Re: WormXWere Part 2 | Rated M

[Weredrakka]

((Sha-Ulud: *was not prepared for the glomp* *is pinned*
Me: You know, we always have Lambda and Svenja, too.))

Allowing herself to be guided out of the tunnels, and into the open air, Svenja seemed to instantly relax upon contact with the fresh breeze that was blowing. Even though she was still weakened from the intense blood loss she had suffered, the were-bear seemed much healthier than she ever had in the laboratory, her face set in a contented smile.

Looking around for a moment, she spotted the now-familiar tan bulk of Sha-Ulud, with the red-brown coils of the Wyrm resting nearby. Deciding that the unlikely pair could be dangerous if disturbed, Svenja leaned up against a tree, watching the sunset.

((Did you know there is such a thing as Nailbunny cosplay?)(Also, do you want to introduce the leupakXWyrm thing?))

[Wormgod]

((Wyrm: *cuddles*
Me: I thought about that, but I'm not entirely sure how to do it. I don't know how to make his reactions and stuff sufficiently alien...Maybe I'm overthinking this...))
((0.o How...? A mutated bunny-mascot costume? Scary.)((Hmm...Slowly, for the dummy Wyrm! (Who is secretly a lady! But I didn't wanna call her a lady until they find out she is. Cause being a reptile, you don't know the sex until they express an interest in creating a baby, or you decide to "check it" yourself...)))

The walk out seemed a lot shorter than the walk inside. Perhaps it was because he was tired. Lambda was feeling the adrenaline crash--something Vorts and humans shared. It was hitting him especially hard, and he had to lean on the tree next to Svenja, about ready to fall asleep standing up. Lambda really didn't want to. He had superior eyesight, and was the least injured of the group. Someone had to watch for those evil humans, and for Sha-Ulud and the Wyrm to wake up safely. They might wake without remembering the events of the day and lash out. He had too...His eyes were drooping. He looked around rapidly to wake up, but that seemed to work against them. They were already spinning around on their own, ready to fall into REM sleep...

"Svenja...Stay awake. If the Lambda falls asleep, the Svenja should take watch. The Svenja is well-rested. Wake the Lambda if something occurs, even if the Svenja is not sure danger is imminent. Please do this." He asked of her.

His species did not have much control over their sleep cycles. Sleep came when the sun went down, or when they were unusually tired. It came fast, quick, and hard. Luckily, the trade-off was an unusually short sleep cycle. Their planet was rather violent, so they needed to be as sharp as possible, at all times. So they "power-sleep" for three or four hours at a time, then stayed awake for their planets cycle--or 36 hours. But, with all the drugs and the recent events, he didn't have time to sleep properly. *


Meanwhile, another member of this group was getting some sleep. The Wyrm had taken a snooze while watching Sha-Ulud. While doing so, it grew colder, and instinctively shifted to the nearest source of heat--which happened to be him. It first pressed itself to Sha-Ulud's less damaged middle. But, that wasn't warm enough. So it slowly squeezed its upper half under his arm, then tried to fit its tail under his.** It looked like an awkward position, but the Wyrm is the most flexible dragon of all, thanks to its snake-like body.

((*Total BSing here. Just made it up on the spot. XD
**He has a tail, right? If not, that tail become a leg.))

[Weredrakka]

((Sha-Ulud: *doesn't really know what to do with cuddles*
Me: Haven't you done Irken romance-stuff? Wouldn't it be a slightly more serious version of that, or am I oversimplifying things?))
((Yeah, and tons of makeup. It was freaky as hell, especially when someone cosplaying an epic Nny was standing right next to the Nailbunny.))((Alright! (Oh, this is going to be amusing... XD)))

Leaning against a mostly-dead tree, Svenja looked to the Vortigaunt who stood beside her, and her brow furrowed in concern as she saw his odd eyes starting to wander in the same way an exhausted human's eyes would. Turning away from the Wyrm and Sha-Ulud, she put a hand on his shoulder, trying to see if he was alright, or if he had been somehow affected by the leupak venom that had been sprayed all over the underground chamber.

"I will, Lambda," she said after a moment. "Are you alright, though? Did any of the venom get you, or are you just tired?" Svenja wasn't a very delicate person in her questions, and preferred to get to the point of her worry as quickly as she could, so that she could do what needed to be done.

