ZombiesAnHyenas

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

[ Titan’s Fall, Castle on The Clouds… for now. ]

---

That sure was a face that Dawn was making at him! Hah. Ahhh… Well. She was still agreeing to go with him! “Heh! Look, let’s just… ‘Take a long walk and talk, yeah?’ Sound like fun? I think it does!”
Chirped the chaos-gremlin. In his ear, and in the corner of his HUD, Sovereign let Felix know that the vocal command was received.

His eyes flicked upward, watching as the spinning symbol of Sovereign processed a series of automatic protocols… His location was sent to Sai and Sai alone. Everyone else? They’d see his location as still at Castle on The Clouds. And if they called, well, Felix had a specific message for them!
“Hey! Yeah, sorry! I’m in the middle of something important, and I’ll be heading back to HQ in a bit!”
Simple! It worked at least twice before! Before Yue went missing. But then again… Yue… Hm.
Wait! Focus! Goddamn. Medicine never worked the way they described it, huh? Anyways!

She asked about a plan… silly Dawn! Plans were things that happened to other people! And ruined by him, usually! Lord knows Mom and Dad probably— Whoop! Nope! Bad brain-train! Getting off that wild ride of self loathing…
God he could NOT focus! Adrenaline response, maybe? Wait! Dawn! Plan! Right!

Felix abruptly stood, smiling bright and gleeful at Dawn as she followed suit. “It’ll be fine! Besides, if you’re there, your boss’ll have a reason to understand why you might’ve played hooky today, yeah? Or at least why you’re suuuuuper late! Or… somethin’? I dunno, I was NEVER a great liar— Oh! That reminds me.”

He turned his head, looking down at his hard-light limbs with an expression often seen on a cat.
Pupils blown wide. Hair standing on end. Utter focus.
Affectionately referred to as ‘his dumbass mode’.
Which was rude! Thank you very much! He was only using optic controls to edit the parameters of his tinker-tech!
The emitters that took place for his shoulders and thighs hummed, brightening some before dimming almost immediately after.

His limbs, connected as they were, became disjointed things. His arms, from the bicep down, at least, disconnected from the emitters. His legs followed in the same manner. Yue had once said it reminded her of a Final Odyssey character— One whose forearms and shins floated away from the main body. Nevermind that that character also had a penchant for meteor hammers and kusarigama or… whatever. Beyond the point!
Felix’ limbs were floating now, somewhat. That was the point.

He continued to stare off into space, adjusting a few more parameters as one arm rotated a full one hundred and eighty degrees. On autopilot, his fingers closed around a surprisingly small stick of plastic, and yanked it from his back pocket.
Couldn’t wait for the cyberware to run its’ self-repair protocols. Had to move now.
He shifted in place, using his newly extremely mobile arms to slot the stick of plastic into a slot along his exposed spinal ‘ware ports.
Let that run its diagnostics, make sure Sai knows he had to use ANOTHER stick of tinker tech [4UT0R3P41R].

When Felix got his hands on that man… They were gonna talk about his naming conventions. Who the hell used L337speak?! It’s 2045 man, come ON.
Wait! Dawn’s staring— He had forgotten to reply! Focus!
He really hoped his medicine would kick in soon, god.

Felix snapped his eyes to Dawn, letting his focus settle back on her as he toned the manic smiling down. “Right! Sorry. Got distracted with— anyways. Uh. Do you wanna ride, or do you wanna just… ‘Walk’ there, hm? Oh! Also! How good are you at disguises? Or can your uh, light… brain… stuff! Can it affect the entire spectrum of ‘light’ or just visible light? Oh! Is it actually like, light? Or just radiation?”

Fuck. Rambling. Focus! Ugh.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Shield Town, Black Iron Workshop

---

A neural network, a spider's web of neurons and synapses and chemical receptors and nerves, branching out into infinity. A face.
The [patient], pressing a face, unbidden, against the flesh. Changing it beyond will.
Fear. Confusion. Mind trying to break, being held together by tape and sheer willpower. Determination beyond the likes of which it had ever seen.
The [patient] spoke, overriding it’s control, a sensation not unfamiliar, but not felt in years either.
Time. A concept so abstract, so… unsustainably unusual. It became familiar, understandable, comprehensible. A small eternity, the agonizing trickle-tickle-tick-tock leaning from one second, to the next second, to the next second…

The [surgeon] never wavered. Let the [patient] speak through it, give the [patient] an outlet. There was work to do. Another face arose, younger, but no less different from the first.

A memory. Played out like it was happening again. [TRAUMA], like a pheromone trail, dragging the overwhelmed Umbri, and the apathetic J-3, down a lane of recollection.
‘Memory lane’, if the street was cracked and torn, if the houses were muddy, foggy, and filled with vines and ink and bone and steel and-

She was too young for this. Standing beside a dumpster, baby in arms, staring at a billboard that danced. Exhaustion laid in her bones, pulling at her everything-
It skipped.
Trapped! She couldn’t get away! [HER-NOTSAFE-WHY-WHY-WHY?!] had her by the hair, kept pulling her around! The bruise on her face ached like a broken bone, a broken heart-
It skipped.
”NO! Fuck off! Stop!” As her arms, her hands, barely able to hold back a blade, grew weaker by the moment. The gravel of the alley bit into skin, into the back of her head. She almost had enough air to scream-!
It stopped.

