07-18-2018, 02:49 PM
<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Alex+Brush|Yanone+Kaffeesatz|Armata' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'><center><div style="position:relative; width:480px; background:-webkit-linear-gradient(top, rgba(21,21,21,1) 40%, rgba(0,0,0,1) 50%); padding:0px 10px 10px 10px; border:1px solid #000;border-left:15px solid #333; border-right:15px solid #333;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/51uUi6R.jpg"><div style="position:relative;background:#000;padding:10px 10px 30px 10px;border:1px solid #eee; border-bottom:0px; border-radius: 30%/45px; font-family:armata; font-size: 12px; color:#fffce5; text-align:justify; margin:-150px 0px -10px 0px;"><center><font style="color:#800000; font:14px yanone kaffeesatz, sans-serif;">the first time he calls you holy, you laugh it back so hard your sides hurt.
the second time, you moan gospel around his fingers between your teeth.</font></center>
Their star-skin abruptly extinguishes when she utters those words, proclaiming herself worthy of their gifts. A sister reaches out in the pitch darkness and drags her clawed finger against the lake’s floor. The mud and sand part like cheap fabric to perfectly sharpened scissors as faint light glimmers through. Huddled tight around their new portal, they drop through in groups of four or five while Virgo follows like an obedient child, like one of their own. They delight among themselves as they each land with a soft thud on the new ground, dry and warm in this strange new world of theirs. When the last cluster slips through, the rip through space and time mends itself with a quiet hissing noise.
The swarm children watch their new sister take in her new surroundings – the glimmering silver sand all around them, the lavender-colored clouds of gas above, the stars twinkling so brightly in the distance. Two moons hang in the sky amid the stars, one tiny and pearl-colored while the other is large and faintly blue. This was the first planet they ever tried to call home. The air is light and crisp in their lungs as one might imagine mountain air to be despite the warm climate and gravity behaves much the same as it did in Beqanna.
“<I>Safe here. Go. We’ll watch.</i>”
Without another word, each child begins to burrow down into the soft sand with surprising speed until only their glowing eyes show beneath the little mounds that mark their place, like little crocodiles in the water. They follow at a distance as the six-legged monster obeys, searching for some sign of what’s to come. The children keep the hivemind hushed as they had practiced before. Occasionally, she stops to look back at them, but their unblinking stares offer no answers for her. She swallows hard but her new shape has made her bold, just as they had thought it might, so she begins to drop her careful pace and elects to run instead. This body was built for speed and they watch in awe as her lithe body bends with each step before springing forward in great leaps. They giggle amongst themselves as they hurry to keep up with their creation.
<I>Soon. Soon. Soon.</i>
The children feel themselves tense in anticipation as they approach the stage for Virgo’s performance, though she couldn’t know it from any other sand dune. As that ominous word sounds across the pool of their collective consciousness, however, she slows and squints at the area around her for some clue. Her sensitive ears can pick up the sound of the sand shifting all around them. She’s just in time to see the new creatures crawl up from the sand.
A wide paw parts the sand and a short snout protrudes through, with jaws that cut vertical up the strange creature's face rather than horizontal. Others begin to reveal themselves from the sand as the first had until they form an audience before Virgo and the hive. The creatures sniff curiously at the air and snap their tiny teeth together excitedly as they exit the sand to stand on their short four legs. The children hear her compare it to a malformed mole in the hivemind and chuckle at the thought. She is disgusted by their lack of eyes or fur on their wrinkled skin but intrigued by the glittering silver camouflage that matches them perfectly to their surroundings. The blind xenomoles are the perfect companion for the children as only they can offer true safety to the swarm without avoiding their gaze entirely.
The twenty or so silver mole-creatures hurry to Virgo, crowding around one another to be in her presence while maintaining a respectful distance. Likewise, the children are all huddled together to watch her reaction from behind. She seems frozen in place as her thermal eyes swim across her chest and shoulders to search for more of the monsters beneath the sand. No more of the creatures arrive but they begin to chitter and croon to one another excitedly. The sound sends a shiver up Virgo’s spine.
