ORIGIN - Prepare for trouble (and make it double!)

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As the adrenaline made its way out, the Opal could only stare blankly as Nidhogg celebrated, the bat's tissues dripping slowly out of its bloodied mouth. Her first real fight had left her a bit scattered, to say the least - but she attempted to gather her mind with a swift lick of the lips, as she reminded herself of the fact she was, in fact, carnivorous.

"I think I already ate a lot of the face." He observed, attention drifting back to the corpse - A sense of pride thrummed weakly at the sight of the kill. It was all it could manage at the moment. "You can have what's left, though."

@Nidhogg

A better, more honorable or civilized Gembound (or Valkhound, as the case was) might have demurred, insisting that Opal-One eat their own kill.

But Nidhogg was none of those things, and at the offer he quickly jolted forward, snagging the body and thrashing. He twisted rapidly from side-to-side, like a crocodilian (perhaps betraying some of his ancestry), until gore and limbs were strewn about--then snagged up a couple mouthfuls, gulping them down whole past his line of tiny razor teeth.

At the very least, he seemed done with repeatedly yelling about biting and/or eating faces. And he didn't eat it all; either he wasn't hungry enough, or he did have some sense of fair play and sharing.

He also seemed to have forgotten that there had been some form of competition, instead turning to look V-Opal-One over more closely.

"Master Vargas did not make you," he observed, less shouty now, the hunt and the meal having perhaps somewhat sated his energy. "Where did you come from?" He'd gotten... hints and clues, of course. The yelling about names and titles, and all that. But it didn't really answer the question, for him, and where a smarter creature might've been able to guess, Nidhogg wasn't really prone to such reflection. "Are you Master Totum's?" he ventured, tilting his head to eye V-Opal-One with six eyes' worth of curiosity.

He'd already forgotten about the Opal asking about his sliminess, himself, and his own relationships. His answer--'maybe'--had been given because he honestly did not know.

@V-Opal-One

The Opal had though it'd made quite the mess, and it had in part - but it paled it comparison to Nidhogg's. It did not know whether it should've felt inadequate or relieved. She slid down to lay on her belly, feeling her exhaustion in her muscles and injured side, weakly leaking blood. She let her arms rest on her back, clasping her hands gently at her lower set of shoulders.

He barely registered Nidhogg's observation, content to lay in idleness as he recovered - but he blinked to life at the question (if only a little). "I am not Master Totum's - and I'm not Vargas' either. I am V-Labradorite-One's. But Lab was made by someone who was made by Vargas, maybe. Who is Totum?"

@Nidhogg

Nidhogg settled down, studying Opal-One with thoughtful interest. His head tilted this way and that as he considered the similarities between Opal and the Labradorite. "You are long," he observed at last, as a connection between the two. "And your head. One of your heads???" (and somehow, this sounded as if it had a string of question marks behind it, Nidhogg's bafflement drawn out) "-looks like theirs. And you're dark." But there was the issue of the second face, and the weird legs--Labradorite didn't have those, right-?

Nidhogg's memory wasn't... great, mostly because he rarely paid attention to anything that wasn't explicitly edible or murder-able.

"Totum's the other Master that works here." There was less hissing disgust (as there so often was at the mention of Vargas's name) and more indifference. It was clear that the topic simply wasn't interesting to him. "But maybe they helped make you."

In retrospect, it was weird that Labradorite, and by extension Opal, sort of looked like him. He knew his lifegiver was a relative of Dragon, the alligator, in Cetus--but Dragon wasn't long or black or oily any more than Vargas was. So why the hell did he look like this other family-?

"It's weird we sort of look alike," he said at last, only gradually drawing to this obvious conclusion. It made him a little uncomfortable, to think maybe his parentage wasn't exactly what he'd been told it was.

@V-Opal-One

He nodded along: Yes, correct, affirmative. He was all of these things (and much more, but she was forgiving of Nidhogg's omissions; One could not restrict her multitudes to words alone).

But suddenly, intrigue! "There are... More Masters?" The face that the Master Vargas could be one of multiple, many - that didn't seem right. He was big and powerful and VERY long and also quite bossy and a bit unpleasant: Therefore he was in charge. Him having to negotiate that power with others - impossible, preposterous.

"Well, I haven't seen him before." She sniffed. "If he created me, than he doesn't seem to care very much. Totum's loss, clearly.

It blinked at his observation, digesting the thought. "I don't think its weird." But when no obvious response or answer presented itself to it, it reverted.

"I think its weird that you are limited to one face, but living contains many many mysteries."

@Nidhogg

Nidhogg
Jun 06 2023, 08:49 AM

Uh-oh, here came the insults: Nidhogg bristled, quills clattering and cresting, at the mention of his face again. "Yeah?! Most only have one face!" he hissed, defensively. "So... YOU'RE the mystery!" There. He'd sure told them.

