jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
This Primal, I (Starcraft SI)
- Thread starter Xicree
- Start date
- Location
- Madison, AL
I don't watch enough anime to understand ether.
Xicree
Murder.Malice.Might
And that's EXACTLY what I was going for!!! ^_____^
..... NNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!
Guyver was my starting point for my love of Bullshit biotech.
... but Battle Angel Alita is where Bullshit Scifi shit meets Shonen... and I can go BEYOND!
Last edited:
- Location
- The Milky Way Galaxy, Presumably
I cant help but think something is wrong here....
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
Remember that Zerg communicate with telepathy. They might perceive his attack callings either as descriptions of the attacks (in which case calling attacks is a terrible idea with anyone who's not as dumb as that nameless guy), or as the translations the narration provides after he calls them.
- Location
- United Kingdom
#8 Big Bad
Xicree
Murder.Malice.Might
Whelp its Zerg time again!
As always those nice minor spell/grammar checks are appreciated.
And even more appreciated are comments and discussion.
#8 Big Bad
The blood was spilled, the squirming shattered remnants of a Zerg remained.
Not for long.
The first right of the strong is the feast, my fingers digging deep into the essence rich meat before me all but lost in the ecstasy of its complex though utterly insane flavor. This foolish thing truly didn't have a clue what it had been doing, retracing redundant codices and reproducing organs and limbs without understanding their purposes, often putting things which would have worked wonderfully at crossed purposes with each other. It didn't even lack the capacity to grow brains, but most of what it grew were subordinated to a central will with little understanding of why the other functioning intellects could have been useful.
Mostly it just used neural expansion to expand its sensory capabilities, which I had to admit were top notch. No worries nameless impersonator, I'll make sure your abundance of essence gets used properly.
Skizzy chittered beside me, finally uncloaked from her esoteric camouflage as she feasted beside me. I took special care to feed her bits of the nervous tissue I could find; she seemed to always like that stuff the best. I could feel her essence growing beside me as I indulged myself, gorging on the meat of my fallen foe.
Already I could identify several quickly implementable upgrades within the essence collected, and even from the shards of broken down armour. Some nice material strengthening upgrades that would improve my bones and carapace without compromising the shock absorption of them, an aero-gel like layer of fatty tissue... something I'd been struggling with how to achieve for a while. And almost shocking, a component that would allow me to project the plasma charge which I'd recently learned to generate with my tail into a directed blast. The upgrades I'd need to add around it were pretty extensive though… maybe laser cooling to reduce some of the heat stress? I'd have to work on it.
So intent on my meal I was I had almost not noticed one of the smaller imitators try to dart in and snatch some of the meat, somewhat emboldened by the presence of Skizzy partaking of the meal alongside with me.
That had been a terrible idea to say the least.
It never even reached as I slammed down my fist, totally on reflex to anything not Skizzy shaped moving quickly within my sensory range and reach. The poor thing cracked like a crab under a hammer, splattered against the ground even as I continued to eat, only barely aware that I'd crushed him in the interim until the moment that pulled in his splattered body and begun to eat that as well.
I ended up full... boosting my size at least pushing double what it had been before I'd started, more like a huge shire horse than a racing sized one, then invited one by one each of the others to come eat a portion of the total meal at my side. I had to grow an extra set of hoofed toes on the sides of each of my main running toes in order to better deal with standing weight distribution.
Mysteriously, no one else seemed inclined to attempt to eat outside of their turn.
Full and strengthened from my meal I rose.
"You are near complete. Isnana will be pleased." Uvigd spoke from beside me, smug self-satisfaction clearly warring with a yearning hunger which burned in his essence. He wanted me something fierce, but he wasn't my type. Maybe. "This trial has been taken care of indisputably. The Alpha lingers at the edge of sleep, he has something for you before he rests to martial his strength for our hunt."
I gave a signal of acquiescence, then began to follow him closely into the very center of the valley.
"So. You are the one who upset the balance." I felt the essential rumble of this voice deep within my bones, raw strength of essence permeating though me as a single eye opened on a beast no smaller than an elephant. It was bone white and bird-like with feather shaft spines which grew out into a ruff of wicked blades, a forest of them. Even on its side though I could tell that it had a rather panther like profile, though more of its body seemed to be devoted to a sleekness which bordered upon aerodynamic despite its size. I couldn't help but note the drastic similarities between it and my rival/sponsor. "And a smart one too, not likely to simply flounder should you Niche collapse. Good, the pack needs new-blood. Older clades have been starting to flounder among us. I am Gozark."
I found myself quiet, not knowing if I should respond or not to its comments, not knowing if my capabilities would even be enough to escape if this thing before me decided that it liked me better as a snack than a subordinate. Its pure oppressive essence was like being put into a pressure cooker with a ham being cooked in pure pineapple juice.
Hot, heavy, and delicious.
"You can speak up. I will bare you no ill will for speaking in my presence. Nor are you yet filling enough to be more than a tidbit before me." I received what felt like a light chuckle as multiple eyes swept up and down my form. I felt like an attractive youth before someone considering just how long it would be until they could reasonably consider me matured. It was disconcerting at best. "You have questions."
I couldn't deny it. "Yeah. More than a few."
"Then speak them. You are pack now." His body never moved, but his essence waved graciously for me to continue.
"Alright, I'm a bit at a loss for why then. Why all this? Why the pack, and why drag me into it?" I couldn't help but blurt, already suspecting the answers, but at the same time wanting to hear them for myself; wanting to hear if the big bastard was going to want to actually give them.
A great rumbling feeling surged through me as his essence shifted and roiled with what I could only assume was laughter, the largest of his many eyes homing in directly against me… almost pinning me in place with the weight of his gaze.
