Pride didn't linger in Eridanus as often as he'd done in the past. This was, in no small part, down to the missing Mercurius. Pride came to check on the garden, from time to time--to ensure nothing had destroyed his dear friend's work--but aside from being overgrown, it seemed well enough. So he came to graze, when he was hungry, but he did not simply lounge in the sunlight or bask by the streams as he'd once done, nor rest for hours beneath the white lion's peaceful watch.

Still, he found that he missed it. At the moment, slender legs were carrying him through the cold rush of a brook; a shallow one, but he relished the feeling of water regardless. Orion was beautiful but in a... dead way; all crystalline and ruins, motes of glittering dust. It was like an ancient piece of art, carved to perfection and left to crumble: still hauntingly gorgeous, but in a sad, almost philosophical way, at least to Pride (infamous as an overthinker). Eridanus, though: it was life, movement and light, constant change and natural beauty. Birds flitted through the leaves above, the creek swept around his hooves, the dirt underfoot teemed with life.

Diamond-studded neck curved down, and he drank deeply before moving on, browsing his way along the banks, pristine coat bright in the orb-light. He almost felt safe, here, but even so he knew it wasn't true; he was a deer in a cave full of cave deer, and being hunted--even by accident--was always a possibility. He gathered his magicka to himself as a preemptive shield, settling the potential energy around him just in case.

@Vivianite

i need someone to look into my eyes and tell me

Vivilene was also an over-thinker, but Eridanus-- home --settled her down. Her family settled her down. She thought a whole lot less about the things that worried her and scared her, perhaps to the point where she didn't think at all. She did things merely because she felt like it.

Which is exactly why she was sprinting through Eridanus at full speed.

It felt good to run and not feel like she was being chased by anything. It felt good to wind and weave between thick tree trunks. The brief impact of her hooves on the mossy floor when she bounded forwards was relieving, in a way. It jostled out a good portion of her worries.

It felt less good to not look where she was going and plunge right into cold water with a splash. It wasn't deep enough-- thankfully --that her head went underneath the surface but it was certainly enough for her to bleat alarmedly and paddle out onto the shore.

There, she shook herself out like a dog and sank onto her belly to wring out the soaking shawl hanging from her shoulders. It was a good thing, at least, that Hunter or Volta hadn't actually seen her do that. She might have never heard the end of it and they'd call her names and there she went, catastrophising a situation that didn't even happen.

One thing took her mind off it, however-- a white deer milling around in the brook. Vivilene had seen cave deer before, but not.. greater deer. There was the immediate assumption that Pride was prey animal, something to be hunted by her father (not her, spears are scary) but she'd never seen one that was so pale.

Vivilene shifted a little on her new spot, and then bleated over at Pride. As you do, when you spot an animal in the wild.


"girl you know you gotta watch your health"



@Pride

There was a patter of tiny feet, splashing, a thump as the creature threw herself onto the ground, and then--bleating.

Pride turned, quizzically, pale eyes seeking out this new maker-of-sounds, fixing on the strange creature that very distinctly had both humanoid and cervine traits. She was wearing clothing, and he expected a laughing greeting, given her somehow impish nature--and so, his surprise when being met instead by bleating was strong.

A bit shocked, certainly taken aback, his head lifted up and away and for a moment he simply stared, very much a deer in metaphorical headlights. He blinked, and then--puzzled--spoke, trying to draw his thoughts together out of the blank "what" that Vivilene had startled them into.

"Ahh--hello?" he hazarded, tentatively.

@Vivilene

i need someone to look into my eyes and tell me

The cervitaur blinked, very slowly, almost cat-like. The first thought that went through her head was great, even lessers can talk better than me. Until she realised A) Pride isn't dumb and B) actually that's a pretty mean thing to think of anyone.

Her discomfort was still palpable, however-- she shifted on the spot as she fluttered the damp shawl out and brought the shimmery fabric across her shoulders again, curling into it like it were some kind of security blanket. Her mind was thrown back to Alpha, just cough it up and she grew, quietly, increasingly nervous.