Anger bloomed.

Stop! Hey! Back off-
Another memory rose.
The thresher. Beaten, being butchered right before her eyes. [GUILT] swallowed everything in her, oppressive in its weight around her throat, in the turn of her stomach. She was responsible! She did this. All of these memories? She was-
It. Better. Stop!

In the space outside the memory, outside the dream, in the realm of the [BODY] and not the [MINDS], ink pulsed. It streamed over two bodies, as one shrank, and shrank, and shrank. J-3 became more human, allowing more of the tentacles that held it up to fuse together into two legs.
Eyes melded back into the body.
Wings vanished.
Horns rose, shifted, and then sank away.
Claws and talons and fangs, returned to humanities normalcy.

It’s mouth opened, as if to opine something… Before it all changed.

Ink swarmed over Umbri’s body, pulsing along with the rhythm of two hearts beating in perfect sync. Venom was annihilated, an anti venom pouring through veins and chasing the necrotic death back into nothing.
Internal damages were mended, stitched back together by ink and focus.
A third face, Umbri’s true face, was exposed, as Jemma well and truly grew angry. Again. Wow.
The maw that had contained Umbri’s head, arm, and shoulders, shifted. It instead became a scorpion's tail of the largest degree, with its stinger-tip just barely sank into the back of Umbri’s neck.
Her arm was no longer enveloped, instead, it came to rest on the top of Jemma’s bowed head. Hypersensitive nerves in her scalp and her hair noted every twitch and change.

You absolute fucking idiot! How dare you! Where is your kindness? She’s freaking out! We don’t scare for no reason! Protect these people! Idiot! Idiot idiot idiot!
A pair of minds, tangled together by [INK] and [MAGIC], were yanked out of a shattered and crumbling memory scape.
Fury raged in her veins, at the sheer unfairness of it all. Who the hell did this to her? To this poor girl? She didn’t deserve it! Didn’t deserve to have all this fear and hurt and pain and scarring! What the fuck?! What gave them the right?!

Jemma’s voice, in the ‘dream’ and out of it, rumbled and roared into the air. Distorted by ink, warped by wrath.
“I fucking [PROMISED] no harm to her! What the HELL ARE YOU DOING?! I will destroy you! She needs rest! How dare you! How dare you harm her! She deserves none of it! What right do you have?! May my fang and claw sunder your flesh! Ruined so much for her for what?! FILTHY FUCKING STREET-SAMURAI! LOCKDOWN?! LOCKDOWN! I’ll ruin you! Ruin everything you ARE. FAILURE OF MOTHERHOOD! RIP YOUR MIND INTO MINE! SUFFER AS SHE HAS AT YOUR HAND!”

Jemma distantly heard a voice, someone outside of this joined space, away from this protective fury, yelp.
Koba? No. Graham? No… Names and faces were fading again. Time was becoming a slippery nothing. Again.
She WANTED to keep her hold, but… No. Not at the expense of another. Never at the expense of another.

The woman knew she sounded crazy, she knew she was shouting without preamble or warning. But… the Anger of it all. It was so stupid! It was unfair! This girl didn’t deserve that! And she didn’t deserve to see that! Have it torn from a mind unprepared! This should’ve been a conversation!

In the ‘dream’, one of two minds raged. [MIND-SIEVE-COMMUNE] bloomed in the astral, weaving a shaky spell. Nerves and Aetherial [connections] spun a dream-catchers shape, laying intent and purpose down as easy as cards on a table.
Jemma forced herself past the uneasy feeling of ‘haven’t done this before’ and focused instead on ‘must do this now.’
She spoke again, through Umbri’s throat, as the spell slowly worked its way. Her voice, audible within the dream and without.
“Hey! Hey no! You’re okay! You’re not gonna die. It’s okay. You have yourself, now, and I’m out. It’s just muscles and nerves now, no minds. You’re okay. Breathe. Slow. I can’t and won’t do it for you. But you have to breathe. I know you can. C’mon.”
Jemma’s voice was alive now. Lacking that clinical apathy. She laid out a rabbit-crumb trail. Led the little bit of Umbri’s psyche that she was willing to touch back to stability. ‘Come along, this way to calm again, this way to you disconnecting from me, disconnecting from you’, but with neurological action.

“We have to walk ourselves away from eachother. Okay? What’s happening right now, is I’ve disconnected the, um, memories. You won’t get dragged into yours anymore. Okay? It’s okay. I can’t just cut our connection, I don’t want to hurt you. So you have to calm down, and breathe, and ‘walk’ away with me. It’ll be easy! I [PROMISE]. Listen! Like this! You can do it.”

