OPEN POISON FILLS THE CUP OF THE CARPENTER

[Chernabog]

"DOWN WITH ALL THAT'S GOOD AND CLEAN!" ✭ tags ── The Viper Island was one of Chernabog's favorite parts of the territory. Full of serpents that could, if they bit her enough, could kill her. She held great reverence for these bush vipers - even though she was tasked to capture one. What a treat!

She prowled the lush forests, claws digging into the soft earth beneath her feet. For an island full of vipers, they were sometimes hard to find. When she did find one, she was surprised to hear it viciously hissing at her - speaking to her. A very angry, very sentient, and very pretty viper.

"Unhand me, you pathetic thing!" It - he? She? The snake sounded male, but Chernabog wasn't about to be fooled by that - hissed at her angrily as it thrashed in her talons. She stilled it with a cradling talon just behind it's head. "Shut it, before I make the regretful decision of dropping you."

She landed on the stretch of black sand just before the system, grasping the still-wriggling viper in one talon. It struck out at her talons a few times, unable to completely pierce the scales. "Can you stop? I'm not going to hurt you."

[METEOR]

METEOR

Meteor poked his head out of the cave system. Clearly, he gave the Viper Island task to Chernabog because she was partially resistant to the snakes’ venom, but he also gave her the task because she’d probably do it immediately, without delay. Even so, the celestial lion was surprised how fast the dragon succeeded in capturing one of their scaly neighbors.

He walked the short distance down the mountain to the black sands beach. He glanced between Cherna and the angry little noodle in her claws.

“Did you succeed in finding a sentient one?”

[kamo ichiro.]

Ichiro hadn't attended the meeting on account of nap time taking place at conveniently the same time on that particular day, so he had no idea who had been given what tasks. Safe to assume, then, that when he heard Chernabog and Meteor talking outside and went to investigate (see: be nosy), he hadn't expected to find Scale Mom with a snake in her grasp.

He paused, blinked a little, decided he'd seen weirder things, and continued on with his mission to be nosy. Particularly now that a talking snake had been added into the equation. Ichiro hadn't seen a talking snake since, like, he was born!

"It's trying to eat Chernabog. We should eat it first," Ichiro advised sagely, looking up at the two adults and blinking slowly.

[KNOX.]

Knox did not care for the vipers of Viper Island one bit. No, she steered clear of there like most and thought it a little unfortunate they would now be paying more attention to the creepy little things. Wriggly, weird heads, beady little eyes, hissing that only sounded like a mockery of cats like herself. Probably made for horrible meals as well, all that risk for the reward of a tube of pure scales and bones. They could make better decorations, as long as their head was disconnected. Oh, she hopped the damn things weren't sentient.

From her spot on the beach where she rested, she watched as Chernabog landed with one in tow. The sight made it stop grooming its heavy paws midlick, which turned to a slight grimace as it stood. It wanted to observe, out of morbid curiosity despite its reservations, but no way in Hell would she stay within any distance that the viper could possibly strike her. The thought made her skin crawl and she could only hope Cherna had a good grip on the thing as she approached, but stopped a comical distance from the gathered group. That was far enough to participate without risk, surely.

Ichiro had close to the right idea at least, but she would rather tie it in a knot than eat it herself.

[Chernabog]

"DOWN WITH ALL THAT'S GOOD AND CLEAN!" ✭ tags ── Chernabog looked over to Meteor as he approached, sitting down on her haunches to cradle the pissed-off snake in her talons. It kept writhing, hissing profanities at her in a way she found more amusing than annoying or insulting. "I did. It's.. not as happy to see me as I am to see it."

Her attention shifted to Ichiro - the little scaled thing had become somewhat of a object of maternal interest to her, but she distanced the little feline-serpent from the viper with a snort. Eat it!? "We are not eating it, Ichiro. Could be.. valuable."

Finally, her ancient eyes turned to Knox, seeing the other keep a fair distance. She could understand - if her scales were far thinner, she'd be trying to keep them at a distance too. Her lips curled into an ugly grin, "Knox, come to see us bump heads and figure out what to do with this lovely thing?" She asked, raising her talons slightly to show the angry snake in the light. Beautiful bright colors, a shame it hated her.

[METEOR]

METEOR

From the snake in Chernabog’s claws: “Unhand me, you handed-beast!”

Meteor frowned and glanced at the hissing viper. He looked to Knox and Ichiro. Silently, he nodded to the hybrid—by Requiem and Vayu, why did Chernabog have to have a ridiculous blind spot around venomous snakes that could kill most of them with one bite?—but only when Cherna was distracted with the viper gnawing on her.

From the snake: “Your hands are gross!! These six almost-snakes are detective without proper spine flexibility and, obviously, no mouths! But I will still eat your defective almost-snake-handsies!”

Meteor sighed with a side-eye at Chernabog. “Well, it has provided valuable information. There are sentient vipers on Viper Island. I suppose, if you do love that thing, you can keep it in a proper cage. It doesn't seem smart enough to escape a proper terrarium.”

From the snake, as it failed to bite Chernabog again. “AHH, YOU ARE INFERIOR AS A LEGGY HANDED-BEAST YET YOU RESIST MY FANGS?! UNHOLY HANDED-BEAST!!”

Meteor blinked. “Maybe not sentient. Maybe conversational is a better word.”

[KNOX.]

Knox hardly took her eyes off the viper itself. Well, they could talk. Just great. A whole lot of insults too, it sounded quite jealous of having limbs. She nodded, grimacing when it tried to strike Chernabog again. "More or less. Are you really going to keep that thing? How valuable can it be?" Freaky little scale-tube aside, she certainly would not be very fond of keeping something around if all it did was yell at her. Though, she absolutely was much more worried about the possibility of it escaping and attacking someone. Particularly worried for herself. That was not exactly the glorious death it hoped for.

[DEAD EYE]

Unlike the rest, Dead Eye did not mind Viper Island. In fact, he preferred it. The canine often travelled to the island to mingle when his caves were too crowded with the descendants. As a result, the vipers grew a liking to his presence and did not dare to flash their fangs at him. He planned to bring them their share of food, evident by the small mammalian meat strung around his neck, but paused in his adventures. The sound of an upset snake grasped his attention instead, causing him to look over. He sighed. At least they did not plan on eating it.

Upon walking over, he intentionally shook out his neck to wiggle the meat around it. "If you plan on befriending them, you might want to offer something first," he pointed out. What he did not say was that feeding the snake would likely put them out of commission for a few days while they digested their meal. The snake had to be sentient enough to understand when someone was going to undermine them, hence why he spoke carefully. 

The canine stopped next to Chernabog. He lowered his shoulder over to the dragon, sliding the meat down to one side of him. "Take your share," came his offer.