Kitty had been living with the Voidcrawlers in Cetus for… well, since the Voidcrawlers had moved to Cetus. She didn’t mind the trees, even if she’d have preferred to stay in the brighter ones of Eridanus. Still, the Voidmother had wanted to come here, so... well, Kitty was sure there was some kind of cool reason she wasn't privy to, not being part of the inner circle and all. Which she didn't particularly mind -- working under Binh was... preferable, since she didn't have to do anything important.

Now, though, she was finding that just sort of laying on the branches of a tree was becoming less and less comfortable as she got bigger. It was fine for naps and all, but she tended to fall when she was woken up suddenly, which was... less ideal, considering Cetus sometimes had weird noises. Big things tended to yell at weird hours of the night and day, and that was frustrating, to say the least.

So she was trying to figure out how to make a nest, with one discarded by some bird or the other in her paws as she sat on one of the lower branches of the pine tree the Voidmother slept under. She had been turning the nest over for a while now, trying silently to figure out how something without thumbs had made such an intricate ball of material and wondering if she could manage to replicate something similar.


@tema
@carja
@kalaziel
open, but especially to voidcrawlers!

Carja folded her wings and crawled on her belly, uncaring if she was heard but still trying to keep quiet. She kept her head low and one of her smaller eyes open, reducing the glow radiating from her. She crept forward, butt wiggling...

She popped her head up beside Kitty, "HI KITTY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

She grinned her signature toothy grin, shit-eating in every aspect, and flopped her head on the branch Kitty was on, "Is that a bird's nest?"

Her butt wiggled in excitement, "Did you find eggs?! I love eggs!! Oh man can I have some-"

Kalaziel didn't particularly like the muck that came with Cetus. It stuck to their white angelic feathers and turned them into a nasty brown shade, sticky too. The place was all foggy, and Kalaziel had a hard time seeing anything unless they inched around much alike an inchworm (in which they moved like that regardless, so it didn't matter). They still had to clean their feathers all the time, though. Which... was not fun but it didn't matter much anyway as long as none of them were tugged off of their body by the ground or trees in the area.

The worm off of a string heard talking pretty close, so they took their wiggly body that way, only to spot a familiar-ish face talking to an also familiar-ish face. This place was quiet, a good place to hide for the most part. So the gembound could see why the 'Voidmother' wanted to stay there, though Kalaziel still didn't understand why the snail wanted to infect the caves with more snails. It wasn't really.... Infecting it, they supposed. Just creating more of a thing with stones.

Kalaziel wasn't really interested, and why so many others were confused them. It didn't matter anyway.

"What are you guys doing?" The wormlike creature with feathers questioned.

TEMA, the Voidkin
There can be love in Chaos; just follow the Void

Tema was wandering their territory of sorts again, something she found herself doing multiple times a day, every day since... Well, since they moved here. She noticed Madhukar doing the same from time to time, making her wonder if they should schedule something together soon to get to know each other more. She'd spoken with plenty of the Voidcrawlers here and there, but finding one on one time for longer than a heartbeat was rare with such a close knit group.

Carja shouting a few paces away called Tema back to the present, catching her interest enough to make the bear change course and say hello. She'd grown rather fond of the dragon since meeting her, though she was slightly saddened that the nickname pretty blue didn't fit quite the same. Not that the dragon had aged poorly of course; she had just dyed her scales black to show her loyalty to the void. She was still as bright and bubbly as ever however, something Tema wanted to see more of in the caves. Perhaps she would see more soon, considering the latest plans for little slimes she would have to guard.

"Hello!" She called out simply as she approached, nodding with a smile at each of the gembounds gathered. It was a rare sight lately to see Kitty so close to the ground, something that made the bear question the special occasion even further. "What brings you down the tree today?" She asked, lifting her snout to bump against Carja's side as a more direct greeting.

OOC Notes:

@kitty

Carja startled her, to say the least, and she jumped, nearly dropping the nest before clutching it tightly to her chest as her back claws dug in to the branch. Her heart hammered in her chest, and she took a moment to breathe out slowly through her nose as Kalaziel and Tema approached as well. She paused for a beat, eyeing Carja again, and then said, "No eggs. It's old. I could prolly find you some later, though." It was easy when she was so used to the trees already -- Kitty could snack on the birds, and Carja could get the eggs.

She looked back down at it and cleared her throat. "I'm trying to make somethin' like this, but for someone me-sized." She offered a gentle smile to Tema -- it was hard to dislike the Voidkin. "I was thinkin' one of you might know more about this kinda thing than I do." She returned her attention to the bundle of sticks and leaves in her paws and pressed gently on it, continuing to explain. "The sticks are all woven into each other, so that the whole thing is stronger than just one or two sticks. But birds don' weigh very much, either, so maybe I'll need a lot. Or," she continued, a smile lighting up, "somethin' stronger than sticks."


@kalaziel @tema @carja

Carja wiggled happily, doing a little tap dance in excitement, "Okay!!"

Oh man oh man- she loved eggs!! They were like little crunchy surprises, sometimes you got a juicy yolk, sometimes you got a little baby bird for an extra burst of protein. She loved eggs.