"Why the pack? I suppose because it is a tool. I too was once small, once frail and fragile. The greater predators of this world devoured anything that they could gain. I remember the old horrors from before they were pulled down or decided to lay dormant; Zervan the Mountain father, Klis the sky bane, Aszoto the Deep one to name a few. I am at least old enough to remember a time when pack life was not a component of this world, when it was a new phenomenon sweeping through a world dominated by singular powers. And while I cannot claim to be the first or even among the first to try this strategy, my pack is old." The great beast before you rippled along its ivory coloured quill-spines, shifting slightly along its powerful frame. I didn't doubt it when he spoke of age. "I have rebuilt it many times, learned many lessons which were taught by the error of trail and the devouring of others who gathered their packs against mine. This weapon I have learned to wield adeptly."
"So we are just claws and teeth to you then." I asked accusingly. To which the creature chuckled.
"Yes. Yes you are my claws and my teeth. My power and my glory. You are a part of me now and forever more. Together this pack will hunt, together it will endure. It will bring me prey beyond my means and its own alone and one day when I am so old that no other beast can challenge me with essence enough to make me care it will raise the next leader needed to keep me sustained. I take great pride in this construct which I have created, a tool to forge tools of flesh and bone." There was fervor there, a manic glee at the thought, the long term planning of a hungry immortal wanting to raise both meals and successors. "You, I can see, will prove a fine tool. The very reason why I chose to have you or destroy you."
I stayed quiet, my thoughts a seething whirl. I knew it, I'd understood it… but to be told it so plainly...
"Do not be bitter little beast. Wild as you were you had little to no hope of becoming strong enough to challenge all comers before someone hunted you down. This is the way of the world. With me, you are guaranteed a chance, the power of fairness is one which I have honed and sharpened to a razors edge, competition that drives every aspect of those competing upward and beyond is what I desire. The rules of the pack facilitate this." The elder looked upon me, amused at my apprehension and skepticism. "The fact is. You will be mine. And in turn all else will be yours. The pack will support you, fight for you, give you shelter and enable your development. And maybe, on the day when finally it comes to the right time, we will see which of us has chosen the better path to ascension."
"Fairness I suppose. More than I expected." I finally answered, letting the truth of it fill my essence.
"Good. It is not often that the packless can look on and understand the give and take of mutual benefit. All rules you are subjected to are simply to aid in pack cohesion, to ensure that the body of our shared beast remains healthy and functional. To share your kills with your pack who helped you make them, to declare formal challenge against a pack-member who you wish to devour, to declare rivalry with anyone whom you wish to be your exclusive hunt. To back your pack-mates against outside forces and attempt to support their survival outside of formal predation. I am the final arbiter, but above all… fairness is the measure of our success." The elder Zerg's eyes each shuttered and blinked.
"That… is a surprising outlook, all things considered." I offered. "Most of our kind would simply and gladly kill each other in any circumstance possible for their own advantage. Fairness… I wouldn't have expected it to be a central tenant."
"Yes. It is something to be laid out clear." The elder chuckled again. "I have been here for a long, long time. Pack structure must have rules, and fairness to work. Without rules then who knows how to act? And without fairness to those rules… then why would those under subjection to the rules act in accordance with the rules? We Zerg are too fractious and selfish to allow ourselves to be subjected without benefit. As it should be."
"As is should be… though I suppose that there are other ways?" I asked, trying to be sly.
"I suppose you are yet too inexperienced to have found your way to any of the Great Mothers and listened to their gossip, to learn the History of our kind that they would repeat. For me it is a personal thing, something I heard from mouth of the eldest of all Zerg. The Mountain Father spoke once... a loud musing to all who could hear it I suppose. He told of the time when all were subjected, when he was but a worm burrowed deep within the ground adaptations of his anchoring him deep even as the Corrupted ones gathered most of the biomass of Zerus together, perverting our beauty into a single vast warped beast, tendrils of essence linking each of them in a vast net subordinated to a disgusting single will. The strong, the weak, all were subject, all their essence congealed and twisted. No competition, no ability to fight back, simply subordinated into a single whole." The disgust at the very concept was tangible. "This pack, this is a path forward. Both the individual and the group advance and are made more. And just as I devour and become stronger so too shall those who follow me."
It was strange... yet enlightening. In a weird yet barbaric kind of way.
"Now that you are joining us there is one last task which you will be given, to cement the bonds of you to yours and yours to mine." Gozark gestured, and from behind me three figures came forward.
Two large powerful Zerg and one much smaller weedier one of similar make to the creature calling the shots. The smallest one did not at all feel like it wanted to be there. It's essence roiling with panic even as the spines along its body flattened and undulated wildly. The other two stood, blocking all paths but forward, and their powerful muscular bodies ensured that no attempt to dart away would see success.
"To complete your entry into the pack you must join us in all ways. Your mind is sharp, sharp enough to see the concepts that I have spoken of. But to ensure that all of yours who have joined my pack will know down to their bones how to be a part of the pack, they will need the right instincts to work with. They will need to have instinctual understanding of our strategies, of our communication methods, of the needs of supply and command." The elder spoke raising himself slightly from his resting position, his head and sinuous neck raised like a striking serpent as his long mane of spikes puffed out in malevolent intensity. He glanced in the direction of the small Zerg causing it to shrink back into its guards. "This is the weakest and least successful of those who are mine."
If I were still human, my breath would have been held, halted under the weight of what I realized was coming.
Under the choice which he was giving... a choice which was no choice at all.
"This is my offering to you and your pack. And from its essence you will derive all that you need. I will direct you in installation of its essence into your own." The Alpha spoke, no trace of mercy, nor empathy employed.
I looked into the many eyes of this the pack Omega… and made my choice.
As always those nice minor spell/grammar checks are appreciated.
And even more appreciated are comments and discussion.
-----------------------------------
#8 Big Bad
The blood was spilled, the squirming shattered remnants of a Zerg remained.
Not for long.
The first right of the strong is the feast, my fingers digging deep into the essence rich meat before me all but lost in the ecstasy of its complex though utterly insane flavor. This foolish thing truly didn't have a clue what it had been doing, retracing redundant codices and reproducing organs and limbs without understanding their purposes, often putting things which would have worked wonderfully at crossed purposes with each other. It didn't even lack the capacity to grow brains, but most of what it grew were subordinated to a central will with little understanding of why the other functioning intellects could have been useful.