Shuffle, shuffle. A deep breath. The moonstone embedded into her gut glittered white against her skin and then faded out again. There was a voice; gently-spoken and childlike, that came into Pride's mind-- not entirely invasive, somehow, despite the affair being marginally worse than whispering directly into someone's ear.

"Hello," she said-- without her mouth moving. There was a long pause, and then an explanation-- "I can't talk."

Hopefully, unlike Alpha, Pride wouldn't pry any deeper than that. "Why are you in the water? It's cold."


"girl you know you gotta watch your health"



@Pride

He was, for a moment, taken even further aback by the brief, mild voice murmuring into his mind. Surprised, he tilted his head, and then dipped it in acknowledgement, even managing to pull his stance from "twisted half around to stare in bewilderment" to a more upright, "attentive friendly conversation time." He began to pace toward shore, but almost at once noted the stranger's shy, hesitant new body language--perhaps she'd thought he was a Lesser, then, and was nervous?--and turned, instead pulling himself up a slightly steeper bank a little farther downstream. He spoke, as he did so, also turning his mind--(and turning to face her, to concentrate on this) toward her.

This proved to be a mistake. His lapse in concentration as to where he was going, coupled with his kind but perhaps misguided attempt at taking the steeper shore farther down, led to sharp hooves carving a rut through the soft mud of the shoreline. Pride went down hard, face-first, with a flinching "oof"--slamming his entire chest, neck and face into the dirt before going down in a tumble of previously-graceful legs, flailing, into the stream.

It was cold, when one fully-immersed like that, and he scrambled back up in a loud, splashing fit of water and tangled limbs. A moment later he was back where he'd started: upright, in the stream--but now with mud, dirt, twigs and grass all over him.

He blinked, and looked to Vivilene.

"I, ahhh..." and rarely did he feel so foolish, "I was just--drinking. It isn't too cold if it's just your hooves," he added, noting as he said it that Vivilene had hooves. And antler nubs, and a glowing moonstone, and a faintly-familiar tail-... The white stag's brow furrowed as familiarity kicked in, though he didn't put it quite together yet.

"My name is Pride. And I do not normally greet others by falling face-first into rivers--my apologies. I was trying to, ah, speak into your mind in turn, to open a link so you could respond. A lesson in focus," he added, glancing to the mangled riverbank with wry humor.

@Vivilene

i need someone to look into my eyes and tell me

One ear flicked back as Vivilened watched, as Pride turned, started walking towards her, and then fell into the stream. She startled, rearing back and skinny legs tangling for a few moments in the mud as well. When the surprise left she was bewildered, and then, promptly, concerned.

By the time she managed to scramble up onto her hooves again, Pride was already upright and talking, again. She listened with the faintest of absent-minded frowns, struggling to push back the mild frustration-- perhaps jealousy? --and not let it show through. That would be rude.

She looked down at her hooves. And then back to Pride. "It's okay," she spoke again, maintaining the magicka quietly. It had become almost second nature to her by now. "I fall down a lot too." She knew-- from experience, at least --that reassurance was always good, and helpful, when she did something embarrassing. Having someone to relate to about it was good, too-- and thus came the assumption it was what Pride needed.

"I'm Vivilene," she continued quietly, the voice a little too easy to miss. "You don't... have to do that. I'm good at using magic to talk, now."

There was a brief pause as she started to step forward, carefully, one little hoof at a time, until she was closer. Her hand was shaky when she leaned forward but she continued anyway-- she wanted to help --to try and start gently picking the twigs and leaves off Pride's shoulders and neck.

She studied each one, for whatever reason, and then held onto them instead of simply letting them go. They'd be nice additions to her garden. She had no idea that twigs and leaves don't actually grow like seeds do.

"I live here," she offered after a moment, fingertips grazing the skeletal-like patterns of a leaf. "Do you stay here?"

"girl you know you gotta watch your health"



@Pride

Pride was not a particularly touch-oriented being, generally avoiding close contact with others; he was aloof, and so to have a stranger simply come up to him and start--for lack of a better word, grooming him--was bizarre. She carefully picked clean his coat, and he, rather quizzically, tolerated it.

