ORIGIN

Madhukar hadn't stayed in the plant room. She hadn't because she wanted to do something that the bugs just shouldn't have to witness. It might endanger them, and that was the opposite of what Madhukar wanted to do.

What Madhukar wanted to do, by the way, was blow stuff up.

Stuff like ears, maybe.

A plan had formed in her mind, one regarding a certain spoiled brat. It wasn't her main concern just yet, but what she wanted to do now coincided with what she was going to have to do then. Why not kill two birds with one stone? She was looking to scout this place out, this place where the wiggler had seemed to run off to. She was looking to explore the land, to figure out where those funny little buzzing creatures could go...

...and she was looking for a way to defeat her enemy.

She knew she could do some pretty bombastic stuff. BIG, but with little worth (although making the brat scared and helping Madhukar catch her prey were certainly VERY promising). Having a loud noise that just seemed to follow her around and burst when she was angry, and being able to cough up the worst-feeling hairball of the century. She wanted to know what else she could do, or if she could somehow get more value out of the abilities she already had.

Perhaps by making them work at will.

She stared intently at the glowing wall of the room opposite to the tunnel she'd entered from. So glowy, so bright, just like the place where that imbecile had PUSHED HER INTO THE WATER AND--

--AND-- AND--- and nothing. Nothing had happened. Why hadn't it happened?! She'd looked at the wall, she'd gotten mad, she'd thought about it. Well OKAY, NOW SHE WAS HEATED FOR REAL!!

WHAT WAS THE DEAL WITH THAT?! Madhukar stomped her foot and hissed. STILL NOTHING! UGH!

@Doug

Orion was FUN! It was glowy, and full of strange structures he didn't quite understand. He kept darting this way and that, not sure which way to go. The Whispers were many, and each was telling him to do a different thing, sometimes contradicting each other. Eventually, he got tired and frustrated from zig-zagging so much. He decided he'd go in a straight line until he found something interesting. He won't stray from it no matter WHAT.

So, with a newfound determination, he made his way forward through Orion at a fairly steady pace, only occasionally stopping to investigate something that'd usually turn out to only be a boring plant or rock. He quickly got bored, and wanted to just continue running around but- NO! He'd made a promise to himself.

A minute or so passed, and still, nothing. Doug was tempted to turn back, but then, he smelled something.

Something interesting.

His ears perked as he tried to figure out the source of this somewhat familiar smell. Then, further off, he spotted a familiar ball of fluffy white, grey, and cream fury. And she looked as angry as he'd last seen her.

He was rather intrigued by this creature, despite being somewhat scared of it. No- Scared wasn't the right word, he wasn't scared of anything! Put off, maybe.

Still, He didn't want to get spotted, not yet. Slowly creeping forward, he tried to keep to the shadows. His bright yellow pelt and dripping, smelly goop were hindrances in this situation, but maybe he'd find a large rock to hide behind?

It looked like luck was on Doug's side, even if his looks and strange goopy affliction wasn't. There were many large pieces of rubble to hide behind as he sneaked through the shadows. The ground was also grown thickly with moss, further muffling the elongated pup's steps as he slowly crept towards the disgruntled kitten.

@Madhukar

In her violent bout of rage, the kitten had entirely failed to notice the elongated goopy wiggler encroaching upon her tantrum'd state. Like, failed to notice to an inspiring degree. And what did it inspire? Well... nothing, in the kitten, because she still had no idea what was coming.

So while she was busy being sparky and grumpy, she would focus on the ground in front of her paws. Her eyes would widen, her pupils becoming slim with hate, as she directed her spite towards the floor. Stupid floor! Stupid water! Stupid stupid stupid! And a spark would attempt to become a reality in her, bouncing around somewhere within. If it could, such a spark would try to leave her-- to stretch forward, and give that stinky ground the smack it deserved!

But it couldn't reach. A slight spark zipped out, but dissipated just as fast. No touchy. Madhukar hadn't even noticed it. She was just staring... madly... at NOTHING! AAAAAAAAA""AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" she yowled at the ground.

