Something was... Wrong. The thought stalked the massive cerberus as he paced about the bones, noses sniffing at prey. The Bonebound was fine, despite the disturbance brought on by the strange, corrupting fungus... But it was obvious that the hell hound was distracted by the feeling of unease, even to those who did not know him particularly well. He had not been attending his duties properly, his hunting had been off. It wasn't even particularly anything wrong with him.

Though, at the rate it was going, it might as well have been. There had been a smell, and a strange sound, and his dreams had not been-- they had not been quite right, as of late. It was something the big lug was going to have to take to his mother, one way or another, to figure out. He hoped it was not to do with the--... The murder. He did need to clear his conscious of that, but surely, that was not enough to tear him apart. It was certainly a problem, but this thing felt like it was coming from an outside source.

He lumbered toward one of the divets in the alley of one of the fortresses where water pooled, and froze as spotted something huge. His heads lowered, five eyes staring as his hackles rose, as he stared down the massive, kaiju monster: brown hide, glowing toxic green, slorping down his drinking hole until it was completely dry.

"Hello?" His central head woofed as he cautiously drew his tail up behind him, being careful to avoid smacking it into one of the fragile structures that surrounded him. "I am," he greeted, hesitant, "Kerberos..." He gave a tentative sniff, watching the six legged alien with a trio of fixed attention he rarely gave anything.

It wasn't every day he saw something as big as himself. Slowly, he began to wag his tail in a friendly manner, and crouched into a play bow. "I am Bonebound!" He explained-- anything this big in Canis was likely to have run into another Bonebound, so hopefully... It knew what that meant. "... Do you want to play?" It was a friendly offer, one that came with a flutter of hope. He liked playing with other gembound, but most were smaller than him, and he couldn't really... play in a very fair way with them.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Designation. It was a strange term, one that made the dog's three brains work in over time as he stood, tail wagging like a dumbass at the complete stranger. The Sentinels were numbers and positions, categorized without much opportunity for name-- though, some had earned names. He was vaguely aware of this. Designation, however, sounded like a pejorative to the big dog's ears. It would be like being called Gatekeeper, his heads One, Two, and Three. A simplification, cut clean and wiped free of personality.

Kerberos didn't like it-- and he found himself bothered by a lot of little things these days-- but he found it more a stumbling block than an obstacle. The spined beast counter offered: a spar. The lumbering dog bounced forward, giving a small woof, "Wrestle!" He lowered his heads, shuffling his heavy forepaws. "Tag!" His central head raised, tongue rolling out of his mouth to pant.

"Play-fight, yeah! Spar, for fun!" It seemed like the stranger, Orthoclase-Alpha (what a mouthful of a name), seemed to be considering it. "You can go first," he insisted, tail thumping against the dry earth. "I won't hurt you." This, he emphasized. Play was not intended to hurt, and even if he could go all out on someone his size-- well. He didn't want to scare his new friend, did he?

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Orthoclase-Alpha offered an affirmative, and another rule: no magic. This was probably for the best, though it did put Kerberos at a disadvantage. He nodded, three perfectly synced nods, and lay in wait as the hulking, six legged beast scrambled up the bones and lunged for him.

He waited, perfectly posed with his forelimbs pressed down into the dust, as Alpha's weight crashed into him. There was a playful yip from one of his heads as the momentum sent the pair of them crashing into another bone structure-- a pair of kaiju wrecking a already dead city.

Kerberos tumbled, using the strong muscles in his forelegs and his powerful tail to whip himself over, and for a brief moment, he managed to land on top of Alpha, brushing only a few prickly quills in the process as he flopped on top of the beast, grinning like the big doofus of a dog that he was.

"Got'cha!" He barked, delighted-- though he didn't have quite enough of a firm grip to really keep his opponent locked down.


Round: 1/?
Attempt: Flip Alpha over!
Defense: wriggle wriggle wriggle
Injuries: n/a
@Orthoclase-Alpha

Hee hee hee hee. Kerberos had the big, wiggly beastie captured now, and his tail began to thump noisily against the back end of Orthoclase-Alpha's carapace. A low, teasing whine came from one of his throats as he shuffled his paws, to get a steady position on top of the big guy.

It wasn't very easy to position himself so that he could do what he wanted; one nose immediately plunged into a quill and let out a sharp whimper, flinging chin up to the sky. Another managed to smoosh into Alpha's plated skull, and finally-- the last head, managed to land a few good, thick licks on to Orthoclase-Alpha's face.

They were probably the slobberiest things that poor, poor Orthoclase had felt. Slobber dripped out of the hellhound's mouth as he went to town getting in as much of his doggy kisses as he could.

Because clearly it wasn't a good play time unless one of them was covered in drool.


Round: 2/?
Attempt: Apply kisses to the big baby!!
Defense: squishing alpha
Injuries: a lil' poked up
@Orthoclase-Alpha

O-oh. As the big beastie scrambled away, Kerberos flopping on to his side like an abandoned tortoise at the side of the road, his heads rolled. He managed to get back to his paws, but his head was spinning with the accusation.

"Whuh?" "Not magic!" "No cheating," Each head woofed at once, bewildered as he tried to get his clumsy paws to balance his weight as bones shifted under paw. "Friendly!" "Just licks!" "Not trying to eat--" "Promise!"

Okay, okay. The cerberos's tail thumped once on the ground, and he inhaled in one mouth and snorted with another, blinking five bleary eyes as his brain tried to puzzle solve. "Magic-- magic different," by instinct, he defaulted to shorter, clipped words; as though it was a natural language shared by the big hound and his new found friend. "This is magic," he barked, and his middle head raised its snout and closed its one eye tight as he tried to focus really hard on magic a harmless magic come to life to show Alpha.

A single, pale firefox light formed at the tip of his nose, a little pink flame that flickered no larger than a candle light. He lowered his heads, and let the wisp whisk about in the air between them, before drifting off to the side, where it wouldn't be in the way and certainly wouldn't hurt Orthoclase-Alpha.

"No use," he swore again, "Magic is cheating! And no venom. No mean biting either, okay?" He lowered his forepaws, crouching down with his hindquarters held high, and let his tail snake its way up into the sky like a banner. He waggled the multi-colored, scaled tail playfully, and waited keenly for his play-partner to initiate the continuation of the "spar."


Round: 3/?
Attempt: not cheating, see?!
Defense: oops he forgot
Injuries: a lil' poked up
@Orthoclase-Alpha