Mostly it just used neural expansion to expand its sensory capabilities, which I had to admit were top notch. No worries nameless impersonator, I'll make sure your abundance of essence gets used properly.
Skizzy chittered beside me, finally uncloaked from her esoteric camouflage as she feasted beside me. I took special care to feed her bits of the nervous tissue I could find; she seemed to always like that stuff the best. I could feel her essence growing beside me as I indulged myself, gorging on the meat of my fallen foe.
Already I could identify several quickly implementable upgrades within the essence collected, and even from the shards of broken down armour. Some nice material strengthening upgrades that would improve my bones and carapace without compromising the shock absorption of them, an aero-gel like layer of fatty tissue... something I'd been struggling with how to achieve for a while. And almost shocking, a component that would allow me to project the plasma charge which I'd recently learned to generate with my tail into a directed blast. The upgrades I'd need to add around it were pretty extensive though… maybe laser cooling to reduce some of the heat stress? I'd have to work on it.
So intent on my meal I was I had almost not noticed one of the smaller imitators try to dart in and snatch some of the meat, somewhat emboldened by the presence of Skizzy partaking of the meal alongside with me.
That had been a terrible idea to say the least.
It never even reached as I slammed down my fist, totally on reflex to anything not Skizzy shaped moving quickly within my sensory range and reach. The poor thing cracked like a crab under a hammer, splattered against the ground even as I continued to eat, only barely aware that I'd crushed him in the interim until the moment that pulled in his splattered body and begun to eat that as well.
I ended up full... boosting my size at least pushing double what it had been before I'd started, more like a huge shire horse than a racing sized one, then invited one by one each of the others to come eat a portion of the total meal at my side. I had to grow an extra set of hoofed toes on the sides of each of my main running toes in order to better deal with standing weight distribution.
Mysteriously, no one else seemed inclined to attempt to eat outside of their turn.
Full and strengthened from my meal I rose.
"You are near complete. Isnana will be pleased." Uvigd spoke from beside me, smug self-satisfaction clearly warring with a yearning hunger which burned in his essence. He wanted me something fierce, but he wasn't my type. Maybe. "This trial has been taken care of indisputably. The Alpha lingers at the edge of sleep, he has something for you before he rests to martial his strength for our hunt."
I gave a signal of acquiescence, then began to follow him closely into the very center of the valley.
"So. You are the one who upset the balance." I felt the essential rumble of this voice deep within my bones, raw strength of essence permeating though me as a single eye opened on a beast no smaller than an elephant. It was bone white and bird-like with feather shaft spines which grew out into a ruff of wicked blades, a forest of them. Even on its side though I could tell that it had a rather panther like profile, though more of its body seemed to be devoted to a sleekness which bordered upon aerodynamic despite its size. I couldn't help but note the drastic similarities between it and my rival/sponsor. "And a smart one too, not likely to simply flounder should you Niche collapse. Good, the pack needs new-blood. Older clades have been starting to flounder among us. I am Gozark."
I found myself quiet, not knowing if I should respond or not to its comments, not knowing if my capabilities would even be enough to escape if this thing before me decided that it liked me better as a snack than a subordinate. Its pure oppressive essence was like being put into a pressure cooker with a ham being cooked in pure pineapple juice.
Hot, heavy, and delicious.
"You can speak up. I will bare you no ill will for speaking in my presence. Nor are you yet filling enough to be more than a tidbit before me." I received what felt like a light chuckle as multiple eyes swept up and down my form. I felt like an attractive youth before someone considering just how long it would be until they could reasonably consider me matured. It was disconcerting at best. "You have questions."
I couldn't deny it. "Yeah. More than a few."
"Then speak them. You are pack now." His body never moved, but his essence waved graciously for me to continue.
"Alright, I'm a bit at a loss for why then. Why all this? Why the pack, and why drag me into it?" I couldn't help but blurt, already suspecting the answers, but at the same time wanting to hear them for myself; wanting to hear if the big bastard was going to want to actually give them.
A great rumbling feeling surged through me as his essence shifted and roiled with what I could only assume was laughter, the largest of his many eyes homing in directly against me… almost pinning me in place with the weight of his gaze.
"Why the pack? I suppose because it is a tool. I too was once small, once frail and fragile. The greater predators of this world devoured anything that they could gain. I remember the old horrors from before they were pulled down or decided to lay dormant; Zervan the Mountain father, Klis the sky bane, Aszoto the Deep one to name a few. I am at least old enough to remember a time when pack life was not a component of this world, when it was a new phenomenon sweeping through a world dominated by singular powers. And while I cannot claim to be the first or even among the first to try this strategy, my pack is old." The great beast before you rippled along its ivory coloured quill-spines, shifting slightly along its powerful frame. I didn't doubt it when he spoke of age. "I have rebuilt it many times, learned many lessons which were taught by the error of trail and the devouring of others who gathered their packs against mine. This weapon I have learned to wield adeptly."
"So we are just claws and teeth to you then." I asked accusingly. To which the creature chuckled.
"Yes. Yes you are my claws and my teeth. My power and my glory. You are a part of me now and forever more. Together this pack will hunt, together it will endure. It will bring me prey beyond my means and its own alone and one day when I am so old that no other beast can challenge me with essence enough to make me care it will raise the next leader needed to keep me sustained. I take great pride in this construct which I have created, a tool to forge tools of flesh and bone." There was fervor there, a manic glee at the thought, the long term planning of a hungry immortal wanting to raise both meals and successors. "You, I can see, will prove a fine tool. The very reason why I chose to have you or destroy you."
I stayed quiet, my thoughts a seething whirl. I knew it, I'd understood it… but to be told it so plainly...
