The sound of stone breaking from around the corner had Paige pause in her tracks, ears pricking. Was it a child hatching? It would be good to go check on them, then, she decided, and welcome them to the world. But she had taken barely two steps in its direction when an agonized yowl sent a shock through every single bone in her body. She froze, fur puffed out, tail sticking straight out like a feather duster, and then dashed around the corner. What was happening?!
The newly-hatched Gembound turned out to be a cat-like creature more than double Paige's size--now that she thought about it, maybe they weren't a child at all, but had returned to their stone to heal from an injury? That certainly seemed more likely, with the way they were flinging themselves on the ground, paws scrabbling for a foothold on the fairly friendly terrain and collapsing so hard they banged their jaw on a rock and lay there stunned. Paige winced in sympathy, her yellow eye wide as she took it all in.
"Hey!" she cried, daring to trot a little closer to the poor Gembound. "What's going on--? Are you ok? It's safe here, I think." She didn't know why they seemed so panicked--maybe someone bad had attacked them, sending them into their chrysalis? "Are you hurt? What's wrong--can I do anything to help you?" She felt bad, bombarding the feline with so many questions when they were obviously in distress, but she really didn't know what was going on at all.
@ultraviolet
Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:
a voice, foreign and deafening compared to the silence that made every ragged breath echo against the crystals that ultraviolet could not see, called out to him. he fell still but for a shutter through his pelt, but even with his eyes closed he still saw the visions.
a massive bird descended from the sky, huge talons slashing at the bodies-- among them, his own was crouched-- grabbing them by the fistful. the muffled sound of popping and tearing flesh (which felt more imaginary than the visuals did, as though his mind was trying to rationalize the invasive images with some sort of sound) accompanied the splatter of blood and bone fragments that splattered across his pelt.
his whole body flinched, claws flexing to dig into the too-hard stone. he tried, desperately, to cling to the light voice.
"careful," he hissed a warning. it took everything he had to keep his voice even, to keep the fear from his voice. he was not afraid. he was not. the old him, maybe, but he had-- he was reborn once more. he could not be afraid. "His Presence is strong. dangerous."
a pause. "are you with them? the white army?" how would he know? the stranger could simply lie. better to not react either way. the alien cat steels himself, weakly pushing himself upright. his tail curls around his flank as he tucks his paws underneath him, shrinking back from the voice as though touch could harm one or both of them.
regardless: he is useless like this. he does need help.
"... i need a lesser," he whispers, "one with a stone. one that rots to oil." his expression scrunches, a show of agony. "i will owe you." if it will give him strength, and stabilize him... quiet the visions, perhaps... he can get back to the Altar.
The catlike Gembound flinched and convulsed as if attacked by some invisible enemy. Paige froze at his warning to be careful--was there really a presence here that was the cause of his pain? Would it attack her as well? She didn't know how to be careful, other than being quiet and hiding. Both were likely useless now that she'd chosen to approach.
White army? "I'm not part of any army," she replied blankly, lowering her voice just in case whoever He was was around. Well--she was white, wasn't she? But she wasn't a soldier. What army was out there that was so influential this Gembound would assume her to be part of them based purely off of color? (Of course, Paige had no way of knowing that he could not even see her.)
She snapped to attention at his request. A lesser with a stone--she could manage that, even if she had no idea what was happening with whatever presence and white army haunted this Gembound. Even if she had no idea how it could possibly help--if he wanted food, why specifically request something that could rot to oil?--she trusted that he knew what he needed better than she did. She looked around urgently, but then chastised herself mentally. Anything nearby would surely have been scared off by the commotion here. There wouldn't be a single mouse or rabbit in sight.
"Are- are smaller lessers okay?" she asked, turning back to the catlike Gembound. "Like-- wallcrawlers, or something like that. If you need a mouse or something larger, I have to go farther to look--can you wait?"
She did not waste time trying to explain that he didn't need to owe her anything. There would be time to sort through all that later, but right now, the most important thing was to get him the help he needed.
