Audland had returned from his brief excursion to the Southern quadrants of the caves. Somewhere along the way (mutually agreed upon through Discord messaging), he had made an agreement to exchange dinosaur stones for a poleax, which he now possessed. And there were probably some dinosaur babies in the world that he had some hand in making. Wow. That would be cool if he knew what a dinosaur was.

There were other children he'd had a hand in making Let's not go there. Let's focus on the now. Now, Audland was in the room of crystals bordering his snowy home. It was refreshingly cool here. For a moment, he was willing to treat it like a vacation. Then he saw the cracks in the walls. It didn't take much walking to see them, disrupting his own reflection.

His breath caught for a moment as he realized what it was. His whole body began to itch. A failed spell, one he almost hadn't been aware of casting. The fungus of his own body teemed with life; yearning to be free, once Fate decided.

This is a cleansing Gemini attempt. Anyone is free to join.

Timir had been bored. He was still confined to Draco, bar the hunting in Pegasus he needed to survive. But when he'd asked about travel and something for training, Master Vargas had pointed him in this direction. His instructions were simple: destroy a bunch of white stuff, then come back, and don't get in over his head if he got ambushed.

He knew what some of those words meant.

Now he was here!

A brief check around with his magic ear-vision and he determined that there was something, or someone, else about. He forgot caution, and trotted over, pausing in bafflement upon spotting Audland.

Now, Timir had seen a lot of... odd, creatures. Audland took those to an extreme, though. Large as hell, blue to an extreme, and the spikes were on another level. They were kinda... everywhere, although from a distance Timir couldn't tell what was feathery or furry fluff and what was antler, horn, or spines.

He wasn't exactly sure what Audland was doing here, but what he'd dutifully taken note of in regards to Hive didn't seem to match up, at least. Of course, the descriptions he'd given had been rather haphazard.

"Hello," he called out, and hesitated. Surely if the stranger were hostile, he'd find out now. And if not, well, he could do his thing in peace. Probably.

@Audland (unless you want to wait to see if more join ofc)

Audland swiveled around at the sound of another. It could be anyone. It could even be Order, come to stop his work. Not that he'd actually done anything.

It wasn't. Probably. The design certainly didn't look white or fungus-y or symmetrical. It didn't particularly scream "Order". "Hey." If anything, the gleaming eyes and the evil-vibes stone atop its forehead made it look more like Audland's kind. "Here for the mushrooms?" Audland ascertained. He'd point at one glob of it hanging from the crystalline wall. As he did, a small amount of black fire would sputter from his hand and lurch toward the white fungus.

@Timir

Timir glanced at the black flame as it coursed out to engulf some fungus, and suppressed a snort. It was probably the first time he'd ever laughed. Ish.

"Yes," he agreed, and hesitated. He looked back at Audland. He wasn't Chaos, himself--well, his stone was, but not the magic. So he didn't exactly have the urges toward violence that he knew fuelled some of his comrades; as a result he occasionally considered... politeness.

As in: Audland was here first. "Can I help?" he asked. Maybe Audland was claiming it all as his own. Maybe Timir wasn't welcome.

At the very least, the flame showed quite clearly that this wasn't a member of the Hive.

@Audland

Audland didn't understand the bemused snort of the other creature. Was it bemused? Was that a snort? You can't really tell with monsters; some of them probably had genuine breathing problems. Like ill-bred pugs. Regardless, the creature said it was here to help. That was good; Audland would admit to most people that this job looked far too big for the one of him.

In response to Timir's question: "I dunno, can ya?" Audland looked around at the wall, seeing where all the fungus globules poked through the cracks. "You got any way to kill these things?" Audland reached out toward another patch. He tried to will his own fungus to eat the things, but they seemed far more preoccupied with eating him. Audland grimaced, facing away from Timir so that the other beast wouldn't notice his failed spell. "Fire works. Claws might too, I imagine."

@Timir

It was about five seconds after Timir left the premises that Eurydome had been ordered to accompany him. More likely, it was to babysit, or make sure the valkhound didn't die before it could get carted off to war. Thinking and reasoning wasn't Eurydome's forte, she just did whatever was asked of her by the Master.

Plodding in after him came the gladiator, sword still slung over her shoulder. She didn't recognize the gembound that was here already, but they didn't look much like a drone. They seemed enthusiastic to get rid of the fungus here, too.

"Don't try to eat them," Eurydome warned. Not that she knew what eating them would do, only that it seemed like a resoundingly bad idea. Her eyes cast towards Audland. "Are you with Master Vargas? What's your designation? Or... name?"

