ORIGIN

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Pride tilted his head, then shook it gently.

"It is not going anywhere, for the time being. Come, now." He did his best to wrap his magicka around Baneberry, to gently move them forward--a push, a nudge, but with the implication that it could easily become something more.

"You will have it later. For now we must let him cool and have you checked. The tower is not so far."

He glanced at Envy, meanwhile, willing them to take charge of the situation. This had to be ended, and soon, before Baneberry grew hysterical, or Greed--acting somewhat erratically--grew violent.

@Reign @Envy

At the hybrid's insistence, Envy's tail flicked nervously back and forth. "And we'll give you it, when the time comes. Promise," Envy said with a nod. "But right now, we must be safe. You'll thank us later."

They flinched, expression souring, as Greed began to speak, and with a growl, puffed themselves up, quills rattling warningly. "Greed," they hissed, trying to sound authoritative. "You seem to be forgetting who's the King around here." As she corrected herself, though, their quills lowered, and although their eyes were still narrowed, they nodded. "So as king, I say she can have them. When we're sure she won't spread it to us."

They looked pointedly at Reseda, as she continued on her strange tangent- narrowing their eyes as their look quickly hardened into a glare. Rage prickled and boiled in their chest, and they bared their teeth, trying not to let their indignance show. Even so, they felt themselves growing hot with embarrassment. "If you don't like me, then what are you still doing here?" they answered hotly, quills prickling upright along their length in a bid to make themselves look even slightly bigger. Even though they already knew the answer, they hated that she'd said it out loud. They remembered her promise; that the entire cave, and not just the Seven, would be theirs.

But did they even want that? It was hard enough organising this rowdy lot. They had subjects, and although they always wanted more... they were secretlya little bit afraid of what would happen if they did. They snorted, and nodded. "At least, you are," they said scathingly, before turning away. They were done talking to her, as well. They looked then towards the dragon- who'd been wonderfully quiet for the short time since they'd given him the gem. They supposed they owed him for that.

But as much as they tried to press their magic into the ground, perhaps because of the emotion coursing through their veins, it simply wouldn't respond. They gritted their teeth, and looked up helplessly towards the dragon. "Just a little more," they promised. "The gold will be coming soon. Okay?"

They gave Pride a small nod as he took matters into his own hooves. "You won't have to wait long. I'll come and see you, personally," they added, with a flick of their tail. They forced their quills to lie down flat, hiding the nervousness that flooded their serpentine form.

Speech. Thought.

@Baneberry @Greed

Banberry would have kept on arguing with them, but she was so emotionally drained she could not. Her heart told her to stay until she got what she needed, but she knew it wouldn't end well if she did. Besides, Greed was seemingly just as stubborn about keeping them, and her words sparked up another spurt of anger, but Pride was already trying to take her away.

"I dislike the reptile greatly. If she visits me there will be a fight." Baneberry stated sourly, glaring at Greed the entire time. hen, she shuffled away with Pride, her head held down as she silently vowed to get revenge for her father.

@Greed

The headache was getting worse and Reseda sorely regretted trying to use magic like that at a time like this. It was jeopardizing everything she had worked for. But she was beginning to feel strange. Like a fire welling in her stomach, filling herself with an extremely unpleasant heat. Her heart throbbed and red descended over her vision. Something in the back of her mind told her that this was not normal, that she had to stand down, and that she had to keep in control but the first flash of emotion, the first since the monster that had wounded her perfect mind, was out of her control. She was not accustomed to anger and did not know how to deal with it. So it came out in a flash of heat and fury.

She curled her lip and whipped around towards Envy, dark eyes blazing. "And you seem to be forgetting, Your Majesty, that if it wasn't for me, your kingdom would not exist. If it weren't for me you would have no crown on your head. I am still here because I built this kingdom and it was through my goodness that I gave my kingdom to you. My dislike for you and your inability to rule properly will not destroy my hard work, not under my watch."

She then turned towards the hybrid creature, having completely lost control of her senses and emotion. "I don't like you either. I don't like your family. If I had the chance I would wipe them out without an ounce of remorse. If you wish to start a fight with me, so be it. I will kill you like I killed your father." She spat out her words and snarled, glaring around at everyone, as if waiting for them to challenge her bold, uncharacteristic words.

@Dread

Dread listened to the mounting violence. His spined head swung back and forth from where he perched atop the throne-back, from one speaker to the other. The long-lizard--kind of like him, but small and without wings or spines--was threatening, arguing.

Maybe he could eat her. He looked intently at Envy, tail slowly swishing to and fro behind him like a cat's. Ember eyes glowed with anticipation. If the weasel said to attack, he would, and he'd enjoy it. ...But Dread's strong point was not his subtlety, and he could hardly contain himself.

"DO I EAT HER?!"

The excited, roaring words burst from his jaws, his tense body ready to pounce from the back of the throne.

