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now that I know what I'm without
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Permalink Mark Unread

So, the food here is good, but mostly in that it's stable and available and that very very occasionally someone gets a full meal.  It's not, like, actually very particularly yummy.  There's the food-food, which are basically always boring in nearly the same ways, and then there's the food that you're only supposed to nibble the teeeeeniest bit on, which are more interesting in general but still get pretty old after a while.

It's time to see what else is out there.

Permalink Mark Unread

There's sea, lots of that. After a lot of sea, interesting in the way of the sea but only in that way, there is a boat, with a few dudes on it, hauling a netful of fish out of said sea, making it in some ways less interesting in the process.

Permalink Mark Unread

Woahhhhh no food has ever done anything at all like that before, at least anywhere observable.  This trip was the best idea.  It had better fly over to get a closer look.

Permalink Mark Unread

The closer look doesn't help much. They leave the fish dangling half-in and half-out of the water in their net, ceasing to reel them in any farther. One wraps himself up in his coat more tightly. One sits on the deck of the boat. One of them starts whimpering softly.

Permalink Mark Unread

Awwwwwww :(.  That is very usual.  Kind of interesting that they're doing the usual food thing in the middle of the sea, it supposes?  It'll investigate the boat and the net for a minute before heading back out to open water, which is at least more novel than Literally What Basically Its Entire Existence Until Now Has Been Made Up Of.

Permalink Mark Unread

Sea sea sea. Fish. Seals.

Beach! There's more food here. Some of the food is small, and running around on the sand!

Permalink Mark Unread

Seals are pretty cool.

- That food is not only doing novel actions but is also a novel shape and size!!  It's definitely gonna go take a look at them.

Permalink Mark Unread

As it gets closer the food stops doing novel actions. Some of the food screams, especially the small food. One of the larger food seizes a small food and clutches it very tightly while doing the usual shivering crying thing. There are still colorful umbrellas and beach towels to look at, though!

Permalink Mark Unread

No no no no no.  The umbrellas and beach towels are not more interesting than this mystery, even though they would have held it completely enthralled back at home.

It watches the small food up close, which is after all still an interesting shape, while it tries to work out what's going on.  Two times, food was acting completely unlike they usually do, and two times they stopped doing that when approached.

Hm.

Hmmmmmmmm.

 

What if it floats back to where it first saw the food and watches them for a while from over there?

Permalink Mark Unread

It takes a few minutes for the food to stop doing the normal food behavior, but they recover after some time. Some of the food depart the beach, but also some new food arrive! The small food make structures out of sand. Some medium-sized food play with a large ball. A full-sized food walks up and down the sand holding a long metal object. Foods rub white goo on each other.

Permalink Mark Unread

That's so weird!!  It will watch them for a really long while the way it thinks of time out here (although it wouldn't have felt long at all back home).

Eventually it thinks to approach the food reaaaaally sloooooowly, to see how close it can get without making them boring.

Permalink Mark Unread

When it does that they get boring - but more slowly! More of them leave the area; small foods cry and stop moving, but in less correlated ways; a food that was asleep on its towel makes disturbed noises and is shaken awake by another food. A family of food approach the beach and then turn right around and get back in their car.

Permalink Mark Unread

That's so weird.  It experiments a little with moving back and forth, in and away, until - wait wait wait waaaaaiiiit a second.

. . . . Does the boringness seem at all related to whether it's nibbling on them???

Permalink Mark Unread

Oh yeah. Totally.

Permalink Mark Unread

:0 :0 :0

. . . . . . . . .  :0

 

What if . . . it tries to get closer . . . . . but NOT nibble on them.

(It's kind of bad at not nibbling on them at all - they're food, and they're right there and way way more delicious than the stuff at home - but it can mostly not, and can stop pretty quickly whenever it starts.)

Permalink Mark Unread

If it doesn't nibble on them, or only nibbles on some of them, then the ones it's not nibbling on will go about their business! It can get quite close to the sand structures and look over the shoulders of the ones reading books and get lightly bonked by a beach ball, which confuses but doesn't boringify the food playing with the beach ball.

Permalink Mark Unread

It is So Clever.  No one has ever been as clever as it has.  The mysteries of the world are unraveling themselves and falling apart in its hands.  It's going to figure out what's up with these things that multiple foods are so interested in even though they aren't even moving around; it is unstoppa - it is bonked.

So it turns out that some things can be novel enough that they actually become bad, that's very good to know.  Probably being bonked would not be so startling a second time, but . . .

Better to be safe.  It'll nibble on the bonkfood until they drop the ball and then investigate the ball up close.  Really convenient that it knows how to selectively boringify and unboringify food with zero consequences now.

Permalink Mark Unread

The bonkfood doesn't drop the ball, actually, it hugs it while it sits down and gets boring.

Permalink Mark Unread

What if it lets the bonkfood unboringify and then tries again.

Permalink Mark Unread

Then the food takes its ball and goes home.

Permalink Mark Unread

Noooo consequences D:

. . . It can follow the bonkfood.  It won't even nibble on them for now.

Permalink Mark Unread

It can watch the bonkfood walk away from the beach and up into the non-beach parts of the land! Bonkfood collects a bag on the way out, takes shoes out of the bag and puts them on its feet, and gets on a bicycle and rides down a street.

Permalink Mark Unread

Where is the ball??

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The ball is deflated and put in a basket on the bicycle!

Permalink Mark Unread

- Huh!  It had not expected the ball could do that.

It can definitely fly fast enough to keep up with an enbicycled food.  And intends to, until the bonkfood stops or maybe if it sees something else really interesting.

Permalink Mark Unread

The enbicycled bonkfood continues down the street past:

- houses
- apartments
- restaurants
- a rug store
- a candle shop
- a bakery
- a butcher shop
- a post office
- a church
- houses houses houses, and then a particular house it stops in front of and enters

Permalink Mark Unread

None of those are as interesting as the bonkfood and the ball, although maybe it'll go back and look at some of those places later.

Can it follow the bonkfood into the house?

Permalink Mark Unread

Nope. It closes the door behind it. But the windows are see-through! It can watch the bonkfood get itself a cup of juice from the fridge.

Permalink Mark Unread

It will definitely do that.  It hhhhhhrrrrrnnnnngggggggggggs thoughtfully about this conundrum.

Permalink Mark Unread

The bonkfood drinks the juice and looks at a large piece of grayish paper with black marks on it.

Permalink Mark Unread

Probably this is an important clue in the mystery from earlier that the bonking interrupted but it's also kind of boring.  Is there really no way into the house?

Permalink Mark Unread

Well, it could try to open the door like the food did. And then bend way down.

Permalink Mark Unread

That's a pretty difficult concept; food can do lots of things that it can't.  But after a few laps ggggghhhhhhhhhhhing around the house it does decide to give this advanced technique a go.  (And it can float horizontally to fit, too, that's fine.)

Permalink Mark Unread

The food did not lock the door, so the handle will turn! This will alarm the food, which gets up from where it's sitting to go close the door again and lock it this time.

Permalink Mark Unread

That's so confusing.  If that's a food-only ability then why did it work the first time?  It is going to yell at the door about this.

Permalink Mark Unread

The door is unresponsive. The food puts its empty juice glass in the sink and goes upstairs.

Permalink Mark Unread

Are there windows up there?

Permalink Mark Unread

Yup. A floating observer can watch the food get a pack of cards and flop on a bed to arrange them in a pattern and then move them around from place to place within that pattern.

Permalink Mark Unread

This is not very comprehensible but it's a very interesting kind of incomprehensible because there are things moving around to watch!  Hovering around trying to discern patterns is definitely not boring and it will keep doing that until the food changes activities.

Permalink Mark Unread

The food collects all the cards into a pile again, gradually, and then starts re-patterning them, and then another food appears at the doorstep and unlocks the door!

Permalink Mark Unread

- It was kind of too engrossed to notice the other food coming from very far away but if it's fast can it slip in behind them?

Permalink Mark Unread

Yup, though a bit of its cloak catches in the door closure.

Permalink Mark Unread

Oh dear.  It will try and work that out in a minute, but in the meantime there are more important concerns: can it see the ball?

Permalink Mark Unread

No, the ball is not in evidence.

Permalink Mark Unread

:'(  Why is everything so hard.

How does the stuckness of its cloak respond to light floating-away-tugging?

Permalink Mark Unread

It's too stuck for that.

Permalink Mark Unread

Oh no.  It will tentatively try using its hands to solve this problem.  It may not have a very solid grasp on solid grasping, but that's the strategy that worked kind of variably before so it'll try to be at least a little persistent about it.

Permalink Mark Unread

With some force the cloak will come free.

Permalink Mark Unread

And so it's time for Look For Ball: Part Two: Now With More Range Of Motion.

Permalink Mark Unread

The ball is...

not in the house. The bicycle is in the front yard, and the ball was never removed from its basket.

However, there is a different ball in the house. This one is orange and in a bowl on the table where the newspaper lies.

Permalink Mark Unread


. . . . poke

Permalink Mark Unread

It rolls up the side of the bowl a little bit, then wobbles back down.

Permalink Mark Unread

Wow!

It kind of pets the ball, trying to discern things about the texture.

(Also it doesn't really think the ball is going to fly up for an additional bonk, but it wants to be very prepared for if it does, and is braced accordingly.)

Permalink Mark Unread

The ball is slightly waxy-feeling, and the surface is uneven. On close inspection it's not perfectly circular and has an indent in one side and a little green thingamabob opposite it. The bowl also contains two yellow crescents and a weirdly shaped light green thing.

Permalink Mark Unread

If it pokes all three types of object from the top, do they squish similarly?  Do any of them feel like the bonk?  What if it squishpokes harder?  Faster?  Both??

Permalink Mark Unread

The orange object is very firm; the yellow one less so, and the green one retains a noticeable indent after the poking finger is removed. None of them are quite the same as the bonk. If it squishpokes harder and faster it can poke a hole all the way through the green one and get goo on its finger!

Permalink Mark Unread

Now there is goo on its finger.  It's not really sure what to do about this.  . . . What if it pets the green thing with the goofinger.

Permalink Mark Unread

Then there is a smear of goo on the outside, previously gooless skin of the green thing. The inside of it is whitish.

Permalink Mark Unread

Hhhhmmmmmm.  Can it put goo from the green thing on the other objects?  What about the bowl?  What about the table and the walls?  Maybe it should do some additional squishpoking to get enough goo to find out.

Permalink Mark Unread

It can smear goo all over the place!

The food that recently entered the house is staring through it at the antics of the goo-producing object.

Permalink Mark Unread

 

 

Can goo go on the food.

Permalink Mark Unread

Yes! Then the food screams - quite a lot - and the upstairs food comes hurtling down the stairs just in time for the smeared food to grab its hand and haul it out of the house.

Permalink Mark Unread

Oh.  It wasn't even nibbling on them??   . . . Also it had forgotten that the original objective was to get the goo off its hand, and now instead there is more goo.  Smear smear smear smear.

