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The newcomers spoke of death. Kerberos, intimate and familiar with death-- no more so than the rest of Bonebound, really, and yet-- wanted to listen and speak, but the air kept choking out the sound and voices kept raising to fight to be heard.

He whined, softly, standing by. Waiting for guidance from Giggle, from Aure. Instead, vitrol came spitting from Eythan, and the hound rose to his feet, pacing like a lumbering guard dog on a short leash. He watched, all too familiar with the anger; his central head could feel the ghostly claws raking through his face, tearing sinew. His whining grew louder.

His heavy paws brought him close to Eythan, one nose would reach down to nudge his stiff, tense shoulder, and then affectionately bump his cheek, before he stepped away again. It would be okay.

Giggle's voice rose up, and his attention went wholly to her, finding comfort in her words. And Aure's that followed, as well. Unfortunately, as he glanced to the outsiders, it became clear that they... they did not find the same comfort. The rage had bubbled down into misery, as the group huddled and quivered.

The black-furred one retreated from the others, but Kerberos strode forward to Sora and Charles, lowering his head to gently present the top of his skull to the bird-- if he wanted to be nuzzled, the option left open. He was a lot bigger than the bird, so he didn't want to initiate that contact.

To the white boar, he nudged his nose into her shoulder, and gave her a big, sloppy puppy kiss. Maybe a bit too intimate, for strangers, but she seemed really out of it, like she needed grounding.

His last head, stretched, reaching toward Morganite, but she was too far away. Instead, he twisted his body around, and stretched his tail out to her, brushing it under Morgan's chin.

"Please," the cerberos pleaded to all three of them in low voices, "It's not your faults. I'm sorry you hurt. I'm sorry I can't do more to help you. If I could, I would. But... You're welcome to find me, and talk, and I will listen... I sit by the gate," his unused head raised to point toward the exit toward Orion. "Orion's side of the tunnel. I keep watch there. It will get easier, I promise."

That was all he could offer them, as he sat down in the middle of the strangers, heads low, vibrant eyes searching for their reactions. "If its too much, you don't have to stay. Aure has more he needs to talk about... But I think it's just more Bonebound stuff."

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

Panic Attack

Like, a really descriptive panic attack. It starts at the end of the first and is over in the last 2 paragraphs if you don't want to read.

Charles wanted to keep going, to release some of this that had built up so heavy in his chest, that was strangling him from the inside out, overwhelming emotion and pain that the poor, young bird had never fully experienced in his short, sheltered life. He wanted to let it go because if he kept holding it in, he'd explode. The venom that Eythan had spat had only piled on top, burning, sizzling, making it harder and harder to keep down when all he wanted to do was let it go. And it felt so good to lose control, to scream and cry like a child, to tell these idiots WHY he wasn't going to take that shit and why this was all so unfair. But his rant was stopped barely halfway through, voice leaving him suddenly as the air began to grow thin.

Eyes widened and he stopped in his tracks. He could hear what Aure was saying, but it was like it was from a distance as his vision tunneled. The panic that had only been held down by misery and grief and exhaustion and covered up by loud words and anger was suddenly rushing up his throat, a raging storm that pulled him under, drowning him, stealing the breath from his lungs and any voice left in his throat, making violent trembles run up and down his body against the powerful winds that was trying to sweep him away. He couldn't hold on, he was gonna let go he wasn't strong enough for this he just wanted to let go

Suddenly he was flying high above the tunnel, by the strange hybrid that held him in its strange, powerful magic, forcing him to fly, fly away from his family after all of that, after so many had been consumed and killed and he had to watch them from the air, watch from above, unable to fly down, unable to move he couldn't move he couldn't speak he was trapped it wouldn't let go let me go let me go let me go please let me go I want this to stop I want you to stop let me go please PLEASE PLEASE

He didn't realize he'd stopped breathing until the spell had been released and he collapsed, falling off of Sora's back, taking in a deep, gasping breath, trembling violently on the ground. The panic was still pulling at him, still howling with rage in his mind and he was done. He couldn't keep going. He couldn't keep fighting. He was so tired.

But then...the dog appeared in his line of sight. He'd seen him, he'd spoken up a few times, but never to them. Never words of anger or lecturing and now, as he reached down to touch Charles, he didn't pull away, instead leaning forward instinctively to accept the touch because he needed it or he was going to drown. And he stayed like that for a few moments, trying to breathe as the panic slowly receded, to settle down in the back of his head, still a threat, still a force, but now, at least....it wasn't consuming.

