ORIGIN - [[ CONTEST : MW ]] flickering lights;;

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enna . ratchet . calypso . anan
sweet and soft . bright and cheery . critical and melodic . childlike and loud
ooc ;; notes and tags

The world was breathtaking. It was the young child's first time out and about, her precious Big Friends keeping close tabs on her, but otherwise letting her explore the lovely, loud world of grey and greens and blues. The waterfall roared in her ears, her feathers rippling in the gentle, rolling misty air. She was currently on the look out for Dark, who Enna had adopted as their little baby-- which sort of made Dark like a big brother to the tiny bird.

The moss was soft on her talons as she walked around, testing her wings, but she was much too clumsy in her body to fly. She didn't really want to fly anyway, but she loved the feeling and smell of the damp, fresh air through her feathers. "Dark, Dark!" She chirped, hopping and waddling around, exploring the glistening, sparkling land of moss, slate and water. She wasn't sure where her big brother could have gotten off to, but she wasn't too worried. She would find him eventually!

Before the child found the owlet, however, she spotted a strange blinking light. Like a moth to a flame, the red and black pitohui drew closer to it, eyes bright and curious. "What's that?" She wondered aloud, tilting her head to one side. "Hello!" Once she was close enough, she could see that the creature was some kind of insect.

* H E L P * A strange, different voice came to her mind and startled her almost out of her feathers entirely. She stared up in wonder at the oversized firefly. She felt an urge to return somewhere-- return home-- coming in waves off of the bug. * E R I D A N U S * A memory of the bright green world of mirrored ponds and ferns filled her brain and made her crest puff up. That was not home.

"Are you lost?" She asked the bug, staring up at it. She felt the sensation to return Home to the green once more and shook her head. Perhaps that was the only way it could communicate. She didn't like it. Out of instinct, she tapped into her magic and tried very, very hard to keep the bug's nasty, strange, distorting thoughts out of her brain. "CAAAAAAAAAAAAANCERRRR," She wailed, her birdcall echoing through the great waterfall chamber.

"INTRUUUUUUUUUUDER!" She called, screaming out her poor body's little lungs. Technically this bug wasn't a threat or anything, but it was bothering the small child-like mind, and she wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible. Even if it did have a pretty, blinky little butt. She could already feel her Bigs trying to take control again, but she didn't care to listen to them right now.

Anan, Enna's voice came, soft and tender. Come now, it's alright. I told you two, she's not ready. All the thoughts made her dizzy and she shook her head furiously. Let me take back over, Anan. I'll take care of this. Anan, baby...

"No! I can do it! I'm not a baby!" The shriek came from her chest, her plumage puffing out until she looked like a puffball more than a bird. She plopped down on the mossy ground and waited for Cancer-- or anyone-- to come and help her remove the creepy bug from her home.

Who says you can't go back,
been all around the world and as a matter of fact
There's only one place left I want to go,
who says you can't go home?

________________

Dark had started to make his way down toward Bevy, flapping and gliding as best he could. He was trying to learn how to fly, but it wasn't exactly easy. He was pretty sure she could do it, and do it better, but him? No, he was just--

Dark faltered, tumbling from the sky and--luckily--into a patch of ferns as the voice battered his mind. HELP!?

He'd landed quite close to Bevy--he'd been flying toward her, after all--and now he picked himself up slowly, staring around with wide, blind gem eyes as he edged toward her--screeching voice or not.

"BEVY--what is that?!" he croaked, blinking and rotating his head to listen. But it wasn't a sound, it was a thought, and so he tried to project an answer out. The thought he tried to send was, Hello? Who are you? Do you need help?

but he was a bit frantic, and his thoughts were sent slightly jumbled and unclear. Hopefully, at least, his intent was obvious enough.

