There was something almost therapeutic about this place.

Serendipity had only came out of her chrysalis some sleeps ago, but already she found herself coming back here again and again, to the tunnel she'd found just outside the room where she emerged from. The ground was smooth under her feet-- which was a relief in that of itself --and the walls were lined with intricate shapes and patterns.

It didn't exactly occur to the young gembound that they might be other people, or things that she could even meet in the caves. They were just things that, for now, she liked to stare at when she passed by.

They were fun and cool and interesting, but it wasn't what Siren kept coming back here for.

There were huge piles of stuff just laying around, expectantly waiting to be picked up by some tiny humanoid. And boy, did Siren like picking them up! Often, she struggled to even sleep, laying awake when she was exhausted wondering just what she had left to find in there, what little treasures awaited to be lifted by her grubby little hands and kept forever.

Most of the things she'd found already, she was wearing-- a large swathe of yellow cloth was kept around her neck and a mulberry tunic kept her warm. She'd found a tiny little knife that was more rust than steel, that she kept on her person at all times. Because you never know when you might find a use for a knife.

Today, the second she woke up, she returned to Tunnel J. Nothing like starting your day off like most vultures do, after all. Bare feet padded cheerfully up and down the tunnels, eyeing up the piles of absolutely worthless junk with glee. Most of these piles she'd already delved into, but some of them she was yet to inspect.

And inspect she did. The child shuffled right up to a knee-height mass of garbage and she began rooting through it. Metal clinked against metal and wood as she looked through the scraps to find something that might be still intact, half-wary of scratching her hands against the sharp edges.

It wasn't long before Siren found something that caught her interest-- not that it rarely was. She yanked something out that was wooden, about a foot or two long. It was a long T-shaped item that had filthy cloth wrapped around where, presumably, she was meant to hold it.

It was likely the hilt of another knife-- except Serendipity had never seen a knife this large, and there was nothing where the metal blade should have been.

Content with her findings for now, she sat down next to the pile with her tail curled around her legs and turned the hilt over in her tiny hands, wide-eyed as she investigated the found object.

L A U R E L
i'd prolly rather nap than wonder

Laurel hadn't really been anywhere since she'd superimposed herself into the Bonebound. Soft, baby pawpads paced on the smooth surface of the tunnel as she made her way down, ears perked and interest piqued. She had to keep back from just full on sprinting; she'd waste her energy that way, so instead she was trotting along at a canter, content at staring at all the weird shapes.

Upon hearing some other footsteps echoing off of the carved faces along the ceiling of the cave, Laurel forgot all her inhibitions and broke into a run, an excited smile gracing her face. There was someone else here? Long nails scrabbled against the stairs below. She was able to figure them out fairly quickly. Just gotta put one step before the other.

With tail held high, she rounded the corner among piles of broken shiny things, coming along the source of the noise of rummaging.

What was that thing? It was weird and upright. Her nose twitched as she stepped closer. It looked friendly. Making a split decision, Laurel trotted forward, her head and tail head high as she panted happily. "Uh- hello!" She barked out, stepping over bits of shiny to get closer and losing her footing, stumbling closer. Well, she wanted to be there anyways. Her pointed muzzle drew itself closer to whatever the creature had in its hands and took some hearty sniffs. "What is that?" Her eyes shone with interest and the prospect of knowing more about someone else.

@Siren

It should be noted that, although Siren carried a knife, she had no intentions of a) using it or b) learning how to use it.

Perhaps in another life, there would be some cause for alarm if a total stranger came running up to her, but for now? A friend held a lot of good possibilities for her, especially if they were taking an Interest in her scavenging.

At the sound of nails clicking against the cave floor, Serendipity turned her head, goat-like ears lifting high on either side of her head. There was something coming towards her-- not something with a straight back and two legs like she had, but something small and on four legs that looked very happy to see her.

Siren lifted a hand, with hilt still in it, waving cheerfully. "Hello! Where did you come from?" she asked, padding over to inspect the New Friend. "Did you come here to look for stuff?

It didn't seem like the puppy could carry anything, but Siren was going to keep an open mind about this. Curiously, but absolutely amazed, she extended the wooden hilt for Laurel to sniff, watching with wide eyes. At the dog's question, however, she had to take a few moments to consider this.

"... I dunno!" she said, her mood unwavering. "I think it was like, uhh--" she babbled as she set the hilt down in front of the greyhound, patting down the dull tunic covering her. She took out the small, rusted carving knife and held it out-- carefully! She had learned, very quickly, that it was sharp, and she kept the blade away from the puppy-nose. "--This!"

