better left unspoken - Printable Version

Scion led the way into Canis, trying to stand tall with the beast trailing behind it - authoritative was the vibe it was going for. This was a test, after all. Well, one of its tests. If it did well, then maybe...maybe it would get that oh so dreaded promotion it had always kind of wanted. A feeling of importance that was still missing in its life.

Eh, or it could just fail miserably and return and just continue life as normal. That would be a more disappointing but easy option. And, considering its company, perhaps the most likely one.

It looked back, for a moment catching the eyes of V-Ruby-One before it looked away against its burning stare. It had, so far, avoided interacting with its flesh and blood. This was Azrael's territory, after all, and it had been promised that it would not have to have any part in raising it. And it had kept true to that. But it wasn't going to deny it a chance to leave Draco if it volunteered to go with it. And the only one that had done so.

It groaned quietly to itself. This wasn't going to be pleasant, but might as well get it over with.

Once they'd trailed a ways into Canis, it stopped and turned around. "Alright, uhh....I guess we should get to work then. This place is pretty gross." Without much in ways of destruction itself, it reached for that inherent chaos within it and felt it grip strong, as if it were rebelling against the presence of Order in this cave. But the spell that came to it was...well.

After a couple of seconds, a bunch of random metal scraps came flying from all directions. Slamming into its hide harmlessly, but quite useless to the situation they were in. With a sigh, it turned to the other. "Well, I'm glad you came with me, at least. You can do something about this better then I can."

It glared at Scion's back (why did it get a name when all it did was not die? Pathetic.) the whole way to Canis, with such a foul, moody glare it could easily wilt the flowers along the way. To be honest, it hadn't volunteered to spent some quality fellow Chaos Forge member time with Scion, nor out of any care for whatever job it had been given to do, but because 1. It wanted to leave Draco - NEEDED to leave Draco stupid cave stupid SPIRE stupid EVERYTHING and 2. It kind of liked the idea of just burning a bunch of shit. Yeah, burn it all to the ground, burn it black until its all charred nothing and maybe that hollow hungry angry pit will feel full for a few minutes. Scion wasn't its favorite - it didn't exactly have any favorites, it disliked everyone about the same, but it would tolerate it for this. But the further they walked together, the less it could feel like it could stand another second in its presence.

Lazy. Dull. Careless. Useless. It could keep thinking up words to describe the beast that was leading it daring to lead daring to think it BETTER and not a single one of them a compliment. Maybe it could find a moment to slip away. Maybe it could just walk off and ignore it while it burned a bunch of fungus to maybe feel a little bit better about living. Whatever. WHATEVER. It didn't care about Scion. Time to burn.

The cave was disgusting. Foul. Helion was going to find pleasure in burning it apart. Not simply a satiation to the chaos burning in its veins, but just the cleaning of something as unpleasant as the webs of white and mold across nearly every surface.

It at last tored its scornful glare from Scion's back and turned, lifting one of its paws as it focused that shrieking power, that disgusting, wonderful, terrible, exhilirating force of Chaos thrumming through its veins and it pulled. It felt it swirling hot and thick in its very bones, but something else felt...oppressive over it. Like the air itself was fighting against it. The black flames that sprouted were weak and pitiful and nothing like the raging inferno it had demanded.

With a hiss, it whipped its head to Scion, for some reason feeling angry towards it, as if this could somehow be Scion's fault. "Are you, now?" It snarled, venomously. "Happy indeed." It probably planned this. It probably knew that this cave would dampen its magic. It wanted to embarrass Helion, didn't it! To make it look superior!

It snarled and turned away again. I'll make you pay for that.

It watched the flame sprout from the ground and nodded with approval, eyes flicking up to meet the ruby's (by the Creator, they looked so similar. Did it know?) and once again felt that burning sense of hate in it. It quickly looked away again, knowing that it was just the Chaos...right? Azrael had played with fire with this one, letting it grow under the Spire. Did he not see how Draconua turned out? Granted, she had stewed in that corruption for a long time, but it was still not the most uplifting example of the Black Spire's effects.

It shivered at its retort, feeling a little...uh, something else there. It shrugged and reached forward to pull some fungus out, to start ripping it to pieces, but then it stopped, turning. It frowned - as best it could as a strange alien cat-beast - and tried to stand a little taller. It wasn't going to take shade or backtalking - it was the one in charge, right?

