i need someone to look into my eyes and tell me

Eridanus was a whole lot more relaxing to Vivilene, even if it had a nine-foot monster who had just horked up nearly two hundred pounds of watermelon up and then left it there for absolutely anyone to find.

But that was in the past. It was fine. Eridanus was home, and it was comforting, and she actually knew where she was going, this time. Alpha-- who didn't give its name out yet --needed a good stream of water to get a drink out of, and then it had to lay down and actually rest.

Whatever it had done back in that tunnel didn't sound very good; it sounded painful and it smelled even worse. Vivilene was willing to try to repress the memory, however, and get Alpha back up and... whatever Alpha did as soon as possible.

The hybrid wove herself through tree trunks and ferns until she came to a babbling brook, not very deep but a few feet wide. She stopped by it and settled down on the bank, folding her cervidae legs underneath her.

She turned to look at Alpha, and bleated gently at it.

"girl you know you gotta watch your health"



@Orthoclase-Alpha

Alpha felt approximately two things about Eridanus: there are a lot of birds. It voiced as much to Vivilene - who also hadn't given out her name - "there are a lot of birds." All Lessers, it hoped; nothing intelligent should be that noisy without restraint. The second thing was it's soft. Not in the way that sand was, or carpets of fungus in Canis. No, this was like that alcove in the past tunnel, but an entire cavern.

The kaiju tilted its head up, up, sniffing in the air and grimacing at the scent of caroller scat above. It didn't care much for birds all of a sudden. For that moment, though, it forgot to restrain the wide-eyed, almost child-like wonder gracing its features.

After that grimace, it went back to just idly following behind the cervitaur, face set in perpetual monster-scowl. It only made glancing observations after that, most along the lines of fruit on trees? Bushes? Hm. As much as its stomach rolled in upset at the idea, the orthoclase planned to continue exploring the world of fruit; as a secondary food supply, not as a treat. Alpha could not have little a fruit, as a treat.

Coming upon the brook, Alpha shoved aside another tree, essentially bending it halfway at the stem. Poor thing.

Vivilene bleated, and it made some odd rumbling noise back at her - mockery? No, imitation? - before just sidling up to the water. It shuffled so that it was straddling the brook (because it could) and squatted down to drink it in an incredibly birdlike manner: dipping its lower jaw in the water, closing its mouth, and tossing back to swallow. Glug glug.

@Vivilene

i need someone to look into my eyes and tell me

Vivilene nodded. There are a lot of birds. And she liked them, they were pretty. Carollers made nice noises and she quite liked their feathers. They never got very close to her, though, presumably because her dad might kill them and try to eat them.

She watched Alpha get all up in the stream's business and start chugging like its life depended on it (which, it might) as she went into her satchel and took out a green-and-red apple, biting into it with a low crunch. She nodded in response to its noise, and continued to eat quietly.

It was nice here; even if Alpha was, admittedly, incredibly weird.

For a moment, Vivilene waited until the kaiju managed to glug down the cervitaur's weight in water before she started trying to reach out to her magicka to try and host a conversation with it. Vivilene was usually... fairly good at her magic, she would like to think, but it faltered and stopped dead.

Stubbornly, she tried again. This time it was like the magic bit back at her, angrily lashing out. A spike of pain went up her chest and directly into her head. Sharp, stabbing, as if she'd just cut herself on her father's knife. She bleated a little more alarmedly, pained, and fumbled to keep herself from dropping the apple.

It wasn't over then, though-- the pain persisted, hammering against her skull. She shook herself out uncomfortably and curled up into herself, eyes narrowing into slits as she stared across at Alpha.

She might as well try to show it other places in Eridanus. Vivilene started to pick herself up, one hand holding her head and the other wielding her apple as she stood there in silence to start walking again once the orthoclase was done chugging.

"girl you know you gotta watch your health"



@Orthoclase-Alpha

Water, at least, was something Alpha knew to drink in moderation — although it might seem it was chugging an equally fantastical amount like the watermelon. There was a familiar sense that told it to stop drinking at some arbitrary point, maybe at a gallon or two. Finishing up, the orthoclase shifted its weight back a little, then a spindly forearm to run its fingers in the stream. Dipping its hand further in, it scooped a fair bit of water onto its face.

