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  • Beqanna

    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura


    [open]  I met the devil when I was a child, and I've never forgotten
    #1


    There are some monsters in these woods that did not come from another world. They’ve been here a long time.

    Whenever they aren’t lurking through Pangea’s canyons and caverns, they like to come here. To the deepest part of the forest. Here, where its usually so dark anyway one might not even know the sun had gone out.

    But when the eclipsed had occurred while they were out in the open, this pair had brayed with what someone might call delight. They are built for hunting in the dark, after all.

    Black emotionless eyes take in what they can. Even for this pair, it is not as easy to see now as it normally is at night. The shadows are thick here, where not even the small halo of light reaches.

    They are hunting the creatures that have crawled out of earth and flesh. Mostly for sport (if they were capable of finding anything fun - this would be it) but also because even this feral pair can tell that these creatures do not belong. They are other. Which makes them fair game.

    Movement catches their attention and they pause, knife-wielding tails flicking through the air in silent arcs. A low hiss escapes the smallest of the pair until a flash of silver teeth from the crowned one silences them.

    They separate, moving through the brush with practiced ease. Somehow, their quarry is blacker than the rest of the shadows - sleek and unlike any shape they’ve seen before. It moves on its hind-legs, dragging behind it long forelimbs with curled claws. Colours seem to skitter over the black shape, pooling and shifting in an odd iridescence.

    It carries with it the scent of blood.

    When it turns its eyes to them, they are a blinding white. A token of the mare who had carried it from the netherworld and birthed it here. It hisses and the pair lunge from opposing sides. They are nearly silent in their attack, for they are not angry. Not yet. The creature is difficult for their teeth to get a hold of, though, and their teeth seem to slide off of it’s not-quite-skin. It is slippery and their frustration grows but they do not give up.

    That is not something they are built for.


    RIPLEY AND NOSTROMO

    twenty-eight eaten to date




    @[The Monsters] do your thing with Nostromo's xenomorph trait, please! <3
    Reply
    #2
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    She is called from the shadows when the darkness overcomes their world. Predators are more willing to hunt under the cover of night — this is something of a fact in any world — and it might be one reason why their Prey feels tense and flighty beneath the eclipse. Nexu is thankful she isn’t Prey beneath this moonless sky and her steps are no less silent or confident as she moves through the black Forest.

    A piece of her itches to hunt the monsters that have crawled from an unseen hole. Like her grandmother and aunt, she is aware that they are Other (coming from someplace beyond their known world) and it makes her teeth yearn to shred them and see how their unfamiliar, slippery meat tastes. She has not given chase yet in this unbound night. She has waltzed among their shadows; a pointed, tall swathe of starless midnight that moves as silent as a hare.

    And when she hears the fight, she pauses.

    It doesn’t take Nexu long to reach them, but she waits in the undergrowth to watch for a moment. Her dark eyes are drawn to the two Predators. They are different from Family, the larger one with a crown upon her head that labels her Queen. They smell like dust and blood and excitement and she drinks in the smells with quivering nostrils. The Other is strange and twisting, unlike anything she has seen before, and her acidic blood stirs with interest.

    Help.

    So she springs into their midst, angling her head low and tipping her chin toward her muscled, armored chest so her prongs might damage the oil-slicked Other.
    credit to fangs of bearbones.



    @[Ripley and Nostromo]
    Reply
    #3
    @[Ripley and Nostromo] your xenomorph trait is safe... for now (nothing happens).
    Reply
    #4


    It is not often that an emotion is strong enough to pierce this pair. They’ve known nothing but hunger and anger for so long, everything else has become dull echoes.

    But now, surprise causes the smaller one to falter. It’s eyes widen almost imperceptably at the sight of another queen joining them, another one of them. The scent of this newcomer is completely unknown to them. This isn’t one of the master’s hive but it must be family? Thoughts come just as difficult to these two as emotions, though, and it is not possible for either of them to attempt to riddle out what the presence of this one means.

