A ripple of discomfort ran through Desert. This was... Unnecessary. Excessive. He swallowed down a rising feeling of tension, pity rolling over the rest of his emotions. This was a champion, and while he had killed, had witnessed kills- this was cruel.

The Gembounds now relied on their emotions for the negative, too, it seemed. His mouth propped open to say something as agony screamed over the Opal, and his eyes closed as his thin scales clipped into his skin at the display of pain.

He was advocating for violence, but not this. They had their information.

Desert had to avert his eyes, his ears pinned back as he couldn't not hear what was happening. At least he could save one of his senses. Aure was failing to keep composed- stepping back, getting sick, and Desert here was at a loss. His tail flicked higher. He wanted to comfort the wyvern, comfort him like a dad would, and yet he knew it wasn't his place. A clawed hand reached out for a second before withdrawing in hesitation.

Desert glanced between Aure and the Opal, clearly out of place in the tension-fueled brawl.

Rated M for mild body horror and bad words I guess?

The bone had fallen from his mouth with a clatter.

Jade green lesions split open the eel's purple hide, growing, festering all over his body. His own a slime, the layer of mucus that served to protect his delicate skin, had turned against him. It was eating him alive. Shocked, the ram had released his tail, though Opal's struggling would have freed it sooner or later.

The pain was so great, that he hardly noticed the Aure had actually cut off the spell, but effects did not cease with with it. Where the screams Mother's or his? He couldn't tell. Opal twisted and flailed, a vain attempt to throw off whatever was burning through him. He stumbled, forgetting the sliced tendon, and cut himself more on the sharp bones. Seething, Opal got back up, back arched and stiff. The skin had begun to slough off, dangling from his heaving sides like melted rags. Trembling, Opal held up a bloody claw and gazed at the hanging skin. He was horrified. This had never happened before. His mind raced, though in agony. WHAT THE FUCK DID HE DO TO ME?? WHAT THE FUCK-WHAT THE FUCK???

Suddenly, an sharp pain pierced his head. The Opal cried out, clutching it, nails digging into loose skin. He felt something shift in his skull, grabbing, tearing. It was Mother, she was fighting the pull of something. Their connection wavered. NO! He wanted to fight it with her, but there was nothing he could do. "NO! STOP IT!! He cried. He squeezed his eyes shut. It felt like his head was being pried open, and part of him was being torn away. Something snapped, and Opal came to the cold realization that "Mother" was trying to take him down with her. Nerves fired, and suddenly, the backdrop of voices, what he had called family for cycles, became silent. Intense ringing split through his head, deafening his entire world.

He felt sick.

Opal's eyes bugged out. He fell to his claws, retching violently. A strange, clear substance spilled from his jaws. It was of a different consistency of Opal's own slime and flecked with white, fungal tendrils. The eel stared at in horror for a moment before his consciousnesses slipped away.

Eyes glazed over, the Opal stumbled backwards and collapsed. His body laid in an 'S' shape over the bones, damaged nerves still twitching as the sizzling died. The gentle rise and fall of his flank indicated that he was still alive, but the Opal did not stir. His eyes remained closed as if he were asleep.

*Exit Opal 376 through unconsciousness

@Giggle @Eythan (and Aure) @Desert Rose Thirty-Five

Aure was the Bone King. She should have been letting him take control.

But things were moving quickly, and Giggle reacted like a mother, rather than a subject: like an older creature with the experience of prior horrors. As the white phlegm retched forth, she grimly kept ahold of it and 'walked' it farther away, urging it to take hold of rock that it couldn't grip, forcing it farther with her magic. It seemed almost to fight her, stretching as if to reach for better substrate; she struggled with it. And as she safely cleared it away from Opal, she barked out orders.

"Help him. I don't know why it's harmed him this badly, but he can't die." Well-... he could, technically. She could view his past even dead, through other fungus. But--it was best not to let him die.

Only now did she shift her gaze to Aure, realizing that by giving commands she was overstepping boundaries. She knew he wouldn't mind, but that was part of the problem--she could not declare him leader, and then ignore it when it suited her. She couldn't undermine him.

"Aure," she spoke up, more gently--casting a brief glance back at the fallen Opal, and then back to her son--"what do you want to do with him?" And then, reminding herself that at least she could offer options, as an advisor and as a mother, to a horrified king and to a baffled son, she went on--"There's that spot with trees and fresh water, if we can get him there, somehow. I might be able to help him, a little, if you like."

She looked back to the white mass, trying to force it to stay in one place. "And I don't know what this is. This was all inside him. He might have been intending to use it for something?" she added, and then hesitated. "It doesn't feel all that different from normal fungus. But he had others in his mind. I've seen that before--but they felt distant. Not like... other versions of himself," she added, remembering Bevy and her many internal minds, "but like there were others, in his head. With their own thoughts."

