Pass the test [o, bro they are literally just vibing]

[OCTANE.]

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OCTANE AND CAUSTIC

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"Ohhhhh my god, Caustic- this is so boring, mi rey," Octane whines, cleaning out another empty pot before pushing it over to the wolf. They're together, on Caustic's porch, surround by various gardening objects. Tools they can't actually pick up, pots and dirt, seeds and some... saplings or some shit. Sprouts? Octane doesn't really care. It's a Caustic hobby and it made the otherwise stoic fuck happy. He knows what this is- tasks for Octane's hands (paws) to do while the scientist focused on something far beyond Octane's comprehension. He could see it now, as Caustic was carefully taking dirt from various bags and mixing them. Why bother mixing it? It was fucking dirt.

"Well, Octavio, if my hobbies are so boring, I'm sure you can find someone else to bother while I work on this," Caustic sneers, lips lifting to reveal the slightest amount of teeth. He watches the daredevil's ears tilt back and Octavio sit back for a moment to comtemplate his options. He's mixing the dirts to create a new soil- one with different water retention abilities, a measured PH balance. He glances off to the seed packets, pulling one towards him. Nerve plants- or, Fittonia albivenis as he should call it. He was attracted to it's red veins above all else... Tanglewood was not like any of the planets Caustic had inhabited in his life, so the fauna opened new avenues of research aplenty.

Octane grumbles, cleaning out another pot- and finding himself out of pots. He sits back on his haunches, pulling off his left leg and flexing the limp back and forth in his paws. It's an awkward motion- he's trying to grip the limb but it's more like balancing it on his paws. "You know I'd do anything for you, right?" He tries to smirk, lips pulling up to reveal teeth. He knows where this is going, trying to convince Caustic to do something else. He puts his legs back on, slinking over to the wolf to start pestering further. "So you could do something for me, mi químico," He watches one of the dots above Caustic's eyes raise. Octane puts a paw to his chest, beginning to boast, "My Awesome Self might not be here for much longer, so we should be spending time together, go do something fun. You mentioned those bodies near the crater? Oh- or maybe we could go screw with an alligator, or- uh- we could start another fire-" he's mid-babble as Caustic lowers the seed pouch held between his metal toes.

His sigh is heavy, as Caustic steels himself to continue listening to Octavio's ramblings. The wolf's shoulders slump, pulling his tail close and flicking the seed packet, listing to the delicious signs of life inside. He thinks of his ruined lab just yards away in the basement of his home. the broken portal device materializes in his mind's eye. Caustic pulls a paw to rub where the bridge of his nose would have been. "Please, I'm extremely tired. I just... want to plant these seeds, okay?" His nose points to the daredevil, watching as equal frustration morphs across Octane's face.

Motherfucker. Fine. He'll be patient, this time. He can only push Caustic so far. He'll toy with Caustic all damn day, but pushing him too far... means the chemist would push him away. He cringes at himself, an uncustomary, "Sorry," spilling out because he doesn't want Caustic to be mad at him. Caustic being mad meant throwing Octane to the gutter, and he can fully imagine him doing just that. Being the subject of Caustic's obsession is a privilege given to Octane and Octane alone- he couldn't risk losing such a treat, now could he? "Okay.... fine. What do you want me to do?"

// TLDR they're just hanging out on Caustic's porch with gardening stuff. go bug them

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Original code by lexasperated / artwork by quibbs, commissioned by dangerjunkie

[spacexual]

[toboggan]

Bickering and badmouthing were staple abilities within the hound's skillset. The bulky canine found himself so attached to arguing that he eventually considered it an art form. And when others partook in said art form, well, Leroy's proportionately short attention span latched on to the individuals involved. Heated verbal exchanges was up there with cuisine, water, and sleep in the essential components of life for him. The energy that radiated from such disputes satisfied him as if it were a second food source. In short, he thrived on squabbles of all kinds.

Hence the reason why the General found himself at the base of Dr. Caustic's homestead, not many metres away from the flank of Roy. The chemist and his companion had engaged in a rhubarb of sorts; it wasn't a necessarily feverish argument, yet it was enough to garner the leader's interest.

