ORIGIN

Gizmo's chrysalis was an odd sight indeed. It was perfectly smooth, shaped ever so slightly longer than it was wide, and was colored a cloudy pink. It was partially submerged in loose dirt, with a pair of golems meandering nearby -- the smaller of which was responsible for its partial submersion, having apparently reasoned in whatever capacity it could manage that if a chrysalis stuck to dirt, more dirt would certainly be a good thing. Or perhaps it had just felt the urge to dig.

One way or another, the chrysalis was otherwise unguarded. The golems had fended off a couple of Lessers who'd strayed to close and, notably, a curious Greater deer, but otherwise had mostly just been going about their business. The neonate, however, had been experiencing brief flashes of consciousness lately and now the quiet thrumming of magic all around was becoming increasingly irritating, along with the fact that his containment was becoming increasingly cramped. Needless to say, he was ready to leave it.

With little claws perfect for breaking out of an egg, Gizmo started to press at the boundary. A few cracks spiderwebbed up the side, drawing the attention of the golems, but scratching didn't seem to work. Eventually, he figured out that he really needed to unfold himself like a piece of paper, and with a final stretch the chrysalis shattered. A platypus lay in its remnants, eyes glossy and pink like the chrysalis as he tried to get his bearings. While it was perfectly within his capabilities to 'see' those around him through his natural sense for electricity, the latent magic in Polaris was muddying his senses.

The golems were approaching to pick up the wreckage of his chrysalis, but Gizmo wasn't really aware of them except for the sounds of their footfalls. He raised his nose to the air in an absentminded search for water and began to waddle in a random direction, hairless and hungry. Hopefully the first thing to find him would be friendly.

Kaimana had decided to visit this place again. Last time she'd been here had been quite the doozy. The energy that hummed throughout the room shot through her, like a refreshing lash of cool water against an overheated pelt. Her fur began to prickle up with all the power flooding through her, all the power she still hadn't figured out what to do with. Maybe it was just there to help her speak up a bit more.

Giant moving stones. She saw them fast, as the familiar lumbering of heaping mounds of animated stone tended to be a rather obtrusive and haunting sight. Her guard came up but she figured that all it took to get around this sea pickle was a good evasion plan.

Except... what was that?

Something shiny, half-buried, and broken. Beautiful. The moving stones were approaching it. Something was crawling-- or, maybe just trying to crawl, away. Kaimana couldn't just leave them there! That wouldn't be very friendly. And Kaimana was feeling kind of lonely recently. This could be a good opportunity to make a new friend.

She knew these moving stones were attracted to noise, so she would simply try to make... none.

It doesn't go terribly awry, but it doesn't go particularly great either. Feline stealth could go a surprisingly long way (almost 80% of the way there!) but lack of attention couldn't be helped. Kaimana tripped on a tiny glowing stone poking up out of the ground. With a brief yelp and an oof she hit the ground with barely a scratch, but potential wounds weren't the worry.

A brief flicker of the moving stone's attention could cost this whole mission.

Kaimana quietly panicked like a robber in a house does when a snoring house owner twitches in their sleep. She did what could only be described as a "quiet funky chicken dance" to get up as fast as possible, staring bug-eyed at the moving rocks to make sure their attention remained uncaught. She was preparing herself to make this a contest of speed as opposed to a contest of stealth. It seemed as though Lady Fortuna was smiling on her in this moment, but passive-aggressively. Another wrong move could turn this daring rescue mission of friendship into a wild goose chase of death-ship.

She approached the naked little squirmer, getting as close as she could and whispering very, very softly, "Hey there... follow me as quietly as you can. Don't make a noise, okay!"

@Gizmo

Gizmo noticed the electric hum of synapses firing as the other creature got closer, but it was only when they panicked that he was distinctly aware of them. Neurons firing, electrical pulses sent through their muscles -- adrenaline to make them faster, stronger. Heart pumping faster. Gizmo stared at her with his vacant, jewel-toned 'eyes' and figured that he might as well trust her.

The feline was lucky she hadn't said quickly, which would have prompted Gizmo to use his magic and skitter after her, inevitably drawing their attention. Instead, he pondered the meaning of the word quietly and tried to waddle along according to the aforementioned direction.

