V-Chaos-Two didn't really talk much with their siblings anymore. They were just too... busy. Busy babysitting, busy training. Whereas before they had the opportunity to pick flowers and be all philosophical, now they were too tired to even think of such a thing.

"Hi," they mumbled softly, plunking down beside their nest and drawing out a baubled stone, "Do you like pretty things?"

Would their clutch-mate (technically neibling) appreciate such things? Delicate beauties that needed a gentle hand? They were unaware of Zoisite's escapades into Pegasus to pick flowers for others, but definitely would have appreciated someone who wasn't all ferocity and violence.

It was lonely being the only one with a heart.

@Zoisite

V-Zoisite-One followed the sound and shadow of V-Chaos-Two, feeling shepherded away like a child. Overseer Orthoclase-Alpha did not want them to see, and perhaps they should have been more thankful that their mother had not struck out at them in the first place for being so close. It hadn't the energy.

They were silent as V-Chaos-Two sat down, shuffling their back legs down and leaving the other two sets stiff, tilting their head back to stare at their clutch-mate from the awkward angle. V-Chaos-Two had been busy, and they had never... talked, much. They had others escort them, when Chaos-Two needed an escort. (Did they still need one?)

Zoisite's head tilted further as they pulled out the baubled stone. "Pretty," they said with a click of their mandibles. "... who gave it the magic?" They asked gently, unaware that they shared the same magic. Maybe because Zoisite rather liberally used glowing orbs to give themself more shadows to watch on the floor, and otherwise keep them company.

"... I can make things glow..." The words came slowly, with a deep pause as they looked back up at V-Chaos-Two's pale green eyes. "... Have you seen the... Flowers... In Pegasus...?" They tried to make the rest of the dark room vanish beneath a sea of multicolored lights, but their tail simply twitched irritably, as if the magic didn't want to come out.

@V-Chaos-Two

Chaos-Two tilted their head, "I made it glow. I can't really see it very well but I think it looks nice."

They turned to face V-Zoisite-One and cocked their head, lighting up a bit, "Yes! I've seen the flowers. When we first came here, Khavur and I sat in the fields. I made them flower crowns and we talked."

We will become butterflies.

That's what kept them going. That someday, somehow... they'd be free, and they'd turn into something beautiful.

"Hey," they said, "Perhaps we can ask Master Vargas, but do you want to come out to Pegasus with me some time?"

@V-Zoisite-One

V-Zoisite-One was surprised to hear that Chaos-Two had been the one to make the stone glow. "It does," they said with a soft click of their pincers. They adored the look of shimmering light, and this particular bauble said one thing: Chaos-Two is alive. It was a warm thought. "I didn't know you could."

Their sibling was trying to distract them from their-- the Overseer, but quietly, the six-legged creature twisted their head to peer back, golden eyes trying to steal glimpses of the conversation. It was subtle enough that Chaos-Two probably wouldn't notice, though they weren't necessarily trying to hide it from the fellow clutchmate.

"... flower crowns?" They inquired, several seconds later. They almost missed the question that Chaos-Two offered the Zoisite, their mandibles clicking shut for a moment as they blinked slowly. "... I could," they agreed in a quiet voice. It sounded like Chaos-Two liked Pegasus... and it was a nice enough place. It wasn't home, but it wasn't hard to imagine a world where they lived out in the fields instead of in the damp dark.

@V-Chaos-Two

Chaos-Two nodded slowly and drew something from their nest, a round circle of flowers, dried and dead, but still holding their lovely colors. They held it gently as if it were precious, their eyes soft.

"This is a flower crown," they said, "You weave the stems of the flowers in a circle so the blooms face out, and then it appears as if the flowers are in a crown."

They thumbed over a petal delicately, wickedly sharp talons ever so gentle. They weren't meant to be in such a monstrous form, built to maim and kill and hurt. They had soft fur and kind eyes and a dopey smile. They weren't a killer like the rest of the creatures here.

"Alpha's been sick," they said softly, "You've noticed, I guess. They've been distant."

Chaos-Two couldn't see Zoisite, but they could feel the tension. Their quills hadn't relaxed even as they held their crown, their eyes on the ground rather than directed at their clutch-mate. They were restless.

"It doesn't feel nice, being unable to help. I wish there was something I could do," they sighed.

@V-Zoisite-One

The Zoisite craned their head forward to stare at the flower crown, twisting their head to get a good look with their upside down gaze. The flowers were shriveled, and fragile, if Chaos-Two was not so delicate, it would easily disintegrate. Their jaws parted, and then closed, their mandibles clicking softly. Their muscles were like springs, they pried open and snapped unless they took great care-- but they could not bring themselves to be envious of Chaos-Two's more dexterous claws.

Still.

"I see," V-Zoisite-One said, "it's very pretty." It wasn't, truly, any more... But it was more pretty than any of them would ever be, and the insectoid could imagine what it once looked like. Flowers kept their beauty on the outside, but when they died, they turned to dust and rot like everything else.

V-Chaos-Two spoke what was on their mind, though they lowered their voice. They spoke of the Overseer, using an almost casual tone with their worry, and Zoisite's quills rattled with unease. "Mm..." No. "The Overseer has always been distant." Their tone was stifled, almost matter-of-fact. "It's nothing new." The countless times the Orthoclase had snapped at them as children, had shoved them away, bristling; never once showing any ounce of care or affection except in the stoic way it guarded their lives and taught them to survive. Taught them to kill. V-Zoisite-One's quills slowly fell still, forced flat.