A swift scurry sent him coiling up a boulder, crouched sideways. Tongue flicked. "OF COURSE there are more Masters!" he sneered, as if everybody knew this. But his two-celled brain had issues, in that moment, thinking of them. He knew they existed, sure, but names?

On the spot?

"THERE IS ASTRAEA," he half-shrieked, as he remembered, and-... and...

Nidhogg's brain continued to draw a blank, otherwise. He'd literally seen Farina, but right then-? He just. He couldn't; he made something up, instead. "STOD," he said. And stared at V-Opal-One. "MASTER STOD."

...Yeah. Yeah, Stod sounded good. He was so smart.

@V-Opal-One

V-Opal-One
Jun 11 2023, 10:11 PM

Opal wished briefly that it too had quills to rattle; They made a fascinating noise and did well to communicate Nidhogg's insecurity (at having one face, of course.) She thought about referring to the Jasper's to support her own case, but after consideration, they probably didn't count. He was, after all, one mind in one body - the Jaspers were two. Two faces for two minds was pretty regular.

"Yeah... I'm complex. You (with your one face) could never understand." He sniffed.

Anyways, more important things. There were more masters! It would need some time to decide how it actually felt about this - more masters could mean more opportunities to get bossed around. But... Master Astraea, Master Stod, Master Totum... That is a lot. Very much. Too much?" A hand moved to tap her upper chin. "Does Vargas boss them around too? Or is it the other way?" His eyes squinted, trying very hard to visualise what the Masters interacting.

@Nidhogg

Nidhogg
Jun 12 2023, 01:20 PM

"I UNDERSTAND IT'S STUPID," he said, then arched himself sky-high in pride at this devastating insult. Quills stood fully erect, head held as tall as he could get it. He looked like a noble and terrifying statue, set in jade and obsidian, sculpted from pure idiocy.

...Moving on.

"THEY ARE ALL MASTERS." Truth be told, Nidhogg wasn't one hundred percent sure how it worked--but for once, he had made a fairly correct and logical assumption: that if they all shared one title, they must all therefore share one rank. "THERE ARE HANDS ABOVE THEM. ONE MELTED AN OWL. AND ONE MELTED A GOAT." (It had been an antelope, but never mind.) "The hands can do that JUST BY LOOKING at something! So the Masters obey them. IF A HAND COMES WE HAVE TO BOW AND BACK AWAY."

This last was given with surprising harshness, Nidhogg leaning over to stare at V-Opal-One. He was impressing the severity of all of this, the danger: a Valkhand could and would just nuke them from existence for looking at something wrong. At least in Nidhogg's mind.

"I TRIED TO EAT THE OWL BUT THE HAND-THING TOOK OVER MY BODY AND FILLED MY BRAIN WITH THINGS." This--all of it--was given at a wailing screech, head tilted back in dramatic mourning. It hadn't been the Valkhand to do this, but Nidhogg didn't know that. He just knew he'd gotten too close and something had jerked his body away like a puppet on strings and filled his mind with terror. He'd heard TURN BACK in all capital letters roaring through his mind, and he never wanted that again.

@V-Opal-One

V-Opal-One
Jul 10 2023, 08:36 PM

The opal’s shell was beginning to harden, accustomed to the verbal prodding its lizard friend was prone to. All bark, no bite - still, as Nidhogg rose taller in his stubborn pride, she did the same knowing she still had height on him, all thanks to her peculiar design. She strained against her own weight, knowing she was suffering from success.

”Well, plenty of things in the Forge are not masters. And yet they’re JUST AS ANNOYING (SOMETIMES). And hands are below, unless you’re holding them up - or you are me, and are made better.” He dismissed the rest as nonsense blathering. What hands had eyes to look with? Or melted things? Hands attached to something that could already do that.

It showed little empathy or understanding for the personal anecdote. ”Now you’re just being silly.” It was all still a game to them - monsters didn’t exist, and if they did, they couldn’t hurt it under the covers.

@Nidhogg

Nidhogg
Jul 11 2023, 08:47 AM

It was very possible that, once Opal-One was an adult, they would be intimidating. For now, Nidhogg simply stared blankly at their attempt to puff and strain taller.

The attempt at tallness was shrugged mentally away, not understood for what it was. It sort of looked, to him, like weird stretching.

"Not THAT hand. It's what they're called," he crowed, triumphantly. "Go to the PALACE if you DON'T BELIEVE ME. GO TO THE PALACE AND TELL THE HAND THEY CAN'T TURN YOU TO GOOP. I BET THEY CAN," he huffed, grinning.

If he were a more cunning sort, maybe he'd have been better at manipulation, at tricking a hapless child into rushing off to their demise, but as it was all he managed was a childish: "UNLESS YOU'RE SCARED."

@V-Opal-One

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