ORIGIN

Nidhogg bristled, almost comically so. The quills along his body stood stiffly on end, and he jerked further upright. "YES I HAVE," was his instant retort, and he puffed and arched his neck up with a liar's pride. "TWICE!" He then deflated just a little, and hesitated. "...Today." So, yeah, it was basically his first time.

But anyway!

He jerked around to stare at the chrysalis again, then--attention always wandering--back to Relic. "Wait, which war?!" he demanded. Nidhogg wasn't sure which fights had been battles, and which ones wars. He knew some had gone well. Some had gone poorly. He remembered now that Relic had been there for at least one of the former. But the other stuff-?

"I DIDN'T SCREW ANYTHING UP!" Emphasis on the "I;" even if the rest of the Forge had lost a war somewhere, Nidhogg wasn't taking any blame.

Oh.

Nidhogg could've shown some modicum of cunning, here: leaned into Relic's offer, and snickered about how stupid those higher-ups indeed were.

Instead, his mind flashed back. So, okay, he didn't really know about the whole 'fungus' thing. To say he'd pay attention during literally any briefing would be a lie. He knew there'd been a battle, though. They'd won that cave, he'd been there, the Drones had been fought and the word 'fungus' did kind of ring a little bell. Vaguely. Sort of.

But his memories of that day consisted of rushing straight into a trap, falling into a pit, gaining a horrible wound from shoulder to hind leg (one that had left a jagged scar beneath his oily coating), and then missing several attacks in a row. Admittedly he'd survived, which was better than one could say for some: but almost at once, his memory of "war," "battle" and "fungus" had him bristling defensively again. "I fought in the big cave with all the ocean! We won!" he declared, and his skittering-forward and indignant pride was a full-on attempt to hide his embarrassment at having fucked up so badly. "We fought all the big white assholes. The drones. And we killed them or chased them away. Wait--did we LOSE somewhere?!" he demanded, that pride now pricked.

If they had--if nobody had TOLD him about it (they had. he hadn't listened.) he'd be SO PISSED. In fact, he might have to go deal with it himsWAIT A MINUTE.

A long squint. A stare.

"Is that the white shit all over Canis?"

Whatever gears turned Nidhogg's tiny brain, his exceptionally long pause might have been accompanied by a single-note, blank tune.

He was thinking, at least. He was pissed, and belatedly registering the blame on the Masters and agreeing with it, but in a different way than Relic had likely intended. "I'm gonna FUCK CANIS UP!" he hissed and spat, catlike--and it was with sudden, genuine fury. He'd never really cared about anything before, but this-? These caves were Forge territory, and--"VARGAS IS SUCH A SHIT! He didn't tell me about this!"

It should be noted here that the Leviathan had, in fact, mentioned it profusely. He had even tried to enlist, and order, and cajole, and entice through rewards, others of the Forge for cleansing these caves. Nidhogg just... hadn't been there. Or hadn't heard. Or had ignored it all, or hadn't actually noted a single word that had been bellowed close beside him and had, in fact, even snapped an alert "YES, I UNDERSTAND" automatically when roused from a mild daydream by Vargas demanding to know if Nidhogg had understood the detailed situation report.

Anyway.

He turned as if to immediately depart for Canis, then turned, blinking too many eyes at Relic. "Oh. Uh. Do you wanna raise the baby together?" he asked, as if it were an afterthought. In fairness, it was probably a good thing to clarify before he just... left, like that. "I dunno if it'll be Forge or what. Vargas didn't say. But we got two already so-..." A shrug of oiled black shoulders indicated that Nidhogg didn't have a clue.

Wish: granted, if only in a questionable abandoning of his own duty, as Nidhogg took an almost absent glance at the chrysalis before agreeing "Yeah, okay." He shook himself thoroughly, quills clattering, and a glowing tongue dipped out to lash his snout. "I need to go find out if I can go to Canis. Fuck that white shit," he muttered, back to filthy-mouthed swearing.

At least he was being coherent, rather than just hissing, for once.

Chartreuse eyes shot back to Relic, then, as he had a Thought. "-Did you want anything else?" He was finding, unusually, that he didn't mind her company; but he had stuff to kill. Maybe if she had more questions, or wanted to hang out--cool.

If not, he was gonna get permission to go to war, but like, alone. Probably.