Continued from
here[Huh..
No really huh???]That....in fact makes absolutely
no sense whatsoever but...if you wish???
[That was so much information all at once, some of which she was choosing to ignore, that Lace wasn't even quite sure if she meant what she just said.]Are they just down there?
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mistymansion2025-10-21 09:02 pm
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She reappears behind her, out of nowhere, dangling upside down from the ceiling. Her cloak falls down, revealing that one thread of silk comes from her tail and a second from her spine. ]
You did not answer it.
[ Hornet stares right at her, unblinking. ]
It would be easy to dispose of me in my sleep and be rid of me. Yet you do not. You care not for your own life enough for this to be only because I am needed to sustain you. You have caught feelings.
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She's not sure what startled her more: how abruptly Hornet appeared from seemingly nowhere or her candid statement. Her mouth moves wordlessly before her mind finishes processing what the spider said.]
I--- [Her feelings for Hornet were complicated. And like with most complicated things, Lace preferred to not think about it. Flirting was easy. Taunting and teasing was easy. Even admitting to her physical attraction was easy. Feelings? She liked Hornet. She resented her. She admired her. She was jealous of her. She craved her attention and approval, and felt helpless that she felt she could do so little without her.
And...and maybe a little. Maybe she even...]
Of course I wouldn't! It would be a cowardly act to slay someone in their sleep, and I am no coward.
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[ Ah, Lace is too adorable, and just too fun to play with. Though, Hornet's question had been a genuine one. She had never imagined she would enjoy having a manic little beastie around, but with Lace, she had...fun. She enjoyed herself. Lace brought good parts out of her that her stiff self had trouble expressing. And in many ways, Hornet understood Lace and she felt that Lace understood her, as different as they had seemed at first.
It was becoming apparent to her that she enjoyed Lace's company more than a usual acquaintance. She felt that old warmth and longing in her chest. The desire to spend time with someone. ]
Indeed, you are no coward. On the contrary, you have lived your life with great bravery and strength, though you were born into an unfair situation. I admire you greatly for this.
[ She climbs back up her silk, disappearing once more and scuttling across the ceiling and walls. This time she re-emerges in front of Lace, upside down again. There is a loud thudding and banging noise up ahead -- the sound of a beast slamming into a wall over and over. ]
I know that you harbor resentment for me still. I am no fool. And I blame you not for your feelings. So long as you would grant me your company still, I am content.
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Even more so when Hornet makes it clear she knows of some of the resentment that still festers within Lace..resentment she knows she unfairly places on the spider.
She moves forward, estimating which direction the spider had gone in. When Hornet appears in front of her she's more prepared this time.]
...I too wish to stay in your company.
[From here she can hear the thing...it sounds gigantic. She keeps her pin ready.]
Shall we put an end to it?
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Yes. Come.
[ A bit more distance and Hornet can now see the small room where the creature is up ahead.
But this time she frowns. A rare frown, one with uncertainty and hesitation.
They are on the ground, on separated, broken-up platforms of stone and molten rock, and in between and all around, there is lava. This was not a good spot to fight anything. ]
The last one I fought was in an enclosed room. I do not like this.
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What all should I know of this thing's capabilities?
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[ She stared and listened to the thing ramming into the wall over and over, trying to gather her usual enthusiasm. Amongst all of Pharloom's violent creatures this one had been amongst the most unpleasant to fight. Oh well. The day would not get any longer for her. And so Hornet prayed that this would be the very last of these beasts she ever engaged with, grabbed her needle, summoned her vigor, and charged.
As soon as she entered the arena she leapt and clung to the wall and fired the odd crossbow she had been working on earlier as the beast roared at her, too distracted by its immediate red-hot anger to react. It shot a net of silk and hit its mark. The silk clung to the beastfly's legs and wings and glued them together as it fell to the ground, slamming on its back and writhing uselessly, its soft belly open and exposed. Hornet landed on it like a trophy and raised her needle overhead for a stab.
She--
...
The ground under her shook.
The bit of rock she and the beastfly stood upon could not bear the weight of both for long.
Before Hornet could react the platform collapsed below into the lava, and she and the beastfly went right along with it, dragged underneath.
Fuck. ]
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For a moment it almost seems like it's going to be that easy, and she's about to leap onto the beast to pierce it with her pin to make doubly sure the job is done when the ground beneath begins to shake.
Admiration turns to shock and then instinctual fear.]
Hornet?!
[She flung over to the neighboring platform and twirled her weapon in her hand so she was holding it by its pointed end. The hooked end she plunged into the lava, hoping Hornet would be able to see it.]
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She would have to do this the old-fashioned way.
