Nemo

The snort of amusement gets a beaky smile from him - success! - and he's shifting a bit in his spot as he listens to her, his glowing bauble rolling gently around his sternum and occasionally tinkling against the floor as he does so. This bird cannot sit still for the life of him, at least in non-threatening situations, and a fidgety Nemo is a content Nemo, if slightly anxious.

He can see her pause and actually chew on his question, and he appreciates that, meeting her gaze as she looks at him and speaks of her magic and how hers has grown. Huh.

"Death of the... I've never tried, really, but that sounds... right?" he's trying to put his wing on what he wants to say, and describe, and he clicks his beak a few times in thought as his eyes wander away and he locks gazes with a empty set of sockets a few meters away. "I think it stands out to me since I'm used to my magic pulling at the air around me, in some capacity. But I've never really used the new magic, since I have a bit of a history with my magic backfiring on me. It does seem like it leans towards the bones, now that you mention it..." a shrug, and he looks back at her. "I'd like to try, to be honest. But I'm worried about the consequences."

@Giggle

If she noticed his fidgeting, she said nothing of it. She just waited, seemingly perfectly content with whatever Nemo had to say, or do. She liked the company but more than that, she was a mother; she was more than used to litters of three kids clambering over her and pestering her and asking her fifty questions a second, and honestly, she loved it. She missed it, whenever her own were away.

But she'd also learned to pay attention. To listen to those fifty questions, to actually give them consideration; it showed her kids that they were worth her full attention, and they were. It was important to their growth, and had become her habit. Patient, then, she again closely considered Nemo's remark before responding.

"...Magic certainly can backfire," she agreed, slowly, "but I've never found this sort to be really dangerous. The worst I've had is strange visions. Ahh... I looked into a bone once and saw its meat moving and growing around it. That was gross," she added, with a chittering cackle at the end. "But you're free to try it here, if you like-? I've got so many bones. Not mine, but--they're here to help us, to guide us. I could try to find one that's... friendly, if you like?" she offered, with a little shrug of hefty shoulders.

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr

@Nemo

Nemo

The fact that Giggle feels that this magic is less... violent in it's backfiring helps Nemo relax, and the effect is visible, some tension bleeding out of his wings and shoulders as she speaks about her use of it and experiences - with the gross story getting a cackle out of him too.

If that's the worst of it? I can handle that.

Nemo bobs up and down, first as a fidget, and then nodding in agreement at wanting to test it.

"It can't be worse than watching stone come at you at the speed of ouch... and I trust you, and your knowledge of the bones... I wouldn't have come here otherwise, after all!" He chuckles, nervous. "If... I may, I'd like to choose one? I'm not one for giving myself too much chance to talk myself out of things when I try them for the first time."

@Giggle

Giggle offered a nod, amiable, and then pushed up, turned and took a few steps away. It was as though she were giving Nemo room--room to work with the bones, room so that she or her magic didn't somehow interfere. Then she turned back, and flopped back onto her belly.

"Have at it. Just remember: they're the pieces of the past, of the dead, of those who lived, and loved, and died. Always treat them with respect." But it didn't have the stern tone of a warning; she spoke almost lovingly herself, with an indulgent glance over the bone pit--as though they were somehow also family.

"Take your time. And if you do have trouble, I'm right here."

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr

@Nemo

Nemo

The raptor watches her move, and he takes a deep breath in th3e space he's given before approaching the skull he'd made eye contact with earlier.

Or. Well. Socket contact? How does that even work...

He shakes his head like he's dismissing the thought, or getting the creeping feeling off from along his feathers before he takes a deep breath, and pulls from his magic, the new sort of... thread, like it'd been woven with a needle between him and others... or like pulling spider webs from his feathers.

A soft exhale. "Respect. Okay." he breathes, and offers Giggle a grateful look for her reassurance.

He could grow to like her, even more past his respect for her as the matriarch of this family of hers.

Pulling and pressing his magic like he'd groom his feathers to lay them in line, he also leans forward over his gleaming bauble and carefully taps the skull between the eyes with his beak, hoping that the familiar action will help him in this strange situation.

