ORIGIN - To Sit A Baby

The chrysalis lay perfectly arranged, growing into something that'd be impossible to predict. Potential, one beyond her reach for a time. Not forever. She'd find them first, and she would embrace and absorb them into herself, into Dontaceal. Like the second Zoisite, hidden deep within the hollow mountain. They would be remade before they had the chance to make themselves.

A blessing. This was for the best for all involved.

A blessing.

There was a new point on the web. This one, Sister, was truly fresh. Like him, and his spawn-to-come, she'd been born into the family. But she was small, delicate - vulnerable in a way that Juggernaut had only ever observed, rather than experienced.

It was curious, yes. It did not know of its interests, or the way it preferred to deliver her will. But it was also testing itself by approaching it, its ability interact with children. And thus, as it was most days, it was nervous.

Within the Hive's tunnels, it drew closer to her location, prodding their connection as it did. It sought permission, but it moved at such a glacial pace it'd thought to start the journey beforehand. If Sister accepted, the wait would be brief.

@Sister

Sister had been practicing her movement. She found she still did not like moving on the ground. That was the easy part. The ground was hard and cold, the opposite of anything loamy and comfortable. Her belly was soft, her tentacles useless here, and her arms were awkward, flopping things. She hated the inefficiency of it. She knew what they were for, yes, but she would never impart that onto an egg. She did like hanging from the walls though. It was easier than flopping. She had climbed a few feet off the ground successfully, and felt a sense of pride at that. Sister... wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to do while on the wall, though. She feared moving, and the very concept of getting down terrified her. And so, Juggernaut's request found her whilst she was dangling off the walls, limp as a dead rat and entirely awkward.

She was still new in her ability to communicate, so she put everything into it. Her answer more a flood of feelings than words. Excitement. Hunger. Curiosity. The two most parsable thoughts in this initial blast of emotions being: "Yes! Sibling!" She had not met this one before. She had not met any siblings before. Her tentacles writhed in excitement. Soon She felt herself slipping, and realized belatedly she'd pulled herself off-balance with all the squirming. She squeaked in fright, back arms scrabbling at the wall until she was somewhat stable again. There was a silent moment of adjustment. But her mind still brimmed with questions, and she shot them to Juggernaut the second she'd adjusted. "I wish to see your form. Where are the others?" She had so many more.

@Juggernaut

Was this how his family experienced his early communication? The response, wordless, surged forward into the empty parts of his mind. He had a handle on language now, thought he'd never be entirely proficient - and in that skill he felt he'd lost some of the... viscera to his transmissions.

Where the Hive were involved, at least.

He arrived now, sending back his answers along with a deep contentedness, hoping to gently prompt Sister into a calmer state. 'They are occupied. But you can learn to call them to you.'

She came into view now, a mess of tentacles plastered on the wall. Had she been made... correctly? Not to doubt Mother's designs, but this one seemed ungainly in a way most Gembound, child or otherwise, were not.

@Sister

Juggernaut's contentment flowed into the toddler drone. It relaxed her somewhat, though her excitement sat there simmering beneath the surface, like the lid on a boiling pot. Juggernaut soon arrived, not that she could tell well. Her nearsightedness stole Juggernaut's true appearance from her, leaving her with only a vague impression of it: a white and red blob. But that blob was hers. Sister chittered, excitement heightening again. She wriggled for half a second before stopping, remembering the last time she'd wriggled. She tried to say a hello, a verbal one, but what came out was a garbled screech. She still hadn't quite mastered that talking thing. She sent a thought to him instead.

"Sibling! Is that you? I climbed here myself. I am practicing moving." There was a strong sense of pride in that statement, though beneath it lay an undercurrent of fear. Her back arms clutched the wall tighter, as she thought of falling. She would like to avoid thinking of that.

Sister opened her face, directing a series of clicks at Juggernaut. Many flat things. Many small round things. Long things. Sharp things too. Spikes? "You have good shapes. You have many shapes. Why are you covered in flat things? What purpose did Mother make you for?"

@Juggernaut

Good. Sister was listening to him.

He wasn't used to having that much pull over family, or power for one. He was unused to the responsibility that came with it - unused to having to care that much about it. This was not a stranger, one that would either be culled or absorbed later. Sister was family, and his problem. He didn't think of her that way, to be clear.

'You are doing a good job! We are proud!' Its praise sung back. Every obstacle overcome was an achievement for this one, born in such odd circumstances. Perhaps she would develop a strength her siblings had yet to carry, as Juggernaut had hoped for its spawn too.

Still, he offered Sister support with a leg held underneath her, sharp ending pressing against the tunnel wall - if she fell, it wouldn't be far. 'Thank you. I was made to protect the family. My shapes are good because Mother made them.' Not all of them, but that was... complicated, even for Juggernaut.

He made a guess at what his little sister was referring to. 'They are wings. They are soft.'

@Sister

The audience she now had, along with the praise that Juggernaut was heaping onto her imbibed Sister with a new form of confidence. That, and she wanted to get a closer look at Juggernaut in general. She wriggled, sliding down the wall, before leaping onto Juggernaut's extended limb. She landed heavily, likely taking up much of the limb given her living spaghetti monster form. By sheer miracle, she avoided piercing herself on one of Juggernaut's many spikes. She still grumbled about the limb's spiky bits digging into her skin. She looked down at the ones beneath her. Shiny! Sharp! Sister cooed in baby-like delight before locking the fuck in.

