- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas glanced at Chaos-Two, but did not yet answer--in part because the explanation would take somewhat long and in part because Esther was once again speaking.

"That depends," he responded to the maned wolf, his answer booming. "What use would you be to us?" He didn't list the ways--not yet. He wanted to think what they thought of, themselves.

Everything was a test.

"If they are of use to us, Chaos-Two, then perhaps." A late answer, perhaps--but there it was. And then he gestured at it--a motion to wait. A motion not to speak. He did not doubt that V-Chaos-Two might have ideas of its own for Esther's use--and might not realize the test that Vargas was posing to them. It might wish to be helpful, and usurp this chance to test them through its own bright offering.

That, of course, would not do.

@V-Chaos-Two

Chaos-Two nodded and listened to the exchange eagerly, rubbing the pads of their hands gently together, the almost inaudible sandpaper sound calming them. They lowered themselves to lay down, their hind legs awkwardly to the side to relieve the pressure on their pelvis.

Their eyes shot to a bug wandering across the floor, ears flicking up in interest. Wow... even the lessers in here were affected by the Black Spire.

They focused back in on the conversation, quiet.

@Esther

Esther's ears pricked at the question. What use would they have? Esther didn't know much. Of course, they had been exploring the new caves, had found someone's dead body in there from a long time ago. Someone had also told them of the past of the creature - it was hunting things. It was told to not get bitten. The cave that smelled rancid had to be something to do with it. Esther still wanted to go back there, too, but it wasn't something for them to think about now.

"I've been working on my fighting skills." Esther thought out loud. "And uh. Magic too." They had learned a new spell recently. It seemed powerful, but so did all of the magic they seemed to have. Even if their body did catch fire at random intervals, or now if something touched them it brought a searing pain despite not being injured.

Esther then had another question, remembering that the big one was there when they took down that huge golem.

"You were there when the giant bear-thing was causing chaos- can you tell me why the stuff everyone was freaking out about didn't effect me?" They questioned. If they'd been aware that they saved one of this group's members during that, they'd have mentioned it.

@Vargas

- THE LEVIATHAN -

He studied Esther for a moment. Fighting skills-? The thing was... miniscule, compared to his monsters. He was blunt with his reply. "You would not hold up physically against my beasts. Magic--perhaps. It depends on your abiities, but we can train that. I will make it clear: we are a hierarchy. Disobedience is death."

A pause, stern, to let that sink in.

"This cave--all these caves--are the womb of Chaos itself. We forge monsters for the Creator's design, and we offer them for his use in destruction. You may aid us in this, perhaps, but I am a Master, with an Overseer, and our word is to be obeyed. As for the golem..." Vargas grunted, again eyeing Esther up and down. He was direct--to the point--and though none of his words held any hostility, they also brooked no argument. There was an assumed authority to his words that was so natural that it did not even reek of arrogance. He was a Master. A fact, like the existence of stars, or the cold of the void. "The golem was full of the creation of Order. Order is a crystalline thing: cold, unchanging, severe. Its creation is a fungus--one called 'Mother.' It converts the weak to its cause, to Order. And you may disregard the name!" he boomed, as if half-amused. "This 'mother' cares nothing for its spawn. It is merely a ploy to infiltrate Chaos' nest, and subvert it. Yet it is entrenched, here--in Ursa, and elsewhere--and part of our task will always be rooting it out, and destroying it."

Vargas paused here, waiting to see what Esther had to say--and he glanced, too, to V-Chaos-Two. He was unsure how much of this the creature actually knew, and how much might be new to it; he'd never bothered with it much, before.

@V-Chaos-Two

V-Chaos-Two was staring up at Vargas with their big wide eyes, enraptured by his explanation of the golem and 'Mother'. They almost wanted to lean up against his leg like a child listening to their grandfather's war stories, always so curious to learn more and more.

"How did you fight it off?", they asked, looking from Esther to Vargas, "If Esther can't be taken over, then what about you, Master Vargas?"

"If these caves were the womb of Chaos... were there caves that were the same but of Order?"

Suddenly they had questions, ones that had floated to the top of his mind, dislodged by this new knowledge, by the want to understand.

But the more important thing... could they be infected by Mother? If they were to assist in dislodging her from the caves, would they be an asset or a hindrance? What if they did become infected and ended up becoming an enemy to the Chaos they'd been born into? Having sworn to protect and uphold, only to have their will captured and turned against the ones they- right. They didn't know that word yet. The extreme affection and like that they felt for the members of this cave.

Once they did, they suspected that their internal thoughts would be a lot smoother.

@Esther

Vargas told them of his 'beasts' and they wondered how strong those creations must be if a normal gembound (Esther.... wasn't really that normal) couldn't hold up against them. If they were able to help physically take down the golem what's to say they couldn't at least figure out some way to send one of the beasts out of comission? There were parts of the body one could always go for, and even if Esther didn't know those areas, they could figure it out. Magic, to them, though, seemed more appealing anyway. Especially with that new spell they learned before. Their body didn't like it, of course, but that didn't entirely matter to the maned wolf either. They'd already caught themselves on fire multiple times, so the fire that engulfed them didn't matter, and the pain of being touched was fine. Even if it kept them awake when they tried to sleep, or it hurt when anything brushed passed them.

Disobedience is death, now, Esther didn't know about other groups, but this one seemed bent on their goal. Esther, didn't really care about the disobedience or death comment. They supposed that gembound could join, and if they did they would be tied to the group. Which, well, was perfectly fine, in their eyes. Had they joined any other group, they most likely wouldn't have thought anything different of this one. With those goals, it sounded important that they be kept kind of a secret. Granted.... The master had literally told them of those things when they asked anyway. It was confusing, but they could ask the questions anyway.

