Big Dicc Marty
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Ali’s last piece of burial steel was placed on the table, away in the open space of the gym. Below it was folded her clothes as she felt the power fading from her. Not that there was much right now. Walking to the center of the room, Aliset’s nude form could be seen basking in the candle light and heat, stepping into a ring of candles and sitting down, folding her legs under herself. Gently, she placed her hands face up in her lap, breathing deep, in, and out.
Letting her eyes close, she let herself slip in, beyond the interior of her mind, focusing as she sought the source of her power, her incidents.
As Aliset relaxed and set her weight against the floor, tuning into the static beyond her mind, the stench of sulfur began to lap and waft at her nose. Distant but tempting. Like some janitor forgot to take out the trash. A very soft rumble followed, not shaking the ground below her but stemming from the same source. An oscillating purr that almost felt like a self-satisfied grin. Eye fell on Aliset's shoulders and now, she was sure by the small thumps of her heartbeat, Aliset was being watched.
It was easy to be scared. But that wasn’t what she was there for. No, as she felt her mind quiet and the eyes fall upon her, she listened to the pur, considering the smell of sulpher. “Interesting,” some small part of her spoke up. “Not helpful, But interesting… Whatever you are, I just want to ask some questions.”
Wherever that smell was coming from, as it seemed to permeate around her, it didn't seem to wane. No response was given for such a moment that maybe Aliset was just being overly anxious, maybe there was poison to convert others in the fangs of her project. But, just after Aliset began to doubt herself, that familiar voice that brought up memories of feast and fury responded,
"Hi!" Alloy called from a distance, all the cheerful as she normally would be to see her caretaker.
“Alloy? I thought you were out hunting with Spark?” Aliset felt the physical portion of her speak, almost as though in autopilot. It seemed she had left more behind to pilot her body than she had thought. Was she, then, the barely there probe? No, that didn’t make sense. No, this version of Ali would have furrowed brows if she could, choosing to focus on whatever entity clouded her form with the stink of sulpher, on that growl and the maw.
"Can I not rest?" Alloy questioned. As distant as she was, the hunter Aliset knew was awfully… audible. Her voice was clear for someone speaking through the many filters of meditation. The purr had stopped but that stink continued, now occasionally interrupted with the raw cleanliness of ozone that numbed her smell like vodka. "I need to better explore anyways." Alloy added, just a moment before Aliset could fully process just what seemed so uncanny. Perhaps this mental depth was a new experience for Aliset, feeling both the physical and spiritual worlds at the same time.
“Hunting packroaches out in the wilds isn’t exploring to you?” The body’s voice was quiet, distorted and twisted this deep down. Why was Alloy so clear in her mind, then? Especially as Aliset probed deeperc, chasing the source of the smell and the sound of that purring. “Senti can’t storm arcana. Our power is in the steel. So how did I storm once, and have to control it twice more,” she asked into the static and void.
"I don't know." Alloy replied. That stench… gods it seemed everywhere. Like an echoing alarm and that purr like a generator just past a wall between Aliset and Alloy. "Is it cold?" Alloy interrupted, continuing, "Do you like sitting naked on the floor?" Why? Why did she ask? Alloy seemed curious but why about the comfort of Aliset? She could simply see her sitting there, meditating. She was in the gym, surely, she could simply put her hand to the floor to know if it was hot or cold.
“Nothing I can’t handle. I needed to separate myself from any trace of burial steel. If I could do that, I could figure out why I released a storm.” Mind and body seemed to speak as one, for once. “But are you Alloy, or are you borrowing her voice?” Again, the words weren’t physical, and she was careful to separate them, asking mentally in stead of using her physical voice. “Alloy’s a very inquisitive sort. But not that curious. Usually likes finding her answers by herself, rather than asking. And rarely takes my comfort into account, there. Always found it odd, but endearing. She doesn’t ask because she doesn’t feel she needs to. If she sees obvious signs, she usually just solves the problem, rather than ask me about it.”
"I am Alloy." She replied, simply.
Aliset felt her shoulders be touched, but in such an all too real way. The same as Alloy's voice. Like the thin bridge between a dream and waking consciousness. "I remember your laws. I wanted to be sure to be careful. Do you want me to go away?" Alloy asked Aliset, her voice tickling the right ear in a whisper. It was… unreal. It was hard to seperate. Smoke and mirrors, Aliset's senses were easily fooled but…
“You’re acting very strange.” The form turned, noting how… Solid she felt. Standing, no, there was no weight, here. Not in this void. But… “You’re acting very strange. I’d rather see your true form and face. You keep teasing as if you’re just behind me.”
Reaching somewhere into herself, she found a ball of light to flood the space with illumination.
