Play is the work of the child

[nottheredsea]

The really great thing about crawling across the ceiling was that people were less likely to notice him up there.  That meant easier eavesdropping and a greatly lowered occurance of screaming episodes.  On the ceiling, he could be quiet, secret and stealthy.  Like a ninja.  A ninja made out of blood

Comments

[haruno]

Sakura found herself blinking, letting her eating utensil fall back into the slow that passed as a highly nutritious, condensed version of what Stacy deemed necessary for optimal survival. Physical survival, at least. Looking up at the thin river of -- well, she didn't exactly want to label it -- the thin river of viscous red liquid chasing itself in patterns and spirals across the mess hall's ceiling, she was starting to doubt even the mental survival mechanisms Stacy had in place would be entirely able to handle everything that cropped up.

Was this someone's magic? Someone's strange sort of summon?

She wasn't even sure if it was a good idea to address it. Yet she'd been staring since she placed the giggling as coming from above, so was it all right to pretend she hadn't been?

Can it even see?

"Ahh... Having fun?"

[nottheredsea]

The red spiralled away, dropping a fist-sized lump of itself. It hit the table, splashing, then all the scattered droplets groggily crawled back together, leaving no trace of themselves behind.

"Hihihihi! Yes! Hi! Hi!"

[haruno]

She let her hand settle on the table, swallowing. Sakura drummed up a smile a moment later, if she was trying to figure out if she should focus just on this smaller portion that had come down to the table, or the larger mass up above.

"Hi," she said, echoing the enthusiastic greeting. "Have you... been hanging out up there for long?"

It was remarkable in a way that something like this could, if she had to partly recognize it was her own familiarity with liquids and their tendency to cave to gravity (artificial or otherwise) that made this worth remarking upon.

[nottheredsea]

The larger mass above was already halfway across the ceiling, engaged in its looping, happy little game.

The smaller bit gathered up into a slug shape with a knob at one end. There. A head, of sorts. Duuv squidged towards her, stopping a good two feet away from her plate.

"Hi! Hihihi! Yes! Hi! Am Duuv. Hi!"

[haruno]

Sakura stared at Duuv, feeling even less of an appetite than before. This was curious. Somewhat disturbing (more than somewhat, really), but in light of a lack of trauma in her life, not too much so. Keeping her attention on the much smaller mass of Duuv helped, she found.

"Duuv?" Her pronunciation was off. She wasn't sure if she was repeating a name, or a species. "Is that your name?"

[nottheredsea]

"Hi! Yes! Duuv - name. You name? Hi hihihihihi!"

At least he looked marginally less blood-like when he was staying on one tidy, slug-shaped package?

[haruno]

"I'm Sakura," she said, making herself smile. It wasn't so difficult, once she started thinking of him in terms of a little slug friend, like her master's. A summon, just different looking. "It's nice to meet you."

Hesitating, she offered this portion of Duuv her hand. Usually she'd shake, but...

[nottheredsea]

"Hi! Hihihi!"

Duuv knew exactly what it meant when people offered you their hands: they wanted to pick you up. He happily attempted to pour himself up her arm. Wherever he contacted her, he felt like body-warm liquid.

[haruno]

Sakura found herself shivering at the strange sensation of something so warm moving over her skin. She found herself repeating the, "Hi!," back yet again, holding very still for the duration of their contact.

She swallowed. "How long have you been awake on Stacy?"

[nottheredsea]

He appeared to be intent on settling on her shoulders. It was so nice of her to pick him up!

At least he didn't leave bloody stains behind him.

"Long? .....long. Longlonglong. Time, hard."

[haruno]

The lack of trail was oddly reassuring. Brow furrowed, Sakura tried making sense of what he was saying. "It's hard for you to keep track of time?"

She couldn't stop herself from shuddering a little. In a way, this was even more like dealing with Tsunade's summons, especially with the favoring of a shoulder perch.

[nottheredsea]

It was a fact: it was better to be up high. Summons knew this and Duuv knew this.

"Yes! Hard, hard. No sleep. Hard."

[haruno]

"Can you... I don't know if we have any one clock system around here, actually." Sakura shook her head, smiling sheepishly. It hadn't entered into her realm of thought that people actually didn't all need sleep. "Have you been... liking it here so far?"

[nottheredsea]

"Yes! Nice people. No scream, cry, run. Talk. Laugh. Stories. Anwei, nice. Play. Games. Much nice. And food. Food and food and food and food. Happy!"

"You?

[haruno]

A relatively simple list of likes, if they made her smile. "It's been better than it could be. The people are nice." Sentient? Creatures? Was there any one word to encompass the variety of lifeforms here on Stacy? "I miss the variety in food from home, but beggars can't be choosers, right?"

She looked pointedly down at her tray. "And eating the holder makes it a little more interesting."

[nottheredsea]

"Food. Yes. Much food. Lots. Good!"

He waved a tendril at the tray, mystified. "Holder?"