ORIGIN

It was that time of year again.

Well-... It felt like it, anyway. A little cooler, with those chilly breezes sweeping through and that strange electric feeling in the air. It wasn't like the caves had proper seasons, but sometimes they certainly mimicked them, and this one was Giggle's favorite. Something about it made her really enjoy lounging around the bones, watching her crow-like familiar (with her one red eye) circling overhead, and all that sort of spooky stuff.

The new body paint, featuring a skull among other things, along with her new baubled necklace and other cool accessories definitely left her feeling pretty badass. Or at least spooky.

That was it, wasn't it? -It was spooky season. The time when bones tended to just pick up and walk around, and shit like that; the perfect time to be decked out in said bones, or to have a spooky crow familiar. Maybe it'd be a good time for others to come and have their fortunes told, if they fell into the same sort of enjoyment of the season that Giggle did.

She mentally shrugged, and settled in next to the pit. Think anyone will come, if I call out? she asked Omen, idly, along the link. The bird, who often sent back meaning and intent and feeling, couldn't actually understand words, and so what she sent back was a loud caw.

Giggle shrugged, visibly this time, amused; she looked out over Canis, and hoped that someone might come to visit anyway. She opened her jaws, tilted back her head, and let out a magic-infused cackle: super spooky, super echoing, rippling across Canis.

"COME ONE, COME ALL, AND HAVE YOUR FUTURE PICKED FROM CANIS'S BONES!" she cried.

Better than lounging about doing nothing, anyway.

Let it be said that Giggle had had plenty of unusual visitors before--from things that glowed to things that were giant to things that flat-out had three heads. And she'd sort of adopted that one and she loved him, so she definitely wasn't against strangeness.

But when the multicolored fairy-cat came bounding out of the shadows (with LONG bounds, too, like half-flying bounds) cheerfully calling out to her, she was a little... well, she blanked. And given all she'd seen, it wasn't that it was the weirdness of it all. It was more that... it was so... colorful, and cute, and enthusiastic, and--well, yeah, weird; and here she'd been in Spooky Witch Mode.

It was like a ballerina had suddenly charged into a goth party, black bangs aside.

But she did her best to gather herself--not least of all because she was staring, and that was rude. Overhead, Omen gave a haunting cry, and that helped her sort of get back into that spooky witch mode once again. She managed to avoid starting with an awkward "ahem." "The bones need no payment; I am their conduit, and it is my duty to pass on their knowledge!" She phrased it as stiffly as she could, with a quavering and deep-voiced undertone, to sound very professional and eerily full of wisdom and all that; but really she was still goggling at the candy stripes. Which brought her next question to bear: "-Also, what is candy?" A pause, and she added (in the same stiffly noble tone), "The bones have not heard of candy."

Which was a lie, really. She didn't know shit about what the bones did or didn't know about candy. Hell, she could ask them, even. But-...

"I will ask the bones of your future, then-... Do you have a specific question, or shall I see your future as a whole?" She drew upright, proud of her use of "shall." It sounded very important and wise, at least to her. She sent out a brief spate of black mushrooms, a little creepy carpet to pave her way--or well, around her way, because she didn't step on the poor things.

Belatedly, it registered that this thing might, in fact (despite the horns and wings) be a cat; she stifled her distaste, but felt a sinking in her stomach. Cats... never ended well.

It was getting difficult to keep the whole "eerie soothsayer" act on--not that all of it was an act, of course, but forgive the old hyena for dramatizing. It was just hard facing such enthusiastic... brightness.

She stared for a beat, nonplussed, and then put the spooky tone back on. "WELL, then let us see your future!" The information about candy, however, she just sort of tucked away. She hoped it didn't come across rude, but she honestly was still trying to figure out how to respond to that. The cat wanted to feed her stuff that was growing on it..? Well, that alone wasn't that odd (Giggle could grow mushrooms that were edible, herself) but the enthusiastic description of them as sweet threw her off. She didn't really know much about sugar or sweetness; meat and marrow were her usual fare. So she left that topic alone, for now.

The loud shrill nature of Bebby's voice didn't help her focus, either, and she put on her most dramatic showman's voice as she commanded: "To commune with the bones, I will need total silence..." A look she hoped was mysterious was fired Bebby's way, because really she didn't know how much her ears could take. But the cat thing seemed friendly enough, and Giggle didn't dislike her. It was just-... She was very, very different than what the matriarch was used to.

She padded past the carpet of little black fruiting fungus to her bone pit, and stepped in up to her wrists; there she prodded her snout through the bones and searched for one to use in her reading. "The bones would always appreciate more company... the dead guide us," she said, as she searched, in answer to Bebby's other offer. "But payment isn't needed for your reading." She plucked out a small, rather fancy-looking bone--one bleached white by age and light. It stood out a bit against the worn and yellowed bones, and the ones stained by blood or charred by flame, and Giggle was delicate with her jaws as she carried it up to the ledge at a trot.