The alien was completely ecstatic as her tiny fingers started comparing both hilts, talking a mile a minute. "You see how they're both made from the same material? But that one's bigger? And this one's a little more curved, too, and that one has cloth on it and stuff but I think they're sorta the same thing," she went on, setting the knife down next to the foot-long hilt. "You know how that one has metal on it but this one doesn't? I think it used to! So at one time there musta been a real big bit of metal on it! Think of how big somebody was to use it."

And think she did, of a creature that was so big, his head hit the cave wall. He must have had hands like she did-- but maybe he looked something more like the greyhound. Who knew! She sure didn't!

@Laurel

L A U R E L
i'd prolly rather nap than wonder

Laurel had no idea what movement the creature made. But, whatever, she seemed friendly enough.

"I'm exploring!" The puppy yipped cheerfully, her tail wagging at hyper-speed. She definitely could carry anything, unless she used some sort of grabber thing the other Gembound had. What were those things? Could she have some? Would she grow up to have some like those? Her face followed the weird appendages (paws?) down to the weird gray-brown thing on the other person's second object. This creature just had a lot of things!

Laurel sat as the knife was procured, her nose extending forward to sniff at this new object. "Why is it poopy?" The greyhound murmured. Maybe it being poopy was important to the alien. She didn't want to offend them. Though, the tang of the metal hit her nostrils. "It smells more like blood." Her head tilted as she tried to angle herself closer to the blade, only to have it kept away from her.

She retreated her head as the conversation moved to the comparisons. Her eyes went wide and half-floppy ears pushed all the way forward as she absorbed the words like a sponge. Kicking her legs back into her rapid-swirling tail, she laid down to get the closest look she could to the objects, following the fingers where they pointed. "Are they like... Big claws? Where you grab that part?" She pawed at the hilt of the rusty knife, trying to grab it like the Gembound had and failing. "There's not a lot of things with paws like yours, though, so uh... Maybe they held it with their mouth?" Gears were turning in her head as she worked her one brain cell to its fullest extent. "I don't think you could talk well with something in your mouth. It feels weird."

If left unhindered, she would reach forward to grab the knife in her teeth ever so carefully, wrapping her jaw around the hilt and rearing back up with a smile on her face.

@Siren

Exploring sounded fun-- Siren supposed that was what she was doing too, sort of. Perhaps on a much lesser scale than what she imagined. The things this pup must have seen! Siren could always ask, at least-- and then maybe go on some adventures of her own to Explore, but for now the greyhound was talking about poop.

"I don't think it's poopy," she protested lightly, turning the knife over to inspect it. "It mean, it's sorta poop-coloured but it doesn't smell like poop. It's probably blood? It can cut things open and make them bleed."

To show an example, Serendipity extended a hand and turned it over. There was a faint mark-- left from some days ago, now, from when she first picked the knife up, blade-first. "This is where it cut but it healed over now and it doesn't hurt so? Maybe it cut a lot of people open or something?" She shrugged and looked the blade down.

That thing was dangerous, she realised.

The child thought these theories Laurel delivered over thoughtfully, very thoughtfully, until she offered one little thoughtful shake of her head. "No, uh, I think they just carried them like I do. Look, mine are real long and stuff," she said, extending a hand out to wiggle her fingers, then pointed at her thumb. "I have this thing, too, and it helps to stop stuff from falling out of my grip and stuff. Maybe your paws'll grow?"

Maybe that's just what some gembounds looked like. And Laurel did look like she had some growing to do. Maybe she'd go upright someday, too.

"I think you'd accidentally hurt yourself too if you held it in your mouth? I mean-- if you held it in the side of your mouth and there's a big bit of sharp metal you'd probably cut yourself, and you could choke on it if you held it in the front and, like, fell over? I dunno. She shrugged, sitting down and resting her jaw in the heels of her palms.

She watched as Laurel took the hilt, thinking. "I dunno, your back is kinda shaped weird when you do that," she said. "Can you walk like that? On two legs, like I do?" She asked.

@Laurel

L A U R E L
i'd prolly rather nap than wonder

As expected, Laurel reached forward once more to sniff at the cut. She'd had several scrapes of her own when hunting for food and scratching herself with a few too many poorly-bitten bones, but most of the injuries were in her mouth where she was already eating things.

Blood made sense. Her weird paws didn't though, in comparison. Curious, Laurel glanced down to her own paw and flexed her toes, her dewclaw sitting uselessly along the side of her wrist. "I don't know," she spoke simply, bending down to nose her own paw. She had a lot of fur and the weird hard part of her toes, too- why didn't this Gembound have them? Was she weird and different?

Though, unimpeded, Laurel bent down to seize the knife, carefully holding it. She had to be careful not to drop it as she sat back up, holding her head at a weird angle.

