Unsurprisingly to those who might have still remembered the lumbering bear birthed from amethyst, Tema's first thought upon waking from her mysterious chrysalis slumber was to return to the altar. Seeing the Voidcrawler camp abandoned with no sign as to where any of them might have gone, it was no wonder she sought out the only unmoving connection to them she still held.
Her chrysalis healing her of the corruption made no difference to her. Having only just barely been touched by it to begin with, the bear had yet to experience any of the unfortunate side effects, and therefore had found no reason not to return to the voice in her head. The voice of reason, she had thought. Of love, she had believed.
She was unsure why Sunny couldn't be found, but the snail was always an adventurous one. Surely she had been found by now of course. The whole crew had been searching!
The Void would know! The Void always knew, which is why the Void Mother had always known. Sunny knew everything, and it hadn't been up to Tema to know things as a result.

Tema was almost on top of the altar before she stopped dead in her tracks. While the whispers had been no bother to her, the chaos of it all was still familiar despite the time that had passed, she wondered for a moment if the Void would be angry. She had been gone for some time after all. Would Sunny be angry? She hadn't known Sunny to be angry. Not usually, at least. But she was loyal, returning to pledge herself once more and seek guidance. Orders, not that Tema really understood that part yet.

It wouldn't punish her. There was love in chaos, or at least chaos in love, and love for chaos. That was what Sunny had told her, and who was Sunny to lie to their kin? She hoped the Void held the same sentiment.

Tema touched her nose to the altar.

"speaking" is a pretty purple!

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

gore

Cold nose to oddly warm stone... Well, alchemy had embraced stranger reactions than this. The alchemy of this moment was harsh, a sudden chaotic storm awakening something that had lain dormant here for some time. It stirred billowing purple smoke, an acrid stench that filled the room around Tema, until the features of stone and altar were eclipsed. Green light flashed throughout like a storm across some unknown sky.

A shudder ran through the Hole. The whispers that had accompanied her descent here rose in chorus, became deafening, despite still eluding comprehension. And then--another voice, one that boomed far louder, leaving ears aching with the power that thrummed behind it.

"WHAT ARE YOU?"

Violet claws emerged from the smoke, formed of it, bleeding with it. They clutched the bear and raised her high, so that paws would find no purchase upon the ground. And she was...

Regarded.

Examined.

Judged.

Visions rocked her then, slamming into her mind and eclipsing all else. They began as things that she would remember from her brief time Touched, before; chaotic, if brief, glimpses of battlefields and blood. But after a moment, she saw other visions, bleeding into them and taking them over.

Visions of bears ravaging tents. Bears, locked in ferocious combat, fur flying. Bears standing high, fangs bared and lips dangling in a snarl, their guttural roars a primal call to the heart of her. Small, beady eyes gleaming with malice, in their most hate-filled moments. Claws the size of daggers--five in a row--slashing through the air in a strike strong enough to break another's back. Bones, crunching. Innards spilled. Prey, enemies, and hapless adversaries who had but wandered too close to a meal or a cub--lying dead upon the ground. These filled Tema's mind, heart, soul: this is what she was, the ferocity of the ursine. The implacable power and savagery of the bear. And all the while, the claws turned her, this way and that, examining all that Tema was.

"GOOD," the voice decided, in an echoing boom like thunder--a sound filled with finality--and the claws set her back down on the rock. For a moment it felt like the stone underpaw was searing hot, burning--and then it faded, the clouds coiling away. "I HAVE SEEN WHO AND WHAT YOU ARE: AND NOW, SO HAVE YOU."

The whispering voices broke into laughter. Tema's consciousness faded, leaving her out cold for a full nightmare-filled twelve hours: twelve hours in which the corruption curled back into her, in which she saw herself as the glorious victor in a hundred battles... as the predator curving claws and jaws into a hundred beasts of prey... as the empress and queen of a territory none could challenge. Her heart was filled with vicious triumph... a triumph she might embrace or reject upon awakening.

There was nothing of love in any of those. Only a primal appreciation for those wicked claws and fangs.

Tema gains 3 points of corruption.

@Tema

Tema didn't remember this. She didn't remember being lifted, or hearing a voice form actual words. The last time she was here... She had been foolish. She had followed Sunny as the lost cub she had once been, mindlessly believing. Loving. Perhaps Sunny had loved her to some extent in return, or perhaps not... But the truth was clear now, as clear as it should have been the first time she touched the altar.
Sunny had lied.
There was no attempt to find love in chaos because there was no love to be found. There was only destruction; mindless, instinctual. There was no denying the need for violence in serving chaos, and that anger drove Tema deeper into the hold of the void.
The void had been honest.
This... this is what she was meant to be. Not some meat shield or mount for something she could easily crush beneath a single paw... and she wanted to. She wanted to crush and tear, clearing the path for...
For nothing. She had no reason anymore. That was just the nature of chaos, wasn't it? Of Corruption, to want nothing but destruction.
She slept, and she woke, offering a silent thanks to the altar who knew her better than herself.
It would never be her own dream she fought for, but at least her new master was an honest one.
"speaking" and corruption

-And a quick EXIT for Tema, off to serve the Void :) -