Tahi took a deep breath. She'd asked, so he was... well, going to ask. "How do you see the future? If you can see mine, why did you need to ask me questions? Do you know why we have the magic we have? Can your bones tell you for what purpose we exist? How do bones factor into the equation? Do you think I could learn how to see stuff, too? What happened to your eye? Sorry, that one's rude, you don't have to answer it. Why do you live out here? Are you friends with the Collector? If you're not a dog, what are you? How did you learn how to see stuff? What made these bones? How long have they been here? Why are there so many of them? How do you know Overseer Alpha? Why did you act like they were a bad friend? How old are you? Do you have any kids?" Tahi-shei finally took a breath, opening his mouth to ask more, and stopped.

Yeah, he couldn't think of anything else. That seemed to just about cover it. He sat down abruptly and looked her in the eyes, his ears flicking. "... Sorry. I know that's kind of a lot."


@giggle

She had expected, granted, a couple of questions--but what came was a barrage, and she at first struggled to commit it all to short-term memory so as not to forget any of it. At the end of the string, and Tahi-shei's apology, she broke into loud, good-natured laughter.

"Well, you weren't kidding; you do have some questions, eh? That's all right. I might forget some, so just repeat 'em if I miss any," she added--it was a lot to try and hold in her head all at once.

And then she took a breath. It was answer time, and she'd do her best; her demeanor was easygoing, her tone patient. She might've seemed a good mother figure if not for the rank odor, the mushrooms littering the area, and her general (what most might consider) ugly mug, littered as it was with scars.

"So, I don't see the future all the time. It isn't a constant stream of images or some shit. It's something I have to do--really focus on; to read the bones, or look into the... sort of possibilities, of the future. I think, and I don't have a way to KNOW this but I think it's not set in stone, that it's... a general future, and you have to get good at picking out the most likely things that'll happen. If that makes sense. I can ask 'em about the purpose behind our existence, if you want?" she added, ears pricking up. That was an interesting question, and one she hadn't asked them before. Oh, she'd asked how they might all die, end, and that hadn't been a pleasant answer--engulfing darkness and nothing--but the reason-? She'd never thought of that one. She thought of the future, not the past, but surely the bones could know both?

A shake of her head, and she pushed on, trying to latch on to the other questions Tahi-shei had asked before they slipped away.

"As for--hell, you asked about magic, right? I have no idea. I know that... kids are hatched with their parent's magic, at least whoever gave the rock its life, its energy. Past that? I don't know if I had parents, so I couldn't tell you." A pause, and a curious thought--"I can ask that too, if you like, but there might not be a reason for it at all?" Though the bones would probably tell her if it were random, too. "You asked, uh, if you could see stuff too. I don't know if everyone has the gift," and this was a blunt and honest answer; "but, the thing is, magic is all around us. Time. Answers. Truth. It's everywhere, it's the... the bones that make up the world's skeleton. So those answers are everywhere. It's why I said some see in water, and some see in bones, or fungus, or just magic. Different seers will find their truths in different places, 'cause the universe is truth. It's answers. That make any sense?" she asked, and then shrugged. "To answer your question more clearly: maybe, but I don't know what form your seeing would take. Maybe the fungus, if that's your magic."

"You asked about my eye?" and here she paused, lifting her paws to scrape forelimbs briefly, softly, over her face. "...What's wrong with my eye?" A quizzical stare at Tahi-shei, then; so far as she knew, they were both the same, dark and keen. "If you mean, what, the scars on my face? I got attacked here once before." She wasn't sure that's what he'd meant--that was her face, not her eyes--so she didn't elaborate yet.

"I live here because it's my home." She'd considered leaving, but there wasn't a reason to bring that up now. "I was hatched here. My family lives here. And yes, I have children--many of them; most live here, too. I'm part of the Bonebound--and we're all part of Canis."

She paused. There were eight questions remaining, but her short-term memory just wasn't up to snuff--and would anyone's have been?

