polarvoid | Inbox for ryslig

[Max isn’t the only one who thinks about it constantly, it’s just that at this point, any alternative they could come up with is even worse. Choosing to go after the elderly? Picking people at random? It feels like they’d lose no matter what.

And besides, Basil has felt like a murderer for a solid fourth of his life, now. It’s only up from there.

As Max falters once she’s made the ring, Basil realizes with a sinking feeling what issue they’re having. It’s not like many locals visit the park this time of night.]

Yeah. Do…should I stay here?

[He could come with her, but two monsters traveling together seems suspicious. At the very least, he could hang back potentially and keep watch…]

[ Instantly, Max nods her head, but then clarifies— ]

They'll hear. [ And she gestures quickly at his tree-like feet. ] And they'll probably figure, if they see two of us...

[ They're having the same thought processes. Even if Max is having a hard time voicing hers. ]

...But... I mean, if you hang back, maybe...

[ Ultimately, she still...really doesn't want to be alone. She's not sure if she trusts herself. ]

[It makes sense, even if being alone right now definitely leaves him feeling a bit on edge. If they were to go together, the likelihood of them being seen goes up. The likelihood of this getting messy goes up even more.

Basil wants nothing more than for this to be easy, for Max, even though he knows it's not possible for it to be.]

I'll stay right near the park entrance. If you need help...I'll be able to hear you if you call for me, like this.

[ It's okay. It's okay. It's just for a short time. It's just...what they have to do. It's okay.

Max nods with a jerky kind of motion. ]

Right. Yeah. If something's- if I need to, I can just...call your name.

[ She wants to do or say something else. Doesn't want to leave it on that, should give him something else because she knows he must be freaking out too, but—

But Max has to hunt. She has to.

So. Very quickly, she turns and leaves the part, claws lightly clacking on the concrete but generally quieter than hooves or Basil's current set up. And Max does what girls are not advised to do, in general, she wanders the dark city streets at night.

That never scared her when she lived in San Diego. Okay, she didn't go out of her way to—but she's walked on the beach under the pier, stayed out until the sun had long gone down, walked home with fireflies as her only light. It's never scared her before, yet now...

Now, what she fears isn't some kind of external threat. It isn't muggers or perverts or anything like that—it's that she may come across a perfectly innocent person and snap.

For that reason, she's remarkably careful. Remarkably selective on where she walks. Jaw clenched tight, Max finds herself going down the nearest alleyways she can find, fully disregarding every single city lecture she's ever sat through. ]

Come out, come out...wherever you are... [ Max murmurs under her breath. Involuntarily, her tongue swipes across her muzzle as she starts weaving through the alleys.

From Basil's perspective, almost ten minutes have passed, and Max hasn't returned. ]

[Basil trusts Max, and so, he waits. He wasn't going to go charging after her within the first few minutes, because it's not likely she'd even find anybody that quickly. It's not as busy at night, which means hunting is a little harder. Most locals know better than to roam the streets after dark for fear of nocturnal monsters, not unless they had some reason to be out here, or they worked late or something...

Besides, you're in danger during the day, too. It often matters little for the people here, even when they try to be careful.

He's diligent, standing at the park entrance with his hands together, nervously twisting his fingers as he occasionally looks up and down the street to see if anybody is coming. Max, someone else...but there's nothing.

Ten whole minutes of nothing.

Basil starts to pace, his wooden feet clomping against the sidewalk as he goes. Another moment passes. Then another...]

Oh, Maaaax....where are you?

[ The circumstances that Max finds herself in are, comparative to everything else, almost unremarkable. She goes looking for a certain type of person in a certain type of place, well, she finds that type of person in that place, and not just one.

