Krozz backed up further at the hybrid's panicked reaction, not wanting to get hurt on accident (or maybe on purpose, if they decided to attack) but calmed down as the stranger did. Krozz noticed the stranger seemed to be staring everywhere except where she was standing. That and the hybrid's eyes being unnaturally shiny and green, it didn't take Krozz long to realize something was wrong with their vision.

Part of Krozz wanted to mention that she could hardly see anything, through all the grass, but she didn't. Instead she focused on the second half of the statement. "Everything's big." She started craning her neck to try to best examine their surroundings, "Lots of grass. A big spider." She spoke slow and somewhat strangely, struggling around her gem 'tusks.' " That's everything." She concluded. She glanced back at the spider's web, and up at the huge spider currently preoccupied with the unfortunate rainbow bumblebug.

"I'm heading away from the spider." She announced, inviting the stranger to follow. She then did exactly as she said- heading in the exact opposite direction away from the big spider. Not quite sure if the rustling of grass would be loud enough to follow, with all the other rustling and bell jingling, Krozz attempted created a crystalline melody. Not something incredibly loud, but distinct and pleasant and easy to pick out among the cacophony of other sounds.

"Words Words."
Thoughts

notes:
tags:

coding by wulf for template purposes

Astéri
seek what sets your soul on fire

Today is an exploring day!

Astéri hadn’t had one of those in a while, what with bouncing between the glowy cave and the plant-y cave for various… reasons, but he decided to head down the tunnel to the starry cave to see what he could find!

And, oh, boy—this find hits the motherlode for the adventure quotient. He couldn’t resist the giggling, jingling puffballs—they’re so tiny! and cute!—and as he steps through the alcove into the other side…

“Whoa….”

Everything’s so big! He’s used to seeing tiny, tiny blades of grass that bugs skitter around in, not big ol’ blades of grass that tower above him! There’s the sound of jingling everywhere, and, just to the side—

—the biggest, meanest spider that Astéri has ever seen in his life watches them with more eyes than Astéri has ever seen on one being in his life, shiny gold that would otherwise enrapture him if he wasn’t otherwise occupied with how big and mean it looked.

He knows one thing in his life above all else. Well, two—he knows that fire is really, really pretty and shiny and the best thing in the whole wide world, but he ALSO knows that bugs are mean and angry and must be killed at all costs before they hurt anyone!

The big, green… well, he doesn’t know what it is, but it’s green and glowy and rattle-y with all its quills—whatever it is, it seems to agree with him, bristling and gnashing at the spider.

Astéri decides to go a step further and strike first. Better: he's gonna try to burn it. That’s how you get rid of bugs, right? You burn them until they can’t move anymore!

With a growl that seems just a bit too high and soft to be intimidating and a swish of his tail, he runs forwards, plants himself firmly next to the big green attack-y thing, and breathes in, narrowing his eyes at the big spider and trying to pull the fire in his chest up to superheat his breath.

The spider isn’t going to hurt anyone on his watch!

His magic sparked, danced in the air, and then worked, although not as he had intended. He hadn't a moment of warning before it suddenly blasted out in front of him, clearing a path in the grass.

He stood, still, alarmed, fur standing on end. That was new, and not in the way of discovering that he had, somehow, learned a new spell. No, new in the way of 'that was NOT what was supposed to happen'.

A paw thumped against his head, and he startled, head whirling around to stare, wide-eyed, at Deli. "Ah... that was not what I intended to do." and that was perhaps the most embarrassed Reign ha dallowed himself to sound in a long time.

But he hadn't long to focus on the strange dog, as the drone grew into a buzz, and a massive bumblebug bounced into sight, the cheetah's eyes going wide and ears flattening back as he dropped into a crouch, rolling his shoulders as he prepared to take chase.

He was a cat, after all, and the bug was very much prey.

And the thrashing and squeaking only had him crouching lower, stalking forward and readying to take off at a sprint, and he would have iff the leaf hadn't fallen, revealing the massive spider. Reign chirped in frustration, then remembered himself, standing tall and shaking himself as though to say 'I meant to do that', observing the horrifically sized spider, aware of the other Gembounds around him.

