Having escaped Radiant's host through guile and skill, Shaper crawled out from beneath the large waste receptacle and headed to the only destination she could think of after having her fears and worries for her newest :SIBLING: confirmed.
Home.
A place to reside. To retreat from the pressures of ecological necessity. Storage of resources for future hardship. Separation of immediate pack versus the greater pack, species, and competition. Room for breeding and rearing of young.
And yet, there was a niggling thought that it was more than mere facts. Affection, cooperation, unity, safety.
Looking at the place Host's family sheltered in, Shaper tried to sort her feelings. What was her and what was merely echoes of Host? Dim flashes of happiness were drowned in sadness, bitterness, hope... regret. Fear.
Happiness at a smile given, a successful negotiation, sustenance both for resources and taste at differing times, a small mammal tapping at glass. Sadness as a newly comforting face disappeared forever, a plethora of potential squandered as countless bodies passed beneath her touch to simply be repaired, raised voices whose words escaped recollection beyond the psychosomatic ache left in her chest. Bitterness at those same half-remembered words, at the color of her hair, her face, the unspoken differences between her and the others, at never being good enough.
Hope... the desperate hope of a small, fragile hand in her own, an honest smile framed by gold/Of a fragmented being, born of cast off excess, yet sputtering into a single cohesive child with so much potential.
Regret that there was not more she could do to help/that she feared helping/that she did not know what to do.
Fear. New and old. Fear of being cast out. The ever present fear that she would fail as an older sister/that she would fail as an older :SISTER:. That she could not live up to the faith her sister/:SIBLINGS: placed in her.
The Master of forms, Sovereign of shapes in all things. New beings or structures or even ideas of any type deemed fit for her specialization would be pulled apart and reassembled, understood, blended to suit the Purpose. Such was the Artistry of Queen Shaper.
And yet for all her vast knowledge and experience, the pride she took in rising above the majority of her :SIBLINGS: to be so favored by :MOTHER: and :FATHER:, she was lost.
"Am I a burden?"
There was no reason to vocalize her worry, staring at the cellulose plated steel that was the Dallons' front door, but she did so all the same. The sun was setting, her trek across the city having taking a significant fraction of the planet's rotation. Had Victoria returned ahead of her or was she still searching the streets?
No answer came. Not to her spoken words nor the confusing mess of thoughts on the blonde's whereabouts.
Pushing the unlocked door open, she strode into the building with unintentional caution. All was silent beyond the hum of the food storage and the buzzing of electricity. Her gaze landed on a large collection of photographs on the wall near the kitchen. Victoria holding an orange and black sphere by her shoulder while humans lifted her into the air, Carol and Sarah with an unfamiliar blonde man and woman that brought up nothing but sadness in Host's database, Mark and Eric posed on a wind-powered watercraft, Neil and Victoria hugging beneath a banner denoting someone's day of birth, Host crossing her arms and looking away while dressed in a red and white outfit.
A creaking noise alerted Shaper to another presence and she made Host's skin absorb the precipitation from her cheeks as she moved to investigate, finding Magnetism's host lying awake in bed.
Not bothering to question why he was there when the sun was still visible, humans not being nocturnal creatures, she slowly entered the room. Stopping at the bedside, she hesitantly climbed up to join him.
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"This is retarded." Shadow Stalker huffed, five hours into just sitting in her cell. "I had a broken leg, not a concussion. We should be out looking for Panacea, not sitting on our asses."
Snorting, Aegis replied, "Careful, they might take that kind of talk as a sign you've been Mastered."
"Fuck you. The bitch is fucking brain damaged and alone, do you really think the gangs aren't going to take advantage of that?"
It was a sobering thought, the E88 with both Panacea and Othala, but it wasn't likely. "We don't even know if she's missing, not like they'd tell us in here. I bet Glory Girl or one of the adults caught up to her already. I mean, healing and regeneration aren't exactly helpful for running away or hiding."
