{ OOC } ~ Set to be April 25th, Aza'zel's day of emergence.

“ { atempause } ~ breath pause. very slight pause on a weak beat in order to give greater effect to the following strong beat ”

The bird was asleep, as always. Snuggled tightly against the rocky walls of his chrysalis, the Red Jasper warm and endearing. It was his cradle, the bone king never wanted to wake up. He was perfectly content in his own little kingdom... growing bigger and stronger every day thanks to his magical energy.

Then everything fell apart. Literally.

What was a formerly glowing chrysalis of red jasper cracked and yielded, groaning audibly in the bone room. The small bird cradled in the stone awakened suddenly, panic rising in his chest. Something in his chest stirred into knots, dragging the bird and his former home to the ground. The embryo-producing shell split, forcing the bird out. A shriek escaped the newly hatched Gembound, blind eyes looking around in the darkness. He missed the warmth of his home already! Where was it?! All he could see was a faint glowing outline, approaching with great shuddering steps, then it seemed to disappear, taking his shell with it. What was that?!

What was his name? A nagging memory ached at the back of the young vulture's mind, speaking in a quiet voice. 'Aza'zel... Pressure magic...' That was all the lammergeier remembered. Nothing else was noted. "Aza... zel." The critter stuttered out, ruffling wet and slimy down. Shivering, little Aza'zel waddled around aimlessly, until he ran over a pile of some strange and hard things. In search of food and warm jihad, little Aza'zel reared up and bit into the smallest bone he could feel... only to hurt his own little beak. Squawking mournfully, Aza'zel scurried backwards, narrowing little eyes. His tiny wings flapped angrily, and unconciously, the little bird released all of his magic toward the weird white thing { a bone. }

Things had mostly calmed down since the young fledgling's first steps into the world. Her flight feathers had grown in and, while she was still clumsy as one could be, the pitohui bird could glide through the larger tunnels and beautiful caverns with ease. The last room she had been in, the stunning starlit Orion, was left behind in search of something even better. Honestly, what could be more fantastic then--

Oh. Not this room. The small red and black bird landed amongst the pile of bones, her feathers ruffled. This was a place she thought she certainly didn't want to be, a place where things had come to die. She didn't quite understand what it was, or... How this had happened, but it spooked her quite thoroughly. The tiny bird was filled with an overwhelming urge to explore every inch, but she hadn't realized that places like this existed. A skull's holed eyes bore into her feathers and frightened by the sight, the little bird took wing again and flew off towards the only part of the cavern she could see that had less bones. Landing in the circuit that surrounded the chambers that she had little hope flying around in, she observed the area carefully.

There were footprints here. She followed them, hopping around curiously. All of the death made her frightfully nervous, so the chick decided to try her magick again. She didn't have a very good grasp on it at all, considering it was quite complicated, but it made her feel safe as her body worked up a natural defense against illness. Her toxin coated feathers ruffled and she preened at them, for once not feeling quite so exhausted after tapping into her magickal energies. Perhaps this time it had worked?

That was when Bevy heard a noise. Almost jumping out of her feathers, her iridescent irises took hold of a scene not far off-- why, it was a Gembound hatching! .. And it was a bird, like her. She could tell, it had feathers and wings and squawked and was not one of those awful mammal predators that screeched and barked. Hopeful that she might have just found a friend, the tiny bird took flight and landed right on the bone that the bearded vulture had just tried to move to no avail. A gentle breeze took her feathers and ruffled them gently, and she found herself feeling... Lighthearted, and enthusiastic. It was a good pair of emotions. The usually shy Bevy opened her beak to greet the fellow birdie.

"Excuse me! Hello! I'm a bird too, see?" She chirped brightly, tilting her head and spreading her wings so the other bird could see. "Welcome to, um, here! It's nice to meet you."

To no avail, the freshly hatched bird only blew himself away, rolling off a little. Bright little eyes were full of shock as he careened away from the bone and a new guest. Waddling up to his feet, little Aza'zel ruffled his downy feathers, looking up wide-eyed. He ended up giving his soon-to-be new friend an incredulous gaze, tilting his tiny little head as the bird spoke. He jumped as the other birdie gave a cheerful chirp, tilting his little head to the side once more. "Bird?" The little Gembound peeped, bright eyes curious. Spreading his own downy wing, he looked at it then the other bird's.

"Where here?" That was what Aza'zel wanted to know. What was 'here', where was it? Was there more than 'here'? The little vulture could only wait with an incredulous stare, but soon he lost interest. Hopping off and away toward a smaller bone than his first attempt, the little bird chirped. Inhaling deeply as if all the breath in the world would aid him, the little bird nudged the bone toward the wall, so it was about three inches from it. Little Aza'zel flapped his miserably small wings, exhaustion overwhelming him as he tried to smash the bone against the wall with his newly discovered pressure elemental affinity. For some reason, he had a nagging feeling that this bone would give him food if he broke it open. Giving his all, little Aza'zel squawked and flapped his wings harder, opening his stubby little beak and giving a chirp.

