Knife-claws smashed into rock again without much success. The dinosaur did nothing.

Others who had silly things like 'observation' or 'social skills' might have easily read Brother's intent. For Rena, who had slightly more brain cells than Brother but only when it came to ways to enact brutal violence to serve and defend the Hive, it completely flew over her head.

No. Rena was confused. Why wasn't the dinosaur joining in? Was this not what it had wanted? Hadn't it demonstrated interest in this activity? Her pincers wavered, unsure, but then the glaring irregularities in the chipped bone-crystals could not be ignored anymore. They DEMANDED she remedy the situation by herself if necessary, so she just kept stabbing and smashing doggedly, no matter how painfully slow the process was.

@Brother

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Accessing document . . .

Brother's singular brain cell was growing. He could almost feel it. He watched Rena strike again, and his own claws twitched. He took a moment to look down at them, pushing them together to make a single point; almost a trough-like shape as they were held together like he was going to cup something within them.

It took him a moment to shuffle about to get into position close enough to reach the crystallised bones without his big face getting in the way; he ended up with his face pressed against the wall anyway. Then, reeled back and struck.

Pieces of the bone crystal went flying in teeny tiny shards, scattering in all directions. So thrilled with how successful the technique was, he struck it again and again, until his claws were starting to feel scuffed and his joints ached. It was working! And it was working so much better than he expected!

This new friend was so good at smashing; he could learn so much from her, he noted. With the adrenaline still pumping in his veins, he made a delighted little rumble and chased after the scattered parts of the crystal he'd smashed and played with them. Crunching them underfoot or within his jaws as he snapped them up.

Save file ? ( Y / N )

@Rena

When the dinosaur struck, it was with a burst of sudden violence that shocked Rena with its effectiveness. The crystal shattered with his first strike and just kept breaking as he kept going at it. It was really impressive and way better than what Rena had been doing.

Her eyes swept over the shards littering the floor and tried to ignore them, though they nagged persistently. She would get to them later—there was so much yet to be Ordered about the caves that she simply would not be able to do anything efficiently if she kept getting distracted by different tasks. There was a Way and Process in which you had to go about things.

She turned back to the crystals and tried to break off a larger piece for the dinosaur to help homogenize, but her pincers just bounced off its surface ineffectually.

@Brother

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Brother trilled in excitement, stamping piece after piece, unaware of the internal struggle of poor Rena. After stamping on a particularly sharp shard, however, he paused; and absolutely NOT because it hurt, no, no, he simply just had to catch his breath...

It was at the point he caught Rena's struggle...

He pushed into poor Rena's space, reeled back and smashed his claws into the same spot. It only just broke off the piece, and scuffed his claws up quite terribly too. But, he looked towards Rena nonetheless and made a trilling rumble in his excitement.

Had it smashed good enough for the stranger? Would she be pleased?

Save file ? ( Y / N )

@Rena

Rena's opposite head saw the dinosaur coming, though the sudden invasion of her space was still... rather sudden. However, his wordless help was appreciated. Judging from his trills and rumbles, he liked helping, too. Rena felt a sense of unexpected kinship with this fellow crystal-smashing dinosaur. "Thanks," she said stiffly. It was too bad that she wasn't good at expressing that gratitude verbally, but thinking of the dinosaur's tendency to make expressive sounds rather than say words, Rena decided to try the same. Myriad legs began clicking all together like a round of applause for his talent.

Following up on the chunk he'd helped break off, Rena lifted a leg and brought it down on the piece like a hammer. The first strike only just cracked it, so she kept stomping and stomping until it was broken up into small enough chunks that the bone and crystal could be separated and sorted later.

@Brother

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WELCOME, [UNIDENTIFIED USER] !
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Accessing document . . .

Brother made a trill, watching Rena as she smashed the remains into even smaller pieces. It didn't really have any idea that the lack of speech was unusual; why would he? No one had explicitly said that, and even if they had, he'd grown too frustrated with the idea of needing to speak that they usually left him alone.

Besides, he was happy like this. Quiet and not forced to think about why he did things, just that they felt nice to do, so he'd do them.

Life was simple. Life was good.

Brother owlishly tilted his head, watching the geodes being separated from the bones. Perhaps, now, only finally getting the idea of what Rena was actually doing. He marched over to the opposite side, where geode and bone had met on the opposite wall of the same tunnel. Then reeled back...

Then lunged for the nearest bone, snapping his jaws around it as he jumped up to reach it. Then, he was just sort of.. left, dangling there. The force from his bite was not enough to break the large bone, nor was his weight apparently. He just dangled from the bone, like a little dog being lifted from a tug-of-war rope.

Save file ? ( Y / N )

@Rena