Her own body abruptly hitched a breath, sucking air deep into her lung for a count of four. Holding it for a count of seven. Letting it go for a count of eight.
Repeat.
In for four. Feel nerves of your own tingle, muscles of your own shift under your control.
Hold for seven. Let it ground and burn. Focus on the act. Bring it to yourself.
Out for eight. Let the fear and anger go, remember where you actually are. Unlatch your claws.

Oh. They were both crying. Ink. … Well shit.

Procedure complete.
What a shit show.
And only in four minutes! That could’ve… gone so much better.
She needed to puke…

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Shield Town, Black Iron Workshop, Main Lobby

---

The shapeshifter was in awe. Her mind lost its tenuous grasp on focus as she instead took a few moments to stare at the blooming lattice of [POWER-FUEL-MIND-STRUCTURE-BLOCK] that had formed over herself and Umbri. An immediate burst of hunger seated through her core.

It wanted to hold this power, consume it like a succulent fruit hanging from a tree. Turn it into nuclear fuel to keep the meat going for years and years and-
No! Focus! That was a friend! Is! A friend
Jemma shook her head, turning her gaze back to Umbri as she took in the ‘smaller’ woman’s requests.
“Huh. Y’know I think she’s actually technically taller than me…” Jemma muttered thoughtfully, seemingly unaware that she was speaking aloud. Welp! Time to begin.
She focused, truly, and felt… Odd. Like she was both falling asleep and waking up. Astral eyes bloomed, and filled the mind with information. The trickle of [LIFE], the wrap of [VENOM-DEATH-Necrotise], and the pulse of [FEAR-DISGUST-DETERMINED-hopehopeHOPE].

Right.

“Administering pain relieving agent now.” Spoke the swiftly disassociating Body. Apathy and clinical intelligence swelled in place of emotional reasoning and empathy.
The [patient] would prefer this done quick, smooth, and without complication. Best to move swiftly then.

One of J-3’s tentacles whipped upwards, coming to a rest against the small of Umbri’s back, before straightening out and following along the muscles of her spine. Ink pulsed once along the length of prehensile muscle and fur, but showed no changes otherwise.
J-3 stood still, motionless like a statue, almost unnatural in its lack of motion, before it spoke again. “Anesthetic administered. Noting for patient: agent will integrate with patient body in one minute, thirty five seconds.” The body froze again, shifting focus and tasks in silence before once more speaking.
“Applying maw to patient now. Patient will note that movement is highly unrecommended. Patient will note that procedure will not be halted entirely, but can be paused by gripping, scratching, pinching, pressing, or holding the cilia within the ‘Maw’ organ. Patient will note that ‘surgeon’ will then halt. Patient will note that proceeding to pat, squeeze, or tap thrice will re-engage the procedure.”
And with that, the aforementioned maw shifted. Umbri’s entire arm disappeared into a throat that led to nowhere, filled with sensitive cilia, like millions of tiny hairs. If the [patient] squeezed or flinched, any movement that prompted readjustment, J-3 would stop. It had [PROMISED]. J-3 halted the maw after a moment, the very end of it pressing against the [patient]’s throat as the fangs laid to rest against the exposed skin.
The shapeshifter waited a moment.

“Note: Pain relieving agent in effect. Patient shall move her left leg to demonstrate that movement is unaffected. Patient will note that pain is dulled. Approximately 84.37 percent reduction in pain reciever activation. Patient will note that agent has been replicated a total of eight hundred and forty three times prior to administration in this procedure.”
Another pause, before the J-3 continued.

“Beginning procedure.”

It bit down, and began its work.
The site of entry and thresher-venom injection was the back of the neck, above the beginnings of a cybernetic spine. So the ink dripping fang bit through the skin there, just enough to sink a centimeter or so in.
Veins of ink rapidly spread through the blood vessels, damaging, consuming, and repairing as swiftly as they went. From its recollections, this process was best described as ‘a horrific internal tattoo that was cold and excruciating. Like nerves dying while paper thin slugs of mucus and frost crawled through you.’
With the venom it had given? Umbri would likely only feel as though she was receiving a deeply uncomfortable tattoo, and even only barely as much.
Finally, the veins reached where J3 needed them to reach.

The muscles of the spine, base of the brain-stem, the nerves still surrounding the spinal-cybernetic, and the veins and arteries of the heart. Ink pooled and waited by the heart, as the other tendrils worked their way through blood vessel and cyber-ports.
“Note: Patient and Surgeon will experience temporary nervous system synchronization. Surgeon requires synchronous communication between Ink and Patient Nervous system to coordinate proper antivenin distribution and acclimation.
Patient may speak through Surgeon, Surgeon may speak through patient. Surgeon apologizes. Sincerely unforeseen requirement. [PROMISE] remains unbroken.”

J-3 felt information begin trickling in, blinking once as the [MIND] and Mind of Umbri clicked in with theirs.
They blinked again, both bodies moving simultaneously, once, and broadcasted to the woman on the other end of the connection a sensation of gentle calm. As if to say ‘Stay calm. Do not panic. You are safe. This will be fine. Everything is okay. You are doing great.’

