Me: This chapter marks the one to prove Jkonna's dominance, because she and Dina had three chapters but now Jkonna will have four.

Dino: =w= What about me?

Me: You're going nowhere fast.

Dino: aww

Jkonna: FEEL MY RESONATING VICTORY, DIGADIG

Dino: I DON'T WANNA

The Stone Fossil Fighter

Chapter 9: Break Bad

Jkonna

Thumm... thumm... thumm... thumm... Small steps, like I'm balancing my entire life on a tiny little line, and if I mess up it all comes tumbling and that wouldn't be a very good outcome. Brown toes strike tiles of fluffiness that glow erratically but comfortably, for I've gotten way too used to, almost feeling pampered by these wondrous creatures we call diga-dinaurians. My hand swipes up and rubs over the smooth texture of what feels and appears to be stone, although it might not be stone, since this place also has a resource looking like wood that diga-Dino and diga-Dynal and even freaking Raptin assure me it's not. Whatever it may be, it rubs up against me and catches on melted caramel skin, fleshy and pulpy and soft against the hard stone-like feel.

Near the mural I think someone said they kept diga-Duna. Just a random floaty afterthought up in this nexus of brain cells, but hey, who knows, maybe her stony body is around here somewhere. They all say she'll eventually emerge again, but it won't be for like millions of years when we're all diga-dead and diga-descendants rule the world. Stupid diga-descendants I bet, if diga-Dino interbreeds too much.

No, I'm kidding; and anyway, in this state, we won't see much breeding from him at all. Unless Rosie manages to convince him to love he—yeah yeah no over my carcass. She's not allowed. But but what if she and Dino actually are soul mates?

But but Bomba. Diga-Dino already said, diga, that he diga-doesn't wanna love anyone else now that diga-Duna's gone. It's like if Morie went and diga-died off right when you met someone else you think you might have a chance with.

Yeah but I wouldn't love them I love Morie—

G-guys... Her flowery tone creaks like trees, like we're all lost in her forest of embarrassment. Morie mutters other words too but none of us really hear them because she's so freaking blushed out now. It's fun to embarrass her, and way too easy to. Before she can try to hide it all behind Bliss or Bliss ranting about all the more polysyndentons, I of course must butt in—

Geez, it's adorable but annoying that you're on the verge of diga-denying it. Every time. If you like her, you like her. Okay? Okay, digadig.

The essence of flowery squeak trails over me again, edged by a, S-sure... that's not really how it works, though... You wouldn't know, since you've never liked a a soul like that your entire life. I try to diga-deter but she beats me to it. I know you're going to try to convince me that having a best friend you love so much is practically the same thing, but it's not, okay, it's not. You don't go on dates with Dino.

I probably could.

Foster moans out of nowhere. His foghorn of a sigh streams in among us. Pleaaaaase don't. He's just freaking helpful like that. Yeah. Helpful not. He pipes up again; Hey, I heard that. I know you diga-did, and if I cared, you would care more. About, I diga-dunno, life or something.

Giving Foster a hard time really doesn't solve much, Jkkie.

Well, yeah, diga, I know, Bliss. But it's fun. And he diga-doesn't care like at all.

But stiiiiiiilll... She moans, too, like a beached futabi, only her moan sounds better than Foster's, and I begin to worry that now she wants a diga-date, too, like how Morie and Bomba, though the first won't admit to it stupid. But Bliss probably wouldn't diga-do that to me. Plus, Foster wouldn't care; he cares about literally nothing. I could get away with calling him a heartless pest and he wouldn't care.

Like a grandpa volcano, he struggles to erupt. Heeeey, that huuurrrtt. Naught but blackened fumes arise. Poor Foster: even when he diga-does have an opinion, he fails at diga-displaying it simply because he's Foster like that. Is it wrong how funny I find that? It's sad. Yeah. It's all just sad. Futabies with necks so long their heads swivel in the clouds so they can't see what's right in front of them. And his head is always up there, trained on who-knows-what.

