It was muffled within his glittering chamber, but he could hear some things. He did not know he was hearing, or what he was hearing, but he could hear. At first, there was nothing; then, the splitting of glass, high-pitched and delicate. As the amniotic fluid began to leak from the gem-womb, a sudden release of pressure exhaled from the chrysalis, and within a matter of seconds the rest of the structure shattered. A spillage of fluids carried with it a small, wet creature: a kitten who slipped from the chrysalis, still curled into a fetal position, flicked its ears at the sudden rush of sound and air.

Mostly, it was cold. Slowly, his rainbow-like eyes blinked opened and he was awed by the blinding lights of the Tower, reflecting and pure. His head rolled gently on the wet ground as he turned to look at more things, sights simply a wonder to him. For a while, he did nothing but move his head around and look at many things until he had the urge to move his legs. They twitched, responding, and then he streeeetched on his side, reaching out with his little legs and then pushing them downward. He had no idea such a thing could feel so good. And then he had the urge to roll onto his belly, so he did.

It was then he noticed the glittering blue of the shards around him, and a matching piece wrapped around his leg. He stared, lifting his leg gently before placing it back down, feeling the weight of the stone. It was there. Like, default there. Stuck there. To confirm, he shifted toward one of the pieces on the ground and pawed at it, noting that it moved freely; but when he pawed at the stone-piece on his leg, it did not move. However, he could feel the resistance, and he was delighted that such a beautiful thing was his own.

And he gawked at it with mouth agape. It shimmered each and every way as he rotated and moved his leg. Could it be more beautiful!? He quested for it, not knowing anything of it other than the fact that he loved it, and he wanted to express that... somehow...

"Ye, yay," he attempted, the words finding themselves among his growing knowledge of things. "Yay," he repeated, wiggling his leg and staring fondly at his bracelet. He did not know what word he spoke, but if it meant anything near to what he felt, then he accepted it.

Suddenly, a surge of something strange welled within him, and after a brief moment feeling of success, his bracelet began to glow. His eyes popped open wide and his tail patted loudly in the remaining liquid that he lay in. "Yay!! Wow!" he exclaimed, still unknowing that he really spoke at all.

Jay found that there were a lot of... noises going on. Everytime she tried to settle herself down to take a nap she was often awoken by the nearby squeaking of rats, or an unknown creature passing by with loud paws, or the shattering of a chrysalis.

That last one was becoming oddly common.

This was about the fourth time she'd heard it, the hissing and crackling of a bursting chrysalis caused her to lazily lift her broad head. She considered, for a moment, ignoring it and going back to sleep. That was, until, she heard a new noise.

'Yay.' Yay? Yay. What did it mean? Her mind made some associations that it was something to say when you're happy, or glad, or something along those lines. Jay took a glance around, before the massive kitten pushed herself up to her paws and began padding over.

The tower was also familiar to her, as it happened. Her own chrysalis-- and Pale's --was somewhere nearby and she remembered seeing the structure when she first hatched. What was new, was the kitten in front of it, fur still slicked-back from amniotic fluids.

Jay knew, at least, how uncomfortable it was. The memory clung to her as though it'd been yesterday.

Likely because it had been yesterday.

The black kitten padded heavily forward. "Hello," she said, knowing, at least, you should say as such before you start trying to groom someone else. With this, she got closer and spent a moment sniffing the kitten over.

Something else caught her attention, however-- the hatchling's stone. Pale had one, and she'd seen the mice with them, but she'd never seen one that was... glowing. "What is that?" Jay asked, neck craning down to look at it with a tilted head. "It's-- making light."

@Lilymoth

There was little else that garnered his attention at the moment, his eyes fixed on the stone around his leg. When there was a voice, he started unexpectedly, his fur doing its best to puff out through the sticky liquid. His head had turned to view the source and it was likely relieving that the other creature was as small as he was, but he did not know they were the same. The kitten turned her word around in his own head, trying to place why it felt good to say hello. But she came over and sniffed him, and he felt his fear ebbing into curiosity.

"Hello," he repeated, not entirely as a greeting, but because he agreed it felt right to say that back to her. When she noticed his stone and asked after it, he immediately forgot he had been frightened moments ago. "Yes!" the kitten said, turning his leg from side to side as his attention was sucked back into admiring his stone. "Pretty," he decided, and nodded to himself. Yes, that was the word. Pretty.

