Twist and shout? Try the 'Squirm and Wriggle'

[Anonymous]

"It is inappropriate but we will not be hugging. We will simply be efficiently splitting water and making our trip easier." How Kelna would believe that she was thinking otherwise was beyond her. The only thing that Quiel wanted was to be able to move easier in the water. This wouldn't be a problem after she was able to use her telepathy without touching, but logically right now this was the easiest way. Despite the closeness, they were able to slice through the water like a finely crafted blade. Quiel was quite pleased that it was working, but decided not to say anything to Kelna about it.

That would be wrong after all, Quiel was naive and modest, and bragging or boasting would be the exact opposite.

There was something from Kelna that Quiel didn't completely understand...there was some sort of sympathy...some form of...pity even. She couldn't fathom why of course...she didn't think of any reason to be felt sorry for. She had a friend like her! Looked somewhat like her, and could even teach her some things! She was pretty lucky to have Kelna around!

"W-what? O-oh! I...I guess I still have some um...things to learn still...I have not had to use this particular power in...in a while." She wasn't actually sure that she remembered the last time she had to use telepathy here. It must have been when she first got here and touched someone, trying to get information from them. It was useful but at the same time...it was one of the few times that she got the chance to use her telepathy. Most people didn't want to touch her after all.

"No, my vocabulary is not meant to...screw with you." She had to spend a lot of time listening, and a lot of time just...learning but she eventually had settled on a sophisticated sort of language. Apparently it wasn't as...common as she thought, but she should have expected most of the non-scholars and nobles to not be familiar with how she spoke. No matter though! Her friend was mostly able to understand her.

[Anonymous]

"Yeah, yeah, I see what you mean now. Of course we're not hugging. Nothing like it. Whatever was I thinking." Kelna's thoughts were just as flatly deadpan as her voice would have been. Sure, they might not have had their arms or tentacles wrapped around each other, but they may as well have given how close they were to it. She didn't mind it particularly, even if it was kind of weird. Mostly she just found it funny.

"Hah, why not? Seems like it'd be fun." There were all kinds of pranks that could be played with telepathic touch. They wouldn't even have to get creative with them; a simple approach could yield as many laughs as a drawn-out complex one, as she explained - "I mean, you could tentacle someone and yell in their mind at the same time, it's a double dose of creepy!"

All right, so Quiel'ebbos didn't seem like the type to do that sort of thing. That was okay, though. Kelna would teach her how!

"Wouldn't mind if it was," she shrugged, "But I'm glad it isn't." After all, she couldn't fault anyone else for doing the same kind of thing she did. It did mean Quiel'ebbos was just as confusing as ever, and their conversations would probably never make sense, but she did like that someone else was being genuinely nice to her. They could maybe probably definitely be friends.

[Anonymous]

"It was just a simple misconception, do not berate yourself." She told her friendly kindly. Kelna was a strange creature, but at the same time, Kelna probably thought that Quiel was quite a strange creature. There was no doubt that Kelna thought that of course, Quiel had heard some of her thoughts after all. At least the cuttlefish was enjoying herself right? That was one of the important things.

"It wasn't really...something that I needed to do, people seem to find telepathy to be intrusive." Quiel could sort of understand that really, but it wasn't as if she would go looking through memories and personal things without permission and consent. She wasn't that kind of person after all! It wasn't a power to be abused really. Well, at least that's what she told herself, though Kelna thought it would be okay. "Tentacle someone? Oh...you mean...I see." At first she hadn't understood what Kelna had quite meant, but after Kelna so helpfully showed a little image in her mind, Quiel understood quite quickly.

"Ah, well be at rest as it is simply how I learnt to talk. I will...start studying your particular manner of speech to try and effectively mimic and fit in better." Kelna would be the perfect subject to mimic in that particular area. She seemed to have similar colloquialisms and regional mannerisms that were local to this world.

Yes, she'd make a good teacher for Quiel!

