ORIGIN

The way the quartz glittered reminded Azure of something she'd never seen before. It spoke to some distant instinct, a reassurance that all was well. Orion was certainly not Monoceros--it was much cooler, though the plant life seemed just as lacking, bar an overgrown patch here and there. She'd thought she'd miss Monoceros--and maybe she did--but Orion had a dark, safe feel to it that she immediately warmed to.

"It's pretty, here," she murmured, shifting to adjust the weight on her back. Azure had only been here once before, and she hadn't really had time to stop and sightsee. Now, she was moving more slowly: she was carrying some of Dip's things, and her blue eyes already scanned the distant ruins for a potential home. But they had something else to do before they could settle in.

They had to make sure she'd even be allowed here. Dip had been good to her. She'd gone, on her own, despite her tiny size and exhaustion, to speak with Pride herself. And she'd arranged a sort of meeting so that Azure could try and get herself... exonerated? Or, at least, no longer potentially hunted as a criminal.

"Where do we find him..?" she asked, quietly, and that same fearful resignation raced through her chest. There was something terrifying about just walking up to a powerful enemy; she'd be pretty much at his mercy. With Dip there, she couldn't just fly away, either, if things went to shit--Pride might hurt her, instead, for all she knew. So she felt like a lamb to the slaughter, really, and it was hard even to take steps further into Orion.

Pride was sleeping quite near the throne, and a little behind some stones. At the sound of his name one ear twitched--and as his consciousness slowly swam up from mid-dream, his head rose. Silvery antler tines rose, branching, from behind a boulder. A moment later the full stag followed, standing, stretching, yawning. Slow-blinking eyes peered as his head turned to and fro, searching the source of the voice, and when he spotted it he stepped out and shook himself a little.

"Ahh, Sirendippity," he greeted--and then his gaze passed over Azure. As a precautionary measure he sent out his mind at once, testing the waters, checking to see if this were some sort of trap.

"And you must be 'Azure.' Cloudberry, was it?" he asked, tilting his head to one side. He still wasn't sure if this was the same Gembound, damaged and changed by her stone, or another of Blackberry's children sharing the same placement and shape of their sapphire.

His magic flickered, faltered, and then fell away. He hadn't gotten much, but he sensed no trap; only fear, hesitation, and a sort of terrified resignation from the hybrid. Surprising. And it seems surprisingly harmless, he thought, distantly. Though would that stay the same if, say, Jayberry were to appear and demand its loyalty, I wonder?

Azure was nearly trembling with fear. The stag--she remembered him, from Eridanus, remembered him in the distance, fully-armored and flinging them about. She remembered his white fire and his fury, and remembered that despite it all, he'd stayed calm, as if such murder were everyday to him. Never mind that he seemed calm, and polite; that day had been hell, and all those who'd fought against them... She remembered, too, his caging of her siblings, and faint rage rose in her--distant, and far below the fear, but there.

"Yes," she answered thickly. Blue eyes drifted to the knifelike points that lined his head, warily. "And I remember you. From Eridanus. You caged us," she went on, her voice quiet and shaking, a little. "I didn't want to stay caged. I was sick of everything. I wanted out. I don't want to be tied down and have to answer to anyone. But I'm not going to hurt anyone, either. I just-..." She glanced to Dip.

"I want to live here and stay with Dip, and just do my own thing. Are your..." she trailed off, looking at Pride again, hesitating. She couldn't really find the words to ask what she wanted to know, not without pricking her own pride.

Will your people attack me for it? Will they kill me, drive me out? Are you going to let me just live? To ask any of those would be to admit that Pride and his group had the power to do so, and like a child, she was stubbornly unwilling to admit that. "Is that a problem?" she managed, at last, her voice a near-whisper.

Azure spoke, and he remained silent, listening. At Siren's words, he blinked; for a long moment he could not figure out what she meant, and felt rather foolish, until he realized that she was correcting him to a pronunciation that she, herself, could not manage.

"Ser-en-dipity, then," he responded magnanimously. Never mind that he'd called her by "Sirendippity" their entire previous conversation. He dismissed this thought in a half-absent fashion, and looked back to Azure.

