"Speech" | 'Thoughts' | @Xerxes
I figured maybe you could have Xerxes join Cure to the meeting. You don't have to :D but ya know...I kinda feel like they're a bit inseparable at the moment~ Figured it would also be fine just because it's AW Also hoped it was okay that I PP'd just a bit
It had been a normal day of sitting around doing absolutely nothing. A lazy day as some would say. As per usual these days Xerxes was with her. After plenty of games having been played in their spare time, they had finally decided a nap would be good. The call of the avian that ruled over Canis had stirred Cure instantly and now she stared out the entrance of her bone fortress, ears perked with attention. It wasn't ever that she heard the bone King call out and for a moment she wondered if that was something she needed to answer.

She hesitated for a moment, turning her gaze down to the slumbering Lion next to her. His abyssal fur just barely blending in with her own dark pelt. Had it not been for her leopard markings, she was sure that their fur would have been similar. A grin slid over her features before she slowly, and silently, rose to her paws. She did not wish to rouse him from his sleep. With one small stretch the hybrid leopard padded out of her bone fortress den and headed off towards where she had heard the call. Much to her surprise there were several gembounds gathered!

Her gaze lingered on her father and sister, a bright smile catching her features, and then she spotted her mother. Who was, in no surprise, lounged behind everyone else that was gathered. She paused for a moment, not sure who she should go sit by, but soon decided that since Remedy was with their father, that she would go sit with her mother. She padded over to the mutated leopard and with an affectionate purr, bumped heads with the older feline. "Hello mother," She greeted gently as she sat back on her haunches just behind Amaria. "What's going on?" She whispered as she lowered her head closer to Amaria's face. She giggled when her mother answered with a bored 'Dunno...but I'd rather be sleeping...'

"Moom! We're part of this group now, we can't just sleep through things like this!" She whispered back, covering her muzzle with a paw as she tried to stifle her laughter over her mother's expression.

A black crowlike bird swept over the meeting, banking and peering down with its single crimson eye. There was an orange-black bird, and it recognized this from Her thoughts. There were cats, also--

Too many cats.

"Too many cats," came the agreeing thought from the Hallowed Caller's mind, though not in words so much as vague thoughts.

The bird did a lap, then another, then descended to land beside Kerberos. It sidled up to him, eyeing the others warily, then let out a raucous caw or two--and then a shrill, broken imitation of a hyena's cackles.

Safe, then. Coming. Coming.

A shuffling came from the darkness a bit distant, and grew louder. The limping, filth-matted hyena that emerged into the light a moment later was emaciated, a staggering skeleton draped with a fungus-riddled hide. One ear was cocked askew, a strange grin on her face, her dark eyes wide and intense.

She made her way to Kerberos's side, eyeing Bones, and then Aza'zel, her thoughts racing.

Drawer-on-walls. Son. Son? Safe. Coming. Yes, here. Son-hunter, Aza-skull. Safe, safe all safe but so many cats? Bones are all everywhere, dark and light, all good, all the same. Very good. Bad cats.

Aloud, her cracked, hoarse voice growled out in an equally fragmented fashion. There was no warm greeting, nor was any expected--instead she immediately berated him.

"Aza!" she snapped, her grin twisting into an ugly, maddened snarl for a moment. "Too-many-cats! Stupid cats, traitor cats, liar cats, stealing cats! He steals from him, weakness, weakness, cowards. Ha! AHAHAHA! Stupid, stupid, wrong, toomanycats."

Giggle's commentary finished, she sat, satisfied. Aza'zel had created some sort of disgusting, filthy cat-haven in her absence, and she was not pleased.

Her gaze travelled over the others, and it wasn't lost on her that at least one of the creatures reminded her of Bevy.

"Healbird. Thank you," she declared with a growl, turning her attention to her leader.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

Hurray for full-group first posts! For reference in the job faire, the characters tagged are all of the characters that are around at the time of this thread. I am not tagging Krakarak since he is likely dead due to IC circumstances. Anyways:

The purpose of this thread is simple. Sparring! Training! All that fun stuff. So here's the deal, Lucille. Azazel has paired up characters and omitted Ashtoreth and Giggle for obvious reasons. Each fight will be an easy two rounds, and you're free to do it all in one shot. Just make sure your posts are at least 200 words long and you put a WC at the end of your posts. The only rule is: no high intensity spells. This is to minimize the possibility of one critically failing and causing Canis to about collapse [ looking at you, Azazel ] and to keep fights clean and simple. It is advised not to attempt to hurt your opponent, but it isn't like it's illegal.

Here are the match-ups!