That's the complicated part. But at least this time, she's aware as a human foolishly approaches her, this one with a knife. He gets a small slash across the membrane of the wing attacked to the arm reaching for him—slashing him across the chest. It isn't foolish in motive, as his goal is to stop the trance Max has his uppity, fast-talking leader caught in. The trance... The trance, that Max is so completely unprepared for. Has never once attempted. Wait, rewind, it's—

It would be very noble to say Max found a trio of twentysomethings menacing some innocent kid or a lady in the wrong part of town. But no, they're just loitering, lingering, talking big and talking shit. One of them catches the light reflecting off the bits of her body that are not scales, are instead a pastel carapace, and yes, he does shoot off some charged things that Max will not repeat, and he does start towards her with a threat to skin her like the beast she is—

But even before that. The moment she lays eyes on them, a bunch of assholes who're sneering and wearing too much denim, hair a little too curly and eyes a little too eccentric but sleepy, smile a little too tight, it's a foregone conclusion. One of these men is going to be who she hunts tonight. Before the threats. Before the trance. Before one nicks a wing. Before the other throws a metal trash can at her that she slaps back with her tail. Before she's walking backwards, barely able to keep track of the lackeys as her whole attention and focus is on this guy with dirty blonde hair and a bad attitude, who reminds her in so many superficial fucking ways of the brother she lost July 4th, 1985, at Starcourt Mall.

Time continues to stretch on. Until there's a noise, a soft one normally, but for Basil's ears...? Well.

It's the clatter of two sets of footsteps, distant but quickly approaching, and notable in how quickly. They almost cover up the slower ones, one with the same general weight and sound—of shoes on concrete, step, step, step—and the other scratchier and heavier—scales, claws, clack, clack, clack—that are closer, down the hall, down a nearby alley.

They don't cover up the small gasp, though. Nor the heavy breathing, or the wince, all familiar in voice.

Max backs out of an alley, eyes wide by force and watering. She looks dazed but determined, like her very hold on her sense of self is floating away. Red, living blood runs from a small cut on her left Gargoyle wing, and she's gritting her teeth. Both sets of teeth, clenched to a soundless snarl, save for her struggles.

She's been doing this for nearly six minutes, all the while being assailed and distracted, and for a first time with no practice... That is, about, her limit. ]

Edited (wrong word) 2023-07-27 07:25 (UTC)

[It's nervewracking, waiting. And to his credit, Basil doesn't dart out into the night to look for Max, as much as he wants to. He has to trust that she'll come back eventually. He has to trust her. If he were to run up on her in the middle of choosing a target, it would just make things harder. He has to wait.

And so, he does. He stands shrouded in the flickering light of a streetlamp, his ears flicking every so often when a bug buzzes past them. Sometimes he'll lift his head and look stiffly in one direction, thinking he'd heard something. Is that her? Is it something else? He wants to go look, but he can't. Close enough that he could cause problems if he intervened, yet far enough away that he can't actually hear Max anymore. If she's found someone, it's out of reach.

But then, over twenty minutes later...Basil's head snaps to look down the street, his eyes wide and reflecting the light oddly as he cranes his neck when he hears the sound of twin footsteps headed in his direction. He can hear, he hears almost too much, but he can't see-]

--Max-!

[He hisses under his breath when she finally emerges from the darkness, and honestly it's such a relief to see her his knees almost buckle. That relief is short lived, however, when he spots that she's been wounded- not badly, but there's been an altercation of some kind already- and just ahead of her following against their will...is a human. A young man.

Basil never met Max's brother, obviously. He doesn't even really know what he looked like, moreso what kind of person he was. The kind of car he drived. What he meant to Max, and all of the complexity therein.

The fact that her chosen target...is someone who could very well be the same isn't lost on Basil, yet he doesn't want to think about why right now, nor does he imagine Max is either. He just steps forward a little, waving her in.]

Over here! This way, hurry!

[ Max's ear fins stretch out. Her eyes burn. Her concentration wanes. A groan builds in her throat, because she can't so much as glance away from her slow-moving target, who she wills to move quicker, even though it feels like her head's going to burst and she's going cross-eyed.

Through her teeth, she mutters: ] No- Basil, I- I can't—

[ The young man is out of the alley too—but so are his friends. One moment, there's two blurs approaching, and the next, a glass bottle flies in Max's direction and explodes at her feet.

She yelps, and she jumps back, back still to Basil—and blinks.

