smells like teen spirit beautiful, was the one single word that the lion could bring himself to think of at the moment as he would look towards the ceiling adorned in shining glistening quartz crystals or as what most around origin cave dubbed it, 'stars'. quintus had grown used to being alone in his time of wandering the caves in attempts of quenching his thirst to know more and what better place to enjoy yourself while being alone other than orion. not many gembounds resided in the room of stars and who would blame them for it was none other than the stronghold of hasira and his herbivore minions but then again it seemed as if they had also sort of disappeared from the caves entirely. despite the happiness he was currently feeling, the lion was not entirely content, for he felt as if there was something missing in all of this. it would take a solid minute for him to come to a realization as to what or who exactly was missing and the smile that adorned his face turned into that of a frown, i wonder where bartos is, he wondered if his feline companion was even still living. he wanted to get his mind off such terrible thoughts but sadly he just reminded himself of the various deaths that had occurred during his lifetime. a deep exhale of breath would escape the brute's mouth before he would then sit on his haunches and continue to allow nostalgia to eat at his mind, i wish you were here friend.

When Quintus had offered to take him outside of Pisces for the first time, Hawthorne had stilled on the spot, anxiety clinging to his throat and constricting his chest. The lion hadn't pushed, but all the buck could think about was waking up one day to find Wisteria gone, his sister's presence wiped clean from Pisces - but then he thought of Baroque. His posture had straightened, voice adopting its cold, distant tone of concentration, and the two had been off to a place called Orion. As they moved further and further away from the comfort of his home, however, Hawthorne had wilted, trailing after his uncle with his head down and his ears pinned back, tail rasping on the stone floor of tunnel after tunnel. The older Gembound, still ahead, had remained silent for the trip, but that suited the hybrid just fine - it was difficult enough just to keep from bolting back to Baroque; having to try and spit out words to someone who was close but not so close as to melt away his stutter would just exacerbate the problem.

His gaze only rose from the ground when a shimmering light filtered down from the ceiling, and his face turned upwards, mouth dropping open in a stunned gasp. "S-stars?" Stone eye glinting in the soft, soothing light, Hawthorne felt a tiny grin twitching at his lips, bounding forward to catch up to Quintus and trot at his shoulder, tail raising to wag in tiny shimmies. "T-this place i-is beautiful, Q-Quin!" His head turned on its long neck, short snout twitching, but his own expression dropped a bit at the lion's frown. "...Quin?"