She didn't have a strong enough grip. As she moved, it slipped right out from her teeth, clattering onto the floor below. Laurel's shoulders slumped as her eyebrows furrowed to the best of a dog's ability, staring down at the weird object now by her feet. Nervously, she laughed, looking back up to the alien with another smile. "I guess so! Uh," her words tapered out as she thought. Her back? Weird? "I don't think I can stand up like you do, I tried before to reach something and I just kind of fell over. Your legs are weird." She didn't really see herself as rude as she pointed her muzzle to the creature's plantigrade legs, looking over them curiously. They weren't like the normal ones she saw most other Gembound have.

@Siren

"Well," Siren began to protest, inching out of the way before the knife clattered down on the ground, avoiding getting her feet stabbed. "I don't think I'm weird? I think I'm meant to hold stuff and walk around." But what if she was weird? Siren didn't know if she liked that possibility much. There was something weird about the word weird that made her feel weird about it.

She bent down to pick up the knife, tucking it back into the frayed rope "belt" around her tunic, and then she went for the hilt as well, shrugging. "Maybe we're all meant to do different stuff and you're good at something else I'm not good at. You sniffed," she pointed out, swinging the hilt absently.

It didn't feel like a knife, she realised. But maybe because she was so small?

She tucked the hilt into her belt as well, eventually, and looked back into the nearby pile. "Uh," she began, magnificently. "I'm Sirendippity," she said. "Or just Siren."

Siren seemed simplier, at least.

@Laurel

L A U R E L
i'd prolly rather nap than wonder

Laurel's head sunk into her chest at the protests. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that!" She yipped, eyes wide as she stared pitifully up at her counterpart. Hopefully she didn't upset her new friend! "You're not weird! You're just different, but you're cool, and weird cool? Like.. Good weird?" She really was digging herself into a hole, huh.

Her head followed the alien's movement. They did move a little weirdly. Most of the creatures here either had four legs or wings. Was she related to birds?

Well, she was good at one thing. "I can run! Really fast!" The canine declared proudly, her worries immediately passing away as her tail thumped against the ground. "I even ran here from the bone room with the hot cave nearby! The other cave is really shiny on the ceiling, but I wanted to run more, so I ran here!" Her nose twitched excitedly as she told her extremely short tale, lips curling into a smile. "You hold things, I run! Maybe I could carry you!" Bad idea, no. "Or, uh, you might be too heavy..." She whined, dipping her nose into her chest.

The offering of names is something Laurel was familiar with. "I'm Laurel! I like your name, it's really pretty!" Her attention followed Siren to the pile. "What are you looking for?" Her voice spoke laden with curiosity, her perked ears mirroring her internal thoughts.

@Siren

Confusedly, Serendipity blinked amber eyes at Laurel for a moment. She had no idea what a Good Weird was but she was truly unsure if she wanted to be any kind of weird. Regardless, the little child shrugged it off. She liked being Cool. "I dunno," she came out with. "I don't think I'm weird or different, I have a gem like everybody else, I think."

This seemed like good reason enough to not be weird.

"The bone room?" She asked, eyes wide. That sounded horrific and she wanted to see it. "The hot room? The shiny room?" Maybe Laurel really had seen everything if she was listing off so many different things, in quick succession. Could she really run that fast?

"All I know is this tunnel and the big windy room," she said. "I hatched in there. Uhh, came out of a big yellow thing. But sometimes it's pink."

She didn't think Laurel could carry her-- Laurel had growing to do and Serendipity was fairly sure she had to grow, too. Maybe it'd even out some day, but certainly not now. "Hi, Laurel," she said, looking between the puppy and the pile of junk.

"Uh, more shiny stuff. You wanna look, too? There's a lot of interesting stuff in here and I wanna try to find all the cool stuff. A lot of it's broken and maybe I can figure out how to fix them and stuff. A lot of it's poop coloured, though, and smells like blood."

@Laurel

L A U R E L
i'd prolly rather nap than wonder

Laurel mimicked her shrug to the best of her ability, a twinge of pain centering from her shoulder blades at the movement. Thought, the line of thought was quickly brought back to the rooms she'd mentioned. "Yeah!" The puppy yipped, straightening up on her haunches. "I haven't seen a windy room, yet, is it the other way?" She stood, curiously trying to look around the child in front of her.

Soon, though, her attention was returned to the piles. A lot of it looked like, well, garbage, but really really cool garbage. "Sure!" Laurel yapped as she trudged in, stepping over a particularly large piece of something. She stared down, seeing her face warped in a shiny piece of silver before her amidst the rust. "I think it'd be cool to fix things and use them. I wish I could do that. I can just run. And make noise!" Laurel's tail wagged at the mention of noise, already feeling magic sparking down her spine. "Do you want to see?" Her pointed head brought itself back to face Siren proudly.

@Siren