@Giggle

Giggle waited, silent. She wasn't about to interrupt this moment: there was an almost sacred hush to the bone pit, like that of a cemetary... or at least a library.

She did push herself back up to a sitting position; it seemed the respectful thing to do, rather than lounging around while someone communed with the bones for the first time.

And she found a fondness in her: watching Nemo, a connection had suddenly snapped into place. A connection of her to him, of family. Oh, he reminded her of Azazel, yes; the lammergeiers always seemed to come to the cave of bones, in the end. But there was an earnest innocence to him, an almost naive determination, that was hard not to like.

She watched, and found herself hoping he'd succeed.

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr

When beak met the center of the skull, arcane influence poured out intensely. It gripped Nemo, pushing aside any awareness of his surroundings to place him in a Canis of a different time:

He saw through the eyes of something low to the ground, jaws slack with heavy panting. It stared dead ahead, but gnarled, bloodied claws stepped in and out of its periphery. Something dragged behind it, the particular sound of metal-on-stone. It was a shrieking, deafening roar. The creature glanced over its shoulder, emitting a harsh, "NO!"

The figure behind it loomed, rearing up to its full height. The dim light of Canis illuminated the many-toothed grin on its face and the edge of a massive, crude axe being raised.

A foot met the creature's ribs, and it was laid onto its back. The axe came down, like a guillotine.

The vision ended with a sickening crunch! of ribs and sternum, and the spattering of red, red, red.

@Nemo

Nemo

When the magic takes hold, his feels like something had grabbed him by the skull, and thats the last thought that he has -

the pain, the difficulty breathing, he almost wants to fight back, the "No!" and then the sickening crunch and tear of things that shouldn't move-

"Eeyaugh!" he tears himself back from the skull, eyes and wings flying wide as he throws himself back and away from the skull, and when he hits the floor he presses low, looking around and panting harshly - Again? No not again, it wasn't him, not there or then- and he sags with relief when he is able to spot Giggle, slouching down so he's now completely flat, taloned feet kicked out behind him and wings spread eagle on the floor.

He lets the silence stretch, shifting his head back and forth, pressing his lower beak against the sharper edged of the bauble on his neck as he seems to have to process what happened and catch his breath before he looks up and over at the matriarch.

"Well. Whoever that was got uh... killed. Violently."

@Giggle

Giggle watched, silent, as the poor vulture recoiled in horror. She waited a moment, as if to let him come to terms--but she was also thinking. That's likely not the looking-into-the-past magic, then. This is that one that sees death.

"Many of them have," she agreed softly, after a moment--but she was pushing up, pacing over, offering her entire face down in as close as she could come to a "hug" as if to hold out some comfort should Nemo want it. If he allowed it she'd press her whole head to him for a moment; otherwise she'd back away if he didn't seem to want that touch, and then sit.

She'd had kids; such things were second nature to her.

"The bones were all here when we woke," she explained, pushing back and settling onto her haunches. Her presence was a peaceful one, confident and quiet, and a little solemn. She looked around--at Canis, at the bone pit, at the few scattered bones nearby that she hadn't gathered. "No other cave has a place like this--full of bones. Maybe they all died, here. From what the Lorekeeper said, it sounds like they were chased here, and died. Or died, and then their bones were dumped here--I don't know, for sure. But that's one reason to treat them with respect. And one reason I bring them new life, when I can," she added, leaning down to nudge the skull, herself, where Nemo had left it.

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr

@Nemo (and also GM tagging for Navy! TELL US MORE OF THIS MYSTERIOUS CREATURE)

Giggle's vision wasn't quite as violent as Nemo's, but it held the same overlay of desperation and worry:

Heavy, sniffling breaths muttered around the creature from before; a low susurrus over the dim light. There were others, pressed against its flanks—the sniffling came from those curled in on themselves, hands and paws clutching for comfort. Something was clinging to the creature, and its hooked claws grabbed harder as some sort of battle was waged beyond the fortress of bones. The creature nuzzled closer to it, murmuring nondescript reassurances.

A dark shadow passed over what little light filtered in and the group grew stiller and quieter than before. The creature shifted to peer out from between the bones, and that was seemingly it for that memory.

@Giggle @Nemo