a certain tension fizzled between the two alien entities, set at opposite poles in their air of importance: one for her knowledge and intent, in spite of her dependence on them to save and carry her; the other for his overpowering enormity, limbs like towers, words like thunderheads. damask could sense that electricity, caught in the middle of it. her mystification mirrored the seer's: batcat? the heart? where is lorekeeper taking us, exactly? she knew the chambers nearly inside and out, but she couldn't very well guide them without knowing the destination. and the overseer's talk of design, failure, survival ... that was worse than confusing. somehow it felt outright wrong, enough to inch its way under her skin, make her crest hackle. and doesn't he remind you of somebody? kind of like the rest of him? she glanced behind her in the corner of a single narrowed eye. his bearing was mild, but she would have appreciated a little more distance.

meanwhile, a set of shrieks and squeals rent into the air — so shrill as to make her wince, ears flattening against the nape of her neck. silver eyes closed briefly. why couldn't any of the louder speakers try calling: giggle, or eythan, or ... you know, the overseer? any of them would've been more effective, the last most of all. maybe you'd better give it a shot, then. but she shoved that thought away, blinking back to attention with an exhale. her voice was too soft to improve upon the others', and even if it weren't, the idea of raising it — (bad idea) she'd really rather not. better to hope their summons would suffice, or that the fabled batcat would be brought by other means.

restless energy was starting to course up and down her legs. too many strangers, too much sound, moving too slow. but damask pushed a weight of steady certainty into her step, keeping her place in line, eyes straight ahead — locked on her uncle, her grandmother, and the precious passenger on their backs.

She was gently jostled along, her body rolling as the pair walked beneath her; her attention hesitantly returned to Vargas, cautious to look him in the eye—the uh, eyes. Somewhere. His face in general.

When he spoke, she listened, but she did not want to answer his questions. If she could blush though, she might have. Were his long centuries in hibernation getting to him? Was his brain going soft? She hacked a cough atop of Giggle and Eythan.

"My, aren't you... a charmer," she teased. "The design was... Rhatan..." she said, but she did not know if he would recognize the name. Rhatan had left long ago, but not before proving her worth. Lorekeeper didn't know the exact details herself. It felt like a sour subject that she never put much research into.

Overall, she felt neutral to whether or not she should let them use her design, but supposed it wouldn't be the worst thing.

"I am a keeper... of knowledge... now..." she decided to say after considering his words, without directly mentioning using her design.

It was then they approached the heart, and the others began their shrill chorus for Batcat—who surely could hear even the quietest among them with how sensitive his hearing was. Her own ears pinned down, a rattling 'aah' hissing from behind her teeth.

"Yes, I am alright," she answered Giggle, her eyes searching the vents overheard for Batcat. "Batcat is—" but before she could answer, a shadow moved above them and, in a swift swooping descent, his quiet wingbeats brought him hovering near the group. He immediately hesitated, high-pitched chirps radiating from him as he looked upon the group: his ears twisted constantly to determine their images, particularly cautious of whatever the large body seemed to be. He began to push against the air and retreat.

"Ah! Come here... you brat..." she called, shifting to try and turn on the backs of her supporters. At her familiar voice and scent, the creature paused, sending out more calls to see her. There was an immediate shift in its demeanor and it seemed worried, hovering closer, cooing in her direction. It was unusual for her to be so far from her den.

"Yah, yah... listen... I need... to find Jupiter's den..." she pleaded with him, craning her neck to gesture toward the Chambers. Not that he'd pick up on a subtle movement, but she did it nonetheless.

There was more chirping and hesitating, small trills and murmurs as if he were arguing.

"That's... Overseer Vargas... it's fine," she groaned, rolling her eyes.

"OVERSEER," came the alarmed cry from Batcats toothy mouth, and a shifting of multiple shadows began to swarm on the ceiling.

"NOO," she cried back, pulling her lips up and baring her fangs. "Just lead us... into the heart..."

But there were too many bodies, too many sounds, and the creature shook its head against her pleading.

"Fine..." Lorekeeper breathed, propping herself up from Giggle's body. "I have your... scent..."

Batcat began to ascend, apologetic sounds spilling into the air.

Her head pointed up toward him and she grinned. "Scaredy... cat..." she said lightly. "See ya." With that, he melted back into the rooftop, and the swarming shadows also disappeared. That was more exhausting than she had bargained for.

"Alright... let's head in... following that goof's scent..." she suggested, peering into the labyrinth of the Chambers.

This round is optional except for @Giggle and @Eythan who need to carry Lorekeeper inside. It is safe to assume the others are following. You are free to have your characters roll for tracking success.

