Gulp [Rhea]

[High's .Valentine.]

“You must be kidding me…”

Maybe poking at the dot on the screen would make it disappear. A hand clad in fingerless gloves reached forward and tapped the screen with a clean fingernail. Tap, tap, tap. The blinking dot continued to edge along, closer and closer towards the shadow of a gummi ship on the radar screen. The same hand reached back up and buried themselves in a head of spiked copper hair. Just what the heck is that? Puzzled green eyes glanced over the rest of the colorful wires and buttons adorning the gummi ship dashboard. And just what the heck is he going to do with the rest of these things?

Groaning, the lean figure in the captain’s chair leaned his head back, releasing his hands from the wheel, which was a big mistake. The ship started dipping, without the pale hands controlling them. Not that he was doing such a good job in the first place. Panicking the man slammed his hand back on the wheel and accidentally slammed accelerator at the same time. After several seconds of cussing and terror, the gummi ship was once again plodding along, trembling slightly from time to time but far less hectic. Inside the ship, the man clung to the wheels as if his life depended on it. Well, his life DID depend on it.

Breathing slightly, Cooper Nathans realized he was a wad of tense muscles. No one had ever seen Cooper drive a gummi ship before. Always, he hitched himself a ride, but never had anyone seen his hands rest on the wheels. The copper hair man never did tell anyone just why he avoided getting his own gummi ship, as convenient as it was since he’s always going solo. But the man insists on using others to drive him.

And this was why. Cooper glanced at the buttons again. The sight of them made the usually carefree man nervous. His hands on the wheel quivered slightly again. Cooper had no problems joking about his inability to navigate and drive. Don’t forget that the man was just a dunce with any kind of machinery. But when his life was put on expense of the joke, nothing seemed so funny anymore. Damn those heartless people for giving him a gummi ship with no driver.

Glancing out of the window, he gulped again, feeling his hands sweating under those gloves. If not for the fact that he didn’t want to experience another one of that turbulence earlier, he could have taken those gloves off without a second though. He didn’t even dare wiggle his thumb right now.

And that bleep on the screen…it gave him the trembles. Leaning onto the wheel, Cooper squinted, trying to see beyond all the silent darkness of the Sea of Stars. Nothing…

“Should be a world…” Cooper’s green eyes darted to the bleep and then back in front of him. Still nothing. Yet the blinking dot was getting closer. Faster. “Blasted dot,” Cooper growled, cursing his ill luck. Curse it, curse it…

Something appeared directly in front of him…something small and dark, darker than the rest of the black skies. Another glance at the radar confirmed it. Whatever that thing was, it was approaching fast. So fast Cooper didn’t quite remember that swerving away was the best thing to do right now. Not that it would matter.

When he saw what it was, Cooper couldn’t help but let out a strangled laugh. This was just so ridiculous. The next moment, he was swallowed up by the one and only ‘living’ world of the KH universe.

[/blockquote]

[Rhea]

Hotaru loved adventures. Sometimes they took place in her daydreams, and other times she ventured to actually find one. On this lovely day Hotaru had felt the need to go somewhere she’d never been before – the best kind of adventure! She wanted to explore somewhere new, and once she was in this mindset there was no stopping her.

She had never bothered with a ship of some sort to ferry her between worlds; what was the fun of that? Besides, since she could simply teleport, why waste the effort on another method? Sure, the spell she used to teleport could drain a little energy, but trying to pilot a ship would be hundreds of times worse, not to mention slow. So when she felt like going somewhere new, she had no way of knowing just where she’d end up. That’s what made it exciting!

Her eyes had been closed, and while teleporting the only direction she gave the spell was to take her to a world – any world. How could she have guessed she would end up here?

Hotaru’s eyes opened and there wasn’t much to do except be...shocked. She was in a damp, strangely warm place. It was filled with water, and there were wrecked ships and other pieces of destroyed objects everywhere. It was a...cave of some sort, but Hotaru didn’t see an exit. Luckily, she’d ended up on something sturdy, and not the water. She swallowed, and erased the fear from her eyes. Who was she kidding – Hotaru wasn’t afraid of caves or the dark! This was an adventure, wasn’t it?

