ORIGIN

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She sent Omen off to find him, first.

Trundling around Canis yelling for her son wasn't her idea of a day well-spent, and the bird could find him quickly enough. Plus, she was working on a new little trick.

She drank, quiet, at the stagnant pools; she had a short meal, all in preparation. She was well-rested and wanted no interruptions, for this. And all the while she kept her mind on Omen, who swept to and fro, canvassing Canis in search of Aure. When she found him--when the single, red eye at last fixed upon him--Giggle mentally thanked her and then focused on her magicka.

Let's see if this works, then, she thought, then sent it out in a surge.

It was... harder than she'd expected. It worked, but not well, and she had to cut the message a tad short.

"Aure. When you have time, can you meet me at my den?" She'd wanted to tell him what it was about, but there was no chance of that now; the link slithered shut.

With a sigh she turned away, and made herself busy cleaning up a little--preparing before he got here. Assuming, that was, that he wasn't busy with something else, for now.

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@Aure

A post-meeting Bone King was presently busying himself as many would after so much information acquisition: pacing rather aimlessly. The monotonous movement helped to process, even as his brain skipped over many details like an well-loved CD. It had ultimately reached a somewhat satisfactory conclusion, questions answered and promises made to not - upend the caves into a pure factory. Aure didn't worry much about that, but the uncertainties of the future stood tall, looming.

He'd been procrastinating on organizing a gathering of his own for some time - and for reasons unknown to himself. Giggle'd suggested that he delegate duties, work on more structure for the Bonebound, prevent misunderstandings like with Kalama... and yet, he was shying away from that. Here, Pride assembled half the waking caves in three days' time.

Need to ask him how he does it - "Aure. When you have time, can you meet me at my den?"

Bright eyes widened as he jolted at the sudden intrusion, neck popping painfully as he searched for Giggle. She was nowhere to be seen - but, there was Omen. With no immediate, pressing preoccupations that couldn't be put down, the hybrid took to wing.

Aure made quick time to his mother's den, chirping mid-swooping circle, and alighting at the edge of the den. As was strange routine, he made a quick assessment of all of the fungus growing by the wall, then the hyena herself. Trudging towards her for a brief beak-to-snout nuzzle, he initiated, "you called, Mom?"

@Giggle

She pushed up as she heard him coming, heard his chirp--as Omen's sight showed him drawing near--and offered her snout to his beak at his affectionate greeting when he landed and plodded over.

"Aure," she grunted, in greeting. Then she got right down to it, turning and pacing to sit on the other side of one of the little stagnant pools.

"A long time ago, the Bonebound was family. Warm, loving, trusting. When I brought Eythan here, when I made you, there wasn't really a Bonebound anymore; and the Bonebound of today is different. A lot of them are the same--but there's some coldness in it, too, something I don't like." There was no emotion in it, just fact, but she lowered herself to her haunches and studied her son with dark eyes as she spoke.

For a moment, she paused, and cast her mind out through the fungus--ensuring there were no hidden eavesdroppers, no one to overhear or to tattle off to others. The magic was weak, but she found nothing; she resolved to lower her voice, just in case, and also send Omen circling to keep watch.

As the black bird again took flight, Giggle continued. "I know that you made Damask on impulse. I know the Bonebound isn't mine, and I'm not about to throw around ultimatums, to get that out of the way. But there's something wrong with her, Aure." A pause, as she regarded him. He might know; he might not. She didn't know, but that's why she was here. "I've been lax in not asking you sooner. I wish I'd have met her sooner, or whatever it was might've been nipped in the bud. If a kid's raised by you--you're loving, you're warm, supportive--I see no reason she should be as terrified and self-doubting as she is. I've seen into her mind, Aure, and she's a fucking mess." Flatly, grimly stated. "I don't know what happened to make her that way. I don't know why she only eats birds, even though our whole fucking family is birds--that bothers me. I don't know why she has no real warmth, why she wants to be 'the best' and hates herself and fears everyone else. So: we need to talk."

