[This thread is backdated to some time shortly after the Olympics and before Saran'zol.]

Audland had decided to take a load off by dipping his big fuzzy feet in the river of Polaris. It was the nearest cave to Orion that he knew had a water source in it, plus Ursa was right there if he started to overheat. He sat on the water's edge, feeling the coolth of the river rushing underneath his peats.

The Olympics had been a rush—of color, of heat, of general overall chaos. Audland was glad it was finally over. Was that Valkhound-ish to think? Audland didn't care. No crime like a thought crime. He was so tired he was considering tipping himself into the water below.

Something internally must have heard him. Something that was not him. Or maybe it was just his body letting off steam from the fighting and running and losing before. Audland could feel the chaos gathering, the building pressure before the storm. He was getting good at pinpointing when the flare-up would be. He wasn't good at pinpointing much else about it.

FWOOM!!!

A fire sprouts and blossoms from his back in a single breath, causing him to yowl and grimace in pain and temporarily lose awareness of his surroundings for a beat. An embarrassing display of weakness, but at least no one wa—a beat too long. Before he could finish that thought, the next thing Audland heard was a SPLASH!. A big one. He could even feel it through his thick fur, on the parts of his skin that weren't actively burning. Maybe it was some kind of ffffiiiiissss...

Oh. Oh wait. That was him. Oh shhhh...Audland doesn't know how to swim!

Pathetic as it was, Audland's dignity went right out the window. He hoped someone was around to hear him scream: "HELP!!!! HEEEEELP!!!"

@Phelix

It has to be true

After the excitement of the magicka show Phelix needed some time and space to breathe. Literally. Being out of the water so long always got pretty uncomfortable, and the magicka show had been significantly more intense than he'd been expecting. Weren't these supposed to be fun games? Even the wrestling matches had a rule against drawing blood.

The river cutting through Polaris was very different from the warm waters of Leo that he was used to. The steepness of the shore and strength of the current made him VERY thankful his limbs were covered in suction-cups, and the chilly water stung his gills with each breath. It was refreshing, though. Kind of pea- wHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!?!?!

The water was torn asunder by a furious cascade of bubbles, the wave that followed would've washed him away if he hadn't been clinging to a large rock sticking out of the riverbed. Something very big had fallen into the river, and it was quickly evident from the thrashing and shouting that it was someone.

Phelix had INTENDED to use his magic to push the gembound towards the shore using a wave. Instead, all of that force was directed towards Phelix himself, sending him careening off wildly like a deflating balloon. He couldn't tell up from down, much less which direction he was going. He was stunned, completely at the mercy of his own backfired spell.

Audland might feel something small, slimy, and squishy splat against his foot. If he wasn't too busy burning alive and/or drowning.

I'm counting on you
To be my wings and my eyes

@Audland

That little quip about burning alive/drowning was not quite so fun when one was in the middle of experiencing BOTH. Perhaps (many, MANY cycles!!!) later Audland would look back an laugh. Right now, his "joviality" looked a lot more like flailing and screaming.

So yes, he happened to be quite occupied. However, his body could still detect Phelix's squishy fruit gusher of a body, in the same way that you might be very aware of a hand rising from the grave to grab you when you're standing in a graveyard mourning the loss of a loved one. Or something. Point is, the body naturally loves to pinpoint anything that makes the situation worse, and hone in on it. The feeling of some alien bulb thing squashing into his foot did not improve anything about this experience.

Delighting by the panic, Audland's corrupted magic jolted ahead of him. Psionic tendrils attempted to strike their way into the poor pus's mantle. HELP BETTER was the general impression of will that would enter Phelix's mind.

Perhaps he would find that some level of empowering. Or terrifying. It didn't really matter which.

@Phelix [happy +1 corruption points! also if phelix can't help, audland will help himself. eventually.]

It has to be true

He instinctively clings on to whatever he collided with before realizing that it was in fact the massive drowning gembound. He attempts to climb up the limb to get a better vantage point, but something grips his mind, burning cold. His magicka responds in kind, leaping out with a violent fervor he'd never experienced before.

The water between Audland and the shore begins to freeze. The current and the thrashing means that it's in several jagged floes, rather than one solid bridge like Phelix had originally intended. The ice itself was far too brittle to support even a fraction of Audland's weight without cracking. Not good enough. Help better. Do better. A furious, foreign part of him thinks.

I'm counting on you
To be my wings and my eyes

@Audland

It has to be true

Magic strikes out once more, driven forward by a puppeting force. The water in between the floes freezes, the ice growing thick enough to support Audland's weight, if only temporarily. A sufficent bridge. Better. Better help. He helped. He-
Phelix is disoriented in a brand new, utterly terrifying way. The alien impulse leaves but wisps of it remain, whispering in his mind. Tumultuous violent thoughts reminiscence of everything that happened at the magicka show- everything he was trying to forget. What just happened?
He is still stuck to Auddie's leg like a little leech. He doesn't think to detach yet, as distracted as he is by everything that just happened.

I'm counting on you
To be my wings and my eyes

[Double posting with perms]

As fast as the fall, so came the bridge. An... ice bridge? In the middle of the running river, out of spankin' nowhere? No way Audland was that cool. No, it had to be...

Audland's body thudded rather against the wall of solid ice. This knocks some sense back into him. After which, Phelix may feel the tingle of Audland's glancing talons grasping to pull Phelix from his leg. If his claws found purchase, Audland would lift the octopus up to view them. If not, Audland would simply place two paws on the ice bridge and look around in wonder. "Well, I'll be..." The countryisms would roll off his tongue either way.

