Amongst all the glittering quartz of Orion sat a chrysalis. Its inhabitant was caught in a deep sleep full of peaceful dreams. Gamehr felt like he could never wake up; like he could sleep forever. He could easily get behind that. Unfortunately, while the dreaming was nice, the real world had other plans for him. It was time for him to finally wake up.

The dream ended, and the chrysalis began to crack. It was slow at first, but more cracks started showing, and bits of it started falling away. Gamehr shifted as the chrysalis split open, exposing him to the outer elements. As the rooster slipped out of it, he struggled to stand on his thin, stalky legs. Looking up, he was dazzled by the light reflecting off the crystals. His eyes took a moment to adjust to the sight. It was an absolutely beautiful vision. The way the light reflected off the myriad crystals, it looked like the cave ceiling was on fire.

Gamehr took the opportunity to stretch his tiny wings, and ruffled them against his body, jolting himself. He moved forwards tenderly, not being used to walking. Most important of all, though, he was very, very hungry. He wondered if there was any sort of food available nearby. He could definitely use a meal.

Romeo was starting to struggle. As cool as this noise-maker sounded it was bigger than he was and probably weighed about twice as much too. He couldn't remember the way he'd come into this room but by this point he didn't care all that much. There were some cool things in Orion anyways, it was where he'd found his noise-maker. Secretly, he wondered if he'd ever find another or... Well, something similar. Maybe something which made a different noise.

But he knew he couldn't possibly carry another, this one was heavy enough as it was and as much as he hated to admit it, he was only a young tanuki. Perhaps it'd get easier with age.

He sighed softly, breathing rather heavy, and looked around for somewhere suitable to put down his noise-maker and rest. He didn't find anywhere soft but instead, his attention was drawn to a pile of glittering blue shards. Curiosity piqued, Romeo hobbled over, heavily weighted down by the object on his back, to see what it was. The small raccoon dog was greeted by the sight of an even smaller fluffy thing stepping out.

He sat down, shuffling so that the noise-maker rolled softly off his back and onto the ground with a clang. "Well, hullo there!" he greeted politely, though with a rather overdramatic bow. He nudged his nose towards the pile of shattered crystal. "New here?"


(( @Gamehr -- Romeo's noise-maker is a ukelele, by the way. XD))

A sudden clanging noise made Gamehr jump and let out a surprised peep. Spinning around, he spotted a strange creature with...well, something...lying on the ground next to it. That had to be what made the noise.

"Yep. I just got out," he said with a smile. He tried stepping forward and almost fell flat on his beak. He had to take it slow, he told himself. Unexpected clangs and bangs aside, this new face seemed nice enough, given how he greeted Gamehr with a polite bow.

His attention was drawn to the strange object this nice fellow had with him. It was unfamiliar, its purpose unknown.

"That's a strange thing," he said, pointing at Romeo's noisemaker with a teeny wing. "What's it do?"

@Romeo

Romeo tensed as the chick jumped before using his paws to try smoothing down his fur. Having seen the young one's shattered chrysalis, Romeo felt like the mature one here, although he likely didn't look much the part; a he was almost as much a baby as the other one, it hadn't been long since he'd emerged from his own chrysalis.

Romeo watched patiently as the newcomer took their first few steps, but what he wasn't expecting was for them to stumble and almost fall. Romeo lingered nervously, not wanting anyone to be hurt. Truthfully, he wasn't quite sure how he'd deal with that.

The other motioned to his noise-maker, and Romeo was pleased. "This," he declared proudly, "-Is my noise-maker." By way of demonstration, Romeo ran his claws delicately across each of its strings. Even now, having heard the same pattern a thousand times, the tanuki still felt a shiver run down his spine. "See?"

@Gamehr

The sound of strings completely entranced Gamehr. It was a sound that he'd never heard before and it intoxicated him. The sound reverberated around the immediate area, resounding in the chick's ears.

"That's incredible!" he exclaimed, fluffing his tiny feathers up out of excitement. "Where did you find it?" He was overcome with excitement, not just because of the cool noise, but also because this stranger was being nice to him, even though they knew nothing about each other. That made him feel happier.

"Do you have a name?" he asked. "Mine's Gamehr." How he knew that was his name, he wasn't sure. It just sounded right.

