Fisher's slim body was exploring the vastly changed surface of Polaris. At first, he was looking for Arkrael, hoping that she was somewhere among the energized room, but the more he looked the more he was sure that she had high tailed it out of here. Still, as he padded up to the Generator, buzzing with life, he couldn't help but remember his fateful meeting with many gembounds in the wonder of Polaris in his youth. It had been a wonderful time, even when the caves were constantly trying to kill him.

The noodle let out a sharp bark of warning to anyone who might be around-- a wordless greeting, so that he wouldn't spook them-- and then tried to clamber up on top of the generator. Black was busy with his whatever-it-was and Fallah was being a cat, but he felt confident enough to leave their sides for a spell. He wasn't too far from them anyway, and his body had recovered from the fight with Raheerah.

Fisher had never felt more alive as he clawed his way on top of the power source of the entire Cave, copper eyes shimmering as he looked over the flowing river he had once nearly drowned in. His tail swished as he went over countless memories, watching golems slowly work on the once-dam in quiet synchronicity. Despite everything, he loved being alive, being here in this precise moment. He felt actually wonderful, almost like he had reclaimed his childhood youth.

Nothing could ruin this moment for him, surely.

Sometimes, she considered the Gembounds' love of life to be naive; an unfounded love for something they were given without choice was a baseless love, after all, they knew nothing besides it. Yet, sometimes she thought it charming. Sometimes, she found that it was this love that pushed them to the extremes. It drove them to accomplish what she thought they may otherwise have failed at. Love was never something she had known, it was just a novelty that she found intriguing. Maybe in her past life, it had touched her heart but once, twice; she was never lucky enough to feel it again. It was alien to her. It was a thing to be observed, studied, and judged. Not felt. Certainly not understood.

What ever the fisher cat was feeling, it made her curious. It made her feel small at first because she didn't understand it. Then it made her feel empty, because she hardly knew it. Then it made her feel angry, because what had they done to deserve it? How could they be so ignorant and complete, where she knew everything and still fell short? What wonder she had was all too quick to mutate into hatred. If only they knew, then maybe they'd be as miserable as her.

A quiet buzzing had touched on the silence, and the air lifted with a sweet metallic scent. She watched him from afar, for now, hidden.

The noodle's ears perked at a familiar buzz. It had been faint, and just for a moment-- for a second, he thought he had imagined it... But it reminded him of his childhood even more, of the sound of his youth in Cetus, of the buzzing of the swamp. It seemed out of place, here in Polaris, but it pricked his curiosity and he tried to mimic it with his magic.

His gem reacted immediately, small sparks flitting over the cracked, once rounded surface. He focused on making quick, short sparks, trying to get it to sound like buzzing in return. He even made a soft little humming sound under his breath as he glanced around, trying to catch a peek of the source. Was it true, then? Was Nemean here? He had heard so much about the fabled buzzing creature, but he had missed her debut and had no clue what she was really like.

"Hello?" He woofed softly, tail swishing as he got down the buzzing of electricity just about right. A grin drew across his muzzle as he tried to look as friendly as possible, ears perked alert and he even-- just for good measure-- did a play bow just like his canine friends. "Is someone there?"

Was he trying to play her for a fool? She hadn't resisted the buzzing sound of her insectoid wings, but nor had she made it her intention to actually approach him. Vexing the curious Gembounds was equally as fun as revealing herself, and she was tempted to ignore him and vanish into the darkness of another tunnel. His buzzing had intrigued her for only a second, and then he called out to her as though seeking a friend, and she scoffed quietly. But then again... it could just as well be interesting to see personally how one of these Gembounds would regard her one on one. She had yet to corner one.

With a decisive huff, the sprite cloaked herself in shadow - it was easy to do with the power of photons at one's fingertips - and darted out of her hiding place, following along near the roof of the great core. Her eyes pinned on him and she circled around the fisher cast a couple times, taking him in from all angles, all the while throwing out a mimic of his voice: "Hello? Is someone there?" She repeated, only in the low, masculine voice of the fisher cat. She lingered above him, still hidden well enough in the shadows. Distant crevices began to swell with darkness, perhaps unnoticeable for now, slowly creeping towards the generator and the Gembound sitting atop.

Fisher waited politely for the sound of the buzz to return, but he only heard his own sparky, electric hum for a while. He kept his eyes open, but even as a voice rang out he couldn't pinpoint it. The noise was almost unbelievable: an echo of his own voice, crystal clear and intermittent, hardly faded by the seconds past.

It sounded precisely like whatever gembound was around was mimicking him. It took his breath away, the perfected nature of whatever magic the creature must have been using. "Are you copying me?" He wondered aloud in a quiet whisper, tail swishing behind his raised behind, shifting his playful posture to a different angle, glancing along the other side of the riverbed. Where was the owner of this magic?

"Wow! You're a lot better at this than me!" He praised in a loud bark, tail wagging eagerly, copper eyes shining brightly in the blue light of the spire in the distance. "How are you doing that, and... Where are you?" He asked, quietly shifting his magic away from his natural impulses of electricity. He wanted to feel the heartbeat of the magic user, and although he wasn't well practiced at it, perhaps if he just focused...

The shadows were ever slowly beginning to creep closer, sliding across the ground and closing in on them - like a veil of darkness, they gained on the generator and felt like they were going to isolate the little fisher cat in a room all his own. Meanwhile, the sprite lingered on the ceiling above, buzzing in circles around the Fisher as he called out to her. "Are you copying me?" She mimicked a split second after him. "Wow! You're a lot better at this than me!" Her voice began to follow sooner after his, echoing barely a second after each word was spoken as though they cast a shadow on the atmosphere of noise. "How are you doing that, and--" As soon as he asked Where are you, she fell silent. But it wasn't only her.

