Giggle felt the rage bleeding away, the terror threatening to take hold, to drive her back into madness. For now this spiked her fury higher, a panicked edge to it, the knowledge lying just behind her in the dark: if she fell to fear, she would not recover, not again.

The image of Canis gripped her, and she wondered if it was only what Omen might return to--or if she herself would again go home.

Could she... try to sense the world outside this place? Could she break herself free? With a chittering growl she tried to sense for fungal life--anything outside herself. She closed her dark eyes and pressed her magicka into the darkness, trying to orient herself. What was the magick telling her? To find her way back to Canis on her own? The last time she'd been in the void, it had been from Canis, so she didn't see how that would help. Could Omen aid? Did it simply mean the bird?

Giggle thought all of this in a fragmented, frantic, half-incoherent way. Her mind raced through the options rapidly, half-discarding most even as she thought them up.

"Come, cat!" she snarled again, this time with a hysterical edge to her enraged voice. "Or are you afraid?!"

Sister-daughter, where are you?

________________

ROLL THE BONES

May be M for Language

Kavish growled lowly. The thing that had trapped him here, whatever it was, it pissed him off. It kept him stuck in this void. The pup paced, growling and snarling at the air. Whatever kept him hear must see him! It must know how angry he is. It must know that it needed to come FIGHT HIM LIKE A MAN! Or woman, if that was what it was. The Pomeranian wasn't sure.

Kavish stared blankly into the void. What if nothing had trapped him at all? What if this was just his own mind, and he was trapped in it? What if he could never escape because he wasn't trapped at all? Kavi barked angrily, trying to shove the thoughts away. No, he was definitely trapped here. Or maybe not. Stop thinking like that!

"FIGHT ME! YOU'RE REAL! I KNOW IT!" Kavish roared, his voice slightly trembling. If nothing came, he'd decide that he had trapped himself. If not, then he'd fight his way out.

"speak"

The fur on the back of Zeno's neck bristled as his magical tampering with the stone had caused another storm to appear. This one, however, was in the shape of a creature; a cat. Like the shadow cat this one was doubtlessly as far above them in ability as they were over the lessers. The very thought made Zeno want to crawl to cover or run away. This was far beyond his station; honestly this was far beyond any of their stations. What power did a small group of gembounds have in the face of what were doubtlessly raw manifestations of nature itself?

Still the dog stayed, facing the force with compassion and courage. It was only now that the small fruit bat paid more than passing attention to them. Only after a few moments of intense study did Zeno realize something shocking about them. They were gemless! From what he could tell no tooth nor toe nor shard on the skin relayed any sign of the brave dog having any kind of gemstone. Like Zeno he should have been least among the greaters, but he wasn't. Where was all that confidence coming from?

The bat had always assumed himself to be without use. No, that wasn't true. Ever since his utter failure at doing anything about the lights he had assumed himself to be little more than a common cave bat given the gift of thought. He had seen the gemless ones before and despite their casual appearance had assumed them to be like him- accepting who they were and moving on. Could it be that he had accepted the wrong truths? How else could a gemless look such a force in the face?

With the realization fresh in mind Zeno steeled himself to do something absolutely idiotic. No thought or reason went into the decision, just a spark of something deep within acting out before his common sense could bed it down. At the very least he could be somewhat stealthy about it perhaps, he had not revealed himself yet as he remained perched on the ceiling. Once more with nothing to show for it Zeno gathered up energy and directed it outward, but this time not at the stone but at the storm-like entity that was apparently associated with it. A single word cast into whatever equivalent it had to a mind.

The word, however, was swallowed up before escaping as fear overtook both reason and will. He was safe here. No one was expecting anything of him. No one even really recognized that the creature here on the ceiling harbored a thinking mind at all. Reaching out carried the risk of death, and even if he had accepted the fragile nature of his existence long ago that still struck him deep in a primal core beyond thought. No; he would stay here safely ignored. If he were seen then surely it would be best to casually fly away.

---

'Know yourself'
"Before you try to influence others"
Tags:

Giggle's life-based magic senses nothing in the void. The faint reply of Omen's cawing, however broken and distorted, came crackling through to her; but words could not be picked from this. The Hallowed Caller indeed could see Giggle within the void, that much was true.

The stone did not move again, and Vahi's body shifted unstably. Where? Where was it? She could not see it. She could not sense it anymore. It had definitely been here. It had moved, called to her. Where?

Senka regarded the dog for a moment, aware now that he did not know she had taken the others. Was he even aware of what was happening, that this was all her doing? That this was her home? But she was void-cat and her lips twitched into an uncertain smirk; at the mention of her sister as storm-cat, her eyes shifted to the unfortunate body Vahi had been doomed to—and, ah! That's why they had even come back here.

