Electric Storm, Electric Storm, Electric Storm, Don't Cry Baby
Near where tunnel I connected to the cavern known as Orion paced a nervous feline. The journey from Cetus to here had taken longer than expected as she had travelled through Eridanus first. Tunnel N would have been more direct overall, but with rumors spreading of a group of gembounds doing unspeakable acts of violence, Selena was none to eager to transverse through there. As the trip took a great deal of time, she was uncertain if Zeno had already arrived or not. As a small bat, it would be easy to miss him amongst the vast amount of structures made up Orion; from the typical cave rock formations, to the pillars marking the tunnel’s entrance, to the multitude of dilapidated buildings scattered about there were plenty of places for a small bat to linger unnoticed. Despite the anxious energy coursing through her, the tiny thread of vain hope could not fully be extinguished. Over the past two cycles the two gembounds had met up to discuss how they would go about finding the strange and reclusive creature known as “The Painter.” It had been a great many amount of cycles since either of the two had even heard of him. Selena had started to anticipate each meeting with joy. Over time she had become fairly comfortable around the small bat. More than once their conversations had deviated away from their quest and towards various other topics; from philosophizing their purpose in life to various rumors in the caverns and so forth. The bobtail cat stopped in her pacing, smiling gently at the memories. It was a new and pleasant experience to have something like that to look forward to. She hoped dearly that after this quest was done, that the two would still be able to visit occasionally. She did find it a bit strange, though, that he was so willing to help out with this strange adventure. While her heart ached to rekindle a possible “friendship” and form some sort of relationship (which becoming reacquainted with the Painter seemed like the best first step), she was unsure what it was that Zeno gained from this. While he seemed to also carry a heavy heart, she wasn’t sure that he had the same attachment that she did to the mysterious figure. Perhaps she’d find out once they were able to find him? Once again, Selena began to pace as she was eager to get started. Speech Thoughts Tags: @Zeno Notes:

The last few cycles had been refreshing to say the least. Sure the small bat still blended in with his lesser gembound cousins flitting about the cave, and sure for the most part he didn't involve himself with the affairs of the others below, but now there was always some purpose to his cataloging. He would explore, observe, and then after a few days find his path had brought him back to that foggy swamp where a creature as reclusive has he resided. Now rather than being information for its own sake his observations had become a way of finding topics of conversation.

Of course he focused on the positive events happening around the cave for the most part, but even the more frightening aspects of his reports prompted interesting conversation with this fellow recluse. Talks of life and meaning and wonderment at the diversity of minds that seemed to inhabit this world. Of course all of that was second to the main goal- planning out an expedition together to seek out the Painter.

The trail to the Painter itself had gone completely cold, but there might still be hope of finding that which he left behind. The static picture in Pisces that Zeno had found in his meeting was long gone by now, but Selena had seen a moving picture. Surely such a mural would be made of stronger magic than just an image of a bird flying toward the air.

Zeno waited patiently within the nook of a dilapidated building, watching the area around Tunnel I. They had planned this route over the past few days after finally deciding to take action. It would be the first time in a long while that Selina wandered this far from her home and he had to make sure it was as safe as possible.

No sign of the Berries. No sign of other wandering gembound of the aggressive variety. They were almost certainly far enough away from the shadowy ancient's layer that its terrifying presence wouldn't take them by surprise.

Finally a tawny feline appeared from the tunnel ahead and began to pace around. She had made it, and none the worse for the wear it seemed. The small bat shifted to the crumbling structure's edge and dropped into the air once more, flapping his wings furiously to gain altitude and acquire one more good look at the path around them.

After a few seconds the fluttering creature took a deep breath and relaxed his mind, sending intention toward the friend below. The transmission would start with a soft sing-song humming tone, a habit he had picked up to let her know he was near without startling her too much, before transitioning into mental words like an otherworldly version of his own voice. "It is good to see you, friend. I exist above and see no danger. Approaching now."

---

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

Electric Storm, Electric Storm, Electric Storm, Don't Cry Baby
As the strange yet familiar humming began in her mind, Selena sat and awaited the message the bat would give her. She was pleased with this arrangement. Zeno’s telepathy had originally been distressing to her, especially since she was unable to pinpoint the direction of its origin. It was mostly happenstance that they came upon this method. The humming was gentle and soothing to the ears. More than that, she found that she was almost excited to hear the tone deep in her brain. Hearing that the bat was near, Selena turned to look upwards. It was still hard to distinguish the small bat amongst the other flying cave dwellers. With practice, though, she was slowly getting to the point of being able to discern his differences from the lesser gembounds that flocked nearby. After a moment, shining green eyes locked onto the fruit bat. She smiled, eyes closing just the faintest bit by a deep instinct she didn’t realize she had. “Greetings, Zeno,” she called out as he grew closer. Things were going smoothly. Things going smoothly never last for long. Lights overhead flickered then went out for an alarmingly long period of time. The lights flickering were nothing new; the bulbs often dimmed or flickered on occasion. As of late, however, their flickering seemed more frequent with longer periods of darkness settling in the caverns. It reminded Selena of a time long ago, when she was still just a cub. The lights had turned off for what felt like an eternity. A general air of worry had enveloped the caverns during that time. Selena had managed well enough, but this shift in the norm was still concerning. As the lights came back up, the bobtailed cat couldn’t help but release the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “That’s not good,” she muttered softly to herself. She hoped it wasn’t an ominous sign for the task ahead for the strange pair. Speech Thoughts Tags: @Zeno Notes:

The small bat clicked its wings a few times as it descended. With the lights flickering as they were there was no telling how long the next blackout would last. Indeed just as he landed the lights did give way for quite a bit longer than he would have preferred. This was no great darkness of a hundred days, but such an event might still come to pass again.

For this Zeno was glad to have even a crude form of echolocation for navigation and a friend he could talk to for sanity.

"You would think that it would be easier to get used to as often as that happens." he commented, gazing up intensely at the momentarily stable stars above. "I just hope they stay on long enough for us to find what we're looking for before taking another rest"

Much easier to think of the periods of darkness as the lights sleeping. Obviously that wasn't what was going on but what else could they do? Surely someone would investigate if they got too bad, and now that he had a bit more knowledge of how the caves worked perhaps he would try helping out in the endeavor this time. For now though they had a different task ahead of them.

Zeno crawled forward on the rock he had landed upon, having to look up at an angle to see the great feline before him properly. "It is good to see you, Selina. How was your journey to this section?"

---

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