thread cw for parasite/burrowing/general grossness + swearing
open to sos members, but otherwise probably a solo!
Walking the length of the caves until one was nearly in Polaris at a snail's pace took a fair few days, and left them - Alpha is them in this scenario - exhausted to the point of not bothering to find a good place to safely sequester themselves away before plonking down.

As it were, the kaiju'd been flopped onto its side, one arm tucked close and the other sprawled out beneath it like a hard headrest to hook under its head and jaw-spike. It was the peak of comfort, apparently, and lent it approximately sixteen hours of completely uninterrupted, sound sleep even out in the open. One of the benefits of being massive and imposing with hooked claws and too many teeth always on display. That, and constantly sounding like it was growling in its sleep and flexing its claws. How a monster could be in a constant offensive stance and sleep so soundly was beyond explanation.

Being something to fear was not enough to stop it from starting to screw its eyes shut, meaty fists balling up, quills rattling uncomfortably as it squirmed and grimaced. Not from a nightmare - no, no, the orthoclase dreamt of battle and success - but a rising feeling of pain.

It jerked upright, propping itself up slightly on its arms and gnashing its teeth through a low whine. Shifting weight onto its previously-a-pillow arm, Alpha lifted a clawed hand to scrub at its eyes and face, glancing over something - wet, writhing on contact. It peeled its eyes open and went to stare ahead at whatever assault'd been placed on it, growling almost weakly and wincing harshly at even looking around without turning its head. Black was crawling into its vision and... not in the concussed, tired way.

Eyes watering, it scrubbed at its eyes again, found that strange tail sticking out of its tear ducts, and grabbed at it. White flashed across its vision and it recoiled, letting go. The nematode writhed more, burrowing deeper and faster in its disturbed vehemence. SHIT, it yowled internally, but still huffed and puffed through its clenched teeth. Whatever this was - whoever'd done this - I'm going to kill them.

The unimaginable pain was giving its thoughts foul diction: fucking COWARD!

Shaking - I shouldn't be shaking. - up to its feet in the dead of night, the kaiju hobbled a few steps before succumbing to another bout of keeled over, eyes-screwing shut, groaning. Breaths came hot and fast, and it peeled open its eyes as the last of the worm writhed its way in. Saline intermingled with toxic-green blood was starting to well up in its eye, and blinking it away hurt in a way that made it hunch over as far into the fetal position was possible. Its claw beds were aching, quicks threatening to just pop out as they ground through the sandstone.

Magicka welled up, and it lifted and swung its head like it was a puppet's joint as if just routinely scanning its surroundings. All that came was the pulse of its own outstretched, bracing arms and a glaring smear of red red red in its eye, squirming and nestling in the blood-rich portion of its scelera after passing through everything else.

Shoulders rose up past its spine as it hunkered down, heaving. If it could just scream, tear into something, something - it'd be able to release that repressed, mind-numbing pain; that, and the rising panic of I can barely see out of that eye - water, I need to find... Alpha groaned as a dizzying wave of nausea-inducing pain surfaced. Its teeth ground audibly. Need to... urged its thoughts, steeling its resolve and driving it to take a few shambling steps forwards, each cycle a heavy thu-th-thu-th-thu-thump! complete with veritable ruts left in the stone. Every part of its gait was a struggle.

It'd suffered worse pain than this - become a fucking roasting tin, even. And yet, a prank is enough to leave it sniveling and shambling around looking for water in the dead of night? The orthoclase looked at the thought balefully, and only then peered down at the glowing-green trail it was leaving. A hand lifted, came away wet beneath its eye.

Thoughts muddled as it took on an automatic pace, trudging closer to the warren without intending to - there was a shallow divot dug there for collecting water, or maybe Doctor's den - no, he'll be there. I'm fine. Either were too close to others. It wasn't going to be seen like this. Certainly not by its Overseer.

Panic hissed low in its mind, an ominous bassy noise threatening to rise to fever pitch and drown out every other thought. Alpha rocked to a halt, panting again, reaching up to scrub and claw and finally let a sharp, pitchy whine out. The sooner, the better - it could - it could use magic. Look towards what always helped it, patch this up, get that thing in its eye out.

Perhaps it was fortunate that nothing came. Better not to make a permanent seal.

The orthoclase listed towards the wall, leaning on it, wheezing softly and letting out a small groan here and there.

He'd been coming and going, as usual- still trying to keep order within the Sentinels was still a self imposed business he gave himself, and he hadn't gotten any strange looks yet for his departures. With everything going on, that was a particular blessing- the familiar felt... Good, for him. As much as he abhorred the idea of seeking out pleasures, he argued that an unhappy body worked rather poorly compared to a content one.

He hadn't caught wind of a particular dragon's plan, however- not yet. No, he'd been trying to acquiesce information about how to infiltrate, about how to access their little family group.

Not that he was putting it off.

In particular, though, he was in the middle of the throughway of the tunnel, wide wings outstretched to either side as he flapped hard against the rising slope. Home was here, but for now he had things to do, Overseers to please-

The monstrous noises drew him out of whatever he was thinking in the moment, partially stalling in the air for the briefest moments as instinct dipped him away from the epicenter of them. No- that noise was familiar, reminiscent of its Overseer and a particular child he knew. Fluttering in closer, he readjusted his angle to come across a rather pitiful sight.

