Arwen quickly picked up the little bat, holding her hands above Matt's instead, "Sorry! She freaks out sometimes."

The grub looked at Matthieu in utter amazement, staring at him and grinning, "You're... you're like me! We're both bees!"

She poked at one of his bee antennae, giggling gently, "That's amazing..."

She looked back at Redwood and smiled, absolutely delighted by this, "Look, Blue! Another me!"

She was already starting to grow like a weed, and was a few inches longer than she had been before. She was definitely going to be big, and hopefully graceful and menacing at the same time, as she boasted to Marshmallow and Blue.

"You're my friend now," she insisted, putting Marshmallow on her shoulder, "Do you know your name yet?"

Blue's feathers rose as marshmallow began to scream, growling with disdain at both the noise and the fact this little spawn had the nerve to pick up someone without their permission, how rude!

as marshmallow was taken away by arwen, they immediately went on alert. ears open and eyes sharp, they watched carefully and-

arwen was happy. they looked to the creature and they couldn't deny, the resemblance was uncanny. bee-like in appearance, a little... humanoid, like arwen, it'd be hard to believe they werent somehow from the same gem, but they weren't, which was weird. blue, right off the bat, did not like this creature. but they didn't say anything about it because that'd be rude, and arwen was happy. and blue would do anything to make sure arwen was happy. even if it meant dealing with rude house-guests.

they protectively moved to shield marshmallow and arwen from any possible (or further) harm, a growl low in their throat, like a mother bear protecting its pups. or, well, bird protecting its really small charge.

"careful, arwen... it might bite" they chirped, deadpanned.

@Marshmallow
@Matthieu
@Arwen

As soon as they grabbed their "toy", all those childish eyes staring straight at it, the grub-thing took it away. The small smile disappeared off the upper's face, while the lower clicked her mandibles together, disappointed. They liked the way it screamed. Screams were nice.

But the grub was talking, and they wanted to hear it. Words they just understood. The amalgam's black legs shifted back forward, his attention fully on the gembound. They were "just like her"? 'Huh?' Frankly they couldn't see much of a similarity. She only had one head, after all.

A finger booped against their antenna and they flinched back, senses briefly going haywire. That was the first time something else touched them in their life, and they weren't exactly prepared for it. Still, they didn't hold any grudge against her. She seemed nice enough. 'Food,' the lower head rumbled.

But they didn't speak, not yet. Simply shifted back and forth in place atop their crushed opal womb. Watching.

The white fuzzy-thing was placed upon the grub's shoulder, and that blue creature moved in between them. It growled at them. They decided they did not like growling. 'Eat it,' the insect mind suggested, but was quickly rebutted by a 'You are always hungry.'. Well, "always" wasn't very long, considering they were just born a few minutes before. But the point still stood.

Her small bee face tucked down as the Boy's body leaned over to face the hostile harpy. Watching it with a cool, suddenly un-childlike expression. Observing the other two behind it. "I -- I-- am not a bite-er" The two voices intertwined as one, angelic and monstrous, speaking in a tongue they just learned. They pushed past Arwen's question-- they didn't know what name they had, and they didn't particularly care right this moment. There were more important things to worry about, such as getting this creature out of the way.

In their first display of magic, a threatening violet aura emnated from them, reflecting off the mirrors in dazzling ultraviolet tones. Surprisingly adept for a gemlet. "Move out of the way." Mandibles clicked together. Their legs shuffled forth as they tried to move around them, one pair of eyes on Marshmallow, one on Blue and Arwen. "Freaks out. Bee. Careful." More parroting, echoes of the words they said. And then: "Friends."

@Arwen @Marshmallow @Redwood

with the brilliant proceeding flash of light, reflecting on the many, MANY gemstones that made up the cave of gemini, Blue let out a terrible, loud screech.

their eyes, by gods their eyes, still so sensitive, how dare that vile creature dare do such a thing to them?! they whimpered, shielding their eyes from the light with an arm, only curling tighter around marshmallow and Arwen.

"foul fucking beast, talk to them from ther,e they can hear you!" they spat in anger, their double-toned voice uneven and chaotic in their distress. if they wanted to speak to them, they could do it from there.

@Arwen @Marshmallow

Marshmallow wasn't all that sharp, but she knew that when the weird... insect? snatched her it did not make a good first impression on Blue. But luckily she was safe on Arwen's shoulder now. Arwen seemed to like this weird insect that looked sort of like her, but Blue didn't, so Marshmallow wasn't sure at all what to think. You see, it was hard for her to come up with her own opinions, although she did know she didn't like being held like that in Matt's... hands?

But suddenly, there was a bright flash of light, and Marshmallow could feel her eyes start to burn. Her sensitive eyes already didn't hold up very well in the regular light of the caves, and this was much brighter. Another, "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" was added to Redwood's screech, and Marshmallow finally knew that she did not like this insect very much.

Then the harpy said some not-so-nice-words, which was how the small bat was feeling right now. Not like she was able to voice it of course.

@Arwen

Arwen wasn't as badly blinded as Redwood, but the reflections certainly didn't help. She couldn't even close her eyes, lacking eyelids completely, so her compound eyes were scorched by the time she slapped her hands over the eye holes in her mask.

She rubbed at them, making pained noises, before she pushed at Blue's legs and shouted, "ENOUGH!!!

She took a moment to rub at her eyes some more, sniffling gently at the pain, "Stop moving, stop talking. Just let them go, Blue, we'll find them later.

She bumped into Blue's leg and started to crawl up him, unable to see despite her eyes being wide open. They just wouldn't work.

@Matthieu

When the still-unnamed child activated their magic for the first time, they expected applause, not screams. For a moment the two stared, dumbfounded, the upper's arms in the air and the lower chittering her mandibles. Bee bickered a little internally, grumbling about how they should've "eaten them" before they started wailing; Boy was just trying to process what they were doing. Why do they react so negatively? Was it something they did?

The insect's gaze drifted just up a little bit, and they saw why. 'Oh.'

Somehow, their first magical trick had come out a lot stronger than they intended. Beams of violet light reflected off all the mirrors surrounding them and, unfortunately, right into their acquaintances' eyes. That was... not intentional. All they wanted was a nice glow! Their eyes weren't affected too bad thanks to their general sensory insensitivity (likely why they didn't notice at first), but the others certainly were.

'Their eyes are so weak-- not important right now."

Then the blue one, the one that didn't like them, started shouting in seething words they couldn't understand. Hateful. The small fluffy thing joined in too with it's screech. The lower, insectoid one back up warily while her upper put his hands up in alarm. "Sorry." despite how sincere the children were, they couldn't get their voice-- their voices-- to hold much emotion. Not as much as the blue harpy, or the grub, or the fluffy one. The humanoid-bee hybrid just had to pray that they could discern their confusion and hurt.

Quarrel started up in the mindspace. 'Should we run-- no, fight-- maybe if they don't like their eyeballs so much they should replace them-- how do you suppose we do that? well-- nevermind. We have to go.'

But they couldn't exactly escape the real world, and in the real world they were being yelled at by angry children, right after being born. "We... we did not mean it." More steps back, claws and palms, edging towards the edge of the mirror clearing. "Thought... friends would enjoy. As return for saving us. I guess not."

And as quick as they came into existence, the amalgam fled down to the closest exit they could see. Leaving nothing but a broken chrysalis, three gembounds clutching their eyes, and a trail of displaced pebbles in their absence.

@Arwen @Marshmallow @Redwood
Exit unless interrupted/transition into THREE FROM THE PARSON, FOUR OF THE CLOCK.