The human Max has been leading shakes his head and shouts. He's a moment from backing away, a moment from charging, and it's impossible to tell which he'll do. ]

Sh- shit!

[At first, Basil doesn't get what's happening. Max seems to be struggling, but why? But then...he hears the additional footsteps rapidly approaching, then startles at the glass shattering across the sidewalk. And he realizes that Max made a mistake.

She, intentionally, impulsively, or accidentally, led multiple people back here...and that's a problem, when they could only feasibly share one human between them. It's a problem, because even though that one person she led here seemed under her control initially, all of a sudden it seems like he isn't anymore the moment Max's concentration breaks. He snaps out of it, and begins to realize what's going on.

Basil feels panic threaten to flood his system, and for a very real moment, he thinks he might turn and bolt on instinct. He wants to run, run, run away until he's somewhere far away from here, somewhere he doesn't have to deal with this. He doesn't want to fight these people. He doesn't want to kill these people. And he doesn't want to die.

And Max...

They're all focused on her. He's not sure if they've even noticed him yet or not, too focused on the Gargoyle that assaulted them in the first place. A smarter person would be grabbing Max by the hand and trying to get her to come with, to run until this gets worse. They could always try again later, somewhere else, with someONE else...

But Basil once more is finding himself trapped between a rock and a hard place. He's once more standing tentatively at the top of the stairs, looking through her bedroom door, seeing Sunny curled up beside her bed, mortified and unresponsive. In that moment, even before he'd come up with a plan, Basil knew he had to do something to save him. To protect his best friend.

And it's happening again. In another world. Another life.

Basil is still standing behind Max's shoulder when it happens, a split-second response born of a desire to protect her above all else. He barely even notices it happening as the long, rope-line vines that trail from the backs of his shoulders suddenly rush out of him all at once, whipping through the air and lashing forward with all of the speed of a striking cobra. They rush at the boy in the front- the one Max lured here- and snap themselves around his limbs. One attaches to his forearm. Another loops tight around his torso. The third, his upper thigh.

The fourth snags him around the neck, tightening like a noose.]

[ There's a moment where Max... She doesn't quite forget she's a monster. But she forgets she can protect herself. Defend herself. That she's not a weak little girl, like her stepfather would say, when the young man whose features superficially resemble Billy girts his teeth at her. Removes a knife from his belt, looks at her like he's going to follow through on his earlier threat. It doesn't help that her eyes, which have been open for so long, are watering. Her already blurry vision is shot, and in her disorientation and confusion—she's a weak little girl in over her head. Just that, just breakable.

So in that mindset, it's no wonder that the moment a vine shoots past her, she gasps. Her arms can't feel goosebumps anymore, but the scales find a similar sensation regardless, one that's so incredibly cold.

The park's fenced in. They're alongside that, on the sidewalk. Max, remembering the feel of the vines at her wrists and armpits, curling around her ankle, squeezing her neck—she stumbles back into it with a clang, just as she watches the young man she was luring to his doom who reminds her vaguely of her deceased brother choke and gasp, like she once had. Her claws grope blindly for the fence, clattering against it, and she looks not in the direction of her prey but where the threat is coming from, eyes wide and dazed.

The stature isn't right. Nor the height. Nothing is, but it's all shapes and vague colors, and Max's brain just screams: DANGER.

And wouldn't you know it, her body responds, all the cold replaced with warm burning hot, rising from her stomach up her esophagus, throat glowing brightly.

Max is, in a moment where she is not standing on the streets of Bavan, mere seconds away from unleashing her fire on Basil. ]

[So much happens all at once. As Basil grabs Max's target, the other two behind him shout with alarm and indignation. They're still pretty far back, outside of what his limited vision is able to parse, and thus were they to attack him right now...he probably wouldn't be able to get out of the way in time. And since Basil is actively aggressing at this point, he's definitely no longer missing their notice. He's become the main target, because if he keeps up what he's doing...