Pride turned, fury flaring in his silver eyes. He'd been trying to defuse the situation, but Reseda's anger--and he didn't even notice it, not really--didn't realize how uncharacteristic it was... It provoked him. His turn was a wheel, nostrils flaring as his antlered head came up.

"No one is killing her, and if you do, you will need to go through me first," he snapped. He then lashed his magic out--unfocused, angry--with the intent to grab Reseda and fling her upside-down and away. She was nothing--a ragdoll, a fly, a--

Oh.

He grabbed a tiny pebble instead, with his mind, something near her--and flung that away with a completely unimpressive arc. The little rock--barely the size of Envy's paw--was hardly even visible as it soared off, clinking quietly over the stone until it bounced away into silence. He stared.

That-... was not how he'd intended to make his point, and he turned, haughtily, trying not to look completely embarrassed. He'd-... CHOSEN to make his point with a pebble. That's how he had to act. Head held high, frustration and shame roiling in him (why was magic so unhelpful, at times?!) he strode off toward the tower.

"No one likes her," he informed Baneberry, and he did not bother to keep his voice down. His embarrassment fuelled his words, his tongue lashing out where his magic could not. She strives for power but no one would ever choose to follow her. She will not harm you." He cast a venomous glare back with one eye, head half-turned, toward Reseda--as if daring to challenge that.

@Reign @Envy

This was not good.

Reign closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before looking between Envy, Pride, Reseda, the intruder, and Dread in turn, refusing to fidget. This would not end well - they were nearing a fight.

The great lizard had thankfully been soothed with the promises of gold and healing from the King. But the intruder was insisting on taking the carcass, no matter what was said.

Greed, it seemed, was being particularly loose-lipped, spilling that she had been the victor (victor?) and that she was not fond of their King, as was he. His tail lashed; while he was out of the loop, even he could tell that she was revealing things that weren't to be told to the intruder.

Pride continued to insist on the intruder coming with them, and not taking the carcass. Reign could see that this was not the way to go, that Baneberry was not going to be moved this way. He looked, then, to their King, who was beginning to grow quite angry at Greed's disobedience.

But, to Reign's surprise, the hybrid moved to go with Pride. Well, he hadn't expected that. But that was good, no blood needed to be shed.

Of course, Greed then turned on Envy with a whirl, snarling and snapping words, revealing that she had killed her father - not an illness. Well, any progress made had been loss. Reign snarled, baring his fangs and lowering his head, half-sheathed claws digging into the stone floor.

The massive, winged lizard offered to eat Greed, and Reign's tail lashed. The Komodo Dragon was a fool - she was greatly outnumbered, even with Baneberry on her side. Outnumbered, and outmatched. The King Cheetah took a single step towards Reseda, peeling his lips backs from his fangs and beginning to rumble a growl, sparks dancing along his pelt.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.
@Envy

Envy nodded towards Pride, visibly slouching in relief as the hybrid followed him, their tail relaxing and quills lowering. Pride would handle this. Pride could handle anything. And now all they needed to do was learn a magic that could make her sick.

It would be easy! Although the weasel's heart still pounded with anxiety, nervousness twitching the tip of their tail, they felt like the greatest of the stormclouds had passed. They had this all under control.

But that, of course, wasn't to last.

King Envy obviously wasn't about to be reticent as Reseda struck directly at their sorest spot. They pattered towards Reseda, quills rattling as their suddenly overexcited brain ticked over every possibility for a retort. Then they bared small white teeth in a triumphant grin. "So maybe you were the one who wanted to make something. But without me, you wouldn't have even lived to build it! I saved you, remember? And... Pride, and Lust, and Gluttony? It was me you named them after, wasn't it? Saying nothing of who you are now, Greed. And Pride was the one who gave me this crown, not you. I could even make myself another if I wanted to!" Envy felt themselves shaking with rage and a trifle of fear, their body rippling and paws dancing on the spot with the adrenaline coursing through their veins.

Encouraged by the dragon's roaring and the sound of Reign growling behind them, Envy continued. "Besides," they drawled, coming to a halt and standing as tall as they could. If Reseda decided to attack them, they wouldn't make even a single mouthful. But they'd be a very spiky pill to swallow; and their bitterness would probably give her stomachaches for weeks. "...I'd like to see you do any better. Especially whilst the Seven are loyal to me." They cast a glance around, quills shaking, looking for agreement.

In that moment, Reseda went off the rails; shouting at the hybrid instead. Envy raised their shrill voice over her. "Do that and you will be eaten!" they said commandingly, risking a hard look up at Dread. Seemingly drunk with confidence with the support from the rest of the Seven, they continued. "Pick a fight with her, and you'll pick a fight with the Kingdom, too. Did I mention that it's my kingdom?"