Aliset could see the light in her hands and how it spreads and warms her body but that is all it could manage. Past the hairs on her body, the light died. The space was nothing. Light simply did not reflect upon any other surface. “You know who I am. Stop being silly.” Alloy spoke, almost annoyed with the suspicion Aliset showed. The purr finally approached and stood in front of Aliset. It was present, looking for trust.
“You know I trust you.” She gave a soft sigh, still holding the light up. “With my life. Just… Must be paranoid. Do you know what’s going on, here? Do you know what I’m looking for, and where to find it?”
"Maybe you are not Senti." Alloy said. While the purr came from just in front of her, maybe a few paces ahead, the voice was still in the right ear. "If Senti cannot storm, maybe you are not Senti." What… trick was this? The stench grew closer and closer, no longer infinitely distant but growing infinitely close. Like it had found something.
“I haven’t considered myself Senti for a long time. Tsulrati are post end of death. We don’t have our own internal arcane abilities because we don’t reincarnate… But I do. And I don’t know what’s different, if it’s bad, or what’s going on, there.” Again, she turned softly, trying to face Alloy’s voice.Shaking her head, she returned focus to the stink, focusing, lifting her light up to give something, any trace of shape and form. “Where am I?”
“You are safe.” It stated. Its voice became hoarse and tired. Distorted like thick blood curdled at it’s larynx. The voice didn’t move, it was still like a worm in Aliset’s ear. The purr didn’t move, the only stable reference point it seemed. The light just continued to die as soon as it moved past its corona. Aliset didn’t feel cold… or hot… or anything anymore. Her touch reported a deafening silence that begged for sensation. No meditation felt like this void that consumed everything but Aliset. She couldn’t even be sure she was in the gym still and not… elsewhere.
“Rarely does safety bring answers. I know my body is Tsulrati. Tsulrati in the mortal form as I am do not have the arcane potential to use magic. So why can I hold a light?” A soft tilt of her head as she looked out across the void, careful, and almost desperate for some sensation that wasn’t sound directly interpreted in her mind. Not feeling the sound rebounding across her eardrums. Literally one of those sensations she had forgotten to feel.
The voice quieted. Aliset was alone. Sulphur and ozone permeating still but no voice, no purr, just the slight tinge of pain in her nose and the encompassing squeeze of a hug. The arms were too tight, too large, too sharp. They felt more like the talons of a hawk than arms, chitinous hull rather than flesh. Beginning to dig into Aliset’s skin as if to transport her but there was simply nothing to tell her she was moving if she was.
“You know why my powers are fading. The ones from the burial steel.” She released the light. When this being… This thing that claimed it was Alloy decided to show her, let her eyes burn with light that would actually show something aside infinite void. “And you know the mark on my hand.”
“Do I?” It asked. Though the void was still there, without the light, Aliset began to feel far more. Feel how her eyes adjusted to the fathomless shade of gray and black. Feel how they ached as a beast younger than steel but older than Skydas held Aliset and examined her. Not her skin, but her breath, her mind, what she had run to when she sat naked in the gym and opened that deeper self. “You know why the steel admonishes you. You are an interloper to them.” Alloy's voice had become far corrupted now, a puppetetted cadaver of an angel.
“As you borrow my love’s voice to speak to me. I understand why. And it’s not important. How am I an interloper?” She shifted, molding herself to a more comfortable position. “I am Aliset, daughter of Setiel and Saliten. Captain of Soren, Duches of Sirrus and wife of Levante of Copernic. I am not a follower of Sentisura, but If’Ni knows me to be one of hers. So why would I be an interloper? Why would the steel abandon me?”
“You are not Senti.” It replied, the rotten mask of Alloy all but convincing now. “Though If’Ni cooperates, the steel does not. Its twists of souls and bodies far prefer the deep voidlings than those that oppose them. Even as simple as their cultural tyranny.” It seemed to lean forward and breathe, a harsh cold wind sanding the skin of Aliset’s being. “You are not Senti.”
“Then what am I?”
“Who am I to say? Perhaps it is better to seek your own people's wisdom.”
She gave a sigh, shaking her head. “Then why come to me? What called you?”
It did not respond, simply releasing another wicked breath. The answer should have been obvious.interconnected, and her form lit with the realization, the iridescence flashing across her features. “It was you. You were the reason for the mark on my hand. You were the one I saw in Alloy. Where did you take me from so that my parents could have but a single child?”
"You are an awfully curious sort, aren't you?" It was annoyed by Aliset's excitement and flurry of questions. "I do not owe you answers. It would be wise for you to be more careful with your manners, bite." Though it called her a word in a language Aliset had never heard, a language with more vocal layers than even the Senti could manage, she knew it had called her a bite. Whatever it meant, it wasn't spoken kindly.