[Anonymous]

Kelna flattened her pupils as Quiel again completely missed tone of voice. Tone of thought. Whatever. The squid was clearly pretty smart, but unless she stopped taking everything people said at face value and started paying attention to how they said it, she was destined to be confused forever. All right, so most people were a lot more straightforward than Kelna was, but that just meant more practice for Quiel. Still, dealing with such misunderstandings was difficult on her end too, and it was probably best to just go with it, and so with slow, deliberate thoughts, she did. "OK then, I won't. Don't worry about it."

It really was the easiest approach.

"Can't imagine why that would be," she replied. No, it wasn't intrusive at all to hold conversations inside another person's mind. It totally didn't feel like you were a crazy person talking to yourself! Oh, but she remembered, sarcasm and Quiel kinda didn't mix. As she was feeling unusually good-natured towards the odd woman, an explanation might help. "I mean, that's actually kind of the point. You do it because people don't like it."

Her skin flushed orange with amusement at the mental image and memory of a tentacle-ing, and she let out a reflexive snigger followed by a grimace and a couple of desperate snorts. Seawater! In her sinuses! It stung just as much as she'd imagine it did for a human or an elf, even if her skin did fall off without the stuff. Weird quirks like that tended to happen, she imagined, when you were the offspring of two things that shouldn't even be in the same room together.

"Oh, you still ain't gonna fit in," she informed Quiel, curtailing her sarcasm in the interests of both kindness and not having to spend ten minutes explaining said sarcasm. "People might look at you less funny though when you're not using words that are as long as a sentence." It had to help a little bit. People were naturally suspicious of others that weren't like them, but when that other seemed better in any way than they were, they could get downright hostile. It was just good sense to try and look as harmless as possible, if you didn't want trouble. If you did, well...

She knew all about that.

[Anonymous]

And Quiel would not worry about it.

She really was happy to have someone like Kelna around. Kelna was everything that Quiel needed to be to survive here. She wouldn't be getting back to her home realm any time soon after all. So being around Kelna would help her to make her fit in a bit better, because she knew that she didn't. It was okay though, after some time around Kelna, she would, or at least, she'd fit in better than she did now. She'd always be looked at a little oddly of course, but if she was able to act a little more like the people here well...

She'd feel a lot better here.

"Oh...I don't understand why we would want to do that to people. Isn't it...mean?" She didn't understand why Kelna wanted to be so...bad to people really. Maybe she was missing something, something she wasn't able to see yet. Kelna seemed to like to enjoy the idea of doing things that people wouldn't enjoy. There might be a reason for it though. She looked sharply over at her friend as something started to happen. Her mind said something about inhaling seawater into her lung breathing apparatuses. She had that happen a few times, though she was usually quite good ensuring that air and water went into the right places.

"I know that I won't ever fit in as I would if I were a human. That's alright, but I would like to fit in a bit better by knowing normal social habits and perhaps dropping my lengthy vernacular and vocabulary." Quiel explained with a small shrug of her shoulders. She wanted to be able to be...somewhat like Kelna. Kelna seemed to be very good at surviving as herself, and so she'd like to be able to do that too.

[Anonymous]

"That's also kind of the point." Kelna paused, leaving a space where there would have been a sigh had they been talking normally. "It's just fun to mess with people, right? Just wait, you'll see. It'll be great." It was genuinely fun to her, if a decidedly bitter kind of fun. They were gonna hate her anyway for being what she was, so she might as well make a real nuisance of herself, give them something actually worth complaining about. At least then she could laugh right back at them.

She let out a few bursts of tiny bubbles as she attempted to snort out the last of the stinging water. It wasn't dangerous, as she didn't think she could drown, but it was still incredibly embarrassing. She blushed a deep green, but waved away Quiel'ebbos' concern. "I'm fine, I'm fine, ignore it." Hopefully the two of them could just pretend that little scene hadn't happened.

"You've got a long way to go with that. I dunno though..." She cast a critical eye over her companion. Definitely smart, and eager, and that... Was actually kind of the problem. Still, learning fast was always an advantage in these situations, so there was still a decent chance it might work. It was just funny to imagine the squid woman, dainty and serious as she seemed, acting anything like Kelna did, and she looked away with an amused smile. "You might be able to pull it off."