Time to go back to looking for the specific ball that bonked it (which of course it has absolutely no way of discerning is not in the house).

Permalink Mark Unread

It is now in an unoccupied house with the front door standing open, shifting slightly in the wind.

It does not find the specific beach ball that bonked it. It can find the fridge, the sink, the tablecloth, the bathroom, the living room sofa, the stair runner rug, the light fixtures, the trash can, a box of cake mix, a mop, a case of beer, clothes in the upstairs closets, some magazines, an umbrella, and a sewing machine.

Permalink Mark Unread

Woah, the trash can has a lot of different kinds of stuff in it.  Maybe the ball's in there?

Permalink Mark Unread

The trash contains:

- crushed beer cans
- carrot tops
- potato peelings
- glass shards
- dust, dirt, and hair
- used matches
- plastic wrap with various grime on it
- fish bones
- banana peels and accompanying fruit flies
- bits of cardboard and paper

Permalink Mark Unread

It sorts these into piles by kind to make very sure that there's not a ball hiding somewhere in there and then floats over to poke at the light fixtures.

Permalink Mark Unread

They make a noise when tapped! They're warm!

Permalink Mark Unread

tap tap taptatap tap    tap taptap  tatap tatap tatap tttap

. . . . pressing a hand to it to feel the warmth more?

Permalink Mark Unread

It continues being steadily warm. Kind of hot, actually, if a hand lingers on it.

Permalink Mark Unread

But if it taptaps on it that's not hot?

Permalink Mark Unread

It's only very briefly hot, which is like being less hot!

Permalink Mark Unread

Enough like being less hot to be very intriguing and worth experimenting with for a good few minutes.  Taptap tap press press tap.  Confusion confusion.

It does several more laps around the house searching for the ball before it gives up and floats back outside.

Permalink Mark Unread

The deflated ball remains with the bike where it's propped up against a hedge.

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 - ball!!!

Very tentative careful poke.

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It is smooth except where sand is still adhering to it.

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Poke poke stroke stroke.

. . . . before it was a ball.  Now it's kind of a flat thing.  Is there a way to make it a ball again?  Perhaps using advanced strategies such as trying to pinch opposite sides of the deflated skin and pull them apart?  Over several tries, because dexterity is very very difficult?

Permalink Mark Unread

This does not really work, though it can cause the ball to deform in an extremely wide variety of ways!

Permalink Mark Unread

Good to know that an object which was previously Much Too Interesting can be a fun amount of interesting under the right circumstances.  It rrrrggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhs agreeably at the ball.

 

. . . . If it hits the ball does that produce a bonk though.

Permalink Mark Unread

In fact no! It produces a thwuck noise.

Permalink Mark Unread

That's stran - oh!  Maybe something that eats balls made a full meal out of this ball and now it's extra super boring forever.  To the type of entity that eats balls, not to it.  It thinks the deflated ball is pretty cool, and will experiment with pulling at and poking and whacking it for a while longer.

And then it'll go check out the church!  That being the most interesting building it saw on the way here.

Permalink Mark Unread

The church is reasonably nicely decorated. The door isn't locked and it can go right in, though there's no food obviously around at the moment.

Permalink Mark Unread

Ohh.  Yes it will inspect all of the decorations very closely.

Permalink Mark Unread

There are crosses and flyers and cushions and books and windows and blue carpet and wooden pews!

Permalink Mark Unread

Those things in the back of the pews are like the things that the food at the beach were staring at when it got bonked!  It will investigate them.

Permalink Mark Unread

They are each a stack of flat things, thin ones between thicker ones, all attached at one side.

Permalink Mark Unread

That is still pretty mysterious but at least they feel kind of nice to touch.

(It is not very capable of being careful about the way it touches things.)

Permalink Mark Unread

The thin bits rip when pulled in some ways.

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It tries to unrip the thin bit.  Surely this is just like the ball which could be moved relative to itself in so many interesting ways?

Permalink Mark Unread

It stubbornly declines to unrip. Trying too aggressively may cause more rip!

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:0

But also there is no goo like the green thing?  What if it pokes it harder?

Permalink Mark Unread

No goo! Only rip!

Permalink Mark Unread

 

Well, ripping is a nice noise.  And if it goes more slowly the noise is nicer.  Maybe these are all here for food to make noise with?  But no, the food from before weren't tearing them . . .

It closes and opens and closes and opens the flat thing, inspecting it from different angles, and then flies down each row of pews looking for any flat things that seem like they might have torn insides.

Permalink Mark Unread

It looks like none of the flat things have been torn as extensively as the one it was just playing with.

Permalink Mark Unread

But it barely tore that one at all!  There are so many thin bits left intact!  . . . Hm, so probably the flat things are not for ripping.

What are the windows like?

Permalink Mark Unread

They are clear and display the outdoors through their panes.

Permalink Mark Unread

Tap tap.  Are they warmhot like the light fixture was?

Permalink Mark Unread

Nope, quite cool!

Permalink Mark Unread

Even if it leaves its palm against them for a very long time?  Wow.  It ggggggggggggnnnnnnnnns at this mystery and then rhhhhhhhh?s at the mystery of the acoustics and then spends several minutes making as many different noises as it knows from different floating spots.

Permalink Mark Unread

The acoustics are pretty resonant; there are high ceilings.

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Hhhhhhreugggghhhnnnn.  HhhnnnnnnNNNNNNHHHHHHggggggggg.  Rhnnnn.

Permalink Mark Unread

A food enters the building and sits down in a pew.

Permalink Mark Unread

It's kind of hungry and this food is already being a little boring, but maybe they'll illuminatingly interact with the flat things soon so it decides not to nibble on them.  It's gonna keep making fun echoey noises while it waits for them to do something interesting though.

Permalink Mark Unread

It doesn't take one of the resident flat things but does presently produce a flat thing of its own. It opens it up - no tearing - and looks at some of the flatness.

Permalink Mark Unread

Hm.  Just looking at it?  Is there anything interesting about the flatness?  Is it making fun, non-ripping noises of some kind?

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Just looking at it! No noises! The flatness has some black marks on it.

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It looks really hard at the black marks, trying to see them better and figure them out.  (Oops, that was a nibble.)

Permalink Mark Unread

The food starts crying.

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Oh come on, that was ONE nibble.  It will be extra careful about not taking any more.

Permalink Mark Unread

The food stops crying eventually and turns over one of the thin flat things to be looking at different marks.

Permalink Mark Unread

The marks are so mysterious.  Does the food look at different different marks after a while?

Permalink Mark Unread

Yes, if supervised long enough it will gradually page through a lot of different different marks.

Permalink Mark Unread

Just as predicted!  It's so smart.  . . . It's a little bored.  It ""sings"" as it waits to see if it can resolve the marks and the flat things in general and the foods' actions towards them into something that makes any sense.

Permalink Mark Unread

The food is not especially helpful toward this end.

Permalink Mark Unread

Hmmmmm.

Maybe if it goes outside and looks for a food that, while not the usual sort of boring, is at least not doing anything very interesting, and has a snack, and comes back, things will make sense then.

Permalink Mark Unread

It can find foods sitting on a bench making sounds to each other, and foods walking down the sidewalk, and foods in cars, and foods in shops, and foods in strollers, and foods in pubs.

Permalink Mark Unread

Oh no that's all pretty interesting.  It hovers over the hood and peers through the windshield of a car waiting at a stop sign.

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The food in there is tapping the circle in front of it, and humming along to the radio!

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sounds.

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The sounds go up and down and LOUDER and softer and ba-dum-ba-dum-ba-dum and oooOOOoo.

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These are the BEST sounds it has EVER heard.  It is paying way too much attention to the sounds to have any chance of noticing when the car starts to move.

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The car begins to roll when the cars going the other way have enough gap.

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Sounds sounds sounds sounds!

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The car and all its sounds clonk into its legs. The sounds are drowned out by a HOOOOOOONK.

Permalink Mark Unread

Such bonking and clonking does all this not-home contain D:  At least it had an idea that this category of happening existed this time.  Also that sound is NOT the best sound it has ever heard.  Maybe it should nibble on the food about this - no, that might mean the good sounds never come back, somehow; foods are so confusing.

It doesn't maneuver itself out of the way of the car while pondering this.

Permalink Mark Unread

The car stops, pressed up against its legs, and the food gets out of it and comes around to look at the situation before it, though of course it's missing some important information.

Permalink Mark Unread

Now it moves out of the way; the food should not touch it.  What about the goodsounds??

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The goodsounds are ongoing! They come from the car, not the food.

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Good goodsounds, good car.

. . . . Can it get in the car.

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It will have to fold up QUITE small.

But yes. The door is open.

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That's a little logistically complicated; it ends up slightly stuck half in and half out of the car.  That's fine though, there are still goodsounds here.

Permalink Mark Unread

The food is now attempting to get back into the car.

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There is invisible fabric draped around an invisible skeletal figure in the way.

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Well, if the inivisble skeletal figure didn't want to be touched it's going to have a problem with that as the food tries to bat it away like it's a spiderweb.

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ACK.  Nibble nibble.

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The offending food sits down hard on the asphalt. Another car over there is honking now. A food has stopped a car behind this one and gotten out to approach the sat-on-the-ground food.

Permalink Mark Unread

It's trying really hard to unstick itself but its sleeve is caught on some sort of lever and that's making things difficult.  It'll keep nibbling the food that touched it and if the approaching one seems like they might touch it too it will also start on that one.

Permalink Mark Unread

The approaching one is mostly interested in the sat food but does in the process get pretty close...

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Frightening!  Nom nom nom, just to be safe.

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Approaching food flees back to its own car.

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Good food.

Oh aha!  The key to becoming unstuck is to go further into the car.   . . . Now it is in the car.  It is feld up quite small.  It'll keep nibbling until it stops being quite so hungry or if the goodsounds stop.

Permalink Mark Unread

Now the food sitting on the asphalt is doing the boringfood behavior of rocking back and forth and crying.

A few minutes later the goodsounds are drowned out by a LOUD BADSOUND made by an approaching vehicle.

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Oh no :(.  It's just gonna keep eating and hope the sounds return to goodness soon.

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The activity around this area generally comes to a halt and the food all starts acting boring.

But the LOUD BADSOUND continues unabated.

Permalink Mark Unread

It hates the loud badsound :( :( :((((((((.

Maybe . . . eating foods . . . also causes Bad interestingness.  Instead of just boringness.

 

It will try stopping eating; it's no longer quite so hungry anyways.  And also start attempting to get out of the car again, although it's even harder from the inside since it's so so squished.

Permalink Mark Unread

When it stops eating the foods gradually recover their interestingness! Foods from the source of the LOUD BADSOUND turn it off; it is now possible again to hear the goodsound. The foods from the source of the loud badsound approach the food near the goodsound and help it stand up and walk over to the source of loud badsound. A food reaches into the car and turns the key, which turns off the goodsound.

Permalink Mark Unread

It suddenly appreciates very much how accessible and convenient the food back at home was.

