Twist and shout? Try the 'Squirm and Wriggle'

[Anonymous]

Kelna's mind was giving off thousands of different questions, and Quiel wasn't sure she would be able to answer them all. She wasn't sure if she COULD answer all of them. She wasn't supposed to tell Kelna these things after all right? She almost wanted to tell Kelna that her type wasn't always male, as sometimes desires didn't get focused on just opposite gender. There was the problem of use versus feeling. A female to female relationship led to nothing productive, but male to female led to continuation of the species. The only thing was their minds were now developed enough to see that they didn't need to reproduce.

Tough was the life that one lived sometimes.

Kelna rapid thoughts were mostly lost and Quiel...she seemed to think things and then...there were the briefest of images before suddenly Kelna seemed to want to move onto more topics. Louder topics that got her away from the thought she tried to stop herself from thinking. If that made sense. It was also confusing because her skin was changing colour, which could mean many things. Mostly she was sure it meant...embarrassment of some kind. Her thoughts kind of indicated that way.

Still, her thoughts were incredibly confusing.

"T-that's...nice...crabs are good. Those large fish with the pointed needle skewer are also quite good." She tried to keep the train of thought going, her friend seemed incredibly caught up on...relating things with sexual connotations. She didn't get all of them of course, her mind had been racing so...it was hard to really understand all of them.

Her friend was very strange right now.

[Anonymous]

"Oh no, fish shaped like..." - Kelna quickly forced yet another change of mental image, thanks very much Quiel - "Like poles aren't any good! No good at all! No, the-the flat round ones are better, let's talk about them instead. Like plaice! Plaice are delicious and they don't look like anything inappropriate! Not even a little bit!"

Now if only she could stop herself thinking about people doing inappropriate things with plaice, that would be wonderful. And considering the person she'd known who was most likely to do those things – although never in front of her, no, never ever! - she'd really like to not think about it. The whole point of hanging around with Quiel was to get her father off her mind, after all. For him to come back up in such a seedy manner was totally unacceptable.

And unbearably sad.

It was fine for her to cry underwater, because it wasn't exactly going to be noticeable, and the green flush to her eyes and nose blended in with her embarrassment. However, it was harder to disguise yet another colour change. Her instinct when she was upset, or scared, was to try to camouflage herself, a rippling pattern of greyish-blue replacing the usual cream and red. All of that, again, was negligible when she was telepathically linked to her companion. That wasn't going to be easy to hide.

[Anonymous]

"You have a very...different mind." Quiel said as she looked oddly at her companion. There were some strange things in her mind...Quiel was finally able to glimpse some of the things that passed through her friend's mind and rightly decided it was a bad thing to look at. She was thinking of reproductive organs and...mostly male for that matter. There was definitely something odd about her new friend. "Ahm...yes...they don't look like anything bad at all." She just decided to agree with her friend, not even a little bit sure about why she seemed so...grossed out by the different things.

Something new was going on between them, between their psychic link. Sadness. Great sadness for that matter. Quiel didn't know exactly what it was for but there was...there was something. Quiel looked to her friend, to notice that her skin had become more like...her own really. It was almost like Kelna was trying to hide herself. Quiel sped up suddenly, her skin releasing that slime to help her move faster through the water. She turned around, her hands going to Kelna's shoulders and propelling herself forward, helping to stop Kelna.

Something was very wrong, and Quiel wouldn't feel very well if she didn't find out just what it was. "You are upset. There is great sadness in your mind. Something has happened to you...but...I cannot hear what." All she knew is that there was something very big there...something sort of locked away...but something that was also there on the surface of her mind.

[Anonymous]

Kelna tried to concentrate on swimming to get her mind back onto happier subjects, focusing so hard she almost didn't notice again when Quiel swerved in front of her. Oh, great. They were gonna crash again. This time at least, she saw it soon enough that they didn't end up in a tangled mess and she merely bumped gently into the other woman. Confused, she glanced down at her shoulders, where Quiel's hands rested. Blue. She always went blue. She shook her head. "It's fine... Let's just ignore it and it'll go away. Did earlier."

