#marceggle

[gigglealongshiney-shadow-watcher]

Ohhhhhh, that sounds sickingly splendid! I've been trying to get those effects on my lil' "doctor shots" for a while, if you catch my drift. God, that's a cool concoction.

Marceggle waited for Opal to finish her popsicle before they tapped her arm. "Could you help unload just a little of the stash buggy buddy?"

Opal reached into the pocket space and took out a few baggies and some plastic containers with needles. Marceggle stole drugs from people as often as they killed them.

Which was a lot.

"What do you need? I prefer my own mix up of lovely nirvana. I call it Marcers. Or whatever I come up with that's better. You can have the bottle too, treat yourself. We've got dozens hidden away in Opal's magic storage. I'm always making more." They winked. "This one's special." Marceggle walked out of earshot of Opal. "Some of these are made from my friendly dragonfly over there's pain! It's how we make it. Concentrated agony from humanity. And Tinky's magic and some good old drugs of course."

They excitedly shook the bottle. "But Opal? She's got soooo much agony stuffed into her body! It's like a 90 proof! And it's not just hers, she's got all those other people who used to be part of her head in the hive too. She's a walking distillery! Plus a little bit of that Pokey special flavor? It's great. Everyone at the bar loves her. This stuff sells for a ton if you know how to barter with the Nibbly or Wiggly sniggles. I haven't even tried it on a human yet." They laughed. "But keep it hush hush. My friend doesn't need to know how good their pain tastes. It might make her feel gross. I don't want that."

[stuckinmyweb]

A little girl with dragonfly wings and Pokey's blue in her eye tugs on her web. With her is a Tinky sniggle. She looks like she's been crying, though she always looks that way with the teardrop scars under her eyes.

H-hello? Can I stay with you?

Marceggle offers her some drink, it's alcoholic or similar in nature. Probably not something an 8 year old girl should drink.

She starts to take it.

@gigglealongshiney-shadow-watcher

[Webby carefully intercepts the drink, morphing it into apple juice before handing it back to the girl.]

Of course you may. Who might you be?

[scal-lords-in-black]

Opal steps through the portal and looks around before waving Marceggle in. She looks very healthy, and small, and is holding what looks like a martini in her hand. Marceggle whoops and refills the glass before they chug some of the bottle.

@gigglealongshiney-shadow-watcher

And who do we have here?

[Tinky looks curiously at the two]

[john-macnamara]

Please please please don't be here John please.

Opal crept into the medical clinic and looked around for anything that looked like a hand. Trashcans? Nothing, drawers? Nothing, cabinets and under the chairs? Nothing.

Same with every other individual area.

Nothing in the experiment wing.

Marceggle wasn't having much luck either.

Both of them forgot about the security cameras.

(If you wanna maybe @ someone still in the building or have john alerted, or whatever, up to you.)

@gigglealongshiney-shadow-watcher

[Luckily for them, there’s no one watching where they’re headed. Unluckily for them, there’s no hand. The security cameras blink red, watching their every move]

[gigglealongshiney-shadow-watcher]

Necessary.

Christine turned at the tone in the air. A leader was calling her. The short woman turned to find it. She broke from her previous instruction to follow the unbroken notes.

This part of the city was empty, they had cleared the houses on their way through and were getting ready for a counterstrike against the incoming military. Christine dance-walked in the middle of the street and returned the call with her own.

Come closer, I need you for something. It said.

A small girl came from the side of an alleyway, still singing. She didn't recognize this leader. Never disobey your leader. They came together in the halfway point. The leader's shoes had sharp points sticking out under the soles. She stood at attention.

Through the hive she reached out to her leader. What do you need me for?

Closer, you need to be closer, come close now. Never doubt, never resist.

Christine stood inches away from her leader and bent down to meet her eyes. Is this better?

The leader didn't answer her and instead changed her song from a Call to a Directing Hum. Dance with me, you should want to dance with me now and forever.

The Directions are clear. Christine happily hums her acceptance of the command. Of course. What is our dance?

Let our hearts beat together! Listen to the music around you! Follow me, follow my lead, listen to me, take my hand and do not think. Do not think. Do not think. She touched the palm of her hand to Christine's forehead and repeated the instructions, swaying into the start of her dance.

Thoughts faded away under the warmth of easy commands to follow. Leader took them in circles, around and around, steps in sync, legs raising, then lowering, up and down. Like the tides on the shoreline, they moved back and forth.

Don't think about anything else. Don't see anything else. Shut your eyes to the world. Only me, only you, only us. Do not feel anything but the song.