Her footsteps padded against the wet planks. She found herself extremely grateful she’d worn boots today – thinking of wearing her sandals made her shudder. Hotaru’s eyes searched for something that looked the least bit exciting, and they fell upon a tower of wood. At the top there was something shiny! She did not hesitate to run over and begin climbing the pile. Grime from the more rotted areas got on her hands and clothes, but it didn’t seem to phase her. Hotaru was determined to figure out what was on top of that pile.

“What’s this?” she wondered aloud. She stood at the top of the tower, clutching in her hand the object that held her attention. It was a shiny, bright pink...thing. It fit in her hand and had some weight to it, but Hotaru couldn’t put a name to the shape. She had no idea what it was – so she put it in her pocket for later examination. There was so much to do! She wanted to discover all the mysteries this place had!

From this higher vantage point, Hotaru could truly see everything in this area of the “cave.” There was one ship that seemed almost completely whole, but all the others were destroyed. Even from where she was, she didn’t see any way the ships could have gotten in. “How strange,” she thought aloud.

Then, she noticed something that she should have noticed immediately. A bright, colorful ship lay amongst the piles. “Whoa. What’s that?” Recklessly, she jumped halfway down the tower of broken wooden structures, then the rest of the way. Somehow, she avoided injury.

In her mind, Hotaru was on a quest – and her current task was to figure out what that shiny ship-thing was. It looked like a spaceship, the kind some used to travel between worlds – that she knew. But what exactly was it? And whom did it belong to? Was there someone inside, or had it been abandoned long ago? So many questions!

She had to wander through a maze of crashed sailboats and rotting wood, but eventually Hotaru found her way over. She spent some time circling it and admiring it, before she began to try to get inside. Hotaru poked it, kicked it, jabbed at it with a block of wood, but for the life of her could not find a way in. “Gah!” she said, and then sat down, cross-legged, beside it.

Hotaru then said, as though it understood her, “I’m not going anywhere until I know what you are!” She pouted her lower lip as a three-year-old would, and busied herself wiping the slime off her hands and arms.

[High's .Valentine.]

Right after he was engulfed by the strange ship eating world—which slightly resembled a whale, but Cooper wasn’t sure due to the dark outline against a dark background—the man was tossed around the small cockpit of the ship, much like a piece of cloth in a washing machine. Round and round he went, slamming into the window with his forehead, near cracking the thick protective windows with his equally thick head. An elbow jabbed the steering wheel, a knee was shoved at the gas pedal, and the ship proceeded to spin out of control, adding extra velocity to the already churning ship, caught in the action of a whale swallowing. Cooper threw up. Another violent swing threw him right into the window again, this time landing on buttons that didn’t needed any pushing except in an emergency. This time he cracked the window and nearly snapped his neck. Cooper fainted.

Down the esophagus the poor gummi ship went, right into the pit of its belly, the main component of this world. And there it floated, until it was washed upon a shallower end of its stomach, much like a ship wrecked upon sand. Except the sand here was quite squishy, and the temperamental sea was rather acidic. Several hours later, the door to the gummi ship popped open, and the disoriented man appeared at the entrance, bleeding profusely from his forehead, copper hair matted by blood.

Falling face forward, Cooper landed with a splash in the shallow pool of greenish liquid. It smelled salty. And tangy...not to mention fishy and putrid. It was also disgustingly warm, not at all pleasant feeling like a sun heated pool of water. Rather, it felt like someone had decided it would be too much trouble running off to a bathroom. Right then and there was OK.

And…Cooper lifted himself weakly with two trembling arms. It burns.

His face, his neck, anywhere exposed that he had been splashed with the strange green liquid burned. Stumbling back up, Cooper hissed, trying to brush excess residue off of his body. Not that it was much help since his hands were drenched in it too. Stumbling back onto land—which was quite squishy—Cooper tripped over his feet, still growling and hissing, before he collapsed on the disgustingly plush ground. It was wet and it was sticky. He felt like throwing up again.

