Dolce gently nuzzled at the curious tentacle, as if to encourage the others to draw closer. See? It’s okay! Soft things were meant to be held, or else how would their softness be complete? Stay a little longer. Don’t run. Please, don’t run.

“That’s a very tough question.” Dolce agreed thoughtfully, pulling himself into as comfortable a ball as he could. “Can you tell me about your old job? What was it like to manage the fear of a leviathan?” Perhaps it was difficult to see the faint sparkle in his eyes. But who could miss the note of wonder in his voice? An impossibly huge creature, home to and living through a city’s worth of bureauctopi; who could ever imagine such a thing?