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

[ Titan’s Fall, Castle on The Clouds ]

---

Felix… Listened. For a bit. He did! Truly and seriously and really, and all that! But… Well.
She didn’t get it. Not really, and how could she! No one else had the itch like he did. The overwhelming press and crush of fear. That paranoia against the inevitability of it happening again. He couldn’t afford it, couldn’t relax, couldn’t slack off! Failure wasn’t an option. Stress testing at all times was the only way! If it failed him once, then it would fail him again! She was SO close to getting it!
So close to getting that overwhelming fear of a man out of control, a force of nature nearly ending his short story—
But it was fine. She… Was right. In a way, yes. He couldn’t sprint back to the lab every time something failed. Even if he really wanted to.

Felix shook himself some, ignoring the vague burning pain of his implants continuing to express their overstress. “No, yeah, yeah. You’re right—”
Or not.

Ion had arrived, and while Felix genuinely loved the giant oaf, he… Well actually, no this time he was severely appreciated! A quick break from the extremely taxing mental conversation!
Not that Dawn was even being taxing or anything like that, just that he really, really, didn’t want to think about his (definitely) maybe being wrong. In how he was approaching this friendship. And his tinkering. Hm.
Anyways! Ignore that! That whole… thinking about himself, thing. Yup! Forgotten! For now!
Felix shifted a bit in his seat, offering the requisite ‘oh yeah no kidding…’ to Ion, while letting his gaze slide to Dawn’s.

He stared at her, not thinking twice about trying to tell her with all the telepathy available to a chaos gremlin: ‘guess where I wanna go next!’
“My thing DID do the thing! Thanks for noticing, Tol King! I… Kinda hope that I did beat her time? If only so I can take over the ‘long distance’ travel part of the job, when I can, y’know?”
He flashed Ion a smile, before turning away and frowning, clearly thinking pretty hard.
“Hey thanks for the heads up though! I’ll make sure to avoid that area, and I’m pretty sure we’re gonna eat here for a bit anyways. My cyber needs a hot minute to cool down and perform their automatic repairs anyways.” He mumbled, flashing sheepish smile for the two at the table with him.

He raised a hand after a moment, looking appropriately sheepish. “Get some rest when you can, yeah man?” Felix murmured, sliding his eyes to the side conspiratorially. “If you don’t catch some sleep when you can… I’ll be the most eligible bachelor, and your- ah- fans will see you slippin’…”

There. That should serve as distraction AND dismissal! And he’d focus on doing his job too well to focus on where Felix would be… Not that that couldn’t be solved with a simple dummy tracker left where he wasn’t.
Hah!

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Shield Town, Black Iron Workshop, Main Lobby

---

Right. Well! This… Umbri! That was a nice name. Umbri. Umbri… Umbral? Umber! Umbridge? Umbel! Like on a flower! Wait. Focus! Focus.
Umbri, was clearly determined here, which was a nice enough thing to see! Jemma just wasn’t quite sure how committed she would be after being told the details of the ‘procedure’. Hrm.

Oh well. The shapeshifter nodded once and gave a relatively controlled smile. “Right! I’m gonna explain this as… Me, I can. I’m going to turn three of these things here,” She raised a trio of her tentacles, waving each in a row before continuing,
“Into one large, uh, maw. I’m gonna wrap it around your arm, shoulder, and part of your clavicle. From there, it’s going to form a symbiotic link between your circulatory system and mine. I’ll have to bite into you with a fang. … This, of course, likely won’t feel super great. Nor will the…” She trailed off again.

How to describe them… WAS there a way to describe them? She wasn’t versed on animal biology… Oh!
Show! Don’t tell, duh!
Jemma moved back from Umbri, following through on the changes to her trio of tendrils as explained. From the three limbs, she formed a mouth in the shape of a crocodile… weasel… thing. Maybe it would’ve been cute! If… it also wasn’t about the size of Umbri’s torso. She opened the mouth, revealing the relatively small and unimposing fangs within. From one such fang, veins of ink spiraled out and into the air, like the branches of a tree. Or a lightning bolt. Or blood vessels.

“I dunno what to specifically call these yet, but I do know that they are capable of, uh, subsuming any amount of organic matter. And I can choose what does, and does NOT, get subsumed. Then, with the same organs, I can copy, replicate, and modify to my will! Which means I could not only become the snake, buuuut I could just replicate and synthesize an anti-venom!” Chirped the shapeshifting woman, giving Umbri her best version of a ‘reassuring smile’.
Oh! Right. The original point of showing these.
“That all being said… They won’t feel super great moving under your skin and through your meat stuffs. So… You may wanna either sit down and hold on to something, or, I can ‘brew’ you up a cocktail of numbing venoms. And muscle relaxants. Nothin’ lethal! Or capable of stopping your heart, or anythin’! Just… good for not bein’ in pain!”

