ORIGIN

Vivilene had found a new hobby for herself.

Her dad made lots of things, but Vivilene liked finding new things. In particular, she was interested in the plants she could find around the caves. Eridanus was home to many, but the outside caves had so much more. Well, not a lot more, but definitely newer things.

Don't get her wrong-- Vivilene loved the ferns and the trees and the flowers and things, but she wanted to see everything that the other rooms had to offer, too. Her father seemed to understand-- or perhaps he was just glad that she was doing something other than hyper-obsessing about her own little fears --and offered a satchel. He told her not to go far, and left her to it.

So, of course, Vivilene went far.

She didn't mean to, really-- one thing kept leading to another. A pretty white flower was followed by moss, which was followed by glittery, bioluminescent caps, which all went into her satchel. Eventually, she reached the star-room-- Orange? Orian? Oryan? --and the endless flow of new herbs came to a stop.

Unsurprising, of course. Azure had told her stories of a dragon and fire, and how it destroyed everything. Flowers, too, probably. Unless Vivilene could find some fire-resistant flowers she wouldn't find anything here-- though if she could it might be nice to have them around, considering Asteri sort of flung fire around relentlessly.

Mid-thought, she was interrupted by a strange sound she'd never heard before. A roar, and a scramble, and the sliding of fur on stone. Perhaps it was too much to ask that she'd get through this trip without feeling fear again-- the cold chill going up her spine made her forget about the satchel of New Hobby on her shoulder. There was a little click of her hooves on the cave floor as she turned to look at where it was coming from, just about in time to see the little creature land on the base of an incline.

It didn't seem to see her-- thank the caves --but it seemed lost. A brief but closer inspection told Vivilene that it sort of resembled a mix of Hunter and Asteri-- a sort of... wet, nuggety version of Asteri, really. She edged closer, and then decided it was odd, and she should intervene. Besides, what if it needed help?

It spoke, and Vivilene felt a quiet pang of guilt that managed to overwhelm the anxiety. She wondered what anyone else would have said in the situation to help, and even tried to think of what Azure said that helped her when she was lost and scared, but opening her mouth only proved that the cotton and gunk and caves-knows-what-else was still lodged in her throat.

When the cervitaur got close enough she stopped with a final, quiet little click. She blinked once, slowly, cat-like, and then her thin hands went to her satchel. She had no idea that in the seconds of dead silence that she went rifling through the bag, she might be terrifying this newborn cub, but eventually she took out a flower.

Small, concave and purple with yellow-tipped petals. It smelled sweetly, pleasant, but mostly like the other half-smushed junk that resided in her bag. Regardless, she put it down... on top of the cub, and then stepped back, staring expectantly.

Vivilene nodded, at first more to herself, as she studied her... work. Purple matched the small-Asteri's eyes and it seemed to fit quite well on her head, like something her father would make and wear, too. Vivilene didn't know that flowers wilt yet. Vivilene didn't have to know.


She was content, until the little creature started moving towards her. There was a jolt of fear and she took a small step backwards-- wide-eyed. She tried to catch herself, to remember that Asteri and Hunter were nice, so clearly this thing must be nice, too.

The cervitaur took a shaky breath, and then shifted on the spot. Click, click. She settled herself down, legs bent underneath her, to sit. It might have looked largely more elegant if she had a body more akin to her stone-giver, but alas, Vivilene had a second torso on top of the other.

Flower. It was a flower. She pushed down the sadness and frustration upon the realisation that someone fresh out the chrysalis was talking better than she could to feel quite proud instead, for this thing-she-did-not-know. It was easier that way.

Vivilene nodded her silent confirmation, and reached into her satchel. She had more flowers but that wouldn't do much-- they already knew what a flower was. Instead, she took out one of the glittery mushroom caps she found. It was blue, glowing into her calloused palm to bleach the purple a dull cyan, offering it out.

A few beats passed before she made a biting gesture-- eat it. Vivilene, for one, quite liked the earthy taste of mushrooms. Maybe this new-friend would, too-- or maybe it preferred things like bugs, or the rats that her dad could catch her. She wasn't sure if she could catch rats, too, if this creature would, too-- but they could sort something out, maybe.

... maybe.

She could worry about it later, on top of the other things she had to be anxious about.

