In Dire Straits - Here’s looking at you, kid [Shuck]

Rewind a few frames. More than that, keep going. A day, maybe half a day, before she finds out what it looks like when sharp teeth cross paths with a soft blind eye. Today isn’t the day she meets the eye. Today is the day she meets those teeth.

The princess was glaring upward, her face scrunched with frustration and desire. She stood on her hind legs, kept one paw braced against the tree trunk she was accosting, and s t r e t c h e d the other one up as far as it might reach. A fat cluster of berries, ripe and juicy and ready for the plucking, was the out-of-reach treasure that had stolen her greedy eye. She could barely even give it a swat.

She wasn’t even that hungry, just a bit peckish before one of her caretakers brought home something delicious for supper — it was the audacity of the universe refusing to give her what she wanted that ailed her so! The sheer nerve! Now she HAD to have them! Princesses should never want for a snack. If only she loomed tall, like massive Trice...

“Your queen commands you to drop down.”

The berries, of course, had nothing to say to that. Or literally anything else. Because. They were berries. Doli glanced behind her at the sound of paws, brow furrowing at the foreign smell, and tossed out a blithe request in Shuck’s direction.

“Hey, you. Gem kid. Help me get these berries?”

She might even think about sharing them! Wouldn’t Haven be proud of her resourcefulness, her dazzling generosity, the way she interacted with her subjects?

(All the world was Inaria’s subject, far as Doli was concerned.)

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#317873

The warpath would ensue, after all, Shuck was just being a nice gal trying to PROTECT everyone from that long haired freaky motherfucker. There would be a lot of tears, but that was just a means to an end, she didn't give a fuck who she hurt, they were in her way. Testing her patience, some of them got one warning and someone of them got none. She couldn't be blamed for their lack of proper answers, and it wasn't really bad of her to take delight in her work, right? Naaaah, it was fine, hell, she had already rationalized that it was fine.

Shuck had a pretty good system going for her, tearing into the any and everyone who she came across just so she didn't have to remember names or faces, none of them mattered, all of them were forgettable, expendable.

It's by some unfortunate chance that a meeting like this would occur. A voice was what drew her in, but Shuck would've just said she was walking and just happened upon this nobody. Eyes falling onto a kid, brow raising when the girl finally turned. What? She gave a derisive snort, lip curling in disinterest as she moved closer.

Had she got this one yet? All the people here looked the same, colors and faces sorta blended together, wild eyes flickered and simmered in a pool of golden red and amber. Gem kid? It made her pause, eyeing the girl suspiciously. Who the fuck told her about Quartz? Leave it to Shuck for misconstruing an entire situation by two simple words. Then again, the kid didn't know what the fuck was the name of the place she lived, and honestly she didn't care. She had a fair bit of height on the kid, that's unfair, probably older than her too. "Nah, fuck no." She spat simply, eyes looking from the berries and back down to the kid.

"I don't know what you FUCKING HEARD... BUT I DIDN'T DO SHIT, OKAY?!" Temper flared, and the storm would brew again with swirling clouds that hid away in her chest, the beast rolled, and Shuck moved closer. "SHE HAD IT FUCKING COMING, OKAY?! SHE HAD IT FUCKING COMING!!! I TOLD HER TO STOP AND HER STUPID FUCKING GEM KEPT SAYING SHIT ABOUT ME!!!!" Quartz betrayed her and she paid for it, the stormy girl seemed to be breathing heavier now, pupils shrinking as she closed the last bit of distance between the poor girl and herself.

There was a light foam that began to collect at the sides of her mouth, worked up by agitation, chest rattled with a hum, and that voice would whisper soon. Red, red, red. It was always red. "YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT, SHE WAS BAD, SHE WAS FUCKING BAD OKAY!? SO I FUCKING, I FUCKING!!!" You killed her, kiddo. Teeth bared, spittle cascaded in thin strands from her opened jaw. "I FUCKING DROPPED THE LYING BITCH!!!" Kiddo, no fucking witnesses, NO FUCKING WITNESSES, YOU FUCKING HEAR ME?! "SO TELL ME, HOW THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW?!" She lunged to roughly shove the other girl, once, twice, three times if the other kid didn't move. Hey Doli, are you uh, are you ready to roll for initiative?