It makes some progress in exiting the car but ends up elbowing the horn.  And now there is not even goodsounds once this loud badsound stops :'(

Permalink Mark Unread

The food all startle in a possibly interesting way when this happens but then go back to what they are doing, which is mostly Leaving The Area.

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It takes a few more honks - oh, that's what's causing that, it will work to not press on the circle even though that makes things even harder - for it to successfully exit the car.

. . . . . Back to church?

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The church is about like it left it except the food that was in it has gone and a different food is sweeping the floor.

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Foods should only do interesting things (such as moving to other places) where it can see >:(  It'll watch the sweeping one for a while, singing and tapping on the windows to pass the time.  Just in case they start doing something novel.

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Eventually the sweeping food is done and puts the broom away in a closet and leaves.

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That's too bad.  It'll return to the beach, then.

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The beach is less populated at the moment than it was before, but people are walking along it holding hands, and somebody has... a boombox! Which makes goodsounds!

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:D :D :D multiple foods have goodsounds generators!  What a delighting development!  Obviously it's gonna hang out with that food.

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When the song changes, the FOOD starts making goodsounds that match the ones coming out of the box.

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!

 

. . .

. . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

. . . Can it make goodsounds.  (Urrrnngghhhh.  Hhhrrhhhh, hhrrnn.)

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Its attempts are substantially different in character.

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 It will listen very closely to the goodsounds and try and figure out what makes them good, with occasional short attempts at reproducing them.

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The food lies there on the beach listening to goodsounds for a while, but eventually turns off the boombox, picks it up, and carries it (and other less interesting possessions) away.

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Of COURSE it is going to follow this food.  It's so interesting that the food can make goodsounds; the first food with the goodsounds made similar noises but they weren't good.  This is its new favorite food.

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The food walks home, humming a little, and lets itself into a house.

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If it's very quick can it also be let into that house.

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Yup, though it'll have to be real fast!

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Its cloak and it brush and bump against the goodfood a little in the process but can definitely go real fast.

(It's fine when it is the one to touch food, at least this much.)

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The food shrieks when brushed and bats at its own arm.

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Maybe if it holds VERY STILL and DEFINITELY DOESN'T EAT THE FOOD AT ALL this will not have ruined goodfood's goodsounds producing forever.  Although if goodfood comes towards it at all it will try to move out of the way.  Without touching anything, if possible.

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The food calms down after a moment and puts the boombox down and goes to the kitchen, humming again, and starts cutting off the outsides of brown lumps.

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Oh that was so fast thank goodness.  It CAUTIOUSLY floats behind the food to watch and listen.

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Hum hum hum. Lumps, white on the inside, go in a pot. Water goes in the pot. Pot goes on the stove and starts heating up.

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Appreciative ggguuuuennnnnnn.  - Hm, that still wasn't very much like the goodsounds in nearly all ways but there was something about it that sounded a little nice, combining with the goodfood's humming.

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Pot starts boiling. Food dumps a spice packet and some butter in a littler pot and heats that.

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Eghhhhhhhh.  Hhhhhhhhhhhehhhhhhh.  Harrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhh.  No, it can't quite seem to recapture the niceness yet.

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Lumps get poured into a strainer and added to the littler pot and stirred around.

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Hrrrrrrrrkhkhkhkhh.

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Lumps get dumped, butter and all, onto a plate, and then the food fills a glass with water from the sink, and sits down and consumes lumps with its mouth.

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Oh!  Boring food did that sometimes too.  It's more interesting when non-boring food does it.

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The food does that, and also picks up a rectangle and aims it at a square, and - poof! the square lights up! and after a little confusion about what color its lights should be... it makes goodsounds!

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:D!  These goodsounds are definitely better than the ones the food made even though the food goodsounds are also good.  But these ones are just so much more complicated, with so much more good per sound!

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Goodsounds Via Square will continue with some blips into less good sounds here and there for the next hour.

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The mediocresounds are fine it supposes but it's really delighted when the goodsounds come back so soon; that's almost as surprising as the square causing them in the first place.  And then that cycle happens several times in a pattern??  How mysterious.

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Eventually at a mediocresound interval the square goes dark and the food starts putting water and a non-water substance on the dishes and rubbing them with a squishy holey thing.

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It kind of really wants to poke the squishy holey thing but because it is very smart it will wait until the food is interacting with something else.

Are there any other things around that look interesting to poke?

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There is a dishtowel, and fridge magnets, and curtains, and a knitting basket. When the food is done with the dishes it moves to the knitting basket.

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The knitting basket is definitely the most interesting of those but it doesn't really notice it until the food pays it attention, so that disqualifies it for pokehood.  But now the sponge is free - oh!  It's just as squishy as it looked!  The sponge can come along with it to be squish-squish-squished as it goes to observe what the food does with the knitting basket.

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The food starts knitting, enough to make it tantalizingly clear what knitting is fundamentally about... and then notices the floating sponge, squishing itself, and screams.

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It was NOT nibbling goodfood AT ALL so clearly this must be about something else.  It looks around to see if there's an obvious source to this behavior, spinning in place to check behind itself.

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The food drops the knitting and bolts out of the house.

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Oh, time to leave it guesses?  Where are they going?  Hopefully somewhere interesting.

(Another interesting thing is that even though it has Solved the Mystery of the sponge (it looked squishy, and: it's squishy), said sponge is still quite pleasing to squeeze.  Squish squoosh fly fly follow follow.)

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It's starting to get dark, but there's enough ambient light to notice a floating sponge, and a few passersby also scream and flee as it approaches.

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It cares about them much less than goodfood.  Follow follow follow follow.

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The goodfood runs to another house and bangs on the door! A different food opens the door. They make mediocresounds.

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Cool!  It'll just hang out here with them while they do that.

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Inside food spots the sponge and yelps, then grabs a small stone hedgehog from the doorstep and throws it hard at the sponge's vicinity.

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Thonk!  Why this.  Truly does its life now contain both great joy and great turmoil.

(The foods see the hedgehog hit something and fall not quite straight down.)

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The goodsoundsfood squirms into the house past the the throwing food and the throwing food, invigorated somehow by this result, continues throwing everything in reach. Umbrella, boots one after the other, a telephone book.

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Well, once it knows what's coming it can try and dodge worsefood's projectiles.  >:(

It'll try dodging into the house, how about; goodfood is in there and has never caused it to be bonked or clonked or thonked or onked of any kind.

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When the sponge starts getting closer to the door the worsefood picks up a broom and starts thwacking wildly through the space around it.

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It drops the sponge after being hit a few times.

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The broom did successfully connect, though, so the worsefood will keep swinging.

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See, this is why it doesn't like foods touching it.  It tries to grab the broom or push it away or otherwise prevent worsefood from hitting it, kind of flailily.

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The worsefood is alarmed but not deterred when the broom encounters resistance to being further swung! It's yelling!

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Alright, well, time for worsefood to become ONE nibble's worth of boring.

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Now the worsefood is screaming LOUDER AND LOUDER and wielding the broom with less skill.

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Okay, like two nibbles.  Maybe three.  Just enough for it to get inside to goodfood.

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The worsefood gets quieter, and slower, and finally runs inside and slams the door.

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And now the three of them can hang out in here!  That was really weird.  Is there a knitting basket around, it's still curious about that and it would be pretty nice if the foods went back to it.  Especially if goodfood made goodsounds during.

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The goodfood is crying. The worsefood is sitting next to it and hugging it and also crying.

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Okay, that makes no sense; it didn't even nibble goodfood?  It has been SO careful not to nibble goodfood.

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Goodfood is crying anyway. They are hugging each other and sobbing.

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Foods are so mysterious.  Are there any cool things for it to poke at while it waits around to see if they stop?

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There's another one of the mysterious light-up squares, though it is not lit up. There is a deck of cards spread out on the kitchen table. There is a taxidermied cat on the hearth.

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Oh, cards!  It saw that one food doing things with those.  It pokes them a few times and then attempts to find out whether it can derive any meaning out of trying to arrange them like the food did.  To the best of its ability and memory.

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The foods, upon noticing the cards in motion, scream and flee the house together.

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. . . Oh, okay.  Well, it follows them.  (The cards are interesting but not sensorily pleasing; it leaves them behind.)

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They run to the church! It's been there before! They run as fast as they can and shut the door behind them and barricade it as best they can.

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It has been there before!!  And the door worked every - okay the door does not work this time.  Doors are very mysterious.  It will look in the windows instead.

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There they are, adding things to the barricade.

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That's so interesting because before it was on the inside looking out and now it's outside but it can still see inside, but not go there.  Very strange.

Does the glass still tap-tap?  Is it still cool or is it warm from this side?  Maybe the lightbulb was coolcold from the inside, if only it'd had a way to feel in there.

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The glass tap-taps. It's getting dark now and the glass is pretty chilly.

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Huh!

It looks for another way into the church.

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There is another door, but it's locked.

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Okay.  It'll go back to tapping irregular beats on the windows and watching the foods.

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The foods are done with the barricade and are huddled together on their knees. They startle at the louder taps.

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For like, a long time?  Do they do anything interesting after a bit?

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Eventually one of them lies down.

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That is NOT interesting.

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They don't seem inclined to be interesting right now.

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:( sad.  It will maybe do other things for awhile and then come back.  Like go to the beach, beach?

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The sun has set by the time it arrives at the beach. Nobody's there right now.

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Okay.  It'll float around looking for something else interesting, vaguely making its way back to worsefood's house to pick up the sponge again if nothing distracts it along the way.

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Somebody is taking a dog for a late walk. A fight breaks out in the pub.

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Woah, sometimes foods hit each other and not just it!?  Yeah that's distracting.

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Foods hit each other! Other foods try to pull the hitting foods away from each other!

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So sad that it did not see this fight start, so that it could maybe understand what causes food to hit, and learn to spot it soon enough to get out of the way.  This is fascinating though and it's gonna hang out here to watch it and then see if any more fights break out and if so: why.

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The fighting foods are ultimately separated and sent their separate ways. Other foods resume eating things and drinking things and making mediocresounds.

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Hmmmmm it cannot do all three of following the two fighting foods and staying here . . . is there anything that makes one of those options stand out as particularly likely to be interesting?

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One of the fighting foods has company with it and the other is alone. The pub has a light-up rectangle, though it is making mediocre sounds instead of good ones.

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Well, the first light-up rectangle also made mediocresounds sometimes.  It'll stay here.

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This rectangle seems mostly disinclined to make goodsounds, though there are occasional very brief interludes thereof.

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So different light-up rectangles have different cycles of goodsounds to not, that's good to know.  (It gets pretty excited each time the short goodsounds happen, thinking that maybe this one will last longer - but okay, no.)

What are the non-fighty foods doing?

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They are making mediocre sounds and eating and drinking. One is serving food and beverages. They are looking at the rectangle sometimes when they aren't busy making mediocresounds.

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If there are any items like the ones being served by that one food to other foods, but which are currently far away from all foods, it would like to poke at them.