“Then how about a deal. You show me something that answers all my questions, and I bring you something that tastes far better than me.” Her tone was equally venomous, as though this tiny mortal could fight a god, should she choose. After all, she had before.
It recoiled in disgust. Foul thing. Aliset was rotten meat. She was not worth the fierce pain in her stomach from eating something so thorny. Nor was she worth an answer. The talons around Aliset squeezed, threatening to bend and break her metal bones before they discarded her alone in the infinite void. The stench released its hold on her nose and the beast made its exit, returning Aliset to a place where light and dark were opposites. Back to her own mind, unperverted with infinite beings and their hungry meddling.
“Fine. I’ll find those answers, myself.” It took her a moment to feel the candle light on her skin, knowing she was back in her own body. “Fucking deities… I’ll make her pay a toll for wasting my time.”
Even as Aliset woke up, she could still hear a purring, even feeling a drop of liquid on her leg. The weight of Alloy's head made itself known, just as it became obvious she had fallen asleep. That little drop, though, was a black grainy stain on Aliset's thigh. As she looked around she could see some of the candles had extinguished as well, those on her right and especially those to the front of her.
Of course, who could resist that cute purring, as Aliset reached up to her shoulder, giving Alloy a loving scratch on the head. “Hey, cuteness.”
There was only a quiet grumble in response, followed by further burrowing as if Alloy felt more comfortable sharing the same skin as Aliset. "You need clothes." She mumbled with mild annoyance, "Or to stop sitting naked and asleep in a gym." Alloy thought and tried to lift her head despite the scratching but eventually gave up and let her weight drop.
“Just a little meditation. I was trying to figure some things out about myself. C’mere.” Unfolding her legs into a more comfortable position, Aliset drew Alloy’s weight around her body, pulling the purring guard drhuv into her lap to rest. “Didn’t find anything I can use, though.”
Alloy didn't refuse the movement, only continuing her tired mumbling. "You were asleep for so long. I tried to wake you up." Her half opened eyes looked up to Aliset, the rest of Alloy's body simply strewn wherever took the least movement for stillness.
"I wasn't asleep. Just… elsewhere. There was a creature. Borrowed your voice. Lived in infinite void… Felt like teeth and claws and armor, with breath of sulphur. I… Went in there seeking answers for a few things. Came out with more questions. It called me a bite."
"Ha." Alloy smirked and gained a shot of energy, using it to joke, "That sounds like Isomeria. How odd there is another like her." She shrugged and stretched herself out, closing her eyes again, "I will go hunting with the giantess tomorrow. She seems adamant I try this pack roach. You two talk about it so much."
"I find them quite entertaining. Perhaps I should accompany you two. Though I doubt there's more than one of the entity that could put the mark on my hand. It called me an interloper. Not Senti."
"Ha… ha…" Alloy didn't smirk or grin like the devil she was, now far more concerned. "You are certain this is your brander? Did you see the entity? Did you hear it's name?" The concern churned into genuine worry, gently beginning to react into panic. If it was Isomeria, that would mean something far worse than just some off entity being malicious and curious.
“I don’t know. She never spoke a name. But she felt older than Shurista. Younger than the Steel. Borrowed your voice, grabbed me like claws… I don’t know. It… Felt right, and it didn’t deny. So what is the name of the being that gave me this birthmark? Because your tone tells me you know.”
"Well…" Alloy paused before speaking, finding a way to downgrade the worry, "The mark is an old symbol of Isomeria. I highly doubt it is Isomeria." She assured, continuing, "I don't understand why she would choose you. You are not Drhuv. Isomeria does not care for anything but her kin."
Aliset nodded, still gently skritching behind Alloy’s ear. “That’s what concerns me. Is she usually some kind of trickster or is she more the lurking hunger of the universe?”
"To the Drhuvs she is a mother. In reality she is a goddess of consumption." Alloy sighed, "She is the reason Drhuvs have their other side. She is the reason why they are so primal. I do not think she cares for good or bad. I think she only cares about what feeds her. That is my worry."
“Not a pleasant thought. It seems she tried to have a snack. I’m glad she considered me… What was the feeling… Rotten meat? Not worth the thorns?”
Alloy snickered a laugh away, "Spoiled rotten? I don't need to worry then. I should not be surprised seeing how you brat to Mark." She grinned and continued her teasing, reaching up to poke Aliset's cheek, "A goddess of consumption would not eat you. You are safe, your highness." Alloy was mocking Aliset's title, finally letting that laugh go.
"Spank me about it later, brat," Ali gave a soft laugh. "Though to be fair, I left any pieces of burial steel over there specifically so that any power I feel and chase would be from within me. Isomeria may not be my goddess. But she is yours, little Drhuv."
