[Origin Cave]

In the recesses of Tunnel J, Totum was tinkering with developing a new sliver of life: infusing their magic briefly with a group of objects to create a small golem. If they wanted the creation to last longer, they found that using a gem-source embedded in the golem was enough to power it, but drained within days. Temporary as it was, the semblance of life brought a smile to their face.

A pile of rocks and bones not used sat beside them, but their current golem toddled about before them made of miscellaneous gemstone pieces, rocks, and plant-life. It had a little, white flower hat and a dress of moss covering its rocky body. Two little sapphire eyes moved as if they could actually view the world. On its wrist were studs of glittering yellow topaz fashioned like a bracelet.

"She's perfect," said Totum with a smile.

"I really love her flower hat. That is especially charming," the male voice of Beast said softly, gently touching the head of the golem with a long, spindly finger.

"Give her a weapon!" demanded the female voice, Warrior, reaching with the opposite hand to fashion a sharpened shard of obsidian to the golem's "hand."

Totum frowned, but the golem took to the obsidian shard with ease, swinging it in mock battle against an imaginary foe.

"Maybe she was always meant to be a fighter," the Beast said after some time, his voice lifting as their frown turned into a small grin.

"Yes! And what better than with a traitor's black sword?" cackled Warrior. She found it beyond amusing to have a piece of Tamulus kill and destroy.

Despite Beast's softer nature, he agreed with her: it was the perfect choice. As their golem tired of its game, it set down its sword and waddled a short distance before plopping down, sitting and rocking side-to-side as if it were enchanted by some kind of music. Silence fell over Totum as they observed the golem.

"I'm sorry," Beast said, nearly a whisper. His mind was elsewhere and Warrior, who was rolling the obsidian shard between two fingers still amused by her joke, uttered a confused, "For what?"

"That we didn't..." his voice cracked, and Warrior tilted their head. "We didn't get the chance." At this, the mood grew solemn and Warrior let the obsidian shard sit still in their fingers.

"But we will. We do," she reassured him. The tiny golem turned its head to look back at them, its face angled upward as if it might actually be holding Totum in its vision. It couldn't see, but it made Totum wistful all the same. "We could share this with the others," she suggested, and Beast almost argued against her. But she was right. They could share this. To what extent would the gembound use this spell, they wondered? For Totum, it filled a void left long ago; but to share it would make it special here.

"Yes," they agreed. They waved toward the golem—whose eyes could not see, whose ears could not hear—before its body laid down in the dirt and began to wave its bulky arms and legs to make a dirt-angel. Totum chuckled at the movement. It was not a sentient creature beyond its basic, curious gestures, but its uncanny childlike behavior charmed them.

In another time, perhaps their child would be just as charming. For a brief moment their names almost returned to them on this shared thought: G... R?? But just as the memory touched their minds, it vanished. And the idea of offspring suddenly seemed silly to them as their souls currently inhabited the same body. Did Totum not owe all that they were to the gembounds, anyway? It was the children of the cave who brought Totum back together.

"Let's teach them," they said, scooping the golem into their smaller arms, and gathering a tote full of rocks, bones, and other items with their longer arms. They'd find a suitable spot for demonstration and share this new knowledge with the children. As they exited their home, a wry, gentle smile warmed their face.

----------------
They reach the center of the Forum and set up shop, laying out their materials on a stone-slab table and waiting for others to approach.

Esther hears chattering as they approach. Materials on the ground with a group Esther's never seen before. What is this? Who are they? They eye the group for some time before truly making their way over to them.

"What is this? They question freely, now even more confused.

Are they crafters? Creating something out of nothing? It's never been something Esther's truly interested in, despite the usable fingers.

Juggernaut would be spotted long, long before he'd actually arrived on the scene.

It was unfamiliar with the Masters, having never found the misfortune of encountering one during the siege. It knew enough to be wary when the network buzzed with recognition. It eyed the spindly figure with more eyes than it necessarily needed.

