ultraviolet wasn't going to make it much longer. he had to escape canis, this much he understood. the tunnel that led to gemini was ahead, and he didn't know what would happen if he were to crystalize away from the altar or the spire.

he wouldn't have a choice, so it didn't particularly matter.

anything would be a better fate than falling to the jaws of Order, regardless. if he died, at least it would be on his terms. that was enough to keep him going, though part of him felt, deep down, that this was not the end.

he had not reached perfection, yet.

next time, purred the non-existent voice in his head, you'll be perfect.

his paws crossed the doorway, and he kept running until the dry heat of canis was behind him, cramming into the darkest shadow he could find for his oilstone to take him.

uv exit!

Edric squealed as he felt the violent impact of his charge striking home. The IMPOSTER'S chitin spikes crashed against his own dark armor, sending vibrations through his bones, finding gaps where the mutated armor had not covered, stabbing into his Corrupted flesh. The pain and Oil streaming down his fur was not failure but proof of GLORY. Edric BASKED in the CHAOS overtaking his nerves and mind.

The red-and-white SHAMELESS COPYCAT tumbling down above him was NOT A PROBLEM. Edric was USED to chaos, USED to aliens far more creative and violent than this DUMB BOAR THAT WAS CLEARLY WORSE THAN HIM. He knew how to keep hold of a tenuous connection to the reality of his surroundings even as CHAOS CHAOS CHAOS devolved around him, sinking everything into its inevitable grasp. This CRASHING CALAMITY would not sneak past his notice and remove him from the battlefield prematurely. Edric lunged in the other direction as gravity took SCORN in its relentless grasp, bringing the POOR IMITATION down down down into the endless pit. IT WOULD NOT ESCAPE HIM. BUT HE WOULD ESCAPE IT, barely clearing the massive crash of boar-flesh and chitin-spikes that shook the very earth. The shock of nearby impact nearly shook him off his feet. Edric only reveled in the panic and racing-heartbeat as he scrambled to keep his footing. WHAT COULD BE BETTER than this desperate rush, the overwhelming ENTROPY of BATTLE?!

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

death

gore

The white ants came for him, the gnashing of their fangs and frenzy of their myriad tapping feet adding to the beautiful cacophony all around. WHY WERE THEY SO BIG?! Edric HATED how everything here was bigger than him. NO MATTER. His shape was IMPECCABLE, a GIFT from the powers beyond, and he would MAKE GOOD USE OF IT NOW to avoid their pathetic efforts to grab him.

A delightful idea popped into his head as he saw the massive PROOF OF PLAGIARISM fallen on the dusty floor. He would lead these ants on a MERRY CHASE. He darted on a circular path around the THING THAT SHOULD BE SCORNED, trying to always keep it between himself and the ants.

But one miscalculation, and he rounded a massive chitin spike only to run straight into a snarling Praetor's face. The shearing glassy mandibles came for him, tearing through muscle and tendon between the gaps of his armor before he even had time to react. He only had time for a rage-filled squeal as black Oil erupted around where the pincers had cut into purple-black flesh before the dark, oily marble of his leg enveloped the rest of his mangled body.


- exit to chrysalis

A shame - Despite the taste of oil on Alcina's tongue, the corrupted beast slipped away, darting into the tunnel like a shadow. She slowed, stopping at the threshold, staring down with black, dark eyes. She spat out the oil-blood, into a frothing puddle at her feet. "Accursed thing," she hissed into the dark.

Still, she can't help but feel like she failed Mother... The oil-beast escaped...

Chaos rolled by request.

Chrysalises formed, rock coalescing, consequences welling up from the lack of Chaos here. There were two of them in this web-slung place, and one farther beyond: Edric, who was already infused and brimming with destructive potential and dripping Oil: and Temperantia, who simply carried the dark promise of it. And ahh--the skull-clad cat, his Oilfilled body and his Oilslicked magic ripe for withering and twisting.