"This is... my den," Senka explained, the yammering of the tiny dog echoing in the back of her mind. Boy, that small creature was loud. And that the hyena would dare suggest she was afraid... Senka had seen fear in the hyena. She did not think herself afraid. "We came back here to search for Vahi's stone—it is a piece of cymophane. I had it here, somewhere." A few more eyes popped open, as if expressing the idea of searching. She did not expect it to be in front of her, behind the dog. She assumed one of the others had already stolen it.

Are you safe, he had also asked.

She felt her tail lash behind her. She was safe. What would he think, however, if he discovered she toyed with the safety of his fellow Gembounds? Shrugging her shoulders to feel the chunk of diamond between them, she felt herself gritting her black teeth. Were they not the same?

Senka quietly quested toward him with her shadows.

post-roll edit
They rolled toward him like dense cloudy tentacles, dipping in and out of the ground and dispersing at his paws like mist; but she was not like him anymore. Somewhere within his body beat his gem with magicka pure. Her ear flicked, then she made a show to move the eyes to different places, searching for Vahi's cymophane.

@black @giggle @kavish @zeno @faelan @llamrei @kera

Black stared quizzically for a moment, pendulous ears pricking up, forehead wrinkling in focus. He was entirely unafraid--he had no reason to be afraid; these creatures were allies, after all, or so he believed. Cymophane? He did not know what that was--but a step backward and a glance around, and he saw a stone behind him, at least.

He peered back at it, and then to Senka, stepping carefully aside. "I do not know what a cymophane is. Is it this? If it is not this--then what does it look like?" he rumbled at her. There was no menace in him, nor was he fawning nor friendly--merely matter-of-fact. There was a task to complete, and he was focused upon it.

Again he looked around for the others, as he waited for Senka to examine the stone. Again he tried to draw the darkness to himself, to return some semblance of light to the cave, peering around with still-furrowed brow.

"Do you know where the others have gone?" he asked. He glanced over the silver eyes flickering in the darkness--surely they must have seen? Quietly he pushed further on, head tilting as he sniffed into the dark, following the sound of the Caller once more. The others had simply vanished--that could not be a good thing.

"The darkness is to be a cloak and a shroud. It is to be safety. It is not to swallow them up," he declared, confused that the protective void might have somehow gotten the others lost.

Something is wrong, here.

________________

Giggle snarled in the darkness. Panic threatened to take hold--and then she heard Omen's calls reaching through the darkness. A savage triumph gripped her.

She will find me. I cannot be truly lost. Seeds of doubt, however, lingered--but Giggle, for the most part, was filled with a vicious sort of glee. She'd told Omen to go with her: to lead Kera to her, should the darkness again swallow her up. To bring the Bringer of Light to her.

But what if I am mad? What if this is all madness? What if I have always been mad?

Brief rage took her and she thrashed out, lashing out at nothing in particular--at the darkness--in fury. Jaws snapped at empty air, claws tore at void, and her chittering howls of fury faded into nothing without so much as an echo.

MORE LIGHT! she thought, furiously, and thought she heard a soft, distant, answering voice. One calm and confident, empty of emotion, compared to her roiling mind.

More light.

Along her coat the bioluminescence sprang up, her anger and latent fear fuelling her magicka, trying again to push back the void with pure, sheer glow. It wasn't the bright gold-white of Kera, no--it was the same gentle blue-green as before--but perhaps she could see something.

On a mad whim, she snarled, and aimed for the eyes, doing her best to touch them, to infect them, to grow the fungus in the hateful, blinking, staring things themselves.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

The small dog got a response. This was someone's den. Who's den? The one who trapped him? No. If this was a den, it was his now. The small dog growled once more, turning to see if he could spy anything. Silver eyes appeared out of nowhere, and he snapped at them.

"Come to me yourself, coward! Stop sending these disappearing eyes!" Kavish growled, his voice loud, gruff and low. He hated this. He was helpless, but he wouldn't accept it. He would continue to shout into the void, he would continue to bite and growl at anything that he could see. The small black pup would not give up.

"speak"

Compared to the others, Llamrei was being useless.

The filly stood still, as though her hooves were glued to the ground. Her barrel heaved, and her eyes rolled with fear, flank glistening with sweat. "Please!" she called again, whickering into the void. "Help me!"

Llamrei reared, as something seemed to crack behind her. With that, she took off at a dead sprint, squealing loudly with absolute terror.


