Fisher felt absolutely confused by what the other was saying. It simply didn't make sense, he was just doing what his instincts told him and questioning it all was too much to think about. His ears drooped as she asked if he was going to hurt the mouse. In the moment, he wanted to eat the prey, sure, but he didn't want to hurt things. "No hurting... Like eating plant. Just eat it. No hurting?" He sounded so hopeful as he replied carefully. There had to be some logic, some reason why it was okay to eat whatever he wanted. Surely he could eat something without hurting it? The fisher knew he was going to kill the mouse, and it sent a dread through his paws and made his chest ache. How could he be wrong? If it was okay to eat plants, did they not hurt? He just didn't understand. Were the green things also alive...? He felt like he knew so little that he had to believe Tam on this subject, even if it felt wrong.

"How... How do I know... I not hurting food?" The furry omnivore stopped eating his leaf and pawed at the plant, his claws shreading the delicate leaf. Fisher scruntched up his nose and muzzle into big wrinkles, frowning as he looked up at the deer. He didn't like how he had upset her, but he had an idea for how to avoid it in the future. She would just have to not know he was eating other moving creatures. Fisher knew there was no chance he wasn't going to have a mouse at least once.
It simply smelled so delicious.

As he looked at the tall, long legged and thin deer, he felt the distance stretch between them. They were different. Could different things not be-- what was the word- friends? If that was the case, then... Only, Tam seemed so sad about it and he didn't want to hurt her feelings after scarying her so badly.

Unsure if he was being honest or now, the mustelid chittered with all the confidence he could muster, "We different... But same, too. Gem! And, and... Soft," making sure his sharp claws were tucked away in their sheathes, the long and short animal hopped a bit closer and touched his paw to her side with a great big stretch to reach up that high. "Soft fur and speak nice. So we can be friends? I won't hurt things. Even tasty food. Okay?" He struggled with his words, his vocabulary still small and narrow. He hoped she understood, but it felt like they truly belonged to two different worlds.

Tamelyn We'll reel away til the break of day
and dance together til morning!

Tam was feeling just as befuddled as he was. True, she ate plants, but she didn't know if they hurt or not. They didn't squeal or try to run away when she grazed. But...she glanced back at the bush she was eating from, feeling faintly queasy. Pushing the though aside, she shrugged helplessly as he asked how he would know if he was hurting his prey. "I dunno...maybe jus' eat 'em quick? So it doesn't hurt as long?" She really didn't know, she had never encountered a meat-eater before, at least not to her knowledge.

She looked back up at him as he assured her they could still be friends, a hopeful smile blooming on her face. He was right. They were different, but they had similarities too. She had to admit it would probably be boring if she was the same as all of her friends. There was only one Tamelyn, just like there was only one Fisher. She tensed up briefly, almost imperceptibly, as he reached up to pat her, claws brushing her short coat, but the feeling passed quickly. She wasn't a mouse, after all.

She appreciated his offer to remain a vegetarian, but at the same time, it didn't feel right to force him to adopt her lifestyle. "Well, I mean..." she struggled to find the right words. "If you wan' eat small things, then do. Just...don't hurt to hurt. And don't eat ones tha' talk!" That seemed like a good rule of thumb to avoid accidentally eating one of the sentient Gembound. She was young, but by now she was able to recognize the differences between the tiny kinds of Gembound, and ones like him and her, who had thoughts and voices and magic.

Speaking of magic, she wondered what his talent would be. "Have you tried t' do magic yet?" she asked him curiously. "It's really cool!" She stepped away, taking a deep breath as she tried to call upon the electricity that buzzed through her veins. Brief bolts of electricity zipped from her shoulders to her tail, lighting up the swap for a heartbeat with stuttering white light. She couldn't hold the magic for long, however, and quickly let it go. The sparks winked out. She looked back at Fisher curiously. "It's hard a' first, but you get the hang of it quickly." She brightened as she thought of something. "Maybe you's got 'lectric magic like me!"

