deck the halls with oh dear god what is that thing

[nepetaleijon]

It is an ancient troll tradition -- one of the few that doesn't involve murdering each other -- to gather behemoth leavings at the turn of the sweep, to celebrate the end of an old year and the start of a new one. The Milliways trolls have divided the tasks between them; Karkat and Kanaya hunting a behemoth leaving, and Nepeta agreeing to stay

Comments

[remindmeof_me]

Huh.

Now ain't that something.

Okay, so, apparently the troll idea of holiday decoration involves a hunting lodge exploding. Shephard's down with that. Especially since, well, big damn antlers are things you recognize, okay? Antlers like that get respect. Even if they're being a pain in the ass to put up.

"Any of y'all want a hand there?"

[crabbycustomer]

Karkat glances back at Shepherd, and hopes that neither of these two embarrass him. "YEAH, SURE. WE ARE DECORATING THIS SWEET BEHEMOTH LEAVING WE RETRIEVED FOR THE HOLIDAY. FEEL FREE TO DRAW SOME PICTURES OF YOUR BADASS EXPLOITS FROM THE LAST SWEEP OR JUST STRING UP SOME TEETH."

"THIS IS KANAYA AND NEPETA, MY FRIENDS WHO ARE HERE. GUYS THIS IS SHEPHERD, HE IS A GUY I KNOW. NEPETA HE WANTED TO TAKE YOU FISHING."

[nepetaleijon]

"Hi."

Nepeta regards the human with some interest. Fishing, huh?

[remindmeof_me]

"Hey there," says Shephard, waving. "Gimme a couple of them teeth first, I'll git 'em up for you first'n draw shit later." He cocks an eye at the other trolls. "Might still git you out fishin' before spring if I c'n find somewheres the ice'll hold us proper. Ice fishin' ain't my big thing, but I've done it a couple of times."

[nepetaleijon]

"Ice fishing? Like when you cut a hole in the ice and wait for some unsuspecting purrey to swim by underwater?"

Pounce used to be good at that.

[remindmeof_me]

"Yep," says Shephard. "Me, I drop a line with a hook'n bait on it through the hole'n wait for the fish to bite. Ain't what you'd call suited for stickin' my bare arm in there'n grabbin' one of those motherfuckers at temperatures that low."

[nepetaleijon]

"Oh, I wouldn't put my bare arm in either," she assures him. "I'd use these!"

She equips her claws on one hand, and demonstrates.

[remindmeof_me]

"Sweet," says Shephard. "Gon' be interesting, seeing 'em in action."

[nepetaleijon]

Nepeta unequips her claws, cheerfully.

"I could show you with the fish in the furrplace, but I don't think they're real fish."

[remindmeof_me]

"I been wonderin' about those," Shephard admits. "Not enough to go pokin' at 'em or nothin', y'understand. Just curious. You use those claws for anything else?"

[nepetaleijon]

"Hunting!" she says happily. "And fighting meownsters. Which is kind of the same thing."

[remindmeof_me]

"One of these days you'n me gon' need to run down a bullsquid together," Shephard says. "Fuckers spit acid'n take a man's leg off with one strike of the tail. Soak the meat in their own spit'n some other shit long enough and you get some real fine eatin' offa one of those bastards, though, so it's monster'n meal together."

[nepetaleijon]

"Sounds like fun! Whenefur's a good time."

It may be somewhat explanatory here to point out that it wasn't until playing Sgrub that Nepeta first encountered monsters that weren't also meals.

"How big are they?"

[remindmeof_me]

Shephard indicates something roughly the size of a large pony or small horse. "All I ask is, we git one of 'em down, I want the skin," he says. "I been makin' leather out of that shit and it's not like any kind of leather I ever seen from an Earth critter- they're from somewheres called Xen, they just live on Earth now."

[nepetaleijon]

She considers that. "If we get two, can I have the other skin?"

[remindmeof_me]

"Sure thing," says Shephard. "Only fair."