Manual/accelerated quest progression.

Exhausted after having to traverse the caves herself to gather her items, Nemean tied the last of the arrows she was making with an angry buzzing. The hand was stuck in a disapproving thumbs-down position and moved with her as she stomped around the generator, deciding to power it back on herself. If the lights came back on, surely the Gembounds would come back to investigate? She did still need Batcat, but did not want to find the nasty thing herself. With a flustered hmph, the sprite returned power to the generator, glaring at the light that began to illuminate within the bulbs. She flitted around to the top of the groaning machine and waited with her arms crossed, tapping her foot impatiently.

Join This Quest

If you would like to participate in this quest, post with your character in this thread. Completing this quest will require some teamwork, so don't be afraid to roleplay it out! Feel free to request a GM when you feel you may be ready to proceed.

Participants: Felina, Kyorai, Xireidi, Gabriel

Like any Lone Gembound, Felina the female bobcat, was curious about the sudden bright light that awakened her from her night's slumber. After she finished cleaning herself and turning the soft, yellowed grass she slept on, she sniffed around. When her eyes adjusted to the brighter-than-usual light, she followed her nose to a scent that wasn't familiar to her.

The bits of clover that scented her bed was still lightly lingering on her fur. Felina was a bit anxious that another creature might pick up her scent. Despite this, her curiosity drove her to walk onward.

Felina passed by a few of the occupied areas of the Cave. She did want to find out who lived in each one, but she kept strolling towards the elusive scent. Surrounding sounds were picked up by her ears as her paws carried her closer to the intense light.

((OOC: Fast forwarding here because I still have to prepare some things for my real life job.))

Felina's pupils were now just a pair of soft brown almost-pinpoints. When she stood at the very edge of the light, she saw a figure. Her nose identified the figure as female. *Possibly* a feline, but definitely different from herself.

Overcome by inquisitiveness, Felina addressed the female form inside the light: "Hello. My name's Felina. What's yours? I can see you're some kind of cat, but what kind? Do you know anything about the much-too-bright light that appeared so suddenly? I hope you don't mind that I'm asking you all these questions." Her tone was respectful, of course.

Diedi last night in my dreams "Kyo Speaks" | Kyo Thinks --- A yawn escaped his maw as he made his way through a tunnel he knew would lead him to a very familiar place. It has been a bit since he ventured into crystal-filled area. Mind was under the impression that things would have likely switched up from his last seeing. Form moved awkwardly from this different shift in how his size changed from his much smaller self. It was weird feeling a lot heftier than what he was beforehand. It was great in a way since he did not have to worry about getting knocked off his paws so easily! Although springy steps took a bit more work with stumpy legs now longer and limber. Much has reshaped upon himself; camping out in the south-west quadrant for majority of his time. It was about time he go and check around the cave for once. Everything still remained dark it appeared—glowing stone barely lighting up the passage due to hiding in his tail. The dog paused at the entrance from Tunnel I to Polaris. Most seemed ordinary, crystals still giving off their glow. He snorted in a sort of relief, readying a paw to move forward; however, while a step was being made, the lights came back on. Immediately was he surprised by the light but stun as eyes had since grown use to its absence and the softness of his own. "Oh, wow... wow, wow, wow, wow, wa-" he uttered, dropping his stone from his abrupt movement and bringing forepaw to rub his eyes. Well, it was spoken too soon to say things were in their original place. Shaking his coat, he closed his eyes and retrieved his dropped stone, deciding to walk around "blind" for a bit until he felt the need to see. Memory would draw a path he recalled, sniffing about the ground while heading fully into Polaris. Tracking around, he stopped when he caught a slight whiff of something; pace slowing down while figuring out what it could be. Despite not finding any familiarity to it, ears picked up on a voice not far at all. Carefully uncovering eyes, he allowed them to adjust to the returning light while he sauntered over to the location of the voice. Now, that there was less discomfort in keeping sight available, he was able to view two creatures: one more peculiar than the other. Noticing the winged one's rather irritated demeanor, he figured something happened between them. Even if such was not the case, the male could not help but go over and investigate. Ears pressed on skull to dish out the foreign object that was creating a continuous noise. Shortening the distance, he sat next to where the kitten was, looking down at her with a curious gaze before turning attention onto the other. "You two got nothing bad going on, hmm? Say, what is going on as you sit on that strange object?" he questioned, tilting his head.