Or, it would be pitiful, if it wasn't a huge fucking kaiju. Shit, the others had grown- of course the Orthoclase was. But this big? Acid of a nervous reflux danced in his stomach as he landed a fair bit away. Was it injured? Perhaps, as evidenced by the glowing blood.

He felt as though he should say something, but what could he do? The Orthoclase could kill him in an instant- he wasn't sure the respect it held for him anymore. Even out of arm's reach of it he quivered at even daring to look at its triangular face. There was too much of Vargas there, too close, he was too close-

Mentally screaming as he approached, barely the size of the monster's hand (which he took QUICK note of). "Orthoclase-Alpha," he began before clearing his throat. "Are you-" His esophagus clenched. What could he do? If he offered help, would it reject- why wasn't it going to the Doctor? It was trying to prove something, perhaps, or maybe the Overseer had injured it in training. There wasn't really anything he could think of to fight it other than the dragons he'd been sent to invade.

But this, this was a specific attack. It didn't have any other bruises upon it. From this angle, though, he wasn't aware of the parasite making its home in its new host, and his wing claws dug into his shoulders. "Let me- assist?" His voice pitched high. If pride was keeping it from seeing the good Doctor, than he completely understood, but here it needed to not be so removed from pride to refuse any sort of help. "What happened?" His eyes darted to the trail of blood, one he tracked as far as he could see, attempting to find the origin of the attack.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

The bass thump of his biplane wings was muffled by brain fog, eyes staring almost distantly as the last of roiling nausea hurled through it and it could at last feel sweet relief - or the closest thing to it it could. Quills were still drooping, an angry pulsing of its eye still a painful reminder. Bracing against the wall with a shoulder, a hand came up, the wrist smearing against its eye, a sharp hiss echoing from its jaws at the fresh throb of agony.

"Orthoclase-Alpha."

Who - it clamored through itself, suddenly brought to cruel reality. Jaws shut tight with an audible click! Lungs were still crying out for oxygen from unforeseen panic, but it set its jaw even further. Visibly straightening, rocking so its weight was as obnoxiously even as possible, Alpha's head swung to stare down at the sandy dragon scarcely the size of its foot, now. He was different, enough that it briefly started to pivot and bare its teeth before recognition filtered in.

Alpha stayed tense, but not anymore than usual - which was probably not very familiar, given neither of them had seen each other in about... ever. Hyperaware of the black line straight through a part of its vision, the beast narrowed its eyes (wince - setting the jaw some more) and tilted up slightly. Hiding most of its gaze, but still maintaining eye contact. It was not afraid of the desert rose, but what he could do, what he could say.

"I'm fine," it ground out, bassy and no less than threatening despite the lack of any real bite.

Panic.

What - Alpha paused, stalling with a particularly hearty sniff and wiping beneath its eye again. Lying would do no good - even if it didn't have a true story to tell of what exactly happened. It was assuming it'd been attacked, even if there was nary a sign of life in the tunnel past what'd infected it. But, being caught unawares in any case - "I scratched my eye too hard while I was asleep."

EMBARRASSING, howled the part of the brain that made up lies and regretted how awful they were, weak. Maybe its superior wouldn't catch on - don't hope. You're done for. Idiotic, weak, broken.

@Desert Rose Thirty-Five

The discomfort was recursive in this fucked up system, Desert launching himself like his legs were hydraulic pistons in the air at the snap. 'C'mon. It's not gonna do anything,' he struggled to convince himself, muscles tensing uncomfortably.

Still, it turned away, defensive of the injury it held. It was ashamed- understandable, as though pride passed through without familial ties. Though, the look it gave, the reaction of seeing him- was it still wary of him?

Was it ever?

He huffed, rubbing a wing-claw on his jaw as he stared up at the orthoclase. Sure, it would be fine, but it wasn't fine right now. Scratching its eye was a bit of a suspicious tale, but perhaps it was simply best to go along with it for now.

"If you want to hold tight, I can find a water pool deep enough for you to dip your head in? Will you be able to handle that?" Was he looking for an excuse to get this train going? Maybe. But, he backed up anyways, wings flared out as he stared up at the overgrown, murderous toddler. There wasn't a magic he knew that could help, but he could at least help force a bit of that strain away through washing away possible infections.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Desert jumped.

He was afraid of it - good. It could use that - is that traitorous? He's a Champion, proven - above me? Commander of - Alpha's eyes went half-lidded, though that'd be difficult to see from seven feet underneath. It is. Stop, back off. Too much free rein to bully its way to the things it wanted had established the wrong instincts. It needed to submit. Pull away.

"I'm fine," it sniped (too quick) at the suggestion that he go off in search of water or something to help. It was aware of its stupidity, the ridiculousness of refusing any sort of help - but, Masters - it was spiralling again, about to break (but how?)

The orthoclase was obsessed with strength, and this one little thing had knocked down the whole structure in its mind palace. In the heat of the moment, it was all in ruins. Now was not a good time, but it ultimately had no rank to pull.

It set its jaw stubbornly, and turned away again, teeth almost audibly grinding together as another few droplets of pattered on the ground.

@Desert Rose Thirty-Five