It was time to analyze her sibling. She pawed at Juggernaut's leg. The limb was hard and smooth. Chitinous, that was the word her brain supplied. Details were ever so clear now that she was close. Each groove on Juggernaut's leg was analzyed. But she wanted more information. She opened her face, sending a series of clicks into the limb. She did not sense any unseen cuts on the limb. The way her pulse came back, she could tell that the flesh was unblemished.

"Your flesh is whole." She said, as if that made a lick of sense. She didn't know what a blemished flesh would look like. She had never seen a wound. "Mother has made many good choices with you. You are a good, unblemished design. I will think of you when I make iterations. I am to discover more designs. Have you seen any, sibling?"

A thrill went through her. Juggernaut was so large. They had surely seen much. She watched a wing as it fluttered back and forth, following it as a kitten does with a bouncing lure. There, again, was the baby. She chittered in interest and reached out with an arm tentacle, before partially retracting it. Shyly, she asked, "May I touch a wing?", which was quickly followed up by a: "What does it do?"

@Juggernaut

Juggernaut had forgotten his legs had not been baby-proofed until Sister had collided with the limb already, inducing short-lived flush of panic, until it was clear she had not hurt herself on his jagged horns. It sighed heavily, discarding the feeling.

The nature of its younger sibling's anatomy was hard to parse (Which is a deeply concerning thought coming from Juggernaut). It studied her intently as she did the same to it.

It felt an odd chill creep through the pit of its stomach at the mention of ~~iterations~~. An alien sensation of cold, when it'd spent its life smothered in warmth. It couldn't shake the dread - would it happen again? Would it crumble into itself?

'Thank you again. You are... Intelligent.' More than he was. 'And I have seen many. I can attempt to show you, if you need.'

'Yes.' The message came with another surge of affection - of course she could. Juggernaut stilled the nearest wing, the one Sister had reached for. It was plush, a texture more like down than the feathers of an adult bird. A trio of red eyes blinked lovingly back at her from where they nestled against the hidden meat. 'I do not know what they do. Protect?'

'They are incidental. Mother did not choose them for me.'

@Sister

Sister was confused by Juggernaut's comment on her intelligence. Did intelligence make a good design? Was intelligence something she was supposed to use? Would Mother expect her to do so? She was unsure. She stowed that series of thoughts away to analyze later. Now was the time for feather touching.

As soon as Juggernaut gave her the go ahead, Sister extended her tentacle, brushing and prodding it against the wing. It felt soft. There was a limb there? Juggernaut had eyes there, too! She clicked in excitement. Strange! Fascinating. She was learning much. She sent back her own feelings of joy, still clumsy. Sister liked this sibling. They were fun, had fun feelings, and were made of fun things. Unfortunately, and likely expectedly, she, too, was not sure what they did. Juggernaut said he believed that they protected him, but what did they protect from? Heat? The cold? Hard impacts? Chaos? She wanted to test them. Unfortunately, they were attached to Juggernaut. Sister retracted her tentacle, chrring in thought.

"I cannot tell what they are for either. But I like them. Can you give me one?" Sister said, not quite familiar with how limbs worked. The question came with a rush of anticipation, and a near instant topic switch. "Tell me about other designs too! Where did you see them?"

Sister shifted. She was realizing that sitting on what was basically a bed of thorns was somewhat uncomfortable. She shimmy-flopped to the floor, curling her tentacles into a self-made bed, and looked up expectantly. Perhaps Juggernaut had even seen Chaos! The thought thrilled her.

@Juggernaut

It found its feathers puffing outward against its will at the contact. There was more sensation in them, and an instinctual understanding that they were structurally fragile compared to the chitin behind them. Juggernaut had not been designed with a developed sense of touch in mind, and anything contact that wasn't actively damaging was barely registered.

Because they were not of Mother's design, they were soft and sensitive. Delicate in a way that made it uncomfortable. But Sister would not harm it - it could let down its guard a little.

'I cannot. But you could be remade with them, if you wanted.' That was ultimately up to Mother.

He shifted focus on showing his sister the family she'd yet to meet - in person, at least. He wondered what hidden layers in their function she could bring to surface, layers that he was too simple-minded to parse. To better iterate upon the original.

To pretend to bring back the dead.

He would begin with his closer siblings - the ones that were made to fight alongside him. He showed her Alcina, quick where he was slow. Her jaws split like the mandibles he and sister shared, but with strength they lacked. He saw the bear fall underneath her, the rending of his flesh - she'd almost killed him permanently. The thought brought an odd taste with it.

He showed her Scorn, charging through Canis - their design a joke that Juggernaut had yet to understand. They scattered bones in their wake as their tusks sought the meat of a smaller beast - a creature of chaos.

Siren next, though this one was brief. It lurked in the waters of Leo, the dark shapes of its tentacles drifting below the surface. Waiting.

Then up, to watch Ace soar above - this was before his own remaking, his mane heavy with the poison that oozed from every pore.

Lastly, Orthus, wounded, but fighting through injury on the sands of Leo. Like a horizontal Juggernaut - symmetrical in two ways - and unlike Juggernaut, unbreakable.

He clarified with words next. 'You will meet them all, one day. Perhaps... You will fight alongside them too. If Mother wants.' Though Sister did not seem quite as durable or quick.

@Sister