Giggle wasn't sure how much of this would be revelation to her son, and how much he already knew; that's why they were here, to get on even footing. "I'd like her to fit in, and not be a miserable wreck. I tried offering her structure, I tried training her, I tried offering kindness. But she's still a nervous mess; she just hides it better. Every time I've tried talking to her about it--she shuts down. She loves you--don't get me wrong--but the way she's living is no way to live, and I can't get through to her. I thought maybe she'd get better with time, and support, but she's only gotten worse. I want to know what you know about it. Do you know why she's this way? Maybe we can help her together, somehow."

She paused, where she sat, watching him; her voice had been quiet, so as not to be overheard, but the solemnity could not be mistaken.

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@Aure

Brief greetings, then she was getting to brass tacks.

Aure stood opposite his mother, not quite settling in yet. His mouth drew into a thin line, brows furrowing at the start of her speech, if only for the point that was being made in slow drip. A coldness? The Bonebound was just as new as it had been upon reforming, yes - and he'd failed to make an effort to bring unity to it, but... to go so far as say there was coldness -

Giggle jumped, then, to talk of Damask and to a statement that... set his teeth on edge: "There's something wrong with her, Aure." He listened a while longer, ears pricking back with each word; "met her sooner ... might've been nipped in the bud ... you're loving ... warm, supportive... as terrified and self-doubting as she is ... seen into her mind -" What? Ultimately - "... and she's a fucking mess." A mess.

He near-visibly fought that paternal protectiveness, urge to jump in and argue otherwise; to say that his darling was perfectly normal, didn't stand out in a crowd through posture alone. The hybrid swallowed it down, acquiescing and conceding that yes, she's right, that yes, there's something off-kilter compared to the rest of them, but - something's wrong?

Aure took a deep breath, interrupting with a soft, "I know, I know there's something different about her." His upset was thinly-veiled, an urgent sort of uttering coming next: "she's not... some sort of traitor or assassin to interrogate and invade the mind of, Mom..." Brows furrowed and quirked up over his eyes simultaneously, a niggling sense of guilt already surging up at the thought of what a confrontation this could become; yet, delving in? Prying? Damask was family.

He let the pause hang in the air, perhaps for far longer than he should have.

Heart jumping in his chest, he turned away slightly, stifling that sheer sense of - betrayal? - in his gut for the moment. He took a few pacing steps around the pool, but didn't approach, speaking as he went, "she... almost drowned in her chrysalis, I think. There was so much struggling and - I finally helped her out of it and she wasn't moving, breathing, anything. And... she looked into - Dad's bones, in the cairn. We haven't talked fully about his... fall, but she knows, she's seen it."

Dulled eyes fixed on Giggle, "the bones knew it would happen - that there would be... this, like with... Dad. But, they saw good, at the end - right?" Then, he waited.

@Giggle

Giggle perked a brow, watching Aure as she did.

"Well, I wasn't gonna go that far," she answered bluntly, to his statement that Damask wasn't some sort of assassin. "It's her happiness I'm worried about. That's my job--no, that's not the right word." Giggle paused, mulling it over for a moment. "It's my responsibility. To make sure our people aren't trying to cope with anything they can't." Another pause--a long one--as she eyed her son.

She shook her head, then, a little sadly, and turned away to flop along the rock, huffing dog-like before thinking aloud. "Her chrysalis, huh? And she saw the death? Why haven't you talked to her about it? If you'd built up a half-decent base with her, and I assume you have, it shouldn't be hard?"

Giggle eyed Aure sidelong. "And why didn't you tell me any of this before?" she added. "We could've talked it over and tried to work something out."

As to her child's question, she thought it over, looking away. "I saw fear for her, didn't I? But I said it'd work out. Here's the thing, Aure," she added, looking back to him just a little sharply--and it wasn't a mother-sharpness, it wasn't authoritative but almost angry. "Things don't work out on their own. We're a family and we should have all been helping her with this all along. She's a tricky one, though, I'll admit; it bothers her to talk about things, so she avoids them. Is it wrong to push her-?" Giggle considered, looking away for a moment. And she took that time, again, to check that they weren't being watched, Omen still circling overhead.