When a great wind escaped the little hatchling, Aza'zel was sent backwards again, rolling away toward the orange and black bird. Squinting into the darkness, the small lammergeier heard a hallow crack and a few thumps. Satisfaction overwhelmed the starving chick, and he hopped over to the new meal to eat. The delicious bone marrow was visible, and the Gembound greedily picked at it, hooked little beak piercing the soft flesh of the bone easily. Graciously, he swallowed the bone, relishing the taste. He'd stay here! He didn't need to go anywhere else.

Between bites of food, exhaustion and sleepiness took over the young vulture's mind once more. But, really, it was just a burning sensation in his eyes and his body being weak. "Why feel droopy? Eyes hurt." He chirped lazily, looking to the Ave before him for guidance. It was obvious that this Gembound had been around longer than he had, even if she was just a baby herself. "Stay with?" Little Aza'zel chirped, giving the most adorable stare to the other bird, hoping his new friend would stay. He didn't want to be alone. This rocky place must be huge! The little vulture didn't want to get lost, ever! That'd be horrible if he did get lost! "Name Aza'zel." Well, he was sure that was his name. Or maybe it wasn't.

"Speech"

KRAKARAK

"my precious"

---

With a combination of hopping and flapping and gliding here and there the young chick had managed to get from his hatching place to this new area. He'd traveled along the floor and miraculously hadn't landed himself into any trouble. Miraculously because he had quite a loud mouth and now and again would release a loud cow just to satisfy his own need for sound.

After a bit of traveling he landed in a new corridor filled with bones. For some reason these bones pleased him, he could sense that there was food inside of him but for the life of them he didn't know how to get to it. He flapped his wing and landed upon one bone and pecked at it with his beak but to no avail. He tried scratching at it with his claws but that did nothing too. In frustration he gave a loud, "KRAAA!" And hovered into the air briefly with his tiny wings and with his claws tried to throw it but this only resulted in him falling from the air onto his face. "Kraaa..." He croaked in dismay.

It was while he was lying on the ground that he noticed something strange with the bone... a shiny gem was embedded into it. Completely entranced by the shiny blue thing he righted himself then began scratching at the bone, then coupled with the scratches he added in his beak and just managed to break the precious stone away from the bone. Krak oogled at his prize for a moment before curling it into his talons. "Mine." He stated.

He would have been content to sit and stare at the gem in his talons but he heard a sound like breaking bone a short distance away. Halfway fearing and halfway wanting to know what it was he hop-flapped all the way to the sound to find two more creatures not unlike him. Other birds? The thought cheered him that there were creatures here of his size. Well, one was larger and one smaller but they were made like him! Oh, the smaller one had a shiny in its chest and he made no secret about staring at the gem embedded in the breast of the smaller bird. "Krak Krak! Krak like shinies! You has shiny!" He cawed loudly. His eyes then turned to the larger bird and he noticed the cracked bone on the ground. Had he not just been trying to --unsuccessfully- break into a bone himself? He could see easily that there was some sort of soft stuff inside. Yummies! "Krakarak! Krak like yummy things! Krak can share?" For now the bird had no tact, had no fear, and thus was quite straightforward with his requests. His words hadn't been completely rude but they weren't exactly polite either...

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---

words: 466
tagged: Aza'zel, Bevy
ooc: ---
muse: 6/10

"Talking looks like this."
Thinking looks like this...

"Bird!" Bevy replied enthusastically, her bright incadesent eyes shimmering. The hatchling was responding nicely, and he seemed to be quite friendly and already, with just those few words, she felt comfortable around her fellow avian. Unfortunately, she had no idea where here was and didn't really have an answer. She just tilted her head and shrugged her little wings, glancing around at all the bones. It was a scary place, wherever it was.

The younger Gembound seemed to get distracted now, by the white skeletons scattered around. The Pitohui bird watched quietly, finding her new found potential-friend an interesting creature indeed. An alarmed squawk escaped her beak as the wind picked up again, this time apparently created by the younger bird, and a bone shattered. She hopped up in the air, watching Aza'zel hopping over to the broken pieces and, surprise filling the tiny red and black bird, the boy ate it all. Just swallowed the bones. She landed next to him as he spoke again, asking a question that at last Bevy knew.

"You made the wind come... You must be sleepy. Takes energy to do things," she explained, her feathers puffing up with pride. She had done the same thing-- well, a different magick but still-- when she was just freshly hatched and it had took everything out of her too. While Bevy didn't like this place much, she did want to learn more about her fellow bird. "Sure! I came from a place without bones, so I want to look around... There's a lot to explore here."