It was good to listen, and she was rewarded for every correct movement, and for every bit of awareness she lost. Sinking deep into the hive was the right thing to do. The dance could go on for years with no changes in her.

What is your name? Say it with your voice.

"Christine."

The leader looked into her eyes. She could see only her leader. Weightlessness enveloped her body and she was unable to process the regret in her leader's eyes.

"Christine..." The leader suddenly dipped her low. "I'm sorry."

Opal finished the dip 72 feet in the air,

and

down

she

fell.

(Warnings for graphic descriptions of dissection, religious imagery, cannibalism, violence, referenced child harm, self harm, disturbing imagery, limb regrowth)

Christine was still locked into the thoughtless obedience she'd been instructed to enter and couldn't feel the fear of plummeting from the sky. Opal didn't let her suffer. She couldn't see the stars that sparkled cruelly above her, closer than they'd ever been in her life, and rapidly moving away from her with every passing millisecond. The waxing gibbous was blocked out suddenly. Opal came down far faster than she could fall, and feet-first, the visage of a diving wasp, severed Christine's head from her body. Dead long before she hit the ground.

Opal seized the falling corpse and stabbed into it with her pointed feet. She wildly kicked it and tore holes in its torso, and fabric fell away and floated down far slower. It was in the way. Out of it gushed blue blood that she quickly folded the body to avoid losing more of as they descended.

Opal laid the body once named Christine down and pulled her knives free of her shoes. She felt less guilty when she used her feet to take off the head. She didn't let herself consider why, she just used it to try and lessen the awful feeling in her chest. Opal cut away swaths of the body's skin and muscles carefully and set them into a neat pile to collect later.

Once she had the flesh out of the way, she reached in and snapped the rib-cage open and placed the bones next to the swaths. They broke easily in Opal's grip, and the organs floated into the main body. The hive didn't need intestines because they never ate, so those were often removed or simply never healed back until the cavity was empty. Unlike a human, these were useless. They were only there as remnants of the once human body.

She stuck her hand into the flayed torso and submerged it into the freezing cold liquid that should've boiled her hand in retaliation for the evil she'd just committed.

She watched the glow begin to fade and dull with every passing minute since her death. It was too reflective for what it was, and she saw the glitter of stars and the moon shine up from the body. The Hive came from out of this world, even when contained in Earthly bodies. She would not let this go to waste.

Opal pulled her hand out slowly and let it pour back into the pool until the stream became the occasional drip. Under the goo she could feel her hand absorbing it, anticipation buzzing under her skin. All the little cuts and bruises and pains she'd gained smoothed out and healed with an icy hot feeling of rightness. It spread down her arm, fading the farther it got.

It was always the fading feeling that drove her to the final preparations. That maddening sense that she needed more, and that she wouldn't be complete until she'd consumed it.

She needed it.

Opal closed her eyes and spoke solemnly, like the preachers she shared memories with once. "Thank you Christine, for your sacrifice to continue my life. Your name will always be held close to the heart that you keep beating with your blood. May you be free of the hive in the afterlife, if there is one, and let the joy you felt in your last moments carry on forever."

Just eating with her hand for the first moments was too disrespectful, so Opal scraped off some of it with the knife, holding it in her teeth. It didn't matter if she cut her hand because it immediately healed with another burst of beautiful ice and fire. Taking it out of her mouth with her hand, she looked at it. She took a deep breath, thanked her savior for their body again, and stuck the knife in her mouth.

Immediately her voice kicked to life with an uncontrollable song. She ignored her own sounds and let the ice wash into her. It wasn't enough to do more than soothe the lingering ache of her panicked screaming in the hallway.

More.

Opal licked as much as she could off her hand until it was simply blue stained skin instead. She knew what to do. Taking another handful and drinking the excess, she rubbed at the open hole in her arm carefully.

The buzz rose too fast, there was too much to fix to be slow. Fix, fix it now, heal now, fix heal fix it now- Opal lost her composure in the sudden onslaught of need to get her hand back, and plunged the stump into the body with enough force for some of it to spill over the sides.

Her entire body shook with the familiar feeling of regrowth. This wasn't the first time or that last she'd need to get limbs back. She cupped the blue in her good hand and drank while she watched her hand form.

Blue bones growing like tree roots weaved their way in place, with the beginnings of sinew and muscle stretching spider webs between her fingers. It was mesmerizing to watch happen, and Opal could feel everything the new hand did. It connected to her brain and she let her other arm go limp as euphoria came over her.