Mrrp. Maybe this one wasn't as clever as she initially thought-- considering the small-Asteri was sitting there with fungus lodged into its mouth. It even took a little while to get to this point. Vivilene had to make exaggerated chomping gestures at the mushroom before it clicked.

Maybe it... wasn't hungry? Vivilene couldn't remember much of her hatching (except for the panic) but she did remember wanting to eat something as soon as she came out of the chrysalis. Maybe it just... didn't like mushrooms?

She studied the little-Asteri for a moment as she started making exaggerated eating-gestures again, omnivore teeth clicking a little as she bit down on air. She spent an extended moment thinking, considering-- what did Asteri eat, aside from the rats that dad caught? Surely her brother didn't survive on just rats.

... fish? Maybe? Were fish easier to catch? Vivilene wasn't very sure if she had ever even eaten a fish before, never mind catch one.

Vivilene's exaggerated chomping slowed down a little as her pale eyes glazed over with the thought. There was definitely no way she was going to catch anything that Asteri liked to eat. She would have to come up with some sort of compromise if the mushroom didn't work out, and she didn't feel like feeding her pretty flowers to this creature.

Her head tilted downwards, watching in silence, as mutes often do.

Vivilene's mouth finally fell still as Syphyl started to eat the mushroom. Maybe this was good. It was still in her mouth and she was chewing and eventually, she'd probably swallow it. Then they could go look for mushrooms together and they could eat them and oh no she just spat it out.

Hm.

Watching the goop-shroom, she lifted her fingers to her chin for a moment, thinking. There had to be something she could do, half of her siblings were carnivores, after all. Maybe it was time she learned how to hunt anyway, even if just for the sake of the people she loved a lot?

The mewl caught Vivilene out of her thoughts however. Moonlit eyes flicked downwards to the cub. Her way of speaking was stilted, but, let's be honest-- it was a better attempt than Vivilene could ever really muster. A part of that frustrated her to no end, but she tried not to let it through. She had to focus on helping, not being jealous.

She could cry about it later.

It still took a few beats for her to realise what she was asking. Vivilene was hesitant-- she had to rely on magic to communicate and it didn't always work. Still, it.. was worth a try.

Drawing in a very long breath, Vivilene's eyes fell half-lidded. It was, at least, getting easier every day to reach out to her magic in order to actually talk to people. A good thing for her, but perhaps unfortunate to those who expected her to outright use her mouth to talk. Injecting words directly into someone's head was, after all, invasive in a way Vivilene was yet to actually comprehend.

Perhaps her voice had something to do with it, however. It came to Sylphyl gently, like tree branches creaking underneath wind. She was horribly soft-spoken, whispering-without-whispering. "I'm Vivilene," she said-- the words only audible to the cub. "I'm.. from the jungle. Eridanus."

Vivilene, thinking about it, wasn't actually entirely sure what she was. Something like Attikias and something like a cave deer. If there was a word for it, she was unsure. As for this one-- "I don't know who you are," she continued gently. "But you're something like my brother, Asteri. He's a cat. You're a cat."

If she was looking for a name, she likely wouldn't find it in Vivilene.

Vivilene nodded a little. Cat. Just don't ask the hybrid what kind of cat, because her little idiot brain would implode.

For the next few moments, however, Vivilene chewed her lip trying to internally translate what Syphyl was saying. She liked to think she had a good grasp on the language that everyone else spoke but she wasn't the best at taking implications and filling in the gaps for herself.

Her tail flicked along the cave floor when she saw the not-Asteri start swishing her own tail, too. It took a few seconds longer before it clicked. Vivilene shook herself out for a moment, sighing, tucking her father's satchel towards her back.

At least it was still easy to access her magic, for now. "This is the star-room," she continued, voice barely-felt pin-pricks against Sylphyl's mind. "They called it Orion, I think. It's nice here."

"There are a lot of different rooms." Her head lifted, and then she pointed towards one of the distant tunnels, barely-illuminated by crystals. She hadn't been in that one, but it was closest, easiest to see. "Over there would be a new room. I don't know what one. One of the other tunnels goes to a dry and hot place called Canis, and one of them goes to Eridanus."

It was unusual that Vivilene was the one information dumping, for once.