A soft tap on the nose, not accusing, but making Alloy aware. "And I feel like I've felt her presence before. Did you miss any time while you were with me?"
Alloy snapped at the finger that tapped her, though not with aggression. "Miss any time?" She asked, not understanding what Aliset had meant. What did she mean? What was Ali trying to say?
“Never mind, sweet roll.” Ali let her hand slip to Alloy’s ear, scritching the soft hairs behind her ears.
Though she relaxed, Alloy mumbled with annoyance against the scritching. "Am I just your pet?" She accused despite gently leaning her head into the touch. "Am I your warm pet for when you go streaking about the palace and get cold? You are cold." She grabbed Aliset's bicep. Cold.
“Far more than a simple pet, my Guardian and my Guidestar. And yes, I am a bit cold. But nothing I haven’t felt before.” There was that hollow smile, again. The same facial expression as that genuine warmth she usually regarded Alloy with, but there was something else there, like old memories and scars distracted her. “You are no pet.”
"You affect me like one." Alloy headbutted Aliset's stomach gently. "An exotic alien pet!" She claimed, pulling back and headbutting again with a small amount more of force. "Proudly the first to tame one of its kind, hm?" As playful as she was being, she didn't headbutt this time, instead looking to the arm nearby and snapping her teeth onto it like the feral thing she claimed to be.
With the fangs in her arm, Aliset wasted no time in forcing the arm into Alloy’s jaw as Spark had done when the girl had bitten her neck. This time, though, it was Aliset on top, and her nude form quickly straddled Alloy, sitting on her chest before leaning back and removing the arm. “Playful as you are, you are no pet. And I’ll not be calling you with a whistle and treats. Though you do have a thing for… dessert.”
Alloy froze immediately and stared up at Aliset, put off guard by the sudden movement and very obvious flirt. Was there venom? No. “It is not poison! You are just gay!” Alloy snapped at Aliset as she began to struggle and fight for control. Any free limb lashing about to make it as hard as possible to be pinned. “You attempt to tame me! Horrendous! I will not be tamed!” One moment later, Aliset felt every incisor and canine in Alloy’s mouth clamp onto her thigh and hold on like a crocodile. Fierce and mean, she was. And rapidly, Alloy realized Aliset’s smell had changed as she smirked and grabbed Alloy’s nose to cut off air.
“Easy, sweetroll. Let me get dressed, okay? Thank you. Really.”
Alloy caught just a single whiff of that smell. That awful tinge that had tormented her over and over again in the Collective. Metalling shavings, copper. That fiery orange that came before a fight, at least for her. Alloy struggled harder and shouted, “GAY! GAY!” Shouting as loud as possible, “YOU ARE HORNY!” She managed to throw the steel boned woman off of her and scampered away onto the trained position, ready to pounce, “Fix yourself! You lust! Gross…” Alloy was red in the face with how close she was to intimacy she had learned to hate. She needed to be more aware of her nose when she was around her own kind, it could trick her into feeling things that weren’t her.
Rolling to her feet, Aliset calmly moved to her clothes, beginning to dress. “I won’t deny my arousal, but I’m not interested in either of us getting a taste of each other right now, Alloy. I’m sorry, I…” Turning, she furrowed her brows, suddenly worried as her smell changed again. “How long have you been redblooded?”
“Wh-” Alloy paused and slowly lifted herself to her feet like a lanky predator. “What do you mean? My blood is red.” She stated, sure that it was normal for the color. “It has been since I first drew it.” Now Alloy was worried, almost scared. What was wrong with it? It’s the color of blood, the same all her companions and kin had. It was blood. What was wrong with her blood? “Nothing is wrong with it.” She denied Aliset and the possibility, “It is blood. Do not worry.”
“Alloy, when was the last time you looked at a rock and thought it might look good to eat?” Aliset pulled her cardigan over her shoulders, tying one hip and clasping her brooch to secure it as she approached. “We are going to my cousin. Red blood means you are severely malnourished.”
“I eat rocks as a trick. It makes the Drhuvs uncomfortable. I am not malnourished! I eat very well! I feast often!” Alloy whined in annoyance and disagreement, not wanting to suffer these accusations that she doesn't care for herself. She is well groomed, fed and the model of a perfect soldier. These are baseless! She crossed her arms, “You insult me. I am perfectly fine. I do not have any issues. I am a model soldier.”
“Do your bones hurt?”
“What?”
“You heard me, Alloy. Your bones and tendons. The steel of your body that your blood is pulling iron from to make red blood. The slime in your filter augments, the pain in your lower back either side of your kidneys. If it’s been like that your entire life, I’m shocked you’re standing. Please. Let my cousin examine you. She is like us. She will make you feel better than ever.”
"Fine.” Alloy agreed reluctantly. “I’ll entertain your accusations. The slime is just Senti mess. The pain is just poor stretching. Fine. Test me. You will see I do not lie.”
