Since the near-annihilation of Orion by Raheerah (not to mention the utter scorching of her carefully-furnished home), Azure had spent more time... elsewhere.

Monoceros also held its horrors. Dragons, the hybrid had found, were assholes--between Asimona, who'd tried to murder her, and Raheerah, who'd also tried to murder her, things didn't reflect well on them. Azure kept to herself, bar her frequent chats with Siren; she stayed hidden.

In places where Dragons, Bloodberries, or any of the many who hated the latter, wouldn't see her.

Right now, though, she was searching through the impressive rubble throughout Tunnel J, looking for something very specific: metal; and in particular, if she could find it, wire. That was hard enough to find, and she was interested in adding more flair to her jewelry. Not that she had any real reason for it; nobody ever came to her, so her jewelry collection was a hobby more for her own sad passing-the-time more than anything. It was one small thing she could take pride in, though: the magically-preserved flowers, pressed in formed gemstone, ignited in magical light, were beautiful. She could thread them on cords--but wire would add a new dimension to it all.

So with beak, talons, and gentle pushes of her mind-magic, she searched the tunnel, picking through the old scraps of armor and relics of an ancient time, looking for anything she might be able to use.

VIVILENE
i make a mess
and you'll be there
to help me undress

Where was she going now? She thought she was on the right track until she made a turn and ended up somewhere unfamiliar. As much as Vivilene liked the star-room it was too big with too many places to go down and get lost in.

This tunnel had carvings up the walls-- strange creatures she'd never seen before --and winding staircase she was nervous about going up. At least she could see in this tunnel, though. The lights hung up on the walls and shone off the rusted slabs of junk lying the floor.

She stepped around them carefully, but nervously. She didn't want to think about what creatures might be hiding in them. Which meant that Vivilene began to think extensively about what was hiding in them. Little black mites that would crawl into her ears and eat her from the inside out, or long shadows that would grow and swallow her whole.

Unsurprisingly, she started to panic.

Thin legs started to tremble as the hybrid's pace quickened down the tunnel (click, click, click) and her breathing went a bit shallow. Often, occupying her mind managed to set the anxiety at ease, even if just for a while, but somehow running made it worse. It made her feel like (click-click-click) she was actively running away from the things she was worried about creeping out of the little crevices in the walls where the rats lived.

Where ever she turned there was more-- more creeping shadows, more things for mites and things to hide under. She dared not (clickclickclick) even look at them. If they were going to kill her she didn't want to know what they looked like, that somehow seemed even scarier-- but there was no end to this tunnel, or the shadows, or (CLICKCLICKCLICK) the rusted sort-of-shiny things that twinked under the dim lights.

Shallow breathing had turned to laboured panting as the hybrid ran from, in reality, absolutely nothing. Her frail legs weren't used to it, however. Vivilene was a meanderer, not a sprinter. It didn't take long for the rapid clicking to turn into obnoxious clattering as she tripped over a pile of junk. As she fell she saw a flash of something black-and-white out of the corner of her eye, horribly close as she skidded by.

Perhaps her worst fears had been realised but when she looked back to see what was no doubt the horrible monster lingering near she found that she didn't look very monstrous at all. She was soft and feathery like her sister but she had antlers and four legs. Vivilene scrambled to face her properly, hooves clicking loudly and rapidly against the cave floor as if she were about to bolt again.

Her breathing came hard and fast but she was starting to settle down, at least. The nipping pain of scrapes knees and bewilderment of a not-monster standing there was enough to pull her out of her own head, for now-- but for several long moments, she didn't speak.

... granted, she wasn't really capable of doing so to begin with.

@Azure

The clattering of hooves alerted her first: frantic, speeding up and growing closer, all at once. Azure turned, lifting her head and tensing, in time to see what looked like a young, malformed purple cave deer skitter by and trip over a pile of rubble.

Her first reaction was to blink and peer back down the tunnel toward Orion, expecting some form of pursuit. But nothing was there, and after a moment she looked to the child, who had picked herself up.

She didn't speak.

Azure peered. "...Hello?" she managed at last, as much taken aback as Vivilene likely was. A twist of metal was in her claw, a thing she'd just been pulling free, still tangled loosely under some stones; and Azure had frozen like this.

