Ruby-Beta felt a very neutral satisfaction that its hunt had been successful. It's prey hadn't even seen it, didn't even realize that it was there, not until its massive paws had slammed into him and forced him to the ground. Good - he could tell the Overseer, then, that he succeeded at least once, hunting and successfully pouncing on an enemy.

It realized, in the few moments that it was holding Imp down, that there was nothing where its eyes were supposed to be. Only empty sockets with nothing to give it a sense of sight. Disappointment flooded its veins. This was not a real hunt if its prey was so crippled. It only mattered if Beta succeeded i taking down formidable prey, not ones with a handicap. But, well, maybe it wouldn't have to tell Vargas that. Just hunting would probably suffice.

Still, its small victory was short-lived as heat rapidly began growing beneath its paws, searing the flesh on his paws. With a hissing sound it lurched back, releasing the hybrid before the heat burned its skin too much. It moaned as it stumbled away, raising its previously injured paw up to its face. "Aw man," it rumbled with a whining tone. "And this was just starting to heal too."

It huffed and began licking at the paw. "You know you didn't have to freak out like that I was only practicing."

Beta paused in the middle of licking its paws at the hybrid's sudden outrage, acidic eyes flicking up at the raging...thing. "Practicing my hunting." And, somehow, Beta continued to sound about as cheerful as ever, a relatively friendly tone in its voice. "I have been given the task of practicing my hunting on other Greaters. You were here so I thought I'd do it on you. I didn't know you were blind." Yet it did not apologize for its behavior. It did not see a reason to - blindness was a weakness and it didn't really feel like pitying the guy shouting obscenities at it.

It continued licking at its paws until the stinging sensation had lessened a little bit before it remembered that it was, in fact, standing right next to water. It leaned forward to put its paws in the cool pool and sighing at the relief that it brought it. It flicked its eyes back to Imp, observing his strange shape. It did not know what it could even be. Perhaps some kind of reptile? But then it should not have hair. Maybe a bird? The wings werent the right shape. "What are you? And what is your designation?"

Beta stared at Imp, eyes narrowing a bit, but not quite with anger. Disappointment maybe. Hurt, but if it was genuine, it was hard to tell. Not that it mattered anyways, since there was no one to see the meager expression. "That is not very nice. I don't think I'm "a piece of shit." I didn't hurt you or anything." It looked up and down Imp's body, now wondering if he hadn't been hatched with it, from the way he was speaking. "Are the feathers new? Are you not used to them yet?" It thought for a moment. "Fur and feathers are useful against the cold, at least." A thought occurred to Beta, then. "Oh were you in Hydra? Is that where you got the feathers?" That would make sense - the rewards of Hydra were supposed to help the Champions against the particular weather at the time. And it had been cold, not long ago. Feathers would probably make sense.

It looked at him strangely. "Uh...I am asking for your designation. Like...gemstone and number. My designation is Ruby-Beta." It scoffed at his tale of being related to a Master. "Right, right, I'm sure you are. I'm sure the Masters have many children." The sarcasm was dripping from its voice, but it didn't seem to be in bad spirits - it genuinely thought it was a joke and was playing along.

It's humor dropped a bit at his bad-mouthing of the Master. Not that it really cared what happened to him, but if it respected the Overseer, then it respected his superiors as well. In a different, more impersonal way, but at least the respect was there. "You should not bad-mouth the Masters like that, you know. They could kill you." Probably obvious but it thought it should point it out, anyways, to remind him.

"Like I said...I'm Ruby-Beta, one of the Sentinels and the offspring of the Overseer Vargas." Kind of an impressive title, although it doubted the names would mean anything to Imp if he didn't even know what a designation was.

Oh it was probably good that Imp was relaxing a little bit. To be honest, Beta didn't really like fighting as much as its larger sibling and if this had dissolved into a fight, it would have been a little disappointed. "A good guess. The rewards for the Champions are always to help them survive the climate. And Hydra was recently freezing." It lifted its paw from the water to inspect the burns but then paused, blinking with confusion. "Is it...not? I though it was a special number or something. Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and epsilon...are they not numbers?" Had the Sentinels named them incorrectly or something? Why had the Overseer not corrected them, then?

Beta snorted. "Aquarian? Isn't he the big snake that lives in Cetus? You don't look like a snake. You look like a funny bird." It wasn't quite prepared for the range of facial expressions that ran across Imp's face at the mention of the Overseer, but it was certainly shocked when he suddenly launched up and began shit-talking the one person in Beta's life that it truly respected.

Beta frowned, standing taller and reaching to grab onto Imp, to pull him back down before he flew away, but he was way out of its reach before it even reacted. "Don't talk about the Overseer like that! He is strength, and power, and he is my life-giver! If he pulled out your eyes that you did something to deserve it! He does as Nemean commands because she is a Master." It growled dangerously and began picking up rocks and launching them as hard as it could at Imp, the only thing it could do to strike back at the hybrid. "I am honored to be his kin! I'm not going to let you get away with insulting him like that!"

Ruby-Beta tried to get on his hind legs to launch the rocks further at Imp, but once he'd gotten out of its range, there wasn't really any hope of inflicting more damage, especially now that it was hiding. It curled its lip, acidic eyes narrowed with anger. Imp had pressed the one button that really got it angry. "You're just mad because you probably thought you could get away with misbehaving with the Overseer around!" The "fat" comment also seemed to hit a nerve as it flinched a little bit and growled louder, apparently forgetting for a moment that Imp couldn't actually see it to make that judgement. "I'm not fat, I'm muscular! And the Overseer isn't fat either, you disrespectful asshole!" Might as well throw its insults back, even if it didn't quite know what the word meant.

It threw another rock his way, more out of frustration that it couldn't do anything then actually trying to hit him. "Of course I do! I relax! I take it easy! What the hell even IS art?! I do whatever I want until the OVerseer needs something from me! He is NOT a slave and if you save that one more time I'll..." It paused. Shit, what would it do? It couldn't get rocks up to him and it couldn't get up there on its own. But then it remembered that Imp, in fact, couldn't see. "I'll come up there after you! I've got big wings and I can just follow you wherever you go and make you regret being so rude!"