This was hopeless. The dead one was just too far gone. Whatever it was doing, 'listening to the throne', she wanted no part. A gift from the fungus? A buzzing? What on earth was it talking about? It was mad, absolutely raving mad and she wanted no part in its schemes.

She didn't quite care if it killed off the whole of the caves, to be honest, as long as it left her alone. But she had a feeling she wouldn't be able to walk away. Or if she helped take down this creature, she would get the respect she so desired. They would praise her for destroying the one spreading the plague. Perhaps she should switch her side and be with the young thing that had just arrived. She glanced back at it and gave the brave little thing a nod. "I agree. Sorry," she added, "If you want to defend your home, little one, then you do it." She turned back to the dead one and frowned.

"Who cares about some dusty old throne? Who cares about what's already passed? This is just a rock and it doesn't matter who came before and did what and killed who. The caves have a future and you seem to have forgotten about that." She began to growl deep in her throat. "Keep your stinking nose in your own business, ugly." It was relieving to finally let go of the thoughts she had to shield from the world. In this case, it was probably a perfectly normal reaction. Besides, only these two would be here to listen to her speak.

"Living with myself."
Nothing but lies.


tags: @Khloros
notes:

Khloros stared, remaining mostly aloofly indifferent--yet the faintest stirring of anger coiled through him. Her ignorance-... But it does not matter.

The plagued horse flicked his gaze off to the stone, where the rat had now successfully escaped. They hadn't even tried to stop it; he wondered what that meant. Nothing, perhaps. With a soft exhale he lifted his head to stare at Reseda again, ignoring the smaller one. He did not blame that one for thinking him mad; it could hardly feel what he had felt, through his own magic, through the stone. But slowly, once more, he explained.

"What has happened once will happen again. Death must remove the souls from this cycle, before they are once again trapped in stone."

He did not bother speaking further. He had said what he needed to; his plague was released. Now it was a matter of moving on to the next location. Words would not stop him; only actions would.

Khloros slowly turned, moving to simply walk away, his hoofbeats clicking on the dusty stone.

________________

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

// exit Khloros, unless stopped (it's fine if he is attacked/spoken to further)

@Arba

ARBA

Arba would never admit it, but she was surprised when the large reptile agreed with her, even apologizing. The little Quoll stood up on her hind legs, fur bristling as she glowered at the Plague Horse. This was her home - for the time being. And so she would protect it.

The reptile began to growl, snapping at the Plague horse. To her annoyance, the Plague Horse seemed to ignore her, and she bristled. "Stay away from my home, beast! I don't care what you do to the other Caves, but this one is mine!"

And the horse left. Arba glowered after it, before looking at the reptile. "Are there many Gembounds like it?" she huffed. "Ugly, smelly, mad?"

"I'm speaking..."
'I'm thinking...'

@Reseda

Reseda watched the horse go with a growing sense of annoyance. This horse was another fool and an idiot. An idiot with a very powerful ability. She could not leave him walking around. However, when she tried to build up energy, it died away, not strong enough to create the radiation she needed. She would try again, but she had to stop the horse from leaving.

"So that's it," she called, "You go somewhere, plant the plague, lecture some younglings, and then take off? Doesn't seem like you care very much, or at least as much as you say. You think your rat's escaped, you think I didn't notice. No, I've already killed your rat so you're walking away with no purpose."

Of course, Reseda was lying. She didn't care about the rat. It would probably go and die somewhere else. What she did care about was keeping the dead one long enough to attempt another laser. Even as she spoke, she started to build up more energy, preparing for another attempt.

She glanced at the smaller thing. "No, I have met none. But there are some that are rude, think they know everything. And ugly. Don't worry, we won't let him keep going with this."

"Living with myself."
Nothing but lies.


tags: @Khloros
notes:

Khloros did not stop, his ears already deaf to the ignorant ranting of the reptile. His thoughts were already elsewhere, his gait picking up into a slow trot as he made his way from Orion. He had watched 'his' rat escape; he knew that the lizard's words were falsehood, unless she had used some sort of magic without him knowing. But it would be pointless, then, to continue in Reseda's sight; he'd find another rat elsewhere, perhaps, or another hapless Lesser in this cave, and plague that once well away.