"We placed gemstone bars around your chrysalises so that we would have a chance to speak with you if none were present at your reemergence, that is all. We did not want any of you fleeing before we had had a chance to ascertain how dangerous any of you were. As for you... I know that the Bloodberries were dangerous. I had an encounter with Blackberry, myself, when I was younger," he went on, "though--in case you are unaware--she herself is now dead. Jayberry is not, however, and thus I have a couple of questions for you before I answer that question. First... have you killed? Harmed others, tormented and so forth?"

He didn't warn her not to lie.

He would know if she did... and that would tell him even more about her.

Azure glanced gratefully to Dip. Gratitude was still a new, strange emotion for her but there it was, and it was strong. It bolstered her, gave her a little extra courage with which to face the stag--so she squared herself up, a little, and took a breath.

...Wait.

"Mother is dead..?" she asked, in a small voice. Emotions roiled in her. She felt as though there should be grief... but there wasn't, and that engendered guilt. There was relief--and confusion; her mental map of the caves had just been heavily shaken. Blackberry had, in her mind, been a pillar--a terrible one, but a fact of life, like death itself, something that would never simply end.

Azure stared off into nothing for a solid thirty seconds, stunned into silence. "I-.... I didn't know," she said at last, then shook herself a little. She looked back to Pride, her mind, her emotions shaken. She felt lost, and everything felt a little off, and she couldn't really remember what else she'd been about to say. Her answer, then, came simply.

"I never hurt anyone. I never felt like I belonged. I thought there was something wrong with me. I won't hurt anyone. I don't even eat meat," she blurted, and if birds (or moose) could cry, tears would have been filling her eyes.

Pride mentally squinted at his magic, and then did the magical equivalent of shaking a piece of technology that wasn't quite working right, trying to jar it into functionality.

As it turned out, however, magicka did not like to be shaken. He felt a crack somewhere deep within his mind, or his gemstone? and pain radiated out, crackling through his body like lightning. His head itself was immediately host to a splitting headache, and what he got in return for the cast attempt was a garbled cacophony of his own thoughts, and Azure's. None of it could at all be made out, not even her emotion.

By the time it faded, Azure's silence had ended, and he caught, at least, most of what she was saying. He pulled himself together--now really wanting to be out of here, and rest his head--and said what he thought he probably should say, rather than thinking about anything too hard. Because thinking would hurt. "...Yes, well, just do not kill anyone. Err." Wait, that's not right. He closed his eyes, for a moment, taking a deep breath. "Apologies-... My condolences," he began again, daring to open them just a crack.

The light hurt.

"I do not mind if you are living here, but you know that Jayberry is still alive. And still violent. Mutated into a rather monstrous form. She has already tried to recruit--and attacked--Yewberry. If she comes to you, and demands that you aid her, what will you do?" He grimaced in pain, trying not to show, too much, just how badly he'd messed up.

Azure was too lost in her own thoughts to really notice Pride screwing up his magic. She stared off through him, turning only when Dip layed the gentle arm over her neck--and she turned toward her, then. She leaned in, intending to press her forehead against the kid--only remembering just in time that she had fucking antlers now.

Damn.

Instead, she lifted a wing, draping its black and flowing feathers over Dip's shoulders in return and muttering a quiet "Thanks."

Pride's question took her a little by surprise, even if Dip had already relayed the information about Jay's attack. She thought about it, for a long moment, and voiced her thoughts as she considered. "...Uhhh," she began, which granted wasn't the strongest of starts. "I wouldn't help her hurt anyone. I'd probably ask her why the hell they did everything they did. Why they raised us thinking that was okay. Normal. I'd ask her why I have hooves and antlers? I'm half bird and half bird, what the hell? And if she tried to make me do anything, I'd fly away. She can't fly," Azure added, though this... did not really need explaining.

Her voice was dull, honest. There was no false righteousness in it, no "I will fight her to the bitter end" or other such heroic nonsense. She'd ask her questions, or she'd flee, and that seemed to be that.