The air was stale and still. Gatto had been awake for a few days-- maybe even a cycle?-- but the days passed in a boring, idle way. It was difficult to find purpose here, without a new thrill to chase. There were gembounds they could talk to, maybe spur into a competition of sorts, but... Ehh.

Liberty had its own price, it seemed.

At least Gatto had free access to food and drink without a fight. That was a privilege that made the boredom worth it. They spent their time now staring over the empty forum, chewing on a corndog with their beak-mandible mess of a mouth, and chewing over their mistakes.

The distant, lingering taste of death remained on their tongue-- albeit overwhelmed by mystery meat and sweet breading. Their future hung above their head like a scythe, slowly swinging back and forth. Any day, there could be a new challenge, a new threat-- hah, if only they knew of the war!...

And would they be ready? Feathers fluffed up along their throat, long tail feathers rippling behind them as they strut along the wall of the battleground where they had fallen. They felt rusty, as though the calm had allowed them to atrophy. My, what a shame. What could they do about it? It was so simple to sit back and enjoy what success and survival had granted them. (Didn't they have a right to chill out, after everything they had been through?)

Hm...

@Archimedes

Ahh--a stranger.

A stranger eating--What is that?

For a moment, the large black serpent with its six golden eyes stopped dead, the rat atop its head carefully studying a corn dog with all his full attention. At length, Archimedes gave up; it looked like no prey nor foliage he'd ever seen.

He urged the unnamed Charger forward, still perched atop it.

Thus far, he'd only tried to recruit those who he'd first spoken to, those who struck him as useful. But if he were going to make this happen, he needed more--and that meant canvassing. It meant going cave to cave, speaking to everyone he saw and trying to gauge those that he met.

"Pardon me," he called out, tone mild. "But I could not help but notice your... meal. May I ask what it is..?"

It was, he supposed, as good an opening line as any. He kept his full attention on Agate as he drew closer, trying to discern anything he could from their response. Assuming, that was, that they'd offer one.

@Agate Two-Three-Six

Huh? Who was that?

With a sweep of their tail, the cockatrice turned toward the small voice, beady eyes catching the flash of gold from the lesser snake, and the rodent riding atop of it. Instinct brought the Agate's foot up, pressing close to their chest, preparing to strike at the charger with extreme prejudice.

A beat, and Gatto lowered their talons, setting them delicately on the floor with a laughing squawk. The remains of the stick, and the cornbread covered meat, fell from their mouth with the sound, but they hardly seemed bothered. "Well, hello there!" They declared, spreading their wings dramatically with a flare of their feathers. The effect was somewhat ruined by the... err. Carelessness.

"This?" They tilted their head, peering downward at the sad fragments of corndog on the floor. "I believe the Masters called it a "corndog"!" They declared, stooping down to peck at the stick. They grabbed it, and raised it dramatically, waving the corndog like a wand toward Archimedes. A careful step, and a stretch toward the rat, and the offering seemed to be made.

As it was, Gatto seemed to have little concern for the smaller gembound; if anything, they saw the prospect of a new fan more than anything. Though, the taming of a lesser snake had their interest piqued.

Whether or not Archimedes took the corndog or not, Gatto would release the stick and rise up from their bow, drawing one wing before their chest. "I am known as Agate Two-Three-Six, Champion of Hydra, THEE Defier of Death--" Ah, but they were getting carried away! "Maybe you've heard of me. But, between you and me, you can call me Gatto." They nodded encouragingly, beak clicking together with emphasis on the T's.

"For a fan, I could certainly see about getting you a corndog for you and, uh, the serpent fellow. What'cha say?"

@Archimedes

Tiny rodent hands took the corn dog, even as Archimedes struggled to keep up. Corn dog. Agate Two-Three-Six. Defier of Death. That might be useful. A... fan?

The little rat considered, briefly giving himself a little time by tasting the remains of the corn dog on the stick. A tiny pink tongue lapped it, his dark eyes raising to study Gatto.

"...A pleasure to meet you, Gatto," he began. He imagined, from the cockatrice's tone, that they wanted to be recognized; but he'd never heard of them. Still... he could work with it. "Champion of Hydra, you say? I believe I've heard of that. The deadly desert cave tests, yes? -Never mind the... corn dog, but thank you," and here he offered the stick back up. "I'm far more interested in hearing of your accomplishments. Should you wish to share them."

Perhaps flattery would get him somewhere; and perhaps the cockatrice would prove useful aligned to Archimedes' cause.

@Agate Two-Three-Six

Oh-ho-ho?

The little man wanted to hear more about their accomplishments, did he? Well, if there was one thing that Gatto was completely down-to-clown with, it was bragging their tail feathers off.

"As the number may imply," Gatto began, lowering their voice to a rough, rasping hush, as though sharing a fantastic secret with all the flair of a stage whisper, "I am the two-hundred, thirty-sixth Agate to be created, millennia of cycles ago, forged by the harshest trial known to all of the caves: the Hydra Trials! My skills have been honed to survive any circumstance, you see."