    In another second, it does not matter. They recognize enough to see this addition as an ally against their current foe and a small thrum of excitement pulses through them as they all surge together.

    The falter enables the oil-slick creature an opportunity to strike, slipping past the newcomer and its long claws hook into the smaller one’s neck armour. It tears through it, not quite as easily as skin but too easily all the same, and a spray of acidic blood arcs into the air. Some of it lands on the creature, which hisses and recoils.

    The horned-one surges forward to bite it, to spear it with its horns, and it curls a long forelimb around this one’s neck and squeezes while leaving the other free to strike at either the bleeding one or the younger queen. Its white eyes flicker between the trio and its not-quite-skin seems to boil at its frustration.

    Or is that fear?



    RIPLEY AND NOSTROMO

    twenty-eight eaten to date




    @[The Monsters] hello it's me again: do your thing with Nostromo's xenomorph trait, please! <3
    Reply
    #5
    @[Ripley and Nostromo] your xenomorph trait has mutated into animation. You're welcome.
    Reply
    #6
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    Nexu doesn’t miss her target very often. She is a lonely shadow, unlike this pair, and it has made her an excellent hunter. She has been forced to rely solely on her own strengths to feed herself; and though there had been a time where Partner had caught her meals on occasion, these infrequent gifts had never dulled her capabilities. In this way, her seclusion from a hive has sharpened her, made her into a Predator fit to hunt any Prey with deadly independence.

    Yet she miscalculates this charge and when her crown swings on empty air, she gives a low chitter of disapproval. She doesn’t like to fail (and the lingering weight of Partner’s disappearance combined with the fact that she has failed her species so far, with no hive or children of her own, further fuels a fire that has already been burning) and her eyes flash with anger when the creature lands a blow on the smaller Predator.

    The monster, white-eyed and slippery, grabs the Queen and even Nexu knows how precarious of a situation this is. Father and Sisters had been her hive as a child, but none of the daughters had grown into a high-crowned Queen. But there is something instinctual — a thrumming war-drum in her blood — that tells her she must protect the Queen at all costs, even if it means sacrificing her own life as the next generation.

    She doesn’t charge, certain the creature’s claws will slice her thick armor, but instead nimbly dashes to its backside. With its forelimb grasping the Queen, it would be difficult for the Other to pivot in such a way as to face Nexu. And she is correct; despite the monster’s size and agility, it can’t twist to face her, and nor does it appear willing to do so, with the Queen and her companion facing its front.

    It doesn’t take her long to identify the creature’s tender points (a technique Father taught her, for every creature has a weakness) and as she races forward quickly, she aims her crown for the splashes of boiling oil where the acidic blood had sprayed. Her only hopes are that the Queen will keep the Other tied to its place and her approach will be silent enough to be a surprise.
    credit to fangs of bearbones.


    @[Ripley and Nostromo]
    Reply
    #7


    The shadow beast screams as the young queen connects with it, expanding the wound caused by the acid blood and gouging, tearing it. Its grip looses and able to breathe freely once more, the horned queen clicks her approval at the young one for a fine blow.

    Frantic and angry, the beast can surely feel that it is not going to escape. Its movements become wild, erratic. The smallest of the trio lunges to strike and misses, a hiss escaping it as the beast strikes out again. When that clawed hand moves to the smallest of the trio, it does not connect with its armoured hide this time. It passes through that domed head and what it grasps and yanks out is not something that can be quantified or seen.

    But it is felt.

    A scream escapes that one and it - she - falls to her knees. Something that is almost concern ripples through the eldest queen but her black eyes are on the wounded beast. One battle at a time and it is as though she can smell the end of it on the air. Her attention is focused and cannot be shaken. That knife tail flicks in the shadows as this monster surges forward, accidentally grazing the fallen mare and slicing a thin, curving cut down her back where there is no armor now to protect her.

    The blood that flicks from that tail as it moves up and away from the writhing figure on the ground is red and utterly mortal.

