ORIGIN - Ornaments Neatly Ordered, Lovingly Admired

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Azure listened closely, and she tilted her head downward, too, when Dip slipped the rope over her antlers.

"Thanks--this is the best thing I have. My favorite," she decided, good-naturedly. "I wonder what the stuff was ever even made for," she answered after a moment, after Dip had spoken about all the stuff scattered through Tunnel J. "I mean... It had to have a purpose, right? Weapons? Tools? If you find out, let me know."

And oh. Oof. That question.

Azure froze up, for a moment. Okay, so she still wasn't about to spill her sordid backstory, but a little history was probably required to answer this one. She took a breath. Then sighed it out, then took another to explain. "Ehhh. I was raised by assholes. I grew up with them. All they ever knew was how to hurt and destroy, so I was kinda... sitting around here, one day, like--a week ago maybe? And I was playing with my magic, and I had it in my head that I wanted to make stuff, you know? Instead of like, breaking it. And it worked. My magic wasn't lighting stuff up, to start with--it was that shock stuff, I think. That's what my mother had, anyway, I think." She tried to force back rather uncharitable thoughts about said mother.

"I don't think I've heard of the Blacksmith, myself, but--well, there's a lot of gembound in the caves. I'm sure someone has," Azure offered, then immediately mentally kicked herself for that completely awkward attempt at encouragement.

"Hey, maybe we could make stuff together, some time. Like--if you're making metal things I could make them glow, or... electric. I want to learn how to make those gemstones, too," she added thoughtfully.

As a sort of afterthought, she focused on the moonstone for a moment.

At first, she thought that nothing had happened. But when she shifted to try and see it, she saw that the entire ground under where her forefoot had sat was now glowing--a wholly useless waste of magic, an imprint of herself flashing blue. "...Fucking magic," she muttered, and she could feel her face flushing beneath her feathers in embarrassment.

@Siren

Siren's face lit up like one of Azure's stones. She grinned and hugged her legs towards her chest happily, watching with her tail absently thumping against the cave floor. "I'm glad!" She said-- and then took a long moment to consider this next part over.

"I mean, I guess? Weapons might just be for people like me to hunt, I dunno?" She offered, lifting a hand with blunt fingertips. "I don't really have claws, or talons. Or teeth and a big mouth or anything." She shrugged, unbothered, looking around.

Siren blinked over to listen to Azure once she started talk again, her pale eyebrows slowly lifting. Several things were brought to her attention that she hadn't quite thought about before-- the first, that people could be raised by others. Brought up by them? This seemed a little bizarre to her.

And it didn't even just end there-- they could be whatever assholes were. Which were likely not a good thing, and Azure did not make them sound like they were good in the slightest. The fact that people could be intentionally bad and destroy stuff instead of wanting to fix and create and give was also, a bit strange to her.

She was a little unsure what to say to this; but she didn't want to say anything bad.

She took a moment to mull this information over, brow furrowing. "I'm glad you're making stuff now?" Siren offered, trying to be gently reassuring in the slightly bewildered way children do. "I mean, you seem happier now and stuff?"

At least, she hoped she was. She couldn't really be that sure.

She didn't particularly want to linger on it for too long, however-- and something told her now wasn't the Time to ask questions about what assholes were or who her family was. Instead, she clung to the topic of creating together.

"Yeah!" She said, right back to cheerfulness. "I can show you how to make stuff in the forge, maybe? I wanna build my own sometime and get my own tools and stuff so that I don't have to keep using Glory's stuff, though."

She turned her head to watch Azure imprint her claw onto the ground, reaching out to cautiously touch the glowing colour, humming. "You can always try again," she offered. "Or I can try to make a new one in case that one's broken?"

@Azure

"...Yeah, thanks," Azure responded to the reassurance. It wasn't a false thank you, either, and her mind was quickly diverted onto other things. Then, for a long moment, she paused. Dip was talking about something else, now, and though she'd never heard of half of it, she stopped to think it over. A long, good search of her memory found that no, she didn't remember any of it, so she at last decided to ask. "Uhh. What' a... forge? What's it do, what's it for?" She blinked. "I get that it's for uhh, melting metals? I think you said? But how's it work? Is it a magic thing?"

Azure was having trouble imagining a "forge." Was it something tiny, and magic? Or was it huge? Like. A rock?? She didn't even know where to begin with her mental image of it.

"I don't think this is broken, anyway, just--give me a minute. Magic's dumb," she muttered as a side-note, tilting her head down to try and see the moonstone. Another moment's focus, and then--thankfully--it was glowing a soft blue against her feathers.

She looked to Dip, and seemed to beam. "It's perfect, thanks. You want me to, uhh, glow anymore of your stuff?"

@Siren

Siren nodded along half-uncertainly but still smiling. "A forge is, uhh, it's a big sort of hot-- thing? It's really really hot, and when you put metals in it they go really soft so that you can make it into other shapes? But you gotta be careful or you'll burn," she explained, or at least tried to. "It's not like, totally magic, but some bits of it can be magic? Like-- you'll need magic to make the forge hot enough, or to find metals, maybe."

"... it's also super noisy," she added, as an afterthought.

