ORIGIN

When the question he asked was left unanswered, Pippy started to panic as to what the words they said meant. Is it possible he got deceived by them? He begins to struggle more to no avail of getting it to come off. He-He's trapped? What are they planning to do to him? Dread started to once again slowly take roots in his nerves with this possibility as he stared up at them again wide-eyed and scared but was puzzled over them trying to stretch, somehow their neck towards the water again. But he couldn't hold back in letting out a couple of small giggles when the other Gembound's head and neck amusingly bounced back which eased some of the tension in his feelings even though he was concerned if they were OK or not as that might've hurt.

He wanted to follow them when they started to wander away to the water, an aching fear of them leaving still in his mind but with the slime being sticky that it has made his wings pretty stuck to his fur thus unable to get up. That and even now quite petrified with fear so he just quietly watched them tread over to the large body of water while whimpering a little. He surveyed them unblinking with an unusual sort of fascination as the other Gembound appeared to be inhaling a lot of the water before seemingly unable to drink anymore as having their mouth full of water made their made face swell, and they started to go their way back towards Pippy. Why weren't they drinking any of it?

The large one shifted and lowered themselves when they were close again to Pippy how they haven't managed to spill out any of that water yet accidentally is beyond Pippy. He doesn't know what they're trying to do with that water until he saw them intentionally opened their beak and let all the collected water spill out onto the ground very close to him. Realising what they were trying to do he managed to get himself to relax and he could feel that the paralysation from fear is starting to ease he took the initiative and leapt his body into the downpour ignoring that it was murky as at least it wasn't sticky.

Some time passed as Pippy rubbed at his coat with his wings, the deluge helping in making the sludge come off his body, as he hastily tried to get rid of it all. He did not want to let the massive Gembound wait too long for him to get himself cleaned up and took a step back when he finished, all the slime just about was gone. He shook his little form in fast motion to remove the excess water from his fur which made it fuzz up as he let out a small sneeze and trembling a bit feeling a little cold from the waterfall. "Th-Thank you... I-I'm P-Pippy." looking up at them gratefully with a small smile.

@Equinox

Pippy tries to nestle her wings around herself, the torrent of water felt nice but it was pretty chilly and Pippy herself doesn't do well with the cold especially since Cetus itself is already cold enough. She gave them a small wave with her wing when their beak opened more just now guessing that's how they see, which made her wonder how things looked when they had all that water did things look blurry? She got a little concerned when she heard them grumble oddly "A-Are you alright?" she had to ask. Are they in pain? Maybe their cheeks are aching from holding all that water? They got quiet soon, so she hopes they're OK.

Pippy is glad they remained lying down, while they are still plenary huge to her, they weren't as towering now, so that made them seem less scary to Pippy as she slowly approached them a bit more, curious. Being closer, she could hear the grumble from them again making her look up in questioning about to ask again if they were alright but when she listened to what they said to Pippy her eyes brightened a little but the ground shaking like that caused her to tumble and falls face flat on the ground. Pippy quickly gets up again, rubbing her snout a little as its throbbing with pain a bit from her fall, thanks to the water making the mud a bit softer it didn't hurt too much. She looks up at them again with wonder.

"Equinox huh? T-That's a nice name!" She chirped to them happily in response, at least she believes that's what they meant by how names work. Pippy laid down herself now that it seems for sure that Equinox wasn't going to leave now, looking up at her new companion after giving her surroundings a few glances to make certain no more glowing, flying green things are around.

"N-Nice to meet you Equinox. T-Thanks." Pippy believes how things go when one interacts with someone new, not exactly the best speaker at times.

@Equinox

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Pippy's ear occasionally flicked in his nervousness on whether Equinox was OK, paying attention to what they are possibly trying to say as he wonders if he can do anything to help if so although maybe they're just trying to speak the same language as him. They don't seem to be in genuine pain after all. When he looked up to see their beak open when he got back up again Pippy inched back a bit eyes widening in surprise; briefly, the unexpected closeness startling him quite a bit but young bat managed to stop himself from looking terrified, he was just surprised. He ventures closer to them again, his fuzzed up fur stirring from Equinox taking a deep breath which also made their little form feel a little warmer and no longer plunged in a fit of shivers by the cold.

Pippy looked with wonder how Equinox manages to do that with their neck, odd how the stretching of neck amazed Pippy less than Equinox's neck coiling in unusual shapes, it made him think of all the various exciting patterns Equinox can have with their neck like that. Such possibilities! When he heard them uttering sounds again his ears pricked, he strains them to see if he can make out what they are saying to him wondering what they could be trying to tell him. Pippy even has his eyes closed to focus his hearing, trusting Equinox enough that he doesn't need to watch every action they do with unease.