"Yes, I am. Is there something wrong? Something you need to tell me or something?" Yeah, alright, poking the proverbial fire with a very flammable stick, but it figured if it actually did want to do the whole "Overseeing" thing, it should probably act the part, even if it felt a strong twinge of fear at its own bravery.

It glared at the fungus, raising another claw to swipe a second blaze into existence, but this time it faltered at Scion's attempt at authority and that overwhelming oppressive sense had the magic slipping from its grip. It snarled and turned around to face the other your fault YOUR FAULT and stepped forward so that it was looking over the beast. It glared down, each acidic eye brimming with anger as the Chaos writhed and wormed through its gut, threatening to rise like bile in its throat. It wondered if it should even bother fighting it.

"No," it hissed. "Nothing wrong at all." It lifted its claws, letting the light catch the razor-sharp edge of each black talon. "Chaos here is simply...weaker. Did you know about that?" Every word was emphasized, spoken slowly with purpose. Anger. Accusation. It glowered as it looked Scion up and down, disgusted to think that they were somehow related, however distant it was. Same purple fur and stripes. Same head shape from the Master himself. Same quills. Ugh.

Its acid tongue licked along its jowls as it tilted its head a bit. "Do you have...an idea on how to speed this up, if my magic doesn't work?" It injected as much venom as it could into each word, challenging it. Waiting, with eyes narrowed, for it to make some kind of move.

Scion's eyes narrowed. Man, this was already exhausting. It was like trying to wrangle an angsty teenager. "I mean, I didn't not know about it? I figured it was a given or whatever. Uh...sorry?" Was it angry at Scion for that? The fuck? Its twin tails flicked in irritation as it turned away, beginning to snatch as some of the bigger fungus layering over the bones and tearing into it with claws, ripping it off the substrate it fed on, making sure it was in bits and pieces before tossing it back. It was methodical, boring work, and not quick at all, but it was something.

It glanced back at the ruby and paused, gesturing towards it business with a wing. "This. It's, uh. All I got, really. Kinda just figured your fire would do the trick real good." For a moment, it wanted to add something else - throw some real shade at this annoying kid, but it didn't think that it would be a wise decision. It was not as physically powerful, nor was it in the mood to do fighting right now. And it had a feeling that it wouldn't pull its proverbial punches.

It flicked its tails again and sighed, turning back. "Just...get to work. Sooner we clean this up, sooner this is over."

It hissed as Scion turned its back Oh yeah? You think that's a good idea? and continued to act aloof and disinterested. But it knew what it was doing, oh it knew. And it wasn't going to fucking stand for this lazy useless sack of shit telling it what to do.

It turned away with another snarl. "So what you're saying is that you're useless," it spat back venemously, taking a step away. Like a child throwing a tantrum, it lifted one of its feet and slammed it to the ground, focusing that ripping Chaos to shudder out through the stone and over the bones instead of through those cruel destructive flames. And with its rage quickly boiling over, it thrust that magicka forward, like a storm unleashing from its body, shattering that oppressive blanket.

There was a groan as the rock shifted under the force of the magic that rocketed into it and then a deafening sizzling noise as black billowed across the ground and many of the bones cracked under the sickening force. White withered into gray and then dust as the power of Chaos consumed what fragments of Order tried to cling to the dying earth. Perhaps it might spread to Scion too. That might take the edge off of its rage.

Scion sighed as it tore through the fungus in its claws and scattered it to the ground, ignoring the snide comment from ~~its kid~~ the ruby as it just continued to work. That's right, don't rise to it. No need to make this messy in the middle of gross order land. But then its stomach twisted. Nausea crept swiftly up its throat and it shivered as static closed in around the edges of its eyes. It looked down and watched as the stone beneath its paws turned a jet black color and the fungus withered away. It glanced back, feeling a sudden weakness in its bones, eyes locking with the ruby and seeing the edges of a twisted smile in its expression.

Ohhh, so that's how it was going to play here.

Quickly jumping off the corrupted earth before it got any worse, swallowing back the nausea before it got out of control, it tried not to show the faint feverish trembling in its body as it stood up taller. "Hey! Watch it! I get that you're trying to be scary or whatever, but try to fuckin control yourself!"

