Puppets learn to pull strings

It was growing agitated. It was getting hungry. The thoughts were getting overwhelming in its head, the hunger was overtaking and Regalia didn't know how to stop it because it had never been hungry in its life. It had always been sated by the residual minerals in the air. It didn't need to stop and eat, merely absorb what was around it every so often and that was enough but now it wasn't. It knew what was causing it - the hole, the Creator, His voice urging it to consume and destroy. And Regalia was realizing, now, that it was reluctant to do so. Not out of a fear to destroy or out of disgust for what it meant, but because, well...it had always strove to be a mother. A protector. A god watching over its creations.

But...no, no it had it wrong. It was not a god, yet. It had the idea mixed up. It had the idea backwards and confused and it needed to listen to what the real god had told it already. Consume. Destroy. Prove itself worthy.

Well. If it was hungry, then it was time for a hunt.

Focus flicked to the ground and grabbed the nearest rock with a strong grip of magic. It hurled it some way away, hearing it clatter loud against the ground. Hopefully...that would attract someone.

Holding back the many lights and quieting the constant output of language that no creature had yet understood, Regalia hid itself in the shadows, the only visible part of its bodies the two glowing orbs. It wouldn't be able to darken those without losing its senses, so it did its best to hide its eyes in the crevice of a rock, deforming for a moment, most of its body still trailing out, but mostly hidden in darkness. It couldn't see anymore, but it could still hear and smell. That was enough.

And cut down the user's lead

Oleander

Melt all your art and drink the paint

She wandered, nowadays, without anywhere in particular that she was wandering to. Perhaps she was looking for someone - the right someone, but after sleeping in a chrysalis since the end of the last Trial, her search had come up quite dry. There's been one gembound, oh they'd been wonderful, she watched them everywhere...but the end had simply come too swiftly for them. She'd cried for two days straight.

But the clattering of the rock alerted her. Oh? A gembound, nearby. And, by the sound of it, perhaps only one. She couldn't hear a voice, only the sound. Maybe a lesser, or just rocks shifting, but it was worth investigating, wasn't it? Oh, yes, oh yes it was! A chance was a chance and Oleander wasn't going to pass up anymore!

She veered her course and trotted up to the source of the sound, eyes blinking curiously. "Ah, is someone there? I heard something...is that a creature or just nothing?" She thought she spotted something, like shifting colors, just faintly in the shadows. She squinted, trying to see it. "What...what is that?"

Puppets learn to pull strings

It didn't know what it was planning. But perhaps that was the point. Chaos was not order, there was no plan within chaos, nor was there reason or stability. Chaos was simply that - chaos and so Regalia went forward with drive and purpose, head popping up from the rocks and focusing intensely on the zebra. It didn't matter that she was a greater gembound, nor did it matter that she had done nothing wrong. This was the will of chaos and if she could not survive, then she did not deserve to survive.

It said nothing. Nothing to Oleander - why should it bother, after all, when she was about to die? When her voice would be stolen from her body in a moment and a sickening crack would end any memory of Regalia's words? So it lashed forward powerfully, gripping the zebra hard with a force of will and tossed her right in to the sky, holding her for a while before, with a strong shove, she was released, hurtling up a couple of feet before beginning her swift descent.

And cut down the user's lead

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gore

Oleander

Melt all your art and drink the paint

Oleander didn't know what she was expecting. But when the creature showed its face - its eyes - Oleander was suddenly stricken with wonder. Oh, it was beatufiul. More beautiful then any creature she had laid her eyes on before. Black as the voice with lights like the Spire but also like a tangible mystery. Eyes gleaming like the lights above her head, as untouchable as mist rolling across Pisces...

She barely even noticed when she was flung into the sky, so stricken with desire and desperation that she almost didn't mind, as long as it was this creature that was the one making her rise. It was on her way down, when the wind was rushing up to meet her, gravity was lurching through her stomach that she realized oh shit she was about to die. Eyes opened wide and she struggled valiantly, trying to right herself so that, at the very least, she landed on her feet and not her back.

She did, in fact, land on her feet, so hard and heavy that there was a loud crunching noise and they instantly buckled under her. She screamed with pain and collapsed, the momentum still carrying her so strong to the ground that when her chest hit the ground, there was another crack! as multiple ribs broke and organs were jostled around.

She panted, head falling to the ground as pain wracked her body in waves. She lived, still, and she was bleeding from somewhere. Probably a lot of places. A cough and blood splattered across the ground. From her chest, black began to creep up across her torso, slowly encasing her in a shell of obsidian. Still, her eyes looked up to meet Regalia's and she smiled through the pain because oh if this was her last sight, at least it was of this glorious being.

*exit to chrysalis

Puppets learn to pull strings

It watched with a cold patience (yet within, the hunger screamed impatiently - just die just die just die and become oil so it could feed, devour, consume) as Oleander's life streamed from her body. Blood pooled beneath it, but it did not feel the sticky warm as it crept up beneath its misty paws. It smelled it, though, faintly, the smell of iron and death and fear. But still, the Zebra looked at her with those eyes, filled with wonder and love and...why was she happy?