A moment of focus told her they were alone, well and truly; she extended her senses farther out to see. Then she lay back, and closed her eyes, pulling her mind from the caves deep into herself.

"I faced trauma," she murmured, and it didn't have the air of a painful admission so much as again, thinking aloud. "Let's see. I retreated, too. Sort of. I didn't know what the hell was real or not, though. And everything scared me. Little things would set me off." She mulled this over, for a moment. So far as she was concerned, Damask was a victim; but more than that, Giggle knew what it was like to live in fear. That was, at least in part, the reason for her worry. She took the well-being of the Bonebound members as her own responsibility, that much was true, but fear resonated with her. Fear was something she knew intimately. Fear was the enemy.

She shifted in place. "The thing is, I benefitted from having family close. Warmth. Though--I knew 'em from before. Maybe if they were strangers, pushed on me, I'd have been made worse?" Eyes remained closed as she tried to puzzle through this, brow knitting. "I always had Canis to come back to. Maybe-..."

The hyena grimaced with all this effort, and opened her eyes, and looked to Aure. Her voice was still kept relatively quiet, despite the fact Giggle knew they were safe, as she peered to him. "Does she have her own den, Aure? A safe spot of her own, some kind of sanctuary she can retreat to? That might be a good first step. Let her pick out a spot, if she hasn't got one, help her decorate it if she wants you to, and tell her that if she goes in there no one can bother her. It can be her... 'time out.' But once she's got that, we should introduce her to new things. And address the death, I think. That might be something I can best handle, with a little..." and here, she nodded off toward the bone pile, "mystical mumbo-jumbo. Some magic and some bones, some visions of what I knew of your father. Maybe it's time the Bonebound had a coming-of-age ritual," she added thoughtfully.

"Some mushrooms to help their mind along, and a guided journey back to our roots, to see all of us that came before. Get an idea of their place in us. That might help her, though I want to ask the bones."

She looked to her son with a slight grimace, aware now that she'd rambled some--half thinking aloud, half hopping between topics. But she was a practical sort, and the dual-pronged plan seemed decently wise to her. But it was Aure's child, too, not just a member of the Bonebound; and Giggle was treading cautiously. She didn't know how Aure might react. She didn't fear ruining their relationship--that was solid, and she knew he'd not take this as an attack (at least, she hoped... little did she know, really). But it was a fairly pointed topic, brought up out of nowhere, and there was hardly any precedent for how to handle it.

A king and his Seer, and a son and his mother; a family member, a daughter, a granddaughter, and problems. She only hoped it could be solved smoothly, or at least, in the way of trauma, addressed and helped smoothly.

"What do you think?" she asked him, pulled into a sphinxlike pose across the rock.

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@Aure

Aure deflated. Knowing that she'd looked in and continued to felt like a... breach of trust, even if it was with the best of intentions. He pushed it aside, though - it wasn't something to worry about right in the moment, because... it was his daughter they both fretted over. Just in varying ways. That was all.

"I know," he acquiesced again, to his mother's statement of responsibility, "and -" He trailed off, suddenly unsure of what was to follow.

Giggle huffed and started to settle down, leveling him with questions in series, none accusatory but worried why haven't you?s. His weight shifted to either foot, and he paced a few more steps in the other direction, "I... don't want to upset her." Aure knew that he aimed to please, and that he did so to a fault. "When she - uh, found out that I'd hidden that Eythan was her life-giver, it... hurt," the young King murmured, wings shuffling and adjusted at his sides, "she had every right to be angry with me. I didn't think it'd come up, but I still never told her. It's - not your fault, I don't blame you. It wasn't meant to be a horrid secret for any of us to keep." The last part was hurriedly tacked-on.

As for why he didn't inform Giggle, "I... don't know." It was no excuse, but - "it's been... a hard few cycles. A lot's happened. Cetus, the rings in Polaris, the meeting - I'm... a bit overwhelmed." Aure stopped, turning in place, "but I know I need to just... delegate and all that. I'll call the Bonebound together soon. That's not important right now, though." His darling was. His interruption went on for long enough, and they could tackle that later.

