I've Been Hellbent, Baby

[steadypulse]

Who: Soldier: 76 & Others
Which: Semi-Closed Log
Where: Mainly in the Wildlands once out of the Residential District/Town Square
What: 76 goes full Noctaere after dealing with growing corruption for months, some folks just have to deal with that, and all that comes with it.
Warnings: Violence, body horror, declining health, trouble breathing, gory descriptions and details, drowning, and a lot of all this right out the gate.

Glowing Dawn, Dawning Horror. Some information here on what's going on.
_____

It had started with a cough; chest pains. Came and went, breathing short, inability to draw in air for such a short and brief moment it could be easily brushed aside as his body still healing from the injuries he had sustained so many weeks ago.

Then came the coughing fits that resulted in the taste of blood in his mouth, coughing up blood and a glowing blue liquid that was so very familiar. Then came the flower petals as that grew worse. The worry giving way to panic. There was a limit to what could be done when signs pointed to a very dangerous puncturing of lungs and something within that felt like it was taking over. How else to describe that?

If only it was just that- ended there.

A burning pain shot through him, felt like something clawing from the inside to escape, choking on a mix of plant-fiber, blood, and

Darkness.

Didn't matter how he'd gotten himself outside from where he'd been holed up, could have been as easy as sinking in to the shadows and throwing himself out of the other end of it. Knees hitting the ground as blood poured and skin split to a mixture of fur and vines. Bones sounding as if they were breaking as shadow surged like water and electricity crackled over ice. Ice melting in to more of that ice cold liquid shadow, snarling beasts pulling themselves out of it around him as if something pulled bones up and melded it. Mindless things already moving out and seeking out the nearest thing. Infecting more creatures, twisting them when they weren't fast enough and reshaping them.

76 had dragged himself onwards, blindly as blood pooled as much as shadow, claws sinking in deep as he grew larger. jaw clacking once the last bit of meat fell away from a stretched bone structure. Glowing gold pupils lighting up in otherwise empty sockets, lupine ears flicking as pupils rolled and the great lumbering beast that had been 76 let out a breath, the petals of odd glowing flowers in the fur along his neck quivering. The air in his wake oppressively cold, frost skittering away from wherever his shadow had reached. Every breath crystalizing in the air once the area was entered, so cold it would burn exposed skin of whoever mistakenly wandered too close.

The cold wasn't the only thing to worry about, of course. Not with how thorn covered vines twisted even as they froze, creating sharper 'thorns'. The warning hum, the smell of ozone that came with the danger of an electrical shock coming.

Yet past all of that? It was warm, almost invitingly so even if the ice and electricity was avoided, those shadows moving alongside the Noctaere keeping it away. Blood still dripped from fur and vine. Claws digging over building walls as he moved towards the Wildlands from town. Leaving a noticeable path despite such a deep instinct keeping him to a winding back alley-like route.

Hungry.

So hungry.

Comments

monsters doing monster things

[shithogs]

[Her gaze is sharper, brighter when she turns it on him again, narrowing her focus, willing Tyrann to be silent, to cease his horrible rasping between her ears. She's only partly successful, but it's enough— even if it's just for the moment.

The Noctaere advances, and she lifts her chin to stare it down, refusing to budge, her upper lip curling into a sneer as blood splatters across the ground in front of her, across the garments that she passes off as clothes, against bared skin and bandages. Her stomach knots in on itself; blood is familiar, almost comforting in a perverse sort of way, and Tyrann's taunting echoes at the back of her mind so sharply that she can't tell if he's repeating himself or she's doing it for him.

"Smell all that blood."

She ignores him, and answers the creature in front of her, instead.]

I'm more than meets the eye, that's for goddamn sure.

[She can feel its breath as the space between them has narrowed, the shadows surrounding them both seeming to make the already cool night air even colder.]

You wanna play, asshole? We'll play— I'll fucking cut him out of you if I have to.

gotta twist in them claws like a knife to the gut

[steadypulse]

[The closer he got, the blood on the ground at least started to crystalize, matching the beads of it glittering on flower petals like jewels. Matting at the fur underneath them as the blood flowed freely around vines. Clear that the flowers and everything attached were growing right out of the Noctaere's skin.

Of course, they had to be rooted to something. Right? Part of what was obvious, the other was far deeper that skin.]

Come on then. Show me the sharp, show me the bite.

[It's own jaws parted as there was hardly need to bare always exposed teeth given the exposed skull that made up the majority of it's head. A tongue of blue fire did curl and glow as it licked over canines.

Some sort of prancing made in place on all fours, long fluffed fur tail lashing behind it. Exposing a little that the sluggishness could be more for show. A brighter glow as multiple golden lights flickered to life in otherwise empty sockets. Never make the first move, even if there were more of those shadow wolves lingering behind it.

Multiples of those bright glowing skulls seeming to float in those icy shadows around it.]

Make the appetite grow.