________________

The little fennec shuffled along Maji Walezi’s territory, small furry paws sweeping the ground literally, while her black-tipped tail thumped happily behind her butt. Her large ears were extremely sensitive to the sounds all around her – no bug could truly escape from this squeaky predator. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. Quix dashed towards the waterfall area. Where small plants and water were, there little cutesy delicious bugs thrived. And then, she heard faint yellings for Cancer and Intruder. Intruder? Quix pricked up her ears. “DOES THAT MEAN MORE FRIENDS TO PLAY WITH?” she yelled back at Bevy birby having recognized her voice. Sadly though, she was probably too squeaky and far away fro the bird to hear her, and so she scampered closer, only to hear Bevy continue shrieking. Alarm filled the little girl and she burst into the clearing where the waterfall was, blue eyes darting from the bird to Dark, the other bird. Both of them seemed to take a particular curiousity to something on the ceiling. It was….A BUG! “Oh goody! Yay Bevy, Dark! You found some treats for me? Lets get it!
OMONOMNOMNOMNOM” she shrieked in delight and scampered to the wall, placed two forepaws onto the stone and yipped at the insect excitedly, adding to the cacophony of voices.

[

enna . ratchet . calypso . anan
sweet and soft . bright and cheery . critical and melodic . childlike and loud
ooc ;; notes and tags

Anan's cries were greeted with Dark's noisy hoots and she whirled around, feathers fluffing. She had been looking everywhere for him and now he shows up? Of course, if she had been paying any attention, she would have probably noticed he had tailed her the entire way there. "Dark! Hello, hello!" She chirped anyway, sounding hardly bothered by her own shortcomings. She turned her red multi-streaked eyes towards the bug again, the glowing light absorbing her attention once more.

"Well, I guess it's a--" She started to explain, blinking, but was quickly cut off by yet another voice. She huffed and glared over at the bundle of tan fur that came bursting in. It took her a moment to place the big eared fox-- Quix. Her name was Quix.

She shook out her feathers and tucked her wings at her sides, her crest and the rest of her plumage calming right back down to where it belonged. She fixed her eyes on the eager fennec and set right to telling the fellow member of Maji Walezi what was what. "You can't eat it, Quix! It talks! It's a gembound like us. Too big too eat anyway."

That said, she turned her attention back to Dark. "It wants to go back to Eridanus, the place where we played Truth or Dare... I guess?

Who says you can't go back,
been all around the world and as a matter of fact
There's only one place left I want to go,
who says you can't go home?

________________

Dark turned, feathers ruffling up, at Bevy's voice. He hopped closer, tilting his head to peer toward her--she sounded different, somehow--and to listen. Her tone was... odd, somehow, and he made a note of it to maybe ask her later, but for now, he looked blindly back toward where he thought the thing was. The bug. Thing.

"Is it good?" he asked, blinking and grinding his beak thoughtfully. "I can talk to it. Talk back? Can it hear? Can it hear us? Should I say something? In its mind? I said HELLO," he added, ruffling up his feathers for a moment.

He straightened up, focusing on trying to reestablish and strengthen a link with the thing, concentrating on sending it his thoughts. This time, though, he couldn't quite find it--either all the buzz causing him to be unable to focus, or maybe the bug-thing-stranger-creature was too frantic, itself, to hear. Confused, Dark shifted his head to and fro, trying to listen for it with both his super-sensitive ears (if only his babbling comrades would quiet down!) and his opened, ready mind.

Where'd it go...?

________________

Quix looked at the bug eagerly. It was huge and made her want to drool. The girl licked her fangs and chuckled a somewhat sinister “EHEHEH,” eyes glinting somewhat murderously as she eyed the snack in front of her. Bevy was quick to retort though, that it was not food. “Ohh…” her voice sank and she sagged against the wall dramatically as though her life were ruined. “I just wanted a bug…” she sighed, then promptly curled up into a ball at the base of the wall.

She pricked her ears attentively as her fellow MW members continued speaking. Bevy had mentioned that it talked, yet no voice came out from it. The girl felt suspicious but knew better than to go against her mentor’s wisdom. Dark seemed rather energetic today as well. He was eager in striking a conversation with the bug but it seemed to no avail. The girl decided she might as well give it a try. A fennec fox had many many vocalizations and so, she chose the closest she could to an insecty sound – a chirp, but with a hint of scraping vibration against it. Would it reply? She waited impatiently.

