Takes place a couple of days after Absolution?

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This post contains potentially sensitive material:

Hallucination

Esther awakens to dark, shimmering crystals. Their body still hurts - but everything's scabbed over at this point. They give themselves a once-over making sure nothing is sweltering in infection. Thankfully, nothing's gotten that bad yet. With a sigh, their head slaps back to the ground. They're still tired.

Esther knows healing takes time, and preventing infection even more. Still they can't help but think that fight was, well, useless. Esther couldn't even give Helion what it'd asked for - death. Despite the little thing inside demanding for it, making esther want it, they still could not do it. Perhaps for punishment? Even then, thinking that gives Esther pause. Punishment does not feel like the right word.

Maybe Helion will try to give themselves another chance and work through it - of course the only thing they can do is wait until the chaos beast reawakens. The entirety of that situation feels like smog in Esther's brain, like it didn't really happen. There's no way they'd send their own groupmate to chrysalis - or make them beg for death.

I will not send someone in my own group to death.

They think it, but really how true is that? How far would someone have to push before they go feral and just end it? Is some magic usage really all it takes for Esther to go that far?

Still, that shadow circles them. It has a stupid grin on its face as it watches Esther. Its steps leave no sound against the rocky floor below them, and yet it moves round and round. Esther's eyes trail it as it taunts them, alike how it did during the battle. Toothy grin full on display.

They think about sinking their teeth into its neck, dragging it behind the crystal and ending it there.

Instead, thoughts about what Helion said float to their mind. Why did I choose this?

Esther isn't so sure anymore.

Perhaps they should report the battle to Vargas, but Esther doesn't know if they want to do that either. Should Helion be reported for being right? At least somewhat right. Chaos isn't controllable. Esther was stupid for thinking that way. Still, it was not Esther's fault that it chose to attack. There is a lot to think about.

They lay on their side as the shadow continues circling.

- THE LEVIATHAN -

If Vargas superimposed the circling shadow, it was not deliberate; but he did circle Esther upon his approach, moving from their feet up to their head to peer down at them.

His voice, though, would crack through any false assumption as to a ghostly or hallucinatory nature, at least for the Leviathan himself: a booming, yet quieted, rumble. "Are you injured?"

A foolish question, he noted to himself, as six eyes traveled over the healing wounds. Those eyes narrowed, and he found his rigid face struggling to contort into a grimace, however faint. "How were you injured?" he corrected himself at once.

No "are you all right;" they'd tell him that themselves. But he wanted some form of report, at least to rule out the possibility of an attack in the nest itself.

Not that he wasn't concerned for Esther's well-being, but... Vargas had never been particularly good at the "warm and caring empathy" thing.

@Esther

Despite Vargas' size, Esther does not pay any mind to him at first. As he circles, he steps into the shadow and it dissipates. Esther then looks up at the Master, and then gets on their feet. They hold back a wince as injured skin has to bend, but does it anyway. Laying in the dirt probably won't do them any good.

"V-Ruby-One and I had a disagreement." They say.

It started as one anyway. Esther did also start the engagement, technically - but the spell backfired so there was a chance for Helion to back off. Or for Esther, too - but they were indeed on fire at the time. Disagreement is probably an understatement too.

"I chrysalized it so it won't be awake again for a while." Esther admits. "We got into an argument about our magic and my spell backfired so it decided it would be a good idea to fight, i guess."

They're rambling, but the blistering under a lot of their skin is very distracting. Sleeping hurts, even. Not abnormal for the maned wolf, but still.

"I'll be fine, I think. Might go find someone to speed up the healing." They probably look like a guilty dog. It does take two to tango, and Esther could've stopped the fight before it got so bad. They never intend to hurt anyone - but maybe Helion is the same. Or maybe not. It seemed to dig too far into itself and others both.

@Vargas

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Concern slid away to disapproval. He considered his words, if only for a moment, before speaking; those words came slowly, because he was still considering them as he spoke.

"I am... disappointed to hear that. Generally, the punishment for harming a Forge member outside of a designated fight is to mirror the damage, from one to the other." He paused, eyeing Esther up and down, somewhat irritated. "So--was the damage relatively equal..?"

