be students, be teachers -- Malana

[Verdigris]

  [font=trebuchet ms]The sky was still smothered by a thick layer of clouds.

  The Tempest rocked gently, the water lapping against it as though nothing had happened- as though the waves hadn’t just wrecked the island. The smell of sea salt permeated the entirety of the land now, not just the beaches. Even a human, with their weak sense of smell, could choke on the stench of salt and mire; a jackal’s overdeveloped sense of smell would drown in it.

  So, Papercutter thought, he might as well remain on the ship for the time being, where it made sense for everything to reek of salinity. He kept his eyes on the ocean, as if waiting for it to retract, in preparation for another strike. Tidal waves didn’t usually strike multiple times in a row, but there was a first time for everything.

  Inwardly, he wondered where Rox had gone, and if she would ever return. He had his regrets about not being able to save the ruby, but at least the ruby wasn’t a living person that he was on some level responsible for. He had searched the island once already, and had found no sign of her barring the severed wings they'd stumbled on earlier, but there had to be something he was missing.

  He had taken a break both to clear his head and to keep watch on the ocean, but it seemed he was struggling to accomplish either one. Narrowing his eyes, Paper turned away from the sea and started pacing on the deck, his good ear swiveling to try and pick up any sounds. If someone else ended up on the shore like Malana had, he thought, he might as well try and be the first to know.

  /[member=1215]Malana[/member]
  /this is a whole lotta nothing tbh, all that matters is that he's hanging out on the deck of the Tempest

[Malana]

[color=#00688B]☾ ☾ ☾

Malana really didn't understand much of what was going on. She knew that her mother was no longer with her and that she was some sort of mutated cat, but aside from that, the world and its vast wonders were still pretty much a mystery to her. The people that made up her new pod seemed... troubled though, some disaster that the child, in all of her innocence, could not understand having struck them just before her arrival. But the thick clouds that occupied the sky and the scent of salt in the air did little to bother her, instead reminding her of home. The ocean. She so desperately wanted to know why her fellow crewmates were perturbed by the disturbance and further than that, she wanted to help them.

But she couldn't.

So she resorted to occupying herself in different ways, mainly chasing her tail around with excited fervor and bumping into all sorts of people on board the great ship they were all taking refuge in. It was called the Tornado or something like that, Malana just couldn't remember. Oh well, names didn't matter when you were too excited leaping upon your own tail, that was for sure. And besides, even if she did take special notice to names, its not like it would help her remember them any better. Malana had so much going on that she rarely stopped to ever observe anything.

A laugh would spill from obsidian colored lips as the child leapt, stumbled, and then crashed into the deck just before Papercutter. She seemed unfazed by the occurrence though, stumbling to paws that were still shaky and giggling again as if the funniest thing in her life had just transpired. She moved to pounce once more upon her whale tail but stopped abruptly when she noticed the older male, chocolate-hued eyes widening ever so slightly. [color=#00688b]"Oh! You! Hi! Hello!" She greeted cheerfully, [color=#00688b]"Paper... Paper.... Cuttingpaper? Paper... Papercutting? Papercutter! That's your name! I'm Malana!" The world and its troubled

[Verdigris]

  [font=trebuchet ms]Malana seemed oddly cheerful for someone who had just lost their mother, but then he supposed that she was fairly young, and might not really comprehend the concept of death yet. Losing a parent when you were still a baby and losing a parent when you were an adult were two very different experiences. Undertaker hadn't been his biological father, but Paper had a feeling he would have considered him like a father figure had he not died so soon- yet it was hard to miss someone you didn't remember clearly.

  As Malana crashed into the deck beside him, he turned towards her. Chasing one's own tail was part of growing up, he recalled, but he still had a feeling she might get herself injured someday with her constant bouncing around. Maybe that was for the better- injury was a heck of a teacher. As she spoke, he tilted his head to the right, exposing his left ear to her voice. "Papercutter, that's right," he answered, with a nod. "How have you been liking it here?" It was a banal question to ask, but he had a feeling she wanted conversation, and that was the best he could come up with.