Jkonna, you're pretty talented at going off topic, kindly reprimands the grassy one. You were worrying and thinking about how to approach this whole plan to Dino, and suddenly we're all focused on just how heartless Foster is. Just sayin', I don't see what the big is: he's not that bad of a dude, y'know. She probably has a lot of points I should listen to, but I can't help it, it's fun.

Morie plants a little sigh into me. C'mon. Does Dino or Foster insults mean more to you? Is it really that hard? Can't you focus, now that you have your plan actually started and everything, and you're not yelling at everyone, and you're not ready to tear something to bits and you're actually focused? Let's do something already! Let's save that poor boy!

Because I can, my for-once-quiet remark, toned diga-down of flames, goes by, Impatience is something diga-Dynal's trying to convince me to forget. Ey, digadig?

Shut up. Mango slices of eyes size me up and diga-determine me to still be harmless. Still. You can't ignore it. I know you're excited, and it's not even that that's stopping you but your fear of failure yet again, to only make him even worse, that's keeping you from action in the first place. But it's right there! Just go up to him and find Raptin and get it going, Jkonna! Her light trill screeches back at me at such length that even though we speak through telepathic communication, even though her voice is tiny and childish, I'm blown over. A hand lashes out and would've scratched the mural but I diga-deliberate that whatever the heck that is, it ain't rock. Of course.

And because those eyes only grow more spicy by the moment, and Morie's bill of a lip curls over as she waits, and waits, and waits for me to diga-do something already, now that I actually have even the slightest of ideas, I should move. Even as my heart squeals in my chest and hysterical liquids flow through and ice me, even though I have no idea if Raptin will agree or not in the first place, it's all I have, and maybe if I get moving, like she keeps telling me to, maybe I'll actually get something to happen: something that could help or something I diga-dunno.

I march. I march a lot. Her voice stopped barking but its echo never leaves and I feel like I should march to its terrifying tempo. Morie told me something and when Morie tells you something you want to listen. Same with Bomba, because Bomba never lies and usually what she has to say correlates with the new fire budding nearby. Bliss is... she's Bliss. I never really could trust her, and right now, as she goes crazy with her poetry, it's even less likely to hear words of wisdom from that golden voice box. I've already ruled out Foster, so... well, most of what he has to say involves someone shutting up for his liking of quietness and peace.

But Morie. I listen to Morie.

Diga-down the fuzzy hallway of glowing tiles, white first, then a prism of faint and hectic hues, reds yellows blues making greens oranges purples hiding pinks browns grays and all the colors in between. That little corner hovered in old, rusty yellow, that's Raptin. His soul must be that color. But right now he's eking a couple other interesting textures, after... well, diga-Dino most certainly wasn't the only one hit hard by diga-Duna's stone sleep thingy.

I can hardly believe the guy cared for someone, but that blue-haired boy, beneath his mask of turquoise scales, he did feel something. His olden yellow chest, like armor, protected that heart that inside held diga-Duna diga-dear. Anyone else in there? Maybe. Maybe he hasn't diga-discovered them yet.

Trickling through the corridor, I hardly believe my luck when my head ducks into the purple-shaded entrance of gel and the figure sitting hunched on top of a chair there is the strange one himself that I've been worrying relentlessly back and forth over. Not even because of him being in a bad place or pain happening or something crazy like that: like, just worry. About this one stupid question I have for him. A little farther through his tidy room, I can squeeze my icy eyes and glimpse another diga-doorway, if that's what these things are even called. But past that, I bet that's... that's where she is now.

Wow. They couldn't have gotten it in a better place. Not only will diga-Dino never diga-dream of tramping in here and then seeing diga-Duna and then perhaps imploding even worse, but the brother of the one lost can peer toward the sister and see her, in a way. She probably can't talk or anything where she is, and we'll never be able to bring her back so that anyone literally diga-does see her, but it must be nice for that boy to be able to have that memento and think of the one inside.