Thinking about it was what had made her sad in the first place, so she really didn't want to talk about it and draw it out. She'd spent the last fortnight doing nothing else, and then the moment she'd had a distraction it was suddenly bearable. Clearly, all she needed was to get on with her life... Whatever that meant.

"It's not like there's anything else I can do about it, anyway. Can't... Can't fix it." Well, there was something. If she could get herself looking like she was all right, then maybe the feeling would follow. Squinting a little, she forced her skin to lighten back to its usual colour. The stripes didn't go – they never did – but it was close enough. She looked up at Quiel and smiled weakly. "See? I'm all good now."

[Anonymous]

At least they weren't once more a big mass of tentacles. She could have warned her friend to stop but she didn't want to let her friend know what was going to happen. This was the better way of doing things really. "No, ignoring it is bad, that means it is unresolved and won't be dealt with." If there was one thing that Quiel knew, it was that this would mean her friend would always have that little problem on her mind, and that she would always be sad, just secretly sad for the time being. She had to help her friend, and this was the only way she knew how.

Quiel watched her friend as she tried to make herself appear normal. It was obvious she was trying, and not just a natural reaction like it had been in the past. Her friend was pretty terrible at this sort of thing it seemed. "You can't lie to someone who is in your head." Quiel moved close to Kelna, until they could have probably smelled each other under water, which would have been an interesting feat to say the least. "You are marked by pain and sadness, and holding it back will only make it worse on your mind. Please tell me what is wrong K'lnrgv'lhaivand." Quiel even tried to do her best to use her tentacles to make the noise underwater but it didn't work out that well. Still, she was trying.

She wouldn't be able to travel knowing that her friend was emotionally wounded. She wasn't good at just...pretending things were okay, especially when she was in that person's mind and had felt that great sadness across the telepathic link.

[Anonymous]

"It is resolved. That's the problem," thought Kelna, in what would have been a mutter had she been speaking. When somebody died, it was pretty final. There wasn't a damn thing she could do about it short of trying not to let herself get too upset, and she was failing at even that. The only thing that would work now was getting distracted again, but it didn't seem likely to happen, not with a certain person asking far too many questions.

She glared at Quiel. "You're not gonna let this go, are you? Fine." She folded her arms and stared at a random spot on the sea bed, because at least that wasn't looking at her. A moment's hesitation was followed by a rush of words, to get the discomfort done with as quickly as possible. There were so many ways to say it, and if Kelna was over it already she would have tried harder to shock, but right now it was too raw. This wasn't a time for bluntness. "I... Lost someone recently, and thinking about it really doesn't help, so can we just drop this? Seriously, you can use the word 'mating' all you want."

Honestly, meeting Quiel was good for her, in that it had given her something else to put her mind to. She'd contemplated this enough, more than enough, and what she needed now was a friend - one she could have fun with. Not heart-to-hearts.

[Anonymous]

"If it were, then there would be no problem." Quiel countered carefully, trying to observe her friend as carefully as possible. They were coming upon a very careful subject, and as such, Quiel didn't want to say anything that would really get her angry or really upset. It could end in some pretty bad tragedy, like Kelna no longer wanting to go along with her...and that was just not a possibility.

Quiel shook her head, sighing...which...looked kinda strange underwater. "I cannot let it go, it is important to you, and so important to me." She tried to assure her friend that it wasn't out of cruelty that she wanted to know, it was out of kindness and compassion, something that the woman no doubt had a little bit of trouble understanding. She seemed so guarded...at least, that's what her mind kept telling Quiel. When she understood more about these people, she'd probably understand more about Kelna's behaviour.

Quiel tilted her head to the side, her skin suddenly becoming lighter. She was...embarrassed but aghast at the same time. She had been insensitive perhaps? She felt bad though. "It...it is difficult to lose someone." Quiel of course, knew what she was talking about. She had lost every friend, family, and rival that she had ever met. However, she managed to be just as perky and chipper as possible, because...she had to be. And she was in a new world. Plenty of opportunity to make new friends! Kelna might not be able to do such a thing.