They needed to attack that spider, a Lesser so large was far too dangerous to leave alive, he was aware, and then he got an idea--that blast he had created, could he do it again? So he reached for his magic and tried to throw it again at the spider.

Luster was having a grand time darting through the very, very tall grass, when suddenly it was torn through by energy, sending her flying. She shrieked, flailing on her back as she tried to get her feet beneath her, only to get knocked over again by the giant Bumblebug "I'm flailing here!"

She scrambled to her feet, finally, chased the bumblebug until she found Reign, face lighting up "REIGN IT'S YOU IT'S YOU!" but then she was distracted by the massive spider and oh apparently they had to fight it? at least that's what she could gather.

Well she was small and didn't know much but she could help! Hopefully! So she reached up and tugged on the fur on Deli's leg, "Funny tall furry dog will you hold me up! either way, she would sit back on her haunches, raise her forepaws in the air dramatically (what? it was fun!) and call on her magic.

"Sometimes you need a second chance,"
'because you weren't quite ready for the first.'

The spider paused, then lifted its long, slender front limbs--they must have been ten feet long!--into the air: a clear thread display. Its silver color briefly showed beneath the glowing gold--and then the gold shifted to an ominous red, flickering and strobing in warning lines down its body and limbs.

At this point, things go haywire!

Orthoclase-Alpha's magic lashes out, but instead of imbuing fangs with deadly venom, the room suddenly goes pitch black. All that could be seen, for a few moments, would be the ominous red strobing of the Silk Spider's body--also flashing a brief and puzzled blue.

Hecate's magic reaches into the cave, granting her sudden, abrupt and likely catastrophically confusing, for a half-blind bird, vision from all corners of the cave: from the prokaryotic life throughout. No wisp, however, was on offer--and in fact, Reign's magic went wild, too, taking Hecate's wisp and flinging it at the spider! It struck with a bright burst of phosphorescence, and the faint smell of burning.

Krozz finds herself undergoing something... strange; a green haze covers her vision and for a moment, she feels oddly tired, oddly in synch with the owl-creature just behind her. At the same time, Hecate's vision is briefly cleared, a little. Strange...

From Asteri's jaws comes not a blast of air, but a blast of superheated bile--burning his throat quite a bit more, but landing with a searing, smoking glob on the spider's thorax.

In the strange and unnatural pitch darkness, Luster works her magic: but instead of bananas, what she produces is instead great, shimmering images of bananas, dancing with kaleidoscopic glow over the leaves, the giant blades of grass--the blinking spider eyes...

As all this lashed out, the giant Silk Spider, stressed and under attack, did what Silk Spiders do best: it launched itself in a mighty, red-flashing spring for an opponent's face. Several of them had attacked it, but it chose Asteri for its target, legs flailing and fangs driving for Asteri! Should this strike hit, it will be painful, and very irritating, but not particularly dangerous.

All around, bells jingled, and little imp laughter rang among the giant blades of grass; and the poor Rainbow Bumblebug, from its tangled position in the center of the Silk Spider's web, watched the "battle" with big, rainbow eyes.

@Orthoclase-Alpha @Hecate @Luster (Reign) @Krozz @Deli @Asteri

Alpha was faintly aware of a familiarly grating voice digging a knife into the part of its brain that demanded focus - but there was a much bigger cleaver being driven into that: absolute, pure anger. Fury rattled through its quills as not one, but two(!) furry little beasts simpered up to the spider, casting magic of varying usefulness. The cave went dark abruptly, save for the spider's glowing and its own bioluminescence, and it hissed, "NO." (Unaware, of course, that that had been its own doing.)

Both of the cats took a cheap way out, flinging fire at the spider and bringing a surprisingly bassy roar out of Alpha: "that is MINE! MY PREY. MY FIGHT!" There wasn't any childish whinging in there - no, that was actual rage there, and if neither of these cats stepped off... there was a good chance it was going to turn right on them with no qualms.

For good measure, it gnashed its teeth in the spaces it remembered the cats being in before launching its bulk at the spider on Asteri (it picked that tiny little thing over ME!) and going all teeth and claws-in to haul it off for itself.

Astéri
seek what sets your soul on fire
Suddenly, everything goes dark. Astéri finds himself squinting as his eyes adjust, taking a couple steps back--but he refuses to let himself be distracted from his task. The spider is big, it is here, and it needs to be attacked before it hurts anyone!

