Just outside of the massive central cavern, where the path forks towards Pisces through a dusty corridor, the earth rumbles and the soil splits. Shards of earth shift and the grains cascade from an irregular object as it erupts from the ground; it comes in like a crooked tooth, this grey-black thing so rich with iron that the air takes on the scent of it. When the dust settles the chrysalis lurches and connects with a crack to the adjacent wall - it cuts the surface, affixing itself as if with a tired gasp, and then everything is still again. The magicka pulsing through the stone gives it a dull flickering effect, a sheen that moves across the surface.

The stone did not sit for more than a few hours before the pulsing light became a dim but steady glow, and then the surface quaked. Something shifted inside the chrysalis. A force connected with a segment and from it, along the center, a crack fissured its way along; yet the creature inside was still trapped.

Her first time out, her first time venturing. The world was new and strange and the ground was absent of bones. She quite missed the cracking and snapping of her strong legs crunching through marrow. Canis seemed so far away, so long ago. But that didn't really matter, did it? She was going somewhere else. Drifting along the current, room to room, never stopping unless for food or a rest when her body demanded such of her. Never caring where her feet stopped to rest.

The air in here was warm and humid. While she didn't care much for the temperature, she had to admit the humidity felt natural and enjoyable on her skin and scales. The deep one had recommended to her that she know the caves, know the system, know the gems living. She hadn't come across too many and internally she was thankful for this. Quiet and peace were better then idiots and fools buzzing around her ears.

But now she spotted a gem, a little black one, just out of the ground. Like a flower. An ugly black stone flower. It didn't look like a flower. Not a flower.

She hobbled up to it and peered at it closely. There was a creature inside. A new creature. A child, a young one. To eat or to nuture or to leave or to kill. It didn't matter. She was here now, she had to break the shell.

She raised herself onto her back legs and then brought her almost-fully-grown weight onto the gray chrysalis. Upon impact, the gem cracked and then shattered under the force and she stepped back, her tongue flicking with surprise. She wondered if she had hit the creature inside. Keyword: wondered. She did not particularly care.


"Living with myself."
Nothing but lies.


tags: @Ibrahim
notes:

The impact of creature versus the chrysalis caused a spider-web of cracks to splinter out of the collision point. They spiraled out in quick succession, with the largest fissure diving deep in to the soil, past where the shape of the chrysalis erupted. The shards were everywhere, but they did not slide from their place upon the stone shell until the creature inside woke; not even the slam of Reseda's efforts upon the stone had woken it. It wasn't until the dust settled this second time, and a reverberation of their momentum shifted the creature inside, that it woke. Eyes flew open moments after — they flashed red for but an instant, perhaps indicating the magicka which had taken hold of the gem within the new creature. The light faded just as swiftly, like the red-eye glare of a camera flash.

Then, all hell seemed to break loose. The pieces came tumbling down, and the chrysalis was no more. The newborn creature hit the pile of rubble and slid across the stack of dark shards, rolling and colliding with the floor of the corridor with the cacophonous sound to herald his arrival. It was like the uproar of a fresh box of cereal being dumped across the floor — except in this case the prize was a rotund quadruped who tumbled in to Reseda's waiting feet (or face, considering how low the lizard was oriented).

Reseda watched blankly as the small gembound tumbled into her claws. She took a step back to get a better look at it. Fur and spots and teeth and claws. It was like the dark one. Actually, it was exactly like the dark one. Was it the dark one? No, that fool was bigger and older and covered with blood and fungus. This was a different one. That was its name. The different one.

She leaned down and nudged the different one, wondering if it was alive or if it was okay to eat. Or if it was, in fact, both alive and okay to eat. She was hungry, she hadn't eaten in a while. "Is it awake? Alive? Or cold and dead? Things are better warm."


"Living with myself."
Nothing but lies.


tags: @Ibrahim
notes:

No tag so yea.

She made the choices around here. She was the Greek Goddess. She is. Was and has been. Await her suited growth in that throne. You have no choice. Reseda seemed to assume that, though. Choices.

And as the serpentine child marched forward, she had been spying the dreadful Reseda, lingering only yards away. Cháos hated her truth be told. But territorial urges got in the way of emotional ones. Reseda wasn't worth a thing. That was until the komodo dare be responsible for another. Cháos goes fast now, slithering as if the terrain had been water. Anger seething her green, now foot longer body, she charged once finally close enough to see both Reseda and the brood who was at her feet.