Just as she starts getting to her feet the beastfly erupts from underneath her and takes her along on top of it, intending to slam her into the ceiling. She would not have it. She began to weave silk into its wings, sticking them together. From the force of it pushing against her, its sharp chitin dug into her shell. She bled all over it. ]
Lace! I will bind the wings again. Do not let it land atop you!
[ And then she sent the roaring, writhing thing crashing back down, its wings bound, and hopped off midair. Hopefully the ground is more stable the second time around, with Lace weighing so little. ]
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There is no time to ask how she is doing, however, for the beast slams upward and she watches as the two sail high above her. The warning comes in good time and Lace is able to jump out of the way as the creature slams down before her.
The silk golem adjusts her hold on her weapon, flipping it frontward and holding it in the middle. The top part is still too hot to hold safely for an extended period of time. The ground holds and she leaps up onto the beastfly, trying her own hand at stabbing its belly.
Her pin sinks in and the creature lets out a shriek that seems to rattle their entire surroundings. Two tarmites rise from the lava and she ducks her head as one of them lobs a fireball at her.
Unfortunately her pin is worn, and holding it the way she is doesn't allow her to sink it all the way in. The beastly continues it's thrashing and she loses her grip, being sent flying through the air.]
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She would not have anyone harm her bedmate.
She felt that old ancestral blood within her that she fought so hard against bubble and froth in her veins.
Didn't even simple bugs know that it was wrong to hurt a Wyrm's chosen?
In a fit of rage she shot her needle over and let it notch in the rocks, then leapt to catch Lace, clinging to the crag wall with her companion in tow, retrieving her needle right after. But just as swiftly did the beastfly take flight again. Lace had struck true and it was wounded and bleeding and angry, too angry to die.
It slammed into them both, crushed them against the wall.
Hornet roared in pain. She bled all over Lace, soaking into her silk. The beastfly slammed against them once more. One of Hornet's horns cracked; she spat a fang out. The needle she held was, unintentionally, stabbing into Lace now. From behind her she heard more tarmites appear -- one, two, three. Surrounded, and there was only fire underneath them.
Why had she acted on such brash impulse? She knew better than...
Her back was to the beastfly as she tried to protect Lace. Silk. Spine. Shell. Hornet concentrated. She was half-pale. Everything would know that she was half-pale.
A flurry of silk exploded from her. It whipped and sliced and cut the beasts down in a storm of silk, one wave after another. What was it she had bound from Grand Mother Silk's arm...? Nails, Pale. Her silk took the form of great talons and skewered her foes like meat, and the sound of shrieking and roaring was almost deafening.
Hornet was out of silk. Her glands were empty. The tarmites were dead and the beastfly was grounded again. The wound Lace had inflicted had stretched open and deepened with all its thrashing. But it was not dead. ]
Your pin is worn. Take my needle. Slay it.
[ She tossed Lace down to the beast, and her needle followed behind. ]
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Quickly she slaps her hand over her right shoulder to keep that arm from falling. Guilt begins to seep into her--this had been her fault, hadn't it? Hornet had given her a perfect opportunity to slay the damn thing. The least she could have done is stick to it and not let it buck her off. If not for that, they wouldn't be in this situation.
Then her eyes widened as silk burst from Hornet's shell. What followed was a cacophony of shrieks as shell, meat, mask and wing were all torn asunder.
Incredible.
She lands gracefully down and catches the needle, but doing that means she had to let go of her shoulder and arm, revealing how it's crumpled, and how the arm dangles uncomfortably by a few strands. Thankfully she can use both hands equally. Hornet's needle is awkward to wield, given how she's accustomed to a much lighter and smaller weapon, but with their foe injured as it is she's able to sink it in deep to the already gaping wound.
The creature lets out one final shriek before falling quiet.
She stares at it for a moment before giving it a petulant kick, the fury at herself temporarily transferring to it.]
I understand your disdain for them now. [She muttered.]
jesus hornet. calm down
The Wyrm blood that she had fought with all her life boiled over and out. She succumbed to it. She landed atop the beastfly like it was her trophy and summoned Pale Nails again, her silk quickly replenished. It was dead already, but the silk talons rained down over and over again like hail, stabbing and stabbing and stabbing. Over and over again she summoned that which she had taken from the old monarch of this land, those white nails. This creature was just meat. Hornet was pale.
She was soaking wet with blood by the time she stopped, and she stopped only because the beastfly had been shredded so thoroughly in her rage there was nothing left to stab.
She turned to Lace. Her expression softened. Her horn was still cracked and she bled from the socket where she'd lost a fang, but this was no matter to her -- it would all be fixed next molt. She concerned herself with Lace only. ]
You are hurt. Come.
