#Rhyssa

[shadsasaur]

touch

[humanbyweight]

Ichneumonid wasp (cf. Rhyssa sp.)

[cloudbattrolls]

To Mould Me Man

Various Parties | Hanhai Cavern

The butterflies flew away.

All the ones remaining in the cavern rose in twos and threes, then in larger clouds, streaming out of the tunnels and rooms and back up above the earth. 

The surviving jades blinked and marveled to see them go, wondering if they were free now.

Then the wasps rose in a furious, writhing mass, chasing them, killing some - but not enough. Dozens still escaped their sister’s stingers to make it past the cavern entrance as Rhyssa shrieked from multiple mouths. 

The noise of her rage made the trolls cover their ears, and even Ozryel slowed in her flight to listen.

Tuuya used the opportunity to shoot her in a wing, but she merely regenerated. Just as she had the entire damn time; nothing they did stuck, she healed too quickly. 

They had no idea why Rhyssa was screaming. They only knew this fight was hopeless; the mother of swarms was toying with them, and Uunive hadn’t managed to get close to the matriorb’s tank because Ozryel would swoop down to beat her back. 

She was fast, too fast even for Tuuya to get many hits on. 

They were lucky she didn’t seem inclined to use a gun. Perhaps she hadn’t bothered to learn how.

Tuuya gritted their teeth. How were they supposed to break this stalemate?

–

Rhyssa fumed in a small respiteblock, the few remaining clouds of her flying so fast in circles they generated heat. Her troll form’s fists clenched, and she bared her needle teeth.

How fuckin’ dare Inshii abandon her! Abandon Mama! When she got out of here, she was gonna give them such a -

Oh damn it.

Rhyssa found herself torn apart by multiple superheated blades at once, and the melted wasps could no longer make others as they struggled and died. 

She regrouped, panting, snarling as she stared at her attackers. The goddamn DeVilles, of course. They all looked at her with eyes as cold as ice.

“You think you can - can fuckin’ kill me?” She said, amused despite her rage, sending some of herself to sting them, tear at their skin. “Even if you put me down here, I’ll still -”

She was struck again, despite her counterattack. Again, and again, and again. So many wasps fell, they covered the floor of her cavern room in a mass of twisted, bubbling white. 

She screamed again, and the DeVilles winced as more wasps rose, but there were hardly any left now. Not after her construct Tuuya had destroyed, not after Rivali, not after the ones the Hanhai jades had managed to swat.

She had brought every part of her to this attack, taking even the ones she usually left to guard her town. 

Desperate to see her family whole again, Rhyssa had held nothing back. 

Now, under a trifold onslaught of freshly fed rainbowdrinkers, she was little more than a few dozen insects struggling to cling to bones, her skimpy clothes so shredded they barely stayed together.

Nothing to worry about. She’d just come back, she always did. She’d make these heathens regret -

Hirudo rammed her with her trident, cracking her bones apart, squishing most of the insects into paste.

Only a few left now, enough to barely make her voice work as she buzzed feebly, spawning a few last wasps, but they too were dispatched by Neffie and Joey’s blades.

“I’m not - you can’t -”

“I can.” Said Hirudo, and gored her through her lungs, destroying the final piece of the ancient swarm.

Her eggshell had been burned by Platar. She could not respawn.

After ten thousand years, Rhyssa the wasp was dead.

–

Ozryel paused again, and Tuuya riddled her with holes again.

Though she healed, she stayed still, her translucent wings barely beating enough to keep her aloft.

She landed, her bare feet touching down gently on the floor as her pale teal dress fluttered. 

Tuuya gave up shooting her for the moment. They shouldn’t waste any more charge. 

“Rhyssa…my daughter is gone.”

The old hag actually sounded mournful.

“Good.” Said Tuuya and Uunive together. 

“This was all her fault to begin with.” Snarled the worm swarm. “She had it coming.”

Ozryel turned her full attention to Tuuya for the first time.  Seizing the opportunity, Uunive began to slowly, stealthily make her way toward the matriorb again. 

“You blame Rhyssa for this?”

The fallen angel sounded amused, intrigued even. 

“Oh, Tuuya…what lies you tell yourself.”

“What can I say? I inherited deception from you.” They shot back, wanting to keep her eyes on them by any means possible.

Then Ozryel was shot directly in the heart - if she had a heart - by what looked like a superheated bullet, one the swarm hadn’t even heard coming.

She shrieked like her daughter had, Tuuya’s ears pressing down from a noise far louder and closer.

The mother of swarms launched herself back into the air, but more slowly, more unsteadily as her body had to push the steaming, bloodied bullet out.

Tuuya turned around, and smiled in relief and worry alike to see Rivali shooting at Ozryel again, narrowly dodging as she swooped down with her claws out and fangs bared.

With a quick reach into their sylladex, they swapped their laser pistols for their revolver, which Uunive had also made lucky. They had never preferred bullets, but now was the time. 

Ozryel cursed them both as they riddled her, swearing vengeance on Kotenkha’s line - wasn’t that Rivali’s ancestor? - and becoming so incensed her flying was more erratic. She was easier to hit now, but she also seemed to want to tear the komondor troll apart, and they were still only slowing her down for seconds at a time. 

Skilled as the jade was, they did not have the strength and speed of an undead, and Ozryel was starting to break through their armor and injure them, a slash here, a bite there.

Tuuya saw, out of the corner of their eye, that Uunive had gotten ahold of the matriorb. She nodded at them.

Tuuya gritted their teeth as they had the luck to land a perfect cluster of shots on Ozryel, enough to slow her nearly to a standstill. 

This was going to hurt.

Bone cracked and reformed, skin grew and stretched, their clothes tearing and Tuuya made their very bones lighter in the seconds it took them to drop their gun and begin transforming, dashing up the giant corpse of the mother grub.

Then they launched themself, arms now batlike wings, off of the carcass to tackle Ozryel in midair before she could strike at the wounded jadeblood one last time.

They tangled her up, bearing the screeching creature down to crash on the rock. 

Tuuya wrapped her in their tendrils, more and more even as she tore through them, as she clawed chunks out of the worm swarm, rending their skeleton, crushing their lungs.

Still they constricted her, still they held as their worms were scattered across the floor, chewed apart, shredded to pieces.

They heard a noise. The tell-tale hum of a technological energy barrier being thrown up.

As Ozryel finally ripped them into enough agonized pieces that they stopped moving, Tuuya still looked over with their nearly severed head and just caught the retreating figures of Uunive and Rivali escaping with the orb.

Their exit was now sealed behind a shimmering blue wall covering the only tunnel out. 

Not even Ozryel could break through that. 

She howled in rage and hate, and looked at her mangled descendant with glowing green eyes.

“I was going to make new children! Loyal ones! An army!” She snarled. “You took that from me! You - you filth! Pathetic imitation! Half-troll whelp!”

“You’re a terrible mother.” Murmured Tuuya with weary amusement, too tired to try to knit their broken body back together. “I’d say I did those poor would-be swarms a favor.”

“As if you are better!” Said Ozryel harshly, mockingly. “You blame Rhyssa for your troubles! But you did not listen to her when she first asked you to come, so of course she had to force you.”

Her green eyes gleamed as she spoke again, voice now low, a sort of sadistic purr. 

“I’ve seen all your memories, Tuuya. I lived in your body.”

The worm swarm swallowed.

“I know you abandoned Uunive for space, thinking you would die killing Firebird. You lied to her throughout her youth. 

You shelter Ailene, knowing as she grows more healthy, you’ll be more tempted to eat her.”

Tuuya’s ears drooped. It wasn’t anything they hadn’t thought before, but hearing Ozryel say it…

“Do you really think Florah will continue to accept you if he learns more of your deeds? That Melina will still humor you once she gets bored of your fussing? That Crimew will want you if she is ever able to return home? 

You are a hypocrite denying your true nature, pathetic and mealy-mouthed, trying to play both sides while embodying the worst qualities of each. You are nothing but a stain upon troll and swarm.”

Tuuya lay there, silent, having no retort. What defense was there to give?

Ozryel got up, her dress now tattered, and walked a few feet away, crossing her arms as she stared down at the second worm swarm. 

“I meant to save every race this empire has ever destroyed, and I failed. I am the product of trollkind’s own violence, and you wonder why I rage at what they took from me? At least I do not pretend to be anything else, unlike you. Lying to yourself so well that you believe you belong among trolls. Lleios had the same sickness.”

