Hanako looked more like a seal than a koi these days, all round at the sides like she'd just feasted on fish. She knew she shouldn't wander far from the Armada's borders, she was in no condition to flee if she had to, but the air back home was so stifling. The vibes wildly off as everyone fretted and worried, feared the dark nights and the strangeness that came with it. And yeah, she couldn't disagree. For all they knew the world was indeed coming to an end, but if she was gonna die she wanted...to do it her way, she supposed. Morbid thoughts that made her heart ache, knowing her poor little babies might die before they had a chance to live.

And thus she wandered, making a point of keeping the Empire in sight as she headed east and soon came across the opening of Time's Cavern. She'd been here before and wasn't at all concerned about the glow, it was always like this. Or at least that was her line of thought till she spotted something white and jagged poking out of the ground, as though the tide had wrenched it out of its resting place.

It was a wolf skull, missing its bottom jaw but still mostly intact. And if that wasn't creepy enough purplish crystalline stones jutted through is eye sockets. Giving Hanako a sinking feeling, as though it was watching her. Staring into the pit of her soul with its cranky, judgemental gaze. Skittering away, Hanako nearly tripped over her own paws. Nope. She did not like this at all!

Tyrian slipped into the cavern just in time to see Hanako reel away from something. He had just enough time to take in the scene before reacting. There was a wolf skull, bleached by time and entirely without sinew, and, curiously, what appeared to be crystals growing from it. Hanako's backside was on a direct collision course with his front legs and while it was tempting to let her back into him for the teasing alone, Tyrian sidestepped anyway. If she ran into him at all it would a glancing blow. "Hanako," he said saucily, "we have to quit meeting like this." It felt like just yesterday he'd taken her home after something ghosty had taken a liking to her in the Woods. But this time? The skull? This was weirder in his book. At least he could see this one. Tyrian stepped over to the skull and rolled it over to get a good look at it. Interesting... ""

Scurrying back, Hanako felt a jolt run down her spine as the meat of her rump brushed against something. Or rather someone. Whipping around her eyes wide with-oh it was just him. But what was Tyrian doing here? A knee-jerk reaction was to just assume he'd been following her, but as self-centred as she was even Hanako could see he was a busy man. Not that it really mattered right here and now, she'd found a skull and it was corrupted, slowly being taken over by weird crystals. How spooky was that!

She parted her lips to give him a rebuff, but her mouth dropped wide open as she noticed he was reaching to touch it. Was he insane? What about those creepy, watchful and glowing crystals made him want to reach out? He'd lost his mind, surely.

"Don't touch-" But it was too late, the contact was made.  "Do you think the crystals killed them?" Was this a fate awaiting them all?

Not wanting to touch it, she instead dipped her paw in a nearby puddle and flicked it with water. She figured it wouldn't matter much since this place was flooded at least once a day when the tide rolled in.

Tyrian gently rocked the skull to and fro so he could look at the crystals from all sides. In response to her question he shrugged first, but after looking at the growth pattern of the crystals and the aged look of the skull, he replied, "I don't think so. If this was a recent death there'd be more..." he gestured vaguely at the skull, "substance to it, you know?" Weird stuff had only been happening, what, this season? Well, this sort of weird. He was going to ignore all the other seasonal weird things that had happened over the last year. "The crystals and shit are new, you know? So I'm thinking these little opportunists just found a convenient place to grow." Tyrian let go of the skull when Hanako stepped over. He watched as she flicked it with water to see if it would react in some way. Would it behave like some strange underwater creature? Various tidal pool flora and fauna did when the tides changed, and the crystals were in a sea cave, so it made sense. ""

Oh. Well Hanako supposed he had a point, as a wolf of course she'd seen fresh carcases. How else would she eat? And yet she'd never seen the remains of a wolf before, didn't attend Naiche's funeral, and for most of her life had been sheltered from the more grisly aspects of life. That's why, she supposed, this came as such a shock to her. A reality check, like a slap across her cheek.

Despite it all, she wondered how they'd feel about this, their skull being poked and prodded at. Desecrated by these unworldly happenings. For some reason, almost like an itch in the back of her head, she felt as though they wouldn't be very happy about it. Like their gaze was now all the more scowlier, like they just wanted to be left alone. But surely she was reading far too much into this, working herself up into a fright for no reason at all. Just in case she backed off, who knew how it would react to her little flick of seawater.

Whilst Tyrian on the other paw was as logical, laid back as usual. Typical.

"I guess that's true. So they're like parasites then?" She wrinkled her nose, likening the changing world to an infection. Or rather symptoms of it.

