He'd intended on leaving Canis and heading towards Orion, as he did occasionally, but plans changed when he realized that there was another cave leading out to somewhere else, a tunnel he'd somewhere never noticed before. One step into it had the demon freezing with...was that wonder? Well, this day had turned out to be quite the emotional revelation for him, hadn't it?

He'd never seen a tunnel like this before, all crystalline and purple and gleaming with light. Carvings danced along the crystals dotted across the walls and it seemed, at least for now, that Azrael was alone.

Wonder, however, quickly changed to that oh-so-familiar irritation at the amount of light shimmering from the crystals. He didn't like dwelling in lighted areas on a good day, but on edge already from the new experience and the new tunnel had irritation quickly forming into anger. Magic fluctuated across his body and the glow on his chest became bright for a moment, intending on dimming the whole tunnel, covering it all with darkness, but the spell backfired, only somehow managing to make everything seem even more bright then it was before.

He let out a howl of rage, echoing down the crystalline tunnel and, in his anger, he swiped powerfully at the wall, but his claws only glanced off the hard crystal, instead of making deep scourges like they would have against rock. Only feeding into the fire of anger, he let out a snarl and stormed forward.

It felt nice to be angry again.

@Forgraves

Action. Thought. "Speech."

before he humiliates himself, in his defense, he was asleep.

he'd been up for days, with almost no sleep, he was preparing to be a father, and he had just finished staring directly into the gemini rift for an hour, and he was on his way home, and he just kinda collapsed behind a rock.
SO, when the room suddenly got all bright, and azzy started howling, he was a little startled! a bit spooked, even.

with a loud yelp, he jumped about 3 feet in the air, scrambling for cover. ouch, jeez, his eyes hurt.
he shakily stuck his head out from behind the rock he'd taken refuge behind, rubbing his eyes and adjusting his specs.

he blinked. "Azzy? Azzy! is that you?" he chirped, a smile forming on his face, a bit lopsided because he was still quite exhausted. "over here!"

@Azrael

He stormed down the tunnel, beds of his claws beginning to ache from the swipe against the wall, only adding to his irritation. It was as if this hallway was just trying to piss him off, defeating him right and left in every way possible. Proving that it was superior to him. That he could not defeat a simple tunnel.

The thought flashed to his head and a second later he stopped moving, growling deeply. Him, bested by stone?! What was this new world, where the moment he stepped into its gaping maw, it seemed the powers of inanimate rock were set up to be against him? Glowing lights that wouldn't go out and rock that hurt those that cut them. And would he bend so easily to their taunts? Would he grow angry and throw a tantrum at nothing, because this was just a tunnel, it couldn't fight him, it couldn't do anything but exist! No, he would not be defeated by a tunnel. He was Azrael.

And he imaged, for a moment, that he was hearing Forgraves' voice. Calling for him. Cheering him on. And it was a blessing, a calming image and a calming thought that his son was nearby, watching him. He couldn't actually see the fox, too focused on thinking to see anything else but another white crystal growing from the ground. He would calm the beast. For Forgraves.

Perhaps it was a testament to how confusing Azrael's emotions had become that he was having so much internal struggle over the supposed supremacy of a tunnel.

A second flick of magic had its intended effect. Despite still being weakened after receiving true mastery, the light in the tunnel went dim and a blanket of darkness shrouded the entire path. The lights that had once seemed to glow from within the rocks had been snuffed out, leaving nothing but shadows and empty blackness.

Much better.

He grunted with approval and continued moving forward until a scent wafted over his nose. He paused. Hadn't it just been his imagination that Forgraves was ther? Surely he wasn't...actually there...But a quick glance down and, through the darkness, he saw white fur. "FORGRAVES?!" The shock was obvious in his voice. "What are you doing here?" Maybe it would have been an emotional reunion if the demon hadn't been caught completely off guard.

@Forgraves

Action. Thought. "Speech."

Forgraves kinda watched, waiting for Azzy to notice him atleast a little. he flinched at the loud noises and jumped once more, whimpering as the lights went out and left him in the dark for a few moments.

he looked up when azzy called his name, waving, walking out into the open, where he hoped azzy could see him now. "y-yes! yes, its me, hi azzy! boy am i glad to see you, you know how long i've been trying to come see you?" he chirped, smiling as he bounced in place. "i just came back from studying the crystals in gemini! its so BRIGHT in there, can you believe it? light bouncin off the walls, theres a portal in there too!! no clue what it does yet but im determined to figure it out, i uh.. got pretty tired though so i fell asleep behind a rock, and then you showed up! what're you doin here? didn't think you liked places like this" he said, tilting his head.

he padded closer as he spoke, hopping around excitedly, accidentally knocking his specs slightly out of place. "oh, yeah! did you see these? i found them in ursa, turns out my eyesight was actually really bad! and these helped! who'd have thought, huh?" he laughed.

@Azrael