And then he was utterly spent, sagging forward once the dog pulled away. Suddenly he felt like his whole body was hot, burning under all of their stares. They were all looking at him. Glaring with anger. What did I say? Did I say that? I said all that? It was like what he'd tried to do to the Overseer. Anger and hurt and grief had taken over, too powerful for him to control, new as he was to such negative emotions and the concept of death and tragedy and true unfairness. He'd feel it later, when the adrenaline had cooled in his blood, when the anger had settled and the grief had become more bearable. He'd feel it but for now, all he could feel was nothing. Emptiness, hollowness, because all of his words and all of his rage and uncontrollable need to hurt because he was hurting so deeply had done nothing in the end, made everything worse, and now he was left with nothing but guilt and regret and that overwhelming grief. An image of Eythan popped into his mind. Does he feel like this? How do they live with it? He swallowed heavily. Fear was trickling back in.

"I want to leave," he suddenly rasped. " I'm...I can't...I'm sorry I just...I need to go." Who he was saying it to wasn't clear - Kerberos, Aure, Morganite, Sora, himself...it didn't matter. If he stayed here for much longer he'd lose his mind.

this post is once again very long and kinda heavy, but it is also actually actionable!
only the last four paragraphs are important, plus the one just above those for @Auré

lick by lick, out went the fire, leaving nothing but smoke in the back of her throat.

giggle, talking; damask, listening, sinking deeper and deeper into abject dismay — because, wait a second, these were kids? raised in isolation, given no education, destined to die? had she just flat-out missed that part? (ah, yeah, actually. you did. that was kinda the point. didn't really consider that there might be something important squirreled away in all that scary death talk, did you? so!, now that we know ...) this was a mistake. every seething word in her head; those three naked teeth; seizing on a couple of strangers, forcing them into outright paralysis — all one big mistake, and right then, her grandmother just had to say it again, a punch with a letter on all four knuckles. this time, damask couldn't not flinch.

she swiveled her head a little, just enough to watch the survivors in her periphery. sora spoke first, all the fight gone out of her, sounding more tired than anything else; next, morganite, sincerely repentant. damask spared a peek at eythan, caught in a paradox of lingering rapport and a new wave of guilt. he had every right to be upset with them, but, well, that worked both ways. (lot more complicated than you wanted it to be, huh? and, ahh ... there goes charles. buckle up! it's about to get worse.) "the blood of so many innocent lives lies on your doorstep." (cool it, cool it, keep it cool.) "too many have died." (you've heard it already. handle yourself.) "watch your family get eaten," he was saying, (let's try not to shake, now,) and "used like puppets," (come on!, it's not that bad!, it's only mass murder!,) and she had her magic at the ready, her wings, her legs, to do what exactly she wasn't sure but she could not hear another word —

and yet, her father beat her to it. a flick of his pinions, and charles fell silent. damask's gaze flashed over to auré. (oh, shit.) (that's not good.) (fellas and folks, we have a new low.) here were a few words he brought to mind, in this moment: helpless, despondent, and downright exhausted, all of him sagging with sadness and defeat. he'd done the right thing, casting the spell — it showed some authority on his part, and charles had truly left him no other choice. but everything else, how he looked, how he sounded ... (there's a stutter. pause, pause, backtrack. not one, not two, but three pleases, on top of several priors. more trailing, more stops and starts, a question he should've phrased as a statement or nixed altogether.) in conclusion: he wanted out. this meeting had him feeling trapped. damask stopped her talons just short of tapping, once again aware of the pain in her chest.

now she wasn't sinking so much as she was spiraling.

and was no one else seeing this? giggle offered her son nothing more than a passing look; eythan got one, too, followed by the survivors, who were also given another advisory note. and that was it. even kerberos — sweet, sweet kerberos, all nudges and kisses — was doting on everyone who could've benefited except for auré. and, yeah, that kind of support wouldn't have been exactly ... appropriate in his case, but — there was, at least, one very obvious thing that he needed, and was no one else willing to say it in no uncertain terms?

(you gonna keep on sitting there, or you gonna get up and go?)

she glanced around, glanced around, ever-so-discreetly. sure enough, no one was watching. (and why would they be? even ashtoreth has said more than you have.) all right, back to auré. a beat of hesitation, voices humming around her, and ... the accipiter finally, fleetingly let go of herself — eyes yawning wide, brows pushed together, lips parted in a just-ajar frown. this was an expression that said, loud and clear: hey. you don't look good. can i do something? would that be okay? yes? okay. with this message sent and received, she wiped her face clean and molded it into stony resolve.

