Vargas glanced at Chaos-Two, but did not yet answer--in part because the explanation would take somewhat long and in part because Esther was once again speaking.
Everything was a test.
That, of course, would not do.
@V-Chaos-Two
Chaos-Two nodded and listened to the exchange eagerly, rubbing the pads of their hands gently together, the almost inaudible sandpaper sound calming them. They lowered themselves to lay down, their hind legs awkwardly to the side to relieve the pressure on their pelvis.
Their eyes shot to a bug wandering across the floor, ears flicking up in interest. Wow... even the lessers in here were affected by the Black Spire.
They focused back in on the conversation, quiet.
"I've been working on my fighting skills." Esther thought out loud. "And uh. Magic too." They had learned a new spell recently. It seemed powerful, but so did all of the magic they seemed to have. Even if their body did catch fire at random intervals, or now if something touched them it brought a searing pain despite not being injured.
Esther then had another question, remembering that the big one was there when they took down that huge golem.
"You were there when the giant bear-thing was causing chaos- can you tell me why the stuff everyone was freaking out about didn't effect me?" They questioned. If they'd been aware that they saved one of this group's members during that, they'd have mentioned it.
@Vargas
He studied Esther for a moment. Fighting skills-? The thing was... miniscule, compared to his monsters. He was blunt with his reply.
A pause, stern, to let that sink in.
Vargas paused here, waiting to see what Esther had to say--and he glanced, too, to V-Chaos-Two. He was unsure how much of this the creature actually knew, and how much might be new to it; he'd never bothered with it much, before.
@V-Chaos-Two
V-Chaos-Two was staring up at Vargas with their big wide eyes, enraptured by his explanation of the golem and 'Mother'. They almost wanted to lean up against his leg like a child listening to their grandfather's war stories, always so curious to learn more and more.
Suddenly they had questions, ones that had floated to the top of his mind, dislodged by this new knowledge, by the want to understand.
But the more important thing...
Once they did, they suspected that their internal thoughts would be a lot smoother.
Disobedience is death, now, Esther didn't know about other groups, but this one seemed bent on their goal. Esther, didn't really care about the disobedience or death comment. They supposed that gembound could join, and if they did they would be tied to the group. Which, well, was perfectly fine, in their eyes. Had they joined any other group, they most likely wouldn't have thought anything different of this one. With those goals, it sounded important that they be kept kind of a secret. Granted.... The master had literally told them of those things when they asked anyway. It was confusing, but they could ask the questions anyway.
"I understand." The gembound replied to that.
Vargas conjured up more words, and the prospect of building monsters intrigued them. Him again - they were building monsters for the guy that had the magic Esther did? What was he doing with those monsters? Being able to help, maybe, was interesting and made Esther incredibly curious too. What did those monsters look like? They presumed they would find out soon enough if they were let in to wander.
The golem was explained, and Esther wondered how that thing even came to be like that. Did 'Mother' make it then? Did they stuff it full of.... 'Order' and send it to infect or murder everyone? Granted, it didn't really kill anyone from what Esther saw. But quite a few of those gembounds screamed out in pain when they breathed in the stuff, running around like fools of a chicken that had their head severed. Esther was able to help a couple of them. One.... some thing that looked strange. Kind of like those two standing in front of them, actually. And another that they couldn't remember.
"I could help with that, then." Esther voiced. If they couldn't get infected that meant they could be around it without getting stuck with it forever. Granted others could be cured, too, but not everyone knew that magic to do it. Esther had helped someone by throwing themselves into them, but surely that wouldn't help with everyone.
The other one started asking questions, and Esther wasn't going to answer them despite knowing the answers. To... some of those questions anyway. If they could recall, the master did get infected for a short time. Some... Deer had cured him, they thought. At least it seemed that way. It was kind of hard to ignore a giant creature in the midths of somewhat normal looking ones. Was Vargas creating the monsters to get infected and kill off? It would work - at least for a short time. It didn't look like this 'mother' could get destroyed if they were throwing gembound at it. Especially with how that golem reacted... it was strange. Their oily eyes did scan over to the horned one, though, studying its features while it asked questions.
It sat funny, but Esther didn't know why, and had sharp claws. Horns, too. They twisted back into a shape the maned wolf didn't know how to describe. Was this one, one of the creations? Maybe not, since it was still here. The master had said they were giving the monsters to 'him'.
@Vargas [lol.... long post and only two sentences of dialogue i am so sorry]
Vargas glanced quizzically to V-Chaos-Two.
There was no time to grow complacent.
Head swivelled back to Esther.
@V-Chaos-Two
that's fine esther that's really how chaos forge rolls lmao-
Chaos-Two nodded and looked at Esther again, wondering why they would assume they were unaffected then- but Vargas did say they didn't inhale the spores. They had assumed and perhaps the creature before them did too.
They finally leaned against Vargas' front paw for support, flopped on their side so their back was pressed against him. Unprofessional, maybe, but they weren't nicknamed 'Twobutt' for no reason. The stupid extra pelvis was painful as all Hell, and despite the plants Kethri had given him (with a sneer and a grin, as if hoping that the effects would be moot, and then disappointment when they worked), his pelvis still ached.
Perhaps it wasn't an issue of nerve pain. Perhaps the bones were grinding and causing damage that way. In that case... maybe Chaos-Two would just hope and pray Vargas didn't notice. But he would before long, and then he'd be culled for his obvious weakness. A creature without function of it's back legs was practically useless despite having a sharp mind.
They withheld a shudder and kept quiet, dampening their thoughts to listen instead.
Esther didn't entirely know how them getting that magic happened. One minute they attacked... Whatever was in that dark place, the next minute they were waking up as if they hadn't been active for days after when they actually had been. Between that and reemerging, Esther had done something to chrysalize themselves. Maybe it was the stress from the whispers that seemed to never leave their ears. They were used to it now, and the whispers that always followed were a dull noise in the background of everything else - at least at the moment. Everything always got worse if they forgot to go back to that place.
"There was a dog and... a cat? The dog wanted... power, I think. The cat seemed to be there to watch over him. I'd kept going back to see what was going on, and eventually the canine just.... Disappeared, somewhere. From using his magic. He came back, too. After that I got curious and kept going back." The maned wolf answered. "I went back in my chrysalis in there at one point, and just came out different. It was near a uh... dark. Thing. I don't know how to explain it."
The other gembound there was quiet, stopped asking questions. If it didn't have anything to add, Esther didn't Either, there wasn't much to talk about. Of how they got that magic. It was all a blur that happened between some days that they didn't really think about much.
@Vargas
Vargas stared.
He also glanced down, idly shaking free from Chaos-Two--if it fell, so be it; he wasn't its fucking pillow.
As for Esther, he was immediately gauging the maned wolf "probably stupid" in his mind, noting off the tickboxes: not entirely coherent (check), rambling story (check), nonsensical ('dark thing' of no description? absolutely check). He grimaced faintly, then immediately decided that this would no longer be his problem.
He had an Overseer for a reason, after all.
@V-Chaos-Two @Orthoclase-Alpha