ORDER VS CHAOS

SANCTUARY

The tiger's head came up, his paws faltering on the stone. At his forehead, the single pink-violet gemstone glimmered, its magic flaring.

He sensed them.



He paused, wondering at his own thoughts. ...Who is 'them?' Memories flooded his mind, a crash of emotion and flickering images like breakers against a shore. Sands finally smoothed were suddenly rough again, wet and frothing.

Metaphorically speaking.

The white tiger turned, his heavy body breaking into a sprint, eyes wide with alarm. "THEY ARE COMING! Come--come to me--we will hide! We will find sanctuary!" At once he was delving into the Bone Fortresses. They would serve their purpose, again--a place of hiding, a place to cower but to protect the weak, the innocent, from the war that was flooding their shores even now.

"COME TO SAFETY!" was Teosar's roar, a beckoning--and a pleading, ringing through the bones of Canis.

---

Neutral characters are being summoned to remain safe with Teosar. He will give out tasks, intended to ensure their survival, as soon as enough have gathered.

This thread is intended to keep Neutral characters safe from harm, away from the creatures of Chaos and Order. Teosar himself will defend against any incursions by either force.

Wulfsige in particular is welcome to join, and to teach others in hiding how to differentiate between neutral, Order, and Chaos characters by magical means that only he yet knows.

@Wulfsige

She was resting, as she tended to do a lot these days.

There wasn't really much to do, other than live. She hunted; she slept off the pervasive sickness that suffused her bones; she went to the Black Spire once every so often to stabilize the magic that threatened to consume her. Even the constant hallucinations and changes in pressure that interrupted her rest were not so bad, with someone by her side. (Even if that someone was a two-foot-long rat. Pride was right; the bond one could have with a familiar was extraordinary.)

She ventured out from Ursa more these days, especially since the cold snap some cycles earlier. Exploring the caves was its own form of enrichment, and seeing through Scars' eyes introduced her to a whole new dimension of sight and color. Occasionally (in order of increasing violence and decreasing frequency), she threw herself in massive snowdrifts or piles of bones; ripped apart a tree, or engaged in hunts that were perhaps a bit more bloody and terrifying than strictly necessary. It was rather fun, not to mention cathartic, and Scars simply watched her without judgement and picked out sticks and splinters from her fur afterward.

All in all, she considered it a pretty normal, uneventful life--until the tiger's roar split the air.

Aethereal leaped to her feet, wings half-flaring with alarm. Scars stirred from his nap in her fur and scampered up her shoulder, scanning the area. Neither could immediately spot whoever they were, but neither was one to take such a warning lightly, either. Despite being 9 feet tall at the shoulder, Aethereal had never really managed to win a real fight--and she knew rather well that there were scary, more powerful forces than herself out there. Safety was good, even if she didn't quite know safety from what yet.

She bounded toward the tiger's call, with Scars clinging to the fur of her shoulder to guide her around the piles of bones, and skidded to a halt as soon as the white tiger came into sight. "What's happening?" she gasped, the murmuring chorus of her voice lifting with worry and distress. "Who's coming?"

He had been pulled towards this cave, in a way that defied words but did not lessen it's importance. If anything, the ethereal nature of it made it all the more important. He moved with haste, not stopping until he got to Canis.

He could feel it as soon as he got to the Room Of Bones. A deep, growing sense of incursion. Reactionary, his magic lashed out to observe.
It did not go well.

Maybe it was his newfound distance to the spire, or the conflicting radiation swarming this room. The magic didn't go out but in, and all he got in return was a blinding feedback loop of his own radiation signature. He skidded to a halt, nearly tripping over bones, biting his tongue to prevent himself from crying out, standing with his head bowed until his mind cleared enough to continue.

He would continue to the bone fortress, regarding Teosar with welcome relief and Aethereal with barely contained animosity. "You are one half of the war which ravages this place." He told Aethereal. "You cannot hide from what you've wrought." He would stare her down, as if he expected to fight off a 9 foot chaos monster.