So anyways. My head splats through the barrier of gel and I yell, "Hey, Raptin! Diiigaaaaa!" Diga-does he notice? Why yes he diga-does. Sharp attempting although diga-dull and sunny orbs flicker back onto me, widened by a ring of white and then scrunched over in the suggestion of hatred I'm gonna pretend diga-doesn't exist. "Have a minute?" Of course he diga-does. He's just sitting here.

"No, I do not. Can you not tell?" A grim smirk twists over a sea of turquoise. His diga-deep and diga-dark almost stormy blue arms cross one another, the scales on the elbows twinkling in the sheen. Scrunching happens over his forehead too, where spikes of diga-dark blue bangs diga-don't lay. Honestly, I'm not sure if he's lying or not. Nah, he probably just wants to be left alone.

Well too bad. "I need your help, thouuuugh! Pleaaaaaase, digaaa! Pleeaaaaaaaaaase!" For emphasis, clay hands shhhlick through as well, and I reach them out. Most of me outside the purple barrier, I struggle to push all those parts of my body back while holding an elaborate enough position.

Quietly, in his gruff stiffness, he mutters, "Leave me to my own business, Jkonna." It almost makes me want to laugh, how much the way he says my name sounds like the way diga-Dynal says it, the "kuh" almost bypassed and creating a rift of "Jihahnah," so that it's almost silent, almost floating.

But I really need your help. "But I really need your help, digadiiiiiiig!"

"You continue to pester me after I have excused you?"

You bet I diga-do. "Pleaaaaaaaaaaaassseeee!"

"Pathetic."

"Nooo, you're pathetic, cuz you're not listening to meeee! Take that, digadig!"

"You are the one lodged halfway through my doorway." Oh, so they diga-do call it a diga-doorway. Now I know.

And knowing is half the battle.

Bliss, diga-don't even.

Oh, right, Raptin's still waiting for a response. His golden orbs actually shine back at me, and his grim stare almost diga-doesn't look so... creepy. "C'mon, you know you love us! Diga-Dino and I reaaaally need your love right now, Raptin! Digaaaaaaaaa! And I wouldn't be lodged halfway through your diga-doorway if you'd! let! me! in!" But I'm not lodged halfway it's just my hands and head and a lot of my hair geez Raptin.

"What is this you speak of, for... would it be Dino and yourself?" Turd. He's interested. I'm freaking out.

Come on Jkonna play it cool play it cool. "Well, y'see... y'know how he's been lately... Diga? So, well, Rosie showed up and I got mad and it got me thinking and now I've got ideas. Really, diga, good ideas. And this one involves you helping me out." Only one person could act so sly while their hands, some of their flame hair, and their head stick out of purple gel, and that person is me. Cuz I just diga-did it.

"Oh, dear." A pause. His orbs sink into me. "Does it, now? What must I do in this assertive plan of yours, Jkonna?" I can't get over how he says my name I'm in love with that gruff speech aaaah.

Struggling to overcome this greatness, I shake out a head of stricken, fiery-dyed bangs and peer through their unforgiving slits. "Oh, yes, digadig, you have quite a thing to diga-do!" It's actually not much at all, but it sounds cooler that way. "First off, we gotta find diga-Dino. You gotta come with me, diga, or it won't work. So get up; let's goooooooo! C'mooooon!" I slurrcch out from the gel and crawl backwards like a vivosaur, randomly tripping over bits of my hair and pulling at the sleeves of my toga because suddenly I'm embarrassed and everything feels itchy.

Maybe it's because I hadn't expected the response provided. Yeah, diga-didn't see that coming. It's what I wanted to happen, but, like, he's Raptin. I wonder why he's coming, then... No matter. The gentle printing of his careful traipse on the tiles alerts me and I waken myself to be ready for when he shows. Thankfully, because it's weird like that, like literally everything diga-dinaurian based, they're all just weird like that, and this one, the gel diga-doesn't actually cover us.

Thank gosh. My hair is saved. For now. I really need to comb it sometime; there's tangles freaking everywhere. Diga-Dino likes combing it for some reason. Maybe I'll throw that in somehow.