All would find themselves, as it were, stranded far from home: their bodies, their magic, their very stones aching for the brush of seething, burning Chaos, and finding it chillingly absent. Only the cold air, the frigid stillness of Order reigned here now.

Temperantia would find herself plagued by nightmares: dreams of falling in combat, of failure, of frustrated ferocity and stifled freedom, of her righteous hunger and slavering destruction crushed by that Order all around her. And without the stable influence of Chaos somewhere close by, within a week she will have succumbed to that failure--as would Edric and Ultraviolet near the end of the duration of their chrysalises, finding their own nightmares of bubbling suffocation hot and black within their stones.

Withdrawal curled through them, ravenous and blinding, worse than any caused by drugged desperation. A craving so deep it wound through their very DNA, cradled there, reforming them and tightening like cramping limbs, starving for sustenance they did not receive, desperate for oxygen they could not get.

When they hatched, it would be mindless with that ravenous clawing hunger, that unsettling hatred that they were not as they should be, all three of them and wasn't that a magic number..? The drive to seek out a source of Corruption would be overpowering and irresistable, and should they fail in so doing they would face true death. Even so, their bodies would be changed, until such time as stability was regained... as ironic as that was. A stability in Chaos. Was that some form of cosmic joke?

Edric's magic succumbed to entropy, spreading madly in its search for more. The meat of his unseen god enveloped him, wrapping limbs in the slick embrace of writhing Oil. What had once been a magic granted by choice overcame his body, leaving him pustulent and writhing, strength become weakness, bristled skin become slick and yielding flesh.

Temperantia's Light became deeply corrupted, despite the fact that she had not truly been Converted to His designs. Even so she would find herself blinded completely, unable to see bar in perfect pitch-darkness, a rarity within the caves. Visions of chaos, instead, would plague her: she would see what was not there, promises of madness, violence reaching for every corner, agony brushing the angel's visual cortex in place of that purity of prior luminescence.

Ultraviolet, ironic to his name, would be likewise steeped in shadows: but his would be true blindness, an unseeing plunge into a Corrupted world that only he could fathom. It was not empty, as the darkness of the truly blind, no: it was filled with all he hated, all he feared, all he deeply and oh-so-darkly might desire. The urge to rebel, to lash out, to hunt and to hunger and to kill, would fill every unseen corner of this new existence. And he would See, then--not something so mundane as seeing but that capital-S--SIGHT--the reality of his reality. What was it he was made for-? To rend, to rip apart, to kill. To destroy what was weak, to consume it and to grow stronger and this, this he would See all around him. The weak destroyed, consumed, decaying: the strong clambering atop their bones and swimming through their Oil, ever-enhanced, ever stronger.

Edric, Ultraviolet and Temperantia have chrysalized away from a source of Corruption, and will face the following consequences:

• All will be reset to Fledgling magic level temporarily.

• All will need to stabilize, up to a maximum of five points per day--to a total of 60 points. This must be done via on-screen posts. Points list.

• The characters can, once these 60 points are reached, post in Update Me with the requisite links to be returned to their prior progression level (Master, Champion, etc). They cannot progress further until stabilized completely.

• Edric will find his Profaned Creature spell warping beyond all recognition. Three of his four limbs are encased in weak and useless tentacles that often disregard his will. They will no longer function for locomotion in any way. Only his front right limb will remain usable. This will, after one cycle's time, fade--with the tentacles gradually, painfully withering and finally dropping away, revealing atrophied legs that will need to be strengthened once again. (This time period will begin to be measured as of today, fading on April 9th.)

• Temperantia will find her very element twisted and turned against her: blind except in total absense of any light source. Even then, in true pitch darkness, her vision will be dim. In place of what truly lies around her, she will see constant, disturbing visions of violence, gore and chaos. This will fade after one cycle's time. (This time period will begin to be measured as of today, fading on April 9th.)

• Ultraviolet will, likewise, find that his Encompassing Darkness has twisted into something worse. He will be fully blind, even in darkness, for one cycle's time: and in that time he will see his darkest desires and his worst fears in place of what might truly lie around him. Visions of gore, violence and war--both deeply disturbing and intensely attractive--will plague him in reality's stead. (This time period will begin to be measured as of today, fading on April 9th.)

