[Quest] Spy vs Spy - Bonebound

Astraea turned, and blinked, as the hyena sent forth spores. Outrage flickered through him. Does she think I do not know..? Anger quickly bled into dark amusement, and he took several slow, graceful steps toward her.

She was ugly. A hideous beast, a scarred, malodorous mass of fungus and matted fur. His lip curled in disgust. Her gemstone, her element--she dared...?

Astraea came to a stop a few feet away, and his own fungus rippled forth across the floor toward her, rapidly. He intended to engulf her in it, to completely strip away all traces of spores and mushrooms that she might carry with her. To prove a point, as it were. Swarms of small, white growths swarmed over the hyena, carpeting her and rapidly leaving nothing but the black goop of decomposition in their wake, thickly coating her fur.

It might hurt a bit, he knew, as the more ingrained of them were torn apart. In a low and deadly voice, cold with politeness, Astraea spoke. "Did you think I would not notice..? That magic is my domain, beast." He raised his voice from the soft tone as he looked around at the others, but before he could speak, Rezik was blurting out--"Ha! Very good, Master."

From close by, the Collector snickered.

Astraea turned his red stare down on Rezik, glared for a long moment, and then turned away.

"Thank you, Aure. We will be back in two cycles--to reward you all, I'm sure." He glanced back only once, with a very slight incline of his head, and then moved on. He had other places to be.

The Collector, however, lingered--grinning, it somehow seemed, in the darkness of his mask. "Would you like to place your orders now-?" he asked, amusement in his tone. "Or would you like to browse my selection-?"

Of all things -

Aure was sticking him, the ticking time bomb (well, not next to Aries), on Collector-negotiating duty. But, y'know, the situation was a little dire with Astraea's casting on their mother - yes Eythan would go so far as to say that Giggle was like a mother to him. Bright eyes hesitantly met the Collector's, the necklace still tied around the base of his tail seemingly heavier than before. There wasn't anything inherently cursed about it, but there were certainly other - artifacts that were bad.

And, Mr. Algol just gave him bad vibes.

Anyways... the gryphon plodded forwards, ears flicking forward and puffing up his chest. Posing, totally. "What've you got that's not some cursed-ass shit?"

Wilder sighed softly, a tightness releasing from her chest. She'd been worried that Aure would be mad at her for waking up Rezik after she'd seen him do such things, but he gave her, instead, a reassuring rub with his wing. That was nice. That was comforting.

But concern for herself melted away when...something happened between Astraea and Giggle. A blanket of fungi engulfed the hyena and she took a step forward with Aure, as if she could do anything. Eyes widened, horrified, terrified that it was going to hurt her or kill her for something Wilder hadn't seen happen. What had happened? She'd missed it, sending Aure the info about their ward. But, thankfully, she emerged unharmed, but clearly a little shaken.

Eythan stepped off to speak with the Collector and Wilder suddenly found herself standing alone near Rezik. She glanced up at him, her first instinct to give him a bright, genuine smile and say hello, as she always did with everyone, but the image of his face as he stepped through the Bonebound, her family, returned a moment later and she shivered, the smile that had been forming dropped away. Ears pressed back and she inched away, closer to Aure, unsure of what they were going to do about him, or what Aure had up his sleeve...or, uh, wing.

Rezik turned to stare, for a time, at Wilder. He seemed almost oblivious to all else, and once Astraea had strutted away, he spoke in a quiet hiss. "You tricked me. You made me think you were a Master--you and that foul dog. Do you know what a fool that made me look-?" There was venom in his tone, genteel as it might have been.

The Collector, meanwhile, waved one claw-fingered hand daintily toward Eythan. "Cursed-? That hurts, Eythan. Truly." Well, he didn't sound hurt, but his hands certainly clasped, dramatically, over where his heart might have been. "Have I not granted you power over life and death-?"

Aries, though-... the snort, the threat. The staring him down. The Collector turned toward Aries, leaning forward to meet his gaze, seeming to tower higher and higher until he loomed like a castle parapet over the ram. Darkness flickered and whorled like smoke, darkening the room around him. "Or what?" - and even his voice seemed to rumble, like thunder, through all of Canis.

It hung, for a moment, ominous and distinctly threatening.

And then he was himself again, sounding as though he were grinning beneath the hood, the cave bright and dry as he turned to Eythan. "Our good master Astraea has instructed me to provide you--assuming you complete your task, of course--with trinkets of your choosing. I think--three would be enough? Wouldn't you say? So tell me what you want, and I will look through my collection." Somehow, the word alone was slick and greasy, unpleasant with its implications.

Wilder widened her eyes and her mouth opened in a small gasp. She flinched at the venom in Rezik's voice and it hit her suddenly that he probably hated her. He...he really thought that she'd tricked him? She shook her head, voice quivering as she tried to speak. "N-no no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...to t-trick you. I didn't know you thought I was a Master, I really didn't, I promise." Eyes grew glassy as tears threatened to spill from her eyes. She'd thought he was her friend. She'd really believed it, but now he was utterly rejecting her for something she didn't even know she'd done wrong. Her own foolishness.

She sniffled and swallowed, trying to stop herself from bursting into tears. "I...I just saw you sleeping and th-thought that you might want to wake up. I thought you were stuck. Sorry f-for any trouble I caused you..."

"Somehow, I think you'll live," Eythan snarked back, albeit with less venom than before. The Collector had always been one of theatrics, and prior comments about his goods being cursed hadn't ended with anyone on a stake, so...

Ah, shit, well, except for Aries. Talons scuffled across the floor as the gryphon moved in front of him, head bowed low and loudly whispering, "okay, simmer down bud. We don't need to get ass-blasted or our tails in a knot or whatever over this, 'kay?" Crimson eyes fixed on the ram for a moment, and then Eythan looked back to the Collector with an almost weary sigh, "back to business, eh?" He didn't seem too keen on things not being cursed, still.

He did actually think for a moment, sitting down and scratching at his chin with a contented smile. It disappeared quickly, since not a single clear idea came to mind. There were some fantastical things, sure, but they were a bit unimaginable; the aforementioned pendant of life (and death) being one good example. All that came to mind was abstract and basic concepts - Eythan made a theremin noide to indicate as such. "I dunno, things that give magic? Can be used to protect? Hide? I dunno what all you've got in there," and here he gestured towards the cloak, some strange sort of hammerspace.