An hour later, the man had woken up again, this time the skin that had touched the acidic fluid was starch red, looking more like a pitiful rash rather than a blush. Sighing, Cooper pulled himself back up once more, studied his surroundings and found an intact ship. There, he spent the night [or was it still day?] before waking up to the sound of speaking? Sitting up, the man examined his skin, which was no longer blemished with irritated redness, still splotchy here and there. One can only imagine what his face looked like. Reaching up, Cooper patted his forehead tenderly. The blood had crusted long ago, leaving a trail of thickened crimson along his cheeks. What luck he had. Swallowed by a flying whale? Cooper felt at laughing off the experience, dismissing it for a ludicrous story made up from the over imaginative mind. Yet the blood and the rash was all too real. It still itched and it still throbbed. Clutching his head, the man sighed. He didn’t even want to bother wondering if there were other people trapped in this world…and just how the hell was he suppose to get out of here? Did the whale act like any other world? You come in and get out the same way? The man leaned over and glanced up. Just as he had expected, roof of the…stomach. No night sky for Cooper to fly off to. Not that he wanted to go through another one of this ill fated experimental driving. From now on, he was only going to hitch rides.

Brushing off the blood, he stood up and peered towards the direction of the voice, which sounded distinctively feminine. Oh…a girl…? A cute one too. So there were other people in here. A native…? One can only wonder if whale stomachs breed people. And if they do, does it breed normal humans? This one apparently has never seen a gummi ship.

He watched from the sidelines, leaning lazily over the railing of the ship that was still partly intact, which wasn’t all too far from his gummi ship. Bemused green eyes, prey-like and full of intent, observed the girl intently as she kicked at his goddam gummi ship, then demanded an answer from it. Cooper chuckled at the sight. How cute~

“Gummi ship,” he called rather hoarsely. From the distance, he must have looked a fright, with matted hair, reddish face, and stained clothing. Ah well, nothing else he can do after getting swallowed by a whale. “That’s, my dear, is a gummi ship.”

[/blockquote]

[Rhea]

Hotaru, despite her actions, did not expect an answer from the ship. After all, it was an inanimate object. She was just playing a game; it wouldn’t have been long before she wandered away from her current object of interest. It’s easy to imagine her surprise at receiving a response, and a verbal one at that.

Like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar, Hotaru leapt to her feet with guilt on her face. “Eep!” she cried, surprised to say the least. For a moment she was flustered, how had it spoken to her? She realized how silly she was being when she heard a voice again – from behind her.

Spinning around on one foot, Hotaru looked for the source of the voice. On the ship she’d noticed not long before there was a man. He leaned on the railing of the mostly intact boat. “Oh!” she said rather loudly. “That’s right, I’ve heard that name before.” This was true; though she’d never seeked one for herself in various worlds she’d heard others speak of the Gummi Ships. Hotaru had simply forgot the name.

She smiled now, seemingly forgetting that she should be embarrassed. The man had probably seen her abuse to the already beat-up ship, since he’d replied to her demand. Hotaru liked to ignore things like that. Outgoing as usual, she felt bubbly and ready to meet this new person!

Rather than stay at this distance, Hotaru walked forward. There was no reason to be shouting! Unfortunately this direction lead her to step from the safety of the planks to the strange, squishy ground. Hotaru paused and made a face when she felt her foot sink slightly into the fleshy floor. What was that? Then she quickly scampered across it and leapt onto the boat, several meters away from the man.

“Hi!” she said brightly. “I’m Hotaru.”

Then she noticed the blood. The man’s hair – which from what she could tell was actually light brown – was darkened by blood, which had also dried on his face. Painful-looking splotches of red covered his exposed skin – his face and arms, mostly.

“Kami, what happened to you?” Now she was clearly shocked. Once again forgetting the concept of personal space, Hotaru closed the distance between them and reached out to this stranger’s face. She didn’t touch the rash or his head for fear of causing him pain, but let her hand hover near his face for a few seconds before pulling it away. “Are you alright?” At this distance she couldn’t help but notice that he didn’t smell pleasant in the least. He smelled sick and kind of fishy (although this whole place smelled like fish). It was at the moment she realized that the Gummi Ship was this man’s, and that somehow he had crashed in here (she still hadn’t seen an entrance of any sort).