[Anonymous]

"Oh, so it is fun then....it is recreational amusement. I understand!" Quiel said happily finally starting to see and get what Kelna was talking about. While "fun" was different for Quiel'ebbos, she honestly didn't know if it would be fun or not because she had never tried. So now she would be able to try different sort of recreational amusement than what she was used to. "It is definitely good I came across Kelna. She will be a good teacher, and if we look alike then it might be normal for me to act like her." Once more Quiel didn't know she was broadcasting, but at least it was innocuous enough to not really matter.

"That is good, for a moment I thought that I would have perform some form of life saving technique on you." Quiel said as he closed her eyes and nodded in relief. "If she was that concerned with us hugging, I can only imagine how Kelna would react to me having to put my lips to hers. Another broadcasted though, though this time Quiel caught herself. Her entire body seemed to slowly go a darker shade. "I-I didn't mean to say that in your head! P-please ignore it!" Oh she was devastated. How could she not be careful with her thoughts?!

"Yes...I will try to make my words shorter and more to the point. Like that!" Quiel said brightly with a grin, actually proud of herself. She could have used a multitude of words, but instead she was able to not use such extensive words as before. "Your confidence is...good to have Kelna...thank you."

[Anonymous]

"They do have fun where you come from, right?" Kelna asked, uncertain and a little sceptical. To be honest, she wouldn't be all that surprised if they didn't. Quiel'ebbos was thinky and literal, and didn't seem to understand humour very well, and while it could just be a personal quirk, it looked more like she'd not even come across it before. Which was weird.

And then there were more inner-inner thoughts that the telepath should really have learned to keep to herself, which Kelna just found amusing. "Hahaha, yeah, sure. You're really not very good at this, for someone who's all thinking all the time." It was funny enough, and the contents of one of those thoughts bizarre enough, that she just glossed over them for now. Oh, how embarrassing for her poor companion! All she could do was laugh. Inwardly, of course. No more sinus-water today, thanks very much.

"That's better..." she commented with a hint of doubt. Quiel had actually managed to only use words that Kelna definitely knew existed this time, but it still felt too formal somehow. Well, it was always the nuances of a thing that were the hardest to work out. This was still a damn good start. "Keep practising, you'll have it down by Yoreiq..." She paused and finally took in the earlier, rather perplexing, part of their conversation. What in the hell was that thing back there anyway?

"Wait, what? Were you just thinking about kissing me? I... D... J... What?!" Before this, she hadn't been aware that thoughts could stutter, but she seemed to be managing it. As she blushed a deep green, she stopped dead and pulled away, staring at the squid woman for a moment while she tried to work out what exactly was the weirdest part of this concept, and failed. Finally she went for the fact that was, so to speak, right in her face. "Do you even have lips?!"

[Anonymous]

"We do, but it is a lot more tamer and different than what you know. My race is a lot...different. They don't...do stuff like violating personal spaces." Quiel told Kelna with a small shrug of her delicate shoulders. She really didn't know much about annoying people, about doing things against a person who didn't want something to happen. It wasn't a terribly new idea of course, but she had never really seen it demonstrated until coming here. Then she met Kelna and she really began to see how strange people could be.

Quiel was going to really have to start....trying her best to stop herself from broadcasting thoughts. "W-what? You can't f-fault me for being out of practise." It wasn't her fault! She just...had to practise a little bit more wouldn't she? Hopefully by Yorieq she'd at least be able to stop herself from broadcasting her thoughts to Kelna. Some sort of filtering technique in the very least.

When Kelna stopped, so did Quiel, and her eyes closed, and her body shifted to a much darker grey. So she hadn't said that just in her head then. No of course not...that wouldn't be easy. Well, this was her fate then, accidentally letting her thoughts go to Kelna then. "N-not as such n-no! But i-it isn't meant like that! When someone drowns, they get water in their lungs, the purpose of the k-kiss is simply meant to get air into the lungs and to get water out! B-but you seem to t-think that everything has s-sexual meanings to it so you would, as you are now, misunderstanding!" Quiel secretly was pleased with herself because she had managed to keep herself from actually using really large words to confuse Kelna.

