[W]isker

METEOR

Meteor’s ears twitched as he heard Vale’s caws. His paws already walked the river’s banks to the cave system; he didn’t have the stamina to rush. Caked in dirt and blood, Meteor looked like he’d suffered the last two days in the fight pit. Fuck, he wished he’d suffered the last two days in the fight pit.

When the lava overflowed and the earthquakes began, Meteor had assigned various teams of elementals to minimize the damage to the island. Of course, Meteor the vizier had done this; Meteor’s father, Valerius was—in Meteor’s view—a narcissistic sadist who forgot one simple problem with gorging on suffering: when you allow catastrophic pain to occur, people die. So who, then, would pay the narcissist their attention tax when everyone ended up dead from Valerius’s incompetency? Meteor hated his father for that. But perhaps that was the difference between a sadistic narcissist and a sadistic psychopath.

Meteor prided himself on efficient sadism. It was Meteor who outlawed the pit fights to the death. Valerius had thought it entertaining to watch Descendants with nothing to prove slaughter each other for pointless posturing. Outsiders, of course, still needed to kill other outsiders to prove themselves as a true Descendant of the Departed… but long gone were the foolish days of bleeding out their ranks for Valerius’s inefficient sadism. Naturally, Meteor's efficiency had kept the group running despite his father's incompetency.

Therefore, when the volcano erupted, Meteor had assigned himself to keep the winds from blowing into the heartland of the forest. Knowing that Valerius’s self-assignment of arrogant stupidity would force his old man to retreat into the forest….

Efficient, then, to protect an important piece of the island’s ecosystem while killing his father.

Meteor arrived at the lip of the pool that Vale’d repurposed for boiling crabs. He blinked at the Vale weirdness, then shrugged, and sighed as he sat near—but not directly next to—Kole and Vale. He flexed his claws and shook out his paws, grimacing at the grime. He’d have to wait for the crabs to finish cooking, for the tasty treats to be pulled out before he could wash out all the blood.

“Clearly, I survived.” A lip curled for a lopsided smirk at Vale. Honestly? Meteor expected the inquisitor to fly out and never return. The fact Vale returned at all and brought much-needed food? Perhaps the shapeshifter wasn’t a complete waste of an inquisitor. 

His gaze skipped over Vale and lingered on Kole. “Good to see you survived, Kole.”

Meteor pulled off his satchel. He unfastened the hatch, then showed the lion skull within to Vale and Kole. The skull had his father’s characteristic sabertooth fangs. And, clearly, tooth and scratch marks, even the brain cavity cracked open and cleaned out… clearly, Meteor had already cannibalized his father, which was sensible given the cataclysmic disaster.

“Pharaoh Valerius is dead. I suppose my first year at leadership will be a trial by fire.” Meteor laughed, but it wasn’t a happy laugh.

[W]isker

Chernabog descended upon great dark wings, with a slight gust coming from each wingbeat. Her wings were still sore, as a consequence of both getting fiery rocks pelted on her and taking time to create scorch lines along the volcanic base. Her lungs were still rattled by the smoke, even two days after the eruption. She came to land just as she heard Meteor.

"Valerius is dead?"  Her voice was a calm thunder, as she landed near the hot spring. Her golden gaze moved from Meteor, to Kole, and then to Vale. Her expression remained that stony scowl as she looked at the boiling crabs. Nothing like a post-disaster crab boil to ease the tension.

METEOR

Hearing Chernabog’s descent, Meteor glanced up to watch the dragoness land near the hot spring. He trusted her flight skills, but, with everyone exhausted after the natural disaster, the lion preferred caution. However, Chernabog landed elegantly and he didn’t need to move to avoid her talons.

At her question, Meteor grimaced and nodded once. “Indeed, Valerius is dead. He died valiantly, attempting to save the forest closest to Mnt Halelevu.” A pause, as the lion glanced at the boiling crabs. “If Vale didn’t bring enough coconut crabs for all of you, I can forgo this meal. I already cannibalized my father.”

Then Meteor’s golden eyes slid to the shapeshifter. Out of everyone under Meteor’s command, Meteor found it most difficult to predict Vale. He’d expected Vale to flee and never return, but here the inquisitor was with a crab feast and a gesture of… loyalty.