Unfortunately, his claws scraped along the stone like they had been before, because Gizmo didn't actually know what 'quiet' meant. The platypus also wasn't a very fast mover, and paid no attention to the fact that his skittering along was starting to draw attention.

@kaimana

The little thing didn't appear to actually.... be capable of her request, it seemed. Now that she got a closer look at it, Kaimana could see very plainly that this creature probably wasn't built for stealth. Those claws... not retractable. That form was pretty wacky too, not flexible like her own. Well! There was no time for such inane judgements now, because those moving stones...

They were listening.

With what ears?! With what senses?!? Who knew! Who cared! It was time for SPEED, baby!

"Ahhh, never mind then! It's time to be fast now, which I can help with!" Kaimana would attempt to grab the little creature by what she assumed was its "scruff" and then, if it were allowed, she would promptly begin to book it. If the motion was not allowed, they might have a bit of a problem, and not one that would be exactly easy to deal with. No matter! She'd get the little one out of here somehow.

She wondered, for a brief moment, about how much this little one would owe her after this. She'd stash that thought away for the aforementioned time: "after this". They had to get out first.

@Gizmo ((I wanted to give you the option to have Gizmo try to skitter along or to let Kaimana pick him up. Either way, she's running, so I decided to roll.))

Gizmo grunted as the creature picked him up. His body wasn't exactly meant to be carried like this, and it was severely uncomfortable. The platypus's mind wasn't all that developed yet, and he didn't really have the sense to realize that this creature was definitely not trying to eat him, based on prior evidence. He grunted and tried to squirm to minimal effect, and so instead he tried to hook one of the prickle(y) barbs on his back feet in her skin.

He wriggled a little bit as she carried him swiftly-enough away, snapping his beak a little bit but otherwise unable to do much more than he already had. Gizmo was a very small creature at this point, and was basically inside her mouth more than he was being carried by the back of his neck, which probably added weight to his assumption that he was being eaten. "Nyeh," he grunted again, his little tail thrashing.


@kaimana




(Barely Successful: Anything that weighs less than than ~45 lbs experiences severe pain. Anything between ~45 lbs and ~150 lbs experiences mild (but irritating) pain. Anything larger than ~150 lbs is mildly irritated at best.)

The little one allowed it, but it did not seem comfortable at all. Without her noticing, it managed to give her a light scratch in protest, one that she likely wouldn't have paid attention to at all if it didn't-- well it hurt a surprising amount for such a little rift in her skin. The blood itself was late to come to the party, because the "party", as in the wound, was kind of... lame. Insignificant. But then, the pain-to-wound ratio was so unbalanced??? Kaimana was just confused for a moment there, with quiet wisps of pain escaping from her maw: "Ah! Ah.." as she ran.

But they managed to get out fast enough, it seemed. She placed the little thing down behind a big rock on the ground (the perfect disguise), and crouched low in an attempt to meet the little one's eye level (better for hiding). Its disgruntled attitude was made very obvious by its body language, and Kaimana didn't quite understand it but it seemed the thing was brand new, and that had been a scary situation. The jaguar cub wasn't exactly "easy to anger", especially not when she was trying to be friendly. She was mainly just glad they both got out okay, and confused by the pain inflicted by that tiny little scratch.

She could hear the rumbling of stones nearby, and she hoped that as long as they both stayed hidden, things would be fine.

"Hello little one! I'm Kaimana, it rhymes with..." she trailed off as her brain rushed for a word. "Piranha", her mind offered. Piranha? Okay then, "...piranha. You scratched me and it hurts a rather strange amount! That's not very nice, especially since I'm trying to help you keep away from the giant moving rocks, okay?" There wasn't really any ire in her voice, just placid teachings. It'd just have to be another thing she added to its tab (of things it owed her).

"Who are you then? And remember to speak quietly so they don't find out where we are."

@Gizmo ((imagine being in debt to a t(w)eenager))

Close inspection would almost certainly reveal that Gizmo's eyes were replaced by his stone. He waved his bill in the air to get a better assessment of her form before snuffling quietly at the ground and scraping at it with one of his feet. Gizmo was hungry, but the ground here was hard and there were no delicious things hiding in it. What was a platypus to do without mud and reeds to forage in?

