Hating other Gembounds for no reason would be... weird.

Well... so was liking and helping others for no reason, at least to the catwhale. But Blight didn't seem to think so...? Though he also spoke of mean people, it wondered why being nice was the 'usual', and not a 50-50 mix of nice and mean. But it did like meeting nice people more than the idea of meeting mean ones, so it wasn't about to complain about the strange phenomenon.

"I'm a kid," it repeated to itself, in a wondering tone. It didn't know where it had learned the meaning of the word from, but it was there in its mind: someone small, new, not fully grown. "Really? Everyone starts out as kids?" It was hard to imagine. "What's it like not being a kid anymore?"

Try as it did, it couldn't envision Blight as anything other than he was now. And it couldn't imagine itself as anything other than it was now, either. The idea of becoming something else even scared it a little.

@Blight

"You are a kid," Blight echoed amiably; then Bedlam had--not to his surprise--more questions.

He considered, as he carefully wing-walked along.

"Yeah, I think everyone does. When I hatched I couldn't even fly, yet. I had to learn." But he reflected on it, for a moment; did everyone start off as kids-? Everyone he'd met had, but maybe there were exceptions... Oh well!

"Well, you learn stuff, as you get older. So things make a little more sense. Stuff isn't as... unknown? As scary, in places. You get more confident, as you get to know the world--what you know, what you don't know. Things feel... more settled, less--well, unknown," he tried, gamely, to explain. A light shrug of those winged shoulders as he walked demonstrated his uncertainty on the topic. "It's nice, I guess."

But... sometimes he did miss Dad outright taking care of him. Blight had never felt safer than curled up with the immense black dragon resting beside him, protecting him from whatever those unknown dangers were. It wasn't that Svartis was gone, now--but he'd seen the dragon beaten (and badly), and no longer held that tragically mistaken (but oh-so-reassuring) belief that his adoptive father was immortal.

It made the world--for all its new, adult certainty--a little more uncertain.

@Bedlam

"You couldn't fly?" Bedlam echoed, almost with disbelief. "Could you walk? I could walk." But not swim, evidently. Then again, that it was built to be a good swimmer was not as obvious to it as the fact that Blight must have been meant to fly. He had wings, after all.

Less scary, Blight said. Bedlam didn't think things were very scary now, either, unless it involved fast currents and drowning. But maybe that was part of what Blight had meant. If it knew how to swim better, maybe drowning wouldn't be as scary. Maybe growing up wasn't scary, then. Maybe it was the opposite. Maybe growing up made growing up itself less scary! Bedlam giggled at how convoluted that seemed.

@Blight fade to exit here?

Blight offered another little shrug--hard, when one was walking on 'all fours' so to speak.

"Couldn't fly!" he agreed. "Not for the first little bit, at least. But I could walk," he explained.

As he dipped himself down into the shimmering reflections of Tunnel A and all its crystals, he continued.

"So this is the way to the place with light and water, if you want to remember it for later. These are all crystals--the next room is really pretty, too. It's all gemstones, but it's all shiny, so it's sort of easy to get lost..."

Tattered tail swept last into the tunnel, leaving Polaris empty, bar a few splatters of water and the empty shards of Bedlam's chrysalis.

@Bedlam (for visibility! yeah I'm fine fading here <3)
exit Blight