"Do not be bitter little beast. Wild as you were you had little to no hope of becoming strong enough to challenge all comers before someone hunted you down. This is the way of the world. With me, you are guaranteed a chance, the power of fairness is one which I have honed and sharpened to a razors edge, competition that drives every aspect of those competing upward and beyond is what I desire. The rules of the pack facilitate this." The elder looked upon me, amused at my apprehension and skepticism. "The fact is. You will be mine. And in turn all else will be yours. The pack will support you, fight for you, give you shelter and enable your development. And maybe, on the day when finally it comes to the right time, we will see which of us has chosen the better path to ascension."
"Fairness I suppose. More than I expected." I finally answered, letting the truth of it fill my essence.
"Good. It is not often that the packless can look on and understand the give and take of mutual benefit. All rules you are subjected to are simply to aid in pack cohesion, to ensure that the body of our shared beast remains healthy and functional. To share your kills with your pack who helped you make them, to declare formal challenge against a pack-member who you wish to devour, to declare rivalry with anyone whom you wish to be your exclusive hunt. To back your pack-mates against outside forces and attempt to support their survival outside of formal predation. I am the final arbiter, but above all… fairness is the measure of our success." The elder Zerg's eyes each shuttered and blinked.
"That… is a surprising outlook, all things considered." I offered. "Most of our kind would simply and gladly kill each other in any circumstance possible for their own advantage. Fairness… I wouldn't have expected it to be a central tenant."
"Yes. It is something to be laid out clear." The elder chuckled again. "I have been here for a long, long time. Pack structure must have rules, and fairness to work. Without rules then who knows how to act? And without fairness to those rules… then why would those under subjection to the rules act in accordance with the rules? We Zerg are too fractious and selfish to allow ourselves to be subjected without benefit. As it should be."
"As is should be… though I suppose that there are other ways?" I asked, trying to be sly.
"I suppose you are yet too inexperienced to have found your way to any of the Great Mothers and listened to their gossip, to learn the History of our kind that they would repeat. For me it is a personal thing, something I heard from mouth of the eldest of all Zerg. The Mountain Father spoke once... a loud musing to all who could hear it I suppose. He told of the time when all were subjected, when he was but a worm burrowed deep within the ground adaptations of his anchoring him deep even as the Corrupted ones gathered most of the biomass of Zerus together, perverting our beauty into a single vast warped beast, tendrils of essence linking each of them in a vast net subordinated to a disgusting single will. The strong, the weak, all were subject, all their essence congealed and twisted. No competition, no ability to fight back, simply subordinated into a single whole." The disgust at the very concept was tangible. "This pack, this is a path forward. Both the individual and the group advance and are made more. And just as I devour and become stronger so too shall those who follow me."
It was strange... yet enlightening. In a weird yet barbaric kind of way.
"Now that you are joining us there is one last task which you will be given, to cement the bonds of you to yours and yours to mine." Gozark gestured, and from behind me three figures came forward.
Two large powerful Zerg and one much smaller weedier one of similar make to the creature calling the shots. The smallest one did not at all feel like it wanted to be there. It's essence roiling with panic even as the spines along its body flattened and undulated wildly. The other two stood, blocking all paths but forward, and their powerful muscular bodies ensured that no attempt to dart away would see success.
"To complete your entry into the pack you must join us in all ways. Your mind is sharp, sharp enough to see the concepts that I have spoken of. But to ensure that all of yours who have joined my pack will know down to their bones how to be a part of the pack, they will need the right instincts to work with. They will need to have instinctual understanding of our strategies, of our communication methods, of the needs of supply and command." The elder spoke raising himself slightly from his resting position, his head and sinuous neck raised like a striking serpent as his long mane of spikes puffed out in malevolent intensity. He glanced in the direction of the small Zerg causing it to shrink back into its guards. "This is the weakest and least successful of those who are mine."
If I were still human, my breath would have been held, halted under the weight of what I realized was coming.
Under the choice which he was giving... a choice which was no choice at all.
"This is my offering to you and your pack. And from its essence you will derive all that you need. I will direct you in installation of its essence into your own." The Alpha spoke, no trace of mercy, nor empathy employed.
I looked into the many eyes of this the pack Omega… and made my choice.
Last edited:
Dragonskyt
Ashen one, hearest thou my voice, still?
- Location
- Kiln of the First Flame
Brutal.
But not unexpected.
Funny though how similar and yet different Zerg and Humans are.
Humans made groups because they are weak.
Zerg do so because they are strong.
But not unexpected.
Funny though how similar and yet different Zerg and Humans are.
Humans made groups because they are weak.
Zerg do so because they are strong.
- Location
- Madison, AL
Very true, I hope he still has time before KERRIGAN arrives.
If you do something silly like say you won't devour the pack omega for any reason I will be very disappointed.
Also, ladies and gentlemen, a round of applause for the person that has successfully figured out how to give a race of murderous cannibalistic and evolving monsters a viable society.
Also, ladies and gentlemen, a round of applause for the person that has successfully figured out how to give a race of murderous cannibalistic and evolving monsters a viable society.
- Location
- United Kingdom
So the fic is going quite well, there is a growing problem with the passivity of the MC though. Atm he indeed doesn't have much choice but he really should be questioning some of this and making plans for the inevitable betrayal.
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
#9 Bad Trip
Xicree
Murder.Malice.Might
Ok... here we go some more.
#Bad Trip
I looked down at the smaller Zerg, slightly large dog sized... barely anything compared to the rest of us, I'd have to divvy up its body into pieces and use those pieces to share the essence of it with every member of my own small sub-pack. It was too small and runty to really do much else. It meant that they essence of it was permeated with the information needed, that this was something programmed into its very baseline of genetic expression. Essence built up as a psionic construct, a body within the body, giving abilities and adaptations of its own if a being understood its expression well enough.
It was almost as if Zerg had an 'XP bar' and one could drain it. More complicated than that really, but it boiled down simply that essence was essentially a finite resource within a single Zerg, and while multiple Zerg could draw from the source it was a destructive 'scan' of sorts.
