It was fitting that the diamond, likely forged by the volcano, had been embedded in its base as though dislodged by flowing lava, and now that the magic which had met it was fire. It had grown, now, a faceted chrysalis which caught the light in a prism and cast rainbows around its surroundings. And cradled by the diamond walls was a creature, with two arms and two legs, curled up in the fetal position with sharp ears and a tail pressed between his face and the walls.

His little fists flexed. It was time to wake up, wasn't it? He could feel that, in his soul. The link between the walls of the chrysalis and the diamond embedded in his back had already been broken -- he could escape this diamond chrysalid, now. His eyes blinked open, and he was aware of the way watery light drifted through a portion of his rock (the bulk of it, however, was buried under the volcanic stone). He pressed himself against where the light was coming from -- that felt as though it were his best bet at escaping.

Tiny hands pressed at the diamond, and the weight of the rock all around it held the chrysalis in place. The child frowned -- perhaps hitting it would be more helpful? He struck the diamond prison, with the minimal space he had to wind up, and immediately regretted it. The walls were hard, and he... was not. But a crack formed, aided by the magic and the brittleness of the stone, and when he pushed more gently, it began to shatter and crumble.

Talys pushed the top of the chrysalis up, and then pulled himself out, careful not to cut himself as he emerged. His hands and knees were planted on the black rock, and he noticed mere inches from his hands was an old set of bones half-embedded in the rock with cloth strewn across them. He got up on wobbly feet and took the fabric in his hands, considering it.

Then, he clumsily tied it around his hips, just above the ridge of them. It fell to just below his knees, like a little dress, and he turned back to the diamond prison that he had just left behind before he carefully picked up a shard of that diamond in a tiny, pudgy hand with sharp little nails which were pointed more like talons.

His tail waved behind him, and he held the piece of rock to his chest. Talys looked around. There was... a lot of space in this place, and he had no idea what to do next.

It'd grown quite a bit by now, nearing about six feet tall at the head and starting to slow down. It was steady on both feet now, but still found itself dropping low to creep along. Making itself smaller and harder to spot and all that. The cartilage in either of its ears had finally developed and stiffened. They still moved freely to catch every little noise. All along its hide were plates of velvety keratin—or was it chitin?—for defense. Presented with new agility and dexterity, it was no wonder the kaijin'd go off on its own.

No sooner than the Chaos Forge had established itself in the rank corners of Draco—and the permission to explore had been given—did Selenite find itself in keen pursuit of warmth. It would've liked to have brought one of its larger hatchmates along, but… some niggling sense of worry said that they wouldn't be interested in something as silly as doubling-back into a cave they barely spent any time in. Pegasus was good enough of a vacation for the vast majority of them. Basking in the orb-light surrounded by grass hadn't seemed right. Everything was too… open! That was the word. Even their old home base had been too open. The selenite'd liked being in the Warren and nowhere else.

Shoving aside another thick bough of ferns, four eyes peered to and fro. It sniffed, drawing closer to the scent of hot, smoke, Hemlocke with a light-footed cautiousness. This place smelled like when the old Commander (and that was confusing, was it supposed to care, even though it'd separated… ?) was casting magic. Selenite tilted its head up at the mountain yawning high above. Every step closer to it meant that it got warmer. Its tail lashed in a catlike fashion.

Chrk—! "Hmh?"

Quills bristled immediately, and it reached for the nearest rock with no small amount of enthusiasm. It'd hardly heard a Lesser in here over the rumbling; but… sharp ears cupped forwards. That'd sounded like rock breaking… ? Not the sound of a footstep, which it imitated quietly just to be sure. Not similar at all.

Four eyes blinked through the undergrowth as it tracked the source of the noise and found… a somewhat familiar sight. At first, its ears pinned back—a child like it? No, no, there weren't any creatures like it in the Caves… except for whatever one its Overseer had used to make it. Selenite had never met the man that'd like to call himself its father, and it might never, far as it was from Eridanus. Orthoclase-Alpha always made mention of his fragility, being armorless and reliant on the weapons he carried (in conversations where how much better it was was the subject, of course.)

It dropped its weight as it stole forward into the light. From here, it could see the sparkling amniotic fluid on the child's face. Selenite blinked and paused. A new-hatch. The last... naked one like that had been… the Lord's. (Sister, it thought, in quiet mourning.) She'd been powerful and good, it thought, but taken away. They had hatched together. This one had hatched here, alone… but it was here to witness. Here to... protect, in some strange way.

V-Selenite-One lowered itself to sit, and finally said something: "hello… ? Brother… ?" Its eyes were narrowed in faint worry, lips pulled into a thin line. Waiting for a response—it hoped it was yes. The rock it was holding alternated between all four of its hands; a fidget object.

@Talys

The black of the creature's body blended into the rock, but the teals in its mane and ears were an obnoxious sort of glowing color that gave Talys something to focus on, squinting at them. What was that--? And then it spoke, and he visibly startled. His own tail lashed suddenly and he took a half-step back, finally looking the hulking shape over. Six feet tall and heavily muscled, it was not something he immediately saw as a child but instead as a man.

Its eyes held an acumen that should have made Talys nervous. He spied the rock in its hands, and held out his own as he thought about the question. Were they brothers? Their bodies were kind of the same shape, but Selenite was bigger and had more arms. "Umm," he said, sitting down as well and scratching at his puff of hair. Talys looked at the palm of his hand and spread his fingers apart, holding a hand up and peering at Selenite through his fingers. One, two, three, four, five -- Selenite had the same, at least on the hands that Talys could see. "Yeah!" he said, hoping it wasn't a puzzle he was doing badly at, and smiled widely with sharp-point teeth. To most animals it might have been a threat; to a humanoid, he hoped it wouldn't be. "'M Talys. What's your name?"


