GROWTH - From a Speck to a Titan

You did have a question. "How is the pack structured?" you asked, you weren't very ambitious, you just wanted to know. She had a very blunt answer.

"There is my inner circle and I am above them. You are below them. Impress them and you will become a part of their retinue. Impress me and you will make it into my Inner Circle's ranks," she said. It was a simple structure, easy to understand and obey. She turned away, going off to tinker with some corpse parts. Her chamber had an entire side dedicated to it, a variety of different bits and pieces from her many hunts. You took it for what it was, a dismissal, and left.

Stepping back out into the sunlight, you wondered what to do as you looked around the Nest. It was even bigger than you thought, full of little nooks and crannies. Caches inside caches, burrows connected to other burrows through tiny holes. It made you even more aware of the diversity within the ranks. The Nest had to be able to accommodate Beings of all sizes and shapes. From tiny and long to large and wide. Occasionally, you spotted other rookies like you expanding the Nest, digging out their own small spaces. Nothing so grandiose as the chambers of Bullet and the Circle but places where they could rest and store trophies.

You saw tiny dots on the horizon, growing slowly larger and larger. There weren't many, just three. A Circle member, a wide chest with six furry legs and a scaly body called out. He had bangles denoting him as high ranking, the bones of his enemies fashioned into piercings that hung from scarred scales. A deep, rumbling sound that must've resounded for miles. The flyers called back, their voices a high screech, better for piercing through the skies. As they grew closer, you saw that they flew with short wings of skin. The biggest just had two large pairs but the two smaller Beings were practically covered in wings. Built for speed, not endurance, they followed in the wind tail of their leader.

"Welcome back, Sky. I see you've had a successful hunt," the circle member said, moving forward to greet the flyers. They were laying a corpse on the ground, already a small crowd was gathering to feast.

"Heh, I always do, Crafter," the large one, Sky, replied using a second mouth on their back, lending their voice an odd distance.

Their body was interesting, and symmetrical yet with some radial features. They possessed a long beak with sharp teeth protruding from it with claws on the underside which were already ripping into the chitin-covered corpse. Seeking out the juiciest, meatiest bits and tossing them into their beak. They were also likely to be in the circle with the casual way they spoke to Crafter. As they ate, Crafter scavenged some of the more intact bits of chitin armor, probably to fashion it into something when he walked off to his chambers. When Sky finished, they simply jumped off the spire.

With the inner circle finished, the rest moved in to eat what was left, including you. You filled your stomach with flesh for the first time in a long while, shivering in pleasure. There wasn't much especially when distributed amongst everyone. A furry, symmetrical Being with long limbs who was next to you struck up a conversation.

"You're new, yes?" he said, casually eating and talking at the same time.

His movements were...strange. Two arms were stripping flesh from chitin with startling coordination while two others weaved a basket out of vines. You couldn't achieve that level of multitasking, he had to be a tad older than you. Certainly more experienced.

"Yes, I decided to call myself Trigger. What is your name?" you said. You thought it good to talk with a Being like this. Not too far above like Bullet nor too far below. Although, you were likely the weakest member at the moment.

"Swing," he grunted. "You look pretty basic, what's your specialty?" he asked. You were fairly sure you knew where the name came from, his eight arms would certainly help him swing through the jungle.

"I'm likely to become an ambush predator, burrowing and leaping at my prey when they come by," you informed him. It was what you did with your first kill after all.

"Gonna be honest, you need a better body. It's just not well-suited to that style right now. Your mouth is on the wrong side and you need to bulk up," he said brutally. You took no offense, what he said wasn't wrong yet just as you were about to say something, he continued.

"A couple of acquaintances and I are going on a hunt soon. I've been scouting out this large herbivore with some rather strange mouth parts for a while now. I'll give you them. Take 'em to Thread to upgrade your body," he said quickly. "So, wanna join?" he offered as he finished eating.

You considered it while idly chewing on a piece of chitin. This was an opportunity, to go on a hunt with others, and returning with meat would surely be a first step to impressing Bullet. Yet you didn't quite have enough information to gauge what exactly he meant with the mouth parts and whoever Thread was. So you asked.

"Who is Thread and why would they want mouth parts?" He hesitated before answering.

"Thread is...Bullet's Fleshweaver. They go way back," he trailed off before suddenly remembering, "Oh right, also it's not part of the pack. You need to ply food and favors for it to help you but it can pull some miracles if you pay well," he said, showing off his multitasking with each arm doing a different task. When that was eight arms, that was a feat.

"This took a small mountain in meat and a fortune in favors," still multitasking to an insane degree. "The nerve networking has saved my life several times over though so it was worth it," he started to wander off as he finished eating. Leaving with a "Think about my offer, yeah?"

You promised to consider it. He was a fount of information and the hunt wasn't a bad idea at all. Eventually, as the corpse was reduced to nothing, you walked away to talk to some more Beings. Perhaps get a tour of the nest.

As you walked, you stumbled upon who you thought was Inner Circle. This one had bioluminescent jewelry, bone infused with bits of glowing vines. The chains wove around her many-limbed body. She had arms upon arms upon arms all building on each other, obscuring a core body from where it all grew. They were specialized arms for different purposes, some were bulky with thick claws, and others were thin with long, dexterous tendrils.

She reminded you of your mother, as she was based on a similar body plan. No sacks but she was well on her way to getting rid of the core and becoming simply limbs attached to each other endlessly. She noticed you first from an arm full of eyes near the center of her body and spoke.

"Ah, the new one," growled a surprisingly deep voice. "I'm curious, does your flesh and blood call out to me? Or have I diverged too much?" she asked enigmatically. You weren't sure what she was even talking about but her status bid you remain in place and listen. She sensed your confusion and chuckled.

"Ah, good. I have changed, younger sibling," she said. Shock first went through your mind before realization came later. The pieces came together. A body of limbs like your mother, the core seeming suspiciously like yours. Of course, the clincher was what she called you, she could only be a Sibing from an earlier batch. She waited for you to finish your thought before introducing herself.

"I am Stitch, apprentice of Thread and Pack Fleshweaver. Who are you?" she spoke with rote. Not like Bullet's rules where it was rote because she had said it so many times, no, Stitch had a bit of true ritual to her. You copied that style.

"I am Trigger. Follower of Bullet and Pack member," you said, introducing yourself. Her many mouths on many arms smiled.

"Already learning, aren't you? Good. Ritual is important, ritual and legacy. They are what separates us from mere beasts in the muck," she intoned. You weren't sure how much you agreed with that but you listened nonetheless. "I can see what Bullet saw in you though you need some bulk," she said the same thing as Swing.

"Yes, I'm aware. The opportunity for more flesh is why I'm considering a hunt with Swing," you retorted with a tad bit of sting in your voice. You knew you need more meat. She had an unexpected reaction to what you said, her body radiating disgust.

"Bah, Swing. A fool as any I've ever seen," she spat. "Obsessed with getting us Fleshweavers to augment for him. It's not right. He's sabotaging true growth in favor of shortcuts. I would've been fine with teaching him how to truly manipulate meat and bone but simply doing it for him on payment? A disgrace," Stitch ranted in anger before she focused back on you.

"Take my advice, little sibling. Stay far away from the likes of Swing. True growth requires pain and learning, not cheating. It'll be his death, mark my words," she said as she glanced at another member. "I have to go but bulk up, refine your body and I'll put in my retinue with knowledge of Fleshweaving available," she said quickly. Then she skittered away as fast as she spoke, her gait a strange, uneven thing.

What do you decide to do next?

[] HUNT
-[] SWING's OFFER
-[] SOLO

[] WRITE IN