These days, it felt as if he spent more time in the Core than his own home - practicing, preparing, expecting a grand reveal of some horrific event in the future. Aure wasn't exactly paranoid, but rather fixated on the prospect of protecting those he loved. They needed to assemble, soon, and find what remained of their numbers. His course planning was almost complete; it just needed a few finishing touches, an exercise in caution, perhaps -

But, for now, he was getting in touch with his father's side of magic. Over the past few cycles, his mastery of the air and wind had increased tenfold (being part-bird lent some degree of innate skill) and he felt more at ease to experiment with different possibilities. Aure'd worked somewhat on casts for the coming Olympics - if he even participated in them this year - but not on more practical applications. In that case, he spent a number of hours simply flying about the cave, watching other Gembound as they practiced and discovered the elements.

Crimson eyes had fixated upon a creature as they split a rock in half through sheer will - earth magic, but may as well have been through the sound of their voice with the screaming done.

So, feasibly, this should work.

Presently, the wyvern was squared off against a boulder, eyes narrowed and brows furrowed. He'd used this spell perhaps once before, on a whim to dispel the dust devil he'd summoned in competition. The noise-making part of it was great, but it was noted that the speed of sound (and breaking of it) was a powerful force. Like a great gust of wind that could invade anything. Aure inhaled, chest swelling, magicka flowing. Flapping his wings once - unintentionally carrying himself into the air - he directed a blast wave of high-pitched noise at the stone. It rumbled in response, gaining an unsightly crack, but otherwise not completely shattering as intended.

Hmm - something more breakable might work better for practice...

@Ashtoreth

It had been several cycles since Ash had lost sight of Fisher; even in exploring Polaris, one of his favorite places to hang out, she had been unable to find him. Maybe he had gone and wandered off to some forgotten part of the caves, or revered back to chrysalis. She knew he wasn't dead, if only because she had spent the better part of two dozen cycles with him, and her himbo of a dad didn't know how the hell to even so much as play dead.

This had a wonderful impact on the young noodle child. She felt free, and grew more and more bold by the day. No one held her back, no one held her down, no one... Well, typically no one really interacted with her. She was a cool, imposing loner with a streak of mischief. It'd probably kill her to know she was starting to turn into her father at cycle 2. At least she had the sense not to dare others into climbing the spire (though, arguably, with her wings she'd stand a better chance at not falling to her death) or trying to drown herself in the river.

Instead, the winged noodle ran rampant through the electrified, magicka rich cavern known as Polaris. She enjoyed streaking from crystal formation to crystal formation. The fisher hybrid terrorized little cave mice where she found them, though she wasn't hungry and didn't actually hunt any of them right now. It was fun to chase them, anyway. Her adventure had been filled with enough to excitement by this point to leave her a little winded, and that was before the ear splitting boom that rocked the main area of Polaris.

Ears pricking, fur bristling up until she looked like a freshly-used toilet bowl brush, the mustelid pressed low and flat to the ground, peering this way and that. One of the nearby rocks she had been chasing a poor cave mouse through had a crack clear through it from the sound, and her ears rang with the noise. Whatever it was, OW. With a hiss through her teeth, the noodle scampered toward the rock, darting up into the crack, and chased it all the way to the other side.

What she found when she reached the opposite end of the rock was a large, familiar sort of sight. There was a gembound, wings spread, inspecting the damage he had just done. Black and white, orange-dusted feathers... A lammergeier, but not quite; she immediately knew the difference, the stockier build, the weird ears-- the whole face was distinctly wrong. She had never seen this gembound before, and frankly, she didn't even make the connection. After all, how many stupid dogs had she seen around the caves? Too many. Even the familiar sonic magic didn't mean anything. Every bird under the cavern roof knew some pressure magic.

Being sensible, she decided to give the stranger a taste of his own medicine. If he was going to be loud and obnoxious, then she'd be loud and obnoxious right back. Ashtoreth flapped her wings, and a muffled crash filled the air, followed shortly by a bark made up of a few different pitches and voices that didn't quite sound right,

"You trying to DEAF me?"

@Auré

Aure's big, puffy ears immediately vanished into his mane, crimson eyes turning to the source of whatever crashing noise had sounded - he initially thought it might have been some unintended side effect of his casting, like sending a Gembound down from the sky. Instead, there was little but a winged noodle. Bandit-masked and barking in all sorts of different pitches and voices. Borrowed? He apologized quickly ("sorry!") and set to giving this musky-smelling little thing a good, long look.

There wasn't any sort of thing to make him think of parrots, so the borrowed voices must've been mimicry of sorts. Or, she was just really good at imitating. Who know on that. The wyvern tried to look elsewhere, but found himself fixated on the face. Puffy, triangular feathers lightly stained orange. Trademark black, wiry beard. There weren't crimson lammergeier-eyes, but... this had to be one of his father's - his stone's - descendants. All of them had the beard, as it seemed to be required by genetic law. Kesil was the only one (to his knowledge) that lacked it, but there was a strange face at work.

