Envy relaxed somewhat as the spider yielded, letting out a breath and brushing themselves off before turning to look, proudly, at Narcissus. They fully expected to see a look of adoration on his face, the light in his eyes shimmering, perhaps for him to bowl forward and bow at their paws...

It was then that they noticed the scent though. Their nose twitched to the bitterness, their quills perking upright. And suddenly they found themselves thinking, stopping in momentary hesitation. This feeling was strange, unusual... what had happened to all their pain? it was pleasant enough, sure, but it was as though a pillow had been stuffed into their brain, rendering them happy, but stupid.

It hadn't occurred to them that they might be under a spell.

But their attention was drawn back to the matter at hand as they heard a shrieking yell, full of anger and pain. The weasel whipped around just in time to see a set of slavering jaws looming, and every inch of spikes along their length stood on end. They hastily reached for their magic, but it was too late; their crown went tinkling across the floor as they were seized in the creature's jaws, her jaws crushing the wind out of their ribcage. They let out an ungodly screech, their serpentine body thrashing. They felt their blood flowing free, their ribs breaking one by one, and agony shot through them in waves.

But it was impossible that their assailant wouldn't end up with a mouthful of quills herself, and the more the weasel struggled, the deeper they would drive.

Their tail began to leak with a metallic substance, thrashing and stabbing, flailing wildly and unpredictably.

Eventually, their screams gave way to a strangled choking sound.

Speech. Thought.

@Lethe @Narcissus

Why was this so hard to open?

The raptor twisted her head, nipping at the paper on the box. She was afraid of tearing or crushing whatever was inside, but she wasn't exactly made for finesse.

Catalyst looked up long enough to see Momma Bolormaa approaching, and waved her tail in a sort of greeting, setting a tooth into the ribbon and attempting to pull. The box almost fell over, and so she stopped. Well damn.

After a moment, she attempted to set her teeth into the top of the box, only to feel it be harder than she expected. Raising her head, she found her jaw stuck, the box holding her jaw wide open. Her eyes opened wide in panic, and she froze.

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


The effects of whatever spell the gembound had inflicted on him still lingered, but Narcissus could feel it starting to go away. Still, it left him a little disoriented, and he had a bit of trouble keeping track of what was happening around him. He noticed the spider seeming to...was she yielding? And pointing one of her legs at him. He scowled at it briefly.

He also noticed a hazy smell making its way around the room. He started to focus on it slightly, maybe realize something wasn't right if he thought hard enough...but the actions of the binturong and the resulting scream from Envy quickly caught his attention, dispersing the last of the effects of the disease inflicted on him.

And effectively making him forget the smoke.

As jaws clamped around Envy - around his love, pure instinct seemed to kick in in the canine. He growled, eyes narrowed. He crouched down before springing forward, aiming straight for the binturong in an attempt to get her to release Envy.




"Speech."
Thoughs

@Lethe @Envy

As she looked around and saw her incense starting to take effect, Bolormaa appeared relieved, for a moment. She watched as the kirin-like creature moved towards the pillars, but as he rose and went to kick the pillar, clasped her paws over her mouth in evident panic with all four ears fanning out. She hurried over to him, rising up onto her hind feet and holding up her paws. "W-wait! Stop that!"

The magic here was too wonderful, too precious to simply destroy; one of the only good things she remembered from before her long, time spent hidden away.

And then... despite all of her efforts, chaos broke out behind her.

Without its guardian, the magic here was allowed to go awry, potent as it had been all those years ago, and dangerously unsupervised. But now its guardian had returned. Whipping around as she heard a scream, Bolormaa's eyes widened, and she watched the weasel be seized, blood spilling out from the bearcat's jaws as the black canine leaped to the rescue of its small, green friend.

The elder's fur bristled, her long tail lashing and eyes wide as she sucked in her breath. She stomped one of her hind feet against the earth, creating a soft but noticeable tremor, and then a deep and booming clash echoed from her body, the sound of shattering glass or a vase that was thrown against a wall.

"I said STOP!" she yelled, her voice echoing throughout the jagged tunnel. That done, she folded her ears back and looked around, curling her long and fluffy tail around her. "This is not a place for violence!" she said gently, but sternly, as though speaking to a class of excitable children. "This is a place of serenity! Of love!" She let out a long breath, appearing to relax somewhat.

"Although it... Of course, it's been a while. You couldn't possibly know of the dangers," She looked up towards the pillars in wonder, and what remained of the presents. "I can't... I can hardly believe it's still here."

The smoke thickens, bringing with it a new kind of clarity; buried emotions will soon surface, newly-formed heartbreak will subside and previously suppressed emotions well with crystal clearness; although the Gembounds present might still possess a new perspective of the gembounds around them, having seen a side to them that no-one else will.

@Azizos @Lethe @thothaga @narcissus @Catalyst

The crunching sound and the screaming as she bit down on the weasel surprised her so much that she immediately opened her mouth to drop them, feeling the salty tang of blood in her mouth, both from Envy and from herself, as she got a mouthful of sharp quills driving into the roof of her mouth. She was frozen in place, her eyes wide with shock as she realized what she'd done. She immediately backed away, her jaw still hanging open (also because the quills made it hard to close them) and she tried to utter some kind of apology but no sound came out.

She turned towards the creature that was standing there and felt her head begin to clear as the smoke got thicker. Along with it came a huge, burning tide of guilt for what she had done. Why had she done it again? She had been angry about something. Had they hurt her? No she didn't feel hurt. Not at all. Why, then?