A krak krak krak entered her brain and would not leave. The noise rattled around in her brain like a bunch of broken bones and made her feathers puff up and fan out. After a moment, Bevy realized it was another bird, amazingly, that had appeared and came right on over. He was black all over and quite noisy, but he was talkative and also friendly enough and that was good enough for Bevy. "Hello," she replied to his croaks and nodded, poking at her gem in her breast. She loved her shiny gem, it was beautiful and always interesting to look at. She assumed the crow was complimenting her, and honestly, she loved shinies too and therefore had to agree.

Yummy things though... Krak liked bones too? This confused the small red chick, who thought eating bones was confusing and odd. She was much more of a small insect and fungi bird and she quite liked all of those things more than crunchy dead things. She tilted her head and continued to poke at her gem and look at how shiny it was, all the pretty colors.

And then she remembered she hadn't said her name to either of them. With a hop away from the bones that the crow wanted to have a piece of, the Pitohui introduced herself. "I'm Bevy." That name still seemed not quite right, Bevy, but she couldn't understand why and she hadn't figured out a proper, nicer name so that's what she was stuck with. "Krak, this is Aza'zel. I'm sure there's plenty of bones to go around, if that's your thing." Oh, hopefully they wouldn't ask her to try some. It seemed awfully gross.

The other birdie chirped happily, but then was confused when little Aza'zel spoke of 'here'. Nobody knew where 'here' was? Even if he was disheartened, the recently hatched Gembound was far too focused on his meal. Greedily, he picked out the yummy bone marrow. He felt a strange pang in his belly, indicating that he was full... and he'd only eaten a quarter of the bone's innards. "Sleepy? Yeah." Just as he set out to retreat from the bone, a loud caw could be heard, a raucous voice echoing in the chamber. To-be rufous crown whirled lazily to the new guest, a small carrion-eater... but a bird nonetheless.

The jet-black critter instantly was drawn to his friend, gazing deeply into a previously unnoticed stone on her breast. Aza'zel squeaked quietly and craned his head around to stare at his own 'shiny'. "Have shiny, too!" He chirped indignantly, turning around and showing the other Gembound his red jasper, dull from recent magic usuage. Fluffing his downy little tail feathers, the prince of the bone pit swelled his chest. This other girl wasn't the only one who had shinies! Even this jet-black birdie had a shiny! Waddling over, he gazed down at the middle left talon of the other birdie. What color was that. Purple, right? "All have shiny!" He proclaimed, his theory correct. All Gembound had shinies! But... we're shinies called gems when they were on bounds? Right? His head hurt thinking about that.

Just as he opened his little beak to ask if this were another bird, the obsidian hatchling cawed loudly again. He wanted a share of his bone? "Krak have bone." Motioning to his stomach, the young ave shook his head. "Yummy void can't hold more." What was that called? Looking down solemnly, bright and innocent eyes squinted at where his void was. That was where he was sure that his yummy meal had gone. That place hurt when he put too much in it. So it wasn't a void? Too many questions!

Finally, the first birdie gave him a name. Bevy. "Bevy! Bevy Bevy Bevy!" He chirped, singing her name in a little tune. He liked the sound of that name. It was fun to say! The young ave looked to the jet-black carrion-eater, who was probably already feasting upon the remaining three quarters of his meal, and tilted his head when Bevy gave him a name. "Krak? Aza'zel!" Nodding cheerfully, he looked toward the bones scattered about the room. Yep, definitely enough bones. The Gembound then stared up at with his widest and most innocent eyes. "Try some? Yummy in void!" The chick inquired, trying to charm Bevy into trying something new. Who wouldn't love eating bone marrow! It were yummy!

"Speech"

KRAKARAK

"my precious"

---

It seemed as if the vulture wasn't to be ignored about his gem. Krakarak turned his attention to the larger one, eyes flicking to the previously unseen stone. He pointed with one jet-black wing at the stone. "Ah, do have stone!" The dull red color was different than anything else he had seen though a little lackluster for his tastes. The young raven didn't know that was due to the poor vulture having used his powers earlier so he turned his attention back to the shiny breast gem of the smaller bird. It wasn't as if he were actively trying to ignore him, he was just attracted to the shinier gem. It was probably even a good thing that he didn't grow overly fascinated with Aza's gem. It could be nothing but trouble later. Actually, it allowed him to better focus on the vulture's words if he wasn't oggling at the red gem. "All have shinies?" Now that he thought about it... everyone and everything that he'd met had had shinies. The vulture was right! "Yes yes! Krak Krak! All have shiny!" He agreed raucously in excitement.

Krak have bone? He was going to share! The dark bird clacked his beak happily and bounced from foot to foot in his joy. "Krakarak thanks you!" He'd hadn't even had to bully his way to a meal. Why, this fellow seemed more than happy to share! Anyone who would share and be see nice about it was a friend in his book. "Krak likes food to fill his," Hmm... What had the other called it? "Yummy void! Yummy void!" He liked the way that word sounded. Just like his name he loved to repeat things he loved...

