It was vanity, then. Pale wanted to laugh a bit at Pebbleriver's foolishness, but, thankfully, she had the sense to simply nod thoughtfully. Vanity was easy to use. She was about to speak again when Pebbleriver suddenly leaned forward and bumped her head against her. Unsure how to react, Pale simply stood there for a moment before she relaxed and smiled back. "Thank you," she said, simply, and, honestly, it was nice to hear someone compliment her. She wasn't a fan of her fur - it was difficult to hunt in a cave with a color that was such a stark contrast from the gray rocks around her. But if someone thought it was pretty, then that was good enough.

Now that she had a fairly good sense of who Pebbleriver was, she went quiet for a moment, moving her gaze back to the stars. "Tell me...when you look up there, what do you think about? What do you feel?" She glanced down at the other cat. This was it, the first step. If this all went well, then, perhaps, she would soon have the world in her paws.

@Pebbleriver

Pebbleriver continued to purr. Her tail flicked as she eventually turned her gaze away from Pale and up to the stars as she spoke. Her head still titled as she looked up. She thought about what to say.

"Well, they're pretty!" And it was true. There were very pretty. But that wasn't all. No, she definitely felt more. But how to put that into words? "But they also...they..." She paused, huffing a little in frustration. How to put this into words that would make sense...

"They make me feel...calm, looking up at them. I don't know what they are or where they came from, but...they're up there for a reason, aren't they?" She turned back to Pale. "How do they make you feel?"

@Palefur

Pale watched Pebbleriver as she spoke about the stars. So it wasn't just her feeling something more from the crystals far above the ground. Her tail flicked and she hummed thoughtfully. Her answer to the question could make or break this. It would either be the hook that started it all or it could drop and fail right here and now. "I think...they are us, in a perfect state of being. In a way. They are a monument to the eternity of life and to the stability we should all strive for." She didn't delve further into what she wanted to say. Not yet. The time was not right.

"They make me feel calm as well. As long as we live under their light we will live forever. If we should turn our backs to them..." She trailed off purposefully and turned back to Pebbleriver. "Ah, sorry, I got carried away. They are important, definitely."

@Pebbleriver

Pebbleriver listened attentively as Pale spoke. With each word, she grew more and more interested. The stars, being them...a perfect state of being. She didn't quite understand it, not fully, but it was so intriguing. She looked back up at them, still listening with her ears perked to every word Pale spoke.

As she trailed off, Pebbleriver turned her attention back. She tried, desperately, to come up with something to say. "That's...amazing." She flushed a little, looking back to the stars. She could almost see what Pale meant. "It's so...so...fascinating that they're here, and we can look at them! And if...if what you feel is true, then..." She paused, suddenly unsure of where she was going with this.

"Well, I think it's amazing!" She smiled at Pale.

@Palefur

Pale smiled. "It is fascinating. There are many mysteries of the caves that are fascinating. But to me...I like the stars." Her tail twitched and she kept her faint annoyance down as she thought of all the other wonders. Jay had been interested in the Spire, but the giant crystal, spinning and crackling with uncontrollable magic, that revolted her. Disgusted her. It was the very vessel of the chaos that she despised so much. She would rather of these, the stars, whose light blessed her with peace and the spirit of order and stability.

She closed her eyes. "It saddens me that there are those that do not think this way," she whispered, carefully. "Some even go so far as to try and make you believe in something else." She opened her eyes and looked at her friend with a stare more intense then before. "They want to control you and manipulate you. Don't let them do that, Pebbleriver. You choose what you believe in."

@Pebbleriver