"I understand." The gembound replied to that.

Vargas conjured up more words, and the prospect of building monsters intrigued them. Him again - they were building monsters for the guy that had the magic Esther did? What was he doing with those monsters? Being able to help, maybe, was interesting and made Esther incredibly curious too. What did those monsters look like? They presumed they would find out soon enough if they were let in to wander.

The golem was explained, and Esther wondered how that thing even came to be like that. Did 'Mother' make it then? Did they stuff it full of.... 'Order' and send it to infect or murder everyone? Granted, it didn't really kill anyone from what Esther saw. But quite a few of those gembounds screamed out in pain when they breathed in the stuff, running around like fools of a chicken that had their head severed. Esther was able to help a couple of them. One.... some thing that looked strange. Kind of like those two standing in front of them, actually. And another that they couldn't remember.

"I could help with that, then." Esther voiced. If they couldn't get infected that meant they could be around it without getting stuck with it forever. Granted others could be cured, too, but not everyone knew that magic to do it. Esther had helped someone by throwing themselves into them, but surely that wouldn't help with everyone.

The other one started asking questions, and Esther wasn't going to answer them despite knowing the answers. To... some of those questions anyway. If they could recall, the master did get infected for a short time. Some... Deer had cured him, they thought. At least it seemed that way. It was kind of hard to ignore a giant creature in the midths of somewhat normal looking ones. Was Vargas creating the monsters to get infected and kill off? It would work - at least for a short time. It didn't look like this 'mother' could get destroyed if they were throwing gembound at it. Especially with how that golem reacted... it was strange. Their oily eyes did scan over to the horned one, though, studying its features while it asked questions.

It sat funny, but Esther didn't know why, and had sharp claws. Horns, too. They twisted back into a shape the maned wolf didn't know how to describe. Was this one, one of the creations? Maybe not, since it was still here. The master had said they were giving the monsters to 'him'.

@Vargas [lol.... long post and only two sentences of dialogue i am so sorry]

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas glanced quizzically to V-Chaos-Two. "They can be affected. We all can. They are spores; likely this one did not breathe them in, or not enough," he reasoned. There had been plenty present who hadn't been affected, after all.

There was no time to grow complacent.

Head swivelled back to Esther.

"Then you would be welcome. Any who would serve the Creator are. Tell me one thing: how did you gain His magic, precisely? I have seen it in only one other of your generation. Tell me how it happened: and then I will bring you to my Overseer and it can take you from here."

@V-Chaos-Two

that's fine esther that's really how chaos forge rolls lmao-

Chaos-Two nodded and looked at Esther again, wondering why they would assume they were unaffected then- but Vargas did say they didn't inhale the spores. They had assumed and perhaps the creature before them did too.

They finally leaned against Vargas' front paw for support, flopped on their side so their back was pressed against him. Unprofessional, maybe, but they weren't nicknamed 'Twobutt' for no reason. The stupid extra pelvis was painful as all Hell, and despite the plants Kethri had given him (with a sneer and a grin, as if hoping that the effects would be moot, and then disappointment when they worked), his pelvis still ached.

Perhaps it wasn't an issue of nerve pain. Perhaps the bones were grinding and causing damage that way. In that case... maybe Chaos-Two would just hope and pray Vargas didn't notice. But he would before long, and then he'd be culled for his obvious weakness. A creature without function of it's back legs was practically useless despite having a sharp mind.

They withheld a shudder and kept quiet, dampening their thoughts to listen instead.

@Esther

They were going to be welcomed in - for offering to help the group with their goals. Really, Esther was curious, and they had no reason to detest any of them. If anything, helping to get rid of that 'mother' would be a good thing, if it caused all of those gembounds to lash out in pain then it had no reason to be around (even though their own magic did the same thing). There was differences, though, between His magic and 'mother'. Esther wasn't subjected to not being able to think for themselves. Even if the whispers seemed to follow them everywhere (they could hear it now, too), or when their own body hurt itself.

Esther didn't entirely know how them getting that magic happened. One minute they attacked... Whatever was in that dark place, the next minute they were waking up as if they hadn't been active for days after when they actually had been. Between that and reemerging, Esther had done something to chrysalize themselves. Maybe it was the stress from the whispers that seemed to never leave their ears. They were used to it now, and the whispers that always followed were a dull noise in the background of everything else - at least at the moment. Everything always got worse if they forgot to go back to that place.

"There was a dog and... a cat? The dog wanted... power, I think. The cat seemed to be there to watch over him. I'd kept going back to see what was going on, and eventually the canine just.... Disappeared, somewhere. From using his magic. He came back, too. After that I got curious and kept going back." The maned wolf answered. "I went back in my chrysalis in there at one point, and just came out different. It was near a uh... dark. Thing. I don't know how to explain it."

The other gembound there was quiet, stopped asking questions. If it didn't have anything to add, Esther didn't Either, there wasn't much to talk about. Of how they got that magic. It was all a blur that happened between some days that they didn't really think about much.

@Vargas

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas stared.

He also glanced down, idly shaking free from Chaos-Two--if it fell, so be it; he wasn't its fucking pillow.

As for Esther, he was immediately gauging the maned wolf "probably stupid" in his mind, noting off the tickboxes: not entirely coherent (check), rambling story (check), nonsensical ('dark thing' of no description? absolutely check). He grimaced faintly, then immediately decided that this would no longer be his problem.

He had an Overseer for a reason, after all.

"Come," he told it. The Leviathan then pushed up, long strides carrying him toward the Black Spire and the Womb off to one side. "ORTHOCLASE-ALPHA?" he bellowed.

@V-Chaos-Two @Orthoclase-Alpha