Give her SOMETHING! ANYTHING!

Maybe a gooey puppy would do?

@Doug

From his hiding spot, Doug watched the kitten's display of powerful anger. His ears were perked, attentive, as he listened not only to the kitten, but to the Whispers. Some of them wanted him to do similar actions- To growl and stomp and tear. He ignored them, with a slight growl and a lash of his long, noodly tail. He was more focus on the kitten than the Whispers, though the cacophony of voices just seemed to take this as a challenging, seemingly getting louder the more he tried to NOT focus on them.

He watched as the kitten was charged with static, a single spark zipping off from her fluff-uped pelt. What was she even so angry at? The ground? The wind? It was somewhat baffling, even to a pup who regularly had rather... violent, invasive thoughts.

He crept forward even more, trying to figure out what to do about this. Maybe he should distract her? But How?

"Helllooooo? He called, revealing himself. He'd tilt his head slightly, "Why so angry?" He asked, seeing no point in not getting straight to the point. He wanted to know why she was so angry and yell-y and spark-y, and he asked so she would tell him, right? That's how questions were supposed to work. You had to answer them, that's the rules.

@Madhukar

A familiar voice came shooting out of the woodwork, and hit Madhukar like a bullet. Surprise! One might've expected such a presence to refine the kitten's fury twofold, but actually it just.... broke it in half. Temporarily. "WIGGLY!" she shouted, trying to be mad at the wiggler, but the attempt was rather halfhearted. It wanted to know why she was angry... why? Why did all the goopy ones question her like this?

She looked at the wiggler for a breath's worth of pause, glaring in silence, before taking a breath and explaining. "It's not work!" She stomped her good foot in frustration. Well, it was "work", but not... "Not when I want." Her temper was simmering down, funnily enough, at the wiggler's appearance. For a reason she couldn't quite explain.

When she thought of the wiggler (which she was trying to do, to light her spark again), she thought of how it completely defeated her in "combat" and didn't listen to ANYTHING she said and was always wiggling around in the most IRRITATING WAY--

But then she also thought about how Sniffles did the same. Wiggled, gooped, yelled at her and headbutted her and then seemed to... care about her, for some reason? It was so confusing. Not wanting her to be alone. Wanting to know why she was angry. She didn't understand it. Why... why were the goopy ones so WEIRD? They never said what they wanted from her. They never spoke that well, they were so hard to understand!

And she never seemed to actively want to hate them for that.

IT WAS INFURIATING!!! WASN'T IT? Her magic attempted to reach out to the world and evoke something powerful from it, without even asking for permission. And it happened, loudly, so loud one might've heard it echoing throughout, possibly, the entire room.

The wiggler wasn't infuriating. THIS was. THIS lack of CONTROL. This lack of UNDERSTANDING! Madhukar HATED THAT!!! But... she didn't hate the wiggler. Why didn't she hate the wacky wiggler or the stinky goop fiend? When they knocked her down and took her understanding away with one look? When they CONFUSED her SO MUCH?

"SEE? I didn' WAN' that!!" She didn't want this. She didn't WANT the wiggler here, she didn't WANT that boom either, but they just happened, and she couldn't stop them, and THAT'S what made her so angry. She didn't have the full ability in her, the full range of emotional intelligence, to convey that. But there it was.

@Doug

Doug smiled as the angry fluff shouted because yes!!! That was him!! He still hung back, however, because the angry fluff was, well, angry. It did notice the fluff seemed somewhat less angry- that was good, right?

He listened, ears perked, head half-tilted. <>b"It not work?" He'd echo, slightly confused. What didn't work? Hed listen more, his expression the most serious it'd ever been. "Why not work?" he'd ask, as if the kitten had any more of an idea than him.

The angry fluff had been the first gembound he'd really interacted with- save for a strange stinky fluffy thing and the other gembound who hung around the altar. So, he considered her a friend, even if the feeling was far from mutual.

