It didn't know what it was this time that had pissed it off so much, but getting next to that stupid black crystal hovering around in the middle of Draco, just like the way Vargas had taught it, wasn't going to be happening today. It knew that it had to stabilize - chaos was crawling up its throat and choking it, pushing black into the corner of its eyes as if it could not get enough air to breath, but as soon as it had knelt before the Black Spire to begin the stabilizing, something had tickled in the back of its brain. The taste of iron in its mouth. Fire in its veins.

It had barely taken a couple of minutes before it had fled, and now it was in Pegasus, in the woods, surrounded by black flame. The ground was singed jet black, many of the trees were charred, creeping corruption trickling over the bark from where the cold purple flames had touched them, and in the middle was Helion itself, releasing its frustrations in the way it knew how - incredibly violently.

Its current victim was a fallen tree - claws ripped right into the center and purple-black flames exploded from the hold it made. The fire ate away from within and a horrible, loud cracking sound echoed through the forest as Helion ripped the tree apart, sending shards of burned black wood scattering around what was now a small clearing.

It snarled, throwing the remnants of the tree aside and kicking it as hard as it could. It was almost child-like, its tantrum, as it kicked and ripped at the burning tree, apparently utterly unphased by the toxic fire that flickered off its fur, shredding anything it could reach, until the poor fallen tree was a bunch of burnt remains scattered across the ground.

It breathed heavily, looking at the devestation it had caused and feeling...nothing. Hollow, empty, a husk fueled only by the deep thrums of chaos that were slowly creeping back to sleep, satiated for the moment.

Daphne Harmon

≻───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────≺

She had been exploring a little, wandering away from Zeph for just a moment, though she had plans to head back to him. She needed him to figure out what was going on after all. He was a bit nervous for her liking, but she found it adorable, so she stuck around. Every now and then though, she just needed to wander and explore without the worry that he would freeze up and dip out before they learned anything.

Which was exactly what would have likely happened right now, as she hid in the shadows behind a rock, watching what looked like a large feline thing attacked a tree. Her eyes widened, though not in fear. No, she was impressed, curious as to not only what the hell it was, but also what it just did to that tree. Could see do that? She could do that weird static, she had learned that already, but could she destroy a tree like that? Oh she hoped so, that would be so freaking cool.

Looking down at a stick she found on the ground, she pawed at it hesitantly for a moment, trying to do whatever the hell that thing did. Her eyes widened when she saw the same electric like power she was able to do before as it jumped into the stick, but when she pawed at it again, all it did was give her a shock! That wasn't what the cat thing did!

She yelped softly at the shock, taking a step back before she froze, eyes wide. She had totally forgotten she was trying to spy on the giant creature in the clearing and she looked up at him, offering a small, hesitant smile. "Uh.... hi?"

"Speech"

If there hadn't been anyone around, Helion probably would have let itself fall to the ground and just sit there, maybe curl up and nurse its burns, maybe sit against a tree and brood there for a while, and it was just about to do that as well. But then it heard a small yelp and its head snapped to the side, heat already roaring up and getting ready to fight.

But it was a fire with nothing to burn, because that wasn't an enemy. That was a fuckin' kid. A little wolf pup pawing at a stick. It was confused for a moment, glaring suspiciously at them. What the hell were they doing just standing there? Watching? Following it? Its eyes glanced to the stick and back up. Its eyes roamed, then, to the burnt remains of the tree. Had they been trying to copy it?

Weird. It turned its body to face them, upper set of arms crossing as it waited a moment for them to notice it staring. And, there. Noticed.

"Hi," it snarled back, lip curling, almost a mockery of their awkward greeting. "What the hell do you want? This isn't a show."

@Daphne

Daphne Harmon

≻───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────≺

She blinked up at ... the ... creature, curiosity clear in her eyes. There wasn't much fear though there probably should have been. She flicked an ear at his snarl but didn't flinch away, only glancing past him at the tree that was once there before it just... completely destroyed it. "How did you do that?" She asked instead of truly answering his question, turning her gaze down to her pathetic attempt at her feet, huffing a little in annoyance. "All I could do was shock myself. That hurt."

She licked her shocked paw for a moment before looking back up at him. Her paw wasn't really all that injured, it was more of a surprise than actual pain, but it still annoyed her. She wanted to do cool shit like him! "Also what... exactly are you?" Her eyes narrowed slightly as if she was trying to formulate her own answer, but she was just grasping at straws here. There was absolutely no way to understand what the hell he was.

"Speech"

V-Ruby-One

Something about this kid showing a complete and utter lack of fear in the face of Helion standing amongst its own destruction did something to stir the heat that had momentarily gone dormant. It was never too far below the surface, but it was particularly virulent at the moment, the lack of stabilization making it volatile and angry. Even the momentary satisfaction of eradicating the tree wasn't enough to keep it down long when Helion was faced with confidence and soft curiosity rather then the fear and hatred and chaos and awe that it seemed to constantly demand.

