Kitty was not looking forward to this.

She had spent a while transporting all twenty five thulites into the slimy space individually, and then laboriously pulling them back out once she'd gotten back into her nest. Then she'd cleaned all of the stones, and then disposed of her gross bedding, and then she'd gotten new bedding, and now she was finally back and ready to start baubling them.

At least she didn't particularly mind keeping herself active.

So now came the most daunting task of all -- individually bauble-ing all twenty five thulites. It was... going to be one hell of a lot of work. However, she was prepared to buckle in and get it done. Especially when she considered the end result...!

She selected the first thulite. Time for a long night.

One down, many to go. It wasn't quite as bright as she would have liked, but when it was paired with its cousins, she hoped she would be able to pattern the variation in a charming way. The idea of how she'd string them up -- and where -- was exciting, to say the least. She decided they were probably too heavy to be held up by mere vines, but maybe she could bind them up in some kind of cord or leather. It wasn't like Kitty had objections to hunting and skinning things; she decorated her nest with feathers, after all.

Speaking of. Note to self, she mused, selecting the second one, get more feathers. Maybe she could Bauble some of those, too -- not the same pink glow as the thulites, but enough to be good night lights. She set her paw on top of the stone, and let her magic push into it.

Charmingly, this one was much brighter than expected. "I really am just lucky today, aren't I?" she said brightly, setting it aside. She was having an excellent day! Don't think about watching someone be murdered.

Only, it was kind of hard not to think about, especially when she was sitting here using accents for a life-stone torn untimely from its body as decorations. They were... beautiful, but a little gory. No more so than feathers, she reasoned. Besides, these were never alive in the first place, and the feathers were. Not so much alive as attached to an alive thing that she'd eaten, but... semantics.

Kitty rolled out the third stone. She wondered what the Voidmother would think of her continuing to eat meat. She didn't think she'd ever asked or mentioned it. The Voidmother was a pacifist; would she... care? Kitty frowned, looking down at her stone. Surely not; Kitty was an omnivore. She needed meat in her diet to be healthy!

A pinkish glow flashed from under her paw, and she rolled it into the pile with the others. Three down, twenty-two to go. She sighed, her tail curling around her paws. Maybe she should ask.

Madhukar is a cat, she reminded herself, taking the fourth stone. She eats meat. Surely the Voidmother doesn't mind if I do too, right? But the problem was, Kitty had never actually tried to be vegetarian. She wasn't sure if she'd get sick or not! The thought of potentially disappointing her Mother was... well, disappointing.

She stared down at it. "I don't suppose you have any advice?" she murmured, her magic flaring out. Pink rushed up to meet it, imbuing itself into the polished thulite as it joined the glowing pile with its friends. Now, though, Kitty was thinking -- why was the thought of upsetting Sunny so devastating to her?

That one, unfortunately, was easy. Kitty took the next stone. She had been a liar since the day she was born -- she'd told Madhukar a few lies, hadn't she? About seeing certain things that she hadn't seen. Sunny, too. Being exposed as a fraud... was terrifying to her. Would they even like me if they knew I wasn't special? she wondered.

Being able to see the past without using magic (or so she'd tricked Sunny into thinking) was a powerful thing indeed, and she wondered if the Voidcrawlers would even have use of her without it. They had the Voidseer, didn't they? He was better at this, probably. More experienced, for sure. She set her paw over the stone, ears laying back. Distantly, Kitty hoped she didn't accidentally imbue them with bad energy by being sad while she did this.

She huffed. One fifth there, but she was getting tired. She probably only had one or two more casts in her before she needed to rest.

Kitty mused over that, too. Magic and using it. She had heard that you got better at using magic the more you practiced it, and the more diverse you made it. The only problem was, she'd also heard that about fighting and thieving and smooth-talking. Kitty, in truth, did not know whatsoever what she wanted to do. As she looked down at the sixth stone resting under her paw, she decided that she would think about it.

"Magic," she said, talking to the stones more than she was to nothing. "It's volatile, random, and fails me at the worst of times. Sometimes I do super well, though. I'm decent at magic, but I don't know much of it. Party tricks. Making light and seeing the past and stuff. Detecting magic, now. I could learn how to do more, but do I want to do magic?" she said, doing magic. Pink flared to life underneath her, and she panted. Caves, she was exhausted.

Kitty pushed it over and laid down for a moment, not even curled up -- just flat on her back, staring up at the ceiling of her hollow with her paws on her chest. "Everyone's doing it. I've always wanted to be special, haven't I? Maybe doing something else could make me that."

Kitty huffed. Caves, she was tired. She let her eyes close for a moment, her mind still racing. "Next, fighting," she mumbled, quieter now but still speaking aloud. "I like keeping active. I like hunting and chasing things. I got beat up when I fought Comet, but she was way bigger than me and way more experienced. If I'd had a little more luck with her, and been a little more knowledgable, I could've probably beat her." Kitty mused over that fight pretty often. It had taught her an important lesson -- do not make assumptions about people, or underestimate them.

And, of course, don't pick fights lightly. The one claw was still shorter than the others, although she noted that it looked like it would probably be back soon. "Plus, that fight is what made me friends with Comet, in a roundabout way. I'm tiny, but I can use that to my advantage." She could climb up the sides of things like she had with Comet -- she was an excellent climber. Getting where they couldn't reach her was valuable, and she could theoretically carry weapons, too. She didn't have the best balance on two legs, but she could definitely walk like that.

Ah, but as for cons -- "But I never fight people," Kitty acquiesced. "And Voidcrawlers are pacifists. How do you practice fighting and get better at it if you're a pacifist?"

Kitty's tail flicked. She'd just rest for... a little bit longer. Just a few more minutes, really. In the meantime, she would continue to occupy herself with this line of reasoning. "As for doing literally anything else," she sighed. "Specifically -- manipulating. Manipulating me, other people, my environment... manipulating stuff is a rare skill, but a diverse one." She opened her eyes and looked around. "I make things all the time. I draw and stuff, I like to stalk my prey, and I... lie to people." She sighed. "I'd... get a lot of use out of getting better at those things."

She frowned. "But I don't know if I want to be known for that. For being a manipulator. Even if manipulating objects and stuff is relatively harmless, in the grand scheme of things."

She rolled over onto her stomach, tail curling behind her. "I don't really know what I want. Pretty much all I do is magic, on one hand, and on the other... well, everyone does magic." She sighed. "It's versatile and useful! Of course everyone will do it! But, all I've ever wanted my whole life is to be special. I want people to like me. I'm... a manipulator already." She seemed to shrink in on herself. "Maybe getting better at that wouldn't be so bad. It would keep me from getting caught."

Which, of course, was its own question -- why did she lie, why was she so afraid of getting caught -- but Kitty shook her head slightly. She sat up and sighed, looking at her pile of stones. "This would be easier to just do over a few days," she pointed out to the pile. "Unfortunately for you, I'm stubborn, even if I'm absolutely exhausted."

She selected thulite number seven from the pile. "I have another cast in me," she mumbled. "Then it's time to rest again." She wondered why she was being so stubborn about this. It wasn't like she couldn't do it over the course of a few days; nobody would have really cared except her. But she wanted to get it done -- to feel like she'd finished something.

When was the last time she'd finished something? Kitty wasn't even sure. Maybe after this I'll go flying, she decided. She still hadn't followed her vision of Azigh all the way through the rock wall -- she'd just never really gotten around to it. She sighed, placing her paw over number seven and pushing her magic out. The thulite started to glow, and she rolled it back over to the pile. "Flight," she mused. "I almost wonder why I wasn't blessed with it properly."