    Two battles are happening simultaneously.

    The first with the beast, the demon, and now a pair of monsters instead of a trio. The horned one snaps silvered teeth, grasping at slippery flesh and tearing further what has already been injured by acid and the crown of the other. It’s attempting to keep it between her and the other queen, so they can trade blows. So they can end it. A curved horn catches in and almost removes one of those clawed hands, severing whatever passes for tendons in such a creature and it hangs there, limp and useless.

    The second battle is an internal one with a mare that is no longer a monster. The first coherent thought in her entire life is that of pain. There is still acid blood on her neck from where the creature had sliced and it burns, her skin sizzling as it is eaten away in holes and chunks. This pain drowns out what she would feel over the slice down her back. Chasing that thought is an instinct she has never felt before - one to run. To get away from the scuffle happening. Because she knows without thinking about it that as soon as the creature is dealt with, these armoured monsters will be hungry. And she cannot trust that the horned queen (her mother, this new brain implants the word with a weight to it) will recognize her now.

    With difficulty she rises.

    And then without the weight of her domed head, without the armor, without her tail as a counter balance, she falls. As clumsy and as dumb as a newborn foal, it takes this mare several tries and then she stumbles away into the forest - hitting tree after tree as she does without her hunter’s instincts to guide her in the darkness.



    RIPLEY AND NOSTROMO

    twenty-eight eaten to date




    @[Nexu]
    Reply
    #8
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    While she can’t see the creature’s flesh ripping from itself, she can feel the warmth of its lifeblood spill onto her head, and she can hear the sound it makes. It brings her intense pleasure to finally connect her prongs with an enemy’s blood and tissue; her rapture surges even more when she hears the Queen click in approval. It has been a long time since Nexu has listened to her native tongue, and even longer since an elder had given her appreciation.

    Fueled by her newfound delight, the smaller queen backs away to observe the way the beast scrambles desperately. It is surrounded and frightened, and the muscled, armored shadows that battle it seem motivated and fed by the terror that begins to bleed into the air. Nexu’s slitted nostrils flare as she inhales the scents of blood and tissue in the air, and her dark eyes dilate even further as she senses their victory drawing closer.

    Yet the creature attacks the smallest again, and Nexu feels confusion poison her adrenaline as its clawed forelimb moves through the head of her kin. She can only assume it is a trick of the beast’s — like Partner’s ability to melt into water or pull moisture from the air around them — and tries to ignore the shriek that comes from the smaller Predator. With a rough shake of her armored head, Nexu launches into the final attacking blows.

    It doesn’t take Nexu long to recognize the Queen’s strategy, and she moves easily to the creature’s side to trap it. When a curved horn nearly severs the limb, Nexu is quick to completely shred the tendons from the rest of the body. It flies to the ground, its landing silent compared to the wild, defeated shriek of the beast. So engulfed in the battle, she almost doesn’t notice the smaller Predator stumbling into the darkness. But she can smell her fear and pain, clinging to every leaf and rock as if gallons of oil have spilled from the sky.

    Whether she decides to follow the Predator or not, Nexu will decide later. For now, she keeps her attention on the monster and her ally. The creature is staggering, its energy quickly drained by the amount of blood (and though it is dark, the blood is even darker — so black it seems endless) that spills onto the soil. Pieces of flesh hang in tatters on the monster’s deformed, foreign frame, and its glowing white eyes seem to flicker.

    From what she has tasted, its meat is unique, prickling her tongues and warming the empty corners of her belly, and so Nexu chitters to the Queen. This monster’s death is an invitation to a meal (even if it is at the cost of a Predator’s existence, the melting of armor to tender skin and the fullness of thought and emotion).

    It doesn’t take them long to finish the beast, nor to leave only a few scraps upon the blood-slicked ground. The clawed hand lies untouched just past the mess they have created, curled in a final attempt to defeat predators it, quite frankly, stood no chance against. Satisfied by the spiced, heavy meat, Nexu turns her attention toward the Queen and peers curiously at her. Where, exactly, has she come from? Why have they never met before? Where is the rest of her hive?
    credit to fangs of bearbones.