Their eyes gleamed. As they spoke, they strut about, practically dancing with their grand tale: wide sweeping gestures emphasized the vast world they spoke of, and their hunched, hushed posture spoke of the danger they slipped by unscathed: "Desert trials, yes, but if you have never witnessed them, you do not truly know how deadly they are. Thousands of our kin have fallen, their stones turned to dust for their failures. If it is not the cave itself: sandstorms, blistering heat, violent storms and floods, blizzards-- the cave becomes any test the Masters decree!-- then it is the threat of both beast and competitor. Hydra is home to massive wyrms, larger than this ring behind me," the cockatrice paused to gesture with a cock of their head toward the forum's arena. "The vicious Eyehook vultures that will-- well, the name gives it away! And the spiders, capable of capturing your mind with just a glance. Surviving these are hard enough, but those that survive all have a motive: to be the one that WINS!"

They rose to their full height, spreading their wings, crowing their victory.

"-- And I have survived, and I have won, my friend. Why, the last Trial--" (Gatto did not know that they had missed the latest trial through sheer luck,) "--was one of blizzards and puzzles, and I rallied the unlikely newcomers to do the nigh impossible: we did not merely survive, we slayed an ice wyrm, too-geth-er!! I was crowned the winner of that trial, even more prestigious a title than a mere Champion." If a bird could grin, this one would, regardless of the mandibles crisscrossing their beak.

"I have also," they figured they would add, "sparred against the Overseer-- ah, he is a Master now, I believe-- Master Vargas. A monstrous man of violet spines, too many claws and thumbs, and ichor-green glares." It was a poetic description, as far as they were concerned. "I bested him, stealing one of his quills! Mind you, I think he was underestimating me, you see, not quite giving it his all." Gatto still had a healthy... caution... of the Masters, regardless of their bravado. Even outside of the Master's earshot, they phrased things carefully, dancing the line between boasting and insulting. One never knew who was listening!

"Suffice to say, not even Death can catch me," they declared with surefire confidence, the kind that radiated off of them like the iridescence shimmer of their black plummage, "and so I am a Champion of many stories. Why, we would be here all day if I were to recount them in any great detail!"

Archimedes, if he was a clever rat, might note that Gatto was waiting for an excuse to share every inch of their life story with a listening ear.

@Archimedes

Archimedes had, initially, planned to listen and--if the cockatrice seemed like it could perhaps be useful--offer an invitation to his conceptual organization.

The problem was... Agate was so convincing--their stories so impressive and astonishing--that Archimedes fully bought into it. It was with a sinking feeling that he realized that Agate Two-Three-Six, Champion and Wormslayer, was likely too important and powerful to wish to join.

Still-... he could try, could he not?

"Two hundred thirty-sixth," he murmured, gazing up with obvious admiration. It had taken this many tries to perfect the creature--indicating that now, truly, they were perfected.

"Wormslayer, Champion, fighter of Masters. Ahh... Let me tell you something, Agate," Archimedes went on, settling back on the Charger's head. "I had been seeking others to join me on a project I had planned. If only I could find someone as impressive. I suppose it's well below you," he continued, and lifted paws to swipe the corn dog oil from his whiskers.

"Perhaps, if I manage to gather the ones I want-... To explain, I am looking to find a way to ensure we always have a place, safety; that we are always needed by others, so that we are never discarded by the caves as a whole. But you do not need that, I see. It is a shame--I would give much to have one like you as my right hand. But-! Perhaps, some day, I can entice you at least to train those I do find..? It sounds like you a masterful combatant," he finished. He was trying to flatter them; and trying to make the group sound worthwhile.

If he hadn't quite fallen for the full list of tales, he might have directly asked for Agate to play a role. He might not have even thought the Champion worthy of a bodyguard--not against some of the horrors he had seen.

But he had fallen for it; and maybe Agate was quite worth that. Certainly their accomplishments were impressive, even before any embellishment. Whether Archimedes could salvage anything for his own use... well, that was another question altogether.

@Agate Two-Three-Six

Oh-ho-ho?

The thing about all of that, little friend, was that was exactly the sort of ambitious plan that Gatto had-- quietly, privately, emptily-- dreamed of. To be irreplaceable, to be so uniquely positioned to have the upperhand in any conflict.

To defeat the Masters, if not by force, then by impressiveness.

"Please, friend," the cockatrice cooed, "Call me Gatto." There was something about the name, short and small and sweet, a precious thing that was entirely their own. It was what made them unique, even if they also were the two-hundred and thirty-sixth Agate of the caves. "And, if I may, what may I call you?" Their beak clicked, their eyes gleaming as they focused on the rat with an intensity that could easily look predatory, but it was mere excitement.

"There is one thing that the Trials will teach you that you might not expect," Gatto went on after a brief pause, "and that is to underestimate nothing and no-one. Why, you say it might be well below me, but I doubt it!" They refrained from a crowing laughter, not wanting to seem like they were mocking the rat, instead swallowing the laugh with a trill. "You have an eye for brilliance, and a clever hand. I've never seen a lesser so-- calm!" There was no other word for it that Gatto knew. "Don't be so hard on yourself!"

