ORIGIN - There's something in the white matter!

YOU WILL LISTEN. YOU WILL LISTEN. YOU WILL LISTEN. Well here they were. Listening.

Another visitation from the Carrot. Different dream, same contents. At least the Carrot wasn't tossing them around dirt walls so fast they were beginning to nonsensically ricochet. A kinder message with a deeper imprint remained in Ampelio's mind instead, one they would have to chew on for a while. Like a fabulous banana. Speaking of which, a snack would be nice....

Polaris thrummed with magic, its focal point appeared to be that crackling monolith that bathed the room a in phosphorescent blue dream. There was no heat but there was pulse, the stream of water and magic intertwined and filled the lungs, activated all senses. The appeal was undeniable, especially to Ampelio, who was already some level of adrenaline junkie. They could be here for that forbidden rock candy, to try to taste it as many chaos gremlins had before. Or they could be here to challenge the mysterious golems which lumbered about and threatened destruction for anyone bearing a magical propensity, or anyone with bones squishy enough to break on stony impact. It was a playground, much like the downtown area of a city... but today, Pelly wasn't interested in any of that. Today, Pelly was most interested in the mösses.

YOU WILL BE ROOTED INTO. It sounded like a command, or a promise. Pelly was not a complete stranger to the magic of their family. Their father and Pride were masters of their arts, and Pelly... well, Pelly always wanted to learn. Pelly knew of a spell Mercy used, sometimes, to transport plantation. It involved placing the roots in the skin, changing bodily nutrients most likely to accommodate said roots, and so...

Pelly would take a bite from a magical banana, turning just as sparkly and eye-catching as any of their surroundings. They would ponder the mosses while they munched the banana. Ponder the roots, the dream, the taste.... wait—

Maybe they should have eaten a better breakfast this morning. Can't practice magic on an empty stomach, little fool.

@Ariah

He got restless in Gemini, after a while. And he didn't know why- he had been completely content there before. But now he just felt bored. There was nothing here! It was all just the same ol' crystals! He couldn't even go back to the above-place no matter how hard he tried. The best he had was the little round mirror, which he hid in a pile of the most opaque crystals and rocks he could find. He would've taken it if it hadn't been nearly as big as he was.

Boredom and restlessness naturally led to exploration, and exploration led to finding a new tunnel, and the new tunnel led to.... Whatever this place was.

It retained the crystals Gemini had in excess- though there were A LOT less around here and these ones hummed strangely. This room's whole gig seemed to be being bright, with all the glowy moss and mushrooms and crystals everywhere. It was kind of nice, actually! The brightness reminded him of the above-place, and something about the blue crystals was... rejuvenating?

He tried to make the chiming crystal song, but something within his gemstone just fizzled uselessly instead. He quietly huffed, but was quickly distracted from any sulking he may have done by another gembound! This one was very VERY big, four legs but no wings. They had big clompy feet and a weird looking clown face. Naturally, Ariah was intrigued.

"HEY!!!!!!" He shouted, as one who had literally never talked with another before would do, naturally. "WHY ARE YOU WEIRD AND SPARKLY???"

@Ampelio

Words. Lots of them. Little teeny pipsqueak words coming from a little teeny pipsqueak who seemed impressed by Ampelio's unconscious display. They offered not a word in return, instead only drifting their eyes downward and downward like a diver sinking slowly in the sea, 'til they finally reached an itty bitty chicken nugget source. Pelly thought Tobie was short... this was breaking new ground. Pelly almost mirrored the impressed-ness of the chick. They felt an immediate impulse to smile but... no, that would capital-T Terrify this little guy. (Only Tobie was really safe to smile around, because Tobie wasn't scared of anything. Which in and of itself was concerning at very least.) So instead, Pelly would raise their eyebrows and keep an otherwise straight, indifferent face. Still, one tall enough to see might notice the bemusement twinkling in Ameplio's already bedazzled eyes.

Pelly opened their palm and attempted, with unceremonious unsuccess, to receive another banana for the little chickadee. To seamlessly cover up the error, Pelly quickly flexed and released their paw to pass it off as just... exercise let's say, and broke their silence: "Hey." (Very cool, very calm & collected and not a clown in any way at all.) "Why are you dinky and short?" Was that too mean? Pelly didn't want to come off as too mean— their expression would soften as they would scoop a little pocket of damp moss from a rock and deposit it at the baby chick's feet. Ampelio would also lower themself into a Loaf position so as to be slightly less hard for the kid to look up at. "Do you know what this is?" A little test for the kid. Kids loved tests. Pelly certainly loved tests. Pelly, you'll note, had also never been to a formal American public school. But yeah, I guess when those aren't involved, tests can be fun.

@Ariah

The big weird clown-monkey-cat-thing just stared back in return, which did NOT answer his question and made him feel much to uncomfortably like the bugs he liked to eat. Unknowingly to Pelly, Ariah was a small child who hadn't yet obtained the fear of god or death or big creepy smiles. In fact, the insinuation that Pelly's wonderful toothy grin would be too much for him would probably have prompted more furious squawking. As it was, the little yellow nugget ruffled up in preparation for even more squawking, "HEY!!! SPEAK!! YOU BIG WEIRDO!!!"

And speak the big weirdo did! Ariah blinked at their rebuttable, the dial-up noises nearly audible as he tried to form a response. I-! WELL YOU-! Y- He puffed up even more, as if preparing some sort of insult, but nothing happened but a faint quickly-fading spark within his gem. Luckily, before he could attempt another 'insult,' a large pawful of something wet and kinda gross looking splatted onto the stone in front of him.