Tahi-shei had additionally asked if she were friends with the Collector, what she was, how she'd learned to see, who'd made the bones, how long they'd been there, why there were so many, if she knew Orthoclase-Alpha, why she'd acted like it was a bad friend, and how old she was.

She only remembered a few of them, grimacing in her struggle to remember. "Let me see. What I am--I'm a hyena, I think. At least, that's the word I know for myself. I don't remember how I learned to see. I saw patterns in the bones; they seemed to... hm, speak with me? I can touch things, see the past," and that, at least, reminded her of the bones-related questions. "As for the bones, I don't know how long they've been here or exactly how they got here. They've been here since before I was hatched," and this, in turn, reminded her of the 'age' question; "and I'm... bones, I dunno, sixty cycles old-? Somewhere in there. I know that all the ones I've looked at died in fear. Running, struggling. Something killed them. I saw Vargas in a few," she added, darkly--had seen him hunting, leering, or at least something like him, toxic-eyed and -mawed. It had rarely been more than a glimpse, so it might have been one of the things that just looked like him; she wasn't absolutely sure.

Giggle then trailed off, struggling and failing to remember the other questions--whether she were friends with the Collector, who'd made the bones, if she knew Orthoclase, and why her opinion of it was as it was.

"Shit, kid, you threw a whole cave full of questions at me," she grunted, and then laughed raucously again. "Did I miss any?"

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

@Tahi-shei

Tahi-shei listened to Giggle speak, totally enraptured. When she finally came to the end, she asked him a question -- and Tahi-shei laughed sheepishly. "I, uh, I don't really remember either." He'd been so caught up in internalizing all the information she'd given him that he'd totally forgotten about the questions that had fallen to the side. Then, he thought of another one. "Oh! But I do have one more, before we start. Have you ever heard of a fungal prince?"

He pricked his ears up, curious. It was a question that had been burning at him -- who knew who this prince was? Someone who'd worn a crown, certainly, but... or maybe the Collector had been lying? Possible, but not all that appealing to think about. If he could get a concrete answer on who this was, maybe he could identify what he might want out of the artifact when he finally got hold of it.

@giggle

The question caught her by surprise, and for a moment she eyed Tahi-shei, thinking. Then she shook her head--but her expression was one of slight consternation.

"No--but the Bonebound had, and has, a Bone King. The old Bone King had sons; one took the King role in his stead, so maybe he was Prince?" She thought about it, and shrugged.

She hadn't been here for much of that--lost in her own mind, her own trauma, reclusive in the edges of the cave and the edges of sanity.

She rocked back, hind leg lifting to scratch at her neck, and she was thoughtful; "But I've never heard of a 'fungal prince.' Why do you ask?" and Giggle eyed Tahi-shei curiously.

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

@Tahi-shei

Tahi shifted a little awkwardly. It only made sense that Giggle would have a question for him in return, since his definitive question had been a strange one, but he still didn't like the answer. Still... lying to Giggle wasn't a good idea, he figured, so he told her. "Um, well, the Collector mentioned it. I... made a deal with him, when I was a little younger. I was angry and humiliated and not thinking straight, like I said earlier, and Pride tried to help me get out of it but it didn't work very well. Magic is, um, binding and all that. But the thing he's going to give me belonged to a fungal prince, apparently, and I kind of want to know what I'm getting. Also, I'm, uh, a curious person. If you didn't figure that out already," he said, humor edging into his voice.

He'd already admitted to this, but it had been sandwiched between other things, and Giggle might not have really processed it. So it still troubled him to admit to having a deal.


@giggle

Giggle snorted softly. "Oh, him. ...Those older ones are always trouble. Except Lorekeeper, at least." She shook her head, some. "You're definitely curious, but you'll never hear me say that's a bad thing." Her tone was amused--warm, reassuring; "It's how we learn. Now, ON to that," and here the ragged hyena offered something like a grin.