So, when his friend had a problem, he wanted to help! If only he knew how to help.. The whispers had some ideas, but he wasn't sure if any of them would actually help. Killing a red rat or yelling at the ceiling didn't seem like it'd help with the angry fluff's anger.

The giant thunderclap made him jump, his head whipping around to locate the source of the noise until he realized it had come from the tiny fluff. Was this what she had been talking about? But the spell had worked super well-

Wait- OHHHH!

"Magic rude! he barked suddenly. It rarely did what he wanted. Sometimes it even made everything pitch black, which was scary and awful! Why did magic have to be like that? "Magic dun like workin' wight." He'd frown, staring at the fluff. "I dun know how make work wight." He'd add.

Maybe he could try his own? If he could make his magic work, then so could the angry fluff, right? So, choosing a nearby rock, he'd crouch down, his nose nearly touching it, and focus absolutely all his attention on that one rock.

At first, there was nothing. Then the shadowy smoke around him surged slightly, and the whispers in his head increased in intensity and volume, and then the rock was gone. Only for a moment or two, but it had definitely dissapeared.

"Oh!! It work!!" He'd bark excitedly, tail wagging up a storm, then he'd turn to the tiny fluff. "Try doin it like dat!" he suggested cheerfully, unaware the two specialized in very different magicks.

@Madhukar

The wiggly one's questions were kind of NOT HELPING her mood because she didn't KNOW why it wasn't working how she wanted. She didn't even know WHAT IT WAS! She just wanted to it work when SHE wanted, how SHE wanted, and it didn't want to listen! That made it effectively useless to her! It was just going to do what IT wanted, whatever that was, and it would haunt her and torment her and she could do NOTHING ABOUT IT! AAAAAAAAARGH!!!!

Then the wiggler seemed to understand what Madhukar meant. It said something about "magic" being rude. Was magic a person or something?! Or was it on the topic the kitten was actually talking about. She could never tell with the wiggler's kind specifically, but based on what it was going on about, how it could never make it "work wight", it seemed like "magic" was indeed pertinent.

Then the wiggler went over and stared at a rock.

And it... disappeared?

A blink and you could've missed it, but Madhukar was too weirded out to blink at such a sight. It just... vanished! And then it came back! What?! The wiggler seemed excited. So that was "magic"? It worked for the wiggler?!

Well then.

Madhukar hesitantly padded over, crouched down, and tried to mimic what the wiggler had done. Stay close, stare... staaaaaare...

Nothing happened. Madhukar didn't even feel the sparks flying back and forth between her ears, just barely visible above her head.

She turned her face back to the wiggler, expression portraying blatant wrath, although the subject of it was unclear. "It not. Work."

@Doug

Doug had a big ol’ puppy grin on his face as he watched Madhukar. What worked for him would SURELY work for her! Sure, she was all zappy and loud and angry, but magic was magic, right?

Doug watched intently, ears perked, standing surprisingly still as he wanted for something to happen.

He just barely spotted the tiny sparks that flew off her ears, and he smiled even bigger, his tail wagging. When Madhukar turned around, her fury was met with a somewhat confused stare.

”Something happened! He’d bark back, “It work! It work!”

@Madhukar

Madhukar's eyes narrowed at the wiggler. "Wuh? Wuh happen?" Was it playing games with her now?! Trying to TRICK HER?!? That would be mean! Madhukar wished she could be able to something, ANYTHING about that if that were the case, but... she had no idea if that was possible. She couldn't control her magic! Couldn't make it work when she wanted!! She had no defense, no offense. And to make it worse, she wasn't even sure if she wanted to hurt the goopy wiggler anyways! AAAAARGH, how HUMILIATING! HOW FRUSTRATING!!!

How miserable that it felt like it was all out of her own paws. Her emotions, her magic, all not her own. For how could they be hers if she couldn't stop them or make them start whenever she pleased? Useless.

@Doug