While I'm trying to think of some other way to sweeten this sorta diga-deal for the diga-darn boy, the great one emerges from his holy light of purple gel. Gently shaking his head and sending his diga-deep and diga-dark blue spines of hair into their immaculate places on his sky forehead, his old gold orbs peep back at me. "Why are you staring so hypnotically?" emits his monotonous glory of a voice.

Okay sorry his appearance was too good I wanted to inflate it. Geez. I almost sound like I like like him or something eeeewwww. If I ever even like like someone in the first place I'm sure I'll end up as one of those diga-ditzes who falls in love with a girl who already has a boyfriend. Yeah. Yeah. That—That.

Plus I diga-don't care that much. I'm happy with my bro diga-Dino... well...when he's happy, too. To keep Raptin from forming his own creepy stare, I push my diga-dark, fleshy face over toward his scaled one and he pulls back. Wow, his chin is long. Never saw that before. "Juuuuuuust scrutinizing." I gleam in his face. "Diga."

"You have no need to scrutinize here," he mutters back. His eyes are too diga-dull to diga-dig into me, which I think the diga-dude knows, I mean he's diga-Duna's older brother who knows how many years he's got on me maybe five I'm gonna go for, maybe four or six, nothing less than four though, nothing less. "I already told you not to scrutinize, girl." In a flash, his studded near-black hand crops up close then clops me fast from cheek to cheek. Quick, simple, reactive.

Man, this guy is hilarious, and I diga-doubt he even realizes it. Because that's probably not the response he's looking for, I choke down air meant to be a laugh and squeak back, "Uuuuh huuuu—hic!"

More with his own "scrutinizing." Freaking Raptin. "What an abomination." Okay, I choked on the laugh I was about to use on you, at least pretend to be grateful, man. Or not. Keep being Raptin. Go ahead; go a-freaking-head. "Let us just go already." As he shoves on past me, angrily yanking for my hand and tugging me along, he mutters something that sounds a lot like a pretty redundant "stupid idiocy." Ha. Funny.

I'm slower and my legs are shorter since the guy, while he diga-doesn't quite reach diga-Dino, is up there, so his tail easily smacks into me a couple times. Studded by his sky of day and night scales, the diga-dark and the lighter blue of his hues, it just whacks into me cuz it's there and—oh, it's wagging. Wiggling back and forth probably from an expulsion of roundabout actual pleasant emotions. So he's enjoying it anyways. Man, Raptin, I diga-don't get you. Are you diga-dragging me so fiercely because you diga-don't want me to see some diga-dumb smile on your face? Diga-do you find me and diga-Dino funny or something?

Just wondering. Because you're just—just slightly hilarious. Just a tiny bit.

Well, whatever, more the merrier. Think that he'll be able to help my best friend. After merrily dragging me diga-down the corridor of the fuzzy hallway and turning a hard left until we reach the other end of the entire starship, Raptin diga-dumps me over to which I pitch and land on my stomach beside him. Before he can move, a chocolatey hand reaches for one of my ropes of flaming hair which I toss over the entrance and then he trips and, when I hear his breath fly out with an uuumph, that tail diga-donks me right on the top of the head.

Faint grumbling. His monotonous yawn. Or a sigh. I can't tell. One of his diga-dark hands fastens over me, fingers spiraling and connecting over my squishy arm, so that he can easily diga-drag me up and over again. Without speaking of his profound hatred like he sometimes diga-does, his now-mess of spikes of hair leads the way, and our bad-hair-day diga-duo files onward until we finally reach that crevice to the side and barge into our room. Diga-Dino's and mine. Not Raptin's. Eugh, I diga-don't wanna sleep within like twenty steps of this guy.

We stumble on into the simple but warming chamber.

He's where I thought he'd be.

