ORIGIN

Having just recently hatched, the little Pallas' cat cub felt compelled to explore. They padded away, rather slowly and uneventfully, from the tunnel in which they'd been born. Their attention had quickly been caught by the very pretty assortment of lights in the room before them. It was almost too much on the child's fresh eyes, to the point where much blinking and waiting was required, but they eventually managed. Seeing such lovely glimmers and shimmers lured them closer, faster, deeper into the room, losing patience all the way. There was a lot of sensory information happening at once, so the cub blocked most of it, donning a metaphorical blinker hood as to better focus on the spectacular visual input of the glistening objects all around.

All that walking to get here certainly felt tiring, but worth it. Now satisfied with the reward of the trip, the cub flopped onto their back, gazing up, exposing their belly and basking in the reflected light. They had to close their eyes a while before they could adjust.

Very quickly after this (very comfy) position was assumed, a single thought formed in the kitten's mind. Barely any words were put to it, but the feeling was absolute, all-consuming, and eradicated any trace of the past emotions of satisfaction previously experienced.

Tiny eyes fell upon a glowing item and mind thought, essentially, 'I want to touch it.'

@Shango

Shango wasn't entirely sure how he'd gotten here. Hell, he couldn't remember where he'd been going, even. And Orion--Orion was too dry.

"Stoooorm," he murmured to himself, glancing around warily, as if distrusting of the lack of rain. He paused, rustling scalefeathered wings to sit more comfortably on his back, and narrowed his glowing eyes--he could bring rain. He would bring rain.

After a moment, he moved on, lurching now and then into a rock-clacking trot, the hoof-like surfaces beneath his feet giving his approach away. He was moving at this speed when he spotted the fluffy cat just lying on its back, and he slowed, there, hesitating. Was this some sort of trick-? Kittens didn't usually just... lie out in the open, upside-down like that.

...Did they?

He waited, a moment, and then resolved himself: he trotted forward, head cocked to one side, an expression of consternation on his face.

"What are you doing?" he called out, as he approached.

@Alrik

Well that metaphorical blinker hood wasn't going to protect the kitten's attention from the rain. Nor was it going to protect fur, or eyes, or soft, vulnerable stomach. Dang it, metaphors! What's the point of them?!

Rolling over quickly to keep the rain from bothering their belly, the Pallas' cat got back on their paws. With the water and the lights, it was overwhelming and the kitten wasn't able to hear anyone speaking to them. However, whirling around in search of somewhere not wet would cause a pause once the intimidating outline of a dark figure with glowing eyes was spotted.

Small and quickly encumbered by water as the baby cat was, they could barely figure out what to think or do. What was that thing? Was it coming closer? It looked kind of big! The immediate response, which was all the blustering feline could get out at the moment, was a series of loud chirps and mews that sounded far more confused than panicked. With this hasty reply unknowingly given to a question, the kitten tried to waddle over closer to the figure. Maybe it was actually just a rock to hide under. Maybe a moving rock. Maybe?

@Shango

The kitten didn't answer, straightaway, and Shango found himself wondering if he'd misjudged. He'd never seen a Lesser Gembound feline, before, but maybe there were some, here? Or maybe it was a baby.

He sat, indifferent, content now in the rain that had started to fall around them, and rocked back to scratch his mane with one hind foot. When he realized the kitten was waddling closer, he set his paw back down and watched it, curious.

"I am Shango. Stormbringer. Champion," he told it, explaining what exactly none of these things meant and apparently unashamed to list names and titles to a day-old cub.

Nonplussed at its silence, he thought, for a moment. "Do you talk?" he asked, which already seemed to be an obvious no.

@Alrik

Now that the focus was on the figure, the kitten could recognize that it was talking. Talking, and moving-- oh! It was a creature, like they were! Excellent! Instantly boosted in courage, the cub tried to waddle close enough to be directly in front of the creature's claws. The creature being "Shango Stormbringer Champion" with awkward pauses between each word. What did any of that mean? The kitten knew "I am" was an introduction, but because all the other words didn't register as complete and solid nouns with definitions in the mind of the child, they just assumed it was all one name. Maybe Shango Stormbringer Champion was just shy and couldn't remember such a lengthy name? The cub was also beginning to forget the latter half of it. The pauses might've also just been a part of the name, but that sounded dumb, so they weren't going to take that into account.

