This Thing Don't Look So Tough

[Gamzee Makara]

That motherfuckin' kid bit his horn.

The one on the right, in fact.

He reached up and gingerly rubbed the deep(ish?) imprint the human girl's chompbones had left behind. But I mean were they noticeable? Were they deep enough to like, be considered by most to be deep? God he was just so very motherfuckin' flustered at the moment. What EVEN just transpired, yo? Like, Gamzee himself cannot confirm nor deny that he himself had too considered that yeah, maybe because troll horns looked like delicious fall-time chewies they also must taste as such, but the thought had never actually crossed his mind to chance a chomp. Why would this child do something so controversial yet so brave?

His eyes dart to and fro, from Rumford's defeated face to the girl's big teary doe eyes. All around the room they roamed, worried that the next unsuspecting bite might come from that chair over there. Or the house plant.

Straz, after a healthy dose of cackling and heckling as the initial outburst unraveled, retrieved the package from its crash site. After giving it a once over, he hands it to Rumford with a shrug. "Never a dull moment, eh?"

"Not with little ones, no," he responds, holding his daughter in a protective hug, before adding in a hushed hiss, "Or with you around." Not that he was comparing Straz to a child throwing a tantrum or anything.

The defender holds his hands up in surrender. Gamzee, who had to his credit somewhat recovered from his mild episode, rose to his feet. He traced the tiny row of craters on his horn with his fingertips, occasionally giving the human girl a bewildered gaze. 
 
Rumford exhaled something akin to a sigh or a groan or both, before picking apart the box containing Mama Godwin's gift. The sergeant just sorta stares at the opened package for a moment, a funny look on his face. "Ruddy medicine woman," He muttered under his breath. Tentatively, he held up something that Gamzee could only describe as miraculous. 

"What is that?" The clown asked with wide, mesmerized eyes. 

His mentor wouldn't believe it if he hadn't watched it unfold right in front of him. "It's a dream catcher," he responded.

"A motherfucking what?" the whimsical boy whispered with a toothy smile. 

"Yeah they're involved in a lot of religions and cultures and beliefs and all that. You hang 'em somewhere near you when you sleep, and they're supposed to catch nightmares, keep 'em from getting to ya," Strazio explains, eyeing the commanding officer and his daughter. Despite seeing much stranger things occur in his adventuring, Strazio found it hard to buy into such superstitions and blind faith. Still, this was certainly a hard to sell coincidence. Maybe there was some magic to Mama Godwin after all.

The dream catcher itself was a beautiful piece of art consisting of three rings. The one in the middle was about the size of Rika's head, while the other two orbiting it were proportionally just a little smaller so as to accent it; the thing was practically a mobile. Mama Godwin must have been inspired by Peter's lycan ordeal, as the dream catcher she created was very clearly originally strung to appear like three wondrously detailed full moons. However, in the bang-up it took from Rika's surprise attack, the two smaller catchers were bent and unstrung in such a way that they appeared to be different phases of the waning and waxing of the moon. The one hanging on the left looked like a quarter moon, and the one on the right was crushed like a crescent moon. But the largest one in the middle held fast, retaining it's gorgeous, expertly strung full moon. The whole thing was made using a a few select colors, but most prominently on display were black for the bordering and background, a brilliant white for the moons, and a lush, lovely violet for the beads and feathers that dangled from the three rings. Rika would later be delighted at the fact that the white string and purple beads both produced an ephemeral glow in low-light, giving the whole structure a luminous aura. 

Gamzee couldn't believe it. It was so magical, so mystical. And the universe totally just left its mark on it, which made the whole situation, the bite, the girl, the dream catcher, the Mama Godwin, all of it all the more miraculous. The world was a beautiful place indeed, and he didn't feel so uncomfortable anymore. 

-----

Rika gave Gamzee the biggest hug before he left, and made him promise the girl he wouldn't get eaten. Gamzee had always been good with kids, though he was never really quite sure how or why. The two became fast friends via tea party, and quickly smoothed over any discrepancies from the accident. "Goodbye General of Jellyland!" She waved, sending them off. Fast friends indeed.

Rumford didn't approve of Strazio Rockwell's tried and true method of rushing in without a plan to beat the shit out of everything in sight, but he supported the boy all the same. "We can't afford to send out any secondaries after this thing, but there are a notable amount of primes already on their way. You shouldn't be in any need of reinforcements," he stated, rather confidently, "if you were anyone else, I wouldn't let you set foot outside the walls until that thing was dead as a door nail."

The officer slapped an arm around his comrade's shoulder. "But it is you, Strazio Rockwell. Letting you run off and get yourself killed has become tradition."