ORIGIN - Do I Still Look Like Me

Ananke crouched quiet before the reflective pool, her ears mostly flattened back against the sound of the waterfall's soft rushing. Sometimes they pricked forward, though, and the white rabbit fidgeted--as if to start off, to set forward, maybe into the water itself. But inevitably, she settled again; and this, aside from her occasional turning of her head this way and that as if to examine herself (which was precisely what she was doing) in the water, was the only movement Ananke made.

She felt a strange... disconnect.

She'd awoken in Ursa, and found that her link with that voice in her mind was stronger than ever--but for some reason the sense of well-being had weakened. Maybe Mother was focused on something else right now, or maybe there simply wasn't the need, now, to constantly reassure the flighty rabbit--not now that she was bound forever, by magic and by stone, to her "benefactor." Ananke had found, too, that her very magic was different: a thrumming power, the urge to Order, was pulsing beneath her paws. She could rearrange things with but a thought--at least, that's how she felt; put them where they needed to be, neatly slotted and arranged, crystalline in their perfection. That's the thought that ran through her mind, the feeling that pervaded, and it was reflected in the magic that swept out (as if to prove her thoughts) and purged the ground around her of any imperfections.

Yet-... She had found that she could not call upon her wisp, that little light that had guided her from kittenhood. And somehow, that loss had resonated, and the white rabbit was left with a strange feeling of being lost. Without her light to guide her, how would she find her way-? It was, she knew, a silly thought--but the feeling wouldn't go away.

She... just didn't feel like herself. It was as though some imposter had crept in while she had slept, had shrugged her skin on like a cloak, and adopted her entire being as some sort of odd facade.

Well. She was following Mother's urging, regardless. Draco was a fool's errand, and Cepheus was to be avoided, too, at all costs. Leo had nothing really to offer her: Mother had assured her that Ananke would need to pass through here, and then through the stronghold of "foreign magic," to get to the rest of the caves. To get to potential recruits: those lost, like her, to be guided back home to Ursa.

But Ananke didn't feel the confidence she had felt in her chosen God; Mother assured her that she only needed time to recover. And so for now, she crouched, and she stared into the crystal pool; and that was how she stayed.

Filthy.

That was the problem with shimmering, reflective crystals that refracted the brilliant cave lights. You could see just how filthy they were. Dust collected on their surfaces, muddying the reflections to an imperfect, grimy show. Even worse was when a light hit a cluster of geode just right and shone a beam through the air, catching on every particle of dirt that drifted idly on by.

The caves were ultimately a filthy place, made of dirt and stone and, hell, no one liked to talk about it, but gembound still had to shit somewhere. When someone first walked into Gemini, they might see the place as beautiful, glistening, but it had been a long, long time since anyone had actually dusted anything.

The Janitor had just been coming through, trying to figure out where any of his researching crew had gone off to-- probably to make a mess without anyone to clean it up. Lousy, good for nothing. It wasn't like they talked to him, no, but they were the closest thing to a group that gave him purpose, so when they scrambled off he went searching for them. Familiar, after all; had been with them for years-- even if he was only so many cycles old.

To an outsider, the white rat might have been a curiosity, sniffing and squinting at his own reflection. He probably looked like a weird mutation of a cave rat, albino and curled, pale fur that pink skin showed faintly through. But then again, the nearby hare looked much the same. Who would think anything of either lesser-like gembound if they said nothing at all?

The Janitor was keeping his magic sense going, looking for particular spots that desperately needed cleaning as he went. It would take cycles to clean a whole cave, and he had other business to attend, but that didn't mean that he couldn't tidy up as he went. He was drawn to the sound of trickling water with ears twitching, expecting to use the fresh, running water to clean some of the reflective crystals, when something struck him as very strange.

His pink eyes did not linger on the white rabbit-- wasn't polite to stare-- but his magic felt the void around her. It wasn't perfect, no, but most of the bacterial grime that covered the surface of the cave broke down and became nothing closer to her, to where she had used magic to clean. And though he did not know how she had done it, immediately the Janitor was struct with fascination.

He grunted, walking up casually to the water's edge, and dunked his paws in, before washing his whiskers and ears clean. Better to be nonchalant about the whole thing; he wasn't an imposing, nosey person regardless. He showed his curiosity by proximity, and muttered under his breath to himself.

"Too much damn dust 'n dirt. Gets stuck in my toes..."

@Ananke

She was jarred from her thoughts by movement close by, and she started, head jerking up and around with wide eyes to regard the approaching rat. She settled, though, after a moment. He didn't seem to be a threat, with a glance and murmured conversation.

Ananke forgot what she'd been thinking, for now, her entire attention now swept to the wispy-furred stranger. Two things caught her eye at once: the white clump of gemstone at his shoulder, and the fact that Janitor was prioritizing cleaning over all else. A surge of pride in him, despite the fact that he was a total stranger, rippled through her: this was good, this was proper. She perked up, ears lifting, face relaxing some. He is like us she thought, softly--or was that Mother in her mind? She couldn't tell, and contentedly, she did not mind. If she'd not held Mother's knowledge in her mind, and the link to all her children, Ananke might have thought the rat to truly be one of theirs.