He liked to think that he was a little familiar with Dr. Caustic. The wolf came off as intelligent, and liked to experiment. Y'know, the cliche 'scientist' type tropes. However, he supposedly had a soft spot for making shit explode, as well as, apparently, annoying companions that got in the way of literally everything he was trying to accomplish. In much contrast to the doctor, Leroy held little to no knowledge on the cheetah which accompanied him. At a first glance, they came off as a high-energy fellow whose main drive was generating as much unstable energy as possible. They often broke into Spanish, and seemed to think very highly of themself. Where the fuck had Dr. Caustic picked up this nutjob, he wondered, and why did the two stick together? Nature worked in various ways, as evident with the two inseparable individuals before him, and none of them felt explainable.

What they were planting did not matter to him. The coati had expressed interest in the seedlings, but honestly, the process of growing vegetation was not one of any interest to the wolfhound. Maybe if plants grew in like three days, then he'd show a bit more enthusiasm - but, as everyone knows, plants don't like growing quickly, and instead choose to do so over months, sometimes even years. No, Leroy found himself much more interested in the relationship dynamic between these two, and how they somehow figured out to coincide with one another. "Hoooow's it goin' with you two?" he voices, eyeing the deuce up with intentions that, while not outright malicious, may be of troublesome origins.

[wormwood.]

☆ HUNG PICTURES OF PATRON SAINTS UP ON MY WALL TO REMIND ME THAT I AM A FOOL. TELL ME WHERE I CAME FROM, WHAT I WILL ALWAYS BE: JUST A SPOILED LITTLE KID WHO WENT TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL —

Aurum found it best not to think about the nature of Octane and Caustic's relationship. He already had enough issues with Caustic all on his own, but when one threw Octane into the equation? The angel honestly just found himself more confused than anything else. What was it that drove someone as methodical as Caustic to put up with someone like Octane? Hell, the wolf would probably have an aneurysm if he went a day without correcting anyone on his "doctor" title, so why was it that he allowed the daredevil to call him such names, and bug him constantly? Aurum had far more than enough on his mind as of late to keep him busy, so he honestly found it best just to let it go, and occasionally observe from afar when he was feeling particularly curious. After all, neither he nor Caustic was especially fond of the other's company, so why should he care if the two were a horrid or incredible match? All he needed to worry about was whether or not anything else was going to explode on their territory, and whether he needed to chew Caustic out for it. It certainly seemed like a constant possibility with the scientist around, not to mention Octane's utterly insane influence – even though Aurum had his doubts that Octane would get away with blowing anything up without Caustic shaking him around by the neck.

By all accounts, there was no reason for the lion to approach the odd couple... except for one thing. The presence of Roy. Having his son around once again was amazing for Aurum, who had spent two long months grueling over whether or not he would ever hear the boy's voice again. However, it brought with it the same worries that Aurum had when it came to all of his other children. Safety, shelter, happiness... he needed to look out for Roy just as he had done before his coma, and that involved making sure he didn't get sucked into the wrong crowd. He had already seen Ivan somewhat swayed and fascinated by Caustic, and he really didn't need Roy ending up that way either. Although the proxy had his doubts that such a thing would ever happen, considering Roy's rather traumatic experienced in the past with doctors and experiments – the full extent of which Aurum wasn't even truly aware of. Aurum had been keeping an eye on his son from afar thus far, just watching him and occasionally chiming in when he wasn't dealing with some other kind of work – after all, there was plenty to be done at the moment – but this time he felt the need to tag along, also drawn in by the sounds of bickering voices.

Coming up alongside Roy and giving a nod of his head to Leroy, Aurum then turned his attention to the task that Caustic and Octane were looking to accomplish. It was... interesting, seeing the odd layout that was a combination of Octane's carefree cleaning of the pots and Caustic's cold, meticulous mixing of the dirt. It honestly made the angel want to chuckle, deep down inside. Seeing as a couple of questions had already been asked, the lion saw fit to just sit back on his haunches, glancing the scene over before he spoke, "Trying to plant a garden, huh? If you need any help, just let me know. My earth elementals can make everything go quite a bit faster." He knew that some considered using elementals for gardening "cheating" – and he was fairly sure Caustic was one of those people – but he found that he had never really cared all that much. After all, if he didn't use elementals, the plants mostly just ended up dying. The proxy had, very unfortunately, the exact opposite of a green paw.