It seemed a little taken aback by the involuntary action; it didn't clean itself, except the bare minimum of dust bathing or preening at itchy spots on its hide or… getting rid of bloody spots, from itself or others. It wasn't dirty, but — it felt a little bit? Acidic eyes widened at the brook, and it made another quick splash into its face and scrubbed lightly. For some odd reason, it was quelling the butterflies in its gut.

Vivilene bleated sharply, loudly, and the orthoclase went stock-still. Triangular head swinging this way and that, red sense riding high and failing miserably, Alpha abandoned the river and — protectively? — hurried over to loom over the cervitaur. A low growl bubbled out of its throat in time with the rattling of quills as it searched the treeline for assailants. Magic may not be a friend to either of them, but it still had its naturally keen, wide vision.

Alpha let out a booming hiss, and all that fled the scene were carollers. No attackers. It sniffed and snorted slightly, eyes narrowing. Finally, it looked down at its fruit-giver properly, quills still pricked with alarm, sniffing (probably too closely) for the scent of blood or... something other than the fruit she was holding.

"What happened?" it grunted, at last having the mind to shuffle away and not be practically standing on top of Vivilene. The protective panic was over.

@Vivilene

i need someone to look into my eyes and tell me

And then, suddenly, there was a kaiju standing over her.

This might have been a terrifying experience for Vivilene, if she had not just watched the same kaiju eat so much fruit that it had to hork it all back up again. She did not smell like blood, at least-- she only smelled like deer, and the caves, and faintly, of fruit.

She waited for Alpha to move off her before she was shifting on the spot uncomfortably, lifting a hand to rub where the pain throbbed against her skull. A second try would be fine. Maybe she'd be able to explain. It was fine.

Needless to say, it was not fine.

A second attempt yielded the same result. The only hint that Alpha got as to what she was trying to do was the glittering of her pale gemstone embedded into her gut, twinkling underneath the fur blanket. Pain shot through Vivilene's head again-- how can you have two headaches at once? --and stayed there, pounding, hammering, whatever words you'd like to use that, quite frankly, Vivilene couldn't care less about at this very moment.

She felt like she was going to black out, or throw up the bits of fruit she'd eaten like Alpha did. She couldn't think and she was getting to the point where she couldn't see, colours and shapes began to blend in on themselves underneath a layer of fuzz.

There was a horrific rasp before she started crying. Pain was terrible, she would later decide-- it was overwhelming and she felt like she couldn't move. It wasn't just a headache anymore; it was a weight that pressed down on her entire body.

All she could do was cry and gasp for air.

"girl you know you gotta watch your health"



@Orthoclase-Alpha

No blood, it concluded with a huff, before levelling the cervitaur with a stare. She was rubbing her head, and then - broke into tears?

Not that the monster actually knew what those were, only that they symbolized quite a bit of pain that couldn't be repressed. Alpha'd seen its foes leaking time and time again, often at the end of their battles, suffering too much to continue; but, it hadn't been fighting this little thing, right? There wasn't anyone around that could be casting magic from afar (it searched again, just in case.) Neither of them could be in immediate danger.

And, yet, she was crying.

The orthoclase sat there, brain chugging at a cool mile per hour and rolling through the possibilities before settling on - magic backlash? Vivilene wasn't talking to it in that way she did, even though it seemed like instinct. Somehow it made it to that conclusion.

Next, it somehow came to the idea of disrupting flow in her stone, like that'd just... stop the backfiring altogether. Magicka flowed, surprisingly gentle from someone that prided itself on its ability to decimate watermelons and skulls.

Fruit-giver couldn't provide if she was apparently in a lot of pain and crying.

For whatever odd reason, its spell didn't reach her, and it just stood there awkwardly, looking for a different idea. The three-headed dog had done... something. With his tongues? He seemed to know something about making pain go away, through whatever hellish means. Alpha was still convinced he'd been attempting to poison it.

Anyways, the monstrous hybrid stalked forwards, sniffed at the top of Vivilene's head... hesitated a bit and contemplated just leaving on the spot, and gave the most delicate and pussyfooted lick possible. It might've been sweet, if it hadn't immediately recoiled from the texture of hair stuck to its tongue.

@Vivilene

i need someone to look into my eyes and tell me

For a long moment, Vivilene simply did not stop crying. It was the only thing she could do-- she began to forget where she was, who she was with, what she was doing. The only thing she could think about was the pain and how it seemed to stab into her head. She'd held Attikias's knife, once-- that had hurt, when it pricked her fingers.

