MOTHER
MY CHILD...
She was at the back of Juggernaut's mind.
She
always was, but now--as the bloodied, dying form of a stranger hung at Juggernaut's jagged gemstone--she came to the fore. Juggernaut would understand: she had remained silent so as not to distract him, potentially fatally, in the midst of a pitched battle.
But now-?
A surge of power flickered through him; a strange promise from the Hive.
"Lay it down," came her instruction, swift and perfectly Ordered and terribly
careful. It was like holding glass. Like holding shattered bones and weeping, bloodied flesh. Juggernaut would need to be delicate. And here came further orders, images, a how-to of horror.
Juggernaut was to shed a shard of gemstone, this additional power gifted by Mother herself. And to insert it... this perfect Clearstone... into the forming chrysalis that would struggle to save Cyneweard.
This... This would infect the Knight. It would thread pale, crystalline webs throughout that blue spinel chrysalis, drawing thin lines of Order throughout its structure. Once complete?
Juggernaut would know. The whispers of Mother, the images he was shown, told him.
First... Cyneweard's chrysalis might simply purge that Order shard. In which case, her scouts would try to be there, and infest him upon awakening.
Or... second?
Second, if all went to plan?
Cyneweard would awaken in cold fluid, with thin strands of that glass-like webbing shrouding him. Order, in this case, would infect him: streaks of Clearstone through his Spinel, the touch of Hive whispering in his mind. Perhaps, even, he might dream of Order just before he woke.
They would have to wait and see.
But first, Juggernaut must take that first step: must insert a shard of his own stone into the forming chrysalis... after shunting off the dying body, of course.
And Mother approved, by the way. It wasn't an afterthought, but a necessary delay: one had to focus on what was at hand before offering praise, offering the flood of warmth and triumph. Her son--her precious warrior--her tank and her powerhouse. Her beloved and her loyal. He had bested a potential enemy of the Hive.
And perhaps even gathered a new brother to their side.
Juggernaut is being instructed to provide a shard of his gemstone, via Give Stone (the roll need not be successful) into Cyneweard's forming chrysalis.
Cyneweard's player may decide whether the Order infection succeeds, or is purged by the chrysalis. If it is purged, their character may awaken normally, though the awakening thread should be GM tagged for an Order post. If it is not purged, their character's gemstone will be infected by Clearstone, and over several cycles this will overtake them and join them to the Hive, as if they were infected by the Hive's fungus.
A battle judge will be posted shortly.