CONTACT | Call me, maybe

[intercalaryninja]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, HAZYREFLECTION FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 011.04.151.01 *** HAZYREFLECTION has joined 011.04.151.01 <HAZYREFLECTION> Only contact me if it is necessary. <HAZYREFLECTION> Report to me immediately if it's regarding Reira-dono. <HAZYREFLECTION> I will be checking this nightly when possible.

Comments

it's fine!

[fingersandteeth]

[Steven would normally offer a hand to shake, but in these circumstances, he'll just bow in return.]

It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Tsukikage-san.

[He seems both completely sincere and utterly unphased by the slime's appearance.]

[intercalaryninja]

[Already Tsukikage likes this guy. Kind and composed. Admittedly, a rare quality in Ryslig considering all the shenanigans that go on.]

So, have you settled in? Gotten a room? Familiarised yourself with the layout. Forgive me for not greeting you with your arrival. I have been... incredibly scatterbrained as of late. Anything the young master would have told me about you has mostly gone out the window.

[One of the banes of being a slime...]

[fingersandteeth]

I have. I found an empty one with a skylight, which will do me nicely. [He... really needs that skylight. He's got issues about being in windowless places underground with no natural lighting.]

And it's-- fine. I was wondering, should I try to help contribute to the household's food supplies? I know I haven't changed yet, but there's no reason not to pay it forward.

[Yes. He did just offer that.]

[intercalaryninja]

I'm glad to hear you're settled.

[It takes a moment for what the man is saying to sink in. The first thing that comes to Tsukikage's head is 'what kind of person has Reira-dono brought home this time?' However, any concern for his charge's well-being isn't shown. Tsukikage is one to be accepting and the whole reason he set up the hill house was so any kind of person could settle here and feel some sense of security. Still...]

You need not burden yourself with such thing. [Tsukikage says, waving a goopy hand] If the children need help, it may be good to have a little extra, but I haven't been struggling much. It's alright, sir.

[He's a single dad juggling two/three jobs. He'll accept help but honestly he doesn't need it.]

I'm surprised you're so calm about this.

[fingersandteeth]

I must confess, [Steven says, quietly,], that all of this is... not entirely new to me. The whole being taken somewhere else and my body being changed thing. So when I realized that it was happening to me again, with my body being reset first... I got most of my freaking out over with then.

[At some point he'll have someone he trusts enough here to... go on the kind of rambling rant he needs to, just to drain the tension, but until then he can keep outwardly calm about this. In a very real way he needs to.

Steven's a big fan of Fake It 'Til You Make It.]

Honestly, the place I was taken before allowed me much less freedom of movement than I have here.

[intercalaryninja]

[Tsukikage raises his eyeball in place of his brow at the revelation. Then, the pupil turns into a crescent-shaped frown and he nods. He can imagine the sort of anxiety going through the man.]

You have my sympathies. I can only hope this experience will be better than the last, despite what happens. If there is anything I can do to make your time easier, please don't hesitate to ask.

[He bows. It's more or less this thing, to serve. And even though they've just met, Steven's no different.]

cw: cannibalism mention; cw: the most dangerous game

[fingersandteeth]

It's already better than the last, Tsukikage-san. I get to go outside in the fresh air and nobody's forcing me to hurt my fellow captives. And... if I'm to be scrupulously honest? I've never eaten a human being before, but my best friend back home was forced into being an obligate cannibal by the same manner of creature who changed me before and we ended up having to find some kind of other sentient food source for him.

So, uh, when I offered to help out with the food supply, it's really not anything I haven't done before. Just-- with two other people and armed with rifles. And against hobgoblins as oppose to humans.

[intercalaryninja]

I see. Well, I'm glad that it is the case. It troubles me that some things ring the same here as they do where you're from, but I suppose we cannot change that.

Do not worry about food. Hunt if you wish to hunt. I try not take too much but I have a small store of human parts so the children don't need to kill all the time. You are welcome to it.

[fingersandteeth]

Thank you. If I change before I find somewhere else and I turn out to be a meat-eater, I surely will.

I'm a passable plain cook these days, so perhaps I can help in other ways with the children's meals when it is that time of the month? I can't think human and hobgoblin are much different to cook. That is, if any of the meat you have set aside is already butchered as I'm afraid I was never the one of our hunting party to handle that task.

[intercalaryninja]

I also keep the blood, if it helps.

[Tsukikage, please.]

Cooking is fine. The people here are a hungry bunch. Sometimes i feel they'll eat anything.

........I've butchered the meat. I can't stand over-extended suffering. [It makes it awkward when he's an arachne, who only gets fed properly by the drawn-out nature of a kill. Thankfully, slime feedings are surprisingly quick when you know what to do.]

[fingersandteeth]

It might. We'll see what I turn into.

And-- that's more than fine. The man who taught me to hunt couldn't either. As far as I can tell, it's just... good hunting ethics.

[intercalaryninja]

And yet some people can't even follow that here... [Tsukikage mutters under his breath.]

Anyway... Food is fine. But thank you for the offer. Your kindness is appreciated. [Some days he's tired... It's hard parenting on his own.]

[fingersandteeth]

[Steven doesn't say that's because extending suffering could on occasion be quite enjoyable--there's a certain way he wants to project himself and that means playing at being a real boy.]

I'm glad to help.