ORIGIN

Gatto stared as it struggled to even move, though as a Champion they found it hard to take pity. Pity was something that had been stomped out of them all, in a need for survival. Even still, without that, they knew mercy, and not to waste their energy beating something that was already beaten. More so, this was their fellow Champion, someone who had proven worthy of more. Just like the "youngins" who had banded together, who had, for the first in a long time, not turned to betrayal.

The rooster-hybrid let out a long breath through the holes in their beak, before reaching down to grab Garnet by the scruff-- hopefully without using their mandibles or clamping down harder than they needed to. It was a bit complicated, given the fact their mouth was more like a claw machine than a natural bird beak, but they managed to toss the Champion up on to their shoulder, nestled between their wings in a safe little perch.

"Yeah right," they squawked, "I'm not going to leave you to bleed out in a hole in the wall." They had a better idea, as they stalked down the cavern and away from the harsh, scorching winds of the Hydra. There was, after all, a whole other world to explore. They would at least try to find a place with water, and with any luck, food, for their fellow champion to recover by.

@Garnet Five-Seven-Nine
Round: 5/5
Attempt: Pick up the fellow Champion
Defense: nah
Injuries: This BIRD is on FIRE

"No - no, I can't -" Garnet protested limply from Agate's beak, barely able to fight back as it was slung over the cockatrice's shoulder and between wings. Ruby-red eyes half-lidded, already feeling the push and pull of magic and its stone yearning for contact with mother earth, it whined again. "I can't - I won't - won't make it. I need to - sleep. Sleep." It moved its head, heavily limp to one side. Then, it fell in a heavy heap near Canis with a pointed mewl.

"I need to stay here. Please - I'll. I'll go into stone like always and, and survive," it pleaded, feebly trying to drag itself, again, to a hole in the wall. It was bound determined to at least get there before the magical painkillers flowed into its system and forced it to go limp enough for a shell to form.

@Agate Two-Three-Six

Character: Agate Two-Three-Six Age: +6 Magic Level: +3 ROUND 1 Attempt: +12 Penalties: -0 ROUND 2 Attempt: +15 Penalties: -0 ROUND 3 Attempt: +20 Penalties: -0 ROUND 4 Attempt: +6 Penalties: -0 ROUND 5 Attempt: +7 Penalties: -0 Total: 69 nice

Character: Garnet Five-Seven-Nine Age: +6 Magic Level: +3 ROUND 1 Attempt: +14 Penalties: -0 ROUND 2 Attempt: +8 Penalties: -0 ROUND 3 Attempt: +14 Penalties: -0 ROUND 4 Attempt: +18 Penalties: -0 ROUND 5 Attempt: +5 Penalties: -0 Total: 68

WINNER: Agate Two-Three-Six

@Agate Two-Three-Six @Garnet Five-Seven-Nine

Gatto blinked at the creature fell to the floor with a thump, and with an annoyed huff, they turned around and started to follow their desperate crawl toward the wall. "It's just a bit of scorching," they noted, "I've seen all of us survive worse." This was the Champion of the Champions? Truly?

They lowered their beak and started to nudge Garnet along, over to the hole in the wall where they so desperately wanted to be. "... You'll be fine, anyway, Garnet. You don't even need me to tell you that, but I am, so there. You just curl up in your hole, think about what I told you-- and I'll get you some water, how about that?" What were they doing, chasing up favors for the bastard who threatened to sic the Masters on them? They were the better gem, that was all. They could do anything, even while weighing themselves down with the weight of an idiot who didn't know the first thing about independence.

... They actually weren't sure if they would find water, out down the tunnels, into the rest of the caves. They had no idea what they would find. It felt... Wrong, to walk away from the Hydra like this. Sure, that had always been the plan, but it had been a plan that came with a bit more... Total destruction of the Masters, who were still around and calling shots. They didn't like the idea that this was just a larger, different game, and the information Garnet had given them... was incredibly unsettling.

@Garnet Five-Seven-Nine

It really had survived worse. Dismemberment, for one, has been mentioned before.

