The honest answer was perhaps a better one that Mercurius could know. It was truth, and it told Azure that not everything in the world was understood. But his elaboration--likewise honest, and laced with the wisdom of experience--left her listening, rapt, and then standing deep in thought.

She was a pragmatist, first and foremost, nowadays--and she hardly gave the answer that he would likely like to hear. Earnest, blunt, and brash, she spoke. "Sounds like you shoulda beat the shit out of him," she offered simply, at first. "I think defending yourself woulda made him stop? Maybe. But if you're right--if it's... cycles of uh. Revenge. Then others have to learn to stop at 'revenge' and stop going on to 'lunatic murder.'" Her tone was grim and dry, and she looked away--then back down to the revealed flower, only just now seeing it.

She wasn't the sentimental type. It wasn't the sort to bring her into a poet's mood, to shift her heart into floral streams of emotional talk; but it was a pretty color, and she took a step closer to look at it.

Looks like me, she observed, not quite bright enough to realize that this might have been deliberate.

After a moment, Azure looked back to Mercurius. "It's pretty," she ventured. "How do you do that sort of magic? We--me and Siren, we were thinking of making a garden outside our place. And speaking of-... What do I have to do, then, to say I'm like--safe? Allowed?" She wasn't quite sure what the process was for being deemed "not a fucking lunatic liable to kill everyone," so she left that one to the gentle white lion.

@Mercurius

Mercurius, much to his own surprise, chuckled at Azure's response, immediately brash and moving to a form of self-defense — just seconds before, the child had watching with the most enraptured expression he had seen in a while. Perhaps ever. She quickly backpedaled, though, onto his curious musings. His mirth faded, though, as he contemplated further, murmuring softly, "defending myself may have given him further reason to distrust carnivores, though. He believed in pure servitude or death. Mutiny would've only strengthened that belief."

Vazi had not been the most evenly tempered of Gembound, had he?

"It's helpful to know when you must defend and when it would be wise to simply back down — unfortunately, that isn't something that can be... easily taught." Pale paws shifted as if to frame the flower deliberately made similar to the hippogryff. "I'm glad you think so," Mercy hummed then lifted his gaze from it, "perhaps, you could take it to Pride." It was as good a sign as any, yes?

His calm enthusiasm drifted back into view as the subject did to plants and the creation of life itself through magic — those were things he knew, things he understood very well. Well-acquainted with nature and attuned to it through the Kingdom's magic, Mercurius's thoughts rearranged themselves into a unified direction, ebbing and flowing gently over the jagged riverbed. They no longer raced. "A garden is very therapeutic, I think you'll find — and it doesn't require much magic, or any, if you so please. Simply, love and care. Patience, too," he hummed with genuine eagerness. Had he been at a greenhouse and possessed hands, he would be leading Azure to a proud display of plants. Unfortunately, all he could do was sit here and explain.

Ah, well.

"Nature is a bit unruly, especially plants—" he stopped, tossing his head to the wild vines tumbling over nearly every branch, and the mosses carpeting every stone, "and to bend them with magic requires you to listen to them. To sense the way they wish to move and suggest alternative paths for them." Moonlit eyes fell upon Azure, having perhaps lost her in his ramblings already. "More, ah... simply put, this sort of magic is like many others. You simply have to bend it to your will — though you must also encourage growth. You'll find yourself exhausted at first, as you're spurring life to grow beyond what it would naturally." Mercy shifted backwards, if only to unframe the flower and allow the hybrid the space to come and pick it.

"If you so desire, you could simply plant seeds and grow them naturally, without use of magic — all it takes is a bit of water and luck as far as good soil goes," he smiled softly. "What sort of garden are you two planning to grow? Simply decorative or with a function — to grow fruit, perhaps?"

@Azure

Azure listened; mutiny sounded... extreme. Guy musta been a real dictator. It felt like all the more reason to put him down. But she wasn't really about to argue it, any, she'd never seen violence be a good thing, and she knew enough to know that she didn't know enough to really debate the ideas. Mercurius probably knew a lot better than she did, on that front.

