exsiliumlogs | the compass shifted [OPEN]

Entry tags:

the compass shifted [OPEN]

Date & Time: 1/24-1/30
Location: wilderness
Characters: Simmaeri the big honkin' dino-thing and you!!
Summary: WELCOME TO MAHOU JURASSIC PARK
Warnings: No clue, just a giant creature atm

Simmaeri took slow and careful turns then. Lumbering, methodical steps from massive, heavy legs made the closest scenery quiver. The feeling of stony, withered ground was slow in processing, much slower in understanding; it was such an unusual addition to the mix of already unusual things bombarding her senses. She could see no open expanses of white or gray, smell no fresh ice or snow, and hear only whispers of wind, gusting more like little gasps, choking on the chemicals mixed into the air itself. It stung her nostrils, made her eyes itch unpleasantly.

This was what her brothers and sisters had sought and embraced? It made no sense. It was as empty as it was unkind to her in that moment, and startled creatures quickly fled before she had chance to turn her head and regard them. Those, at least, would have been exciting; she did not know any creatures other than herself; seeing something new would, perhaps, make up for this startling change.

Either way, she lifted her head back up (not too high; the stinging seemed worse higher up) and let out another long, low sound, rumbling up from her neck and out through a snapping of her jaws. It filled the air and soon passed, and she waited well after the echo for a reply.

Was she really so far away that none could hear her back in the north? The terrain had changed so suddenly...what odd, foreign magic had done this?

Am I lost now? How strange this is.

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Against all better judgement (as much of that as a seven year old might have), Caesar the child had finally decided it was time to try and find home on his own. Everyone kept telling him he couldn't do that. He also knew there were monsters out here, having run into one before in the city, but there had been monsters outside of towns where he was from just the same. He had a knife. That ought to do.

What had finally driven him to make the attempt was hearing they were rounding up the children to keep an eye on them and, well, that seemed like it really was kidnapping, against all the assurances he had been given otherwise. So he had taken what little camping supplies he could carry with him, items thankfully left in his room, unknown to him, by his older self, and took off as fast as he could. They weren't his parents or brother or any of the maids or tutors from home, they couldn't tell him what to do, nor could they stop him.

Not that anyone had to stop him in the end, when he managed to stop himself. He'd gone to sleep upon reaching this far out and it wasn't until the ground shook that he woke again, slowly and stiffly, as sleeping outdoors had not been something that teenage Caesar had been expecting. Over the night, his timeline had done a hop back to where it should be, and now he wasn't sure where he was and there was something that sounded huge rumbling far overhead.

"What? When did...?"

He sat up, bright red hair wildly messy from sleeping on the ground, and cast about in a startled fashion, trying to find the source of the noise. It didn't take long.

Something that size was hard to miss.

And the sight of it had him up in a split-second and darting across the ground out of Simmaeri's path to find cover!

The next bellow dissipated in the dull air. Once the chilled mist that had escaped in her breath cleared, she blinked the area around her clear once more, a second blink to keep the oncoming itch at bay. She found, soon enough, that exhaling that frosty air within her outward around her face, it had a nice, cleansing effect. She would use it often, then...until she could find either the safe north or...or what it was she had thought to seek by leaving in the first place.

Large as she was, she needed very few steps to cover a great deal of ground. Her head dipped down, where what scarce trees seemed to give the air a much more tolerable mixture, and nearly missed the tiny, racing shape in her path. It slowed her next step to a sliding stop, shifting loose stones and putting an end to a dead tree's hold.

Another, higher sound escaped, causing a rumble in the air.

What is this? she wondered, turning her head slow to find it again. What moves here?

Something as large as she is isn't difficult to see from sufficient altitude. Collette doesn't usually get as far as the wilderness on her own. Too many chances of things going haywire, though she still went regardless of the danger.

This, however, bore further investigation. She didn't know what this creature was doing, perplexed that it looked much more like a dinosaur than a mutant. Was it calling out? Collette couldn't even be sure that she was hearing a vocalization, or that if she was, it originated from the creature she was circling around from high above the earth.

