Envy felt their insides tremble at the strange canine's response to their advances. Oh, that laugh he let out made their vision swim and their heart flutter! And his grin---! Oh, Envy didn't know what to do but stare! And when he spoke... accepting their offer to join their lowly kingdom---! They could have exploded with the pure, unbridled amazement and joy.

As it was, they let out a tiny squeal of glee, bounding over to Narcissus and reaching up to touch their noses together. Yes! He was theirs! He was all theirs! And he would be for the rest of their long, long lives! "Yes! Yes! No king ever to have lived will have ever had a finer subject!! It will be wonderful! You will be the flower of my throne room, the jewel of my eye...! Just think of all the adoring subjects basking in your glory, but never able to have you...! And if anyone ever tries to take you away, they'll be sorry! You will be mine forever and ever and ever and ev--"

But, as it turned out, there was a caveat.

Literally, as they said it, someone came to take him away. Envy was roused from their lovestruck stupor by the sound of a voice. And they turned away from Narcissus to see the source--the terrible source-- advancing towards them. Envy slowly lowered themselves onto all fours, arching their spine. They looked around momentarily before realizing that she could only be going for their prize-- the beautiful creature stood behind them.

But Envy wasn't going to give him up that easily, oh no.

Although they felt a violent stab of fear, any sense of self-preservation was numbed and drowned out by the haze of love and jealousy. In their mind, they were a noble knight standing tall and getting ready to protect their princess from the terrible monstrosity rising above them. "He's already mine!" they hissed, baring their teeth. "You can't have him!" They glanced sideways at the... fluffy thing that was now throwing itself at the spider's legs. "Take the cat instead. It wants you more than he ever will."


Speech. Thought.

@narcissus @thothaga

as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

Thothaga felt claws tear at her heart- how can the weasel utter such foul words? "N-no! You don't understand, we were meant to be one! We are fated for one another!." She had never been so sure of this in her life. Her gut was never wrong, but it was clear he wanted to tangle with the weasel more than her. Thothaga felt the web of her reality unraveling, and her heart breaking.

Then, her eyes grew dark. The weasel talked about a kingdom.. wait... could they be... the fable "King Envy" of the Seven Deadly Sins? Admittedly she'd thought they'd be bigger.

But their title was of little concern.

If it wasn't for this green little tyrant sweeping her Spire-colored love away, everything would right with the caves, he would be all hers, now and forever.


"You've stolen him from me." The spider hissed- her words, though venomous, came from a place of hurt. "How DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU! " Her harsh voice boomed through the tunnels like an angry giant. "Is the loyalty of your subjects not enough you, King Envy?" She spat their name like poison. "You have to steal the treasure of my heart too!?" Heart-break, anger, jealousy, these feelings swirled around in her gut like flood of shards.

Thothaga flexed her fangs and reared. "FINE, BUT YOU WILL HAVE TO BE RID OF ME FIRST!" Fury surged through her body and her mind lash out as spell, with the intent to grab Envy's tiny body and fling them into a wall of ice.

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

@Envy @Narcissus @Lethe

Lethe's jaw dropped and tears welled to her eyes. Not just tears, though, leaking from her body, anger began to seep into her heart. A powerful, grief-filled anger almost matching that of Thothaga. Her long tail lashed against the ground furiously and she began to growl in a garbled voice. She hadn't even said anything to her. She hadn't even looked at her.

She didn't care about the weasel. In fact, it would be better if he just took away that disgusting looking dog thing and clear the spider of all of her distractions. But Lethe wasn't going to sit there and watch all of that happen. She had to get her love, she had to have the spider!

She would do anything!

In her stomach welled a vile concoction filled with her anger and her will to get rid of Narcissus in any way possible. A thread of magic from the gem on her cheek gave the sickness strength and potency, although she was so filled with emotion that all of its energy did not reach the vector of disease.

She stormed up to Narcissus, her eyes blazing and her teeth flashing. "You won't take my love from me!!" She then gathered a part of the vector in her mouth and spit a wad of diseased saliva right in his face. She wanted him to make a fool of himself, lose track of where he was, and, best of all, she wanted him to forget, just as she forgot so much.

@Narcissus

Narcissus
Watch my actions
Or lack thereof
Negate the person
That I said I was


Hearing Envy speak of how Narcissus would be adored, and how everyone would see and admire him...well, he quite liked the sound of that! In fact, it felt like everything he had ever wanted! And it was going to happen! He grinned wide, looking down at the little weasel, already imagining his future by their side.

