forum Labyrinth: Lost (OPEN for anyone read first page for details!!!!!!!)

Started January 23, 2023 by @Im-just-here-idk-what-life-means group

tune

Sunobi chuckled as she smiled back. "I've got a little more than sparks," he says and his entire left half flashed quickly, then was jumping with sparks, while his right side was surrounded by floating arrows, some tipped in silver, cause werewolves might exist. "Bones, huh? Let's see if this tickles your fancy(Not dirty)." The right side of his head became simply a skull. "Mind the sparks?" he joked, hoping the horrible joke would lighten the panic they were both clearly feeling.

Chirp continued pawing through her bag, enjoying the interaction. She hoped whatever was coming wasn't strong enough to kill her new friend. That would be annoying. She reached towards the bottom of the bag, taking out the skull of a large wolf, as well as some key bones that she couldn't cannibalize from the human body. To a certain extent she could improvise, but sometimes it was just physically impossible.

Holding the parts in her arms she took one last glance with her eyes at her friend, looking slightly impressed at the half skull face, head half cocked to the side as she watched the light show. Finally she paused then smiled a bit more genuinely this time. "You might want to turn around if you're squeamish."

Then without waiting for a response she shifted. In a flash Chirps shape melted off of her, flesh and sinew moving like water. It rippled around the bones, feeling for them by touch instead of sight. The flesh curled around the bones, wrapping on tightly and the fleshy mass began to grow, faster and faster, muscle tightening into thick strands that could support her weight. The outline of four legs, a tail, and a triangular snout started to take shape. Some other bones clattered to the ground by her bag and Chirp used a mass of her self to open a little pouch of fur. She hated actually making it and it was so much easier to do with a base.

The whole grotesque transformation just took a few seconds, the changeling was damn good at what she did. Standing there was a large, nearly 6ft long wolf from nose to tail-tip. It was entirely hairless and then after another second, there was a poof sound, and fur pushed out, the animal shook itelf, taking a few jittering steps, then did a little hop, adjusting to the body and bones. Chirp liked the wolf body, it was large enough to accommodate her human brain, so she didn't need to dumb herself down, and it was fast and strong. She could even keep her human skull tucked away in the stomach in case she needed to shift back quickly. In her jaws, she placed the bones that had fallen in her bag, nosing it shut.

The wolf body was black furred, with silver grey eyes, just like her human form. She'd liked the symmetry of it. A moment of concentration, and she changed her tongue, the voice wasn't entirely the same, but it was lower and huskier, but most definitely Chirps voice.
"How'd I do? Miss any patches of fur?"

"Oh. Wow." He looked her wolven form up and down. "Not bad. You didn't miss anything, no." He thought for a moment. Ground… his mind said. "Let me try something." He knelt and placed his hand on the ground, and pulsed, sending an electric current through the ground. He had covered Chirp's feet in a shield before he did this so she wouldn't get shocked. Yes… Fins his mind said. "Fins?" he said aloud. A whale like creature erupted from the ground behind him, its claws extended ready to attack. Sunobi rolled, and ended up in a corner. "Huh." He zapped the creature but it shook off and came at him again. "Don't make me do it," he said to the creature.

Meanwhile, another one pops up behind Chirp

Chirp preened a bit under the attention. People didn't often get to see her shift and she was particularly proud of this transformation, she lifted her head a bit. Then he knelt and she felt the cool of some other material under her paws than just cold stone. She looked down curiously at the shield, sniffing it. There wasn't anything to smell, but the magic of it made her hackles rise in shivers.

Then the ground shifted, and something came out of the ground. The source of the tremors. It was smaller than she'd thought, only about three feet long and looked a bit like a whale, which would have made her grimace if she had the appropriate mouth. So instead, her lip curled back in a snarl. She was going to shout out a warning when the man rolled away, moving so quickly she had to allocate some more of her brain to sight instead of speech to comprehend it.

But she had her own problems to deal with as she could hear the rumbling, then tearing sound of broken earth and she spun around with a growl to face her own mini-whale. It had sharp teeth and clawlike hands and Chirp was sure her teeth could rip through its flesh. She pounced, trying and failing to pin the thing down, biting and tearing at it where she could. She could tear out big rips out of its side, her fur up and spiky with her excitement in battle. She was grateful for the bodies speed, as it seemed hard for the ground fish to get a good bead on her, she'd rather do lots of small bites than risk damaging this body. She didn't know if she'd be able to absorb whatever this was.

The miniature thing jumped at him again, this time Sunobi stuck his hand out, palm facing the whale. He searched it's mind. Kuusar. Was the only thing it said. "You might not want to watch this." He warned her.