@v-selenite-one

Selenite's eyes snapped to the lashing tail, and its own swayed in response. Another similarity. Mary hadn't had one of those—but, it supposed, neither did she have the pointed ears. She'd been made different from either of them. She was still a sister... wherever she was, now.

It was fair, though, that the child spooked at the sight of it. Sitting as it was, it could still look over the top of his head. That, and that monstrous sort of mug. Four eyes glinting, black sclerae outlining cyan pupils; they flicked down to the offered piece of diamond. Selenite eyed the piece warily, glanced towards the shell of a chrysalis, and tilted its head again. There was a youthful, catlike curiosity in its facial expression. Completely innocent.

He sat down, too, and that was somehow strange to it. A strange sort of companionship bloomed in its chest and it nodded mutely to his response. It raised a hand as he did, unsure of what the gesture meant. There were pointy little nails on his—it arched its fingers and unsheathed its hooked claws—and its. Selenite blinked. Was this one hiding another pair of arms... ? The monstrous humanoid lowered its arm, only to reach out with both of its bottom ones; in one hand was the volcanic rock. The other hand grasped for the shard of diamond.

A trade?

Meanwhile: "'m Talys. What's your name?"

First, Selenite peeled its lips back, poorly attempting to reciprocate whatever expression that was—it ended up just letting its mouth go slack while it thought. Then, it shuffled in place. "I don't have one, yet," it admitted noncommittally, "my... erm, designation is V-Selenite-One." But—and don't tell anyone this—that was a mouthful in its opinion. "I get called Selenite a lot."

@Talys

Five fingers, and (comparatively) little nails on top. Talys looked at his hands, wondering if he could make his fingernails disappear if he thought about it hard enough. But it didn't seem like it, so he just returned his attention to Selenite.

Talys looked at the huge Gembound holding out its hands to him. He wondered, distantly, if he'd ever get that big. His hand was almost impossibly small next to theirs. Talys took the volcanic rock in exchange, the irony of the situation totally lost on him. Diamonds for volcanic rock--! But, both were rocks, and diamond had no real value beyond the useful in Origin Cave, especially with Gembound who could make it appear out of thin air. He held that to his chest instead, still blinking wide-eyed at Selenite.

His eyes lit up at Selenite's poor attempt at a smile. Theirs was much more similar to a threat display, but Talys understood the meaning of it fairly well. His tail waved curiously behind him and he mimicked the little shuffling motion Selenite had made. "Why not?" he asked, and then, "What's a designation?"


@v-selenite-one

In Selenite's defense, it had never seen volcanic rock nor diamond before. It knew that the porous basalt seemed to be in rather great supply, but so did diamond? There was an entire chrysalis's worth of it somewhere around here, it was sure.

The monstrous humanoid ran a padded thumb along the edge of it, already wondering how it could make it into a cutting knife. It twisted it this way and that, cyan pupils ballooning to fill the entirety of its eyes. Consider its curiosity piqued. Experimentally, it attempted to snap it in half. To no avail. Very hard, strong, it concluded with an outward huff.

Ears pricked as it finally regarded what the other'd said: "why not?"

It shifted in place, putting a leg underneath itself. "I haven't earned it yet. Have to train and prove myself for it." So said the Master and Overseer. "Designation is… erm, stone and number. I'm the first… new? New selenite." Pay no mind to the other selenite that'd come before it, apparently. The drake'd never been mentioned to it.

Pupils shrunk back to catlike slits, and it cast its eyes downward. "You don't have a designation?"

@Talys

Talys looked down at his own rock, mimicking Selenite's movements with much less strength behind it. 'Twas a rock, he decided, cupping it in his hands. But he loved it. It was a gift from his brother! He smiled broadly, his tail waving back and forth excitedly. Selenite was fun, even if he was really big and had too many arms. (Or maybe Talys didn't have enough of them?)

He mimicked the motion of Selenite's leg, and considered what he'd said. "Oh, really?" He frowned, thinking about that. "I didn't earn my name. I just... know it." Talys considered. "Unless coming out was earning it? But then why wouldn't you have one..."

He blinked. "I don't have a designation. But, um... I've got that. Diamond. It's back here," he said, turning around to show the round, faceted diamond between his shoulder blades. He twisted back into position. "I guess I'd be Diamond-One then? Unless there was other diamonds. Are you really the first? That'd be cool, being first."


@v-selenite-one

Ears pricked as it, at last, picked up on Talys imitating its every movement, down to the shift of weight and putting a leg underneath himself. Selenite leaned back experimentally, putting a hand down for support. Cyan eyes watched to see if he'd mirror it, not at all casually or sneakily. Catlike curiosity was on full display right now.

"You just know it?" it parroted softly, almost reverently, "I don't... think I came out knowing one. One of my... um, clutchmates did. He insists on being called it." Nidhogg, as it were, always claiming that V-Chaos-One was a stupid name. Selenite couldn't help but agree on the basis of it being... quite a mouthful. Why was the V there?

The monstrous humanoid nibbled its lip in brief consideration, and found itself shifting its weight again to lean forward. It was halfway to standing as stared down the gemstone, muttering, "that doesn't look very comfortable." Unable to lay on its back? No worse fate. Selenite twisted to show of its own stone: a cabochon of matte-white selenite nestled at the base of its tail. "There's no diamonds that I know of, but... um, I'm probably not the actual first ever selenite? There's the... one that my Overseer made me from."

Who knew if it was from a dead Gembound or not, though.

Blink. Selenite widened its eyes with keen interest. "Did someone make you? Do you know?" Maybe the same parent... ? What were the chances?

@Talys