backdated to be a few days after overseer with no name
which is backdated to a few days after the chaos forge's formation

The aperture yawned at its back; the back wall stretched further than its eyes could see. All four of them drifted to and fro, scanning the long-empty hollows from floor to ceiling. It didn't have any real reason to, other than idling. Sort of like pacing, without the frenetic movement. Claws still tapped lightly at the stone.

Its Master had formally shoved it in the direction of training—and train it would, beginning with... one of his. The only one he'd judged a purpose for. V-Chaos-Two, full of potential but somewhat misshaped. It could hardly see further than its own nose and rarely managed to hunt. Guard for the young, Alpha repeated in its head, knows and teaches basics. Quills rattled. It knew it didn't have a lick of knowledge on mending for anything that wasn't itself, but there was some basis for all the other things Vargas suggested. What it couldn't do, it could shove off onto others.

Delegating.

"V-Chaos-Two," it barked, "where are you?" The Overseer didn't expect the poor creature to come trundling towards it. Head swinging around in a preemptive search, it was already trying to rehearse its speech.

@V-Chaos-Two

V-Chaos-Two had been painstakingly trying to bauble a rock. For what use was unknown, but they'd failed so far and were getting a bit bored with the menial task. Perhaps it was to be a gift, one of Chaos-Two's many displays of agathism, or perhaps it was just a way to waste away the hours.

Either way, they were there when Overseer Alpha called, his head shooting up. They stood and stretched out, limping towards Alpha and standing up, still as awkward looking as the day they were born. Lanky with short hind legs and long arms that were reminiscent of Vargas', able to carry them on all fours but were ultimately used for clawing or handling tools.

"I'm here, Overseer," they said, "What need do you have of me? Training?"

At least their mind was in no way hindered by their unfortunate flaws. In fact, such a thing seemed to enhance it, as if they were using their intelligence to surpass their weakness.

Chaos-Two positioned itself in front of Alpha and sat heavily, ears perked forward and attentive. Alpha was a big blurry shape with no distinguishing colors, but at least it's head was mostly obvious, unlike Zoisite's. Embarrassingly enough, they found themselves talking to the wrong head more often than not.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Oh, there it is.

The Overseer turned to face Chaos-Two on their approach, and it took the last few steps to close the distance. Burning-green eyes fixed on the creature. It sized them up like it did every time, as if something would be miraculously different. But, no, they were the same as always. "Training?" "Yes."

Alpha's chest swelled, quills clicking against one another. It huffed and scraped its claws against the ground, then spoke, "what do you know about healing? Protecting?"

The kaiju paused for a moment before it added "magic?" to the list of questions.

@V-Chaos-Two

Chaos-Two perked up and thought for a moment, "... I can disinfect a wound. I learned it from Doctor, and um... I can make things glow, which is useful in the dark- not for me, but for others I suppose."

They were a bit different. Not as small as the piddly little thing they had been. Almost 7 feet tall standing, and only getting bigger. Their forearms were lanky but strong, with taut muscle from dragging themselves around, and the occasional spar with their hatchmates (though it was more like rolling around and growling at each other).

They bit their lip and looked around, reaching out to grab a rock before holding it in their claws (they were getting longer now, proper talons, almost) and squinting at it. After a moment it started to glow, and they held it up, ears perked forward.

"Like this. I was thinking that I could use stuff like this as a distraction," they said, "If I'm in a fight, then I make it glow brighter and throw it, and then my opponent can't see, but since I don't need to, then I get the advantage, at least momentarily. I've been trying to just make a bright light for that purpose."

But when it came to protecting... they only had the idea of throwing themselves in front of something, which was stupid, so they remained silent on that.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Alpha listened and took notes as best it could; not that there was much to work with. The creature knew how to clean up a wound and... make various objects glow. Their first announced skill had good, practical use. The second... made the Leviathan's words came to mind—something about finding a use for everything. Distractions were suitable enough, or the cave could be lit up in case of the orbs failing. Draco would still be lit up by the Spire, though...

"That's good," it grunted with a short nod, not at all confident in that being true. The Overseer glanced over the womb once more, then plopped down onto its haunches. "Keep seeing Doctor, then. Learn more about healing," it started, and paused to think. If the vulture was all the way in their old home tunnel, that was a fairly extensive trip. "Hm," Alpha thought aloud, "do you remember the—" (It's blind.) "—green part of Canis? There's another healer. It's furry and black with blue eyes. A... winged dog named..." The orthoclase made a Theremin noise. "... Oliver. Oliver."

Then, the orthoclase huffed, "do you know how to see others with magic? Living things." Surely, blindness didn't translate to that, too... ? It was an important tool in its arsenal, even as it was sighted.

@V-Chaos-Two

The kaiju nodded and wiggled a bit, biting it's cheek, "Kethri is trying to teach me about herbs and such. She told me about some things she uses on her wounds, a plant with a sort of... liquid-y flesh, she calls it 'spinebrush' because of the spines it has. It soothes burns and helps them heal."

They looked up as the Overseer spoke again, something about Canis.

