-Break-
Location: Eastern edge of Nialathrú
Orb runs at full speed towards a group of people working vigorously. Each of the beastkin covered in clothes made from Orb's hair hold shovels, and they dig through all of the dirt that makes up the wall of the eastern edge of Nialathrú, which has formed a tunnel that moves deep within the area. They scream and yell as they work to motivate themselves, so they don't break down from the pain.
"Who are we!".
"The strongest!"
"Why do we dig?"
"To sustain ourselves!"
"When shall we stop?"
"WHEN WE ARE DEAD!"
"THAT WAS I LIKE TO HEAR, NOW KEEP DIGGING MY MEN!"
Each of them digs like they have nothing left to lose in life, but one by one, each of them falls, unable to produce enough strength or effort to keep themselves going.
So when Orb arrives, with a bag tied at his back, he says, "Refreshments!"
The beastkin who mere moments ago where about to collapse in on themselves in despair look at Orb as if he is the very incarnation of joy itself as they run towards him and take what he has brought to them.
As the move towards him, Orb pats all of their heads, and says, "You guys have done tremendous work, and I can't thank all of you enough for how much effort you have put in for everyone."
The grown men cry as they see the heavenly face of Orb say such kind words towards them. But as they start to cry, a noise still emanates from the tunnel they were digging, causing Orb to say, "What's going on?"
Proteus says, "That level of muscle and strength is something I wish for every night."
Malachy says, "The endless levels of stamina he has brings me to tears over how amazing it is! I feel like I should fall to my knees and start calling him big brother."
Proteus says, "You only have one brother!"
"Are you that strong?"
The beetle brothers start and fight, and as they do, Orb runs into the tunnel and sees Cyrus still digging away like he is lost in a trance. He continually strikes the dirt in front of him, removing as much as he possibly can.
With his legacy, he releases darkness that absorbs the dirt in front of him, and then shoots it out behind him. He moves in an almost rhythmic motion with how fluid his movements are.
But as Orb looks at him, he stops for a moment in shock. Cyrus's expression is intense, almost as if his very life hangs in the balance as he works. No joy or satisfaction is found in it. If one were to see this look on his face without knowing he wished to be here, they would think he is a slave.
As Orb sees this, he moves towards Cyrus, and he hears him say, "I must get stronger, I must get stronger. Not again, never again!"
Orb, using his knees, hits Cyrus in the back of his knees, hoping to collapse him and snap him out of it. But instead, he damages both of his knees and falls to the ground, then shouts, "OWWWWW!"
Hearing Orb's pain, Cyrus snaps out of his trance, and turns around to see Orb, and says, "W-W-What ha-a-appened?"
Giving Cyrus a thumbs up, Orb says, "Nothing important, I just messed up a hit."
Cyrus picks Orb up and runs out of the cave, saying, "Doctor! DOCTOR!"
Throwing Orb on the ground near the other workers, he takes as much cloth as he can find and wraps himself up in it, then stuffs some of the food around him into Orb's mouth.
And then says, "He can't breathe, he needs air!"
Then he places his hands on Orb's chest and starts to push down, nearly breaking his rip cage, and as Orb lies unable to fight back from the crushing force that is Cyrus, the rest of the Fanalis grab Cyrus and say, "You're killing him!"
Soon after a little bit of a skirmish, Cyrus calms down, and Orb is free.
On his knees, smashing his head into the ground, Cyrus says, "Sorry."
Holding his ribs, Orb says, "No problem, but just make an effort to never try and resuscitate anyone from now on, ok?"
"Ok."
Looking at the large tunnel they had dug, Orb says, "You all have been working your buts off. At this rate, we will almost certainly reach the ocean."
Cyrus says, "I don't kno-o-ow if our pace if ok th-h-h-hough, don't we ne-e-e-eed this now-w-w-w."
"It would be nice to have a direct water source as soon as we can, but for now, all we can do is dig slowly. We were working on maybe catching a few Ignamoles to dig it for us, but they have proven to be a giant issue to catch, so we have no chance of doing that anytime soon."
Rubbing Cyrus's head, Orb says, "Just do it little by little, and I am sure you'll eventually reach your goal."
With a saddened look, Cyrus lowers his head and says, "Alright."
Location: City of Prosúnfore; Gréasán lonrach Tailor
Standing in a giant nest within the city of Prosúnfore stands Orb with Suzuka hiding behind him, and in front of them, a man falls down from the sky, and says, "I told you not to come back here, my new king."
The man is a spider beastkin with four legs coming out of his back, and with five eyes on one side of his face with three on the other covered by a metal exoskeleton.
He wears a fine silk suit with so many detailed patterns on it, one would think it is some kind of mural. Along with a series of other beastkin like birds, ants, frogs, and moths. Each of them dressed in what can only be called equally gaudy clothes.
As the man drops in front of Orb, he quickly makes a chair out of silk that emanates from his four back legs, then sits on it with his legs crossed and his head resting on his fist. "So, please do tell why you are here?"
