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Post by Alma on Oct 31, 2022 22:33:56 GMT -6
[ I think I posted this a little before rollover. Please delete this if my estimation is an hour off.]
Val Min Mur. Another celebration of the city that was held in honor of some dead god. People, and she used that term loosely as the swirl of life flowing around her wore skulls and masks and furs that made it difficult to tell who was master and who was the beast following at their heels, embraced the holiday more than she had ever expected anyone to embrace anything of the god of the dark. Children and crones flooded the streets with those claiming a more balanced degree of boldness and experience, shrilly laughing as some gathered treats and others played pranks.
Alma pulled her coat tighter with one hand as she passed a small group huddled around a few wisps of smoke, thanking Order that order within the city was not part of her responsibilities. Night after night of the celebrations had grated on her nerves, and she found herself looking forward to the end of the costumes when the Incursion celebrations began and only fools dressed themselves as beasts.
Still, there were a few benefits to the season, and she was reminded of that fact as she slipped free of the crowds into the building, obtaining her clipboard full of papers and moving to the rooms housing the beasts. The Pink Fuzzy Bunny that stared at her with sullen, curiously blank eyes as she entered the first room was more than reason enough to have ventured out into the insanity that was the city at night.
[Pink Fuzzy Bunny - 1]
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Post by Alma on Oct 31, 2022 22:35:34 GMT -6
The beast’s claws were not bloody, but the gouges in the metal bars and floor were warning enough of the joke the labs had played on the city. She wondered how many children had sat there this month, trusting the bars to hold before moving on to find something a little more friendly to take home and protect them as the nights grew longer.
The bunny was less interested in her than it would have been with a giggling youth, turning away to sit in its freakishly human way, legs stretched out before it as its back rested against the cage bars. Alma did not attempt to draw its attention to her as she reached for the paper labeling its cage, scanning through information that she already knew. A Pink Fuzzy Bunny, the warning so coyly mentioned in the pocket guide spelled out plainly and warning that the creature had nearly killed before, and would do so if not properly kept from its trigger.
[Pink Fuzzy Bunny - 2]
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Post by Alma on Oct 31, 2022 22:37:08 GMT -6
Alma looked back up at the bunny, its lanky limbs thin for all their muscles rippled under its fur as it shifted into a new position, the claws adorning each digit no doubt a perfect fit for the gouges in the metal. “Nearly.” She muttered the word under her breath, stifling a laugh of her own. That was the difference between a beast being destroyed, and ending up in the APAA for some other fool to try with. “Nearly,” she repeated, releasing the paper with a shake of her head. “Fortunately for you, that should not be a problem again.”
Not that she would announce to the seeker glaring at her from its customary spot her intentions for the holiday beast. She doubted it would matter in the end who took the bunny, or if their plans meant it would never wander outside of the kennel building again, the beast not even warranting its name recorded on the scrap of paper defining it.
[Pink Fuzzy Bunny - 3]
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Post by Alma on Oct 31, 2022 22:38:52 GMT -6
Still, she retrieved a carrot from the treat storage and tossed it into the cage, watching as it rolled to a stop at the creature’s thigh. It grabbed at the carrot with both of its hand-like paws, nibbling away at the treat without so much as a glance in her direction.
“Good enough,” she told it, walking around the cage and watching the beast gnaw at the carrot. It looked healthy, and, seeing as it had not the interest in her that she would expect from something too bloodthirsty to be easily transported, Alma turned her attention to the form. It had not changed from the last time she had come to the pound, and she scribbled in the required information before walking away from the bunny. There was one other gap in her collection of Dark holiday critters she intended to fill that month, and she had heard rumors that said creature could also be found there.
[Pink Fuzzy Bunny - 4]
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Post by Alma on Oct 31, 2022 22:43:41 GMT -6
Well, to be fair, there were the special breeds. She turned back to consider the bunny one more time, meeting its eyes as they widened but did not look away. It would not be too late to tear up the form and just take the other critter with her, assuming it could be found there. The bunny itself had a pair of variations, one which lost the tendency to slaughter children, and the other who had exchanged said tendency for a blood lust rivaling an ancient seeker. She had looked into both of them, considering spending her savings on something a bit more unique than the pink base breed, but the scraggly fur in different shades held no real appeal. The white one, she thought it had a human name, Alyss maybe, had tempted her then only for the greater ease in dealing with the beast, and the thought was tempting now. She slid her gaze away from the blue eyes of the bunny, trying to imagine what she could possibly use the mammalian-like beast for. Dress it up in a uniform and train it to be bait?