The chain-link fence rattles as Max runs into it, just in time for the other two boys to suddenly come rushing forwards, one of them running towards their friend while the other angles themselves at Basil, though Basil can't tell what they might be planning to do if they can get to him. They could all have weapons on their person for all he knows- knives, if Max's wound is anything to go by- and they're probably just bold (and scared) enough to act irrationally.

Like now, happening to move in just as Max's throat begins to glow. Basil spots the flash of light out of the corner of his eye, like the headlights of a car rushing right for him. He goes very still, flinching backwards.

It feels like time is passing slowly, but right this moment before Max is Basil, the three boys, and a several foot-long gap between the four comprised of Basil's vines. And Basil, at what quite possibly is the very last second, is trying to get out of the way.]

[ Max still can't see much. But, though it's less than she grew used to as a Waldgeist, she can still hear. The footsteps getting closer, snapping her attention from the vines and- and it's Basil, it's Basil, she can tell from color alone, even if everything about his expression is lost to her.

And Max would never hurt Basil. She could never.

Her jaws shudder, and Max jerks her head in the opposite direction Basil's inching in.

Right at the boy moving in on Basil, engulfing him entirely. The ear-splitting screams he emits chill Max to the bone—and will become a new fixture in her nightmares, she's sure. The other newcomer yells in shock and fear, while the initial boy chokes in Basil's vines.

Max can't aim. She can barely see beyond a blur of flame. But she knows her fire's burning the boy, cooking him like a steak. And the most fucked up part? Some part of her starts to feel good.

Satisfied. ]

[The sudden gout of flame that seems to explode from Max's direction works twofold. One, to burn that one boy alive...and two, to free the other from Basil's vines. The vines, though not yet directly torched by flames, wither and coil back away from the heat that warps the air, and before he can recollect himself he feels them snap off, the resulting momentum causing Basil to stagger and nearly fall back. It does mean he's able to mover further away from the heat, though, because he can feel the grassy hair on his head being singed by the proximity. It terrifies him, prompting him to bring his arms around himself and rub at his elbows and forearms with his hands, as if to put out an imaginary flame.

All at once, one of those boys is most certainly dead. One other is alive but disoriented, choking as he takes in huge gulps of air to catch his breath again. The third is, as of this moment, unharmed...but it looks like he's seconds from running away at this point.

As it happens, Basil...can do nothing. He can't stop her, nor can he get any closer to pull that other boy away from the flames as he watches his friend die in front of him. He can only look on, once more trapped in headlights.]

[ Basil is, in many ways, trapped watching just as the humans are, as Max, stressed and upset and fueled with such an urge to rip and tear and kill, spies the...fuzzy but general direction of the third boy, who has began backing away.

Away? No. No, that won't do.

She snaps her jaws closed, ceasing the flame, and the boy she'd caught in the blast—his charred body drops to the sidewalk. In the same moment, she starts forward, jerking her head toward the remaining humans, and reopens her mouth. Fire spews out just a little too far to the right for it catch both of them...or even the entirety of one of them. The boy preparing to run has his lower body and right arm completely aflame, screaming in horror as he collapses.

And Max...isn't done. No, a screech emits from her jaws, one that's much more animalistic than not. Her eyes are set on the last target standing, the one she'd gone after to begin with...but there's a problem.

In her state, she's forgotten that energy feeders require live prey, not dead. Energy feeder, that is what she partly is. That is what her body's hungering for...yet the hunting instincts tell her to kill.

One boy wails in agony, quickly going into shock. He'll be dead soon. The other, choking, is Max's next target. If both die, they'll have to find someone new. ]

[This is messy. It's not going at all to plan, and now instead of one body on their conscience...there's going to be three. Can Basil even do anything, now? The first boy...he very well might live, assuming he's let go and can escape. One of them is very much dead now, a still-smoldering corpse, and then the third...he's alive, but barely. Currently burning to death as they speak, and unless he got medical help immediately, he couldn't be saved. But even then, Basil isn't sure anything could be done in time.

