[ORP] The Hole

[AMItotic]

Until Next Time had a bit of a confession.

She hadn't much been raised around stories of the Motherfather, and the Other was something she only heard about in whispers these last few seasons. Her opinions of them were about what she'd think of most things in the swamp, the trees or the grass or the rivers, but it was becoming increasingly clear to her that other kin had some very large emotions regarding them, which made her shuffle a little bit uncomfortably on her hooves.

"...Sometimes things made by the MotherFather aren't benevolent," she said slowly, ears flattening uncertainly. "I don't know if we can assume something is good or bad by whether it comes out of a strange hole."

She looked, somewhat lost, to both No Escape and I Will Always Come Back. "If something was truly bad, and your beings are good, wouldn't they protect us? Isn't that what they're for?"

[Scaramouche Fandango]

Simple Gifts raised an eyebrow, although the Zikwa couldn't see it. He seemed like a sweet person, but dangerously naive. "Gonna have to disagree with you, stranger. If it was so scared of the sun, it should have hopped back down into the hole and not tried to kill the first kin it saw. It's not like it had nowhere to go; it could have gone home. The edge of the hole was right there, and at any moment, if it was tired of getting the lightning kicked out of it, it could have left, and nobody would have followed it. But it didn't. It made a choice to attack, despite nobody approaching it at first. All that kin did was look at it, and it tried to eat her. Sure, we made the choice to meet violence with violence, and I suppose if you're a pacifist or vegetarian or something that might seem off-putting, but I'm not going to be losing any sleep over it."

[phoe]

"Not always. The Motherfather created the swamp .. but nothing seems to have merited that response yet. Nothing has been truly bad that could not also be fixed. So far." It might have been an arrogant response, but No Escape's faith in the Motherfather was unshakeable.

"I can't speak for the Other. Every time they surface into the swamp, things change."

[Astoria]

As marsh watched the creature receive its final blow and break open with whatever it was inside he peered down at it curiously.

Speak of Other and MotherFather was somewhat heated amongst a few and he peered at them all curiously. “Its insides aren’t right. It was living and yet it has not the organs that sustain life.” He had seen dead animals a time or too, and they weren’t filled with whatever this was.

What a curious creature but he shuddered at the idea of things living in such a way. While he had no adversity towards Other he had of course grown up knowing MotherFather. Curious to know more he stood put, towards the sidelines.

[Baneful]

I Always Come Back chuckled. "I said he was generous, not that he was good. He doesn't call himself mother or father, he isn't here to coddle kin. He's a force, energy in the world. You can choose to be a conduit or you can't."

He winked at her.

"He's not for anything, far as I understand it. Doesn't care about us, would crush us like a bug in a moment of boredom. But so would the Motherfather. But I'm a grown up, I don't need a mother or father, I need a sponsor."

He looked cheerful about it.

"I wanted power, and power I was given."

[Baneful]

The hole just waited.

[Dizzy_Kat]

He was neither pacifist nor vegetarian but he just couldn't see Simple Gifts point of view. She was so quick to judge and dismiss. A bully should be stopped before they hurt someone else, but once you knock someone down, you help them back up. She left no room or opportunity for change. "Maybe... maybe change isn't such a bad thing." Speed finally said. He leaned, just far enough to brush his shoulder against Totem. He was hurt but she was his friend and right now. She was the only one here he trusted.

He had one more question though for the buck who spoke so confidently of The Other. "What will you do with that power? Now that you have it?" It was earnest, desperate and hopeful. He wanted something to take away that would give him faith. What had started as wild adventure with his friend had gone upside down so quickly. It was like the void beside him had opened under his hooves instead.

[phoe]

This made No Escape's ears perk up: she, too, was curious what answer I Always Come Back would spin.

She opened her mouth at one point, inhaling a breath to remark that the Motherfather did not coddle her children, that many a foal hatched into the jaws of a caiman .. but she wanted to hear his answer more.

[LOLLI qAq]

Totem struggled to listen, the whooshing in her ears always more insistent in heated situations, and she thought- That was the point. If she had been born into a world where the MotherFather actually cared for her kin then maybe Totem wouldn't have been born the way that she was. She wasn't a zikwa, there was no reason for her to have no sight. Or to be missing part of a leg. Or to struggle to hear.