No. She waved her goodbye to the Bunny, and left it to stare at her back.
[Pink Fuzzy Bunny - 5]
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Post by Alma on Oct 31, 2022 22:44:05 GMT -6
The other creature she sought ended up being just as easy to find, looking at first to be nothing more than black, pulsing ooze that flexed as small clawed and winged shapes formed around glittering pinpricks of light in the mass and pulled themselves free, taking on nearly defined forms before fading into nothing. The mass itself lifted as she walked towards it, a much larger pair of lights seeming to regard her as the lurker noticed her.
The ill defined mass spread out. Two tendrils reached out above the eyes, then another pair splitting from those as the head of the thing lifted the lights clear of the rest of it, two tattered wings spreading out to brush the edges of its cage as long-fingered clawed hands reached out across the ground. From its body sprang a few more of itself in miniature, but the little scraps of shadow never seemed to last more than a second or two before they were gone.
[Shadow Lurker - 1]
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Post by Alma on Oct 31, 2022 22:44:53 GMT -6
“Shadow Lurker” Alma read aloud from the paper attached to its cage, though she personally preferred calling them shadow elementals. Heck, she was pretty damn sure they deserved the title more than the golem that claimed the title. Things could only make physical bits of shadow to attack with, or so she had heard. But lurkers, those things she had seen in the pit before, shrouding the arena in darkness so folks could not make out what was happening on the sands, striking at a beast’s shadow to trap it in place, every swipe of claws or snap of jaws passing through it like the shadow it was.
Creatures like that could be useful beyond just filling a hole in her collection, and would not go mad because a babe had a bit of a giggle within its hearing. She looked over at it, studying its horned head as it looked at her, unable to make out anything beyond the eyes and the bits jutting out of the living shadow.
[Shadow Lurker - 2]
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Post by Alma on Oct 31, 2022 22:45:22 GMT -6
“You can hear, right?” It did not nod, not that she was sure she would have been able to tell a nod from a random ripple, but it started at the sound of her voice. Wings that had been stretching now pulled towards its body, clawed hands curled as they were lifted to its chest. “Right. Never can be too sure with you critters.” She tried to say it soothingly, her tone soft as she shrugged, but the lurker held its pose as though it was nothing more than a true shadow now. Albeit a shadow with edges that rippled and gave birth to smaller shadows occasionally as she stared at it.
She walked around it, part of her marveling at the novelty of walking around a living, three dimensional shadow whose silhouette changed as the angles changed, even as another part made sure to put extra distance between herself and the cage to keep her own shadow out of reach.
[Shadow Lurker - 3]
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Post by Alma on Oct 31, 2022 22:46:19 GMT -6
The main part was too busy noting the ragged nature of the lurker’s wings, the empty pockets of space along its form that only appeared from certain angles. From what she managed to find on the creatures, and there was a surprising amount on them, the holes were normal, from the rips in the wings to the large, cartoon heart-shaped hole in its chest.
Alma finished her circuit, coming to a stop on the side that had her shadow point away from the cage. She considered whether to look for another specimen, that, for all the notes and sketches of the creatures appearance, she might find one in the place that did not look as though someone had cut away bits of shadow for a pair of magical gloves. Or whatever it was that mages and the richer folks liked to fritter their coin on after obtaining a node or two.
[Shadow Lurker - 4]
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Post by Alma on Oct 31, 2022 22:47:37 GMT -6
Instead, she sat next to the cage, elbows resting on crossed legs, head propped up on her fists as she looked at the shadow lurker. It seemed to unfreeze as she sat there, wings drooping slightly as its claws slid down so that their edges were no longer hidden by the back backing of its chest.
She talked to it a bit, the lurker flinching and stiffening less as time went on. It was mostly whatever came into her head, save anything related to her collection naturally. The ancient seeker prowling around the grounds might not be able to understand her, but she rather not have the young man running the place refuse her application due to some misguided sense of morals. It was not as though she intended to use it for her job, nor even just the pit. Not until after she knew a bit more about the creature, or at least found it to be more useful than some other dark or ghostly critter.
She filled out the form as the thing began to ignore her, wings and claws and head all slumping down into what she imagined was a sleeping pose for it. Once again it was nothing but a large puddle of shadows, the little forms of others clawing their way free hinting at its true form.
With both forms filled, she glanced at the other doorways, the rows of cages that she could see, but a glance at a nearby clock prevented any more wanderings. She shook her head as she wondered how long she had wasted chatting with the living shadow, turning away from it to go turn in the two completed adoption sheets.
[Shadow Lurker - 5]
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