“Not to me, you do not.” Aliset gave a soft smile, one that knew exactly the pains Alloy had grown so used to.
Letting her eyes close, she let herself slip in, beyond the interior of her mind, focusing as she sought the source of her power, her incidents.
As Aliset relaxed and set her weight against the floor, tuning into the static beyond her mind, the stench of sulfur began to lap and waft at her nose. Distant but tempting. Like some janitor forgot to take out the trash. A very soft rumble followed, not shaking the ground below her but stemming from the same source. An oscillating purr that almost felt like a self-satisfied grin. Eye fell on Aliset's shoulders and now, she was sure by the small thumps of her heartbeat, Aliset was being watched.
It was easy to be scared. But that wasn’t what she was there for. No, as she felt her mind quiet and the eyes fall upon her, she listened to the pur, considering the smell of sulpher. “Interesting,” some small part of her spoke up. “Not helpful, But interesting… Whatever you are, I just want to ask some questions.”
Wherever that smell was coming from, as it seemed to permeate around her, it didn't seem to wane. No response was given for such a moment that maybe Aliset was just being overly anxious, maybe there was poison to convert others in the fangs of her project. But, just after Aliset began to doubt herself, that familiar voice that brought up memories of feast and fury responded,
"Hi!" Alloy called from a distance, all the cheerful as she normally would be to see her caretaker.
“Alloy? I thought you were out hunting with Spark?” Aliset felt the physical portion of her speak, almost as though in autopilot. It seemed she had left more behind to pilot her body than she had thought. Was she, then, the barely there probe? No, that didn’t make sense. No, this version of Ali would have furrowed brows if she could, choosing to focus on whatever entity clouded her form with the stink of sulpher, on that growl and the maw.
"Can I not rest?" Alloy questioned. As distant as she was, the hunter Aliset knew was awfully… audible. Her voice was clear for someone speaking through the many filters of meditation. The purr had stopped but that stink continued, now occasionally interrupted with the raw cleanliness of ozone that numbed her smell like vodka. "I need to better explore anyways." Alloy added, just a moment before Aliset could fully process just what seemed so uncanny. Perhaps this mental depth was a new experience for Aliset, feeling both the physical and spiritual worlds at the same time.
“Hunting packroaches out in the wilds isn’t exploring to you?” The body’s voice was quiet, distorted and twisted this deep down. Why was Alloy so clear in her mind, then? Especially as Aliset probed deeperc, chasing the source of the smell and the sound of that purring. “Senti can’t storm arcana. Our power is in the steel. So how did I storm once, and have to control it twice more,” she asked into the static and void.
"I don't know." Alloy replied. That stench… gods it seemed everywhere. Like an echoing alarm and that purr like a generator just past a wall between Aliset and Alloy. "Is it cold?" Alloy interrupted, continuing, "Do you like sitting naked on the floor?" Why? Why did she ask? Alloy seemed curious but why about the comfort of Aliset? She could simply see her sitting there, meditating. She was in the gym, surely, she could simply put her hand to the floor to know if it was hot or cold.
“Nothing I can’t handle. I needed to separate myself from any trace of burial steel. If I could do that, I could figure out why I released a storm.” Mind and body seemed to speak as one, for once. “But are you Alloy, or are you borrowing her voice?” Again, the words weren’t physical, and she was careful to separate them, asking mentally in stead of using her physical voice. “Alloy’s a very inquisitive sort. But not that curious. Usually likes finding her answers by herself, rather than asking. And rarely takes my comfort into account, there. Always found it odd, but endearing. She doesn’t ask because she doesn’t feel she needs to. If she sees obvious signs, she usually just solves the problem, rather than ask me about it.”
"I am Alloy." She replied, simply.
Aliset felt her shoulders be touched, but in such an all too real way. The same as Alloy's voice. Like the thin bridge between a dream and waking consciousness. "I remember your laws. I wanted to be sure to be careful. Do you want me to go away?" Alloy asked Aliset, her voice tickling the right ear in a whisper. It was… unreal. It was hard to seperate. Smoke and mirrors, Aliset's senses were easily fooled but…
“You’re acting very strange.” The form turned, noting how… Solid she felt. Standing, no, there was no weight, here. Not in this void. But… “You’re acting very strange. I’d rather see your true form and face. You keep teasing as if you’re just behind me.”
Reaching somewhere into herself, she found a ball of light to flood the space with illumination.
Aliset could see the light in her hands and how it spreads and warms her body but that is all it could manage. Past the hairs on her body, the light died. The space was nothing. Light simply did not reflect upon any other surface. “You know who I am. Stop being silly.” Alloy spoke, almost annoyed with the suspicion Aliset showed. The purr finally approached and stood in front of Aliset. It was present, looking for trust.