Not long after, the bug gave a BZZT! sound in reply. Quix pricked her ears and yipped at Dark and Bevy excitedly. “It talks!" she exclaimed and wriggled her tail happily.

enna . ratchet . calypso . anan
sweet and soft . bright and cheery . critical and melodic . childlike and loud
ooc ;; notes and tags

Anan listened to the other two, considering their inputs. Her headmates were babbling away about something but she couldn't be bothered to care, something about don't harm it and must be so scared, whatever. She was much more concerned about her friends and the bug.

"Yeah! Okay, we need to get it down!" She chirped brightly as Quix made a noise and got a buzz in reply from the bug "Quix, you chirp at it to come down, Dark, you tell it to come down in its brain bits, and I will do something super cool," she started to toss around commands, her feathers puffing out. "And then we'll bring it back home! Easy!"

She had never used magic on purpose before-- it was Anan's first time out after all-- but she figured that there was no time like the present. She had seen many glowing mosses and mushrooms in her time in this cave and she knew she could make stuff from her body and so she planned on doing just that. She just needed one big, glowing splotch, one that would attract the bug.

So she closed her eyes and focused as hard as she could to make it happen, putting all her energy into the effort.

And that was how Bevy ended up with a green, glowing mushroom for a hat.

Who says you can't go back,
been all around the world and as a matter of fact
There's only one place left I want to go,
who says you can't go home?

________________

Dark turned his head to stare rather blankly toward Bevy. "Come down in its brain-bits?" What was she even saying?! But it was clear that they were to take it back to Eridanus. And he supposed it was his task to try and tell it that? Swivelling his head again to peer back toward the mind-voice, he ruffled his feathers and spoke.

"Quiet then. For a moment. Too loud--too noisy--too much," he tried to explain. For the first time in his little birdy life, his voice held authority. He knew he needed to think to the stranger; he knew he needed silence for that. The confidence born of knowledge bolstered him, and as he clicked his beak and closed his eyes, he seemed, for once, unafraid.

Hello, thing. We will bring you there. Please come down? We will take you to Eridanus. We are friends.

Along with this he sent it a surge of good will, the sense of trust, and kind intentions. As he sat there, feathers fluffed out and eyes closed, apparently silent, the strange glowing insect paused, then turned and slowly drifted down to them. Dark seemed unable to do much more; it'd be up to the others to further guide it, so long as he maintained his link.

________________

The little munchkin wagged her tail harder as Bevy instructed her in her task. She nodded an okay! To her, then waited for the other two to work their magic before settling into her own duties. Bevy was the first – she concentrated and then ploof, a shiny green mushroom hat formed on top of her, reminding her vaguely of the time that she had plopped a bunch of moss on the birb’s head. Quix giggled, certain that the insect would enjoy that hat for a home because she herself would love to have it for a toy as well.

Then, Dark connected to the insect’s brain and Quix found herself silently rooting for the owl. Slowly, the bug turned and drifted down. Immediately, Quix padded behind Bevy and gave the same little BBZT that the bug had given, coaxing it to turn towards her. The bug hovered reluctantly, unsure of her sound, but the fox persisted and tried to add a little happiness and excitement in her tone to convey to the bug that it was safe, whereupon it flew onto Bevy’s head and settled into the shiny green thing contentedly. It flapped its wings once, twice, then settled in peacefully. Quix looked to Bevy then, waiting instructions from she-who-carried-the-precious-insect.

"Speech"

Quietly the young, growing clouded leopard sat back and watched the others. Not exactly sure what they were all babbling on about, but really her interest there was not what they were seeing. She had heard Bevy call out and had decided to come see who all would gather. Mostly, though, she was searching to see if Leon or Makyna would show up. When she saw nothing of the others she had decided she would see what the others were up to. She had inched closer to them, simply watching as they seemed to be staring at some kind of glowing bug. Bugs were delicious, but if she had heard right, Bevvy had said not to eat it. They had all been given tasks to get the bug, so Amaria stepped a little closer.

Without a word she studied the bug they were all focused on. What could they want with the bug? It just didn't make sense. If the bug was a gembound, then it should have the common sense to find it's way back home should it not? Regardless, the thing was in need of assistance apparently and the Maji Walezi was already on the task. She would wait to see if any more assistance was needed, but for now would lay in wait to see if the others were successful in grasping up the bug.