Eyes widened as the black began to creep over her, slowly, covering her entire body in a shell of thick obsidian. NO! It wasn't going to take this. It wasn't going to let her escape. This was its meal, this was its prey, and it was going to DIE BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT REGALIA COMMANDED AND SHE WOULD NOT ESCAPE HER IN THIS LIFE OR THE NEXT

Magic seized the obsidian chrysalis before it had fully formed and wrenched it into the sky, just as it covered the bottom of Oleander's body. And, just as it had done with the zebra before, it lifted the chrysalis up into the air and then brought it down. But this time, it didn't let it fall, it smashed it down, with all its power. Slamming it hard against the stone floor, which cracked under the weight of the obsidian, but...so did the black stone.

And cut down the user's lead

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violence

Puppets learn to pull strings

The chrysalis was already cracking, but Regalia wasn't going to stop. No no it had to break, break and release its captive, release its prey because no stone could hide her no death could keep her from Regalia it wanted to break and destroy and consume and shatter and demolish her until she was nothing but oil black oil HIS oil on the ground. And then it would do it again - break and crack and kill and destroy destroy DESTROY DESTROY CONSUME AND DESTROY EVERYTHING

If Regalia had a voice, it would be screaming, scream of rage and madness but also of horrifying delight as it brought the obsidian chrysalis down and down and down, slamming it against the ground over and over and over and over and over and over, break it break it crush it destroy it until she was out get her out get her out and DESTROY HER CONSUME HER

But it wasn't breaking. It was cracking, fracturing, but she wasn't coming out. She was TRAPPED and Regalia wanted to scream at its weakness because she should be out already, dead on the ground, bubbling into oil, nothing nothing only oil to CONSUME

And cut down the user's lead

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violence

Puppets learn to pull strings

It was the last one that finally did it. With one final surge of strength, Regalia brought the chrysalis up and then, with a powerful finality, brought it down and it shattered on impact, the weakened obsidian that had already chipped and cracked and broken completely destroyed, releasing the zebra back into the world.

And Regalia wanted to scream its victory, but it was without a voice. It wanted to let loose a cry of joy and dominance and rage because there she was, hanging onto life, with no more shield to keep her safe from the throes of chaos that had unfortunately selected her as its newest sacrifice.

And cut down the user's lead

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gore

death

Oleander

Melt all your art and drink the paint

She wasn't expecting to wake up anytime soon. She knew what it meant, going back into the chrysalis. She'd done it before, after the Trial. But this...was something else. Because she had only fallen into unconsciousness for a second when her dreamless sleep was interrupted, shattered and she was thrust back into pain and terror and thrust back into a broken body that could no longer heal itself.

She let out a scream, writhing on the ground, no longer concerned about Regalia because she was dying and she couldn't escape it, but the sound was cut off with a hard choking noise as blood decorated the stones in front of her. She retched and found that she couldn't breath, oh caves she couldn't breath the air went in but it escaped it didn't stay, she was broken she was torn she was she was she was

One more cough and the last of the fight left her body, head falling limply to the ground. She wasn't thinking of love at the end. She started her life with nothing but the fear of death and that was how it ended.

*exit for real this time

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violence

Puppets learn to pull strings

It watched the last moments of her life with indifference. Not cold indifference, but edging on a hungry impatience because, even though a fleeting bit of the Regalia that once was, deep within its being, protested against this act, tried to butt in and say this wasn't right this brutal violence was wrong the utter destruction of this single creature was nothing but viciousness it was pushed back by the violent urges and the overwhelming hunger that Regalia had been ignoring.

This was the consequence for waiting for so long.

It wanted to keep going, keep destroying. Tear the zebra limb from limb, make it so that her body rendered to nothing but oil faster and faster and faster because that was what it wanted, what it needed now. It needed to feed on its prey, that it had successfully hunted, trapped, and killed. But so haywire was its mind, so out of control was its own urges that it could no longer hold a grip on her body, like a shaking hand unable to pick up so much as a pebble.

And cut down the user's lead

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

violence

gore

Puppets learn to pull strings

But Regalia...it was not a quitter. It was not going to be defeated by anything - not this zebra nor her chrysalis, nor itself, not even chaos itself. And so it grabbed her body in the grip of its magicka again - grabbed her hard and began to slam her down on the ground, just as it had done moments ago with the chrysalis that had tried to hide her from it's intentions. And each slam on the ground further mutilated the already destroyed corpse of the zebra. Bones cracking and splintering, flesh ripped and smashed bloody on the ground, the scene growing more and more visceral as time went on, until Oleander was nothing more then a pile of spilled guts and broken bones and blood there was so much blood. It was hard to tell if she had ever been a zebra at all.

It was then that Regalia at last released the grip on its magic, almost stumbling back, form phasing for a moment, as if it were trembling or gasping for breath. The urges were almost purring within it, content with this horrific display of violence and destruction. It brought no pleasure to Regalia to see the zebra like this - no, perhaps if it had a stomach and if it were a weaker creature, the remains of its last meal would already be scattered across the ground.

But Regalia was stronger then that and it didn't have a stomach. Instead, it settled itself down, preparing to wait until the zebra's flesh had decayed into nothing, so that it could finally feast on the black it had been searching for.

And cut down the user's lead