As if some major wrong had been done, Cháos freezes as her eyes stab at the cur then to the lizard. Her lizard! Cháos wants to hiss. Wants to throw her first tantrum. But she chooses to focus her resent to something useful. Thus, a new trait is generated: domination.

Cháos speaks through her many teeth while her upper body rose higher than the happy family, her tail supporting her stand. "V'at are you doing." How dare Reseda help let alone sponsor anyone other than she. Had Cháos been a replacement? Or had the emotional snake been a creative mobster looking for a fight? Still, she was angry at the notion, disgusted. It deemed that anyone who even came close to something Cháos claimed would raise hellfire.

At the moment, the snake that was feet away proved a threat to the younger pup. Bravado tossed off and her ego intimidated, Cháos flashed her jealously. Quietly, Cháos links to her loyal kingdom of prokaryote. The notes of frequency bombarded her earing till it was all she heard. She found many possible, useful bacteria to infect either Reseda or the cur with. Set, she was ready to go at any moment now.

Strangely (or maybe not so strangely, because this being was a gem-powered-meat-suit in an otherwordly cavernous environment) the babe was asleep at the dragon's feet. It seemed not to notice the dishevelment of its own body, nor the solidity of the ground that it had just tumbled across. Shards of his chrysalis continued to settle, some of it still beneath him, but he lay prone before the lizard without so much as a peep. It wasn't until the komodo began to speak that the babe seemed to wake.

As another arrives on the scene, this time a lizard without the ample limbs and claws of the other, their voice dominates the airways. The newborn is brought closer to a wakeful state by their conversation, and with a weak shuffling, it raises its head and reaches out with its stubby, new legs. Once he had stretched and taken a deep maw-gaping breath, the beast's eyes popped open. First one, then the other — and in the dim light it saw a ribbon of scales flashing closer, and the reptilian hide of the komodo.

But it was not afraid. Perhaps it should have been — but the newborn did not know what fear felt like yet, and merely sat there sleepily, blinking as it looked between the two entities. He wasn't super interested in either of them yet (as evidenced by his lethargic manner) but he had no reason to run either.

Reseda was momentarily distracted when the green one appeared. She turned to look at the snake and frowned, annoyed that it had followed her. But, to be honest, she didn't really care. It wasn't as if she was doing anything important. Nothing was important. If the green one wanted to be here, she had no objections. But it was very possessive of her. She didn't understand why, but she didn't mind. She was raising it, right? Then it was fine if it followed her.

"There was a gem. A shell. There is much potential within a shell." There was more she had to say, but she thought that, perhaps, if the dog heard it would not be agreeable. She did not know of the dog quite yet, but she guessed it would be like the others gems she had to deal with. She activated the magic within her gem and sent it towards the green one, to whisper quietly in its ear. "A young one, ignorant and empty has two uses. They can either spread the word, the name, the fear or become a tasty young snack. We shall see."

To the different one, she changed her voice, smooth, silky, gentle. She realized that it was awake now and gave is a sweet, kind smile. "Young one. You are new. I am Reseda and this is Cháos. Do you have a name?"


"Living with myself."
Nothing but lies.


tags: @χάος
notes:

The snake proved emotional though surely to an extent. Cháos, eager to understand Reseda and her found brood, stepped forward with a gaze worth question. Her mind secretive of it's thoughts that could've been mad, unpredictable. But Reseda seems to trust that Cháos is nonetheless a child in itself, too innocent to cause calamities. And she is right for now.

Soon a distinct voice, Reseda's, seemingly calms the feisty girl. Serpent ego raffled no more, she assumes relaxation. Still, waves of envy lay at the brinks while Cháos's eyes gleam past the cur as if seeing through the baby gembound. It was obvious Cháos did not accept the young one; Cháos herself felt betrayed by the all too quick growth that announced her soon to be adolescent,- naming her no more a loveable child. She gravitated to an angry teen.

"Reseda." She tastes her guardian's name for the first time with a focus to it. Cháos notices the imprint around it.. she noticed just how tightly Reseda was held. Even if the two hadn't communicated as such, the snake's actions were clear. Defiant even. Cháos moves from observing the cur only to be closer to the rugged body of Reseda. As if a physical claim that the younger gembound would do best to respect.

Cháos's upper body rises. What Reseda suggested via the distinct whisper had the young snake contemplating. Food was great. But what about reputation? Considerations never paid for by Cháos. It nearly saved the early life of this baby gembound. "V'ill we keep him?" The angry stance of features relax in the young serpent's face. Her fire.. eased.