Looking the kid over, she didn't look totally like a cave deer. She-... sort of looked like what might've resulted if--...Me and Dip didn't accidentally have a kid, did we?! Horror that they'd somehow produced this child and then left it alone, to scramble around and struggle to find them, gripped her.

Purple skin. Lighter hair, though. Freckles. She's half like, Dip's top and my whole bottom-... Dip's tail kinda, too?! Shit, shit, shit... Azure swallowed, hard. "-I'm Azure, I'm not gonna hurt you--uh, where'd you... come from?"

Faintly nightmarish surreality seemed to suffuse the tunnel. Please don't be my own abandoned kid. Please don't be my own abandoned kid...

@Vivilene

VIVILENE
i make a mess
and you'll be there
to help me undress

Starlit eyes darted from Azure, then down the tunnel, and then upon realising that there wasn't actually anything following her, went back to Azure again. Two possibilities came to mind-- either she had lost them, or Azure's presence had managed to scare them off. It did not occur to her that there had been nothing following her in the first place.

Hello. She knew this word. Her mouth opened to echo it but-- as per usual --something stopped her. As if she had cotton lodged in her throat, the only sound she actually managed to emit was something halfway between a croak and a catlike mrrp. Her eyes dropped, mid-sentence (mid-noise?) to the tangled metal in Azure's talon, nervously. She thought of Attikias's weapons and hunting.

Vivilene was fairly certain she didn't want to end up like a cave deer, skewered and roasted and fed to her siblings. Though-- maybe it wouldn't be a bad way to go? Maybe Vivilene would prefer to be eaten than to lie somewhere cold and alone. This strange line of thought had, at least, done enough to help Vivilene distract herself from the cold panic. Her breathing began to settle down again and she was able to fix herself properly upright, without shaking.

The black-and-white creature was speaking again, and she took another glance down the tunnel, and then back again. She didn't know where she had come from-- not aside from the obvious, which Vivilene decided was worth offering anyway. She pointed quietly, sheepishly, down the tunnel where she had come from, though she didn't want to give it yet another glance.

Another few beats passed before the hybrid lowered her hand again. She was still silent-- her throat still full of cotton --but she shifted quietly on the spot with a click, taking a long breath to ground herself. Her gemstone glittered; bleaching white against dark purple fur-- and then there was a crackle of electricity.

It hurt. Vivilene hadn't had a headache before but she'd later come to realise it hurt a lot worse than a regular headache. A jolt of pain flooded down the back of her head and down her spine and her temples were left throbbing. In the same instant she was, once again, startled. She had no idea if it was her own doing or if the creature had somehow done it to her despite her promise not to hurt her.

For good measure, she scrambled back a few paces from Azure as her breathing went heavy again, bordering on panicky once more.

@Azure

That wasn't the reaction she'd expected: an open mouth, a strangled little noise, and the stranger scrambling backward, panting.

Azure blinked, peering at her quizzically. This is when that shitbag dragon turns back up and yells at me for torturing a kid, you watch, she thought grimly.

Azure did her best to appear non-threatening; she looked away, angling her shoulders away, peering down along the ground. She picked a pretty little stone, and leaned down, touching her beak to it. It flared up, glowing and pulsing a soft golden-white, and Azure took a moment to wind, with beak and talon, a bit of the wire she'd found. It wasn't sharp stuff, and in moments she had a passable necklace, which she looped over her beak and turned to offer out to the child. "I'm not going to hurt you," she assured her, extending her neck and beak out low, the dangly thing atop it. She tried to keep her voice quiet, friendly, but this whole shit was making her nervous, too.

What if this was her kid? What if something had been chasing it? What if the dragon turned up? What if-...

"Here. You can have it. You put it over your head. Decoration," she explained.

@Vivilene

VIVILENE
i make a mess
and you'll be there
to help me undress

Vivilene was hesitant at first as she tried to settle herself down-- as she tried to remember the songs Attikias would sing to her. Those made her calm. Those seemed very far away right now, though. Instead, there was this thing-- Azure.

Azure's stance seemed familiar to her, however, half-suddenly. Asteri might have done the same when he came near her; he lowered himself down, avoided looking at her. He let her approach him and that, in a way, was comforting to her.