[div style="text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase; text-shadow: 0px 0px 2px #1B1B2F; font-size: 24px;"][color=#44437F]— AURUM

#psychosocial.

[Ivan]

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— Бра́тья Карама́зовы

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'Oh, so Caustic is one of those plant nerds.'

Alaric seems interested in herbs, his father likes plants, but Ivan just could not find them interesting. They were viewed in terms of their use instead. He didn't have any fondness for them, he thought of them only as means to something else. But in the wake of everything that had happened, Ivan was slowly beginning to rethink his life. Still, this previous prejudice of plants held, especially because it was the last thing he was looking at before everything went to shit.

Ivan had his paws set for Caustic's house already, it was probably well known that the young cat had developed a habit of trying to pester the wolf and this was one thing that retained its normalcy through everything else. This was when he discovered Caustic was a plant nerd, and he wasn't the only one — Aurum, Leroy, Octane, and someone new were all here.

Yeah, Octane. Ivan wasn't much different from the others in thinking that Caustic had found himself a strange friend. What sort of glue kept them together, Ivan wasn't sure. It was so highly unreasonable that Ivan was convinced he was missing a big piece of Caustic's personality and history. There was more than what the doctor was letting them in on and the saying goes that curiosity killed the cat.

When Ivan opened his mouth, it wasn't about the plants, but he had made notice of them. It was directed to Octane. "Wait, do you live here now?"

[CAUSTIC.]

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CAUSTIC AND OCTANE

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Caustic, now with his pots before him, started to poke holes into the soil with a toe of his paw. He pulls the daredevil over to show him the action. It's important to get Octavio's hands (paws) busy, so that he would be preoccupied.

When the first approaches, that boy of Aurum's, Roy, Caustic tilts his head. He lets one of the dots above his eyes raise. "Ah," There's the quiet beat of Caustic's tail thumping against the porch as he gets to talk about something he's interested in. "Fittonia albivenis," Latin rolls off his tongue in ease, "Or, 'Nerve Plants' I believe they are called." He holds up the seed packet between his toes to display the picture. "Quite the interesting specimen, I'm very attracted to their red veins, I hope they will grow in similar health as the photo."

Caustic's gaze moves up as the General himself approaches, feeling the Wolf's body move so he would sit up, tail up and ears at attention. It's... not a response he has control over. Leroy is one of the few here the rivaled Caustic in size. He feels... weird, around the other canine. He's either supposed to challenge him or respect him and the Wolf brain can't decide which to do. He grunts, letting Octavio speak. If Leroy was here, then the lion-

Ah, think of the devil and he will appear. "Good afternoon, Aurum." He can't relate to the lion much and they are already at odds with each other. He can... communicate on a few things though. He wonders if he should mention Roy's good health, but considers it may come across the wrong way. He elects for the response- "Hm... I'm interested. Try it on this one." He pushes the aforementioned plant to Aurum.

Finally, Ivan approaches, where Caustic's tail starts its slow wag again, but is silenced as the youngster's question is directed to his lab partner.

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Man, Caustic had friends? Fucking wack.

He's mostly preoccupied by twisting holes into the soil, legs tapping against the wood with each clank of platinum. Octane gives an attempted smile of bared teeth to Roy, his mask and goggles laying off to the side. "Hola! We're just hanging out-" He's silenced as Caustic pushes pots to him, and Octane sets to poking holes in the soil with the cheetah's paws.

Octane's ears tilt down and his mind already races around the possibilities as Leroy approached. Leroy is taller than Caustic, he quickly realizes. He's already imagining it- what they'd look like in a fight, who would win, if Leroy had any cool tricks or something... his tail lashes back and forth at the thought. "All good amigo, Caustic wanted to do something so I'm just kinda... hanging out. I think this is- soooooooo boring but-" he sees Caustic give a side-eye and shrugs.