Balled up by the blankets, resting with it rounded and rumpled over him, alone. Silent. A hand or two sticking out weakly, the black scales, shinier and more lustrous, fuller than Raptin's, plucked over, hanging around, stuck by itself in the sea of fluffy waves. He breathes loudly when he sleeps, so I know he's at least conscious. But unmoving. Always unmoving. Sight alone, intensified in my bright and light vision, always sucks into the scene, pulsating this emotion through me, this one he feels, the one I feel, too.

It's a little weaker now. As if... I'm wrapped in softness, a gentle tug ensuring me on.

And no, it's not Raptin hugging me. Ew. Never. Never. Never never never no I diga-don't like that thought. It's... what's the word... mystifying... helpful.. promising...

Hope. That's it. I feel hopeful now.

Okay great let's try to—hands connect over an old, rusty back and Raptin spirals through the top, fluffy opening of the bed but also above the footboard, falling and flailing like a floppy stuffed animal to surface in the waves crashing diga-down upon the curled up other boy. Diga-dull yellow orbs toss me a look. I offer the biggest smile I can muster. I hope it's big enough.

Before he can adjust, I slam myself up next to him too. Now, okay, diga-deep breaths, maybe I'll diga-do something right. Scooting past the diga-dinaurian that isn't so freaking catatonic, the one with the stone sister who's living through life without unbalancing himself, I gently curve fingers into the covers and slowly, slowly, inching for my life, pull back the colorful waves that encroached him for these hours.

Sometimes it's weeks. I gotta stop that. I gotta stop that at least for a moment.

Eyes, wide open but sightless, seeking hope but hopeless, graying but without definition, eyes focus on not me, not the unexpected guest, but the same little spot on the ground he's keen on staring at. I diga-dunno if he remembers, but it's the same indention that Pippy accidentally made when something freaked him out on the first diga-day here and he began to swoon and he's over a hundred feet long so you know it was bad. That splotch of imperfect fuzz proves that the loving, earthy vivosaur trimmed of violet was there, particularly close to his natural size. One little footprint. And now diga-Dino's staring at it, staring at the footprint of the vivosaur we revived together when we first met. I took the tools, he found the fossil.

Now how diga-do I... start this, exactly..? Uhh... I'd love to shove Raptin at him and tell the guy to diga-do something but he's not very good at impulse reactions. We've learned this through our very short time together after he stole the diga-dolls, back at the beginning. Oh my gosh diga-don't get me started on those diga-dolls. Gently shaking my head, I place a finger on diga-Dino's frigid forehead and mutter, "Hey..."

No movement. I know he heard me, though. Sometimes on better diga-days he'll quote things he heard from me on these sorts of... slouches. This one feels a little diga-deeper, Rosie's bumbles and tumbles just cracking and falling straight on top of him, but... but I actually am trying something now.

Again. "Hey..." How diga-do... Oh. Right. Introductions. "...you have a guest, diga." Softly, gently, I pull at our entwined hands and Raptin stutters forward. This time, his actions spurt no funnies. I'm focused. He needs more gentleness in his life, diga-Dino. He needs more softness.

It takes a few moments. On the outside, the guy sort of staring at me, he probably had no idea why I started as the boy rose, but on the inside, it was just me and him and time diga-didn't matter, and I felt like he wouldn't rouse at it, wouldn't care if Raptin showed up anyways. It's just, like... if he's... he knows who diga-Dynal and I are, sorta. But, well, I suppose he once knew Raptin. Once...

He mutters something soft and childish and gray orbs trickle back toward old yellow. The two boys lock stares and neither of them looks like the kinda guy to break such a look. I snort. Neither blinks. I can't help it and snort again.

While they're diga-doing that, bodies form and swarm up to me, them, unlike diga-Dino, at least slightly warmer. The purple one who spouts and mutters nonsense the warmest, probably because she was running around a lot. Little tiny child-size Pippy raises his long neck and peers toward me, the lilac in his eyes glinting the slightest in his stare. Dear lassie, is this what I'm thinking it is?

Well, gee, Pippy, I totally know what you're saying before you say it. Digadig, your words aren't even needed.