But someone else came up and interrupted his thoughts. He frowned, staring at the large creature. Upon hearing her words, he bristled. He didn't want to be with this...this thing! He was meant to be with Envy!

"Envy's right! I don't want to be with you! And I never will!" But as she reared up, he cowered down, suddenly fearful of what was going to happen to either him or Envy.

But before he could think much about either, someone else came up - someone who seemed to be pining after the giant spider. His ears lowered at her words, though his eyes began to flash with anger. "I don't want your love! Take her!"

He had no idea what the creature was doing until spit something onto his face. He growled, not having a clue why she would do that. But as time seemed to pass, he began to grow disoriented. He shook his head, trying to get rid of the feeling, but that only seemed to make it worse. He scowled down at her and cursed his inability to do anything other than light spells.




"Speech."
Thoughs

@Envy @Thothaga @Lethe

Taking the last box!

Everything was going to Hell in a handbasket, is what Catalyst would say if she knew what Hell was. Or a handbasket, for that matter. She listened idly to the other Gembounds approaching each-other, too busy chewing on the one dull-colored pillar. Catalyst had a loose tooth, and this was oddly soothing for it.

The Deer thing and the food-not-food-thing approached each-other, seeming to be getting along. The massive spider, it seemed, was mad at the green-food-not-food-thing, wanting the cat. The lazy-thing was trailing the spider, seeming very upset for some reason.

A particularly hard bite, and the loose tooth finally come free, clattering to the ground. Catalyst groaned - oh, that felt so much better! - and stepped back from the pillar, no longer half so interested.

It seemed like there was an all-out brawl about to happen, spider-versus-green-not-food, cat-versus-lazy thing. Catalyst growled, licking at where her tooth had once been, and stepped forward, the ground shaking beneath her foot. "ENOUGH!" she boomed.

But the box caught her attention now, pink and white and red. She'd never quite seen anything like it, and had almost squished it, her foot landing right beside it. So, no longer interested in the brawl despite having yelled and tried to stop it (unless someone turned to her, of course), she lowered her head, trying to open the box.

Envy's heart pounded as the monstrous spider loomed over them, yelling and challenging, and Envy felt themselves swooning as their inner consciousness battled between their want for narcissus and pure, unbridled fear. This was a bad idea. This was a very bad idea. But they faced it anyway. Why, without Narcissus, life was no longer worth living. They would gladly be chewed up and swallowed by the eight-legged monstrosty if it meant Narcissus would remain theirs forever.

...Even if he wouldn't...

Envy's eye twitched, their quills shaking. "I don't care about my subjects if it means I can have him!" they declared, puffing themselves up as though making a sacred vow, their voice high with certainty. And then the spider was storming towards them. A momentary flash of fear swept ove them, every quill along their length trembling...

And then it stormed past them, spitting in their love's face. Envy's jaw dropped and they shrieked with rage. They sucked in their breath, the gem in their throat burning with power that flooded through their entire body. Emotion empowered them, their energy plunged into the ground and resulted in a pillar of diamond rising out of the ground with surprising force, directly beneath the spider.

It was perfectly placed and ready to flip the spider onto her back or simply stun her.


Speech. Thought.

@Thothaga

Continued from here.

Bolormaa climbed, huffing and panting, claws scraping and scrabbling against the ice as she made the journey up through the tunnel. It was a journey that she'd made many times before; but it had been so long that Bolormaa was certain that the tunnel itself had changed. Or, at least, the formations of the ice within it.

Although her claws were dextrous, her neck long and tail meant for balance, it had been a long, long time since she'd tackled this route. She was, having been holed up in her grotto for so long, unused to long journeys and tough climbs. More than once she found herself tripping on the flaps of skin connecting her fore and hind limbs.

Her ears picked up the sounds of ensuing chaos long before she reached her goal, though, and she fought on harder, her belly pouch weighed down by the herbs and tools she carried with her. Soon she reached the pillars-- the source of the wonderful scent-- still standing just as proud as they were when she'd made them thousands of years ago, and just as potent.

And she saw, to her dismay, the torn-up remains of neatly wrapped presents, and Gembounds turning on one another in fits of love and jealousy. She was, indeed, far too late. But it wasn't too late for her to minimise the damage. She knew that she would be unable to calm the fighters or remove the spell if they couldn't. At least, not immediately. But she could, a least, set the process in motion.

Momma Bolormaa hurried past the fighting gembounds, fluffy tail bobbing and head bowed, nudging past the ones that talked more calmly. "Excuse me, excuse me... thank you, love," she flustered awkwardly, as she finally reached the centre, where a raptor gnawed on one last present. Beside it, she settled, and finally began to empty the objects from her pouch, withdrawing a tangle of bitter-smelling herbs that she pressed into her mortar.

