ORIGIN

The smell of bile filled her noise and she wrinkled her nose, feeling a nauseous feeling in her gut. "Louie?" she called to him quietly. Something felt off; something she wasn't used to feeling. She chalked it up to this new situation and tried to not press matters. He was too mean... which, of course, lead to her right into swimming through the cruelty he'd held against her from the first moment.

"...mouth breather. Waste of oxygen." The memory echoed. "Nothing left for you to live for..." He was right. He still is. She had nothing left to live for. Why did she bother with it? Why did she beg for her life when she didn't want it anymore? "No allegiance. No friends." She clenched her eyes closed again as the truth of his swirled within. "If this is a trick herbivore I will slice you open."

She opened her eyes and looked in the direction she guessed he was in, the stench still there, but her senses growing used to how it stuck to their air. She couldn't see him, she couldn't see herself, but she suddenly felt like an eyesore, with the way he'd treated her.

Why not just slice me open, anyway?

- - -

"Speech"
@Louie

"Booker Speech" "Louie Speech"

Once it calmed down, he was just laying on his side and staring at the tapir. Who probably didn't even give a fuck nor realize that her newest captor was down and out for the count. But still she continued to bombard him with thoughts and he hissed through clenched teeth. A wall had been erected, but they were bouncing off it like a hand ball and the thump, thump, thump was annoying him. Eventually, it wore down to nothing more than a tap. Not enough to hurt his head, enough that maybe he would lose his patience at some stage.

"Don't mind me. Just learning new things, enjoying new experiences it's all the same." Limply standing on his feet, he shook himself out and tried to shake off the majority of his sick from his paw. Didn't really work, it was very stick stuff and he was left with the green and black ooze clinging to his fur stubbornly. Louie shook his head, and looked at the tapir whose blind eyes expressed no emotion. It was eerily like Magdalena and he tried not to connect those two in his head. They were nothing the same.

"Shouldn't take us long to get there." Tiny hints of whispers slipped through the flyscreen of his impenetrable door that probably shouldn't even have a flyscreen. The eyesore in front of him, all half a tonne of her would be hard to get back to his place secretly.

Penelope heard him pick himself up, ears twitching as they tried to pinpoint him. Based on how it sounded he was heading before vomiting for some unknown reason, she began to trek onward, feet dragging so Louie could quickly place himself ahead if necessary. She figured he's mock her the whole way, so following him ought to be easy enough.

The entire time she couldn't help, but to feel a bit dulled down. Her mood was depressed, of course, but now it was more... numbness. A pinch of anger in the distance and a pile of things she didn't understand, but she would in time. A soft sigh formed, an attempt to make it quiet enough for him to not bother her over it. She halted, noting he hadn't come forth yet and she prayed she wasn't going the wrong way.

If you're going through hell... keep on going, don't slow down...

- - -

"Speech"
@Louie

"Booker Speech" "Louie Speech"

Not wanting to get ahead of her, for the fear that she would merely run back in the direction she had come from, he stayed close to her side but more towards her heels. Still his head was foggy, and when she came to a stop he was thankful as keeping up with her was difficult. Long legs and big body meant she covered way more ground than he could. Putting a paw to his forehead, he shook his head a few more times. "Did you not feel that?" Maybe she did maybe she didn't. It was weird, he had been so physically affected by it it was as though someone had coward punched him in the head.

That obvious sadness and moping energy was really rolling off her and he snorted with his eyes becoming lidded slightly as he glared at her, "You don't need to be so depressed all the time. You'e got a purpose now be thankful for it. Merry Men will treat you fine." Sighing, he rubbed his forehead a bit more. Was it just a weird bad reaction to the telepathy? He hadn't gotten it with Iliad so he wasn't entirely sure.

Her ears twisted toward him and she turned her head, but didn't look down. Feel it? She felt something, but she wasn't particularly sure what it was. Penelope remained silence, taking a moment to try to register what exactly she felt. As she swam through her emotions and dug at what was different, he suddenly made more of his comments, hurting her further. She pinned her ears at him and her eyes landed directly on him, as if she could actually see him.

Her blood boiled and before she could even think about it, the words rolled out of her mouth aggressively.

"A purpose? For what, exactly? To be your fucking verbal punching bag? I'm depressed because a bitch of a white bird pecked me. Pecked. Me. And now I can't see."

It ended with a snort, just before her face softened into emotionless. Where the heck did that come from? She blinked and sank her head down, fear taking over that unusual anger and hatred that momentarily grabbed her heart and yanked. She couldn't even muster up an apology, fear of repercussions taking over almost instantly and with full force. It didn't feel right. The nausea returned and her head felt like it was spinning a little. She stepped away from him, assuming her fear was making her feel the way she did.