Chirp made a noise in the back of her throat that could be interpreted as a snort. Maybe a scoff. It was strange to see a wolf acting with such human mannerisms, but she didn't have to pretend here. Still, she turned away, making her attention all on her opponent. The whale was wearing down, its breathing labored and the changeling liked to imagine it was starting to look worried.

Sunobi seized the whale in front of him. He turned his palm towards himself and the beast came a little closer. "Let this be the last thing you see before you pass on to the next life, foul creature." He closed his fist violently and the beast crumpled like a can, with a chorus of sickening crunches. He left a bone unbroken, in case Chirp wanted it.

the third Kuusar, which will be twice the size, is going to jump out after Chirp kills the one she's dealing with

Chirp had finally worn down her own creature, listening to it labor for another few heartbeats, when she heard a series of crunches. She winced, her own bones aching reflexively in sympathy. She had nightmares about those sounds. It was part of the reason hers were so reinforced now.

When the sounds stopped she finally fastened her jaws around the whale throat, crunching down with a sharp snap of her jaws. The creature slumped and stopped moving and Chirp released her hold, licking the blood from her jaws. She gave a dogs imitation of a smile to the man, and she couldn't keep her tail from wagging slightly. "That's it? This isn't so bad-"
Just as the words were out of her canine mouth another rumbling came on, shaking the ground beneath her and she had to shift to keep her balance. And another whale came out of the ground, twice the size of the previous ones and if she could guess. Looked furious. Chirp made a low chuckling sound, walking slowly, step by step, carefully over to her friend. "I think mom's madd~"
In the brief pause, she laced up a bite she'd received herself, closing the wound in a second, regrowing the fur a moment later.

"Aye. Shall we?" he asked coyly. He vanished and appeared behind and above the whale and threw a few arrows before teleporting back to Chirp's side. "This should be interesting. I'll follow your lead."

Chirp watched her friend flit about, appearing in the air then disappearing. It finally clicked that that was what had happened when he'd pinned her to the ground. She'd just vaguely assumed that she hadn't been paying attention and he had snuck up on her. The changeling vaguely wondered why he didn't just teleport out, perhaps there was a distance limit.

Chirp glanced out of the side of her eye.
She really should ask him for a name, she couldn't just keep thinking 'friend' or 'the man'. But still. Chirp started working on the wolfs saliva glands, changing some of the make-up switching up the constitution. She wanted her bite to have more sting than normal, and a heartbeat or two on concentration and she could produce acid in those same glands. It burned the wolfs tongue, the whole mouth really, and staying that way without further modifications would have killed a normal animal. She was now a biological hellbeast of a sort, making chemical reactions that shouldn't be possible in a mammal, but with the right nudging and disregard for her form, gave Chirp the kick she was looking for, for this fight.

Chirp just turned the pain off. Some of the saliva dripped from her jaws, hitting the stone floor below with a light 'hiss' sound. "My lead? Mess it up obviously." The words were a little bit more slurred than before, what with the disintegrating tongue, but she could regrow it faster than she spoke, so she only sounded stilted.

She waited another heartbeat, then leaped, going for the whales underside and the soft flesh beneath. But not before giving a cheeky wink to the man next to her and an amused "Whoever kills it has to find out if its edible!"

Sunobi dashed back and forth, teleporting, and striking the beast with bolts of lightning from his hands. To a normal person, they would see a blurred shape flashing by if they could see him at all. However, he felt like the girl could see him a little better, having wolf's gaze and whatnot. He found the challenge odd, as he did not want to eat it. So, he decided to let her kill it, with his help. His hyperanalytical brain told him she was using a venom, but was burning her tongue and she was regenerating it. So, he subtly enhanced her regeneration and physical strength, just enough for her to notice. "Try that." He smiled. He floated up a bit and back about a foot. He did a little spin, summoning a dozen arrows halfway through. Upon facing the beast again, he thrust his hands out and the arrows impaled themselves in the beast.

The beast begins to slow down, its attacks getting more and more reckless as it fights for its life.

Chirp was amused greatly by her friends power, but most things amused her these days. The fight was rough on the body, so she enhanced the size of its lungs, letting her take in more air as she ducked away from one of the whales odd clawed hands. To expand her lungs she had to destroy what was left of the liver and intestines, cannibalizing one of the kidneys for extra space as well and using those bits of flesh to reinforce the legs and neck again.

