Finding Your Clan
“Oh, this time I’m going to make it through the winter on my own! I’ll stay in my cave all year, my new home! I just need to salt these fish and then I’ll make some tasty dish…” Autumn Blaze paused and mulled over her lyrics. “Dishes?” she crinkled her lips. “Doesn’t quite flow…” She pulled up a vine net loaded with fish which struggled to breathe. With some frustrated concentration her body burst into flames and consumed her catch.
The heat dissipated from her body and she was back amongst a pile of half-cocked, dead fish.
“Sorry,” she murmured. She’d have to do that again, in fact, she had many nets to check…“Maybe too many? Do I have too many fish already?”
~|~ You have more than enough for a single Kirin... er, near as I can tell.
Autumn frowned as she began scooping fish and putting them into a basket. “Single? Aren’t we married? Engaged? Dating? One of those three?” She tilted her head. “All of those three?”
~|~ …Yes. yes, yes, Technically, and yes… I think.
“That’s great. VAGUE and obnoxious, but great” Autumn declared as she continued to gather her fish. “Sorry, I probably knew all this, but I forget sometimes…”
~|~ Heh. Not really.
Autumn frowned in an arbitrary direction. “It’s not always you!” she looked down at the ground in sadness, then collected another charred fish. “I wish it was just… you.”
Autumn frowned. Her… inner voice? Her conscience wasn’t responding.
YOU NEED ME!
Autumn came to her senses. The fish quite a bit more cooked… “My Basket!” she said as she looked around. It, too, was starting to look a bit charred, but it was otherwise intact. She peered at it with worry. “I need to get better at making these for myself…”
~|~ It was pretty rough going back there. I mean… your clan were calm enough, but they weren’t talking back, or even… expressing themselves?
“Better off talking to my reflection,” Autumn mumbled to herself. She frowned as she collected the burnt basket in her net. “No one wants me there!” She tilted her head. “I mean, you know how that feels, just… I don’t want to do another winter stumbling half-starved and freezing into the clan!”
~~~~~~Even if you prep for winter, you may need there help again.~~~~~
“Jade family protect!” Autumn exclaimed as she worriedly looked around the burnt grass and charred fish skeletons. “What makes you say that?”
---->What if you get sick?
“I’d need help!” Autumn answered, worriedly as she slung her water gourd over her back.
Autumn, you are sick.<----
Autumn paused and thought for a moment. “I don’t think I am. Should we make a song about this?”
I can never say no to a request to help with a song. Just about at least.
~ooo! Autumn, I’m going to help!
Sweating, Autumn continued the march back to her cave. “With the fish, the song, or being sick-not-sick?”
~ooo! “Yes!”
Feeling an unexpected weight unrelated to what she was carrying, Autumn began to sway. “In a half-blearily daze—"
~ooo! “That line sounded excessive even by MY standards! Ooo! Ooo! Ooo! I liked your song from before! I can help you work on that, too!”
Autumn’s forehead crinkled as lightheadedness began to set in. “I should have said, ‘a tasty dish’, but I’m going to make a lot of things and freeze them! Have you met my cave-mate the snow pile? I named him Frosty.”
~ooo! “Yep!” Autumn’s face seemingly smiled back at her. “And we’re going to introduce the fish to him!”
“Cool, he’s a pretty chill guy…” Autumn said as she took a deep breath.
~ooo! Hehehehehe. Is he-she-zee-gender-fluid-whatever-whoever-whenever doing those dad jokes again?
“Uh… No. I just remembered those. Hmm… I really need to get to the other fish today.”
~ooo! “Uhhhh…. I’m not sure how we’re going to carry another load… mostly because I’m not so good with your, erm … angry side? I can get my husband to help.”
Autumn winced. ‘No thank you! Too angry… I can’t eat the fish if they’re exploded.’
~ooo! “OOOOOOoooooOOOOOOooooo. Yeah, I can see the problem.”
You can’t eat fish if they’re –
~ooo! Exploded. They can’t be loaded or goaded if there’s no fish left to be transported!
~|~ Charred atoms make waste, there’s uh… nothing left to baste.
Autumn shot a glance up to the sky. “Everybody is teaching me so much about all these things, uh… I need to learn not to use so much haste…”
~ooo! I THINK that one applies to me. Ooo! And, you know…
“My conscience? Er… Zee? Zim? They can never seem to keep track.”
~|~ Just call me whatever feels natural
Autumn shot a smirk up towards the sky. “I like zim.”
~[Z] YES! FEAR ME SMALL AND ADORABLE PIG-LIKE CREATURE WITH SCALES AND—
“Zer! Zer!” Autumn exclaimed in a panic. “HELP!”
At once Autumn’s head was filled with deafening blasts, excited yelps, panicked screams. Her heart began to beat harder and she fought hard against—
~|~Autumn, set down everything and take charge.
In a rush, Autumn set down her net and water gourd. A quick gallop away from her precious, and semi-flammable items, and she was suddenly aflame.
“ENOUGH!”
