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kakitysax · 4 years ago

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more jelly alien and human adventures!! maybe they find an abandoned town or something?

This got WAY too long and they ended up not even getting to the town lmao. So like, stick around for part 2. 3? 3. Also once again I did not edit this a lot so it might be terrible shgh

Anyway, I decided that the squishy squids are basically rounder, simpler, smaller, softer versions of these aliens, which I designed for an original story. They call any limbs that they make at the bottom of their spinal cord “peds,” as in, like, bipedal, quadraped, whatever. The limbs they make on the sides of their torso they call “pens,” short for appendages.

Uhhh now that that’s out of the way, story below the cut. And Link to Part 1, if you haven’t read it.

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The squishy thing dozed on and off through the day as the human continued to trek through the woods. It had its form arranged into six tentacles - four peds, which wrapped above and below the human's arms to join over their chest, and two pens, wrapped gently around the human's neck to keep its head and torso upright. Its head it rested against the back of the human's neck, feeling the rhythms of their cardiovascular system thrumming through their rib cage.

The squishy thing's circadian rhythm was short and light, but it was surprised at the quality of sleep that it was getting, considering the circumstances.

Occasionally the human would ask after it, or the squishy thing would ask how they were progressing, but for the most part the journey was silent.

The squishy thing hadn't realized that it had dozed off again until the human shook it awake. "Hey," they whispered. "Hey. Jelly Bean.”

The squishy thing lifted its head off the back of the human's neck. "Whuzzat?" it asked, rubbing its eyes. "Are we home?"

"No," said the human quietly, and the squishy thing noticed that it was dark. "I think we're going to have to make camp for the night," they continued.

The squishy thing was fully awake now. "Are we lost?"

"No, no no," the human reassured it. "Hardly. But I can't navigate when the sun's down." They crouched down to the ground. "Go ahead."

The squishy thing blinked.

"Hop OFF, Gummy Bear," the human said. "I need you to stay right here so that I can remember where we are. Also my back is getting tired."

The squishy thing started. "Oh! Of course, sorry." It slid off the human's back and huddled on the ground instead.

The human straightened up with a sigh of relief and rolled their shoulders. The squishy thing felt something inside it clench again, remembering all those sinews and muscles and teeth.

The human looked down at it and grinned with all of them. "Back in a sec," they said, then walked off into the woods.

The squishy thing blinked. Where were they going? It opened its mouth, but the human's back was already vanishing between the trees.

It was getting quite dark now. And the noises of the woods echoed around it, life forms that it couldn't see on a planet that it didn't know. And the human had just walked off. Were they leaving it? No, they wouldn't do that. Would they?

The minutes ticked by and the squishy thing found itself growing more and more nervous. Should it go look for them? What if it got lost? The human had told it not to move. What if they got mad? It had never seen an angry human before...there had been several times where it thought that it had, but the humans in question had usually just been playing. That was how they PLAYED. It didn't want to see one angry for real.

What if they had gotten lost? No, they wouldn't get lost. Perhaps they had forgotten about it. Or had decided to leave it behind. Perhaps the navigation thing was just an excuse to get it to stay there while they left it. Or perhaps the human had found other humans while it was asleep earlier, made some sort of agreement to ditch it and leave the planet alone.

Could it blame them? It had been pretty useless so far, hadn't it? Just sitting on their back all day, dozing, always scared, always weaker than it...

Something came crashing through the brush. The squishy thing started, sense-stalks tensing, extending. Human? Maimou? Something worse?

The human stepped into the clearing with a leaf in their hair and an armful of wood.

"You came back!" the squishy thing exclaimed, sense-stalks slackening with blessed relief.

"Uh. Yeah," said the human. They stepped towards the squishy thing and dropped the wood. "I was just getting firewood. Did I not tell you?"

The squishy thing shook its head.

"Oh. Sorry about that." The human knelt down and started to arrange the sticks into a strange little structure. "Hope you didn't, like...worry too much," it said, distracted.