@Damask @Ischium @Sharp @Garnet-Epsilon

ah. so that's batcat. he and lorekeeper engaged in something like a debate as damask observed. well. at least he came, yeah? so he's a little reluctant, that's totally fair; any minute now and he'll give in, do as she says —

then the winged shadow swirled away into the vents, and her face fell faintly into concern. overseer: the only intelligible word that he'd spoken. that was why he'd left. damask gritted her teeth, restraining a lash of her tail and another edgewise glare at the monstrous figure striding behind them. without a guide, they'd have to find their own way. she couldn't help on the tracking front, and — well, naturally she was no expert in that regard, but with an airborne trail ... she had to wonder whether nosework would take them there fastest. maybe she could come at it from another direction, augment the process. all right, what clues do we have? it's a den, also known as the heart. it belongs to a — jupiter, and evidently they're not available to assist. that's not enough. she'd been charting these rooms and walkways since childhood, enough to find and memorize several sites with signs of former occupancy. if she just had a little more information ...

damask quickened her pace to walk beside the flagship. a soft respiration, and the heartbeats of the chambers pulsed before her: rats, mice, bats — each skittering along their own respective paths, articulating the twists and turns of the labyrinth to confirm her mental map in blood. "lorekeeper," she murmured. "can you describe the den? one of us might know it."

Vargas let out a sneer, one of disgust, as the Lorekeeper crooned her words at him. Charming.

"I might still change my mind," he offered, in dour warning--a reminder of his position, of the respect to afford him. But she answered him, at least. And he didn't know the name; before his time, perhaps, but it answered a question nonetheless. Lorekeeper had been a prototype. Likely a failure. Still, its future iteration had apparently been a success.

Jupiter's Den..?

What the hell was going on, here?

He had no way of knowing the lesser, flighty, ugly black-and-white thing had cast out her magic senses; she hadn't mentioned it aloud. He attempted it himself but the magic flickered out, and he just grunted, following along. He kept a distance, even, between they and him; he didn't seem to be sociable, merely... observing.

Giggle looked up, and faltered at the myriad shadows shifting across the ceiling. Suddenly she was more glad of Vargas' presence; they didn't seem friendly, these things. She wasn't sure why the hell there was so much tension in this gathering; between Damask's constant fear, Vargas' looming, and the worry of Lorekeeper and this Batcat, there seemed to be some deadly threat she hadn't noticed.

Giggle wasn't sure about scent; her nose wasn't bad, by any means, but this whole place stunk of bats. She grimaced and tried to send her mind off with Batcat himself, to watch where it went. "I'm watching him. Going with him--is it a him?" she asked, absently. But her mind was half-lost, flitting among the vents and the darkness; it was a struggle but she had some idea of lefts and rights, of ups and downs, of distances. ...I think it's fucking blind, she realized, in dismay, and tried to keep track through a sense of its movements and the utterly-unfamiliar echolocation that it seemed to be using.

She quickened her pace, shifting her bulk beneath Lorekeeper's.

"My mind is with the bat-cat'. I think it's this way," she added, and wished she were more certain.

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr

@Eythan

Pip heard voices from up ahead. The loud booming of giant gembounds conversing. She'd gotten good at recognizing that the sound was not, in fact, the sound of earthquakes or creaking trees. Pip traveling often helped with that. Her confused wanderings had become more focused, and now she fancied herself an explorer. She skittered along the ground, paused upon what she was sure was an ivory twig.

It rasped beneath her clawed feet. She kept her ears perked for the sounds. Another echoing sound, like rhythmic thunder. Words! Pip adjusted the scarf around her neck as she scuttled after the sounds of gembound. There were a lot here--most she didn't recognize. She had come to realize things with fur and ears were cats. So far, there were a lot of cats in this tunnel. One small brown thing and one very large purple tree. She was pretty sure it was a tree. Gembound didn't get that big, right? Pip scurried to catch up with the gembound.

"Hi! I'm Pip!" She said. She wasn't sure anyone could even hear her voice. Not to mention they were all moving pretty fast. Even considering the fact that two of them were carrying something. "Wheres everyone going? Why are you carrying that big purple cat?" Were she a mammal, she would've panted as she tried to keep up. Given that she wasn't, she was free to never shut up.

"Why are you so tall, big purple tree? Oh, is the big purple tree leading everyone?" Pip was skipping, jumping along the ground to try and keep up with the group. She was getting tired of this. She gazed ahead, trying to pin down something close enough to grab on to. A brown tail, probably belonging to a cat, swayed ahead of her. It was the one that had been yelling for a batcat? She thought? Pip focused on the tail, crouching, before launching herself at it. Her claws grasped the fuzzy material, and she stuck the landing. "Hi, I'm Pip!" She repeated. "Where are we going?"