Its lip curled again, the black fangs beneath the skin of its mouth catching the edge of the light. "What, like you want to do this too?" It glanced at the destruction around it and snorted, sarcasm like venom in its tone. "Yeah, pretty cool, huh." Oh yes, destruction and violence and chaos was really neat and it was sure that a stupid kid would be looking at this with stars in its eyes. Some small part of it felt a brief satisfaction at that. Finally someone was seeing that it was worth something, that it was something to look up to. But it was a part of it very swiftly squashed by the...everything else. The chaos roaring now in the back of its mind, blood running too hot, and it could barely contain itself now because fuck it hadn't stabilized and Oil was building in its throat, like boiling phlegm that couldn't be coughed out. And it all was just fuel to hatred because this wasn't something to be admired or envied. This was agony.

It chuckled, but there was no humor, only a spiteful bitterness. It opened a paw and holding it out, as if to demonstrate something. "A shock, like this?" And demonstrate it did, black lightning crackling in its palm and racing up and down its arm before suddenly lashing out towards the pup. If it thought the little spark it had done before had hurt, then this would be like death had gripped its every nerve, agony seeping deep into its bones, blood burning beneath the corrupted lightning becoming the stinking, boiling Oil of CHAOS. It would only last for a couple of seconds, because some rational, moral part of V-Ruby-One said That's a kid. That is a literal child. You can't kill a kid for no reason. Its claws closed, a fist at its side, as it snarled. "I'm a Valkhound. You should learn to fear us."

It wasn't true, of course. V-Ruby-One was not a true Valkhound. The dark ruby atop its head was streaked with black Oilstone but it was not...pure. It was tainted with weakness. Trapped somewhere between - not Valkhound, not fully Gembound. A beast in limbo, belonging to nothing and nowhere.

@Daphne

Daphne Harmon

Her eyes were wide and curious as she stared up at the creature in front of her, not a lick of fear in her sparkling gaze. It was like she was looking at a god, and to her, they basically were. She couldn't even fathom doing stuff like they were able to do so easily and something about that just made her want more, want to learn more, want to see them do more.

However as the creature used another ability, one that Daphne couldn't help but look at wide eyed, that she finally realized she might be in a bit of danger. Only then did she scramble backwards but it was too late, the lightning hit her and it was soooo much worse than her little shock earlier.

She yelped as she crumbled to the floor for a moment, panting softly as the pain slowly began to subside, groaning softly as she began to lift her head to look up at them, wincing a little for a moment. She hesitated for just a second before a large grin showed on her face and she let out a rather painful giggle. "That was so cool!" She pushed herself to stand on shaky legs, moving to sit down as she looked directly up at them again. "How do you do that?" She asked with nothing but curiosity, the hint of fear from before now gone completely.

"I can do this.... " She would lift her paw as a small spark of electricity jumped from her paw towards the large creature's toe, not yet good enough to do much of anything. But as she looked up at the creature with wide, expecting gaze, she clearly wanted to learn more and get better. "Pretty cool, right? Can that turn into yours?"

"Speech"

@V-Ruby-One

Never in Helion's life had something so foolish approached it with such awe. Never had someone shown interest in it and its abilities. Never had it really...interacted with anyone and had anything come from it other then fear hatred pain violence VIOLENCE VIOLENCE but now that this dumbass kid was basically asking for Helion to demonstrate its abilities further, probably to her own physical expense..

It was

oddly

nice.

There was truly nothing in her eyes but wonder and curiosity - foolish, childish wonder over things she should not be in awe about - but it stoked some strange part of Helion's ego that began burning a new kind of fire in it. A moment ago it had been choking on its own power clawing the way up its throat, but now it was sliding away, replaced by a new, more natural beast that threaded itself under Helion's skin, through its veins, heating it in a much more comfortable, self-satisfying way.

Pride. Arrogance.

Finally, finally it was not outclassed. Not outmatched. Not in the shadow of the demon that called himself father, not just another descendant of Vargas, not just another not-quite-valkhound writhing under its own corruption. No, not here.

It wouldn't last long. Corruption was not a toy. The magic of chaos wasn't some fucking cool thing to bring to kindergarten show and tell, it was dangerous, it was agony, it was everything Helion hated about itself. But...it couldn't help it.

It wanted to indulge, just this once.

Helion stepped forward and kneeled before the pup, the snarl sliding from its face. Instead, it narrowed its eyes, curious itself - at her own curiosity, her resilience, her fearlessness. "You know if I show you more, you're going to get hurt." It hissed. "My magic isn't a fucking toy." It made to press memories into her mind, but then paused. No, no it didn't want to give away the coolest stuff right off the back. It felt a tremble in its mind from the chaos sputtering away, backtracking back through its body instead of being released. Whatever.