She had quickly found it was difficult to describe it as Glory had-- but a part of her didn't entirely want to drag Azure off to it to show her and explain better, not if she didn't want to. If she was burning up in Monoceros as it was, with her black plumage, she might keel over and die going into the general vicinity of the forge and the smelter and the lava.

Serendipity looked over briefly, blinking as Azure went about trying to get the stone to glow again. "Yeah," she said absently, half-distantly. She smiled upon seeing the streaks of blue against the hybrid's neck feathers, swelling briefly with pride. "It's pretty!"

She turned her head towards the direction of her den, then to Azure, shaking her head. "Uh, nothing that I have with me now? Or that I might melt down to make something else?" She responded. "Do you want me to like, make you anything?"

@Azure

Azure thought about this closely. Okay, so the forge sounded cool. Sure, she didn't quite get it--not entirely, and she couldn't picture it--but the concept was clear enough. As for stuff she wanted..?

"Huhhh. Let me think." She was briefly distracted by Dip smiling--it was a pleasant expression, happiness and joy that was still pretty new to Azure, and she did her best to smile back.

-Right. Stuff I want.

"Well-... Not metal, but if you ever want anything glowed I can do it, metal or whatever. And. Uh. Sparked. But if you figure out how the ropes and cords and things work? Could you teach me how?" she asked, hopefully. Some part of her wanted to learn this most of all--to make more gems, dangling, many-shaped, many-colored, glowing and hanging from all sorts of body parts. Well, maybe not all sorts. But jewelry! Decoration! It drew her, a sort of creative process that she'd never been party to before.

"But yeah! If you ever want stuff glowed, just--come to me and I'll do it. But uhh." She glanced around. "I don't live here. I mean, in this cave yeah but not--right here. I should probably find a place," she mused. And then, rather abruptly, "Hey if you ever wanna share a space or something, maybe we can work together?" It was half a hopeful suggestion to just move in together--friends, sharing a crafting spot and a resting place, maybe chatting about stuff, or... whatever friends did. And it was half just an offer, because honestly Azure didn't expect Dip to accept, for just the sometimes-working-together bit.

She swept one forelimb over the other, and glanced away. "I mean, if you want to? You probably already have a place," she added hastily.

@Siren

Serendipity idly rocked back and forth, her arms still locked around her knees, as she gave Azure the time to have a think. Not that she had to wait particularly long, but she was half-scheming, trying to think of things the hybrid would like as a gift. Maybe something like her bag that could be slung across her bag, so that she had a place to put her things? It'd have to be accessible, she couldn't reach back very far with her forelimbs but maybe her mouth? She'd need to find out if she were comfortable picking up stuff with her mouth, too, because Serendipity was unsure if she was herself.

When Azure spoke again, Siren, for potentially the first time in her life, hesitated. The Collector said hands were special, and that they were for creating-- could Azure create with her claws? Glory had something similar and he seemed to be doing fine as far as blacksmithing and stuff went.

Surely it'd be fine.

"Okay!" She said Very Cheerfully, as ever. "Maybe one day we can go to a real grassy place or something and try to figure it out together?"

She took a look around, content, at Monoceros, listening to Azure speak for a time. Funnily enough, however, she didn't really need much time to consider this offer over. "I mean, I have a place but it's real small and lonely? It'd be fun to share a space with somebody, if we could find a place that fits us both?"

Siren did like having friends-- and it'd be nice to see them quite often. Azure didn't seem like the type of friend to turn around and murder her in the middle of the night while she slept either, though she likely wouldn't hold the same opinion of her family, if she knew.

"There's, uhh, these big stone things in the star room?" She suggested. "There might be one big enough for both of us but we might need to fix it up a little. Or we could just find somewhere here? Or somewhere else? I don't mind!"

@Azure

Everything sounded exciting, at first--figuring out grass together, getting a place to live with a friend--it was more than she could've hoped for. But... Azure hesitated at the mention of Orion.

First off, and less importantly, she'd been picturing Monoceros. Hot, yeah, but it was good: remote, empty, lots of unclaimed space and stones for crafting and having fun with. And she knew, vaguely, about Glory and his forge, and imagined that having all these craftspeople close together might be useful.

Second, and far more importantly: Orion was home to the Sinful Seven (or well, Kingdom of the Seven, now, but she didn't know that). Orion was... dangerous. There were enemies, there--Gembound that her mother and sisters and brothers had tried to outright kill, or worse. Gembound that, if they knew who she was, might kill her.

She looked away, for a moment.

...Time to whip out more of that tragic backstory, it seemed, however reluctant Azure was to do so. "...Well. There's Gembound living there--that's Orion--and they're probably normally not terrible. But--remember that asshole family I mentioned? They had like... wars with everyone there, and in Eridanus, uhh. The plant room. I'm here to try and stay away from all that. I look different now--I didn't used to have hands?" she added, glancing bewilderedly at the bird-like forelimbs that only with extremely generous thinking could be considered "hands." "Or antlers, and I looked different. And I changed my name. But this stupid white bit on my face--that's mother's. They'll recognize me. I don't wanna get locked up like my brother and my sister did. They got put in cages," she added, in a near-whisper, hesitating.