"Oh no," said the squishy thing quickly. No worries here. It wasn't afraid at all. It hadn't thought they were going to leave it or turn on it or anything, this strange and beautiful alien with the lovely eyes and the terrifying teeth.

The human finished its stick stacking and pulled out a pair of rocks. It struck them together sharply, and sparks flew out and LIT THE TWIGS ON FIRE.

The squishy thing screamed, shrinking away, pedal tentacles fusing into something more suitable to run...

The human dropped their rocks in shock. "SHHHH!" it hissed through its teeth. "YO! WHAT GIVES!"

The squishy thing pointed. "F-FIRE! FIRE!"

"Yeah, it's a fire!" the human whisper-hissed. "I'm building a fire! Keep it down!"

"Y-BUILD? A FIRE? On PURPOSE?"

"Shhhhh-sh-sh-sh," said the human, reaching out and making placating gestures with their hands. "Yeah! A little campfire! To keep us warm!"

"A FIRE."

"Yeah."

"Just to keep us WARM?"

"Well, yeah! And to have some light, and keep predators away, and maybe signal some of our friends."

The squishy thing was starting to calm down, but not much. "But it's FIRE," it stammered. "It's a...an accident! It'll SPREAD!"

The human shrugged. "It's just a little one. I've lit them thousands of times. It's perfectly safe if you do it right, and if you make sure that it's completely out the next morning."

The squishy thing relaxed a little more.

"It's fine. It's under control."

The squishy thing forced itself to relax completely, legs collapsing back into pedal tentacles. It coiled them around itself and frowned at the fire warily. "Are you sure?"

The human snorted. "Y'know, my species survived with nothing but fire for light and heat? For thousands of years?" They leaned back, staring into the flames. "Yours probably did, too, come to think of it."

"Maybe," said the squishy thing doubtfully. "A LONG, long time ago, maybe."

The human rolled their eyes. A common expression of annoyance among their species.

A bit of the doubtful fear from before struck through the fresh and fading terror. The squishy thing had been terrified about something the human found perfectly natural. It must seem stupid and cowardly to them, this savage thing.

It opened its mouth to say something for itself, but then the human snapped their fingers. "Bulbasaur."

"B-beg pardon?" asked the squishy thing.

"That's what you fuckers look like," said the human. "Bulbasaur faces, with little..." the human turned to them and held their hands next to their head, wiggling their index fingers. "Slug eye things. Only without the actual eyes."

"You mean my sense stalks?"

"Yeah," said the human, teeth flashing in a smile. "Whatever you wanna call them." They leaned back on their hands, looking immensely satisfied. "I knew it was a Pokemon. It's been on the tip of my tongue all day."

"What?"

"You were looking at me earlier, you know, right after we jumped the gorge? And it hit me. I was like, 'these things look like some kind of Pokemon.' And I spent all day trying to figure out which one it was. Well. I had the image for a while, but the name..."

"I do not understand."

The human waved a hand dismissively. "Eh, it's a human thing."

"Oh," said the squishy thing, feeling a pang of disappointment.

The human glanced over at them, then back at the fire.

"It's a game," they said a few moments later.

"What?" asked the squishy thing.

The human shook their head a little. "Uh...a game? A really, really old game that humans invented."

"What is the game?" asked the squishy thing.

"Well," said the human. They rubbed the back of their neck and laughed nervously. "The idea is that...you have these little monsters. These creatures? And you're training them to fight each other."

"FIGHT each other?"

"No!" the human exclaimed. "No no no no no. They're not real. They're pictures of little...little made up monsters. On cards?"

The squishy thing's sense stalks twisted in confusion.

The human looked away, waving their hands as if trying to shoo the conversation from the air. "Eh, it's stupid. It's really stupid. Forget about it."

The squishy thing studied the human carefully. They really made no sense sometimes. But their face looked...different. More pink? Saturated with blood.