"Generous." I replied to the Elder before me, one eye near the back of my head tracking his movements. "But I can't help but wonder at the criteria for this sacrifice. How was it chosen? Agreement among peers, competition pressure, or merely singled out because of his size relative to the others of his pack?"
I let my larger array of frontal eyes roam the small creature. It didn't seem particularly special, just small and beaten, its body like a cross between a fuzzy Zergling and a hunting bird. It clearly had adapted itself to a niche of small game at the very least.
"Mmm, do you doubt the quality of the essence before you? That matters little, partake of its essence and share the meat." The elder replied, sounding as if he'd needed to make this exact speech time and time again.
"No, I merely am thinking that it smacks of unfairness if one is selected for such an honour without a chance to prove themselves directly." I tried to keep my essence steady, walking a short tightrope. On the one hand, I didn't particularly care about the prospect of rendering the little thing into scraps for my table; I doubted I could ring much more than a few mouthfuls out of it. But at the same time I couldn't help but wonder if there wasn't something being left out, a niche unexplored by the pack that was being given up.
… or maybe I just had a penchant for liking small cute things.
"Unfairness? Hmm. This is the first time such a charge has been leveled at my process." He stared at me accusingly.
"To be fair my lord." I figured my essence would translate that much appropriately. "You're presence does tend to enforce your choices on matters even if it happens to be a minor bit of unfairness which only impacts those who have little power to work against you or against such choices."
"You make a valid point. But even so, this is my gift to you. You will partake of it. And you will share it with your new pack." The elder spoke with dread finality.
"I obey." I spoke without hesitation, and then turned to the small creature. It's heckles raised as it prepared for the impossible fight to come.
"I will not go gently." It cursed, essence flagging under the terror of the inevitable, still it stood in a combat ready stance, looking to take even the smallest chance at survival.
The elder nodded his head with a small note of satisfied pride. "Good, even the weakest of my line should fight till the end of the end. REJOICE my child. Your sacrifice will grant the Pack new strength. Struggle all the way down."
The small Zerg turned, a look of fearsome hate burning in its progenitor's direction.
"I do not think that such is absolutely necessary, my lord Gozark." I spoke up, my thick tail whipping about briefly even as I moved to interpose myself between the Pack Alpha and the morsel which he'd given to my pack. The elder Zerg's interest perked and his focus fell upon me. "I have a different solution. I find even the weakest tend to have their uses if nurtured correctly. My Skizzy here is an example of such. She was once nothing more than a slinking herbivore in the underbrush once. I have been learning to mold her into something more. This little one you've given me at least seems to have a willingness to fight while out matched. I only ask your permission that you not take it as an insult if I keep this one alive."
The elder's head turned sideways in a very birdlike motion. "It depends completely on if you intend to accept the essence offered, I will tolerate no opposition to this demand."
"And I have no plan on doing so. Merely that I might divide up this one without resorting to its death." I spoke even as I reached out, folding out my more sturdy finger claws, the blunted ones which would serve as to give a solid grip without worrying about the small one's spines. It reacted poorly, biting, snarling and trying in general to defend itself, but I was too large in comparison and my armoured hide too thick to be denied. Even if I spoke of its survival, the implications of what I was about to do were grim.
Meh. It was Zerg. It would learn to deal with this. To live through this ordeal would be better than to die to it.
"Then you may keep it. If such is your fancy. Beyond my orders, your pack is yours, unless another should rise in your place to take it from you. Do as you will." Gozark lowered his head back into 'sleeping' position before adding. "Once you have taken in the essence of this Omega, I will give instruction to you and yours. Do not disappoint."
I nodded, shifting my essence in acceptance of his demand.
I left with the still squirming Zerg in my hand, it's wriggling a vague annoyance even as some of its spines were sharp enough to pierce some of the softer sections between the armoured fingers it was pressed between, still trying to escape my grasp.
"You know if you escape it will simply be a death sentence." I commented even as I walked back to my new founded pack, barely a hour passed since I'd claimed them fully. "And besides, I will not let you die."
The little thing went limp in my hand, only to turn a glare upon me, waves of angry and hateful essence practically searing my palm. "And I should be grateful, to live as your toy, broken and savaged?"
"You should be grateful to live to see a future where you could be strong, if you put up with falling a bit further down." I answered, honest with the little ball of rage, though sympathetic as I realized just what it was thinking was coming. "I don't plan to use you as a chew-toy for the rest of my pack. I don't see that a productive use of potential talent."
The smaller Zerg snorted derisively. "Your claims are less than believable."
"Then do not believe me." I shrugged, even as I continued to carry it slowly off to its doom. "You will either die here, or you will survive. Everything from there will be up to you. I would suggest that if you understand such things well enough by now, you should turn off your pain sensitivity. I will not serve you here."
"Why, thank you!" The zergling sized Zerg snarled in rebellious rebuttal.
"Your body, not mine. I merely hope to have a fully intact mind when we are finished." I commented, a bit uncomfortable about what I was about to do, both for its sake and my own. "It occurs to me that I do not know your name. Do you have any particular thing that you wish me to call you?"
"Last." The little Zerg groaned as it hung limp from my arm. "I've always been Last. Last to the prey, last to discover new sources of essence. Just… last." It sounded tired, a bone deep weariness that made me question if I was doing it any favors in saving its life.
"Stay alive. Feed well. Lack strong… get strong." Neither I nor Last had been prepared when Skizzy spoke up from her perch on my shoulder. I think I may have been the more surprised on to be honest. I suppose I'd been taking my little companion for granted a bit. Her mental development was running along in leaps and bounds. "Xi feeds, I eat. Lack smart, get smarts."
The Zerg, Last, looked down at the ground. I didn't say anything more as I arrived to seal its fate.
"We have been given a gift from the one who called us; an offering of flesh and essence to be shared among us, to teach us what we need to be successful within this pack. I will share it to you. Come." I beckoned them in, organizing them to stand in a circle with me, as every step of the way I made them listen and act upon what I willed. It was a simple starting exercise in exerting my control over them, directing them and getting them accustomed to bowing to my desires.