damask stepped quietly up to her feet. twisting over her shoulder, she regarded each of them in turn, the lost souls, the big tourists: sora, catatonic; morganite, shivering at the edge of the crowd, hiding away what must've been tears; and charles, fallen to the floor in a rasping, shuddering heap. he wanted to leave, he said — no, needed to. (see? kids. a bunch of traumatized, disillusioned children. and what can you do to make it better? nothing. not — a — thing.) an invisible string tugged at one side of her mouth; she snipped it away as quick as she could. "now's a good time for you to bow out, if there's nothing else," she told them, quietly and levelly. not too much intensity, which could've been mistaken for aggression, and not too much sympathy, which could've been mistaken for pity. "look after your brother. look after each other. all right?"

here, she dedicated a moment to nemo and pumpkin, huddled together apart from the others. for them, a shake of her head, followed by a firm nod: not you. you're good to stay. and man, how awkward those two must've felt, how forgotten — pumpkin especially, with his siblings behind him and a world of unknowns ahead. some welcome they'd been given. absolutely embarrassing. the newcomers were owed some attention, soon — along with an apology. but first, this conflict needed resolution.

a black-and-white wing swept out to indicate the bonebound at large. (but not anyone in particular. eyes on the three. don't look at him. do not look at him.) exhale. right ...

"... and let us do the same."

They didn't answer — or did they not want to, faced with the harsh reality of their words not being immediately made action? Aure couldn't tell. He wouldn't have been able to, even if he were fully here and not shaking with the pressure: his mother's gaze on him; Charles quivering as he was released; the black bird's companions' silence. Caves know he tried to steel himself by clutching at the stone harder and harder. A knuckle or two popped with the exertion.

Giggle spoke after him, but to him it sounded almost as if it were coming from far away... or beneath a waterfall. The young King tilted his head up slightly, swallowing and putting on an air of control over his desperation. (How successful that was was up to viewer interpretation.) He was grateful, at least, for Kerberos offering his assurances, moving between each of the strangers. Damask met his gaze and held it for a precious few seconds before she started into motion—before she ushered a close to it all.

I love you all, but this was, in part, on him. In what way, he could not decide.

"I—" Aure started again, but faltered. His voice was broken, creaking in his throat. He cleared it with a stuttering cough, and tried again in earnest, "I'm sorry." It sounded so, so small. Satellite-dish ears twisted back as he sighed. A tremor rocked through his body.

Easy does it...

"My offer will stand for as long as you're still... willing—willing to take it. I'm sorry for what's happened to you—then and now." He'd been poorly equipped, today. "Canis is open to you any time you... need it." Aure cast sidelong, to those newcomers, "if... any of you wish to stay, still—stay around. I'll... I'll come back to you, and we can talk."

He paused to inhale, as sort of a for now, "we've... all discussed what we... um, needed to, I think." The Bone King glanced towards Kerberos, sparing a genuinely pitiful sort of glance (and he'd be a bit ashamed if he noticed.) "Kerberos can lead you through the tunnel, if you'll have him." Would it have been a gesture of goodwill if he had, himself? Aure was sure. His limits had been met, and—much as he hated running—he needed a moment to be.

If the crowd remained settled and no one stopped him, Aure stepped down from his rocky pedestal and (casually) strolled off for the Chambers; but, not before brushing against Kerberos, Giggle, Eythan, and past Damask. Bright eyes fixed onto hers for a moment, brows pushing down over their glassy gooiness. A soft sigh escaped him, and he pressed on.

Aure is making his exit (unless someone stops him,) so... meeting adjourned! :[

Any new members (Nemo, Pumpkin) are welcome to approach him later or ask for a thread (backdated or not.) Others are too, of course! I'm mostly trying to free us from this thread that's many moons in the past at this point, hehe..... :[

@Giggle @Charles @Pumpkin @Nemo @Sora @Morganite @Damask @Kerberos (Ashtoreth)

Addressed: Nemo, all the Trial kids

Giggle observed each Gembound closely.

There was that distant roar in the back of her mind, that flickering dark like lights going on and off. The thread of chaos and void that loomed beyond it. She was grimly, unhappily resistant; the argument wasn't enough to further set her off (and on another hand, that alone was reassuring, a surprising note of how far she had actually come). But she still had to take a moment to swallow it all away, to refocus her own thoughts--and it was that past trauma that drove her words.

"Listen, you new ones. I've been through some shit myself," she told them bluntly. "If you want to talk, I've a bone pit not far from here--little ledge over it, over that way. I read the bones, too. They'll tell your futures, if you want. Maybe point you in the right direction, going forward. Or if you just want to talk--I'll listen. I'll help where I can." Bones, she wished she'd had an open ear, when she was spat face-first from the black Void. But she hadn't, and the trauma still lingered.

