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[deuceoftears]

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[deuceoftears]

"People don't hate me here. That's the perk." Even if Jedao isn't particularly outgoing, it's nice to have the option to just...talk to someone, without the weight of the Immolation Fox hanging over everything.

"Oh, wow...it's all..." Jedao is genuinely fascinated by this snail, now.

[littletonoidea]

"Oh, yeah." He looks back at Jedao with a pleased little smile, at the way his friend lights up at the discovery. "You could see a few of these guys from the Barge, they're pretty cool. They look like when you stick a magnet in a bucket of iron filings. You think we can...?"

He's going to move forward, closer to it, and stand up on his toes to try and reach it to poke it in the weird metal plates.

[deuceoftears]

"They are iron. Or - the shell is close to the same density, anyway."

Jedao catches Eiffel's wrist just before contact.

"Maybe let me try first? In case it stings or something?"

[littletonoidea]

He doesn't flinch when he's grabbed, but he looks back at Jedao quickly in surprise.

And. "Oh, yeah, that's- probably a good idea." He'll step back, but make a grandiose gesture up to the snail with his free hand and a bright grin. "All yours, Jepolean."

[deuceoftears]

Jedao's already grinning, but his eyes crinkle a little more at the mystery nickname. He gives the snail a tentative brush on its shell. Nothing stings or burns, and the snail itself - confident in its armor - trundles along without seeming bothered.

"Okay, seems fine."

[littletonoidea]

Eiffel grins perhaps a bit too eagerly when it's his turn to pat the snail, trying to make sure he avoids its noodly eye stalks and giving an excited little giggle despite himself.

"I know this is probably like super normal to some people but it's still weird," he says brightly, still watching the snail toddle along as he stands down again.

[deuceoftears]

"It's neat. They're so - I don't know. Different from anything."

He doesn't say different from cats, because that sounds very dumb and obvious in his head. But for a long time, Zehun's cats were the only live animals he'd ever encountered.

[littletonoidea]

"We've sorta got snails back on Earth like that," he says as they keep moving, "But they're not normally that big. Or that metal. Normally you'd see them in places that are all plant-y, like the greenhouse." He swings his torch as he talks. "Only I don't think you'd want normal ones in the greenhouse, they'd try and eat all the plants. Really, really slowly."

[deuceoftears]

Jedao laughs.

"I like that it wasn't scared of us. Just...kept on scooching."

[littletonoidea]

"Hey, if it's getting that big? I think his Iron Man diet's doing him a world of good. I wonder if there's even anything here that can eat it."

[deuceoftears]

"Mmm, slug. Delicious," Jedao murmurs, which is even sillier from a guy that Eiffel has never observed eating with anything other that stoic, mechanical speed.

[littletonoidea]

The loud ewwww Eiffel lets out is mostly intermittent with exaggerated gagging noises and the choked sounds of trying not to laugh.

"Christ. You know people actually eat those, right? Like snails and things. On purpose!"

[deuceoftears]

Jedao makes a spectacularly revolted face.

"I don't know why I'm surprised."

CW bug food

[littletonoidea]

Honestly he's just glad someone hates the concept as much as him.

"And other bugs too! There are some places that do, like, deep fried crickets and grubs and there's this one stinking ass cheese that's got maggots in it?"

He pauses and glances away, as his voice echoes down the cave into silence. "Or wait, maybe that one's mold."

Re: CW bug food

[deuceoftears]

"You don't cook cheese," Jedao protests, clearly not yet picturing the full horror of live maggots. "Wait, do you?"

[littletonoidea]

That gets a delighted snicker out of Eiffel.

"Ohohooo, my poor dietarily challenged friend. Cheese is the stuff of gods." He counts his fingers out with flicks of his wrist as he counts off the ways. "You can grill it in a sandwich, deep fry it in batter, melt it so you can dip other food into it! It's got infinite possibilities!"

[deuceoftears]

Jedao looks exactly as queasy about this as he did about the slug idea. Maybe moreso.

"...great," he manages, unconvincingly.

[littletonoidea]

He has to hold back a light snort at that face.

"I'm not gonna make you eat any of it," he comments dryly. Takes a moment to kick a large rock from underfoot and watch it roll down the gentle slope of their path. "But in my opinion? I reckon a good enough bowl of mac and cheese with the works is better than sex."

[deuceoftears]

"It's slimy."

Like slugs, Eiffel!

He's aware that humans enjoy human food. He vaguely remembers expecting food to be pleasant, before finding out that it isn't. But he's had mac and cheese, easy-to-prep barge staple that it is, and a theoretically easy-to-consume bomb of calories and dairy protein that would fulfill all his promises to Hemiola about getting enough to eat every day.

"You are not having sex correctly."

[littletonoidea]

"Or maybe you just haven't had really good mac and cheese," he shoots back readily, with no fire but for the cheeky light in his eyes.

[deuceoftears]

Adamantly refusing to be flustered again, Jedao sniffs, then gets a just slightly too-innocent expression.

"You know, Gonou really likes cooking for people he cares about. We should get him to cook for you."

[littletonoidea]

"Oh, yeah, I've had his cookies before," he comments cheerfully. "Don't think I've had a proper dinner from him yet, though. Or not in a while, for sure."

[deuceoftears]

"We'll make it happen. There's another bigger chamber coming up -"

Their path has intersected with the underground river again, or maybe there's more than one. A waterfall descends from the middle of the high ceiling, and crystals the size of children line the water's edge.

"...whoa..."

[littletonoidea]

Eiffel's about to make a smart comment, but then he sees the room and he's stunned into silence.

"...holy crap..."

It's beautiful, genuinely, in a way Eiffel doesn't really have the elitist background to be able to truly analyse, but he appreciates it in the depths of his shrivelled soul.

He moves towards the waterfall, careful to look down so he doesn't slip near the water, until he can stand by one of the crystals with one hand on it and his torch slack in the other; when he shifts his grip, it twists his wrist in a way where the light refracts through the crystal, sending rainbow lights sparkling through the spray of the waterfall.

[deuceoftears]

Jedao makes a sound that might be called a squeak of delight.

"Eiffel! Do it again!" Jedao skitters over to the edge himself, carefully leaning over some of the less-razor-sharp crystals to get a look at the equally clear water beyond them. Like the main cavern, it has intricate lace-like glass diatoms floating in a delicate surface layer, drifting with the current, in this case revealing a spiral flow around the bottom of the waterfall, with tiny opalescent fish darting in between.