[shithogs]

[She’s never been able to keep from rising to a challenge, even though the terms of this one send something like ice shooting through her, a distinct feeling of dread— she hasn’t drawn on certain powers since being here, hasn’t wanted to change giving Tyrann any sort of chance to get leverage on her. She’s been fully in control, with him reduced to nothing more than a constant annoyance, but she’s going to need something more than just brute strength for this.
She exhales, teeth still grit.]

My pleasure.

[A second blade joins the first in her opposite hand, drawn seemingly from thin air— dreamotion has made keeping them on hand a simpler task than it once was— and as her gaze hardens, it also grows brighter, gray turning to bright yellow as black markings begin to surface on her skin, similar to those she had worn in the dreamscape, writing that pulses and moves across skin as though it has a life of its own, and with it, she feels adrenaline beginning to course through her veins, urged on by the scent of blood and the desire to see more of it spilled.

”Yeah, that’s it, sunshine! Make him bleed, make him scream!”

This time, she doesn’t tell Tyrann to shut up— she only lurches forward at the creature before her with both blades brandished, inhumanly fast in her own right as she teleports past him rather than strikes, landing behind him only to turn sharply and attack from his blind spot, blades raised high and crossed before she brings them down in two separate arcs.]

Come on, old man, wake the fuck up in there!

[steadypulse]

[It was like a flip had been switched, multiple golden lights brightening in those empty sockets the moment that hit was taken. Even as blood sprayed there was the sound of growing laughter, echoing out of every shadow on the ground. Every droop of blood that hit the air and seemed to freeze in place in sharp jagged arcs.

As if everything stood still for a second. All it had taken was attacking it—

Pools of shadows shot upwards in jagged icy spikes, the noctaere twisting it's head around as if it belong on an owl, cracks opening along the skull as if other eyes were opening, those golden pupil-like lights spreading throughout them. A permanent grin on that skull of a face, jaws parted as blood trickled from no source at all from them.]

About goddamn time!

[Like a chain had finally broken partially as the glow of flowers brightened and it was multiple sets of arms moving to strike back. Every clawed hand going for whatever part of her was in reach. sounded like bones were breaking and rearranging themselves to make it so. The air growing colder, just breathing it in burning all the way down.

The only time a skulled shadow wolf showed up was whenever they seemed to flow through the insides of shadows, pushing them onwards and vines growing to try to wrap and catch. Thorns giving them purchase.]

Got me to deal with while he's far away!

[shithogs]

[Her first thought is that there's a hell of a lot more blood than there should be, and something in her gut twists as it freezes in mid-air. Shadows pierce upwards from beneath; some manage to graze her arm and break the skin, the others only catching fabric or bandages, but her own blood starts to flow freely where they cut, and she feels another surge of angry adrenaline push through her.]

You think I'm afraid of you?!

[She deflects the first swipe of his claw; the next one manages to catch against her side and she lets out a low hiss as she retaliates, slicing through shadow— it's difficult to tell where he ends and the shadows begin, but everything is fair game at this point, and she pushes forward to swing towards his legs, set him off balance, doing her best to ignore the thorns as they scrape against her.

"Come on, sunshine, you're going to easy on him! Don't tell me your heart isn't in it!"]

There's a goddamn person in there!

[Her response is harsh, insistent, even as the temperature surrounding them drops and she swings again, harder this time, aiming to slice through vines to keep them from being able to grasp her fully.]

[steadypulse]

[Of course it laughed, jaws clacking even as it was on the move again—]

More a reminder of something you do fear—

[That much it was gathering, from the behavior and what came of the anger once it had started to flow. The Noctaere couldn't know what, but it never hurt to tug and play a bit at some assumptions if there was something to follow after watching. Observing.

Who knew if it was good or bad that the Noctaere wasn't trying hard to dodge hits, tanking each one that either grazed of fully hit. Blood dripped, far more than it should contain, but perhaps there was certainly more than one source that blood was coming from- or it wasn't all blood.

The vines did give way, easily cut through. The ones that were harder were the vines that had started to freeze, and even then they would shatter with some explosive force if given time to freeze solid.]

[shithogs]

[It sure as hell isn't wrong about that. As much as she hates to admit it, as much as she hates to give Tyrann the goddamn satisfaction, losing herself like this is a constant fear— an inevitability, anywhere else, and she's still not convinced that she's safe from it here, that she won't be swallowed up from the inside if she doesn't hold onto her hate, her anger.

It could just as easily been her on the other side of this fight.]

You don't know what the fuck you're talking about!

[The volatile nature of her response, the snap of her voice— it's a little too defensive as she pushes herself forward, slicing through more vines, using brute force to push past the ones that have started to freeze and resist, shattering them even as some further beyond her begin to build towards exploding.

It's not even trying to dodge, to get away from her.

It's not scared of her, either.]

You've got the power to let him go, I fucking know it— do you it, or I'll shove these goddamn vines of yours down your throat and out your own ass!

[She's stalling for time— she can hit harder, she knows, she can cut into him with all her strength, let herself go into a frenzy, but she's afraid of what will happen to the almost-friend underneath if she does. She's drenched in blood now, most of it the creature's, some of it her own, breathing heavy as she lunges forward once more, aiming to sever one of its arms from its body.]