But, y'know, Aure didn't want to ask outright. He shifted on the spot, wings tucking and feet shuffling to face the noodle fully. "I was just practicing my magic. Sorry - ?" Well, maybe if he asked for a name, there'd be the Vita-surname tacked on or at least some recognition of it. "I'm Aure Vita; sorry, forgot to - introduce myself."

@Ashtoreth

Vita.

Vita, fuck. Ashtoreth had really been banking on the idea that this weirdo wasn't related to her, but that sealed the deal. She squinted at him with dark, beady eyes, and tapped her claws on the stone underneath her chin. Her feathers rustled, mutedly wondering if she should give him a false name-- what if they were looking for her?

... Pssh. They probably weren't. If they were looking for her, she would've been found by now. It's not like he seemed to recognize her, even with his sharp, scrutinizing crimson gaze. He looked a lot more like her bird-father with his ears tucked back, though. She was still trying to decide how she felt about this awkward situation; was Aure her brother, or nephew, or hell, great-nephew? Cousin? It was impossible to know if they were directly related by blood, though the red gem on their brow did remind her of Azazel's own, usually hidden gem.

Ashtoreth shook out the feathers around her mane, and hopped down from the stone to stand before Aure, ears pricking as she stared up at his towering form. She was still tiny; she had never quite grown to the hefty noodle that her chunky fisher-father had been, probably from malnutrition as a kid. Her feathers spread out behind her butt, and she delicately twitched her flight feathers, manipulating the air to make sound from the stiff gem in her vocal cords that kept her from talking.

"My name is Ashtoreth," she answered smoothly, the dozens of voices melding into one more concrete sound; over the cycles, she had managed to find her own voice, light and breezy. It still had an auto-tuned quality to it, but it was less disturbing than pulling on the various different gembound's words and smushing them together. "Pretty good magic," she admitted after a moment, peering over her shoulder at the crack in the stone. "Not bad at all."

.. Should she tell him? She thought about it for a moment, and figured it might be better to play it cool. Besides-- maybe he knew her name, so she didn't need to, well, make things weird. She hoped he wouldn't ask fifty billion questions about why she was never home, as if Canis had ever felt like home. Her feathers bristled with the thought and she had to nudge a few of them back in place with her nose, before she looked back up at Aure with a toothy, sly grin.

@Auré

Ashtoreth's hopes and dreams of never being discovered were, fortunately, preserved. As it were, the wyvern was a bit of a himbo and not quite in-touch with his entire family tree outside of the more vocal and present members - Eythan, Eli, Elyon (lots of E's there for some reason) Kesil, Bremen, et cetera, namely. While it was a common belief that the Vitas should be all together and forever Bonebound, Aure knew that sometimes they simply went off on their own paths. Kesil and Bremen, twins in exploration, had meandered off into the wilds. Eythan was honor-bound to be his own guard. Eli was a mischief-maker when he wasn't fretting about Elyon's well-being.

Aure faltered on that point, ears flicking back. They still didn't know where Elyon was, where she'd gotten off to.

The noodle's name didn't click in his mind, regardless, and he nodded politely, "ah, thank you, Ashtoreth. I've been practicing it for a while - it was my father's magic." Crimson eyes slipped shut for a second, inhaling sharply. Ah, fathers didn't seem that common in these caves. Maybe it was mere chance that this musky-thing somewhat resembled one of his bloodline. Maybe it was just a coincidence that it held mimicry magicks and could manipulate the air. "I thought I should try it, even though mushrooms come easier to me, y'know?"

His ears quirked - enough about himself - "what kind of magic is that?" Aure gestured vaguely with a wing, trying to indicate the general concept of speaking without moving the mouth. Vargas had used that to lure him in, hadn't he?

@Ashtoreth

Aure didn't make the connection, at least, if he did, he didn't say anything of it. Her nose twitched, and she inched forward, making a semi-circle around the raptor as she judged him silently. "Pressure magic, like the sonic boom you just did," she explained with a shuffling of her wings, her claws clicking softly on the hard cavern floor as she scrutinized him.

The urge to mock him with an acrimony of his own voice was tempting, but if this was... her brother... She didn't really want to get on his bad side. She hadn't seen a Bonebound in a long time... If she made a bad impression, maybe they'd never want her back. Tch, not like she wanted to go back. "You just mess with the vibrations," she explained with her magic, her jaws still clamped shut. By now someone would usually ask her why she didn't just talk, but at least the nervous, polite wyvern had manners. She kept thinking about how weird his face looked, and he had mentioned fungi... Who was this guy's other parent?

With a swish of her tail, she decided to try and demonstrate exactly what she meant by vibrations. Her fur and feathers began to shift of their own accord, a mystical plucking sound coming from her body. Her eyes gleamed as she raised her chin, the familiar melody her father had sang to her as a child coming off of her in a wordless, wandering song.



Part of her was being selfish, watching for his reaction as the music played. Would he recognize it? Or had Aza'zel meant it when they made up the song together-- was it just for her? She wanted to be the only Little Fang, and this was in part a test to ensure that no one had replaced her.