Ner the edge of Polaris, within a cave barely large enough to be considered an alcove, a large red wolf slept. Life had become steady in the past few cycles. He ate, he slept, he visited, he waited. The great danger he expected to come from the darkness had never appeared though, and over time this rhythm of day to day life began to feel more natural and less like the baited breath before a great disaster. No envoy of the great and terrible entity of flame and shadow had made itself known and at this point Xireidi was really beginning to wonder if that had been but a childhood fancy. He had not tried to invoke the spirit of unveiled secrets that powered his magic since awakening from hibernation cycles ago, there had been no need to do such. A small part of him felt he was perhaps abandoning his duty but as time passed it became more and more apparent that it was okay for him to just relax.

Light flooded Xireidi's vision, at first making him think that Kyorai was visiting again and pulling a trick with glowing crystals, but the intensity was much too much for even that. The wolf's single good eye opened, immediately prompting him to fully awaken with a start. Before him, for the first time in what seemed like ages, was not a great expanse of darkness but a fully lit, well defined view of the core!

Any sign of fatigue the wolf may have had dropped in an instant as he bolted outside to confirm it was no mere illusion. This was indeed the cave, fully lit just as it had been in his youth. He didn't see anyone in his immediate vicinity, but surely this meant something was going on; and if something were happening it would almost certainly be somewhere within this great room.

Thus Xireidi began to run, carefully at first as he had gotten used to having to watch out for near invisible obstacles but soon in an all-out sprint like he had been unable to perform anywhere within recent memory. Life... there were signs of life near the generator. A cat and a... magical winged cat?

Wasting no time the canine veered into the turn and rushed toward the small gathering, noting a familiar figure join ahead of him. 'Seems I'm not the only one who's noticed' he thought to himself, slowing first to a canter and then a fast walk as he neared. "Are you two.." he started, his breath coming heavy as his heart raced to keep up with the sudden change in activity level, "responsible for the return of the light?"

---

"The words I speak"
The thoughts I hold
And the self I keep hidden away
tags:
notes: None

As the lights had flickered back into life, Gabriel had grabbed the first bone it had seen with a gem embedded in it, and then headed back towards Polaris. Of course, not that it mattered now, and not like it was big enough to carry all the gems needed anyway, but even so, the pup thought it might just be able to study it.

Sleek tail fur trailing behind it and hair dancing about its shoulders, in the time that had passed between its given task and now Gabriel had aged from a scraggly pup into a full grown dog. With its flowing hair and bare pink skin, Gabriel now carried with it an eerie sense of majesty even as it skulked forward with a thigh bone much wider than itself.

Gabriel should have known better than to let itself get wound up in the follies of the emotion-driven. It had turned out to be foolish, and lead to nothing but pointless floundering when they failed to realize that there were viable gems scattered throughout Canis.

But regretting it was pointless. Gabriel knew now, at least. As it approached the generator, head heavy with the bone it carried, the dog's body was low in a humble expression of apology. It dropped the bone on the bank close by where the generator churned as a thinly-veiled peace offering, before setting itself down with whiskery ears perked to attention.

"My humblest apologies, ma'am. 'Twas folly of me to so readily trust the Emotion-Driven, and we have suffered for it." Since it was a pup, its voice had barely changed in tone and pitch. Still, it carried the timeless ring of youth. Likely, it always would.



"Speech looks like this."
"Thoughts looks like this."

tags: here
notes: here

First to approach was a small bobcat, and as Nemean had hoped, the Gembound had come to the generator because of the lights. The floating hand next to her snapped and gave a thumbs-up, but Felina's questions continued, and worst of all, Felina asked about Nemean herself. The sprite would have been happy to answer about the lights, but herself?