Azazel, Ashtoreth, and Giggle will likely be sitting out, unless either wish to participate.

δεξιά . κέντρο . αριστερά
Kerberos listened to Aza'zel with a patience that had come from years of practice, sitting still, being quiet. The canine didn't understand why Maji Walezi was so eager to hound him down, and why he couldn't just go and see what they wanted-- if it was justice, surely they would see that Cancer, the cat who has just as much claim to Bevy's retribution as anyone, had already struck him down. Once Aza'zel spoke of sparing, his tail began to twitch into a wag, excited-- he thought he might not get paired with anyone, being injured and also too big, but to his delight he was put together with Cancer. An ordinary gembound might have loathed the idea or been eager to strike revenge, but the dog was simply pleased that he had what he considered to be a fair match. The feline was strong, and he was excited to see what they could do when practicing rather than punishing.

The canine lowered a muzzle to his clubfoot brother and licked at Bones' ear, whining a playful, "Good luck! Do your best! You better win, too," before he rose to his feet-- his gaze catching on Giggle, his mother, and his whole body began that wriggling wag from his massive, snaking tail. The damn hell hound was lucky not to hit anyone with the massive orange scaled limb as he woofed at his mom. "Oh, oh, Giggle, you have to watch! I've gotten a lot better since you've been gone-- you'll be so impressed! Please, please, come watch, come watch!" That said, he glanced back at his hairless kitten in his fur and let out a gentle huff. "Don't worry," he told his best friend, "it's just for practice. Go show Jerico your claws!" The dog waited politely, crouching down so that his kitten could get down from his perch, blinking as he noticed the kitten's worry. His tongues ran over the skinny baby, a chuckle coming up from his chest.

"It'll be okay," his middle head spoke, slowly, calmly. "Aza'zel's watching." It seemed a reasonable enough thing to say-- though he still didn't quite understand why the goblin sphynx was so hissy about the whole ordeal. Oh, maybe he was just trying to look tough for his fight? The dog grinned at the thought.

And then, his five pink eyes searching for Carcino, the white dog found his dark partner and bolted towards the crystal spire crawling towards the ceiling. Hadn't there been more of these? Kerberos paid no mind to it. "Ready?" He woofed once, his tail swaying behind him as he went into a playful mock bow, just like he used to as a puppy. "Don't hold back, okay? I'm gonna give it my all, too!" There was nothing but warmth, compassion in his voice. He loved all of the Bonebound to death, and his loyalty to Carcino was hardly affected by his recent maiming.

Dogs could be stupid in their love, like that.

Kerberos began to summon his magic, aiming to split into two-- all the more mouths to snap at Cancer, all the more likely the cat would attack the wrong one. It was a risk, but it was also an easy dodge, if Cancer struck the wrong dog... It was a move he had done plenty of times before, but hopefully his excitement wouldn't get the better of him.

{ FIGHT STATISTICS }
KERBEROS V. CANCER
I of II

{ ATTEMPT }

~ split into two! confuse the kitty!

{ DEFENSES }

~ low to the ground, ready to move

{ INJURIES }

~ prior injuries;;

• central head still healing from wounds,
  
• paws still sensitive from previous fight

~ current injuries;;

• none

wc;; way over 200 ok look at it its HUGE

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Kerberos was sure that he had fooled Cancer, and his fake flinched back with a split second of thought while his real body lunged forward. He could feel the thrill of playing-- not for blood, not for food, not for anything but the joy of burning energy. He remembered when his brother used to play with him like this all the time, usually in clumsy races of skill and chase because of their size difference.

In this case, however, the canine wasn't expecting the cat to come for him. The feline turned and he ran headfirst into the smack, a whine breaking from one head as the rest of his body carried his momentum towards Cancer without a single thought. He wanted to wrap his paws around the cat, wrestle him to the ground and pin him, but he was still being careful-- the feline wasn't even half his size, after all, and Kerberos would loathe to agitate his senior's wounds more.

"You got me!" The head that hadn't been hit woofed, baring his teeth in a strange mix of doofy grin and playful snarl. "But I got you!" He practically howled as he tried to fall on Cancer, paws scooping and grabbing for as much dark, faintly spotty fur as he could nab.

{ FIGHT STATISTICS }
KERBEROS V. CANCER
II of II

{ ATTEMPT }

~ grapple the kitty cat!

{ DEFENSES }

~ nyah!

{ INJURIES }

~ prior injuries;;

• central head still healing from wounds,
  
• paws still sensitive from previous fight

~ current injuries;;

• the faintest of bruises on his left head's cheek

wc;; 214 @Cancer