And here comes Astéri, practically skidding into the cave of bones from Orion's direction.

The tiger's cry had been a loud thing, frantic with its urgency but not with its explanation. They? Who's they? What in the caves does he mean by that?

Still—still, it sounds desperate in its tone, and Astéri is nothing but drawn to that. A sanctuary? A place to hide? A place to protect? He has always considered himself a protector. Maybe he can help.

Maybe he can figure out what's going on here, 'cause the scene he walks in on looks more like someone being driven off than any kinda help he knows. He catches the tail end of some kind of accusation as his run slows to a stop, nearly knocking into a nearby pile of bones as he glances between the tiger, the wolf, and the—the. Something. His mind runs out of words for it, but that's fine. As far as he can tell, the newcomer hasn't done anything wrong, she's just...

...dripping.

Headless or not, he's not going to let some random stranger be driven away from whatever this sanctuary is until he's sure he knows what's going on. "Hey. Hey!" he calls to the three of them. "What's going on? Who's 'they'? What did she do wrong, anyway?"

The voice calling out to hide, to stay safe, is familiar to Tourmaline. She hears Teosar as she prowls the bones, otherwise unaware of the brewing storm. Her initial impression of him those cycles ago was as a quiet and calm individual, so to hear him roaring through the room was a surprise. And not a welcome one.

She skitters over the bones, following the call. She doesn't know who the "they" is, or why they'll attack, but she's seen the monsters of the cave, that tower over her and could knock her aside with a breath.

But she's not the first to arrive. The large dragon is intimidating, but from its voice is just as confused as Tourmaline. Then there's Wulfsiege, who's obviously ready to fight.

What are we fighting for, though?

Relic has made up their minds, after their time in Lacerta - they'd return to their birthplace, look for Giggle, and offer their services to The Bonebound. It was the closest thing to familar they had, and they were getting tired of the onslaught of new and frightening that heralded them everytime they opened their eyes. They needed the support, and perhaps group needed that too; One could hope.

A panicked call interrupted these plans, her head snapping to its source. By the time she had arrived a small crowd had already gathered. Her own questions had already been asked, so she kept quiet, analysing the crowd. The headless one smelt and dripped with oil, like the ones in Draco. That was the only thing she could recognise amongst them - they were all strangers to her. She gave the wolf-dog a look - she didn't understand the hostility, and so early as well. She settled further back, a casual observer, though she toyed with the idea of jumping into the fray if Wulfsige decided to act on his distaste.

She'd been accompanying Wulfsige for a little while, curious about its nature. The more she followed the wolfdog, the stranger he was to her and the more she wondered about his importance and significance. What his role as Guardian meant and who had appointed it. And, of course, as she expected, following in his pawsteps would eventually lead her back into the main sway of the power balance in the caves. She had done her best to avoid the politics ever since the disaster that had led to her leaving of the Bonebound and the cut from all she had ever known, but ever since her trip to the surface, ever since she'd changed...she felt ready to step back in, if that's where her paws were leading her.

She bounded after Wulfsige, called to Canis, Vaati following behind her. She could feel the pitch rat's nerves, higher then usual, and she sent a calming message through their link. It wasn't much, but Vaati got closer, enough that she could feel the brush of his bristling fur. And it, in turn, did a bit to calm her own nerves a bit, having a friend so close. Not that she didn't consider Wulfsige a friend but...he was so strange and...distant. And while she trusted him, it wasn't the bond she needed right now. Vaati filled that void for her.

The cry of Teosar had her ears perking with alarm. They? Who is "they?" She could hear something in the distance. Wingbeats, roars, approaching calamity. As they approached the group, she remembered the magic that Wulfsige had used. Not too different from her own ability to detect magic, but...different. The nature of magic, and if it were of the Spire or...something else.