Her eyes then swept to Nemo. She couldn't remember if, in the tumult, the bird had been addressed. "Are you one of us-?" she asked him, bluntly--and Aure was leaving, breaking the formality of it all, so Giggle pushed up and approached him.

Kerberos is offering them support, her subconscious noted, and brief but genuine warmth flashed through her. She did love her strange three-headed son.

"You--are you Bonebound? If you aren't, and you want to be, go with the Bone King," she told him. "You would be welcome here. There isn't usually fighting like this," she added to Nemo, a little more gently.

Then she waited--not yet leaving. She wasn't sure why Damask had told the strangers to bow out--but she herself wanted to see if anyone had anything left to say, anything yet left unfinished.

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

Nemo

"Are you one of us-?"

That's the first thing that he fully registers, other than the massive moving white mass of the canine Kerberos towards the others, and he looks at Giggle as she makes her way over, retroactively also noticing everything that had gone down.

Aure leaving draws a concerned glance from him, but he lets the King go, taking note of his affection with the others and taking a bit of comfort that he's got others to approach.

"I.." he opens his beak to respond to Giggle, and he glances down at his feathers to look for Pumpkin, and ensure the small one's comfort, before continuing after her annendum, and glancing back over at the retreating King. "I'm not, no, but I would like to be.. I mean, as long as I'm welcome here. I'm.." he doesn't know how to say what he wants , so he takes a deep breath and nods to Giggle, while almost asking, "I'm worried about bothering him, this was... a lot. I'm glad it's not normally like this, but I wouldn't bother him if I went with- came with?"

Nemo has drawn himself slowly up to his full height, his bauble glinting as he does so, and he's looking between everyone around him, blinking a few times before bending down and checking once more on Pumpkin before he goes to move after the leaving Bonebound, murmuring to the small creature in his feathers, "I'm going with the King. If you want to say goodbye to the ones you came with, I'll wait for you if you'd like?"

@Pumpkin

δεξιά . κέντρο . αριστερά

Kerberos raised his heads as Damask, Aure, and Giggle spoke, sweeping his heads back to stare at them-- standing like a massive wall between the traumatized children and his family, for better or worse. His tail slowly swayed behind him, slowly blinking as he took in everyone's thoughts.

... so that was it, then? Why did the meetings always end in shambles? It made him want to huff, but he kept his jaws shut and instead nodded with snort through his nostrils. Aure offered for him to lead them out, and since at least one of them whimpered, wanting to go, he lowered his heads once more to the group.

"I can lead the way. Or, if you want a ride." He crouched, "it's no trouble. Let me help, okay? We'll be out of here in no time." But maybe he was just making things worse... he hoped not, but his albino eyes fixated a touch too intensely on the strangers, wishing he could comfort them with a single word and soothe their hearts. Instead, he came on way too strongly, stepping forward and moving like he was trying to shove them out, even if that hadn't been the intention of his movements.

"Come on," one head reached forward toward Charles, dipping down to try and scoop the little bird up on to the brow of his nose-- forgetting his manners and instead anxiously trying to help without waiting for permission. "I got you."

@Charles @Morganite @Sora ; aaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Morgan was out of it as Kerberos approached, feeling his tail under her chin and blindly walking forward towards Charles and Sora. She bumped Sora's shoulder before turning to Kerberos.

She was silent as she watching him try to coax the bird onto his nose, before walking over and helping for a moment, mumbling sweet nothings into his feathers to try and comfort him.

"It'll be alright," she murmured, "We'll make a den wherever we end up and stay there for a bit, okay?"

She pulled away, her head drooped, picking a direction and starting to walk. Vaguely she did realize it was in the directions of the rocks and crannies they'd been sleeping under, so at least she sort of knew where she was going.

Damask's words were still ringing in her ears, and she looked back to Pumpkin, her eyes watery. And yet she turned away, head low, shambling back to her hole to curl up for a few hours until she didn't feel like dying.

"Thank you," she finally mumbled, to no one in particular.

Exit Morganite unless stopped.

Sora's chest was still burning. Still tight. Still-- still-- everything. She stood up on stiff legs when Morganite touched her, and turned to catch the hybrid's eye. "Morganite," she nearly growled, already moving, "a word." Her ears were ringing and she felt light-headed, but she needed to get this settled sooner or later. Ignoring the rest of the Bonebound, she stalked towards the Chambers. Morganite would follow her, she assumed -- that, or Sora would seethe and then track Morgan down herself.