Meteor wasn’t an idiot. He knew Vale, Kole, and Chernabog would follow him because it was in each of their best interests. Even with Valerius’s inefficiencies and selfishness, he remained in power because of that simple fact. Meteor planned on staying in power that way, too, but with less sadistic egomania. By Requiem and Vayu, out of all four animals circling the hot springs, Meteor was the only one born on this island. If Valerius hadn’t been so amused by watching Descendants kill each other in the pits, would the dead’ve been useful minimizing the damage of the eruption? Would those dead Descendants be useful when the cannibals would, inevitably, have to raid supplies?

The lion sighed and rolled his shoulder, and then settled on the black sands. His front paws tucked under his body while his rear hooves splayed to the left.

Meteor nodded with a snort of agreement to Vale. “If the inquisitor says Valerius’s death to the volcano might’ve appeased Requiem and Vayu, who am I to argue?”

He glanced between Vale and Kole. “I appreciate your confidence in my leadership. I intend to be a Pharaoh worth following.”

However, Meteor knew Vale and Kole would disappear the moment things became unfavorable for them. But that was the way of things. Leadership was not owed. Leadership was a cultivated skill. If Vale and Kole left the Descendants of the Departed, then Meteor would only have himself to blame. Meteor chuckled, and then that sound quieted into a smirk.

His golden gaze lingered on Kole. His expression shifted to contemplative, and he licked his teeth. “You have certain… dietary restrictions, don’t you? That is unfortunate. If you wish, we can discuss this later.”

[W]isker

RHODE ANTHOS

"Crab boil. Hell yeah." With this, the sabertooth tiger too would make her presence known to the rest of the Descendants congregated on the black beaches. Those who had been around the feline had likely witnessed her demeanor plummet into that of constant irritability since the eruptions began. She was a creature of routine, and some goddamn volcanic stirrings to shake up the whole clan were the very last things she needed. Today, though, Rhode seemed to be returning back to her usual self as the waters calmed. It certainly, certainly, had nothing to do with the scrumptious scent of boiled coconut crab wafting across the shores.

Of course, she was more than capable of securing her own meal if she needed it, and she liked the challenge that the coconut crabs prompted. They were rather tough to catch when she first made her home on the island. She could vividly recall the days of attempting to crack open a fat crab on the beach, only to get pinched and assaulted by the quite ferocious crustacean. By now she had mastered the technique, having spent quite some time living with the Descendants.

Still, she could always appreciate someone else's cooking. "Good looks, Birdbrain," Rhode mused to Vale, nodding her head towards the three-eyed crow as she made her way over. She never really saw xem as the giving type, so this was a pleasant surprise for sure. The tiger pawed a piping-hot crab over towards her, letting the warm steam kiss her face as she cracked the now-soft shell open. Still a bit hot, so maybe it was worth waiting for a bit.

Rhode listened to the others chat for now. Their previous Pharaoh, Valerius, had unfortunately succumbed to the volcano, it seemed. Fortunately, they were able to reap his body's natural resources, as made evident by Meteor's cannibalization of his own father.

...Yeah. Weird pack of folk for sure. She had swallowed many of her morals since joining the Descendants, a sacrifice she felt was ultimately a good decision. As different as they were from her and her upbringing, they were undeniably a strong group and knew what it took to survive, both on the island and in this harsh world as a whole. Regardless, if she was going to fight on their turf, she was going to have to play by their rules in and out of the pits. With that being said, she didn't look down upon their cannibalistic tendencies (not nearly as much anymore, at least), but there was definitely a bit of internal side-eye lingering deep down.

She did have plenty of respect for Meteor. The lion knew the island like the back of his own paw, and being the former Pharaoh's son definitely gave him a leg up on the competition for the throne anyway. Valerius ran a mean pit fighting scene that originally enticed Rhode, but Meteor seemed less likely to turn his own clanmates into cannon fodder. He was a better choice for her long-term presence here. "So, Pharaoh — what's the play for us from here on out?" She figured that restoring the natural balance of the island was priority number one for the Descendants right now, but she was curious if he had any other plans in store for them.

Rhode glanced down upon her portion of coconut crab and finally used her massive paws to split the shell open, revealing the juicy, buttery meat that made her salivate near instantly. She spared the bugger no mercy even in death as she wolfed down her meal in pieces. Delicious!