Besides the fact that she was an absolute expert at manipulating air into making whatever sound she wanted by now. She definitely was showing off a little.

@Auré

Ah, so it was manipulation of the air. The sound of it was just much clearer than he could've expected - it must be more precise at least. Perhaps - ah, maybe like the sort of vibration casting he used to get water and shroom-slime off of himself! Ashtoreth confirmed this, and just as he went to take a stab at it, the noodle started to demonstrate.

From swishing tails and feathers and fur came a melodic sound Aure initially didn't recognize as music or any sort of rhythm. The idea of consistent noise was beyond him, really, as he'd never heard a single song in his life. He was instantly attentive, though he didn't tap along or attempt to follow the beat. Again, he was not familiar with music and lyrics. Yet, the sound was pleasing, soft, delightful. In the back of his mind, it was faintly familiar, giving off a sense of deja vu and thinking he'd heard something like it before.

But, of course, he really hadn't, right?

When it reached its conclusion, the wyvern clicked his beak - bird-clapping - and nodded down at Ashtoreth. Cheering, Aure chirped, "that was amazing! I've never heard something like that before. What's - what's it called?" Pausing (space for an answer) he settled down on the spot. A quick loaf, if you will.

"I'd like to take a stab at it -" and stab he did, feathers rustling and clicking and stirring the air into a quiet, wobbly, off-key, and plain poor imitation of whatever the noodle had mustered up. He definitely wasn't musically inclined.

@Ashtoreth

Ashtoreth puffed up proudly as the lammergeier praised her, her tail giving a wag like a dog (a stupid habit she had subconciously picked up from her father, whoops) as she smugly proved that she was special, unbenownst to Aure. That was enough to put a bee in her bonnet, for sure.

"That was the song my father made just for me," she boasted smugly, whiskers twitching. She reached up a paw to smooth her black feathered beard, barely able to contain the cocky smirk that had spread across her face.

Sure, he could try. Her ears twisted this way and that as she listened, giving a snort. It wasn't great, not by a long shot, but he had been nice to her thus far... So, hey, she could be nice right back, couldn't she? She reached out a paw and placed it gingerly upon the bird's wing, and did her best to fix the sound coming out of the air.

There wasn't much she could do; it was pretty difficult to mess with other's magic, much less change the sound someone else was making, but she almost got some of the notes... To be closer to correct. The rest slowly pitched upward, creating a new, terrible kind of noise. Whether that was her or him, it was impossible to tell, but she couldn't keep a straight face. With another snort, she rolled on to her side and began to silently cackle. Huffing and puffing, she kicked her little back feet into the air, wings wriggling about on the stony earth.

It was a good attempt! It was also hilarious.

@Auré

A song, huh? The word itself had an abstract musical feel to it, like it belonged to the concept. Like he should have known about it ahead of time. It reminded him a bit of Lesser bird-sounds, their morning calls and rhythms. These, though, were more organized sounds, special. Holding a place in Ashtoreth's little noodle heart. Aure smiled. Rather jealously, he wished his father were still alive to provide things like that. The solid quiet warmth of his wings was plenty enough, most days, but - "your father sounds like a great guy."

Oh, if only Aure knew.

It seemed, anyways, that there was no saving his poor attempt at imitation. The noise had ended up being a mockery, even with the noodle's apparent assistance. One of the two had overcompensated with magic, trying to railroad the cast into something it clearly was not. Ashtoreth fell backward, breathy cackles coming from her wiggly form (confirming his curious thought whether she was unable to speak.) The laughter, however silent, was contagious. Aure gave off a few laughs of his own, piping up between them, "guess I could use some practice."

Ears flicking forward, he laughed to himself, "silly me, thinking I could compare to that. Your dad's awful talented if he made up something like that."

@Ashtoreth

Aza'zel? A great guy? He was hardly even an average guy-- both of her fathers were hot messes. In fact, last she checked, every gembound born in the early cycles was a flaming trash fire trying to put itself out only to set everyone else ablaze in the process. She wrinkled her snout, feeling the uncomfortable crawling sensation dig under the skin of her forearms, filling her with a terrible itching. She had not escaped unscathed.

Her bird-father was a dolt, filled with self-loathing and enough personal flaws to fill the Spire itself, obsessed with loving her to the point of suffocation. He never had direction, wanting to protect his family, and never quite fulfilling his ambitions. She wondered if he was still stuck in the circles he chased all the time, frantic to do better, and better, and better, when he could barely remember to organize his own thoughts, much less his family.

Explaining all of this to Aure, however, was a waste of more magic than she could even bother with. She rolled her eyes at his comment that her father was talented. She scrunched up her haunches into her ribs, and shot herself forward like a boinks toy toward the wyvern's fluffy feet, slinking herself around his ankles. She squinted up at him from the ground, tail twitching over his toes.

Rather than talk about her daddy issues (of which there were many, came with the territory of having two dads), she decided to mess with him. With a single blink and a bit of focus, she summoned a burst of wind from under Aure, rushing up toward his face, almost assured to mess up all of his feathers and make him look silly.

@Auré