#HC that titans have a very instinctual need to survive and thats why king was okay on his own as a baby before eda found him

[witchnordemon]

They sat with curiosity as Golden Guard replied to them, and slight confusion as they watched his ears do that thingy again, which only compounded when he started getting fidgety. Sometimes - rarely, really - Philip got a little twitchy-witchy when he was fibbing, but... there was nothing for Golden Guard to be fibbing about, right? So that didn't make any sense... urgh. They wished mortals weren't so confusing.

Oh. And now he was apologizing to him... and about something the Collector himself had felt before. Huh. He didn't know how to respond right, not really, but...

❝ ... lots of people don't like me asking a lot of questions, either. ❞ He offered quietly, unsure of why it was hard to get out, and even more unsure of why he couldn't seem to find any more words to say afterwards. He was especially grateful when the conversation shifted this time.

Embarrassment (at his assumption of Golden Guard asking something completely different than he really had) was quickly squashed by bafflement. ❝ The Boiling Sea? ❞ He repeated, incredulously. ❝ I've never heard of that. The Sparkling Sea was the sea all around the... you know, most of the land the Titans lived on... the Boiling Sea? ❞ He repeated yet again, as though he couldn't comprehend it, ❝ ...where are we? ❞ He asked, though he didn't give enough time for the Grimwalker to respond initially, as he quickly continued blurting out more of his stream of consciousness ❝ There's a whole 'nother sea out there, and you fell in it? ❞

They clasped a hand in their opposite palm and contemplated for a moment. A lot of mortals' planets had a sea, some planets even seemed to have lots of seas. They'd never heard of the Boiling Sea in all their free time on the Isles... which meant they must be really far away right now from where they'd been sealed away. Where on this planet could they even be?

Collector was (gladly) snapped out of his troubled pondering as Golden Guard started asking about Titans again. ❝ Oh, well - twenty to fiftyish years isn't a long time, and they're not big big yet, but they can go out and be okay if they want to, or need to. ❞ He clarified. ❝ Most don't need to or want to, because they're safer and happier with other Titans, but some of them do, and they're alright if they do. ❞ He shrugged. It wasn't a shocker to know he related to the Titans in many ways, and this was one of them - he was a lot younger than the other Collectors, and missed them a lot of the time, but... well, he had Philip, and now he had a friend in this new Grimwalker, so... he was okay.

❝ Most Titans start foraging when they're pretty young. It's like an.. an.. instick. ❞ They suggested, repeating what they vaguely remember hearing from years and years past. ❝ Most Titans can search for their own food as soon as they can walk on four legs, so... ❞ They looked back down at their hands, counting off a few fingers, ❝ ...two years... five years? ❞ They shrugged. ❝ They can't hunt yet, but they can find bugs and fruit and other stuff. ❞

He drummed his fingers against one another. ❝ ...Titans are really incredible, hardy critters. They can do so many amazing things all on their own from the time they're really little, even though they usually don't need to if they have a family group. But- but they still can if they have to, and that's so cool! A lot of the stuff they do is... it's just instickshual. ❞

His ears perked up, just a little, as the Collector confirmed that he in fact loved questions. Relief flooded through him. "Oh." He wasn't in trouble. He wasn't going to be in trouble, for asking too many questions or irrelevant questions. The Collector was enjoying his questions.

Which then made his ears dip down once again. He had ruined it. Oh, titan. Would they be annoyed at him for that? He pressed the side of the pen tight against his ankles and rubbed it up and down against them, something to deal with the anxiety that filled him.

He did not look at them as he quietly said, once more, "Sorry. I didn't mean to- People don't usually like me asking a lot of questions. I didn't mean to ruin things. The conversation was good." He'd liked it, a lot. It was fun. And then he'd ruined it.

This Philip guy really was losing out on not asking questions, though. The Collector knew so much. He would be an incredible resource of knowledge, and he was very willing to share it. Why not take advantage of that?

As they started to explain what a sea was, Valor looked up at them in offended bewilderment. "What? No, that wasn't- I know what a sea is, Collector. We're surrounded by one, and I've fallen into the Boiling Sea more than once. I've just- I've never heard of the Sparkling Sea before. Where is that?"

The explanation of why it was called the Sparkling Sea was interesting, though. "Don't all large bodies of water sparkle in the sunlight? Is it even more so than that?" It must have been, if staring at it when the sun was at its highest could blind you.

Hm. He no longer entirely felt he was going to lose it if he let go of his pen for too long, but that didn't mean he wanted to let go of it either. He'd have to find some other way to relieve the anxiety then, and those other ways would be way more obvious.

It was fine. He'd just. Constantly go over what the Collector told him so that he could remember it when he could write it down.

Their frown was something he assumed to be related to trying to remember how long it took for titans to become adults, or trying to do math related to it.

"Only twenty to fifty years?" He'd have expected longer, what with how small they started and how big they could get. Though the fact that they never stopped growing . . . That was fascinating. He wondered if they ever got too big for anything they could eat to properly sustain them. He wondered how long they tended to live. He wondered if dying of old age was synonymous with dying of starvation.

He did not ask the Collector these questions. He was still being careful about how many he asked at once, and he still had other, more pleasant questions. "How, um, how long would it take them to forage on their own? Not- Not leaving the nest on their own, but like . . . not needing others to find food for them."