After so much time, the waiting and the travelling to its final resting place, the gem was ready to reap the fruits of its labour in the birth of a new gem child. It had swelled to a lumpy boulder roughly the size of the red fox father. Whatever lay within would come to one day dwarf its creator. Stirring uncomfortably within the confines of the crystal fortress, a fierce push from the blades on his fingers tore threw and shattered the excess danburite. However, there was no sudden flood of light as the creature was forever trapped within a world of blindness. Disorientated, he thrashed about until he had burst through and landed in a heap on the ground. Feeling the dirt and solidness beneath his outstretched limbs, his disorientation ceased, while his blindness remained. Rather than just having his sight taken away from him, there was nothing that could possibly even grant the sense. Instead, his face was covered with thick clusters of danburite forming a band across where his two eyes would have nestled.

This loss did not cause him distress, as he clambered to his feet, resting on the wrists of his paddle shaped fore paws. Lips smacking, the tongue that was nestled within his rows of blunt carnivorous teeth also lacked function. A result of his horrific combination and power meant he lost most of what made a gembound better than their lesser gembound counterparts. Loss of sight and loss of speech would hinder him, but he would find ways around it.

There was an odd feeling that the hybrid was receiving. The peridot that housed his brother was nearby and that was where the vibes were coming from. The one that grounded him to the earth in his darkness and he clambered towards it awkwardly as his legs refused to behave in a manner normal to a quadruped. Behind him, his slick goo covered tail caught up all the dust and dirt of the ground. But he made it to where the odd warmth came from and waited patiently for something to happen. Where else was he supposed to go?

______________________________________

"WHEN I OPEN MY MIND"
WHEN I CLOSE MY THOUGHTS

Brother?

It reached out.

Are you there?

It felt. It felt... it was not alone.

There had always been two hearts beating here. They beat in unison, in togetherness, in eternal bonds. They could always feel the other one that grew beside them, a life created so simultaneously that they could have thought it their own, and it wasn't even detached, just another part. Since feeling had occurred in the body of the creature cooped up tight inside their shell, they could feel not just themselves, but him. The way that blood pulsed through his veins, they pulsed through theirs too. The way his heart quivered, theirs did too. When one mind drifted to hunger, the other followed, and they had come to know themselves as never alone. Their other half was there somewhere, thriving in seamless synchronicity, alive, blooming.

When he awakened, they did too.

The danburite cracked and fell apart, and the creature inside the peridot shuddered. Suddenly, they were breathing; no, there was fluid in their lungs, sustaining them for as long as they needed within the great glass shell. But they felt the cold just as he did. They felt the confusion, as if something suddenly impinged on their connection, a stress like a stone dropped in the heart of silk, dragging it down, away from perfection, disturbance. A flutter of panic inside the heart of the peridot. Reaching out for their twin, vying for that cohesion, that harmony that had existed between them all their lives.

It began to sing.

There were no words in their mind that they could form, their lips stay suspended in that fertile liquid, only their throat hummed. A quiet song like the tinkle of a music box bled from their lungs. It had no familiar quality to it, only the intonation of words spoken in passing. It was an amalgamate of sounds once heard, pieced together, note by note, into a song. And it was unfamiliar, but it was known to both of them; a mix of reflections and questions and accusations strung together in a song that they had both heard, that they would both inherently remember.

It could feel him getting closer.

The song spun gently through the depth of the chrysalis as an idle thought, or an idea formed on the cusp of actual creation. And when the song ran its course, they were satisfied. Discourse had ceased, in its place was stillness. All was well again.

But they had to get out.

They could feel the cold stale air on their skin, and yet there was nothing but the suffocating heat of the chrysalis. Something tugging at them, and nothingness all the same, and suddenly their limbs were folded too tightly against their body. The creature shifted. The discourse was in them now. They had to be free, to be with the other half, to complete it as they were always meant to be. And they tried - their limbs pushed against the chrysalis walls, creaking scales of peridot as they crumpled outward against their force, and then their head reeled back - the four spines erupted from their skull crashed through the chrysalis, and all at once the walls fell away to reveal a strawberry blond dog lain sprawled in the mess of green shards and sticky fluid.

They sucked in their very first breath.

Invigorating. Cold. Free. All at once, everything their twin had preceded came rushing at them while the canine lay exposed and vulnerable. No, not vulnerable - where they belong. There was warmth here. The dog shifted and reached out, and their paw grazed the shoulder of the fox-mole, whimpering quietly for his comfort, as they always would.