Pareidolia’s snout twisted in an contemptuous expression that was part sneer and part scowl. It didn’t expose teeth, it didn’t accompany a growl — she was not rabidly eager for a fight, like this child pirate — but it let the receiver know very clearly what she thought of her shitty response.

“Fine,” came the disdainful sniff, “then you can go be rude and ugly somewhere else.” Bye, bitch.

And she turned, more than content to just let Shuck direct the rest of her little tirade to her royal derrière. Well, more than content until the other girl seemed to pick her request down to the roots of the casual words chosen, hunting for insults and challenges like most wolves hunt game. The princess bristled irritably, not quite seeing the danger inherent in this brazen approach, in the ranting and raving, even if she did sense it unconsciously.

“I said go away.” Her chest swelled with righteous anger at the injustice of this. She looked Shuck right between her eyes, bold and fearless, like a viper coiled and cornered in its den. Her teeth were sharp, too. And they burned with venom passed down from her father’s side. “I’m princess here. It’s my home, not yours. You’re just crazy and you don’t scare me one bit.”

That was a lie. Only idiots and madmen felt no fear in the face of a true threat to their persons. Doli however felt an alarm bell exerting steady pressure in the back of her mind. But what sort of queen backed down from a fight? Queens have to battle other queens to keep and protect what was theirs. She’d never been in a fight, not a real one, nothing even close, but this flush, this feeling — it was boiling deep in the acids of her belly, keeping pace with her heartbeat —

pride. hubris. dignity, at stake.

She wouldn’t back down. Not when Shuck started to froth at the mouth. Not when she closed the distance between the two. When the pirate girl shoved her, moved in to do it again and again, she might get a little surprise from the fervor in which Pareidolia would suddenly shove her back, deliberately harder, and snap a nasty warning.

“Don’t you touch me!”

#317873

There were some people in this world that didn't listen to reason, that pushed and pushed and pushed, until the world gave way before them. Those around them were meaningless faces, forgettable strangers. Granted, Shuck's circle was small to begin with, it took up a great deal of loyalty slots. There was no consequence here, because that was far away back at home, and locked away in a den, and even then it didn't matter. Nothing in this place mattered.

So when child spoke back, 'I'm princess here' 'This is my home' 'Don't you touch me', Shuck's brows knitted together as she staggered back from the shove. That slow forming sneer pulling her lips upwards, and her body shook. It was the beast that howled with laughter first, an all consuming cacophony of noise that only she would hear. But, the stormy female would soon find herself mimicking the noise, though not quite as discordant. Tell this kid what they really are, tell this little BITCH, kiddo! "You're a FUCKING NOBODY!" It was spat venomously between chuckles. "ANY FUCKING WHERE THAT I AM, ANY FUCKING THING THAT CAN BE TAKEN IS MINE. THERE'S NOTHING IN THIS WORLD THAT AIN'T MINE!" Jaws much too wide, the grin had too much teeth and gum to it.

"YOU'LL DIE A FUCKING NOBODY!! BUT AT LEAST YOU'LL HAVE BEEN KILLED BY ME!" A somebody. In this world rank did not matter, and this was going to be the Inarian princess's first (Shuck voice: last) lesson in that. The stormy youth surged forward in an instant, movements as erratic as a lightning strike, jaws snapping closely at the girls face, right about eye height. However, she changed her mind last second as she attempted to collide her body into the other. In this world not everyone fought fair and gave warnings, hoping the force and speed of her attack was enough to knock the girl back.

Anyone could be a target, teeth sought any bit of flesh just blow the left eye, looking to thrash and chew away at the girl's cheek in a flurry of bites. The neck, kiddo, the neck!! That voice roared in the depths of her mind, but that would have to wait.

Stand up to bullies, they say. Keep your ground and show them you are not afraid. Nobody was going to intimidate the princess in her own home, especially not some foreign thug who seemed to have some sort of love affair with the word fuck. But — some bullies were not intimidated, either. Some of them just escalated.

Shuck’s laughter drilled into her temples like needles, a cruel and raucous sound that seemed to mock everything Pareidolia was, everything she thought at this age that she stood for. Her birthright. Her family. Her kingdom. Even her body, a public portrait ripe for desecration, a target and a bullet point in the pirate girl’s growing list of crimes. That was all Doli was to her, just a breakable and disposable bit of trash.

