ORIGIN - MAKE OUR MESSES MATTER

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In the heat of any moment, the orthoclase was bound to not immediately think of Kerberos and his bone-offer - if at all. This encounter was memorable for their fight only, and the persistent throbbing of scarred flesh around its stone. Not smaller, more tender details like this.

Glimmering eyes whirled up to the cerberus's five. The Sentinels were categorically family, but in the sense that corporate encouraged: close-knit for good business practices. Their rapport was not through love and blood relations. They were just a smattering of creatures made to serve whatever purpose fit their designation and Overseer's wishes. Alpha shifted on its feet, talons scraping noisily through the bones it was still elbows-deep into. Categorically, not worth correcting.

As if it'd be allowed the chance to even do as much. Overstimulation crawled back to the forefront, clawing its way out in a few choice prickles rising and a wary grunt. Their wrestling match was already history, but Alpha was — at the moment — still wounded from it and itself. Kerberos's tail whipping through the air may as well have been the red flag that it was. Rather than be driven to aggression by the Matador's swaying dance, it unsettled it.

But — ! The kaiju felt out for a stray bone and applied a crushing grip to keep itself in place and from looking too affected by such a kind gesture; which was to say very little. It was a monstrous thing that needed friends about as much as it did "good bones." All two pairs of noxious eyes left the snake-tail, and it didn't have to think much on the sound of that, for once.

We're strangers. Fought one time and both of us got hurt. It was the clear victor, though. Alpha withdrew slightly. Good idea to not outright deny.

Kerberos, bless his heart, got little but a succinct "I don't need that" and pace towards the side. It paused for a beat and shifted its posture slightly. To soften the denial, it admitted: "you are strong." It totally wasn't being affected by the natural good boy charms of the cerberus, even though easing up on the blows had scarcely — if ever — been on Alpha's radar before.

@Kerberos

δεξιά . κέντρο . αριστερά

Didn't need friends? Kerberos ears twitched, and he shook his heads back and forth once, then twice. "You're strong too," he insisted right back, a soft, toothless smile stretching across all three muzzles. "And even if you don't need a friend..." Hah, Kerberos has found the loophole, right there! "It won't hurt, right?"

It still filled him with a longing; a vast, empty sadness that crept around in his heart. He wanted to take his big old paws and scoop them around Alpha, grab the spiky brute by the scruff, and drag it home to mom and let it enjoy a day in the Bonebound. Maybe if it got a taste of friendship, it'd grow to like it. Unfortunately, you couldn't make a kaiju drink, or so the saying went.

Kerberos sniffed at the air, and ignored the fact that all of his efforts simply rebounded with little to no effect. "Anyway, it's okay if you need space. I'll be around if you want to wrestle again, or anything else." It was an open offer, one that hopefully would encourage a good relationship. The last time Kerberos had a "big friend" to "play with"-- aka, the creature he had been born along side of-- things had soured between them slowly over time, and eventually, Kerberos stopped running into the noodle dragon all together.

... it was weird to miss someone that he never really had any proper conversations with. Someone that stood only as a rival, who pushed him away constantly.

Maybe Orthoclase-Alpha would be the same, but Kerberos was more mature now (and perhaps, more naive in other ways) and if he tried hard enough, surely he could create something more... Stable, more supportive. Something that would potentially catch the kaiju if it started to descend down a dark, terrible path. If only Kerberos knew that Orthoclase-Alpha's whole life was wrapped up in something completely beyond Kerberos's simple, optimistic scope.

But there, he planted the promise, the only thing he could truly offer. "I'm not going anywhere." Warm, kind, and available for whatever would come.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Alpha let its jaw hang halfway, teeth baring in a slight grimace. It started, "n -" and hesitated. Its mouth snapped shut with a cl-cl-click! of pearly whites interlocking. Plates rubbed against one another as it shifted its weight, and started back in with the pacing. Back and forth, scattering the bones in its wake, uncaring of any fortresses in its way.

Didn't need, wouldn't hurt. Want. A want it didn't ~~think it had~~ have. It didn't need creature comforts. Just its work and a target to point it at. It was an attack dog, a hunting hound. Something made as a gamble, shaped to destroy. Teeth gnashed together. The orthoclase paused, shaking out its entire body - starting at the head and ending at the tail. Every rebound was another dent in that looming, well-constructed wall between Alpha and its internal desires; even if there wasn't any visible effect. If those went unnoticed, they might cause collapse - a good sort of collapse. An eye-opening experience -

It whirled around. Space - not going anywhere. Giving it the illusion of choice. It stiffened, mentally cornered by that mere concept. Suddenly, enduring this conversation didn't seem like so much of an obligation to prove strength; and leaving didn't feel so much like a loss.

What a way to justify running away from what reminded you of what was fundamentally wrong about your existence.

Nostrils flared, and the kaiju turned away with a warning growl, "do not follow me." Quills flaring, Alpha trudged off towards Tunnel P. Kerberos would listen to it, God willing. It'd seemed like conversational obligation was tapering off anyways.

exit... :[
@Kerberos

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... oh. Oh... okay. Three heads raised, and watched as Orthoclase-Alpha stalked off, warning not to follow. Kerberos leaned forward on to his front paws, haunches rising for a second, and then the command seemed to click into his mind. Thump, his hips settling in the dust again, tail slapping down on the earth, limp with rejection.

He did not follow. He watched, though, swallowing down individual whines as they came up in the back of his throats. Maybe they just needed time to... Digest, and consider everything he had said. Maybe they would come around.

If not... He had done what he could. He reached down to grab the peaceful bone between his teeth, and set off in the opposite direction once the kaiju was out of sight, trotting along to bring the bone somewhere for safekeeping.

@Orthoclase-Alpha for visibility; exit

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