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Something was... Wrong. The thought stalked the massive cerberus as he paced about the bones, noses sniffing at prey. The Bonebound was fine, despite the disturbance brought on by the strange, corrupting fungus... But it was obvious that the hell hound was distracted by the feeling of unease, even to those who did not know him particularly well. He had not been attending his duties properly, his hunting had been off. It wasn't even particularly anything wrong with him.

Though, at the rate it was going, it might as well have been. There had been a smell, and a strange sound, and his dreams had not been-- they had not been quite right, as of late. It was something the big lug was going to have to take to his mother, one way or another, to figure out. He hoped it was not to do with the--... The murder. He did need to clear his conscious of that, but surely, that was not enough to tear him apart. It was certainly a problem, but this thing felt like it was coming from an outside source.

He lumbered toward one of the divets in the alley of one of the fortresses where water pooled, and froze as spotted something huge. His heads lowered, five eyes staring as his hackles rose, as he stared down the massive, kaiju monster: brown hide, glowing toxic green, slorping down his drinking hole until it was completely dry.

"Hello?" His central head woofed as he cautiously drew his tail up behind him, being careful to avoid smacking it into one of the fragile structures that surrounded him. "I am," he greeted, hesitant, "Kerberos..." He gave a tentative sniff, watching the six legged alien with a trio of fixed attention he rarely gave anything.

It wasn't every day he saw something as big as himself. Slowly, he began to wag his tail in a friendly manner, and crouched into a play bow. "I am Bonebound!" He explained-- anything this big in Canis was likely to have run into another Bonebound, so hopefully... It knew what that meant. "... Do you want to play?" It was a friendly offer, one that came with a flutter of hope. He liked playing with other gembound, but most were smaller than him, and he couldn't really... play in a very fair way with them.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

As mentioned before, Alpha was bowed down slightly (elbows nearly bent enough to say that it was lying on its forearms) and taking a hefty draft of water. Days later, its throat was still dry and its lungs felt choked. It'd worked hard enough at its magic that casting it seemed to find no further wounds to heal, leaving spiderwebs of fused exoskeleton and that jagged scar down its left side. The thing'd already blackened.

Lapping at the bottom of the now-dry watering hole, its quills pricked up defensively at the sound of an approach. Four eyes angled up, and so did the rest of it, drawing to its full height. It took a few wary steps back, not giving any thought to whatever bones it sent clattering with its tail. Alpha lowered its head, sparing a single snort before going on the conservative path against someone that could look it in the eye without any stretching up.

A name.

Not made.

It considered for a moment, and barked back, "my designation is Orthoclase-Alpha." Hesitantly, its eyes darted between each set of eyes - or eye, in the middle's case - unsure of where to make contact. Alpha's settled on the centermost. The Bonebound rang a few bells, mostly the ones that Desert Rose had put up saying "Please do not kill our neighbors." That wasn't verbatim, but the disappointing point was there. "I am -" it halted, realizing it was basically parroting Kerberos's exact introduction, "from the Sentinels and under Overseer Vargas's training."

Official enough.

Play was... not official.

Alpha narrowed its eyes, clearly doing some mental gymnastics to somehow arrive at the conclusion that maybe this massive, fluffy... thing, was implying a spar. It asked as much, "a spar?"

@Kerberos

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Designation. It was a strange term, one that made the dog's three brains work in over time as he stood, tail wagging like a dumbass at the complete stranger. The Sentinels were numbers and positions, categorized without much opportunity for name-- though, some had earned names. He was vaguely aware of this. Designation, however, sounded like a pejorative to the big dog's ears. It would be like being called Gatekeeper, his heads One, Two, and Three. A simplification, cut clean and wiped free of personality.

Kerberos didn't like it-- and he found himself bothered by a lot of little things these days-- but he found it more a stumbling block than an obstacle. The spined beast counter offered: a spar. The lumbering dog bounced forward, giving a small woof, "Wrestle!" He lowered his heads, shuffling his heavy forepaws. "Tag!" His central head raised, tongue rolling out of his mouth to pant.