She glanced to her ring of fungus, and called upon her magic, gesturing her snout forward with a sharp movement. As if in imitation, a small carpet of pale blue-grey fungal blooms followed suit, spreading out like a thin carpet in that direction; in seconds, they were giving off a soft, blue-white glow. "Growth, like this, is sort of the... middle point. Even the end. You have to learn to find fungus, first; there's magic for that, to feel it--even to feel through it, can you do that?" she asked, glancing to the deer. "But finding it is step one. Growing it's step two, and you can do that on yourself, or along the rock, like this. I'd say if you know how to do this we can test it and go from there, but if not we'll start with that, 'cause it's the basics. Then, before you do anything else, you have to learn to use what I just did to pull the fungus away. Because if you fuck up, if you get mushrooms eating your skin or a Mother infection, you want that gone. And then I'd say you can move on to... other things," and Giggle gave Tahi-shei, here, a playful and mysterious look.

She rose up, pacing around the pit. "You can tell me what you know--we'd best start with that--but in case you don't know fungus' full power? It can see into the past, through eating the flesh of the dead. It can bring light, or slick your fur black so a predator, an enemy, can't get a hold. It can bring the smell of carrion but with a disgusting taste--helps drive off dumb predators, who take a bite and realize it's nasty. It can cause intense hallucinations, influence behavior... even control a dead body," Giggle went on--and dark eyes flicked up to Tahi-shei, more solemn. "It can strip the skin and meat from a living thing, very fast. I've heard of that--but never seen it done."

A shrug, and a nod. "Tell me what you know, and what you're interested in learning; we can figure out where to go from there, yeah?"

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

@Tahi-shei

He nodded in the affirmative at Giggle's first question to him, again reminded of a question he asked himself -- Am I mycelium or fungus? It was becoming increasingly clear to Tahi-shei that there might not have actually been a difference. One way or another, whitecaps and toadstools, good and bad, violence and peace -- all of it was the same magic, and he was almost childish to try and make a distinction.

Finally though, Giggle gave pause for him to answer her, and Tahi-shei cleared his throat. "Well, I can do what you just did -- make them grow." He scuffed at the ground, attempting to show his admittedly meager capabilities but aiming to mimic her fungal growth. The same mushrooms sprang up, albeit in a more circular formation. "I can... see through the fungus, find it and know what it knows. Moisture, light, decay. But not mycelium. I think... there's a difference there, a sort of divide. Less the difference between one cycle and four, and more the difference between a chrysalis and a Gembound." Just a theory, though.

He kept going. "But that -- black goo thing, you mentioned? I, uh, I think I can do that? I think we're talking about the same thing. I can make these big, black fungal frills appear. And they're really soft; they melt into this sticky goo when they get touched, which is kind of a pain, because I'd honestly rather wear them as jewelry." Only half joking, there. "That's the only fungal magic I can do, but my other thing? The interrupting thing? It's a different kind, more like my friend Madhukar's. Static and energy and noise."

At her question about what he wanted to know, though, he frowned. "... Anything to defend myself," he started, "and maybe some things to snap back with if I'm backed into a corner. But not that last thing -- that doesn't sound like something anyone should be able to do. Life is too precious to be withered away by something as fickle as magic and Fate," and he said the last word more like a name than a random noun. "The seeing the past... that's interesting. Light and carrion-scent, those sound useful, too." He frowned. "Hallucinations? I've... never heard that word before," he admitted. The basics of language came to him like they were innate, but stranger words struck him as foreign. "Influencing behavior, depending on to what extent. Maybe being able to calm someone down or talk them out of hurting me or someone else, but probably not... ripping away free will altogether." A final frown. "... The dead body thing... does that slow the process of decay? I... might have need for that," he admitted reluctantly. Sounded gross, but useful.


@giggle

'Mycelium?'

"I don't know that word," she told him bluntly, wondering what he meant. "As for the black stuff--that sounds the same, yes!"

