For his chips, Jinyi received a brief moment of respite from the Valkhound's uncomfortable, dripping closeness. His entire body sagged with relief. It felt like bursting above the surface into the sunlight and taking a gasp of air after an eternity of drowning in the murky depths.

Then it finished chewing, and its attention fixated back on him. Frozen in place, Jinyi watched in slow-motion as the creature reached out. Placed a paw on the oil stains on his body. Smeared it further into revolting disorderly shapes.

Jinyi wanted to scream. Jinyi wanted to cry. Jinyi wanted to call all of his friends together and murk this Valkhound on the spot. Instead, he jerked back in a violent motion, trying to break free of the chains of his own failed magic, but the chitin would not yield.

"Hahahahaha," he laughed, a high-pitched and obviously insincere sound. "Would you look at that. Maybe I am a little bit stuck after all. Wanna help break it?" Valkhounds enjoyed breaking things, right? If it wasn't going to attack him right now, would it at least do something useful?

"I can get more chips for you when I'm free," he added.

@Virosa

The drone squirmed with the contact, and Virosa retracted the limb - what a fragile, pitiful creature. Something twisted inside it, something always boiling under the skin but rarely surfacing. It liked being reasoned. It liked being able to justify its work and its existence with as few words as possible.

But it was still a Valkhound, and it still tended to cruelty. No end to these means, just feeling of satisfaction like a hard-earned meal.

He choked out his attempt at negotiation. "Mmm. Will you?" The mushrooms that had burst from its skin moments before now curled their way across the lattice of Jinyi's prison, further corrupting this poor, specific branch. "I think I prefer this. I love... Conversation."

Lies. Liar. Lying.

@Jinyi

Two base instincts. Between food and cruelty, it seemed like the latter won out. Jinyi gritted his teeth. Fine, then, conversation. He was a good Drone. Adaptable. He would make the most of this situation, try to fish out any useful information he could for Mother.

He spread his hands in a shrug, forcing calm through his voice. "All right, then. I love conversation too, but it can be hard to make friends sometimes. Have you been able to make friends to talk to? What do you like to talk about?" From the awkward way it talked, the oddly short sentences and whatnot, Jinyi didn't think it would be a great conversationalist. Perhaps other Valkhounds found it charming, or just normal.

But just because he was choosing to engage in conversation didn't mean he had to continue to be stuck here, prisoner to the whims of this twisted creature. He had recovered enough to use magic at least a few more times, he thought, and quickly ran through a list of plans and backup plans. Then he casually tucked his hand in a pocket of his now oil-stained silk robes. When he withdrew it, a hammerlike apparatus extended from his fist, as if he was holding it (and he did his best to make it seem like he was)—but it was, in fact, physically attached to him. With several swift, vicious movements, Jinyi smashed the hardened stasis-spray freezing him in place and immediately skittered backward, putting a healthy six feet of social distance between him and the Valkhound.

A shadow of a smile projected onto his features. He couldn't resist a quip. "I never said that we couldn't have a conversation when I was unstuck, either. Pity you didn't want to help. It might have helped us become better friends."

@Virosa

"I met the Overseer here. And I am a... Creation, of the Master. You know the one, I think." Virosa could feel the drone's patience running short. A shame this couldn't last longer - a cycle at least. Lovely company to have while it worked. A good boost to morale. "We could talk about them."

It flinched back when Jinyi produced a weapon, hissing and skittering closer to the trunk like an enormous, awful cat. The fright faded, and now its new pet was threatening to leave. "Doesn't have to stop it. The friendship."

From the stains on its robe, spores began to take root. They would bubble and burst from his skin, if left to their own devices a few moments more. They'd leak oil, on and through the tissue. It would look beautiful, Virosa knew.

"Could take you with me. You could watch." It clacked its teeth. "Was made to... undo, all that hard work."

"You could even try to stop me. I don't mind."

@Jinyi

His newfound freedom and the far-more-comfortable distance between them lent Jinyi a renewed burst of confidence. "Oh, you’re right," he agreed amiably. "It doesn’t have to. But real friends lift each other up, don’t they?" Perhaps this could be a learning moment for a creature of chaos born with a twisted idea of what interpersonal relationships should be.

Something was wrong with his robes. The prickle of corrupted magic oozed to life again, closer than it should have been. Jinyi made a split second decision: these robes were going to be ruined anyway; the oil stains would never wash out. A knife sprouted from his hammerless hand, and he sliced away the fabric where it attached to his body in several quick motions. "Stop that," he said sharply to the Valkhound, though without any real expectation that it would listen. "Friends don't do that, either."

He couldn't help the ripple of incredulous colors that flashed across his expression at the Valkhound's offer. Did it think he would enjoy that? Watching the creep of corruption across the Order the Hive had sacrificed so much to instill? But no, it really does. That was just the way this creature thought, he realized, if it didn't even care whether he tried to stop it.

Well. It wouldn't be just him stopping it, in that case. Speaking of which, was there going to be backup? Or should they just let this one go on its merry way corrupting the jungle, while they quietly extended their influence wherever it wasn't? Either way, continuing the conversation could potentially be useful. "Why don't we talk while doing something neutral?" he suggested. "Like eating snacks. That way we can have a nice conversation while undoing neither of our hard work. You might not mind it, but I do." It seemed to have slipped his mind that he was pretending to have no idea what a drone was.

@Virosa

MOTHER

She'd been called, early in the conversation, and she hadn't been idle. The sense of immediate activity swarmed along the link. Any nearby Drones were called upon to ensure Jinyi's escape; there was no point in trying to kill Virosa, not now and not without preparation, but Mother was also not going to give up her beloved servant without a fight.