Tuuya shook with a quiet sob. 

“I don’t…I’m not trying to…”

“Liar.” Said Ozryel softly. “Still lying, even at the end. You have always loved to deceive and destroy…you cannot change your mind now, after gorging yourself on blood and pain for over a hundred sweeps.”

“No more.” Whispered the worm swarm. “I want to die. We both have to die.”

“I am death.” Said Ozryel scornfully. “You are a shadow of my weakest child. You cannot kill me.”

“No.” Said Tuuya, closing their eyes, mustering all their focus. “I can only offer you another way.”

Hundreds - thousands - of worms left their skin through their mouth and hands, their face, leaving it slack around their skeleton. They curled around Ozryel’s feet. She could have struck them down, but she was too amused. What were they doing now? 

It reminded her of how Lleios had played, when they were young.

They rippled and flowed over her skin, not biting her, merely tickling her with their wiggling. 

Then they curled inside her ears, her mouth, her mind, but they were so gentle. They didn’t linger…they dissolved.

They returned to her. Piece by piece, she felt her hope restored, given up so long ago when she’d thought there was no use for it anymore, trapped far underground in the dark, in a body she’d never wanted.  

She hissed and thrashed, trying to fight it. She still had no use for it! She - she - 

Ozryel glowed, not with the white pallor of an undead, but with promise; with the realization she should have left long ago, impressed on her mind as she became whole again. 

It was not possession, as she had once done to them. Tuuya willingly let themself melt away, their very identity slowly flickering into nothingness.

Her wings cast beams across the cavern, illuminating the entire place as she turned to pure light, shedding all her mortal concerns.

Corrupt no more, she ascended Alternia, an angel risen at last from her prison of flesh. 

Death was needed elsewhere.

When the light faded, Tuuya’s remains lay still and abandoned on the stony floor. 

–

The worm swarm floated far above their planet, adrift among its ships and satellites, the endless bustle of troll industry and empire.

Tuuya felt only a mild curiosity that they were not yet dead. Why were they witnessing this?

A last dying dream? Some sort of hallucination, like the one they’d had with Cestoa?

They saw…they saw Crimew, somehow.

Crash-landing on the planet, just like she’d said she had. 

Tuuya dove down closer, worried about her. She looked hurt and alone.

Tuuya saw Melina, alone, having just escaped her cult, unsure what to do or how to be a part of society. 

Florah, held captive by Allmah, suffering, driven mad by hunger.

Ailene, threatened by the drone. 

Devrin, cheerful, but a bit lonely on his turtle. 

Lulith, not taking any time to watch cartoons, bereft of the JoJo-themed clothing they’d made. 

Vallis, struggling to stay himself.

Ashe, still not knowing any other rainbowdrinkers.

The Diplomat, causing suffering once more.

Tantor, still longing for someone else like him when he was far from home.

Proxus, Hydran, Meloni…all their other students, still hoping for guidance.

Claire…never having gotten therapy, having no one to spar with to get her anger and frustration out.

Margol, still stuck on Alternia, slated to be helmed.

Gwyn, having made it off Alternia, but far slower, with more difficulty. 

Pebble, never having gotten a phone, unable to make friends far away from her volcano. 

Talula, untrained in her shadow powers, still a risk to herself and others.

Ichi, endangering himself far too recklessly in his daylight runs.

Rivali. Still miserable in a cavern that did not respect them.

Channi. Locked up in his mansion, even more afraid of the world than he was now.

Kamala. Still loved, still cared for, but not quite as much.

Vrayan. Similar to Kamala, and yet…

Jaskir. She and Channi were friends. Yet…she didn’t smile so often. Her lovely face was more muted now.

Uunive…

Uunive hadn’t lived at all.

Just another crushed grub, discovered hidden by Anders, simply for being lime.

Why were they seeing this? 

They were still selfish, parasitic of kindness better spent on those more deserving than them. They’d wanted to eat nearly every one of those people, dozens of times. 

They had consumed Kamala once, even if she had already died.

Such hungry love wasn’t real love.

Besides, they’d ruined so many more lives than they’d ever helped, starting with the massacre of Kaningård all those sweeps ago. It would never be even. 

They should get on with it and die.

Do the right thing, for once.

“Is that really what you want?” 

Lleios’s quiet, lightly accented voice asked.

Tuuya’s jaw dropped as they witnessed the first worm swarm now floating beside them. 

Translucent in their green suit, nearly intangible, Lleios’s angular face smiled at them with a grin almost identical to their own.

A ghost, or another hallucination? 

“Ozryel’s gone now, hm? And what a mess she’s left behind.” They said with a chuckle, then fixed Tuuya with a sharp jade gaze.

“Will you too abandon everyone you love? Leave them behind to deal with it all, like you did when you went off chasing Firebird?”

For once, Tuuya could not seem to find words. They all felt trapped in their throat. 

They couldn’t remember who that was. 

They felt like they should. But they couldn’t. 

Lleios wagged a slender gray finger at them. 

“Death is not a settling of scores, my dear. All the damage you’ve done would remain. I would know.” They gazed up at the stars, then down at Alternia. 

Then they looked their successor directly in the eyes. Tuuya didn’t know what that meant either. What scores? 

“I asked Rhomox to make something interesting of me. If there was one thing that man did right, it was you.”

Tuuya tried to laugh, but they were still too choked up. Them? Something right? Hysterical. 

Who was Rhomox, anyway? How had he known Lleios?

“What are you waiting for?” Said Lleios calmly. “The right punishment? The proper amount of suffering? What do those fix? None of the people who love you would enjoy seeing you in pain. Quite the opposite.”

Tuuya couldn’t remember who all those people were. Names started to turn fuzzy, to slip away. It was so tempting to slip away with them. 

No more pain.

Lleios sighed.

“You’ve got to try, despite - and because of - all the harm you’ve done. Will you waste the body I gave you? Yes; gave you. Willingly. I, Lleios the First, do not mind that I became Etuuya the Second. I’m rather proud of it.” 

The older undead put a hand to their successor’s shoulder as Tuuya stood stunned by this revelation.

Proud? Of them?

“Start by feeling guilty about one less thing. Little steps, hm? We are worms, after all. Not so fast, or powerful, or dangerous as the others. But always persistent.”

The second worm swarm crumpled, clinging to Lleios with a small squeak. They knew so little now, but they - they needed to know more - 

“I’m not staying, you daft thing.” Their predecessor said, amused, though they did gently put their arms around the younger drinker, hugging them for a moment. 

“You can. If you want to.”

They vanished, and the second worm swarm looked at the stars again, then back down at the planet.

All they knew for certain was that they had loved. 

They had loved over, and over, and over again, and they felt certain that they would always love, if they could do nothing else. 

Little steps, Lleios had said. 

Tuuya took one. 

–

Hours later, after the matriorb had been secured, the empire called and informed, and the surviving jades tended to, Rivali and Daudre warily deactivated the shield and stepped into the mother grub’s room.

Both of them looked sadly at the massive corpse waiting for them, bowing their heads in a silent moment of mourning.

Then they looked around the place, avoiding the laser-blasted spots and picking up any of Uunive’s knives they found, searching low and high for any trace of Tuuya.

They had almost given up when Rivali’s sharp eyes noticed shreds of the rainbowdrinker’s red clothing, then a tiny glimmer of white; a single worm curled up and lying still on a small rock nearby.

They rushed over, putting a pair of gloves on before they picked it up. Sure enough, it was Vannyn; a piece of them, anyway. 

They looked around. They couldn’t see any other worms, nor bones or any other remains. Only this one, which was so lethargic it didn’t even move in their hand.

“They need blood.” Said Rivali, looking at Daudre. “Blood and a place to reform.”

The other jade nodded, and they both left at a brisk pace.

Rivali carried the worm gently, attention split between the small invertebrate and watching where they were going.

“Thank goodness I found you.” They muttered to it. 

“Do you have any idea how much hassle it would have been to explain that you were dead? I’ve already had to deal with your family’s fretting. You never stop causing problems for me.”

The worm still did not move.

Rivali’s ears flicked.

“You had better perk up when we get you some food. I will be extremely irate otherwise.”

