ORIGIN - What do you even say in this situation?

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Without the fungus, Eridanus felt bare. It was the same jungle they remembered from cycles and cycles and cycles ago, back when they hadn't found Mother. When they hadn't found safety, and a family that could never be separated again. It was visibly worse for wear after the bitter contest for its control, scorch marks everywhere and the remains of fallen trees and torn-up plants, but it was...

No. Familiar was too positive of a word for it. They might have thought of the room fondly back then, but looking back at those memories, all Yellow could think of was danger and not right. It had been missing something, and now it was missing it again. Without the curtains of fungus asserting Mother's influence here, without her many eyes that were always watching her children's backs, Yellow was always jumpy, as if something could be lurking around every corner to sneak up on them. Still, they didn't want to leave. It had been their home for so long already. They wanted to believe they could handle this again too, until proven otherwise.

The ferns far beneath the canopy rustled. Yellow glanced down—at first they couldn't quite tell what it was, the green fur blended in so well, but the mask and the antlers and then the movement of the large shape gave it away.

"Rift?" they blurted impulsively before they could have any silly second thoughts like, oh I don't know, he probably doesn't want to see you or didn't the Hive literally see him ripping up fungus with Valkhounds as one of the last things it saw before it lost control, what if he's hostile. Um. Too late now. They stared down wide-eyed, still clinging to the tree they were perched on.

@Rift

In constrat to Yellow, Rift had never felt more alive. With Eridanus cleansed and free of infection, he wandered through its depths, allowing the ferns to all touch his hide, to sweep past him as if they thanked him, brushing his pelt against trees, bushes, thorns, vines, everything. It was so beautiful here. And for the first time in this life, he could truly appreciate that beauty.

He was pushing through now, simply enjoying the nature for a bit, but then words made him pause. He looked up and felt his stomach drop. Yellow, the Host he had spoken to long ago in Ursa, hung from the canopy.

He felt a sudden surge of many different emotions at once. Regret was at the forefront, along with guilt, for never reaching out to them after he'd returned. He'd put it off, mostly, in both a haze of confusion on how he was supposed to feel towards this one, and out of guilt for how hard he pushed back against the Hive's occupation of Eridanus. Along with this was a hint of anger, that the Hive had already returned to try and retake his cave (although this was a huge leap, and a huge assumption) and a hint of fear, for what they might say to him when they learned he had never told them that Sebastian's stone had been revived.

"Ah, Yellow," he rumbled as he sat himself down, blinking up at the sifaka. "Um...what can I do for you? How are you?" The words sounded hollow. He could probably guess how they were doing.

@Yellow

"Hi," they said, automatically cheerful, and then fell silent. Rift's greeting—very friendly, very normal—had Yellow off guard, unsure what to think. The last thing they'd seen through the eyes of infected mice about to meet their end under massive Valkhound claws (and they had not given this their full attention; it felt too awful to watch the details of) was him helping the other side. But if that was the case, why wasn't he hostile to Yellow now? He knew ~~what~~ who they were.

There's some sort of misunderstanding, they thought, or hoped. Maybe they forced him. Maybe some other situation going on. There was a long, awkward pause where they struggled to find what they wanted to say, until they finally settled on: "... Why did you help them? ... I mean. The Valkhounds." The word for their kind left Yellow's mouth quieter than the rest like a whispered curse.

There were other questions too, that they wanted to blurt out all at once. What was the giant tree that he always hung out near, that none of the Hive's eyes could see? Why did it seem to push them away every time they came near, not physically but through a distinct sense that they shouldn't go near it? Was it dangerous?

... But they were desperate for an explanation for this, first. Rift would explain it and then it would make sense. (?) And...

And then what?

@Rift

Ah, he should have expected this question, perhaps. His ear flicked back and perhaps if the skin on his face could move, his nose would have crinkled in distaste. "Ah. Them." To be honest, he hadn't particularly enjoyed their company, but he had helped them, regardless. Although there was a bit of regret in doing so. If it hadn't been anything less then the restoration of the forest, then he would never have done it.

"I wanted to restore Eridanus back to its natural state. They wanted the infection wiped out. For a moment, our interests aligned." He took a breath. "I wasn't really a fan, though. They're not pleasant." He cringed, thinking of Virosa and its tricky behavior and its switching back and forth between menacing and complete disinterest. And Tectus's overbearing know-it-all attitude.

