A Realization.

[Rosco Agassi]

Rosco stands in front of the notice board, his own personal notebook held open to a page labelled "Hummerocs". He's glancing between it and the notice on the wall, comparing notes and swearing under his breath. Swearing turns to softly scolding himself, which he shakes off quickly. The book slams shut and is placed in his bag and he sets off towards the main door of the inn.

"Can't have shit in Holdfast."

He finds Ceridwynn exactly where he expects. The earth circle makes a quiet place to reflect and talk, and few others spend much time there. He slides down the tree and lands himself sitting next to them, his eyes fixed forwards - an admission of guilt, not able to look his mentor in the eyes.

"It was me," he says softly, "I was with Apple when we found those organs." Another pause as he wrings his hands, straightens his pants, does about fifty different nervous tics in a matter of seconds. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize what that meant, that there's generations of them out there now and—" his voice catches and he sighs. He knows he is speaking to Ceridwynn as more of a mentor than a friend in this moment, and he knows it's irrational to seperate the two. If one is disappointed in him, so is the other.

"What are we gonna do about him?"

[Ceridwynn Fildais]

Ceridwynn is bundled up at the circle in their cloak, an air of annoyance and rage around them. They look up as Rosco approaches and stare as he talks, biting their cheek the whole time and finally snapping as the final question is asked "Oh hes fucking dead!" They take a few deep breaths and pulling the cloak tighter. "We get what info we can from him and make it quick. Don't give folks time to get a stasis off. Hes dedicated enough to his work, he'll continue it if we let him go. Tem goes too, that motherfucker...he showed me the sacs too and made out like they were normal... We cut off the head of the research team, track down their documents, burn em, keep em for ourselves, what the fuck ever."
"As for you, I knew you were the one. Theo sent me a dream the night he learned. I expec-..." They bite their tongue and begin to pace the grove "/This/ is why communication is important, Rosco. This was almost missed and town, the guild, would've felt the consequences for /years./ The biggest thing a beastiary guild does that the average person gives a fuck about is put out warnings, you've seen 'em all the time. It saves lives. I can't notify anyone of fuck all if i'm not told the shit I don't see."

[Rosco Agassi]

Rosco seems to make himself smaller with every word, by the time Ceridwynn even gets to talking about him he's practically swimming in his cloak's fabric, body scrunched impossibly tight. He takes a deep breath, focusing his emotion long enough to formulate a reply. It's the way he often looks before a spark of rage, before he starts to fight.

Instead of rage, however, it's fear. Not that Ceridwynn would be able to notice, but gripping his cloak tight from the inside, his knuckles are white and his body strains from tension.

His voice is as tiny as he is, but he is firm in his response, "You were gone." A false sense of confidence, easy to see through now that he speaks and his inflection strains from holding back tears. "Not only were you gone, but you were gone for weeks. By the time you got home I was just happy you were alive, I barely even thought to mention the Hummerocs to you. I wrote it down to talk about, but—" he's rambling and he knows it. He cuts himself off. "I'm sorry. I want to help make things right."

[Ceridwynn Fildais]

Ceridwynns anger disipates at Roscos fear. They sign, deflated "Yeah, we fucked up. In trying to protect town, we left it vulnerable and made everyone worried sick. And all for what? Some more dead bodies and our own sick pride..."
They walk towards Rosco, hovering a hand over his shoulder before giving a soft pat "Look, we've caught it when we can still fix it, thats the main thing. I get it, I do. Youre a smart halfling, I just keep forgetting how new a beastiar you are, all the folks in the guild are. We'll tweak it, I gotta be more hands on with folks. Im new to this shit too.
For what its worth, with shit with Manthree, I don't like it. I didn't want it to end like this. Hes a bright mind and a smart dude, hes just....I dunno, out of touch? Lost 'is spark of humanity? Or maybe for the beasts. Its...its disgusting."

[Rosco Agassi]

Tension starts to leave Rosco's body. He slowly unfurls, clears his throat and loosens his grip. He still looks uneasy, but the confidence is easier to feign. "That's a whole other can of worms," he mumbles at mention of the vengeance mission.

"I figured if we could get him to keep his pets somewhere isolated then everything would be alright. Maybe if we had asked when he first met him, but now..." He sighs. "I want to talk to him first, the two of us. We need to find out if there's any more species he's done this too, cull them along with the Hummerocs."

"I was really hoping he was a good guy. Powerful ally." He's careful to avoid the word 'friend'. It's harder to lose a friend than it is an ally.

[Ceridwynn Fildais]

They shrug "out of sight and mind doesnt mean itd be harmless...I thought as a beastier he'd respect what they are. The alchemy experiments were one thing, potions are temporary. A couple of beast with some contact gels doesn't damage an ecosystem. This fundamentally changes the beasts on a meaningful, longterm level."
They flop on the ground qith an exasperated sigh "I was gonna tell 'im his experiments were gonna lead to folks hating what he loves. I do question how good he is though, keeping us in the dark. I gave 'im the benefit of the doubt and thought the deaths and the Hellion were unintentional. But he knows these are gonna be killing machines. He designed them that way.
The real kicker is that its viable now, its self replicating. That means some Imperial assholes gonna listen and thats the most dangerous part of all."

[Rosco Agassi]

Rosco toys with a piece of bark that had fallen from the tree. "He looked so sad when I told him about the hellion. He looked upset that it was in discomfort, that it was a monstrosity rather than a beast. I thought he cared."

"He told me he wanted to breed the Hummeroc to be mounts. Why they would need these extra organs for that is beyond me, but I'm starting to think maybe war and destruction were his plans all along. Why else would you need an alchemy sac with slow poison? Why would you want to make Hummeroc poisonous?" His voice is slowly rising, exasperation and passion mixing into one. "And if he finds them so interesting, if-if he thinks they're so great - which, to be fair, they are the coolest beast - why does he want to change them so much?" He falls back into a slump once his rant is over, exhaling a heavy breath.

"They've always been my favourite, aside from the float sheep. He's ruining them and I'm mad about it. I'm more mad that I didn't realize he was doing it when it was /right in front of me/. He made me look like a fool." Now that his own terror has melted away, Rosco's anger seems to shine through. It's not just Manthree, it's a cumulation of the last few months' events boiling over, with one easy target to take it all out on.

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