Letting out an eagle's cry, she wondered how close she dare get. She'd need to demorph soon. Was this thing an herbivore? It sort of looked like an apatosaurus. Those only ate leaves, didn't they?

It was not a sound Simmaeri expected in reply. Piercing, high...small. Stranger and stranger, this whole place.

Her head began to turn, lifting up and searching for a source of the sound. It rang from a height not far from her own, hadn't it? But where––

Something sailed into her line of vision as her head tilted. What was it? What could possibly be so small and so far up? In the north, there were no flying things. Only Gerr.

Perhaps this strange trek would be worthwhile after all.

Collette banked away, keeping one eye on her large friend as she rode her thermal in a spiral further away. She'd garnered it's attention, but what to do now that she had it?

< I wish I knew what you were saying. > Her Thought Speak projected toward the beast, no expectations of any kind of recognition. Instead she watched for signs of startlement, curious as always how a given animal would react to being addressed by foreign sounds in their mind.

Ah!

Simmaeri's jaws clicked with a quick open-and-close, not expecting that sort of response. It was, in a way, similar to the way her own kind interacted, though...empty in that sense. There was no magic to these words, simply words themselves. Stranger, stranger, stranger...

As for response, it was the only way she knew of now: Blending will and thought and sound, creating a heavy, imposing force – big enough for a Gerr, but perhaps too big for a girl on the wing. Yet what was a girl? What was a bird? Simmaeri didn't know, but she certainly impressed the interest to know.

Who is it who speaks to me? Is it you? What are you?

Damn. Had it seen him?

Caesar managed to get out of the open, though the best he could do as far as cover went was one of the trees, with bare branches and little else around it out here. At best he was partly concealed from sight. His clothes wasn't as bright as his hair, but they still had much more color than anything else around them out here.

Maybe it hadn't...

Maybe it would just go on or couldn't see color. Maybe it stopped watching once he stopped moving.

He could only hope, since he wasn't about to look out back around the tree just yet, but he was probably wrong. It would be how his luck was going today to be wrong, at least.

With... whatever had been going on back in the city, with all the children and things, ctsv figured it was high time he got out and did some solo exploring while things settled down. So he packed a few belongings, stole a few crumbs of food off his roommates, hoping they wouldn't mind, and booked it out. Knowing that he wouldn't get far on foot, he'd started stalking the scarce wildlife in order to hitch rides. And, of course, wildlife tended to eventually return to wilderness.

Which, to be honest, was not terribly interesting. Not until the ground started shaking.

Curious as to the reason why, ctsv immediately sought higher ground for a better view. Higher ground meant climbing a tree, shooting up it like a little insect, scrabbling in the peeling bark for purchase. The reason soon became clear to him in the huge, unknowable form of Simmaeri.

Hmm. ctsv narrowed his eyes.

He slid down the tree and went on the move again, following the heavy, earth-shaking footsteps. It took him a long time to catch up. It took him even longer -- hours, really, with all the falling-off and backtracking and so on and so forth -- to scale his way up Simmaeri's tail, up her back, and finally start the path up her neck....

If it's surprise or something else that causes Collette to take a sharp fall as she flew, she doesn't entirely know. Her wings fought for altitude before she changed tactics, tucking them close in to her body and shooting down toward the ragged treeline.

< Woah! > An answer hadn't been on her plate of expectations. Far from it!

< I'm Collette, and I'm -- an eagle right now. Who and what are you? >

Extending her talons for the branches of a thinly leafed tree, Collette backwinged herself into a semblance of a safe landing.

Simmaeri's head moved slow, tilted to give an eye to the ground she passed over. A bit of mist escaped as she snorted and inhaled again, seeking out some telltale sight or smell. With how different the air was, it seemed almost futile, but she was certain she was not unwell; something had moved.