A nobody.

“Liar!” she howled, eyes bright and furious, tail flagging. Now she showed her teeth. She could not remember ever in her life being so angry. “Everything here is MINE! You’re less than nobody, you’re no one at all, y-you—”

Nobody in the world would blame her for it. But there were consequences to placing power in the emotionally volatile hands of a child, and if Shuck hadn’t picked right then to bowl into her, sending both girls tumbling headlong down a hill...

“— I’ll kill you first! GUARDS!!”

... well, hopefully that was just talk. Heat-of-the-moment talk. Flirting-with-a-civil-war talk.

Doli’s hips smacked the tree as they went rolling. It actually knocked the berries down. Probably made some squirrel’s day. Sharp points dug into the tender skin beneath her eye, biting her, how DARE you bite me, and her fury was countered with a sudden sense of panic that betrayed her with a shrill, embarrassing yelp —

Her godfather’s voice, a spider on her shoulder, whispering in her ear. Attack what’s soft and tender. Give no quarter, no mercy. Do what you must.

She would.

The impact of the landing broke the two girls apart. It crossed her mind to call for her guards again, but pride gripped her shoulder, told her no. Instead, Doli gave a war cry that surprised even her with its fire and aimed teeth right for Shuck’s groin, the thin piece of skin connecting her flank to her thigh. Movement would be impossible agony. Cassian had accidentally bitten her there once, you see.

I am princess and YOU WILL KNEEL.

#317873

The girl spoke, but Shuck didn't hear, couldn't hear. The musings of a nobody meant little to her, this little girl had to know how much of a piece of literal garbage she was, and luckily good ol Shuck was here to tell her that hard truth. Even if Doli resisted, Shuck would make her realize.

She made contact and as they collided they rolled, something that could be called a grin was plastered upon the youth's face as a hollow laugh that mixed well with a snarl bubbled up from the pit of her throat. The beast screamed bloody murder in already thrumming ears, it wanted all it wanted TO EAT. Though instead, it was met with a sharp intake of air and a snarl of pain as the little burgundy bitch bit into her.

Movement was indeed agony, and Shuck wasn't helping to her own damage as she continuously kicked and scraped her hind leg into Doil's face and neck in a thrash of movements to break the girl off of her. It'd take her a moment to collect her thoughts as a surge of pain echoed throughout her body. Chew, kiddo. FUCKING CHEW. Wild eyes landed their sights on the opening the other kid had left for her, an exposed back.

Shuck wiped like a tornado of teeth, sinking them into the girl's back, grinding and chewing away fur until she'd feel her fangs puncture skin and blood would meet her tongue. Good, GOOD! NOW EAT UP! IT'S FRESH! Shaking her head from side to side as if to rip out a chuck from the kid, she'd gnash her teeth together in an attempt to loosen any skin and if she just so happened to swallow some, well oops?

Her cherished royal composure dissolved all at once in a liquid burst of heat. Even her smooth feminine voice was lost; the princess drooled bloody strings down her chin and vented her racing adrenaline in ugly, harpylike shrieks as she struck and was stricken. Undone and unmasked, dragged down in the mud with the rest of the beasts, her thoughts a whirlwind of survival and outrage and — oh, she would not say it, she’d take it to her grave — fear, Pareidolia was a sight to see.

Perhaps she would hate Shuck for that most of all. The other teenager, this barbarian with no respect or mercy or better sense... she’d pulled the wool from Doli’s eyes and forced a mirror before them. She too could cry and bleed and DIE with the best of them. She too could be filthy, desperate, common... her power meant nothing, absolutely nothing, if someone refused to bow... if they decided that her body, just meat, was sancrosanct as any other chunk of prey...

Shuck battered her beautiful face and shook her away and ripped up her back. Doli screamed and writhed and cursed her opponent.

“Bitch! Get off me, get OFF ME!”

Oh god, what did she do? Godfather, what now? She’s hurting me, it hurts so bad, she won’t stop...

The princess thrashed with the electric strength of panic and pain and wild animal fury. She twisted her body like a trapped snake, wriggling further away with every open-close open-close of Shuck’s jaws, and maybe it would be enough to free her up so that her frantic, seething, snapping teeth could find and lay the pirate’s face open.

Even muffled by flesh, she’d continue to shriek her eerie war cry.