“<I>They worship you, though they do not know you. They will do anything for you. They will obey.</i>”
They offer her their memories of the mole-things, of towering statues sculpted from obsidian and massive fires, piled high with offerings in their name. The hive-children watch her face change from awe to horror and back again. One brother offers up the image of her loved ones here, rebuilt from what little pieces they could find of them, reigning with her here forever. The thought makes her ache with loneliness and an involuntary tear rolls down her cheek before it lands in the sand. Her pain echoes across their hearts and they suppose now is the time.
“<I>Gifts for you. Demand your offerings.</i>”
Virgo glances back at them and they wait patiently, knowing she will obey them despite her trepidation.
“<font color=#800000>May I have my offerings?</font>” she asks them softly, lowering her head to their height so they can hear her easily. The moles scatter and hurry to dig up the precious sacrifices they had prepared and kept hidden away for the day their goddess came. The children watch as some disappear entirely beneath the sand while others scramble to grab several items just beneath the surface. With only the moonlight to see by, it is difficult to discern exactly what each one carries, but the swarm already knows what’s in store for their new sister.
The first servant returns and delicately places a sun-bleached leg bone before Virgo before scurrying back to wait for her praise or damnation. The second deposits a lock of black hair beside the bone and a third offers up a few teeth. One by one, this continues until there is a heap of remains stacked before her and the congregation patiently awaiting their verdicts. Confused, she turns to the white eyes of the hive peaking above the sand.
“<I>Fleshlip. Eerie. Pantheon. Chernobyl. Jareth. Everclear.</i>”
They repeat the names over and over, echoing over one another endlessly. The children demand a resurrection but Virgo feels as though she is paralyzed by her horror aside from the trembling of her muscles. She turns back to her offerings and steps closer, carefully moving the bits and pieces of her family aside with one claw. The fish in her belly pace up and down her ribs anxiously. She could have them all, forever. Would they love her just the same or would they be something new that she must teach to care for her? Would it be wrong to rip them from their afterlife to live here with her? How did they die in the first place? A hundred questions flow through her brain and the children silence themselves as they listen.
Still, she misses her only child enough to try, at least. She delicately picks a lock of his mane and the handsome little skull from her offerings using her middle limbs. The children collect the rest of the gifts and pull them beneath the sand to keep them out of the way before moving back to their viewing stance. Once cleared, she places the pieces of him back on the ground and lowers her black and glass head to kiss his skull lightly.
Just as she had when giving herself a voice, she concentrates on what she would like to change. The sand forms all the missing little bones piece by piece – the ribs, the spine, the legs and hips. The moles chirp quietly to one another as they witness her miracle. Her head begins to ache with the effort but she has missed him so terribly that she can’t bear to have a mangled corpse of him instead. She shapes the muscles, organs, and skin before returning his coat to him. The silver black colt remains curled up in the sand, sleeping soundly despite the chaos around him. He is as beautiful to her as the day she gave birth to him, her one and only child.
Pantheon had always been her most treasured love. For years, she believed she would never give life to a baby of her own, and she grew bitter with that idea. Eerie had given him to her with the hopes of a strong child to retake the jungle and grew furious when he was born ‘normal’. But Virgo, in her infinite adoration of her son, named him Pantheon, because he was everything to her. Would her appearance scare him now, though? She bites her lip as the thought occurs to her and the children begin to mumble amongst themselves. They hadn’t considered this question before and find themselves worried that his response may taint the results of their testing.
“<I>Different test. Take him away. Start again.</i>”
The words make her turn to them with a snarl befitting of her new shape. Her beautiful tail curls up in a display of aggression as she stands over her slumbering child, teeth bared and ready. Not again. Nothing would take him from her a second time. The fish in her belly rush excitedly around one another as they wait for her to feast on one of the children and deliver meat to them.
A brother rises from the sand and climbs onto his feet before her, arms raised to show he means no harm. Still, Virgo shares thoughts of the silver sand covered in his blood. He hesitates for a moment before stepping closer to her and gingerly placing a hand on her muzzle as he had when she peeked into the lake before. The brother leans his forehead against her face and sighs softly against her smooth skin. It was a mistake to offer her such things and risk the happiness of those involved. The stumps where wings used to be flex for a moment before he leans back up.
