Azure, trembling and wide-eyed, allowed herself to be led from the little forge area.

"Dip-... Dip if it's like that you shouldn't be fixing it," Azure protested, voice wavering. "You should be... be destroying it. It's fucked, it's--evil," she added.

She'd seen a lot of shit in her life, but she'd always tried to cling to what good she could find underneath it all.

This thing-... This thing was a haunting glimpse back at Blackberry, at the dark shadows that had made up her family. At the barked orders to kill.

Nothing good could come of this.

@Dip

Serendipity wasn't entirely sure how to respond to this one. She'd like to listen to Azure and destroy the thing and be done with it-- but she said she would fix it and she didn't want to break any promises. She shifted a little on the spot and bumped her forehead off Azure again.

"I gotta," was what she ended up going with. "It's fucked but I don't think it's evil, just-- creepy as shit. To fuck with people, you know?" Her fingertips grazed against Azure's face, still trying to reassure her, comfort her, not unlike some kind of horse girl movie protagionist.

She side-eyed the den over her shoulder with a fainter frown, before offering-- "I'll take it somewhere else and fix it where it won't bother you, yeah? It's harmless, just-- trying to scare the shit out of you." Which, obviously, it had already done.

@Azure

Azure eyed Dip briefly--fearfully--doubtfully.

"I don't think you should," she half-whispered, beyond spooked. It was easy to get mad at people, but yelling at halberds to make oneself feel better-... You couldn't shout down dark, disappearing shapes.

No. Fuckin'. Thank you.

"I'm-... I'll go, I don't wanna be in there anyway," she answered, bumping back--but there was little heart in it. A shake of her head and she was backing away--and then taking flight, winging the hell away from the whispering halberd and the lurking darkness in the corners. "Sorry--I'll come back later, Dip."

Maybe she'd be back later. Like-... much later, or maybe she'd just... stay somewhere else, for awhile.

@Dip

Serendipity gave a little solemn nod as Azure turned away. "I'll see you later," she said, watching her fly off, until she was little more than a dark spec in the distance.

She looked to the puddle, and then towards the den.

"Shit," she hissed to herself, frustrated. Really, she didn't think she should be working on it either but stubbornness was going to keep her from pulling away from her work for too long. She pushed up and dusted herself off, whacking dust off her cloth leggings.

Her tail was lashing, catlike, when she walked back into the den. "You got any more fucked up suggestions you wanna offer?" She asked the halberd, of which she was suspecting had some form of sentience. Or perhaps she was just going mad.

That much didn't matter. She had to get to work, get this shit done and out of Monoceros before Azure came back. She picked up the gemstone and went back to work, cleaning up the carvings running down the blade.

It was as though, by speaking to the thing, Dip invited it into her mind.

The sensation of a coiling black something--slithering and slick--sliding into her thoughts, into her consciousness, might have been unpleasant. The incoherent, constant whispers seemed just beyond her comprehension; just a little more concentration would, it seemed, allow them to be understood.

Through the constant, quiet rush of sound came two slithering words:

"Complete... mee..."

@Dip

That might have been a mistake. The feeling was unpleasant but Serendipity was fairly determined to believe her own words-- it was just magic. Just trying to scare her. It won't hurt her. Just get the fucking thing done and go.

She took a breath. "Yeah, have some fuckin' patience," she swore at it, fingers drawing themselves across the clearer markings. Her gaze lifted to the oily gem and she turned the halberd on the table. There was no.. prongs, like she had seen in other swords-- just a hole.

... she could make them, she supposed, to make sure it could stay in there. She lifted the gem and started to wedge it into the assigned Hole in the shaft. It fit-- albeit a little tightly. She wasn't that confident it would hold, however, and she took a breath and set her fingers against the edges.

It was exhausting, but underneath her calloused fingertips dull, clouded gemstone circled the gemstone, fusing itself to the halberd. Claws formed out of it to latch onto the oily stone embedded into it, keeping it into the halberd.

At least that was over with. She lifted it up and spun it in her hands to take a look at it, frowning quietly.

There was a quiet rustle of magic, another passing whisper, this time unintelligible. But the constant hiss of sound dimmed, a little, and a strange sense of ageless patience took over.

The blade, and its haft, could wait. They had waited for eons. It felt as though it--or something else--was watching, observing Dip as she worked. The gem did much to finish the job: its oil black seemed to spread, faintly darkening the weapon as a whole.

But there were scratches yet to buff out, polishing, strengthening of the haft... and the halberd watched, and waited.

@Dip

It should be noted that Dip, in fact, did not give a fuck if the halberd wanted to watch or not. She did glance over it, however, realising it was doing what she said. Or maybe she was really in it now.

Didn't matter. She had work to do and somehow, suddenly, it seemed like there was even more to do than she initially thought. Her head craned backwards to look off in the direction that Azure had left in, and then back down. Dip shifted. She sighed.

And then she took the rock and went back to grinding out the scratches.

It was an hour or two later that she was done. The halberd was dull but it shone like a black mirror. Serendipity was, in truth, only a little unnerved by her own image in it when she looked in it too long-- not sure if this was the halberd at work or if it was Azure's words ringing in her head, it's fucked, it's evil.

The haft was reinforced, sturdy and strong-- it could certainly... do whatever it was meant to be do, and if Dip were going to be honest, she was not going to think about what the fuck was going to be stabbed by this fucking thing.

She planted the halberd back on the table and tiredly leaned back, rubbing her eyes. "Shit," she mumbled, merely because she felt like it. She spun over, grabbed her jacket and pulled it over her shoulders.

The two scraps of cloth left on the table were stuffed back into her ears before she picked up the halberd again and swung it to rest on one shoulder, lumbering off back to Canis.

exit

She could see Dip leaving, but she lay there nonetheless: quiet on the ledge she'd chosen, feeling a chill despite the warmth of Monoceros.

That... thing.

It had spoken. Whispered terrible things. It unnerved Azure. There was awful shit in the caves--she knew that. Of all the Gembound, she knew that maybe most of all. She'd been a part of them, once, though certainly not by choice, and this-? This was sinister.

And anyone who wanted something like this fixed had to be sinister, too. Why did they think this was a good idea..? There was nothing that could be done with such a weapon but fucking evil.

She hadn't quite managed to get her breathing under control. Her heart, racing. Ever since that black shape had loomed there, in their home-... was anywhere safe? Would anywhere be safe again? It was like living in a nightmare. Maybe I deserve it, she thought; maybe it's punishment for being a Bloodberry--but I never asked to be. I never hurt anyone! The snarl of a white dragon's face loomed in her memory: judgment, hatred.

Azure blinked.

Dip's form was out of sight, now, threading through the desert cave for Tunnel J. And beyond-? A reward, some unfathomable thing from a monster who thought that a whispering, murderous weapon was worth being repaired.

The hybrid shuddered, and drew herself down, crouched and cowering there.

She didn't want to be alone. But she didn't want to go with Dip-... and she couldn't go home, either. Miserably, then, she lay there, until blessed sleep took her at last.

exit Azure