Maybe it was the slight panic.

[Anonymous]

"So that's a no then." In Kelna's experience, any kind of fun that could be described with the adjective 'tame' wasn't even worth bothering with. Usually it worked out to be some kind of anti-fun, that could suck the joy out of things like water fights, or tentacle tag. Even children didn't like it, and children were basically just tiny little morons.

She smiled amusedly again, the happy orange colour coming back to her cheeks. "I suppose..." was her intentional reply, followed by the slightly less forgiving, "There's out of practise, and then there's have-you-ever-done-this-before. Ah well, it's kinda cute I guess."

Listening to Quiel's explanation, Kelna's brow creased sceptically. 'Oh, it's not a kiss, it's something else that will save your life, or an accident, or whatever'. Oldest trick in the book.

"Uh-huhhh... Did someone use that line on you and it worked? You're way too trusting." Such was the life of someone like them. The few people that didn't have a problem with them seemed for the most part to be intent on molesting them... Well, in Kelna and Quiel's case it was more like they wanted to be the ones getting molested, but it was all the same. Between fear and fetishisation, she wasn't sure which she liked the least, but it was obvious which deserved the most ridicule. And yet again, poor naïve Quiel'ebbos just didn't seem to get it. She swam closer and reached out to pat the other woman condescendingly on the shoulder with one of her tentacle pads. "I think you need to learn the phrase 'bad touch'."

[Anonymous]

"It isn't a no! Just because it isn't fun for you doesn't mean it isn't fun for us." Quiel sounded a little frustrated honestly, which because she really was. Her friend wasn't being very nice really, and to insult her race like that just was wrong of her. Kelna wasn't being very fun or nice at the moment, and Quiel wasn't exactly used to this behaviour. People may have called her weird in the cities, but not her entire people! Though, a few had inaccurately given her race a name and then insulted them but that was much less...an issue. Besides, This was her friend!

"I told you that I haven't done this often since I have been here and your mind is different." Again her skin went darker as the Cuttle woman brought up the fact that she was out of practise. Quiel wondered if this is how others would feel if they mocked and taunted them...then she wasn't sure how she'd feel about doing it to them. Then again, Kelna seemed quite happy so there must have been something there right?

Quiel blinked a few times in confusion. Kelna's thoughts were incredibly odd. Molestation? Fetish? She wasn't exactly sure what the woman was talking about. "I don't...understand. I haven't been molested before. It is a genuine life saving action." Quiel was still a deep shade of grey, and sounded indignant by the idea of her being duped into...THAT! "I will have you know that I have never been violated or mated with before. You may think that I am innocent but I know when a creature wants to...do that to me." She wanted Kelna to think highly of her, that she wasn't just some large vapid eyed innocent woman walking around. She was just technical, that's all! Scientific. She may not know everything about this world or how some things worked, but she knew when a person wanted to...engage in some interspecies sexual intercourse.

[Anonymous]

"So what do you even do then?" Kelna was genuinely curious here. What kind of fun could be had that didn't involve making other people supremely uncomfortable? She couldn't think of anything. Besides, it sounded almost like Quiel was getting annoyed with her, and she hadn't even intended to be offensive this time. While everyone had their sore spots, she had previously seemed unflappable, taking all kinds of insults with good humour and grace. Although... Most of that had been because she just hadn't understood what was said. Maybe the squid was learning. If that was what it was, then she was damn fast. It was actually quite impressive.

"You don't have to keep going on about it. I dropped it, didn't I?" She frowned in confusion, her stripes shifting position again with the by-now familiar feeling. Quiel was sounding all put-upon again, and this time Kelna really couldn't work out what she'd done. She'd been as tactful as she could, keeping all of her meaner thoughts to herself... Oh. Right. It just stood to reason that she'd be making fun of a mistake, and then go and do the same stupid thing. But maybe she hadn't? Maybe she could just leave it and hope it could be ignored. Maybe.