It didn't even pause as the words tumbled out of its mouth. "Geez, you're just like your fuckin dad." It was true, though, wasn't it? Holy shit it couldn't stand either of them.

It was satisfying, hearing Scion's yelp and the annoyed lash in which it tried to defend its momentary lapse. Helion hoped, in that moment, a cruel twist of its mind, that it felt just a bit of that corruption, that its unsullied state of mind was touched, now, by the same corruption that had hounded its every step. Not that it wanted it to understand or have sympathy for it, but for the cruel purpose of sharing the torment.

It didn't even look, pretending like it didn't care at all for Scion's plight, a very feline flick of its tail to acknowledge that it had heard and then it was focusing back on the fungus. But it didn't even get the chance to reach for magic before its entire body seized still.

Scion had said the magic words. The one big red button, hidden under layers of bad behavior and disregard, had been pressed hard. Its arms dropped and it turned slowly on the spot, eyes narrowed with fury. It took a step towards Scion, one of its clawed hands reaching forward, to tear into its mind, but so much anger so quickly made it stumbled on its magic, so it instead grabbed the beast by one of its face appendages and pulled it so that it was looking up.

It leaned in close and snarled. "Don't. You. Dare. Compare me to that...that....beast. I'm nothing like him!" I'm better then him, I'm stronger, I'm not a slave to my own will, I'm not a slave to the Forge! I do more then just turn fucking lights off! I'll always be better then him because I have Chaos, I have HIM at my side, I could turn him into ash if I wanted!

It waited, knowing that it really had just straight up thrown a lit match into a pool of gasoline. Any second it would ignite and explode in its face, but it was prepared to meet it head-on. And, just as it expected, the ruby turned. It was ready for more angry retorts, some cursing, maybe even some fire. It really didn't expect it, however, to physically lash out and grab it. Hand over half of its eyes, pulling its face up with a grunt.

Scion didn't like touch. It had never had tenderness growing up, only knowing spars and contests, Alpha's teeth and claws as it wrestled with it, constantly, the only sibling to challenge its size. It had never known a gentle touch so it had grown to resent it at all. So Helion's claws near such a sensitive part, and forcing its head to move, really triggered something in Scion at that moment. It was frozen still as it glared up at Helion, feeling magic writhing hot in its ruby heart and lashing out itself.

Draining from the other, weakening it, pulling all that ferocious, horrible strength into its own body as it growled dangerously, watching as Helion sunk to its knees. "Let me go," it hissed, at last feeling the claws retract from its face.

It took a step back, then, feeling strangely, icy calm as the brief mote of panic was swept away. The weariness from the trek here was forgotten, leaving it feeling more powerful then it ever had in its life. "You have a lot to learn. I wouldn't have brought you if I knew you'd be throwing a tantrum this entire time. We have an important mission to do here and all you can do is complain like a child." It shook its head, growling again by this display. This had all been a mistake - bringing the ruby, talking to it, hell, even giving Azrael that stone. All a mistake.

ORDER

One pair of blind-white eyes--seeing, but a lifeless marionette stare--had found them. A bird, perhaps once a Caroller but webbed in Order's fungus, fluttered down atop a tall rock nearby, staring downward.

It tracked them with its gaze. Information was relayed back along those neural threads. The Hive was informed of a presence here. And in that Hive, this information was quickly processed.

Only two. Arguing. Potential to remove a threat with minimal risk.

That being said-... never interrupt your enemy, it was often said, while he is making a mistake. And these two looked about ready to tear one anothers' throats out.

Another bird drifted down to join the first.

When would they notice? When the first arrived, or the third? The fifth? -Would they notice at all, arguing as they were, that now a veritable flock of six of the damned things were perched on high points all around them? Staring down, watching, a constant stream of information fed back to the Hive?

Would they realize that, even now, Praetors were being diverted to this location? It was undecided, yet, as to whether they would attempt to interfere. Perhaps the Valkhounds (was that not what they were?) would harm one another, first, leaving the Praetors to simply mop up what remained.

The pale birds stared down, a row of identical white eyes--all blank, all empty--simply... observing, for now.