ORIGIN

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The following Quest is open by default to members of Order/The Hive. Characters sympathetic or neutral to The Hive may also join freely to observe. Characters who are hostile to The Hive are likely to be spotted on approach, before joining the thread; attempts to interfere should be GM-tagged.

Regarding conflict: Hostile attacks may end in character chrysalis, death, or conversion. The Hive members themselves may also be in danger in this thread, but can escape chrysalis/death with NPC cover if their players wish. Both attacks on Hive and attempts to escape the thread should be GM-tagged for.

MOTHER

Regrowth

She had kept them safely far from this place during the Gembounds' attempts to purge it. They had failed; despite their power, they had not the numbers nor the organization to truly purge the forest. No doubt they would try again soon.

In the meantime, she ushered in her servants. They moved quickly, covertly, along designated paths scouted by her infected Lessers, who kept sentry: mice and Catsquirrels, birds and serpents, all of whom sat eerily silent and white-eyed throughout the forest.

"They have burned much of it," Mother told her Hive. "But not all. And they have forgotten, or perhaps misjudged: for burnt soil is the richest for regrowth. Go, and spread our power in all the spaces they have left barren. Go, and humiliate those who can but destroy. Fill this place with Ordered life."

Hive members are being invited to spread Order in Eridanus, focusing on the places that have been burnt free of plant life. They may manually spread mold, or use their magic to generate fungus or the like, or may simply be present to serve as guardians for the rest. Order infestation incurred in this thread is doubled, in response to the open, fertile areas burned away.

Perhaps Herse did not truly understand the magnitude of threats that lived within the caves, or perhaps it simply did not care. It was young, though guided and tempered by its family, there was a brashness that made it all too eager to join the expedition out into Eridanus. Within its shell, it held a bounty of spores, some of which slipped through the cracks of its armor as it slipped along the guided path of watchful sentry eyes.

While there was danger, it was a calculated risk. Mother had made those calculations, and in Her Image were all things understood beyond the boundries of time and mere thought.

Question: Herse's thoughts bubbled out to anyone who would listen, how does one burn? We should burn the soil beyond, to make it even better for our regrowth. Once we have planted what needs to be seeded here. We could burn the rest of the tunnels, to make this dark soil, our fertile land...

Pondering, is the burning dangerous to us? Or just to the spores? Does it hurt? Can we make those that hurt us hurt? Innocence in every question. A line, and thread, of moral substance. Justice. We deserve justice.

These were quite big words and ideas for such a young Drone, but the ideas threaded through its mind and caught interest, being used without care for true deeper understanding. It was enough to rotate the words and ideas in its mind, thinking itself able to see a greater picture.

It was covered in ashy soil as it worked its way through the burnt forest. As it moved, it shifted within its shell, release fine particulates of spores, planting them where it had been directed. Confidence filled its being, as it wondered what the world would be like when they were done.

Beautiful. Dreaming: It will be beautiful.

One of those arriving early--by virtue of vast wings--was the dragon Bone. She was one of the few uniquely qualified to answer Herse's question, 'how does one burn,' and one of those few, too, who had retained their hatching element despite an innate and thorough link to the Hive.

Her thoughts came in answer, but with fond warmth to the new Child of the Hive. There are many ways, she informed it. Magic is one of them, but it's one I have--you do not. But I can burn things for you, whenever you wish. Just ask me to, she offered, a promise given mind-to-mind.

She thudded down carefully a little ways away, and--being very cautious of Herse's exact location, and the heat her breath put off--she inhaled. Her jaws ignited, a stream of flame pluming out to consume a nearby cluster of healthy plants. It was a demonstration as much as an actual use. Her focus would, for much of this excursion, be more on spreading fungus and protecting her Hive-mates than burning more patches of land--but it was an answer to the snail-creature's question.

Yes. I can burn more. And yes, it hurts. Be careful of it, she warned. As to the rest--someone else would answer. It wasn't that Bone did not want to; it was that she was amiably comfortable with the ongoing, many-threaded link, and knew someone else would fill in the gaps better than she could.

Ananke had been deposited by Bone, and quickly darted into the thickest underbrush that she could find. She was white--easy to spot--and relatively defenseless on a physical level, so she stuck close to the larger Hive and kept herself out of sight.