They walked a bit longer, finally making it to a room that hadn’t been destroyed, and appropriating an old ceramic laundry bin to put the worm in. 

“They might not make it if we don’t feed them now.” Daudre said quietly.

Rivali looked at the rocky ceiling.

“I want it stated for the record that I hate this.” They groused, but took out a knife and carefully shed some of their jade blood directly onto Tuuya, cut from their arm.

At first, there was no response. The komondor troll watched, agonizing seconds go by, as the worm still did not move…

…until nearly a minute later, with tiny, weak wriggles, its toothed mouth started sipping up the green liquid.

Rivali broke into a relieved smile, which they swiftly covered with a cough.

“Finally.” They said, avoiding Daudre’s amused eye.

“I’ll call their family.” Offered the other cavern troll. “You deserve a break. I’ll give them more blood, too.”

“Good.” Sniffed the lusus wrangler. “This is disgusting and I never want to do it again.”

Having said so, the dog troll stayed next to the basket as Daudre made the calls, and quietly shed a few more drops of blood into it.

The process was slow, slower than Rivali had ever seen from Tuuya before. It took them almost ten minutes just to make as many worms. They must have been damaged somehow in their final confrontation with Ozryel.

They still kept at it, segment by segment.

“Are you worried, is that it?” Muttered Rivali several minutes later, now watching the worms in between reading a book.

“You should be. Rhyssa is dead, but Inshii isn’t, they just withdrew for some reason. We don’t know where Gallen is, or if he’s alive…it’s a mess. We need you to deal with it. You can’t just escape responsibility.”

The worms kept building their brain, deaf and voiceless for the moment.

Daudre shed some more blood over them.

“They’re a funny thing, aren’t they?” The genet troll said conversationally. “Unique, scientifically speaking. It was interesting to study them, back when they were here.”

“Don’t say that to their family.” Warned Rivali. “They might think you want to imprison them again.”

Daudre laughed. “You did that, Riva.”

The dog troll looked delicately annoyed. 

“I’d do it again. Otherwise…I would have been trapped in this place for far longer.” They admitted quietly. “And Tuuya would have kept their jades captive for who knows how long.”

They looked down at the worms.

“They forced me to learn how to adapt.” Rivali admitted. “Insufferable creature.”

Daudre laughed softly. “You’re not going to say any of this to their face, are you?”

“Absolutely not. And give them the satisfaction?”

The scientist laughed, and so did the lusus wrangler. 

Hanhai’s jades slept and recovered. Rivali left to keep Uunive company. Daudre held Ashwat as she cried over the mother grub and laughed in relief to see her friend safe.

The sun set over Alternia after a very long day.

Tuuya kept rebuilding, more slowly than ever before, into a new version of themself.

Weakened. Damaged.

Sustained, now, by their own hope.

THE END OF

THE CHILDREN OF OZRYEL

[theherocomplex]

Just want to preemptively state that no matter what happens in DA4/DATV, Fenris and Rhyssa Hawke are not involved!!! He got her out of the Fade, they recovered in Starkhaven, she got VERY pregnant, and then they peaced out to a tiny cottage somewhere along the banks of the Hafter River (only Carver and Varric know exactly where). They do not know what is going on! They do not care! Fenris keeps acquiring sheep and he doesn't know how or why! Hawke has decided to start raising bees! Thedas can FORGET about them, they are DONE!

[eyelessfog]

@ockissweek - Almost

Rhyssa doesn't realize she's wildly misinterpreted Gondai's plan until she notes just how close their lips are, and just how low Gondai is speaking. A stray finger traces a line up Rhyssa's side, hooking under her shirt, slow, teasing. It takes a little more effort than usual to keep her usual annoyed frown on her face. "What's the problem?" Gondai asks, breath on Rhyssa's lips, and for an awful half second, Rhyssa imagines pulling Gondai down, imagines her surprise or her smirk or a pretty little red flush over her cheeks. For an awful half second, Rhyssa considers doing it. And then her anger settles upon her again, a well worn cloak, and the thought passes. But still. Almost.

[ID: a digital drawing of my oc, Gondai, and my friend's oc, Rhyssa. Gondai is a taller, tan, woman with red hair reminiscent of flames who has a heart shaped mark under her left eye. In the photo she's wearing a white tanktop and black pants. Rhyssa is shorter, paler, and has green hair in a bob with two black locks framing her face. She has red eyes and red tinted glasses, and is sneering. She's wearing a black 3/4 v-neck and slacks. The drawing has their faces close together, Rhyssa looking angry, and Gondai looking blank. Gondai has her mouth open as though speaking, and has a finger pulling up the side of Rhyssa's shirt. The whole image has a red overlay. END ID]

[quilbug-draws]

Insectember day 17: Rhyssa persuasoria

Common name: Sabre wasp✨️

[pupsmailbox]

BUG ID PACK

NAMES ⌇　adalia. adam. agatha. amber. andrena. ant. antony. aranea. arthro. aspen. attacus. beckett. bee. beetle. behan. benjy. bogárka. bubonic. bubonicholas. bubonick. bugsy. buzzie. býleistr. carrie. celastrina. cesare. cheli. chelicera. chrysalis. coley. cordulia. craniifer. crawly. creepy. critter. cuddlebug. dahlia. danuria. destiny. diseaselie. dishevella. dishevelle. dusk. dust. ella. ellsee. emery. eve. fern. fester. fifi. firefly. giselle. glimmer. hawk. hexa. hisser. hive. honey. hope. infestatianne. instar. jan. jeb. jed. jeddie. jeddy. jewelette. junebug. kaida. kaira. kieran. ladybird. lepidoptera. lester. lightsse. logan. lorcan. lovebug. luciole. luna. lyssa. mandela. mandibella. mandibelle. mandible. mangie. mangy. mantis. maurr. maxwell. midge. mikio. minii. mold. monarch. mordecai. mordechai. mordekai. mordy. mortimer. morty. moth. mould. naoki. nettle. ogtha. opal. osa. paul. pepper. phobianna. phoenix. ralph. ralphie. ralphy. ratianna. ratianne. ration. ravenesse. ravenette. ravenous. rex. rhene. rhyssa. roach. roark. rolf. ronan. rotgut. rowan. ruddy. rudy. ruth. salvia. scorpio. scurry. scuttle. sicknesse. sicknette. skittish. snugglebug. tawny. terry. thorax. toffee. vanessa. vespasiano. wesley. whiskey. wren. writhe.

PRONOUNS ⌇　ant/ant. antenna/antannae. antenna/antenna. anthill/anthill. aphid/aphid. arachnid/arachnid. arachnid/arachnids. arthropod/arthropod. bee/bee. bee/beetle. beet/beetle. beetle/beetle. bu/bug. bug/bug. bug/bugs. butterfly/butterfly. buzz/buzz. bzz/buzz. centipede/centipede. change/change. cicada/cicada. click/click. cloth/cloth. crawl/crawl. creepy/crawly. cricket/cricket. damp/damp. dig/dig. dirt/dirt. dragonfly/dragonfly. dusk/dusk. dust/dust. ely/elytra. en/entomology. ento/entomology. exo/exoskeleton. exoskele/exoskeleton. fate/fate. fester/fester. firefly/firefly. flea/flea. flow/flower. flutter/flutter. fly/butterfly. fly/fly. forest/forest. fy/fly. glow/glow. grey/grey. grime/grime. grime/grimy. hex/hexapod. hiss/hiss. hive/hive. hornet/hornet. hun/hungry. infect/infect. infest/infestation. inse/insect. inse/insectoid. insect/insect. insect/insectoid. it/it. jewel/jeweled. lady/ladybug. ladybug/ladybug. lamp/lamp. lice/lice. light/light. lin/linger. lost/lost. lur/lurk. mange/mangy. mant/manti. mantis/manti. millipede/millipede. mite/mite. mo/moth. mosquito/mosquito. moth/moth. night/night. pest/pesticide. pho/phobia. ro/roach. ro/roache. roach/roach. rot/gut. scarab/scarab. scurry/scurrie. scurry/scurry. scut/scuttle. sick/sickly. sick/sicknes. spider/spider. star/star. sting/sting. swarm/swarm. termite/termite. tin/tiny. twitch/twitch. venom/venom. ver/vermin. wasp/wasp. web/web. weevil/weevil. win/wing. wing/wing. worm/worm. 🐌 . 🐛 . 🐜 . 🐝 . 🐞 . 🕷 . 🦂 . 🦋 . 🦗 . 🦟 .