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Someone has gone to the loo and left their Scotch egg half-eaten on the table.

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That will do nicely!  Poke-a poke.

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It's warm and greasy and yielding and with enough poking will fall apart.

The food it belongs to appears from the loo after a minute.

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Oh!  What fun and lovely poking-qualities.

It reluctantly sideswoops out of the way of the approaching food.

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The food is pretty confused about the state of the meal. It goes over to the bar and mediocrenoises at the food there. The food there replies. It goes and asks another food at a neighboring table about it. That food doesn't know either. It gets rid of the poked Scotch egg in the trash and heads out of the pub.

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Are there any foods near the trash can once that one leaves?

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Yes, someone dumps their chicken bones, but then they leave and it's clear for a few meters around.

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Then that means the eggs are retrievable!!  Ooh chicken bones, it'll grab those too.  And any other interesting treasures which reveal themselves when the trashcan is knocked over.

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When the trashcan falls over all the foods look in that direction.

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Well if they start to approach it'll get out of the way but in the meantime it's time to poke some eggs.

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The foods are getting louder with the mediocre noises.

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And now the egg is all poked apart and therefore much less interesting.  It'll go back to idly observing the foods.

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Some of the foods, in oddly coordinated timing, collect their possessions and hightail it out of the pub. A couple stay, including the one behind the bar, but they're quiet now, and jumpy.

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It tries to replicate one of the short goodsounds it heard on the light-up rectangle earlier while it watches.  Gnnnnnnnnehhhhhh.  Gnn - gnehhehhhh?  Gnnnnnnnmm.

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The last few patrons of the pub make their exits over the next twenty minutes and the bartender cleans up the trash, warily, and then tidies the rest of the pub.

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Huh.  Interesting that the trash can was one way and then the food put it back to be that same way later.  This feels like a revelation of some sort although (despite the fact that it's very clever) the pieces aren't quite all fitting together yet.

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When the pub is all cleaned up the last food in the building turns out the light, slips out the door, and locks up.

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It misses the chance to exit with the bartender and spends a few minutes alone in the pub before - okay no this is a door that is not working right now.  Are there any other doors or . . . holes?  Of any kind?  Which it might use to leave.

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There are windows. They are also locked.

There's the door to the loo, but it doesn't have any further doors beyond that point.

There is a fire exit in the back but it doesn't look very much like other doors it has encountered before.

Outside, it starts to rain.

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It has already figured out so many doors, surely this strange one can also be conquered?

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Well, if it pushes hard enough on the fire door, a BAD NOISE ENSUES!!!!!

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UGH.  At least that happened to happen at exactly the moment it figured out this door's secret, so it can fly well away.

A figure-shaped hole in the rain sets off to collect its sponge.

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The sponge is gone now, actually.

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Oh NO.  For sure?  Even if it looks everywhere?

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Well, there's a lot of everywhere, but it's nowhere in the yard where it left it.

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:'( sponge . . .

Back to the church to check on the foods there?

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There are now more foods there! The door is still barricaded though.

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Are they doing interesting things now that there's more of them?

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They are mostly just making mediocresounds at each other. A couple are pacing up and down the sides of the building, looking out the windows, though this doesn't help them find it at all.

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- Something almost occurs to it, and it spends a while mulling the thought over.

Foods sometimes cause goodsounds, or make goodsounds themselves.  But mostly they make mediocresounds.

It cannot cause or make goodsounds on its own, but it can make any sounds . . .

Which are kind of mediocre . . . and if it thinks about them as sounds rather than just something it's producing . . . .

 

It's going to try and make specifically the kinds of mediocresounds that the foods are making.

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The mediocre sounds are many and varied! It's a little hard to hear them through the window but it can hear "ghost" and "drunk" and "sponge" and "trash can" and "broom" and other such opaquely enciphered noises.

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Ghhhhhhhohhhhhhhh.  Ohhhhsssssss.  Ssssss?  St.  Ohhhhhhhhssssst.  Ghhohhhhhhhmmmmmm.  Nhhhhnmm.  Gohhhs.  Uhnnnnnn.  Ssssssuhnnnng.

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Foods continue chattering. Another food shows up at the church and knocks, bang-bang-tap-bang-bang-tap, and peeks in the window, and the foods take down the barricade and let the new food in, but then close the door again right away and put the barricade back up.

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Oh, then maybe more foods will come later!  It'll keep an eye out for that and try to slip in beside one next time.

Hhhhhffffffffff.  Fffffffffn.  P.  Phhhehhhh.  Bhhhh.  Beh?  Rrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhh.  Mmmmm.

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One of the foods is making the mediocre noises at a beige curved shape it is holding to its face.

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Hhhhhhhhhhhh.  Hhhhehhhh?  Rrrrrrrrhhhhhh.  Rrhhh.  Lllh?  Lh.  Rrrrh.  Llllllllllhhhhhhehhhh.   Ohhhhhhhhh.  Hhher - Hhhlllllllllllllm.  HhllllllllLLLLLLLLLlllllllllhhhhh.  Hhhhhehhhhhhhllllllllllllllllllllllllllllohhhh.

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Roughly an hour later, a group of foods appear with a loud CRACK.

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At least the loud noise is short this time.

It keeps hhhhhhhhhhhheeehllloooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhing and ghhhhhhhosssssting and ssssssssponnnnnnnnnggggggging to itself while it watches to see what they'll do.  It's gotten so good at sounds in the last hour!

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They all proceed to cast The Spell That Is Unpleasant and also one of them casts The Spell That Lets Them Communicate Slightly. The Spell That Lets Them Communicate Slightly says that it should go back home.

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The concept of communication is still pretty far beyond its comprehension because it's so very advanced; even very clever beings can't really be expected to understand that.

Totally unrelatedly, the thought occurs to it that it could go home.

On the one hand that sounds really boring, because it's been at home basically forever and the entire time there wasn't as interesting as its short adventure since finding the beach has been.  But on the other hand at home there are basically no onks nor very loudbad noises.  Sometimes there's The Spell That Is Unpleasant, but honestly it doesn't even feel that bad right now, so probably it had only been naïve about what sorts of unpleasantness were possible.

Yeah, it'll start to drift home at least for now, it guesses.

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Oh good.

The Obliviators take care of the rest of it once it's on its way back over the water.

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Drift drooft.  Water water sea.  So much water, so much sea.

And then home!

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The less-boring foods at home, the ones with The Spell That Is Unpleasant, confirm that it has gotten there and consider the matter settled.

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It has been at sea for A While and is going to nibble the first thing it - ow fuck ow okay The Spell That Is Unpleasant is in fact actually unpleasant if it tries to eat anything at all.  It will turn its appetite to the normal boringfoods.

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The normal boringfoods are pretty much as expected. (Though sometimes they do make mediocresounds.)

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Now that it's not quite so hungry it seems important to see if the normal boringfoods will become novel interestingfoods if it doesn't nibble on them for a while.

(Sssssssssssd.  Sssssdahhhhhh.  D.  Dhhhhh.  T.  T!  Ssssstahhhhhphhhhhhhhh.  Nnnnnnnoooohhhhhhhh.  Hhhhn.)

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Well, they're still getting nibbled on. Lots of nibbling is ambient.

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. . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . Oh!  Yeah, it kind of is, isn't it.  There are other its around; that makes sense.  (It is so smart.)

It floats up to one of them with an agreeable Ggghhnnm.

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It receives a friendly Hhhrrrreehhhhhgh in turn.

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- It should have planned out more of how to achieve what it wants beforehand.  Hm.

. . . Nnnnnrrehhhn?  ('Food's been pretty good lately, hasn't it?')  A usual, standard conversation topic.

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Ffffffffhhhh.  ('Yeah, pretty good.')

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Rrrrrmnhhhhh.  ('Yeah.')

 

 

Mmmmmhhhhheehhhhhkhkhkhkhkhkh.  ('So like, foods, are sometimes, like, interesting?')

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Nnnnehh?  ('lmao what')

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Rohhhhrrrrrrnn.  Khhhhehhhssssss.  Hhhhhh.  ('They're like, interesting.  They do things, if you don't eat them for a while.')

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Phehhk.  Hhhhedhhhhhh.  ('That sounds wack.  How would you even do that.')

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Rheeehhhhhhhhhhhnn?  ('So, eating, right?')

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Hrrrrrrrrringk.  ('Yeah, eating.')

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PhhhhhhihrrrrhhhhhmmMMMMnnnmn.  ('Yeah, eating: not that.')

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Gggggghhhhenn??  ('. . . Not eating?  But they're food.')

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Sssssssdahhhhh.  Hheh.  ('Yeah, but you can also just not!  And then they're interesting sometimes.')

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Rrrrrra.  ('But . . . . . they're foods.')

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It goes through several repetitions of this conversation segment without much progress before trying to move on.

Fffffffffffffehh?  ('Sometimes they make sounds that are good!  It's better than eating them.  Better than a full meal, even')

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Khhhhhaaahhh.  ('No way.  There's no way sounds can do that.')

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Ggggehhk.  Hh - hhhhehmmmMMMMmmnnnnnn.  (They can.  I can't do it very well but it's like - ' and then it tries showing off what little it knows of pitch.)

Nnnnnnohhhhhh.  ('But like, if that was good.')

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The other dementor floats away.

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They don't usually talk to each other that much but maybe it's to do with the one having gone walkabout. Hopefully it got its fill.

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Are there any other things here at home that are more interesting now that it's seen them out and about?  For instance sponges.  It would really love if there was a sponge around.

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No sponges, but it may now recognize that the standard-issue foods are all behind Doors of a kind that didn't appear in the onkplace, and that they get versions of that category of stuff that foods put in their mouths.

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Oh!  Do these doors open.

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They don't except when new food is added or expired food is taken away. Then, the foods with The Spell That Is Unpleasant come by and do a thing with an object that makes the door open.

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It will get up reeeeeeal close to watch the next time that happens.  Obviously not doing any nibblings, so that the Spell is not so Unpleasant.

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The food that has the Spell That Is Unpleasant is very alarmed about the getting reeeeeeal close. The Unpleasantness gets rather in its face about it.

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It'll go over to the other side where the Unpleasantness isn't, then!  What's the object like?  Maybe if it's something generally around it will be able to figure out how to use it on the door on its own.

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The Unpleasantness is extremely determined to stay between the live food and inquisitive individuals. The object is a small long metal thing with parts that stick out; it goes in a little hole in the door, and turns, and then the live food can drag the expired food out of the doored place.

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It meanders around looking for small long metal things with parts that stick out.

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There aren't any just lying on the floor or anything, but on inspection, all the foods that are accompanied by unpleasantnesses have them.

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That makes sense pretty much.  It'll keep looking around for any ones not attached to a food every once in a while, in between futile attempts to get the other its to try out not nibbling.

 

One such attempt goes:

Gggggggrehhhhhn.  ('Hey.')

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Hhhhrgg.  ('Hey.')