A ritual in the making.
"This one before us is Last. It is our sacrifice, given to us from the Alpha of this pack himself to foster proper integration. From here on, its flesh is our flesh, its essence our essence. It shall be one of our weapons, our claws, and our teeth. We will feed it, as we feed upon it." I spoke solemnly, my eyes each tracking a different Zerg. The most powerful four having decided to move into different quadrants of the circle I'd constructed of us almost by instinct, standing apart as much as possible while keeping all others within easy angles of view.
"And why would we waste meat and essence on this? Even the smallest of ours could take it on and win." The largest among us spoke, his voice like a heavy truck. Relur it seemed, had managed to regain a measure of his boastful pride in my absence, his essence disdainful even as his powerful body sat curled in compliance with my order.
"There is no waste in caring for each other. In tending to each other to ensure that the pack is strong. It is no waste in nurturing and directing another to grow strong and compliment your own strengths." I spoke up, surveying the group which I'd tamed.
A long silence followed my statement as I allowed what I'd said to sink deeper in.
"We are all weak." I spoke again after the long silence, my tentacle tail whipping with electrical surges even as I leaned forward, grasping poor Last in my grip. "We are all weak in some way that cannot be made up for, a price for the strength we gain. To attempt to be strong in every way is to be brittle and weak in every way. It is the specialist who learns its role and becomes immersed in that role that finds the time energy and effort rewarded in ways far beyond what their essence and flesh suggests. Every one of us is strong yet weak in some manner, and yet we can each make up for it. The point of the pack itself is that all can be strong together, and be allowed to be strong in ways different from each other. Those different paths to strength leave us exposed to other paths… and yet when intertwined may yield far greater strength than any single path alone."
I leaned forward and pulled the smaller Zerg up by the foot, then bit down upon the end of one struggling leg. It screamed out, but I couldn't tell if it was in pain or in frustration. It's body writhing and attacking to no avail as I swallowed down the essence laden meat.
Leader goes first.
I reached to its next leg and broke off another foot, throwing the piece to Relur, who'd seated himself far across from me. Then another to Atmaz, then Borgus, reminding them of the order in which they'd bowed their heads to my rule. Each brought Last into writhing contortions, its body rebelling against the slow methodical dismemberment as systematically I tore away flesh and bone from its body, barely giving it a chance to heal and stabilize itself before tearing into it for the next, piece, and the next piece, even as I was careful not to rip at anything vital to its immediate survival.
Zerg were nothing if not tough.
And then at the moment when the last of my pack had eaten of this offering... I could hear the powerful essence of the elder. Not speech, nothing so simple or crude, just a flow of information, of instruction, of sequence after sequence of careful and detailed direction.
Almost in a trance we all swooned, bodies following as the powerful essence intended, building internal structures and neurological circuitry, building instincts and understandings, building emotional centers constructed in commonality, building inbuilt understandings of strategies, tactics, and rules.
Building our way into the Pack in truth.
It was all but a religious experience...
It was a moment more before I fully recovered, eyes coming into focus as I looked upon each and every one of My Pack... My Pack… Emotion swelled within me, a deep well which burned with a desire to be closer, to have them at hand. Emotion which I could see reflexed in the essence of them all.
A deep seeded connection which held us firmly as a one.
They were MINE.
… it was intense, even more so as each one looked up from their own reverie, all eyes upon me.
A strange mixture of amazed desires.
I pushed myself to calm. To settle…
And then I reached to my lower arm and took hold of the smallest finger, the most delicate, breaking it off at the root as I winced at the triggering of pain sensors in the delicate organ. Then I reached up and cradled the decimated body of the still mewling Last… feeding the finger to him as if I were feeding a child.
"His flesh was offered to bind us. And now our flesh will be offered to bind us further… we are Pack. And we will be Strong."
Skizzy chittered and cooed.
It felt Right.
-------------------------------------
#Bad Trip
I looked down at the smaller Zerg, slightly large dog sized... barely anything compared to the rest of us, I'd have to divvy up its body into pieces and use those pieces to share the essence of it with every member of my own small sub-pack. It was too small and runty to really do much else. It meant that they essence of it was permeated with the information needed, that this was something programmed into its very baseline of genetic expression. Essence built up as a psionic construct, a body within the body, giving abilities and adaptations of its own if a being understood its expression well enough.
It was almost as if Zerg had an 'XP bar' and one could drain it. More complicated than that really, but it boiled down simply that essence was essentially a finite resource within a single Zerg, and while multiple Zerg could draw from the source it was a destructive 'scan' of sorts.
"Generous." I replied to the Elder before me, one eye near the back of my head tracking his movements. "But I can't help but wonder at the criteria for this sacrifice. How was it chosen? Agreement among peers, competition pressure, or merely singled out because of his size relative to the others of his pack?"
I let my larger array of frontal eyes roam the small creature. It didn't seem particularly special, just small and beaten, its body like a cross between a fuzzy Zergling and a hunting bird. It clearly had adapted itself to a niche of small game at the very least.
"Mmm, do you doubt the quality of the essence before you? That matters little, partake of its essence and share the meat." The elder replied, sounding as if he'd needed to make this exact speech time and time again.
"No, I merely am thinking that it smacks of unfairness if one is selected for such an honour without a chance to prove themselves directly." I tried to keep my essence steady, walking a short tightrope. On the one hand, I didn't particularly care about the prospect of rendering the little thing into scraps for my table; I doubted I could ring much more than a few mouthfuls out of it. But at the same time I couldn't help but wonder if there wasn't something being left out, a niche unexplored by the pack that was being given up.
… or maybe I just had a penchant for liking small cute things.
"Unfairness? Hmm. This is the first time such a charge has been leveled at my process." He stared at me accusingly.