Jesus, that was a ramble and a half. At least it kinda looked like Umbri was listening! Right. Finish it off.
“Now, I understand that this might sound incredibly unsanitary, but as stated, the… Ink-Vessels? Eh, name pending— Anyways! My ink can subsume basically anythin’ and everythin’ organic! This includes bacteria and viruses, and parasites! Honestly if you’d like I could give you a once over to your entire system, make sure you— Er! Sorry. Focusing. Hoo.”

Jemma nodded then, finally slowing her rapid fire summation to a stop. That was all she could think of! And that was after not having been a Fixer or an Engineer! For three years! She stiiiiill had it! … Don’t cry don’t cry don’t cry. Focus!!! Shit!
The shapeshifter shifted in place, again. Her eyes slid to the limbless [NULL-DEMON-MEAN-RUDE-helphimtoo?] nearby. “I know you’re still gonna be upset by this, but as you’re the only person here who I think has her best interests at heart… And also the only person she’s yelled at in this room, which I think is a good thing? I’m letting you know that if I hurt her beyond reason you can absolutely take it out of my hide. I [promise.]”

The word ‘promise’ held a weight to it. One that she wouldn’t and couldn’t dare to explain. Jemma just hoped that he would understand she meant it with the whole of her being. So much so, that unbeknownst to her, the noises churning inside her quieted.
Drowned under the forceful ‘Promise.’ that took the place of the noises instead.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Shield Town, Black Iron Workshop, Main Lobby

---

One more time, anger! Let’s see if you change when your button is pushed again!
Jemma flinched at the words coming from the torso with stumps. She wanted to address his, honestly, reasonable concerns about her mental state and the concrete-ness of her words… But he was being disrespectful, on a table, where people were treating him. For his stump limbs.
Yelling.
And flailing.
And he just called it a Thing. Just said it should be Contained.

Its’ voice rang like thunder in the small space, ink boiling away at the throat as it rose to its’ full height. Pupils exploded to consume its irises, turning the gaze from nearly human to distinctly shark-ish.
“I WILL NOT BE CONTAINED! You will NOT CONTAIN ME! NO ONE WILL CONTAIN ME AGAIN! NEVER.”
The voice, cacophonously loud, was distorted. The buzz of cicadas, torn by the howl of a coyote and the bellowing of a cow. It loomed, now. The body rising to put it’s skull at a solid eight feet off the ground.

“I. Am. No. Thing! I am Jemma! I am Dove. You will respect my existence, street-samurai. You encountered me at my closest to worst. Don’t you dare judge me on that alone.” The body growled. The voice was cold, devoid of affectation or inflection. And its stare was one that might have belonged to a crocodile. Reptilian and cold, with a basal fury that left all the blood in the body boiling.

J-3 loomed a bit more, ink seething under the skin as it desperately tried to reign the anger in. “I have not forgotten you either. Memories still burn, y’know? Now. I’m going to focus on the WOMAN who clearly needs help, like YOU. So please. Shut the fuck up.”

No! Be nice.
Calm exploded throughout the body, abrupt as a thunderclap in the desert. There was no reason to get at him! The lady already did that! Shit. Emotions were dumb, why did it eat them again? … Well, not just it, but-
Focus!

Jemma’s shark-black eyes turned away from Temujin, slowly. Instead, they focused on [FEAR-RESOLUTION-CAUTION-dontfuckthisforme-hopehopehope]. Black pools slowly filled with gold-green-grey. Pupils shrank, revealed colored irises.
She sighed, and let all the anger fade, let the bristling fur lay flat, the bared teeth hide behind closed lips, and lowered the protectively raised tentacles, tipped with newly made serrated claws. Woof. Okay. Focus…

Her eyes narrowed on the stinger offered to her, [ASTRAL EYES] noting… Well. It was coated in that potent miasma of something meant to cause harm. Venomous, and highly toxic at that. The ‘apathy’ part of her understood the barest details of what she was looking at, but to understand more? To become it? That would require… More.
Wait.
Oh! That’s what was causing this poor lady’s face to— Oh. Jemma abruptly understood, frowning deep and thoughtful as she took the stinger carefully.

“Right. I could, technically, become this… thing. But, this isn’t quite enough of a … Let’s call it a biological blueprint, yeah? For me to work off of,” She murmured, trailing off thoughtfully before she continued. “I… do have a way of counteracting that lack of ‘blueprint’. But, uh, it’ll be severely uncomfortable for you, and everyone else in the room. And will probably make ’street-sam’ over there super upset.”

Her voice was thick with exasperation and indignation. Jemma’s eyes flicked over to Temujin, staring him dead in the face, before she stuck a startlingly human tongue out at him. Then she was turning back to… Huh. Actually, there was never a bad time… “What’s your name by the way? Oh! And if you agree, I’ll tell you more and make sure you’re fully informed, yeah? Fuckin always hated it when docs’ don’t tell you the whole thing. Y’know?”