As for the flower... "Leave it," she said, glancing at it briefly. "Picking it'd kill it. And we want to grow... grass. There's nothing in Orion, really. Plants. Stuff to eat, sure--I eat plants--but just. Greenery?" She shrugged, a little. She didn't know how to find or carry (or plant) seeds, or how fertile Orion was or even how to get water there, but. She offered a little shrug, a muttered "Thank you," for the advice, and moved on. She'd have to just look into his words later; maybe Siren knew more about those things. The magic... growth stuff sounded interesting, though, and she resolved to try it. She could already light up rocks--it... granted, didn't seem a similar thing, but who knew?

She waited, fidgeting, but Mercurius didn't answer her last question. The important one. Did that mean something? Did it--mean she had more to do, before--? Uncertain, she hesitated; she wasn't sure if the suggestion of the flower, then, had been somehow related. "And, uhh--my last question?" she asked, tentative and not impolite.

She had the demeanor of someone who was afraid of the answer she might get.

@Mercurius

He should've been a bit, clearer on the significance of a flower, however quickly he had made it up. Mercurius flexed his right paw slightly, overgrown claws scraping through the sod around it, at an angle as to unearth it gently. With an appropriate amount of dirt stuck beneath between quick and keratin, the old lion studied the impromptu transplanting operation he had initiated. If only Gembound had invented pottery in this day and age, yet.

Ah, Azure --- and Siren --- were living in Orion, weren't they? Beautiful as it was, it was rather barren and lifeless. Perhaps, at some time, it teemed with life, maybe grown by the workers that had once been. Now, though, Mercurius could sympathize with the sparse growth. A growing cub had to resort to magical means to sustain himself in such an environment. He bowed his head in a slight nod, smiling, "grass is easy to grow, a good start for practicing your gardening skills --- and plant magic, if you so please. You can find seeds in the spikes on top, and simply scatter them in the earth with some water; I'm sure Orion has its sources."

As for the hybrid's last question, Mercy's gaze turned down to the uprooted plant: "this will work for now, I believe --- I meant for it to be a note for Pride; to show that you have, indeed, come to see me. It can, perhaps, be the first thing you plant in your garden." He winked gently, and shifted the flower closer to Azure.

Softly, earnestly, he tacked on, "you're always welcome here, for anything you may need, Azure. Gardening advice, magic practice, someone to talk to--- I will always be here."

@Azure

Azure watched as he uprooted the flower, realizing that he'd meant for her to take the thing whole.

"...Right I get it. Okay." She eyed it closely, then stepped forward and carefully--gingerly, and with a brief, wary glance at the much larger lion--took it in one clawed forelimb.

She listened quietly to his words, and then hesitated, again. She was still angry about... everything that had happened to her, and Mercurius, innocent of it all as he may have been, was still linked to it all in her mind. It wasn't that she blamed him--it was just that there was a horrific association there. It would likely take a long time for her to be truly comfortable in the lion's presence. But his words--his offer--hell, his entire personality--were all kind. Azure hesitated, wanting to put some of what she felt into words, though not quite sure how to say it. "Everything's... been a little crazy," she tried, voice quiet. "But... I know you were just trying to help. And you still are, and I appreciate that. So--thanks," she finished, a little lamely--but she meant it, at least.

She turned to go, but paused to speak over her shoulder, briefly. "I'll take good care of the flower." She would have smiled, if she still had lips; as it was her expression was grateful, though still with that wary, shielded edge to it--but it was better than it had been.

Azure turned and left, feeling far more at ease--more relieved--than she had done in a long time.

exit Azure
@Mercurius

Note to self: ease up on the storytelling in simple conversation, perhaps.

Mercurius regarded the hybrid warmly, quietly stilling all his movements (to the best of his natural ability, of course) as she made her approach and took the flower up into a claw. No need to give her another reason to fear him --- other than the chaos of her reawakening. As for the craziness of it all, he couldn't help but chuckle, "isn't that life?"

Moonlit eyes blinked slowly at the fumbling gratitude, and he bowed his head gently, "you're welcome." The hybrid turned to leave with a promise of caring for the flower, and he called after her with all the air of an old friend, "take care of yourself." A warm smile twisted his lips where Azure's may have, and he averted his gaze to the Monarch's sweeping gills.

If he believed in the mythos of the All-Mother, he may have prayed for the hybrid's safe passage back to Orion, her continued freedom from the nest of harpies the Bloodberries had been.

;exit Mercurius
ok roll. thanks.