But, the Trials rarely left time to think about the consequences of your actions. The future allies and enemies you could make in a fell swoop. They rarely left time to come to grips with some semblance of one's own identity. Much less, you didn't last long enough out of your shell to find that reality and living was more than being an empty, faceless shell. It came naturally with being awake and wandering, but it felt so wrong. It felt so wrong.

So, faced with this, Garnet was in more pain than it had ever imagined it could be in.

Returning to the Overseer covered in burns and scars and with these - these wet marks down its face - the garnet would have far too many questions to answer. Questions it didn't want to. It couldn't. But - no, don't start with that thinking, - it had already considered and planned to retreat into its chrysalis, find itself emerging clean and unharmed, and claim that it had simply been going about the caves in search of Asimona. "I - can't go out looking like this. The Overseer would have questions. It would - spoil our deal."

Way to logically avoid admitting that it was embarrassed by this decision and breakdown.

Spending too long trying to get situated, apparently, sent the signal to its gemstone that it would be fine without a chrysalis. Garnet curled up feebly into the hidey-hole, tail limply around its hind legs, scorched wings tucked to its side. It sniffed.

@Agate Two-Three-Six

"The Overseer isn't going to see you," Gatto squawked, "it's fine." Even if Vargas did stick his ugly head where it didn't belong, the cockatrice would kick his ass five ways to the Crucible and back. "Just hang on." The cockatrice nodded quietly, tapping the tip of their beak against Garnet's, and then stalked away down the tunnel. Their footsteps clacked and clattered, their tail whipping back and forth, as they made their way through the passageway to the entrance of Canis.

They were looking for water, for Garnet, maybe some food-- what they found instead was another area like the Hydra-- perhaps not as endlessly reaching, but wide and vast. It wasn't covered in sand, so much as dust and dirt, but what it did have made Gatto stop. There was just... Bones. Miles of carcasses, all picked clean of flesh, just scattered and left in piles just about everywhere.

If there was somehow water here, it probably wasn't drinkable. With a shiver shooting up their spine, the Champion turned tail and came stomping back to Garnet, flopping down in front of the crack and lowering their head to tuck under their wing, providing them some privacy with the Champion resting in the hole.

"... Uh... hey," they started, voice low, "you've been out there, right? ... What's with... The bones?"

@Garnet Five-Seven-Nine

"I'll have to report to him eventually, Agate," Garnet stifled quietly before the cockatrice left with the unfortunate implication that they would return shortly.

It curled up tighter, pushing its beak deeper into its tucked paws and wound-up tail; and, for the first time in its long, dappled-sunlight consciousness of life, it well and truly sobbed. The sensation was disgusting and racked every bone and muscle and nerve in its body. All that had happened these past few days came crashing full-force. The rebellion-hunting, betrayal, making something resembling a friend and leading them to a doom that was certain - fuck, Garnet had known that Imp wouldn't be helping himself to an easy fate. Had known and still led him right to death's awaiting claws.

And, after it all, it put on a face. It was okay with this. This was familiar. This wasn't the callous and cruel efficiency of the machine before, but this could be worked with. Garnet Five-Seven-Nine was a cold, unfeeling cog in the greater mechanism. It served one purpose and one purpose only, and it was in the sentence.

Yet - Yet - Yet, why was it suddenly so difficult to manage a day? A day where it didn't traverse a dangerous line into independent identity? A day where it didn't possibly cavort with rebels and traitorous scum? A day where it didn't feel unremittingly horrible for doing what was only necessary? And, here it was, thinking and planning how it would hide this stupid sentient-piece-of-prey-animal breakdown from the rest of the caves and the Overseer's watchful eyes.

It started at footsteps and the shadow of a wing. As Agate announced their presence, the champion lowered its head, hiding the now very obvious tear-tracks down its cheeks and staining the floor ever-so-slightly. Muffling itself pathetically in its own webbed toes, it replied simply, "they're what's left of rebel scum and - the trash. Those that aren't worth anything."

@Agate Two-Three-Six

"Is that what the Masters told you?" Agate's voice was quiet, hushed. It seemed unbelievable that they could kill so many. Perhaps they had starved; could a world outside somehow be harsher than the Hydra? Nothing to even eat their bones. The thought was enough to send a shiver down their spine.