[ The fur on her neck was puffed and flared, beast-like, like a bug protecting its den. Her mother was the Beast. Was she too, then, not a Beast? She leaned in and licked Lace's cheek apologetically, another spot where her needle had sliced her. Silk came off her Wyrm tongue and mended the scratch. Then she concentrated and prepared to fix the rest of her. ]
oooh myyyy goood GET IT HORNET
Before Lace had known next to nothing about this 'savage beastfly.' Now she was quite knowledgeable of it. Every single organ, muscle and tissue.
Never in all the time that Lace had seen Hornet, whether it was during their confrontations, or when she watched her journey from afar had she seen her act with vitriol.
Lace wasn't happy with the trouble the beast had given them either, after all she had given it a kick of her own, but...surely it didn't warrant that??
If she had a heart it would be thudding right now, though definitely not out of fear.
It's only when Hornet approaches her that Lace wakes up from her fugue, and the faintest hint of color rises to her cheek, but then her expression becomes cross. She drops the needle and grabs Hornet by the cloak, pushing her away a little, staining her good hand in the process.]
Don't be a fool. Heal yourself first!
big fan of lace being both annoyed and very turned on
...What a rush that had been! This strength had lain dormant inside of her since birth. How the Weavers had whispered to her, begged of her a queen. Enough strength to level a kingdom. She kept it contained, leashed, shackled, for a horrible thing it was. But how sweet it felt to give in just once.
Just once.
And how shameful. How brutish.
She was glad nobody else had been around to see this.
Still that sweetness lingered on her tongue. Half sweet, half sour. Was Beasthood not part of her birthright? Was she, nimble flower, stinging needle, not allowed to tap into this terrible part of herself?
Hornet's chest heaved with her breaths. She stank of blood. She was coming down. It pained her to admit, but she should not have caught Lace in the air. Lace would have taken the beastfly's blows, but Hornet only ended up doing more damage to her. She had been aggressive and impulsive, overtaken by that bit of herself that she disliked so, that bit that lusted to stake her claim.
Still...in the end, she had protected her bedmate, and the beast was slain. That was her job. A job that she had done messily and sloppily. ]
I will heal just fine regardless. [ She ran her tongue around her mouth, oozing silk and patching the damage, then with a flick of her claws she sewed her shell up. ]
The rest will be fixed when I molt. But you are hurt.
[ She took another step towards Lace, her fur still ridiculously flared out. Hornet, please get control of yourself and your hormones, thanks. ]
I am sorry that my needle cut into you. [ She leaned in close, letting Lace see the silk on her tongue, on her claws. When Hornet spoke, it was low. ] Allow me to heal you.
she is also a Certified Freak (TM) she just doesn't know it yet
Lace steps forward, not to take Hornet's claw, but to begin plucking viscera from her fur. So much has happened in the time since they left Belhart, all of which have evoked a multitude of very different emotions that now left her feeling so disoriented.
The silk Hornet so brazenly displays is what instinctively draws her, Lace will argue. Never mind the fact that in other circumstances she would have been irritated by this whole debacle reminding her how dependent she is on Hornet for her silk.]
You are not simply saying that?
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She was every bit a warrior as Hornet. Every bit a graceful elegant beast.
She had no regrets that she had protected Lace so.
Though Hornet does regret that, in her violent flurry, so much blood had splashed Lace. So she starts plucking bits of viscera off of her too. The silk under is wet and bright red, often unfurling and popping out in strands, and Lace's arm is horribly injured. But Hornet refuses to heal her without her consent.
So she just looks into Lace's eyes, only a breath away, a strand of silk glistening between her jaws. She wonders if the sight of it -- of her -- ignites anything in Lace at all. ]
I am not. Why is it that you believe me to be a liar so? I gain naught from lying to you, and I have not done so once.
[ If Lace had the eye for it, she would see Hornet's heart pumps so hard it is visible in her chest, even beneath her cloak. ]
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No...you never have. [Which is more than Lace can say. She knows how honest Hornet is, so she's not sure why she so often doubts her intent. At the moment her mind and body are cacophonous--within she still feels the thrill of the battle, the lingering shot of fear when she had seen Hornet go under, the anguish of what she had learned of Phantom, the greater affection stirred to life when Hornet had opened of to her and....
This.
Something that Lace knew shouldn't exist in tandem with some of the other feelings racing through her, and yet it was.]
Fine. Very well, I mean. You may heal me.
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This was her craft.
Silk spiralled and rolled and wrapped, patching her arm back together, stitching where needle had pierced shoulder.
And all the while Hornet thought of what she had done.
What was it about Lace that brought this behavior out in her?
They were primal and base instincts. Hornet thought and proved herself well above them. But when she was around Lace, she struggled to control herself, more and more.
Slowly, it was occurring to Hornet that she was fucking horny.