"To be fair my lord." I figured my essence would translate that much appropriately. "You're presence does tend to enforce your choices on matters even if it happens to be a minor bit of unfairness which only impacts those who have little power to work against you or against such choices."
"You make a valid point. But even so, this is my gift to you. You will partake of it. And you will share it with your new pack." The elder spoke with dread finality.
"I obey." I spoke without hesitation, and then turned to the small creature. It's heckles raised as it prepared for the impossible fight to come.
"I will not go gently." It cursed, essence flagging under the terror of the inevitable, still it stood in a combat ready stance, looking to take even the smallest chance at survival.
The elder nodded his head with a small note of satisfied pride. "Good, even the weakest of my line should fight till the end of the end. REJOICE my child. Your sacrifice will grant the Pack new strength. Struggle all the way down."
The small Zerg turned, a look of fearsome hate burning in its progenitor's direction.
"I do not think that such is absolutely necessary, my lord Gozark." I spoke up, my thick tail whipping about briefly even as I moved to interpose myself between the Pack Alpha and the morsel which he'd given to my pack. The elder Zerg's interest perked and his focus fell upon me. "I have a different solution. I find even the weakest tend to have their uses if nurtured correctly. My Skizzy here is an example of such. She was once nothing more than a slinking herbivore in the underbrush once. I have been learning to mold her into something more. This little one you've given me at least seems to have a willingness to fight while out matched. I only ask your permission that you not take it as an insult if I keep this one alive."
The elder's head turned sideways in a very birdlike motion. "It depends completely on if you intend to accept the essence offered, I will tolerate no opposition to this demand."
"And I have no plan on doing so. Merely that I might divide up this one without resorting to its death." I spoke even as I reached out, folding out my more sturdy finger claws, the blunted ones which would serve as to give a solid grip without worrying about the small one's spines. It reacted poorly, biting, snarling and trying in general to defend itself, but I was too large in comparison and my armoured hide too thick to be denied. Even if I spoke of its survival, the implications of what I was about to do were grim.
Meh. It was Zerg. It would learn to deal with this. To live through this ordeal would be better than to die to it.
"Then you may keep it. If such is your fancy. Beyond my orders, your pack is yours, unless another should rise in your place to take it from you. Do as you will." Gozark lowered his head back into 'sleeping' position before adding. "Once you have taken in the essence of this Omega, I will give instruction to you and yours. Do not disappoint."
I nodded, shifting my essence in acceptance of his demand.
I left with the still squirming Zerg in my hand, it's wriggling a vague annoyance even as some of its spines were sharp enough to pierce some of the softer sections between the armoured fingers it was pressed between, still trying to escape my grasp.
"You know if you escape it will simply be a death sentence." I commented even as I walked back to my new founded pack, barely a hour passed since I'd claimed them fully. "And besides, I will not let you die."
The little thing went limp in my hand, only to turn a glare upon me, waves of angry and hateful essence practically searing my palm. "And I should be grateful, to live as your toy, broken and savaged?"
"You should be grateful to live to see a future where you could be strong, if you put up with falling a bit further down." I answered, honest with the little ball of rage, though sympathetic as I realized just what it was thinking was coming. "I don't plan to use you as a chew-toy for the rest of my pack. I don't see that a productive use of potential talent."
The smaller Zerg snorted derisively. "Your claims are less than believable."
"Then do not believe me." I shrugged, even as I continued to carry it slowly off to its doom. "You will either die here, or you will survive. Everything from there will be up to you. I would suggest that if you understand such things well enough by now, you should turn off your pain sensitivity. I will not serve you here."
"Why, thank you!" The zergling sized Zerg snarled in rebellious rebuttal.
"Your body, not mine. I merely hope to have a fully intact mind when we are finished." I commented, a bit uncomfortable about what I was about to do, both for its sake and my own. "It occurs to me that I do not know your name. Do you have any particular thing that you wish me to call you?"
"Last." The little Zerg groaned as it hung limp from my arm. "I've always been Last. Last to the prey, last to discover new sources of essence. Just… last." It sounded tired, a bone deep weariness that made me question if I was doing it any favors in saving its life.
"Stay alive. Feed well. Lack strong… get strong." Neither I nor Last had been prepared when Skizzy spoke up from her perch on my shoulder. I think I may have been the more surprised on to be honest. I suppose I'd been taking my little companion for granted a bit. Her mental development was running along in leaps and bounds. "Xi feeds, I eat. Lack smart, get smarts."
The Zerg, Last, looked down at the ground. I didn't say anything more as I arrived to seal its fate.
"We have been given a gift from the one who called us; an offering of flesh and essence to be shared among us, to teach us what we need to be successful within this pack. I will share it to you. Come." I beckoned them in, organizing them to stand in a circle with me, as every step of the way I made them listen and act upon what I willed. It was a simple starting exercise in exerting my control over them, directing them and getting them accustomed to bowing to my desires.
A ritual in the making.
"This one before us is Last. It is our sacrifice, given to us from the Alpha of this pack himself to foster proper integration. From here on, its flesh is our flesh, its essence our essence. It shall be one of our weapons, our claws, and our teeth. We will feed it, as we feed upon it." I spoke solemnly, my eyes each tracking a different Zerg. The most powerful four having decided to move into different quadrants of the circle I'd constructed of us almost by instinct, standing apart as much as possible while keeping all others within easy angles of view.
"And why would we waste meat and essence on this? Even the smallest of ours could take it on and win." The largest among us spoke, his voice like a heavy truck. Relur it seemed, had managed to regain a measure of his boastful pride in my absence, his essence disdainful even as his powerful body sat curled in compliance with my order.
"There is no waste in caring for each other. In tending to each other to ensure that the pack is strong. It is no waste in nurturing and directing another to grow strong and compliment your own strengths." I spoke up, surveying the group which I'd tamed.
A long silence followed my statement as I allowed what I'd said to sink deeper in.
