ORIGIN

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The clearing had descended into absolute chaos very quickly. It didn't take long for blood to begin to splatter onto the flowers and cries of pain to ring through the trees. The cat she had just maimed as well jumped back with a scream as her beak dived into soft tissue and blood burst in her face. She didn't bother to do anything about it.

There was a horrible, satisfying noise as the cat pushed himself away and her sharp beak pulled out of his eye. As soon as she was free from his grasp, she whipped around and sprinted towards Rift. She felt a blast of heat touch her back as she ran, but she didn't pay attention to it. There may be blisters later, but Blackberry's excitement and her thirst for vengeance was taking over.

But a familiar voice made her pause. Coming from the mist that was rapidly overtaking the clearing. Pride? She narrowed her eyes and hissed angrily. She didn't need him interfering with this. She didn't have much time to think about it, though, when the air suddenly turned blistering hot. The steam was boiling. Blackberry shrieked and staggered as her feathers began to sizzle and looked for a way out of the mist. But it was too dense and it seemed unending. Just for a moment she felt a flash of fear as she heard the cries of her children. If this kept up, they were all going to die. Her precious children!

But then a wind blew through the clearing and the mist was gone and Blackberry found her vision clearing as the burning subsided. Had Huckleberry done that with his magic? She would have to reconsider her feelings on the matter! Pride for her child welled up in her.

Pride's proclamation stung her for a second but then she let out a loud honking laugh. "Baneberry, ha! Baneberry is a disgrace! She is a traitor to the family, and my children all know it!" With no more need to spare a single more word on Pride, she lunged towards her target again. She had probably spent too much time dallying though.

"Remember me, kitty?" she hissed as she approached Rift. "I let you go last time. It won't happen again!"

Battle Report
The tree has stopped shaking as Rift is dragged off. He immediately attacks Huckleberry with the roots.
Pride is boiling the mist but Huckleberry has blown most of it away.
Pride has revealed their capture of Baneberry and has threatened to kill her.
Oliver is tangled and lost in the leaves.
Beyr has thrown himself into the mix but hasn't done anything yet. Cloudberry has failed to attack him.
Enka shot water at Yewberry and in retaliation, he used the terror spell against her.
Jayberry is projecting images of Envy's maiming at Pride.
Blackberry has gouged out Sebastian's eye and he has commited to killing her. He blasts a heatwave as she runs away towards Rift.
Artume has walked in and complimented Elderberry.
Blackberry has responded to Pride - she doesn't care about Baneberry, as she's dead to the family.

The screams and shouts of battle were pounding into Rift's head as he turned away from the hybrid, who had been flung away from him. Where was Blackberry? Where was she? If he killed her, perhaps this would end, perhaps he family would run home.

The scream of pain stabbed into his gem ear, as if he were a child again, everything too loud, and it rang in his brain. He howled with agony as he watched it happen, Blackberry's beak stabbing into Sebastian's eye. He didn't feel it, no, they weren't connected, but a thorn of anger burrowed into his heart and his lips curled curiously. His eyes blazed with rage. She attacks out of nowhere, spills blood in his garden, and now she has maimed his brother.

He didn't care about anything else that was happening in the clearing at the moment. His eyes were on the goose and the blood on her beak. The stinging, boiling air didn't even pass through his brain. The grasses along his back wilted from the intense heat but he didn't care. His magic was raging out of control. He was roaring, hissing, his gem ear glowing. A spell he had seldom used, learned long ago from a strange phenomenon, burst forth. But in his fury, his spell misdirected. Instead of altering Blackberry's air, he altered his own.

Within a few seconds, the pressure was gone and his lungs couldn't breath in enough air. He gasped, trying to breathe, but his magic had expanded the air around him too much. His legs wobbled and he fell to the ground, his jaws opened as he struggled to breathe.

@Elderberry @Cloudberry @Jayberry @Yewberry @Sebastian @Enka @Oliver @Pride @Beyr @Artume

The stag reeled.

