CALAMITY

so all the things can grow

In every sense of the word- literal and metaphorical- it was drifting.

Ever since it had lost Verdant it'd been lonely in a way it hadn't even been able to conceptualize before. It's curiosity and drive had fueled it- often, Calamity had wandered only so that Verdant could delight in alien sights, in the universe outside it's Star. Verdant's thoughts had hummed alongside it's own, a beautiful song. Now only its own thoughts echoed in the quiet.

It'd fallen into a cycle. Wake. Wander. Attempt to regrow it's garden. Fail. Tire. Sleep. Each time waking period shortened as its sleep lengthened. It occasionally wondered if it'd get to the point of never waking but, fundamentally, it couldn't bring itself to care about an event it wouldn't even be aware of.

This time, upon waking, it found Eridanus strange and unrecognizable. What had once been beautiful green was choked with putrid strands of white, stinking of decay. It did not recognize what it was, but it felt a instinctive unease all the same. It's plates shifted, cautiously guarding it's core as it drifted through this eerie place.

Suddenly, it came upon a clearing completely devoid of the choking rot. Its caution fell away slowly as it became enamored with the overflowing plantlife in this space. Tendrils of light reached out curiously, brushing against unfamiliar flora. It felt all at once awe and joy and longing. It had always wanted this kind of garden, but it struggled to maintain such a lush diversity of life, and it'd all inevitably die when it next slept.

It's brush up against a tangle of vines growing on the trunk of the opalized tree, willing them to attach to its barren shell as magicka pulsed out of its core. The spell took, a couple tendrils of vines rooting into one of it's plates. It hummed with delight and satisfaction.

@The Chorus

They had sensed, some time ago, the odd electrical signals in the soil coming from a specific direction. Magical in nature, powerful, and so they moved themselves that way, focused their efforts of growing closer, simply for the curiosity. They hadn't reached it yet, but soon...

But then something else caught their attention. Some of the fruiting caps they'd grown in their wake felt the shifting in the air, a soft vibration they'd never felt before. They tried to align their senses, and felt something...moving. Moving through the air!! Away from them, no...no come back!

They were too interest in this. They could not let it leave them. Calculating exactly its position, on the way the air was moving against the caps, the strength in the subtle vibrations affecting the ground...yes, yes there it was. Magic threaded out and grabbed a hold of Calamity. It was not anything rough, but rather a gentle pulling towards its caps. It needed it to touch one of them, and then they'd understand better. For this was new and they didn't understand.

@Calamity

CALAMITY

so all the things can grow

A unidentifiable something grabbed ahold of it's entire being. For a moment it panicked at the sheer unfamiliarity of the situation, tendrils lashing out wildly and hum rising to a fever pitch as it tried to figure out what was happening to it and how. After a couple moments it calmed down, ascertaining that whatever this was wasn't harmful or aggressive. It felt [metaphorically] like a hand gently taking their own and leading it forward. So, it followed.

But it wasn't exactly sure what it was being lead to. Tendrils of light reached out to investigate it's surroundings, brushing ephemerally against plant-life as it felt blindly for the origin of the pull. It drifted closer to the ground, unintentionally brushing against a couple of the mushroom caps as it searched.

@The Chorus

They pulled the unknown thing into a bunch of their caps and the spores immediately sprinkled upon them, unnoticeable. It felt around with the sensation on its fruits, measuring every detail to get a clearer picture. Something brushed up against another of their caps - an arm of some sort, a tendril? It was odd, there was no weight on the ground. It felt no vibrations besides the shifting of the air. No breathing, no movement, simply the presence of the thing.

It defied everything it knew. It felt only electrical signals from this thing, saying that yes, indeed, it was alive. It could feel the exterior, but it was like the forest floor, from the plant-life that instead met the sensory capillaries of the mushroom caps.

They were bewildered. No voice had any idea what this could possibly be.

The reached for magic, attempting to communicate. They needed to know. "What...are you? We do not understand. We feel you but we...cannot see. What are you?"

