Doug had spent most of his first cycle in tunnel K, with The Hole and Max and all the other gembound who lived there. But there's only so long this puppy can stay in one place, and that time had just run out.

And so Doug had went from Tunnel K to a big, pretty room full of glowy crystals, but he hadn't stayed there for very long. He had to see EVERYTHING! All the things! And so he had quickly moved on to yet another tunnel.

This tunnel was also very pretty! Doug had no idea what all the weird shapes in the walls were, but they sure looked nice! Tiny claws on tiny paws click-clacked against the worn stone floor as he trotted through the tunnel, smiling with excitement. Black goop dripped from the corners of their mouth, like drool, and the same substance leaked from their nose, eyes, and ears. A smoky black fog followed them, like a cloak of shadow. But otherwise, they were just a happy little pup exploring a new place!

Doug's ears perked as he smelled something new. A new friend? It HAD to be! A small grey and cream kitten. The last kitten Doug had met had been scared of him, but they were still friends (at least, he was pretty sure they still were) So Doug was sure it would be no different. So he sped up to a run until he was right in front of the kitten, his tail wagging furiously "Hellooooo! Hellooo!" He greeted excitedly.

@Madhukar

Goodness, getting around and through and all over these tunnels was a doozy. All Madhukar had intended to do was leave the marsh, get out of the groggy stinkhole, go somewhere else. Once she'd found the tunnel, she'd bumbled her way through it. It had been utterly vexing, entirely too confusing, and she'd wound up lost. Luckily for her, there'd been a light at the end of that tunnel-- too bright a light for her developing eyes, which were all too familiar with gloom, and dankness, and mush, so she'd quickly skedaddled elsewhere. Into another tunnel, into another world it seemed.

And this one was gonna "hit different", as the kids might've said in an alternate universe somewhere.

The first oddity would come through the walls. Etchings, markings, engravings. They were everywhere. If Madhukar had half the mind to "stop and smell the roses", she might've taken more than a glance at them. But that just wasn't her speed. A constant buzz of energy lingered in her stride. Although her gate was small, as was her fuse, the amount of power building in side of her... it was nothing to sneeze at. And it had, in fact, been sneezed at before. By her own dang nose. Her nose would regret that for sure!

Speaking of her nose, it was picking up something. Something funny. What was that smell? She couldn't place it, and the unfamiliarity of it felt familiar, like a particular goopy stink-fiend she'd met long ago....

OH NO. IT WAS COMING.

The sound of the single set of paws against stone had an impact like that of a trampling stampede, coming at a rapid pace for a defenseless little kitten. Wait-- defenseless?! MADHUKAR?! No way! She'd show it who was defenseless! As soon as she saw the thing encroaching upon her, the kitten would raise her hackles and her tiny tail in the air like little flags of war, then steel herself as best she could, before letting out a rather cute meowl MONSTROUS ROAR!!! Her magic would attempt to spark to her aid by trying to fiddle with the electricity in the cave to create a big, empowering boom!

AND IT WOULD WORK!!! With a blam! the thunder would give Madhukar's tiny ferocious battle cry a standing ovation! From... behind her! That might be rather alarming for anyone unfortunate enough to be residing in a decent radius around the Polaris entrance to Tunnel I.

Extremely smug and satisfied, and even a little scared of surprised by her own immense show of force, the kitten would close her maw in a grin and look at the little invader with a gleam in her green eyes. She wouldn't even hear its enthusiastic greeting, and she certainly wouldn't understand its wacky tail action. She was certain, however, that it would be forced to turn that pesky little tail 180 degrees and get out of her way!

@Doug

Doug was very excited to make a new friend. Too excited, perhaps, to see that his 'new friend' was NOT so excited. He waggled his tail and wiggled his whole body, which looked extra ridiculous considering how noodle it was. Doug was just happy to meet a new gembound!

And then the kitten roared. VERY loudly.

Doug was taken aback. For a moment he just stood, frozen, staring at the small, angry kitten who had made such a big noise! How was it possible for so much noise to fit into so little kitten? Doug didn't know, but he was rather impressed.

And so were the whispers, apparently! The constant background murmur of unintelligible whispers rose slightly. Energized? Excited? Doug couldn't really tell, but the certainly had reacted to the kitten's thunderous roar for some reason. And they were making him want to react. To tackle the kitten, or use his own magic against it. To show he was just as powerful as they were.

And so he would! Doug looked around the tunnel for his target, and found it- a small, normal-looking rock. He trotted over to it, let out a quiet bark as if to say 'Look :D' and drew in his magic to do.. something to it.

But nothing happened. He felt something stir, but nothing quite happened. He looked around, as if double checking, but NOPE. Nothing had happened a lot. He let out a disappointed little woof, his tail stopping wagging for a moment.

But then something did happen.

Not visible to anyone but himself, the entire room just... Went. Doug didn't know where it went, but he wished it would come back very soon. Instead, it was all dark, and empty. Doug looked around wildly, but it was all dark and empty.

But as soon as it had happened, everything returned to normal.