A human sign of emotion. Embarrassment, usually, or shame, or anger. But the human didn't look angry. Was it possible...they were embarrassed?

The squishy thing thought for a moment. "Uh...do you have any of these cards present?"

The human looked up.

"The, uh..." the squishy thing's sense stalks retracted a bit, its own sign of insecurity. "The Pokemon cards?"

The human looked surprised. "I do," they said, somewhat automatically.

"May I see?"

The human blinked. Then they reached into their breast pocket and fumbled with the snap.

"We, uh, brought them to play on the ship," said the human. They showed the cards to the squishy thing. "Here, see?"

The squishy thing squinted at the cards. The one on top had a drawing of what looked like a tiny, bright orange maimoude, But with a more human-looking face. The human's finger tapped at the face. "That's Chimicar. Underneath it, there, is Dewott. And beneath that one is a Weepinbell-"

"What do these symbols mean?" asked the squishy thing.

"Oh," said the human. "That's what kind of type it is. Chimicar is fire, Dewott is water..."

"Type?"

The human blinked. "Oh, gosh...okay, so...a long, long, LONG time ago, before this game was even invented and humans didn't know anything about chemistry, people thought that there were five elements? Or four, depending what part of the world you were from. Uh, fire, water, wood, rock, and metal."

"But metal is simply a purified form of-"

"Yeah, but they didn't KNOW that back then. This was...thousands upon THOUSANDS of years ago."

"So...these 'Pokemon...' are fictional creatures with abilities that correspond to these traditional elements?"

"Yes!" said the human, beaming.

"So there are five kinds of Pokemon," said the squishy thing triumphantly.

"Uh...no."

"Oh."

"There's more. They added more. Ones that...aren't the traditional elements."

"Oh. How many kinds are there?"

"Uh...we're not quite sure, actually. Nobody remembers. Nobody on the crew, anyway...someone out there probably remembers. This isn't, like, vital information to preserve, you know. It's just a game. A really, really old game."

"I see." the squishy thing examined the cards more closely. "These seem...well-used."

The human snorted. "Well, YEAH. They're like, centuries old."

"They no longer manufacture these?"

"Oh no. No no no."

"Where did you obtain these ones?"

"Uh..." the human laughed nervously. "We found them at a novelty store. Remember that shore leave day? That market planet?"

The squishy thing nodded.

"Yeah. This dude, had, like, an old box just FILLED with Pokemon cards. We were all so excited. Sam was like 'YO!' and then Alex was like 'YO!' and then we were all like 'YO!' and we HAD to buy them, of course. But we all had to be like, really nonchalant about it, because we had to haggle for them? I had to take Cameron outside and everything because they were too excited-"

"I remember that day," said the squishy thing. "I remember the box! You were all...very loud about it, weren't you?"

Loud was an understatement. That was the first time the squishy thing had been truly terrified of human beings. Shrieking words and frothing mouths and thrown objects and slamming their hands against tables. The other crew members had thought that the humans were going to try to kill each other, but the humans had assured them with some confusion that they had no intention of violence.

"Oh my gosh, yeah, I remember!" the human exclaimed, "We had to decide who got what cards...there were like, three albums of cards and we had to decide who got which ones..." the human trailed off, then burst out laughing.

"What is funny?" asked the squishy thing.

"No no no," choked the human. "No, no. I'm just remembering, there was this one moment where Chris..." they snorted. "Chris pointed their hand like this..." the human jabbed their hand demonstratively, "and they said, they were like," the human lowered their voice, words wavering as they tried to hold an expression and tone of intensity, "Alex I swear to God if you even fucking look at that Gengar I will eat your toenails I do NOT give a fuck!" the feigned severity had worn of by the end of the sentence, and now the human was laughing again.

"I don't understand," said the squishy thing, but watching the human laughing, eyes scrunched up and teeth shining in the firelight, it found itself giggling too.