It was second nature to her by now, changing her shape as easily as other people breathed, so it wouldn't hinder her in a fight. She felt unusually fast and corrected for it, the processing parts of her brain going so fast she had to pause for a moment to think of cooling options to avoid overheating. Her tongue felt more normal as well, she glanced up at the man, doing her best to do a frown with a wolfs face. She assumed it was him, because who else would it be? She gave a sort of grin, the flesh reknitting as fast as the acid could dissolve it.

She appreciated the assist. Chirp wasn't exactly "combat-centric", she preferred literally anything else. But that didn't mean she couldn't have a good time doing it. With her increased strength she pressed in on the creature, it was getting desperate, lashing out more aggressively, trying to keep them off. She briefly sympathized then resumed her attack, tearing into the beasts fleshy flank, ducking back under its bulk as her ally summoned arrows to impale it.

The whale made an awful bellowing noise and Chirps ears went flat against her skull, it began to thrash and the changeling found herself knocked aside briefly. So she bit at it hands.

Getting up was a struggle, but she did it, growling low now and facing the beast. It was an odd sight, a wolf versus a mini-whale about the same size. With a leap, still stronger than what she expected (thanks Sunobi), she was able to clear its height, landing on its back, scrabbling at the top of where its spine should be, tearing with claws and teeth, trying to keep biting it until it stopped moving.

"Would you like to do the honors?" he said, lifting the beast into the air with his mind, completely vulnerable.

Chirp paused, hopping off the beast once it began to move upwards in the air. She glanced at her friend with a surprised expression.
"You don't want to do it? Your loss." She shrugged. Humans were always so weird about eating other things. Like they didn't do it all the time.

She padded over and nipped just gently at the spinal cord she'd exposed, severing the connection to the brain and killing the beast. It was a quick way to go. Chirp walked all around it, sniffing curiously at the mass of whale meat. It wasn't dissolving into thin air, so she turned off her acid, letting her jaw reform without any problems, as well as fixing a lot of her internal organ issues now that she didn't need the space.

The wolf risked a bite and was pleasantly surprised, a mix of earth and a fishy flavor. Not an unpleasant combination. Of course her stomach held her skull, so it was hard to eat, but she absorbed the flesh without issue, taking its nutrients and used it where she saw fit, mostly to patch up any scratches she'd earned. She glanced up.

"You sure you don't want to try?"

"Meh. I could cook it if you wanted." Sunobi knelt. "Just let me know when you're finished." he began floating, eyes closed as he went into a rapid restorative trance. All sound was gone, except for his breathing and a key listener he'd set up for her human voice.

Chirp wrinkled her nose in disgust, cooking the meat removed all of the good parts. It got rid of key bacterial microbiomes, some of which she'd used earlier to make her venom, as long as the meat wasn't infected too much, she could use it. She nosed around the corpses, taking a bite here and there, but she wasn't too interested in eating right now.

She had a vague feeling she'd just finished a meal right before.. She woke up? Chirp sighed softly, walking back over to her bag, doing the same transformation as before, the flesh absorbing and spitting out new bones, until she was human again. She had to use one of her new fully formed arms to grab the arm bone for the other side, reattaching it with care. It took her a while to sort through her new flesh, seeing where it was best to go, how to use it efficiently, and to make sure everything was working properly. She ran through her checklist, then did some stretches.

By the time she was walking back to her friend, her facial features had finally shifted back into place and she gave him a grin, even with his eyes closed. She watched in fascination as he healed, floating off the ground, for a moment she wanted to do that. But then she reminded herself he couldn't turn into a bird.. Could he? He seemed pretty strong.

"I'm done. Does this count as dinner then?" A cheeky smile. She had dimples. "Never caught your name."

"Only if you want. My name is Sunobi, but you can call me Haizu." Can he turn into a bird? he heard in her mind. "I mean, I can, but it's a lot easier to just float." He fell, landing on his feet. "And your name was?"

Chirp blinked a lot in surprise. Haizu/Sunobi landed on the group and seemingly answered a question she'd asked in her mind. She was even more startled now, and slightly annoyed.

"Chirp Romero. Not my Christian name I'm afraid. I'm not supposed to give that one out." She spoke with a light lilt to her voice, cheerful and bright. But she narrowed her eyes at Sunobi, she wasn't a big fan of someone poking around in her mind. She made a secondary brain in her abdomen, changed a few things around essentially it just mentally screamed. A jabbering mess of random words and thoughts and none of it made sense and-

She disengaged her consciousness from it, but attached it to her main brain, trying to hide behind it. No clue if it would work, but it was worth a shot.

"Bad for business, having people know my true name. Names have power." Her smile dimmed slightly, she was dead serious about this one.