Sha-Ulud, much like Lambda, required very little in the way of actual sleep, as some part of his half-sandworm metabolism generated quite a bit of energy. However, after the events of the day, and the unexpected near-death experience down in the cavern, the leupak's energy reserves had been depleted. So, after watching the sunset for a few precious moments, the dreambeast had attempted to get something resembling sleep, even if he couldn't bury himself in the soothingly warm sands he was used to.

At first, Sha-Ulud assumed that the minions of the Worm Queen were moving him again, possibly to feed him to something for nearly killing their leader. As the nudging sensation continued, however, prying his forelimbs off of the ground, the leupak was forced to regain consciousness out of the sheer bizarre nature of the situation. Seeing what the Wyrm was doing, Sha-Ulud's jaw dropped in surprise, his tongueclaw nearly spilling out from between his teeth; he was aware that he generated vast amounts of heat, but had never considered the possibility that something would be so fearless as to try and harness that heat. Completely unsure as to what to do, the leupak looked thoroughly confused, his face twisted into an almost-human expression of what might be deemed embarrassment.

((It's all good. XD
Yeah, Sha-Ulud's got a tail. I've got to upload that picture of him...))

[Wormgod]

((Wyrm: *settles with licking his face with venomous spit, so it doesn't hurt*
Me: I actually make them possessive and violent...Vorts aren't very possessive or violent. They're like alien Buddhists. I think.))
((Again: 0.o))
((YEP!))

Lambda was done fighting his eyeballs. It would never work; all Vort children try it, and it always works against them. He closed his eyes and slowly sat on the ground, dragging his back against the tree. His back was ridged with hard lumps like cartilage, so it didn't hurt. He splayed his legs out in front of him, with his head down on his lap, and his hands supporting it. This was the natural sitting position for his species. On their planet, they had rough, bed-like structures made by their slave-masters. They were all wooden, with a chair-like back and sitting platform, and a table-like top for their head to rest on. Vorts would slide into it like a booth at a restaurant and sleep. Lambda wished he had one now. His neck will hurt in the morning.

"The Lambda is tired. The Lambda cannot fight sleep. The Lambda will be asleep for a few hours. He will wake before sunrise." He mumbled, barely above a whisper. Sleep will come soon...Hopefully with no dreams.

[Weredrakka]

((Sha-Ulud: *wonders what would happen if he licked Wyrm* *knows that there are highly-addictive compounds in his venom*
Me: Very true; that's a distinctly Irken characteristic, anyway. Makes sense... We could just play it by ear, you know.))
((Yeah, it was pretty freaky stuff. Good cosplay, though.))

Taking half a pace back as Lambda slumped down against a tree, Svenja nodded seriously at the Vortigaunt's words, taking her responsibility for keeping the highly-unlikely group safe from those hunting them.

"See you in a few hours, then," she said after a moment, unsure whether or not Lambda had fallen into dreamland. Deciding that he probably had, Svenja leaned against her tree of choice, preparing for the long wait until dawn.

((Shall we timeskip, or do you have something more?))

[Wormgod]

((Wyrm: *is immune to all toxins, besides radiation*))
((Yeah, lemme just play by ear.))
((As long as they did a good job...))

((Time-skip please? Just like, with Sha-Ulud falling asleep and/or waking up?))

[Weredrakka]

((Sha-Ulud: *wonders if mirajin contamination is like radiation* *doesn't really know about radiation*
Sounds good to me.))
((Oh, an exceptional job! Both of them made their costumes have that freaky appearance that makes the wearer look like they've been freshly drawn into the landscape, and it was in perfect style!))
((Got it!))

Unlike most creatures, the transition between dream and reality for leupaks was less of an awakening or falling, and more like a reinstating into one realm, or the other. This meant, luckily, that most leupaks didn't have the state of discombobulation upon wakening, like most creatures; such were the perks of being a creature of the dream. Sha-Ulud, as a shard-born leupak, was one of those leupaks who had the perk to their existence, and was quite grateful for it.

Coming to on the now-cold plant life beneath him, the leupak began to take stock of where he was, wondering if this strange world had all been a dream. Feeling something pressed up against his body, however, was enough to force him into a realization that this was, in fact, a different world all together. Turning slightly to come suddenly face-to-face with the Wyrm, Sha-Ulud was provided with further evidence that this was not the world he was used to, as very little would snuggle a leupak.

Desperately needing to stretch, and to scratch a very persistent itch, Sha-Ulud attempted to dislodge himself from the Wyrm's coils without disturbing the sleeping dragon-creature. Slowly, the leupak was also growing aware of a more sinister need of his; the need for fresh blood. All leupaks had this hunger, some more or less than others, and Sha-Ulud needed some as soon as he could find some.