“<I>Not like this. Let him go,</i>” he whispers softly before easing his hand from her head. The hivemind is flooded with words like ‘please’ and ‘no’ as the thought of losing him again tears her apart. The children begin to weep as they realize the gravity of their mistake but they know this test cannot continue, not like this. With shuddering, sobbing breaths, they allow the sand to swallow Pantheon before picking him apart once more. Virgo’s pain roars through them and they huddle tightly together as they mourn her loss. The moles ease back, wondering if perhaps their offerings were insufficient for their gods.
The brother kisses her brow before slipping back beneath the sand to join the other swarm-children. Virgo turns to the moles with fury still pulsing through her veins and she wants nothing more than to destroy them for what they’ve done. The children cry out that they did not know, could not possibly have realized what their sacrifices meant to her.
Even amongst her thousand siblings, she feels so small and weak, so very alone in the universe.
“<font color=#800000>I never got to tell any of them goodbye, you know,</font>” she mumbles to the children as she begins to cry. “<font color=#800000>They were all gone so quickly. I thought we would always have each other.</font>” Her voice cracks in several places and her tears begin to fall on the sand again. None of the children know how to urge her to continue with their test and none of them really want to try. They wait patiently and wipe each other’s tears away as anger and sorrow float through them all. The children had also never said goodbye to their gods and so they understand her pain of being severed from what they so dearly love.
“<I>Move on. Move on. Carry that weight.</i>”
They watch and sniffle as Virgo glances back at them and nods in agreement.
“<font color=#800000>Bring me food,</font>” she commands in her ragged voice. The hive’s eyes turn to watch her subjects rush forward to lay before her feet, offering their bellies for her to devour as repentance. The children grip one another’s hands tightly as they wait to see how she might respond to such a gesture. The moles, they know, would equate being eaten by their god to being one with their god. There is no greater honor in their society.
“<I>Now you must eat one. Must not crush their dreams. Must not break their hearts.</i>”
The children have never needed to eat and so they had never thought to deliver such a command. There is something like remorse and terror on her face as she realizes how zealous her new worshippers truly are. More tears flow from her eyes as she looks down at her offerings, each of them no bigger than maybe twenty to thirty pounds at best. She towers over them like something terrible and regal all at once. Her thoughts echo across the swarm’s mind as she tries to decide which little life to end and the anticipation is killing them.
The moles seem to smile with their strange sideways mouths and chirp excitedly to one another as they prepare to be devoured. A few of them wiggle their paws as if trying to look more delicious than the next. It makes the children’s stomachs churn. Life has become so precious to them over the centuries whereas others might grow more callous to the plights of others. They imagine each mole as a brother or sister, mother or father. They wonder if a mole might prefer to be eaten over its mate or if the honor is too great to deny their lover as an option? Would they allow their children to be a banquet for the divine?
These thoughts send a shiver up their spines but they say nothing on the matter. Still, their thoughts and questions have reached Virgo. She begins to wonder the same and grows more hesitant to select a member of the laity. The swarm begins to wonder if the lives of the moles are as complex and heart wrenching as their own. Suddenly, this test seems just as terrible as the last. There is too much power for them to wield here and regret looms over them all, yet they know they must continue. A new sister must be added to their number so that they might know some relief from their torment.
Virgo racks her brain for some solution to their problem while the hive remains hushed about any possible answer aside from their idle musings. Finally, it dawns on her. The children listen intently to her thoughts as she rewrites the nerve endings in one of the moles until it can feel only euphoria in place of pain. Suddenly, it is as though someone has opened the floodgate and allowed countless chaotic thoughts to flood the hivemind as they all try to make sense of what they are witnessing. <I>Cheating! Brilliant! Cruel! Divine!</i> The cacophony of their opinions consumes the hive as she sinks her teeth into the nearest mole, spilling its navy blood across her mouth and onto the sand. The other zealots roll back over and begin a choir of joyous chirping as they circle their dying brother.
The bleeding mole weakly coos his praises and thanks as he reaches up with his wide paws. His sideways smile makes the swarm shiver as they watch him begin to fade. Virgo’s sides flex with each panting breath, though the fish within her glass belly seem content to nibble the meat that floats inside her now. The swarm watches to see if she will save her worshipper or if she will allow him to pass on as payment for the pain he and his kind have caused her.</div><div style="position:relative;font-family:alex brush; font-size: 38px; color:#800000; text-align:center; line-height:20px;">V<font style="font-size:34px;">irgo</font>
<font style="font-family:yanone kaffeesatz; font-size: 12px; color:#EEE; letter-spacing:1px; line-height:12px;">you will ruin him and he will thank you; he will say please.</font></div></div></center>
2,620 words
Virgo's purpose is to be the god of the creepy mole things.