"We are all weak." I spoke again after the long silence, my tentacle tail whipping with electrical surges even as I leaned forward, grasping poor Last in my grip. "We are all weak in some way that cannot be made up for, a price for the strength we gain. To attempt to be strong in every way is to be brittle and weak in every way. It is the specialist who learns its role and becomes immersed in that role that finds the time energy and effort rewarded in ways far beyond what their essence and flesh suggests. Every one of us is strong yet weak in some manner, and yet we can each make up for it. The point of the pack itself is that all can be strong together, and be allowed to be strong in ways different from each other. Those different paths to strength leave us exposed to other paths… and yet when intertwined may yield far greater strength than any single path alone."
I leaned forward and pulled the smaller Zerg up by the foot, then bit down upon the end of one struggling leg. It screamed out, but I couldn't tell if it was in pain or in frustration. It's body writhing and attacking to no avail as I swallowed down the essence laden meat.
Leader goes first.
I reached to its next leg and broke off another foot, throwing the piece to Relur, who'd seated himself far across from me. Then another to Atmaz, then Borgus, reminding them of the order in which they'd bowed their heads to my rule. Each brought Last into writhing contortions, its body rebelling against the slow methodical dismemberment as systematically I tore away flesh and bone from its body, barely giving it a chance to heal and stabilize itself before tearing into it for the next, piece, and the next piece, even as I was careful not to rip at anything vital to its immediate survival.
Zerg were nothing if not tough.
And then at the moment when the last of my pack had eaten of this offering... I could hear the powerful essence of the elder. Not speech, nothing so simple or crude, just a flow of information, of instruction, of sequence after sequence of careful and detailed direction.
Almost in a trance we all swooned, bodies following as the powerful essence intended, building internal structures and neurological circuitry, building instincts and understandings, building emotional centers constructed in commonality, building inbuilt understandings of strategies, tactics, and rules.
Building our way into the Pack in truth.
It was all but a religious experience...
It was a moment more before I fully recovered, eyes coming into focus as I looked upon each and every one of My Pack... My Pack… Emotion swelled within me, a deep well which burned with a desire to be closer, to have them at hand. Emotion which I could see reflexed in the essence of them all.
A deep seeded connection which held us firmly as a one.
They were MINE.
… it was intense, even more so as each one looked up from their own reverie, all eyes upon me.
A strange mixture of amazed desires.
I pushed myself to calm. To settle…
And then I reached to my lower arm and took hold of the smallest finger, the most delicate, breaking it off at the root as I winced at the triggering of pain sensors in the delicate organ. Then I reached up and cradled the decimated body of the still mewling Last… feeding the finger to him as if I were feeding a child.
"His flesh was offered to bind us. And now our flesh will be offered to bind us further… we are Pack. And we will be Strong."
Skizzy chittered and cooed.
It felt Right.
Terran Imperium
[French]
- Location
- Southern France
This is good! I just hope the MC won't become an idealist. The Internet already has enough of them in fictions.
- Location
- England
Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.
Zerg!Jesus confirmed.
- Location
- The Outer Plane Of Munchkinry.
As a follower of enlightened self interest i find the idea of a emotionally reinforced tendancy to want to be closer to another and keep them at hand to be somewhat counter productive; there are situations where such a course of action would do nothing but harm a metaorganism.
It's sort of like how psychopaths aren't necessarily bad people, even if they are more likely to be ones, or to be worse when they are ones, or any number of other things that may or may not be the case (for more information look up the "dark is not evil" Trope.); you shouldn't need emotions backing up your cooperation with people in order to do so.
Xicree
Murder.Malice.Might
You don't NEED it... but it makes whether or not you Get it... somewhat random.
- Location
- Madison, AL
I love this so deep and well made
Cybandeath
Lord Darkness, and Representative of Mad Science
- Location
- The United States of America
- Location
- The Outer Plane Of Munchkinry.
I'm not sure whether or not you mean "get it" as either grokking it or receiving it; if it is the former then i would argue that they still don't do so, both because they don't need to in order to follow the programing, ala most people who talk about morality, and because of the complaint from the Alpha about how few Zerg understand how mutualism works. If it's the latter, however, then it's...Actually it reminds me of how "am", for a lack of a better descriptor, managed to get the cooperation of his higher intuitions, which is to say that it was a hack job of titanic propotions.
It actually seems sort of like a parasite, or, if i am feeling less salty, a symbiot, which is itself more of a part of the Alpha then those around him, in that it is a part of him in the same way that the spawn of Great Mothers make others which are a part of them.*
Either way it is really more like correlation then a direct causation.
* I likely would not have even thought of it like that if not for the Great Mothers, but what is funny about it is that Great Mothers don't alow such a complex system in their spawn, which is why they can use them, however, the Alpha doesn't do that; he has simply reformed the enviroment, and then become symbiotic with it, somewhat like how eucalyptus forests are symbiotic with bush fires, and the thing about it is that, while he may be symbiotic with it, it is also possible that he is parasitic with(? is "with" the right word?) it. I find myself wondering how said enviroment, especially now that it has a memetic warfare optimised mind (or ones willingness to dedicate/trade a portion of its mental processing to it if you want to be clear about it) as a component, would react to that situation; it would probably eat it in one way or another, but how would a memetic entity (if it could even be called that; it's more like a plant) digest a mental/neurological/physical entity?...Then again, isn't that sort of what happened to jesus christ? The culture, via the church, started using him, or rather the idea of him, as a form of morality ("What would jesus do?"). If the Alpha is only able to being value to the Pack by being the strongest Zerg there and by reinforcing the morality, then the best way to remove him would be by removing his ability to trade these things to the pack in return for membership; find another source of brute strength (i have been talking about plan "communal macro-drone/mobile base") and a way to isolate his system of morality while keeping it connected to a system to reinforce it. It sure if a good thing that he is the best way to reinforce pack cohesion, and that no one has found a better way.
Terran Imperium
[French]
- Location
- Southern France
Congratulations, you just gave me a headache. My eyes go sideways when seeing that big wall of text.