((pip is on ischium if it isnt clear!))

This was the farthest he had ever gone from Orion, or 'home cave' so Morpho was a little extra on edge as he slowly walked through canis. He had found a nice, shadowed spot, a perfect place to sit and rest and watch.

Even as vision-focused as he was, he heard the group coming before he saw them. He shifted a little deeper into the shadows, watching carefully as the group came closer. As they approached, he spotted a familiar spot of purple and brownish grey on a unfamiliar sandy-brown and grey creature. He approached, looming over the canine for a moment. "Hello Pip. Hello fluffy-thing." He greeted, friendly, though it was harder to tell considering he couldn't really make facial expressions. He seemed to squint at Ischium for a moment, then asked the question he'd ask nearly every fluffy mammal he'd met as of late, "Are you a cat?"

tags: @Pip @Ischium

coding by wulf for template purposes

lol oops i already forgot i had to post this round

Eythan didn't particularly pay attention to the conversation going on above him - only giving a piece of his mind to it when they called for Batcat and the man(?) of the hour came swooping down in chirping flutters. Bright eyes twisted up at the swarming shadows, nervousness and trepidation creeping up his forelimbs before - nothing. Just the peculiar dusty, faintly filthy scent of cave bat.

Giggle seemed to have it figured out one way, and perhaps - any one of the others could help with that certainty, such as - "Damask?" He paused, waiting for her answer before sniffing at the air. Cringing at the scent, Eythan called, "this way?"

Regardless, he plodded in whatever direction Giggle did, letting her dictate their course.

She peeked down to one of the smaller creature and shook her head. "I have never been there... myself... I don't know what... it looks like..." New faces joined them and she turned to see and greet—one of them she almost missed, it was so tiny! A bug!? And then a larger bug... much larger... she smiled to them nonetheless and swapped her attention back to the chambers.

As they navigated the bone labyrinth, Lorekeeper could not help but stretch and turn to view all the little nooks and crannies. She did not leave her own lair much, so getting out to see what had changed was very rewarding. It seemed as if a multitude of creatures inhabited the heart, scurrying into their tiny homes to hide from those trespassing. Occasionally, she'd test the scents on the air where the bones would bifurcate the path, and suggest a new direction if the Gembounds were unsure.

She was oblivious to how much time had passed but they did reach—what she presumed to be—Jupiter's den.

At first, it seemed quite organized and almost barren: a small place for sleeping, nestled with furs and soft things to lay on; a workbench of sorts with tools for crafting, including sharpened diamond and oily stones for cutting other gemstones; a myriad of feathers collected in a clay cup, with cut bits and pieces littering the table and floor beneath it; and finally, a large vase-like thing full of sticks and bones, out of which Jupiter might have carved arrows.

But in the corner lay a hidden chamber, a dim light reaching from its dark walls to which she scooted and crooned across the backs of the others to see...

Discarded chunks of oily stone, broken or shattered, bones of stronger creatures with denser magic than the Gembounds, and finally... shimmering white feathers, crackling with electricity. There were only four left, one of each size: small, medium, large, and extra large—likely one of his outermost feathers. At first, Lorekeeper was speechless, her jaw opening to speak but nothing coming out. As she continued to look into the hidden area, there was something else there, a scribbling against the back wall:


(click for full!)

It was a painting against the bone: a background of smudged charcoal or soot to darken the color of the backdrop on top of which was depicted a winged man. His white wings shimmered with gold, his entire body crackling with lightning—and above him, an obsidian sword with wings not unlike his own, crackling with the same energy; at its base, where a hilt might have been, was a crest with a scorpion. Piercing blue eyes stared eternal, heavy with a sadness and a vengeance.

The Lorekeeper seemed lost for a long moment, her many eyes fixated on the painting—and slowly, tears welled from them.

To see him again... she was breathless.

"This is... Tamulus..." she managed, sniffling up a long, leaky string of snot. "He is... what you kids would call... my father, I guess." Essentially. The word did not have much meaning to her. Tamulus and Enki had been her creators, her architects, but she did not come out as planned; Enki would trust the disposal to Tamulus, who hid her instead. She would come to learn that they were successful in their creation of Rhatan, and that her better half would be collected for the chaotic plunge into the end. But... her? Nameless? Purposeless?

"I was... a failure," Lorekeeper started, her voice solemn and raspy. "I was taken here... to be disposed of... but Tamulus could not..." she spoke, deep breaths rattling her chest as she struggled against the swell of sleep calling her. "He hid me... instead." Her eyes worriedly flicked to Vargas. "I was good... at hiding!" A toothy grin. "Jupiter came... to visit me... too... then both of them... Tamulus had a sword made... from his chrysalis... it was a powerful weapon... imbued with his own magic... and feathers..." She traced it with her eyes, gesturing toward it above him in the painting. "It had... no hilt... he simply commanded it... and it flew..."