    @[Ripley]
    Reply
    #9


    Together, they end it. Two queens, a perfect partnership. A victorious crow escapes the horned queen when the final strike lands, when the life finally bleeds out of the strange creature. The haunting note warbles in its throat as that secondary jaw snaps its teeth in delight. If there had been a heart to break over the changes in its prodigy, in the absence of the drone, it had been calloused over with thick chitinous armour long ago. There is no grief to be felt and only the echo of a loss. A hunting partner missing.

    But a new one found?

    Those dual jaws do not hesitate to join those of the younger queen in devouring the strange flesh of the creature, a meal well earned. It has an odd taste to it - but meat is meat and a meal will not be wasted. The tail flicks lazily in satisfaction, as this queen enjoys the peace that comes after a successful kill. Some of the blood from the beast they have slain drips down a curved horn, mixing with that which coats a strong jaw.

    Once it is done, and the horned one inhales, it catches the horse-blood left by the one who fled. For a moment, that is where its black eyes draw first - to the trail left there that would be so easy to follow.

    No heart to break, but enough of one to know - as it does when it meets the angelic mare - that there are some horses that are not prey. Not part of the hive but protected all the same.

    There is a discomforting tickle at the back of the horn queen’s head when it turns black eyes back to its companion. That tickle is a thought attempting (and ultimately failing) to fully form. The queen chitters in their language, its horned head moving to gesture in the direction of Pangea - indicating that was home, before tilting to the side, wondering why this one had not been with them there all along.



    RIPLEY

    twenty-eight eaten to date (plus a monster)




    @[Nexu]
    Reply
    #10
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    For all their wilderness and unashamed ferocity, there is a rhythm to their lives. They are creatures borne from the twisted, darker shadows of Beqanna, yet there are unspoken laws that govern their chaos. Perhaps their blood comes from places worlds beyond their own, perhaps their creation was decided by a creative mind, perhaps the arching twists of the queenly crowns are relicts of a nightmare. However, their origin and whatever their purpose, they have their routines for their species.

    The way they find their homes is one such example. Although she is a loner, Nexu cannot deny that an intuitive piece of her wishes to curl among her kin’s sleeping hides when it is time to rest. She had done so as a child, silently finding her place among her Sisters and Father when their hunting day was over. Sometimes she dreams of that hive and their adventures together, when she had been a young little thing learning beneath the watchful eyes of Father.

    So why has she not been with them all along? Had Father known where their kin could be found (where Nexu’s grandmother settled her hive) and simply ignored their presence? It seemed to be simpler than that, something that Nexu understands at her core. The answer is found in the way her crown rises and twists like the Queen’s does, in the obvious way she had towered over the smaller Predator, in the way her body aches when the leaves begin to fall.

    She is a daughter born from this Queen’s son, and she is meant to begin her own hive. Perhaps one day, she will gesture toward younger kin, wondering why they were not found in the places she calls home. Perhaps one day, she will bring a new generation of Predators to their world. Perhaps one day, she will become the mighty Queen that she has battled and ate alongside.

    And while Nexu knows this, she is wary of explaining it to the Queen. Father had been generous to his children, but one Sister had been vengeful and attacked Nexu on multiple accounts (though she had not been one of Them), and the younger queen isn’t sure if her grandmother would attack her as well. Whether the Queen thinks past the present is a question Nexu can’t answer, but she isn’t willing to determine if the threat of a new queen would warrant a murder.

    While she refuses to explain the purpose she feels in her bones, Nexu chitters a reply that speaks of her father in their unique language — Cthulhu. She has been alone for years now, only finding solace in her Partner, and Nexu’s eyes see the path leading to Pangea. The armored mass of her body turns in the direction Queen had pointed, and she finds her long legs stepping toward the trail.
    credit to fangs of bearbones.



    @[Ripley]
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