Brother.

I'm here now.

[quote='Illiad' pid='16633' dateline='1449211539']

Warmth rolled down the monster's spine as the notes softly began to plink like bells against his ear drums and the back of his skull. Only one noise could be summoned as he hrummed in the back of his own throat in answer, not nearly as musical as the strawberry blonde canine, and his own personal vow of silence was crafted. Patiently, he waited for the metronome to begin again, as the pair would be able to pace life out together. Ears twitching at the noise of the peridot chrysalis shattering, as the frail boy broke free of his own tomb.

A paw reached up to brush his shoulder as he gently leaned down to brush his face along the length of his outstretched forearm.

"We are safe brother. This place isn't much different to where we were," partially oblivious to his lack of sight, the connection they had forged over their time together as mere gemstones had forged something deep, beyond primal. Unnamed, he could sense there were things within Odyssey that he himself was missing, but he didn't pry deeper as that was not his business nor was it his right.

"Brother, where are we supposed to go?" Voice high and soft, like the sweet child that he would remain, he swung his sightless around towards where the draft of the twister was pulling against his fur.

Lips pressed together, he carefully reached out with his off-side and swept his broad paw, capped with talons over the smooth sandstone. It rippled and tingled the pads and sent soft shivers up his spine. Everything would come to be felt and experienced through touch.

______________________________________

"WHEN I OPEN MY MIND"
WHEN I CLOSE MY THOUGHTS

Their song rose and mingled among itself, intonations of echoes that curled and whisked to and fro, forging an unheard melody in the minds of the connected. They were together. They were alive.

When they were cast to the ground in disarray, they had reached, and they felt him in turn. His face swept along the length of the creature's leg and they felt calming in their heart, reassured that their other half had come to them. Slowly, the canine retracted their leg to their chest and analyzed the situation. It was cold, yes; they had already determined that, but the air was also moving. That was the tugging against their skin and hair, now slick against the body, soon to dry into gunky points with the remnant of their gestation.

Slowly their eyes opened.

This darkness was not like what their brother experienced. They had been so accustomed to sightlessness that the sudden images of their world had come blaring at them, unexpected and unyielding. The creature winced at the sight, eyes faltering, closing at the brightness, then opening again to behold everything all over again. The ground stretched forward like dusty grey-brown stone, small pebbles and flecks of debris, shining pieces of peridot and danburite interspersed in a checkerboard of colour and pallid. And next to them, the twin - the other half - black claws and red fur, and a face hidden by a cluster of pale gems. They furrowed their brow with confusion and reached for that feeling, but when they sought the sight of their brother, they were met with nothing.

The thought hadn't dared to make itself known. It wasn't needed as an observation; it felt like a known fact shared between the two of them. They didn't acknowledge it. Instead, their wonder drifted to their brother's expressed thought, and they slowly rolled onto their stomach. Their legs unfolded shakily, bringing their body to rise. It wavered, nearly toppled, but soon found its balance. Then their brother had reached out, and they felt the tingling through their toes as well. The shudder ran through their feet and legs and up their spine, imparting on them a sense of curiosity - a hunger.

I don't know.

They could only stand. Now, they were lost. Peridot eyes surveyed the ledge again, searching through their primitive mind for the answer, though there was none. Their brother had presented a suggestion that they had yet to devise a response. It left them confused, reeling, and momentarily frightened -

Until a shadow had amassed at the lip of the ledge, and a crown of white, and a lofty voice coloured with amusement. They had heard this voice before.

As soon as Magdalena had heard the shatter of the chrysali, she unfurled herself from the battered red fox and they made their swift sojourn up the ledges to where the chrysali sat waiting. It was first a sharp break, like the cracking of rocks apart from one another. And a scrabbling of claws against the ground. Then there was another break, but it was smoother, rippling through the air like a gradual peal. With each development of a sound in the otherwise stale and still air, Magdalena was a step closer to discovering the nature of the children destined to emerge from the chrysali shared between her and the fox.

She had given her comfort to him as expected, or perhaps as desired; she recognized that he was alone here, under the persistent threat of death by her Fire and the mongoose. They had retreated together to the sanctuary of the ledges, speaking and relishing companionship. Magdalena would admit that Louie's presence was a great change from Nemesis', and Nemesis satisfied her in a way that no other Gembound could; in the same way, Magdalena wrought a great and strange pleasure from her teacher, as a pupil who had always vied to impress him he made her account for both her failures and successes. He filled her with determination and anger alike. It was a seething poison and a gratification. She was getting stronger.

