There was... nothing.
Nothing to analyze. Nothing to know. Nothing to do.
A long ear twitched; there was fluid. Muffled sounds reverberated inside of the chrysalis until a crack deafened him. Shock. Wonder. His eyes blinked open within the life-fluid and he pressed a hand against the translucent wall, flickering images of what was outside playing against the amethyst of his cradle.
Until: crrrack—chink! More of his chrsyalis split open, the fluids leaking and then gushing free; and following, without any thought or preparation, his body slipped from the gentle home and out into the cold air of—of—
"A cave?" he thought, blinking his eyes open, rubbing them free of stray liquid.
He dared to breathe, and found that he could not; and immediately after this venture, rolled over onto his knees and clutched his abdomen with one hand, the other bracing against the ground as he threw up the fluids that sat within him. Again, fluids were evicted, until finally...
An inhale.
Air. Cold, stale, sweet. He gasped and righted himself, falling back onto his bottom with his hands resting between his legs, elbows propped against his knees. What a horrible experience.
Experience...? His head lifted, one hand moving to push wet, sticky hair from his face. As he steadied his breathing, the creature took a quiet moment to let his mind settle. He could not recall... anything. Was there anything to recall, he wondered?
Glowing yellow eyes picked apart the different things in his immediate surroundings, but nothing major to note. Except, in the near-distance, the tunnel opened up to a large, expansive area that had a twinkling ceiling. The same twinkling occasionally blinked itself to life inside of the tunnel entrance, fading in and out like fireflies—if he'd known what fireflies were.
Slowly, he used the wall to stand, bracing against it as he found use of his legs.
And then, a thought churned: he was Imre to most, Zebulon to few.
Zebulon Imre-... was there a suffix? A storm swelled in his subconscious. He felt as if there should be a suffix, but he could not place it. Place... it. "Cave," he breathed aloud, tapping his claws against the stone. "Imre-Cave—" his voice caught. Zebulon Imre-Cave... what?
A third name? A third knowing, calling? It was... bigger. It felt like it were to group him with others, but again, he did not know why. Or what. A name clicked in his head: Major. Who was this? His thick brows furrowed. He could not recall. There was nothing.
Still, he would use it.
Zebulon Imre-Cave Major.
Imre's eyes were fixated on the sparkling distance of Orion until he turned for a moment to inspect his chrsyalis. Curious. He leaned down to pick up several pieces, and then placed a hand inside to scoop up some of the remaining liquid that pooled at the bottom. He could not say that he knew why he had come from this, or what he was, or where he was—but he knew who he was.
A gentle hand rested against a large, upright chunk of the chrysalis and he smiled at it, looked at his broken and faceted reflection in the amethyst.
"Imre," he confirmed, tapping his image.
He'd only ever used this tunnel as a quicker means to getting from the new garden to Polaris - and only twice, now. Once going towards the Core, and now away. Ah, as far as memory offered back to him, anyways. Days smeared together all too easily when one wasn't paying attention and had few things to base circadian rhythms on.
On the return, Mercurius took a slower pace, walking with more curious awe than anything else. Bioluminescent mosses lined the wall (take notes, dear lion; those could serve as an alternative to all your baubles. Spare Oliver and I all the headaches) and the soil held an odd, saccharine scent. It was dull in his nostrils, but there well enough. Perhaps not as sugary-sweet as it might be to a creature not so evolved to focus on carnivorous tendencies.
A white paw stole out from underneath him, extending towards a particularly large clot of moss and peeling it from the rock. He fit his jaws around it, twisting over his shoulder to nestle it along the curve of his spine, just after his thoracic vertebrae. Magicka blushed from his stone, a faintly iridescent shimmer blooming as an otherwise casual binding of fur and rhizoid occurred.
With his moss sample safely stored away the lion plodded closer to the entrance that marked the starry vault. Moonset eyes immediately set upon the tall figure standing near the wall. His stream of consciousness briefly flickered to the description of Astraea that'd been offered to him once upon a time, but only the bipedal stance matched up. No other similarities - not that it would have stopped Mercy from making his advances with a warm smile and crease of the eyes.
Still some feet off, listening idly as the creature stooped low and rose again, fingers grasping a chunk of chrysalis (theirs?) with quite a bit of care. A pause to look - and a word.
"Imre, hmm?" he repeated softly, waiting for any indication of having been heard or acknowledged before moving to pleasantries, "my name is Mercy." Placating, the storyteller rocked onto his haunches, tail curling delicately around his paws. His voice was warm and gentle as he pressed, "does 'imre' mean anything?"