He gives a nod to Aurum, about to speak, but his attention is pulled as Ivan approaches. Octane sit up, groaning a little and giving an, ehhhh, sound. He glances towards Caustic and their eyes meet for a moment. "Uh.... No, I don't think so. I can only tolerate this guy for so long, ya know?" Octane chirps as he laughs. "I still got like... things to do in Typhoon I guess. I should head back soon."

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Original code by lexasperated / artwork by quibbs, commissioned by dangerjunkie

[wormwood.]

☆ HUNG PICTURES OF PATRON SAINTS UP ON MY WALL TO REMIND ME THAT I AM A FOOL. TELL ME WHERE I CAME FROM, WHAT I WILL ALWAYS BE: JUST A SPOILED LITTLE KID WHO WENT TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL —

Watching Caustic and Octane interact was infinitely fascinating if one got invested enough in it. Hell, even Aurum found himself curiously tilting his head to one side as he watched Caustic poke holes in the soil, showing the motion to Octane before pushing pots over. Their relationship honestly seemed less like a romantic relationship – if one could even call it that, which the proxy very much had his doubts about – and more like a sort of owner and unruly pet relationship. Caustic was the exasperated owner, teaching Octane tricks just so that the other would stop bugging him for a while. It almost made Aurum want to yank Octane away from the scientist for his own good, even if he knew that would only end with him getting bitten. How long would it be before the antics of Caustic or Octane got the other killed? Before they got another tangler killed? Just the thought was enough to make the angel unsettled, his large form shifting and his claws sinking into the dirt below. He had to calm down. He had to stop dealing in hypotheticals... they would only lead to unnecessary anxiety. He could deal with any trouble Caustic or Octane caused as it came, just as he did with everyone else.

Nerve plants. It figured that Caustic would see fit to grow something so odd, although Aurum found himself wondering about what purposes the scientist had in mind for them. The proxy's full extent of knowledge on herbs and plants only extended as far as Moth and Alaric had shown him, and although the male was constantly trying to learn more, it was a slow process with his busy schedule. That being said, he had no way of guaranteeing if the wolf's plants would even survive for long within the strange atmosphere that Tanglewood growth had to it. He said as much, muttering as he gently lifted the edge of one of the packets with a paw, "I hope your plants grow alright... but don't be too disappointed if they don't. Tanglewood has a very peculiar environment, especially with the radiation, so it seems almost random what thrives here and what dies." Aurum had, at one point, just assumed that the reason why so many plants around his home died was because of his anti-green paw. However, although that was definitely a contributing factor, it wasn't the sole cause, and it seemed as though some plants simply... ceased when they ended up on Tanglewood soil.

The angel found himself torn from his thoughts of dead plants when Caustic officially acknowledged him, the lion's head raising and his tail flicking in greeting. He said simply in response, a bit of a smile curled upon his muzzle, "Afternoon to you, Caustic." He knew that it was petty, his stubborn insistence on not calling the canine Dr. Caustic, but that pettiness was one of the few things that put a smile on his face these days, and he intended to hold onto that. Despite this, he wasn't about to deny Caustic's request for a demonstration of his elementals. Nodding his head, the lion took a deep breath before he stretched a paw forward, focusing on the small plant and using his elementals to push it forward in its growth cycle. If his powers were working as intended – which they should have been, considering he hadn't overexerted himself that day – the plant would grow and spring to life, with wide, colorful leaves spreading out from the center of the growth.

[div style="text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase; text-shadow: 0px 0px 2px #1B1B2F; font-size: 24px;"][color=#44437F]— AURUM

#psychosocial.

[alaric g.]

    It was undeniable that the explosion had placed significant tension upon the already rocky relationship between Alaric and Caustic. Any semblance of trust or friendship that they'd built up to had been dashed as a result of the aftermath of Caustic's failed experiment, although admittedly there hadn't been much trust or friendliness to begin with. The tabby, who'd previously been suspicious of the wolf's modus operandi as well as his purposes, found that his skepticism only grew as a result of the secrecy that Caustic carried himself with. This was, perhaps, a bit hypocritical of Alaric, who also happened to keep his personal life under wraps.