The others found themselves occupied by Esther, who was very clearly corrupted. Not only an enemy, but an unpredictable one - they could turn on those surrounding them any second. Wretched creature.

But he'd refrain from violence - he was outside of Mother's territory, and the workshop interested him more currently than cleansing the cave of impurity. The fight in Eridanus had done more than enough to satiate him. He'd take the opportunity for momentary peace, if Mother allowed it. Selfishly, he hoped she would.

It is difficult to disarm yourself when your entire body is the weapon. He made noise akin to him clearing his throat, taking his spot a safe-ish distance from Esther and Totum, waiting for an invitation - or a strong dismissal.

Wilder approached a little slower - she saw Master Totum, yes, and she knew they were one of the good ones and was interested in what they were setting up in the forum. But there was also one of the Hive here. Gigantic, imposing, a tank of a Drone. She had seen him in Canis long ago, but she had also seen him during the Visitor's story. She was a little confused on if it was enemy or friend or something in between. There was also a corrupted one here - she could tell easily from the dripping oil. She was less sure on how she should feel about them.

Either way, she stayed a little back for now, slowly making her way down the forum and blending into the darkness of Orion's stones, only visible by the pink heart and the sparkling eyes and she watched quietly, curious but careful.

For good measure, she sought into the future for an inkling on the Juggernaut's behavior, if she should stay back and stay wary, or if it was safe to approach while he was here.

Then came a fourth. A little fuzzball of a younger feline, strutting right past drone and corrupted and Wilder, even as her eyes dart between them. Setanta doesn't have a care in the world, coming right to Totum's table. If anything, she seemed completely oblivious to the tensions between the others.

"You have something to share?" she'd pipe up, reaching up with her forepaws to peek at the materials left on the table. "I think we'd all like to see!"

Nikolai Berkley

There was a bit of a gathering happening, and of course curiosity got the better of him, as it always did. Slowly he walked forward, sniffing the air for a moment to figure out what was happening from a safe distance before anything. At first, he was just going to watch from the shadows, maintain a safe distance, but a familiar scent caught his attention and he raised an eyebrow. Was that who he thought it was?

Sure enough, as he walked closer, slipping past some of the few creatures he didn't know or care about, he walked up beside Esther, glancing up at them for a moment. What's this? He asked them straight up, flicking his gaze over to the little shop in front of them.

He narrowed his eyes, always on guard and untrusting, but would wait to see what Esther had to say. After all, they hadn't led him stray thus far.

• I take my whiskey neat •

@Esther

It seemed he had stumbled upon some sort of meeting. One unintentionally. The brown pup gulped, his ears flat against his head. A soft limp forward. He would bring himself to stand in the distance, close enough to watch.

But his purple eyes couldn't help but stare. A deer like creature with fungus outgrowing him. Some dark colored winged creature. Then some huge white beast. Something that deep down terrified him.

Felines scattered within the area. Yet the only thing that didn't scare him very much was another wolf. Something like himself. Silently he was thankful someone like him existed here.

Purple eyes turned to the deer. A shy quiet voice uttered. He was trying to keep up with the pace, but there were so many things. So many decisions. It terrified him, yet he was interested to know.

"What's this?"

---

"Speaking"

@ n / a
For those who don't know - cardan walks with a limp . Favoring his back left leg.

Orion might have been a sprawling dust heap, but despite its overall state of disrepair, it was a useful enough cave. Primarily, it boasted a fantastic assortment of materials which a budding sculptress could appreciate, whether she decided to repurpose scattered rubble into works of art or simply wished to refine the beauty a quartz fallen from the ceiling already possessed in spades. This was the sole reason Miriam didn't wrinkle her nose in distaste while brushing aside debris: any ugliness clinging to the stone she recovered would soon enough be chiseled away by expert claws. Slowly she wound her way through the ruins, and an exacting eye distinguished decent acquisitions from crumbling piles of masonry barely worth the attention. Those few she deemed up to her standards were stored away in the little space remaining within the leather case dangling from her grip.