==========silence==========
Autumn came back to herself in a panic. Had she scared everyone off? Was she alone? Completely?!
~|~ Autumn! I’m here!
Autumn immediately felt calmer. “Uh… is he gone? And does he identify as a ‘he’?”
~|~ Er, I’m going to say he identifies as an Irken
“Do I need to know what that is? Is Irken a gender? Should I shout back if that happens again?”
~|~ No, no, and you just did.
“Oh!” Autumn exclaimed as she collected her things. “So I did.” Autumn tossed an unsure glance up at the sky. “Is Laughter still there?”
~ooo! Hehehe. Yeppers! Erm. That was pretty intense. Are you sure you don’t need a break?”
Autumn smiled, “I really should drop this all off.”
Autumn spotted one of her nets and picked up the pace to a canter. “Dropping this off! Dropping these fish off. Giving these fish to Frosty then uh… going to come back and collect these while thinking about moths.”
~ooo! “That’s cheating!”
~|~ Agree! Agree hard.
Autumn let out an extra mirthful giggle. “Okay, but I can still think about moths while I get these one’s, right?”
F@#! YOU BETTER!
Autumn cringed slightly. “Hi uh… Anger?”
F@#! UGH! ARE WE DOING THIS INSIDE OUT STYLE?
“I have no idea what that means… I think… Should I know what that means?”
~|~ Nopers
~ooo! “Hey! No fair. You owe me a quarter.
“No idea what a movie is!” Autumn announced with a smirk.
~|~ We’re all caked in the filth of your lies, Orange-chan.
Autumn crinkled her lips. “Not your best nick-name.”
~|~ I had to think fast, uh… Fire River?
Autumn winced. “I don’t think I like that one.”
F@#! HAIR! ZEE WAS TRYING TO COME UP WITH A NICK-NAME ABOUT YOUR HAIR.
“OOOOOOOH! What’s Zer hair look like? And yours. And your wife’s. Also, eye colors.”
F@#! LONG AND DARK BLUE; SHORT AND BLACK; PINK, LONG, AND CURLY; CHEATY BITCH LIKES ZER EYE COLORS TO CHANGE, BUT SILVER CURRENTLY; MINE ARE GREEN—
~|~ ~ooo! EMERALD!
F@#! ROLLING MY EYES AS HARD AS I CAN AT YOU TWO.
~|~ All right, Mr. Green. What color are Laughter’s eyes?
F@#! S@#$# YOU, AND SKY-BLUE… JERK
Autumn let out a burst of laughter as she passed by familiar grey rock pillars whose quartz sparkled in the noon-day sun.
[Are we returning to the cave? I like the cave. There are rocks there I haven’t fully studied.]
Autumn chuckled, “We’re almost there.” She frowned slightly. “We didn’t really get a song out of the trip did we?”
~|~ Uh… we have—
~ooo! ♫ “Oh, this time I’m going to make it through the winter on my own! I’ll stay in my cave all year, my new home! I just need to salt these fish and then I’ll make some tasty dish.
In a half-blearily daze—
You can’t eat fish if they’re exploded.
They can’t be loaded or goaded if there’s no fish left to be transported!
Charred atoms make waste, there’s nothing left to baste.
Everybody is teaching me so much about all these things.
I need to learn not to use so much haste…
Dropping this off! Dropping these fish off.
Giving these fish to Frosty then going to come back and collect these while thinking about moths.” ♫ !ooo~
Laughing, Autumn exclaimed in mirth, “Sounds pretty good to me!”
I LOVE YOU GUYS, BUT THAT WAS A JUMBLED MESS
[The important thing is they were enjoying themselves.]
“Look, I promise to think about moths and even sing about moths when we pick up the next net,” Autumn Blaze exclaimed.
~|~ Siiiiiigh… We can workshop it.
69 Hun, do we really need a song about exploded fish? 69
We might be doing this for a while, so… yes.
Author's Note
Fire it up
Autumn Blaze let out an elongated “BrrrrrRRRRrrrrrrRRRRRrrrrr!” as she warmed herself by the fire. Said fire has been built towards the back of her modest cave and filled the rocky encloser with warmth, light, comfort. You know? Fire things.
“I think it could use a little more wood,” Autumn said out loud as the two-chopped-log fire continued to flicker to life.
{69} Iiiii’d leave it for now if I were in your hooves.
~ooo! Oooo! Oooo! But if you were in her hooves, where would she be?!
{69} Ideally not dying of carbon monoxide poisoning, Laughter, my love!
Autumn put on a contemplative look and tapped her chin. “Is that a thing? Being too close to a fire and dying of carbon monoxide?”
{69} Would I say it if it wasn’t?
“Darn!” Autumn exclaimed “I was hoping you would say, “Yes, it’s a thing!” so I could be all “I knew that! I was just testing you.”
{69} “Hehe”
~ooo! Pffft! Hehehehe! Good one! I’ll be quicker with the lines next time.
Autumn frowned. “Don’t do that! I love talking to you both… well… everyone really.” Autumn exhaled through her nose. “Maybe just do it a little.”
