Bloo had gotten himself into quite an embarrassing predicament. Honestly, he wasn't sure *how* he had manages- but it seemed that the bushes around here were far more ferocious than anyone could have ever imagined. He had thought to forage some from the bushes a few days ago, and had somehow tripped over his own feet and fallen face first into a thick, thorny bramble bush, which had then refused to let him scamper back to the safety of- well, anywhere that was *not* an unusually cruel bramble. The next problem was that his small colony had no medical knowledge. At all. Which was definitely something he was going to have to address later. But for now- he was covered in thorns. So many of them. *Everywhere*. And he was going to need help getting the darned things out. (Empress, of course, had offered- but she had somehow only managed to make it worse.) So Bloo had, begrudgingly, made his way over to another colony in L'hatzif. He had communicated them a while back- being pretty trash at keeping himself alive in his early days paying off now in bonds, he supposed. He was almost where he was supposed to

be when he stumbled on another blue belemoid. "Ah uhm- hello!" the other Belemoid raised an eyebrow at him, so Blue shrugged it off and continued on "Im ah, looking for the Forsaken Hollow colony?" he asked the stranger. The stranger raised their eyebrow even further "I just came from there." he said, to which Blue hummed "Ah, well, you see- I was looking for their physicians." he uncomfortable shifted on his, still bramble-sratch and thorn-filled feet, "You see, there was an incident with a bush and I am covered in-" The other colonist grumbled "Save it," he sighed "I can *see* the thorns, you know?" he sighed "You couldn't figure out how to remove those by yourself?" Bloo gulped "Not uh, really? There- there were a lot more before I came here." The other narrowed his eyes at Bloo a bit "Well I suppose it would be rude to *not* help you out." he sighed. "Come along then." picking up whatever he was carrying- herb basket, maybe? and gesturing Bloo to follow. awkwardly following along into the colony's home, Bloo exchanged some awkward greetings with passer-by's and such as he followed the Physician. Bloo wasn't sure where he was

heading, but he assumed it would be- somewhere in the colony's space where they kept their medical supplies? He imagines bigger, well-run colonies would have designated space for that, after all. "So uh, nice weather we're having?" he tried, only getting a grumble in response "I- hmm, I don't think I caught your name?" Bloo smiled awkwardly. "That'd be because I hadn't told you." The other left an- awkwardly long silence before continuing "But I suppose you can call me Liam. You hadn't shared your name yet, either, by the way." Bloo supposed he couldn't really argue with that. "Oh! I'm sorry, my name is Bloo I live a bit up-" he was cut off by Liam announcing they had arrived. (arrived where, Blue was still unsure. Liam never had quite told him where they were going.) Liam sighed "I suppose," he started, glaring at Bloo slightly "I'll have to get these thorns out first." Bloo gulped as the physician started to work "Yea uh- Like I said, bad bush. Really bad bush, actually." Liam didn't answer, just humming in acknowledgement. "I uh- was out gathering, y'know- berries? I suppose?" Liam raised his eyebrows again at that "You 'suppose' you

were gathering berries?" Bloo nodded "Yea cuz like- It *looked* like the bush would have berries on it, y'know? So I reached over to investigate and I-" he winced a bit as Liam removed a stubborn thorn from his pelt "I uh, kind of fell." Liam looked up with suspicion "Kind of fell?" at Bloo's awkward nod he rolled his eyes "As far as I'm concerned there's no such thing as 'kind of' falling. You either fell or you didn't." Bloo shrugged "Well, at first it wasn't a fall but a stumble, and then I tried to uh- lean on the bush, y'know, for support." The physician looked at Bloo like that was the stupidest thing he had heard all day "You tried to lean on the bush The thorny bramble bush. That looked lean-able to you?" well, when you put it like that it *was* probably the stupidest thing the physician had heard all day. " Yes, so anyways, I *then* fell into the bush because well It wasn't leanable." Bloo continued. "Right." Liam nodded, seemingly having given up on- any of that not being a stupid encounter. "Im all done, by the way." Liam turned around to grab

something "Ill help you clean out some of those cuts, and then you'll be on your way." Bloo sighed in relief "Thank you- so much."