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Shield Town, Black Iron Workshop, Main Lobby

---

It wasn’t so much that the sudden reveal of a… Whoa. That sure was a skimpily clad lady alright. And hey! There’s that—
Fury burst into existence at the sight of Temujin. All of her- admittedly short- focus snapped away from the incredibly horribly terrifically awful conversation she was in, and instead on the travesty of, “What the FUCK happened to you?! Who did this?! What the hell? And no one’s helped you yet? Jesus! Guys c’mon!”

Jemma snapped, anger boiling in the back of her skull as the more… apathetic, part of her person reared up. It smothered the emotions, allowing her to focus just a bit better. The woman next to the demon who cleaved her?! Looked just as horrible as he did. But that was beyond the point. He clearly needed help, and they stopped helping him… to… gawk at her? She could’ve waited!

Her head whipped back around to glare at Koba and Graham, temporarily ignoring Alex for a second. “Y’don’t leave a fuckin fixin’ MID SURGERY! That’s SO BAD FOR LITERALLY ANYONE!”
Woof. Okay! Okay. Reign that in. Alex is glitching out with his color lights, which is unusual. Split attention… split…
Oh. Oh she knows! Easy! And crutch-girl McNoShame just asked her to shapeshift no less! Ignoring that she seems convinced that Jemma WANTS to eat people. Rude! She doesn’t! Ever again. Please god.

Jemma flashed her a smile, all sharp teeth and ‘okay, but you asked for it.’ As ink swelled over her entire body. Flesh and blood and bone vanished under a tidal wave of pitch, as new body leaned away from the first. Muscle and bone slapped against the floor of the workshop angrily, as ten writhing appendages sprouted from Jemma’s thighs. Her knees and below had vanished, instead giving way to a collection of furred, vaguely spiny, tentacles. Each was about three meters in length, and about sixty six centimeters at the ‘thigh’ in thickness. They tapered to chitinous points, and the ink still swirled.

Her upper half changed as well, as the jumpsuit slipped to the ground, soaked in the pitch. Her arms went from two, to four, and tapered into chitinous protected tips, not unlike her new ‘legs’. The torso was mostly unchanged, save for the keratin plates that now served as armor. Her hair lengthened, filling with bio-luminescent light, and her eyes multiplied to a total of six. Two where one would expect them, another two on her clavicle, and a final pair in the palms of her new arms. Her freckled face, something she’d never had before, went from ‘freckles’ to ‘heat sensitive pits’. And from the top and sides of her head sprouted a quartet crown of branching antlers.

She turned to Alex, then, focusing hard as she overlaid her voice with as much [MANA] as she dared use in the presence of all these faces. “Hey! Hey. I dunno what’s going on in your head, but you gotta chill, o’RGB man of adoration. I’m here. I’m fine. Stop pacing like a tiger. You’re pushing… It’s pushing at my ‘gotta face it or run’ button, okay? Just take some deep breaths sweetheart.” Jemma barked, smoothing her tone out to familial gentleness towards the end.
She turned, looking away from him as she slithered closer to both Temujin and his unfortunate… Room… Guest? On crutches? What the fuck was going on with her face and neck? Hm. Not good! Maybe some sort of rejection? Wait. Focus! Focus.

Ink pulsed once more, centering around her head as some internal changes rippled forth. Focusing on multiple things was easier, and her astral eyes finally turned away from where her mundane eyes were looking. Of a sort. She could see all of them, in the room, and their imprints on the [MANASCAPE].
The woman was afraid, of a sort. More like… coldly determined and probably definitely delirious!
Interesting!

“So I dunno how much of that you heard, but I’m gonna assume mostly all of it. Please don’t repeat it to anyone? … Also, I showed you mine! Whatcha want from it?” Jemma said, clinical at first, and then rapidly devolving into ‘hyper murder puppy-octopus-monster’. Her face split into a small smile, revealing teeth like needles, from which dripped an amber tinted saliva. Venom, not meant to kill— Not unless she had to— but to incapacitate and immobilize. Some neurological paralytics, some physiological muscle relaxants… Yeah, yeah that’d be fine! Ignore the feeling of Koba and Graham staring at her like a crazy woman! It’s fiiiiine it’s fine it’s fine!
Push the panic-FURY-WolfBorneProtectionPolicy-confusion down. Focus!

Focus. Two things were happening, and both were important, huh? Shit.
Focus.
Oh, and clarify.

“Also! I didn’t want to eat anyone, ever, thank you VERY much! I ain’t gonna eat you, and I ain’t gonna eat anyone EVER AGAIN! Never happening!” She chirped, shouting at some points. Anger rolled along the edges of her skin, before fading into a bout of intense self-consciousness.
The emotional whiplash left Jemma’s mind spinning for a moment. She was still struggling with this new… extreme bouts of emotional dysregulation. Shit.
She had to get a better handle on that.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Shield Town, Black Iron Workshop, Main Lobby

---

“What happened?”
Oh. Well! That was a question and a half million, wasn’t it! Jemma tried not to feel the panic bubbling under her skin, tried not to display the horrid apathy coming to an abrupt halt. Like all of her was shocked and parsing the question.
‘What happened?’ He asked, simple as the sunrise. Simple as a heart beat!
Jemma sighed and shook her head, dredging up memories that felt both far away, and nearby. Foggy and defined.