    Octane, on the other hand, was another story. Alaric had not had any interactions with the cheetah aside from the time when they had briefly interacted at the border, when Octane had oh-so-lovingly referred to Caustic as Fuckhead. An endearing nickname, truly, and one that the tabby was considering adopting into his own vernacular. Besides that, Alaric knew that Octane existed, and that was about it. Oh yeah, he was kinda irritating too. Had Alaric chosen to spend more time around the cheetah, it was likely that he'd grow even more incensed with Octane's frankly childish behavior.

    Plants, though, happened to be an area that Alaric specialized in. He'd devoted quite a bit of time to studying not only herbs, but their appearances and applications as well. He supposed that if he hoped to become a medic one day, that was essential information that he was bound to learn at some point. This hypothesis had proven true, as Isaac had attempted on a few occasions in their lessons to give Alaric a pop quiz—he'd passed each time with flying colors. As expected, of course.

    It was for no reason in particular that Alaric had stumbled upon a sizable gathering consisting of Caustic, Octane, Leroy, Aurum, and someone that the tabby did not recognize. For a moment he gazed from afar out of a desire to avoid interacting with the wolf, but upon realizing that the topic at hand was, in fact, plants, he approached the group.

    He ascertained from what he heard of he conversation that Caustic was now planting nerve plants. He'd never come across them in any of his herbology journals, meaning that there was probably no real medical use for them. He supposed that they might eventually look nice, but otherwise...

    "Feel free to stick around as long as you want, Octane," Alaric stated, uncharacteristic of his normal icy demeanor. He glanced at Caustic momentarily with an uninterested stare before it returned to Octane. As long as the cheetah was around, there would be someone to annoy Caustic, which was perfectly fine and dandy with Alaric.

♔ don't do love, don't do friends

[OCTANE.]

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OCTANE AND CAUSTIC

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They did not consider themselves so strange. No, when Octane stared at Caustic, saw the momentary gentleness he showed to plants, knowing those hands had killed him and other contestants alike over and over.
It's thrilling.
Octane smiles, tail flicking against the ground as he twists himself, pulling the foot off his left leg off again with his paws. He holds it between his toes, a flat, slender piece he was ready to use as a shovel- Caustic pushes a trowel to him. "Oh, uh- ok," he catches the wolf's eyeroll, reattaching his leg and fumbling with the tool in shaking paws. How's he suppose to hold this?

He glances at the lot of them, then to Caustic, because, fuck, he is not about to get embarrassed. Octane rings his toes around it to hold it, digging the stupid little holes. They are not romantic partners- it doesn't work like that. Octavio didn't work like that and Caustic understood. There was much Tanglewood had yet to understand about them, about their motives and who they were outside of the forms that confined their souls.

Most of all, they had yet to understand the extent of Octane's, well, everything.

Octane watches as Aurum brings the plant to life, fur uncharacteristically bristling as he watches Caustic's eyes light up at the sight. Why is that cool to you? Am I not enough?

"That's amazing, Aurum." Finally, a genuine compliment from the chemist. Caustic watches the plant come to life with a starry-eyed expression akin to some kind of child-like joy. Caustic's tail wags as he pulls the now-mature plant to his collection of fauna. He holds it up to his eyes,  "Equally fascinating, it seems to be completely healthy upon precursory observations. A study will be conducted over it and it's kin in the following..." He doesn't want to state an amount of time. It's an acknowledgment they are trapped here. "...time."

"Huh?" Octane's attention is dragged to the tomcat, and shakes his head, staring as his brain buffers through whatever Alaric said to him. "Oh, oh- uh, gracias, amigo!" he cackles, chirping. "Maybe he'll call me next time before he blows up another machine," he cackles, smirking as he meets the wolf's annoyed gaze.

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Original code by lexasperated / artwork by quibbs, commissioned by dangerjunkie