Her paws moved swiftly over the ground, but despite her intent she had to take her time to avoid stumbling over the rocks. By the time they had reached the familiar ledge, where she recognized the layer of dust beneath her toes, the cracking had ceased. She reached out for the newfound lives freshly emerged from their chrysali, unseeing straw eyes probing the platform.

Post-Roll Edit:
"I can feel them. Finis originae pende." She whispered, and her heart lurched with excitement. There they were, cloying before her, tiny lost souls - Magdalena had never felt anything towards the chrysali until now. Because they were more than that. They were alive, now; they were a victory, lives that had persisted and grown and were strong enough to break free from their shells. She rushed towards them and the first thing her nose felt was the downy fur of the mole-fox, breathing him in, his fresh newborn stench - organic, bittersweet. Magdalena turned her nose to the other that she could feel beside him, and there she drew her nose along their spine, then to their forehead and loosed a gentle splash of her tongue against their face.

Then she withdrew. Their presences localized before her, tangible clusters of bacteria new and combined and familiar. Magdalena lowered herself to the ground, and she was overwhelmed with a feeling that she had never known before. It was love, it must have been, but it was also pride, and protectiveness, and it was motherly. "Creatures destined for strength and greatness, just as you said, Louie. The crux of our iliad. The embodiment of our odyssey." She breathed, wide-eyed as she stared at the space before them.

"Booker Speech" "Louie Speech"

Magdalena must have had her maternal instincts trigger at the shattering of the chrysalis that appeared to have gotten her to sit bolt upright and begin her journey upwards. Sweet solace had been found in the presence of the borzoi woman, there were no emotions to be felt as the pair had once again sunk into their on-again off-again pupil and teacher relationship. Breathing out, the scent of her faded and he wistfully rose to his own feet. This would potentially be the end, the end of all the waiting he had been doing in order to greet his newest additions into the world. They wouldn't be as weak as the gemlings he had come to meet and manipulate, from day one they would reach a state of knowledge and superiority not even attained by many adults. They had to be absolutely perfect.

Trailing in behind her as she advanced across the ledge with determination, the smell of newborn and broken chrysalis almost like gun powder filled his nose. But he wasn't focused on that as he took in the sight of their children. The two infants were their own, and they had made it. Eyes lidded, both from pleasure and exhaustion, he watched as she traced over their appearances as she was deprived the ability of sight from birth. Immediately, he noticed something off about the mole child and he pursed his lips together gently, he didn't lean forwards to nuzzle either of them as he whispered, "My child... The danburite has caused blindness." This wasn't a major set back, as he knew of Magdalena's own prowess in prokaryotic magic, but the irony in his supposed full-blood son being blind was bittersweet.

"Iliad and Odyssey, you have bestowed upon them the greatest of names." Whether that was what she was intending he wasn't so sure, but he took things at face value and this would be something that would travel with them for the rest of their lives. It had to be perfect. Those names summarized everything he wanted them to be. "Both will grow to become the rulers of this cave. Let it be known that we have created a new era for Origin." It wasn't spoken with confidence, but with longing. They had to fix his wrongdoings, by doing so they had to attain a goal he never had.

"When shall we begin training?"

@Magdalena @Odyssey

She could feel Louie quick to join her side, but she was left in silence, reeling over what she could feel. She could always feel them, even before they had emerged from their chrysali, but now it was real. It wasn't just rocks, it was living creatures, breathing, alive, able to feel and speak and see. She was beginning to move towards them again when Louie had spoken, directing her gaze to the babe that had come from the danburite - unless they had switched places, she would assume that the molefox she had felt from where the danburite was deposited was the child he spoke of. And it was blind.

It wrenched her heart, twisting it, taking hold of it and tugging it in her chest. Blind... a weakness... a vulnerability she knew all too well. But this was not her child, not by blood; this disappointment was Louie's in full. She waited again for the verdict on the other child, but none came. Her head slowly turned towards it, and as the fox rumbled out their names, she felt a smile take to her lips. "Illiad and Odyssey. Yes..." Magdalena whispered. Her facial expression changed then; it was just a twinge, just a small flickering of some new expression. Like light had finally met her pale, unseeing eyes. Then it softened, easing back into that stoic neutrality so commonly woven upon her visage. But her words, oh, her words were spoken with such a calamitean depth, "Your names reflect your most fearsome destinies. The future will be yours."