His eyes drifted back up toward the yellow ones next to him and he nodded, again. "Pretty," he repeated, confirming that his gemstone was pretty, not necessarily to tell the other kitten that she was pretty. He glanced down her legs and shook his head. She didn't have one. Well, at least it made him feel special. He had one and he had the best one. It was decided.

Finally, he looked back up to her again and felt his tail patting in the liquid. He wasn't sure what kind of progression to make from here, so he simply stared at her, waiting and hopeful. She seemed to know more things than he did, at least that's what it felt like. He liked hello.

@Jaysong

For a moment, the massive kitten considered this. It was pretty. Was he Pretty? Jay looked the grey kitten up and down for several, long moments. He looked like Pale did, if a bit ganglier and his pelt was closer to being what Jay's was, if it were paler. But, otherwise, he looked just like them.

"Hello," she echoed, for no particular reason other than he had repeated it, too. Her mind was more caught up in the new word-- pretty --and that the pretty-cat was still sitting in his own amniotic fluids. That last part was likely important, actually.

Jay moved away, out of the pool of liquid, and gestured the hatchling over with a flick of a tail. "Come here," followed the gesture before the black cat's tail fell still again, curling on the cave floor. "You're-- cold. Uncomfortable. Icky?" It was more several questions than a few statements. She remembered being cold and feeling gross while she was covered in similar liquids, at least.

She remembered Pale was bright red, the same colour that came out of mice when they died. At least this one wasn't such an alarming colour.

There was a brief pause as the broad kitten tried to mull over the words in her head-- searching and picking apart, trying to find what she needed and what sounded correct in her head to say, despite not entirely having a total grasp on entirely what they meant.

After a few moments too long-- "Jay," she came to. "I am called Jay. What are you called? Are you Pretty?" She offered another glance up and down the cat for a few moments, before re-concluding, gesturing at the stone. "Or is that Pretty?"

@Lilymoth

He admired his glowing stone for some time more, ears flicking as she echoed the hello. "Hello," he said again, more quietly than before, tracing the curve of his bracelet before snapping his eyes to her. Ah, she was moving—'come here' she said, beckoning with her tail, and his ears flicked at the command. He didn't know precisely the words, but he understood the body language. And he was cold and icky! As he came to realize this, he slowly picked himself from the goo and lifted his paws carefully, slowly, squinting at his sticky fur in disgust. Ugh!

With high steps and disgust scowling deeper into his face, he made his way toward her, back muscles twitching as he became more aware of the goop that clung to his fur.

She gave him something, her... her calling, she was called Jay. What was he called? "Hmm," he purred, unsure of the answer. He sat carefully next to her and stared sadly at his wet fur, lifting his left leg to lick his fur with a raised lip. Dreadful. "Do not feel pretty," he decided to say, wistfully staring at his gemstone. "This... this Pretty." He placed his paw back onto the ground and stared at his tiny toes before craning his neck back to glimpse the blurry, far-away glittering pieces of the ceiling. "Ooh," he breathed, and with a flash of knowing, he knew what he was called.

"Lily," he blurted, his head snapping back into a normal position to look at her. "I am called Lily."

@Jaysong

"Hello," Jay said a third time, helpfully. She waited until the other kitten-- dubbed Lily --stepped out of the pool of goop before she craned her broad head forward, tongue rasping against the kitten's fur. Without asking, of course.

Her intentions, at least, were good. She washed the fluids clinging to the grey fur with minimal complaining despite the taste. "You'll feel better soon," the massive kitten assured, though without any particular tone, working mostly on trying to clean the gross, sticky creature.

Lamp-like eyes darted towards the gemstone attached to Lily's wrist as it was named, Pretty. Jay took a moment to consider this, ears flicking a few times, before spitting out a globule of gunk and speaking again. "Pretty," she nodded. "We all have a Pretty, somewhere-- but yours is Pretty. Er. Prettier. Some have Pretties hidden away inside them." She guestured a paw at her own chest, to indicate what she meant.

At least, Jay could only assume that's where hers was-- she sometimes worried she didn't have one at all, though some of the cave mice had stones inside them. Hearts, or bones, or stomachs or kidneys were sometimes shiny little stones. Pretty.

The kitten went back to grooming the other, cleaning behind his ears. "Lily," she nodded absent-mindedly. "Lily's a good name."

@Lilymoth