They blinked slowly. "... Is there water, in the cave beyond? I was going to bring you food and water... But, there was just death." The devil they knew was better than the devil they did not, but Garnet had described things as 'quiet'. They could not picture a world outside of the scorching deserts-- but this place, this little tunnel, was cool by comparison, and no horrible scorpions or worse lived in the cracks here. Only a toasted Garnet.

What were they going to do, then? Explore the caverns, at the will of the Masters? They needed to spend their time wisely, meet up with their fellows, and grow strong and ready for the coming days. These caves seemed like a distraction from everything they needed to do. They would figure out what lay beyond, assuming their fellow champion did not tell them there was nothing but bones forever, and not let their mind wander far from what needed to be done.

In the meanwhile, maybe Five-Seven-Nine just needed time to think about what they had said. It was scared, obviously intimidated by the fact it was only one small creature that thrived on it's ability to run through Trial after Trial. Of course it couldn't think straight while it was wedged between a rock and a hard place, threatened to be murdered by everything. Gatto couldn't think straight during the Trials, either, and it seemed like Garnet had hatched into a whole new unspoken Trial. "Perhaps it would be for the best," Gatto suggested, glancing away, "that we pretend we didn't meet here. Maybe your magic went awry. That way you don't get in trouble with your Overseer, yeah?" Conveniently it meant that they wouldn't get hunted down like an animal for the sixty-six thousandth time. "We just pretend we never spoke to one another, my gift to you, your gift to me."

@Garnet Five-Seven-Nine

"That's what I know," it murmured into the crook of its wing, "look at them. None of them belong to the - creatures of today. Only the newer ones." Each of the more ancient bones (still the majority population of Canis) would be strange, almost fantastical compared to a modern Gembound's. Spikes, claws, extra limbs and bones. Serrated teeth and splitting jaws. Many sockets for many eyes. On the floor, many different prints with many different shapes. Garnet's remaining feathers and burnt quills rattled as it curled up tighter. "There's more than just Canis - that's the name - but... food and water is scarce, even then. You'll have to go far."

Inhaling harshly, Garnet managed to dispel the last of its hoarse voice, the sickness in its throat and gut. With a cough, it shook its head, "Overseer Vargas is often in Canis. You'll have to be careful." Considering for a moment, it added, "I wasn't planning to remember this. I hope I never see you again." For either's sake, really, but mostly its own. "It'll be better for both of us." For me.

"As soon as you go, I'll put myself in my chrysalis. It'll get rid of any evidence of this happening, and we can both go on our merry separate ways. No consequences other than my lateness to my duties," Garnet murmured, slipping shakily back to formalities. "I can't turn my back on the Masters, but you can at least be careful and keep this rebellion to yourself."

@Agate Two-Three-Six

Vargas was in Canis, huh? Agate so badly wanted to give that special 'Overseer' a piece of their mind. Yeah, okay, they had seen what the nasty bastard could do, apex predator and assassin of the Master's... Sure. Sure. Okay. Maybe avoiding him was a better idea. Ooooor, maybe Gatto could size up the situation a bit better.

The cockatrice, wisely, decided not to tell Garnet any of this though. It seemed like a good idea to let bygones be bygones... Especially since they did not want to have to kill the Garnet. Self defense in the face of betrayal was one thing, but they would rather have a potential ally one day. Eventually. Maybe they were dreaming too much, even for their high standards.

"Right, never happened," they agreed smoothly. "Thanks for the warning. Glad us Champions can still be civil with one another, right?" Now, they certainly couldn't promise to keep all of this to themself. After all, the plan called for ganging up with the others from the most recent trial. "And at least we can both agree on one thing..."

They rose, withdrawing their wing and tucking it neatly at their side as they turned, tail scrapping against the stone above Garnet as they started to leave. They weren't so different. In fact, they had so much more in common than they had seperating one another.

"The only thing that actually matters is survival."

@Garnet Five-Seven-Nine ;; Gatto exit!