@Calamity

CALAMITY

so all the things can grow

After a couple moments of aimless searching, a voice prickled in it's mind. For a moment it felt a pang of longing and hope, even as it knew this couldn't possibly be it's lost starkiller. This voice is different, pared down- even as Verdant, had gotten more used to thinking in words, their communication was often feels and images flowing between their two minds. Calamity itself had never quite gotten used to paring itself down to fit in only words, nor did it ever feel the need to, when Verdant had been it's only real conversational partner.

It would be easier to explain, in that wordless song of image-emotion-thought. Maybe, if it could strengthen the connection, widen it, pour more of Itself into it.

But try as it might, the original spell holds strong and rejects it's feeble sparks of magic. There is a loud, warbling hum of frustration, tendrils lash out briefly at it's surroundings in aimless frustration before curling inwards, as though embarrassed by this outburst. It isn't even entirely sure where the voice came from, just that whoever it is must be nearby. And, if they're anything like Verdant, they might be truly imperceptible, a brilliant spark hidden in a false star.

The hum dies down into a quiet, mournful song. Longing threatens to fracture them apart. They feel so close to connection, to gaining a semblance of what they've lost. But the distance remains insurmountable.

@The Chorus

CALAMITY

so all the things can grow

Suddenly, the hum rises into a determined fever-pitch. It cannot just let this go, it will not fade back into those endless cycles of wake-wander-sleep. It's mind, will, and magic compress like the core of a supernova, a burning arm of magical energy that grabs onto The Chorus' fading telepathic link and wretches it wide open, creating an open channel for both of their minds to flow through.

Calamity doesn't speak so much as it hands Chorus carefully plucked little fragments of itself. The answer to 'what are you?' is stony shell fitted around a fiery core, flickers of orange energy lashing out through cracks in the plates. It is so different from those other gembound, with limbs and teeth and voices. It is the unending love of greenery, of plant-life, and it's constant endeavors to grow its own garden. It is the pangs of frustration and sadness each time that garden dies. It is the aimlessness of wandering, of growing its garden only to fall asleep, wither, and restart. It is a distant star in a vast and empty universe. It is an observer, a ghost.

It pulls back, almost bashfully and a bit apologetic- a lingering emotional footnote informs Chorus that it isn't typically like this, it's just been so so long since it's had a real conversation, and Chorus sounds so, so familiar.

It did not expect the force in which this second mind would invade it....no, that was not the right word. It was not an aggressive action, but it had never felt a mind so encompassing, a link between two coaxed this far open. It had only ever been able to pass a single voice from one to the other, with the background song of its many others an echo at its tail.

But now their sense of being could be heard in its entirety. And they heard another in this same way and they were struck by a sense of awe. So so different from others and so like this cave they both found themselves in, if this cave itself had a heart and a stone.

Without needing to focus on communicating, as a link now existed between the Chorus and this new entity, they felt forward to see properly, using their own scattered spores and other fungal dander that had fallen on this one to get what was close to visual input. It confirmed what they had already been told and many of the voices sighed in wonder. How good to know one so connected to the roots of life, that did not need to form abstract sense and thought into words.

And even yet, their minds thought differently. For Calamity communicated in passed images and sensations, while the Chorus communicated in a thousand synapses thinking at once, in a thousand sensations, most of deep soil and dampness, in the occasional breath of air, clusters of themselves touching the sky, grown from bark and dirt and root. They showed this to Calamity, an exchange of self. They stretched far beneath the soil, hooked and linked into multiple trees in the area. They did not show it their stone, though, nor the place of their genesis. Trust was not yet earned, and these things they hid from it completely.

Enthusiasm sang in their many voices as they eagerly pressed forward to know more more more what it had seen, experienced, the gardens it had grown and lost, the caves it had felt along its rocky skin...

@Calamity

For a while, two organisms would feel for each other, testing what they were, sensing the odd, alien bodies they inhabited, joyful to find another that thought in different terms then the gembound. They were still different, of course, very different, but it was nice to know they were not the only ones the thought Beyond.

Eventually, they would allow Calamity to leave, knowing that they were a creature of wandering. They had no legs to attach them to the earth, and so were not bound to one place. They almost envied them, leaving their gift of spores upon its back. The mushrooms that would fruit would not be as aggressive as a regular honey fungus would, but they would not have their sentience. Another small life to exist on their shell.

*exit due to inacitivty