She quickly glanced across the gathered - normal creatures, save for the monstrosity that panicked quietly. She flicked her ear, curious about it for a moment. She wanted to reassure it, tell it that things would be okay, they would be safe, but without knowing what the threat was, without knowing who was coming, she could only lie. And that was not something she'd do, especially not right now.

She turned in the direction that Teosar was facing and angled her ears, focusing on replicating what Wulfsige had done and casting it into the distance, as far as her ability would take her. Unsure of what she'd find, she was wholly unprepared for what she felt in response. An aura of crystalline perfection, of unity and oneness, of order and it brought back sickly familiar memories of being engulfed by this order herself. Not for long, but long enough to leave a lasting, traumatizing imprint on her psyche.

With a trill of alarm, she pulled herself back and whirled back towards the group, fur on her neck bristling with alarm and a slight tremble running through her body. "The Hive," she gasped. "They're here! Hide, don't let them get close to you!" She motioned after Teosar and jumped to begin nudging the others to follow him. To Wulfsige, she added, "There is no reason to turn it away, unless it carries Order." She looked at Aethereal and saw a scared beast, despite its shape. "Go on, we need to hide before the Hive finds us. Be careful of their spores - inhale just a few and your mind will quickly fall."

This--admittedly--was not where Khloros spent his time. He'd spent most of the last twenty cycles or so purely in hiding, hidden away amongst the swamps of Cetus. But now and again he came out to try and find others to speak to, the words of the white creature from his death-dreams pushing him toward his purpose.

Today he'd only been coming to see his hatching-place in the dark, misty tunnel just beyond. (Imagine his confusion to find the remains of a second chrysalis shattered from his own.) But the boom of a roar in Canis drew wide eyes and a swivelled ear, and he entered the cave at a swift and hoof-clacking trot.

What's going on? Teosar's voice rang out: a potential answer to his question. And he broke into a gallop, head high and nostrils flared, alarm and curiosity drawing him in.

He clattered into the little gathering and damn near skidded to a halt, dust pluming up around his legs. Dark eyes swept the gathering, and showed no recognition: he didn't think he'd met anybody here. He didn't remember them, anyway. There were mostly cats, he noted, of varying size: two small ones and two large. Then a canid or two.

"What is happening?" he asked, bluntly.

His gaze shifted, long head tipping back toward the place he thought the roar had come from. "Are the caves under attack?" This was almost asked... indifferently. Khloros was still relatively convinced these caves were damned, one way or another, but this--whatever this was--had taken him by surprise.

horse stock by venomxbaby on deviantart

A small, dust-colored coyote pup came careening in next, her tail tucked tightly between her hind legs and her enormous ears flat against her head. She didn't bother looking at anyone present, instead bolting straight to the back of the little fortress, pressing herself into the smallest possible hiding spot, and cowering there.

She'd heard the call for safety, and the roar had her scared to death--she'd seen enormous, white beings marching in and wanted nothing to do with whatever this was. Their claws were bigger than her whole body!

So Coyote hid, trembling, her large eyes opening after a moment and seeking out those already present. She looked them over one at a time, terrified. Her fur was puffed out, still sparking with instinctive electricity.

"Help?" she managed, barely more than a squeak.

Was this place truly safe..?

Oliver--here to tend his garden--heard the call and came at a swift glide. Concern wracked him. He had no idea what was going on.

More importantly--"What can I do to help?"

The question was asked, worry and determination twinned in every word, before he'd even had a chance to properly assess. He saw the Gembound gathering--seemingly called by the white tiger--and he offered up his aid. Part of that was due to the slow creep of golden-and-magenta gradually taking over his gemstone and his very mind, though his concern was very real.

But the almost blind way he offered himself, ready to sacrifice his life or perform any task desired, it... bordered on madness. The light in his eyes could almost be described as zealous, were it not so truly selfless.

"Let me help, somehow," he offered, now grounded and swiftly walking toward Teosar and Wulfsige. "Somehow. I can do anything you need," he added, and whatever it was that drove him this strongly did not even think to ask what was happening--or to whose side he was offering his aid.