@Edric @Temperantia @Ultraviolet

There was another spray of blood and oil as Alcina's jaws tore at another of the kitten's legs, a fascinating process to see up close - but his own offense met air as the target leapt with broken limbs with a grace that surprised him. The way the muscled bunched, the arc of the jump - Her design and his... happy accident held similarities, it seemed. Admirable - Mother's taste was perfection.

He got away in the end - left to spread and infect. A tumour to deal with later - it reflected the certainty of this towards its sister. "We must go. There is more work to be done." The length of a tendril brushed along her spine, his equivalent of a reassuring pat on the back. After a moment of silence, soaking in the small loss, he made his way toward the stream of white eyed animals. They echoed nothing to him, save for the anticipation of a new battle. A new conquest - all in Her name.

[ exit juggernaut ]

Work to be done indeed. Juggernaut's reassurance was welcome, and right as well. The war was going according to plan. Order marched on.

She would rest, prepare, and turn her eyes to the next of Mother's tasks. The Great Plan must be enacted.

exit Alcina

Bone rose up with heavy beats of her wings, satisfied at least that Temperantia's fate was sealed. Either way, she would not be a problem for them now.

The dragon glanced around sharply. Her family was safe. Her family was doing well. They had succeeded. It was time to move on.

These facts ticked off neatly in her mind, though she paused as she flew, her gaze caught by the tangled bones strewn across the floor. It took genuine effort to wrench herself away, hissing as she took wing for the cave exit.

They were so... disorderly. If she survived the coming battle, perhaps she would find the time to come back here and fix that.

exit Bone

Ever since he'd tossed the ring that'd dared to occupy his cherished airspace, laughter had overtaken any further attempts at hostility. As wingbeats lifted him ceilingward, the glimpse of his comparatively pathetic opponent colliding against stone had sparked an amusement unable to be contained; such a humiliation a thing to savor, he did so, letting the experience saturate the network without regard for others' struggles. Bone, far more suitable an adversary for Temperantia than someone of his lofty occupation, took over the assault. However, he shared enjoyment in her triumph.

Cheer responded to the stench of charred feathers. Once Order's enemy perished to the licking flames it was trapped in, an instant replay followed—slow motion to better appreciate the disastrous end, broadcast with a mental hollering to any undistracted enough to not block out the sounds of victory. Of course, even if no one was paying attention to their links, Ace refused to restrict this to the Hive's ears alone. All needed to know how dire their circumstances were thanks to tangling with him and his siblings' combined might.

"Yes!" he declared, performing yet another loop to reflect the giddy surge of his emotions. "That's how you show them. Make 'em burn, make 'em break!"

As each who dared to challenge them fell to chrysalis or fled, this energy continued, never faltering and always gaining with every success that passed. Ace refused to fall silent even once they had to move on, bragging shouts quelled only when his throat could no longer handle them. He would be the brass band of this great army for those soldiers too stoic to maintain the fighting spirit which drove Mother's chosen onward. Hear him and know death approached any who reveled in Chaos' awful stain.

-Exit Ace

He watched the battle come to an end. He didn't move until the last of the attackers had vanished into chrysalis or into the tunnels and away. He'd spotted, in the chaos of war, the pig. Edric, the one that had attacked him as a child. Deep dislike and a streak of fear at the sight of him had him considering leaving early, but he stood fast, feeling a sick sort of satisfaction as he succumbed to death's temporary embrace. Just as you did to me.
Once everything was quiet, he stood, eyes turning towards where he'd noticed Giggle disappearing. She'd been in the fighting - not part of it, but there. Did she know...?

Well, he had questions for her. A lot of them. About the war, about the white that was left rotting across Canis, and other things. This was the moment to ask.

He slipped away, running in the direction of her bonepit, leaving the half-dead mouse behind in his hurry to find her.

*exit