“You know I trust you.” She gave a soft sigh, still holding the light up. “With my life. Just… Must be paranoid. Do you know what’s going on, here? Do you know what I’m looking for, and where to find it?”
"Maybe you are not Senti." Alloy said. While the purr came from just in front of her, maybe a few paces ahead, the voice was still in the right ear. "If Senti cannot storm, maybe you are not Senti." What… trick was this? The stench grew closer and closer, no longer infinitely distant but growing infinitely close. Like it had found something.
“I haven’t considered myself Senti for a long time. Tsulrati are post end of death. We don’t have our own internal arcane abilities because we don’t reincarnate… But I do. And I don’t know what’s different, if it’s bad, or what’s going on, there.” Again, she turned softly, trying to face Alloy’s voice.Shaking her head, she returned focus to the stink, focusing, lifting her light up to give something, any trace of shape and form. “Where am I?”
“You are safe.” It stated. Its voice became hoarse and tired. Distorted like thick blood curdled at it’s larynx. The voice didn’t move, it was still like a worm in Aliset’s ear. The purr didn’t move, the only stable reference point it seemed. The light just continued to die as soon as it moved past its corona. Aliset didn’t feel cold… or hot… or anything anymore. Her touch reported a deafening silence that begged for sensation. No meditation felt like this void that consumed everything but Aliset. She couldn’t even be sure she was in the gym still and not… elsewhere.
“Rarely does safety bring answers. I know my body is Tsulrati. Tsulrati in the mortal form as I am do not have the arcane potential to use magic. So why can I hold a light?” A soft tilt of her head as she looked out across the void, careful, and almost desperate for some sensation that wasn’t sound directly interpreted in her mind. Not feeling the sound rebounding across her eardrums. Literally one of those sensations she had forgotten to feel.
The voice quieted. Aliset was alone. Sulphur and ozone permeating still but no voice, no purr, just the slight tinge of pain in her nose and the encompassing squeeze of a hug. The arms were too tight, too large, too sharp. They felt more like the talons of a hawk than arms, chitinous hull rather than flesh. Beginning to dig into Aliset’s skin as if to transport her but there was simply nothing to tell her she was moving if she was.
“You know why my powers are fading. The ones from the burial steel.” She released the light. When this being… This thing that claimed it was Alloy decided to show her, let her eyes burn with light that would actually show something aside infinite void. “And you know the mark on my hand.”
“Do I?” It asked. Though the void was still there, without the light, Aliset began to feel far more. Feel how her eyes adjusted to the fathomless shade of gray and black. Feel how they ached as a beast younger than steel but older than Skydas held Aliset and examined her. Not her skin, but her breath, her mind, what she had run to when she sat naked in the gym and opened that deeper self. “You know why the steel admonishes you. You are an interloper to them.” Alloy's voice had become far corrupted now, a puppetetted cadaver of an angel.
“As you borrow my love’s voice to speak to me. I understand why. And it’s not important. How am I an interloper?” She shifted, molding herself to a more comfortable position. “I am Aliset, daughter of Setiel and Saliten. Captain of Soren, Duches of Sirrus and wife of Levante of Copernic. I am not a follower of Sentisura, but If’Ni knows me to be one of hers. So why would I be an interloper? Why would the steel abandon me?”
“You are not Senti.” It replied, the rotten mask of Alloy all but convincing now. “Though If’Ni cooperates, the steel does not. Its twists of souls and bodies far prefer the deep voidlings than those that oppose them. Even as simple as their cultural tyranny.” It seemed to lean forward and breathe, a harsh cold wind sanding the skin of Aliset’s being. “You are not Senti.”
“Then what am I?”
“Who am I to say? Perhaps it is better to seek your own people's wisdom.”
She gave a sigh, shaking her head. “Then why come to me? What called you?”
It did not respond, simply releasing another wicked breath. The answer should have been obvious.interconnected, and her form lit with the realization, the iridescence flashing across her features. “It was you. You were the reason for the mark on my hand. You were the one I saw in Alloy. Where did you take me from so that my parents could have but a single child?”
"You are an awfully curious sort, aren't you?" It was annoyed by Aliset's excitement and flurry of questions. "I do not owe you answers. It would be wise for you to be more careful with your manners, bite." Though it called her a word in a language Aliset had never heard, a language with more vocal layers than even the Senti could manage, she knew it had called her a bite. Whatever it meant, it wasn't spoken kindly.
“Then how about a deal. You show me something that answers all my questions, and I bring you something that tastes far better than me.” Her tone was equally venomous, as though this tiny mortal could fight a god, should she choose. After all, she had before.
