Tahi-shei had been making regular trips to Polaris. He'd first gone about half a cycle ago to practice his mushroom spawning, but since he'd learned some new tricks and had continued his little visits to test his limits. On the way to Polaris from Orion (as this was a journey he was increasingly comfortable making), the little deer had already encountered a tunnel runner. It had tried to frighten him off, but Tahi was a little bit bigger than it was and had taken this as the perfect opportunity to cast his newest spell.

Unfortunately, he hadn't been very successful, and instead had been forced to frighten it off with his own body and showiness. Thankfully, they were more scavengers than predators, and he was about the same size, if not bigger. The skittish animal had scuttled away shortly after, and Tahi-shei was taking his time. He hadn't bothered trying to re-cast his spell. It was mostly defensive, as he'd learned after bumping his awesome frills into a wall and getting drenched in goop some time previously, but he still thought they looked super cool.

Certainly, he would have been intimidated by anything wearing them.

Unfortunately for dear Tahi-shei, he was blissfully unaware of the fact that this narrow tunnel held a much more lethal threat. In his semi-confident gait, the young deer looked like a natural fit in this cave, and the little altercation with the other cave deer might have very well furthered the other gembound's opinion -- after all, Tahi-shei's stone wasn't visible, and even then... well, some lesser had stones.

Perhaps the attack wouldn't have been coming if he'd managed to successfully cast the spell. As it stood, Tahi-shei paused. He could sense something... unwell. A gut feeling, an instinct, that there was a predator nearby. He looked around, but nothing caught his eye.

Some predators were just too good at hiding.



orthoclase-alpha

The narrowness of this tunnel was a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, it bottlenecked herds of Runners and had them clattering against each other. They tended to move carelessly, once disturbed from the oilslicked corpse they were scavenging off of, and without regard for nearby bodies. A number tripped and fell. Easy pickings for the ravenous beast thundering after them. Wind beneath its feet, it could easily descend upon any prone and snap them into the air with a toss of the head. So far, it'd packed away two of them; and, it was time for a third.

Alpha clung to the shadows cast by the glowing mosses and orbs, eyes narrowed to reduce the light given off - quills smoothed as much as possible, too. This, really, was the only time the kaiju looked so calm and collected. It was easy to just not think while hunting; such as, to not think about the different-looking deer strutting down the tunnel, pausing here and there. Not about how he was fawn-like, or had an almost intelligent glint in the eye.

It wasn't as if it was acting on pure predatory instinct as it stalked through the dark patches. No - it was just singularly-focused on moving swiftly and quietly, closing the distance until... there!

Erupting from the dark with just a grunt (real hunters don't telegraph their assault) and slight shuffling of claws, the orthoclase lunged for Tahi-shei. Claws outspread and meaning to push the fawn over, it landed heavily and went for the pin, head already jerking down - on its way for the killing blow. Brutal, quick, and efficient.

@Tahi-shei

Tahi-shei's head snapped up at the rustle of movement and the grunt, giving a truly hilarious deer in headlights look for the split second before Alpha was on him. The child let out a shrill scream. No pain had even hit, not really -- he was just shocked and staring into the acid-green eyes of a monster the likes of which he'd never seen before. His stone was thundering in his chest and a spark of magic tried and failed to spark up, interrupted by his panic. The pain struck him dizzyingly, which was crazy because the pricks of claws in his skin weren't even that severe. Then again, he hadn't faced much pain before, and the fungus called to him -- whispering, begging, screaming. But instinct demanded something of him as he stared death in the face -- that he not go quietly.

Tahi-shei certainly couldn't fight this thing off. It was probably the biggest creature he'd ever laid eyes on, and the only thing stopping it from shattering every bone in his body was the fact that it was poised to make a clean kill rather than just trample him to death. And as a young deer, even one filled with magic and divorced from a proper herd with no mother to speak of except perhaps the stone in his chest, he screamed in the frail hope that someone would save him. "MONSTER!!" he wailed, kicking as best he could and doing absolutely nothing.

The young fawn believed in fate. He really did. He believed that everything happened for a reason, and that events could not be meaningfully changed once they were already set in motion. That did not mean that he particularly wanted to die, and that was the only way out of this he saw. After all, Tahi-shei had never seen anything like Alpha before -- for all he knew, this was a feral beast of the caves rather than something sentient and of reasonable intelligence.

But alas.


@orthoclase-alpha

Given the its sheer size over many Lessers in the caves, Alpha hardly - if ever - had a need to eat around the bones of a corpse. It tended to go for a clean kill and take whatever quarry in a few crushing bites. Much like an alligator or crocodile in that regard. Each ripping tooth was well equipped to shear flesh, but there was no point in taking one chunk at a time.

