ORIGIN - skin swapped for shell // shell swapped for skin

A jagged mess of quartz shot out of the rock of Polaris, like a second Spire in an inverted orange. A Caroller was perched on top, preening its feathers, and becoming thoroughly startled as a sudden, spiderweb crack tore through its side. The creature inside was unfolding itself piece by piece like a flower opening up, or a spider dying in reverse. The Caroller hopped several feet away, and the chrysalis split abruptly in two, two large chunks and several smaller pieces falling away as fluid pooled around them.

Neutral-toned skin surrounded most of the creature's body. It was about two feet tall in total, antennae and moth scales matted down with the wetness. The drippy little animal let out an uncomfortable shudder and stretched out, perfectly still and slightly shivering. The chitin on their abdomen and face was still soft with youth, and their mandibles twitched at the sight of the bird, who eyed them carefully. They closed all of their five eyes for a moment, and then lunged.

The bird did not have time to react, and it was trapped, thrashing and terrified, under Rain's body as it squeezed the bird closer. The mandibles lashed out and crushed its throat, and the bird went limp. The creature began to tear out feathers and crunch down on the bird, eyeing their surroundings suspiciously as they started to fill their belly. Maybe they'd find another meal in a moment...

'Mm, crunchy,' Queen of Lies thought.

Queen mostly watched from afar, having come upon the chrysalis and the Caroller, hoping for an easy meal, but alas, she'd been beaten to the punch. By a bug.

By a faerie. Oh Matt was going to be so happy-

She was quiet for now, waiting. If someone else arrived she'd show herself, but right now? She wanted to learn more.

Rain began to rub at their scales with the backs of their fleshy scythes, hoping to dry things off more quickly rather than just sit there and shiver helplessly. Teeth-like mandibles gnashed together for another few moments, rather breaking the illusion, before retreating back into the mouth as Rain rose up and raised their head to the air, antennae just barely dry enough by now to scent the air. Many creatures paced this place -- five eyes scanned the area, looking for more prey. They were still hungry.

Nothing really caught their attention, though, the antennae too overwhelmed by the wetness of themselves and the chill of the air blowing in from Ursa and its tunnel. Another moment passed, and they stretched, beginning to pick along the ground (and leaving a puff of broken, bloodied blue feathers behind them) for evidence of other meals or Gembound.

@arwen
(still open!)

Matthieu the two-children, the bee and the boy, still slunk around Polaris like a twisted phantom. Nothing much had happened in the previous days-- they slunk around, ate a couple lessers, gnawed on a few stones, and slept under a boulder or two but little of anything else. Calm.

A commotion! Boy's childish head poked up from a ditch at the sound of a crystal breaking. It was a splendid orange gem, cracking open to reveal some twisted creature from it's depths. The child was strange and distorted, eating the carcass of a bird-- they were like themselves. The ones made of sinew and chitin. Matthieu became curious right away, their legs carrying them close as they watched in vague excitement. This was an interesting subject. Very, very interesting.

"Hello," the two voices sounded off from behind Rain, the insectoid head facing them. A black forelimb picked up a feather before it could be swept away by the cold wind. "We heard you. You are like us." There wasn't anyone by Matthieu, and they themselves weren't aware of Arwen nearby, so the plural use might've seemed strange to a listener. "You can call us Six Stripes. Do you want a toy?"

A smile cracked on the humanoid head, which swiveled around to face Rain.

@Rain

Queen of Lies stepped forward into the light, revealing her pale body, longer and harder, brand new. Instead of a flat head, there was something there, resembling curly yellow locks that barely reached her chin. Her mask was flawless and white, with pink cheeks and pink lips, her eyes clear to be seen rather than hidden like they were before.

"Hello," she said, her voice sounding different. Less like a toddler and more like a child.

Like she was up to something.

The Queen walked towards the two and stopped before them, clasping her hands together happily. She knew Matt would like them.

"Six Stripes," she said, "They're like us. A faerie."

And they walked like the rain did. In big showers of movement. It reminded her of Eridanus, of hiding under leaves with Blue, holding onto each other for warmth, for comfort.

"You look like memories," she said, chittering to herself.

"Walks Likes Rain," she chittered, unaware that the two would be able to understand her when she chittered like she did.

Bug-talk.

@Rain

They turned around sharply at the sound of two-voices, here-and-there, top-and-bottom, almost like her. The shuffling, rain-like thump of fleshy footsteps on the stone floor drew them a bit closer to Matthieu, and she rubbed the backs of her scythes over her face one more time before squinting at them. Two-made-one and one-made-two. "... Six Stripes," they repeated, voice soft and monotonous. Then, they turned equally sharp, like balancing on a knife-point, to face the Queen as she approached them from behind.

She glanced between the two creatures, and noted a few things -- legs, eyes, hair-that-wasn't. Clicking teeth, mask-like faces, and bug-speak. These things were similar. Quiet. Dark. Fae. A warmth spread through the child, and she repeated back (though not so clicky), "Walks Like Rain?" with a minute uptick of a question in her tone. She raised a foot and thumped it against the ground. She knew what walks meant, because that was what she was doing. Rain she only understood in theory, but she trusted that Arwen was right.