“Right. What happened? Okay… okay. Uh… Hm. Well I was snatched up outta the graves by this lady who could set concrete on fire. I … Remember having all the oxygen in the area snuffed up and out by fire, which, y’know, makes breathing super hard. I think at some point I woke up,” She trailed off, thinking for a moment.
“Nah, yeah. I woke up at some point, bare as I was born, with this… I dunno, stone coffin? Around me. It was covered in like, Arabic mixed with Chinese mixed with fuckin Gaelic? I dunno. I couldn’t read it.”

Which, that was a lie. She could. Jemma understood every single letter of script written on that coffin. Understood her entire life- past, present, and bits of future- had been scored into the stone around her. The recollection still filled her with fear.

“There was this… I dunno, ink? I thought it was ferrofluid at first, cuz it kept spiking up at weird points— Anyways! This liquid was in the thing with me. It would light up every now at then, at little points, which is how I could see. At some point, I think I heard a door open?”
She took a breath. And continued, words becoming rushed as Jemma forced the rest of the story to fly from her lips.
“Then my skin was falling off, and so was my muscles, and my bones were melting and I couldn’t ‘die’ per se. I know I blacked out at some point but that may have just been because, and no don’t interrupt me!” She snapped at Graham, who’s mouth slammed shut. She continued, “That may have been because my brain finally melted away too. Did y’all know souls are apparently a real thing? Because I do. I do now. I could feel a part of me that is more and less get fuckin vaporized. Then I was… Awake but not. Again. There was this tank, right? Like a fish tank. But huge, holding me, but I wasn’t me. I was in this… Half awake state, trying to pull my thoughts back together.
Time got real weird for me. Still is! And it never used to be. I can’t focus! As easily, and I can… See… stuff, now.”

She sucked in a breath, pausing for a moment… Before sighing. She told them about three years spent in a state of fugue and utter terror. About experiments run by people in lab coats, about being observed by a thing that both was and wasn’t a person with ball-bearing-joints. Like a living doll.
Told them about the way her new eyes worked. The way her ‘body’ she cackled at the way Koba flinched at her calling it a ‘meat suit’ would just change at random. Ink boiling over her skin and changing everything about her.
Jemma told them about the woman of [SUN AND FIRE]. How she would be the one called when Jemma broke free at any point. Or misbehaved, depending on how bad she was being.
Told them the tale of her breaking free, months ago, starved for fuel. Told them about how she had eaten people and things. How some glowed brighter than others. How some tasted better than others.
How some had been powered, somewhat. How some had been Espers.

She recounted meeting Alex again, for the first time in years. Explained that her mind was so scattered and tattered that he only appeared as a meal so filling. Explained how she remembered being shook around and wrestled with. Explained how she had been hunting a woman who sounded eerily familiar to Yue.

Ink began swirling over her skin as she talked, turning her fingers into boney claws over twice as long. Her face shifted, her mouth and nose disappearing as eight additional eyes filled her face instead. Arranged in a ring around one larger ocular organ. All filled with varying amounts of pupils.
Her voice continued as ink whirled over her, returning her appearance to normal as she resolutely avoided Alex’ gaze.
“… and I met a blonde Templar yesterday, along with Rat. We were traveling buddies for a bit. I guess I liked her easily enough? I didn’t immediately wanna eat her. Or Rat. So. Yay? Anyways. I stumbled on your old house, and it was enough to freak me out. Had a whole mental breakdown as… Everything just… Slammed back into focus. I think people sent me to The Den? I woke up there, at least. Oh! And I don’t really ‘sleep’ anymore. So. That’s cool!” She chirped, finally ending her long ramble.
And feeling the pulse of panic racing through the entirety of her being.
What would they say now? Fuck. This was awful. Who decided communication needed to be a thing. Why couldn’t humans just never talk, that’d be great!
Oh. Koba just looked at her, guess she was talking out loud, hah!
FUCK.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Shield Town, Black Iron Workshop

---

Alex was talking to her, and though his words were heard, they weren’t really fully grasped. The hug was a pleasant enough thing, sending skittering spirals of ‘oh this is nice’ throughout her body.
The apathetic screaming that was trying to drown everything else? Significantly less pleasant.

All the same, Jemma smiled up at him. “Okay first? Rude! I’ve always been this tall! You’re the one who turned into the eight foot colossus from ‘Not Greek but not NOT Greek!’ Thank you very much.” She barked without heat, cackling soon after.
The levity vanished for a moment, as her face became a startlingly blank mask.
“I promise I’m not goin’ anywhere. The cult didn’t do this to me. … But uh, can we PLEASE go inside so I can change? Y’know what, I’ll just, y’know, go. Be right back!”