[the-bi-library]

Here is the part two of my bisexual BIPOC books posts!

Part 1 here

Books listed:

I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me by Jamison Shea The Relic Spell: Book 1 of the Phyrian War Chronicles by Jimena I. Novaro The Warlock Snare by Jimena I. Novaro Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert The Aurora Circus by Viano Oniomoh Rescues and the Rhyssa by T. S. Porter Far Sector by N. K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon Flip the Script by Lyla Lee A Scatter of Light by Malinda Lo The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson Shatterproof by Xen Sanders The Fall of Whit Rivera by Crystal Maldonado Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabina Khan When Tara Met Farah by Tara Pammi Royally Yours by Everly James For Sizakele by Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene More To Love by Georgina Kiersten False Hearts by Laura Lam Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean Heartsick Blues by H. S. Valley Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody Becoming Dinah by Kit de Waal Caught in a Bad Fauxmance by Elle Gonzalez Rose The Black Veins by Ashia Monet Hearton by Amy Jo Cousins

[foolishdragon]

Uhhh guess I gotta introduce my oc Indra. Shes a melanistic silkwing and has a whole Backstory ive been working on. Yesh. Its below the read more bc its quite big. Description in alt. @crypt3ral its quite big but i wanan dhow u this

Indra

Indra's mom: Eri

Indra's dad: Ulysses

Mistress: Rhyssa

Psocid

Psocid's mother: June

Psocid's father: Thorax

Indra is a melanistic silkwing born a couple years after the Tree Wars in Jewel Hive. She wasn’t killed or thrown out because her family’s hivewing mistress thought she had such an exquisite appearance that she couldn’t get rid of her.

However… Silkwings couldn't be black, could they? This was something Indra was always puzzled by. She needed to know why she was the wrong color.

She believed it was because she was a hybrid. It was obvious to her. Silkwings never had black scales, but hivewings always did. After her metamorphosis, she didn't get an assigned partner because her mistress wanted her to focus on helping her. This was allowed because the mistress was rich.

Until she meets Psocid, an albino hivewing with no black scales. In fact, his scales had no color at all.

He is seen an outcast of the tribe. Hivewings belive his family has been cursed, to give them a godless heathen as a son.

Indra's misstress is the equivalent of a psychic and claims to be able to heal curses. Of course, Psocid is often brought with them as they spend more and more scales trying to get rid of their son's curse.

Indra is used as a marketing strat to give her more credibility. Like, she was able to connect Indra's parents with Clearsight to give her her black scales, so she would be seen as more respectful than those other silkwings.

Indra doesn't belive a word she says, but she is a silkwing so she gets no rights.

Again, she only doesn't get killed because her mistress insists she is proof of her powers.

During this time, Psocid and Indra become friends, since his parents and her mistress are often in deep private talks about lifting the curse or whatever and leave both alone.

Indra's mom worked for the hivewing mistress. There was a silkwing she loved and wanted to start a family with but he wasn't her assigned partner. She still had Indra with him, but when she was born with all black scales, her parents saw this as a bad omen, that what they were doing was wrong, so the guy left for a different Hive, and she gave Indra away to her mistress.

The mistress ratted her out almost immediately (but was allowed to keep Indra, as the guards didn't know that she had black scales, and again, she was rich. The only thing that can topple being rich is status). Her punishment for adultery was jail, and because she refused to reveal who the father was, she got stuck there for life.

Psocid's family, after the mistress slowly but surely drained them of their welth but their son was still white as snow and hadn't darkned a bit, started getting more and more suspicions that this "curse lift" wasn't working. They called her out, she acted like the problem was that they never had any faith in her so the healing process wasn't working, they shut it but decided to investigate.

Psocid's mother was a guard, which meant she had access to prison records. Soon she discovered that Indra's mother was in the prison (during the initial conversations the mistress let her name accidentally slip by) and went in to question her.

The mother wasn't eager at all to help a hivewing, but eventually told her story to Psocid's mother under one condition: she would be allowed to see her daughter again, even if its just once.

During one of the sessions, Psocid's mother exuses herself and goes to talk with Indra. She tells Indra that she can let her go see her mother, but she firstly has to gather proof that the mistress's powers are fake, and the best way to do that is by revealing that she didn't actually connect her with Clearsight, that she was simply born this way.

Indra, so blinded by the urge to see her mother, fails to realize that by doing this she is digging her own grave, by revealing that she isn't actually blessed.

After it gets out that Indra was born from an adulterous relation and that the mistress doesn't actually have anything to do with her black scales, the mistress is arrested for scamming dragons with her fake powers, and Indra also gets arrested for being a symbol of blasphemy.

Psocid's mother doesn't help her get out of jail, saying that she will not ruin her reputation by saving a silkwing. She does one good thing, and that is making sure Indra ends up in a cell close to her mother. But that's it, and only because the jail is mostly empty and she can choose whatever cells the prisioners get put into.

Indra's mother and Indra get to talk, and she reveals to Indra who her father really is. Indra is shocked she isn't a hybrid, like she was so sure of, but really wants to meet her father.

Psocid, in the dragon equivalent of "bring your kid to work", helps Indra and her mother get out of prison. He is risking everything to help them because he is really close to Indra, she was the only one who didn't make fun of his scales or thought he was cursed, or wanted to change him completly.

They escape, undetected. Psocid because of his sensitivity to sunlight is always covered in veils and fabrics, and blends in perfectly with the other fancy hivewings in Jewel Hive, so he uses that to lead both away. Again taking advantage of the fact no one looks at silkwings specially if they have a hivewing near them.

Indra's mother reveals Indra's father name, description and the Hive he said he would be working at.

But the mistress denounced them so now dragons are looking closely at silkwings. So they get spotted and have to run. This is brought to the attention of Wasp and she uses her mind control powers to possess Psocid and force him to bring Indra and her mother out of hiding.

But because Psocid isn't that strong physically nor does he have any hivewing powers Indra's mother can take him down. Using her silk Indra makes a little blindfold for him so that Wasp cannot see their location.

Indra insists they take Psocid with them because he saved them, and they can somehow find a way of cutting the connection with Wasp. Her mother argues that he'll just be a liability and could get them arrested. In the end Indra wins.

Her mother then says is best if they run away instead of going to look for Indra's father, as it will only put him at risk of getting caught too. She still loves him and doesn't want him to get in trouble for sheltering them. Indra reluctantly agrees. Wasp has been listening closely in Psocid's body and sends in guards to the location they're at.

Indra's mother and Indra, carrying Psocid with them, run away, out of Jewel Hive, and fly through the savannah. Guards pursue them, but they narrowly escape.

Eventually Wasp loses interest and lets Psocid go. She makes everyone belive she killed the runaways and everyone is like "good ridance, glad we got rid of the blasphemous hivewing and silkwing." Execept for Psocid's mother who is trying her best to find her son.

Indra, her mom and Psocid keep flying. They are flying along the river, and while Indra's mom isn't happy with walking so out in the open, specifically because of Psocid's scales, but there isn't any other option. She shields him as best as she can with her wings and Indra is doing more swimming than walking because her black scales absorb the sunlight and make her overheat. Her mom isn't happy about this either, who knows what kind of dangers are inside the water but there isn't much she can do.

Psocid feels bad. He feels like hes gonna get possessed by Wasp at any moment and let her know of their location.

They are going to Vinegaroon Hive, where Indra's father lives. They spend a while inside the Hive, trying to look for them, but eventually they give up and leave, unware that they have been spotted by some guards. Word travels, and reaches the ears of Psocid's mother, who up until now had been in a mad dash to find her son (or his corpse, since no one gave her closure on what exactly had gone down) hears the words "sickly pale hivewing traveling with a light blue silkwing and a weird dark colored silkwing" and starts making preparations to travel to Vinegaroon Hive.

Outside, just near Beetle Lake, there's a small fishing settlement. Its not big enough to call a town or a village, but some hivewings moved there so they could fish the well known fish from Vinegaroon Hive and, with permisson from Lady Vinegaroon and Queen Wasp, brought their families and silkwing servants with them.