His mind was filled with imagery--horrific things, violent things--and he pulled back behind a tree to gather himself. There was no way he could focus on magic, not at the moment, but he could get out of their line of sight, at least. Armored or not, he didn't intend to stand out in the open.

As his mind swam back to him, he heard Blackberry's words, and a half-hysterical laugh escaped him.

"Of course you would not care for family. Why did I assume that you would? You kidnap hatching children, bend them to your will, and abandon them when they no longer suit your needs. You do not care when one is captured? When others are killed? Why, so long as you can maintain some mad bloody sadistic crusade against innocents?"

The stag shook his head, trying to clear it. He still could not cast--a tentative touch found his magic unresponsive, too much chaos swirling in his mind. The emotion rife in his voice showed his lack of self-control, at the moment, his normal poise gone.

"Huckleberry! That is what awaits you! You, and yes, Jayberry, you too. You have seen how those who CARE for one another fight--in that tunnel, in the dark--and she does not care. Turn on her, flee, leave. This is no fight. This is madness, and you do not belong here!"

Oliver pulled himself up, trembling, eyes wide.

He didn't want anyone to be hurt--and he certainly didn't want to harm anyone himself. The best he could do was to try and stop the fight.

He turned, his breathing coming fast. Everything was chaos around him. He'd never been in a fight before, let alone an outright battle, and he hardly knew which way to look. Everything was happening too quickly.

He knew that Blackberry was leading the other side--attacking Rift and Eridanus, shouting for blood. Desperately he called upon his magic. If he could call on light--as he had so many times to help him mend, and grow--perhaps he could keep it in her eyes? Blind her, and keep her from knowing where to strike?

At least then, she could not hurt anybody.

Nearby, Rift was gasping, but Oliver did not know what to do for him.

The light flashed out, toward the goose's eyes, and Oliver struggled to maintain it. Wherever she moved, he'd move it with her--doing his best to keep her from seeing anything other than his light.

{Table code credit to Madison, altered a bit!}

It took a while, but Huckleberry eventually struggled back to his feet. His head was no clearer. If anything, he was even more confused as chaos raged around him. He whipped around, instinctively trying to find Blackberry, his mama. He wailed pitifully as he stumbled through the thinning mist and his blurry, teary vision. "Mama...mama!" It was like he was a child again, stumbling around, crying for his mother to help him.

A part of him was still focused on the battle. He needed to find his mama but he also had to find the green cat and kill him. Finish what he started. But it was buried under his conscious, barely a guiding for what he should do next. And then he heard her. Heard his mama! He didn't know what she said but he stumbled blindly in her direction. "Mama! Mama!"

He paused when he heard a familiar voice calling his name and shook his head to try and clear his vision. He looked back and saw the gleaming white coat of Pride. Dread shot through him and he felt his knees weaken. No, why was Pride here? He didn't want Pride here. He couldn't...he couldn't choose! Not now! He wasn't ready!

He trembled, wishing that he could feel the familiar warmth of Shiny on his back, wishing that he could curl up in his nest in his cave, listening to the sounds of his family breathing around him. Glancing up and seeing Cloudberry's beautiful feathers...oh he wished things could be normal!

But they weren't normal. They were never normal. And Huckleberry's chaotic, broken mind was trying to focus on too many things. Any other time, perhaps, he would have run. Seeing such terrible things - Yewberry pecking at an innocent bystander, Blackberry gouging out the eye of a cat, Cloudberry trying to fight, it would have driven him far away. But all he wanted was his mother. He wanted her and to make her proud of him again.

Tears gathered at the corners of his eyes. "N-no...I dont'..." his breathing increased as the words stuck in his throat. "I...I belong...I belong with my mama!"

He should have attacked Pride then and there but he was terrified of the stag, of the rage he would induce. And Pride was a friend...he could never, ever attack a friend. So he turned himself around and ran towards his target, the family's target. Because that's what mama wanted and that's where mama was.

And as he got closer, a sudden orb of brightness burst in front of him. He was staring right at it and screamed as he got closer, stumbling as his eyes were burned. Uncontrollably, a burst of magic shot from his body and thick clouds began to accumulate above the clearing. Static sparked across the sky as Huckleberry willed Rift to fall, willed everyone to fall. Bolts of lightning began to flash from the sky, raging into the clearing, seeking out anything with a body. Static raced through the mist and Huckleberry collapsed to the ground, exhausted and crying.