The King grinned at her, arching their spine, quills prickling. Their body was small, but they were smug as ever. They felt as though they were 100ft tall.

Speech. Thought.

@baneberry

The words that the reptile had spoken infuriated the hybrid. She turned around faster than one would think a beast of her size could, and let out a loud sound that could only be described as the fury of a thousand suns, all projected into the terrifying noise of half moose bellow, half goose screech. She only saw red now.

"I will destroy you. I will make you wish that you had never hatched from your vile egg. I will make you fear every shadow, every noise, every movement. How DARE you speak to me like that? How dare you speak about my father like that!?" Bane yelled, taking a step closer with every sentence. Without even realizing it, her emotions built up and cast out the family's trademark spell, right to Greed. She backed away slowly, head swinging to face the others.

"Take me away, now. If not, there will be bloodshed."

@Greed

Rated M further down for gruesome description.

Reseda curled her lip at Pride's response but was too furious to even respond. The pebble clattering away didn't even catch her attention. However, the crackling of sparks did. She whipped around and came face to face with Reign who was slowly advancing, a snarl etched on his face. The edge of her mouth twitched into a strangely twisted smile. "Oh, I've made you angry too, Reign. Don't bother, I'm not foolish enough to start a fight now. But you might want to reconsider the direction of your paws." As the headeache wore away, she finally began to regain some of her senses. She could not directly tell Reign that he should reconsider following Envy, for surely the weasel would never let anyone take their place, so she instead tried to twist the words around.

She looked towards Envy now and took a small step forward so that she was looming over them. Her expression was calming, slowly but surely as the alien emotions finally began to drift into memory. She wasn't fully herself yet but she was at least beyond uncontrollable anger. For a moment she simply stared at Envy with her dark unblinking eyes before baring her teeth in a mock smile. "Of course, I would be nothing without you. We would be nothing without you. But it is arrogant of you to assume that I named Pride. Or Lust. You may have given me a small help in my time of need but you have as much control over this group as you do over Blackbery and her family. Pride may follow you blindly but your truth will come out soon."

She narrowed her eyes and stepped away, relaxing her muscles as she waited for Pride to leave with the hybrid. But it seemed that it wasn't over just yet.

Baneberry's words simply rolled over her and she barely reacted besides a small cock of her head. "You do that," she whispered softly, not ready for the spell that she had cast upon her. She felt a small jolt and she at first assumed that one of Reign's sparks had touched her and she passed it off as nothing. However, she suddenly began to feel very weak. Weaker then she had felt in a long time. As if the magic was being drained from her body. She flinched with surprise and looking around, as if looking for the source of this sudden drop in power but there was nothing and nobody else seemed to be reacting. A pressure formed around her head and a familiar sensation. Fear. It was closing in on her, followed by something she had hoped she would never feel again. She felt wrong, unnatural, empty and hollow, hyper aware of her own cold heart for just a moment. And a face flitted in front of her vision, a face that had haunted her dreams and she had forgotten in her waking hours. The dark creature...it was here.

She snarled and stepped away, her eyes widening with horror. "W-what is this...how is this possible..." As the Dreamstalked came closer, its claws extended forward, Reseda roared. "Don't! Come! Closer!" She lashed forward but as her claws struck, the creature disappeared and Reseda was left with her sense of powerless, nothingness, and fear.

She looked down at her claws. What had just happened?! It couldn't be here, it was destroyed. She had watched it be destroyed. And how was she feeling again? How?

And when she looked up she saw Baneberry and her rage returned in full boil. She had done this. She had somehow cause this to happen. "YOU!" she roared. "How DARE you cloud my mind with your twisted magic! You've forgotten that you're only alive because we allow you to be. You are nothing, you fool, NOTHING! You'll pay dearly for that trick! I don't care what the others say, I give no second chances!"

With a violence she had never before shown in her magic, she forced a series of images towards Baneberry, some fabricated and some horribly twisted versions of reality. Blueberry rearing and roaring, his eyes blank with rage. He was screaming with pain from a terrible wound in his side. His blood was staining the rocks around him. But it wasn't just his blood. It was Blackberry's too. The goose lay near her mate, eyes blank and beak cracked open. And her entire neck seemed to be disconnected from her body. Jayberry was there too, her black pelt almost all torn off. What was left was stained red and her face was twisted in rage and fear, her last snarl still on her face and in her dead eyes. And Huckleberry, tears still rolling down his blood-soaked face. His gem had been gouged right out of his head and his wings were just blood messes. There were screams, so many screams, so many voices ringing through the darkness. The blood that pooled rippled from the noise and Baneberry was falling in the blood, the blood soaked her skin, it was in her mouth, in her eyes, she was drowning in the remains of her family laying around her.

@Dread

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Pride

Livius

Baneberry

Reseda

Dread

Pride

Reign

Livius

Baneberry

Reseda