The heat is so overwhelmingly intense that Basil can't get close. It's creating an invisible barrier as much as a physical one, because even just the proximity is enough to cause his eyes to water and his body to start singing in the process. Any closer to the open flames, and he- too- will be set alight. The boy Basil had ensnared, now free, could potentially be getting away soon if something doesn't change.

Frantic, Basil backs closer to the fence, and desperate to do something, anything, he screams.]

Max!! Max, stop! You have to stop!!

[ A noise. Max snarls, jaws pressed together and teeth bared as she turns her hazy gaze in Basil's direction. It's important that she close her mouth. She had to close her mouth, because the noise is—

Even in this state, she won't hurt Basil. Even though she lumbers forward, though her unfocused eyes glaring at him, she will not hurt him. A low grunt of resistance reverberates in her chest. She doesn't feel like she's done hunting. She can't just stop hunting.

The living but injured boy reaches out his unburned arm, unburdened with blisters and sizzling flesh, toward his living friend. He tries to incoherently call out for help, and the other boy begins to back away.

That brings back Max's attention, and she roars.

If Basil does something, he has to do it now. ]

[As Max surged forward, her movements wobbly and uncoordinated, Basil yelps. He...knows Max won't hurt him. Doesn't he?

But when he was in a similar state, he would have very willingly ripped Bakugo's throat out, had he not been stopped. But that can't be the same as what's happening now, right? She's not starved, she's just...

Basil looks over quickly to the boy dying on the ground, and it's truly awful to watch. Not only have they taken one life tonight, but three...and if Basil doesn't do something, it's going to be more than that. Yet even as he watches the other boy- alive, with the chance to run- there's a part of him...the human, empathetic part, that wants nothing more than to let him go.

If he dies here, he won't come back. Not like they all can. You don't come back from this.

Choose to save one life, or ultimately many?

...

With a sob welling up in his chest, Basil acts. His vines whip out a second time, only this time he has no intention of letting go. He reaches for the boy, wrapping them tight around his torso while avoiding his neck entirely, tight enough to keep him bound and unable to run, while also forcing him to stumble back towards Basil. And instead of putting the boy between him and Max, Basil ensures that he keeps the boy just at his side, almost behind him.

He's been spared so long as he stands close to Basil, but only for a few minutes.]

[ Vines, she hates vines, and the moment they come out, Max's roar turns to a yelp. She wants them to go away—but that's Basil. But that's...Basil, with her prey...

For a good, long thirty seconds, Max's brain turns itself in circles, around conflicting instincts and urges and feelings. There's the girl, there's the bug, there's the dragon, and they're all fighting to be the dominant voice.

A growl vibrates in Max's throat, dying down until it becomes a whine, smoke slipping from her mouth through her teeth. ]

Ba- Basil—

[ Her voice breaks. Her voice, which feels foreign and strange in her mouth. Sounds strange to her ears. ]

Wha- what- did I just—?

[ Her eyes pass over Basil and the restrained boy, to the cooked corpse on the ground, and the last dying breaths of the other. ]

Edited 2023-08-01 06:45 (UTC)

[There's a weighty silence that shrouds the space between them both, now that two of the three boys are dead and dying. The third could be screaming, crying, cursing them both...but he's just lucky to still be alive, and seems wise enough to hold his breath while Basil has him ensnared in his vines again. If he didn't, he'd have been cooked alive just like the other two, and he knows that.

But if he did start crying, Basil wouldn't blame him.

He can't keep looking. He has to turn his face away from the bodies, even the boy who is still alive but barely. It feels cruel to leave him there as he gasps his last, but what could they do? He would die on the way to a clinic, and even then...most other monsters would likely find it a waste. Waste not...

Right now, he tries to keep his focus on Max, who seems to have finally regained her senses, if only briefly. He knows that it's not going to be for long, not until she's actually fed.]

...we need to get into the park.

[He whispers, grave. They need to hurry before they attract any more attention, and if they're lucky, some hapless humans won't stumble on those corpses on the sidewalk before they can return to do something about them.]