"As for 'that last thing,' I'm glad you don't want to learn it. That says good things about you," the hyena told him, pushing up and turning to pace through her fungus, along the bone pit's edge. Dark eyes glanced back at him, more solemn. "But sometimes, it is necessary. I've met those who'd kill me, for no reason; no logic, no reasoning at all. Just blind sadism," Giggle explained, more quietly. "There are other ways to defend yourself, but sometimes you might need to be... firm." A shrug, almost reluctant, and she looked away again, back down to her bones.

"So: everything else sounds interesting to you, huh? Right, first things first: can you sense fungus, find it in a room? Not just sense through it--that's good, though!--but actually pick it out?"

"And as for the rest of the stuff: if you want to learn to defend yourself, I've something I think might work well. If you have the time to sit down and try to learn this now..?" she suggested, turning back with tilted head.

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

@Tahi-shei

His ears pricked up, and Tahi-shei realized that he didn't really know how to describe mycelium. "Oh, mycelium is like... well, if fungus is like a grown Gembound, then mycelium is like the chrysalis, I guess. Or maybe the magic, but before it comes into contact with our stones." He shrugged. "But, uh, no-- I can't... only identify it. It's kind of like the fungus just... becomes part of my brain for a few seconds," he admitted.

Tahi-shei nodded an affirmative at Giggle's question. "I don't have anywhere to be. If you're willing to teach me some things today, I'm willing to learn them!" His voice pitched up a little, eager and bright. He liked Giggle, even if she was a little abrasive. Certainly, she knew what she was talking about.


@giggle

Giggle nodded, and dropped heavily to her haunches, watching Tahi-shei with her full attention.

"Right. I'll start with the more abstract, then. I promise it has a point," she added, with an expression not unlike a smirk (though, granted, this was hard to tell on a hyena's face). "First of all, I mentioned that stuff about Seers. Magic is all around us--everywhere. I know I said it already, but I'm saying it again, because I have another point. Magic is in everything. There's magic of stone, of air, of fire, water, of sickness and health, of fungus and plants. Everything. It's a part of our world--it's in everything. It's just that whatever it's in, gives it its shape; understand? So two or three Seers--they might see the same thing, even if they're looking through, oh, bones and plants and water. It doesn't matter what the medium is, because the same magic, the same truth, is throughout it all. It's all interconnected: a web of life and magic, of past and present and future, and we are all a part of it. The trick to fungus," Giggle went on, nodding to her mushrooms, "is tapping into its uniqueness. Fungus is... close to us. It's alive, but its mind--if you can call it that--doesn't work like ours. But it can touch the mind. It can influence behavior; sure, on a physical level too but it's all the same thing, really, magic grows it, directs it... you get the idea, I hope. So getting to know the... the 'essence of fungus,' I guess you'd call it, is important to mastering it."

Giggle paused, thinking, taking a breath. She sounded like she knew what she was talking about, at least, though whether she actually did or this was merely her perception of it all wasn't clear. She pushed on, though, intent on her conversational goal. "You push your will into another living thing, in this--into the fungus; and you can use that to influence others, too. I'll try something--the thing I want to show you. Don't be afraid, okay? I'll let it go in a moment--if it even takes," she added, dourly amused.

Her magic had not been entirely kind to her.

She focused, for a moment, spores flaring, drifting into the air, letting out their magic; Giggle watched, feeling lulled by their presence. They were peaceful, to watch; calm where their motes sparked with magicka, barely-visible to her magic, and she felt as though she could just stay here for da-...

"...Ahh, shit." Realization kicked in. She looked to Tahi-shei; hardly more than a child. Her realization that her magic had backfired--had affected her instead of him, and in reverse, no less--did nothing to lessen the motherly, protective urge she now felt toward her quasi-apprentice.

Giggle burst into hoarse laughter. "Starting to wonder if I'm the best teacher for this shit, kid. I think I hit myself, instead. Just-... give me a minute--it's nothing dangerous, I wouldn't have done that to you... but if you do have any way to sense the fungus you could try to see what I just did?" She wasn't sure he did, but... he could always try to learn.

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

@Tahi-shei