ORIGIN

For all the militant fanfare and routines, life in the Chaos Forge was rather monotonous. The Forge yawns awake at odd hours and steps into the hypersaturated light of Draco, and it goes about its business; the Overseer and Vargas's star teacher offer whatever necessary session for the day, reinforces what was learned, assigns the occasional new menial task to keep minds stimulated and hands busy. V-Chaos-Six does what is asked, and hardly much else.

Except to watch and keep an eye out—for it had taken its Master's occasional speeches about morale and well-being rather deeply to heart.

Cycles ago, a young V-Chaos-Six had caught one of the older Forge curled in on itself, three and a half hands clinging to chitinous knees. Toxic eyes had roamed over the creature's figure once Chaos-Six recognized it, and offered a quiet reassurance by way of a deadpanned "do not worry." No further prodding had been done, and the two of them sat in companionable silence while sniffles and sobs ebbed.

The Selenite's unsubtle glances at it afterward were hard to ignore, and they had hunted together more than once. It'd even offered a bloodied knife to Chaos-Six, and made a sort of... face, when it declined. (The reason why, it was still unsure and thought nothing of.)

Now, fully-grown and more than capable of any task put before it, Six had noticed something about a... large, blue being—Equinox, it recalled. He had attended some training, at one time. Focused on the defensive, protection. Afterward, he'd lumber off either to Pegasus—returning with flowers stuffed in the front of his mane, which Six had initially misinterpreted as a defensive technique, at first—or to his self-assigned Hole in the wall.

Six respected privacy enough to not follow him to either destination.

But that something was the lack of flowers. Movement. Activity. Anything.

It piqued the valkhound's interest, and so it did as most reasonable people would: scaled the pockmarked wall (which was an impressive feat in of itself, given the hoof situation) and draped itself over the opening of a hole it recognized as Equinox's. It didn't bother to check if he was inside—harmless as he seemed to be from afar—before letting a long, spindly arm hang over the edge of its own hole.

At the end of it was a fistful of flowers, none of which were complementary to each other or too appealing to look at (one was probably better described as a thorny stick). With absolutely no dramatic fanfare, Six opened their hand.

The flowers fluttered to the floor as it clicked its mandibles together with a sharp "Equinox." It hauled itself forward, balancing on their chest as they craned their neck to stare into the hole for any signs of life.
@Equinox

Equinox had, for lack of better or more elegant phrasing, had been having a bad time.

what had started as determined curiosity, a want to help and to grow and to simply exist in the space of others, had turned into an uncomfortable and stifling few months.

his first friend in the forge, chaos-two ( Maximus he corrected himself) had left, and by that nature, had been effectively banned from being contacted by any of them. everyone seemed sad, on edge, or simply uncomfortable. Equinox had no reason to distrust vargas, or the other members, but it did not mean he couldn't be upset.

not only that, but the blue beast stared down at chipped and broken claws, worn and snapped after days upon weeks upon months of painting the sorrow away before destroying it as fast as it came. sometimes it made the anger wash away, sometime it brought more. sometimes the sorrow had manifested in something beautiful, but the sudden jolt of primal rage and power would see it in ashes or in pieces, claws breaking the painted stone.

and, if only a minor problem, as salt to the wound, he couldn't even reach his mane to add flowers anymore. he tried, but his claws were simply too damaged to keep any hold on them, any that managed to stick being too torn to stay put.

if Equinox shed a few frustrated tears in the silent privacy of their draco hole, that was his business.

the sound of someone scaling the draco walls were hard to miss though, and so was the clawed hand that reached in, a fistfull of flowers (well, some were flowers anyway) falling scattered to the floor. a head poked in. chaos-six!

truth be told, chaos-six and equinox had never interacted much before, if at all. but that didn't mean equinox found the intrusion unwelcome. especially if they brought flowers.

"Chaos-six." he replied, eyes blinking up at it. "You brought flowers. come in, if you wish."
his tone was the best attempt at warm and inviting he could manage, still cursed with eternal resting growl-voice.

once more, if equinox was overjoyed to talk to someone without tension again, and was holding back giddy laughter, that was his business. he could laugh in his head.

@V-Chaos-Six

Eyestalks twitched, mandibles readjusted. V-Chaos-Six dipped its head in the briefest and most curt of nods—like this invitation was to a war room meeting, or something. Then, with orangutan-like grace (and reach), the valkhound swung downward on one arm, the other hand grasping for the edge below. Finding a grip, it positioned itself so it was perching just within the shadow of the womb-hole.

Brightly-glowing quills settled against its back as it nudged a flower toward its Forgemate in the least subtle way possible. "You don't have flowers in your hair," it stated blandly. Six looked up at Equinox for just a moment before setting itself back to rearranging the flowers in a nice, unsightly pile on the floor.

Once the pile was made, it nudged that forward.

V-Chaos-Six tried, "You... liked these?"
@Equinox