It recoiled in disgust. Foul thing. Aliset was rotten meat. She was not worth the fierce pain in her stomach from eating something so thorny. Nor was she worth an answer. The talons around Aliset squeezed, threatening to bend and break her metal bones before they discarded her alone in the infinite void. The stench released its hold on her nose and the beast made its exit, returning Aliset to a place where light and dark were opposites. Back to her own mind, unperverted with infinite beings and their hungry meddling.
“Fine. I’ll find those answers, myself.” It took her a moment to feel the candle light on her skin, knowing she was back in her own body. “Fucking deities… I’ll make her pay a toll for wasting my time.”
Even as Aliset woke up, she could still hear a purring, even feeling a drop of liquid on her leg. The weight of Alloy's head made itself known, just as it became obvious she had fallen asleep. That little drop, though, was a black grainy stain on Aliset's thigh. As she looked around she could see some of the candles had extinguished as well, those on her right and especially those to the front of her.
Of course, who could resist that cute purring, as Aliset reached up to her shoulder, giving Alloy a loving scratch on the head. “Hey, cuteness.”
There was only a quiet grumble in response, followed by further burrowing as if Alloy felt more comfortable sharing the same skin as Aliset. "You need clothes." She mumbled with mild annoyance, "Or to stop sitting naked and asleep in a gym." Alloy thought and tried to lift her head despite the scratching but eventually gave up and let her weight drop.
“Just a little meditation. I was trying to figure some things out about myself. C’mere.” Unfolding her legs into a more comfortable position, Aliset drew Alloy’s weight around her body, pulling the purring guard drhuv into her lap to rest. “Didn’t find anything I can use, though.”
Alloy didn't refuse the movement, only continuing her tired mumbling. "You were asleep for so long. I tried to wake you up." Her half opened eyes looked up to Aliset, the rest of Alloy's body simply strewn wherever took the least movement for stillness.
"I wasn't asleep. Just… elsewhere. There was a creature. Borrowed your voice. Lived in infinite void… Felt like teeth and claws and armor, with breath of sulphur. I… Went in there seeking answers for a few things. Came out with more questions. It called me a bite."
"Ha." Alloy smirked and gained a shot of energy, using it to joke, "That sounds like Isomeria. How odd there is another like her." She shrugged and stretched herself out, closing her eyes again, "I will go hunting with the giantess tomorrow. She seems adamant I try this pack roach. You two talk about it so much."
"I find them quite entertaining. Perhaps I should accompany you two. Though I doubt there's more than one of the entity that could put the mark on my hand. It called me an interloper. Not Senti."
"Ha… ha…" Alloy didn't smirk or grin like the devil she was, now far more concerned. "You are certain this is your brander? Did you see the entity? Did you hear it's name?" The concern churned into genuine worry, gently beginning to react into panic. If it was Isomeria, that would mean something far worse than just some off entity being malicious and curious.
“I don’t know. She never spoke a name. But she felt older than Shurista. Younger than the Steel. Borrowed your voice, grabbed me like claws… I don’t know. It… Felt right, and it didn’t deny. So what is the name of the being that gave me this birthmark? Because your tone tells me you know.”
"Well…" Alloy paused before speaking, finding a way to downgrade the worry, "The mark is an old symbol of Isomeria. I highly doubt it is Isomeria." She assured, continuing, "I don't understand why she would choose you. You are not Drhuv. Isomeria does not care for anything but her kin."
Aliset nodded, still gently skritching behind Alloy’s ear. “That’s what concerns me. Is she usually some kind of trickster or is she more the lurking hunger of the universe?”
"To the Drhuvs she is a mother. In reality she is a goddess of consumption." Alloy sighed, "She is the reason Drhuvs have their other side. She is the reason why they are so primal. I do not think she cares for good or bad. I think she only cares about what feeds her. That is my worry."
“Not a pleasant thought. It seems she tried to have a snack. I’m glad she considered me… What was the feeling… Rotten meat? Not worth the thorns?”
Alloy snickered a laugh away, "Spoiled rotten? I don't need to worry then. I should not be surprised seeing how you brat to Mark." She grinned and continued her teasing, reaching up to poke Aliset's cheek, "A goddess of consumption would not eat you. You are safe, your highness." Alloy was mocking Aliset's title, finally letting that laugh go.
"Spank me about it later, brat," Ali gave a soft laugh. "Though to be fair, I left any pieces of burial steel over there specifically so that any power I feel and chase would be from within me. Isomeria may not be my goddess. But she is yours, little Drhuv."
A soft tap on the nose, not accusing, but making Alloy aware. "And I feel like I've felt her presence before. Did you miss any time while you were with me?"
Alloy snapped at the finger that tapped her, though not with aggression. "Miss any time?" She asked, not understanding what Aliset had meant. What did she mean? What was Ali trying to say?