Uninterested in the goings-on of the rabble, the noise that naturally emerged when throngs of Gembounds formed didn't pull the tatzelwurm toward the arena. Rather her meandering path and perhaps the looming majesty of the building eventually tugged her in that direction. Calm and unblinking as ever, she slithered onto the scene, nary a care given to whomever the inferiors clogging the area were. Oceanic eyes only existed for the table set in the center of this gathering and the items its proprietor had laid out there. Deliberately a purr vibrated in her chest as she echoed the pale, incomplete imitation of her gorgeous form who had so boldly dared to inquire what this stranger intended to demonstrate.

"Quite right," she chirped. "What a lovely display you've brought here! I imagine these must be for something especially grand if you've put in this much effort to show them off."

Ever since his reawakening he felt a tad bit aimless. Or.. perhaps aimless was the wrong word. He knew exactly what he ought to do- rectify his wrongs and cleanse Order from the caves he had failed to protect. But he couldn't do that on his own, even if it was a burden that he only wished to carry himself. The fire which so easily burned away Order's fungus is something that he did not have the capacity to harness. Not to mention the sheer scale of the project, and the potential retaliation of Order's forces.

So he wandered. Finding allies both willing and capable of reclaiming Gemini. Sparring against friends and fighting against foes. Eating and resting when he must. All the while trying to ignore the nagging feeling that despite all his efforts, he could stand to do even More.

Initially, he did not notice the crowd at all. Instead, his focus was zoned in on the massive bulwark of Order that lurked along the outskirts. Any kind of ordinary creature might've felt fear when gazing upon a 13 foot wall of crustacean, but Wulfsige did not. But that wasn't to say that he didn't fear anything at all. When Wulfsige feared Order, he feared the sensation of encroaching wrongness. Of all that is him being usurped and forced into a unnaturally rigid lattice. He feared creeping mold and ensnaring magic. He did not fear something so obviously and singularly built for violence. Something that would simply kill him was of nearly no concern at all, for he always knew he would go out fighting.

Then, he noticed Esther, dripping with her obvious, infectious chaos. He remembered, distantly, one confusing chaos-beast that had helped against Order's onslaught. He reasoned- both then and now- that it was simply a matter of sharing an enemy. That it had been interested in destroying Order rather than protecting what is Natural. He hoped something similar to that would happen now- that the dripping chaos-hound would notice the hulking drone, and that they would tear themselves apart. It would give himself time to escort the bystanders out of harm's way, and then he could finish off whoever ended up victorious.

Finally, he would spot an Ally. Someone familiar, whom had stood along side him in the war against Order.

He would slowly trod over to Wilder, eyeing the others- particularly Esther and Juggernaut- as he did. He would be looming over her- nearly on top of her- by the time he stopped and spoke. "Danger lurks here. Two sides of war converge." He spoke low, but with an authoritative boom that was still easy to overhear. He would shift his weight from paw to paw, uneasy and tense.

Almost as an afterthought his attention shifted to Totum and golem they had created, magic reaching out to investigate.

@Wilder @Esther @Juggernaut [He only directly interacts with Wilder, the other two are for visibility]

Noises so many noises around. Zephiran slipped from his hideout to find food. Yet he accidentally stumbled upon some sort of meeting. Hopefully this wasn't anything like the last. There was so many creatures he didn't know where to be. The necklace proudly resting on his neck, he moved with caution.

Carefully slipping past a few of the wolves to take a peek at what was before them. A small setup of a shop is what it looked like. Zephiran remained quiet for now. Keeping to himself among the crowd. But his eyes peeled for anything.

Hopefully it wasn't as weird as last time. What could have all these creatures together? Was it of any use to bring to his new friend?

---

"Speaking"