As such, the screaming? deer got more than a mouthful of neon green, curved whites, and spittle - its breath stank of meat and blood dribbled down with the saliva. More than horrifying, and just plain grotesque.

Its head was still darting down with the momentum of its body, and - "MONSTER!!!" - teeth snapped shut. They clicked against one another, cleaving through only thin air. Breath whistled out of its nose, fanning out across Tahi-shei's face. Then, there was likely tense and heavy silence.

Alpha hovered there for a moment, quills pricking and twitching. Then, it slowly leaned back. The pressure of its hand lifted some - but not entirely, yet - and it grunted, "not a Lesser." Claws uncurled and left the fawn entirely. Trudging off a few paces, the monstrous creature stared. After another pause, the orthoclase added, "don't look so much like prey if you don't want to be eaten."

It was less of a matter of being cervine - that couldn't be helped, and one of the Masters even fit the bill - but of stance and gait. Even mismatched with the Runners, Alpha could've sworn that this sniveling little thing was food.

@Tahi-shei

The fawn was shaking like a leaf as the creature first paused and then spoke. He might have fainted. Then it mercifully released him, and he stayed on the ground for a few heartbeats, processing what had happened before scrambling haphazardly to his feet. This thing had thought he was a lesser. Tahi-shei wanted to be offended, but the whole experience had him feeling rather drained at the moment. "I-- I'm not even the same color," he said lamely, ears laid flat. He didn't want to insult this creature considering it had been about to tear his throat out a moment before, but... really? Tahi-shei didn't exactly have the smooth, gray skin of a tunnel runner, even if his body shape was unusually similar.

The stone in his chest still quivering in a facsimile of a terrified heartbeat, he took a shaky breath and a half-step backwards. "W-what are you? I've... never seen a gembound like you before," he mumbled. Assuming it was a gembound. Hoping this wasn't just some overly intelligent monstrosity. Seriously, what the hell was this thing? Tahi-shei had little to no knowledge of the Masters or of Vargas, and so had no prior experience with which to paint this one. It was just a giant tan-skinned monster with acid-green eyes, and it terrified him. But Tahi-shei was a creature of curiosity, even in his terror, and adrenaline was emboldening him to do more than just flee.

Glimmering eyes stared down at the deer, shocked into stillness and getting up a moment later. Almost killed, and he was worried about color - "there are more than the Runners." Alpha didn't know the first thing about cervine life cycles, and definitely had no clue how young the fawn was. There wasn't a trace of antlers like others had. He stood on stilt-like, knobby legs and altogether too small hooves. No barrel-figure, yet. Maybe, he didn't know the variation in Lesser deer, yet.

This deer took a half-step back, and the movement reminded it of James. Teeth gnashed slightly. No, no - it unclenched its jaw. Searching Tahi-shei once again, the orthoclase rocked onto its haunches (a strange imitation of a certain Master in conversation.) It didn't know what it was, but managed not to hesitated in answering, "I am Overseer Alpha." Jaw snapped shut. That's not right. Those words had felt treacherous, even though it knew it had the right to a name, now. Part of its designation didn't count as a name, shouldn't feel so disgusting on its tongue - shit, it was blundering and staring.

Damn deer.

Alpha reached for what its life-giver would've done as an Overseer, following up on its introduction with a stiff: "what magic do you have?" Categorizing Gembound was good, useful -

never saw this post, sorry!
@Tahi-shei

His head cocked partially to the side as the monster sat down and watched him. The motion combined with the introduction was enough to drag up Tahi-shei's insatiable curiosity, his desire to know everything. He took in the monster's form. It seemed to have some odd tics, like the way it snapped its jaws here and there. Maybe it was thinking about eating? That wasn't very reassuring. "Overseer Alpha? Is that a group, like the Seven? Pride told me there are other groups around. What do the Overseers stand for?" Tahi-shei was very close to the truth and somehow lightyears away. Hopefully his lack of knowledge would indicate that he was young, not that he was stupid.

Then he was asked about magic, and his ears shot up excitedly. "Oh! Fungal! I'm really good with it usually, but new spells are kind of tricky. I've been trying to figure out how to do cooler and cooler things with it. Let me try to make some mushrooms!" He scuffed the ground with one of his hooves and a small field of white-capped mushrooms sprang up. Tahi-shei looked impressed with himself. "I try to be careful to only make some that are safe to eat, though. I don't want someone to accidentally eat them and get sick."


