You know the drill. Pillar of shining Oilstone growing by the spire. The thing inside it threatens to bust through. One day it does.

Sent tumbling down with a wet smack, and suddenly, Crypt was born. A miracle. There is something very blue somewhere nearby. He should investigate. Maybe its food?

He struggled to his feet, only for his feet to fail him again and again. Some part of him understands that they probably should, but the other three quarters isn't too bothered. It turns out he can crawl just fine, anyways.

Crypt spends the first five minutes of his live open-mouthed coughing at the huge, crackling centre of the Origin caves.

...Papa?

Not papa. Not. Papa. But he wasn't listening. He dragged himself towards the spire, which returns his approach with vicious, buzzing electricity that reaches somewhere past his skin and meat and glowing organs. This is what fatherly love feels like.

Crypt presses his meaty palms to the stone, ready to return his dad's embrace. God. Damn it. I swear to god this wasn't the plan.

It remembered the first moment it had been awake. Crawling out of its own oilstone chrysalis, wet and stinking and observed a pit of shadow. Where the light inverted and the sound of snarling and churning rock echoed from beyond. It had turned from that - no thank you.

A wandering for warmer, more comforting places had brought it here. Not that Polaris was particularly warm, but it was still searching. It craved some kind of hot cradle it could rest itself in, perhaps to burn away, but it had yet to find anything suitable. The energy of the Spire, however, briefly attracted it. Like a child jumping from one activity to another, it stopped and turned away from its aimless quest to approach.

It noticed the darker thing scooting up towards it - probably somebody that knew better. What is it? Why is it glowing? Why does it make it feel sparkly?

But after its pace briefly sped into a trot to catch up with the other valkhound, it stopped. Staring with large, gleaming eyes at the strange behavior of...this one. Head tilted to the side curiously, confused. Was it...hugging the crystal?

It blinked, ears twisting back almost cat-like. "Hello," it chirped carefully. "Are you...um...friends with the rock?" Maybe they knew each other.

@Crypt

The Spire snapped and popped with near-tangible magic, sparks smacking into Crypt as he approached - overall harmless, but tingling where they struck.

As his arms reached forward, the Spire seemed to suck him in, like one magnet attracting another. He would feel his entire torso briefly pulled to touch the glowing Skystone. Magic crackled around him, and through him, lightly searing the places where he made contact with the stone, and racing through his body like the current of the crystal river, drowning him in its unstoppable rush. His vision would go briefly white, as if he had been electrocuted, but then it would return, blurry at first, and then stable.

To one so new to life, the power was overwhelming. It didn't hurt, not really, but he would feel overcharged in the aftermath. Overcharged but numb, as if his magic was something distant and hard to reach. Spells cast for the next hour or so would feel like gripping something when the hand has no feeling. Not weakened, really, but...odd.

It gripped him, for a few moments, until he got over the initial shock and would find it easier to pull away. There was no fatherly love here, there was simply power.

@Crypt

It was the world's most dangerous stim toy.

The blue light flashed in front, and then through him, permeating through his small body and filling it with fevered energy. His whole body buzzed at a frequency unknowable. He was pretty sure someone was talking to him. "Mmmmmhhhggghmmmmghffff." He managed in reply.

The energy faded some, and Crypt took the chance to withdraw before he actually managed to hurt himself. Not papa. Something else.

Not a friend, either. "No. Its lame."

@Athebyne (and soft tagging Crypt's relatives if they want to jump in)

Audland had wanted to watch. Wanted to be there when the stones hatched, to see what had become of their unfortunate tryst. He hadn't wanted them to know him; he wanted to reserve the right to be known on his own terms. Already the mark of a terrible father: dismantling connection, making it all about himself. But that's the thing, isn't it? Valkhounds don't have families. So he had no reason to try and connect, or guide, or be there at all.

Even still, Audland wanted to see. And he knew he'd be the only one looking, because their other parent had been too spent to follow where Audland had taken their stones off to.

In a corner hopefully no one would think to check, behind some outcrop of stones, Audland hid from a vantage point where he might be easily seen—if it wasn't for his cloud of darkness encompassing his entire hiding spot. To the unobservant outsider, he would appear as a particularly dark continuation of an existing shadow. Perhaps a little too pitch black given the context of other shadows, but who was keeping score?

From here, he could watch and try to hold his breath while the baby valkhounds hatched. It wouldn't be long before they did, and Audland could see the immortalized travesty of what he had done to them even before their birth.

He'd burnt them. He'd burnt the kids.

WELL, just one. For now. And my, what a looker. It seemed to take on after him in many ways. The one thing different that he could see from here was the head, and the strange glowing... Audland could see beyond its skin. Besides that ethereal glow, it looked and moved in disturbing ways, and its whole body was smoky greys and burnt blacks. Just as Chaos ought to be. Probably.