"And then... they discussed with me... hiding... for good..." her voice trailed off, her throat tightening; yes, it had been fearful during the war. It was all they could do to escape, she had heard. Her chest squeezed. She had been left behind, perhaps strategically, she had thought. But then, so had Batcat.

"And then... I went to sleep." It wasn't untrue, but it wasn't on purpose either. She had fallen into hibernation like the others. "And... then... you came," she continued, looking to the gembounds. "The Great... Awakening..." A small, genuine smile. "Jupiter returned too... and began to tell me... what was happening..." Her ears folded back.

"It is bad... up there..." Her voice sunk as she said this. "But it wasn't... always... Jupiter said, when they... reached the surface... it was nothing..." She made a poof sound, parting her paws as if for reference. "And so they made it... something..."

Her eyes went wide. "They made the grass... the trees... the rivers... the animals..." She could only imagine what this looked like. "And she said... there is no ceiling... just a yawning... expanse... of sky..." She looked up to the bone roof that enclosed them in the Chambers. "Jupiter said... they thought... they might never... see it again..." But Lorekeeper didn't know what that meant, really. She hadn't asked.

"But Tamulus..." she continued, her eyes tracing back to the painting. "He was... happy... Jupiter promised me... that..." She could only choose to believe her friend. "With someone... named Let... his wife."

Surely, Jupiter would not lie to her?

Lorekeeper frowned. "It is... sad... to know she... is gone..." And by the hand of Lord Dhracia—the Hand, Lord Dhracia.

"Might one of you.. be clever enough... to dislodge this area... and bring it back to... my den?" she wondered aloud, looking between those present. "I would... very much like... to have this... please." Her voice wavered and her head bobbed against the pull of sleep pulsating through her, adding a weight to her body she could not fight. "Please..." she said again before her head fell against the hyena's side and she drifted off into another of her deep slumbers.

Exit Lorekeeper

@Damask @Ischium @Sharp @Garnet-Epsilon @Giggle @Eythan @Pip @Morpho

Vargas spared the bugs only a brief glance before dismissing them entirely; they were arriving, now, at their destination.

Six eyes ranged over the little alcove, taking it all in. Furs, a workbench. Feathers, and sharpened stone. He studied these, drawing close to lightly touch the oily rock, wondering what lay within. Judging by the mention of Jupiter--and here, he glanced up dourly at the Lorekeeper, just in time to spot her dripping snot, which had him cringing away again--they might have been stones of the fallen.

Stones he could use. If they were alive. If they weren't too damaged. A lot of "ifs," but perhaps worth a try. He moved to pick a couple up, turning them over to select a more... complete one of the bunch. Claws then traced over the rock, the Overseer's face taut with concentration. ...Magic lurked in this one, at least.

Half her story passed by him, not unheard but in that sort of conscious nether-space of "just a moment, please." He looked up, blinking, focusing on all she'd said in the meantime. A child of Tamulus--his creation, then. Rat-an? Who'd name a creation after a Rat? But no, he didn't know that name. The idea, however, that Jupiter had not only escaped but touched the surface with magic widened his eyes, and his mind raced.

Did this mean that there were creations, up there? Worse, did it mean that others might see them, and know that the nest lay beneath-? Was it a risk to them?

He had merely grunted at Lorekeeper's assertion that she was good at hiding. It was obviously a fact, and one he'd already taken into consideration, but this-? A trickle of urgency threaded through him.

The Overseer left them to move Lorekeeper themselves. And, too, to move the painting, or what have you, themselves--though he cast a glance over it. It was partly that he wasn't going to have any part in helping a rebel; good luck explaining to the Masters why he'd been moving paintings of Tamulus from Jupiter's den--but mostly that he just didn't care.

What he cared about was first getting these gemstones somewhere safe and then, more importantly, finding out more about this... surface situation. Which might, he had to admit to himself, be a potential fiasco.

The Overseer scooped up as many of the oily stones as he could, gathering them into his overly-long arms; and then he turned to look at the group, and at the Lorekeeper who seemed to have collapsed. He took one long pace forward, and moved to nudge her with one arm, quizzically.

"Is she dead?" he asked, surprised... but no, she was breathing. Asleep, then.

Vargas grunted once more.

"You had best ensure you don't get lost on the way back." Eyes flicked toward the ceiling, watching for the swarm of Batcats that he knew to be somewhere near. "And do not forget to look up."

With that, and his armful of oily stones, the Overseer made to leave.

exit Vargas, unless stopped
I have admin confirmation that an oily rock or three may still be 'alive'