ORIGIN

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From there, Zoisite decided they wanted to tackle an even trickier beast. Khavur, reaver of-- okay, by now, Zoisite couldn't quite remember the full title. Khavur suited it more than well enough. (Oh, to have a name.) The six legged creature stalked back through the flowering fields, knowing exactly what they wanted to find.

It had to be colorful, with more than one color upon the petals. Khavur was always changing and shifting shades, and while they didn't think any flower would fit the bill... They knew they could find something colorful.

They walked, slow and cautious, through the field, picking up each talon and setting it down carefully around each flower. It was slow going, picking through each flower-- they tried not to get distracted by other flowers that might work for the remainder of their family. They needed to find Khavur's first, for no reason other than they were being stubborn.

Then they almost stumbled right over it without noticing. Doing a double take, six golden eyes locked upon the messy, almost checkerboard pattern of deep maroon and pink, splotchy and camouflage patterned. Instantly it reminded them of Khavur... And that was before the noticed the extra detail. From one stem, it split, into two drooping flowers. "Khavur!" They said aloud, pincers clacking with surprise. How could something be so perfect?

A delicate clip with razor sharp talons, and Zoisite held it clutched in one hand, turning it about to admire the two different flowers and all their unique spots. They hoped that Khavur would like it... the buds even turned downward, like they always did to look down at its younger clutchmates.

They tucked this one close to their middle legs, making sure it was firmly secured by a quill so it wouldn't be jostled free.

@Oliver

The quiet, distant word--an exclaimed name he'd never heard before--almost made him flinch. He jerked away from where he'd been: carefully studying a tall tree of a sort he hadn't seen, either in Eridanus or in Cetus. Feather-tufts that served as ears first flattened back, then raised, as he peered through the trees in search of the voice's origin point.

He couldn't see it, at first, and he began a long, slow creep forward, sniffing and listening cautiously. A strange odor--a little acrid, maybe, but that might've been the weird flowers up ahead-?--oh.

Oliver froze like a rabbit, staring at the pinkish monster out ahead. It was bristling, threaded with neon glow, all pincer and mandible and horror that was slowly, painstakingly threading flowers into its own hairs?

The bird-dog paused, puzzled as he watched it. The thought "why?" had two answers that ran along its tail end: first, maybe it was trying to camouflage itself. But that... given its colors, well, that didn't seem likely. The second possibility that struck Oliver was that maybe this thing just... liked flowers.

He could barely make it out, from here; only from a bad angle, only some of its motions visible to him. And for a moment, fear warred with curiosity in him, but then kindness joined the battle and won out, and his impulsive nature (one liable to get him killed, some day) proved itself again as he crept out into the little field of flowers.

"Hi? Hello-?" he offered softly, half-crawling closer before pausing some thirty feet away. "Um--are you nice?" he tried, after a moment's hesitation.

It seemed like the smart thing to ask, at least.

He reached one taloned wing-limb out to try and grow another flower, near himself--a peace offering, of sorts--but the moment his claw touched it, the flower just... fell away. He eyed it with mild horror, and then looked to Zoisite with widened pale blue eyes. "...I didn't mean that," he told it, hurriedly.

@V-Zoisite-One

Zoisite hadn't realized anyone was watching-- hadn't even so much as heard the foot falls of the canine until his voice, soft and gentle, called out to them. The insectoid froze, talons still mid-tucking of a flower into their fur.

... Nice? Zoisite lowered their foot, turning and twisting their body toward the voice. They had to raise their head, and tilt it slightly to see the dog crawling closer at a distance, and pausing at a crouch. "... yes?" Their pincers clacked over the sound, shifting to cautiously tuck their limbs under their body and stand a bit higher. Perhaps such a gesture was intimidating, but they were trying to stare at the black, winged dog with their glowing golden eyes, and it wasn't the most practical thing.

They watched as the stranger reached out a wing, only to have a flower wilt immediately at the touch. Zoisite blinked, watching the canine go through the same stages of grief they had felt only minutes before. "It's okay," the Zoisite said, ducking their head down and... crouching. Mimicking the dog's own posture, albiet in a stiff and janky fashion. This unfortunately made it so they couldn't see the dog, but they could smell and hear him. It would be fine.

He didn't seem like he meant any harm, anyway.

"I'm V-Zoisite-One," they said, painstakingly clicking out each syllable. "Zoisite is fine."

@Oliver

Oliver's clawed hands hastily reached back out, patting frantically at the flower he'd essentially murdered. After a moment, new blooms emerged, then parted, spreading--three to replace the one he'd killed. He looked relieved--nervous, but relieved--and lifted wide blue eyes to Zoisite.

"Sorry it's--just, you're really big," he told it, apologetically--and immediately scooted closer, as if to assure Zoisite that he wasn't actually scared of all its monstrous spines and bristles. "I usually grow flowers. And plants. Not, uh." 'Kill' sounded so harsh. "Like, make them sick," he settled on, uncertainly.