"Play-fight, yeah! Spar, for fun!" It seemed like the stranger, Orthoclase-Alpha (what a mouthful of a name), seemed to be considering it. "You can go first," he insisted, tail thumping against the dry earth. "I won't hurt you." This, he emphasized. Play was not intended to hurt, and even if he could go all out on someone his size-- well. He didn't want to scare his new friend, did he?

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Alpha found this three-headed creature to be a bit simple, but - it didn't have any qualms about it. One, the fewer words shared, the better; two, it couldn't blame him for not being trained by a Overseer; three... it couldn't think of a third to finish this headcount parallel. They could just get to the nitty-gritty of it all: an apparent agreement that they should, in fact, throw down.

"No hurting," it piped back, then clarified with a growl, "no magic." A brief narrow of the eyes, and it settled into a fighting stance. "We'll spar."

The orthoclase took a brief stock of its surroundings again, and prowled forwards. It launched itself forwards, claws scrabbling for handholds on the bones in this alley. They clattered noisily as they collapsed beneath its weight, but Alpha wouldn't be dissuaded. It continued to clamber up until it was maybe a solid foot above Kerberos, before twisting to pounce on the big lug's back.

Round: 1/?
Attempt: Pounce on Kerberos!
Defense: n/a
Injuries: n/a

@Kerberos

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Orthoclase-Alpha offered an affirmative, and another rule: no magic. This was probably for the best, though it did put Kerberos at a disadvantage. He nodded, three perfectly synced nods, and lay in wait as the hulking, six legged beast scrambled up the bones and lunged for him.

He waited, perfectly posed with his forelimbs pressed down into the dust, as Alpha's weight crashed into him. There was a playful yip from one of his heads as the momentum sent the pair of them crashing into another bone structure-- a pair of kaiju wrecking a already dead city.

Kerberos tumbled, using the strong muscles in his forelegs and his powerful tail to whip himself over, and for a brief moment, he managed to land on top of Alpha, brushing only a few prickly quills in the process as he flopped on top of the beast, grinning like the big doofus of a dog that he was.

"Got'cha!" He barked, delighted-- though he didn't have quite enough of a firm grip to really keep his opponent locked down.


Round: 1/?
Attempt: Flip Alpha over!
Defense: wriggle wriggle wriggle
Injuries: n/a
@Orthoclase-Alpha

It landed heavily against the cerberus's side, and they both went tumbling and tumbling. Alpha twisted and scrabbled, but Kerberos wound up on top. Bones scattered all around as a (was that playful?) growl tore out of its throat. Apparently, it didn't like being got.

Gangly limbs reached out, hands reaching out to grab the bulky dog by the shoulders. The orthoclase twisted, sending yet more structures toppling - it flinched as a femur nearly smacked into one of its eyeballs - around them. It adjusted its grip, and twisted again, teeth gritting as it tried and failed to roll so Kerberos was underneath (or at least off) of it.

Seemed like he was going to stick around.

Round: 2/?
Attempt: Roll them so that it's on top
Defense: n/a
Injuries: n/a

@Kerberos

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Hee hee hee hee. Kerberos had the big, wiggly beastie captured now, and his tail began to thump noisily against the back end of Orthoclase-Alpha's carapace. A low, teasing whine came from one of his throats as he shuffled his paws, to get a steady position on top of the big guy.

It wasn't very easy to position himself so that he could do what he wanted; one nose immediately plunged into a quill and let out a sharp whimper, flinging chin up to the sky. Another managed to smoosh into Alpha's plated skull, and finally-- the last head, managed to land a few good, thick licks on to Orthoclase-Alpha's face.

They were probably the slobberiest things that poor, poor Orthoclase had felt. Slobber dripped out of the hellhound's mouth as he went to town getting in as much of his doggy kisses as he could.

Because clearly it wasn't a good play time unless one of them was covered in drool.


Round: 2/?
Attempt: Apply kisses to the big baby!!
Defense: squishing alpha
Injuries: a lil' poked up
@Orthoclase-Alpha

Orthoclase-Alpha, aged four cycles, had no idea what it was in for.