It frowned at the static - it couldn't feel it at all, not when the shocks from its own lightning were still jolting through its muscles and the metallic taste still lingered on its tongue. "No," it stated bluntly, a humorless chuckle chasing quickly behind. "It's really not that cool, but you're, what, a cycle old? If that? And it won't turn into mine unless you make a bunch of really really bad choices." It snarled and pointed a claw at her paw pad, where she had conjured the static. "Just make that better. You DON'T want mine."

What the hell kind of day was it where V-Ruby-One, HELION, was giving advice to a kid?

@Daphne

Daphne Harmon

She blinked up at them, listening closely to what the creature said, though she found herself furrowing her eyebrow at it's words. Bad thing? But how can something so cool be so bad? Besides, did that mean that the creature in front of her did bad things? Now her curiosity was peaked even more. "Bad choices? Does that mean you did bad choices?" She offered a large smile and a quick wag of her tail, her eyes scrunching as she did so. "That's okay, I still think you're pretty cool, even if you did do bad things."

She looked down at her paw for a moment, the one that the spark came from before. Cocking her head to the side, she seemed to think for a moment. "Make it better..." She mused softly to herself before looking up at the creature and nodding with eyes full of determination. "You're right! I'll work on this and I'll get better. Then I can show you all the cool things I can do."

The young wolf still didn't see the dangerous creature before her as a threat or something to be scared of and simply wished to make friends with it, wanting to help it while also sharing her own achievements with it. Suddenly though, curiosity got the better of her and she tilted her head to the other side, a curious pup looking up at the monstrosity before her. "What's your name by the way? I'm Daphne."

"Speech"

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

Suicidal Ideation

A frown turned quickly into a snarl as hot indignant anger swelled and exploded like water flash-boiled and vaporized. "I did NOTHING wrong! I DIDN'T ASK FOR THIS!!" How DARE she think I asked for this! WHY WOULD I WANT THIS? A claw gripped at the glowing cracks of its heart and and it tried not to burst from the sudden rage and the roar of chaos that was a constant push and pull, surge and calm. It tried to cool itself with thoughts of Of course she would assume, I worded it that way. She doesn't know, she doesn't know! but all it could think of was Azrael and Scion and the Black Spire and the first moments when it realized it would never have the control it craved.

A lash of invisible magic pressed memories into Daphne's mind without her consent and she would see it, the first moments of Helion's life in a chaotic mosaic barely pieced together. The image of the Black Spire ever-pulsing and shifting and the heat that slid under the skin in its presence. An image of the floor of Draco where its hands were braced, slick with black Oil and surrounded by pieces of a ruby chrysalis, something dark and hot and ugly roaring in the back of its mind and in its throat. An image of someone that looked quite like Helion itself, but bulkier, larger, red-furred, and with the words "You are my creation." on his lips. And Helion gripping at its head, chaos a storm that could not be contained, every moment more agonizing then the last as it tried to hold back what could not be stopped, until it burst from its skin in cold, black flames that did not care they were burning their creator.

It was a quick flash, fragmented, messy, but as it died away, both of them would return to Helion gripping its chest with one hand, another at its face, and the lower pair digging into the meat of its thighs. It growled low, choking back chaos from slipping from its control again. "No, someone else made the bad decisions for me. I didn't ask for this." It shut its eyes and swallowed heavily, as if that would remove the taste of toxic fumes from its mouth. "Do your thing. It will be cooler then mine one day." It hurt to say that, physically hurt, and Helion relished in that pain after the explosion of anger died away. It felt good to stab its ego in the heart. Maybe it would feel better if it just ripped it right out and let all the toxins that made up its body seep out into the ground then and there. That would be nice.

It swallowed again and opened its eyes again, returning back to the guarded, angry, and hostile expression that might as well have been its resting face. "My name is HELION," it snarled, cutting off the chorus of V-RUBY-ONE! V-RUBY-ONE! that shrieked in the back of its mind. "And if you hear anyone calling me different, they are WRONG!" It did not ask for her name.

@Daphne

Daphne Harmon

She pinned her ears back for a moment, feeling rather bad for the large creature in front of her. Before she could really say something though, images flashed in her mind and she froze, gasping softly as she saw everything it put inside her brain.

Once the visions were gone, she blinked a few times, taking a moment to regain her senses before looking up at them. Cocking her head to the side for a moment, she seemed to consider something, her eyebrows furrowed as she remained in deep thought for only a moment. "I'm sorry Helion, you don't deserve pain." Without really thinking it through, she aimed to push her head into their body, her version of a hug since she didn't have real arms to wrap around them.

"You're pretty cool to me." She smiled up at the creature if it hadn't already slapped her off.
"Speech"

@V-Ruby-One