"Shan... Stor, um, Cham-- Shan Stom," repeated the kitten, after being asked if they could talk. Of course they could talk-- not perfectly, but acceptably! When they felt like it. And luckily for Shan Stom (the cub had tried, the name was just too difficult), they did! "I... nam.. I'm uh..." The kitten didn't know what to say. 'Alrik' came to mind, but it didn't feel right at the moment, and besides, they couldn't quite make it come out of their mouth as they imagined it, which was infuriating to say the least, because it was a cool name. Shan Stom Ch-- whatever it was didn't sound as cool of a name, unfortunately for Shan Stom.

"Wet's bad," said the kitten, trying to explain the terrible situation to the new creature. "Dry ov' there." They flicked their soggy tail to the side, trying to indicate that they should both move.

@Shango

A responsible adult would have taken control of the situation. A responsible adult would have offered the child guidance, perhaps food, shelter.

Shango was not, in fact, a responsible adult. He was more of a mindless big child, himself, 'Stormbringer' and little more and as such, he pushed up and just obeyed, following the kitten along. It was as though he had nothing better to do, and therefore just agreed to its tiny semi-command.

"Shango," he repeated, more slowly and loudly than before. And then went a step further: "SHANE-GO." A pause. "You are Cat," he informed the kitten, and then, eyeing its wet pelt, added (somewhat sullenly, but only a little, really) "Wet's good."

Still, he moved in the direction its flicked tail had indicated, plodding along amiably enough.

The lessons, however, were not quite over yet. Shango glanced down at Alrik and offered up one more bright piece of wisdom: "YOU ARE KID."

What that meant, he didn't explain, but he'd apparently felt it important enough to say.

@Alrik

Thankfully, Shan Stom complied with the suggestion, and they evacuated from the wet. Shan Stom-- no, Shane Go informed the kitten that they were "Cat", and that wet was actually good. Cat had no idea how Shane Go could possibly know either of those things, especially that Cat was Cat. Not even Cat had known that, and Cat was Cat. Wait, was Cat "Cat"? This was getting way too confusing. Cat decided to just accept it and move on.

That is, until Shane Go decided to impart further wisdom: apparently, Cat was actually Kid! Wow, no! No no! That didn't sound right at all! And besides, why was Shane Go the one who got to decide?! With a big huff, Cat -- was it Cat? -- began to speed up in an attempt to get in front of Shane Go and plop themself down in front of their companion. They wanted Shane Go to stop! This was an important thing to discuss!

"Noooooo! I- I'm, ah..." Wait shoot, who were they? What was the name?! In this moment, it didn't feel like Alrik. It felt like... "Ahhhhh...lf." Ahlf? Ahlf could work. It had that "ah" sound which was simple enough to make, and sounded nice. It was definitely shorter than Shane Go. "Yo say't! Ahlf!" Whether they made it in front of Shane Go or not, the kitten was going to stop, sit down, and not budge until Shane Go said it.

@Shango

Well, the kitten pushed ahead, and sat in his path, and Shango--in no rush, himself, to be out of the rain, stopped with a twitch of his tail, looking down at it. He sat down, after a moment, and waited.

Ahlf? he wondered, but repeated this back dutifully.

"Alf," he replied, and then, since the cat was saying it twice, Shango did too: "Alf."

This arduous task completed, Shango sat and simply waited, staring down, his tail lashing slowly back and forth behind him across the increasingly-wet rock. His gaze was somehow both attentive and empty, eyes that seemed to simply say: 'what next?'

@Alrik

Shango stared, for a moment.

He wasn't... entirely sure what it meant, but its attention had been drawn elsewhere and it was saying "shiny" so--he had that to work with, anyway. He pushed up onto all fours again, hesitated, and then--ears flicking as he blinked away a little rain--he began to plod forward. His movement was mostly a slinking, catlike grace, feline heritage clearly visible in it, despite his odd anatomy.

He headed for the wall, then turned, peering back at "Alf."

"Shiny?" he parroted, and then turned, scouring the wall to try and figure out what the cat-thing wanted.

What was it Alf was pointing at-?

@Alrik