/exit sora to The Mind Electric

chaperoning her dad on his way out; addresses @Nemo and @Pumpkin with reference to @Giggle

a moment of silence. (and for what, you ask? this disaster of a meeting, that's what.) damask lowered her muzzle and ducked away towards auré, outspread wing folding back into place. he might've succeeded in hiding his heavy heart from the others, but not from her — never from her. silver eyes snagged on every little tell: the cant of his head, raised as if in prayer or a plea; the strength of his grip on the floor at his feet. she could almost see the white in those knuckles. he started, stopped, coughed ... and, of all things, he apologized, as if any of this were his fault. as if his (no one else's?) hopes for today hadn't been altogether dashed, his spirits crushed along with all the rest. that sigh, that tremor, the diminution of his voice — the sheer weight this had put on his shoulders ... she felt it on hers. the bird of prey bit lightly at her lip. she had this knot she couldn't choke down — frustration, anxiety, anger, frustration, bitter as vomit in the back of her throat. (this was easier when you had someone else to blame.)

and no, for the record, they hadn't discussed everything they'd needed to — or at least not everything auré had told her about, not in the depth he'd intended. this wasn't real closure. he was cutting off the event; he had to, and not just for the sake of the big tou — ... (survivors? that the word you're looking for?) ... survivors.

she lifted her head and leveled her expression as auré stepped down. he brushed into contact with his mother and his brothers as he went, then arrived alongside her, eyes meeting: his like liquid, hers like metal, glinting with mustered-up strength over the quieter worry swimming underneath. her brows furrowed into a tight crease, slightly upturned. another sigh from her father, and that was all the inertia she could take. without missing a beat, she pivoted and shadowed him.

somewhere behind them, giggle was addressing the survivors once again — offering up her fortune-telling services, of course, or a taste of her ever-effective advice, the old talk-and-listen. man, was she still trying to get through to them? the alleged seer could read an omen in the fall of a bone, but she evidently couldn't read a damn room, even with its contents shuffling away. or keep track of questions she'd already asked, questions their very weary-looking guests had already answered. or, as of this latest directive, respect the space her son, her — her ████ so palpably needed. (hey. watch it, kid.) as she and her father neared the back of the crowd, damask shook her head just slightly down at the floor, peeking over in nemo's direction. this one had a distinctly polite sort of air about him, and it sounded as though he actually had been listening: he hesitated, expressing concerns, attending to the smaller bird in his feathers. no big deal, then; he'd take auré's word over giggle's. right? up until ...

"i'm going with the ████."

the word all but shuddered into her ears. she stopped mid-stride, one foot hovering over the ground. a momentary pause as nemo fell silent, and then she stepped into a half-turn, drawn upright, intercepting any advance on her father. nemo stood taller — (heh, by a lot) — but something in her face contradicted her height, steely and steady.

"our seer is mistaken — she must've misheard. stay here, as he said, and he will come back for you. giggle can take care of you herself in the meantime." her voice came soft and near-impossibly rapid, quick as a warning, dialed below anyone's hearing save for nemo and pumpkin's. the accipiter's sights flickered past them and settled on giggle, if only for a second. it was emphatically a look, not a glare, and there was emphatically no heat or fury in it — only cool intensity and a trace of reproach. this was not true of what laid behind it. back to nemo, back to pumpkin. a little quieter: "thank you for coming. it wasn't supposed to happen this way."

and that last sentence almost, almost crackled. she buttoned up, set her jaw, and turned back around with a shuttering blink, already away, not waiting for an answer.

he's my son, damask, giggle had told her once, and it'd almost been a weapon then, because — what were you meant to say to something like that? and yet, here she was. blind. it didn't take an eye like damask's to see that auré wanted out; the last thing he needed was a couple of strangers on his heels, talking at him, asking questions, looking for guidance he wasn't ready to give. he hadn't said it in as many words, but he shouldn't have had to — it spoke for itself in his features, in his voice, in his premature retreat. knowing giggle, there would be some confusion, maybe some annoyance, that look on her face that she got whenever damask so much as tried to show any — (shut up. stop it.) thump, thump, thump went her pulse, kicking at her ribs, at the blade of jasper inside. thump, thump, thump. (whatever happens, you don't care. got it? just as long as no one else follows him. remember that other thing giggle said right after — the real weapon? do you need a reminder? do you? no? okay! here it is: it's not about you.)

(or is it?)

(are you just looking for someone to hate other than yourself, you royal little mess? that really is what this has all been about, isn't it, ever since you got a chance you could jump on. well, learn a little something from eythan and swallow it.)

she picked up the pace. a few bounds later, she was back at auré's side, forcing down her nausea, the thrumming pain that hadn't let up in her too-tight chest. "hey," damask said, keeping it low, just above a whisper, and she was all his — her ████'s.

exit with auré, unless followed