"I often come here, but for the most part I live in Orion--do you know it? It is the cave next door, with the gemstone ceiling?" He paused, and peered over Vivilene, curiously. The "familiarity" he'd sensed was clicking, now. "You, ahh--do you happen to know who created you?" he asked, his voice a brief waver. If his children had had children of their own, they'd have told him...

...Right?

Pride glanced away, blinking; he didn't want to seem rude, with such an abrupt question, and so he continued his prior answer.

"There are a few of us, in Orion, who call themselves the Seven. We protect others, where we can, often with our magic."

@Vivilene

i need someone to look into my eyes and tell me

Vivilene gave a little nod as Pride spoke, brushing the mud off his fur, before she left him alone and stepped back with her loot: a good fistful of leaves and twigs. If only she'd brought Attikias's satchel with her-- her hands were already starting to feel progressively stickier just standing there with them in her hands.

She nodded at the mention of Orion. She knew it-- she even liked it, despite Azure's concerns. She never found the point in sneaking around there. It was difficult to sneak through somewhere with hooves, anyway. They clicked too much and alerted everyone in the general vicinity.

The question left her blinking confusedly, however. "My dad?" Two things about this reply should be noted: the first, she was referring to Attikias. The second, she had no idea what Attikias's name was. Regardless, at least, she continued on quietly. "And someone else, but I've never met him."

"My dad said that his name was Azizos and he looked a bit like me, I guess. I know he had horns and my dad said I would have them, one day," she idly touched the twinkly-silver nub protruding out of her forehead. Origin story explained, she latched onto the next piece of New Information.

She smiled a little. It was nice to help people. "I like helping people," she went on, mouth still not moving. "But I haven't done it with magic before. How do you do that?"

"girl you know you gotta watch your health"



@Pride

Pride's heart froze, and he felt his breath catch in his throat. He stared at Vivilene, taking her in all over again. The deer shape, the strange face, the nubs of antler.

Azizos-... had children?

"Antlers," he found himself saying--slowly, gently, automatically. His voice sounded distant, to him. "They are antlers-... Not horns--like mine. I am Azizos' father," he went on, and slowly, stunned, lowered himself to his knees to lay there near his apparent granddaughter. "That makes us related." ...Obviously, but his own mind, stunned, was still catching up. "He did not tell me he'd made children of his own-! Is he all right?" He didn't think, judging by her phrasing, that Vivilene had actually met his son--but the mention of him in the past tense was more than a little worrying, and his pulse sped up a notch with faint fear.

Surely he was fine..? Unless-

Realization crept in; if Azizos had died, and someone else had revived his stone-... It would explain why she'd never met him. Why she's speaking of him as if he's gone.

The world swayed, a little, so that he forgot, for the moment, Vivilene's other question--about magic--in favor of trying to shove down worst-case-scenarios.

Sound felt muted, and his mouth was suddenly dry with fear.

"Do you know if he's--still alive?" he asked, and even to him, his voice sounded weak.

@Vivilene

i need someone to look into my eyes and tell me

The hybrid found this line of questioning a little strange-- and the prior statement beforehand. Some alarm bells should have been ringing when a stranger she'd just met came out with that makes us related, and perhaps unfortunately, Vivilene found nothing odd about that specifically.

She shuffled on the spot, thinking-- she didn't expect to be interrogated some weeks later on a story her father had told her. Her mind was half-cast on what Attikias told her, and half-focused on actually trying to cast through to Pride. Her gemstone glittered. She sighed, sensing an impending migraine.

I've never met him," she repeated gently. The death question was a little more concerning. "I don't know. I don't think so. Dad said they made me"-- he failed to mention the drunk part --"and then they parted ways. He said he misses him?"

Maybe he was dead and her father didn't want to say. Vivilene tried to shake this particular thought away. She didn't want to think about dead people, or worry about people she'd never met. She wanted to hear about the Seven and helping people.

"I can.. ask my dad to.. look out for him?" she offered hesitantly, not entirely knowing how to comfort someone in this situation-- never mind someone who, apparently, was related to her. What even were you supposed to say to someone that turned out to be your grandfather?

Vivilene, personally, went with "I'm Vivilene."


"girl you know you gotta watch your health"



@Pride