"I am sorry for your loss, and that I had...pressed the issue." Quiel said as she moved out of Kelna's way, her head bowed slightly and her eyes closed. It looks like they both needed each other then...didn't they? That was nice...to be needed. Quiel perked up, her eyes opening and trying to look a little more renewed. "Let's keep moving then...see if we can't...stir up any trouble along our way." She said, somewhat uneasily but trying to mimic how Kelna acted. Bold, confident, and cocky.

[Anonymous]

Once again, Kelna found herself with no clever quips or witty comebacks. It wasn't the right time, and she didn't want to focus long enough on the subject of their conversation to even joke about it. The pain when she thought of it was as sharp as ever, but the constant nagging ache in her chest had eased just a little. Perhaps telling Quiel was good for her, however much it had hurt to do so. Putting it out there had made it real... But maybe that was what she needed to do, to be able to accept it.

As the other woman moved aside, Kelna gave her a sad, gentle smile and a tiny squeeze on the tentacle she was holding. The hardest part of her father's death had been facing the possibility that she might have been alone forever. As much as she kept herself apart from others, engaging only to mock them, complete loneliness was a terrifying though – but now that wasn't a worry at all any more. Quiel was genuinely acting...

Like a friend.

The moment was as brief as it was tender, and almost immediately Kelna put on a mischievous grin. Bonding over, it was time to get back to what she did best. "Let's hope so," she laughed. "Hey, keep an eye on the surface. If we're lucky, there'll be a big old boat full of people we can practice on." She nudged her friend with her shoulder. "I'll teach you a few tricks!"

[Anonymous]

It seemed like a real special moment that they were sharing, and Quiel was glad to say the least. It meant that they were bonding, it meant that they were finally able to share something special together! It was heartwarming and nice, it meant that she was finally truly being accommodated in this world.

Quiel returned the gentle squeeze of the tentacle, smiling at her friend. It was good to know that they were both in this together and that they were both here for each other. If they only had each other, that'd be enough it seemed! It seemed that Kelna was also accepting her too! There was a lot of things that Quiel wasn't used to, and that was people just not accepting her. Her people were kind and friendly after all, and to just have someone that reminded you of your people but...didn't act exactly like them.

It was a bit of a mind freak.

"The surface, yes, I will make sure to look for any ships." She wasn't exactly sure what her friend would want to teach her, but it would no doubt be something that was interesting. Something that related to Kelna's mannerisms and the like. She did hope that her friend was able to teach her new things, and teach her to fit in better. Assimilation was always a handy thing, especially when you were new to the world.

[Anonymous]

Kelna grinned with unladylike glee at the thought of what they could do if they came across a ship. It might not have been so fun by herself, and it was sort of risky, but with Quiel there it'd be a blast! And with all of the squid woman's interesting little additions, there were so many new ways they could cause chaos. A little squirt of ink here, a slime puddle there... Such simple joys! Hehehehehe. It'd be amazing.

A dark shape appeared ahead of them, and she squinted to get a better view. Kelna had excellent underwater sight and the ocean was clear, so it had to be quite a distance away to be so indistinct. That thing had to be huge, which meant one thing: whale. Something so big would need deep water, and yes, the sea floor was almost impossible to see now too. "We must've come pretty far..." she mused. "Hey, we should avoid that."

They always made her uneasy, and she wasn't sure why. She only remembered seeing them a few times washed up dead or dying on the beach, so they should have seemed harmless to her, but they always gave her this odd feeling of dread. On daring herself to inspect them closer, most of them hadn't even had proper mouths, which made her feel slightly ridiculous to be so scared of them. The one that had, though... Brr. Fifty-some feet long, with those huge teeth – she'd refused to go near that stretch of beach until even its bones were gone. From here, she couldn't make out anything about the creature they were actually faced with, but when it came to possibly being eaten, she'd really rather not take the risk.