[Wormgod]

((Probably not, but nickel would be a bad thing, since it apparently absorbs radiation.))

The Wyrm was still asleep, as the cold ground under it sucked heat out of its body. It was a reptile of sorts, and therefore cold-blooded. It would stay asleep until the sun came. So, it easily fell off of Sha-Ulud and instinctively coiled up on itself.

Nearby, another creature was waking. It had been nearly five hours, a long time for a Vortigaunt to sleep, but not unknown after such an encounter. Lambda woke, feeling perfectly alert. He slowly stood, stretching his aching muscles. He looked over at Svenja, "Did anything happen while the Lambda was asleep?"

[Weredrakka]

((I feel like I missed something. Why will nickel be bad...?))

Stretching in the gradually-warming dawn air, Sha-Ulud tried to ignore his body's demand for humanoid blood, especially as Svenja started to move around, drawing his attention to her. Instead, the leupak began to go about trying to find dry, sandy soil to lie in, to distract himself, and so that he could think about where he was going to find blood, and food.

Hearing Lambda awakening near her far before he stood, or he spoke, Svenja smiled in her wry, lopsided way. "The only thing that happened was Sha-Ulud accidentally spitting some worm-like thing from his mouth. I figured out it was his tongue when I poked it, and he retracted it," she chuckled, amused by the memory. "Other than that, no, nothing's happened. We should get moving, though; after our escape, and Sha-Ulud's arrival, they're not going to let us escape."

[Wormgod]

((Because it absorbs radiation. It can get radioactive pretty easily.))

Lambda was busy stretching his arms above his head in such a way that a yoga instructor would be very impressed. Popping sounds came from his joints. He listened to Svenja and watched the leupak slowly wake as well.

"We should start moving. The humans will come for us in the morning. We can move under the cover of darkness." Lambda said. He didn't like the idea of being on the run, but until they found a safe place, they had to keep moving. And on this planet, safety seemed rare...Oh, he wished he had his spaceship. Then they could fly to some other planet and forget about all this.

[Weredrakka]

((Ah. Mirajin contamination is actually similar (albeit fictional) to radiation, complete with sickness, mutation, death, and other fun side effects, depending on the severity of exposure.))

"Good idea," Svenja replied, prying herself off of the tree she had been leaning on for the past few hours. Sniffing the air, she paused for a moment before continuing, her voice serious. "We should go now. I've got the strangest feeling that staying around here for much longer won't end well."

Out of the pre-dawn gloom came a familiar voice. "It's a little late for that," the voice said gruffly, the sound accompanied by the smell of cinnamon, and fresh blood. "I needed food, and I went looking for some, and I found humans like the ones from yesterday. I managed to take down a few, but the rest scattered too quickly for me to catch. We need to either fight here, or run now." Urgency was in Sha-Ulud's voice, his eyes seeming like black pits in the half-light.

[Wormgod]

((Is that the blue-eye shit with the dudes living on the Dune planet trying to get water, and then a tsunami comes and the rocker Sting tries to kill the main-character-dude? I watched the Dune movie a looooong time ago, and all I really remember are blue eyes, hot Sting, the blob-man controlling a ship, and the tsunami with the native blue-eye dudes.))

Lambda watched with interest as the sky started to turn a dark shade of blue and fog filled the air. It was a weird sight. His planet had a very light atmosphere. Where it was heavy, the sky was green. Where it wasn't, space showed through.

Sha-Ulud's sudden appearance startled him. Lambda wondered why he didn't hear such a large creature approach...Captivity made his skills rusty. But the leupak's words snapped him out of it. He could see blood on his maw. This was not good...

"Lambda says run. They may be armed, and we are wounded. Does Svenja or Sha-Ulud have reasons we should fight?" He asked. It felt odd to vocalize this internal conversation. He was used to having dozens other Vorts chattering away in his mind, all talking about everything, sharing as much information as possible. Being disconnected from a collective mind was like losing a limb. Maybe if they found a ship, he could pilot it to Xen, his dimension...But then he might wind up back on the other Earth, with the Gordon Freeman...That Earth was much worse than this one.

[Weredrakka]

((Oh hell yeah, it is! Except, waaaaay more awesome than it was in those movies (I reference all Dune movies made, not just the one you saw). The eyes of the book Fremen seem to have a reverse glow to them, and you can't tell the difference between iris and white in the eye; it's just pure indigo.
Sting in a vinyl Speedo freaked me out as a little kid. XD
You really need to read Dune, dude. It's a great book.))

