Jungle Jam

[Liam Gelt]

Liam nods. "Yeah, I used to have quite a few rodents running around and up and down back when I was bigger." Back There. "I never could understand what they were saying, but they always had a lot to say." He thinks of the chittering Ratoskrs in his Hollow, their constant bickering like a pleasant white noise in the rare occasion he stayed there overnight.

Liam looks genuinely surprised at Sonnie's offer to teach him. "Really? Wow, thanks! That really means a lot. I've been wanting to expand my Contract knowledge more." So much of what he knew was Stone and Spring magic. The way he saw it, the more knowledge he had then the more Lost he could help.

He checks Sonnie's reaction, wondering if he'd offended her in some way. "Now, don't get me wrong, I'm really grateful for your offer to teach me Fangs and Talons, but I didn't want to show you the Hollow as part of an exchange thing. It's..." He gathers his thoughts for a moment. She was right to be confused; Rhodes and John had been a bit of an obligation, since they were Sovereigns. But Sonnie... "I guess you just seem trustworthy, Sonnie. You're honest, you're loyal, you care about the other Springs and even the rest of the Freehold. You're so giving of yourself and your abilities. And I want to give back." He'd never really worried about anyone here hurting Diana or exploiting his Hollow, but his fellow Springs least of all. "There was another reason, I suppose. You know how I mentioned adding an Archive to the Spring Tavern? I've been thinking about just finding a door linking the Hollows together, for easy access. And before I did that, I thought you'd like to see her for yourself." He pauses briefly, realizing he might be confusing the Monkey. "The Archive I mean! Her name's Diana, and she's really sweet." He looks down at the Beast earnestly. He wouldn't push anything, he was her host after all.

[Sonnie Wu]

That was a lot to take in. Rats. Contracts. Compliments. Hollows. Archives. Dianas.

Sonnie listened. She blinked. Then she shrugged.

"Uh, okay. Cool?" Liam seemed to really want to show off his hidey-hole in the Hedge, so why not? It's not like he was trying to get into hers. "So how do we get there?"

[Liam Gelt]

Liam gives an honest grin. ​"Same way you get anywhere? Through the front door. He walks over to the closet door and runs a hand over the frame, giving it a little bit of Glamorous love. There's a brief sound of foliage clearing of its own volition from behind the door, and then Liam opens it to reveal a forest glade populated by a single, large tree and surrounded by taller trees and the muted sounds of chattering wildlife.

"Follow me..." The Giant stretches a hand out to indicate the path forward as he steps into the Hedge and out of the Monkey's way. The path to Liam's treehouse already beginning to show signs of his little watch beasts, the Ratoskrs, floating down from the glade's edge to survey friend or foe.

[Sonnie Wu]

Sonnie peered through the portal with a mixture of curiosity and wariness. It was the Hedge, after all. Things got weird there.

And dangerous.

It was a Hollow, however, so the risk was reduced. After a moment, she stepped through to the other side. Eyes scanned around while ears and nose also took in sensory data.

The rat-things had her attention pretty quickly. "Friends of yours?"

[Liam Gelt]

Liam crosses into the glade, looking at the critters. "Yep, they help distract folks who try to sneak in uninvited. They make one heck of an alarm system too. But they know that I'm friendly, and can usually tell who's friendly to me." ​And, true to his word, as Sonnie continues to follow Liam into the Hollow she can see the Ratoskrs (some strange hybrid of flying squirrel and gecko) regard her with no hostility. Some of them even ignore her completely, content to sniff around or play fight as creatures will when they're comfortable.

Liam leads Sonnie into a wide space formed out of the trunk of this massive tree. Inside the hollow cavity was a hammock hung at a comfortable height for Liam (and possibly a good climber) , a stump for a loveseat, and a battery-powered lamp with some notebooks beside it. At the end of the chamber was a humanoid shape tethered to the bark as if having grown out of it. Liam knocks gently on the inside wall of his treehouse. "Hey, Diana. We've got guests again. It's Claviger Sonnie." The dryad opens her eyes, willowy hair swayingly in an unseeing breeze as she looks at Sonnie with a pleasantly curious expression. "Greetings, Claviger Sonnie. It's such a pleasure to meet you in person. The Shepherd has told me much about you."

[Sonnie Wu]

"OOOoooOOOoooOOO!" Sonja marveled, studying the rodent hedgebeasts curiously. As they walked past, she gave one a friendly wave.

"HAMMOCK!" She shouted excitedly, spying the sleeping device. Hammocks were cool. However, now was not the time for a nap. Plus, jumping in the hammock might be considered rude or something. Guests needed to behave, she supposed.

