Morgan walked forward with her head drooped and her sad eyes full of sorrow. She wandered Canis aimlessly, wanting to go to Charles or to Pumpkin or to someone who didn't dangle her brother's stone in front of her only to yank it away. Curse Sora for being so cruel.

She finally found a small crack in the wall, not enough to hide her, really, but it was a space and it was small, and she just... she didn't care.

She curled up in it and pressed her face into her belly, ears down and spirit wounded. If she had any say in it, she wouldn't get up. Not for a long time. Not until Sora was well and gone and had probably revived Simon's stone because she was petty. Not until he was hopefully forgotten.

Her green eyes closed and she started to cry, shaking gently as her sobs wracked her body, tears rolling down her snout.

@Nemo

Nemo

Nemo had been flying to and from his nest with assorted broken bones, any that he noticed with gems on them being tactfully ignored and all skulls being set carefully off to the side... well, as carefully as the berry blue lammergeier could move them with his wings and beak.

During this, he'd seen a small and stout shadow moving about, smelling and looking sad and like someone that might need to be left alone, to be honest...

But Nemo's not good at minding his own business. He's really not.

So, one last splintered rib-like bone added to his hodge-podge pile- okay look, its not just random there's a small dip in the center and it's all locked together with some damp mud and Nature's Glue - and he goes to look for the other Gembound, not winging very far before hearing the frankly eerie sound of echoing sobs, and struggling to trace the noise to a crack not to far from his own home.

"H... Hellooo?" he calls, before attempting to land as easily as he can, and by that it means that he winds up being clipped by that same rib he'd just brought up, after it clatter-bounce-bounce-smacks between his wings and makes him emit some sort of "Hi-squee-!" before hitting the stone and sliiiiding until he thumps into a pile of bones, scrambling during the trip and simply... sighing once the noise has settled.

The 'geier is fine, simply a bit peeved, but he's able to shake that off as well as the dust from his feathers as he approches the crack in the wall, and he bows down, letting his tail stick up into the air and wiggle in curiosity, unknowingly flashing his gemstone at the Gembound hiding within as he calls out, "Oh? I don't see anyone brightly colored in there... I don't have a good view, so whoever is crying shadows, I'm sorry to say I don't have practice with the colors of grey and black. My area of expertise is blue, though, and it sounds like you're pretty blue inside. Do you want to come out here with me and talk?"


@Morganite

Morgan's head went up, two big green eyes shining in the darkness. She turned away from Nemo and hunched in on herself.

"I'm fine," she insisted, "Perfectly fine."

She huddled in her teeny tiny little space, her green eyes the only visible thing in there. She was so dark she blended in, and for once, she didn't mind her fur.

She just wanted to be alone. She deserved to be alone. She was horrible and awful and just... the worst.

Her head thunked into the rock beside her as she felt more tears fall, sniffling wetly and wrapping her arms around herself.

@Nemo

Nemo

Ungainly landing aside, something in his twists in concern at the lack of reaction to his... well, entrance. At least some sort of smile...?

But no. No, this is a deeper, different kind of sadness.

"Hey," his voice is calm and low, and he's not moving from his position, fully facing into the crag still and holding eye contact, if Morganite allows it. It's like he's attempting to calm an wild animal, that gentle sort of scolding tone that belies no ability nor want to take any more of whatever is going on. "If you're fine, I'm purple. You don't have to tell me anything- I uh. Heard things at the meeting." Assuming a bit as well, but hopefully not enough to make a... you know what the phrase is.

The thunk makes his head bob in a wince, and he peers further into the crag.

"I have no idea what you're going through, but I can tell you something I've learned in my time? Wallowing alone only lets the shadows eat you from the inside out. Its easier to stick around for someone else, even if you don't really know them or care." a sigh, and a small shuffle, so now he's looking like a feathery loaf on the ground as he tilts his head back and forth to watch with first one eye, then another.

The glowing gem around his neck is in front of him, almost in the entrance of the shaded crag and faintly blue in it's internal gleam, rolls a bit where he'd let it settle.