Her jaws made a clicking sound as they quivered open and closed, now moving parallel to the ground. There was a soft rumble from her throat, tipped off with a faint kind of whine in the next breath. Where is it? What was it? Something so small...couldn't be real, could it?

Eye-to-(not actual)eye with the tree Caesar had chosen to hide behind, Simmaeri exhaled frost and mist again, glazing the tree and her own face, blinking it away, a bit more refreshed for it, making a strangely satisfied HMMMMH through her nose.

It was frightening to watch the little shape tumble. Simmaeri made a sound, a kind of honk through her nose that tapered into a rumbling. Too fast to follow, she turned her head and tilted it to seek out where the creature had fallen, landed, or vanished to. It still speaks! It has to be alive.

She saw the rattling of a tree below and began to veer her head that way, intent on a very close look at this thing. So tiny! How can something alive be so small? And – her eye had descended to be level with those branches – and such a strange amalgamation of shapes. The legs were so thin, and there were only two...what is that texture about it? It was shifty, never still. How startling! For how empty the words in her head sounded, it seemed the shape was willing to fill in with such a peculiar body to see.

Her own reply was mixed in with a rumble and a hum from her throat. You are so little, little Collette...How can that be? Your words are so small and so are you. Why?

ctsv was far too small to register at all, even if those scrambling hands and feet and prodding little sword could pierce such a thick hide. Simmaeri was very much unaware of her hitchhiker, never thinking it a possibility. There was nothing but her kind in her small scope of the world; nothing was smaller or bigger than them, than she. But they would not reply, and it was very frightening. Her adventure had taken such a sharp and sudden shift without her say-so...it felt like justification for all the disapproval she'd received.

Yet the things she had encountered were far more enticing than hanging her head and humbly traveling home. There were small things here! And they spoke! It was very different from herself, but not so different as to be lost. That had been very exciting. Weren't there more? They had left...

She let out another low bellow and then snorted, expelling a frosty mist that blew back against her face. It was a handy way to rinse out her nose, her eyes, free of the chemical burn in the air. She hoped it wouldn't last long, that murky air.

But– wait.

She blinked her vision clear again. For a moment she had thought a speck of something at the corner of her eye, but...

"Whh--"

The snorting disturbed ctsv's footing, caused him to slip until he was hanging right between Simmaeri's eyes, clinging on only by the folds in her hide. One of his swords slipped and he shrieked (as if that would make it stay), letting go with one hand to grab it and, in the same motion, swing it back up and into his belt to stay. Then he worked on getting a firm grip with both hands again.

Only when that was done did he try to catch the creature's attention again.

"Hey! Why are you so big?" he screamed, at the top of his tiny lungs.

It was almost too small to hear. Had the little thing not scrambled up to her face, close to her eyes and ears, Simmaeri would have never noticed the little outcry. With the mists dashed away bit a weak wind already, it couldn't have been another whistle in the air.

She let out a kind of rumbling whine which made the skin around her nostrils quiver.

What is this? she asked aloud, a mix of sound and thought she cast out around her. And, as she wondered, her head began to turn again and tilt, scanning the air, the ground. Another little creature?

Was that... a thought? Or just speech? How did she do that? Was that actual noise? ctsv continued to swing about as he pondered these things, flinching against her breath and the rippling of her skin.

It was like she'd projected the question into his mind, he decided.

"I don't know how you did that!" he shouted, as she began to swing her head. "But I don't like it!"

With a mighty effort, he managed to scramble back up higher onto her head. He made straight for her left eye and tapped on her eyelid. Then immediately drew back, because if she blinked, that might just be the end of him.

He was just a speck, barely seen, not felt at all. Simmaeri's eye rolled up, pupil dilating to catch and focus on a something just barely at the corner of vision. There? Was that it?

What is this that speaks to me? she asked once more, her mouth making a clicking sound as she opened and closed it quickly. I see no creatures. Is this new magic, too?

Okay, okay, it had seen him. Caesar flinched against the cold mist that covered the tree; he felt the chill through his clothes and against the side of his face. Of course, he had known she was there before she had done that, unable to ignore a presence so massive, so close.