Ariah would squint at the 'test' for a second, confusion trampling any prior affronted anger and desire to impress an adult (if Pelly even counted...) forcing his attention onto the moss. He jabbed at it with a talon. "It's uh..." As kids sometimes did when investigating something, he stuffed a small clump of moss in his mouth. It tasted like spinach mixed with soil that had just been rained on. "it'S GROSS!" He concluded. Surely this would get him an A.

@Ampelio

Pelly could not contain their amusement with the little guy. The hint of a "smile" prodded at Pelly's lips, and as soon as the little chickadee actually put the moss in their mouth and squeaked "it'S GROSS!", Pelly just couldn't hide it anymore. They chortled in a soft but rather irreverent way. Had this kid known Pelly's father, he might have seen the resemblance in laughter alone.

One puffy paw-hand plucked another tuft of moss from a damp rock and brought it up to Pelly's mouth. They made a clear point of tasting it and looking pensive before spitting it right back onto their paw. "You're right, that is gross. It is also: moss." Indeed, were Pelly fit to be a school teacher, they would have given this kid an A+. Another wave of bemused chuckling escaped them, but Pelly was really trying to make it cool chuckling and not clowny chuckling. They were getting an uncomfortable midpoint between the two. "Your enthusiasm is very cute, very charming, but..." Pelly lowered their head all the way to the ground, letting their chin rest on stone and seeking out the puffball's eyes before continuing their speech: "i wouldn't go around calling everyone a 'weirdo'." They were right about Pelly, so the lion-monkey (lonkey?) took it in stride, but people like Cas certainly wouldn't have. "I'm Ampelio, or 'pelly', to small people," 'and to my brothers.'

And hey, Tobie was a 'small people' for sure, but this chickadee was breaking the record. Tobie could punt them. Tobie wouldn't, of course, but! Tobie could.

"What's your name?" Pelly would have asked through the mind like their fathers had when they had first hatched. Pelly would have given that sensation of warmth and comfort, home, to anyone if they could have. Even loud, bite-sized newborns like this one — in fact, especially loud, bite-sized newborns like this one. But Pelly didn't know that magic.

YOU WILL LISTEN.

Pelly really needed to practice some magic.

@Ariah

In direct contrast to Pelly's sort of soft, paternal amusement, Ariah was filled with the sort of 10-year-old spite that could bring one to fight God. With no Gods within convenient fighting distance, Ampelio was the next best target. Sorry, Pelly.

"Why would you EAT IT? It's grOSS!" Obviously Ariah was smart enough to know this, despite having to taste-test the moss moments prior. "The MOSS is gross!!" Look at him, using new vocabulary words! What a good student.

Upon lowering their head to the ground, Ariah took the opportunity to lightly peck Pelly on the nose. It was a quick forward-and-back movement, considering he didn't want to be within eatening-range. However, he listened to Pelly's speech thoughtfully. Or rather, as 'thoughtful' as he could be.

"Im not a small people," He said, very incorrectly, "So im gonna call you Ampe- Am- Pelli- Amp- a..... You.." 'You' would still work, right? Technically they were a 'you.' Technically, everyone else was a 'you.' That'd get confusing if he had to talk to more than one person though... Ok, so maybe they would be the only 'you?' Because he was NOT gonna call the lion by the 'small people' name.

"My name is!..." A pause just long enough to make you question if this was being thought of on the spot, "Ariah!!" Unknowingly to Ampelio, he had been beaten to the whole 'warm welcome' front. His visit to the Big-above-sky-place had beaten them by a mile. It had beaten nearly every experience by a mile, actually. It's a wonder he hadn't brought it up yet, actually,

Well, knowing little kid's tendencies to ramble about random stuff, it was only a matter of time.

@Ampelio

Well, I suppose being proxy to God is pretty flattering. Pelly was mostly just pleased with the feisty chickadee's fervent attention. They're calling it moss! They're listening! Learning! The lonkey shrugged their shoulders rather nonchalantly and smirked just a little. "I wanted t' know what it tasted like for myself."

The brief and completely innocuous peck at their nose made Pelly (poorly) stifle an entire giggle. "I'm not a small people." This small little teeny kid had NO idea how small and teeny and adorable they were actually, and Pelly got the feeling that no matter how many times this kid was alerted to this fact, they would still remain very defensive, in downright denial of their stature. Pelly supposed they could understand, empathize, even though they had always been on the taller side. The desire to be respected! Pelly could understand that.

Still, it was getting really, really hard to keep a straight face around this chicken nugget. Pelly decided that it might help to avert their eyes as the chickadee struggled with the word "Ampelio". A little sigh wriggled out, however, as Pelly's heart took a gentle pity on the little bird, whose own pride made it impossible to take the easy way out. 'Twas a kid thing.

Ariah. It was a good choice, felt uncharacteristically light on the tongue. Too bad they had chosen violence this morning, and had now forced Pelly to retaliate: "Ariah's a nice name, but since you won't call me my name, i can't call you yours." Pelly shrugged again and pretended to frown as if bound by a most unfortunate law of the universe. "So i guess i'll just have to call you... hm...." Scanning, scanning, acting like we're scanning, "pipsqueak? yea-up, that'll have to do." Truly, fantasy bureaucracy would be the end of them all.

"So, pipsqueak," (not waiting for a reply on that one) "what about your family? Or guardians? Usually smal— ahem, young people travel with chaperones." Pelly centered their yellow eyes back on Ariah, resting their chin on their paws. "Oh-! and, would you prefer... mister? miss? neither? an assortment? Personally, i'm a neither kind of guy. It's fine if you're not sure though, or if you have no idea what i'm talking about."

@Ariah