Every step of the licking process was violently resisted. It flailed as much as it could with thousands of pounds of dog on top of it, and briefly considered going back on its previously-established rule of "no magic" to get out of this awful predicament. Two heads hit home, the one just glancing and the other planting massive licks all over its face.

What is - ACK! (Some drool got into its mouth and it spat.) What is this?! "VENOM?!"

Steeled by toxin-related panic, the alien tilted its head away as far as it could, bracing each of its limbs against Kerberos. Alpha shoved the cerberus off, twisting on the spot - using the momentum to get up and shuffle off.

Standing stiff-legged like a cat, back arched as far as it could be, it hollered, "I said, 'No magic!'"

Round: 3/?
Attempt: I want OUT of the kissy zone!
Defense: n/a
Injuries: Squished 'n licked

@Kerberos

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O-oh. As the big beastie scrambled away, Kerberos flopping on to his side like an abandoned tortoise at the side of the road, his heads rolled. He managed to get back to his paws, but his head was spinning with the accusation.

"Whuh?" "Not magic!" "No cheating," Each head woofed at once, bewildered as he tried to get his clumsy paws to balance his weight as bones shifted under paw. "Friendly!" "Just licks!" "Not trying to eat--" "Promise!"

Okay, okay. The cerberos's tail thumped once on the ground, and he inhaled in one mouth and snorted with another, blinking five bleary eyes as his brain tried to puzzle solve. "Magic-- magic different," by instinct, he defaulted to shorter, clipped words; as though it was a natural language shared by the big hound and his new found friend. "This is magic," he barked, and his middle head raised its snout and closed its one eye tight as he tried to focus really hard on magic a harmless magic come to life to show Alpha.

A single, pale firefox light formed at the tip of his nose, a little pink flame that flickered no larger than a candle light. He lowered his heads, and let the wisp whisk about in the air between them, before drifting off to the side, where it wouldn't be in the way and certainly wouldn't hurt Orthoclase-Alpha.

"No use," he swore again, "Magic is cheating! And no venom. No mean biting either, okay?" He lowered his forepaws, crouching down with his hindquarters held high, and let his tail snake its way up into the sky like a banner. He waggled the multi-colored, scaled tail playfully, and waited keenly for his play-partner to initiate the continuation of the "spar."


Round: 3/?
Attempt: not cheating, see?!
Defense: oops he forgot
Injuries: a lil' poked up
@Orthoclase-Alpha

"Not magic!" - Alpha sputtered, clearly thinking it was in the right as far as licking-being-magic went. "Promise!" felt empty.

The orthoclase started pacing back and forth through the bones while Kerberos attempted to explain magic to it, unwilling to approach while he was clearly casting. Even as the ghostly flame went out of view, it was unwilling to approach. It was still there, an ominous light there to serve as a weapon later - it was certain. Or, perhaps, a distraction.

At that realization, acidic eyes snapped back to the big lug, crouching down in a perfect play-bow. The very picture of innocence and Just-Looking-to-Have-Funness. A farce! the little try-hard in it echoed, sounding suspiciously like Gamma.

"No magic, no biting," Alpha barked, head lowering and eyes narrowing so hard it was basically closing them. As the last echo of its words traveled through the fallen bone fortresses, a surge of magic jumped from it to Kerberos, seeking the mookaite on his paw and to smother the wisp.

The spell didn't travel far, though - instead looping wildly inside of the orthoclase that'd summoned it. A faint charred flesh scent rose in the air as the skin surrounding the stone started to overheat and swell. With an abrupt, deafening pop! electricity arced off Alpha's stone, scattering to every quill base nearby and moving wildly through the air.

Its eyes closed, a keening cry muffled by its tightly clenched jaws. Nostrils flaring and flanks heaving, Alpha turned away for a moment, lifting a claw to press against the too-hot rock lodged in its chest and whine. A growl came next, as a poor attempt to hide its weakness.

Round: 3/?
Attempt: beGONE wisp! nah
Defense: nah
Injuries: lightly squished, sick lightning wound around the stone

@Kerberos