"You look really neat, though! I like your--were they eyes? They glow yellow," ...just in case Zoisite was somehow unaware; "And I like your name, too! And your flowers. What are you doing with them?" Oliver asked, curiously. He was trying to be nice--deliberately friendly--but he was genuinely curious, too, and maybe his questions overlapped a little but-!

Its crouching demeanor seemed to have reassured him, though Oliver himself remained distinctly low to the ground--his body language non-threatening, still submissive, even, though his face was lit with friendly interest instead.

@V-Zoisite-One

Zoisite had never been described as "big"-- they had outgrown the smaller Forgers like the Garnets, but they had yet to reach the same towering height of their ~~mom~~, though they had recently breached ten feet in length and several hundred pounds, they did not tower like Khavur, and while they might have been able to prop themself up to try and stretch to Chaos-Two's height they would not quite be able to.

They did not think of themself as big, but, raising their head enough to see that Oliver had crawled a little closer, they noticed that the dog was much smaller than them. Not as small as the Garnets, but if he compared himself to lesser rats, he might have thought himself one of the bigger things in the cave. So they would be quite big, indeed. Mandibles opened, a gaping jaw of golden glowing jowls and razor sharp teeth glistening, and hung there lost in thought.

Grow plants? Magic could do that...? Curiosity prickled at the young gembound, head tilting further to one side. As the black feathered dog asked about their eyes, Zoisite blinked-- one side, and then the other. _"Yes," they answered in a quiet, whispered hiss. The sound was small, uncertain what to do with the fact a stranger liked their eyes.

And their name. Zoisite didn't-- it was too long-- and it wasn't a name, either. They shifted their weight on their talons, turning away from the dog toward the sea of blossoming flowers.

"... I was..." They started, finding it strangely difficult to put it into words as they craned their head back further, staring for something for Selenite, next. Selenite liked sharp, useful things like glass and broken gems... A flower wouldn't be any of those things. "The flowers are pretty." Their New Home wasn't pretty, and it had been difficult to adjust to. "I was bringing some home to my family."

They paused, and massive head sweeping back toward Oliver, the Zoisite raised a talon and purposefully, slow as molasses, carved a cautious path through the field closer to him. "... I put my magic into them," they explained, "when I make a thing glow, they never stop glowing. I don't want them to glow though. I'm giving them some of my magic, so they stay how I found them." It would be a cruel thing to do to a living creature, but Zoisite didn't think it would work like that, anyway.

Technically, they didn't know if it would work anyway. "... here." The bug-kaiju reached out to the flowers that Oliver had made bloom, looking at the trio intently. They touched one of the petals, and tried to impart their magic... But they could feel Oliver watching them, and they kept glancing toward the dog, waiting for the feeling to happen-- it didn't, but regardless it wouldn't be something they would see anyway.

Should they keep trying? They didn't want to hurt the flowers... Maybe these already had some of the stranger's magic? "I like your flowers," they said instead, withdrawing their talons and crouching down once more in an attempt to not tower over the canine.

@Oliver

Zoisite suddenly looming over him was... disconcerting, and as he stared up, trying not to be intimidated, he abruptly blurted "I'm Oliver," almost without intending to.

He blinked, surprised by his own sudden words, and then more sheepishly added, "Um--did I already say that..?" But the other was retreating, then, and Oliver looked down to study the flowers, trying to figure out what it was that Zoisite had done. "Oh, uh--thanks! I usually grow them, especially after I pick some? -I grew gardens in like, Canis and stuff in case Eridanus burns down again," he added cheerfully. "Hey, do you know Venari? You sorta look like her! She's really nice. And REALLY big, like, even bigger than you! But she's got a long body like yours and legs almost like yours, and a shell just like yours and big, um. Pincers? Sorta? -Is she your family?" he asked, blinking. Even the colors were similar, in places, he was realizing. They had to be related! (They weren't.)

He was certainly going on, now, chattering away happily, and seemed quite content with Zoisite's presence--as if happy for her even being there. It was a bit awkward, perhaps, how he went on as if he'd known her, without explaining parts of what he was talking about, but it was certainly a cheerful awkwardness.

"I think, uh, Rift? He was--one of us but he isn't now," and here Oliver was babbling but didn't seem quite aware, looking down and happily picking over his flower petals where Zoisite had touched them, "I think he could do the thing where he made plants never wilt? Or maybe I'm thinking of Mercy or um. Someone else. But I always feel bad like--what if they're thirsty, you know? Or something?" He glanced up to Zoisite again, nose wrinkling up in thoughtful confusion. Then his eyes widened a little. "Who's your family, though? -Are they nice?" and this question, for whatever reason, was hopeful.

@V-Zoisite-One

Oliver. Oliver. Staring at the gentle, canid face, the insectoid seemed oblivious to his blurting. They didn't move as they connected the word to the soft, fuzzy face with brilliant blue eyes. It suited him, they thought. The word made them think of a broad, deep green leaf. "I like your name," their mandibles clicked as the mimicked the words; whether or not they entirely meant it as deeply as Oliver did or if they simply were parroting it impossible to tell.

