Crypt snorted. "Its not bad. You just suck."

The Big Long Cat had shifted its attention fully to the Spire, caught in its blue glow like he'd been minutes before. He had the odd opportunity of watching his own experience as a bystander this time, the curiousity, the instinctual caution tempering its movements.

It felt weirdly intimate to watch. Athebyne pressed its paw to the spire, entranced, no doubt feeling the energy rush into it and thrum in its core. Crypt's muzzle wrinkled.

Spoken with the cadence of 12 year old playing a live-service First Person Shooter: "GAYY. Why don't you marry it??

No, he doesn't know what words mean. He was born five minutes ago.

@Athebyne

As soon as his own claw touched the Spire, the sparks lashed out again, but this time they slammed into his chest with the force of a truck. Electricity raced through his veins and his heart skipped a beat as the magic shoved him away from the crystal. He stumbled backwards, momentarily stunned by it, tripping over his own paws and landing with a huff on his belly, blinking away the white from his vision as the momentary agony dissipated.

He didn't react otherwise, just staring at the Spire with large green eyes before his brain finally caught up to reality. The head slowly turned towards Crypt, tail twisting on the ground behind him. He made no effort to get up right now, as if acting like he'd totally intended to lay here anyways. "What are you talking about?" Genuine confusion passed across its expression as it tried to figure out what those words meant. "Those aren't real words." "Gay" and "marry" were not words it had been born with comprehension of.

@Crypt

For a while there, the conversation between the two children had been mostly a snooze-fest for Audland. That was, until, to his utter surprise, very interesting words began falling out of his own spawn's mouth. "Gay".... and "marry"... oh my. Audland hadn't known colorful language was genetic.

With a smile on his face, Audland waited with anticipation for the other creature's response. And... what Audland would perceive would greatly disappoint him. No, no, this would not do. Such genius in wordcraft had to be appreciated, if not by Audland then most certainly by this random guy with the balls to actually interact with the burnt child.

Audland would attempt to reach forth into Athebyne's mind with his own to imprint a fundamental idea: Gay is real, it means homosexual... With only some vague imparted understanding of what 'homosexual' could mean. And marriage, of course, going unexplained; because while Audland could respect the game of pulling beautiful words directly out of one's butt crack, he could not have explained that one if he'd tried.

@Athebyne (please enjoy your unhelpful intrusive thought from an unknown source that is still completely out of view)

You see, "gay" and "marry" were also not words Crypt was born understanding. Some kind of misfire in neurons not-quite-connected yet, carried over from the faint, but questionable impression his parentage had left. When forced to confront the nature of its new, baby-smooth brain, its thoughts chugged to a halt for a second.

"They ARE real words. They came from MY mouth. So they're real." Checkmate, atheist.

Crypt had almost forgotten to address the Spire's explosive rejection of Athebyne. Almost. "It doesn't likeee you." He jabbed an accusatory finger at its face. "Not like mee. I'm the... Umm... Most-liked."

@Athebyne

Sudden, completelely unwelcome thoughts raced into Athebyne's mind and it recoiled with a snarl. For the first time, emotion came upon its face, roiling rage and disgust at this invasive pest that was shoving its way into his braincells. It whipped around, looking to find who was daring to do this to them, but it could not find anyone closeby that would do that.

Yes, understanding came. Yes, yes, homosexual this, marriage that, blah blah blah. No, Athebyne was quite insulted in that moment that somebody had the gall to force this understanding on it without its consent. Its head snapped towards Crypt and its lips pulled back, revealing large, sharp teeth hiding beneath its almost adorable cat-like face. It must have been him, then. Unbidden feelings of violence passed through its bones as a touch of corruption slipped into its psyche. And it, being of Chaos, reacted quite...explosively to it.

"What is WRONG with you?!" it snarled. For a moment, it considered lecturing it further, daring it to do it again, scolding it for fucking with its brain but it decided.

No. It wasn't going to do that.

Knowing that the thing was just going to keep making fun of it for no reason, and the aftereffects of WHATEVER magic had touched it, it decided to forgoe any further attempts at peace and just lunged forward. It had intended on moving that heat into its paws again to scratch along...whatever it could get to, but nothing really happened, so it ended up just flailing its paws at Crypt instead. Paws with claws that weren't particularly long.

@Crypt

Epic parenting fail on Audland's part, here. Probably not the last.

The blank, kitty-cat head he'd been jabbing a grubby finger towards began to peel, dark teeth catching the spire light. Crypt hadn't seen lips before. He wasn't a fan.

"I... I dunno!!" Acting his age (ten minutes old), he shrank back, holding his arms over his head in terrified anticipation of the blow to come. He tumbled back with a squeak, knocked to the cave floor and for a moment, completely helpless.

Without any offensive magic, he wriggled on his back like some sort of insect, swinging his own claws in what he hoped was Athebyne's direction. "What's wrong with YOU!??"

@Athebyne