"Oh, darling," Nemean sobbed, covering her face with one of her small hands. "Here I was, in such a bad mood, but you've come to ask about little ol' me?" Another hand materialized next to the other, and they clapped together several times, while Nemean remained beneath the with her face still hidden. She couldn't reveal the twisted mix of a self-indulgent grin and still-lingering pouting. Spot lights burst on around her, while the cave-lights in the area seemed to dim, and a grand display of fireworks suddenly sparkled around Nemean's figure as she twirled upward from her sitting position on the generator. Her wings glimmered with a dazzling sheen and a strange, echoing loudness of applause manifested from thin air.

"Why, Felina! My name is Nemean! I am your friendly, helpful sprite!" With a hand on her chest, and a hand extended outward, Nemean dipped her head back and let the sound of a cheering crowd boost her ego as more fireworks lit up the small space around her. The spotlights danced across her figure as Nemean twirled in place, waving her extended hand. And then, with the snap of one of the materialized hands, the fireworks and the cheering vanished with the cave-lights returning to normal. Flitting back to her spot on the generator, Nemean took several bows and mouthed several thank-you's before sitting back down.

It wasn't long before others approached. Everyone wanted to know—who was responsible for turning the lights back on? She watched them all with idle curiosity until Gabriel returned, peering down to the bone offering with a raised brow. "Well! We all trusted wrong at some time or another!" she laughed annoyingly, making a point to pat the arrows she made with the materials she had to gather herself. She sprang up, looking toward the others that had gathered, and clapped her small hands. She pointed to the one closest, listening to the sounds. "This is a generator, small pup, it uses the stream to power the lights! And I fixed it! So you can thank me—yes, me, Nemean—for the lights coming back on!" She outstretched her arms and took a wide stance, looking prideful. Another hand materialized and both of the floating hands clapped together.

After a moment of self-gloating, Nemean snapped her fingers, and the extra hand dissipated. She pointed down toward Gabriel's bone gift and the floating hand did also. "Thanks! I need one more thing still! You guys gotta be brave enough to find it though—um," her words broke as she glanced down to the bobcat kitten, with one of her small hands covering her mouth. After a brief second, she gave Felina a thumbs-up. "Okay Felina, you scored the big prize. You're off the hook. You get to hang out with cute lil' me. Me and you are gonna have a blast," Nemean cooed, giving Felina a big wink. "Unless you really wanna go, but they gotta go find something scary, so... up to you, kid."

Turning her eyes up to the rest of them, she put her hands on her hips and tried to look fierce. "Okay, soldiers! Are you guys ready!?" Nemean roared, spotlights suddenly turning on to illuminate each of the gathered participants. "I need you guys to bring me that feisty creature known as Batcat." She snapped her fingers, and a materialized image of it appeared next to her. "This ugly thing. Okay! Think you can find it? We need his help," she suggested, but then didn't say for what. Her original excuse was that it could navigate the dark caves the best, but that wouldn't work now.

"He's strong and can fly, and can navigate dark places where there are not lights," she offered, pointing to the arrows. "I'm on a mission, okay, but if you help me out, I will give you that cool thing still, this rock, yeah?" Nemean gestured to the rock that still lay on the ground, which she had unearthed some time ago. For some reason, it had started to glow a purple color with the return of the lights. Nemean stared at it an extra second, pointing to with more urgency. "Look! It's special!"

@Felina @Kyorai @Xireidi @Gabriel

The little sprite's self absorbed words barely grazed over Gabriel's ear canals. The dog heard them, but their meaning was not important. Gabriel was not one to pander to self-indulgence and pride, however it knew that it was definitely in its best interests to appeal to Nimean's. "I can assure, you won't be let down again, pretty sprite," Gabriel yipped, its youthful and childlike voice ringing loud and clear.

its gaze flitted for a moment to the gem the sprite sat beside, and Gabriel knew that it had to get it. The soft gleam that it seemed to give out intrigued the dog all the more.

Gabriel's learge ears quirked, tail curling behind it as she described the generator's function and purpose. The chinese crested knew that it had to be more complicated than that. Nothing in life was that simple. Still, the dog kept its mouth shut, and listened patiently. It had all the time in the world. Gabriel looked closely at the image that the sprite had conjured, taking the time to process every detail whilst the image lingered.