For whatever reason, the creature had decided to... crawl over toward the Spire. ...Why?

The question was echoed by a stranger Audland had never met before. Shoot! This was supposed to be his child-watching TV alone-! Ah, but at least it wasn't the child's... stone-or-life giver. Just some worm-like thing with enough spiky bits to qualify as a monster. Yeah, this was fine. The Spire's light beamed right through its body. But... no damage. It was fine.

Until Audland's spawn spoke. Something about it—no, that thing wasn't healthy. Oh god. He'd burnt it bad. And something about its voice, its word choice... No. Maybe there was nothing weird about it. Maybe Audland wasn't displeased, or uncomfortable. Maybe he was just being a giant blue baby and he needed to wait and collect more information. Quietly.

OOC: Audland is hiding and can be skipped in the posting order as he will not try to affect what happens here.

"Lame?" Athebyne's eyes moved up towards the gigantic crystal, so magical it was crackling with it. It blinked, confused. What was lame about it? It was very not-lame, it was very energizing. Maybe because he had touched it and gotten zapped? A tantrum, maybe?

"It's not lame. It's..." she struggled to find the word. Nice? Bright? Warm? Smooth? No no no. She couldn't find the word "beautiful" so she ended up on just "Pretty. Very pretty." Her eyes moved from the Spire to the creature and took a few more steps forward, neck reaching forward to sniff. It could smell singed fur, something like ozone (Although she didn't know what ozone was) and generally just...something kinda nasty. This gembound was stinky.

It stopped moving, nose crinkling. "Smelly. You smell. Maybe you're lame." Its long tail flicked behind it as its head curled back, as if a bit disgusted.

@Crypt

The amount of energy buzzing through him did something interesting to his stomach. He leaned back on his tail, watching the bright light of his organs flash brighter than they had moments before. Crypt patted his belly with his stubby baby hands. "Bwehehehehh. Look." He pointed at throbbing central cluster of small intestine. "Snakes in me."

He bristled and retracted some at the approach. How dare... "Yeah, I smell. I smell really nice."

"And the rock is lame and stupid because its a rock. I don't even care if its pretty. It doesn't do anything and I'm BORED NOW." Crypt's tail smacked against the floor.

@Athebyne

It blinked, eyes shifting to look down at the glowing 'worms' in its gut. It's discomfort was betrayed by it's ears, twisting back on its head. "I don't think that's good. Are you sick?" It had certainly not ever seen someone with WORMS in them. Not that it had seen particularly many things, just little critters while it travelled from one place to another.

It's head tilted quizzicly. Did it not understand what smelly meant? "No. Bad smell." Dislike was beginning to well in its throat and it wanted to growl and tell him that he was wrong and stupid, the rock was pretty and he stank like...like something bad.

"Bored? You want it to hit you again?" It looked up towards the Spire again. Still crackling threateningly. It wondered if it would hit him again if he tried to make it amuse him further.

@Crypt

Crypt sniffed. "I don't feel sick. I feel great." He gave his glowing belly one good, final pat before moving on. "An' you wouldn't know a bad smell if it. Uh." His smile faltered some. "I don't know what smells do."

His tail lashed again, this time cracking against the cold floor twice. "It didn't hit me. It just... Buzzed me around. Felt weird. Felt nice." He bent down to grab a pebble close by, only to slump onto his stomach suddenly with an oof, still not used to using his tail to move around. He snatched the rock in a meaty hand, clenched it hard (for good luck), before pushing his tail beneath him in order to get up again.

Crypt threw the rock at the Spire, overarm. It crackled and spat in response, the object disappearing in the angry, electric blue. "Now, I hit it." He grinned at Athebyne with pride.

@Athebyne

A soft sigh - did it know anything? No, perhaps not, it had just hatched after all. Nevermind that Athebyne, too, had just hatched. If it was going to be stubborn about the smell thing, it wasn't going to press. It was a little too annoying to try to fight it any further. "Okay. Fine. If you like bad smells then fine."

Its head tilted a bit as it looked back up at the Spire. "Felt nice?" It highly doubted that. Considering that this creature didn't know what bad smells were, maybe it didn't know what nice feelings were, too. Probably. But it hadn't, like, died or anything when it had touched the crystal. It hadn't gotten horribly burned and all of its flesh and fur were still there (mostly). Curiosity tugged at it. Pulled hard. Even more so when it lifted a stone to throw it at the Spire. Well that had been aggressive and that had also been a rock. It didn't think it would get zapped like that.

It couldn't help it. It stepped forward next to Crypt and lifted a dainty paw.

Heat rolled in its foot as it pressed forward, a small offering of warmth. Curiosity. Surely the stone wouldn't be hurt or hurt it in return - it was, after all, rock. Rock shouldn't get hurt by a bit of heat, right?