“Oh, kami,” she muttered again. Hotaru might have noticed that this man was handsome, tall with a youthful face and green eyes that could be beautiful if not dulled by pain, but she was more focused on the blood which made her wonder the extent of his wound. Suddenly she remembered herself, and reached out her hand to summon her favored weapon – her staff. It appeared in her hand without fanfare, and she held it as if she’d never been without it in the first place. “I’m a mystic, do you need me to heal you?”

[High's .Valentine.]

“You’re welcome to touch, at your expanse,” Cooper chuckled when he saw her reach forward hesitantly. No doubt the sight of dry blood and blotted skin was putting her off. The copper head didn’t shy away out of embarrassment of his appearance. Rather, he reveled in the touch of another being. It’s been quite awhile since anyone’s made any approach to him. As a man who took pleasure in skin to skin contact, he would have gladly jumped at any chance for some form of human touch. Her fingers would have felt better than his irritated rash. Cooper smiled graciously at the strange girl, all the while wondering just where she had popped up from. There was no sign of another intact ship. Not that he would know, to be honest, having been thrown into a half conscious state when he was swallowed.

His inner musing was soon cut short. Lordy, was the world spinning? Spinning hard enough that the man had to push himself off of the railing and slink down to the mildew plank of the ship. Pushing the balls of his palm against his forehead, he grumbled incoherently. It took awhile for Cooper to realize that he might have gotten a concussion, what with banging his head on the window with such force that it had cracked the glass from the inside.

“Yes, that would be absolutely wonderful,” he said through gritted teeth as another wave of nausea smacked into him like a baseball bat to the face. A mystic huh? Cooper wouldn’t mind a bit of that healing magic. He wasn’t much of a magic user himself, and was always lacking a potion when needed. Poor panderer. Literally. Finally, the pain and sickness subsided for now and he removed his hand, looking up at the girl with a grateful smile. “I don’t feel so well at the moment. I doubt I look well,” the man chuckled again, as if making a harmless joke. Not as handsome and charming as he usually saw himself as. But he’s making an effort.

Remembering her question [it took form in several strangely phrased questions before he finally derived at her original inquiry], he peeked over the side of the boat at his gummi ship. Maiden voyage—his maiden voyage—and she’s already got him into trouble.

“Well, you see,” Cooper started animatedly, jabbing his thumb at the ship. “That beauty over there and I decided to take a little romantic romp. Down a whale’s throat.” Cooper knew where he was now. It all came back to him quite clearly. In fact, he had seen this whale once when he was riding with other people. Of course, they had managed to avoid the large hulking monster, but the man thought the sight would have been engraved in his mind. It’s not every day you see a sea creature swimming in the sea of stars. How they managed to get a whale out of the waters was a logic Cooper didn’t feel like comprehending. Monstro was its name. So much for having the sight engraved in his mind. He had completely forgotten about it until now.

“Are you, uhh…from here?” Again, he gripped his head.

[/blockquote]

[Rhea]

As soon as he agreed, Hotaru sat down next to the man, who was now slumped against the guardrail. It would take her a moment to prepare herself for the spell – healing wasn’t something she did often. Her expertise was illusions and tricks, not this type of magic.

When he mentioned his appearance, she laughed. “Don’t worry, I doubt I look better. Mildew and fishy water don’t make me look my best.” Hotaru wasn’t the type to fuss much over physical appearances, but she certainly knew when she was less than beautiful.

As the man explained how he’d arrived and ended up in such poor shape, Hotaru visualized the events in her head. Him, in the gummi ship, flying through the sea of stars... only to be gobbled up by a giant whale! “Whoa!” she cried. “That sounds exciting!” Someone with less of an imagination in her situation might have thought “down a whale’s throat” was a metaphor. Hotaru took it quite literally (which luckily was how it was meant to be taken). “Was it fun? Until you crashed, I mean?”