The other hybrid was doing something else now. Vivilene saw the glittering of light against a stone and paused for a moment, curious, and then came the gentle clicking of hooves on stone again. She moved forward to watch with large, doelike eyes. Azure didn't have hands like she did, like Attikias did, she soon realised, but she found it interesting how she used her talons and beak to weave the wiry metal around the glittery rock.

She had begun to settle down, starting to lower herself to lay on her belly with her legs tucked underneath her, when the thing was extended out to her. She blinked, delicately but silently, and took it with thin fingers. She mouthed, "decoration" but no sound actually passed through her moving lips as she lifted the necklace over her head, squishing down a thick mane of white hair to get it to settle on her shoulders.

It was weighted but not entirely heavy. The light shone against her chest and made the white speckles almost glow, too. She looked up to Azure, and then down again, and then settled herself properly down on the cave floor.

She knew that her siblings would say thank you (mostly) when they were given something-- but when you can't talk in the first place this becomes a difficult thing. She watched Azure for a moment longer as she tried to focus, cast-- but nothing happened. At least she wasn't in pain this time when she tried it.

But what was she supposed to do? Why couldn't she talk? Vivilene croaked again when she tried to speak past the cotton lodged in her throat. When she tried a third time it sounded as if she were choking on fishbones, painful and gagging.

It didn't hurt her but it was certainly unpleasant. Worst of all it didn't help. She shifted uncomfortably, shook herself out to right herself, and then lifted a hand, gently, carefully, in silence. Her fingers trembled for a moment before she went to place her palm against Azure's shoulder with feather-soft contact.

It was the best she could do.

@Azure

Azure waited, watching, trying carefully not to be quick or imposing. Vivlene's choking worried her, her ear-tufts flicking, her own faint movements uncertain, but then the child was resting one hand, ever-so-lightly, against her feathers.

Something about this was-... touching, figuratively too, though for a moment Azure waited quietly to see if magic would come of it. Nothing did, though, and she leaned down slowly--delicately--to offer a light brush of beak to hand.

"That's fine," she agreed, softly, to nothing in particular. "Are you having trouble talking, kid?" she then asked, very gently; "Maybe I could... get you some colored rocks, you know, for 'yes' and 'no...'"

Azure turned back to the objects strewn over the tunnel floor as she said this, her tone softly thoughtful. Could they do that-? Was there something wrong with this one's throat--her gemstone, maybe? She looked back at Vivilene--but no, there was a stone there on her chest, and oh-! It wasn't hers, and it wasn't Dip's, either; it was shining white, shimmering. Hers was blue--Dip's was yellowish? Orange...ey.

Phew. Not their kid, then-... proooobably? Azure glanced doubtfully over Vivilene again, and then blinked back down to the armor scraps, pondering possibilities.

@Vivilene

VIVILENE
i make a mess
and you'll be there
to help me undress

There was a slight pang of comfort that resounded through Vivilene at the touch to her hand. She checked her hand for a moment afterwards, as if to make sure that Azure didn't leave anything on it, before she plonked both of her hands on her forelegs.

In response, she nodded to Azure's words. She would have liked to explain how it felt when she tried to talk, like she was drowning or choking or like something had crawled into her throat and died in there, but alas, that was the issue to begin with. A part of her wished she could be normal. She wished she could talk freely like everyone else did, and not fester about all the possibilities of bad things happening to them in the caves.

Azure was coming up with ideas to help, at least. Vivilene would have to do her bit to help, decidedly, though she was unsure what, exactly, Azure was looking for.

The hybrid passed a cautious glance over the piles of garbage strewn along the tunnel, and then lifted her head to look down the way she came. There still didn't seem to be anything there-- perhaps there was nothing hiding underneath sheets of metal to begin with, or maybe Azure really did scare it off? Azure was picking through the pile like it was a thing to do, with seemingly no fear, at least.

Pushing her palms against the cave floor she pushed herself up again and started clip-clopping for a small pile adjacent. She looked over her shoulder, then down, and then knelt to start picking through the junk.

There was... definitely something in there. Something small and shiny-- it glittered pale pink in there. Vivilene reached out to take a hold of it and found it was warm-- but that was fleeting. The pink gemstone moved, and then reared up to reveal that it was lodged on the face of a cave rat, studded along its forehead and into where it's eye was supposed to be.