She shuffled in place, forcing herself to look only at Alex to avoid making eye contact with anyone else. Cold intelligence noted that his emotional state would make for all but the best meals, if you ate mana and emotions.
Anyways! Ignoring that.
Jemma coughed before only slightly awkwardly sliding around Alex to dart inside the workshop proper. Her admittedly shaky memory didn’t fail her, thankfully, as she sprinted for the employee bathrooms.

The moment the door was closed behind her, ink roared over her body. Wings, chitin, bone and claw all disappeared under the tide of pitch. She heaved a sigh before shaking her head. For a moment, her gaze caught the mirror… And then swiftly looked away.
Her hair had points of blue-green luminescence throughout, and her face was dotted with freckles.
She didn’t have freckles, not normally. And she couldn’t normally feel the magnetic field of the world around her like a tickle on her skin.
Fuck. Focus.
Jemma dressed rapidly, flinching only slightly at the way the uniform anchored her. Another breath was taken, a sigh left her lips, and determination steeled in her spine.

It only took her a minute or two before she was poking her head back out the doors of the building. Her eyes locked on Alex again as she waved. “Right… Hey! If you’re not one of the two enormous men I for sure know and worked with, or any of the people who worked here, can I ask for y’all to…” she trailed off, before snapping her fingers. “Right! Can I ask for some privacy with them? I promise I’ll probably explain my shit later! To everyone, maybe. Just, not right now! Thanks!”
And with that, Jemma zipped back inside. Anxiety and apathy both warred under her skin. A small instinct in the back of her mind cried for her to run. But, no.

This was happening now, she guessed.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Shield Town, Black Iron Workshop

---

“Yeah, why d’you have wings, Jemma?”
Oh. Hwoof. The words were like sledgehammers against rotted foundations. The question was a .45 to the back of the skull. It was all so very… Not… Good.
Why did she have wings? Well it was simple! She was abducted out of The Graves by a woman who turned literal concrete to ash and slag! And then she was kept in a dark room, locked inside a stone coffin with these weird symbols and shit scribbled all over it, glowing in the dark.
Her name, her entire life story, pulled from her lips with hooks and barbs… Stuff she didn’t even know she remembered. Rendered against stone, alongside another’s. Forced into-

Anyways! That wasn’t important. They wouldn’t get it, not really. Nothing wrong with that either! How would you even explain that you were probably permanently fused with a literal alien intelligence that processed emotions by eating them? And the people feeling the emotions? Oh and also there’s a whole secret portion to the world that would literally blow their minds if they weren’t ready? Oh and also, also, also, she was fueled by the consumption of things made out of meat and got more from things that had higher levels of ‘intelligence’, and could change her shape at will! And her memory was fading and restructuring all the time! And—
Focus! Whoo! Okay.
“Haha wow that is… WAY more complicated of a question to answer than I wanna admit! Uhhhh…” Jemma trailed off, face scrunching up as she struggled to think of how best to explain.

“Uhhh, okay so, maybe, I can explain that when I’m not, y’know, in this thoroughfare naked as the day I was a baby born? That sound alright, y’all?” She questioned, moving as she spoke. Her eyes were downcast, focused on the uniform (familiarity!!!) in her hands. So she was fully unprepared for meeting Alex’s eyes.

Oh shit. Fuck. Uh-oh. Dammit! No! Why?!
Panic pulsed in her veins, and she stumbled for a half step. Her [ASTRAL EYES] could see him. Burning like a bonfire in the middle of the arctic. Like a cerulean star in the dead of night. He looked clean, and the fact that he was glowing certainly added to the abrupt [KNOWING] that he was running better than before. He was… Bright! Shining with emotion! And so very like the beacon of silver and crimson from before. Tantalizing.
No [HAZE] clogging his veins. No [HAZE] blocking out the fact that he would fuel her for forever. A perfect nuclear engine. Just consume it. It would be fine. It’ll be fine.

Nope! Nope nope nope. Time to go! Inside? Wait, was he running at her? Oh god he was moving. Why did she make eye contact? Get back!
Ink roiled in her chest, hidden by her wings, and for a moment she was terrified of herself. Apathy and indifference exploded through her mind for a moment, as a pathway was drawn through her thoughts.

Cleave the two standing before the flesh-body. Cause panic, raise emotions. Betrayal was a good enough quick burn fuel. Venom to the eyes, mouths, and noses of those closer, spines coated in it, launched from the spinal cord and shoulders. Drop twenty in less than an hour. The [BEACON] could be suffocated, it already knew the [BEACON]’s skin couldn’t be—
No. No. Focus.
Apathy rushed away, the path dashed as Jemma yelped aloud. Her eyes flicked from face to face to face as she desperately tried to plot an escape route. Her face kept its smile though, betraying none of her panic.
“Yeah! Good cool ‘kay, jus’ gonna go inside and get changed, yeah? Okay! Coolbye!” she chirped, trying desperately to subtly get others to move out of her way please!