"You there. I felt yer mind, I know yer there. Was this... you?" Audland wouldn't gesture anywhere, but he figured that the icy cold elephant in the water would be obvious enough.

Impressive as it was, Audland was now in a state of mind where he could realize that it was still threatening to crack. He supposed he was a lot of weight, but given how such a small thing could pull off such a large stunt in a matter of moments, Audland had to wonder if the creature could do better. Or at least wonder what else they could do.

And what could he do, by the way, before Phelix's efforts were wasted and they were thrown back into Thrashtown again? Audland would brace his body against the ice and lift a paw to the air. Wind. Water pressure. All of it pointing toward the bridge, pushing Audland against it. Maybe he could change that?

Instantaneously, Corruption lunged from Audland's body, with almost more force than he could physically bear. For a moment he felt it, and quite nearly saw it; the boar headed beast that leapt in the opposite direction from the current's flow, using Audland as its launch pad. He felt its claws press deep into his shoulders as it left him.

And after that, the winds above the river seemed to equalize with unsettling ease, as though they had just heard the insult that brought the room to complete quiet. They flowed less in the direction of the river's course. The pressure lifted, and the water level began to rise in their area. From this point, Audland could get only the bridge and climb out of the water.

He would take Phelix with him if Phelix wished it. It was inadvisable to be stuck in the river's path when the pressure came crashing back down.

@Phelix

It has to be true

Audland would feel a sensation best likened to holding a handful of cold, distressed spaghetti, or perhaps a worm orgy. Phelix, meanwhile, panics upon feeling an incomprehensibly large paw grasp around him, and bites down on panicked instinct. Although to a creature as robust as Audland this may as well just be a papercut.

"Whauh- Uh- YES!" He sputtered, quivering like a bowl of seaweed-colored jello. He had so many things he wanted to say, but now was not the best time for a conversation. He wasn't going to think of trying to get away, given how big Auddie was, and how treacherous the river now was. As Audland began to climb he'd crawl a bit up his forearm as to avoid accidentally getting crushed. It felt a little bit like having a wad of gum tangled in his thick blue fur. He would once again reach out with his magic- now of his own volition- to hopefully further reinforce the bridge.

Thats not what happened. His magic- perhaps still being contorted by outside influence- sinks inward. Ice crystals start rapidly growing on one of his tentacles, piercing the flesh and causing Phelix to shout out in agony- a sound likely lost in the crunching of the ice bridge and the rushing water. The arm is mutilated beyond use, likely in need of amputation. Thank goodness octopi can regrow limbs.

Once they were on solid ground, Phelix would crawl back onto Audland's palm, prodding him with his gemstone-tipped tentacle to get his attention. "What did you do?" He'd ask, faintly horrified, "That- that thing in my head made me freeze the water. And then it attacked ME." He shakily waves the half-frozen tentacle, then hisses in regret as the motion exacerbates the pain. And there's still something there. I can hear it." Faintly, nearly drowned out by the roaring river nearby. Whispers that urged him towards violence, anger, revenge for whatever this stranger had done to him. To tear with claws and jaws and teeth he didn't even have. To let the ice freeze his flesh and split his skin, like what had just happened to him.

But Phelix didn't want to do any of that. He just wanted whatever this was to stop.

I'm counting on you
To be my wings and my eyes

@Audland

When Phelix nips at him, Audland takes in a sharp breath. Papercuts do hurt us big people, you know. But he doesn't shake Phelix off. For the sake of getting out of the water, the highly perturbing feeling of octopus in his fur is noted, but ignored. Audland continues to heave himself onto the ice bridge with a grunt of effort before crawling onto shore. He doesn't have the gracious balance or lightness of physique to cross this bridge on two feet. He fails to notice Phelix's scream of agony, but he does catch that noises were being made.

He doesn't respond until he's on solid ground again. Hands and knees on the earth, where they should be. Then he can pay attention to the little octopus crawling on him with its weird little suckers. Somehow, though, Audland isn't all that bothered by Phelix's presence or anatomy. He feels like he's seen weirder in visions and dreams, and to be honest, this little guy is... kind of cute.

Audland watches Phelix move with a cat-like curiosity. He's listening to the story; he's especially watching the frozen tentacle wave around. It's delightful. Audland's intrusive thoughts win, predictably. Two delicate claws come over Phelix's head and steadily lower until Audland's talons are primed to pinch Phelix's frozen tentacle right were the ice meets the skin. If Phelix doesn't understand quickly enough, his tentacle will be plucked off like a grape from the vine and promptly popped into Audland's mouth.

With simultaneous crunching noises or without, Audland would answer Phelix's question next: "That thing in yer head was me, kiddo." And this is where Audland would swallow down his first piece of calamari, if he had any. "Or, my element. Chaos, or corruption, or whatever. That's what makes the whispers on the water, too. Y'ain't never met a valkhound before?"

Audland stands up. Maybe Phelix is still on his palm when he does; Audland wouldn't remove him. In his unoccupied hand, Audland would try to summon a cold fire. A small black flame would begin to lick his palm, its tendrils floating upward from between his fingers. Audland would offer the clawtips of his flaming hand to Phelix in a sort of handshake.

"What's yer name, small fry? I'm Audland."

OOC: Permission granted by Snail on Discord to have Audland attempt to do something weird and uncalled for lmao #valkhound

@Phelix