He squeaks. I was just getting to that! Dear me, I apologize! I was thinking... are you, like... well, it wasn't his father or you or any of the other ones like a vivosaur you had to choose from, and certainly not... you know... her stone... but instead Raptin. Raptin, of all choices, lassie, dear boy Raptin! And so, if you're choosing him, then... I simply wonder what sort of adventure you'll be pulling him into. Now-murky eyes glance back and stare toward the staring contest. Or maybe it's not a contest and they just diga-dunno what to diga-do now.

Gently, I shove both boys apart and Raptin tumbles over. Thrummmmp. And there he goes. A creaky cry emits, but not from the position of rumpled diga-ditz on the floor, instead resonating up next to my ear. First warbling, falling betwixt levels of sounds, then stronger, until I turn and oh my gosh he's laughing. It's choked, plain diga-depressing, but it's laughter. Raptin mutters something else that's redundant and proceeds to try to get up. BRONG! A collapse.

The laughter steadily grows in volume the more Raptin tries to get up and fails. It gets so loud and Raptin gets so breakable that I start to wonder if he's diga-doing it on purpose; then, oh, of course he is, this guy can be clumsy and slow, but not that clumsy and slow. Diga-Dino, on the other hand, ignoring his great sense of obliviousness which killed me back when he was freaking out because Rosie and diga-Duna kept kissing him, he can realize stuff.

No scratch that he can be pretty stupid. I wonder, then... what his sister might be like... and if I've met her before. Actually... I think I...

A sudden halt in diga-Dino's joy reverts me from the hole I diga-dug into my brain, closing up the trail to the past. Maybe I have, maybe I haven't, but none of it matters until he feels better. And... not just ha-ha-for-the-moment better but oh-man-this-laughter-it's-everywhere-I'm-so-cured better. So it diga-doesn't matter. I diga-drop the thought and focus on the diga-dear boy, only to realize he stopped because he prattled on, head diga-drooping over the edge of our bed, spikes of blackened hair flowing down in fluffy banks, that one orange stripe shining and standing out like... him, in a room full of other people. Because he's my best friend, and he's all I flock to, always.

Tail swishing, his arms diga-dangle and then everything diga-dangles and thrummmmmmmmp. They're both on the ground, now; both of them diga-doing who-knows-what on the ground, over to the left side to which I must go check up on because suddenly Raptin isn't very older-guardian-like, even though he's like five years superior me and six to diga-Dino and diga-Duna and probably diga-Dina too, since she's his twin sister, back when they were all together... when they were like two and he was like eight.

Stifled giggles and muted kicks. My bright orbs peer over the edge and yep, they're in a tangle of diga-dinaurian boy and they're acting like idiots. Wrestling. Yeah, they're boys, I get that, they wrestle, but seriously, of all things, they're just childishly poking and tapping with each other. I pull fronds of hair back to make sure they diga-don't yank me in cuz okay maybe I'm not all ladylike but brawls are diga-disgusting, and that's all there is to it.

Diga-Dino, eyes squeezed tightly shut in childish glee, diga-doesn't see the tiny half-moon grin etched on the older boy's lips. Oh my gosh it's a miracle Raptin is smiling. Why is he smiling. Laughing, but it's a silent chest-heaving sort of laughter that prevents anyone else from hearing it. His gleaming orbs burn through me and that look just tells me he diga-doesn't wanna hear this sorta talk spreading, so I better not, as the single witness of the event, diga-do much.

Fine by me. I'll just brag at diga-Dynal or something. Euuuuh... doesn't that still sorta count? Diga-dumpy brown Pippy by her side, sharp-toothed diga-Droplet peers her similarly icy orbs up towards mine from her tiniest form. She's—why is she sticking up for that pip-pip cheerio of a seismo? She's usually the one to cackle alongside me. Geez. She's acting all close to the guy and it's weird.