"I don't mean to be rude, but um... all I see is green, sir. Do you mean the um... garden? With trees and stuff like the fauna in Pegasus?", they asked, "Vargas told Doctor to stay here to teach me all he knows before heading back to the Sentinels, if that's what you're... hesitant about."

Chaos-Two was cautious to say worry or even concerned. The Overseer didn't worry about him.

"I don't, sir, but I can hear really well and my nose is alright. I can scent prey. I didn't really think of that.
Sort of like the spell Doctor uses to sense illness?", they said, the gears turning.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

The orthoclase was about to just glance over the herbs—medicine was never really its forte, and it fought every doctor's visit—but, it occurred to it... if its magic failed to account for any damages done... Alpha huffed. "Where do you find spinebrush?" It said that like it were a test, all monotone. Its dry tone contributed rather well to being business-like, one could think.

Right, though, it's blind; blind, in the sense that all they saw was the green of their own eyeballs. Alpha couldn't grasp why the creature was still alive. Even after the Leviathan'd said his peace on why he didn't want to cull any of their mistakes—the orthoclase gritted its teeth thinking about that. That ran contrary to every little thing.

A sharp exhale escaped it, and it nodded its head, "yes, that." The trees and stuff.

"... you're... hesitant about." Orthoclase-Alpha warned, "I'm not." Burning eyes narrowed ineffectively, but it moved on. "Yes, but you see creatures from afar. Their blood" (and if only it had a way to demonstrate as much) "it would be more efficient than—listening or... smelling." It sniffed. "Try it."

Simple as that, huh? Alright.

@V-Chaos-Two

Alpha's question about the herb caused Chaos-Two's eyes to crinkle in thought, and they rubbed their hands together.

"Dry places," they said, "Orion, Hydra, though she found some on the edges of Eridanus."

Chaos-Two didn't really know what Orthoclase-Alpha expected. They didn't have such an ability and expecting it to just work right away was a bit unreasonable, though... perhaps they could try anyway. They had, in fact, cast such a powerful spell right out of the egg that had anyone been in the way, death certainly could have occurred in many of their siblings.

Maybe they could try.

The sand and debris off the ground swirled upwards at the call of their magic, misdirected due to inexperience. Shards of glass formed and sliced forward as they sneezed from the debris, slamming into the ground. They blinked and sagged.

"... It didn't work," they sighed, certainly not pouting, but definitely disappointed despite the low success rate.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Alpha nodded at first, but then remembered again that Chaos-Two was blind. It tacked on a grunt of acknowledgement, "mhmm." It was something useful to know. Good for the birds to find out what works, even though it wasn't found anywhere near here. If the overseer had... any visible regard for life, it might've asked about trying to cultivate a store of it here.

Alas.

Its quills rattled as shards of glass formed from the earth—that was a familiar spell—and it instinctively turned its head aside. A surge of magic pushed its carapace to grow into a shape resembling a shield. It was spiny and completely solid, but did the job quite right. Whatever stray glass shard was stuck in it, rather than Alpha itself.

Once Chaos-Two sighed, the orthoclase twisted its neck and shoved its temporary shield off with a resounding crack! The piece made a hollow sound as it hit the ground. Maybe something could make good use of it. Even this one.

One thing at a time, though. Alpha didn't have a perfect memory like its Master.

It huffed softly, "practice it." That was the closest thing to that's fine it could possibly dispense. "It'll... come, eventually." (Please look up a guide on how to give compliments, Overseer.)

Quills clicked against one another, and it worked its jaw rather uselessly. What else? It'd mentioned Oliver, right... ? "If you want to learn from Oliver, I'll... someone can take you to Canis." Helpful. There was something else...

Oh. Alpha shifted in place. "What do you know about... taking care of children? Protecting them?"

Nice. An open-ended question to stall for time while it mulled over things.

@V-Chaos-Two

Chaos-Two looked up at the muffled sound of glass bouncing off a hard surface, not like rock, but something else. They brushed glass away and reached forward, scooping up the carapace and cocking their head. Yes... to use later. They set it aside for now.

"I will try, Overseer," they said, "And... children. Not very much. Ah... Chaos-Two never let me close, and Khavur was grown when they came out, well, mostly. And your children were older than me already. That... doesn't sound good for someone supposed to become a babysitter."

They sighed and decided to try the spell, to try and see what their eyes could not, though they had little confidence. Such a thing had been attempted and they'd failed at it before, but... maybe with Alpha's lack of encouragement, such a thing could be achieved.

They heard... something. A heartbeat that wasn't their own. They peered forward and slowly leaned in closer, eyes narrowing. They heard a heart... blood pumping through a body they could only see the silhouette of. They could detect something previously undetectable, and turned their head, eyes wide.

"... I can hear them," they said, "The others... Th-the two big heartbeats, Khavur and Vargas- Is this the spell you said- you spoke of?"

It was nearly overwhelming to be able to sense and slowly gain the bearings of the others in the cave. Their location. They could hear the faint noise of wind through the cave, coming in from Pegasus, could hear... everything. They almost became emotional.

@Orthoclase-Alpha
Ending thread to fade into further magic training!