"I know how to make a nest!! I make them all the time," she explained, but quickly got distracted by Tema's nuzzling, lowering her head to try her best to snuggle up against the bear, who she could once hide underneath no problem.

Purring and shivering with excitement, she pulled away to hop around, looking around for sticks and things to use, "We neeeeeed~... sticks! Thin and supple so they can bend, then I'll show you how to weave them! Once we make a nest, then we line it with moss or feathers to make it soft and nice to sleep in."

Carja picked up a stick in her mouth and grinned, tail lashing behind her excitedly, "Now find a place to make a nest! Preferably with two branches sticking out, like the end of this stick."

She lifted it up, showing how it turned into a Y shape at the end. She always made herself nests, and you could find them all around where the Voidcrawlers gathered. She rarely used the same nest twice, for whatever reason.

TEMA, the Voidkin
There can be love in Chaos; just follow the Void

Oh, Kitty was trying to make an actual home for herself now! Tema was pleased by the thought, happy that their cozy corner of Cetus was becoming more and more like a home every day. Carja seemed just as excited, her enthusiasm for the project leading to purrs filling the air with a soft hum which Tema would never tire of hearing... Until a new sound blended with it, not quite interrupting it, but rather harmonizing in deeper tones.

It took a moment before Tema recognized the new "voice" as her own, the sound coming from a rumble in her chest that slowly crept out her throat like honey. She was smiling, Carja's excitement becoming contagious as Tema's mind raced with possibility.

"Sap!" She chimed in, momentarily interrupting the humming. "My satchel was made with sap to bind the leaves and give them strength. Oh, and moss! Moss is soft and perfect for sleeping." Tema mimicked Carja's tail wagging with a wiggle of her own stumpy tail before she called forth her magic. She'd been using it for a while now, nourishing the moss on her back to keep it healthy and soft.

She felt like a child again, letting her emotions lead her actions without care in the safety of their home. It was simple again, and it had not been simple in so long.

The humming in her chest came to an abrupt stop as her magic responded, feeding the moss on her back with her own nutrients. Why did it hurt? The spell had worked, sending that gentle warmth through her body as it flooded her veins and coated her skin... So why did it hurt?

The bear lost her smile, instead looking confused as she twisted to scratch at her back, pulling of a large chunk of moss and feeling surprisingly relieved. All good things must come to an end she supposed as she looked at the moss laying on the dirt below and tried not to scratch at the rest of the moss on her back. She'd hold onto it for a bit longer, but she knew using magic to nourish it was out of the question now.

Realizing the change might have worried those around her, she shook it off and offered the moss to Kitty with an apology. It was irritating and confusing, but she could ignore it for now.

OOC Notes:

The conversation kind of got away from the feathered beast. Kalaziel didn't know how to do any of the things that the others were speaking of, but the idea of a nest reminded them of the bones they saw before in that one place. How each of the home looking things were surrounded by bones almost as if the structures were built like that to house gembounds before. Kalaziel took one of them, of course, and could bring it back any time.

"Like the bones in Canis?" Except for maybe smaller, since Kitty was... tiny. Basically. Kalaziel didn't make nests, or anything for themselves.

Kitty eyed Carja's example, and looked up at the height of the canopy. "There's a place like that higher up in the trees. It's lower than I usually sleep, but i' might work." She frowned. "... Too crowded for yo' guys to help me, tho." She then looked down at Tema, who seemed to have had an epiphany, and then seemed to be distressed before she was tearing at the moss on her back.

"'Salright?" Kitty asked, concerned, as she reached down to snag the offered piece with her claws (the paw that didn't have one missing, thank you very much) while Carja fetched some sticks. She hoisted it up and adjusted herself to lay on top of it so it didn't move, glancing down at Kalaziel. "Actually, you're snake-shaped. Long, but not any thicker than me." She looked back to the sticks. "Do you wanna help me higher up? Might be hard to climb, but I've seen snakes do it before."


@tema
@carja
@kalaziel

The Voidseer's day was not going as swimmingly as the others, to say the least.

Ever since his little visit to the altar, ever since Voidmother disappeared, the cobra had mellowed out a bit. Not to say he was ever very expressive, but the change was still apparent. The seer spent most his days in his den, absentmindedly playing with his water magic and reliving his visions of blood and death. They were so intense, what he saw in the hole, and he wasn't always strong enough to battle it away.

Binh wasn't looking so good when he emerged to the sound of excited chatter that day. His silver eyes were unfocused, his golden scales a little less cared for. But their mention of "snake" caught his eye ('were they talking about me?') and he forced on a slight smile as he slithered over to the group.

Oh. They were just setting up a tree den of sorts. Carja was flying about, Kitty was talking, Tema was getting moss off her fur and Kalaziel... Kalaziel was there too. Voidseer didn't have any experience with nests-- his own home was dug into the ground, not suspended in the air. He couldn't even climb up to help, not with his massive stone in the way. Best he could offer was some moral support before heading back underground.

"A treeeee nneessst is inteerrresssting, Kiiittty." Binh's hiss was a little more scratchy than usual. "I caannnott heelp much.... but if yooou need maaagic, I aaam heere." And then the snake lowered his head to the ground, passive, watching the building commence from the ground.