ORIGIN - [Hatching] I've just met you and I love you

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A chrysalis of lapis, smooth and round and nearly untouched. The only thing off with it was how dark the stone was- nearly black, as if covered in an oily sheen. That, and the creature now stirring within the gemstone.

It was dark, and peaceful within the gemstone. But not quiet. Already whispers fluttered at the edge of it's awakening consciousness, though unintelligible, washing over him like the constant murmur of a river. He was just becoming aware of... everything really. The warmth of the surrounding fluid, the hard gemstone pressing against his back and paws. The slow realization that he was trapped and that he didn't really want to be trapped anymore.

He reared back the best he could in the cramped chrysalis, kicking and bashing against a wall with reckless abandon. Perhaps being so reckless was a bad idea, because all of his frantic kicking cause his paw to hit the crystalline wall at an odd angle, sending a shock of pain through it. He grimaced and hissed, though no sound came out, and decided right then and there this dumb rock would *pay.* Once his paw stopped hurting, though.

Once the aching in his paw had subsided, he returned to pounding on his chrysalis, fueled with newfound fury. The thought of the gemstone beneath his paws splintering into a billion tiny bits filled him with determination and a sense of excitement. The chorus of whispers seemed to be cheering him on, almost, the unintelligible murmur like a cheering crowd, encouraging each and every kick to the seemingly unimplementable gemstone prison. After what seemed like forever, a crack webbed it's way through the darkened gemstone. Then another. With a final kick, he was able to break free, bursting into the world in a mess of bright yellow fur and shattered blue-black gemstone.

Okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay.

SO.

Hypothetically, let's say you consider yourself an ultra brave, ultra cool, extremely talented adventurer (as a certain Pallas' kitten considered themself). What do you do when, on your ~~dawdling about~~ extremely important scouting trip of newfound territory, you find a, uh... giant gaping chunk of darkness?

I mean, the cave wasn't easy to walk through to begin with. Nothing was in there but some kind of... mist. It was barren, lifeless; the sound of a single heavy step felt almost like making a bolt of lightning cackle. But let's say, hypothetically, you chose to go in anyway (like a foolish kitten chose), and then while you were investigating, of all things, you came across this sudden void?

I'm guessing you, a sensible person, wouldn't go in. Right?

Meet Alef. Or, Aleph. They called themself "Ahlf" before but they didn't like that much so they just put an extra "e" sound in there. Sometimes they call themself Alrik, but not right now. They went through all that hypothetical stuff I just listed there, and their choice was probably very different from yours.

Attempting to battle the abrupt, crushing weight of a childish fear of lack of light, this cub named Aleph took one step, then another, then perhaps three, five, or ten more into darkness, trembling all the way, until they finally couldn't take it anymore and managed to squeak out a single "H-- H- Hello...?" which rang through the corridor despite its humility in volume.

And then they heard a distant noise, something like a shattering of glass. Was that a response? Once more, gulping down the almost paralytic grasp of fear with herculean effort from their throat, Aleph said (a bit louder), "H-- He- He- Hellooo?" The last few o's trailed off as fear finally got its grip around the kitten's paws and locked them in place.

@Doug

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The pitch black darkness of the room did not bother the pup very much. Instead they bounced around the shattered remains of their chrysalis, batting at the shards and listening as they skittered across the floor. They squeaked in playful joy until a different noise caught their attention.

"He-he-helllooooooo?" They echoed, though with a noticeable lack of fear in their voice, "He-Hellllloooooo?" They bounded towards the mysterious noise, their paw steps sounding echoing and near deafening in the quiet, dark tunnel. They truthfully had no idea where they were going, except in the vague direction of the sound. By pure luck they managed to crash into the frightened little pallas' kitten instead of a wall.

The little pup squealed in joy even as they tumbled to the ground in a heap, likely bring down Aleph with them. "Heelllloooo!" They sang, still not quite understanding the meaning of the word but liking the sound of it nonetheless.

@Alrik

The distant clattering of glass began to sound more like a scattering. Aleph's voice then echoed back in a completely different tune. That would have been creepy if Aleph was totally absolutely incapable of being scared, which is definitely a fact and not just an unreliable narration.

Then it came again, fearless, almost sing-songy, accompanied by-- oh gosh, were those steps??? The clamor was undeniable, it pounded throughout the darkness. One thing about fear; it came swiftly to accompany those in quiet, dark places, but it practically tackled and tore to shreds the ones it knew were being approached by something. And Aleph's fear knew.

Aleph became to let out a loud, prolonged scream as an entity came bounding forward, fast. The entity didn't seem to care, though. Figures, as it was fine with making noise to begin with. A freeze response had Aleph rooted to the earth, while a flight response shrieked at Aleph to move, and a fight response pounded against Aleph's mental walls for the kitten to fight back.