His footfalls receded on the stone, easy and swift, surprisingly unhampered for all his diseased appearance.

As for Reseda's words, he couldn't care less. "Lecture?" Ha, the little one had asked a question. He was merely answering. The reptile's arrogance was... disinteresting to him. He dismissed her as foolish and prideful almost at once, and went on his way. The little one..?

He just hoped that the reptile would not turn on it, and eat it. He held no malice for the very young.

________________

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

//exit Khloros; if you want to catch him up later poke me and we can make a new thread, but he ain't stoppin now!

@Arba @Reseda

Arba looked between the big reptile, and the ugly monster horse. The reptile was confronting the horse, who seemed not to care, turning away and beginning to leave. Soon, it was out of sight, and the reptile turned to her.

Seemingly unknowing of the danger she was in, the Quoll turned back to the reptile, seeing its eyes land on her. Arba, honestly, didn't care about the horse, or its plague, or the rats it was setting loose to make others sick. So long as it didn't bother her, she couldn't care less.

The reptile said that she'd never met others like the horse, and the Quoll tilted her head. And, apparently, 'we' were going to stop the horse, and she tilted her head. "How so? What are we going to do?"

@Reseda

Reseda stopped the charge of energy when she realized that the dead one was too far away from her to do anything. Now that it was gone, she was beginning to care less and less about this. If the rat escaped and plagued the caves, she would rule over nothing. But it would probably die or some other gems would stop the plague. Of course, that was not a given. But it would take time to find the rat now.

Perhaps...she should use her magic to try and catch a glimpse of the outcomes. To see what chances would be at play should she do nothing. Should she turn and go back to the room of bones. She focused inwards towards the gem and a strange feeling, not unlike many of her arcane spells, spread through her body. Her eyes flashed brightly as her sight shifted into the future events and what would unfold.

"Hush, child," she whispered, "I shall look into the future"

@Game Master Dark

Flashes of imagery whirl through Reseda's mind, flickering and difficult to make sense of, even dizzying at times. There are images of the black horse speaking to others, throughout the cave. Reseda sees a morose-looking fox, a flaming creature with curled horns bursting from a cloud of black smoke, and Khloros himself lying in a dark niche, badly wounded.

This shifts. There is an image, fragmented, of strangers to Reseda--and some faces she might know--confronting the plagued horse, his back to a wall. It shifts again. An image of multitudes of slimed, dead fish bobbing in a cold pool, a white wolf staring into it. A flicker; rats lie dead and twitching through Cetus. It shifts again. Others stand lined before the plagued horse, listening to his words, and all appear dripping with illness yet unaffected. Among them are Reseda herself, and a jet-black bat. The image shifts a final time; there is one brief, clear vision of large, snarling cats in Eridanus, birds flitting through the canopy behind them.

@Reseda

Reseda stares into the distance, her eyes flashing a multitude of colors as images passed across her mind. Some she vaguely understood, others not at all. She recognized few, but one thing she could understand. If she did nothing, like she had intended, then she wouldn't stay out of it forever. She was a part of this now. Perhaps even if she hadn't come up to the dead one she would still be pulled in. She even saw one future where involvement seemed completely certain. She did not want to reach that future. Her skin had been dripping with disease.

The images faded and her eyes turned back to black. She looked at the young creature next to her and stared at it, unblinking, and thinking deeply. She could pursue the horse, yes. Chase it to where it would go. But that would leave the rat to scurry through Orion and destroy the cave. Make it worse. Perhaps it would be the thing that would destroy the swamp room. Or maybe the dead one had visited there already, or would soon.

"He will spread his plague. The rat that escaped, as well as other things that have crossed through his disease will bring ruin to the cave. We can pursue him or stay here and find the rat, cut off what he has already planted before it can do more damage. There are others fighting against him...what do you say? What will you do?"

@Arba