{ .:*・°☆ } i kept disappearing, it seemed. i chuckled to myself, rubbing my paw over my eyes as i rubbed the "sleep" out of them. 'you need to start focusing here, desboy. these people need you, but you also need them. pull yourself together.' rolling over onto my back, i let out a long sigh, enjoying the last moments i would spend in my room for this day.

i knew i had been missing so much, and yet i decided to stay inside. why? i didn't exactly know. the injures? but they had healed. was it perhaps those memories from the jungle juice still engraved in my mind? of course it was. though that had been over a month ago, i still had nightmares about them. about how i couldn't save my friends. and what was i doing here? nothing. when i could be helping out my friends here, too. sighing, i got to my paws, shaking out my luxurious fur as i passed by my sweater. i stopped for a moment, hesitating, as i looked at its torn remains. anger boiled within me as i thought back to that damned juice. if i hadn't been hallucinating in those last moments... i could've saved it. i could've saved myself from the scars that were now on my face, though not very visible anymore.

but my face didn't matter in this moment. what mattered was that the only way back to my best friends had been demolished. the thought of it tore me up inside, just like the sweater beside me. i had the sudden, strong urge to ball it up and toss it as far as i could out of my sight. but if there was any way for me to fix it, to go back, i had to keep it. i had to try to mend it again. and so, with that, i picked up my head and continued to walk towards my door, pushing it open as i took a deep breath of salty air.

putting my paw on the soft sand, my excitement dissolved my previous anger, as i quickly bounded outside like a playful child. my unique laugh echoed through the area, in which i began to run back to my house in an attempt to get something that could possibly help me float in the water, since i couldn't swim and was itching to do so.

but i suddenly heard something just outside of my house. i quickly became cautious, stopping for a moment as fear slowly ebbed through me. what was that weird noise? mustering up my courage, i decided i should investigate, though it was easy to tell i was afraid. going around the side of my hut, i was filled with surprise when i suddenly saw two small animals playing around in the sand, both a creamy white with black stripes running along their back and face. tilting my head, i moved forward, and they instantly stopped, having sensed my presence.

what were they doing here? they seemed so far from home... reaching out my paw, their cute little pink noses twitched, and i was able to tell that they were sugar gliders. becoming giddy, i started talking softly towards them, my posture relaxed and lowered as to not look frightening. "jag-eun geosdeul-eul dulyeowohaji mala. i'm here to help you. i'm a friend." i spoke, half in my native language, half in the language i grew to adopt and love.

and they seemed to notice my soft and welcoming tone. sniffing again with their small noses, they inched towards me, the same curiosity and fear reflecting in their eyes like mine. eventually, they were at my paw, where they stopped and looked up at me. giving a small smirk, i slowly lifted my paw, flinching as one hissed softly. hesitating, i tried again, but slower, gently petting one, and then the other. soon, they began to like me as well, and i could tell because they seemed just as relaxed as i had become.

a quiet, relieved laugh slipped past my lips as they crawled up my arm and onto my shoulders. it was odd they would do it so willingly, and yet they did, seeming to trust me more than i trusted them. grinning, i turned around, heading out from behind my hut as i thought. i obviously had to name them, didn't i? looking at the one on my left shoulder, i grinned. "you'll be odeng," and facing the one on his right, he laughed.  "-and you'll be gookmal."

feeling satisfied with his names for the two, who seemed to chatter happily after being named, i felt happier than i had in a very long time. i guess it was time to start researching on some sugar gliders, then.

Kirishima had been in the Typhoon for a rather long time now. Many weeks had passed had flown on by since then and he still missed his friends in Snowbound, though he wasn't sure if the Typhoon and Snowbound were still on bad terms or not. He didn't recall ever meeting Desmond before, so seeing the male with two sugar gliders and Goldie- curiosity quickly filled the Striker's eyes and he decided to walk up.

Adorable. Those two small creatures with the younger male were absolutely adorable. A smile would tug at the corners of Kirishima's maw, as he settled down on the ground beside Goldie. "Eijirou Kirishima." The red-feline introduced himself to Desmond.

{ .:*・°☆ } i felt a smile creep onto my face at the sound of my little sister's voice, except i was surprised when i suddenly saw some bird flying towards me at an alarming rate. yelping, i scrambled back, odeng and gookmal attempting to hide in my fur. falling onto the sand, i put my paws over my head, squeezing my eyes shut until i realized the coast was clear. i had overreacted from fright once again.

laughing nervously, i got up, brushing the sand off my marble patterned fur as my two sugar gliders began poking their heads out as well. "o-oh, uh, hey goldie! they're sugar gliders; which are kinda like flying squirrels but cuter." i joked, laughing quietly. my eyes blinking rapidly, i smiled when she mentioned how cute they were. "ah, ne, they are cute." when i said this, odeng and gookmal let out a satisfied little sneeze, and i felt my smile become bigger i laughed. "hey, they seem to know what that means!"

grinning widely at the two, who had begun to try to climb on my head, my eyes began to focus on a new person coming towards me. giving a few polite bows, while trying to keep odeng and gookmal from falling off, i introduced myself as well. "annyeonghaseyo, kirishima. my name is desmond, and this is odeng," i gestured to the one who had begun to get sleepy, laying down on my head, "-and this is gookmal." the other had begun to play with my ear, and i flicked it in annoyance, in which i got that weird rasping chatter-bark thing from him again.

tilting my head when linux came, and though i did not really know her, i knew that we were family. feeling shameful for not knowing my own... cousin, i assumed. bowing to her as well, a common sign of respect ( though normally to older people, i knew it might as well be respectful ), i grinned as she commented on them. "ahh, i can agree! i am glad to have come across them; they seemed to lonely," though they had had each other. maybe i was the one that felt lonely. shaking my head, i lowered my head to let gookmal, the only one who was awake now, look quietly at linux. "would you like to hold him?" i asked, tilting my head slightly as gookmal moved backwards slightly.

✯ — female. striker of the typhoon. blind. rusty spotted cat.  ref. bio.

"… Squirrels can fly?" That was a revelation.  The tiny feline popped up behind her other crewmates, pale sea-green hues staring blankly ahead, flickering in confusion.  Her ears flicked to and fro as she listened, surprised to find the chattering sounded like it came from something small.  Really small.  Like... She was actually a bit bigger than them small (though not by a whole terribly lot).  When she was a fully grown feline, Keona would still be... Extremely small.

She did not mind - it did make her a little self-conscious sometimes - but it made it all the more intriguing when something smaller came around.  "Aloha.  Keona is ainm dom," the little fae murmured, indifferent to the slight strangeness of her soft, lilted voice.  Hints of her deceased mother's Hawaiian accent often clashed with her father and uncle's musical irish.  She spoke both.  She liked both.  Quite a lot really, especially since she was rather proud of her improvement in Gaelic.

"Do they really fly?" Flight was another revolutionary concept.  Keona was rather frightened of heights.  She could not see how far down something was, only the instability or lack of ground beneath her paws and it terrified her.  More so than she'd like to admit openly.  Flight was something the birds did.  It was... Strange.  It meant their feet were entirely off the ground and they were not falling.

code by spacexual