Hanako

You find your gaze drifting back towards the crystal, your focus is drawn to it until all else fades, the skull disappears, Tyrian, even your own paws in front of you. Then it too fades and you can no longer see. You regain your vision in about an hour.

Maybe you shouldn't have done that...

Hanako's next question gave Tyrian pause. He lit up at the idea. "Oh," he breathed, his tone intrigued, "now there's an idea." How fascinating! Was it a parasite? That did sort of make sense, didn't it? How the crystals spread so quickly across the land. It was like mange, really. Mange was the sort of contagious that made it feel like if you just looked at a wolf with it you'd catch it. Of course Tyrian knew that wasn't how anything worked but it was an amusing thought. You had to do more than just look at something to catch it, which made him wonder just how the parasitic crystals spread. Hopefully not touch considering how recently he fondled the skull... ""

The darkness was slow and creeping, so subtle in fact she didn't notice it for a considerable amount of time. Till it was too late. Her eyes were wide open and yet the light was fading till it was gone. Nothing but blackness all around, no matter which way she twisted her neck she saw nothing. Panic seized her chest, making her throat feel tight and raspy as she stared, unseeing at where she thought Tyrian was. Where he'd been last.

"Tyrian." She murmured, unable to keep the dread out of the wobble of her voice. "I can't see." Tears rolled down her cheeks as she barely held back a full-blown panic attack. This just wasn't supposed to happen, what had she done to deserve this?

She remained frozen on the spot, unable to move even a muscle. Her life was over, what used to anyone would she be blind? And what of her babies? She'd never be able to see their faces, show them the things and places she liked. It was all over.

Tyrian

You hear a faint, unintelligible noise from the moment you touched the skull. Barely bothersome, hardly noticeable, fully understandable that you continued on for so long without noticing. Then suddenly as your companion cries out of her blindness, the noise intensifies into a violent scream echoing from within your own head. Perhaps the skull didn't appreciate being fondled?

Maybe you shouldn't have done that...

Tyrian was still stewing over the idea that the crystals might be parasites when the scream hit him like a thunderclap. He ducked as though struck and skittered sideways with a small startled noise. When the scream faded he stiffened and looked around furtively before lifting a paw to his ear and rattling it in the same way he would if it was filled with water. Great. If that didn't scream 'brain munching parasites' he didn't know what did. Tyrian took a deep breath and smoothed a paw down his chest to calm himself. Finally, feeling collected enough to not mewl like a babe, he cleared his throat and said, "What was that? Sorry, there was a sound...like a scream in my head?" His usual cavalier tone was gone - at least for now while he processes the unsettling thing that had just happened to him. Tyrian rubbed at his temple and then frowned. "Did...you say blind?" ""

It Continues for Hanako...

Huh? It doesn't seem like anything happened... Well, maybe that's for the best...

It Continues for Tyrian...

Huh? It doesn't seem like anything happened... Well, maybe that's for the best...

Hanako's panicked ears flicked forward as she caught the sound of skittering claws. Where was he going? He wouldn't leave her like this, would he? It was hard, near impossible really, to really hear what was going on with the sound of her heart thundering in her ears. Her sense of smell wasn't helping much either as her breathing was fast and choppy, preventing her nose from getting a chance to separate this from that. Everything was dark and muddled, blending together in the worst of ways.

And then Tyrian spoke, rather apologetic as he mentioned a scream. Hanako had heard no such thing, so it truly must have been in his head. She stumbled closer to the source of his voice, all sense of grace and ease lost in her steps.

"I don't know...it just faded to black. Please don't leave me here." She whimpered, like a dog who'd been shooed away from begging at the dinner table.  "I want to go home."

And then what? Would Sedna be able to make her eyes work again? Or was this...forever? A fierce shudder rocked through her system, trembling her legs like a newborn fawn.

Still very disturbed, Tyrian cleared his throat before replying, "hey, I'm mean, but I ain't that mean. Of course I'll take you home." He smoothed a paw down his chest to calm himself. None of this boded well. Hanako was blind, something was in his head, this was bad. It was time for him to go home too and rally the troops. That wasn't going to stop him from being an ass though. "Now, I can't make any promises if say, one of those pigs you scared away the other day makes an appearance..." Of course he didn't mean it. If a ghost came after them he'd leave her as bait too. Also kidding, of course. No, naturally he'd take her home and fight off all the baddies along the way. She couldn't see him smirk, sadly, to know he was trying to make light of the situation. It was really quite sad because he did his best snarking under pressure. Tyrian stepped over to her side and touched her shoulder gently so she would know he was there and could use him as a guide. "Maybe we'll find you a seeing eye dog on the way, hm? A monkey or something, maybe..." He was talking partially for himself and partially for her. Maybe it would help make at least one of them feel better. ""