{69} Uhhh… ~~ Phhh.. heh heh.
~ooo! Doing things just a little is the absolute worst thing I am at!
F@#! TRUER WORDS WERE NEVER SPOKEN.
~ooo! Really?!
F@#! No. You once ate all the ice cream out of the freezer with Hunger and then you both explained, sparing no detail, that you both got hungry and decided to EAT ALL THE ICECREAM IN THE FREEZER!
<#|)00o~ In my defense, I was doing a play off a Simpson’s quote which Laughter perceived as me falling on my sword where she proceeded to spill the beans.
~ooo! Hmmm… beeeeaaaaaans. Gurrrgggraggghraaa…
F@#! You can’t tell, Autumn, but I’m smirking. It helps to remember Laughter’s sock-puppet show that followed.
Autumn let out a hearty laugh and quickly whipped another chopped log onto the fire with her tail before anyone could say anything. “I got a profound sense of drooling with that last bit from hungeroo there.” She stroked a length of mane which fell like an irrencondecent lava flow against her chest in the firelight.
{69} Ooof, nice one. Love the sneak play. Just don’t pass out and die from smoke inhalation.
F@#! Pleeeease!
~|~ Seriously, to the max. If you start to get dizzy, start trotting towards the entrance. We start to lose our stuff if you hit a shin against something. None of us are emotionally prepared to lose…
{69} Excellent sentence trailing off, love.
~|~ Why thank you, Balance-baby.
{69} Anytime, Justice-dear.
Autumn’s expression turned deathly serious. “Is it still an entrance if I’m inside the cave?”
~|~ I mean, air, space, spirits, all kinds of stuff can get in.
“Okay, but it’s my cave.”
{69} Are the Koan Brothers here?
“I’m going to have to meditate on that,” answered Autumn.
Kirin in the snow!¡Nirik on the go
Panting in the chill late-spring air, Autumn Blaze trudged through the snow. She loved the snow, but today it was being a bit too friendly and stuck to her scarlet mane in frosted clumps. Her teeth were clamped down hard on the woven vine rope that was attached to the net, full of rapidly freezing fish.
A second vine extended to the net which was tied down extra right. There might not be any going back if the net burst.
"Ghua...Gaaa!" Autumn Blaze struggled against the chest level snow, now basically pushing against it as hot steam raised through it.
~~ I'm with you and holy flip is it chilly out…
"I know! Hence the, you know, raised internal body temperature."
~/~ Okay, we're almost there, and we can still go Niruk…
"GHAH! Ahh!" Autumn Blaze new she wanted the… no NEEDED the fish so bad that…
~{69}~ Autumn, Justice, Vengence? There's enough packing on this snow that if y'all weren't melting it, we'd be at the cave already.
Autumn immediately began taking in deep breaths and huffing them straight up.
~/~ Shoot. We forgot how snow worked.
~~ In my defense, I spent a year with Yuki‐Onna. Having your shoes thrown into the snow socks.
Your Hexigram is
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Lake over Montain
~{69}~ Gotta love having easy access to fire… except when you u as e it to solve too many problems.
Autumn grinned, "Alright Sunset Knows Best! We get it."
~~ OBJECTION! Sunset knows best is MY nickname for myself!
~/~ And anyone in our general vicinity.
"Climbing this snowbank to get out of this conversation!"
~{69}~ Can't I have a stupid nick name without you two clambering all over me?
"HuffING up a storm to display annoyance at current topic!" Huffed Autumn as she climbed up the snowbank..
~/~ Well ExcuuuuUUUUUuuuuse us, Princess! You wanted twins! If you wanted something that would give you space, you could have gotten a cat.
~~ Word.
~{69}~ A thought occurs that most my pets live in aquariums or terrariums.
~~ Huh… Insightful.
Autumn quickly made a loosely packed snowball and tossed it starship up, catching our worth get face.
~~ Gack!
~/~ Assassin!
~{69}~ Uh, you have our… Shoot A.B. we're off in our own world. What's up?
Autumn Blaze scowled at the snowbank in front of her. "Stuck!"
~~ What's your vertical leep?
~/~ And can you keep deer-erm-Kirin hopping until you get home with the fishies?
~{69}~ And would it not make sense to make a path all the way to the cave?
Autumn Blaze frowned. Ultimately it was her life on the line and she wasn't about to lose fish in the snow. She stomped the frozen ground until it was cracked no longer slippery smooth then left straight up. Laughing in the way down she landed with enough force that the ice and slowed forth out our her way.
A quick blaze of her chi and the snow infant of her melted and much of it melted around her. She hopped happily into her cave, firewood waiting for her gentle breath of flame and a net full of survival behind her.
!^! Dudududu Du dududaaaaa!
Your Hexagram is
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Earth over Fire
~{69}~ Tea?
Autumn Blaze smiled as she grabbed a huge catfish and began cooking it over the open flame on some pre-placed sharpened sticks. "That would be good for my Te."
~{69}~ I know, I was teeing you up.
You can advance!