And again! Why, why, why was it that when she was trying to be mean it went straight over the other woman's head, but when she was trying to be nice and conversational apparently she was suddenly the bitch queen? It just didn't make any sense. Perhaps with recent... events... Perhaps she'd lost her touch. Ugh... Was she going to have to a... A...

Apologise?

That could be put off a little longer, she thought. If Quiel's hurt feelings could be smoothed over some other way, it would all be just fine! Besides, this had brought up some interesting and awkward implications as to the squid woman's... Status. Kelna was the same way, actually, but there were certain things she just didn't need to know about a person only an hour or so after meeting them. "That might be more information than I wanted," she ventured, trying to pick her words carefully so as not to cause further offence. Apparently, though, that was no guarantee right now, and her skin paled and flickered with uncertainty. It was weird trying not to annoy someone... But it was also damn hard.

[Anonymous]

"As children we would swim and explore, we would play games with marbles, rocks, and playing cards, we would also try and see who could pretend like they were walking for the longest. We would do other things of course...and as adults we just..." Quiel blinked a few times as she tried to think about that question. It was disturbing to think but...maybe they didn't actually have anything fun that they did. No that couldn't be. "Do many things. Some of the same things we do when we are young...sometimes other things. Go on trips and see the sights of the different worlds. Things...things like that." Quiel didn't sound so sure of herself, and really she wasn't. She was a scientist in her world...to some degree, she spent a lot of time indoors. They had just figured out how to build things and filter out fluidic space so it was kind of a big deal really.

"Y-yes, you're right, I'm sorry. I just...don't know what happened there. Sorry." She apologized quietly to her friend, not looking at her now as she was quite embarrassed by her actions. It was a slip up, and she was a little frustrated by how her friend had been talking. Now however she regretted ever saying such a thing.

Quiel blinked as her friend said it was more information than she needed. She had asked hadn't she? In a way at least. It wasn't like Quiel was really embarrassed to talk about these things. She didn't understand why anyone would be really. When the time came she would find someone in which she could mate with, if she wanted to at all. "It was the exact information that was needed. You wondered if I had ever done such a thing, or had let someone do that to me...so I told you."

[Anonymous]

Kelna listened patiently to Quiel's explanation of fun, working hard on not saying anything bad, or even thinking it, just in case. The vague feeling that most of those things were stupid would have been enough if the squid woman picked up on it. Then again, games involving, say, rocks, would probably be much better if you had people to play them with you, rather than at you. In this case, of course, 'play' just meant 'throw rocks at'. Trying very hard to be tactful and unsure of her success, she thought slowly, "I can kinda see it, if that's your thing, I guess."

At least Quiel didn't seem to be mad at her any more, which was progress. Still, there was some residual weirdness there which could possibly slip back into offence at any time, so she'd have to be careful what she said. She hesitated for a second, then offered, "It's fine. Let's just ignore it, yeah?" On the rare occasions someone gave her an apology, she usually responded with some kind of smart, smug comeback, but now she was really having to fight her instincts and try to be nice instead. Quiel'ebbos had been angry enough with her as it was, and she didn't want to make it worse. This was all reminding her why she'd not bothered attempting to make friends with people in a long while; it was a lot of effort, which most of the time didn't pay off. This time, though, it really seemed like it could be worth it.

"It was... Um... That is..." She looked around desperately as she tried to come up with some kind of response – it wasn't even that she didn't yet have a sufficiently polite one, she just didn't have one at all. Technically she had asked a question to which Quiel had given a valid and fitting answer, if a little more detailed than Kelna would have preferred. But it was just... Mated with? How could she reply to that? "You see..." she tried, "Sometimes a question only needs to be half answered."

Hopefully Quiel would find that to be useful advice... Although it wasn't always applicable. At that thought, Kelna grinned and added, "But if anyone else asks, tell them what you just told me. Hell, elaborate on it!"