She had spent countless years without intimacy and affection and then life had dropped this little silk knight into her bed. Now desire hit her all at once, overwhelming, to court, to protect.
She felt shame.
She was not a teenager in puberty and Lace was not her mate. Had she frightened her? ]
Do you recall asking me why I do not desire to be a queen? Why I did not usurp your mother? Here is your answer. This is the nature of the Wyrm laid bare to see. I pride myself on composure, and I have trained long and hard to resist this nature each day of my life. Yet I am no fool. It is always there, never giving me rest. If I took rule, it would end exactly how you have seen.
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If Lace decides to keep going, if she decides to stay by Hornet's side, one day all of Grand Mother Silk's thread will be gone, making her composed only by Hornet.
It's an odd thought. Is it a good one? A bad one? Lace doesn't know and for the moment she has enough going in her mind that she shoves it aside for another day.
She just focuses on what Hornet says, nodding minutely at the question. It had surprised Lace how hard she had worked to find a way to not supplant her mother. Trying to trap her in the Void had been a dangerous play.
It's...hard to imagine Hornet behaving such a way outside of battle. If she had become Queen, Lace would have expected the kindness and compassion she showed to follow through, but if Hornet believes this base nature would have followed....
Yes.
Lace can understand why she would do anything to avoid that. If Hornet had become Queen and unleashed that level of violence on regular pilgrims, even Lace doesn't think she could stand by, uncaring. Then she might fear her, if hatred didn't didn't subsume all else.
Lace touches Hornet gently on the cheek.]
Most would not care. [Especially not those from the pale caste] That you do is noble.
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Hornet's fur puffed again. She forced it to relax. It flattened and she kept her breath even and still. She had to calm down.
Why did Lace not taunt her and tease her? Mocking would be so much simpler than...this. Hornet had given her a wealth of material to work with.
As she fixes Lace up the question of the blood she is soaked with becomes unavoidable. Lace is stained. By Hornet's blood, by the beastfly and its summons. This would not wash out and even if it would, by the time they reach water it will be too late. If only Hornet had behaved herself this wouldn't have become such a massive problem. ]
Lace, you are stained. I can...I can tear --...I can remove it with my claws, or my teeth. And replace the silk after.
[ Fur puff. Why. Why. Why. Just as she's trying to calm herself. She wills it to go flat again. No. Quiet, elegant. ]
If you wish.
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Perhaps there is something wrong with her because she's certain most bugs would not react the way she did at that offer.
Yet she did not care. This was desire. Lace understood that. It was simple, it was easy, and right now she kew she desired Hornet. Calm, riled up, gentle rough, painful or pleasurable, it didn't matter to her so long as it came from Hornet.
My, my, little spider, are you hungry?
[Lace stretches out her newly formed arm. It was stiff, and a little slow to move, but that was normal and expected. She'd break it in soon enough. It seems she would also find out much sooner than later what it would be like to be mostly composed of Hornet's silk. In the past whenever she had been stained she'd just wait for the silk to naturally fray and fall off, and it had certainly never been this bad. That was a process that could take weeks, sometimes even months.
Her new hand came to join the first in cupping Hornet's face.]
While I would admittedly love to see Pavo's reaction to my state, I suppose giving him a heart attack would be rather cruel.
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Lace's voice goes straight to her brain like a pick. Like ice. Electricity shoots up Hornet's spine.
This was wrong. Was this not wrong? Hornet had naught but distaste for these...monstrous elements of herself.
Lace seemed to enjoy them. ]
If he saw you, he would understand why I lost myself as I did. Why anything that touched you I had to destroy, and not merely kill.
[ She's going to do this, then. Lace's other arm first. Hornet takes her hand off her face and stretches the limb out. She leans in. Slow. So slowly.
Her jaws split open.
How many times had she thought of just ripping and tearing into Lace? She knew Lace would like it too. She always knew.
She leaned in to bite.
She stopped. ]
Lace.
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Surprise flickered on Lace's expression for a moment before becoming one of anticipation when Hornet takes ahold of her arm and begins to lean in.
Color suffuses her cheeks and she closes her eyes, wanting to focus on the sensation to come. When it doesn't she opens an eye to give Hornet a surly look.]
What? Why do you delay so? You have my permission.
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You are flushing.
[ Lace's arm was red from the shoulder down. It would all have to go. She lowered her mouth again, jaws parted, teeth glimmering. She ignored the fact that they were dripping saliva. This was just to help Lace and nothing else.
She sunk right into Lace's silk as if her fangs were hot knives. A little flick of her head and Lace tore and ripped apart in Hornet's mouth, so easily it made a sound.
Hornet stood there, stupidly aroused, gazing up at Lace's face, silk in her mouth.
And this was just her first test. ]
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lace ran off with this tag i am sorry LOL
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