I have the ability to create the mold, if anyone requires, she informed those close by. But primarily, she wanted to alter the very plants here. They would host the fungus more easily, and they'd also change the very ground the Hive walked on.

She placed her paws down, pale eyes going empty as she concentrated. Order itself bloomed from her, spreading: the ground threaded through with mold, the plants slowly losing their color. Soon, the area around Ananke was glassy, white; she could feel her power bolstered there.

But she moved on. It was a giveaway as to her location, so she wanted to step away, for one thing. But more importantly, she wanted to continue this work as she went. She tamped down her fear as best she could. They were industrious, her family--but this was not their home. There was no telling what might happen here.

Of course he answered the call, why wouldn't he. Mother needed him, of course she did. He was still getting used to it all, trying to understand everything all at once, and though he didn't want to admit it, he was still trying to wrap his head around everything. But at the end of the day, he trusted Mother, he knew she wouldn't lead him astray, why would she? He was to be her greatest soldier, her best ally, he was destined to be obviously. Why else was he made so perfectly when his siblings were so... wrong.

Those thoughts pushed him forward as he came into the land, looking around for a moment as he turned to Ananke, catching the end of their words. We can search together. He was very young, very small, but he spoke commandingly, as if he had any say in any sort of matter. But he simply nodded, assuming that they would follow him.

He would set off to try and find a good place to settle some new fungus, however he wasn't really looking where he was going and only moments after speaking to Ananke and setting off like he knew what he was doing, he tripped on a root and landed face first into a pit of mud.

Siren arrives with the others. It hears the others chatting through the link, but pays it no mind. Someone else can answer the small ones' questions. Siren would rather focus on the task at hand. Spreading order, making sure none of its family dies. Siren is confident the spell it used before will bring it back if the Hive needs.

I can heal those who get injured. it thinks to the rest.

Siren has decided combat may not be the best route for it to take, but the others... If they get hurt in the heat of the moment, Siren can heal them perfectly. Only, one of the small ones... Falls face first into the dirt. Siren wants to laugh, but being stealthy is more important. It can't heal them if its the first one spotted.

Siren is already going to have it hard enough without water. It will be much slower. At least the echolocation allows it to see everything around it. Siren's clicks barely audible to the things around them.

Siren begins to plant spores around itself, moving as it goes.

The Juggernaut was not eager to return to Eridanus, especially after the results of its last outing. He did not need yet another blow to his faith - but the children had been eager, and it would not deny them of the opportunity to sow Her influence directly. Internally, it worried of the strength of their faith, and if its own flaws had infected its young so early.

To be introduced to the gentler tasks first... that would be good for them. It would give them the space they needed to give themselves to her vision fully, without stress or resistance.

It had struggled to catch up to them, with their light bodies and quicker steps. Juggernaut arrived - just in time to see Talus fall face first in the mud. An instinctive concern took over it, but it only took a few forward steps to remind herself of his... Unusual self-assuredness. It wasn't sure where he'd gotten it from.

Certainly not from Juggernaut.

Burning - Juggernaut had been burned before, and it had hurt. He recalled this memory now, mostly for Herse's benefit, mulling over the sensation rather than the events surrounding it this time. Those he knew he could not touch.

Like he had done before in Orion, and again in the inner chambers of Ursa, he concentrated the odd, swirling energy within to the tip of a stinger, growing fungus in the charred substrate. It knew this invasion would not go unnoticed, and it knew it was not here only to garden with its new family. But danger had not yet found them, and for now it would help cultivate, sending waves of gentle support to the others in its presence (but mostly to its children.)

@Herse @Talus (mama has arrived)

Rarely did Ace operate in silence unless absolutely necessary. A voice of brass, ever since breaking free from his first chrysalis he'd believed himself a herald of Mother's army. Most of their enemies pathetic at flight, so easy was it to rain the glories of Order and the failures of Chaos upon their empty heads. If any dared to try sniping him out of the air, his perfect design swept him out of the path of their magic before their aim could come even remotely close to being true, and just as swift he'd follow up his expert dodging with countless barbs and jeers. Forget those instances where a certain mouthy blade had zapped and bound him into grudging submission; freak accidents that wouldn't happen for another hundred cycles if he had a say in the matter.