Note: Roll was supposed to be Lightning Storm, which is the same level intensity.

Brother, understand whySee it's burning me to hold onto thisI know this is something that I gotta doBut that don't mean I want to

He hurt. His head throbbing, each breath sending agony rushing through his eye-socket, blood spilling down his face. The panther wanted nothing more than to retreat to his cave, lick his wound and wait for it to scab over, the pain to subside. But there was no way he was leaving his brother to this monster's mercy, no way he would betray his brother another time.

As though through a wool-barrier, he watches as Rift tries, and fails, to attack. As he began to choke and gasp in a horrible way, a way that provoked the predator in his brain, that reminded him of his prey when he tightened his jaw around their throat, as his brother collapsed to the ground, choking for air.

"Rift!" he choked out, watching as the horrific goose approached his brother. In desperation, he reached for his Magic, but it didn't respond. He lurched forward, hoping to intercept the goose, only to be struck down with a wail of pain as Huckleberry's spell began to strike the Gembounds with lightening.

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

What I'm trying to say is that, I love you I justI feel like this is coming to an endAnd it's better for me to let it go now,than hold on and hurt youI've gotta let it burn

The wolf barely moved, aside from the heaving of her sides as she breathed, the entirety of her being focused on projecting the image on the stag. She was wholly unaware of everything going on around her - of her daughter finally proving herself worthy of being called a Berry, of her Mother blinding the black cat in one eye, of the stag approaching Elderberry, of Cloudberry failing another spell.

It was only when the white stag came back to himself, just as Mother was speaking, that Jayberry regained control of herself. She snarled, flashing her fangs, eyes bright with rage at the stag's rage. He was wrong. Bane had failed them, abandoned them and done nothing. Her ears twitched as the stag addressed her, lips curling back into a sneer - she cared, dearly, for her family, and this was her family. She would never betray them. Her Magic itched, boiling beneath her skin, the dandruff that sat in her fur beginning to rustle as it became charged with her magic. She braced her paws and shook herself, released hallucinogenic dander into the air, uncaring of who was affected.

The wolf looked back, to Huckleberry, calling out "That's my brother!" proudly when he laid down his allegiance with them, with his family. And then, of course, his spell worked too well, and she cried out in pain as lightning ran through her, sending her crashing to the ground. The wolf thrashed, attempting to set eyes on all of her family - on Elderberry and Cloudberry, on Huckleberry and Yewberry, on Mother - to make sure that they were all okay.

"She speaks." 'She thinks.' She does.

M FOR MATURE

Cloudberry shook her head. She couldn't call on her magic. She was-... This was all so much. Fighting, all around her--she'd been raised with it but there was so much.

Her face remained rigid--moreso than usual--and she reeled back. Did Pride speak the truth? --No, she was part goose--wasn't she? Blackberry was her mother. Yes.

She tried to shake it off--she'd managed to avoid the worst of the boiling mist, but now, as if that hadn't been enough, lightning was striking everywhere. Spores, too, were drifting through the air.

Cloudberry turned. The world was swimming, abruptly--the hallucinations filling her mind with madness--and her face, at last, contorted. Terror. Confusion. She never showed it--but now it showed. All filters were off. All careful, fearful masks fell away. Her wings flapped frantically, and she reared back, lifting off--only for the next flash to fill her mind, agony ripping through her body. It was brief--blessedly, mercifully brief--and then she felt nothing.

It was beautiful to see, if horrific--the iridescent blue-feathered hybrid spiralling skyward, only to be lit by a crash of electricity and plummet back down to earth, stray feathers falling after her. Smoke trailed up behind, and there she lay, in the moss, motionless.

The blue stone atop her head sparked, and spread, slowly engulfing her limp and lifeless form. Within moments she was covered by a new chrysalis, her body unable to cope with the damage without the intervention of the stone.