One of those silkwings happens to be Ulysses, Indra's father, who sees her pass by and recognizes the pale blue scales of Eri, and how the black scaled dragon beside her looks nothing like a hivewing. He thinks he's hallucinating. Wasp had chased her around and then killed her, he had heard his hivewing employers say over the strange mind control Wasp had.

But one night, when everyone was asleep, he walked outside to drink water, and there she was. Eri, and his daughter, the one he abandoned as soon as she hatched. He wished he was wrong, but he only knew of one silkwing with scales as black as the night sky. They were accompanied by a white hivewing with big red eyes.

They meet, reconciliation or something, he apologizes for abandoning Eri and Indra, they ask that he help them.

"Help you... with what exactly?" He asks.

"I don't know. Hide. Get away. So we can live our lives. Psocid here is also with us." Eri says.

"I cant. I cant do anything. But maybe..."

Ulysses then reveals that up north from Beetle Lake, if the rumours are true, then there are dragons living there. No one has ever been able to confirm, because all that go there to investigate, including elite hivewing soldiers directed by Queen Wasp, either came back empty handed or never came back at all.

What do they do in such place? He doesn't know. But because not even Queen Wasp can get inside, it must be pretty secure. Eri doesn't buy this. She thinks its too convinient and too suspicious. Plus, the three of them are tired from the trip. Ulysses says that they could rest around here for a couple days. They can meet at midnight, and since the fields around beetle lake are filled with mounds, very tall grass and places to hide, they can stay safe for a while until they decide on the next step of their journey.

This continues for a couple days, but eventually, June arrives and starts searching Vinegaroon Hive from top to bottom. Being the dragon equivalent of head of the police force in Jewel Hive doesn't give her much authority in Vinegaroon Hive, but she is a desperate mother and does not let up, even if it puts her career at risk.

She's conducting this opperation alone. Involving her soldiers would attract too much unwanted attention, and doubting Queen Wasp's word would be, as her husband said, seen as treason and she could go to jail or even get killed for that. Her and Thorax had a huge fight over this, with him beliving that Psocid is dead and all of this is just her being in denial because why would their good Queen Wasp ever lie to them and really, what chances did a dragonet who is weak to the sun have of surviving in the savannah, and her fully ready to throw Wasp's judgment out of the window if it meant her son was alive.

Eventually she finds her way into the village, in the middle of the night, and sees Eri, Ulysses, Indra and Psocid.

"YOU!" She snarls at them. "Wasp thought you were dead, but look at you, just as alive as you were in the day you stole my kid from me."

"Mother, they-" Psocid tries to calm her, but it doesn't work. She says she's going to announce to everyone that they are still alive (without thinking of the consequences of calling Wasp a liar) and make sure they are dealt with this time, either rotting in jail or dead, and this includes Ulysses too, because taking care of prisioners is a crime, and so is cheating on your assigned partner.

June is making enough of a commotion that dragons are waking and walking outside to see what's up, so the group flies away as fast as they can, heading north, with June on their tails.

They pass by a little forest, and Indra and Psocid are confused because they've been told their whole life that trees were only avaliable in the Poison Jungle and Wasp had taken them all down, but there isnt time to question it with the hivewings of Beetle Lake curious to see what happened and June flying right behind them, trying to grab Psocid and go back to the Hives.

Up north they find mountains, with a long winding river, and have to land because they are all too tired to continue flying. The ground cover is strange, and Indra has a distinc feeling that this isn't what green grass is supposed to look like. June of course keeps flying overhead, and manages to snatch Psocid. As soon as hes out of the ground and before Ulysses, Eri or Indra have time to fly after June, vines shoot from below and pull them into the Earth, and Indra sees that the ground cover wasn't grass, but thick sturdy vines that pull them under the cover and return back to normal.

Three dragons are there, waiting for them. A silkwing and two brown dragons that they dont immediately recognize. They are shocked to know there are still some leafwings around, alive and kicking and that they have just been saved by a group of dragons that refuses to follow Wasp's orders and has been living in peace underground even before the Tree Wars.

These two leafwings, Eucalyptus and Snakeroot come from the Poison Jungle. They are from the first generation after the Poison/Sap split, when the "dragons from these two subtribes cannot interact" rule wasn't all that solidified. So they ran away togheter, and ended up on the other side of the continent. The silkwing, Metalmark, is a blind silkwing from Beetle Lake. Their mistress was an old, old hivewing, that cared a lot for them, even going as far as considering them a part of her family more than her own kids (who pretty much abandoned her the minute they got the chance to go live the more sofisticated life in the Hives) so when she died, she left some stuff on her will for Metalmark. Her kids didn't like this, and came after Metalmark to demand what they "stole" from them. Knowing full well they would not survive a trial against a hivewing, Metalmark ran away.

Indra wants them to get Psocid too, to save him from June, but the 3 refuse, saying he'll just be a liability because of Wasp's mind control. Snakeroot points out that getting them in front of two hivewings was dangerous as is, but Eucalyptus insisted. Indra retorts saying that Wasp thinks Psocid is dead, and if June ever reveals that they are alive and implies Wasp lied, they are more likely to execute her for treason than to belive her.

They still refuse, Metalmark remarking that they can't feel them anymore which means they probably are still flying and are impossible to reach. The canopy that serves as ground cover took years of dedicated leafspeakers to grow, and neither Snakeroot nor Eucalyptus are strong enough to move them very high, even working togheter.

Snakeroot, Eucalyptus and Metalmark take them deeper, to the actual settlement. To their surprise they actually start going up instead of down, and its revealed that the mountains have extense cave systems that go almost to their peak, so everyone doesn't need to stay 6 feet under. (Said by Snakeroot)

Aboveground, June has Psocid in a firm grip and is flying him back to the hives. However, the sun is starting to rise and Psocid doesn't have his veils, which means that his scales will likely burn in the sun as they dont have time to get to the Hives before the sun rises completly. June doesn't want to land, she saw the three silkwings being eaten by the ground, and is fearful that the vines will steal her son as well.

With the sun rising, Psocid insists even more, and June finally caves in and lands, in the forest they saw earlier. They both land in a tree branch, and don't say anything to eachother.

Psocid asks about the forest.

"Where do you think Wasp gets stuff to make paper from for all the books in her library?," June replies, "Where to you think she got all that treestuff to repair Mantis Hive when part of it collapsed? As much as she might deny it, we need the trees."

"But... doesnt treestuff come from shrubs? And the paper we use comes from silk, doesn't it?" Psocid asks.

"Those shrubs are more leaves than sap. Sap is what we use as glue to keep the hives togheter. If you get a talonful of treestuff from a shrub you're lucky. The trees just speed up the process enough for it to be profitable. And you're correct, most of the paper we use comes from silk, but the finest, most pristine books that end up in the Wasp Hive Library are made from real trees. We need the trees as much as we need the silkwings."

"I find it funny that we need the silkwings so much, yet treat them like they're less than dirt." Psocid says, even if he doesn't find it funny at all. Neither are laughing, and June doesn't say anything else.

The sun is up now, and they cannot leave the forest, not if they want to risk Psocid's scales burning.

Psocid asks about his father. June tells him he didn't care, that Thorax fully belives him dead. June is unsure if he cares about her either. She has the disctint feeling that if he cared he would have come with her.

While they wait for the sun to go back down, June does a bit of self reflection. She had been so caught up in trying to get her son back that she hadn't really thought of the consequences of actually bringing him back to the Hives and proving Wasp lied when she announced he was dead.

They couldn't go back to the Hives. But where would they go?

Psocid suggested they go back to the vine floor thing, and explained what Ulysses had told them. June sighs and agrees.

At sunset, when the sunlight isn't as harsh they can make it back.

Metalmark senses them and Snakeroot and Eucalyptus bring them both down, blindfolded for safery. Indra vouches for Psocid, saying that he's her friend and Wasp declared him dead, so she wont be possessing him. She does have her doubts about June, but Psocid swears she is on their side now.

The moments afterwards are very awkward. Psocid never had a good relashionship with his mother and June sees how much the stunt with Rhyssa damaged him and how being constantly trying to change him was not a "mother knows best" situation, and more of her trying to mold him to fit their status. They try to rebuild their relashionship togheter but it will take time.

The end (for now)

No, not really I wanted to add more but its a work in progress so no true ending for now lol.

[fazbears-warehouse]

BUG ID PACK

requested by anon!