The hand crackled and sparked with magic and heat that immediately met the freezing cold of the blue, creating steam and melting the flesh again and again until it would perfectly meld with her left arm. It shook with energy and that icy hot healing crept up into every ache and sting and cut she'd been subjected to up to her shoulder. The sound was sickening and visceral to anyone but Opal. She sang to the rhythm of the growth and waved her arms around, still perched on the body. She whooped with joy and clapped, turning to Marceggle and laughing. "Look!" They watched her with a fascinated excitement and pumped their arm in the air.

"Fuck yeah! Let 'em have it you funky bug! You're hardcore as shit!"

Opal grinned and rubbed her hands together, basically lathering them in blue. "Thank you for not hating me." That put a damper on her joy, and she looked at the body she was sitting on the legs of. "...Thank you."

"Hey now, don't let your broken head bring you down! Enjoy yourself Opal, you deserve a little fun. This is healthier than holding back all the time, I promise." Marceggle called encouragingly.

Opal took a deep breath, which was something Christine hadn't been able to do in years. She never would. Of course, she should be respectful to the body. This wasn't a funny game she could just laugh about. Still, as she focused on continuing the ritual, a smile stayed on her face.

With her hand complete, she leaned over the body and cupped the liquid in her hands, and brought it to her mouth to drink. It would take time, but she was diligent.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The frailty that Marceggle hadn't even noticed was gone. Her muscles were bigger and more full. Nothing too strange for a child, but she practically looked invincible compared to her previous look. Her legs looked sturdier and thicker. The arms had more flesh on them. Her hands weren't so bony and twitchy, like she was about to grab someone's neck. (Or how it looked to Marceggle). Opal had been wasting away, and only Paradise and Shiney would have known.

Her friend looked on and watched with a sickly form of fascination as the tiny child grew back a healthy form in real time. Her cheeks filled out, and her face returned to a more childish roundness. Had anyone even noticed her face was pretty gaunt for a little girl? Her hair shimmered with a blue sheen and looked more like a doll's hair with how perfect it was.

Her eyes were both a powerfully glowing blue, but Opal wasn't part of the hive. She was a parasite, feeding off the blue liquid necessary for her survival. She dug into the open chest of whoever this lady was again, and pulled out what looked like a solid, blue rock version of a liver. Opal bit through the bottom and spit out the bit of blue rock. Goo poured out of the thing and she drank from it like a canteen. Then she turned it upside down and pulled out actual real bottles. Each one she filled went behind her back again and into hammerspace.

Between gulps and bites, a sickening song warbled out of her mouth. It was off-key and out of tune. It sounded like a talker toy's last moments as the batteries died, and the voice got more and more fucked up. As if Opal or the hive or the goop itself was trying to reject what was happening.

She repeated the process with more of the facsimiles of organs. Opal would drink, fill up the bottles, and place the mostly empty organ rock to the side. Both lungs had enough to last her quite some time.

Opal still didn't stop. She emptied the body of everything she could and bottled it up. Once she finished the chest, she sliced open the limbs and stuck a thin tube into the hole and drained them into the bottles.

Tears dripped down her face, but she had a faint smile too. Marceggle just held her bag out of the way of any splatter. It was terrible, and absolutely beautiful to them. A twisted act of kindness to keep as little of her kill from going to waste as possible. The more she got now, the longer it would be before she had to kill again.

They watched from the song trap to the deadly dance into the sky, and all the way to her slicing this thing's head off with her pointed stinger. It was a display of cruelty that made them a little teary-eyed themself. Tinky would be so proud of her. They hoped some of the feral, wild animal tearing open of the body from the start was inspired by Marceggle's influence. They couldn't have been happier for her, embracing her inner monster like this. A true Spawn of the Black in their eyes!

Opal sat back on her haunches and looked over her handiwork. There was a cracking sound as her hands pressed against the ground to the sides of the body and she stretched her back into the air with a groan. Up she went, more joints cracking and more limbs shaking. A satisfied noises cut off the weird song and she stretched herself out.

"Are you done now?"

Opal cracked her jaw and felt her left arm. "I need to bury her...and do one more thing. You might want to look away." Out of her hammerspace she pulled out a cloth and tied it around her elbow as tightly as she could. "I need to do it while I'm still unable to feel pain." She pulled out a bowl and mixed something clear into it with some of the left over blue. With her knife she cut a slit in her arm and started sucking the blue out out of her arm.

"What are you doing?"

"Making sure it won't heal more than I want it to."