She laid a couple of round, rough, coal-black stones aside.

After ensuring that everything was prepared, she laid the bowl down on the ground and took the rough-textured stones into her palms. Using those, she set the herbs alight and they began to burn with an eye-wateringly bitter incense.

Once she was certain that the herbs were burning strongly, she retreated, dropping the stones back into her pouch and clasping her paws to her chest as she peered around at the assembled creatures.

Within moments, the air throughout the pillars is full of this heady smoke, intermingling with the sweet scent of the pillars. Anyone who breathes this air will feel a rush of lucidity; just enough, if they haven't already, to realise that something is terribly wrong, and if they choose to, free themselves in a single roll.

@Azizos @Lethe @Birch @Teyouma II @Thothaga @Narcissus @Catalyst

as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

Envy had wounded her heart, but Narcissus might as well destroyed it. Her love's hateful words tore through her like an ice storm, cold and harsh. It tore her to shreds

Rejected.

He... doesn't want me?

The spider could not physically cry, her carapace was an emotionless mask, but her chelicera and palps twitched uneasily, betraying sorrow and shock to those who looked closely. As if to avenge her broken heart, the binturong spat in his face, a vile concoction of disease. Thothaga flinched, anger building, ready to scold her follower for harming her him, even though she did not know why, but before she could do anything, something shot through the floor and punched her square in the gut.

The weasel had summoned a pillar of diamond underneath her. Thothaga gasped as she fell on her back and pain shot through her large gem as it collided with the floor with a clunk! She groaned as she laid there, dazed and very sore. As the air filled Thothaga found herself impressed by Envy's spell. It hadn't occurred to her that they were adept in magick. She like that in a gembound.

Then why did her still heart belong to Narcissus?

Thothaga flipped herself back over and raised a pair of forelegs, gesturing a surrender. "Stop! Stop! I yield!" She told the weasel, hoping he wouldn't attack her any further. "Somethings not right." She spun around to look at Lethe and her minty-striped love then murmured again."Somethings not right, I feel like I'm in a fog- a fog of you!" She pointed to Narcissus then retracted herself. Thothaga did not want to fight anymore, she just wanted to figure out why she felt this way.


"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

@Narcissus @Lethe @Envy

Mere moments passed before Azizos became fully lucid. Silvery eyes flitted to and fro, the sharp tang of incense stinging at his nostrils. As if it would rid himself of the smell, the lion-stag stomped backwards a little and shook his head. Unlike the scent of the pillars, this was not alluring in any way, shape, or form. He glanced over, spotting a rather odd, bird-like creature --- yet, naked, stomping on a present by mistake. Almost immediately after, it was fixated upon the box, nudging it open with an unwieldy muzzle. His gaze moved back to the box at his own hooves, full of glimmering little knick-knacks. Azizos did not dare touch it. There was some magic here, and he wasn't sure what to make of it.

Blinking, the lion-stag nodded toward the odd, maternal-seeming creature nearby --- one of the ancients, perhaps? Or just very old and wise? --- and strode forth. "Thank you," he said simply. The pillars were dull, now, void of their lights and beauty. They could still host magic within, though, and Azizos was surely on a quest to figure it out. Energy, powerful and primal, built up in his chest, kicking against his ribcage and begging for release. Very much like a unicorn, his horn began to glow. Carefully rounding one of the pillars, ensuring that he was positioned so that it would land against the wall, Azizos braced himself.

Focus was key, here.

In a swift --- hopefully powerful --- burst, Azizos sent his pent-up energy into the pillar, ears already flicking back and bracing himself for the possible fall.

Lethe snarled at the weasel, at the green canine, and at herself for letting this go on. She should kill them, kill anyone that got in her way to the spider. Thothaga was hers and hers alone! She barely noticed the giant creature weaving through the others and didn't at all pay attention to the bitter smell that was invading the cave. All she cared about was getting Thothaga away from the others.

But then...that's when things went on their head. The weasel shrieked and, a moment later, a giant crystal burst from the ground and hit Thothaga. It hit her. It hurt her. Flipped her over like she was nothing. Lethe watched with wide eyes. And then she saw red.

"HOW DARE YOU HURT HER!!" she shrieked loudly before lunging at the little creature. Her jaws opened the diseased saliva collecting in her mouth again as she tried to sing her teeth into a part of Envy's body, any part, she didn't care if she got a faceful of quills or whatever. As long as she made them hurt as they had hurt her love.

@Envy @Narcissus