But--without his permission or intent, he feels the fire in his chest shift as he’s dragging it up, feels something in his mouth get red-hot to the point of burning as he exhales in tune with his magic. Instead of hot, hot air, he gets--

--ow! The magic burns far more than it usually does, even when he releases it too late, but the results are far more drastic than he’s expecting. A hot glob of what he can only describe as liquid fire ends up flying out of his mouth, hitting the red-gleaming target of the spider with a burning hiss.

Yes! Fire, fire! That’ll show it!

The little leopard gets all of two seconds to internally cheer this victory, tail lashing as he lets out what is (in his mind) a scary growl, trying to intimidate the spider into going away!

It does not go away.

In fact, it does the exact opposite of going away, and all the bravado Astéri has is quickly replaced with a primal, instinctual fear that can only be described as ”AAAAA!” as it leaps for him and his vision is suddenly filled with way too big spiderlimbs stretched out to attack him.

And then, and then--as if the big, scary, glowy spider isn’t enough, the towering green gembound who Asteri had thought was his battle buddy quickly proves itself as equally scary as the big spider. The roar it lets out is earsplitting to a kitten who’s never heard anything louder than a roaring fire in his life, and if that wasn’t enough--

--Asteri squeals, high-pitched and frightened, as he sees its neon glow dive for the red-shining spider, trying to intercept it in midair, and that’s all the encouragement he needs to get out of there!

He turns tail and bolts, heading towards where he thinks one of the other battlers were before the lights went out, the other kitty, using the light of the huge monsters (presumably) trying to battle it out to try to guide him through the towering grass, fully intending to hide underneath him.

What was once an exciting battle has turned into a terrifying clash of beasts.

He wants Dad to be here!

Hecate blinked.

Vision-... Her vision was suddenly clearer. It only lasted a moment: a diminishing of that constant, wretched green, a clarity she'd never had outside of her visions. And then everything went dark. Her wisp just--left??

"HEY!" she cried, in protest, turning so quickly to follow its departure that she stumbled over herself. "Where do you think YOU'RE going?!" In the flash that followed, as the wisp struck its target, she saw the spider: massive, lurking, fanged. And when the light dimmed just after, she saw its red flashes in the dark.

...Oh.
Perhaps the wisp had taken it into its own mind to help her?!

Frightened, the owl-creature tried to summon up another, all the while scrambling backwards, Krozz half-forgotten in her sudden fear. "Did you see that?! Did you SEE that? What is that--that beast?!" she hooted, all but outright hysterical.

Deli

Deli whipped around at all the different chaotic mistakes that were happening. The room going pitch black, suddenly, bursts of light as wisps went flying and images of bananas danced around. A streak as the silk spider flew at Asteri. This was hilarious - this was fun! Deli laughed - still unhinged but a genuine laugh - as they stepped towards wherever that spider had ended up.

A tugging on their leg fur had them looking down at the dog-thing. They tilted their head and chuckled, leaning down to comply. Hey, why not? Let everyone have some fun! They deftly picked up the tiny thing and settled her on their shoulders, pushing their cheek fur out of the way. "Got a good view from there?" But whatever she responded, Deli turned back to the spider. What could they do to make this situation even more chaotic?

They could hear the big kaiju-motherfucker complaining about not getting its way and Deli scoffed. "Oh, calm down, beastie! Just let loose for once! Have some fun!" And that's exactly what Deli did, aiming towards the sensitive leg hairs of the spider to let loose a blast of fungus. "Cover your nose," they giggled for the hybrid perched on their shoulder.

---

The room went dark, and Reign snarled, shaking his head even as he squinted, even his cat's eyes unable to pierce the darkness. He could make out the spider, barely, flashing blue for a brief moment in the endless back, and then a wisp shot through the air, and he gagged at the smell of burning, squinting at a bright flash of light.


And then there were... bananas, of all things, dancing in the air, and he shook himself, dizzied and off balance, trying to back off, only to have sidestep as something glowing snapped for him, and he skittered to the side, only to find something scratching against him, and from the smell of it it was a fire-cat, so he chuffed a purr for a brief moment, before reaching for his magic, trying to pull up a shield.