 

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Hhhhreh?  Hhheh.  ('Food's been pretty good lately.')

 

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Hhrrg.  ('Yeah.')

 

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Mmmmrihhhgk?  Hehmmm.  ('It could not be, though.')

 

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Khhhhehhllllohhhhhhnn.  ('Foods are less boring if nobody eats them.')

 

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Ffffffihhhhhhhnnghg.  ('. . . Less boring how?')

 

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Rrrrlllllllnnnnmm.  ('They do things that no food here does.  Even the ones with Unpleasantnesses.')

 

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Ggggkekhkhkhhhhhh?  Khhhhherrrrrrm.  Ffffffffffffffffffhhhhhhillllllllllnnnnnnn.

(It . . . honestly doesn't really understand most of that.  Something about home, something about foods, something about . . . . . something.)

 

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. . . Pfffferhhhhhng.  ('Full meals, yeah?')

 

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Hhhh.  ('Yeah, full meals.')

 

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Hhhhnnnnnnihhhhkhkhkhkh?  ('Yeah, full meals: [something indecipherable].')

 

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This time it is the one to float away from the conversation.

It has noticed that it can squish the sleeve of its robe in a manner not entirely dissimilar to a sponge, if it gathers up enough of the fabric in one spot.  (Still not as good as a sponge, though.)  It does so while pondering.

Nothing here is as good as a sponge at what sponges do.  None of the foods are as interesting as foods elsewhere.  Onking is pretty bad, but not as bad as getting a bite of an unpleasantness, and also it's soooooo borrrrrrrrrring here.  Everything is so boring, all the time.  And none of its attempts to make it less so have worked.

It takes a hearty fill from these foods which it is giving up on ever being interesting, and sets off again.

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A slight change in direction lands it in a much larger habitation of foods! The structures are taller - some even taller than home - and there are so many colors and so many foods. Some of the foods are on buses! Many foods have umbrellas against the rain, which open suddenly and close by folding themselves up! Foods are putting things in their faces and making mediocresounds and, if it drifts far enough, there are goodsounds, and there are foods who are moving such that particular moving-related demarcations are timed to line up with the contour of the goodsounds!

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Goodsounds goodsounds goodsounds!!  Yes it will go watch those foods!

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Foods move! Device makes sounds! Sometimes passing foods put small objects - green papers or small metal shapes - in a container near the moving foods.

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. . . Can it move . . . like those foods are moving.

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It has arms! It has legs! It has less of a relationship with gravity, but that's not necessarily a drawback!

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It tries to copy them, and sometimes it does a really good job but it's still unsatisfying because at its current level of copying skill it isn't fast enough to match the movements to the beats.  It tries focusing more on the arms, which see a lot more use than its legs, and that helps it be a little bit faster.  Between that and the fact that some of the parts repeat, it manages to perform about half of a bar on time before it falls out of rhythm and lets out an excited chattery Rrrrrhhhihlihlihlihlihlihllllll.

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Nobody notices this at all.

After a really unfairly short amount of time the moving foods collect their possessions and cease the goodsounds and leave the area.

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That is SO unfair!!  Do they at least stay together so it can follow all of them?  Sometimes foods stick together in groups, it knows.

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They stick together for the first while, and then do a thing where they cause their hands to interact in various ways and some of them peel off.

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As long as there is any sort of group it will follow that.  (While trying to replicate some of the hand things on itself.)

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Two of them stick together all the way to the building they both enter.

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How fathomable is the door to that building.

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It's actually quite fathomable, it can open it no problem even though they aren't really letting it in. It can watch one of them go up the stairs and one of them go through another door on the inside of the building with a metal-thing-that-goes-in-the-doorknob; the latter glances at the door when it's opened again but when it swings shut decides to ignore it.

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Oh, kind of like what the Unpleasantness was getting in the way of seeing, maybe.  It will try and follow that one past the door and if that doesn't work it will try and follow the stairs one.

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It can't get through this door without a metal thing. It can follow the upstairs one, though, it's trudging up two flights of stairs and then metal-thinging another door. It's not hard to catch up because it's not necessary to trudge if you can float.

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Zoooom swoop.  Into that door?

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It can sneak in behind the food!

There are more foods in this apartment. Little ones sitting on the floor manipulating small objects; a larger one doing things with pots and pans and liquids and lumps. It's causing smells. A small food is sort of trying to make a goodsound but it's not very good at it.

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Woah.  It also makes sounds that are kind of like goodsounds only without the good; it will join the small food in practicing while it watches the manipulation of small objects.

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The foods seem to be manipulating objects one food at a time; first a food picks up and drops this object, then it picks up and puts down (gently) one of those objects. The same food picks-up-and-puts-down the same those-object every time, while they all share the same this-object.

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What are the properties of these and those objects??  Do they visibly seem to squish or anything?

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They look very unsquishy! The ones that is being shared is white with black spots, and has flat sides; the ones that are not shared are bright single colors (blue, red, and green) and are flat on the bottom and round on the top.

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What a mysterious ritual.  It sometimes floats up into a position where it can check up on the smell-causing activity from afar, but it's worried that it will miss the key to this mystery if it looks away for too long so only ever for a moment.  (And it keeps futilely attempting goodsounds all the while.)

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The smell-causing activity proceeds apace! Eventually the small foods abandon their mysterious ritual to go put things-with-smells in their faces.

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Yes, it's familiar with this activity.  . . . Possibly it should be more curious about it because an awful lot of foods seem to do it, even when otherwise interesting.

. . .. .

 . . . . . . . .

. . . can things go in its face?  It will start with its hands!  It turns out they can go in its face!  It's kind of unpleasant in several discrete ways but they definitely can.  Gghhkkmmnkkpphh.  Also it turns out that sounds can still happen while hands are in there!  Unfortunately even with some experimenting they do not seem to cause the sounds to be better.

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The foods are generally not putting their hands in their faces. Sometimes they put individual fingers in their faces, under conditions where the most obvious results are that whatever substance was on the finger is replaced by something not exactly unlike water.

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Hm!  Is it unlike the facewater that boring foods often produce?

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Yes, actually! It seems clingier and comes out of the mouth instead of the eyes.

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Interesting.  It will try putting some objects in its mouth later but for now it just observes the foods.  The objects totally disappear, right?  They're not hanging around somewhere?  Can it catch any of them in the process of vanishing.

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What seems to happen is that they are mashed up in the mouth, diminishing in solidity and size, and then they - maybe go down the neck? Alternately they are vaporized and exit through the ears but if so they do it very quietly and without much of a puff of air pressure.

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Woah.  That makes sense, its fingers got kind of mashed up in its mouth.  But also sometimes things just disappear entirely, so maybe that's what's happening here!  It continues to watch the objects intently (but from a safe distance away from the foods).

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They put things in their mouths, and then put the surfaces they ate them off and the implements they manipulated them with into the under-the-water-source-place, and one food produces in order to take further actions with these items...

...a SPONGE.

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:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D.

It's not going to touch that YET because the food is using it and that would only be asking for trouble.  It trills a happy little Mmmmrrrreehhhhg and kneads at its sleeve while it waits for the food to abandon the beloved delightful object.

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The other foods disperse and it will need to do a little dodging to avoid onks. The sponging food goes sponge sponge sponge sponge and then drops the sponge in the basin and starts drying off the dishes from where they're piled on a towel and putting them away; it might be risky to get to the sponge while it's going to and fro in a small space like that.

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Hmmmmmmmm yes it has learned patience from its stay at home.  It doesn't seem as important to rush things and make the most of every single moment anymore.

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Eventually this food is done in the kitchen and goes to sit with the other foods in the room where the small objects were manipulated; it sits on the couch with some of them, watching a bright rectangle.

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Sp♡nge.  Poke pokepoke poke grab squish squish squ♡♡sh.

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This is not noticed right away, probably because of the loud mediocresounds created by the rectangle. Though they do quiet occasionally and then a food gets up to check if the wet noises have to do with the faucet.

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It is currently testing the merits of combining sleeve-squish with sponge-sqoosh.  The results are very meritous!  Especially when it wraps the sleeve all around the sponge, which creates a really promising and delightful combination of textures.

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The investigation of the faucet proves unenlightening, but the venture into the kitchen provides: a view of the sponge.

The food... reaches out... to try to take the sponge from where it is hanging out in midair.

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It does the floating equivalent of a polite little sidestep, out of the way.

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The food, confused, tries again.

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It ducks out of the way a second time!  Squish squoosh wrap wrap sleeve sleeve.

(At the point when the sponge becomes completely enveloped in the sleeve, the food can see it disappear entirely!  There wasn't any of it visibly missing before, but now it's just gone, all at once.  Of course, certain squishsquishing entities have no way of perceiving this event.)

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The food makes some mediocresounds.

More foods come into the kitchen.

They kind of surround it.

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. . . Some of them are smaller, does it have enough clearance drift out over those ones' heads?

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The ceilling isn't that high.

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Maybe they won't touch it.

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The first food, still making some mediocresounds, is slowly extending a hand forward.

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It leeeeeeeans back and presses against the wall or the cupboards or whatever's behind it.

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This will prevent it from being touched... for now!

They are all standing around making mediocresounds.

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At least it has Sponge to comfort it in this trying time.

(The sponge rebecomes food-visible.)

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The sounds abruptly become louder and higher pitched when the sponge reappears!

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Foods are so mysterious (derogatory).

The sponge appears to contract and rerectangularprismize itself along finger-shaped indents.

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Okay, now a food has grabbed a red cylinder and is doing things to it and is going to SPRAY WHITE POWDER ALL OVER IT.

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It is dronked!  - Drenched.  Nearly all of the bits of white stuff invisiblize themselves on contact; a silhouette of something figureish is left on the wall behind.

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They scream! They start tripping over each other to exit the apartment! The one holding the red cylinder throws the red cylinder at it!

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Now THAT is a clonk for sure :( :(

The foods are well gone by the time it reorients.  It will . . . poke at the ritual objects and see if that yields any revelations?  All while holding sponge, of course.

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The ritual objects are fairly inert. They're very light.

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Oh, and it can get the this-objects to make the same clattering noises that the foods did if it drops them, that's nice.  It plays around with that for a bit, as well as dropping the sponge in the same way, which turns out not to clatter.  . . . Can the this-objects go in its mouth yes they can.  They kind of clatter in there, too!  It spits them out.

. . . Can it - no.  No, it just got this sponge and it is not going to be very adventurous about it.  If it finds another sponge maybe that one can go in its mouth.

Hm, are any of the smells-objects around still?  What's up with those.

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There are jars of spices left on the counter, and one of the small foods did not consume all of its lumps and there are still a few optimistically left behind on a plate on the table.

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It'll poke and press at the lumps for a bit and then try putting one in its mouth.

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To the tastebuds it was intended for, it's cheesy and garlicky and starchy!

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Oh huh, kind of like smells but more.  It spits them back out with somewhat more difficulty than the this-objects.

What about that red cylinder?