[Anonymous]

Quiel had fun back in her world, she enjoyed the things she did. Of course here that wasn't really the same case. She didn't know anyone, she couldn't have fun here, but there would probably be a lot of things that were fun here that she could learn. The one thing that she hoped for was that she would learn some social activities. Kelna would teach her though, she seemed to know what was fun after all. Quiel gave a slight shrug. "It is what we did. We did not know more so for us it was fun." That was another thing after all.

If you didn't know anything else, you made do with what you did know.

"All right, we shall ignore it." Quiel said stiffly, not wanting to talk about it anymore either. At least Kelna seemed to want to ignore it as well. That was definitely good. She was surprised because from what she knew of Kelna in her short time, the woman liked to continue talking more, albeit about things that didn't make a lot of sense. They'd probably make a lot more sense once she learned more about Kelna.

"You mean that I should be a little less specific with my answers. That shouldn't be too hard." Quiel pondered that particular idea for a few minutes. How hard would it be? She probably could have just stopped at "No I have not been molested." but that just seemed like it would bring up more questions. There must have been a proper response that would satisfy the questions and not make Kelna...what did it make Kelna? "What did you feel when I told you that I had never mated? I'd like to know the emotion you felt."

[Anonymous]

"Ignore what?" she replied with a grin, trying to lighten the mood after Quiel's unusually curt reply. A split second later, she realised her mistake and steeled herself for the probably upcoming request to explain the joke's intricacies. Some time it would sink in properly that the other woman had some serious problems with humour, but until then she'd just have to suck it up and be prepared to answer a whole lot of questions. It was too bad that she wasn't very good at it.

Apparently, though, there was also such a thing as being too good at it. Quiel seemed to think it would take actual effort to give vaguer answers, and Kelna didn't quite understand that. Surely it should be easier to not have to fully explain things? It certainly didn't take as long, and needed less thinking too. Perhaps that was the part the squid would have trouble with. She always seemed to be thinking, analysing things; of course Kelna could think when she needed to – she was far from stupid – but doing it all the time? That just seemed like too much trouble.

"Uh... That's hard to say. I wasn't paying much attention," she admitted, beginning to swim again now that the two of them seemed to be back on good terms. Hopefully that could last, without her having to watch what she said too much. She could keep it up for a little while, to make sure Quiel stayed happy, but doing it for too long would be so tiring. This question was really not helping with that. "Feelings are funny things, they ain't always easy to describe. If I had to I'd say I was, um, embarrassed for you and a bit confused. I think I still am." She flushed blue for a second as she tried to work it out. "It might be the word 'mated', actually. Could you maybe stop using that? It's... Weird."

[Anonymous]

Quiel gave a tight smile, understanding what Kelna meant. She was ignoring it then. That really was quite alright with her, all things considered. They seemed to have reached a little bit of an agreement of some kind. She didn't want to upset Kelna, but she also didn't think it was right to have herself be upset. They should at least have some sort of harmony together right?

Quiel would have difficulty giving vague answers though, as a scientist you didn't do that. If you knew what a person was asking you gave explicit answers and then they would know. They'd have the knowledge too, and they'd be able to answer questions. Well, it all made sense in her head at least, she wasn't sure if they'd understand most of the things that she said. Kind of an interesting thing...maybe vague answers would actually be good. They'd be satisfied to some degree, and they wouldn't ask more questions would they?

Did she wants to teach, or did she not want to teach? She probably shouldn't teach, these people didn't have the knowledge after all, and probably shouldn't have some knowledge that she had.

She swam beside her friend, quite interested in what she had to say. She wanted to know why her friend had been so upset by the whole thing. Well, not upset, but she had for some reason been mildly disturbed. It was confusing as to why she had felt a disturbance because of it. "Embarrassed for me? That is...silly Kelna." Why would it matter if she had mated or not? "Oh, is there a term you would rather I use? Or is the idea of sexual copulation what disturbs you?" That would be interesting considering how natural sexual intercourse was. It was something that was in a person's genetic code. Mate to survive, plain and simple really. Why would she find that...weird?

