2024-06-15 - East

barely any need to reach now! outward and inward press closer together - at least, parts of what is outward. not mother's ceaseless river of words-thoughts-colours-feelings, but...

it searches for the right words, the right shapes. bundles and bursts and tightly curled knots just like it curls in on itself

but in this now it drifts its attention outward

"not-me," it says, the only label it knows. "who?"

It perks up at the gentle nudge of the the word-feelings that split into existence, words anew like like galaxies being birth for the first time. Feeling its companions mind-link press against it conscious, the feeling distinct and diffrent from Mother's flow of thoughts, pressure and warmth.

It grasps at words, feelings to express the excitement of new minds finally being in reach. "Not-Mother!" It projects feelings of warmth-excitement along with the words. Words it flung at the mind as if they answered any and every question.

such enthusiasm that for a moment it is afraid, these feelings so strong and bright that they will collide and entangle and utterly overwhelm its own senses

but the moment passes, the fear fades (but leaves an unpleasant lingering trace)

"not-mother," it agrees, reaching out again. even if it is more cautious, it is glad to speak and be heard. a thing it has snatched from the minds of mother and those that visit rises up, and tentatively, it tries, "hello?"

It recoils slightly, the feelings of apprehension and traces of fear smouldering the excitement that it projected so vividly into a mind that could finally understand the words that it tried to express.

It pulls away, not answering The Call immediately. Unsure, out of balance, and- something. It had no words for the uncomfortable feeling knotted tightly at the core of who they were. All they knew was that causing such a reaction like that did not feel good. It mulls over words, picking them apart with consideration. After some time it echos the word back, "Hello?" carried by concern, unbridled. Unable to restrain themselves, they tack on another word. "Hello.. why?"

this round of call and call back is easier, now that it knows it will be replied to. this time the excitement does not surge over it, and a different feeling, attentive but not nearly so bright, fizzes around it

the other is... worried? worry, a feeling mother sometimes has too, but this is smaller and closer and not the great shifting tides surrounding them all

but it is warmed by the worry, that the other does not want to crash in and erode it away

"afraid. sudden," it says, trying to press into the word the meaning that it now is better and surer. "much." all it has known until this now is the weather of mother's moods, and its own reaching

It is, perhaps, a little late in its arrival, a sudden joyful presence surging the gap between Violet Skies and its siblings.

"I! I! I! Hello! You!" Overenthusiastic, it throws the entirety of it's being into its communications, a screaming intrusion into the conversation.

It flinches the new presence's overwhelming emotions, surging over their own like a tide and knocking out any reply it could have given towards the more familiar mindscape. Innate understanding filled it as it now understood how it must have felt when its own excitement bombarded it.

For both of their sakes, it projected soothing feelings towards the mindscape along with a word it occasionally felt Mother project to Others. "Quiet" and then parroted back the words the familiar mind had just projected "Afraid, Loud", the tone the words were carried by was almost scolding the new presence for not paying attention.