"I'm not allied with them or anything," he quickly added. "I don't really want them here either. The oily one was...corrupting things. But they helped, and now the forest is healing." His tail swished through some of the ferns around him - Yellow could see it, right? The beauty of this forest had been restored, it was wild and free to grow and no longer a trap of infestation that choked the leaves and spilled from the trees.

@Yellow

The explanation did not make things make more sense. Perhaps Rift would be able to see it too, in the way that Yellow just stared back with wide amber eyes. Eridanus back in its natural state? That had been home, once. Yellow remembered it looking as it did now, albeit in much more pristine condition, with neither white nor oily or burnt black touching the greens and browns and jewel toned flowers. It had been beautiful—

BUT—

It was not home anymore. They realized now that what had felt like simply the baseline was actually incomplete, dangerous, so they did not feel nostalgia for the way it had been, apart from the family they'd once shared it with. Now they and their family preferred a different kind of home. Yellow wondered, quizzically, why Rift wanted it back that way. Did he not say that he didn't remember everything that happened before? Was the new, Ordered state that he'd woken up to not better? More beautiful, even, with the knowledge that it was guarded, watched, tended to by hundreds of Greater and Lesser Gembound all working together?

So they just repeated blankly, "Why?"

When the oily Valkhound came up, though, their expression quickly dropped into a scowl at the very thought. "They wouldn't know healing if it hit them in the face. Leaving that oily corrupted stuff all over." Yellow did have something they wanted to hit them in the face with, and it wasn't healing. "They helped you?" Their tone was incredulous.

@Rift

Rift blinked, confused. Why? Had it not bee obvious? Lessers constantly choked on the fungus and many that had been infected died from their own neglect. Gembound that walked through the forest had to put pawsteps down carefully, many had abandoned their homes to seek them elsewhere. It had been bad, for everyone. Except the Hive, of course, and he realized that's why Yellow was confused. They had benefited from it... They must think the forest quite bare now.

He took breath. "The forest was unhealthy. Plants were getting choked and Lessers were dying. I'm...I didn't mean to offend you or your family, but I asked them before to take their infection elsewhere and they refused." He really did look regretful, but Rift himself did not regret helping to remove the infection, but only that it caused Yellow discomfort and pain.

He did snort at Yellow's commentary - he had to agree with that one. "The oily one talked a lot of...I don't know. Weird stuff. About how it was healing, but all I saw was plants getting sick in a different way and dying in front of my eyes." He shook his head. "Yeah, I guess, but I won't help them again. I don't want them back here."

@Yellow

Yellow... didn't really know what to say to that. Part of what Rift was saying was true, in a sense. Some plants did die, consumed by the fungus, and some Lessers died tending it. Overworked, stressed, or even hunted down, their Hive connection marking them as targets. Yellow had tried to heal some when they could, as part of their efforts to care for the Hive in this room, but ultimately it hadn't been enough. But they didn't think that made the forest unhealthy. Sometimes things died to feed others, and this happened naturally without the Hive too, though Yellow generally did not like to see it no matter who was the one ultimately responsible.

"Removing the fungus killed plants and Lessers too," they pointed out. Even if Rift hadn't wanted the fungus to spread, he didn't have to get it out so violently. Or had that been the Valkhounds? Yellow couldn't really remember if it had been just the evil purple ones killing things or Rift too, and they didn't want to recall those specific memories to check. It had been... brutal. "But... I'm sorry that they got hurt, too. I tried to make them feel better, when I had the chance." They would've tried to prevent other parties from hurting more of the Lessers if they'd gotten the chance, now that they had their secret weapon, but they understood why Rift didn't want to risk a fight with those giant vicious-looking monsters.

Rift's snort at their comments on the Valkhound did put Yellow at ease a bit more. At least he was not really allied with them. They realized that it was probably awkward for him to always be talking up at the canopy, so they jumped and hopped their way down now that they were pretty sure Rift wasn't going to attack them. They'd wanted to take a magical shortcut, but it didn't come, and the longer way around was still simple enough.