Once the arm was sufficiently empty, she pulled out a few carving tools. With one last glance at her friend, she started to carve and shape scars into her arm. Marceggle watched her cut vine and flower patterns with tools varying in thickness.

Opal didn't flinch once, and instead reached into the bowl and slathered the clear stuff all over her arm. "This makes the scars stay in place after I heal the ugly bits. Like a sealant. They're gonna be pretty blue flowers all over my arm."

Marceggle clapped. "You tattoo yourself with knifes? Metal. How come you didn't have any of that before?"

"I...Wanted to remember today every time I look to my left. It's what Christine would've wanted. This way I'll look extra pretty in honor of her." She paused. "Should I add a J to remind myself to steer clear of him?"

"Nah, that's like getting a tattoo of your ex. Lame."

"...Ok. You promise you don't hate me for everything I did? I know it's disgusting and wrong and-"

They cut her off and sat next to her. "You kidding? That was the most brutal thing I've ever seen you do. My respect just skyrocketed for you. Opal, you are a little buggy beast!"

Opal...looked sad for some forsaken reason. "We need to bury her properly. Can you help me dig into that grass strip over there while I collect her?" She untied the cloth and rubbed the 'blood' back into her arm.

"Yeah sure."

Marceggle turned to start digging while Opal carefully replaced all the fake organs into the hollowed out chest cavity and stacked the swaths of skin over them. "The body will never rot, so she needs to have as much of her together as she can." Opal explained, smearing some Pokey goo across a skin piece. She drew a C on it and set it on the top of the pile before carrying the body to the hole. "Humans used to do things like this, with royalty in the desert I think. They put the guts in jars and made sure they'd get saved for years and years. I don't have any special jars so I just try to put them back in nicely."

Into the hole she went, and under the dirt she was buried. Opal pulled a wooden sign from behind her back and carved the name Christine into it. She stuck it where her head would've been. "There. Now she gets a person burial like she deserves. She took my place in the ground, and so she gets the ceremony I would've wanted. Like Phillip, she can be treated like the human she never got to die as."

They looked at the grave together, and Opal took her friend's hand. "...Marceggle? Would you be bored if we went somewhere quiet for me to sleep until the time of mourning is done? It'll be a few hours."

"Yeah, I'd be bored as shit." They smacked her on the back. "We'll meet up once you're done, kay? Just drop me off at the bar on the way."

Opal nodded and rubbed where her wing had been hit. "Of course, I don't want to force you to stay when I won't be awake... Let's go."

"Good, because watching people sleep is crazy boring." Marceggle waved goodbye to their friend. "See you soon, you batshit dragonfly!"

"...Goodbye!"

Opal curled up on her favorite spot on a distant beach. Far away from Hatchetfield, on the coast of the Saud beach, was a wide hammock with some sandy pillows sitting on it. Here, the waves could wash away her feelings, and the tides could pull all the music out of her head. It was quiet here, but not too quiet. The beach was its own instrument that lulled her to a tear stained sleep.

It was finished.

[gigglealongshiney-shadow-watcher]

"Good morning Market." A familiar woman was sitting on Opal's left.

Opal grunted in confusion and pushed herself the other way, bumping into yet another person.

"It's alright, it's just Janet and I." Balis? How was he here?

Opal felt around for a hand and took it. "What's going on?"

Janet massaged her hand and pulled her to sit on the edge of the large wooden footstool. "We were going to ask you that. Did you perhaps dream about us?"

Opal was still tired and the haze of pain was worse than ever. "No, I didn't dream."

"Well, you opened a portal and we came through."

Opal groaned and pushed herself free to dramatically fall on the floor. "ANOTHER THING WRONG WITH ME NOW?"

[gigglealongshiney-shadow-watcher]

Hey there! I was reading back on this blog and I have a question.

If Opal's wings are so sensitive, how was she able to hide them under a big coat?

Grounded opal:

"It's a bit of magic I figured out. Gigs gave me the ability to wear clothes by making my wings incorporeal when my intent is to put on a shirt or something of that sort. So where the fabric is, the wing isn't able to feel. I tricked the magic into allowing me to keep them covered."

She sighed and looked at her friend, who groaned and clutched their chest. Opal frowned. "But...there isn't much point to that. I can't get people to like me as a human very well." She put on a brave face. "I won't give up! I'm going to be human again. I'll be close enough, and they'll accept me! I just need to work a little harder and humanity will like me again."

[gigglealongshiney-shadow-watcher]

"How did we get here if she's sleeping then?"