"I don't want to push her - at least, not... far," he said with lilting pitch, hesitant, and fell silent for his mother again - and all her dark times and the struggles she had even now.

"Does she have her own den, Aure?" A safe space that'd always be there, untouched by anyone but herself. "She comes to my nest sometimes but... she's in Orion a lot - exploring and learning things. That's where she ran to when... um, the thing happened. We could... help her pick out one of the buildings there and... hide the entrance to it? Just - a secret place that's known only to her." He smiled softly, "I'll ask her about it and... suggest it."

Second on the list, then, was introduction and getting... more acquainted with death. Aure gave a soft laugh, ears pricking forwards, "mystical mumbo-jumbo..." Another ritual, then - "that would be good, if... we're careful enough about it and the bones see good from it." Bright eyes warmed again, rounding the puddle some and settling some few feet from his mother. "Thank you."

@Giggle

M for some language

Giggle's expression knotted further and further, rather than relaxing, with Aure's words. So much of this... was wrong, and surprise contorted into disbelief, and that in turn into near-anger.

Her eye twitched.

The hyena took a breath, and closed both eyes, for a moment. Breathe, Giggs. First things first, she told herself, and took another slow breath. When she looked at Aure, it was half sidelong, a disbelieving stare.

"What do you mean, when she found out that you'd hidden who her life-giver was?" Giggle asked, very slowly. No one had told her this. And her mind raced; if it were true, it explained Damask's reaction back when first they'd met. Her coldness toward her father. And it meant there was even more the child had hidden from her. Giggle bristled at the thought, and struggled against her own dislike--she's not a cat, she's your grandchild. She's not an asshole. She has a personality in there somewhere, behind all that coldness and all that fear, you just have to work to help hr bring it out. There's-... she lied to me. He lied to her. What the hell? If Aure assumed that Damask had told Giggle about the whole mess, he was wrong. The hybrid kid had hidden it as neatly as she'd done everything else. And the hyena had never pried deeply in her mind--it had always been a skim, a brief eavesdrop, a check on Damask's condition.

Exhale.

She closed her eyes again, sending her senses out once more. I don't blame you. You'd better fucking not, she thought grimly.

Her gaze snapped back to Aure. "Why don't you want to push her? Why doesn't she want to be 'pushed?' Why is talking to your daughter 'pushing' her?" She was struggling--and failing--to understand this. Her own relationships with family had always been close, warm; Damasks's coldness, her mask, was at best irritating and at worst, alienating. Why was she like that-? Surely a bad hatching couldn't have done it; a Gembound wasn't really awake until they fully emerged anyway. And so many had that, and none had wound up like this. Was it the vision of Aza'zel's fall that had done it, then..? Death and betrayal, viewed by the youngest in the family? ...Yeah, that might do it, she admitted to herself. And then she snapped at her son, at least verbally. "So you were hiding shit from her, and she hid shit from me, and now she's hiding shit from you, and up until right this second you were both hiding shit from me. Family's family, Aure, this isn't how it's meant to be!" she cried, and there was a distraught twist to her tone, a desperation to make him understand.

She'd raised him with honesty, openness. What the hell had happened-?

Giggle grimaced and shook her head, sharply. "And no. As for a den, I meant here. In Canis. If she wants it somewhere else, fine, but I don't mean someplace secret. I mean someplace everyone knows about, but respects as her space. Boundaries that she and others can understand. She needs that, I think."

The hyena grumbled, then; "At least, I thought she did." Now? With all this sudden new information? She wasn't so damn sure. "What do you mean she ran off to Orion 'when the thing happened?' When what happened?" -Did he mean the vision of the cairn? Did--"Do you mean the bones?! -Aure, she ran to ORION after seeing it, and you didn't discuss it with her?!"

What a fucking mess.

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@Aure

"What do you mean, when she found out that you'd hidden who her life-giver was?"

Aure tensed, head drawing back slightly and fluffing up his neck feathers.