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It is empty now and hollow; it makes a noise when tapped.

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Huh!

Well, it has learned patience and there's plenty of poking and sponge-squishing and vocal training to be done here.  Do the foods come back within the next while?

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Nope.

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Okay.  It will try to exit via the door.

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This works fine. Across the hall, a food carrying a bag startles and drops the bag upon seeing the door open for no apparent reason.

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Well there's one potential apparent reason!  A sponge bobs out through the door at around head height before it closes.

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The food shrieks and pulls the fire alarm.

The sprinklers go off. Foods emerge from most of the doors. A LOUD BADSOUND OCCURS.

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Nooooo :(

That's a lot of foods in a small space.  It floats up horizontally by the ceiling - oh NO the loud badsound is worse up here :( :( :(.  Also its robe is pretending they are at sea and Sponge is reverting to the state it was in when it first picked it up.  It tries to float to where the badsound is the least loud (that is unobstructedly reachable) but is otherwise having a fair bit of trouble deciding what to do.

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The foods confer in LOUD VOICES over the loud badsound and file out of the building over the next couple minutes.

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In that case it will kind of just copy the foods for the most part, keeping pace in the spaces between them.  There's a bit more headroom in the stairwell; it zooms ahead there.  Some of the foods get a little extra dripped on from its cloak, and it mostly tries to avoid going too near the sprinklers but sometimes it creates a shadow in the spray regardless.

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Fortunately the foods aren't actually looking up into the spray much of the time.

The spray stops a while later. Some foods come in and tromp around and leave.

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It and its sponge float outside.  It feels kind of . . . something.  That was a lot of things happening at once and it really really disliked being that close to the loud badsound for that long.  Maybe it will fly waaaaaaay up high over this onkplace, drifting around and waiting to be bored again.  It isn't even really hoping to find goodsounds, although if it comes across any it might go check them out.  Possibly from farther away than usual.

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Waaaaay up high it can see so many foods milling around! It's wet and cold up in the sky. It's too far up for any foods to react to the sponge.

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That's pretty nice.  It stays up there a long time, till the lingering badness of the loudsounds fades almost completely.

And then it will downgrade to being merely way up high, and start listening more purposefully for goodsounds and watching for other interesting things.

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There are goodsounds to be had! Some of the shops have it piped in through speakers in the ceiling. There's a pub having karaoke night and some of the foods are decent at it. There is a busker with a violin.

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Ohhhhh what's that last one that seems kind of different from the other goodsounds it has so far heard.  It hovers well above the busker and tries to get a decent look without approaching too closely.

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The busker is moving a stick along a wooden thing shaped like an empty wobble. It makes different sounds, and its fingers correspond to how high and how low the sound is!

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The movements are happening along with the goodsounds just like before!!  Does that mean it can make goodsounds happen by moving the way it did when it was copying those other foods?????

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Turns out that no.

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What if it tries really hard though.  Like really hard.

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It seems like maybe the sound are coming from the wooden thing.

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Hmmmm okay it will get a little closer and investigate the wooden thing and its food.

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The wooden thing is long and thin on one side and round and figure-eight-shaped on the other side. It has strings, and protruding knobs, and lines across the thin part that the food is pressing in various combinations with its fingers. The strings are different widths, and go in order of how thick they are, and connect one apiece to each of the knobs. The stick is half stick, half - fabric? Hair? - and the latter part is what contacts the strings.

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That is so interesting and this is maybe its new favorite food.  It bobs and dances to the goodsounds even though it no longer really expects this to produce goodsounds of its own.

- During a particularly enthusiastic set of arm movements it accidentally lets go of Sponge, which goes flying. Oh no oh no it's got to get it back -

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The sponge sails through the air and smacks a food in the ear. The food is upset and confused, but doesn't actually move to pick up the sponge - no one does, and when there's a gap in traffic it should be able to grab it.

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PHEW.  That was a close one.  It's got to be more careful.  It holds the sponge close to its chest and checks to make sure the squish-squish quality is undamaged.

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It squishes as ever!

A food is looking right at the sponge now.

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Foods do that sometimes!  Back over to the busker.

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The food makes mediocresounds. More foods make mediocresounds. The busker stops making goodsounds and stares at the sponge.

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. . . . Huh.  That kind of makes it seem like there's something it could do with the sponge to cause the goodsounds to resume, but it doesn't really know what that could be.  It tries . . . . bouncing its sponge-holding hand at about the last goodsounding's tempo???

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This has the opposite effect; the busker throws the violin into the case with the accumulated colorful paper and bolts.

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Oh no.  Time to play follow the leader again.

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The busker boards the next bus to come by after sprinting for a couple blocks.

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Thaaaaaat does not look like something it would be very smart to go inside.  It'll hover along over the top of it until the busker comes out.

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The busker gets out three stops later and looks around and spots the sponge. Points at it, drawing the attention of more foods.

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What if it shoves the sponge way up in its sleeve.

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The other foods lose interest after a minute. The busker is still agitated but no longer able to enlist the attention of passersby. It continues on its way, briskly.

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Follow follow follow the busker.  And ponder.

Foods seem really interested in the sponge, which makes sense because sponges are the best object (except maybe the wooden empty wobble; that requires further examination).  But they don't really seem interested in the same way that it's interested in sponges, and . . . there's something more that it can almost put together but isn't quite managing.

Hm.  Very mysterious.

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With the sponge up its sleeves no foods pay attention to it while it follows the busker, who is having to tromp through a fair amount of city to make up for having gotten on the wrong bus.

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It keeps an eye out for interesting things along the way but doesn't really intend to divert its path about any of them.

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Things to not divert its path about include a bakery, a curry shop, a mosque, large quantities of pigeons, and a light misting from the sky.

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Maybe it will go back to some of those later.  The misting is kind of nice (and, depending on precisely how light it is, might have a visible figure-shaped hole drifting through it).

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A hole in the mist is less conspicuous than a floating sponge against most backdrops.

The busker, at long last, admits itself into a flat above a drugstore.

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. . . . It's not afraid of going in buildings but maybe it will.  Just wait a little while before the next time it tries that, how about.  It's nice enough out here.  And there are windows for it to look in anyways.

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There are windows! They have curtains but some of them aren't closed all the way and the curtains aren't thoroughly opaque; it can watch the busker flop on a couch and open the violin case and count up the colorful paper and metal shapes.

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If the busker looks liable to keep at that for a while, it'll go check some other windows in this and adjacent buildings.

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Other windows reveal:

- foods putting lumps in their faces
- a couple of foods dancing together
- a food making a fabric out of yarn with sticks
- a food training a puppy to sit

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:0 knitting pt. 2, but also dancing!  It floats back and forth between those two, trying to divine their secrets, and occasionally flits back over to the busker to make sure it hasn't switched to doing something interesting.

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The busker is now making mediocresounds into a device.

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That's worth checking on occasionally but not watching full-time.  It copies the dancers and tries REALLY HARD to understand knitting.  It feels like it should make sense!  But it doesn't yet.

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The knitter continues without making the slightest effort to cause this activity to be more comprehensible at all. The dancers settle down to a candlelight dinner.

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Are the things they put in their faces lumps or some other manner of object?

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They are a mixture of lumps and strings and goop.

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Hmm.

Has the busker by chance switched to goodsounds yet?

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Nope.

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Rude!

It ponders knitting.  The foods were making a floppy thing out of NOTHING.  Only it wasn't nothing, because if it were nothing that wouldn't really be interesting; things being made from nothing can probably just happen sometimes.  The weird part is that there's a stringy floppy thing involved somehow, that turns into the wider floppy thing, but not in a way where it transforms, just that it - hm.  This will take some more pondering.

The floppy string moves around, but it's also kind of holding still in an important way.  It can wiggle, but it a little bit acts like its sleeve is trapped in a door; it doesn't move around very far.  And once it wiggles and is pushed and slides a certain way, more of it gets trapped.  So - the wider floppy thing is eating it???  Making a full meal of it even.  That's the only thing that makes sense.  But how the food fits into this activity it does not yet know.

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Well, when the food eventually puts down the floppy things they do not continue to eat one another. The food packs it all up into a basket, not very neatly, and putters to bed.

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Hello busker?  And have any other interesting things started to happen in other windows.

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Busker is no longer making sounds into the device. Busker has turned on a glowing rectangle.

The foods that were having dinner by candlelight are dancing again, sort of, but they keep getting distracted by trying to eat each other.

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Woah!  Is one of them winning?  Are either of them getting boring about it?

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Neither of them is winning! They just keep right at trying to eat each other! Occasionally one or the other will try a target other than the other food's mouth but they go back to the mutual eating presently. They do not seem to have gone boring about it.

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That's so weird.  It wishes it could see them better without itself eating them but - wait wait.  It hasn't actually tried doing that, so maybe it can?  It revisits the window of a food that was being neither interesting nor boring.

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The busker is still watching the rectangle? If formerly-interesting foods are ruled out there's one that doing a jigsaw puzzle.

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It is NOT risking doing ANYTHING to the busker.  OBVIOUSLY.

It stares at jigsaw food for a solid few minutes, trying to mentally disentangle the sensory aspect of eating from the nutritional one.  And then gives the jigsaw food a metaphorical lick instead of a metaphorical nibble.

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The food tastes like it would be pretty yummy to nibble. Not the tastiest ever but way better than any foods back home.

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Woah.  WOAH.  If it nibbles it, does it remain that tasty???

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Nope, the sweet candy coating of yumminess deteriorates rapidly once it's nibbled. Also the food stops working on the puzzle.

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:(  Okay, it stops nibbling but keeps - it stops - okay after a couple tries it successfully stops nibbling but keeps watching the food with its eating senses.

And now it can go back and take a look at the eating-each-other foods!  Actually it can do that from here, it doesn't even need to float over to the window.  But it does anyways.

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The foods have taken off their robeish-things and are continuing to try to eat each other. In a different room than before, while lying down.

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How yummy are they?

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They are ULTRA YUMMY.

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wOW OKAY.  It is not going to risk nibbling that, wow.  Wow.  This is almost enough of a combined sensory good and novel-informational good as the best goodsounds.  And they just keep on yummying that much if it doesn't nibble??

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They keep yummying that much for a while, and then they yummy even more for a moment, each, not simultaneously, and then they settle into a lower level of yum.

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Are all the other local foods like this??

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Not at this moment, no.

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Huh!!  Still way yummier than everything it's actually eaten though.  The extra yum obviously has something to do with the way those two were eating each other, but they weren't getting eaten . . . apparently foods can't harm other foods, must be.

How yummy is specifically the busker?

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The busker is tastier than a home-food but slightly less tasty than a typical food walking down the street.

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Huh.  . . . It still really wants to see the busker do more goodsounds but also this is a very fascinating development and it's been here kind of a while and so now it is going to fly around the city licking all the foods and looking out for other interesting goings-on.

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The most tastily lickable foods around are over there, two smallfoods and a largefood taking turns tucking themselves into various compartments in their house and then poking each other and running around.