"I dunno! She's never done this before but I was right next to her and she's still out for the count."

"That's worrying... but at least we can give her a welcome surprise, isn't that right?"

"I'd love to see her when she wakes up."

"It's been months on our side of the coin, I really missed her cute little smile."

"Me too, I even learned a few dance moves."

"Well, pick a seat. We have plenty, Twitch, if you could watch her, I need to find the book."

[gigglealongshiney-shadow-watcher]

Thank ya, Narrative! This'll be helpful for some...inspiration. MacNamera's gonna go through hell and back tomorrow! Cheers!

"Cheers! I cannot wait~ so what's your plans for today then?"

[gigglealongshiney-shadow-watcher]

Heyyyy! Small question 'bout the Johnny thing; what did he do to Gem? Specially? Karma ain't no bitch, but the ones who bring it are. I want some good old fashioned fun, but hey; some reactions and reminders of roaring torture might do him some good.

Marceggle gestured to the girl. "Well let's see. Trauma is one thing. She's down an arm and the wound won't close, so we taped a plastic bag around it so the blood collects in there. She's just drinking it from the bag to put it back in her body. Yes that's how it works for Opal. She's full of Pokey goop for blood and absorbs it back."

Opal was staring at herself in the mirror and softly crying.

"Right now shes lost an eye, so she's half blind. We just took the bandages off her good eye because it started bleeding for some reason too. So she's now half blind instead of full blind. She got knives in her body, she got kinda tossed at a building, she was this giant limb growing monster when it happened idk what she looked like. It's really weird. She's super off balance and keeps holding my hand."

Marceggle shrugged. "Lots of problems. But hey. Save the arm stuff for me. If Opally there is too scared to go near him, I want to get that revenge. You can mangle it, but let me do the cutting another time~."

There's more but I'm super scatterbrained atm.

[gigglealongshiney-shadow-watcher]

(Druggy's here! Like, with em! But they don't really have a physical form yet. :D)

(Oh that makes sense. Why is Druggy coming into the room?)

Marceggle looked around for the watcher and remembered he didn't have a body. "Heyy"

[gigglealongshiney-shadow-watcher]

...Hm. I'm blaming you for being so convincing; why not?

"Opal said something about us having like, a universe aura or something. Some of the Watchers can see it. Just uhhhmn." They'd already had another bottle earlier. "Follow mine back home."

[gigglealongshiney-shadow-watcher]

Well, aren't you just a fun little salesman. I might just try my luck. Sounds like a great opportunity, both sides.

"Yup! I doubt we'd be a drag! Not everyone is like me, but we all have our touch of the madness that keeps things fun! Some of us have a chokehokd of it!" They laughed. "It's up to you."

[gigglealongshiney-shadow-watcher]

Making some deals with the Lords has been on my mind for a bit, but I dunno. If anything, I don't wanna be fucked over. But y'know, you seem like a perfect party guy, and maybe I might go through with my thinkings. After all, what's to hurt?

[Glug, glug.]

"Well you don't hafta to make an official dealll :)." They took a seat on a nearby couch. "You can always act as a business partner. On the scene testing, ideas, maybe a little contract work? You sound like a great dude. We can always use fresh ideas and a rubber not-face. You're a mixer of the magic too, so I can see you bringingbin some gooooood shit. We can give you so much access."

They sounded casual, but...also clearly understood a convincing pitch. "Tinky is a little particular sometimes about who takes a real deal. It goes two ways sometimes. You don't want to be stuck in a request you can't refuse, or some dickhead who decides to pull some kind of technicality out of their ass. He doesn't need that many new Followers. He needs new ideas. New ways to keep that spark of suffering that keeps the world spinning as fabulous as when it started."

[gigglealongshiney-shadow-watcher]

Probably, yeah. Hold up.

[Glug, glug, glug, glug.]

...fuck, that's good.

Marceggle took a long drink. The yellow in their eyes saturated. "Sure is."

[gigglealongshiney-shadow-watcher]

Top tinkerer's? Gee, you sure got a pretty rank there. Deserved.

And, yeah, I'm immortal. But not in the sense of "Everything that's broken can heal," but in the "I'm stretchy like rubber." Couldn't get a droppa blood if they tried. And I am gonna try those, they sound sick!

Marceggle proudly makes a 'cheers' motion. "You said it. The big man likes me, and I take my loyalty seriously." There wasn't a hint of a joke in that. Despite their appearance and seeming outlook on life. "Rubber huh? Fun. Oooh that gets me excited. You can probably drink this stuff no problem then."