Thoroughly wigged out, He let out a little whine before trotting back over to the kitten.
@Madhukar

This creature in front of her actually seemed kind of... ridiculous. It wiggled like the stinky did. Very odd, rather annoying. Well, it had seemed to notice the kitten's 10000% foolproof intimidation tactic! And it reacted! And for a moment, JUST a moment there, Madhukar thought it would finally react the way she wanted, but NOTHING in these darn caves seemed to work that way!! It was INFURIATING!!!

She watched it closely as it wiggled its way over to a rock (not running away like she'd predicted, but any kind of movement away from her would do), and she waited... and then she waited a bit more..... and nothing seemed to happen? The wiggly thing just kind of barked at the rock, and then stared at it, and then made a sad sound at it like it hadn't done what the wiggly one had wanted. Madhukar blinked once, maybe twice, and allowed herself the courtesy of a thought along the lines of, 'Huh. That was easier than I thought it'd be.'

She began to pad away with a lot more reassurance in her step, but before she knew it, things weren't going as planned. Another whine came from the wiggly and then she heard its approaching pawsteps again. GoSH DARN IT!!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!! She spun around to face it, and got in her defensive-aggressive kitten stance again; tail up, stance wide, legs tensed, maw wrinkled, fluff OUT, the works! Then she started doing the next best thing to an epic call of war -- she spat. "PHFT PHFT PHFT PHFT!!!" insisted the cat, as if to say "GET OUT OF MY FUR YOU WEIRD WIGGLY THING! I'M WALKIN' HERE!"

Maybe that'd work! Although, one thing that didn't manage to make it into Madhukar's calculations of that decision: the little kitten stance thing? Actually really cute. Even goopy snakes thought so! But, well, she didn't know, and she was unlikely to learn the easy way... Welp. Sucks for her, I guess!

@Doug ((poor puppy... have a cute grumpy baby :3))

Doug wasn't exactly the best at reading the mood. He just hadn't met many other gembound yet, and the gembound he spent the most time with- his life-giver, Max, was friendly and happy and playful, much like Doug himself. He simply wasn't used to the idea someone wouldn't want to be his friend. So the kitten's attempt to leave wasn't really understood as such. Neither was the literal hissy-fit that followed.

Even if Madhukar 'intimidation' stance had been actually threatening, Doug likely wouldn't have been afraid. The little pup simply wasn't the fearful or cautious type, and it was likely he'd have to learn caution the hard way.
But until then, he only was a weird, puffy, loud thing doing a weird hissy dance. Doug wasn't sure how to react to it, as first, so he just took a step or two back and watched. He head was tilted to the side, just... watching, somewhat confusedly.

But then he decided to do his own dance! Yep, this was a dance battle now, apparently. So Doug started wiggling even more than before, his tail wagging furiously. It looks like some strange combination of an excited puppy and a playful ferret- which is to say, VERY wiggly and noodle-y and all over the place. This twisty dance would continue until half tripped, half flipped onto his back. And which point, he decided he was done. Still practically wiggling with excitement. This pup really never stopped wiggling, huh.

He calmed down, somewhat, slowing down to see what the small fluffy thing thought of his 'dance.' His mouth was open in a large puppy 'grin' though this was in part due to the fact he was now panting due to the 'dance.' His expression said something to the effect of 'what did you think of that? :D' still mostly oblivious to the kitten's anger.

@Madhukar

This wiggly one.... was so incredibly strange.... it was maddening. Roaring at it hadn't worked. Spitting at it HADN'T WORKED! Super duper hadn't worked actually, because now it was just WIGGLING MORE!!! WHAT??? WHY?! HOW COULD SHE MAKE IT STOP?!

Honestly just stunned to silence by the wiggling dance, the kitten stood there, hackles bristling and crackling like a storm, staring at this absurd series of maneuvers. Questions echoed in her mind, without barriers, carrying on for mental miles, escalating and deescalating in volume. Her anger was radiating off her in violent waves, but she was too tiny... too tiny to really make some damage. She wanted to, though, really badly. The only thing bridling her rage at the moment was her awe... how could something be this dense??? What was it trying to accomplish? Why couldn't it just leave her alone?

It was goopy like the stinky from a while ago, which confused Madhukar's heart in addition to her mind. Were all goopy things like this? Should she run away at the sight of black oil for fear of being aggravated to no END? Probably, by the looks of it...

After it was done, all Madhukar could do was blink and leer. She had so many questions, too many questions. This was far too agitating. She had to at least... ask something. Otherwise she'd never be able to stop thinking about this and it would plague her in her dreams and she would have to come seeking this wacky wiggler out and show it what for. And she didn't what any of that.

So she plopped down on her rump, and all she said, trying to milk as much of her fury into it as possible so the wiggly GOT THE MEMO, was "Why?"

@Doug

Doug was unfazed by the kitten's stunned silence. He waited happily for a reaction, preferably for the tiny fluffy thing to start playing with him! He waited, being about as still as he could be (which is still pretty darn wiggly) watching the kitten curiously.

He didn't quite get the kitten's anger. He noticed it, but didn't quite understand what it meant or what it was directed as. Was this just how tiny fluff things acted? Doug didn't really mind, but he'd much rather have the tiny fluffy thing run and play with him rather than sit here and be loud. Being loud was fun too, though! Maybe he should start doing that?