To find his mouth shut once, twice, and then thrice upon drawing in breath to bellow was a surprise, Mother having never interfered in his fun in the past. At first aggravation had sparked within him after the latest of these stillings of his tongue, evident in the glare that emerged in his red eyes once the glassy sheen faded away from them. But little more than a gentle request from his creator eliminated resistance, her love smothering it before his temper could fully flare.

Patience was required for the sake of his family. A guard operated best when he could swoop upon his opponent as quiet and unexpected as death often crept.

Understandable, but her orders indicated nothing about how well and loudly he filled in his fellow Hive members of his flight pattern through Order's usual communications. At regular intervals, he informed the network of any potential hostiles his eye caught. Mostly, though, he watched the others work. Occasionally contributions came as well, the task of gathering fungus to spread trivial when they grew so much to spread.

Those aren't for decoration only, right? Ace queried, snickering, at Talus' unfortunate faceplant. Come on, use them if you're going to fall! They're meant to be stabilizers, not weights to drag you down.

A bit of advice wrapped up in snide remarks. The child was free to accept it or toss it away. He didn't exactly care too much how it was taken, but at the very least if this one could actually fly, the Hive would benefit better from a second-rate aerial fighter like Bone than someone who could barely qualify as third-rate.

Taking a break from his patrol for a bit of seeding the land himself, wings were drawn closer to his sides and Ace plummeted toward a scorched patch of earth. Forelimbs coated in fungus dug trenches in the soil. Friction broke off clumps of the insidious growth as he swooped along to fall within them, far from what anyone would perceive as an ideal gardening technique.

Then, of course, the crowing started as he ascended again. Another strike for the Hive! Those Oily morons won't have enough eyes, mushed brains, or dripping tentacles to burn out all of these.

@Talus

It did not take long for Rift to notice the increase of activity - he was always monitoring the entrances of Eridanus, especially after the fire, fearful of the Hive's retaliation. His diligence had paid off - now they were here. In full force, Lessers following methodically, protected, like they were expecting an attack. Smart of them.

Rift did not attack, nor did he have any intentions of attacking, even if a battle were to begin. He wasn't the fighting sort. Still, he lingered in the trees a little ways from the main group, watching, careful to avoid the falling spores. He knew they could see him and he made no effort to hide outside of the natural camouflage his body created.

His heart was split in two. The Hive had helped him - a great deal, and he was in their debt, but this was a step too far. Giving up the protection of his forest for a couple of stones was far too steep a deal. And he had a feeling it was something that would come up if he tried to negotiate. But...that was all he could do right now. If he attacked, he would die. If he returned to the Sanctuary and turtled there until they left, he might as well be giving up.

And he couldn't stand watching them sow more of the forest's ruin.

It was watching the crab-like tank dig its stinger into the fertile ground, and watch it be immediately overtaken by the white mold he had been fighting for countless cycles that finally broke him. A protective compulsion pushed him forward, hopping to the next tree - closer, but not overhead.

"Hey," he called, softly, suddenly at a loss for what to actually say. He hadn't thought this far. "Hasn't...this forest suffered enough? There is still a large portion of it that is yours." He swallowed, nervous. "Can you please leave it be?"

It occurred to Ananke that she could serve a greater role than she was doing--in particular, seeing someone... faceplant. She had the ability to strengthen their own magic. So she sat back in the shade beneath a large leaf, watching the dewdrops fall like diamonds, and she concentrated. She was close enough to the rest, and she called down--with a thought--Ace and Bone, too. Called them all together.

She ignored Rift, for now: she was not the best person to speak to outsiders, let alone predators, and it seemed others were already taking the lead. She'd let Mother give them orders first, too.

Stay close if you'd like my magic to keep you strong. Or cast as you pass, she thought, directing that bit at Bone.

And for once, she felt pride. She felt... useful.

swapping my post order of my own 2 chars just to get this one going. Spells by Hive within 10 yards of Ananke are one roll threshold higher for at least this next round. "Empowers all other Hive members within ten yards, allowing all of their subsequent rolls to be raised by one success threshhold--e.g. from a Failure to Barely Successful--for as long as the magic is maintained."

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Game Master Dark

HERSE

Bone

Ananke

Talus

Siren

Juggernaut

Ace

Rift

Ananke