This was one of maybe two times Totem felt impossibly alone with her disability. It was the first time the thoughts came on their own. She wagged her shorter leg uncomfortably, stretching it a little, and leaned into Speed at his touch. A helpful reminder that she wasn't alone.

The feelings she was feeling, what this adventure had become, Totem wanted to hear what he'd have to say as well.

[Toshiful]

"It's Most Wanted," he said, "I thought it was some stupid joke. Because nobody's ever wanted me." What, he had family? Family that cared what happened to him?

He couldn't even remember telling anyone his name. Nobody had asked for that either. Nobody called him anything.

Definitely nobody had cleaned stupid tears off his stupid cheeks.

"Shit. This is a lot," he said, hiding his face in his forelegs.

Behind them, stuff happened. Some monster blew up, everyone was arguing about parents, or deities, or both. That was a lot too. Most Wanted's stomach growled, although the totoma's stomach kind of looked like it could do it more literally.

dad stuff

[Baneful]

"Change is never a bad thing." Will said. "Growth is change, learning is change. Stagnation is destruction, in the end."

At the question of what he'd do with his power, he held his head up grandly. "Just because the Other himself has no time or desire to intervene or improve the world with his vast power, that doesn't mean those blessed with it can't. I have already brought new tools to the swamp that assist in tasks that normally limit them, and I intend to carry on."

He gestured with a hoof at those gathered.

"I want there to be more time for kin to have fun. Free to spend time with their loved ones, pets and everything else. Room for entertainment. Room for family."

His eyes flitted briefly to Boar and Most Wanted.

"Especially time for the little ones. They are our most precious resource."

[Dizzy_Kat]

Totem didn't smell like cake anymore but Speed Racer was comforted by it. She now felt entirely Her to him. She had been changed by the hole, and had come out ultimately unharmed to his perception. Change wasn't bad. He welcomed her weight as they leaned into each other.

When I Always Come Back answered him, Speed Racer drank in every word. It was exactly what he'd hoped to hear even if he hadn't admitted as much. To care for, to protect, to remove barriers to love and acceptance. Here was a helper using his blessing to make the world a better place for kin. His weight shifted forward just the slightest.

"I want to learn." He declared.

[phoe]

The mare's form melted back into a wasp-shape, buzzing to sit on a branch above the clearing, watching. There was apparently no getting through to some gathered here; let them learn. They would soon see in short order what occurred.

Or maybe they wouldn't. It was beyond her.

For Beetleshell, some of the words the changed buck spoke rang uncomfortably true. Stagnation was dangerous, and change was good. The swamp went through the natural cycle of its seasons, even though those had started to change themselves. Becoming more efficient in tasks was also a good thing; it meant becoming more productive, and as she was a believer in the natural good of kin, efficiency meant an easier time for everyone.

She had never been close to her children -- of which she had many -- and while she didn't regret that, being able to spend time with loved ones (in her case the crawling and scuttling type) was nice.

She was curious. Reserved and a little cautious, sure, because the buck's shadowy appendages were unlike anything familiar to the swamp. But she wanted to know more.

[LOLLI qAq]

Totem nodded at Speed Racer's declaration, but she wasn't fully feeling it with full conviction. She liked the obelisks; they gave her freedom she'd have otherwise never known. She had, ultimately, enjoyed her time in the hole. It had offered her a change in perspective and with that new knowledge. Everything I Will Come Back was saying rang true enough; family was her touchstone. The reason she sought out the RRT time and time again after her travels.

... But something along the back of her neck said he was deeply dangerous. That it had all been dangerous.

Totem wanted to do what she always did- Push the hard feelings down, do something silly, and forget she'd had those emotions at all in the name of "adventure". She wasn't sure she could do that anymore.

She lacked the conviction, but she was in lockstep with Speed. As always.

"I want to learn, too."

[Ruriska]

It was dead.

Around him kin continued to chatter but Hungering Teeth tuned them out, background noise like the birds in the trees. He snuffled around the corpse, licking up and devouring the candies that had spilled out. A taste he’d never experienced before.

And of course he turned his attention to the creature itself, which he decided to claim as his own. He bit down hard. With small grunts of effort, the Zikwa began trying to drag the Treel body away, one inch at a time, to be buried or devoured at his own leisure.