I blink toward the... interesting diga-duo. I mean, they've always been kinda close but... I diga-dunno. It's gotten almost weird... like... diga-different, somehow. Nah. Diga-Dynal diga-doesn't count: diga, he's diga-Dynal! He probably already knows.

Yeah, probably. A saltwater snort. I go to staring at her and she stares at me for a moment, as she slowly raises her pointed snout, before I shake my head and turn back and she giggles a little, similar to the sounds her bond's currently squealing all over.

Holy turd. Raptin's tickling him. My gosh, I had no idea they knew each other this—wait yeah I diga-did. They knew each other as little kids, diga-duh, and Raptin probably remembers him pretty well. We might not know the guy as much as we might another time, but... I can tell he and diga-Dino share a connection. And because I'm his best friend, I guess I'm let into this little circle too, maybe a little. That last phase lasts nary a few seconds, but even as the shorter but older and wiser boy stands, assisting a giggle-seized diga-ditz alongside him, golden-eyed affection looks pretty palpable between them. Watching over the boy, as diga-Dino collapses in towards the bed again, not from his creepy sadness but exhaustion, diga-drained by his sudden and new fits of joy, ones he's supposed to have a lot more, more like all the time.

It's kinda sad, when I think of it that way. Sadder than it already is.

W-well... he was hit by a meteor of hard things and... and now I'm helping him. Geez, calm diga-down, Jkonna. Plus, now it looks like Raptin's going to get further indulged into our lives. I diga-dunno if that's a good thing but, like, he seemed pretty happy for a moment there. Raptin, pretending to carelessly swipe over a hand when really he's trying to intricately straighten up his also-soft spines of blue hair, plops himself on another side of the bed, too, and the two of us already on it jostle. Diga-Dino rams into me or I ram into diga-Dino; one of us goes flying and we both topple and he's giggling again, and it's a nice sound to hear. The voice quickly twists as hair gets tugged and oh turd I think it's choking him so I spring back and pull awkwardly at strands until something comes loose and he's fine again, slate orbs sparkling toward me silently, like he diga-doesn't know what to say.

About what, though? He hasn't really tried speaking much this entire time. Sometimes I stare at this kid who goes mute when the emotions become too much, like an illness that intensifies by following the strings of mood and feeling, that already mottled and messy, until it all balls up and this is what it diga-does to that one boy in the midst of crowds to poke fun at others and laugh a whole lot and he never stops jabbing in words at others. And we're like sidekicks to each other and—

Whoa, whoa, slow down now—

It's hard, Foster! I'm screeching at the futabi. Never thought it would come to this. It's hard... Even when my volume amplifies in my head, that one-time-useful-finned-pest manages to contain my noise and nobody hears it but the two of us.

Diga-Dino's laughing, I think giggling something toward the older boy sitting in front of him, head turned the slightest. Foster leans in from his tiny orange-and-pale mixture of color and long neck and fins, whispers, Yeah, no duh it's hard. That's why you've survived so long. Is it almost over or is it too hard?

Half of me still really wants to slap him. Maybe it's Morie, or Harei or Pippy or someone whose nerves far surpass mine, but in the end futabies diga-don't get slapped and he slumps over, snorting. I just sigh and shake my head a bit. Flustered, I guess. Really flustered.

Sooner rather than later, the blue-scaled visitor, or guest, right, that's what I called him, stands on his own and waves the slightest. His smile's wiped off like it'd been diga-drawn on in shaky, temporary marker; maybe it'll come back later? Maybe. A Jkonna can hope. Because I'm the one that got him to come in the first place, I awkwardly pat at my gray-eyed friend and stand up too as Raptin and I slowly exit. Once we've left the gel behind by a handful of steps, his wizened old orbs of yellow peer diga-down at me, since I'm shorter than him. Since I'm under him.

Quiet for a moment there. "I suppose I should thank you for this lively incursion." Am I just seeing things, or did like a regurgitated half-moon grin show up for like two seconds there before being swallowed back into the monotonous lips? "Thank you for requiring me to stop by and visit our sick friend... who is, yes, a childhood companion of my own. There... had once been other children my age, although I tended to stick by the friends Duna had made at her small age. Our parents preferred it; they happened to be family compadres with... the royal family."