"Listen to me."

table by lisa

Fisher tilted his head as he settled back down on his haunches, an awkward position for such a long creature, but his forepaws tucked neatly against his chest in a comfortable way. The tall mammal made a fair bit of sense. Fisher thought she was being reasonable enough. No talk, eat fast, don't hurt to hurt. That's how he'd prefer it if he was a little untalkative mousey that smelled very tasty.

Tam seemed eager to change the subject, but that suited the younger gembound just fine. He wanted to put the awkwardness away forever, and instead just grinned as she asked about Magicks. His copper eyes went wide enough to see the rims even with his pupils dilated into big round shapes. Something powerful danced along the deer's fur, the color of her gem in fast, tingly energy. He felt drawn to that power, trying to understand how she had.. Done all that. It was so cool.

As Fisher focused on Tam, his brows furling in thought, the dark gem on his back glowed faintly. The stripe of gold that ran through the stone sparked gently as Fisher's magick was unleashed for the first time, unwittingly on his new companion. His magick was more internal, a small shock inside of the creature that couldn't be felt but would alter their heartrates.

Disappointed that he hadn't done anything he could see, Fisher slumped down on the ground. "No pretty.. Spark? No spark," he pouted.

[[ ooc;; phone why you gotta not do the attempts right half the time JEEZ ]]

Tamelyn We'll reel away til the break of day
and dance together til morning!

He seemed impressed, and Tam felt a tiny thrill of pride. She was still trying to get the hang of her magic, and it seemed that it had a mind of it's own. Sometimes it came when she called, sometimes it refused to manifest. She watched as Fisher concentrated, likely trying to draw upon his own wells of magic. She waited eagerly, always excited to see new magic. To her disappointment, however, no sparks flew off him as they did her. Maybe he didn't--

THUMP-THUMP.

Tamelyn yelped and jumped as her heart suddenly fluttered, catching her by surprise. It was similar to how she felt when she was afraid, and she looked about, expecting something dangerous to be nearby. A golem, perhaps, though it would be nigh-impossible for one of those things to sneak up on them in mud and water like this. What had caused her heart to jolt, then?

She looked down at the fisher, evidently dismayed that he had failed, and put two and two together.

"No, no!" she said, shaking her head. "You did...something." She wasn't sure how to describe it. "You made me all jumpy for a second, all fluttery in..." She tried to pinpoint where the sensation had come from, then lifted a foreleg, pressing the "ankle" joint of her leg to her chest. "in here." She gave him a broad smile. "You's definitely got magic! Jus' a diff'rent kind." It seemed there were many things different about them, and she wondered what other kinds of different she would discover. It didn't bother her as much as it originally had, though. And while she was far too young to truly understand the workings of the Gembound body, that jolt had made her aware that the ability to control someone's heart was powerful magic indeed.

"So, what're you gonna do now?" she asked Fisher curiously. She wondered if he'd stay here in Cetus, or go off to explore. Tamelyn herself had taken off as soon as she was confident on her feet. Eriandus had been a nice cavern, but she wanted to see more if the Cave (the fact that a golem had shown up to consume the chrysali of Arkrael and her shortly after their hatching had also likely contributing to her desire to leave quickly.)

"Listen to me."

table by lisa

Fisher's eyes went wide as Tam told him that he had done something... Made her feel jumpy? He was disappointed it was different from Tamelyn's, since... Well, he was hoping that for all of their difference, they would have a lot more in common than they initially thought-- but maybe they were just completely seperate aside from the whole, gems and fur.

He was glad at least that he did have magic. Wriggling down to the ground, he scratched at the back of his neck, kicking at the scruff where his gem laid. His claws clinked against the shiny stone, and then he shook out his pelt. Staring up with his big, round stare, he considered what to do next. He wanted to explore... But he didn't want to leave the marsh yet. He wanted to climb up trees, snuffle through the murky water, pounce on some leafy ferns.