The raven hopped over to the bone and began picking at the tasty marrow. It was delicious! Tastier even than the few bugs --very few-- he'd managed to catch in his young life. "Yummy!" He lowered his head and peered between his legs back at the pair behind him. Bevy? And Aza'zel? Hmm... Those were good names. He especially liked Aza'zel. It had harsh sounds like his own name that would be fun to say. "Aza'zel! Bevy!" He mimicked. Still peering between his legs he stared at the vulture as he tried to entice the small bird to try some marrow. He felt a flash of jealousy and annoyance through him. Why, this was his marrow now! She couldn't have it! And yet... He lifted his head up the right way and peered closely at Bevy. For some reason he had the feeling that she didn't want any of the marrow... Hmm...

"Yeah yeah! Try some, Bevy! It good!" Just to show how good it was he pecked some of the marrow into his mouth then opened it to show her. The impudent little boy that he was.

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---

words: 473
tagged: Aza'zel
ooc: ---
muse: 6/10

"Talking looks like this."
Thinking looks like this...

Bevy was fairly sure that she didn't want to eat bones of all things, but suddenly they were all pressuring her to. Her feathers ruffled as a strange feeling of pressure-- not physically, but emotionally-- filled her and pushed her gently forward. Before she knew it, she was taking timid hops closer. "O-oh, um, thank you." Her eyes nervously flicked between Aza's big, almost scary puppy eyes, and Krak's open mouth. She shook her head and nestled down by one of the broken bones, eyeing the marrow. How was she supposed to get it out? With her beak, right?

So the chick put a set of talons over one end and poked at the marrow, trying to get a little. Her beak wasn't quite made for it, but eventually she managed to scoop up a little and get it in her mouth. She hopped back away from the bone as soon as she got just a smidge, feeling the strange taste in her mouth.

Determined to get it over with, she swallowed it and ran her tongue around in her beak, trying to get the taste out. Thankfully she could pull a smile to her eyes and nodded enthusiastically once it was all down. "A-ah! It's alright. Not really my thing. Bugs better." She eyed the pair of them again, feeling quite out of place. They both liked weird, sickly bones, and she didn't. They seemed to like her well enough, but maybe they would realize she wasn't the same kind of bird as her. Her crimson chest feathers ruffled and she quickly went to preen them, hoping neither of them would insist she have even more. She would have to refuse them then, because the taste was something that still lingered in her mouth and she was deciding more and more that she wasn't fond of it at all.

"Bevy will stick to bugs," she chirped quietly, beak in her feathers, half cleaning half trying to wipe the taste from her mouth. "If that's alright..."

The raven hatchling egged the girl named Bevy on, and combined, the two managed to convince the bird to try some. As she plucked out marrow and attempted to eat it. Apparently some birds were meant to eat bones and some were not. Bevy was one of those. Distaste was obvious in her, and the tired little vulture yawned lazily, goggling at Bevy. How couldn't she like bones? They were so yummy!

Bugs. What were those? Pale white head tilted, bright eyes wide with curiousity. "Bugs? What are bugs?" He squeaked, looking around for these supposed bugs. The name sounded familiar somehow, but it was a blurry area. Gazing up at Bevy, the hatchling chirped, waiting for an answer, almost ignoring Krakarak. Besides, he didn't want to interrupt his meal!

"Speech"

ooc ~ omg, sorry for the crappy post, I suddenly can't play tiny Aza anymore. Next one will be better!

Krak watched and waited as the smaller bird hopped over to sample the marrow. A little, muted snigger came up in his throat as he watched her run her tongue around her beak almost disdainfully. If he expected her to splutter in and gag in distaste he was disappointing as Bevy simply smiled and complimented it. How anticlimactic. Still she had a point. Bugs were pretty good too, he liked them just as much as bones. "Krakah! Marrow good too! Bevy don't know what's good and what's not!" Well, if she wouldn't elicit a funny response from the marrow maybe he could get one by poking fun.

He knew that Aza'zel was asking his question to Bevy but for some reason being almost ignored by the large bird rubbed him the wrong way. He croaked to himself slightly in annoyance before dipping his head down to partake in the rest of his bone marrow. Perhaps the vulture spoke to the other just to let him eat in peace but Krakarak didn't care. He could be selfish sometimes and now that Aza had shared the marrow and like interests he wanted his attention. However, he would be patient... Perhaps it was the marrow keeping his beak shut but that couldn't last forever. "Krak likes bugs." He said briefly taking a break from his meal before pecking more marrow out.

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words: 228
tagged: Aza'zel, Bevy
ooc: ---
muse: 4/10

"Talking"
Thinking

table by chelsea