Yellow settled on a gnarled root curving up from the ground and looked up—now it was their turn to do that—at Rift. It was hard to hold a grudge against him when he was so nice, and the sifaka didn't really think of themself as one for grudges in the first place, even if his rejection of their family stung. They were relieved, too, that Mother had told everyone to withdraw and now they wouldn't have to get in a fight about bringing fungus back to Eridanus, even if they'd rather it was never gone in the first place. Whatever conflicts could be avoided would be avoided.

@Rift

As yellow climbed down the tree, Rift slid to the ground, laying on his belly so that they were properly eye level and neither was looking up or down at the other. He hadn't minded looking up all that much, but having the sifaka beneath him felt odd, so he leveled out their conversation so they could properly speak face to face.

"It hurts me to hurt anything," he murmured, remembering the fire and the violence in which Tectus and Virosa had torn the fungus out of the earth. "But there is one thing they spoke true - fire gives way for new, healthy growth. The fungus was killing and replacing with its own. And it was all the same, there was no variation or the chance to grow freely. Nature needs that freedom to thrive." How many time was he going to lecture and/or debate on nature with creatures of Chaos and Order? He hoped Yellow didn't start an argument as Virosa had, he didn't think he had it in him to try and explain his side yet again to someone that believed they were the only one that was right.

"I'm glad you did your best to help. I appreciate it, I do. But I want this cave to be a place for all to be free. Order, Chaos, anyone in between." His tail flicked and he glanced off a direction in Eridanus. "There are still areas where the fungus linger and I've left those alone. There is a place for it, if those places bring you comfort. I will protect its place as much as I protect the Sanctuary and all other parts of Eridanus." And the same would be true for Chaos. If they felt like putting a foothold here, as long as they did not bring ruin to the entire cave, he would not fight to remove them. All were welcome to this cave, as long as they respect it.

@Yellow

For a moment it was so hopeful. It was all right that Rift didn't understand Yellow's other family, because he was nice. Here they were, in the rainforest, one of them on his belly and the other perched on a root, just one Gembound talking to another. Even if he didn't want to join with the Hive, they could still be friends; he would just be less safe than he could have been but that was his choice.

But. There was always a but, wasn't there? Whatever Rift was saying about plant growth was lost on it. His words crashed down on Yellow like judgements hammered into small sifaka bones and they shrank. It was right to burn them because it would make room for healthier growth. So he wouldn't have stopped them from killing them even if he could. They weren't free. They weren't nature.

But they'd been born in Eridanus just like the other ones. They'd just accepted the fungus as part of them. Just like the plants and animals that belonged to Eridanus but also to the fungus. What did that mean for them?

That wasn't everything, though. He also said that there was a place for the fungus where it remained, but Yellow didn't know what to think. It contradicted what he said earlier, didn't it? They didn't understand the difference. They stared into Rift's eyes, as green as the jungle around them, and wanted to open their mouth and say or ask something but didn't. He was trying to be nice, they could tell that much, and they didn't want to ruin it. They didn't know what would. They still wanted to be friends so they should just take the opportunity he was offering.

"... Sanctuary. ?" they croaked, finally.

@Rift

Something was up with Yellow and Rift couldn't place it. They were shrinking from him, looking distressed, uncomfortable, and he couldn't figure out what he was saying that was causing this discomfort. His tail swished lightly over the ferns behind him, growing minutely distressed himself as he tried to figure out what he was saying that was causing this. He didn't want it to be like that. Perhaps he was just talking too much.

"Yes, um...my tree. My home tree. It's changed, its got bits of the Spire in it now. It keeps the area around it free of...influences." And his eyes twinkled with a sadness as he looked over Yellow and realized that they would not be welcome there. They were a part of Mother, right? Perhaps not....not like some of the Drones that had come trampling through the place earlier, all white insectoid creatures, but if they were Hive all the same...

"It's...You are welcome to visit but I'm sorry, you may find it discomforting. It's a space that rejects Chaos and Order." And he bowed his head a bit, for once seeming to be mildly ashamed of the space he protected. He...he wasn't, really, but this was a different case. It was similar to how he felt when he led Cyneweard there - although the infestation had felt hostile to him, and it needed protecting from, there were those on that side of conflict that he liked, that didn't want for destruction or dominance or whatever the purpose of it all was. They were simply...nice.

Yellow was one. Cyneweard possibly another.

@Yellow

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