On the outside, always looking in. Will I ever be more than I've always been?

[howtheyshine]

Who: Yellow (howtheyshine) & VARIOUS + YOU?

What: December Catch-All

When: December!

Where: See headers.

Warning(s): None yet, see tag headings for thread CWs.

MONSTER ABOUT TOWN - OTA

Yellow is babysitting Gwen. Which means Gwen is currently getting a piggy back ride through town. Of course the piggy back ride is on a giant boar with four rust-and-black tusks and five tails, it's brindled black fur broken here and there by the protrusion of thick, muscular tentacles striped with yellow. Two of those tentacles secure Gwen very gently on the creature's back.

Or if you catch them on a different day, Gwen will be seatbelted with shadows onto the shoulders of a massive wolf-thing, also tusked, also bearing multiple tails, this one's fur banded liberally in black and yellow. But don't worry, if those shadows don't look secure to you, Gwen also has the wolf-thing's curling ten-point antlers to hang onto. It's probably fine!!

Or, if you catch them between shape shifts, it's just, y'know, Yellow, dressed in his overlarge coat from John Rambo, carrying Gwen and looking at her like she is singularly capable of moving the sun across the sky.

READING RAINBOW - closed to Crichton

He's been feeling some kind of way about a lot of things, lately, disoriented by kindness and now even more disoriented by Arthur's arrival. Never mind Arthur's kindness. Christ, he can't even process that yet.

But ever since the conversation with that man he's been itching to do something. Something important, something that makes a difference, and it is definitely not because of anything nice Arthur said and is absolutely only because he wants to do something important before Arthur does.

Which is why he comes knocking on Crichton's door at the asscrack of dawn and, as soon as it's opened, will say, "Where's the pages you want me to read?"

LSD BUTTERFLY PARADE - for Sheo/The Worm

He spots the butterfly at the edge of town, a spot of brightness in the December gray, viciously and vibrantly alive. He knows it, too. He can feel it, now, in a way he couldn't when he first got here, the stinging glow it has. It's one of the butterflies that followed the man at the party. The ones he said were him.

He follows it, fascinated, even moreso as other butterflies join what's quickly becoming a multicolor parade. He's deep into the woods, following the dancing ribbon of the creatures, when he impulsively says, "Hello?"

He doesn't know if they can answer, but he feels like they might.

TAKE A LOOK, IT'S IN A BOOK (library) - Lev/Lyubov and OTA

He's kind of avoided going into the library until now. He couldn't articulate why if asked. Just a vague feeling of anxiety at the thought of how much knowledge is in there, how much it means he doesn't know. How impossible it feels to catch up to everyone else.

But curiosity wins out eventually. The building is grand and its contents call to a part of himself he can't ignore. And inside-- inside feels comfortable against his skin. Feels right in a way most things don't. For a while he wanders and basks in the feeling and pulls random books off of shelves to read, because he doesn't know anything, so he needs to learn everything. It's quite possible he'll try and grab that book you were going for, just because you were. If someone else wanted it, it must be important to know what's in it, after all.

Eventually he finds his way to where Lev/Lyubov is stationed, arms and an extra pair of tentacles full, and he stops short, for two reasons. First: he's shy and wary. Second: he can feel something the same way he could feel the butterflies and the bits of John that stained Arthur irreversibly and Nyarlathotep and the demons here and--and it's weird. And familiar. But--surprise--he doesn't know why.

So he starts with the very polite opener: "What are you?"

OLD MCJOHNALD HAD A FARM - for Mr Rambo/Anyone at the Farm

TBA!!

No Harm Visiting Burned Out Cult Houses Right??? - OTA

TBA!!

Woodland Adventures - OTA

TBA!!

Comments

Here we go again!

[ss_buttcrack]

Crichton's reaction to a knock at his door at ass-o'clock in the morning looks a little like this.

"Yellow...?" he says, groggily, after coming to the door in his boxers and a sheet thrown around him like a toga. "What? W-what the hell, man? What time is it?"

[howtheyshine]

"I don't know. I didn't check. Where's the pages you want me to read?"

He leans sideways a little as he speaks to see if he can spot Runt inside.

[ss_buttcrack]

Runt was happily snuggled in bed with papa Crichton until this moment so as he appears, it's with a disgruntled womp-womp and a glare at the door. Who dares disturb his slumber?