Next was... a talking tree? "Woooooow!" The Monkey edged closer to the sentient Archive, "Uh, hi! Nice to meet you, Diana! I'm Sonn-- wait, you already know that." She blinked in surprise. "He has? All good things, right?"

[Liam Gelt]

As Sonnie waves at the critters, a pair of them look back and flit their tails back and forth. A way of saying 'hello'? But, true to Liam's word, they gave Sonnie a wide berth and allowed her to cross into the Haven unmolested.

Liam looks up at the hammock, not too surprised at the Monkey's excitement. "Pretty cool right? It helps me feel a bit more biggish when I need to take time and relax. I'm nowhere near the climber you are, but I'm pretty decent." It helped he knew where to place the handholds in the bark, because he'd once had legs about that size. "You're more than welcome to try it out if you like. I know you're housetrained." Liam pauses briefly, hoping Sonnie would realize the Giant was joking.

Diana nods to Sonnie, a childlike smile masked in willowy hair. "Oh yes! You are the one who slays Briarwolves and eats pizza and sometimes drinks too much. The Shepherd thinks you are a valuable member of the Spring Court." "Okay now, let's not oversell it." Liam chuckles, a bit of embarrassment visible through his barkskin. "She's a dryad; I've had her since I first came back from...Back There." Arcadia was hard to talk about, even for him. "She grew here after the Hollow was formed, and now she helps me with Goblin Fruit and HedgeBeast knowledge." He looks at the dryad with an almost parental pride. "Even Rhodes and John were impressed!"

Diana looks over Sonnie's tail, curious eyes taking in every inch of fur and fabric. "There are many climbers like yourself in the Hedge, Claviger Sonnie. Tell me, are you more of an herbivore or a carnivore?"

[Sonnie Wu]

Sonnie blushed and waved away the compliments (though she'd have been fine hearing more), "Whaaaaaat? Aw, shucks! I didn't do anything that awesome! I mean, I have done those things... and they were awesome... um... okay, I guess that's all accurate." The Beast wasn't arrogant, but she wasn't quite humble, either. She tried, at least.

Her head tilted to one side, a curious expression crossing her face, "Wait, you know about the Briarwolves?" Did she mentioned that incident? She couldn't remember, but she didn't talk about it much.

Eyes blinked at Liam, then at Diana, "Dryad..." She'd heard that word somewhere. Some sort of tree monster? This one seemed nice, though.

Sonnie didn't press about the Back There part. She knew that was a no-no.

"Monkeys are omnivores, technically, but we mostly eat fruit." She nodded. Simians were a topic she knew well. The Steepscrambler blinked in surprise, looking at the Archive, "Oh! Sorry! Does that offend you? Is eating fruit like eating your babies?" Leave it to Sonnie's sense of logic to come up with that odd conclusion.

[Liam Gelt]

Liam looks concerned. "Sera mentioned the wolves I think. Back in Funderland several months ago? I'm sorry if it was confidential." He was sure Sera wouldn't have overshared; unlike the Giant, the Spring Monarch seemed to have a grasp on sensitive topics. But maybe it was sensitive for Sonnie?

Diana chuckles like a child who's heard the funniest joke. "Oh no! No more than you eating a monkey would be cannibalism." She seems to find the whole idea hilarious. Liam cracks a smile, but then looks at Sonnie with mild confusion. "So, how exactly does that work? Being a Beast, I mean. I know I have trouble focusing and occasionally I want to break things...or people...but the most animal thing I've seen you do is climb. I knew a guy back in Portland who had jackrabbit legs and big ears; he was mostly itching for fights."

[Sonnie Wu]

"Oh, yeah, that makes sense, I guess." Seraphina did tend to brag about Sonnie's combat skills. More than the Monkey herself did, anyway. "Anyways, yeah, I beat a Briarwolf to death with a stick once." That was pretty awesome.

"Oh, I see," she said in answer to the subject of cannibalism. "Heh heh. Chilled monkey brains, Dr. Jones," the Beast paraphrased from the movie.

She blinked in surprise at Liam's question. No one had ever asked her anything like that before. Most other kiths weren't even interested in what made Beasts tick. "Um, well... I guess it depends on the animal. Predators do tend to be more... aggressive, but there are exceptions. Like your bunny friend. Rabbits can be downright vicious, actually." Sonnie shrugged, "Mostly we... live in the moment. And we don't always observe social rules. Like, I'll forget that something is considered rude or inappropriate, and people will get made at me, and I'll not understand why."

She mused on an example for a moment, "When I... returned. It took a week or so before I could be convinced to start wearing clothes in public again."