Almost-teeth stretched out, out, out in a toothy, mandibled grin. They clicked together happily as the faerie turned back to Six Stripes -- "I like toys."

@matthieu
@arwen

Matthieu smiled, twin grins of teeth and mandibles. This was an interesting creature. Split in two, like they and the Queen were. But less noticeable, and with no second heads. Their lower body was a beige skin reminiscent of Boy's own coverings, while the upper was in a humanoid shape coated in chitin. Interesting.

Boy, the upper head, turned in slight surprise as Arwen made herself known. She was growing fast, no longer a baby-faced grub but a masked child. It was beneficial to have her near. An insectoid leg groomed their fur about a bit before turning back to the newborn. 'Like us. A faerie.' And it was true. She was like them.

Six pairs of legs started up, and walked slowly around the new grub. The Queen described them as walking like rain in a strange tongue (Bee's ears were able to hear, while Boy was left puzzlingly deaf). Mattheiu barely knew what rain was. While the beetaur wistfully thought of the wilds of Eridanus, the only thing that came to their minds was the annoying drip of water off stalactites. She seemed to better suit pebbles, they thought. But then the creature repeated the name and it seemed to have stuck.

And toys-- oh! It just struck them that they didn't actually bring a toy. What a bummer. They swore they killed some bunny a while back. Where did that go? Well, it looked like they had to do some improv. "Good! I do not have a toy for you." the insectoid rumble had an emotion to it impossible to discern. Several hundred eyes flicked over the body one more time-- those scythes looked like they would be useful to try out. "Come with us-- we'll show you how to make your very own toy."

Ah yes. When a child is born, the first thing to do is craftsmanship. The fusion slunk low to the ground, a humanoid hand beckoning for Rain to follow. A small smile to Arwen. Matthieu crept across the crags for a while until they were behind some old stalagmite. Past that were a few Walleye Rabbits, quietly feeding. The perfect introduction.

"This is a cave. It is stony, but it is good. It is not a toy. (But I wish it were.) That--" both a forelimb and arm pointed as they whispered, "-- Is also not a toy. Not yet. It is a bunny. It's job is to eat and bounce. We," they turned back to themselves and Arwen, "Are faeries. Our job is to turn that bunny into a toy. Then you can play with it all you want. Playing is fun, right?"

An unsettling smile spread again. "The Queen of Lies is our friend. She is right next to you. She can make the rabbit into a toy by turning it's head into mush. We, like she said, are Six Stripes. We fix the bunny by making it's eyes hurt, or getting really dark so it can't see us coming. What can you do?"

@Arwen @Rain

Queen of Lies perked up as Six Stripes smiled, her own appearing under her mask. She couldn't wait for it to fall off and reveal herself again. She'd hidden her baby mask to collect later, when she had somewhere to keep it.

She trailed after Six Stripes and Rain, swaying back and forth, back and forth, humming softly to herself as she rubbed her hands together.

"I want their teeth," she whispered, "To make a necklace. One tooth for each member, carved into shapes."

She also had a backup plan, should they not be able to catch a rabbit. Pumpkins tasted good, she'd found (or at least she thought so). Hopefully Six Stripes and Rain thought the same.

"Do you want to see their brains leak out of their ears?", she asked, absolutely delighted to create such a disease that could do something like that.

She was already chittering quietly to herself about it, noting symptoms, disease type, bacteria or virus, locking and unlocking her fingers together in thought.

"If we don't catch a rabbit I can make a toy," she whispered to Six Stripes, "It's called an 'orange'. It's hard on the outside with a tasty inside. Like a rabbit."

@Rain

Rain deflated a bit. Aw, no toys? How lame. Still, learning how to make one was good enough, probably. They rubbed the backs of their scythes together, and then rubbed at their face. Cleanliness was critical, and such similar language. Six Stripes led the trio over to a hopping thing with funny eyes, and said that it was almost a toy, but needed to be fixed first. To Rain, it looked more like food, but they watched for a few moments as one of them moved. Its nose twitched back and forth, and its ears wiggled, and then its eyes wiggled, too. It hopped forward to investigate something a friend was chewing on, and Rain's head tilted slightly.

The Gembound was struck by a sudden desire to learn how it moved, what made its inner workings go. Was it clockwork? Unlikely. There had to be something inside of it, though. Tendons that stretched and bones that snapped -- they recalled the variety of textures in their earlier snack. At Six Stripes's question, they glanced over and whispered, "It looks more like food, 'cause it's moving around. Do you eat toys? Or just play with them?" Either was acceptable to the faerie, but they did rather want to get another meal.

"I make lots of very little things," they replied, not sure how to elaborate further. The Queen offered a nice proposal with the brains thing, though, and Rain's still-damp antennae twitched. Oh, could she do that? "... That might be fun," Rain admitted, even if the idea of pouncing and crunching was more appealing in regards to filling their belly. "Maybe we can get more than one, if we work together? I can eat one, and we can get another one to play with?" A beat, curious, imploring. "Or are the bunnies not good to eat?"

@arwen
@matthieu