Names: Attacus, Buzzie, Cesare, Coley, Cordulia, Kaira, Lyssa, Junebug, Rhene, Rhyssa

Pronouns: bug/bugs, crawl/crawls, click/clicks, inse/insect, hive/hives, sting/stings, exo/exoskele/exoskeleton, arachnid/arachnids, scut/scuttle, venom/venoms

Identities: plastic bug gender, genderbug, Bugfluid, Sillyisopodic, insectfest, Monarflymeadowic, milligender, Beemcnati, Tarachro, Roachgender, Ceidium

[meetinginsamarra]

nice contrast and a mystery insect

Yellow blossoms of Forsythia versus last year's black berries of privet.

I spent over 45 minutes (!) trying to determine what kind of insect it is and I still do not know for sure. I think it's a species of parasitic wasp (from the family of Ichneumonidae, genus Rhyssa??) because of the very long feelers, slim and long body and wasp-like coloration. However, I cannot see the ovipositor (for laying eggs into the host insect) that a female should have. Can be a male, of course. However again, I took the foto five days ago and adult Rhyssa should not be there this early in the year and also, they do not visit blossoms. I am confused and my insect-lover's brain is annoyed af. There you have the ramblings of someone who studied biology and a lot of insects before I specialised in biochemistry.

TL;DR If anybody knows what insect this is, please let me know!

[ereborne]

1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 15, 17, 20, 26, 32, 44, 46 (weird or genre-defying books), 47, 50

Thank you for so many prompts!! This was so fun to do and now it is so long. I hope it's as good to read as it was to write out!

1) Name the best book you've read so far this year: I answered Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire to digs just a moment ago, but I'm glad you asked too, because honorable mention goes to Inheritance by Nora Roberts. It came out in November, not technically 2024, but time is fake and 2024 is just beginning anyway, so I'm counting it. Inheritance starts pretty slow and for a bit I was wondering how it was going to manage a satisfying resolution, and then I realized she was doing something new! (unfair. she's been building to this since 2015, it's just that now is when it's starting to really click with me) Instead of a trilogy with three couples whose romance arcs each get centered in their own book, this is going to be a trilogy focusing on unraveling the family curse/haunting, with the four main characters growing tighter as a unit (and forming their two romantic pairs, of course) throughout. I really like the characters and I am delighted by the curse/haunt storytelling. Cannot wait to see more.

2) Favorite fantasy book(s): this is so hard. okay, okay, brief rundown. brief. I can do this. bookshelf by bookshelf, I think. we'll take as granted everything by Seanan McGuire, sure. Bayou Moon and Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews. By the Sword and From a High Tower by Mercedes Lackey. Bryony and Roses and Summer in Orcus by T Kingfisher. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane. The Long Patrol-Marlfox-Taggerung by Brian Jacques, which I always read in a shot as if they were one book. Similarly, the Protector of the Small and Magic Circle quartets by Tamora Pierce, and the Icewind Dale trilogy by RA Salvatore. Tangled Webs by Elaine Cunningham. The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien (really all the LotR trilogy, but even I cannot say I sit and read them all three straight through as if they were one). The Wee Free Men and Thud! by Terry Pratchett.

4) Favorite science fiction book(s): The Ship Who Sang and Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey. Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie. Exit Strategy and Network Effect by Martha Wells. The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. Rescues and the Rhyssa by TS Porter (also a favored queer fiction book, but I love the alien worldbuilding so much it has to be here)

8) Favorite queer fiction book(s): Humanity for Beginners by Faith Mudge. Nightvine by Felicia Davin. the Harwood Spellbook series by Stephanie Burgis (also a down-in-one-shot series). Holly and Oak by R Cooper.

12) Favorite horror book(s): I haven't read too many horror books, so my pool is limited here, but The Twisted Ones and The Hollow Places by T Kingfisher both gave me the shudders so bad.

15) Which genre(s) are your favorite? Fantasy! I love all the fantasy subgenres, and especially the magical realism overlaps.

17) Favorite finished book series: How finished is finished? A lot of my serieses are made up of several trilogy/quartet subsets together in a world. hmmmm. The Protector of the Small quartet again by Tamora Pierce, I think.

20) Where and how do you find new books to read? I mentioned in my reply to digs that I'm subscribed to a ton of newsletters, but I feel like I undersold their effect on me. I don't know how many I'm subscribed to--just sat here and off the top of my head counted to eighteen that post at least weekly and I'm so sure I'm missing some--and I love having that regular infusion of book progress and reviews and writing thoughts and commentary. I really do recommend that folks subscribe to their favorite authors.

26) Favorite novella(s): Silver Shark by Ilona Andrews. The Seven Brides-to-Be of Generalissimo Vlad by Victoria Goddard. Jackalope Wives by T Kingfisher.

32) Name your favorite author(s): massive overlap with everybody else I've listed here. who haven't I mentioned? Jennie Crusie, Jayne Ann Krentz, JD Robb (which is a Nora Roberts penname but they've got distinct enough works I want to list them out separate). Patricia Briggs, Patricia C Wrede, Max Gladstone, Gail Carriger, Nalini Singh. And Ed Greenwood, about half the time.

44) The book(s) whose stories have become part of your very makeup: The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien. Watership Down by Richard Adams. Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie. Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. Phoenix & Ashes by Mercedes Lackey. The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard.

46) I like (weird or genre-defying books), recommend me a book to read, please: First thought was the Humans Are Weird series by Betty Adams, though that might not be what you mean. They're intensely fun collections of 'humans are space-orcs' style vignettes. Maybe more directly books that are weird would be the Craft Sequence series by Max Gladstone and Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw. Very toothy complicated magical realism. And my favorite genre-blending books are always the Elemental Masters books by Mercedes Lackey. A Study in Sable for instance is equal parts a Sherlock Holmes story and a retelling of The Twa Sisters fairytale, and also a coherent installment in an ongoing historical fantasy series about elemental mages in early 1900s England.

47) What are the last three books you read? Indexing by Seanan McGuire, Die in Plain Sight by Elizabeth Lowell, Pirate's Honor by Chris A Jackson

50) What kind of book have you never read but always hope to find at some point in the future? This is such a fascinating question. I don't know that there's anything in particular that I've always wanted and never found, but there are things I'm always looking for more and better examples of. I'm extremely picky about soulmate AUs, so a good one especially captivates me. Oh, or a really well-handled impromptu adoption! Child characters and bureaucracy are both tricky to write and things I know a lot about, and when they're done well they hook me so hard.

[mutant-distraction]

Rhyssa persuasoria, or sabre wasp, laying eggs

Photo by Carlo Galliani Wildlife Photographer

[cloudbattrolls]

Eat Your Young

Gallen | Suunaq Industrial Complex | Present Night

A sprawling industrial complex covered the plain, its buildings and roads nearly equaling the size of a small town.

It had stood there longer than some of the actual settlements in the surrounding area, growing piece by piece over several millennia. Power plants and offices jostled for space, interspersed with streets that had been paved and patched more times than anyone could count. Everything was kept in a state of high repair; the finest quality droids maintained the infrastructure, though there were no imperial drones to be seen. 

Ever since its earliest nights, the complex had been filled white butterflies that did not seem to feed from or pollinate any flowers; not that there were many to be found in such a place. Any attempts to catch and study them ended in the insects dissolving to nothing, so trolls let them be.

Most didn’t have the time or energy to wonder about what little wildlife surrounded them to begin with. 

For marked over each of the complex’s entrances, on the identification cards of all the trolls who worked in that place, was the jade symbol of QPIN - each and every troll there in the corporation-gang’s debt. 

Debts paid - in part - by blood. 

Debts paid to one of the Queenpin’s right-hand executives, Inshii Suunaq.

—

Three tall figures gathered under the glare of a street lamp, all coming from different directions. 

A woman, hourglass-shaped with a band covering her eyes and a cowgirl hat on her head, dressed in a crop top and shorts. A man, broad and powerfully built, wearing only knee-length shorts and no shirt. A person dressed in a beautiful violet sherwani, the tallest of all, wide with soft roundness instead of the man’s dense bulk. 

The woman spoke first as they faced each other on the sidewalk, the night air quiet around them. 

“Damn, I hate this place.” Rhyssa complained, hands on her hips. “I can’t even see it proper and I still hate it. Would it kill ya to decorate a bit, Shii? The vibes are just awful.”