@orthoclase-alpha

Judging by the stray blood clinging to otherwise pearly whites, thinking about eating was a fair assumption - and, of course, speaking had deprived Alpha of its third meal of the hour. Well... more like third course. Anyways, before the tone gets too far off track...

Blazing eyes narrowed at Pride. An arbitrarily-determined distaste flared up in its gut, but its quills pricked subtly to indicate as much. Mild agitation, at best. It was quickly replaced with an awkward silence and hesitation that said let me think about the answer to that. Alpha thought less about its position, though, and more about the rather sizable chunk of information that wasn't innate or common knowledge. How best to condense it, mostly.

"I am the Master Vargas's Overseer. I act and command in his stead, when he is on his own business," What now? "the Sentinels are mine to command, but I Oversee the caves and -" Halt, what's the... next thing? Individual responsibilities were quick to fall through its memory; it was completely unused to having any to begin with. Such was the curse of individuality in a strict circumstance - "work to Produce."

Alpha grumbled, thinking about that white stag again.

Finally to the easy part, the orthoclase put away those squinting 'ol eyes and just stared with regular dry interest. Fungus, deer - a creature taking after Astraea. It wasn't hard to make that connection, but it doubted it was... intentional? Created? They didn't make these small, furry things; each one was too ineffective to bother with - eyes glanced down at the small caps. Completely unimpressive, but at least they were on cue?

It was back to the age-old question: what would Vargas have done, as an Overseer? He would've offered suggestions to make it lethal, like having them explode out of Lessers in Cetus, but - Alpha shifted - that might turn for the worse in the future. Gembound were entirely too trusting, though; it hadn't "wronged" this one, yet.

"Hmm," came the involuntary response, and it shrugged, "you could use them as a means of attack." How? Pause. A clawed hand lifted and scratched at its chin. "Do you know how?" Alpha said in a tone implying that it knew and wasn't just asking the cervid for suggestions. Perfect conversational maneuvering.

@Tahi-Shei

Tahi-shei considered the creature's explanation. It sounded a lot more self-important than he'd been expecting. "So... your group is called the Sentinels, but this Vargas guy is the leader, and you're the second-in-command?" He frowned, and then continued, "Or... are you trying to tell me that you guys actually run the whole caves? 'Cause I'm pretty sure Pride runs Orion, at least. I dunno about the other ones, though. The only other cave I've been to is Polaris and I don't think there's any other groups up there unless you count all the golems." The 'produce' part didn't ping him as weird, though. Wanting to expand and propagate was a very Fungal goal and so he understood it well enough.

The monster's body language was intriguing and foreign. He could tell it was thinking, at least -- or maybe just confused -- and waited patiently enough. It didn't seem like a very confident animal (and oh, look, Alpha was graduating from 'monster' to 'animal' in his mind), and Tahi-shei felt a little bit bad for it. It looked like it had been through some pretty rough patches, considering all the scars on its body. Especially the one on its face! Tahi-shei hadn't mentioned the scars in an effort to be polite. It was rude to comment on things about the body that one was powerless to change.

Tahi's ears pricked up in immediate interest at the comment about offensively using fungus, and the Orthoclase implying that it knew how. The fawn considered for a few moments. "Umm... no, I don't know how to use them offensively. The only other thing I can do is, uhhh... well, let me see if I can do it--" He focused on feeding and pushing out the frills. They were a little wimpy, but they worked. "This is the only other thing I can do. These are defensive! They're... also pretty exhausting to make," he admitted. "But look, they do this." He nudged one against a wall and the frills started to melt from where they'd been disturbed. Tahi-shei skittered away from the goop. "Its really sticky and a pain to get out. Pretty cool looking, though!"


@orthoclase-alpha

Alpha nodded mutely - it was basically second-in-command, from what it understood - except for the bit of the Sentinels being... its group, really. They belonged to it and Vargas, now. A collection of Champions and test designs. The monstrous hybrid didn't say as much, and answered the later question, "with any Masters." At least, it presumed. "The Sentinels don't run the Caves. The Masters do," it corrected.

Astraea'd only acted on something once, but it assumed he and the others worked in far more subtle ways that weren't self-serving and self-preserving.

Finishing up with its chin scratch, it listened to Tahi-Shei as he rambled with entirely too many extra words. (He got to the point quickly enough, but that was besides Alpha's own point.) Inky black frills bloomed along the fawn's body, and some decomposed into an Oily-like substance upon meeting the wall. The orthoclase reached out with a claw, smearing it with a massive digit. Slippery. "It'd make you hard to hang on to," it suggested dully.

Conversational maneuvering, who?

@Tahi-Shei