[ Basil's voice draws her gaze away from the boys on the ground, the corpse and the soon-to-be. That...isn't much better, because it means she has a great view of the first boy. The one who provoked her, who said...horrible, heinous things to her, who instigated—but who now looks terrified, despite his silence.

It reminds her...of the stoic way Billy would—

This isn't right. This isn't...how it was supposed to go. It was supposed to be quick. She was supposed to lead him back (—lead one back, she screwed up the moment she caught their eyes—) and he wasn't supposed to be aware, it was supposed to all be...

She doesn't know. But she just knows it isn't right.

Max dimly nods, feeling something rise up in her yet again, the desire to tear and rip and kill and feel the blood run over her claws. It's dizzying, and she can't look, not at the other boys (both now dead), nor at Basil and their unfortunate captive.

All she can do is walk, mouth clamped shut to prevent any more mistakes like the last one. She hurries to the park entrance, and her heart—it's beating so much, and cruelly, she just wishes it would stop. ]

Edited 2023-08-05 00:06 (UTC)

[Basil is silent as he leads the way back into the park. He wants, more than anything, to reach out and take Max's hand...but he's afraid of not keeping enough space between them, especially when he's keeping their human quarry held fast. He has to half-drag the boy to keep him stumbling along with them, which is unsurprising when they're essentially marching him off to his assured death. Basil imagines he must be thinking of ways to try to escape, assuming he isn't too shell-shocked by witnessing his friends burning to death.

It's up to Max to decide where to actually set up her ring, yet it's Basil who chooses where to actually stop. He takes them deep into the heart of the park, as far away from the streets as he can get so as to avoid attracting more unwanted attention. He feels a low buzz of anxiety thrumming constantly beneath his skin, yet somehow, he isn't shaking from it, nor does he feel any fear. He just feels...numb.

It's the same way he felt when he was helping Sunny. It was something he had to do, because he had no other choice, and no one else could do it.

He's here for Max. She's been here for him, every single time he's had to hunt like this. It's just...going to be different, this time.]

...okay. Whenever you're ready.

[ The whole walk through the park Max spends desperately trying to keep focused. Or...at least to keep from losing herself in the predator again. Feel the grass beneath her feet. Hear it crunch. Do not think about the racing breath of the boy, any of the boys, nor her trembling hands, nor how hungry she is.

Her mandibles quiver. She both does not and desperately needs to do this. When Basil comes to a stop, she keeps walking for a moment, almost bumping into the boy, who tries to jerk away one last time.

Max looks into Basil's eyes, hers fully dilated, and wordlessly nods. Every bit of her feels alert and on edge.

All she needs to do is focus on a point on the ground, and she chooses one around the boy, so Basil doesn't have to drag him any further. She feels bad enough making him do this already, the less he has to keep doing it—

Her jaw twitches as a ring of mushrooms grows out of the park grass. Basil will need to hold on tight, as the boy starts thrashing again. Starts begging, finally finding his voice again. It's directed not at Max, who he's watched kill his two friends, but at the boy holding him.

And that is, in the end, what cements his fate, as Max rushes forward and acts on instinct. She doesn't know how "energy feeding" works. Hasn't been able to wrap her head around it, even now. But all she knows is she has to—to keep this from hurting Basil anymore.

What it looks like is Max pouncing, her claws digging into the boy held immobile by Basil's vines. Except blood is...minimal. Just like scratches at the site of the puncture wounds, at his shoulders. The boy gasps and his struggling stops, wide eyes locking now with Max's as their breathing falls in sync. It's surreal, as all words just die on the victim's lips. It's unlike the hypnosis from before, though, he is clearly aware of what is happening.

But he can't stop it. None of them can anymore. Not as Max drinks in what feels like pure vitality, and the boy starts trembling instead. ]

[The way that boy turns to him...the way he starts to beg for his life, beg Basil to let him go, is something he's never going to forget. He can't put the blame on Max entirely for this either, because he's just as much a part of this as she is. They're hunting as a unit, the same way they do when Basil has to go hunting. The difference this time is...this is the first time they've hunted that it's gone this badly. Been this messy.