“I don’t have time for excessive frivolity.” Responded the false violet in a deadpan as they led the other two away. “Trolls can put up ornamentation if they like; I don’t forbid them. Excessive levels of depression are unproductive.”

Rhyssa groaned as she followed, her boots’ spurs jingling softly. “Sugar, you’ve been contributin’ to depression in trolls for a long time without tryin’. I love you, but ya are kind of a robot when it comes to fixin’ a place up.” 

Gallen hung back a few steps as the three of them made their way down the sidewalk, letting the other two banter. He was grateful he couldn’t speak, and that he likely wouldn’t be asked to sign very much, or type; if his siblings picked up on his dread, everything was over.

Everything might still be over if he couldn’t carry out the plan Klirro and Tuuya had concocted for him. All his isopods wriggled anxiously in his skin, though he tried not to let it show. 

Rhyssa hung back, head tilted, the wasps fluttering around her to serve as her eyes buzzing in concern.

“What’s eatin’ ya, Gal?”

Oops.

I don’t know how things are going to be from now on, he signed honestly. 

I hope this makes mother better, but what if it makes her worse? What will we do? How can we care for her? For once, I wish we were more like trolls. Trolls know how to tend to their lusii and quadrants. 

All we were ever meant to do was serve her. 

We were never taught anything else. Unlike Lleios, we weren’t given the ability to learn much beyond what we were made to do.

I think she did that on purpose, he signed, suddenly angry as he had the thought, eyes narrowing, gestures sharper. I think she wanted to keep us dependent. 

She let me learn about religion, she let me watch trolls come to my altar all those sweeps, but she knew I could never truly understand them. 

Only Lleios could.

Gallen looked at Rhyssa, whose hand touched her mouth in shock at his words, and he saw that Inshii had stopped walking, looking back at the pair of them as their fins flicked.

The isopod swarm folded his broad arms, blue eyes hard. He wasn’t backing down. 

Even if it weren’t for the mission, even if Klirro had never found him, even if he had wound up killing Tuuya after all - these doubts had brewed for centuries, and he was done ignoring his problems.

“Gal! What’s all this hullabaloo?” Rhyssa protested, her own hands flapping in distress as she buzzed with worry. “Where’d this come from all of a sudden, huh? You’ve never - never said a blessed thing - ”

“Now is not the time for such topics.” Cut in Inshii, hard enough that their sister’s hands dropped and her buzzing quieted. She folded her arms, sullenly silent, and Gallen stared the butterfly swarm down, their violet eyes hard.

“Gallen…we will discuss this later.” His oldest sibling’s tone held a practiced neutrality, one he knew was barely holding back anger. Their fins twitched almost imperceptibly, but he caught it.

“Mother needs us now, and she needs us united.”

As if they’d been properly united for sweeps. As if they’d really acted together since Lleios had died.

Killed by a troll, of all things. A troll they had loved. A troll who betrayed them…yet they had wanted him to, so they could die.

Gallen’s fists clenched at the way his youngest sibling had chosen to leave the rest of them behind. If they hadn’t done that, none of this would have happened. 

The cold pavement cut his bare feet repeatedly, as it usually did. What did he care? He regenerated his skin nigh instantly, barely noticing as the three swarms drew closer to Inshii’s laboratory.

The thick glass doors slid open with a slight hiss as the false violet led the way in after flashing their ID to a scanner, barely making any sound despite their size. Gallen squinted as they walked into the harsh lighting and gray-white walls and floors, the smell of disinfectant prominent.

There were a few trolls to be seen, but most of Inshii’s staff here were highly specialized robots. The ones that were present shied away from the trio automatically. There wasn’t any fear on their faces or in their movements; they did it instinctively, knowing better than to be close.

“Can we at least eat before this?” Commented Rhyssa, slightly impatient. “I’m assumin’ those ain’t snacks, and I’m peckish.”

“Obviously those aren’t snacks.” Said Inshii in a slightly weary tone of voice. “Food doesn’t work in the laboratory. If you knew anything about science you’d understand just how intensive and time consuming this process has been to replicate. I’ve needed my finest staff on this and had to hire a few extras, which is not kind to my payroll.”

“Ooh, lemme play ya a song on m’banjo, saddest one in the history of the empire, Shishi.” Said Rhyssa, singsong and mocking, actually taking out her instrument as if she was about to start strumming.

Inshii rolled their eyes and ignored her, so Rhyssa pouted and put it away. 

Gallen stopped and looked around, not in any hurry to get to what came next. He put his hands in his shorts’ pockets, feeling for the hundredth time that the vial of cloudy liquid was still there. 

“Come on.” Called Inshii impatiently. “You’d think we were dragging you to an atheist convention.”

He opened his mouth to huff silently, not wanting to let himself feel amused, and kept walking.

He couldn’t. He had to…he had to…

Gallen twisted inside, hundreds of small legs wriggling and grasping at each other. 

He followed his oldest sibling, just like he always had for millennia. 

Obedient Gallen. Peaceable Gallen.

Even before mother had taken his tongue, he’d always been like that.

Inshii led him and Rhyssa down a narrow hallway, their precise steps echoing in the near-silence. The faint buzz of electric illumination was the only sound.

Then the lights flickered for a second.

Gallen blinked, looking at his sibling inquiringly. Inshii sighed, their brightly colored fins flicking. 

“That’s how much power this has taken. We have backup generators, more than enough…but that’s happened plenty of times over the past few perigees. All Lifeweaver had to do was make a troll body that could meld with a swarm. I’ve had to achieve far more than that.”

“What d’ya mean?” Rhyssa asked, sounding genuinely curious as she ran a finger through her shoulder-length hair.

Inshii’s eyebrows raised in mild surprise, but they stopped, facing their sister with their arms crossed.

“When Mother fell and fused with a mother grub, she became undead. Etuuya was alive when they were merged with Lleios’s remains, integrated over multiple operations so they wouldn’t die of shock or blood loss. 

I don’t have that luxury; she’s weak and unstable enough that if I fail now, I might not be able to try again and keep her mind intact. 

She can’t be killed…but suffering eternally in that carcass of a body, her mind slipping more and more until she forgets us all? She might wish she was dead.” The butterfly swarm said bluntly.

Rhyssa had taken her hat off to hold it, as a gesture of respect. Gallen bowed his head to go along with her, and so he could compose himself.

Klirro was right. Tuuya was right. Everything Inshii said confirmed it.

If he could do this, even with the hell that would come of it, everything would get better.

His hands shook as Rhyssa put her hat back on.

Inshii’s face softened slightly, an unusual sight.

“Don’t worry, Gallen.” They said in a marginally warmer tone, as caring as they had been capable of since the ten had died all those sweeps ago.

“I’ve accounted for everything; I will not fail. She’ll finally be well again.”

No, they hadn’t accounted for everything. They had no idea what their little brother had in his pocket. A substance modeled from the same scientific notes Inshii had used for this project. 

Another one of Rhomox Vannyn’s discoveries.

Inshii kept walking a little longer, then stopped in front of a plain gray, unmarked door, flashing their ID card at a scanner once more.

Gallen would have whistled if he could, so instead it was tuneless air blown through his lips as he walked inside, and Rhyssa herself made a softly impressed ‘aaah.’

Inshii looked a bit smug, despite their sibling’s frequent insistence that they didn’t indulge in such trollish things.

The space was vast, a tangle of pipes, vats, and scientific equipment whose names the isopod swarm couldn’t even begin to guess at. Dials all over the room glowed from within, and somewhere a machine beeped softly in long intervals. 

Long hair flowing as they moved more quickly, the false seadweller walked over to the largest vat of all, one taller than their nearly eight foot height, horns aside.

Gallen knew, with a sudden surge of fear, that that was it.

Rhyssa turned completely toward it as well, the wasps she used to see beating their wings frantically as they hovered over her shoulders.

Inshii looked at the various readout screens on the vat and what they saw must’ve pleased his oldest sibling because they nodded and took out a beautiful old glass container shaped like a chrysalis. The glass shone jade and white where it was not clear.

Gallen shuddered as he saw several of his mother’s green flukes wriggling within. Just like the one that had taken over Tuuya.

Wait.

He signed a question.

Isn’t that - 

“Vassiq’s work, one of the last she ever made.” Said Inshii quietly, holding the container with reverence. “One of the few we have left.” 