@Morganite

Morgan sniffled and looked back at Nemo, ears down, "... I fear if I go back out to my family that I'll just chase them off like I did my sister. We fought, you see. She left after the meeting and isolated herself."

She ducked her head and sniffled, "I'm such a horrible person..."

Tears welled up and fell faster, and she started to sob, slowly drawing out of the cave and into the light, her black fur thin and unkempt. She should have been chubby, maybe even fat, but she was thin and underweight, the stress having eaten at her until she ended up like this.

It was pathetic.

"I don't know how to fix it," she whispered, "I want my sister back."

@Nemo

Nemo

Going back, or not, because of a fear of disappointment is something that he can vaguely relate to, and the bird shuffles to the side to allow Morganite to make their way out of the hole, and he offers an open wing as a sort of blanket or comfort pressure, if the hybrid so chooses.

"I'm going to go out on a crag here and say you're not horrible- when people go through nasty things, it can change them. Sometimes better, or sometimes for the worse, but in the end, it's up to you and the effort you put in with the people around you." He uses one wing to shuffle his bauble closer to his chest, but he remains loafed, hoping to remain as un-intimidating as possible.

He sighs, and looks out over Canis as best he can as he attempts to think if some sort of advice. "If I may... why did you guys fight? Is there someone you can ask to mediate, one of your other siblings?" a pause, and then a tentative, [b]"Or maybe a stranger, if that would make it easier. Someone non-partial."

@Morganite

"We fought," she mumbled, "At the Bonebound meeting, I think you were there. Thank you for taking my brother in. But I explained to her that we had no right to have acted the way we did, and she took offense. I described her behavior as disgusting when I tried to explain and she took such great offense that she left."

Morgan shied away from the wing, not wanting affection, and completely undeserving of such a thing anyway. She didn't deserve it.

"We fought a few times after that. She stole my brother's stone and kept it for herself, so I stole it back and gave it to Pumpkin and Charles for them to care for," she said bitterly, "She's so selfish, and she wallows in her own self-pity in Pisces, away from her family, not just me."

She wanted the old Sora back, not this new jerk who abandoned her whole family and stole stones.

@Nemo

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

strong language

Nemo

He nods, agreeing that yes, he was present at the meeting- and he nearly jumps himself at the flinch from the larger Gembound.

"Sorry! Sorry, didn't mean to scare you..." he mutters quietly, hoping to keep from spooking the other again. Nemo does blink a bit when the whole... family drama comes out. "Stone...?" he almost breathes, and then when he twitches his tail to fall in to line of his normal fidget, it finally hits him- oh.

Oh.

"Pumpkin, right? He's your brother? He's a dear, and very kind. I'm sure he misses you too, you know."

A deep sigh, and he pulls himself to sit upright, left wing folding in to fiddle with his bauble as he thinks a bit on the whole... shit-uation, and gazes at the skinny being in front of him. "This sounds like... a lot. But trauma does seem to change people- I mean, I'm a bird afraid of flying because I nearly died, I can't blame anyone in your family for having changed thanks to... whatever the hell was in that room." Another deep sigh, and he adds, turning his gaze out across Canis, "But. And call me cruel if need be- but aren't you doing the same thing, here in this crag? Being harsh on yourself, wallowing in a hole and avoiding your family? Now," he opens his left wing, as if to ask Morganite to wait for second, before continuing, "You don't need to answer to me for that. No-one judges you for it, unless they're in pain as well. But, I am going to ask a favor- would you eat, if I brought you something?"

@Morganite

Morgan shrugged, her stance unsteady as she stopped, looking at the wing and then at Nemo. He was right. She was. Her family didn't deserve it.

"We talked," she said softly, "I-I... We... I have a child now. I insisted. I wanted a chance to try again. I don't know if I can."

Admitting such a thing was so awful. How could she have willingly made a child, only to abandon it because her mental state wasn't balanced enough to even be around a child?

She listened silently to his own experience, a bit miffed at how everyone seemed so willing to share their own experiences despite no one asking, and immediately digging her claws into the pads of her paws. What a nasty thought. Gods... she was so awful, wasn't she?

"I don't have anywhere to go," she said in response to his question, and sat down, ears pinned.

@Nemo