"As you asked, you said I should only come back once I have managed to find a design to inspire your soul."
Snickering, he says, "I lied to get you out of here, you brat. Do you really think I would even humour you?"
"Just so you know, I have a rather great sense of style Áengus."
Áengus looks Orb up and down, then starts to laugh to himself, and says, "It must be great to live in your little bubble, isn't it, but I guess those blessed with natural beauty don't respect the craft of enhancing one's beauty."
Orb hairs turn rosewood, but then he rubs his head and says, "It doesn't really matter what you say, because I happen to know you far better than you'd think."
Orb turns around and grabs Suzuka, who is hiding behind him, but she struggles and fights back as he tries to move her. Until eventually, he gets her in front of him.
She starts to tremble and shake, but Orb says, "It's showtime and pushes her forward."
Turning around and glaring at him, Suzuka says, "I am going to kill you."
"I expected that anyways."
"Please, can you get this grubby child away from me?" Áengus says.
"Grubby?"
Smiling, Áengus says, "Yes, it's the kindest word I can use to describe this thing that happens to be gracing my eyeballs this wonderful day. Your messy hair, your nervous tapping, that unstable eye contact, your dirty hands, and that gi which doesn't fit your body in the slightest, all of it is just disgusting, now vanish, you dung hill."
As the words he says file at Suzuka, Orb says, "Oh no," and Suzuka snaps.
She dashes forward and grabs him, and as his people move in to defend him, they are blown away and sent flying by Suzuka's tails, so Orb moves forward and says, "No killing!"
Suzuka takes Áengus by the neck and then stuffs a rolled-up scroll in his face. Then she says, "Read it!"
Taking the scroll in his hands, Áengus says, "Fine then. Let me see the trash you managed to come up with!"
Áengus opens it up, and then blood starts to pour out from his eyeballs as he is sent flying backwards. All of the other tailors in the room rush up to him and gather around his body, asking, "Boss, are you alright?"
"Did she attack you?"
"We won't let you die no matter what."
But then from his mouth he says, "S-S-So beautiful."
Rising up, he moves towards Suzuka, and says, "From every aspect of the design on this page, I can tell of your love and passion. I didn't know such essence could ever be captured on a page; only a god could accomplish such a feat. This goes past anything I could imagine."
With a smug look of superiority, Suzuka says, "HAHAHAHAHAHA! OF course it is too be expected you fool, now bow your head and give me your neck to crush you loser."
"Right away, my queen!"
As he puts his neck on the ground, Suzuka tries to step on it so everyone in the room moves to restrain them both, and Orb says, "Suzuka, remember when Maple walked in on you making a song about her."
Suddenly, all of the ego in Suzuka's body vanishes, and her face turns red as she remembers her past actions. Then she says, "Kill me! Kill me now!"
Hugging her, Orb says, "It's ok. Maple has a bunch of embarrassing secrets as well."
Turning to me, she says, "LIKE WHAT!"
Biting her nose, Orb says, "Come down, you pervert."
She pulls her head back and says, "You're the pervert. What kind of man bites a young lady's nose?"
Snickering, Orb says, "Lady?"
Suzuka starts a fight with Orb, but then Áengus gets in between the two of them and says, "Enough! WE MUST START MAKING THESE BEAUTIES!"
Picking Suzuka up, he says with sparkling eyes, "My Danu, please stay and watch over us with your blessing."
With the eyes of a man looking at a dog, he says, "You go get this list of things, hurry up, we have things to do."
Orb's hair turns an even deeper rosewood, and Suzuka laughs at the treatment Orb receives. Causing him to rub his knuckle against her head.
-Break-
Location: Prosúnfore
As Orb walks through the street with a series of materials against his back, he holds up a piece of paper and says, "Red branch seeds."
ΦWhen this place was first formed and a hierarchy was established between the beastkin, they had a privately owned economy which worked well enough for the most part.
But because of the extremely limited resources of the beastkin down here, it essentially reached a point where extremely few people had monopolies on key resources and they could very easily hike up the prices on the key goods people needed to survive, so the government had to step it, and take control of almost all key industries.
But that had another issue, which is that because beastkin have extremely specialised needs, it's almost impossible for the government to keep up with all of the information necessary to allocate resources.
So they found a fix to this; they did three things. First was paper money, which allowed them to standardise trade more, which also made it far easier to control trade. An example of this is that they were able to put an exact numerical limit on the price of certain goods, allowing them to make more things private again.
Second was controlling the beastkin's genealogy. By making sure beastkin bred with animals that had more robust bodies that needed less food and water to operate, they ensured that there would be less demand on these essential industries decreasing their power.
If you take these two factors, plus the amount of wars the beastkin fought amongst themselves within Nialathrú, their economy was able to be stable enough.
Though I find it funny that the managed to make a fiat currency like Cordum did. Despite that being a rather strong advancement when it was first introduced, yet they were still able to copy it in some form. "How amazing."