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Delicious!  But they're not eating each other??

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No! Occasionally they squeeze each other with their arms but they are not eating each other.

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Weird.  But of course it doesn't eat things with only its face, so - hm since none of them are getting boring at all, maybe it's less eating and more . . . them feeding each other.  Or eating a third thing together.  Is there any obvious third thing candidate?

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Nope, there are no props involved in their activities, just tucking themselves into nooks and poking each other and running around.

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Hmmmm.  A fascinating and delicious mystery.  Are there any obvious ways to get in to where they are?  It is Not Going To yet; it just wants to know.

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The apartment has windows, and possibly these would yield to sufficient finagling, but they are currently all closed.

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Tap taptap tap tap   tap?

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The foods look in its direction when it starts tapping, but then decide it's nothing and go back to what they were doing. The large food is wearing one of the smaller foods on top of its shoulders now.

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. . . . . . . . . Hm.

Tap?

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A small food looks; the other two don't.

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Tap taptap tap?  Tap tap.

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The large food comes right up to the window to have a closer look.

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It's a little afraid that the food is going to hit at it, but the window is right there ((so tappable)) to stop that.  If it turns out foods can reach through windows it is going to fly away SO FAST.

Also what's going on with the yumminess levels here, anything interesting?

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They're falling; these are no longer the yummiest foods on the block.

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If it stops tapping for a while do they get yummier again??

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No, now the large food is putting the small foods into different robe-equivalent-things and the smallfoods are very untasty about it.

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Bleh.  It swoops off to go investigate yummier foods.

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The yummiest foods around are... another pair of foods eating each other! Foods apparently eat each other when they are at their most delicious, sometimes?

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That makes a lot of sense.

 

Okay that's enough of that; are there any foods around who are both yummy and doing something interesting?

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These ones are doing something with little doodads hooked up to a glowing square! Sometimes they make mediocresounds at each other about it, but the glowing square is making some low-end goodsounds.

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Ooooh.  It bobs floatily along with the goodsounds.  It can't hear them very well, though - is there a way to get in (It Is Not Necessarily Going To Go In Right Now)?

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They have the window open just a crack; it could probably pull it up the rest of the way if it wanted.

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:0 :0 :0

This tappable hard air is also a sideways door??  Yes, then it should be opened, definitely!

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The foods don't notice right away, but the next time there's a gust of wind, they do. The goodsounds stop, and one food gets up to approach the window.

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Nooo, not the goodsounds :(  What does the food do to the window?

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The food closes the window, all the way this time, and goes back to the couch. The goodsounds resume, but even more faintly than before.

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Terrible!  But it's learned the secret of cleartapdoors now, so once the food is away again it will simply reopen it.

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This time the goodsounds stop right away. Both foods get up and come look out the window, making mediocresounds. Also they're less yummy now.

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Why does this keep happening??  It was not even tapping and does not have its extremely covetable sponge outside of its sleeve.  (. . . Squish squishsquish the sponge from the outside of the sleeve.)

Do these ones do stuff with their robe-things and become untasty too after a bit, or something else?

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These ones do not immediately change robe-things; the one closes the window and locks it this time, and tests it to make sure it won't open "on its own", and then they sit back down to what they were doing.

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Open?  Open???  Why are doors so fickle.

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The soft goodsounds coming from the glowing square have no answer.

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If the door will not open :| it will simply have to search for goodsounds elsewhere :| :|.  (Ideally also some yumminess, but priorities are priorities.)

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The next nearest goodsounds are coming from a non-glowing device a food is listening to while sweeping its apartment.

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And how yummy is this food?

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Mediocre (for a non-home food, which has a very high baseline compared to home foods).

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And how are the goodsounds?  Tautologically they must be good, of course, but it wants to develop more refined discernment now that it's had enough exposure that there's room in its mind for reactions more complex than !!!.  What qualities does it have.

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Some goodsounds have soundshapes that are like mediocresounds, and some of them are relatively pure in their goodsoundness; this is an example of the latter. It is fast and mostly only on one pitch at a time.

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That's so good of them.  It feels like goodsounds get even better the closer attention they are paid.

Are the next collections of goodsounds also like that or are they different?

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There are some mediocresounds, and then there are more goodsounds, also without any mediocrity added but with more notes at a time!

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Oh it's been a while since it practiced its mediocresounds!  What sounds were there for it to try and copy?

(Goodsounds goodsounds goodsounds <3)

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There were sounds like thhhh and like sssss and like ayyyy and like nnnn and like wuh and like owww and like oiiii and like khhh.

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It is already so so good at khhh and nnn and sss, and kind of good at ayyy and wuh, but the others definitely need a lot of repetition for it to get even close.  It shuts up when it's time for goodsounds again, though.

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The goodsounds go on for several minutes this time while the food busies itself with applying various objects to miscellaneous surfaces.

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Hmm what are the objects like?  Do any of them squish?  Is the food doing the thing of matching movements to goodsounds, especially in copiable ways?

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Some of the objects look like they might squish, though the food isn't manipulating them in a way that shows them off to best effect. The food is... maybe matching a little? But mostly not.

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Very conveniently, it remembers some of the movements from before, and can replicate some of those!

. . . Some of them are broken; they don't match up with these goodsounds.  This is very confusing for a while!  Eventually it determines the issue to be something about the rhythm, and then it spends the duration of this goodsounds trying to adapt the movements to it.

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The door leading into this apartment from the rest of the building's inside opens. It's a small food, with a brightly colored backpack and lots of hair accessories. It closes the door behind it and then points directly at the hovering observer outside the window and yelps in mediocresounds.

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Fun when the foods are colors.  It continues its uncoordinated attempts at dancing.

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The larger food turns off the goodsounds and goes right up to the window while the smallfood yelps on.

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It did not even touch the cleartapdoor this time?  . . . It seems really important to know whether foods can reach through cleartapdoors.  It carefully floats forward, gives the window a single tap, and then zooms backwards out of grabbing range.

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The smallfood squirms around the largefood and taps the window too, twice.

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Okay good.

 

. . . . . . . tap tap.

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Tap tap tap.

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!!  This food has a fun game attached!

Tap tap tap!!!

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Tap tap tap tap tap?

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Tap tap taptap   tap - wait.  Tap tap  tap   tap tap.

:D

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Tap tap tap, tap tap tap, scraping of the window with fingernails for the duration of three taps?

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Tap tap tap, tap tap tap, sc - oh that is a bad noise and hand-feeling.

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The smallfood makes a mediocresound - it does go up and down in pitch but not in a rhythmic way. Tap tap pat tap tap pat?

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Hmmmmmm.  . . . Pat.  Patpat.  Yeah okay.

Tap tap pat tap tap pat, and then it tries to imitate the mediocresound.

 

Oh also how tasty is this smallfood?  It forgot to have been licking it until now.

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This smallfood is pretty tasty - not the tastiest ever in the world but pretty tasty.

It suddenly dashes away from the window and comes back with a piece of paper and a black crayon and starts making marks on the paper with the crayon.

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Ooh.  It can't copy that; it doesn't have the materials.  But it will keep trying at that mediocresound while it watches to see what will happen with them.

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Mark mark mark mark - voilà!

It is an attempt at a picture of Floating Friend!

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It . . . unsleeves the sponge and holds it out where the smallfood can see???

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The smallfood runs off to get a yellow crayon and starts drawing that too. The largefood, previously only occasionally glancing in this direction, is now staring straight at the sponge.

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Tap tap.  . . . . . . . Spongehandtap spongehandtap.

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Tap tap clap clap tap tap clap clap! goes the smallfood.

The largefood is making more mediocresounds and the small one replies in kind.

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. . . . . . . . ""clap""??

clap?

clap!  clap clap - resleeve the sponge - clap clap CLAP CLAP CLAPCLAP CLAPCLAPCLAPCLAPCLAP

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Smallfood makes the pitchy burbling sound again and starts jumping around and clapping some more.

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Ehhhhh-hhehhhhhehhhhehhh clap clap clap clap

(Its hands are not quite fleshy enough for its claps to sound the same as the foods, but the sounds are mildly nice in their own way.)

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The smallfood goes for the windowlatch; the large food catches its hands and prevents it from opening the window.

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Is the smallfood by chance untasty about this, like the other smallfoods were before when a sort of similar thing happened?

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Yeah, the smallfood gets less tasty when its hands are caught!

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Interesting.  Tap tap.

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Foods exchange mediocresounds. Eventually the smallfood is released but it doesn't open the window, just taps back.

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What if it - pats the window, but then . . . leaves its hand there, pressed against it.

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The smallfood's hand is much smaller but it will do its best to align the corresponding hand!

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Okay very good that foods very definitely cannot touch it through windows.

This is kind of nice though.

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Pitchy-warbly-noise.

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HhehhhOOOOOOahhhoooooohhhhhh, it tries.

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Louder pitchier warbling!

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. . . Hm.  Does the warbling seem to be related to increases in yumminess?

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Yes! Especially when it's louder.

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Woah.

Did it make the smallfood yummier??  HehhKHHkhkhkhhehhhhhhh.

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"Hehkkhekkeh?" attemps the smallfood.

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Hm, how can it - aha, it also puts its other palm against the window.

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Two hands! Voila.

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. . . It attempts to warble pitchily again.

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The smallfood makes some mediocresounds and pats both hands opposite floatfriend's hands.

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Sure, okay.  Pat pat pat pat.  It starts off off-rhythm but then - oh!  It's - they're the same!  They're matching.  There's something very good about that.

It trills happily.  Pat pat pat.

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An attempt is made at imitating the trill! And pats: Both both left-right-left?

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It needs a few tries but eventually it can settle into that pattern.

 

 

There's something -
  it wanted the food to pitchy-warble, and it tried to achieve that via putting another hand up.  It wanted the food to copy it.  It wants the food to copy it.  It wants them both to copy each other.

The food is very cooperative with that.  The food seems to also want them both to copy each other.

 

The food . . . has wants?????

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The food attempts to teach it more complicated patting patterns. Bothpat clap, bothpat clap clap, left right left right clap clap wave-arms-around-in-the-air??

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This food really seems to have wants!!  Very complicated wants.  Bothpat clap, bothpat clap clap, very easy, both - okay left.  Right??  Yes; left right bo - clapclapclap - and - arms.  It's asymmetrically wiggly because it really doesn't want the sponge to fall out of its sleeve.

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The food repeats this pattern until its floatfriend has done this correctly twice and then introduces a new more complicated pattern still! Bothpat bothpat clap clap right-hands-pat-each-other left-hands-pat-each-other repeat repeat repeat clap clap spin around!

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It gets so good at the repeating part so fast but keeps forgetting to switch to the coda.  In fact it takes several repetitions to realize that's what's happening; the first three times it assumes the good smallfood is starting a new pattern, but then it clicks.  (Possibly this is contributed to by the discovery of spinning.  Spinning is so fun??  It is so so good at spinning.  Better than the good smallfood even though it only just learned of this activity right now.)

