HOW'D I EVER GET SO OFF MY ROCKS ; open, joiner

[fancypost bgcolor=; border:none; width: 400px; font-family: verdana; font-size:8pt; text-align:justify;]Xenon tentatively walked further past the border. He was corporeal now. No longer was he simply an element, a noble gas, omnipresent. That was still weird.

Him and his siblings’s mother had decided that they needed a break from their periodic duties. A few of those who were sent down had taken on their physical forms completely willingly, even excitedly, like Plutonium. Others, like Arsenic (who Xe had heard was forced to manifest in a physical body), weren’t as excited. Xenon didn't really fit into either extreme of this really weird continuum, but he could strongly say he was leaning towards distaste.

Sure, on one hand, it was a break. Breaks were good, refreshing. But on the other hand, he had no clue what he was doing. He did not like not knowing what he was doing. You’d think for a literal element, Xe would’ve picked up at least some knowledge of how things down on earth worked, but no, this was all new to him. He usually just did what was needed of him and didn’t bother with anything else.

So now that Xenon was a… um… dog? Maybe..? Now that he was a being, everything had way more confusing than it needed to be. And he had to adjust. However much he didn’t enjoy it. The dog’s (okay, yeah, he was definitely a dog) scowl grew, eyebrows knitting further together. A real, classic, grumpy child expression.

He dragged himself further along, unknowingly well past the border, hoping for something; the only problem here was that he wasn’t super sure what the something was. Maybe one of his siblings. Or another dog-- a real dog, one who had been a dog their entire life. Just something, so he could stop aimlessly wandering.

And then he did find something, more or less. Though it wasn't any of the things he had in mind. It was a set of stairs. If he'd been paying more attention he probably would've seen them sooner, but instead he nearly hit his head against the damn things. He jolted back a foot, then nodded gently before letting out a nervous chuckle. This was getting to be more and more of an experience, to say the least.

Nope. No. That was it, that was his limit. He was going back to the way things were before. Or at least, Xenon would've done that, but now he just felt like he was stuck standing and staring blankly at the stairs in front of him.

[fancypost bgcolor=; border:none; width: 400px; font-family: verdana; font-size:8pt; text-align:justify;]Xenon's head jolted up at the voice, jumping an inch and widening his eyes. For a moment, he just stared, as if he didn't understand the question or had seen these folk do something absolutely ridiculous. It took a moment to calm down, but Xe gathered himself (from what he could say now was the second surprise of the day) to focus on what was asked.

"Can I help you?" Yes, the canine would imagine that they could, but he didn't know if he wanted them too. Earlier he had wanted to find people, someone to answer questions, but now that didn't seem as desirable. If anything, it was almost making his mood worse. So many strangers from such a complex territory wasn't making this transition easier. Xenon just wanted things to go back to how they were. Or at least find one of his siblings. Something familiar.

What was the whole point of this 'break' anyways? So far all he'd gotten was confused and subsequently frustrated. Seemed to have more pros than cons, if he were being completely honest.

Okay, getting back on track one last time. He probably looked like he was two weeks old, sitting and giving them this weird half-pout, half-bewildered stare. "Maybe. Maybe not. Guess we'll see," he said in a curt response, voice low but soft, "who are you all? And... where... are we? Why are there stairs here?"

[fancypost bgcolor=; border:none; width: 400px; font-family: verdana; font-size:8pt; text-align:justify;]That... honestly gave more questions then answers.

Floating islands? Xenon felt his head move up, gaze following to look past the stairs. It did explain the gigantic staircase, though he hadn't even gotten used to being around trees and feeling the grass against his paws yet. And honestly, what was a "BlizzardClan"?

An exasperated sigh escaped his lips as he brought his gaze down, shaking his head as he did so. Looking back to the lion, he cleared his throat. "Kion," he repeated, "I'm Xenon. Xe."

The introduction was blunt, and he didn't really give the others much time to introduce themselves after it. He probably would've, but honestly the thought hadn't even crossed his mind, considering how many other things were on it.

"Floating islands sorta seem like a lot of effort when you have perfectly good land down here," he muttered under his breath, not actually caring for a reply. It wasn't a real criticism. No, he didn't understand why they needed a staircase, and needed floating islands, or why there were floating islands in the first place, but the comment was made because of.. well, just that. He didn't understand. Any of it. The "clan". The land. His new corporeal state. Where his siblings had ended up. Why he'd been forced into this stupid change in the first place. It was scary. Though Xenon would never admit that last part.

He took a small pause before he speaking again. "What is BlizzardClan, anyways? Just the name of your territory, or..?" It seemed as if all he could manage to say was questions today. He didn't like it. Didn't like being, excuse the pun, out of his element. "If you hadn't figured it out, I'm not really from around here."

[fancypost bgcolor=; border:none; width: 400px; font-family: verdana; font-size:8pt; text-align:justify;]Now there was a question being directed towards him. That was a nice change of pace, especially considering how these strangers seemed to only be able to think about how little he knew. "Everywhere," he sharply huffed. He then took a moment and thought about how confusing that might be for the others. "Xenon-- it's... My siblings and I, we're... well, we're elements. The periodic type. A few of us took on physical forms."

Speaking of which, he still had no clue where his siblings were. And what was it they'd said? BlizzardClan was a group? Presumably, it was one with more than those who had greeted him. For all he knew they could be there, well past the stairs and roaming the islands.

"So there's more of you, yes? Have any of you seen any of my siblings?" he asked, "um... Neon? Oxygen? Polonium? Any of those sound familiar?" He imagined they wouldn't have seen them. Earth was hardly big compared to what the billion year old element had seen. He took up space, he was in space. He didn't consider Earth small. But being in this position, a creature, the chances of this clan he happened upon being the same one a few of his siblings had seemed very unlikely. Not to mention, Xenon had almost 180 siblings, and he didn't even know how many had joined him on Earth. Earth felt considerably bigger.

It just proved that everything was relative. Xe felt so helplessly small, thinking about it. At the very least, if they hadn't seen any of his family he could still... ask for help... That wasn't right. He was the one who helped people, not the other way around. His likeness was used to relieve pain, or help trauma patients get over terrible memories, or so many other things he couldn't even think of. He never needed help. He was the helper.

If he were being honest, though, now seemed like the one exception to that rule. Hell, he got caught off guard by stairs. The best thing for him was to stay in one place and at least try to adjust to his new situation. Finding more and more territory and more and more "clans" would make adjusting more complicated than it needed to be.

And here he was, back to the beginning, being the one who needed the most guidance out of the entire crowd.

But still, after the mini debate in his mind, he asked the question (no matter how much it felt like he was asking it against his own will). "Even if you haven't seen them... Can I stay with your group? At least until I figure things out. Find some of my family, again."