He then asked a question that took Hotaru quite by surprise. Now that she knew that she was in the belly of a whale (which oddly didn’t seem to phase her), his asking such a thing was rather strange, even for Hotaru. Was there a colony of whale-people or something? “From inside a whale? I sure hope not!” For some reason, she sounded excited. “Nah, I’m from Hara. You probably haven’t heard of it though. Actually, I haven’t been there for a long time.” She paused, only for a moment. Thoughts of home entered her mind. It was nostalgic...but now wasn’t the time to reminisce! “I’m more of a nomad now, though.”

His gripping his head reminded her that he was in pain, and she ought to heal him right away! Hotaru gripped her staff and allowed the magic to flow from her – the pure magic of healing. Yes, her talents lied in illusionary magic, but she was a mystic, and she could certainly handle wounds like these. In fact, she was confident he would feel nearly 100% again. “Better?” she asked with a smile.

“So what’s your name?” she asked. Hotaru had introduced herself earlier, but once she’d seen his state she hadn’t really expected a reply.

Suddenly, she jumped to her feet. “Hey, if you’re feeling alright, do you wanna explore?” Like a child she was excited to the brim, on the verge of jumping up and down. She looked around the edges of the whale belly for somewhere to go. What she found looked rather like a cave, except it was colorful and was actually part of the whale. She pointed at it. “I wonder where that leads?”

Hotaru was too happy-go-lucky for her own good.

“Oh!” she realized, turned back to her new friend (they'd only just met, but they were friends as far as Hotaru was concerned). “Here.” She reached out her hand to help him up. Even if she’d healed him correctly, he might still be dizzy or something. Not to mention it was polite.

[High's .Valentine.]

“Muchly.” Cooper grinned toothily at the girl. The minty coolness of her magic lingered on his skin, refurbishing his poor health. Seconds later, refreshed! The headache and the burning was gone. Upon inspecting his face with his hands, it seemed like his face was back to normal. No blotches, no blood. “As for it being fun…” the man chuckled and rolled his eyes, “the fun ended the minute the ship started spinning, if you want to put it that way.” The girl was talkative, and for that Cooper was thankful. He loved talkative people, being a social butterfly himself. He didn’t mind quiet ones either. All in all, he enjoy company of any kind.

“Name’s Cooper,” the copper head nodded in greeting, “Cooper Nathans. I hail from the world of Killain. It no longer exists in this merry little universe though.” Or at least he would assume. No trace of sadness could be detected from the man’s tone. In fact, he sounded the same as ever. Charming to a fault. Possibly it was the aftereffect of the girl’s healing spell. Or it was just because there was something wrong in general about Cooper. Not that anyone would have noticed…

“Ah you never know,” Cooper commented at her reaction to being a native of the Whale’s tummy, “people are resilient creatures. They can spawn anywhere as long as the condition is right. Though in this case…” glancing behind his shoulder at the yellow pools of stomach acid, trembling innards, and revolting smell of rotten fish, Cooper turned back with a grimace on his face. “It just might be one of those places where no living thing could even think about living. Let alone flourish.”

“Think about it though, tiny little Whale people living in Monstro’s stomach, feasting off of his leftovers…” he couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought, as disturbing as it sounds. “So how did you land in this place? By ship?” There was enough marooned ships here that Cooper wouldn’t be surprised if he did indeed find a colony of ship wrecked unfortunates living in some remote corner of the whale’s body, eating it from the inside out. There was no doubt though, most of them had probably turned to white bones and dust. Cooper himself was in no hurry to join them.

A hand was shoved into his vision as his mind wandered and he glanced up, a grin slowly creeping onto his face.

“Why thank you, my lady,” gripping the hand, Cooper pushed himself up, not really needing the girl to pull on him. He was much heavier than he appeared. As soon as he stood up though, he released her hand. Cooper had rules. It would not do to appear too eager. Especially in front of someone who had rescued him in a sense. However, he wouldn’t mind testing out his boundaries. But he would have to be careful. He didn’t want the only company he might have for a long while to go flouncing off in a furious huff.