The sprite offered a meager excuse, and Gabriel got the impression that something was amiss. For one, magic (especially light magic) would undoubtedly find the answer to navigating in dark places. and for two; it didn't seem like this... 'batcat' could do anything that a regular Gembound couldn't. Or many Gembounds, for that matter. A hybrid could perhaps be made for that very purpose.... but, that was what this Batcat appeared to be! Fascinating!

With that in mind, Gabriel was ready to head out into the unknown, but needed some idea of where to start.

"Any thoughts on where we should begin our search?"

"Speech looks like this."
"Thoughts looks like this."

tags: here
notes: here

As the red wolf stood there it quickly became apparent that the winged cat creature was the one responsible for the lights coming on. Positively everything about the creature's presence seemed bright- both literally and metaphorically. Another canine approached that appeared to be familiar with the creature, though from the sound of it the oddly balding dog had not had not had the greatest luck in whatever task had been set before it. Had it been assisting with bringing the light back?

Xireidi's ears fell ever so slightly as Nimean explained the usage of the generator and how she'd fixed it up all by herself. He'd spend all this time in here mostly by himself assuming there was nothing he could do about the lights, that the only possible course of action was to wait it out and try to survive. Perhaps if he'd tried to invoke the spirit of his magic after all he would have discovered that there was more to do than just sit around. He'd been so focused at first waiting for disaster that he'd paralyzed his own actions, then after nothing happened he'd gotten too content to do anything.

The bark of a directive rung out from the odd sprite, snapping Xireidi back to attention. His eyes narrowed slightly as light shone down directly upon him and the other canines, but still gaze kept focused on Nimean as she conjured an image of another very odd looking creature.

"Batcat..." he repeated quietly. A very apt name from its appearance. Even more apt based on the description of its abilities. The rock offered as a reward held no interest for Xireidi; he already had a glowing rock that had been gifted him, and one that held some sentimental attachment now as it had helped ensure that he wouldn't waste away to hunger.

"Just point us in a general direction and we'll start the search." he spoke out with confidence. He'd apparently missed one opportunity to help the caves and wasn't about to miss out on another. If this creature had brought light and life back then surely she could be trusted, right?

---

"The words I speak"
The thoughts I hold
And the self I keep hidden away
tags: @Game Master CJ
notes: None

Felina couldn't believe Nemean's offer. She felt she didn't deserve accompanying the obviously superior-to-her female. But...and that's a very big "but"...maybe she'll stay anyhow. Maybe she'll learn something interesting...*maybe*.

She didn't know what "hang out" meant, but learning the definition of those two words was enough to make up her mind: "Yes, Lady Nemean, I'll 'hang out' with you...er...whatever that means."

Felina sat at the glowing female's feet. Of course, Felina made sure to maintain a proper distance. It was the right thing to do, after all.

((OOC: My posts tend to vary in length. I hope that's OK.))

Diedi last night in my dreams "Kyo Speaks" | Kyo Thinks --- Ears pressed forward in awaiting an answer when it seemed such would be put on pause when others entered the area. A look of confusion or perhaps concern drew across his face when seeing the hairless canine; more focused on appearance than the matter at hand. Though curled tail wiggled around in viewing a well known face, containing his excitement when trying to figure out what this how thing was about. Gaze clicked back onto the sprite when the sound of her clap startled the elkhound. Body slightly leaned away when noticing that the the small being was pointing at him, tilting skull in listening to them explain the purpose of the contraption before them. So, this was the source of the light? He was tempted to creep over and examine the thing himself but surely, he was too much of an eye catcher to do so. Kyorai snorted when told she deserved gratitude for fixing it, pawing at his still adjusting eyes. "I don't know, I could have gone blind!" admitting it, he turned his attention to the rest of the scene, listening to Nemean speak about needing a particular someone. Legs kicked him up onto all fours when hearing them ask whether they were ready. He certainly was ready, putting himself in a bow to have a start for his bound. However, he lost it quickly when they brought something to show the looks of the thing called "Batcat". A strange creature they were. Noting its description, he gave a cheeky grin when hearing they could navigate dark places. Well, they were not the only one! Ambling close to where Xireidi was, he sat and nodded at what the other canines questioned and stated. Multi-colored eyes were in awe when seeing the rock, smiling at the kitten in which accepted the sprites offer.