Not that it mattered a whole lot. The hulking creature half-turned and reared up onto her hind legs, her claws unsheathing and raking out to destroy a line of fungus crawling up the wall of one of Gemini's crystals.

@Timir

Fire. Claws. Timir had been told vaguely similar before departing Draco, and so now he looked to the white fungal clots around the otherwise-pretty crystals, and considered. He was still debating how best to tackle this when Eurydome arrived.

Timir knew, at least, not to eat the fungus.

And his gaze at Eurydome became faint reproach, though it was nothing that was her fault; hell, he didn't even know he was being babysat. But it meant that his impending introduction had to be changed. "I am-... V-Chaos-Nineteen," he repeated dutifully, but there was annoyance in his tone. He was Timir. Ugh.

Then he left Audland to give his own designation, or name--Timir wasn't sure, either, if Audland was one of the Forge. Audland could've made a designation up and claimed to be an Overseer, and he'd have been none the wiser. As it was, he turned his focus to the fungus, for now, and let Eurydome handle the big stuff. Like, talking.

He stalked up to a crystal, with a gait like an emaciated lion, and reared back. A few choice rips and scrapes from his taloned forelimbs pulled great hunks of stringy, rancid white from the crystals, and he tossed them onto bare rock where they'd hopefully die. "Stinks," he observed, wrinkling up his single-nostriled nose.

@Audland

Another voice appeared. A secret hidden third angle. Audland would look at the newcomer too. Woah. She was not small. His own height certainly compared, but both of them were dwarfing Timir now. None of this was Order, right...?

Right. "Master Vargas". For a moment, Audland's eyes widened, and a memory flashed. He had heard that name only once before—a memory quickly quashed. How hilarious that, in all the caves, for one valkhound only, the mention of Master Vargas was correlated with gay sex? "Uh... Name's Audland. Never met Master Vargas." He'd leave it at that.

"Not gonna eat it," he'd confirm. Wouldn't want to. "Augh! Good grief!" Audland would recoil from the smell. That stuff stunk to high heaven! "Well done," he would offer V-Chaos-Nineteen.

It would seem brute force was the preference of these Vargasian compatriots. Audland preferred more efficient solutions. Well, when they worked.

Apparently, Eurydome's arrival was herald to their success. Audland burst into flames like a meteor entering the atmosphere. It hurt like hell, but Audland was grinning. He rubbed his body up against the walls with the most fungus in them, then just sort of slammed himself back and front against it all. The burning fungus reeked.

After a minor (medium) coughing fit, Audland would look to Eurydome. "S-o what's your, uh... 'designation'? Didya say?" A moment of pause, too brief for her to truly reply before Audland blurted out: "An- An' who is this Master Vargas guy? Do they name you all the... numbers and whatnot?""

@Eurydome

"I don't have a designation," Eurydome said. If she'd ever had one, it'd been long, long forgotten. It was much more exciting for an audience to know gladiators by eloquent titles and nicknames than gemstones and numbers, after all. "My name is Eurydome."

Her head turned to watch Timir as she idly raked pale juices from her paws, as if just to make sure he didn't ingest anything. The vile stench was quickly thickening in the air, though Eurydome found the scent of chaotic flames more distracting than the fungus.

"He... creates beasts for war," the gladiator said, then nudged her head to Timir. "Like that one. The creations have to earn their names, and other rights."

Not that Eurydome knew why, or really even cared, for that matter. Hell, she didn't even know that's what the nest was for before Vargas told her. She'd always been happiest performing and fighting. She made another idle swipe for some fungus, though found the stalks of these ones much thicker than she initially thought-- enough so that she had to right her hulking mass after and get another look at it.

After a beat, she asked, "where did you come from? Are you... new, or do you serve under someone else?"

@Timir

Timir glanced over to Audland at the compliment, and hesitated before nodding. "You, too. Good fire," he offered, gaze flicking to where the black flames had come and gone with their crackling roar. Which was to say, most of the 'outline' of Audland, in his mind.

He turned back to the fungus, and it was quickly becoming clear he was a Valkhound of few words. A young one, maybe, or one who didn't get to practice conversational skills. Both, most likely. As it was they were lucky Eurydome was more capable; Timir was content to sort of sink into the background as they spoke.

His follow-up strike, though, was more of a confused swipe through a thick mat of the stuff, and rather than efficient, Timir came across as bumbling. He lifted a foot up, grimacing and shaking it ineffectually where the stinky fungus stuck to his claws and glittering pink (literally glittering) pawpads. (He'd never bothered, or even thought, to ask why his paws were bright, hot pink with glitter in them.)

"I wish I had fire," he mused. Though, he'd seen the way fire could burn its user when it went uncontrolled, so--maybe not.

@Audland