@ultraviolet
Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:
the bewildered, empty answer of denial is one that uvi wants to believe is earnest and true. if not, what is worse? being alone, certainly. he can barely hold on to reality even with her voice, and how much worse it would be if he was left alone again. if it is a hoax, may it at least bring him some brief comfort.
"size doesn't matter," he answers, voice straining with desperation. don't go, the words are like a rock in his throat. "the oil is what's important." if it can stablize him even a small amount, so that he can have the strength to return to His Altar, it will be enough.
"i... hurry, if you can."
he wanted to explain to her, but it was probably better to hold off until she had brought him something of His, something to clear his weak and fragile mind, if only for a moment. he wasn't sure if he could coherently explain what he saw. part of him wasn't even sure that she wasn't the hallucination, and that what he saw wasn't reality itself.
it looked so real.
maybe his nerves were damaged. his hearing. maybe he was paralyzed, unable to truly move, and the carnage around him was true. neither option was grand: he was in no condition to join the chaos that roared around him, no matter how much it called to his heart.
The strain in the feline Gembound's voice sent a wash of urgency through her. She didn't think to question why he might possibly require the oil from rotting Lessers, but only darted to the tunnel wall to start scanning the wallcrawlers for ones with gems in a near-panic. Thankfully, the caterpillar-like Lessers were so abundant that it didn't take long to find some. She snatched them up in her jaws one after another, and bounded back to Ultraviolet to deposit an odd little bouquet of nine dead wallcrawlers at his feet.
"I've got some now--here," she told him, stepping back and looking up at him, her single brown eye wide with worry and uncertainty. He looked terrible, despite having just come out of his chrysalis. She'd thought people were supposed to wake up from chrysalis-sleep healed and refreshed. And she still didn't know what oil had to do with anything, but she didn't want to press him with questions when he was obviously not doing great.
"If there's anything else I can do to help," she said instead, trying so hard to make her voice stay calm when she was worried and completely in the dark and scared for this Gembound. It was so wrong. No one should emerge from their chrysalis in this state--the stone was meant to be a refuge, wasn't it? A haven that would nurture and replenish Gembound life. She wished she could do something, anything, to take whatever awful burden was crushing this alien cat away. "Just say it. I'll be right here."
Please be okay.
@ultraviolet
Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:
the stranger left, and with her absence came the sensation that perhaps she had been nothing but a phantom, a hopeful wish for the world he had left behind when he had died. the Creator's visions washed over him, showing him an endless tide of violence. why was he laying there? didn't he want, didn't he crave, to join the battle? to fight, and become one with them?
he nearly tried to rise to his feet again, a low growl starting in his throat when the voice suddenly returned, and the rest of his sensations returned to his focus. he drank in her smell, and shifted, feeling the rocky floor under foot.
blindly, the cat reached a paw forward. toes touched hard carapace, but he could not begin to complain. he moved his paws along the dead bugs, feeling for the stones. when he felt an abnormity, he reached down with his teeth and tore the stone from the flesh, spitting it out with a hiss.
"... thank you," his voice rasped, as he waited, feeling the first body begin to melt. "you may want to look away," he said. it was an unpleasant thing to look at, if one wasn't used to it. his tongue lapped at the foul substance a moment later, and he swallowed it down.
the taste was grounding, if only for a moment. the visions did not cease, but he felt vaguely more certain of which reality was which as the taste writhed down his throat. he breathed heavily, inhaling the foul smell as he fumbled, blindly, for the next stone.
his actions were methodical, but after the fourth insect, he coughed and sputtered, and grimaced. he ate the remainder without pulling their stones, instead eating around them. he needed the strength of the proteins-- though those were slowly rotting away too.
"... who are you?" he asked, eventually, the process long and tedious to do by feel in the state he was in. "forgive my lack of manners," he winced, "i am ultraviolet. i am... i am... a valkhound. the army of white attacked me," he explained, "they are creatures of... they are the antithesis of what i am, and they sought to destroy me. i barely escaped..."
and look at me now, his thoughts mocked him, begging for scraps like a kitten.
Oil Consumption - 2 points :)