Kaimana was talking to him, though -- or, rather, at him. "Nyeh," he grunted again, with his minimal understanding of language. He tried to work on actual words, considering for several moments before eventually settling on "Giz-mo," an admittedly random grouping of sounds that he thought sounded quite nice. It wouldn't be until later that he learned those sounds meant anything, but for now they were definitely his name. Then, he paused and slowly repeated the cat thing's name back -- "Kai... man... ah..."

Gizmo wasn't a very loud creature, thankfully. He just wasn't exactly quiet, either.


@kaimana

The little one -- Gizmo, eh? -- made that funny sound again. It tried to say its own name and then Kaimana's. Kaimana knew her name was kind of... how did Glaive put it? Long. Needed less syllables. There was an easy cure for that. "You can just say Kai if that makes it easier for you." Glaive called her "Mana" once, so that could work too, but Kaimana figured if Gizmo wanted to use another nickname for her, Gizmo simply would. "I like your name. Giz-mo, yeah?" She sounded out Gizmo's name for herself. Very simple, and fun to say! A good name.

It was sniffing around and scraping at the ground. Aaaah, it would've been better not to scrape! If only Kaimana knew what it needed... "I dunno if there's fish around here somewhere, but I can get you some, uh..." she looked around to see what could be nearby that wasn't too hard to reach. "Moss? Some stuff that looks like plants? Maybe we should find some water," she offered. She was only assuming the little Gizmo was hungry, because she'd been hungry when she'd hatched, and it didn't feel good. And then she'd eaten fish and it had gotten all better. Fish was good. Gizmo would like it.

She waited for Gizmo's response, because she didn't really want to pick him up again. If he would rather stay here and wait for her to come back with a fish or something, she could do that. Gizmo would then owe her for 1.) saving its life, 2.) getting scratched by it, and 3.) getting it food. Kaimana would remember, but she figured she could tell him after she'd actually gotten food for Gizmo. If Gizmo even wanted food.

They still weren't out of the doghouse yet. Ah, if only Kaimana could find a way to a more familiar area...

@Gizmo

Gizmo suddenly surged in a tight circle when she mentioned water. "Nyeh!" he grunted, emphasizing her. Water meant mud, and mud meant worms, shrimp, and little fish. Those were his favorite things in the world, though he didn't quite know it yet -- he just knew that he wanted to dig around in some mud and find yummy things, and that his bill was optimized for that task exactly. He'd eat large fish, too, but he couldn't catch them and wasn't very big at all, so a couple of worms or bugs would fill his belly just as nicely.

The platypus started trying to climb onto her back and between her shoulders, being careful not to snag her with one of his spurs this time. He could wield those efficiently enough, but he did not want to be held in her mouth again, thank you very much. Still, he decided to try and offer an explanation as to what he was doing. However, Gizmo had not exactly grasped language yet, so it just came out as another strangled grunt.


@kaimana

'Water' seemed to spark Gizmo's interest. They reacted quite strongly to it; she once again worried about how much noise the little thing was making. What about water had riled them up so, she couldn't tell, so Kaimana supposed she'd have no other way of knowing than seeing!

Then, oop! Gizmo started climbing onto her back. "Ah-- I see! Good idea, Gizmo!" She attempted to position herself in such a way that that task was made easy. With Gizmo on her back as opposed to in her jaws, she could go as faster. All Gizmo had to worry about was not falling. Kaimana wasn't going to be that fast anyways.

Alas, Gizmo's attempt at an explanation failed to process in Kaimana's mind as such. She began to pad away in another direction, putting her feline agility to good use. Water, water, water... this wasn't a dry room. There had to be something that kept it moist, right?

Her eyes, paws, and ears must've all been guided-- no, geared towards the water, because she found it instantly.

With deft, quiet paws, Kaimana approached the flowing river in the room.

"Okay Gizmo, I think we're safe for now." Kaimana checked behind them just to make sure. "There's water here!" She crouched down so that her ward might have an easier time dismounting, if that's what Gizmo so chose to do.

@Gizmo