The human snorted and sniffed and sighed, wiping tears of mirth from their eyes. "You had to be there," they said. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, it's not that funny. I'm just tired -" giggles burst out of them again. "Anyway. Now whenever we come across new cards we find some random Jelly and ask them to divide them up for us without looking. That way it's fair."

"And no one's toenails are consumed?"

The human looked at the squishy thing with an expression of shocked delight and burst out laughing again. This time it was so intense that the squishy thing slid itself back a few inches.

"I am sorry," it tried.

"No, no no...that was just...really funny, I...you surprised me, gumdrop. That's all."

"I see…” said the squishy thing, but it was confused about something else the human had said. ”Um...If you don't mind my asking, what is a Jelly?"

"Th-that's what we call you," the human explained. "Your...species. We just call you Jellies. It's easier."

"Easier than what?"

"What you call yourselves. What's your name, by the way?"

The Jelly flinched and looked at the human. "You...want to know my name?"

"Well, yeah," said the human. They broke a stray twig and threw half of it into the fire. "I mean...we almost died together. I think we're at that point, you know?"

The Jelly couldn't figure out why this made it so nervous. So...happy. It looked at them doubtfully. "You may find it hard to pronounce."

The human shrugged. "I'm sure I will. I'd still like to try. And I'd like to know, even if I can't say it."

The Jelly hesitated, then said their name.

"Yeesh," said the human. "Uh, one more time?"

The Jelly repeated it dutifully.

The human hesitated, then tried for themself.

Humans didn't seem to be able to control their tongues that far back, so they had to make the undulations with their own saliva, which gurgled randomly instead of forming precise consonants. The clicks and clucks they made with different movements of their tongue in the front of their mouth, resulting in different acoustics altogether. And they only seemed to be able to make one pitch with their vocal cords at a time, which threw off most of the vowels. But still, the Jelly was impressed.

"Wow," it exclaimed.

"Did I do it?" asked the human, their eyes lighting up. "Did it sound right?"

"Uh," said the Jelly, "it sounded like something!"

The human's face fell. "Oh."

"No, no! It was a very good attempt. It almost sounded like, like a word! Not any word that I know. But it did sound like something! And you were very resourceful."

The human nodded with self-approval. "Yeah, I'll take that. What do I call you, then?"

"Oh..." the Jelly hesitated. "You don't need to call me anything, really."

The human groaned and lay back on the forest floor, stretching their arms above their head. They turned to the Jelly, hair in their face and a pout on their lips. "You're killing me, Gummy Bear. Just a little nickname, that's all I'm asking."

Something in their expression and tone made the Jelly's digestive system invert. It looked away, stammering. "Y-you can call me whatever you want. It doesn't matter to me, really..."

“Mmmmmmmmm,” said the human thoughtfully. They snapped their fingers. “Mochi.”

“What?” asked the Jelly, startled.

“I’m gonna call you Mochi. Because you look like a little mochi. You’re round and squishy and green, like a little...a little green tea mochi.” the human explained, making little shapes with their fingers.

“What is a...mochi?”

“Oh! It’s a human dessert,” said the human. “A little squishy ball...thing. It’s delicious. I love it. I love it for you. It’s perfect. If you like it, of course.”

The human looked back at them, suddenly uncertain. And even if the Jelly hadn’t liked the name, it couldn’t argue with those eyes.

“Y-yes,” they said. “Yes, you may call me this. You may call me...Mochi.”

The human studied them. Their face broke into a grin. “Mochi,” they said. Their tone was warm and soft, and made the Jell- Mochi’s vascular system hiccup and its entire digestive system tie itself into knots.

The human extended their hand.

Mochi was confused, but gingerly stretched out one of their peds. The human reached out and gripped it. Mochi felt a shiver go up its spinal cord, and let out a little gasp.

“My name’s Rory,” said the human. “It’s nice to officially meet you.”

“N-nice to meet you too,” said Mochi.

#karkles stop #My writing #local space enby makes gummy squid fall in love with them without trying #come get y'all juice

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