This was similar. But worse.

A lot worse, in fact.

She had no idea how long she had been laying there until she felt something even stranger, and when she opened her eyes she realised she was staring down Alpha's gullet. For a split second she was afraid-- and then she was confused.

As Vivilene wiped the glowing saliva from her face, she studied the Orthoclase. Was it-- trying to help? It didn't seem like it; it seemed more like it had been trying to eat her and decided last second that it was a terrible idea, but she felt better. The fear was fleeting; it came and then it was gone again. She felt... not good, but not as bad, anymore.

The hybrid was hesitant to try to reach out for her magicka again-- but she tried it anyway. The sensation was bordering on unfamiliar again when she did. She expected it to backfire again, to make her head worse, and although it continued to quietly pound, she was relieved as the magic washed over her shoulders.

"What did you do?" She asked the Orthoclase without her mouth moving, the words projected quietly into its head. "I couldn't talk. It worked."

For a split second she considered touching it, petting it, as thanks-- but it could still take her hand off. It had still growled at her before, fairly recently. "Do you want more fruit?" she asked, instead. "Or I can show you new things?"

"girl you know you gotta watch your health"

@Orthoclase-Alpha

It retched once or twice, tongue snaking in and out and swiping across its teeth to dispel the sensation of hair. No matter the circumstances, it did not plan to lick anything ever again. Kerberos had not been onto something.

"What did you do?"

Alpha grunted immediately, "nothing." Toxic eyes narrowed, and he stepped off with a quiet huff. Jaws cracking in another splitting yawn, the kaiju shook itself. Quills pricked as it performed one last scan of their surroundings and exhaled again.

The tension didn't particularly leave its shoulders - it was, childish as it sounded, overtired at this point.

Neither of the things the fruit-giver was suggesting were appealing, only - "show me a place to sleep."

Basic necessities first, apparently.

@Vivilene

i need someone to look into my eyes and tell me

She could work with a place to sleep. Her head craned back just a bit as Alpha's mouth opened (just a little too widely, she noted) and she restrained a grimace, lifting a thin hand to her head before she pushed herself back up to her feet, ruffling herself briefly out.

Vivilene didn't speak-- at least not in the way Vivilene usually spoke --but some steps away she turned and she offered a mrrrp at the Orthoclase before she continued along, striding carefully through the ferns in Eridanus.

There were a great many places Vivilene used for napping. Her siblings were a lot for her, sometimes. It was almost every day that she felt herself overwhelmed by their pranks and their words and their energy, and although Vivilene could have the same energy and instinctive need to dunk on her sisters, it was often not to the same extent as they could go.

Though, to call Vivilene The Calm One was sometimes a little terrifying in itself.

If the camp was too loud, and camp was likely going to be too much for Alpha, who was sick and wanted to sleep, and it was too loud for still-a-little-headachey Vivilene, there was one place, in particular, she'd hide herself away in for a few hours.

It was a cave embedded into the walls, the entrance of which was draped with a thick swathe of hanging lichen. It was by no means a particularly low entrance but for Alpha, it might have warranted ducking down to comfortably get through.

The inside was quiet and dry and the moss trickled inside, though a bedding of ferns and feathers and other soft things Vivilene had found had been gathered-- though this too, might have been a little too small for the Orthoclase.

The cervitaur looked back before she seeped in through the curtain and waited inside for the monster.

"girl you know you gotta watch your health"

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Mrrrp. Mostly nonverbal - nice.

What a sight this'd be: a monstrous kaiju following after a cervitaur delicately picking her way through the jungle. Where Vivilene stepped carefully over a branch, Alpha definitely just stomped it into the ether. What's more, it was essentially social distancing - maintaining about a six foot length between them and peering around in the brush.

Coming upon the cave, the orthoclase threw any notion of personal space out the window. It muscled its way in, unintentionally tearing a good hunk of lichens off and wearing it. Grunting and testing the upper limits of its flexibility, Alpha maneuvered itself to face the entrance - kicking limbs surely included and to be avoided - and park itself on the ground.

Toxic-green eyes blared at the hybrid from atop its claws, unwilling to close until it saw her either: settle down in what little space was left on the other side of the hole; or, straight-up leave.

It was snoring in minutes, otherwise.

exit, unless stopped
@Vivilene