It's the first time one of their victims has been this actively aware of the fact that they're dying, never mind the fact that two others died pointlessly for them to get to this point.

But...for a small mercy, the moment doesn't last long, even if it is long enough to burn itself permanently into his memory. Basil forces himself to keep his hold on the boy tight with those vines, not wanting him to jolt or jerk away at the last second and set them back at square one. And though there's a part of him that...doesn't want to look, he does. He keeps his attention focused on what's going on for Max's sake, and...to respect this life they're taking, if nothing else.

It's the least he can do, as he watches Max drain this boy's very life force away. It's almost oddly peaceful, in the way it happens.

Not that Basil knows what's about to, next.]

[ Never in her life has Max experienced anything like this before. This sensation. It's like eating with no tangible food, or...like the magic from one of the boys' games. Something washing over her, and suddenly, she feels better.

There's a light glow to Max, the magic doing its job, and the boy... He grows weaker. Soon, he's sagging against Basil's vines, against Max's claws. His face is paling. It's like draining away all his vitality, and even in her surreal calm Max feels unsettled. As the boy falls out of sync with her breathing. As she can feel Basil's eyes on them. As her head's- screaming, still, despite going through this whole damn ritual, why is something in her still—

It's like a switch flips. The Faerie is satiated, but the Gargoyle still thirsts. Hasn't ripped or torn a single thing.

So Max's watering jaws open, mandibles parting, and she burrows her snout into her victim's chest, ripping away clothes and flesh, clacking against bone, tearing artery in a sudden bloody fit.

Perhaps this is the more humane end, even though it's messier. Because from the moment her fangs pierce the boy's aorta, he's gone. ]

[It happens...all so fast. The way Max drains the boy is actually almost too slow for Basil's liking, though at the very least it's a peaceful death. He's more or less being lulled to sleep as he's weakened, and soon enough he'll be too weak to keep his eyes open any longer. He'll black out, and then...that will be that. He has to hope that the boy didn't feel any pain otherwise, because-

...well. That thought gets tossed pretty much immediately, because before Basil realizes what's even happening, Max lunges. Basil feels a soundless scream catch painfully in the back of his throat as Max all but tears the guy in half right in front of him, using her mandibles and fangs to tear his chest open.

It is so violent. So bloody that Basil gets caught in the crossfire, flinching back as blood splatters on his face and clothes. His vines tighten around the now-corpse that he's more or less just propping up for Max to feast on, struggling to fight back waves of nausea over the smell of blood and death.

Basil doesn't feel the urge to rip and tear. It's bad enough that the deer deep in him wants to feast along with her, to gorge itself on flesh...but it's kept in check by the Nymph, the much more peaceful and sensitive side that would prefer to take nutrients from a corpse in a much slower manner. The two sides clash, and it makes him dizzy.

As Max tears away strips of flesh, the bones of the boy's ribcage glinting in the moonlight, Basil sobs under his breath.]

Inbox for ryslig

ITS OKAY I feel u

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

cw: violence + threats against teenagers, mild unreality

no subject

no subject

cw: cannibalism, suicidal imagery, major omori spoilers

cw: ptsd, flashbacks, mentions of past abuse

no subject

cw: immolation, breathing difficulties

cw: immolation, death

cw: immolation, dissociation via hunting instincts

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

cw: implied cycle of abuse themes

no subject

cw: the cannibalism

cw: The Cannibalism(tm) continued

cw: the cannibalism (traditional!), gore + death

cw: cannibalism, gore

cw: cannibalism, gore

(no subject)

(no subject)

cw: gore desc, omori spoilers

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

cw: disassociation, omori spoilers

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, CHARACTER NAME/ALIAS. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 018.07.154.55 * CHARACTER NAME/ALIAS has joined 018.07.154.55 <Daisy>This is Basil! I'm not around right now, but if you leave a message I'll get back to it as soon as I can. <BANNED USER> SCREENED MESSAGE. UNSCREEN? Y/N -- sample for when you ban someone <USERNAME> First sentence of message. <USERNAME>** First sentence of message.