"The sickness," Zoisite went on, in a quiet voice of their own, "is bad." Though Zoisite had more thoughts racing around in their head, they fell silent. Unlike their hatchmate, they had few and far between conversations with others, and overall had taken on their lifegiver's quiet, near-mute nature. It was hard to know what the right thing to say was.

@V-Chaos-Two

Chaos-Two frowned, "Mm... no, annoyed and bristled. Defensive."

They could compare Alpha to one of the quilled mice. Quills that sprung up when threatened, keeping everyone away. But now those quills were laid flat and useless, limbs heavy and eyes unfocused. They'd seen themselves looking like that once or twice, when the agony left them laying on their side, away from everyone so that no one would see their weakness.

They shuddered and looked away from Alpha, quills raised up. They knew that illness.

"But we can't help," they said softly, sadly, "Master Vargas will do more harm than good, he only knows how to improve the outside, not the inside."

Vargas didn't have an ounce of affection in him. Praise for a soldier's accomplishments, but not for his children's. They weren't family. They were weapons.

Chaos-Two clutched the little brown mess of quills and anger to their chest, little Vedette having continued to sleep through this whole mess. They felt protective of her, even through her tantrums and when she woke up screaming and hissing, her quills digging into their skin and turning them numb as they tried to calm her.

They felt helpless.

@V-Zoisite-One

The Overseer had always been annoyed and bristled, every wall built up like a shell to keep their children (initiates?) at a safe distance. Zoisite didn't know what to say, giving only a slow nod. Golden eyes slid shut, pincers closing as they turned their head away.

Their talons dug at the stone, body shifting lower until their quills brushed the floor. The Zoisite fell still as Chaos-Two commented on what it thought of Master Vargas's attempts to help. Those comments were... Inappropriate. Things that Zoisite would never say. It wasn't a fair call, for one, and for two... even if it were true, they were supposed to treat their elders, and especially Master Vargas, with respect.

"He's doing his best," they replied with a click of their mandibles. What did Chaos-Two even mean by improving the outside? Training, maybe. V-Zoisite-One shivered though. Something about the phrasing made them uncomfortable.

The Zoisite lingered in the silence between them. They had trouble filling that quiet sometimes, never knowing quite what to say. It wouldn't bother them normally, but Chaos-Two was trying to hold a conversation with them, and... the kaiju was failing to keep up. "... We don't know what's actually going on," they said softly. "It's easy to do harm. At least he is trying, and... He knows more." Was that what they were supposed to say? It felt like a natural continuation of the conversation, but every word was stilted; mechanically pried from their jaws.

@V-Chaos-Two

Chaos-Two nodded slowly and sighed, looking away. They set the flower crown back in its hiding place and covered it up again, staring at it before looking towards the tunnel to Pegasus. Maybe Vargas knew more than them, but he was still a product of decades ago. Battle-hardened and stoic. Perhaps they were a new age of gembounds, but that was just being optimistic.

"Lucky," they mumbled, "The gembound out there. They're lucky they live in ignorance, that they don't know what we do. That they don't have to be trained and prepared for whatever the Lord wants us for."

A normal gembound would break. Even Alpha clearly had. Bloodstone had left the moment they were able, terrified of what Vargas was doing.

"I'm going to sleep," Chaos-Two said, because there wasn't much to do when the blender they babysat was finally resting.

They sighed again and stretched, turning to Zoisite, "I'm sorry we haven't talked more. Can we go out to Pegasus sometime? I'd like to spend time that isn't so melancholic."

@V-Zoisite-One

... Were they lucky?

Zoisite didn't think of it the same way Chaos-Two did, they realized with a quiet, uncertain pang in their core. They took a deep breath, their quills scratching against the stone underneath them. They didn't think that any one gembound was lucky compared to any other... They all had their own hardships. Master Vargas had promised them freedom, if they wanted it. Chaos-Two could walk away and join them, couldn't they?

Of course, looking at the bundle of quills that Chaos-Two was tending to, they thought they understood. They didn't feel like they could simply walk away, knowing what they knew. But it still seemed... Wrong, to think of it that way. Something did not quite click, instead feeling like a few puzzle pieces jammed together with gaps and squishing. The sensation that their quills were being shoved the wrong way filled their brain as they tried to understand.

Instead, Chaos-Two cut them off. "Sleep well," the insectoid beast clicked, mandibles hovering open uncertainly at the end of the statement. They waited there for a moment, until Chaos-Two sighed and glanced sightlessly back toward them. With a twitch, rattle, of their quills, they raised their head a touch higher to meet those glowing green eyes.

... They paused.

"... Of course," they said, feeling faintly like they were repeating themselves. They would like to see Chaos-Two out in the fields where they might be happier, among the flowers... And Zoisite, too, enjoyed the scenery... But for now, they were simply standing around for no reason, taking up space.

They closed their mandibles with a snap, a bit harsher than they had intended, and turned away, lowering their head to watch their step as they wandered off for their own nook. They wanted to steal a glance toward the Overseer and their Master, but they felt that privilege stripped away from them. It was not their business. They were excluded for a reason. It would be hard not to think about them, or about what Chaos-Two had said, but they would manage something. Somehow.

@V-Chaos-Two ; exit?