[Anonymous]

It was good to see her friend suddenly change her attitude and perk up. Her thoughts were a little interesting and Quiel wasn't quite sure she would be all that much help but...if it would help Kelna move on from her loss and accept it, then she'd do what her friend asked her! She seemed giddy at the idea for that matter, so it was quite nice to know that she could help!

Quiel spotted it about the same time that her friend had. She wasn't exactly sure what it was, but it seemed to be big. Her friend identified it though, and Quiel could only blink. "Why? That is the type of whale that filters sea water and eats tiny creatures is it not?" Quiel asked as she looked to her friend for a moment. She knew there was a creature that did that, she had studied some of the wild life under the ocean before. However as the great shape loomed closer, Quiel was able to see it so much better.

And it was not the one she had been thinking of.

Fight or flight. Fight or flight. Fight or flight. It started racing through her mind. Primordial instincts began to take over however and her body began to seep the mucous from her skin even more. Suddenly she was clinging to Kelna tight, her arms wrapped around the woman and squeezing the other woman against her. Then Quiel rocketed them downwards to the ocean floor. She was in mostly complete control, they sped along the ocean floor with excellent precision. Once she felt they were far enough away, Quiel slowed down then came to a stop, pushing water in and out of her gills at a faster rate.

She wouldn't like if someone asked her if her heart was racing. Slowly she let go of Kelna a little sheepishly. "S-sorry Kelna I...got scared and thought we should...get out of there quickly."

[Anonymous]

Kelna relaxed a little when Quiel explained whales to her. It was still far too big and kind of scary, but if they weren't going to be dinner then they were probably safe enough. She didn't think the two of them counted as tiny, anyway. All right, so they were pretty small compared to the whale but they were still a whole lot bigger than, say, shrimp. "Oh, that's what those were for. Always wondered what they ate," she mentioned. "Can't be very tasty... Whoa!"

As Quiel suddenly pulled her deeper into the water, she turned her head to glance back at the creature, and understood the urgency. It had a mouth. That huge fucking thing had a huge fucking mouth, and it was going to eat them. She pulled a few tentacles free from the other woman's unexpectedly strong grasp and flailed desperately along. It wasn't speeding them up much, but any way she could put more distance between them and it was welcome. Well, really, the important distance was between them and its teeth. Its teeth. The ones on the corpse hadn't been all that sharp, but that didn't matter when they were the size of her head. While it could swallow them whole, she'd bet the bastard chewed.

Nope, she was staying far, far away. Quiel let go of her, but she kept a couple of her own tentacles wrapped tightly around the squid woman's waist and looked around in bewilderment, hoping she didn't spot that dark shape again. "I. Do not. Blame you. Why are we stopping? Why are we stopping let's keep going there is not an ocean big enough to keep me as far away from that thing as I wanna be." She looked back at Quiel, her pupils bending as they refocused. "D'you think it saw us?"

[Anonymous]

She knew that whales had bad vision so deep below the sea, but it seemed to make clicking sounds to find it's way so deep. She knew one thing about that type of whale. It ate squid. And the two of them looked like a right tasty squid. At least to a whale, as Quiel was hesitant to eat things that looked like her after all. The thing that they had to do now was get away from it as fast as possible. Quiel didn't want to end up being lunch for this massive creature. She had heard a tale from a man about how a man he knew had survived in a whale's stomach for three days before breaking a rib off of the creature and slicing it open.

Whether that was true or possible, Quiel didn't know, and she wasn't going to find out.

There was a lot of cursing filling her mind right now, cursing she realized was from Kelna. There was panic from her, and she definitely had that same panic. There was no telling right now if the beast was following them, but she didn't hear any loud clicks coming it, so she knew that it wasn't behind them. She felt good that her eyes had finally adjusted properly to the new depth and lack of light.