- - -

"Speech"
@Louie

"Booker Speech" "Louie Speech"

Oh hey that ball came out of left field and he was taken aback by the ferocity in her voice. Blinded by a bird's peck, that certainly didn't hold up to his story and he couldn't stop himself from playing the "I got more hurt than you" game. "Trying having your face melted off by a fucking dragon." She'd seen that, in her hindsight and she wondered if she'd just forgotten. That anger though, it was such a burst that it shook him as well, the connection between the two of them still so tender. "Who was this white bird anyway? I haven't seen or heard of any within Origin cave..." Louie was making it a note to get in contact, or at least have some sort of connection to the new additions, the powerful additions, to the world of gembounds.

It would make him all the more angry if he realized she was trying to claim his throne as the top prokaryotic monster. Only he, and maybe the walking plague monster Khloros got to wear that crown. Again she went back to moping and he sighed, almost taking pity on her as she was extremely upset and it didn't help having a mopey Arcane wielder, "If they come looking for us I'll fuck them up anyway." Just something to at least get her to be a bit more cheered up. They had to keep moving though, he had no idea what Nemesis and Magdalena would think of his addition.

The tribe of amazonian women really.

She swallowed. Hard.

He was right. He did have his face melted and his eye had... oh, the nausea it stirred on top of the existing nauseous feeling from the connection. Was she getting ill? Penelope hoped not. It would only mean, to her, that the blindness was only the beginning. Paranoia creeped in.

Then he asked, who? Who was she, anyway? It was so nonchalant from him, but as she thought of the name again, flashbacks poured back like an avalanche. A young, molting baby tapir - herself - prancing through the tunnels blissfully. A stumbling upon a white crow. Kindness to the crow, kindness back from the crow. A snuggle, which was soft, until the beak penetrated her flesh.

The darkness as it began to cloak, dimming the lights, turning them off like there was some kind of switch. The dizziness of losing it all, the fear as it came from an unknown source. The first noise in her blind wake. A plead for help. A familiar voice. That... that bird's voice. Mocking. Loud. Dia did it. Dia did it. DIA DID IT. DIA DID IT!

There was no comfort as he spoke. She couldn't even hear him. She stared slightly upward, almost as if at the ceiling. Her hindquarters trembled, but the rest of her was still as her head began to spin. The nausea subsided, briefly, then came crashing much like the memories and that was when she vomited her own bile of digested plant matter, slimy and putrid. The vomiting seemed to bring her back to earth.

Her memory and her voice spoke it one more time.

"Dia did it."

- - -

"Speech"
@Louie

"Booker Speech" "Louie Speech"

That question appeared to make her catatonic and he just watched as her whole body reacted to the question. Episodes like this had been experienced by Louie, maybe not to this extent and he could only watch as she stared up at the sky, before unloading the contents of her stomach onto the ground. Great, now they'd both vomited and the tunnel stank of the puke. Absolutely revolting, the herbivorous diet certainly didn't help. Now his paw moved up to his nose, and he watched the poor thing almost convulse and seize. If she died in front of him now he would have no idea what to do with the body. Wait did bodies fade once they died? Ahh oh well. Wasn't really important as she wouldn't be dying with him here.

Feeling the positive bacteria being dispersed from the air onto the tapir, he listened both in his head and with her voice as she kept almost screaming the name. Dia. That wasn't one that was familiar to him and he frowned, "Not much help. Can't say it's one familiar to me. Probably just a gembound who has nothing better to do than antagonize those weaker than it." The irony. Again he sighed, that had done nothing to help the situation. Now she just looked more terrified and weak. "This Dia person will be no problem. If it's a bird than it can be easily taken out of the sky. I have means of doing that." Glass shards flying through the air always helped.

Weaker. She never acknowledge weakness or strength before. Particularly in herself. He made it so bluntly plain, though. I'm weak. She sighed, just too tired to put much effort into the words, right now. The flashbacks, vomiting, and - unbeknownst to her - the Sensorial Link had essentially drained her of her willpower for the day.

When are we going? She decided to provoke the travels herself, beginning to carry onward once more. Her steps were heavy, dragging her toes a little. Part of her almost hoped he'd climb to her back and give her signals, even if being ridden by her mocker - who was being unusually "nice" - was humiliating at best. Just walk, weakling.

- - -

"Speech"

OOC: EXIT
@Louie

"Booker Speech" "Louie Speech"

In the end she didn't respond to what he thought was a comforting sentiment. "We head to Monoceros. The cave of winds." Her voice was no longer a thumping, instead the weakness of her will made it quiet and gentle over the connection they shared. With that, they exited the tunnel, heading towards the next tunnel in the grand scheme of things.

-exit Louie-