...What had happened to Huckleberry, to Yewberry? She'd never even stopped to think. Okay, so she REALLY didn't LIKE Huckleberry--he was weak, and not in the way that Mother would condemn (or was it? Had she been too hard on him..?). He gave way to any pressure, and whined and sobbed instead of actually confronting anything. ...Caves, she was feeling angry just thinking about it. But Yew? Yew'd been... damaged. Afraid. Fucked up. ...What else? Azure realized, abruptly, that she was drawing a blank.

I never knew them well enough. I didn't think to worry about them because I never knew shit about them.

...Huh.

She shook her inner thoughts away, sighing, her feathers ruffling briefly. More melancholy, she glanced away, then back to Dip.

"...I could--try Orion but I don't know if they'll want me there, and I don't know if I'll ever feel safe there. Maybe it's better than hiding forever," she mumbled. "But don't let it get you in trouble, too. You had nothing to do with them and the Gembound in Orion might not see that, if they see us hanging out together."

She drew her claws reluctantly through the dust, thinking. "...If you wanted to find a place there I could come, too."

@Siren

Serendipity listened, quietly, brow furrowing. She didn't want to drag Azure off into Orion if she felt blatantly unsafe there, but a part of her considered that it might be unhealthy for most to live in hiding all their lives. But what else could she do? Willingly accept imprisonment and death?

Siren shuddered. Azure fell silent and for a long moment she didn't speak either, her ears flicking back and forth thoughtfully. There had to be something they could do, no matter where they lived, to make her feel safer..?

And then it hit her.

With a gasp, the child pushed up and looked around, preparing to bolt until-- wait, no, don't run off without a word after someone tells you they might get killed for having a bad family --she turned back towards Azure to explain herself. "I think I have an idea? If you'll give me a minute?"

"We don't have to live in Orion, we can stay here, but I think I have an idea if you don't wanna get recgonized," she added-- because it truly didn't matter to her, whatever made Azure safest and happiest was more important. And then, she went off.

Tapping into her magic was fairly easy for her now, like a sixth sense. In a moment's notice she was suddenly aware of the world opening up around her, exposing small gemstones half-buried under the sand, lost to age. She found one, an onyx, and snatched it out the dust before returning to Azure in record time.

"There's a Thing with Yellow Horns,", she said as she settled herself back down in front of the hybrid, rummaging around in her satchel to take out a hammer she'd stolen from Glory. But only for a little while. She started carefully grinding it up underneath. "A friend of mine-- he has cool markings --said that the Thing with Yellow Horns can change your markings, and give you new ones, if you give it a colour. So maybe, uh, if you don't wanna be recognized for your mom's markings, we could cover them up and go there to get them put on your feathers permanently?"

She lifted the newly-created dye with this, scooping a good amount into her hands and lifting them towards Azure questioningly-- not wanting to put them on without actually getting permission first.

@Azure

Azure blinked, and then laughed, good-naturedly.

"I mean--I don't look TOTALLY different, Dip. It's more about in passing. If one of them passed through, that might help--sure, put it on, why not. But don't worry about permanent... The thing is, if one of them starts talking to me, I think they'll know who I am. I was kinda just hoping to avoid them. Like. Forever?" she added, with a shrug.

She was pretty torn. She knew that living in hiding forever was a bad thing--but she'd be doing that more in Orion than she would here. Here, she was more sort of... avoiding. If she lived in Orion she'd have to never leave her home, wherever that might be, and just. Never talk to anyone. Pride, Mercurius, Rift--they scared the hell out of her, and the idea of running, even, into Jayberry or Blackberry again... She really didn't want that.

"But, put it on, for now. I don't want it there forever--the idea is weird, I dunno--but we can try." She hesitated, for a moment. "Maybe I should try to find one of them who lives there, and ask them if they're still after me," she mused.

@Siren

Serendipity wasn't sure if avoiding forever was any better. She mulled this over as she lifted her hands to smear the dye onto Azure's cheeks, covering up the white. It was a lot for her mind to handle-- it was a lot for anyone to handle. No one should have to go through this sort of thing, to see their siblings imprisoned and potentially killed.

For a long moment, again, she was silent as she masked the white markings with black dye. She pulled her hands away, rubbed them together, and reached for a slab of scrap metal, holding it up for Azure to see herself in the warped reflection.

"I mean," she began. "It's not your fault, right? They can't punish you for what your parents did. And! You're very nice now, so maybe they'll leave you alone now?"

She considered, resting her chin on the metal. It probably wasn't that bad of an idea to go talk to the people in Orion (particularly if they were planning on living there in the first place), even if just to try to clear things up? Maybe Serendipity could offer them some shinies or armour or something, that might convince them to let them stay peacefully.

"Maybe we should go ask," she said. "I mean, uhh, hold up like-- a truce or something? If they do wanna hurt you? So we can peacefully ask them and stuff. Uhh. I mean it might give you.. I dunno, some closure?"

She looked off for a moment. "I mean, we have the knife, too, if they say no," she added a little more humorously, nodding to the glowing zap-knife.

@Azure

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