"We're fine now, the whale is long behind us, and it was going in the wrong direction. We were masked by the ground if it did decide to look after us." She told her friend carefully as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath of water. That had been something indeed. "My hearts are pounding...that...that was exhilirating." It almost sounded like she had enjoyed the thrill. Probably bad news for Quiel, but that was no doubt very good news for Kelna.

[Anonymous]

Hearing Quiel's assessment of the situation made Kelna feel a whole lot better. She hadn't paid enough attention herself, focusing mostly on fleeing instead, to notice which direction the whale had gone. They had to be twice as far away from it now as she'd thought they were, with that distance only increasing. In her opinion that still wasn't far enough, but it was looking thankfully unlikely that they'd be lunch. "Heh..." she commented, her thoughts still a little shaky and nervous. "Runnin' away from stuff's even more fun when you know you ain't gonna die."

As she spoke, she realised she hadn't stopped holding onto the other woman, which was slightly embarrassing. Quiel had let go of her ages ago. She looked away, blushing slightly, and peeled her tentacles off her companion's hips one sucker at a time. Once unstuck, she scooted a few inches backwards and, as if she hadn't just been clinging to her friend like a small child, carried on the conversation with a worryingly impish grin. "You'll love it so much when we get to Yoreiq, I promise."

[Anonymous]

If Quiel hadn't been paying attention, she might have gone forward for hours without stopping. That wouldn't have been good, because they could have gotten lost. While she could tell which way was magnetic north, she wasn't exactly sure which way they had come from. She wasn't sure which way they were going though, she knew that they had to go east though.

"It definitely helps when you know the danger isn't there...but it was still scary." It didn't matter if she knew they were safe, or that they hadn't been in any danger during the time but it was still scary cause there was always a chance really. Still, they had survived hadn't they?

She hadn't even noticed that her friend was still stuck onto her, and she could only help but blush as well. It wasn't that it was awkward though, well, it sort of was, but it was also because it kind of felt...different. The suckers for one, the placement of her tentacles, it was just like back on her planet. Of course, it was crazy that Kelna had any sort of feelings! They were friends! She just kept her one tentacle attached to Kelna's so they could still talk to each other with their minds. "As long as you are with me, then I will have great fun."

[Anonymous]

"Scary? No, that was terrifying." Kelna shuddered and looked around again, checking even though she knew there was nothing there. Satisfied again that they were indeed completely safe and nothing was going to loom out of the murk and swallow them, she tried to lighten the mood. "If the whale was just some angry yelling guy though, it would've been great. Hehe, and he'd be covered in ink and when he'd shake his fist at us ink would be drippin' off his elbow... Hehehe."

She snickered nastily, having got a little too carried away with her example. Still, it was a far more enjoyable mental image than the ones from earlier, even if it wasn't as disturbingly vivid. She kind of hoped Quiel got as much of a kick out of it as she did. After all, that was her ink so lovingly rendered by Kelna's overactive imagination. It wouldn't work if she didn't want to join in.

As she moved away, there was just a tiny hint of some weird emotion she couldn't place, and it wasn't hers. At least, she was pretty sure it wasn't hers. She had the tail end of some fear, a touch of amusement and a whole heap of embarrassed blushing awkwardness, and there wasn't really room or reason for anything else. Certainly not weird. "Yeah, loads of fun," she promised, giving her friend a sceptical look. "Quiel, you ain't having any funny thoughts I can't hear, are you? I don't wanna miss any jokes."

[Anonymous]

"It was quite an experience and...it was quite different." She really wasn't sure how she felt about the whole thing, she definitely was terrified by the thing, but there was that excitement. She knew what her friend was doing though, she was trying to improve the ambient mood of them, and it was helping a little bit actually. She definitely felt a little less scared now, she felt like her mind was starting to relax. This was a good thing for sure.

Her image was a little bit...strange to say the least. A man all covered in ink...she would have thought it was much but she could create a lot ink. It was kind of funny really, she was a little amused by it. Though her ink stained and so that would be...something, it would turn the man very dark for weeks on end.

