ORIGIN - awaking in the light of all the stars aligned

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Bartos hadn't really intended to make the guy laugh when he looked through the lens, but when the lion burst out with amusement at the sight of the big-headed cat, he couldn't help but grin himself. Clover had said he was smart and funny... The cat snickered, and after the telescope stand had been erected, he stood aside and allowed the lion space to look through. All the while his mind reeled, wondering what kinds of things they would see up there. What mysterious geography marked the ceiling of the cave up above, what was it that twinkled over their heads? The lion uttered his amazement and Bartos straightened up, snaking his tail excitedly. He was about to squeeze in front of Quintus so that he too could look through the telescope, only the lion was way ahead of him. He pushed Bartos towards the telescope, and the cat puffed up at his insistence.

He almost tried to resist, tempted to push the lion away with his little kitty paws, but suddenly he was in front of the lens. Bartos "Pshhh"'d at the lion and waved his paw away, rolling his shoulders in a shrug, pretending like he'd never lost his cool in the first place. "Okay, okay. Let's take a look here." Bartos laughed. Though he pretended it wasn't all that big of a deal, even the lion would be able to tell that Bartos was practically vibrating with excitement. He leaned forward and cast his gaze up through the lens, and suddenly the entirety of the ceiling of Orion was stretched out before him.

Mountains and ridges of crystal quartz lined the roof. They looked huge - some of them looked like they would even dwarf the buildings below, others were just small bumps of quartz outcroppings. It was like somebody had cracked open a geode and placed it overhead, the convex ceiling layered with crystal upon crystal, gleaming white facets that caught the light and reflected it back down at them. Bartos couldn't help but gasp, grinning widely. "Wha... Amazing!!" The cat exclaimed, raising his paw to the telescope stand. He gently pushed it, maneuvering the lens in different directions as he explored the crystalline topography of the ceiling. "You know what that is up there? Those are gems! The whole ceiling is gems!" Bartos laughed as he peered up at the ceiling. He could have spent hours looking at everything, but in the presence of the lion, he forced himself to pull away, opening up the telescope for him to look again if he wanted. "It's like a whole new world up there. We should map it or something. Name the crystals."

@Quintus

quintus would indeed notice the cat's feeble attempts at playing it cool which would cause the brute to chuckle in amusement whilst attempting to check himself knowing that he had gotten out of pocket, so uncool, with two grunts of his throat, the expression on his face would go dead and he would sit on his haunches but even then he himself did not do a very good job at masking his emotions evident in the rapid flailing of his tail. he would look on as bartos would take his time to look through the telescope and the lion could honestly not wait to see the reaction of the fellow feline, go on.

eventually quintus would notice bartos's excitement via his words and that stupid looking smile of his could not help but show itself on his face again, "i know right!" the lion would listen on as bartos continued talking, gems? quintus would wait for bartos to pull away before he would rush to look through bartos's new creation once again, "wow, you're right."

quintus would continue to look on whilst maneuvering the lens steadily attempting to register everything up there, his determination being evident in the quirking of his brow but despite that he had managed to hear bartos's last words. the idea of naming the crystals thrilled him which caused the gembound to try and look for his favorite one; instantly a group of crystals would catch his attention the most. quintus would look on and take note that they sort of took the shape of a reptile and a big one at that, "look i found raheerah's dad."

stepping off the telescope to look towards bartos, he would give the feline another smile; "i'm going to name it rrevalk," that sounded menacing enough.

As soon as Bartos had relinquished the telescope to the lion again, he sat back and turned his eyes to the ceiling, roving across its distant geography. Without the aid of the lens, it was more difficult to pick out the pointed crystalline mountains and the deep ravines that wound through the cave roof, but now that he knew what they looked like, he found himself imagining them from afar. He grinned as the lion confirmed his sight, glancing back at him, then to the ceiling again, unable to bear tearing his eyes away from the crystals. He wished so badly that he could go up there, explore the terrain of the world above - a whole new world, it was, as if it was a new reality woven into the open face geode of the ceiling. He was breathless and overwhelmed, consumed, and he knew that he would stare at it for an eternity if he could.

Bright blue eyes flickered between the lion and the ceiling as he spoke out about a particular cluster of crystals, mentioning the great dragon Raheerah. A name he had only heard in passing once or twice, but Bartos knew of the dragon all the same. He had terrorized Polaris for cycles; while Bartos was safely tucked away inside of Orion, learning and hunting for gems, the dragon had cast the core in endless flames. Many of the Gembounds had gotten hurt when they went to fight him, but ultimately they had come out victorious. The dragon was led away through a chasm in the ceiling by someone named Nemean. He furrowed his brow, and then when the lion mentioned another name, the cat couldn't help but snirk. "What kind of a name is that?" He laughed, glancing over at Quintus.

Still, it was a good name. Sounded like it belonged to somebody who would be Raheerah's dad. Rrevalk. "I like it. Rrevalk." Bartos repeated quickly, assuring the lion that the name was a good choice. He looked back to the crystal cluster, storing the sight and pattern away as a memory to point out later. Maybe to mark down so he wouldn't forget. "What else do you see?" He prompted, edging closer towards the window ledge. Maybe if he looked hard enough, he could pick out some patterns with the naked eye. There was a great ridge of crystals near the Eastern dip in the ceiling - viewed right side up, he imagined it would look a lot like a canyon, or twin spines of mountains. What kind of a name could he give those? The inverted canyon looked almost like a pair of jaws...