The borzoi advanced upon them, exhaling a slow breath of pestilence that curled into the air above their heads. It would soon seep into their nostrils, into their lungs, into their very beings, and she would know them for who they were: a part of her. Hers. Then she reclined onto her side, her back facing out towards the entrance of the alcove, her stomach inward. She pulled the two hybrids into her warmth, content to sit with them now that they had awoken from their neonatal slumber.

(exit Mag?) @Illiad

Suddenly, there were others. It was weird to feel them. It wasn't as though they weren't there, just that he could only really pick up on their bacterial sense much as his adoptive mother chose to do. Odyssey spoke back to him, that he too was confused over what would happen after this. After emergence. Unable to do so quietly, he moved forwards to press his own light burgundy coat against the soft strawberry blonde of the borzoi hybrid. Iliad could feel what his brother could. Touching and pawing at the senses and abilities he lacked. But to venture any deeper was what he considered an invasion of Odyssey's private thoughts. So he would not let himself travel that far as he pulled back to his own body. Temptation to see, wasn't going to let the boy overstep his boundaries. Instead, he plunged himself back into the unseeing void.

Voices, much akin to the ones he had heard before began to fill up his head and there was a melancholic sigh as he eased onto the ground in comfort. Maybe they could just stay here forever and not have to leave. Those bundles and bunches of bacteria began to fade, as his magic wore off but the soft breaths of his mother as she whispered and spoke to them sent chills up his spine causing his hackles to raise. The other, well, he had heard him before. None of his words had been as soft or as chilling as Magdalena's but he wasn't wary. They conversed in full view of the pair, and he merely absorbed what they were saying as they were each granted a name. Iliad and Odyssey.

One spoke of his disability, his inability to see. It wavered his faith in someone he trusted, but he had to remain strong as he pushed his head into the ground between his large shovel shaped paws. Frustrated, he huffed slightly but said nothing as he waited for his faithful sibling to speak for him. There was nothing he wanted to say, nor that he could say, as he began to slowly drift off back to sleep.

"Goodnight brother."

______________________________________

"WHEN I OPEN MY MIND"
WHEN I CLOSE MY THOUGHTS

They were on high alert since the arrival of the two strangers, what first was a gentle, maternal voice, vaguely familiar, followed by a sly masculine voice as the carriers of the sounds soon made themselves seen. The hybrid's bright eyes lingered on them, watching cautiously, but there was nothing their still weak limbs could do to either distance themselves or protect the bundle of molefox beside them. All they could do was deliver a feeling of warmth and reassurance, and then that same familiarity, imparting the sensation that they had encountered upon hearing the borzoi's voice. This was once that had been with them since they could feel. Her details were long, elegant with subtle curves, and something about her was inherently both chilling and comfortable. The other one was shorter, sharper, his eyes looked unyielding and his face was gnarled. The hybrid looked between them, listening to the passage of words with silence.

An Odyssey. An Iliad. A great legacy that would take hold of some new era. A fearsome destiny... the words the borzoi spoke resonated with depth and wistfulness, but beyond there was a darker intent that the hybrid couldn't pin. They clung to the name that they had been given and they mentally relayed the opposite name to their sibling, Odyssey, Illiad. Always together. Their shoulder pressed into the molefox, disregarding the uncertainty of the fox's mention of disability. There was nothing wrong. They were perfect, and now, they had the rest of their family. A mother and a father. The feelings were there, and they were right.

Odyssey watched the borzoi's approach and allowed themselves to nestle in close, keeping tight contact with their brother, but welcoming the warmth of their Mother. The message he sent settled into the pit of Odyssey's brain and Odyssey in turn rested their nose against their brother's temple, rumbling quietly.

Goodnight, my brother.

Their eyelids slowly fell shut, sealing the vivid peridot behind darkness. That warmth remained extended, as though an invisible hand were constantly outstretched onto Illiad's own, leading the both of them into stagnating subconsciousness.

exit Odyssey

"Booker Speech" "Louie Speech"

A quiet passed over the room and Louie did nothing to disturb it. While they weren't romantically involved, he felt closer to Magdalena because of all this and he closed his eyes just as she did. Those words like honey, he found himself melting to the floor as well, but he made to move away from the three. A constant separation as he breathed out slowly. Everything would be fine, they would grow up to the be the most powerful. All he had to do was help them, help Iliad overcome his disabilities and then he could finish what he needed to do.

-exit Louie-