“Come on then,” Cooper grabbed Hotaru’s wrists and gently pulled her along. “We got places to explore, don’t we?” Not that there was much appeal to exploring a live animals organs…but Cooper had nothing to do for now. Approaching the edge of the ship, he released her arm and jumped, landing lightly on bouncing flesh. Pushing the thought aside, he looked up at the girl, beckoning her to jump too. He would catch her.

[/blockquote]

[Rhea]

[Sorry for taking so long. >.>;;]

“It’s nice to meet you, Cooper,” replied Hotaru as she helped him up, a courtesy rather than necessity. Her healing spell seemed to have cured his ailments completely; even the blotchy sores from the whale’s stomach fluids had vanished. Hotaru felt rather proud of herself. “I’m sorry about your home.” She said this with the usual concern, but if the fact bothered Cooper, he didn’t show it. To be honest, if she found out Hara had been erased from existence, Hotaru wasn’t sure she’d be devastated or even overly concerned. It was sad to think of all the lost lives, but her emotional attachment to the place had faded over time. It was her childhood home, but now she was a wanderer.

Hotaru’s mood was cheered once more with Cooper’s return to the subject of whale people. She laughed at the mental picture, and nodded in agreement. Inside of a whale might be one of those places people simply could not flourish. She allowed herself to be pulled along by Cooper, who had taken hold of her wrist, and the two moved to the edge of the ship. He jumped down first and without much of a pause Hotaru followed suit. She certainly hadn’t expected to be caught or anything of the sort; Hotaru was the type who didn’t mind getting a bit dirty and jumping a few feet onto the squishy ground didn’t seem like any sort of problem for the woman. So it goes without saying that she was rather surprised to find herself in the man’s arms, and quickly felt a blush warming her cheeks.

“T-thank you,” she stuttered, obviously flustered. She couldn’t remember a time she’d been so close to someone else... Hotaru pulled away, the crimson still staining her cheeks.

“Well, let’s go, shall we?” Her cheery tone had returned, but her face was turned away to hide her rosy cheeks. Now, exploring slimy whale organs wasn’t really all that exciting of an idea, but rather Hotaru found the enjoyment in the simple fact of being...adventuring. She wasn’t sure which she enjoyed more: daydreaming of amazing adventures or actually experiencing them. Regardless, without further ado she began walking toward the, well, whale intestines. This was seeming less and less fun by the second.

To return to her usual self, she replied to a question Cooper had asked earlier. “I’ve never bothered with Gummi Ships or anything like that. I teleport! It’s much quicker and far less dangerous, although I can never be quite sure where I’m going to end up. I’m not sure why I ended up here. When I don’t have a destination in mind I find myself in the strangest places.” She laughed. “I mean, inside a whale?” It worked, just as quickly as she’d found herself flustered Hotaru was thrilled by their current undertaking.

She hopped onto a platform formed by the whale’s stomach and entered, rather than the cave she’d expected, an open room with several exits. It was a maze. The colorful “walls” reminded Hotaru of Cooper’s ship for some reason. In the same thought she remembered the strange object she’d found when first arriving in this world. Hotaru removed it from her pocket and observed it again. Turning to her new friend, she asked whether he knew what it was. “I found it in the stomach,” she explained as she held out the colorful object. “Do you think it might have something to do with Gummi Ships?”

Cooper had only a few moments to respond before a creature that looked something like a giant, round bat appeared. It dived at Hotaru and before she could even move to dodge, it had the strange object in its claws, shoving her back with a wave of energy. After seeming to glare at the two with its beady eyes, the bat vanished into a portal of darkness.

[High's .Valentine.]

Yuck…

Cooper clambered up the platform, his heavier form giving him a bit of trouble with the slime coated platform and loose rubble. Along with the numbing and toxic scent of rotting fish, there was that acidic burn in the back of the throat that reminded that any sudden slip and he would be losing the contents of his stomach. Again. Even as he reached the overhang of flesh formed in the stomach, Cooper still felt like puking. Overhang of flesh? Seriously, who was not going to puke from that. Cooper had seen entrails plenty of time. He had just never thought about being in one.