"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

No matter how much Faelan wanted this was all to be a dream, he knew deep down that that was apocryphal. The eyes that blinked at him now had surrounded him just before the void had consumed him. They were real, as real as he was. He may not be able to feel his body, or hear his voice, anymore, but he could still remember. And hope.

Memories of his time with Asimona filled the lion's thoughts, reminding him of the brief moments of happiness he had experienced. He latched on to the unadulterated joy that he had felt while leaping through the snow. That was what he had to get back to, that was the reality he wanted to live in. All of this was just an obstacle he had to overcome. The fact that it seemed insurmountable was...another obstacle, Faelan thought.

He felt fear nip at the edges of his thoughts, he felt the worries worming their way up. Desperately, the lion tried to remember how this had happened.
A voice had called out just before the eyes appeared. Had it been another Gembound? Were they capable of doing this to him? And what had happened to the others? Faelan worried about the black pup and filly, who had been on top of the plateau. Had the attacking Gembound been up there? Had the pair disturbed it?

Whenever Faelan thought of the black horse, another memory fluttered to the surface of his thoughts of another horse. This one had a coat as dark as the void around the lion now. It had been a male though, and his one visible eye had glowed an eerie red. Where had Faelan seen him? Was he important, or was his mind just drudging up anything it could to keep him on the brink of sanity? The lion felt a sense of familiarity whenever he saw the mental image of the equine, and yet, he wondered fleetingly if this was the Gembound that had summoned the void. It looked scary enough to be.

The moment the words "is this it" left his tongue, all of her summoned eyes swept around the room to gather in a focal area, honing in on the object he stepped aside to reveal. A simple 'ah' left her, quiet and delicate, and her body shifted to move around him as if he might not have been there.

"Sister," she said gently, the storm-body sparking where it stood. Her paw gently nudged the saberfang-shaped stone, moving it away from the body of the dog—had he watched over it, protected it from the others? "Here you are."

Lightning arced erratically from the summoned body of unstable energy, as if awakened by the location of its stone, again; as before, when something else had moved it briefly. But this time it has transfixed on the stone, lightning reaching across the ground and through the air to find it, crawling across the surface of the cymophane.

For a moment, the body of the storm-cat dissipated in a pop of sparks and blinding light. The stone remained crawling with crackling lightning; and then she struck back into the den, a bolt from the air, forming her storm-like feline body once again. She hadn't reformed via chrysalis, and her stone refused to create one.

Senka stared blankly with her eyes for a moment, unsure of what to do. Could they not give her a flesh host somehow? She hissed under her breath. She'd wonder how this was possible, but then, it started with Him anyway.

"I'm sorry," she muttered. Vahi at least looked more stable with the stone in her presence. They would need to find a way to keep the magic source near her. Senka could carry it, maybe.

A rumble of thunder rolled in the den, "We.. tried.."


In her darkness, the dog was speaking, but the knowledge that her sister would never be whole again had pulled her away from everything that had been happening. She just wanted these creatures out of their home.

"There is darkness, and there is void," Senka commented dryly. The hidden bodies of the lion and the filly were gently untucked from backside of the wall, rolled out on dense shadow-like arms and placed on the ground to rouse once they could move.

She considered keeping the loud and tiny fluffy dog, but instead uncurled his body near herself, dangling him high before her body with an eye formed in the middle of her forehead. "Boo," she growled. "Spunky brat." The shadow-like tentacle that held him pulled him back into the wall, then exposed him again near the backside, where the filly and lion had been revealed. Kavish was... less gently plopped beside them.

And Giggle... Senka's single eye shifted from the three she had released to Black, waiting. That's where the others had gone. A shrill reminder called from above her—The Hallowed shitbird circled overhead and her ears flattened. Was the sound made to feel literally harmful to her, just as the bird could see into her realm? Several of the remaining eyes that lingered around the den glared up toward it; and Giggle, an endless onslaught against her peering eyes voidside.

Fine.

Like something she had eaten that tasted rotten, her shadows spat Giggle's body from the inky wall, pushing her out along the ground.

"Get out of our home," Senka demanded, the void pulling toward the ceiling like black water. The eye on her forehead was steady on Black. He had helped her and Vahi again. "Take the others with you and get out of our home." The dog was the only thing that stood between her and the other Gembounds; she had done this deliberately, a show of good faith.

It wasn't his job to stop any of them from coming at her, or to stop her from choosing to defend herself again; but she hoped he took her demand seriously. She had no more lurking shadows, no more tricks. She simply wanted the time with her sister now.

She could terrorize them more later.

@Black @Giggle @Kavish @Zeno @Faelan @Llamrei @Kera