Her friend knew! Oh no she knew! How did she know! Oh the link! Of course! At least she hadn't voiced it, she just seemed to know the emotions over the link. That was pretty scary, but she was going to have to keep herself calm and not give anything away. "What? No! I was just thinking of things...if I come up with anything amusing I'll make sure to tell you." She didn't want her friend knowing that she had any strange thoughts...after all she was...much more different. Kelna would probably be very against anything like that anyway.

[Anonymous]

"Awwww, you're holding out on me. I can tell!" If it really was nothing, she would have just told her what it was. All right, so maybe it was complicated or personal or just kind of boring and in that case she'd rather not hear about it, but even if Quiel wasn't going to amuse her, she could easily take the opportunity to amuse herself instead. Kelna aimed a sly smile at her companion. In fact... That was now what she was going to do. "I won't make ya talk, but I will give you..."

"Ten-tickles!" Launching herself toward the squid woman with a mischievous grin and ominously wiggling fingers, it was more than obvious that Kelna was up to absolutely no good at all. She wasn't a person who needed an excuse to start a tickle fight, but it was more fun if she had one. Her favourite part was winning, since she was naturally better at them than, oh, just about everybody. For once she had an evenly-matched opponent, but she was fairly confident. Quiel had that 'wholesome' thing going on, so if she even knew what was happening, she probably wouldn't be any good at it.

[Anonymous]

"N-no! It's not important I promise!" She reassured the woman carefully. Oh and now her skin was going a little darker. She tried to control her blushing, but found that her cheeks just wouldn't listen. However it was pretty dark in the water so she could only hope that the woman would mistake her dark grey cheeks for just a trick of the light. For a moment she was quite relieved when her friend said that she wouldn't make her talk. It was evident on her face that she was glad that the issue wasn't pressed. Courting and desire, while biologically basic was still new and wholly unfamiliar. Her biological time piece wasn't ticking at least, it wasn't like she was going to settle down or anything!

There was just...all the rush and excitement and the tender moment they had just shared. Life threatening danger had come upon them and they had naturally found each other in their arms and tentacles. That's all it was. Right? It wasn't like...TEN-TICKLES?!

Her complex thought pattern had no chance or warning as suddenly there was Kelna, shooting forward at her! There was very little hope for her, though they both shared the dexterous tentacles, Kelna outnumbered her greatly! Not to mention her tentacles were more suited for grabbing others, while Quiel's were best suited for reducing drag and increasing propulsion. Oh this wasn't good at all! The squid woman was doing her best though, but it soon degraded into helpless bubbly giggling. Literally, the air and water that escaped her were bubbling upwards as the young creature tried to fight off her opponent, squirming every which way to avoid the tentacles, which seemed very unavoidable.

The expression of laughter, amusement and happiness that was on the woman's face lit up her features, her eyes closed tight as she turned out to be rather ticklish it seemed.

[Anonymous]

"One!" announced Kelna as Quiel twisted ineffectually away from her. "Two! Three!" Well, what was the point of calling it ten-tickles if there weren't going to be ten of them? Of course, those ten could last as long as she felt like, but there would be ten. It was a bit disappointing that the squid woman was putting up about as much of a fight as any old regular human did, but it was still damn fun.

The occasional telepathic leak helped Quiel out, with Kelna suddenly startling every now and then as it felt distinctly like she was tickling herself. Apparently it was possible to do such a thing if her opponent was psychic. A dirty trick indeed, even if it was unintentional. It wasn't going to stop her, though. She merely stepped up her attacks each time, her slightly malicious laughter harmonising strangely with her friend's giggles.

"Ten!" All right, that was enough. She detached herself and pushed away, floating in the water above her curled-up friend. With a laugh, she gave her tentacles a final menacing wave. It was odd, though, she thought. The other woman didn't look angry at all. She seemed happy, if anything, and there was some sort of joy seeping through the telepathic link – like it really was a game they were playing together. Kelna cocked her head and smiled, curling her tentacles up underneath her as if she was sitting cross-legged. "You're not annoyed, are you? You're so weird, Quiel."