It was an immense relief, too, to find someone as small as she--smaller, even. Her entire life, Ananke had been the tiny one, the vulnerable prey, and at once she warmed to the rat who was (for once!) a stranger she didn't fear.

At his mention of grime, Ananke almost instinctively rocked forward--fully intending, for a heartbeat's confused span, to groom the stranger's fur with her tongue. It was an animal urge and she pushed it back with some surprise: to act on it would be... rude, to say the least.

Licking others without permission was not proper.

"I--ahh, could cleanse you, if you wish," she murmured, a bit abashed. Magically, she assured herself. Then she looked around, her eyes sweeping back over the geodes, their crystalline faces often swept by grit or grime, and to the shining ground beneath. To a normal Gembound it all likely looked quite clean, shining even, but to her eyes...

...Yes, she understood him.

"It is everywhere, is it not? -The dirt. It's as though nowhere is really clean." A faint shudder twisted her shoulders and she turned her crouch back forward, toward the water. "Haphazard stones, clusters of fur, abandoned bones. It's--disordered," she lamented.

Ananke realized she was probably being rude, drifting off as she was into thought, though her initial intent had been to engage the stranger in conversation. She tried again: she offered a friendly glance, though that distance in her eyes, that awareness of every sibling along her Hive-link, never quite left her. "Ananke," she introduced herself, quietly, and then: "It's good to have... respectable company." Respectable. Yes, she thought; that would do.

@Janitor

Most folk didn't pay any mind to the Janitor. Usually his rambling, mumbles made in idle passing-byes only caught a brief glance that was forgotten as soon as their eyes turned away again.

Janitor had no way of knowing if this rabbit, like most skittish lessers she resembled, was shy or avoidant. He certainly expected her to ignore him if he acted as he always did, though. If she was a Greater (which, he knew of no lesser that could clean the very air with its presence) then that seemed the most likely outcome. To be ignored. Which suited him well enough, but...

When she responded to him (!) and not only that, offered the emotional equivalent of handing someone a clean handkerchief after they'd sneezed, the new emotion-- curiosity-- gnawed away at him.

The rat tilted his head toward her, nose twitching as he stared at her. His gaze fixated a bit too much on her perfect, clean white fur, the glassy look to her eyes, and only after it had lingered too long to be socially acceptable did he blink and shake his head. It wasn't that he was trying to be intimidating, more that he had an entire lack of any social skills to speak of. A bit rough around the edges for sure.

"No," he sighed, stretching his limbs and pushing himself upright on to his hind feet. "A job's never done. 'Supose that's the point of having a Janitor around."

Disordered, hm? Where Ananke thought she was being rude, the Janitor himself was too ignorant of manners in the first place to even notice. "Eh, I'm the Janitor," he replied. "You're awfully kind, Ananke. Nobodies talked to me before." He settled a paw on his leg as he squatted back.

Well, he didn't want it to be a pity party. "I've been trying to get this place cleaned up, but I only got my two hands and an eye for grime. How'd you clean this spot?" Did he want to be cleansed, as she said? The dirt really only bothered him when it was on everything else, though he tried to keep himself tidied up a bit.

@Ananke

Faint excitement thrilled through her, and--was that her own? Does it matter? Her mind was Mother's, now; it belonged to the Hive. But it struck her that this stranger was something of a kindred spirit. Some part of her--Mother's part?--recognized that a little rat was an unlikely threat, and that if his values already aligned, he would be perfect practice in terms of converting strangers to the Hive's Ordered creed. Some other part balked-... saw that kindred spirit, and saw a potential friend. But there's nothing wrong with bringing him in, then--right? As friend, as family? Maybe I can get to know him first, she decided, if only because that seemed a pleasant prospect.

He seemed easygoing, after all: friendly and small, apparently dutiful in his work (and who had appointed him this task? she didn't know).

Ananke fixed him with a kind expression, eyes a little squinted up (and she meant it; it was no act). "They ignore us smaller ones, don't they?" she offered, her voice softly musical. It was only partially true; she'd certainly been shown kindness by far larger creatures. But she'd felt overlooked whenever one had marched on past without so much as seeing her, though in those cases, she'd almost always been hidden away. It was more some strange concept she'd had that Mother had further fixed into her: that alone, small, she was worthless. That she needed family and a purpose to survive. "What's--if you don't mind my asking?--what is a Janitor?" she went on, eyeing him over curiously, her blue-gray eyes now wider.

As for cleaning-... The rabbit turned, looking down around herself, a faint thrill of alarm calmed by her matron's patient touch. "It's... magic," she began, and looked toward the rat, debating how much to say. "My magic... puts things the way they should be. I think it's wonderful you're trying to clean-... everywhere seems so... there's so much out of place, do you know what I mean-? Can I help you with it?" she asked, tentatively. For a moment she tried again, but nothing came, and she settled back with pursed mouth. It only then occurred to her to wonder how Janitor knew she'd cleansed the area; there was no visible sign, and her ears came up with curiosity as she regarded him. "You can see what I've done, then? Do you have--similar magic?" It wouldn't be the same, no--she knew that at a glance, knew it through the hivemind's knowledge. He was not one of them, or she'd know. But were there other magics that could do the same thing as Ananke now could-? That could clean, and see the hidden filth lurking in every rock-?

@Janitor