Please Don't Feed The Monsters

Whitewolf had nudged him and offered some kind of food. He didn't really care what it was, he scarfed it down, grateful after his bird-battling exertion to be eating something other than soup. While he was munching away, Phil had started laying into Seymour, who looked almost like he was about to burst into tears, poor bugger. Bit harsh he'd thought, and asked if the GELF was serious. He might have added something in Seymour's defence, because he was all right, sometimes, but then FeBuggure had mentioned brewing alcohol and Alex had decided perhaps he wasn't so bad after all, and kept his mouth shut. He'd been privately panicked at the prospect of who-knew-how-long with no alcohol, and perhaps if he could keep on Phil's good side he'd stand a chance of getting some.

Phi crouched in front of Niples. “Are you okay, Seymour?”
“Yes.” He sniffed a little, glum of face. “There was bally well no need for that, though.”
Cass flicked a leaf from her shoulder “Maybe that's just how he feels. He does have a point.” That earned her a couple of dirty looks. She responded with a shrug - she was only being honest.
Seymour ignored the comment. “I don't understand, he saved me from the gas. Why's he being so... horrible?”
Jay was staring after Phil. “Yeah... that was pretty out of character. Must be something wrong with him.”
Whitewolf was calmly grooming himself after his meal. “We'll find out what's up, don't worry.”
"I think I might know." Jaxx volunteered, but the orange haired girl, Molly, spoke up before he revealed his theory. “Maybe he's just distressed because you're all stranded on a planet with no electricity and your ship is filled with toxic gas” she suggested.
Davie looked at her “yeh, you'd think so, but this kind of thing happens to us all the time. He's used to it.”
She looked around at the circle of Dwarfers and they all offered nods and mumbles of agreement.
“Wow, sounds like you lot have quite the adventures!” She told them, a little excitement ringing in her voice. Jacky smiled at her. “We do get into some scrapes.”
Yeah, and they're normally smegging exhausting thought Alex.
He hadn't really registered the newcomer before but now he ran his eyes over her, wondering how old she was, what kind of girl she was, and whether she- He noticed Jacky watching him, none too happily, and realised what he'd been doing. He cleared his throat and looked away.
His gaze came to rest on Cass who was quietly smoking now while the others chattered. He eyed the cigarette hungrily. She noticed and gave him an amused look.
“Tell you what,” she told him “you can have one when you've had a wash” then she turned back to observe the discussion.

Charming. Phi'd told him he stank, Cass had been recoiling in disgust, and White Wolf's eyes had been practically watering when he'd offered him the food. Now his mind was regaining something approaching focus, he should probably take the hint.
He looked over to the lake – something else he'd not taken in fully till now - it was serene and, despite it having partially eaten the 'Bug, there was something beautiful about it in this light. It rippled invitingly, which had the pleasant effect of untangling a few knots of stress throughout his body.
Not wanting to get involved in the Phil conversation, he padded down to the water's edge. While under the influence he wasn't always very good at looking after himself, but now that he was sobering up he didn't particularly want to smell bad. That sparkling water would sort him out in no time though. He stretched, clicking his back out, and waded in up to his knees. The water felt cool and calming. He was about to slosh in further when he heard someone calling him. He turned and looked back. “Cass?” She was heading down from the trees towards the bank.
She shouted something but he didn't quite catch it. It sounded like...
Get out? “... What? Why?”
She pointed behind him to the main body of the lake and shouted something else. He turned to see what she was on about, there was nothing there. He shrugged at her.
She reached the bank and beckoned again “get out of the water, NOW, Solvay.”
Baffled, but catching the tone in her voice and smart enough to do as he was told, he strode back out of the lake.
“What's the problem?” He frowned. She nodded towards the water. Confused, he turned to look again, then stepped backwards in shock as a large tentacle reared up, slapped the surface not too far from where he'd been about to swim, then re-submerged, leaving ripples on the surface.
“Ah.” He swallowed and turned back to her.
“No swimming, I'm afraid.”
"Thanks."
"You still need to wash."
He ran a hand through his hair, it got lodged in the matt at the back.
"Yup."

When they got back to the camp the others were still talking about Phil. But they were also talking about the Belhaphasaran GELFS.

"Where are they, anyway?"
"I thought you brought them!"
"Would this be a good place for them to live?"
"Bedge knows where they are..."
"Yes well, we can't exactly ask him, can we?"

Alex was still sore about the GELFs after "Cindy" had pretended to be Jess. He'd rather not think about them at the moment, so he decided to get some sleep. As he was dropping off he wished he had his blanket and decided he'd go and find it in the morning. Apart from his embarrassing snowman boxers it was his only belonging down here.

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