She is connected to the hive but has her own free will.
The hive wants to see if she takes revenge or if she forgives so they know what sort of god she'd be.
the second time, you moan gospel around his fingers between your teeth.</font></center>
Their star-skin abruptly extinguishes when she utters those words, proclaiming herself worthy of their gifts. A sister reaches out in the pitch darkness and drags her clawed finger against the lake’s floor. The mud and sand part like cheap fabric to perfectly sharpened scissors as faint light glimmers through. Huddled tight around their new portal, they drop through in groups of four or five while Virgo follows like an obedient child, like one of their own. They delight among themselves as they each land with a soft thud on the new ground, dry and warm in this strange new world of theirs. When the last cluster slips through, the rip through space and time mends itself with a quiet hissing noise.
The swarm children watch their new sister take in her new surroundings – the glimmering silver sand all around them, the lavender-colored clouds of gas above, the stars twinkling so brightly in the distance. Two moons hang in the sky amid the stars, one tiny and pearl-colored while the other is large and faintly blue. This was the first planet they ever tried to call home. The air is light and crisp in their lungs as one might imagine mountain air to be despite the warm climate and gravity behaves much the same as it did in Beqanna.
“<I>Safe here. Go. We’ll watch.</i>”
Without another word, each child begins to burrow down into the soft sand with surprising speed until only their glowing eyes show beneath the little mounds that mark their place, like little crocodiles in the water. They follow at a distance as the six-legged monster obeys, searching for some sign of what’s to come. The children keep the hivemind hushed as they had practiced before. Occasionally, she stops to look back at them, but their unblinking stares offer no answers for her. She swallows hard but her new shape has made her bold, just as they had thought it might, so she begins to drop her careful pace and elects to run instead. This body was built for speed and they watch in awe as her lithe body bends with each step before springing forward in great leaps. They giggle amongst themselves as they hurry to keep up with their creation.
<I>Soon. Soon. Soon.</i>
The children feel themselves tense in anticipation as they approach the stage for Virgo’s performance, though she couldn’t know it from any other sand dune. As that ominous word sounds across the pool of their collective consciousness, however, she slows and squints at the area around her for some clue. Her sensitive ears can pick up the sound of the sand shifting all around them. She’s just in time to see the new creatures crawl up from the sand.
A wide paw parts the sand and a short snout protrudes through, with jaws that cut vertical up the strange creature's face rather than horizontal. Others begin to reveal themselves from the sand as the first had until they form an audience before Virgo and the hive. The creatures sniff curiously at the air and snap their tiny teeth together excitedly as they exit the sand to stand on their short four legs. The children hear her compare it to a malformed mole in the hivemind and chuckle at the thought. She is disgusted by their lack of eyes or fur on their wrinkled skin but intrigued by the glittering silver camouflage that matches them perfectly to their surroundings. The blind xenomoles are the perfect companion for the children as only they can offer true safety to the swarm without avoiding their gaze entirely.
The twenty or so silver mole-creatures hurry to Virgo, crowding around one another to be in her presence while maintaining a respectful distance. Likewise, the children are all huddled together to watch her reaction from behind. She seems frozen in place as her thermal eyes swim across her chest and shoulders to search for more of the monsters beneath the sand. No more of the creatures arrive but they begin to chitter and croon to one another excitedly. The sound sends a shiver up Virgo’s spine.
“<I>They worship you, though they do not know you. They will do anything for you. They will obey.</i>”
They offer her their memories of the mole-things, of towering statues sculpted from obsidian and massive fires, piled high with offerings in their name. The hive-children watch her face change from awe to horror and back again. One brother offers up the image of her loved ones here, rebuilt from what little pieces they could find of them, reigning with her here forever. The thought makes her ache with loneliness and an involuntary tear rolls down her cheek before it lands in the sand. Her pain echoes across their hearts and they suppose now is the time.
“<I>Gifts for you. Demand your offerings.</i>”
Virgo glances back at them and they wait patiently, knowing she will obey them despite her trepidation.
