ORIGIN - in the garden

It seemed that all too often, Aethril teetered on the edge of a mental break. As much as she pined to be back out in fresh air under a starry sky again, the Palace gardens offered a brief respite from everything else. She found herself laying in the grass here often, or snoozing on a bench. Whenever she did, it seemed as though Isra would send for fruits or drinks to settle next to her for when she awoke.

... if nothing else, at least Isra was there.

This was one of the situations she had found herself in today. She fretted about the Creator coming and demanding His army, becoming unsatisfied with what was in the nest, and killing everyone. Then, she slept in the gardens, and awoke to the smell of sweet tea and chilled fruit. No sign of Isra, but there were plenty of ivory deer milling around, nosing at the surrounding gardens.

Perhaps it isn't too bad, she tried to convince herself as she took a block of honeydew and promptly stuck it into her mouth, heaving herself to sit. The silks that draped her shoulders fell around her like water running down cliffsides, pooling in the grass with her legs. Everyone is still alive.

A huff. The Valkhand lifted the cup into her hands and watched the pristine cervines click back and forth in the courtyard. She should check up and see how Vargas was doing soon, perhaps-- or walk to Pisces, sometime, and check in on how Tenzin was recovering.

For now? Aethril did not intend to move a damn inch.

@Umbriel

It spent most of the time in the gardens. There WAS the palace, but the multitude of rooms was confusing to navigate. And there wasn't much interesting to see or do, aside from the 'theatre' which it found it couldn't stand for long. The gardens meanwhile rustled with life and burbled with the sound of fresh water. It'd keep watch on the ongoings- watching the gardener do her work or the gaggle of humanoid creatures that had built a little home in the shadow of the palace.

Right now it wasn't all that different- creeping slowly through the gardens, ears flicking two and through and pure-white eyes scrutinizing the environment. Everything seemed to be usual- bugs buzzing around the garden's flowers, hellswans in the river, ivory deer trimming the grass. Then it spotted The Hand.

Given it's relative newness it wasn't entire aware of the hierarchy of things, but it did know the Valkhand was at the very top. It would watch from a safe distance for a couple moments, and then approach with the sort of cautious elegance that almost mirrored the nearby ivory deer. A few of said deer fled from it's approach, but many seemed unperturbed, or more preoccupied with their lunch. Another small pause as it got close.

And then, with a surprising amount of innocence. "What are you doing?"

@Aethril

Aethril had stuck another piece of fruit in her mouth when the deer had suddenly scattered with a melodic clicking of hooves. A glance and-- ahh, Umbriel, snaking quietly forward. It was a shame she hadn't made them smaller, for they could have been quite subtle otherwise. There was scarce time for redos, however.

"Sitting," the Valkhand responded (because that was what she was doing). "Do you not sit?" With those legs, perhaps loafing would be a more accurate word, but the Valkhound should be capable of such anyway. With a swig of tea, she pat the grass. "Try it."

A few seconds of silence went by, after her offer. Aethril spent it eating another piece of fruit and studying her creation with a critical eye-- that damn size was an issue, but perhaps she could make it work. It was intimidating, at least.

And, it seemed, it was curious. Good.

"How are you settling in?" She asked, a little more conversationally than she expected of herself. Obieth, though, seemed to have some issues with it, too-- perhaps if she could somehow find a bed big enough for Umbriel, it might help them, too. A brief, thoughtful rumble and-- "is there anything the matter, thus far?"

@Umbriel

'Sitting' The Valkhand had replied. Umbriel could very much SEE that she was sitting, which rendered the question kind of a moot point. It's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, but it didn't have much time to be disgruntled before it was presented with a challenge. To be fair, sitting wasn't much of a challenge, which only made it even more eager to accept. It even mimicked the way Aethril- a humanoid- would sit, legs sticking straight out in front of it. It looked quite silly.

It pondered the next question for a little bit. "I'm good." It replied, because it really didn't have much to complain about, right? Except for the lack any suitably sized bed though Umbriel had solved that problem itself, taking whatever spare blankets and pillows and soft things it could find into a spare room to make it's own nest. And maybe other than that, there was the boredom.

So maybe it did have one small complaint, then.

"I do not know what to do." And then, it'd elaborate. "It is boring here. The gardens and the palace are neat. I want..." Despite the newness of the sudden twisting, thrashing force in it's mind, it knew exactly what it was. Chaos. Corruption. It knew where to go to calm- to stabilize- this sort of thing, and it went there often enough, it though. Was it not enough, or was the chaos deep in it- in it's blood, bones, and stone? It had the feeling it was the latter.

Or maybe it was just being dramatic about the whole 'boredom' thing.

@Aethril She sit

It sat.

Something about it rang distantly familiar. A core memory that plucked at the very back of Aethril's mind of grey birds loafed on the moor, their dark feathers awash with a miasma of colours from a sky stuck in perpetual dusk. Some might have been comforted by the reminder-- the Valkhand, however, found a sour taste sitting in the back of her tongue.

Instead, she looked away, and she listened for a time as Umbriel voiced its little concerns. There was the slightest scoff that arose from her throat when it trailed off-- it didn't need to finish the thought.

"The palace is not yours to tear apart," said Aethril, in a tone that could be defined as reprimanding, if she didn't sound ultimately quite amused by the thought. "You and I-- we are created the same. We are imbued with Chaos itself. We live our lives suppressing the need to destroy and kill and rip apart until the day The Creator tells us to unleash it all on whatever might stand in His way."

"Until that day, nothing will quell your boredom. All we can do is our best until we're killed or carried away. But we can at least try to give you some inkling of satisfaction to tide you over." she offered, glancing over the bird again, eyes sparkling. "What sort of Chaos do you crave most?"

@Umbriel

Aethril could probably feel those pure white foglights of eyes drilling into her even as she looked away. It'd occasionally look away, to focus on the nearby ivory deer or some other flicker of movement or distant sound that caught it's attention. But it's always return it's gaze to Aethril- as was polite during conversation. And a tad bit unnerving.

It'd stiffen just a tad Aethril's response, though it quickly registered what sounded like amusement. Though that brought just a little bit of chaos-tinged annoyance bubbling up. It didn't like being treated like some child, even if that was more or less what it was, given it's lack of experience with... nearly everything. It'd listen to the rest of what Aethril said, of course.

But all of that sounded.. well... It sounded like it'd kinda suck, to be completely honest. A constant urge that it couldn't hope to sate until some nebulous, far-off future arrived. But it couldn't really DO anything about that, except attempting to find whatever 'satisfaction' Aethril was talking about. It's ponder what sort of chaos it even wanted. Chaos could be nearly anything, right? That was the nature of it, to be everchanging. "Anything." It'd reply after a moment, "Anything that I can tear apart. Anything that won't ruin something important." It's tail lashed across the grass like some eldritch feather duster as it waited for an answer.

@Aethril