"Oh, so that's why you're so chummy with diga-Dynal."

And the eyes go attempt-at-flint on me again. "You could speak of it in such fashion."

"I suppose I could, diga~"

"You are strange, Jkonna." Aaaah he said "Jihahnah" again aaaah.

Suddenly embarrassed for no reason other than the fact that he both spoke my name and tried to be a little more polite than usual, my eyes wander around on the tiles. These are pretty quality tiles; y'know, I've never seen such fluffy... glowy... things. "Well... I gotta diga-do what I gotta diga-do to help him. Thought it might... y'know... stir something up if I... forced him into something... like this. We'll see. Digadig, we'll see."

"Hmm." He's pretty curt with that word. Some people curl it around the edges, exaggerate the ending, make it feel everlasting: his just starts and finishes. "If..." His face suggests he's just stepped right to the edge of a cliff, maybe hanging ten with his toes. "If I may..." He's inching. "Would it be alright..." He's inching. "To suggest..." He's inching he's inching he's inching. "That I could... join you in these incursions..." Now he looks like he just jumped and he's diga-died.

Diga-dude. Chill. "Well, yeah, diga-duh! The more, the merrier: totally! Diga-don't worrryyyy so muuuuuuuuuchh." Diga-Duna's gotten that worried about similar things; they're... similar, in more ways than I thought at first. Heck, when we met in the beginning, the diga-dude haaad taken our diga-dolls, and the two of them sorta looked like polar opposites: diga-Duna thought diga-Dino was the diga-Dino the prince and Raptin was all like no but he was and it's been proven so I guess that whole facade is over.

It takes some reassuring, because I diga-dunno if that guy's ever gotten even a foot in the general direction of the cliff, but eventually he gets the idea I'm not joking and he's not too bad a guy and it's fine it's fine holy turd Raptin shut up it's fine. He leaves off on his merry own way just as the weight of the fact that diga-Dino socialized on a bad day today weights diga-down on my shoulders and I collapse on the ground, then and there. Diga-Dynal'll prolly come and check on me at some point because he's "diga-dad" like that, and he'll be curious on how badly I failed but I diga-didn't fail though I said I would and I guess it'll be... nice, for once, to not fail.

It feels weird to not be so... failure material right now.

Tired. Yes. Very tired. I blink past blurry eyelids and smirk at how diga-dumb I must look to any random passerby diga-dinaurians. I wonder, then, what they must've thought when I first came up here and started living like all the rest of them. Who knows. Maybe they find me insane. Well, that's just awesome.

But none of it even matters cuz I actually diga-did something right for once. Yaaaaaaaaaay.

But don't go crazy and start yelling again. Or getting too emotional.

Too tired, Foster.

Yeah, but just lettin' you know, since you always do that.

Tired. Shut up.

Yeah but you always do that.

Tell me when I'm not tired anymore. Diga.

But—

Diga-don't make me yell.

Uuuuggghhh. Then all is quiet, and we each smirk in our own direction of peace.

I guess this was expected for Jkonna, since, well, she's been failing so much... xD but... it really was time.

Also, I'm happy! I got to add in Raptin characterization! For all who've read (and remember xD) The Lost Fossil Fighter (and for those who would like to know a little more), Raptin and Duna... well, so there were these dolls (that were part of the starship; they started that evil guhnash dude but Dino and Jkonna found them long before all that and were like TOY DOLLS YAY)... so Raptin stole the dolls so that they could restart the world.
Not summon guhnash. Just kill all the humans and try again. Ha.
He did not know who Dino was at the time because Dino didn't even know either. He'd... forgotten without realizing.
But anyways Raptin acted really rude and silent the entire time and it was funny. X3 But also... poor guy, hahaha...

Okay, so that's my Raptin blab! Maybe I should make more of those, if anyone would like me to to help them remember/learn about stuff? :3