All that was left was a smooth, glinting stone of perfect, deep blue, a glowing spot of beauty in the ugly violence that churned around it.

EDIT: M for Mature ... just in case.

The world around her spun like a twisted nightmare as cries and shouts filled the air. Blood splashed the area from both sides. The pernicious horror surrounded her, gripping her in terror unlike any she had felt before. At this point there was no escape from it. And what little escape could occur was soon corroded by Yewberry as the strange hybrid worked her spell.

Enka’s vision suddenly left the present to see a future one. The springbok had no way of knowing that this wasn’t real, that was wasn’t a destined sight. What she saw was a potential future of her family; of Sebastian scrambling in blind terror and Rift collapsing, both falling and releasing their last breaths amidst a pool of blood surrounding them while gashes and punctures littered their bodies. In her mind, the others had left but for a nightmarish representation of the bloodberry clan as a shadow plaguing the two, attacking even as their souls left their form. The last she saw was the flowers dying below their forms in a flood of crimson.

The vision was quick but it shook Enka to her very bones. Then lightening struck around her. She became confused, trying to orient herself to the present moment. Spores then filled the air along with more cries. It was dizzying. Enka took a step back and nearly tripped over herself as a burst of light flooded the area. Her mind was becoming numb to the noise, not even noticing the pained cry she herself added to the chorus while blood dripped down her side.

She needed the pain to stop. She needed help. She needed her family. She needed to help. Thoughts raced around and then stopped as they became no longer possible for her. Instinct was soon the only thing that remained in her broken mind as endorphins raced through her system. The largest need was soon decided and action soon followed.

The antelope’s body twisted away as brown hooves lifted her up. It was almost a beautiful moment, her form dark against the lightening lit sky nearly flying above the chaos. Once her hooves hit the mossy earth she at once raced away from Yewberry to the thing she needed most, her father’s fallen form now in front of her and yet so far away.

Speech
Thoughts

Tags:
Notes:

Whatever Pride was trying to say to Blackberry was lost on her. She was focused completely on her prey, the sounds of the raging battle just a mumble in the background. She had been waiting for this for so long it almost hurt to stall the moment when she'd sink her claws into the cat. She advanced on him, her hooked beak clacking impatiently, the sharp fangs underneath glinting whenever she opened her mouth. A hoarse honking noise was coming from her throat and her eyes were stretched wide with impatience. Her wings pulled up and tensed just away from her body. She looked hilariously horrifying and one step later and she shot off the ground, honking loudly as she flew to attack the cat.

But then there was a blinding flash of light and she cried out with pain, squeezing her eyes shut. She stumbled back, right into the cloud of spores that Jayberry had released and immediately the world began to go strange. She didn't know which was was up or down. She couldn't see the cat anymore. Or maybe she could, but he wasn't purple? She honked again, trying to right herself and stumbled just as a lightning bolt struck where she had been. It grazed her feathers and she felt a jolt of lightning race through her. She cried and fell to the ground as the shock passed through her, thoroughly dazed.

Anger flared in her. She knew these spells - she bet that Jayberry had cast the spores and Huckleberry had done the lightning. As she struggled back to her feet, she honked a loud, screaming command: "STOP MESSING AROUND! ATTACK THE CAT!!"

Battle Report
Rift accidentally hurt himself with his spell and was incapacitated.
Pride, unable to attack for the time being, continues trying to reason with the Bloodberries.
Oliver desperately tries to make an orb of light to try and blind Blackberry.
Huckleberry makes his choice to stay with the family and unleashes a torrent of lightning bolts.
The first bolt intercepted Sebastian as he tried to run to help his brother.
The second hits Jayberry just after she released a cloud of hallucinogenic spores.
The third directly hits Cloudberry, causing massive damage and sending her into her chrysalis.
The fourth hits near Enka, who is being affected both by Yewberry's terror and the hallucinations.
The fifth hits Blackberry just after she is stopped by the lights in her path to attack Rift.

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Nameless

Rift (Original)

Pride

Oliver

Huckleberry

Sebastian

Jayberry

Azure

Enka

Nameless