Gallen couldn’t cry as trolls did. He had no heart. 

Still he trembled, isopods pressing against his skin.

Vassiq. The fly. Dead because she’d tried to kill Ozryel with the other ten, her eggshell destroyed and her corpse burned. Dead because she’d just wanted to be free. 

She’d been the best artisan of them all.

How could Inshii stand there and use their sister’s work to hold her killer? 

Rhyssa was unusually still, even her wings beating slowly from the parts she used as eyes. 

“Will you offer us a prayer, Gallen?” Inshii asked, solemn.

He looked at them in shock, his face rippling in surprise. Inshii had never thought much of religion.

He wished he had incense to light, an altar to kneel by by. He wished he could believe there was anything holy about what they were about to do.

Still he closed his eyes and put a hand to his chest. 

He prayed Inshii was wrong, that his mother could be laid to rest after all.

He prayed whatever afterlife she went to was a kind one. A peaceful one.

He prayed his hands would not falter as he did to her what Rhomox Vannyn had done to Lleios. Wipe away the mind, leave the body behind.

Gallen hoped so hard for all of this that he hurt, and then his hand dropped from his chest. He nodded at Inshii, glad he couldn’t speak.

Rhyssa sniffed. With no tears to shed, she tugged at the band covering her wasp-filled sockets instead.

“I hope this works.” She mumbled. “It’ll be like old times. When we were all together, and everythin’ was perfect.”

Everything had never been perfect. Their siblings would still be dead. Ozryel had driven them to desperation when they were alive, had refused to listen when they’d tried to reason with her.

Gallen regretted not helping them. Not taking a side. If he had…

If he had, it probably wouldn’t have made a difference. 

Nothing he’d done for his family ever had.

Inshii pressed a button, and the lid of the vat slid back with a faint sliding noise, impressively quiet for how large it was.

He could smell it now. The organic stench of nutrient-rich solution used to grow facsimile bodies.

Inshii stepped onto a ladder bolted to the side of the vat and he held up a hand. They raised their eyebrows, fins flicking.

He signed, Can I go up after you?

“Don’t be silly, Gallen.” Inshii said, tongue clicking. “There’s no space. I’ll bring her down so we can witness her awakening. It will likely take a minute or so.”

Good. That was all he needed. 

He nodded to show he understood.

Inshii went up the ladder, their sherwani rippling from their movement. He - and Rhyssa - watched them intently. 

What would their sibling bring down? What body had they made for Ozryel?

Though he writhed with nervousness, resignation settling heavy into his chitin, Gallen couldn’t help but be curious. He’d known her current shape for so long, it was difficult to imagine her in another. 

He and his sister watched as Inshii took a fluke out of the glass container…and used their other hand - now in a rubber glove - to gently pick up a troll-shaped body. Viscous drops of amber fluid slowly dribbled off of it. 

The view was partially blocked by their sibling, but Gallen could see the body’s eyes were closed, that it had long white hair and pale horns that resembled his mother’s. 

They moved their arm. He could only assume they were putting the fluke in.

No noise. Nothing. 

Inshii carried the body down in both arms, container put back in their sylladex, its - her - eyes still closed. She didn’t move.

Vial in his hand, Gallen lunged.

Rhyssa cried out and Inshii barked an order to stop. Neither moved quickly enough to stop him as he forced the contents down Ozryel’s throat.

Then his sister tackled him to the hard floor, snarling and buzzing as she swore and stung him over and over, ripping through his skin to the isopods beneath. 

Gallen did not fight back even as dozens of his isopods thrashed and died. He lay there, letting her wound him, staring up at the pale ceiling and the dark pipes running along it.

He wondered if he was about to wake up in his eggshell, a sparse few isopods once more.

“Stop.” Inshii’s clipped voice said through his haze of pain. “Let mother handle him. The serum is working.”

Rhyssa gasped in relief and Gallen’s hopes sank in dread as he saw his mother’s pale gray fingertips moving, noticed the syringe in Inshii’s hand as they gave him a narrow-eyed violet stare.

“I don’t know why you’ve done this, but I can guess. You’ve betrayed us, gone over to Tuuya and their allies. I’d ask you why…but I don’t think I care.”

Feebly, Gallen tried to use his arms to sign an answer, but Rhyssa stung them and they collapsed into dying isopods.

His mother’s eyes flickered and opened, glowing a solid, brilliant green. Shorter than all of them, slim and almost petite, she vaulted out of her oldest child’s arms to land on the floor with a thud, her feet bare. Her only clothing was a pale teal dress, and she still dripped fluid on the floor as she stepped over to him. The pincers at the edges of her lips snapped in fury as her eyes shone with rage and delight.

“My only son.” She said, with a dry and raspy voice, different yet unmistakably familiar, unused to speaking aloud. “My last son. Why do you turn on me? The only mother you’ve ever had?”

Her tone was gently chiding, almost fond, but Gallen knew that meant nothing.

He spoke in the silent language of swarms, isopods forming shapes and symbols that all of his family read without comment.

“So misguided.” His mother said, still soft. “It isn’t your fault. You were tricked. You forget your siblings’ cruelty. They were unkind to you too.”

Gallen shook his head. She was lying. He had to remember she was lying.

Ozryel clicked her tongue.

“You’ve been very bad. You need a time-out.”

She knelt down next to him and put a hand to his chest. Right where he had when he’d prayed earlier.

Green flukes came out of her wrist, squirming over his remaining isopods to secrete liquid that dissolved him, segment by segment, leg by leg. He soundlessly screamed in agony, bereft of the tongue she had taken so long ago. The voice she’d silenced for the crime of not taking a side.

“Leave one.” Said Inshii, voice hard. “He can stay here. Otherwise who knows where he’ll go when he comes back in the cavern.”

Rhyssa snarled. “Yeah, what Shii said. We can’t let him outta our sight.”

“You don’t give me orders, children.” Murmured Ozryel in a tone of saccharine warning. “I’ll concede the butterfly is right this time. Just mind your tone, or I might think you intend to join your brother.”

Rhyssa opened her mouth, and as Gallen’s troll eyes melted away, he could see the hurt on his sister’s face before she closed it again.

In less than a minute, there was only one of him. A single white isopod, shivering as his mother picked him up in one hand. Helpless to resist her firm grip, she squeezed him so hard he nearly cracked, his legs struggling against her cold hand.

She leaned in to whisper so he could hear.

“Next time I won’t be so generous.”

His vision in this state was too poor to grasp what happened around him, but the next thing he knew, Gallen was locked in a dark, airless box with needles puncturing him all over his body. 

He couldn’t move. Couldn’t see, or hear, or feel anything but pain and constriction.

The isopod prayed.

He prayed for the people he had failed so terribly.

He wished with everything he had that his mother would finally die. 

—

Ozryel patted the box she had locked her son in, with a soft, needle-fanged smile, then set it aside.

Pausing, concentrating, she clenched her fists and there came a great cracking of bone, a sliding and warping of flesh as wings sprung from her back. Insectoid, yet shaped as if they were feathered, they shone with iridescent hints of rainbow color.

“Fly with me, children. We make for Hanhai.”

Rhyssa scratched her head.

“The desert? What d’ya want there? Thought we were goin’ after Tuuya and their lot.”

Inshii’s eyes also narrowed, then their expression cleared.

“Ah. Their daughter’s cavern.”

Ozryel gave her oldest child a feral smile.

“Kotenkha’s as well. One of her spawn fought me in the second worm’s body, allowing them to escape…it is long past time I gave that bloodline their due.”

The mother of swarms stepped outside the building, squinting as her eyes adjusted to the starlight she had not seen in over four thousand sweeps.

Ever since a wretched jade woman with a komondor lusus had shot her out of the sky.

[theherocomplex]

okay okay okay let’s do this let’s get Hawke out of the Fade

[eyelessfog]

Shhk. The balcony door slides open. "That's bad for you, you know." “I attended sixth grade drug presentations.” A laugh. “I know.” A moment, a breath. Then: "Pass it, Gondai." Gondai raises a brow. "What happened to 'bad for you?'"

Or: Gondai takes a smoke break, Rhyssa talks about plans to come, they contemplate the possibility of death together, and then Gondai realizes that she really can just kiss Rhyssa if she feels like it.