@Imre
Yeah, she'd been exploring a bit, to say the least. From the moment she learned that her siblings were out and about, gallivanting within their own little discoveries, Volta immediately decided she wanted to be like that.
This was as far as she'd gotten so far. First, that starry place (Vivilene said something about it before, right?), and now here- and it was like her home, Eridanus! Man, more caves should have names. This one, for example, could really use a cool one... Eridanus Two? No. Too basic. Hm...
Jaunty. She liked that word, today, and so she chose it for the tunnel she was in.
Anyways, she rather liked Jaunty. For one, it was bright, and for the second she'd never even smelled anything like this before. She opened her mouth cautiously to taste the air, tongue sticking out comically. Yep. That's sugar. Right? At least, she was sure that's what her dad called that flavor, anyways.
Her wings thrummed excitedly as she dug a talon into the wall, the wrists bumping into one another in uncoordination. What if she made a home in Jaunty? Her head craned up to the point that her halo felt cold on the back of her neck and she squinted to the roof. She could make it up there.
Noises to her right snapped some instinctual reaction in her brain and her limbs shoved her up, trying to climb away from whoever was there. She made it up a good way before realizing just what she was doing. Four eyes blinked in a clockwise fashion before she turned to look from her vantage point, trying to angle herself that way like a lizard and-
She lost her grip, sliding down and drawing out a yelp with her talons being torn, only to be unceremoniously deposited on her back on the cave floor, right where she started. Dangit! She huffed, looked to her paws now stained with green, before scrambling to four legs and flaring out her wings.
Wait, they were talking? She missed what they said! But- that one was kinda standing tall, and Volta's face contorted to one of pure seriousness. She could at least kinda be a part of the conversation by pretending she'd been there all along, right? She danced from one side to the other before hopping up to perch on her hind legs. Hey, this wasn't bad! She smiled, mimicking whoever this person was with her tail thumping happily on the ground. They had something in their hand, and so Volta pretended she had something in her hand- paw? Huhm.
But, she did just make a lot of noise, and with her one paw not on the wall she flexed her digits and gave a rather big-mouthed
Y'know, not to draw attention from the actual newborn right there. She didn't know that! She just kinda wanted to say hi (and figure out why they were standing on two legs- were they an elf? Or or or a weird bird? So many questions!)
Imre glanced up from the chrysalis shard as the white creature approached, his ears pulling forward to listen as it spoke. There was a strange feeling when he heard his own name, like some part of him immediately recognized it even though he had only just personally discovered it. He lowered his arms slightly, pulling the amethyst piece close to his chest while offering a nod and a smile to the one that called itself Mercy.
"Hello Mercy," he said, experimenting with the words. Yes, that sounded right. But did Imre have a meaning? His ear flicked as he thought, before he decided to shake his head. "I don't know," he admitted, but did not seem put down by it. Should names have meanings? His eyes traced the moonstone horns that reached far from the creature's head.
"Does Mercy?" he asked. He fiddled idly with the amethyst shard, releasing one hand to feel the top of his own head; he did not have horns, but there was a chunk of something there between his ears. If Mercy's name had a meaning, did Imre's have one that he didn't know about? Would it be possible to figure it out? He looked back down into the chrysalis shard to inspect what he had felt between his ears—
The commotion beside them had his ears pulled toward it, and his head snapped around to see what had happened; another creature, glimmering purple-black in the low light, had slipped free from the wall and landed onto its back. Some part of him felt the need to reach out, extending a long arm and cautious hand with a tentative, "Are you alright?"
But the other was busy righting itself, propping itself up on its legs to extend its own hand and offer a hiii. For a moment, Imre could only smile before releasing a sigh of relief. Well, it wasn't hurt at least.
"Hi," he replied, pointing to his chest with his free hand. "Imre," he introduced, then pointed to Mercy, "Mercy." Finally, he pointed to the winged creature and opened his mouth as if to speak, but did not know its name. "You are?"
@Mercurius
Moonlit eyes slid closed, as if reliving it with much dramatic flair, "and it felt far more comfortable than the one I was given. It's nice - isn't it? - to have a name that is your own." A beat, watching as Imre stared and raised a hand to his gem - not with a twist of magicka-induced headache or wincing. Mere curiosity. Mercy hummed softly, beckoning forth a sort of... dimly-glowing mirror image of the strange neonate, though it lasted no longer than a second due to the sudden distraction.
His attention shifted abruptly towards the sound of falling, squeaking, and a very cutely spoken hiii. Paternal instinct jumped out with an appraising glance, though Imre'd beaten him to the punch of asking if they were alright, as well as introducing the two of them.
How polite.
@Volta