"Do you just... not sleep?" Crichton says, scratching at the back of his head and doing nothing to improve the bedhead.

"Look, I don't have the pages, Neil does. It's too early to go bothering him yet. At least let me have some coffee."

[howtheyshine]

"No. I don't know how. When we were taken to the casino, that was the first time I ever slept. I've never done it on purpose."

He shrugs, then steps around Crichton and pulls a hotdog wrapped in a napkin out of his pocket to offer the man's larva son.

[ss_buttcrack]

"Oh. That explains why you looked so freaked out. It's a good thing, Yellow. Sleep is calming, you should try it." And let him go back to bed. But... yeah he already knows that's not happening.

"Won't you come in?" he asks sarcastically, after Yellow is already inside. Hands on his hips, he turns to watch and then starts to sputter indignantly, "H-Hey, what are you giving Runt? Hey, Runt, no, you need your breakfast first."

Too late, Runt has already gripped the forbidden snack in his many arms and is scarfing it it like he's going for the hot dog eating first prize. Crichton is helpless to stop this mayhem.

Butterfly Parade

[blindwatchersees]

One alights on whatever he has that's closest to a hand. It's got the markings of a Monarch, but its the color of yarrow.

Hello, it replies softly, like a voice swaddled in the hushed darkness of night.

Re: Butterfly Parade

[howtheyshine]

At the moment, the hand is a hand, still. For now. There's no disguising how entirely enchanted he is by the creature.

"Are you talking to me or repeating the word?"

[blindwatchersees]

I am talking. The word I said is the same as yours. I think most words are repeated, and that's how we agree upon what they sound like.

It's so impossibly light, spindly little legs holding on with simultaneously unfaltering strength and incredible gentleness.

You were at the party. You asked about things, things like things that change.

[howtheyshine]

Yeah he's completely charmed and strangely delighted to be remembered.

"Yes. Were you there too? Where are you going? Where's the person you came from?"

monster about town

[bardish]

Here's Jeff, the most anxious man alive, regarding the baby and her eldritch beast mount/pet/friend with a sense of calmness and curiosity that might surprise anyone who knows him-- or, at least, knows about his tendency to freak out and go into a panic spiral over seemingly small and innocuous things.

"I've never seen a boar with built in seatbelts before..." he remarks to either the baby or the boar. Are either capable of responding? Is he speaking into the air with all the effectiveness of a tree falling in the woods with nobody around to hear it, etc etc??

"Actually, I don't think I've ever seen a boar in person before."

And still he talks.

[howtheyshine]

Yellow stops, turns his whole boar-shaped self so he can look at Jeff more easily (who built this animal), and in his head he'll hear a deep rumbling voice say:

[You still haven't.] He sounds more intrigued by Jeff's musing than anything else.

[bardish]

Oh, a voice in his head. That's disconcerting.

Really, the only reason Jeff doesn't totally freak out is for the simple fact that this voice sounds... like it has a sense of personhood and identity. It's someone-- a psychic boar?-- speaking to him, rather than a patchwork of stolen voices, an abstraction trying to cope with the confinement of reality and mold itself into... into something incompatible with its very nature.

Or maybe the psychic boar is exactly like Ziggy was, who knows. Look, it's a different flavor of horror than his old trauma, and one he can comprehend, at least for now.

The point is, Jeff regards Yellow as, like, an alien or something, a being he has no experience with, but no reason to fear yet, either.

"Ohhhh..."

Dot dot dot.

"So are you, like, uh... what are they called..." The critters in the woods. "A Pokémon?"

[howtheyshine]

An offended snort.

[No! None of them can talk to regular humans. Not really.] Said with all the authority of someone who absolutely knows what he's talking about without question.

He gives his massive head an irritated little shake, which bounces Gwen and makes her laugh.

[Hold on. And-- maybe look somewhere else for a minute.] Just because people tend to either puke or have a small dip in sanity when he shapeshifts while they're watching.

That's all the warning Jeff is going to get before Yellow starts melting in on himself and reshaping tissue and matter into something human-looking. Gwen, for her part, claps her hands and gives the shriek of a kid watching their favorite trick.

Take A Look Indeed (Library)

[graphomaniac]

Lev/Lyubov looks at Yellow for a long moment; they aren't as good at raising just one eyebrow as their husband, so they just raise both. Then they say, "nu, like, can'st thou narrow it down a little? I'm like, a lot of things."