So the girl can teleport, huh? He followed blindly after her, musing over her sense of ‘adventure spirit’. He had one too. Unfortunately, he heaved it up on the way down to the stomach. Cooper seemed to have been silenced by the girl’s chattering. Either that, or he was bedazzled [more like revolted] into silence by the giant throbbing chamber as they entered the gap in the stomach. While the walls had reminded Hotaru of gummi ships, Cooper can only wonder what the heck the whale had eaten to dye its innards such an interesting color. A maze? Which direction of the whale were they heading in? Seems to only make sense that a maze would have resembled the intestines. The unappetizing thought turned his pallor skin green. He didn’t want to go out that way.

But the tall man realized that he had hope. He didn’t have any glimmer of optimism concerning his gummi ship. There was no way he was skilled enough to pilot this thing up the esophagus and out the blow hole. Nor could he go through the other end. Fixing it would be another matter. And Cooper knew nothing about tools. It had all been Jet and Nyx’s job back then. So he sure as hell wasn’t going to fly out of here. Cooper glanced at the girl in front of him and grinned widely. Well, there was a beacon of hope.

“Say, Hotaru…” he began, catching up to her and leaning down with a good hearted smile before something was shoved in his face. Glaring cross eyed at it, he pulled back, examining the object.

“Can I eat it?” Cooper managed to kid, snatching the bright pink object and making the motion of sticking it in his mouth. Chuckling, he glanced at it. Bright pink bubble gum color. He could do nothing more than stare and rack his brains to come up with nothing. Cooper was no genius with gummis and whatever this is, he had never seen it used on a gummi ship. Then again, he had never paid attention to the people making gummis.

Handing it back to Hotaru, the man proceeded to give the room another look over. Pulsating flesh, pulsating flesh, pulsating flesh….flutter?

“Look out!” Something swooped at the girl just as he managed to wrap his arm around her shoulder, trying to pull her out of harm’s way. Pulling her close, the two were suddenly forced back by a gush of wind. Before Cooper could pull out his dagger or even a bomb, the thing was gone.

“It took it…” Cooper muttered unintelligently, staring at the spot where the bat had poofed off. “Are you alright?” He looked down at the girl, who should still be smothered against him. “I reckoned it was something pretty important…or it just liked shiny items…” Cooper went back to musing, glancing around for more surprises with his arm still enclosed around Hotaru as if giving her a casual, if not intimate, hug.

[/blockquote]

[Rhea]

This time, Hotaru was not disturbed by the intimate contact; in fact, if she thought anything of it at all she didn’t show it. She simply looked up at Cooper with an expression first of surprise, then interest. “I wonder...” she murmured as she looked around the room for anything else that might jump out at them. Slowly a smile returned to her face. Now this was an adventure. “It must have been important if someone...or something wanted to steal it.” Now her smile was mischievous. “All the more reason to get it back!” The atmosphere in the room had been suspicious and surprised (and fishy), but it was lightened by Hotaru’s laughter.

The sorceress stood up straight, no longer in a defensive position. Her eyes closed briefly and said, “I think...whatever it was...is still here. In the whale.” She pulled away from the embrace and took a moment to pull her auburn locks into a bun, tying it with a ribbon she had stored in her pocket. Her face was set in a look of cheerful determination.

This time she offered her hand for him to take, innocent as usual. They were friends, weren’t they? “Want to come?” Like with most things, going on an adventure was much more fun if there was someone else to enjoy it with. Whether he took her hand or not, Hotaru would go to the left entrance to find what might be hidden there. Being a magic user herself, she always had a vague sense of whether it was being used and she thought the bat might have ended up somewhere in this direction...

More colorful, twitching walls greeted the woman. This chamber was much smaller than the other had been but there were three ways out all facing straight ahead, plus the exit to the main chamber behind Hotaru. She bit her lip; there was no way for her to tell where each led. “Which way?” she asked aloud, to herself or Cooper if he’d decided to join her.

(Maze time! Left, Center, Right, or back to the main chamber?)