It took some effort, but eventually, Pippy could comprehend the words Equinox is trying to say to him, so he opened his eyes again to look at them and gave Equinox a smile in understanding. "S-Same a-a-actually. I-I-It's h-hard for others to hear my voice, i-it's t-too quiet a-and l-little." He strains his little voice a bit so it can be discernible to the ear. He can agree with Equinox on this, as Pippy himself usually prefers, if he can, to communicate mostly with noises himself such as hums, but also with his expressions and gestures, body language too if needed.

@Equinox

When Pippy heard from Equinox what sounded like an apology she approached them closer and quickly gave one of their enormous claws a gentle pat with her wing, with a sheepish smile to try and tell Equinox that it's alright, she wasn't scared too much. When she lifted her wing away, Pippy took notice that a drip of the sludge has gotten on the appendage, just the tip of it though so she quickly dipped it in the puddle that remained from the douse of water Equinox brought and let the slime wash rapidly away. Soon it was all washed away again, and Pippy took her wing out the puddle and moved back a little.

Pippy continues to look at Equinox performing feats with their neck with wide-eyed, childlike wonder, utterly speechless. Pippy watched Equinox with anticipation, eager to see their next trick with their neck and was not disappointed when she saw them crane their head and neck and angling it. At first, she was a bit puzzled when they did that, but her smile didn't waver, but when she saw that they managed to turn their whole head upside down, Pippy was just thrumming with excitement when that happened. How'd they managed to do that? Pippy curious if she can do that too tries to crane and rotate her neck also to see if she can do it herself but she couldn't even do it halfway without her neck starting to hurt and refusing to turn any further. She continues to persist it was a little concerning until she decided to stop, pouting a little.

With all that said and done, seeing Equinox rotate their head casually back upright as much as she wishes she could do that herself it was fascinating to witness that's for sure. Hearing them make noises again Pippy shook her ears as some way to listen.

Wha? Pippy isn't quite sure at first on how to interpret what Equinox meant of being able to feel a voice through their skin, and Pippy expression looked just as puzzled as she thought over what was said. It made her vigilant to Equinox's skin to see if she can understand what they meant which is when Pippy saw the skin morph slightly to display they were interesting if Pippy weren't already aware of Equinox's Gem she would've thought those spines were their Gem. Are those like their whiskers or something? Pippy considers this and wonders if that's what Equinox meant.

With the mention of being able to hear anything makes Pippy further believes that those spines are like whiskers, although from the sounds of it that means Equinox has something like whiskers all over their skin. But at this point, it doesn't matter too much, as Pippy realised that she probably doesn't need to strain her voice to be heard.

"Anything? Even me right now?" Pippy isn't straining her voice this time due to that it sounds a lot less hoarse and more soft and gentle and has no stutter at all in it. She needs to see if they can hear her with her normal voice, as it is little, it'll be nice if they can though.

@Equinox

Hearing Equinox let out what sounded like concern for Pippy's safety he frowned a bit while his ears drooped feeling a little bad for making them worry since the reason why he did that was to reassure them not to worry about him or feel bad. So in his attempt to make Equinox feel more at ease, the child bat gave them a bright smile while showing them his wing, no longer having a drip of slime on it while fluttering it in a relaxed defensive manner to try and say that he's okay even if Equinox seems relieved now.

Pippy himself has not met many others in the caves, all he mainly knows is that just about lots of them are a lot bigger than him, Equinox especially so and can use Magick which he can also apparently do. So with that Pippy is unsure whether the whole turning head upside down is just something Equinox can do. If so though, all the more reason to give the specific patterns they make with their neck a regal sounding name!

When they rumbled again this time for quite a bit, Pippy managed to keep his balance, so the vibrations didn't make him tumble to the ground for the second time. But he paid attention to them while maintaining his balance, so much he hasn't quite noticed that the room looks a little dimmer in the lighting. Watching their skin reacting to the sound, making something like a rippling effect, which interestingly changed of sorts when Equinox made their grumble higher pitched almost looking like the cymatics of the purring was breaking the surface tension on their skin. It was strangely satisfying to witness, same with the water for that matter so much he almost wanted to roll his little body in the puddle to see what happens. Though with this Pippy did understand a bit more about what they meant on feeling voices through their skin.

When he saw Equinox nod their nod at him for his question even though he was a better understanding of how their hearing works, the tiny bat was honestly surprised still Pippy felt quite relieved since it meant he didn't have to raise his voice to be heard and eventually cause his throat to hurt.

"I think I get it now. But that's pretty sweet! Sooo besides me what can you hear now..?" Pretty curious of the sounds in their surroundings, for one he wants to know if the coast is clear of glowing flying things like the one from earlier and it was the only thing in his mind right now as he feels silence will be awkward for the both of them.

@Equinox