Over the last few days or so, Onyx had been growing strange crystal appendages front the joint of her armpit and some along her cheek bones. Maybe any normal wolf would have been frightened by the changes, but she was no normal wolf now was she? Honestly, she thought that she was just growing mutations that she had seen other wolves have. Though they weren't crystals usually, were they? Certainly this had nothing to do with the crystals she had collected or touched or broke. That probably would have been common sense, but for once it seemed Onyx didn't have it. Or maybe she was just ignoring it.

She had thought that the growths were pretty cool, they were nearly the same color as her fur, they seemed quite fashionable and appealing with where they had poked out. Surely nothing was wrong with them. She had made her way to the steppe, just looking around for a small prey to take home or a fight to tone her skills. It would have been nice to give these bad babies a go.

"Onyx"

Mature! For foul language. Can be prone to violence.

By now it was painfully clear that the world at large was fucked. No matter how far Kuroki ventured he knew there was no escaping nor denying it, but he tried anyway. Figured there was something to be learned beyond Ashen's borders, where it's wolves were either leaking goo or going stir crazy. Sometimes both. Now Kuroki had never been the sort of guy to fuss about his scenery or favour a certain time of day, but man he was really starting to miss the sun. Winter was slowly letting go of the world, allowing the roots of spring to wiggle into place but the moon still remained. Lingering and present, just like the thick fog that rolled over the ground. It obscured Kuroki's feet as he walked, almost making it seem as though he was gliding along, like a ghost out for a leisurely stroll. Heading east, Kuroki might have intended to check in with Fable in Abaven but got a little turned about in the mists. He realised as much when he noticed the stone pillars rising out of the ground, wide enough to stand out amongst the grey and muted blue glow. And speaking of ghosts, wasn't that blue blob a sight for sore eyes? He hadn't seen her-he still didn't know her name, whoops- in what felt like forever. So much had changed since then and yet she looked about the same-or at least that's what he thought till he got close enough to see her crystal protrusions. Kuroki stopped where he was and leaned against a stone pillar, at a safe distance. "It got you too huh? I told you to be careful."

Out of the mists, Kuroki emerged but she hadn't really noticed him until he was nearly hot on her tail. She couldn't deny the little jump in her heart from the sudden appearance, but as always she just washed it away with that slight devilish grin.

"These?" she questioned, moving out the joint under her shoulder almost as if showing them off. She didn't know that the crystals were more a bad omen than something to brag about. It seemed Kuroki had seen more than her. She was the only one in her family who was affected after all. "This seems more like a blessing than a curse." She was a bit more gloat-y than she had intended, ever really. She didn't think she was annoying to others, maybe she thought she was impressing them. It wasn't really easy for her to make friends after all. "You want to be my first test subject?"

"Onyx"

Mature! For foul language. Can be prone to violence.

He couldn't say he was surprised to learn she was pretty nonplussed about this all. Not much seemed to ruffle her fur and Kuroki totally related to that, except when weird shit started happening. That was about enough to make the Ashen Chunin get a bit more real, you know? Maybe the northern girl needed a wake-up call, all oblivious to the ways of the world chin deep in snow. Except actually what was she even doing here, way out of her element? Kuroki wrinkled the pale of his nose and stayed right where he was. "And catch whatever disease you got? Fuck no." And then he snorted, flicking a paw to gesture at the goop she was leaking. Gross. "You're leaking like an old man who can't hold in his piss. Don't seem like a blessing to me. How did you even get it anyway? Did you touch something weird?" Which if that was the case why hadn't he caught something nasty? He'd stomped all over some mushrooms and only got a bit tired as a result. Seemed like he got off real light compared to everyone else.

She squinted as he said he didn't want to catch whatever it was she got, she didn't understand what he meant. Weren't the crystals like his horns? Or related to a mutation in that kind of way? But as he mentioned the oozing, her neck bent and her arm lifted as she did see some of that ooze seeping out slightly. Oh, well that wasn't entirely appealing. Maybe that was just from them growing. Or maybe she should stop being dumb and listen to what Kuroki was saying.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Which yeah she kind of didn't but her thoughts had taken her back to when she picked up those crystals not all that long ago. Yeah, maybe he was right. But the crystals didn't seem to be bothering her all that much... "I thought you were always down for a fight?" She questioned, but quickly she went into a defensive stance like he was going to come at her. Instead of waiting too terribly long, she jumped forward, aiming to get the crystals that were slightly poking away from her rib cage into his own leg. Kuroki seemed pretty adamant about not letting her dig into him though, and instead her crystal infused armpit collided with one of the stone pillars of the steppe as he dodged away from her.

It was the most painful thing she had ever endured, though that wasn't really saying much. The crystals nearly felt like they were attached to her bone, and the collision of them riding up against the stone almost made her feel like her leg was going to snap. She hit the ground and didn't get up as she wallowed in pain, "FUCK." She really had nearly forgotten that Kuroki was here, usually she might have been embarrassed to cause such a scene but she was in enough pain to where she didn't care. The crystals that hit the rock oozed heavily from the impact, enough to start a pool down her leg.

"Onyx"

Mature! For foul language. Can be prone to violence.

Onyx

The sickness deepens... Your paws ache and, upon closer inspection, are blistered and oozing glowing blood.

She didn't know what he was talking about? Was she just playing stupid or actually dumb? He regarded her with a side glance, noting the faint look of uncertainty in her eyes as if she was just trying to talk herself up. To brush aside any causes for concern Kuroki was trying to bring to light. She tried to poke at him, verbally prod him into a fighting mood but he just weren't feeling it these days. Old habits were hard to lean back on when the sky looked like...that. Unsurprisingly she made a dive for him anyway and Kuroki was quick to side step out of the way, brows arching when she collided armpit first into a stone pillar. He wasn't sure what sort of reaction he'd been expecting, to see her writhing in pain on the floor hadn't been high up on the list at all. On a normal day colliding with a rock like that would hurt, but this was beyond any normal capacity of pain he'd ever seen. The northern girl was beside herself, lost in the pain as if she didn't even realise he was here any more. Or why she'd even launched herself forward in the first place. Glowing blood pooled from her paws, leaking across the floor and chasing away the rolling mist with its light. This was bad, worse than he'd initially thought. He padded closer, but still kept his distance. "Fucking hell. You need a healer? I can go fetch someone from Abaven."

Kuroki

It comes for us all... but you are safe... for now.