@Quintus

the questioning of his choice for a name caused quintus to slowly quirk his brow in annoyance and just as he was about to open his mouth in defiance as to what bartos had said but he would keep it shut as soon as his new companion would let him know of the approval of the name. a reassuring nod would be given towards bartos before the gembound would just as quickly turn back to the telescope, there are so many more things to see and quintus was going to make sure to take note of everything up there before hus department. hearing bartos's voice again caused quintus to turn around with a look of comical annoyance in his face, "watch out four eyes, tyring to focus here."

a smug smile would display itself in the lion's face before he would turn back to focus on the task of picking out any more patterns. silence or not, sadly the gembound could not stay focused, the roof of the cave itself was a distraction, such beauty, it was captivating and quintus just could not help himself from admiring the perfection before him, his satisfaction evident in the proloned swaying of his tail. eventually bartos's question would pop back up in his mind and the lion would eventually answer it, "hmph, a pair of jaws, i think." eyes would narrow and jaws would clench as quintus would fall into deep thought, in no time quintus would beam up in realization; eureka!

with a quick and sudden shake of his mane, the brute would turn back towards his friend with a charming smile on his face, "dontacael, that's what i see," at the same time one of his paws would shoot upwards to direct bartos as to what he was looking at. the names had no origin, it's just what happened to pop up inside his head first plus they sounded somewhat extraterrestial so they worked out for him. finally managing to move away from the telescope, quintus would look at the cat once more;

"your turn bud!"

Bartos pinned his ears back, grinning sheepishly at the lion's expression of annoyance. He really did like the name, he thought it was interesting. There was something in the very depth of his expansive brain that rang familiar, and he rolled the name around in his thoughts, trying to pin it to a face but to no avail. Maybe it was someone he'd met long ago... But it could just as easily be his own mind playing tricks on him. The cat pushed his attention back on the crystalline ceiling, looking, searching, until he'd spotted the jaws. At the same time, Quintus noticed the upside down gorge set into the rock and came up with another name. Bartos stored it in his mind and nodded. "Dontacael, the jaws. And Rrevalk, the dragon." He smiled. "Cool..." Whatever these constellations really represented on the surface of that corporeal distance, they had names, landmarks by which Bartos could traverse the heavenly dome above.

But Quintus stepped aside, and Bartos found himself more than eager to peer up at the crystal ceiling again. He moved in to take the lion's place, adjusting the telescope stand to peer through the glass lens. His eyes skipped over the topography of crystals, hungering to linger and examine all he could, but he had to find a constellation. A pattern that stuck out to him... Resonated, even. He half wondered if he would see someone familiar in the stars, like the hoofed body of a deer, Clover, or a lion like Quintus. His eyes searched until they had fixed on one pattern, unlike what he'd been hoping for, but a pattern none the less. A pair of horns. Curly, like a ram; he had never met one, but inherently he know. They mirrored one another perfectly. "I see a pair of curly horns." He said, leaning away from the lens and gesturing to the general area with his paw to point it out to Quintus. "I'm thinking... Utzotl. Does that go with Dontacael and Rrevalk? I'm not very good at names." The cat added and looked back at Quintus.

(We end this soon yea? <3) @Quintus

at first, quintus had just been looking to relax and look at the beautiful 'stars' from a distance but with bartos's arrival, this had quickly turned into an adventure in it's own right and it was obvious that the gembound was enjoying every second of it. he had bartos to thank for all this, now he could see the 'stars' closer than ever, all thanks to his companion being able to actuate the strange device using his ingenuity. the lion's eyes would wander all around the topography of crystals whilst bartos would look through the telescope, his eyes not daring to tire. the beauty of the crystalline ceiling managing to keep his attention locked upon them and not anything else around him. "you know there's actually a story concerning the crystals up there that my mother told me as a cub,"

quintus had no idea whether his fellow feline was listening but he would not turn around to make sure instead he would open his mouth once more to keep on talking in hopes that the cat could multitask whilst bartos would continue to look for another constellation to name. "it is said that the 'stars' on orion's ceilings are the flecks of light from the eyes of a princess of a lost kingdom after she had performed a spell that had cost her life in hopes of saving her loved ones." it was sort of far fetched but quintus happened to be open minded for he was just as clueless as other gembounds when it came to the history and mysteries circulating origin cave. "from there she watches her kingdom but of course the followers of the all mother would have one thing or two to say about that."

the thought that someone could be watching them sort of bothered him but a chuckle would come out after his words as his head would finally turn away from the ceiling and would begin to focus on his companion's frame, "either way, i plan to discover the truth about origin cave." shortly after that, bartos would reveal that he had finally found something and a smile would show itself on quintus's face in approval of the name that the cat had given the constellation, the horns of utzotl, with that quintus would look back towards the three constellations whilst his mind continued to ponder on.

The cat continued to gaze through the telescope, up to that ethereal crypt above littered with gleaming crystals as Quintus mentioned a story his mother had told him about the stars. He furrowed his brow, he had never heard a story about the stars before - but Clover would love that, wouldn't she? He wondered idly how impressed she would be if he told her a story, but quickly dashed the idea. He wasn't a very good story teller. "Really?" He countered, delivering his curiosity about the story. The cat's eyes flickered across the ceiling as he listened to Quintus, drinking in the details of the story, though he had a feeling this wasn't the full story. He kept the lion's words in mind, remembering the princess and her lost kingdom and her great sacrifice.

And then he mentioned the All Mother and Bartos furrowed his brow, looking back at the lion. Right - he heard of that before too. The All Mother was what the cats from Eridanus had been talking about, but he didn't really buy it. Sure, he loved stories, but he couldn't really believe in a sentient mushroom. That just wasn't possible. He kept it to himself though and gave a firm nod as Quintus finally admitted his search for the truth. "I'm with you." The cat smiled and laughed, peering through the telescope.

One day, they would unravel the cave's secrets. One day, they would see what lay beyond the crystal ceiling above.

(Fade out, exit!) @Quintus

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