“<font color=#800000>May I have my offerings?</font>” she asks them softly, lowering her head to their height so they can hear her easily. The moles scatter and hurry to dig up the precious sacrifices they had prepared and kept hidden away for the day their goddess came. The children watch as some disappear entirely beneath the sand while others scramble to grab several items just beneath the surface. With only the moonlight to see by, it is difficult to discern exactly what each one carries, but the swarm already knows what’s in store for their new sister.
The first servant returns and delicately places a sun-bleached leg bone before Virgo before scurrying back to wait for her praise or damnation. The second deposits a lock of black hair beside the bone and a third offers up a few teeth. One by one, this continues until there is a heap of remains stacked before her and the congregation patiently awaiting their verdicts. Confused, she turns to the white eyes of the hive peaking above the sand.
“<I>Fleshlip. Eerie. Pantheon. Chernobyl. Jareth. Everclear.</i>”
They repeat the names over and over, echoing over one another endlessly. The children demand a resurrection but Virgo feels as though she is paralyzed by her horror aside from the trembling of her muscles. She turns back to her offerings and steps closer, carefully moving the bits and pieces of her family aside with one claw. The fish in her belly pace up and down her ribs anxiously. She could have them all, forever. Would they love her just the same or would they be something new that she must teach to care for her? Would it be wrong to rip them from their afterlife to live here with her? How did they die in the first place? A hundred questions flow through her brain and the children silence themselves as they listen.
Still, she misses her only child enough to try, at least. She delicately picks a lock of his mane and the handsome little skull from her offerings using her middle limbs. The children collect the rest of the gifts and pull them beneath the sand to keep them out of the way before moving back to their viewing stance. Once cleared, she places the pieces of him back on the ground and lowers her black and glass head to kiss his skull lightly.
Just as she had when giving herself a voice, she concentrates on what she would like to change. The sand forms all the missing little bones piece by piece – the ribs, the spine, the legs and hips. The moles chirp quietly to one another as they witness her miracle. Her head begins to ache with the effort but she has missed him so terribly that she can’t bear to have a mangled corpse of him instead. She shapes the muscles, organs, and skin before returning his coat to him. The silver black colt remains curled up in the sand, sleeping soundly despite the chaos around him. He is as beautiful to her as the day she gave birth to him, her one and only child.
Pantheon had always been her most treasured love. For years, she believed she would never give life to a baby of her own, and she grew bitter with that idea. Eerie had given him to her with the hopes of a strong child to retake the jungle and grew furious when he was born ‘normal’. But Virgo, in her infinite adoration of her son, named him Pantheon, because he was everything to her. Would her appearance scare him now, though? She bites her lip as the thought occurs to her and the children begin to mumble amongst themselves. They hadn’t considered this question before and find themselves worried that his response may taint the results of their testing.
“<I>Different test. Take him away. Start again.</i>”
The words make her turn to them with a snarl befitting of her new shape. Her beautiful tail curls up in a display of aggression as she stands over her slumbering child, teeth bared and ready. Not again. Nothing would take him from her a second time. The fish in her belly rush excitedly around one another as they wait for her to feast on one of the children and deliver meat to them.
A brother rises from the sand and climbs onto his feet before her, arms raised to show he means no harm. Still, Virgo shares thoughts of the silver sand covered in his blood. He hesitates for a moment before stepping closer to her and gingerly placing a hand on her muzzle as he had when she peeked into the lake before. The brother leans his forehead against her face and sighs softly against her smooth skin. It was a mistake to offer her such things and risk the happiness of those involved. The stumps where wings used to be flex for a moment before he leans back up.
“<I>Not like this. Let him go,</i>” he whispers softly before easing his hand from her head. The hivemind is flooded with words like ‘please’ and ‘no’ as the thought of losing him again tears her apart. The children begin to weep as they realize the gravity of their mistake but they know this test cannot continue, not like this. With shuddering, sobbing breaths, they allow the sand to swallow Pantheon before picking him apart once more. Virgo’s pain roars through them and they huddle tightly together as they mourn her loss. The moles ease back, wondering if perhaps their offerings were insufficient for their gods.