They sound taken aback rather than hostile — it's the question rather than Yellow's appearance that startled them. The tentacles faze them not at all.

They're out of the habit of concentrating, of deliberately watching how people's stories tangle and ensnare passers-by, of watching the flow of immaterial forces. But even so, they're also picking up ... something about Yellow. Privately, they figure that Yellow might be more normal, or at least more like what they're used to, than almost everyone else on the island. But beyond that, they can't really tell

Their expression softens; they brush aside their fringe, so Yellow can get a better look at the three star-shaped ocelli on their forehead. The ocelli glow lilac, brighter than their eyes.

Re: Take A Look Indeed (Library)

[howtheyshine]

He stares openly, arrested by the color and the brightness.

"They're beautiful. What are they?"

[graphomaniac]

Lev/Lyubov, despite themself, blushes and ducks their head.

"Ocelli," they say. "Nu, like, jellyfish and sea slugs have? I see not through them, but they detect light. My bridegroom's are harder to hide, but some of both my family and his have not none."

They pause, and cock their head to one side.

"So like, thou'rt not no shoggah, then? Since like, else thou would'st know what they are. Thou merely ..." they pause again, and study Yellow carefully. "I would've sworn, feh, if swearing were permitted, that thou'rt not unlike a shoggah."

[howtheyshine]

The word near the end plucks at Yellow's mind like a half-remembered song.

"I- I don't know. I'm a piece of something that was called the King in Yellow. He was a god. I don't really... know what that makes me."

But also- "What's the difference between a fish and a jellyfish?"

Wildcard - Into the woods

[hereticofthewilds]

The next time Yellow ventures into the woods, he will have the nagging sensation that he's being watched. It isn't a malicious feeling, but eyes are trained on him from the shadows. Big curious eyes.

Re: Wildcard - Into the woods

[howtheyshine]

It takes him a little bit to hone in on where the feeling comes from, and when he does, he points.

"I know you're there."

[hereticofthewilds]

The eyes blink, and then a woman emerges from the shadow as if walking out of a hole in the tree that isn't truly there. The woman has canary-yellow hair that's tangled up with brambles and leaves. Her dress is so dirty and grass strained it's hard to know what color it began as. Even in the cold, she isn't wearing shoes. She smiles brightly.

"Hello. I'm Elsie."

thoughts on forward-dating to late Feb?

[howtheyshine]

He's immediately intrigued. She feels very distant from human, in the same way he does--a creature of the same shape and different substance.

"I'm- I'm Yellow. Why don't you have shoes?"

monster about town

[yournewsidekick]

A loud, delighted gasp sounds from a couple yards away.

"Whoaaaaaa. Look at you!" says the teenager with bright pink hair who's got both hands clasped to her chin, starry-eyed. "Loving this. Love the tentacles and tusks combo. You know, you'd think it'd be overkill, but it's giving a real mad-scientist's-horrifying-creation-that-just-escaped-the-lab vibe. Mind if I try it on?"

And with a pomf of pink sparks, now there's a second boar-monster standing right next to Yellow.

YASSSS

[howtheyshine]

He gives a deep squeal of surprise and a kind of psychic yelp, but then he's busy being shocked.

Holy wow. That was cool. He doesn't have sparks or anything when he shifts.

[ How did you do that? Was it magic or can you change on your own? Does it always sparkle? ]

[yournewsidekick]

"Uhh... 'cause I'm Nimona, 'cause I'm Nimona, and yup! Also 'cause I'm Nimona."

She grins. In a burst of artistic license, she gave herself extremely pointy teeth to go along with the tusks.

"Nice to meetcha. You look new! How long you been around?"

Uhhh cw body horror transformation

[howtheyshine]

Yellow's shift is-- we'll, it's beautiful in its own way, like the boar is unraveling into sinew and skin, spooling into a new shape from a thousand-thousand threads of multicolor tissue.

Average human bystanders might take slight SAN damage.

But at the end of it he's in his human guise, Gwen in his arms. He's still wide-eyed with fascination and delight. "I'm Yellow. This is Gwen, if you haven't met."

Gwen has not taken SAN damage. Gwen, it seems, is impervious to Yellow's weirdness. She just babbles cheerfully and reaches one hand toward Nimona.

He remembers himself and hastily answers her question. "Uh, a few months."