“Never mind, sweet roll.” Ali let her hand slip to Alloy’s ear, scritching the soft hairs behind her ears.
Though she relaxed, Alloy mumbled with annoyance against the scritching. "Am I just your pet?" She accused despite gently leaning her head into the touch. "Am I your warm pet for when you go streaking about the palace and get cold? You are cold." She grabbed Aliset's bicep. Cold.
“Far more than a simple pet, my Guardian and my Guidestar. And yes, I am a bit cold. But nothing I haven’t felt before.” There was that hollow smile, again. The same facial expression as that genuine warmth she usually regarded Alloy with, but there was something else there, like old memories and scars distracted her. “You are no pet.”
"You affect me like one." Alloy headbutted Aliset's stomach gently. "An exotic alien pet!" She claimed, pulling back and headbutting again with a small amount more of force. "Proudly the first to tame one of its kind, hm?" As playful as she was being, she didn't headbutt this time, instead looking to the arm nearby and snapping her teeth onto it like the feral thing she claimed to be.
With the fangs in her arm, Aliset wasted no time in forcing the arm into Alloy’s jaw as Spark had done when the girl had bitten her neck. This time, though, it was Aliset on top, and her nude form quickly straddled Alloy, sitting on her chest before leaning back and removing the arm. “Playful as you are, you are no pet. And I’ll not be calling you with a whistle and treats. Though you do have a thing for… dessert.”
Alloy froze immediately and stared up at Aliset, put off guard by the sudden movement and very obvious flirt. Was there venom? No. “It is not poison! You are just gay!” Alloy snapped at Aliset as she began to struggle and fight for control. Any free limb lashing about to make it as hard as possible to be pinned. “You attempt to tame me! Horrendous! I will not be tamed!” One moment later, Aliset felt every incisor and canine in Alloy’s mouth clamp onto her thigh and hold on like a crocodile. Fierce and mean, she was. And rapidly, Alloy realized Aliset’s smell had changed as she smirked and grabbed Alloy’s nose to cut off air.
“Easy, sweetroll. Let me get dressed, okay? Thank you. Really.”
Alloy caught just a single whiff of that smell. That awful tinge that had tormented her over and over again in the Collective. Metalling shavings, copper. That fiery orange that came before a fight, at least for her. Alloy struggled harder and shouted, “GAY! GAY!” Shouting as loud as possible, “YOU ARE HORNY!” She managed to throw the steel boned woman off of her and scampered away onto the trained position, ready to pounce, “Fix yourself! You lust! Gross…” Alloy was red in the face with how close she was to intimacy she had learned to hate. She needed to be more aware of her nose when she was around her own kind, it could trick her into feeling things that weren’t her.
Rolling to her feet, Aliset calmly moved to her clothes, beginning to dress. “I won’t deny my arousal, but I’m not interested in either of us getting a taste of each other right now, Alloy. I’m sorry, I…” Turning, she furrowed her brows, suddenly worried as her smell changed again. “How long have you been redblooded?”
“Wh-” Alloy paused and slowly lifted herself to her feet like a lanky predator. “What do you mean? My blood is red.” She stated, sure that it was normal for the color. “It has been since I first drew it.” Now Alloy was worried, almost scared. What was wrong with it? It’s the color of blood, the same all her companions and kin had. It was blood. What was wrong with her blood? “Nothing is wrong with it.” She denied Aliset and the possibility, “It is blood. Do not worry.”
“Alloy, when was the last time you looked at a rock and thought it might look good to eat?” Aliset pulled her cardigan over her shoulders, tying one hip and clasping her brooch to secure it as she approached. “We are going to my cousin. Red blood means you are severely malnourished.”
“I eat rocks as a trick. It makes the Drhuvs uncomfortable. I am not malnourished! I eat very well! I feast often!” Alloy whined in annoyance and disagreement, not wanting to suffer these accusations that she doesn't care for herself. She is well groomed, fed and the model of a perfect soldier. These are baseless! She crossed her arms, “You insult me. I am perfectly fine. I do not have any issues. I am a model soldier.”
“Do your bones hurt?”
“What?”
“You heard me, Alloy. Your bones and tendons. The steel of your body that your blood is pulling iron from to make red blood. The slime in your filter augments, the pain in your lower back either side of your kidneys. If it’s been like that your entire life, I’m shocked you’re standing. Please. Let my cousin examine you. She is like us. She will make you feel better than ever.”
"Fine.” Alloy agreed reluctantly. “I’ll entertain your accusations. The slime is just Senti mess. The pain is just poor stretching. Fine. Test me. You will see I do not lie.”
“Not to me, you do not.” Aliset gave a soft smile, one that knew exactly the pains Alloy had grown so used to.