Genuine compliments aside, the cockatrice lowered to the ground, settling to sit before the stranger, though they still had to look down on the smaller gembound. "If I may be genuine with you," their voice softened. "I would like to see this project of yours grow well beyond your wildest dreams. I have ambitions of my own, you see, the kind that cannot be done by a single individual."

@Archimedes

"Gatto," Archimedes obliged, voice soft. "And--ah--my apologies. I am Archimedes. It's a pleasure to meet you." And it was; it struck the rat that this Champion, if so inclined, might well be quite the lucky find.

"I do wonder," he mused, peering up at Gatto, "what sort of ambitions a Champion like you must hold. You have, after all, seen and done it all--yes?" Interest laced his tone, a genuine curiosity to his words. There was more to it than that, of course--but the curiosity itself was quite real.

Archimedes looked at Gatto, for a moment--and now that they were lower down, it wasn't quite the crane of his neck that it had been prior.

"If you are willing, and should you have the time... why don't you tell me what you have in mind? What are your aspirations? And then I can tell you more of my goals. Perhaps, if they aren't too different, we might align them, and work together." That seemed reasonable enough, to him.

As for his abilities in serpent-taming--that had been the benefit of magic, but he wasn't about to correct Gatto's assumptions of his cleverness.

@Agate Two-Three-Six

Archimedes-- a handsome, poetic name for a clever little rat. Gatto quite enjoyed it, the sort of name that played off of his strengths in a different way from how Gatto's rolled off the tongue. More... Intelligent-seeming, the Cockatrice thought.

He still needed some fancy titles, though. Gatto would workshop that for him in their freetime, maybe. As a favor. (Favors were worth almost as much as a life itself, in their mind. Gaining leverage was still important, after all.)

"Ahh, but how to summarize a feeling," Gatto hummed and hawed at the question. "It is a complicated thing, built up over the dozens of cycles in which I have awoke, survived, and slept..." They were already getting side-tracked, but it was at least relevant to the discussion, so they let their tongue wander. "From my time, an era much different to this, the Masters used us as playthings. Our lives were pawns in their grand game, you see. They still are, I suspect, though with more ambiguous rules."

Gatto paused for a moment, twisting their head back to preen at the feathers coming off the leather of their wings for a beat. "... Perhaps for others, this is enough. To succeed in the games, to simply survive. In the heat of the moment, even I find myself playing my part."

A bit more wistful than they usually allowed themself to be, but the gembound had a disarming effect on them, even if they were doing their utmost to not underestimate him. They cleared their throat and returned their gaze to Archimedes.

"If I must play the game, I want it to be by my rules. To have the power, the unified front, to control the circumstances and the stakes. Err-- do you follow? The Masters... I doubt they can be defeated, as such, but they can be... persuaded."

There was a lot more to consider, but Archimedes offered the first piece of the puzzle if nothing else: the ability to provide a Need, to become irreplaceable, on one's own terms. A bargaining chip, and with it, a safe haven that would provide courage to the voices that deserved more than to be crushed under the whims of all-powerful entities.

And if their new friend didn't quite follow, that was quite alright. It was a bit high-concept, not quite quantifiable, not yet. There would be time to solidify it. Gatto was confident-- as ever.

@Archimedes

To the rat's surprise, Gatto's words resonated.

So strongly, in fact, that he wondered if they were not somehow manipulating him. He paused, studying them for a moment, immensely thoughtful.

"I follow," he answered slowly. As was so often his habit, he paused to pass his forepaws through his whiskers in a thoughtful gesture, as if to give himself time to think. "It is quite similar to what I had in mind, in theory. Of course, in practice, either of our eventual plans might vary widely, but..." He turned his keen gaze back up to Gatto, head tilted. "Freedom, through control. Naturally we cannot dominate everyone by force-" and here he waved that idea away with a dismissive gesture of one paw; "that would be both logistically impossible and raise moral questions on its own." Assuming he cared about those moral questions, anyway.

"But to insinuate ourselves into the very fabric of the caves, so that the rest of the creatures cannot do without us-?"

He paused, taking a breath. He wondered how much he should lay out here and now, not only because he wasn't sure if Gatto would agree with his ideas (they simply might not mesh well), but because they were relatively long-winded. But then, they may have better plans than I, or even a way to improve them, he reasoned, and pushed on.

"There are always those who are looking for something. A certain gemstone, or a specific plant, or protection, or more... sour things, such as toxins, or the dust of Fairyflies. I propose to gather those who would obtain such things, or provide such services, and to become so well-known for it that any time anyone requires something, we are the first ones they think to come to. We would need to fight off any competition, of course," he added--the thought was only just now occurring to him--"but the denizens of these caves seem to value very little unless it benefits them. I am aiming to benefit everyone so strongly that should a threat arise toward those gathered with me, everyone would move to defend us. I want us to be... indispensible."

Archimedes again gestured, a polite wave of one paw as if to invite Gatto's thoughts. "But admittedly I haven't thought it out completely; perhaps you have a better idea?"

@Agate Two-Three-Six