So Aleph just got tackled by a pup, consequentially getting the wind knocked out of them, and cutting their scream short. Down went the two of them, Aleph in shock and extreme discomfort, landing with a thud that provoked an "Oof--"

And again, the creature echoed Aleph. The cub tried to make sense of... whatever it was. It didn't look like anything they'd ever seen before. Something about it was ~~frightening~~ unsettling, but Aleph couldn't exactly place why. It looked like... a living creature, however, so that was a decent start.

Some fear began to absolve from Aleph and half-articulate thoughts slowly began to return. Thoughts which included trains such as, 'Why am I scared? I shouldn't be scared. I'm not scared! There's nothing to be scared of. This thing is just weird and sca-- weird. It's just weird! That's fine. Everything's weird. It's fine. I'm fine!' and the lying went on.

So there was the child named Aleph; out of breath, toppled by a "weird thing", staring up at it, and completely incapable of doing anything about this situation.

Yeah. This was fine.

@Doug @Max

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The stone had grown and grown and grown.

In between his prayers, Max had been visiting it. Stretching out to watch it, try and see what was inside. But of course, he couldn't, and so he trotted back and forth, his well-beaten path trodden black with old oil.

He prayed, he prayed, he prayed.

He listened, he watched, and he listened.

Perhaps it would be disturbing to another, this Hole where there were whispers and visions and he glowed bright, but this was Home, and the whispers and visions followed him, and his pup would come here, too, if they wished, it was Home to him and so it would be Home to them, too.

He stretched out on his stomach, inked eyes dripping tears as he watched the Altar, listening-listening-listening, images that made little sense dancing before his eyes, and then yelling the voices were yelling, and he leaped to his paws and raced up the Hole with a woof, slowing to a trot, dull claws clicking on the stone as he gallumphed to the gemstone that had been growing-growing-growing, sickly-pale fur swaying, ears perking at the sound of voices.

'Oh!'

His tail wagged, and he looked first, at his pup, clearly his from the fur to the shape, then to the other fluffy thing, mouth opening in a doggy grin, teeth stained wet-black, tongue dripped black-corruption, and he yelped "You are awake!" excitedly.

Was Max bothered by the screaming? or the tumbling? Nope. He laughed instead.

@Doug

The pup was laughing, either oblivious or uncaring of it's companion's fear. It was somewhat distracted by the scream, it's furiously wagging tail stopping for a moment in confusion. It backed away, opting to give it's new friend some space.

It was then a much bigger thing, one that looks surprisingly similar to themself, ran up to them. They looked up, mirroring the dog's corruption-oozing grin with one of their own. "Awake? Awake!" They barked excitedly, ignoring Aleph, at least for a moment, in favor of this new creature.

@Max @Alrik

And then there were two.

Holy heck no, who was this other thing?! Sandy fur, dripping with pools of liquid as ominous as the dark cave, stirring and bubbling with eeriness. It was almost as if these two creatures had guzzled down so much tar it was falling out of the orifices of their face. Aleph was only just realizing this and it was not helping the vibe.

Aleph's (totally dignified) screaming must've been pretty funny because these two wackos were laughing. Although the tackler did back off a bit, that was... nice, Aleph supposed. Then the two black and tan beings were united, and Aleph was left trying to get back up, wondering... what were they? What were they doing??
It kind of felt like the kitten was interrupting something, but what it was they had not a single clue.

They both seemed to be able to speak, however, so perhaps Aleph should, you know, ask? "Aw- Awake? Hello...?" Once they got a hold of their wobbling paws, Aleph would just stand there, dumbfounded, watching the two weird things. At least they seemed innocuous... for now.

@Max @Doug

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Max wagged his tail excitedly, stumbling, ears twitching to listen to the whispers - names, were those names? Maybe, he could pick out words, "Hello mine, welcome!" and oh but had it been blessed? Blessed as he was? He thought so, because the fur around its eyes and nose were black - oh, that was wonderful!

"Yes, awake!" he grinned, oozed everywhere, then an aside to Aleph, "Hello!" prancing in place, "I am your father, Max, do you have a name?" he hesitated, looked at Aleph, "Do you?"

If not, then the whispers had some very nice suggestions.

@Doug

The big thing was excited, so so was he! He wiggled and wagged his tail, it was impossible to stand still, so he didn't! He didn't know what this big creature was, but it looked like him! At least, he thinks it does. The whispers thought so, too!

"Hellllloo!" He'd echo. He was still grasping the actual meaning of words. They were sure fun to say, though! "Name?" He'd tilt his head. What was a name, did the big creature have a name? Did the loud one? He wanted to see what a name was!

@Alrick

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