It wasn't the smoke that had seemingly destroyed Lethe's memory, it was her own brain that decided it no longer wanted to remember the experience. She turned back towards the others. They were very very familiar and Lethe thought that something had just happened, before she had bitten the weasel.

She began tugging at the quills stuck in the roof of her mouth, pulling so hard that they came tearing out, causing more blood to splatter on the ground. She continued to do this until they were all out and the inside of her jaws were stained bloody.

A sudden surge of anger for this whole situation got her turning towards the large creature again. She didn't know what had happened, but she could faintly remember these pillars having something to do with it. She snarled and marched forward, her hears pulling back. "Okay, but what are these? And if they're so dangerous why are they just sitting here?"

Azizos had already cast the pillar somewhat off-kilter when the large, almost maternal-seeming creature came close. There was no effect, as the Gembound behind him broke into a love-fueled frenzy. Ears large enough to contest Bolormaa's flicked back, then he turned to look at her, apologetic: "I'm sorry --- I wondered if, perhaps, disturbing this circle would fully break the others from this... spell, is it?"

He pondered over how the creature had seemed to come and know exactly what to do. The kirin-like hybrid had already been semi-lucid by the time she had arrived, and had almost immediately noticed the acrid stench of incense. Then, she mused about its age. Implications, ahoy! "Is this your domain, perchance?"

Azizos stepped forth, head lowered, "why have you left it?"

Envy hardly felt the bearcat let go. Even as she unhooked her fangs, the pain remained, dark stains spreading rapidly through their fur. They hit the ground with a muffled thud, choking softly, before staggering onto their fours, then back down with a shrill cry.

They struggled for their magic, feeling the blood gushing from their wounds, leaving red stains against the icy ground beneath them. They felt their fur fizzle with energy, and in a moment the wounds had closed, but it wasn't enough. Pains still seethed through them, they could hardly stand and entire clumps of quills had been yanked out, now embedded in the binturong's maw.

Without knowing what else to do, they struggled towards Narcissus-- a moment ago, their love-- and now, a blinking light of hope. They made it to his paws, and collapsed at his feet, falling into a bedraggled and bloody heap, their chest heaving.

"M-my throne," they choked out. "I have to get back to my throne..."

They struggled, through guttering breaths and aching pains. And then a moment later, they were unconscious.

-exit Envy-

Speech. Thought.

@Narcissus @Lethe

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


It wasn't long before the binturong released Envy. Narcissus growled at her and immediately went to Envy. However, it was around then that he began to realize this wasn't....right. The fog in his mind cleared slightly, and he looked around, seeing a creature nearby. But at the voice of Envy, he quickly disregarded all that and looked down.

While he didn't feel the same love he had felt for the weasel mere moments ago, he couldn't deny them their wish. Carefully, desperate not to hurt them anymore than they were already hurt, he picked Envy up in his mouth and charged off, not even paying attention to anything or anyone around him.

-exit Narcissus-




"Speech."
Thoughs

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

Thothaga did not have face-muscles to express the amount shock she felt when the binturong snatched the weasel in her jaws like a lesser-brained savage. "Disgusting!" The spider shrieked. "Spit them out!" She hoped to use Lethe's strange infatuation with her against her, but it seemed she released the weasel on her volition as their minds began to clear...

Poor fool. She thought as Narcissus, scooped up the little king. A throne won't save him.
As Thothaga watched her once-love-meal make off with injured weasel, she realized her mind had been tampered with. She snapped towards the offender, the strange red pillars, and Bolormaa. "A place of love and serenity?" She scoffed at the idea. It was hard to believe that after the emotional turmoil this magick put her through.

Sweeping aside her current opinion of a this "love magick", she could not help but notice this being's awe at its continued existence. "You thought it destroyed?" She cock her body to the side, to put emphasis on her curiosity. "Why is that?"

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

The weasel was wounded, but, before Bolormaa could offer to heal or help, the canine creature had swept in and taken them away- perhaps for the best. Although, the Elder couldn't help letting out a tiny sigh, her shoulders slumping before she twisted back aground to face the other creatures.

Bolormaa's ears lowered as Lethe faced her with snarls; and, although Bolormaa was not afraid, the mother's eyes showed a fleeting shine of shame, as though it were her own fault she could not have been there for it. But how could she? Her dormancy was necessary, as much as she had hated the centuries she spent alone. "I always thought this place long gone... buried. And it was, until recently. Would you like me to tend your wounds?"

Her ears flared forward as she looked towards the lovely hybrid child, her whiskers slowly twitching as she thought. The panic in her tone relaxed, then, her gaze, softened.

"It's okay, child," she soothed at first, before continuing. "Y-yes, it is a spell. my spell, to be exact. It has... never triggered unsupervised, before. Perhaps that was the magic shaking itself free." She listened, her ears slowly falling back as she considered. "Indeed it was, a long time ago."

She blinked, her eyes clouding over with nostalgia. She looked from the hybrid to the spider, then, who approached bearing yet more questions, but much of the same. "This was a place of union, where our kind would come to affirm their bonds. But there were some who thought love would cloud our sense of duty... and they fought to destroy it." She glanced around at the pillars, still beautiful even after all these years, at the torn-up presents and then each Gembound in turn. "It was a tragic time, and I thought they succeeded. And yet... here we are."

Her voice grew soft with wonder for a moment... but a moment later she shook her head and hastily moved on, her tone shifting swiftly to embarrassment.

"Either way, it's not something that children like yourself should worry about. Enjoy the caves as they are, whilst you are young, and safe."

@Lethe @Azizos @Thothaga