. . . If it puts its bothpats higher on the window, maybe the good smallfood will float up to them, and then will become a better (at spinning) smallfood.

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The smallfood can't reach and doesn't float about it for some reason.

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Come to think of it that's not very unusual; most foods don't float most of the time.  It's only that this food is so very strange as to have wants, that it thought maybe smallfood was also another it in other ways.  (Do the other its also have wants?  Probably; that would make a lot of sense.)

It adjusts itself downward and, after another blundered cycle, successfully completes the tricky sneaky sneaky pattern.

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YAAAAAY! Tasty tasty food is so tasty to have a playmate.

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Iiiiiiiiehhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiii

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"HIIIIII," says the small food.

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Oh!  It has already practiced this one!  Hhhhhhhhahhhhhiiiii.  Hhhhhhaiii.

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The small food puts both its hands on its own chest and says something. There are several sounds in it all smushed together, kkk and lllll and eeeeee and ohhhhh.

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Khhhhhllllll.  Khhhhhlliiiiiiiiiiiohh.

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"Yeah! Cleo!" says the smallfood. And then some more stuff, pointing energetically at floatfriend.

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Iiiiiiiaaaaaahhhhhh, Khhhhhhhhlliiiiiiiohhh?  Iiiiiiiiiaaahhhhhh.  What's something non-home foods say a lot.  Hhhhhhhhehhhhhllllllllllohhh.  Hhhhehhlllllllohh iiiiiahhhh khhhlllllllllliohhhh.

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"Hello!" And then the sounds with the wuh and the tsss and the yoh and the nemmm.

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!!  The smallfood can also copy words, and into foodly forms at that !!

Hhhhhelllllllllllloohhhhhh.

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"Hello! I'm Cleo! What's your name?" it repeats, pointing at itself and then floatfriend.

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Hhhhhhhhhhhhehhllllohh ahhhhhhhh - ahhhhhiiiiiiiiim khhlliiiiohh - hhhhhh.  Hhhhhuhhhh.  Hhhhhhhhuuuuhhhdssssss - hh.  This pattern is very complicated.

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The small food is consternated about this, and then pats the window and says "window", and picks up a book and says "book", and grabs its ponytail and says "hair", and touches the floor and says "carpet", and then points at itself and says "Cleo" again, and then points at floatfriend.

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. . . . windowpat hhhhhhhhhinnnnnndohhhhhhh.  . . . sponge . . . procure . . . oooooooookhhhhh.  Spongehide hoodgrab hhhhhhhhhrr.

 

Khhhlio.

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"Sponge!" Cleo says when the sponge comes out.

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Ssssssbuhhhhnnnnch-hhhhh, it repeats dutifully.

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The smallfood runs from the window and gets another sponge, though this one is a different color. "Sponge!"

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Sponge!!!!!!

Ssssssssbuhhnch.

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"Yeah! Sponge! Cleo's sponge, your sponge." Point point.

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. . . . . It holds its sponge against the window.

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Cleo will mirror this with its sponge.

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Ssbunch.  It takes its sponge away and places its other hand against the other sponge through the window.  Khhhhhhhliohhhzzzzbundge.  It holds its own sponge with both hands.  Iiiiiiiiiiorhhhhh ssspunch.

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Cleo's head goes up and down, and then it starts naming more objects in the apartment. Eventually it tries drawing a sponge, and identifies this as a picture of a sponge, and then points expectantly at the picture of the floatfriend and says "picture of....?"

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. . . . Ihhhhhhgdgrrrruhhhvhhhhh ???

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"Ihgruv?" attempts Cleo.

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Hhhhhh.  Pihhhhhgtcherrrrrrrruhhhhhv.

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"Picture of sponge," Cleo says, again, pointing at the picture of the sponge, and then again at the black shape. "Picture of...."

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It squishsquooshes the sponge thoughtfully.

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Cleo's head tilts to the side, watching this. It exchanges some mediocresounds with the larger food.

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Bhookhhhhhhh?

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Cleo picks up the book and opens it up and starts reading out loud, turning it so floatfriend can see the pictures.

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And the insides of the book are the same fragile flat things as the ones in the church, which are also the same as the pictureofs?

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Yup!

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It is SO smart.  Basically everything else about this is still extremely mysterious though.

 

Bhoohhhhhk, pihhctcherrhhhhhuhv, bhooook, it declares when the Cleo pauses.

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"Yeah, it's a picture book!"

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Iiiiiiahhh, pictcherruhv bhoook.

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"Yeah! Should I read it again?"

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It puts a palm to the window.

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"Oh, okay." It puts the book down and goes back to teaching clapping game patterns.

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Floatfriend doesn't join in this time, just keeps holding its hand flat against the window.

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Cleo stops after a bit and mirrors the hand, but it's getting slightly less tasty - not in a homefood way, in a different direction.

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Very carefully:  Iiiiiiiohhhr, hhhhhinnnndohhhh, khhhliohh.

 

Boohhhhhhk, phhhighghghtcherhhhhhuv, bhhhhhhhookhhh.

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"This is the window. We're both touching the window. That's the picture book," she points with her free hand.

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Hhhhhinnndohh, thhuhhhoooooooinnnndohh?

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"Win-dow."

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Oooooooinndohh.

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"W-ih-n-doh. Window."

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Ooooo-iiiiin.  Ooooooooiiiiih.   Ooiihn.  Wiiiiiiiiihn.  - Dohhhhhh.

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"Yeah!" Cleo jumps up and down.

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Wwwwwinnndohh, thhhhuhwinndoh?

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"Yeah! This is the window!" It's getting tastier again.

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Pat pat pat pat the thewindow.  Thhhhhewhhhhindohhh.  Thhhhhhisssizzzhhhh.  Thihhsiz thhewhinnndoh.

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"Yeah!" Pat pat.

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Hm!  Thhh.  Thhhisssizhhhh sssssponggggge?

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"This is a sponge," says Cleo, picking up its sponge.

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Sbunge asponge?

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"A... sponge. One sponge. My sponge, your sponge. Our sponges."

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. . . Ssssponge.  Hhhhhhh.

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"Yeah! You have a sponge. You put it in your sleeve. I drew your sponge," tap, "and I have a different sponge."

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Dhhhhhhiffffffffrihhhhhnnnd.

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"Yeah!"

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Dhhhiffrihhnt khkhkhlioh?  Dhihhhhfrinnnnnd bhhook?  Dhiffrint thhhhewindohhhh?

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"There's not a different Cleo, just me. There's different books -" Cleo points at them where they are on the shelf - "and there's a window in the kitchen -" This way!

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Khhhhhliohhhhh!  It doesn't follow.

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It comes back. "I'm here! Did you not want to see the different window?"

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Khhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Liiio.

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"That's me, I'm Cleo!"

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It doesn't know what to do about the Cleo leaving.  It puts a hand on the window.

. . . Aha.

Khhhliowwwwihhhndoh. Whhhhhindohh.  Whhindoh.

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"Yeah! I'm at the window."

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Ahhhhhiiiiimat - ahhhhimmmmmat - hhhh.  Aiiiiimat thhhhuhwinnnnnnndoh.  Iiiiahh.

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"You're at the window too, yeah!"

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Iiiiiiorhhhhhat thewihhhhndoh.  T.  Tooooooooohhhhh?  Iiahhhhhh?

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"Yeah!"

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Iiiiiiiiah?  Iiiah?  Iiahhhhhh?  Iahhhhhhhhhh?  Yeeeeeeahh?

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Cleo jumps up and down tastily at the last attempt.

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Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiah.  Iah.  Yyyyyyyyeah.  Hhhhhhhh.  Hhrrh.

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"Talking's hard for you, huh," says Cleo. "Talking usedta be hard for me too."

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Hhhhhhhardfohhhhhhr, it (inadvertently) confirms.

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"I went to a speech therapist but you're probably too invisible."

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Toooooohhhh?

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"Yeah. Much too invisible. I think speech therapists probably only talk to people they can see."

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Uhhhhp.  Ssssssssb.  Ssspeeedggggge.  Sspeeeeeeeeeeeeechth.  Ehhhruhp - ihhhhhhssd.

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"Speeeeeech theeeehrapiiiiist."

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Sssspeeetch.  Tchtchtchtch - sssbeeeeeeeeeech - ssspeeech?  Sspeeech.

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"Yeah. Speech is talking. We're talking. Or, well, I'm talking and you're kinda learning how to talk."

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T-t-t-t-t-t-t-t.  (Huh, that's kind of goodsoundy.)  Taaahhhhhk.  Tahk.

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"Yeah! Talk!"

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Tahkhhhhhhhingkh?  Tahkhhh.

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"Yeah. I'm talking to you and you're talking to me and -"

"Cleo," says the larger food, "it's bedtime."

"What! No! We're still -"

"It's actually past your bedtime."

"B-b-b-but Da- da- da- daddy -" she exclaims.

"No arguing, say goodbye to your invisible friend and get into your nightgown!"

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D-d-d-d-t-t-t-t-d-d-d-d.  (It is goodsoundy!)

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"Goodbye," Cleo sniffles to the invisible friend, "I have to go to bed." And then she disappears into the next room.

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Khhhhlio?

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"Sorry!" calls Cleo's voice distantly. "Come back tomorrow okay?"

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Khhhhhhlioh khliohhhhh kliohhhhh khhhhliohhhhhhhhhhhhh?

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"I have to go to bed!"

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Khhhhliohhhh.  Tap tap tap tap TAP TAP TAP TAP.

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The larger food leans into view untastily.

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TAP TAP TAP TAP.

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The larger food gets less and less tasty.

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Khhhlio?

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Larger food exits the room. Cleo doesn't answer.

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. . . Does the cleartapdoor-slash-whhhinnnndohhh open??

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Nope.

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:'(

 

It squishes its sponge and ponders so hard and occasionally Khhhlio?s.  It can't taste the Cleo anymore.  Probably the Cleo is gone forever and it should move on, but it doesn't want to.  Did the Cleo want to leave it?

Calling the Cleo doesn't work.  Tap-tapping doesn't work.  Trying to get to wherever the Cleo went doesn't work.

 

It floats away, just a little bit, keeping the Cleo's building in its line of sight.  It does not encounter very much interestingness, within that radius.  It goes back to the window and calls the Cleo some more for a while, softly.

It ventures further.  Has a snack.  Comes back.  Tap-taps, not very hopefully.  Tries saying some of the sounds it learned today.  Says some of them wrong on purpose in case that makes the Cleo appear for corrections.  Heads out further.  Encounters and listens to some goodsounds for a bit. Comes back.

 

 

 

After uncountably many ((six)) rounds of that, it goes a little too far and it can't find the Cleo's window.  All of the buildings look the same, but also they all look different from the Cleo's.  It looks and looks and looks and looks and looks and it can't find it - it zooms around very quickly in a bit of a panic and when it slows down it thinks that maybe it ended up farther away than when it started.

 

:'(  Well.

There are still other adventures to be had.