"I was born near Canis," Zoisite said, blinking slowly and trying to remember if it had ever seen such greenery in the bone dry cavern. Eridanus was an unfamiliar place to it, though it knew that the Overseer and some others hunted deer out there, before they moved. "I don't know who that is." Venari. The name sounded almost like their own, except pretty, and... oh.

Zoisite turned their-- their?-- head toward the flowers as it listened to Oliver ramble on, considering the thought that plants could be thirsty. "... Plants don't move," ~~they--~~ it-- oh no-- said slowly. "They don't live like us." There was a distinct seperation, concrete line in the kaiju-bug's mind between fauna and flora. The relationship Zoisite had with food was already messy enough, so it was better not to start asking questions about if flowers could feel.

Instead, the conversation turned to its? (no??) their family.

Zoisite wanted to tell Oliver all about tĥ͘e̓iͥr̶ͭͩͤ͞ family; suddenly, a new emotion pulling at their rough, wiry crimson fur. They blinked, silence stretching in a manner that could have easily been them not wanting to speak as much as them lost in thought. Their face gave away almost no hint that thoughts were going on beyond that brilliant gold stare.

Finally, the insectoid turn their head away, sweeping their gaze out through the field of flowers. Their chest felt light, bright glow brimming at the edges of their jaws.

Their tail twitched, irritated firing of magic that didn't quite form anything meaningful as Zoisite spoke. "My family is... We are monstrous," they said, "Master Vargas says we are fighting for the survival of the whole caves." They didn't like the word fighting, pincers clasping a little too tightly around the consonants of it. "We're protectors... And not so scary as we seem, though... Mom..." Oh, don't call it that. "Overseer Orthoclase-Alpha," it still struggled with such a long name through its three-piece jaw, "and the other adults seem stern and scary, they aren't so bad." Mostly, Zoisite thought that they put too much stock in staying distant and professional.

"My clutchmates... V-Selenite-One is upright, with hands and stripes, but they have quills like Alpha and I. Its always holding something, or looking for something to hold. I haven't found it a flower yet... Its... Grey, green..." The Zoisite was starting to amble away, cautiously setting talons down without crushing a single flower in its or their or?-- the path. "Pointy things. Maybe a pointy flower..." Back on the hunt for the perfect flower.

@Oliver

Zoisite didn't know who Venari was! Oliver gasped.

"Oooh, you should meet her, some time! She has a den in Eridanus. I helped her hang up glowing stones there, and I planted her a little garden!" He stopped himself from babbling on about how the garden had had to be at the outer edges, where the light would reach, and about the flowers he'd chosen--he didn't think that would interest Zoisite, probably.

"I know they don't... live like us, exactly, but I dunno, I just-... Feel bad if they aren't taken care of. Does that sound silly?" he asked, blinking up at Zoisite; his attention while he asked this question was utterly rapt, as if somehow they would have the absolute answer to it.

Tufted ears flicked forward, unruffled by the stretching silence, the blank golden gaze--he didn't mind. Had it stretched on much longer he might've fidgeted, but just in time they turned away. "Monstrous-? Oh," he said, as if surprised or disappointed. "I didn't think you seemed bad?" He'd met Vargas one or twice, too--presiding over the medic care for those who had fought in the contests, he'd seen the Master watching. And--"Oooh, you're Orthoclase-Alpha's, um--child?" A brief pause as Oliver struggled to assimilate what he knew of Orthoclase with the word "Mom." The creature certainly hadn't come across as parental to him, and certainly not motherly or nurturing, and for a moment he was almost baffled. "Protectors--oh! Protecting is good. Dad was a Guardian. He told me I would be, too, but I mostly just, uh. Grow plants," Oliver added, with a shrug, looking around and touching the nearest bobbing blossom with a gentle claw. "I'm glad you guys aren't bad, at least. I don't think I met, um--Selenite? Before?" and his blue gaze wandered back to Zoisite at this, brow furrowing briefly in thought. It didn't sound familiar, anyway. "I've met Orthoclase-Alpha, though! I tried to talk to them for awhile but... I don't think they wanted to." This held a distinctly sad tone to it, ear-tufts sagging down; but Oliver didn't elaborate. It wasn't his place to--what he'd (even briefly) discussed with the creature was nobody's business but its own.

He set off alongside Zoisite, a little behind them, seemingly just assuming that he was now invited along on this flower-search. Nose dropped down, wide eyes scouring the grasses. "So you're looking for flowers that--match them?" he asked, and paused to glance around, then scurried a few paces to catch up. He looked for anything gray, or gray-green, and spiky, but all the blooms he spotted were delicate bright little things. At length he gave up, sitting a little more upright in the grass, his nose scrunched up in thought. "Um, what about... like, a plant instead, or something? There's lots that are spiky and gray! ...Ish." Clusters of pine needles at once came to mind, but Oliver tentatively rejected this--nobody really wanted to carry a spiky branch of needles around, did they?

@V-Zoisite-One

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