"Why don't you want to push her? Why doesn't she want to be 'pushed?' Why is talking to your daughter 'pushing' her?"

His mind roared - and suddenly he was just so so tired, more than he found himself being lately.

"So you were hiding shit from her, and she hid shit from me, and now she's hiding shit from you, and up until right this second you were both hiding shit from me. Family's family, Aure, this isn't how it's meant to be!"

The hybrid flinched, bright eyes finally tearing away from their wide-eyed, overwhelmed staring as Giggle grew more and more distressed. He shook, voice dying in his throat, choked by the tears he was trying not to shed at seeing his mother so upset and the abrupt realization that this had already happened before, that he'd been oblivious and failed to keep others - his mother - informed and... "I'm sorry, I -" Aure turned away, "I didn't mean to hide that from her, she didn't deserve that and it was - selfish of me. I -" A breath rattled out of his chest. "I don't want to hurt her again after that, I don't want to hurt you again, I'm sorry I keep hurting you, I just -"

"It's my fault, just - things keep slipping out of mind and I don't think about them or think to tell anyone about it," he inhaled deeply, exhaling in a clipped sigh, "I'm sorry. I'm trying to do better. I'll get over it and be better."

Boundaries were good. He nodded mutely.

"Do you mean the bones?! -Aure, she ran to ORION after seeing it, and you didn't discuss it with her?!"

"No! No, when - she found out about Eythan. I didn't - think..." Aure trailed off, tucking into his wing and wiping at his beak. He came back not a second later, eyes glassy again, "I... I don't know what I'm doing."

@Giggle

As fast as her expression had hardened and gone grim, it softened again, realization and grief flitting across it, followed closely by compassion.

"Oh, Aure," she sighed, and paced over impulsively, to press her skull against him. She sighed again, and leaned, if he allowed it; and then she spoke, sadly.

"You aren't hurting me," she started with, and then paused, surprised he even thought that. Sure, she was a little hurt now, but in general-? Was that what he thought?

"But, if you ever don't know what you're doing, just ask-! I've raised enough of you kids by now," she added, her tone one of gentle humor. She flopped back onto her haunches and, in a wry echo of a similar conversation she'd had with Damask, she spoke again.

"Nobody knows what we're doing otherwise, Aure. Nobody starts off with a guidebook." (Guidebooks were new cave knowledge, and she enjoyed mentioning reading and writing-) "We don't start off with someone teaching us how to do this shit. I had to guess at what I did, too. She's not a bad kid, Aure, and you're not a bad Gembound, son, or king."

Another pause, another breath. "I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings. I didn't mean to. But this is what family is for, we--need to talk to one another, Aure. You don't need to get 'better,' anyway. That makes it sound like you think you're not enough--you're enough, you're more than enough. You're my son, you haven't done anything wrong." A pause, as she tried--hard--not to blame Damask for this.

It's not her fault. Definitely not--not hers either. She's a victim in this, victim of her family's ignorance, of bad luck. Right-...

Giggle took a breath, and looked to Aure. They could handle this; but first she needed a moment--and she had to give him one, too.

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@Aure

Aure welcomed and pressed into the embrace, muttering softly, "I have, though."

His mother was soothing, reassuring - but he already knew that he could come to her for any questions he had. "It's okay, you - didn't hurt my feelings or anything. I'm just... a lot's happened in the past few cycles. I've been putting off calling us all together and delegating duties for long enough." (Caves, it's been... since before Damask was born.) "I just need to remember to communicate."

The hybrid nuzzled a little deeper into where spotted neck met dappled shoulder, stopping with a tentative idea, "I'll come by more. I'm not sure when I fell out of that..."

A long pause, the space that they both needed to think, followed.

Then: "there's... something I've been wanting to look into. Some bird-like creature in Polaris, in a dark room. He talked about... masters of magic and transcendence - though I'm not sure what either of those mean. I could bring Damask along and - talk to her on our way back from that... ?"

It wouldn't seem, then, so much like an ambush or... pushing.

@Giggle

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