@Romeo

The newcomer didn't say much at first, but Romeo could tell that they were entranced by the sound. Speechless, he assumed, and Romeo's chest slightly swelled. They spoke then, which ruined the effect slightly, but Romeo was satisfied, his fuzzy fur fluffing out.

"In Orion," Romeo said, before making a sweeping motion with one paw to the surrounding room. "That's in this very room!" He said. He knew thst there were likely many more treasures waiting to be found here, hidden under the rubble but a small part of him selfishly hoped that this was the only noise-maker.

The little one then asked his name. "Indeed I do!" His ears pricked slightly and he played another short, simple little tune on his noise-maker. "It's Romeo!"

@Gamehr

“This very room, huh?” Gamehr looked around, hoping to see any cursory signs of another noise-maker, or something like it. Unfortunately, there were only crystals and a lot of rocks, with not much else. Certainly no cool noise-makers, like Romeo had. As the raccoon-dog played a simple tune to introduce himself, he swayed on the spot a little bit in time to the sound.

A part of him wanted to find out if there really were other treasures hidden in Orion. Maybe buried under all the beautiful crystals. His wings, however, weren’t exactly built for digging in the earthy cave floor. Maybe when he was a little older, he’d return and look for treasures.

“Hey Romeo?” he asked, suddenly having a thought. “What do you think I’m meant to do here?” It was a question that he had only just thought about. Surely there had to be things he could do, some job he could hold or practice he could pursue. As it stood, he was a little chick in a cave with lots of places to go, yet no idea how to get there.


@Romeo

Nodding swiftly, Romeo followed the younger Gembound's gaze to the room around. But fortunately, there wasn't much to be found in the near vicinuty, and he grinned. "Uh-huh! Not right here mind, Orion is a pretty big room." He paused, chuckling awkwardly. "Don't remember exactly where it was I picked it up though." That was the truth. might have been because of the, uh, 'sparring session' he'd had shortly before he'd found it. As charming as Harper's voice was, she certainly packed a punch.

Though, maybe there were other noise-makers? Ones that made different sounds. Maybe ones that even the little chicken could use. He'd learned that the sound of his noisemaker did go well with other sounds. That soft humming he made by rippling the air itself. And even his own voice!

A little thrill of excitement ran down to his toes.

"Do here?" Romeo paused, considering and slightly confused. What exactly did he mean? "Well, ah, whatever you want I guess?" he murmured thoughtfully. "Care to explain?"

@Gamehr

Gamehr took a moment to think about how best to explain his feelings. It was then he realised that it was quite a difficult task for him. He knew a good bunch of words, but couldn’t find the precise combination to articulate what he meant without coming off as strange or off-putting to Romeo. He didn’t want to lose his first and only friend on account of his asking a few too many strange questions.

“I guess I mean, uhh…” he paused, visibly struggling to come up with another way to ask. “I…I mean what’s my job?” No, that wasn’t a good way of putting it. “Wait, forget that. What’s, um…what’s my…” A frustration ran through him. Why couldn’t he be just a little more articulate? It would be so much more helpful to be.

“Oh, I don’t know,” he said, sounding a little distressed and fluffing up his small feathers. "It's hard to explain."

@Romeo

What an odd thing to be asking fresh out of the chrysalis. Had Romeo been more goal-focused, he might have wondered the same thing himself but as a free spirit, he quite fancied himself as having free reign over the caves. He went were he pleased, doing what he felt like at the time. It wasn't really a job, but it was his life, right?

"Huh, well..." Romeo tried to select his words slowly, simply and carefully. "I'd say, your job is whatever you really want it to be. Maybe one day you'll figure out what you wanna do with your life but until then you can just do what you want. Exploring, maybe. Finding what your place is amongst the others in the cave."

Romeo smiled. "Well, at least... that's what I've been doing." Not exactly a job, but Romeo knew where his passion lay. To turn that passion into a 'job', well... that sounded rather boring. "What I mean to say is, well... find something you like or you're good at or something and maybe stick with it. You shouldn't think of yourself as having a set job in the world from birth and, uh... if you want one, look for it, I guess!"

Romeo did his best to explain his thoughts, but truth be told he wasn't much older than the chick, and he wasn't sure if he was making any sense.

No matter. Sitting back, Romeo gave a thoughtful hum and ran his claws over the strings of his noise-maker, lightening the atmosphere a little as he thought and gave his confusing jumble of words the chance to sink in.

@Gamehr