The thing shrieked at her and bit her fingers hard enough she thought she might have lost her entire hand. She squealed back, frightened and in pain, and in turn managed to scare the rat off with the sound. The two darted opposite ways-- the rat towards Monoceros and Vivilene towards Azure again, her movements oddly elegant if she weren't wheezing and crying and holding her own bloodied hand.

There was a clatter of hooves, and then a hollow thump as she plonked herself back down in her spot, wide and fearful and teary eyes staring around the tunnel. She was unsure what Azure could do to help her and the Evil Monsters Lurking in Garbage presumably looking for her but she sure as hell knew that two were more intimidating than just one-- even if half of that two were presently bawling their eyes out with panic.

@Azure

M - language

Azure turned, blinking, at the sudden scuffle of movement.

"HEY!" she yelled after the rat, "you fuck?!" Then turned, blinking, to see the child collapsing, sobbing, back near her. Azure hesitated only briefly before stepping closer, lowering herself down and murmuring soothing, hushing nothings, worried and afraid for Vivilene.

She felt helpless, suddenly; she didn't know how the hell to help this kid, be it to talk or... not get bit by rats, or stop her bleeding or whatever. So she kept murmuring nonsense, curling close and warm, nudging her antlered head gently beneath the child's arms.

"Hey, hey, it's just a rat--they're shitheads, okay, but they're everywhere, they're just annoying, right? Just-..." I mean, I can't say they're harmless 'cause they're not, a bunch of them will fuck you up-... "Just stick close to me, okay? They'll usually leave you alone." Unless they're in groups, but she didn't think Vivilene needed to hear that just now.

She exhaled, closed her, eyes, and focused; then there was a banana, bright and sweet-smelling, out of nowhere. Right, good. Azure used claws and beak to gently split the peel, then lifted it to depost it in whatever part of Vivilene made up something like a lap. "Here you go--shh, it's okay. Here. This tastes good--wanna eat that?" she asked, gently, worriedly.

She didn't know how to talk to a child, how to be a mother. Caves knew hers hadn't exactly set a prime example.

@Vivilene

VIVILENE
i make a mess
and you'll be there
to help me undress

She heard Azure shouting-- and it took her a moment to realise it wasn't at her, which was a good thing, because Vivilene was already choking on hysterical sobs as it was. Her throat hurt with it-- like thorns prickling up the inside of her neck, and her nose was uncomfortably clogged.

She wished she were stronger, and braver, like her dad. But he never seemed to get hurt. Maybe brave people just... didn't? Vivilene went to look at her hand, smeared scarlet, when she realised that Azure was sticking her antlered head underneath her arms.

The crippling fear didn't instantly melt away like she would have liked but it did, bit by bit, drip away. The words that Azure said didn't mean an awful lot to her (it's exceedingly difficult to comprehend what someone says to you when you're crying so hard you might puke) but her tone was enough to provide comfort.

The hybrid was able to distract herself for a moment, sniffling quietly as she raked her fingers through the feathers between Azure's antlers-- a little callously, with the gentle ignorance of a child that doesn't know how to properly pet down feathers, but not at all with ill intentions. She was, at least, distracted further at the smell of the banana.

Blinking back tears, she leant over to get a better look at the banana as Azure peeled it and then dropped it into her lap. She blinked at it further-- wanna eat that? --and then picked it up. It was... wet-but-not, squishy between her fingers. When she put it into her mouth it was as sweet as smelled. It gave her a moment to occupy herself away from the panic and the bleeding (as long as she didn't look at the blood, that is) and slowly, she began to settle again.

As she chewed she looked at Azure with another small sniff, the back of her wrist moving to wipe her face. She might as well try thanking her again-- with the risk of injuring herself for a second time in the last five minutes. She took a breath, swallowed her banana, and began to focus quietly.

Her mouth didn't move-- why would it? --as her gemstone glittered pale against her skin. A voice, feather-soft like a distant whisper, touched Azure's mind. Not entirely invasive-- at least, the least invasive that talking directly into someone's brain can be, but gentle and quiet. "Thank you," it said, and then it was gone.

Vivilene returned to eating her banana in silence.

@Azure