"Does anyone have fire, or something?" she added, nodding to the fungus.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

@Aure

Eythan stepped away from the eel as it writhed and he let go of the bone, face twisted up at the stench of flesh boiling and decomposing, rotting away by the second. Blood and gore was seeping out everywhere, the flesh turning to nothing but a sickly goo and sloughing into the mass at his feet. The gryphon was - he was familiar with the sight (twice over, in fact) but he had to swallow and inhale through his mouth to keep his own lunch down.

Meanwhile, Aure - oh, Aure... it was all he could do but watch as Opal keeled over and retched up whatever sickness had plagued him. It was stringy, rotten-smelling and so achingly familiar. A disease. Something they'd purged from the old one (Ask Desert Rose, ask Desert Rose, ask Desert Rose - !) Then, the eel fell still and Giggle was guiding whatever disgusting, festering thing had wound out of him.

His chest felt too tight, constricting, overwhelmed. Aure was on the verge of throwing up again, but there couldn't possibly be anything left. He could still see the bones of his meal from earlier.

His mother's voice was distant thunder in his ears, but it was enough to dredge him somewhat out of the muck that his mind'd wound up in. Aure swallowed thickly, turning to the fox dragon watery-eyed and inhaling sharply. He cracked his beak like he was going to say something, but only a whistling breath came out - a clear sign that he was at a loss for words, looking to apologize, maybe, for having to make him see all of this, for making Desert see just how much of a child he was, yet.

Bright eyes turned to Giggle next, grounding for a moment and wasting precious time with that. Aure gulped again, closing his eyes and tilting his head upwards like he was trying to feel rain that wasn't there. "Oh - okay... okay," the wyvern choked out, steadying himself in knowing that he was young, but he was trying. They were all trying. Aure looked at his mother, finding comfort (however brief) in her dark eyes, and nodded, "I - I want to save him."

They didn't have all the time in the world, but maybe they had enough, if Opal hadn't retreated into his chrysalis yet.

He swallowed again, and turned to the others, "okay - okay, let's... let's get him to that spot, okay? Mother - you..." Aure looked down at the fungal mass, sniffing once, "I've seen that - before, in Pisces. I tried to plant... other fungus on it, to eat it, but it - it resisted. There was dead fish all around." Even now, the glob seemed to resist. "Take care of th- that, first. Eythan and I and -" the wyvern glanced sidelong, "Desert Rose will take Opal." He looked towards the Daredevil, "Aries - you have fire, right? Can you burn it?"

Aure waited for whatever answer the ram had, before settling down to focus on the eel. "We - I don't think we should move him too, too much, right?" No, no - too many questions. That was for certain. Don't disturb the wounds. The wyvern shook his head. "I can try to move him with my magic but - but, it might fail. We might have to drag him." He was already working at his magic, trying to envelope its hold around the eel's entire length and hold him as still as possible, while still guiding his body across the floor.

The young King fell silent as he kept his eyes on the eel - boiling flesh and slime and all - trotting along at a hearty pace and trying not to trip or slip on his own feet.

@Desert Rose Thirty-Five @Aries

This was disgusting. Aries regretted in being complicit with it. Had he known the Bone King's spell would have this kind of effect on the eel, he would have protested. Sure, Opal endangered them, but this was a little too much. I just wanted to rough him up a bit. It seemed Aure didn't intend this either. The wyvern had vomited at the sight.

He glanced at Eythan, dismayed. What have they done?

Opal finally keeled over, unconscious, after having thrown up something. A small, white mass, Giggle had wrestled control over it, forcing it to latch on the rock. Aries winced in disgust, lifting a hoof. "Is that.. the fungus??.. And it was inside him??" His stomach churned. "Do you think it.. made him attack Rezik?" The idea of something like that crawling into his brain and hijacking his body was enough to give him nightmares.

The ram's ear's pricked when Giggle called for fire. He knew some spells but being a flamethrower wasn't really his forte. "I can try." He said to Aure, stepping forward. Aries held his hoof over the white mass. It hoovered for moment as he waited for the keratin to heat up. He turned to his fellows. "I just wanted to say, if this thing latches on me instead," He looked at Giggle and Eythan, horns now glowing hot. "Please don't cook me alive." And with that, Aries pressed a smoldering hoof into the fungus.

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: // OOC:

Even Desert had his limits. Ever glance seemed to get worse, and he averted his eyes more and more and struggled to close his nostrils from the sickening smell of roasting fish.

Even if he weren't part of their group, he lurched forward to help at the order, instinct driving him. It was useless in the full frame of things- as Aure had his magic- but he still gazed with sadness at the Champion he knew.

Desert's eyes roamed the bones. "I know some practical medicinal aide, if it helps." Water would be good. He turned, though, to the fungus, blinking with his eyebrows coming together. "When he wakes up, we can see how interwoven their minds are, then. That... That might be why he felt off." Arcane magic never sat right with him, and to hear a champion had turned to it in rebellion was not good.

"I don't, no," he spoke on fire magic, but he could try and help the Bone King at the very least with summoning of his own particular flavor. A frown came on his face as he dredged into his typically untapped magics, unable to draw up enough to make a difference.

