinking! He was sinking and the darkness poured into his senses in a torrent, dragging his mind back to the bottom of a lake in some long forgotten time. Where panic should have set in, Kaite froze, eyes darting around in Cider's form in confusion. He wasn't sinking but instead was being held by something that clung tightly to his frame. Confliction wracked Kaite's paralyzed thoughts as being surrounded in such a way might as well left him submerged, but it was a welcome alternative to sinking.
With the ooze peeling from Kaite's face, his expression was not that of pleasant neutrality but vaguely shocked, especially as the slime spoke. In all politeness, Kaite replied to the best of his ability.
"Je devrais être en train de couler..." the construct dully hissed a tone of disbelief, having yet to make an attempt at motion though, as the words sank in, he figured he should clarify in the northern language.
"I am not edible" he chirped with confidence before extending a hand as if offering to shake.
"Iz thanks. Zee name ouf my design iz 'Kaite'" Kaite concluded, intent on making a good first impression.
The strange figure Cider had formed around spoke in words he had never heard before, and he could only understand parts of it's sentence.
"ⁿᵃᵐᵉ... ᵏᵃᶦᵗᵉ." The slime remembered this kind of phrase, some types of prey used it to call themselves different words. It must've been their name. Did he have a name? He thought of another who had given him one, but he could not recall. Was that years ago? Or just yesterday? He could not remember. But suddenly it came to him, a faded memory floating within him.
"ᶜᶦᵈᵉʳ." He finally spoke. And slowly started to pull more of his mass away and freeing the construct down to it's shoulders, sure that he wasn't going to get a meal.
"ⁿᵃᵐᵉ... ᶜᶦᵈᵉʳ"
"Iz certainly a pleasure to be meetink vith you...Cider" Kaite warmly replied, orienting themselves to attempt to stand. The fall had been woefully unexpected and the filth made ruin of his robe beyond what was worth cleaning. Regrettably, given the opportunity, Kaite would have to devote time to making another one.
"I must ask you to release me as I am intendink on proceedink szrough zee svamp...alzough zee road vould be less treacherous" the construct said with a sound resembling a disappointed sigh, shaking his hand still enveloped in slime. In all honesty, he hadn't counted on the water being as deep as it was and being even lightly submerged as he was caused a sensation akin to anxiety, visibly shaking though his unwavering expression betrayed this instinct.
Cider did not understand what Kaite meant, but desired to let go by that point anyway. Without a word, the slime's viscosity became much thinner and fell off the side of him like water. Kaite was free, but wet from the experience. Since he had been awoken by the even, Cider got around to shaping himself into his usual humanoid shape and stood up in the water. He looked like a transparent man had fallen into a vat of grape jam, and his 'hair' flowed freely from the top of his 'head' as if it was a waterfall. Some of his material took a darker tone on the front side of his head, giving the illusion of facial features.
There he stood staring at the curiosity that fell into him, waist deep in the pool he slept in. He didn't understand most of what they were saying, but decided that he would watch them for a while longer. After all, his other visitor hadn't come for him in a long time. Or maybe they had, he didn't know. He always struggled with time.
Being released, Kaite immediately retreated a few steps back towards the edge of the pool simply to be more sure of his footing. Kaite curiously watched his newfound associate reconstitute themselves into a shape which allowed them humanoid features albeit watery. He politely clapped, assuming it was a performance of some sort before making a sound similar to clearing his throat before extending a hand, eyebrows lightly raised.
"Vell, Cider, iz seemink as zough vee can attempt zeis once more now zeht you possess faculties to" Kaite chirped, eyes going in opposite directions, up and down and lightly crossed to observe all of his associate's new form as it was certainly different from anything he'd even seen before.
Cider observed Kaite similarly, though since his eye was technically his entire body he already gotten an intimate knowledge of every detail. The gesture Kaite preformed was new to him, no one was crazy enough to reach out to a slime willingly. Unsure of what it meant, Cider mimicked it as best he could, from posture down to the exact shape of the outreached hand. He did not complete the handshake, but had his hand adjacent to Kaite's.
Kaite, however, took the initiative to lean in enough to take Cider's hand in his, giving it a gentle squeeze. The doll-like joints of his fingers tensed, feeling for a bone structure to gauge the strength of his grip, but failing in this due to Cider's anatomy, decided on a gentler touch rather than squeezing his hand off. With a few shakes, the construct's pleasant expression momentarily shifted to adapt a deeper and more genuine expressive edge.
With the conclusion of the friendly gesture being signified by three formal shakes, Kaite released their formed hand and offered a bow before commenting,
"Ehn szank you for catchink me. I vould have sank, ohzervise..."Coldly, their expression faded back to their neutral demeanor, eyes clicking with a few more blinks.
"Until vee meet again, Cider ouf zee svamp" he chirped and began to clamber up the bank to get back onto the road maybe a meter or two away.
The way in which Kaite spoke was different from what he was used to, so much so that Cider had decided that it was an entirely different language from what his other friend had taught him. Cider followed him from a short distance, occasionally losing shape and moving along instead nearby in the water. He had already decided before to follow this new stranger, even to the lengths of leaving his home behind him. He experience a new kind of feeling by doing so, but did not know what to call it. He wanted to learn more, experience more than waiting for another meal to cross his path. He wanted to leave the swamp behind.
Now aware of the terrain's fickle nature, Kaite's journey through the swamp was assuredly more stable than it'd been. While he'd been drenched by Cider's attempt at eating him, the only muck to speak of clung to the bottom of sturdy boots. The road Kaite had been on faded to more or less a trail, hinting to which way the cart from earlier had come from, likely having come from the other corner of the T-junction and merely plowed into the mire.
Lights appeared to move throughout the swamp, pausing at a point while accented by the moonlight. One by foot and the other on horseback as if having a discussion by how they remained stationary. The path was quickly becoming narrow, leading Kaite to need to zig-zag through the patches of serviceable ground. Regardless, he'd be forced to at the very least pass by the figures at this rate.
Coming up on the two, Kaite lifted a hand in greeting, offering a simple
"Bonsoir" with a chirp, slowing his pace to stand as it did not seem like there was much room to pass without risking a jump to another patch of suspicious-looking soil.
@Eisenhorn @AtomicNut