He raised a hand to wipe to rub his face and turned, as slowly as he could, to look out over his shoulder, out from behind the tree. Looking at Simmaeri again, it was difficult not to seize up in shock just at how massive she was. Impossibly massive.

Bigger than any dragon he'd seen, any giant, any, well, anything.

"...uh," was the best he could muster up at that time. The chance that this thing was going to eat him as he sat there staring was still weighing on his mind here! Maybe he should run again? Although, wouldn't it have attacked already?

She's never considered an eagle to be small in comparison to the other birds of the sky. Relative to other animals, yes, but right now, she wasn't even sure she had a scale of relative size.

What was talking to her was a giantic dinosaur. Even on a scale of weird to improbable, this ranked somwhere off in out of this world territory.

She laughs, more of an emotional sense branching out as wordless communication. Tone is more feeling and implication than actual tone, stripped of true vocals.

< I'm as big as I'm supposed to be! I look small next to you, sure, but this is the right size for an eagle. >

Adjusting her wings, she checked her mental clock. Soon she needed to demorph, especially if she was going to talk -- or run -- from this gigantic question box.

< Your words are seriously big. Who are you? >

"It's not magic! What you're doing is magic!"

ctsv carefully leans over the edge of her eyelid -- avoiding any blinks -- and waves straight into the enormous black hole of her pupil.

"I'm right here."

She'd never known anything but herself, her kind...all the same size, though varied in mood or sound. There was never any danger, and so fear was not part of her reaction in seeing the tiny little creature emerge. Surprise, most definitely; her pupil dilated to focus sharply on it. It was a completely alien thing.

What is this? The question was wrapped up in a sense of confusion, all accented by a gurgling rumble in her throat.

How small, how strange...

Big?

Simmaeri seldom thought anything of herself big. But the comparison wasn't out-of-place, obviously; but, no...she wasn't big, was she? This Colette-thing was small. As were those...things it had retreated to. Tree, branch, bark...Simmaeri hadn't discovered the words yet.

I am Simmaeri, she replied, another throaty rumble accenting underneath. I have never seen something so small. Are there many of you? How?

It was almost impossible to register, but there it was, timed out with the shout. Simmaeri was astounded, making a sound that made it obvious.

It is too small! she exclaimed. This creature speaking to me is so small. How? Why are you so small?

ctsv stares angrily into Simmaeri's eyeball.

"Why are you so big?" he shoots back. "I was made like this. Everyone from my world was made like this."

< Not many eagles, no, but what I usually am? This world has a whole lot of people. >

Collette was surprised she recognized the name. Simmaeri, the one asking after words, the one who liked her singing?

Simmaeri was a dinosaur?!

< Here, I can show you what I'm talking about. Please don't step on me! >

She flew down from her perch, landing on the ground with a hop and minimal fuss. Collette wondered if it was better to warn for what was about to happen. In the end, she gave no warning, starting the demorphing that forced her eagle body to extend and contort at impossible angles, becoming a grotesquery that gained human features in fits and starts.

All of a minute passes before she was a human girl, sitting in the dust and sneezing. "Sorry, I can only talk like this right now. Can you even hear me, Sim?"

Speech through thought wasn't something that made him jump in surprise anymore, but what he heard now was nowhere near the voice he was used to having pestering him from time to time. With no one else around, Caesar could only conclude it had been this thing, this thing staring at him with that huge eye.

Caesar stared back, still unsettled by her size. He couldn't get over her size. Something this size being capable of speaking? Well, better than it being stupid and hungry, he had to admit.

"I'm... pretty normal-sized, actually," he finally managed to get some real words out, "You're just way too big!"

Did he need to raise his voice to be heard? He wasn't sure, so he went ahead and did that anyway.

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the compass shifted [OPEN]

i'm tagging a dinosaur and no one can stop me

i'm tagging a teenager because dinosaurs do what they want!!

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dinosaurs just gotta dinosaur

01/28

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