She paused at the top, turning to face Bebby (and giving her another long, dramatic stare) and then the pit. Show me, bones, she requested, what lies in this one's future. Omen circled ominously overhead, trying to be helpful for the mood, letting out another haunting call as Giggle released the bone to clatter down into the pit.

Giggle watched it fall, taking note of the way it scattered other bones without breaking despite its smaller size; she watched, too, as it bounced in one direction, only to be covered by other tumbling bones--vanishing at last from sight. Interesting. A glance at Bebby, then; if the bones were right (and they always were) this candy-striped kitten was much different than she seemed.

"I see something... strange," she began, putting on once more that theatrical voice. Then she paused, considering how best to word it to sound very sophisticated. "That which you use to defend yourself... will harm others. I see violence without thought; harm, without logic behind it... perhaps anger lashing out, or maybe a defense accidentally harming someone. But I see strength in you, too, a warrior's strength to meet your troubles head-on, with courage. A WARNING!" she went on, her voice suddenly loud; one paw smacked against the stone for emphasis--too hard. Ouch, Giggle thought. It took her a beat to remember what she was saying, but since she was staring at Bebby, she hoped it'd just come across as a very dramatic pause.

"I see a risk in your future. One that promises to reveal a secret, a mystery; but it bodes ill! Do not take that risk, when it comes..." Giggle trailed off. She'd been about to address the cat, but realized abruptly that she hadn't (had she?) gotten her name. If she had, she'd missed it; either way the bizarre demeanor and appearance had completely distracted her from her usual "introductions first, reading second" approach. Shit.

"I am Giggle, the Bone-Reader," she said, with a tone of deep importance, trying not to feel too foolish; "-and who are you..." More dramatic, Giggs- "...who Chance has cursed?"

Yeah-... that'd do it.

The 'thank you' earned a stern nod, and Giggle was about to speak--a simple 'you're welcome' and so on--when the strange candy-cat went on.

"I am Strawberry Extravaganza Glitterpaws, but you can call me Bebby."

Giggle's mouth closed again, and it was probably a good thing she was a mere hyena because any humanoid's face would have contorted in confusion. As it was her stare was blank, her dark eyes unblinking as she tried to process this--even as Bebby moved off into a corner to nurse her own candy and think over what she'd been told, Giggle stared off at nothing, and tried to do the same.

Strawberry Extravaganza Glitterpaws.

It's not like we can't name ourselves whatever we like, but I've never heard a name so, uhh... She lifted her head at last, ink-tipped muzzle pointed toward Bebby, and blinked as she finally realized the cat's apparent shift in body language. Did that upset her-? Or is she just thinking? she wondered. And then, too, Giggle realized something else: she was changing color. The shift from blue-ish to pink had her blinking, once again wondering just what Bebby was.

Maybe one of Nemean's kids..?

Giggle was torn between dropping character--that all-important grim-voiced showman--and offering concern. "The show must go on," and all that, but she didn't want to send anyone away genuinely upset, either. After a moment she settled for something in between, pacing a couple steps closer before (finally) replying. "You are always welcome to the wisdom of the bones; it is good to have visitors," but even she couldn't bring herself to say the full name. And anyway, the cat had said to call her Bebby. "...Bebby." The cat looked like she were playing, now, and Giggle was puzzled, but didn't mention it. "If you hold other questions... or concerns! I am here. And until someone else comes-" she shot a glance back to the bone pit, in case of other arrivals, then looked back to Bebby. "May I ask where you're from?"

It was friendly curiosity, but she also wanted to make sure the cat was all right before she just... left her there, or something.

Her attention was taken then by two new visitors: one she had seen before, in passing (and never truly spoken to) and another who was a total stranger to her. The first had been seen in... questionable company: Rezik and the Collector. And they reminded her, strongly, of Orthoclase-Alpha. "Esoteric," though? Giggle stopped herself from quizzically asking what the word meant (she had to at least pretend to be all-knowing) and noted that this one might be a few notches sharper than Alpha had been.

Less easy to fool. Not that she usually had to fool anyone; hopefully Vakornol wouldn't turn out to be as violent.

The second stranger gave her serious pause, and she had to blink a few times to understand what she was looking at. There were two impressions that struck her at once: one of celestial flame and light, the other of cat. Giggle blinked as these two disparate thoughts struggled for brief dominance in her brain, because starshot fire-beast was incredibly impressive but cat was a hateful concept to its core.

Eventually she decided it wasn't quite catlike enough to be worthy of real hate, and anyway she tried--she did try--not to judge even cats too harshly before getting to know them some. So she offered her visitors their greetings in turn.

"Hello! Hello, and welcome to the bones... Will you have your future read?" she asked both of them at once.

Giggle took a breath, called on her magic and tried for a spooky cackle for effect. The magic jolted her, so that she stumbled forward a step and let out first a squeak, and then a hacking cough. Ahhh shit! she thought, and quickly tried to cover for the abominable failure.

"AHEM! What would you ask of the bones? What would you see?" It was a simple enough question but an important one: did they have a specific question to ask, or did they each want just a reading of their futures?