It was shortly after waking up from rest in her quiet nesting corner of Draco that Zoey spotted Labradorite across the cave. It would be incredibly out of character for her to not even say hi, especially in passing if she was headed out to the gardens... Though, today she had been planning on working on more lights, which meant even more possibility of a conversation starting up between them.

Zoey was dreading every moment of this particular conversation. It would have been a lot easier to shut down, to lock it all out-- but a promise was a promise. And now that she had made that promise, she couldn't simply go back on it. Khavur needed her to do this, and she had already dragged her heels enough on it. It was one thing to let it slip by when she didn't see Labradorite, but it wasn't like she could (with a free conscious) avoid them all together.

The thought of it all going wrong like it had with Alpha rang through her mind whenever she stopped to think about it. That was the problem. Thinking. If she could just shut her brain off...

Nope. That wasn't going to happen.

Quills quietly rattling against her chest, she picked up the pace, trotting off toward her sibling. "Labradorite," she called, their name clicking off of her tongue. "How are you?" She struggled to ignore the crawling sensation of the elephant in the room: the thing that she had to fight not to think too deeply about. Did you talk to Alpha?

There were more important things right now. Head up, mandibles pointed in an angle toward the ceiling so her line of sickly yellow eyes could peer up from under her jaws at her sibling. Each breath was calculated, heavy and deep, pushing against the confines of carapace. Would Labradorite immediately pick up on the way her talons dug into the hard stone under foot?

If they did, what would she be able to say?

She was already ruining this. Steady. They could trust Labradorite with this.

@V-Labradorite-One

Labradorite had it's own nesting corner- not a den, just a darkish nook big enough to fit in. It had gotten up some time ago, but it hadn't... done anything, yet. It had neared The Climb, littered with it's dusty bones. But it didn't have time to ponder the bones, how old they were, who they could've been. Because it heard the skittering of feet, the rattling of quills, and turned to see the familiar and welcome form of Zoisite. It'd move to close the distance with long heavy steps that left droplets of oil in it's wake.

"Zoisite. It's good to see you." It echoed, nodding a greeting. It smiled as much as it dared to, which was a soft contrast to it's spikes and tense posture and glaringly neon eyes. It felt safe to smile, in this corner of Draco, with none but The Zoisite in sight. The stone could soften to clay, just a little. "I've been doing fine." It's default response- almost automatic. The lie of it burnt in the back of it's throat- it was harder to lie to The Zoisite than anyone else.

Thoughts bubbled up, stuff it wanted to talk about, that sat just on the edge of it's tongue. I spoke with Alpha for the first time in cycles. But Zoisite didn't need to hear about such a private conversation. I'm stagnating, again. Just doing my duties and little more. Zoisite didn't need to know about it's problems. I want to become a protector and teacher of the younglings. I need to do the trial, Emuh's trail. But I'm scared. It shouldn't burden it those things. Those hopes and fears. The only one who could achieve those things was itself, after all.

"How are you? How's the farm?" The last it'd heard, something had made a mess of the gardens. Maybe it should've helped Zoisite clean up- and it would, if there was still mess to clean up and Zoisite needed the help.

@v-zoisite-one

On a different, better day, one that wasn't plagued with a knife hanging over head by a thin thread, Zoey might have noticed the false pretenses. She was plagued with too many thoughts clouding her own judgement, nervously prickling through her chest like her quills were bent backward and digging into the cracks in her carapace.

She felt only relief that Labradorite was doing alright. She missed the pause, instead trying to desperately come up with the correct way to fill it, only for her sibling to ask her the question back-- and check on her progress on fixing the farm.

It was infinitely easier to focus on the present than the future. Her quills fell still as her pincers scrapped together for just a moment before she spoke. "I'm well," she said and could even mean it. As long as she didn't think about the figure that she sometimes caught in the corner of her vision. Master Vargas was a steady source of stability, and as she quickly added, "the garden is healing. We've removed any plants that might turn to rot, and the rest of the crop is flourishing." And there was Khavur; a weight off of her shoulders.

... Zoey just wasn't sure she could...

It's alright. One step at a time. A deep breath paired with a tilt of her head, and a slight shuffle on her feet, pushing herself upright; her weight was shifted to her second and third limbs, lifting her front half upward. This was a more comfortable, relaxed position, and made it easier to keep her sibling's gaze.

"I spoke, to... Khavur," she started, hesitant and near tripping over the words, testing the waters with a careful caution. It had been cycles since their fight... But it had not been something any of them could have just brushed off. It had burned deep into their scarred flesh, branded their lives.

Zoey wasn't sure how to broach the subject. She knew what she wanted of the possible outcomes, but she also knew that neither she nor Khavur had any right to ask Labradorite to--...

@V-Labradorite-One