In fact, the entire room fell silent, and the darkness had closed in on him like a suffocating shroud. By now, he must have detected her heart beat. He must have felt it lingering on the ceiling ahead, and then in the shadows all around them, then suddenly right above his head.

Then the shadows engulfed them.

Fisher was oblivious to the danger until he was suddenly blinded. The electrodes on his back sparked and yet even then he did not see a light-- but he could feel the heart beat of another, he knew that someone was there and that... That this just had to be a trick, right? Fear hit his heart despite everything and he pressed down to the cold metal of the generator, tail prickling. This is why he wanted that armor-- if he was in for a fight with someone, especially as great an enemy as Nemean-- well... He was going to be in trouble, wasn't he?

The noodle grit his teeth and reached out towards the heartbeat, forcing his magic to align with the beat of that pulse, trying to connect himself, if only a moment, to the controller of the shadows. He had to know if this was a trick or an act of violence-- he had to be ready to fight, which meant he had to know what this strange gembound was up to.

At the same time, he called out towards the blackness above him, "Come on now-- I'm not going to hurt you," he grasped for some reasoning, some way to make this end peacefully. He was past fighting every gembound who showed him any sort of distrust. "We can be friends!"

Somehow, the little noodle persisted. She didn't understand. How was he not terrified?

It was annoying. It was unbelievable. It was... inconvenient.

He would experience her confusion, and then a swell of anger. Then, in an instant, it would disappear and he would instead be met with a low, simmering pleasure. The mustelid would have but half a second to comprehend the deluge of emotions he sapped from the sprite before the lights flashed back on, and--

She hovered right in front of him, barely a breath from his nose, grinning wide enough to split her face in half. "YOU CAUGHT ME!" Nemean gushed, papping her tiny hands on his cheeks before buzzing away from him. A backwards mid-air somersault spun her from the fisher cat and she pirouetted through the air with a manic giggle, dancing around the fisher cat with the enthusiasm of a child caught on her first round of hide-and-seek. "Boy howdy, I'm impressed! Takes most'a you Gembounds a good while to find me, but you caught on pretty fast!" She beamed and finally stopped to hover just above his head, gazing curiously down at him with wide, saucer eyes.

Fisher had no idea what to expect, but as he felt the rush of rage fill his blood, a drop of fear fell into his guts. For a moment, he held his breath, waiting at the bit for an answer-- and then he felt that all too bizarre sensation of pleasure. A shiver ran up his spine as the lights came back on and he saw before him...

Well, how else would one describe Nemean?

To Fisher, she was an absolute angel. The sparkles of her wings caught in his eyes as she patted his cheeks, still trying to figure out if he had died and gone to Fisher Heaven because he had quite literally never seen something so completely precious and beautiful in his entire life. What was she?

... And then, of all things, Nemean spun around him and with her sweet southernly, honeydew drop voice echoing all around him-- and... And she said she was impressed. He had impressed this literal angel from the sky and he didn't know how to react. His first instinct was to be as immodest as possible, to boast and smirk and act like a cocky dimwit, but his words failed him. She dropped down in front of him again, her huge shimmering eyes trapping his gaze, and for a moment, he just stammered.

"O-oh-oh thank you," he managed to get out, his instincts kicking him into woo this pretty lady into your arms before she slips away on ya mode. She had made his heart stop and so he reached out with his own magic and tried oh-so-subtly to make her heart skip a beat in return. Girls loved that kinda thing. Okay, so Fisher had only ever tried it on like, Cancer, and Cancer had yelled at him not to do that, but still.

"Well, my lovely little lady I'm glad I did find you," he gushed immediately, floundering for words to grace her presence with. "Where did you come from-- you're certainly not from this realm, no, you must be from somewhere so much more wonderful than this dank old cave. Why, did someone trap you here?"

And Fisher's muzzle stretched into a wide grin as he stepped closer to her, puffing out his chest and stretching out his long, mustelid body. Oh, she was just-- she was just purrrfect. It was his lucky day.

"Someone as beautiful as you deserves the stuff of dreams, why, if I didn't know any better-- I'd say, well, I'd say I must be dreaming right now."

Oh, geez. What had she started?

Gazing upon the fisher cat, she watched him practically melt in front of her, stuttering over his words at first and then gushing over her, slathering her with compliments and warmth as though flirting with the little sprite would protect him from the fate sure to come. She grinned coyly, laughing behind one of her delicate little paws. At the same time, and she didn't know why, her own heart had begun to pick up its pace. When she realized the quickened beat there was a flash of panic inside her - unseen, for Nemean was a master of facades - what was the cause behind the sudden lurch in her blood-pumping organ? Confusion had made her blush, probably only serving to add fuel to the fire of the fisher's admiration.

It couldn't be that she enjoyed this Gembound. Nemean was smarter than that. She pushed the feeling down, dismissing it, stilling her heart again. Whatever it was, it was gone now.

Why, did someone trap you here?

It was then that her laughter faltered, holding the fisher cat with a gleaming gaze. For just half a second, that coy expression sobered, then he started back up and Nemean snickered. She swooped down close to him again, landing right on the very tip of his nose - it was a mystery how she managed to hold her balance there. "Well aren't you the charmer," She lilted, taking elegant strides up the bridge of his nose, between his eyes, and to the flat of his head. "Just who taught you to be so sweet, buttercup? Not many 'round these parts know how to really treat a lady, especially that neanderthal Raheerah!" Nemean brought her paw up to her forehead. "Oh, thinking of that beast is givin' me the flusters," She said faintly, ever so gently collapsing atop his head and sliding back down his muzzle so that she lay along the length of his nose, propping her head up with one hand and grinning at him.

@Fisher