The brother kisses her brow before slipping back beneath the sand to join the other swarm-children. Virgo turns to the moles with fury still pulsing through her veins and she wants nothing more than to destroy them for what they’ve done. The children cry out that they did not know, could not possibly have realized what their sacrifices meant to her.
Even amongst her thousand siblings, she feels so small and weak, so very alone in the universe.
“<font color=#800000>I never got to tell any of them goodbye, you know,</font>” she mumbles to the children as she begins to cry. “<font color=#800000>They were all gone so quickly. I thought we would always have each other.</font>” Her voice cracks in several places and her tears begin to fall on the sand again. None of the children know how to urge her to continue with their test and none of them really want to try. They wait patiently and wipe each other’s tears away as anger and sorrow float through them all. The children had also never said goodbye to their gods and so they understand her pain of being severed from what they so dearly love.
“<I>Move on. Move on. Carry that weight.</i>”
They watch and sniffle as Virgo glances back at them and nods in agreement.
“<font color=#800000>Bring me food,</font>” she commands in her ragged voice. The hive’s eyes turn to watch her subjects rush forward to lay before her feet, offering their bellies for her to devour as repentance. The children grip one another’s hands tightly as they wait to see how she might respond to such a gesture. The moles, they know, would equate being eaten by their god to being one with their god. There is no greater honor in their society.
“<I>Now you must eat one. Must not crush their dreams. Must not break their hearts.</i>”
The children have never needed to eat and so they had never thought to deliver such a command. There is something like remorse and terror on her face as she realizes how zealous her new worshippers truly are. More tears flow from her eyes as she looks down at her offerings, each of them no bigger than maybe twenty to thirty pounds at best. She towers over them like something terrible and regal all at once. Her thoughts echo across the swarm’s mind as she tries to decide which little life to end and the anticipation is killing them.
The moles seem to smile with their strange sideways mouths and chirp excitedly to one another as they prepare to be devoured. A few of them wiggle their paws as if trying to look more delicious than the next. It makes the children’s stomachs churn. Life has become so precious to them over the centuries whereas others might grow more callous to the plights of others. They imagine each mole as a brother or sister, mother or father. They wonder if a mole might prefer to be eaten over its mate or if the honor is too great to deny their lover as an option? Would they allow their children to be a banquet for the divine?
These thoughts send a shiver up their spines but they say nothing on the matter. Still, their thoughts and questions have reached Virgo. She begins to wonder the same and grows more hesitant to select a member of the laity. The swarm begins to wonder if the lives of the moles are as complex and heart wrenching as their own. Suddenly, this test seems just as terrible as the last. There is too much power for them to wield here and regret looms over them all, yet they know they must continue. A new sister must be added to their number so that they might know some relief from their torment.
Virgo racks her brain for some solution to their problem while the hive remains hushed about any possible answer aside from their idle musings. Finally, it dawns on her. The children listen intently to her thoughts as she rewrites the nerve endings in one of the moles until it can feel only euphoria in place of pain. Suddenly, it is as though someone has opened the floodgate and allowed countless chaotic thoughts to flood the hivemind as they all try to make sense of what they are witnessing. <I>Cheating! Brilliant! Cruel! Divine!</i> The cacophony of their opinions consumes the hive as she sinks her teeth into the nearest mole, spilling its navy blood across her mouth and onto the sand. The other zealots roll back over and begin a choir of joyous chirping as they circle their dying brother.
The bleeding mole weakly coos his praises and thanks as he reaches up with his wide paws. His sideways smile makes the swarm shiver as they watch him begin to fade. Virgo’s sides flex with each panting breath, though the fish within her glass belly seem content to nibble the meat that floats inside her now. The swarm watches to see if she will save her worshipper or if she will allow him to pass on as payment for the pain he and his kind have caused her.</div><div style="position:relative;font-family:alex brush; font-size: 38px; color:#800000; text-align:center; line-height:20px;">V<font style="font-size:34px;">irgo</font>
<font style="font-family:yanone kaffeesatz; font-size: 12px; color:#EEE; letter-spacing:1px; line-height:12px;">you will ruin him and he will thank you; he will say please.</font></div></div></center>
2,620 words
Virgo's purpose is to be the god of the creepy mole things.
She is connected to the hive but has her own free will.
The hive wants to see if she takes revenge or if she forgives so they know what sort of god she'd be.