"... I guess."
"Well..." Carlos hedged awkwardly, never sure how to talk to her. "I'm glad you're opening up a little. We were all starting to worry you'd never come around."
She threw a pillow at his face.
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Bones strengthened, muscles prepped for growth in the same manner as Sophia, heart padded and armored, blood vessels sheathed to increase resistance to cutting, and digestive system on par with Host's; Mark Dallon was still the most vulnerable in the Dallon home, but now he was much safer than before. She left the clearly visible damage to his brain for when Host recovered since she didn't want to inconvenience Host if it turned out to be her pre-:CONNECTION: work as theorized. None of the changes were too extreme, it wouldn't do to make it harder for Host to finish him off if she so desired later.
The simple act of manipulating life had been relaxing, allowing Shaper time to plan.
Between the physical damage rendered via her one attempt at Art, the hosts' obsession with protecting Host from harm despite her being healed and more durable than most if not all of them, and the non-physical harm she seemed to cause Radiant's host by mere proximity... Her presence was harmful, this much was clear. Staying with them was easy and beneficial to Shaper and Host, but detrimental to the rest of her/her family.
Shaper loved her :SIBLINGS:, she wanted them to succeed and grow even if it meant making things harder on herself. Host's database reflected a similar feeling toward at least Victoria whether or not Radiant's influence was the cause. She was confident that given the same set of circumstances, Host would make the same choice she was making.
So it was that with shoes off and Host's feet padded with tissues temporarily migrated from her mammaries, Shaper stealthily made her way first outside and then into Victoria's room and finally to where Carol was sleeping on the couch. Luckily they had returned at some point, hinted at by the sound of somebody opening Mark's door while she'd been working.
Victoria lacked the bodily reserves for what she desired without harming other processes, so she needed outside resources. Rodents were easy to lure in with the right chemical mixtures, making them readily available to fuel her work. The same crystal-flesh intermediary used to protect Victoria's brain was extended to the rest of her body's blood vessels and to form a lipid-filled cage around her heart. The densely coiled cell design she'd been reverse engineering from Hookwolf was far from optimized, but it was stable enough that Shaper felt confident in placing several bundles in Victoria's fat stores to further stave off starvation or aid in natural repairs while Host was away.
She did not accept Radiant's request for communication.
Carol was complicated. Host had no positive emotional responses to her and that had been a point of contention already, but interacting with the host personally left Shaper unsure as to the veracity of those corrupted database entries on the subject. As a compromise Host's probable-mother received the same protective modifications as Mark.
Neither Corona or Magnetism had more success than their youngest :SIBLING:.
Once that was done, Carol nearly waking once before being pushed into deeper somnolence, Shaper gathered Host's school bag and made for the kitchen, knowing the sun would rise in roughly one hour. Her plans came to an abrupt pause upon seeing a note on the microwave heating device.
'
Amy-
Vicky told me about what happened and though I am not sure as to what the problem is, I want you to know that you can talk to us. We are all here for you, so don't think that you have to deal with these things alone. Even if you don't want to talk to me, at least give your Aunt Sarah a call, I understand if you're more comfortable with her.
I didn't want to wake you, so I put your dinner in the microwave. I'll see you in the morning.'
Opening the door revealed a still warm to the touch was a sealed bowl made of organic polymers, tubular carbohydrates and ground meat soaked with red plant slurry contained within. A quick investigation uncovered over a dozen crumpled drafts in the waste receptacle, possibly more beneath the uneaten scraps of food from the night's meal.
Oddly, Host's chest clenched for no particular reason as she shoved the food beside Hookwolf in her bag. A box of 'chocolate' flavored grain spheres, frozen livers, half a wheel of cheese, and whatever small foods she could find filled the rest of the available space.
Stepping out the door in the pre-dawn morning, Shaper dried Host's cheeks, drained the gallon of lactation she'd grabbed and started walking.