His head tilted to one side. "I wanna look... Explore! Find the BZZZZ..." There was a lot of fog, so... It would probably take a long while... And she had said "you" and not "we"... He supposed that was alright, he didn't mind being off all on his own, and would Tamelyn really want to stay around this icky swamp? Fisher wasn't sure there was anything other than what Cetus had to offer, but he had a feeling that Tam had come from far away, where things were much different.

"You hear BZZZZ?" He tilted his head, his ears twitching. The whole of the marsh buzzed with a constant hum in the fog, something that Fisher felt... Drawn to. "What is?" He asked, straining his senses to try and see and hear through the thick, white mists. Yes, that was what he wanted to do. Find the hum because it was as apart of him as anything else.

Tamelyn We'll reel away til the break of day
and dance together til morning!

"Explorin's fun." she said with a laugh. This little guy had the right idea. Tamelyn tilted her head at the odd noise he made. "Bzzz?" she mimicked curiously. "Hm..." She squeezed her eyes shut and went stock-still, ears swiveling this way and that. All she could really hear at the moment was running water, though the muck around their feet was flowing very slowly, if it was even flowing at all. But underneath that...She furrowed her brow, listening harder. Yes, underneath that was a faint hum. "I think I can hear it. Don't know what it is, though."

She brightened, smiling at him. "Bu' I'm sure you can find out!" Fisher seemed to be a clever sort, even if he tried to eat small Gembounds. "An' if we run into eachother again, we can swap stories!" This cave system was big, endless as far as she knew. If she could gather information from lots of different creatures, then maybe she could start to gain some idea of what this place was. Truth be told, it wasn't something that kept her awake--she had no idea of "outside" or a world other than the caves, and so accepted it as normal, but she was still interested in learning all she could about it, seeing as she was apparently stuck here. The caramel universe inside her gemstone shell didn't seem to be accessible anymore, and it had started to become a little boring anyway. Out here, things grew and spoke and moved. There was danger, but there was a beauty too, and there was so much of it to see.

She shifted her weight idly, feeling the mud suck at her hooves as she did so. Once she managed to drag herself out of here, she'd need to find a pool of water and have a nice long bath.

"Listen to me."

table by lisa

(Wanna wrap up here?)

It seemed the big animal wanted to split up. That worked for Fisher, he didn't know if he wanted to be stuck with a big ol' friend who was uncomfortable with him eating tasty smelling, small animals. He was sure they would catch up again some other time, and she seemed to agree with this sentiment. His ears twitched, held tilting, listening to her speak. It seemed like she didn't like the muddy, marshy landscape, and since she could only barely hear the bzz she probably wouldn't be too much help.

So he flashed the big friend a huge grin, deciding that he would seek her out sometime in the future when he had many stories to tell, and nodded. "I'll see you around!" Fisher yipped, and then his small, slender form was rushing away, eagerly into the mist. "Good luck!" He called back, the white, cold fog brushing away from his warm body as he raced eagerly into the unknown.

There was a big BZZZ to find, and he was going to be the one to find it!

;; fisher exit

[[ yeah let's wrap it up! we should have another thread with them soon, fisher has gotten up to so much and I'm sure Tam has too :D ]]

Tamelyn We'll reel away til the break of day
and dance together til morning!

"G'bye Fisher!" Tamelyn called after him as he dashed off, promising to meet up again later. "And good luck to you too!" Then he was gone, swallowed by the fog. Tamelyn listened for a moment as his pawsteps receded into the distance, then turned and began to make her way in the opposite direction. It was rough going, as she had to practically pull herself forward through the mud, but at least she remembered the way out of the tunnel.

Eventually, the ground became more firm, and the laborious process gave way to proper walking. Tam slogged the last few steps out of the mud and slipped into one of the smaller tunnels, taking a moment to shake herself off. She trotted off into the gloom, determined to find a place to clean herself off.

-exit Tamelyn-

"Listen to me."

table by lisa