Likewise, the message that slithered into Jinyi's mind wasn't only verbal, but a concept: preparation.

"Be ready." And then, with calculating consideration behind it: "Ask its name." The concept behind that was clear enough, threaded throughout the words as idea: if they had a name, perhaps--as slim a chance as it was--they might be able to find out exactly what this Valkhound was. 'Made to undo all that hard work' sounded... ominous.

A concept flitted through Jinyi's mind: a simple distraction would not work. It'd make it too obvious that the Drone was just that: a servant of the Hive. But Mother hid whatever she was truly planning.

It would take a couple of moments--maybe time for the two to exchange further incredibly awkward and slightly deadly-edged conversation--before a limping Echoing Gray came into view, a little ways away. It was the sort clearly taken by the Hive's fungus, thick with sprouting white, the eyes filmed and half-blind and the body skeletal with neglect.

"The Overseer... dead..." it croaked. Just random words, parroted via Mother, but maybe they'd draw the Valkhound's eye. Or ear. Or ire. It lowered its head, vomiting a small spew of warped and rancid cottony fungus like a hairball. "Hard... work." The words were choked.

A few birds were gathering nearby. Flitting here, then away. Dropping threads of white nearby them, to sift down among the leaves. Another rat, then, white eyes staring empty from the undergrowth. A snake, its movements jerky and scales flaking away.

Then, the unexpected. The birds--small songbirds, nothing terribly deadly, but still sharp-beaked and dead-eyed--flew at the pair. Tiny wings carried them forward, battering, little claws scratching, beaks driving for flesh--both Virosa's and Jinyi's. The Gray bolted for Jinyi, biting savagely, then Virosa. The snake, the rat--an attack.

An attack on both of them.

It would be easy enough to dispatch the Lessers--or to escape them. Perhaps even for Jinyi to make good his escape altogether. But if he couldn't make it... and if no other Drones were nearby to answer the call... then maybe the attack would at least exonerate him.

@Virosa

The work was part of it - it could not cease. But perhaps it could proceed in subtler ways. Virosa was taken aback by the drone's pursuit of a longer conversation, unsure what was driving him to act this way - to be so accomodating despite the fact it'd tried to infect it itself a moment before.

And it had actually liked those chips, it realised. Before it was a chance to get more, if it liked. It had to share so much of what it caught with its crop. Free food was an opportunity previously unknown to it.

The ivy crept further down the trunk, beginning to fully dominate the tree.

Its tail flicked from side to side. "Chips. Do you have more? We could be friends forever. For chips."

@Jinyi

He was aware that the Valkhound was not stopping. How much of his words had really gotten through to it, he wondered? It acknowledged the chips, and that was all. BUT. It had acknowledged his chips! That was better than ninety percent of the residents of these caves!

"Of course I have more," he promised smoothly. "Making them is my hobby, after all. But first, what's your name?" and, just in case the valkhound didn't care for social norms like knowing your 'friend''s name: "I might not be able to find you again to give you more chips if I don't even know who you are."

He tossed it the third bag of chips. It had eaten the first two whole, bag and all, so surely it didn't matter that much if this one was a bit crushed up? "Anyway, tell me more about that Overseer you met. Is it also your friend? What do they do?"

All the better to murk you with later.

@Virosa

Hobby. It knew enough about drones that they did not, typically, have hobbies - at least as far as Virosa did itself. It was now that it considered whether keeping this thing alive in exchange for food, food of an unknown origin and content was the wisest thing to do. But it knew that attacking would be unlikely to succeed, and it was also incredibly boring. It'd trapped the enemy in a dialogue, which was some kind of progress, right?

It doubted the Master would approve.
"I saw Overseer Tectus. She lives in the dryer caves. I do not go there. I would wither. My name is-"

Virosa was interrupted, rudely, by a talking rat. This rat was clearly infected - odd, considering the ease of which they'd hid from it in the past. Another rat. Then a snake. The whole cave had decided to come alive.

"You mother is here."

It was a matter of time before she decided to interrupt, it supposed. Ever the nuisance, she'd sent tiny birds to tear at its fur, foliage, and occasionally flesh. It hissed its irritation, saving its stronger words for Jinyi, before noticing that the lessers didn't seem to distinguish between the two.

Strange. Perhaps this one wasn't a true drone, the way few in the Forge are true hounds. Maybe that made him uniquely expendable - and there was always a chance it'd been wrong about its suspicions. It hadn't enough social experience with anyone in particular to say definitively.

But Virosa knew it liked the chips, and that it was far larger than Jinyi.

It lunged first for the rat closest to him, ignoring the incessant scratching of the songbirds above, and the rat that had targeted Virosa first. That one dug into the flesh of its leg, seizing the opportunity it'd left. As Virosa crushed the foul, withered wretch in its teeth, it hoped the second would choke on what little of its oil-blood it was tasting.

@Jinyi

Yellow was here. To support their sibling. And they had their gun.

To be clear, they would not use it yet, because helping their family escape was more important, and because Mother had said there was no point in trying to kill Virosa now. Instead, from a hidden position high up in the trees, they called a magical wind into existence that would, as real friends did, lift Jinyi up.

While the jetstream wound its way to Jinyi, however, Yellow clutched at their gun and stared the Valkhound with wide orange eyes full of hate. They wanted to use it so badly. They could feel the corruption emanating from the creature, twisting their beloved trees and vines into blackened, sick mockeries of their once-beautiful forms. It was destroying the jungle they and their family wanted to protect.

They could not wait for this Valkhound, along with the others, to get what they deserved.