Just as he was considering starting to be as loud as the kitten had been, it plopped down in front of him, and spoke! Doug could do that too! But he didn't know what to say. You just couldn't say random words, it had to make sense!

So Doug paused, considering the kitten's question. After a good couple moments of serious thinking he came up with an answer. "I'm bored." He replied, "I wanna Plaaaaay!!" To him, it was the perfect answer. Short. To the point. Accurate. He waited for the kitten's response, watching them intently with bright orange eyes.

@Madhukar

Surprisingly, although the wiggly one couldn't understand a bad temper, it could understand speech! A marvel! It seemed to have to think about the answer to Madhukar's question... for a longer while than anticipated. Well, that was telling. Was it brainless?? Uncontrolled??? A plethora of (rather rude) theories stormed into Madhukar's mind, all dissipated with ease by a jarringly simple answer: boredom. It wanted to "play".

What?

"Pw... pl... ay?" the kitten attempted, the word seeming to evoke a pouty face from her. She knew the word, but not what it meant to the wiggly. She was really not endeared (though any sane creature would've been) by the suggestion of "playing". Did she have time for such a thing? Did she want to have time for such a thing? No and no. Maybe if she left this useless conversation now, she could have time to figure out these tunnels and orient herself in a proper direction. What was a proper direction? One that took her some place good. What was good? ...Um, dumb question! Don't, uh, don't ask dumb questions like that!

The kitten got up off her rump and swiveled her head around a bit, getting a look at the terrain. Her next maneuver had to be flawless if she wanted to get out of this wiggly pickle. Which she did want to do, really, really badly.

Once she had her path set in her mind, the kitten bolted.

@Doug ((to clarify, Madhukar is running away from Doug. This girl honestly believes that if she runs, he won't follow her. Feel free to prove her wrong >:3))

Doug had no idea of the rather rude thoughts this kitten was thinking about him. So he just sat there happily, waiting for a response. Hopefully the kitten would want to play, too! Who wouldn't want to play, after all? Doug couldn't imagine the kind of gembound who wouldn't want to play, oblivious that one of those type of gembound was sitting right in front of him.

Doug grinned in delight when the kitten repeated (or attempted to, anyways) what he had said. "Play! Play!" He repeated excitedly, which started up the wiggles all over again. Assuming that by repeating his words the kitten wanted to play (which nearly anyone else would be able to see was not the case) He bounced in place, waiting for the kitten to start 'playing.'

When the kitten bolted, Doug just assumed they were playing tag, or chase. What else could the kitten be trying to do? So without missing a beat, he started running after the kitten, letting out a few happy, excited little barks.

He was able to catch up to the kitten surprisingly quick. Maybe her path was not as flawless as she had first thought? However, he wasn't able to quite catch up to the kitten. The most he was able to get was a mouthful of tail fluff, which didn't taste very nice. So, he continued right a Madhukar's heels, barking and laughing excitedly as he chased her in what he assumed was a game of tag.

@Madhukar

Ah, yup, the wiggler was after her. Honestly, she should've expected that, but life was new and so was play. There was a brief moment of shock, not enough to really trip her up. No, what tripped her up was the wiggler itself, who was already on her heels. WhAT?! HOW?!? This had suddenly elevated from an annoying situation to a frightening one. The goopy stuff pouring from the wiggler's face wasn't helping, although Madhukar wasn't nearly as bothered by that as she was the fact that it was snapping at her tail. WOAH NO, buddy, that is NOT how things worked here.

The etchings on the walls blurred together as bushes from the window of a fast-moving car do. The kitten was racing past them, convinced that her zipping about was being done for her safety. Her immobile paw wasn't helping her speed whatsoever; in fact, that might've been the most obvious reason the pursuing wiggler had caught up so fast. It was hard to focus on not losing balance when there was so much adrenaline ticking and vibrating throughout her tiny kitty body.

She had to get out of this tunnel. Her path was getting wonky. Where was she going? Focus on the paws. How close was the wiggler? FOCUS on the PAWS! How had it-- PAWS!! Where was this-- PAWS PAWS PAWS--- and when she couldn't help it anymore the kitten just closed her eyes and yelled, "AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!" as loud as she could manage.

Please, someone remind her never to yell while running ever again.

Her speed was becoming sloggish, the wiggler was having too many chances to nib at her backside, so when she saw another path she took it. It was a bit of a sharp turn, but the kitten would do anything to get outta this situation at this point.

Unfortunately for Madhukar, a few pawsteps into the turn, she flop on her side, skidding across the ground, a dust cloud clamoring in an uproar around her. Heck she was tired. She wondered what the goopy wiggler would do once it caught up to her, which she didn't expect to take long. The last time a goopy had caught her exhausted like this, it had coiled around her and gotten her slathered in unpleasant goop. Oh gosh, would that happen again?

Please no, please no, please no...

@Doug ((for clarity: Madhukar turned into the tunnel that leads towards Eridanus. She didn't get far in.))