Esther already seemed... harmed. And they were one of the few who'd returned to the Forge of their own accord. He hated to punish them in a way that'd drive them off--he wouldn't have hesitated if he knew them to be problematic. But he knew that V-Ruby-One was problematic. The thing was made of a hot temper, despite his attempts to... well, temper that temper. He'd hoped that the Onyx would've been enough of a stabilizing force, their teamwork enough of a learning experience as the corrupted Ruby matured.

It hadn't been enough, it seemed. Vargas sighed and looked away. "I must take some responsibility for failing to curb its lack of self-control. I imagine Master Tenzin would have a look at your wounds, in Pisces, if you wish it." Failing that, the cold waters might provide some soothing for their burns, but he didn't mention that; it implied Tenzin might not be present, which would be undoubtedly disappointing for someone seeking healing there.

He glanced back down to Esther. Truth be told, Vargas wanted to know who had really been at fault, there--neither? Both? Ruby? The idea that Esther had escalated felt quite unlikely to him. Though he didn't use it often, Vargas tried to send out a tendril of magic to connect to the maned wolf's mind. "Tell me honestly, without trying to take on more responsibility than you owe--did one or both of you lose control? Whose fault was this?" He could feel his link slithering into place, and unless Esther became aware or otherwise stopped it, he hoped to get a sense of the honest answer--whatever Esther's words might be.

Of course, the other emotions he might get might be enlightening, too.

@Esther

Esther starts hypothetically sweating when Vargas asks about the damage. At first it was equal sure.... Not so much after they squished Helion into the rocks underneath them. They can't imagine the pain Helion felt, but maybe it was numb at that point. It asked for death. Esther did not grant death to it.

"Um. ...No. It started equal but I kind of um. Squished it." In hindsight they really should have just ran away when the fire transferred to Helion. The flames would have distracted it enough for Esther to bolt. "If you feel like I need that punishment, i'll understand if you send me to chrysalis."

Esther came back knowing how the groups are and how their punishments work. They also believe the punishment is fair, even if Helion technically started it. Esther did try to attack first, but. "Ah - I might go see Tenzin then. Thank you." If they don't get sent to chrysalis anyway. If Vargas chose to they would heal faster regardless.

"V-Ruby-One tried to convince me that my magic was a bad choice - with magic. We had a disagreement about it and we ended up fighting. If i'm honest I guess it started it, but I could've just left too." Esther really did not need to go that far. "I sent it to chrysalis with one of my spells after the fight got worse." After both of them caught themselves on fire.

Everything happened in such a quick blur that Esther isn't so sure what happened in the middle really. They remember catching on fire and later Helion doing the same. They remember crashing their claws into its head to send it into chrysalis faster. Maybe Corruption really is just that hard to control. They want to go back to sleep.

@Vargas

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas did not try to hide his sigh. It was heavy and it was irritated, and the shake of his head likewise so. But neither seemed directed at Esther, exactly. Just... the situation in general.

Chaos was what it was. That was the difficulty of trying to run a Nest of the stuff with any efficiency. Yes, you could simply churn out a hundred thousand war Hounds, and toss them to the powers that be with zero training. But there was still the problem of testing designs; one did not exactly get reports back from the surface as to which monsters had survived a little longer. And from there--the procurement and storage of food, prey, creatures to hunt in their testing... It meant that a hundred or more beasts infused with what was essentially magical madness made for a very difficult-to-control problem.

Ironic, that Oil was precisely what made this Nest very much a not well-oiled machine.

"I will speak to V-Ruby-One before I make any decisions on the matter," he answered indifferently. Then--a problem occurred to him, and he paused. "Where did this happen?" There was a sudden intensity to his tone. He tried to remember when Ruby-One had last been at the Black Spire-... Draconua, so far as he knew, was asleep and was the only one he could trouble to create a Chaos source. He'd assumed that this had happened in Draco, but it couldn't have; he'd have sensed such a battle. Had they been hunting? In Pegasus, most likely-? If this had happened away from-...

...Could it die?

@Esther