[Anonymous]

Kelna paused, waiting for the question that never came. Instead, Quiel just smiled. It didn't look like a strictly happy smile, but it was still good. It meant she was starting to understand things without them having to be spelled out. Kelna grinned back in reply, holding in a quiet laugh. She didn't want to inhale any seawater again.

"Well, there's just some things you don't wanna think about people you know doing, or not doing, or whatever, but when it comes up you can't help it. I don't wanna be imagining you and some guy, tentacles all up each other... Eurgh!" Her stripes shivered and she pulled a face as the unwanted mental image floated around in her head. It was unpleasantly explicit, to say the least. She wasn't sure whether she'd like it better if Quiel saw it or not. It was her fault this conversation was even going on! Well, to be fair, it was both of them, but it wasn't Kelna that was asking for details.

She still had to explain them, though, or it wasn't going to end. There were certain nuances to language that Quiel'ebbos, as a foreigner, wasn't going to get. She didn't particularly want to be the one to point them out, because she wasn't entirely sure if she could. They were just... There. It was so damn obvious it was hard to discuss. But, well... Nobody else was going to do it. "Saying 'mated' just makes it worse, like you're... An animal or something. Like a dog. Oh gods, no!" she yelled abruptly, slapping a hand over her eyes as Imaginary Quiel changed position. "Can we please talk about something else?"

[Anonymous]

Quiel was going a very dark colour as Kelna's mental image went into her mind as well. The picture was incredibly graphic and for the most part wrong. "We do NOT use tentacles in that manner! Your knowledge of...sex is quite incorrect! Besides that male is not a person that I would choose to allow impregnate me." If she could blush anymore she would, though it was a little difficult considering the temperature of the water and all that sort of thing. Quiel couldn't really believe that she was actually THINKING of that sort of thing! While it was...different and sort of...she would never admit out loud or in her mind, exotic...she didn't really want to experience...something like that with something that she had imagined.

Quiel listened somewhat intently to Kelna as she explained the whole...problem with the word mated. She could understand that while a word was technical to her, it could be completely different to Kelna. She always thought of the word mated as a bit technical and a bit more...well yes, Kelna had...had...what...Quiel just stared, her skin flushing the darkest possible now as the mental image just seeped into her mind. "YES! YESWECANTALKABOUTMANYOTHERTHINGS!" Quiel was quick to want to change the subject now. At first she had been mildly disturbed by the mental image that Kelna had first shown her, with a man all...tentacles everywhere. But now she felt...she really didn't know what she felt. It was not a very...good feeling though, that much she could tell. Super embarrassed and yet...oddly curious.

"Fish! What is your favourite fish! Yes do you like seaweed too? I find that lots of the marine life are good to eat. Let's talk about that and never think of what you thought of."

[Anonymous]

Kelna was slightly surprised that above all else, Quiel seemed to be most concerned about the choice of partner. Really, she thought she'd picked a pretty hot guy, as toothy grey squid people went. This was a friend, after all, who deserved only the best mating propositions and oh gods she was even using the word now. But really, what would a squidly lady-type be looking for in a dude, and if they didn't use their tentacles then what did they do, and why was the getting pregnant the main goal here, and really the whole thing brought up so many new questions that she didn't want answered. Ever. This was exactly what she'd meant by that advice earlier on about being non-specific.

Stop thinking about sex stop thinking about sex stop thinking about sex

Funnily enough, though, it was really difficult not to think about sex when she was thinking so damn hard about not thinking about sex. Stupid irony. It was a whole lot easier when there were new legitimate thoughts, so she was incredibly thankful for the change in subject, and her embarrassed green tint started to fade. "Tuna's amazing when you can get it but shellfish is the tastiest I find, I guess the shell helps keep the juices in." Juices such as ink or slime argh no - her cheeks and shoulders brightened again, and her thoughts got louder and more frantic as she tried to distract herself from the new thought butting in. "I can't say about seaweed but all the dark green vegetabley things are pretty tasty in a bitter kind of way -" - like she'd heard about oh no she wasn't going to go there – "Um sea bass is good in a creamy kinda sauce..."

just stop saying words "I LIKE CRABS!"

Fuck.