Blinking slowly in the gloom, Sha-Ulud's eyes seemed to be pools of blood in their own right, adding to the macabre nature of the blood coating his muzzle, chest, and front paws. "They were armed, the ones that I killed. No doubt the ones who return to avenge them will be armed, too," the leupak added, his tone serious, even as his odd sandworm-like tongue snaked out of his jaws to lick the remaining bits of blood away. "I say we run. There is nothing we can gain from fighting, unless either of you eat human."

Looking vaguely sickened as Sha-Ulud finished speaking, Svenja felt both appalled that the leupak would ask such a question, but also that her own answer would be sometimes, when she was not so human as she was now. "What else can we really do, Lambda? You and I have fought them, and we barely escaped," she replied, although she seemed reluctant to admit defeat.

[Wormgod]

((Speedos are creepy in general. I looked up "dune Sting" on google, and the first twenty images are of that speedo! XD
I don't think I will...Honestly, I just...don't like the plot. There's nothing happy about it at all. It's like watching Law And Order: Special Victims Unit. All it does is make you go to bed crying.))

Lambda nodded. Their words make sense; even Sha-Ulud's comment about eating humans. Lots of native Xen creatures took a liking to the hairless mammal meat. Even some Vorts tried it, and shared the taste with the others. It was actually pretty good, but Lambda did not believe in eating other sentient creatures. There were plenty of things to eat on Earth that taste just as good.

"Yes. Lets go." He said, and started walking in the opposite direction from where Sha-Ulud came, where he assumed that the humans were.

[Weredrakka]

((Depending on the person wearing them, they can be okay. Vinyl Speedos, though, are just creepy. XD))

Snorting as he saw Lambda setting off at such a slow pace, Sha-Ulud's ears suddenly twitched as he picked up a semi-familiar sound; the sound of something mechanical moving through the air, and the barking of dogs. "We need to move. Now," he growled, before placing his block-like head against Svenja's back, and starting to lope. Moving at the speed of a jogging human, he hoped that the odd trio had enough of a lead on the pursuing humans to not have to move much faster. With the injuries all three had, a full sprint would require a miracle.

[Wormgod]

((Look, I'm never going to like Dune. I know you love it and all, but it's just not my "thing". So please, stop trying to convince me to read it. I'm never going to. I might have, but since you're constantly pushing it on me, it activated my anxiety and there is no way I will ever read it now. I'm sorry I put this so bluntly, but it's been eating at me for a while now.))

[Weredrakka]

((Good to know. Thank you. I'll kill off Sha-Ulud presently, to remove further anxiety, and lessen my chances of mentioning it.))

[Wormgod]

((No, you don't have to kill off one of your characters. I just don't want you--you personally, in OOC, not your characters--to keep telling me about how great Dune is.))

[Weredrakka]

((I will be more tempted to talk about Dune with Sha-Ulud around. As you do not like Dune, I will remove the temptation. I'll find another character for myself to use.))

[Wormgod]

((But you don't have to do that! That's like saying, "Wormy gets anxious around flowers because they attract bees, so I should burn down my flower garden and replace it with flowerless cacti and evergreen bushes, even though my own flowers and bee neighbors do not affect her."))

[Wormgod]

((Come on, see my side.You really like Sha-Ulud. Don't ruin your happiness because of me.))

[Weredrakka]

((I see your side. What I'm saying is that I will forget if I keep him around, and I don't want to hurt you. It's not ruining my happiness (school people do that), and it's not a hardship. I just don't want to hurt those I call friends, and nothing good has ever come of my bringing up Dune around my friends.
If you like the idea of leupaks, I have another leupak. If you would like something different, I've got other characters.))

[Wormgod]

((No. You don't see my side. You think you do. But all you see is that you've hurt someone and everything related to it has to go away. That's not the case!

I don't want another character. I want you to realize that this is simple. I don't care about things related to Dune, just Dune itself. Sandworms in every media are awesome, and deserts in every media are awesome. The only thing that does bug me is the book of Dune. Not the planet of Dune. ))

[Weredrakka]

((Fine. Sha-Ulud stays. I won't mention the book again. We good?))

[Wormgod]

((Yeah, we're good.))

"We need to move. Now." Sha-Ulud growled.

Lambda took off as fast as he could without hurting himself. Through his left eye he saw Sha-Ulud push Svenja onto his head and start running. With such a huge creature, they would leave a noticable trail through the forest. Their only hope was to outrun the humans...

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