He could pace beside the brothers anyways. They seemed similar, especially now that he was closer to look between them both. "Let me know how I can help," he spoke with a low voice, warily glancing to the Opal's mangled form as they trotted away. The creature was too big to perch on his cat-sized shoulders, and he wouldn't be able to get a good grip with the slick Opal produced.

He rumbled unhappily. He didn't have a good feeling about any of this.

As Aries' smoldering hooves pressed down on the fungus, it began to blacken, to wither, even to catch flame here and there. Within moments the white-gray clot of spores was gone, nothing but ash beneath his magic.

There was little fanfare, though those of the Hive could sense the last of their links with Opal rapidly fading, and a sense of frustration somewhere distant.

Giggle watched, sharp but grim. She nodded once to Aries, as his magic tore the fungus away at last; and she looked to Aure, frowning. She still wasn't sure it was he who had done this--she wasn't familiar with that sort of magic, not at all. She wasn't sure where he'd have learned it. Suspicious eyes flashed briefly up to Desert Rose--had he done something?

And Aries--Aries was speaking of fungal control. Could that be-? She'd wondered if it were a secret weapon of his, something Opal had brought to them, but the thought of it had crossed her mind. Was it possible..?

Giggle focused, struggling, faint memories of black and fear threatening to crowd in. The moment was stressful, and she did not always cope so well at times like these. She swallowed--Aure needed her. She couldn't fall apart now.

"You said you saw this in Pisces? What happened to it?" she asked--and then, more reassuringly, "I don't know what just happened to him, but he's still alive. He's not even in his stone--he'll recover." I hope.

She looked back to Desert Rose, studying him with a brief and critical eye. And abruptly, she made the leap, the decision to trust this stranger.

"Give him whatever 'practical medicinal aid' you can. We might all be in danger, here. But first, watch over me for a few minutes." She paused, briefly.

The last time she'd gone this way, she'd gone through the dark to Senka. She didn't do this often, she didn't like to; there was a loss of self, a sense of displacement, and in Giggle, a terror of being lost. Without explaining anything to Desert--there wasn't time, if he was to watch her, and then make sure Opal stayed alive--she started to lower herself to the rock. And then she collapsed, the rest of the way, slumping on her side. Her eyes went distant, and then slipped closed; her paws splayed out beside her, and her breathing became slow and steady.

Omen fluttered down, landing atop her haystack fur, and gave a quiet scream, like a child--haunting, shrill, but soft. Wings flared, briefly, and the single red eye took in those around it. It seemed to be keeping watch--not eating the hyena, at least--but for now, Giggle didn't move.

____________

She came through the black, seeking a connection, calling out as she sought his mind.

Stranger. Are you there-? We did not mean to harm you badly. I need to know what that fungus was, within you. Are you a threat to us? Do you mean us harm?

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

@Desert Rose Thirty-Five @Aure @Opal Three-Seven-Six

Eythan was struggling to hold himself together, like the others — but he had to, for Aure's sake, and whoever this eel was. The sight of rotting flesh and decomposition shouldn't be anything new, but it wasn't something to get used to. It was the sheer wrongness of it that twisted the gut and fogged the mind.

The gryphon walked ahead of his brother, pointedly going away from the downwind of Opal. He couldn't take the stench, but Aure had to look at it. Eythan wasn't sure how divided the wyvern's focus could be before he lost his hold on magic, but he hoped that his proximity could give the lad something else to look at but microwaved flesh.

If it was what had made Opal attack Rezik, then... there was the target, the thing aiming to destroy the blue stag - but Aure could only focus on a few things right now. "M-maybe. One, one thing at a time, okay?" the young King requested almost selfishly, ears pricking backwards. They had this immediate crisis to deal with, first. He combed through his panicked, ill-composed mind, managing a brief "I - left it. It resisted my magic and - and what little decayed, there were no images." There hadn't been a single bit of history behind the filaments, then.

But, Mother was right (he hoped desperately that she was, atleast.) If the eel was just unconscious, and hadn't retreated to stone - then, there was a chance, yet. "Okay - okay. We'll help him," Aure assured. If the brief theory of fungal-infested mind was correct, then they had liberated Opal from the control. The means had been messy, but... the deed was done.

Aure moved off, calling back to Desert Rose briefly - "meet us there." There wasn't a need to give directions or leave a trail; Opal was doing a good enough job of that. His focus remained on moving Opal forward, but he gave a soft chirp in appreciation to being able to safely place the massive eel into his periphery.

Given their pace and urgency, it didn't take too long to get to the grove. Aure bid a silent apology to Oliver, who'd spent cycle after cycle tending to its beauty and clear waters (without asking a single thing in return) as he laid Opal down at its shallows. The bottom sloped down slightly, so there could be runoff as the wyvern quietly splashed water over still-bubbling flesh alongside Eythan. It was the most they could do without bandaging up and risking infection. They had to clean the wounds. That was right, wasn't it?

@Desert Rose Thirty-Five @Giggle @Aries (Opal)