Suffocating
May. 1st, 2024 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vindolettaPrompt: tentacles in unexpected places
Dr. Mayer was the one in charge of showing the ropes to Bill today. She was the reason why Bill had decided to apply for a scholarship on the Center for the Study of Alien and Transdimensional Species, and so far his (nerdy!, very much platonic!) crush on her had only intensified with every interaction. Dr Mayer was not just a walking library of knowledge related to her field of study, she showed kindness and patience whenever Bill inevitably fumbled up, her style was quirky and fun, and she had let him pet a manticore on his first week there. What was not to like?
"And these are the eldritch. The specimens we have here are small, but the ones inhabiting the interstitial non-space between dimensions can reach gigantic sizes."
"They kind of resemble jellyfish or octopi..." Bill was fascinated by the ghostly beings that seemed to float in the air of the tank.
"They do, don't they? And just as jellyfish, they aren't really one single being, but several. The exact number is still a debate subject - the number of symbiotic beings forming a single unit has been found to be variable. Exciting stuff!"
Bill made a noise of agreement. Suddenly, something beeped in Dr. Mayer's pocket. She took out a gadget with a screen with a notification that flashed a single word, "Warning!"
"Huh, that's strange... Hey, Bill, are you alright with waiting here for a moment? I'm going to go ask Chris quickly about this. There seems to be something wrong with the alert system."
"Uh, yeah, sure," he said, stepping out of her way.
"I'll be back soon!" she said even as she was hurried away.
Suddenly alone in the interdimensional beings's zone, he put his hands on his pockets just to have something to do. The sinuous movement of the eldritch caught his eye. They were as eerie as they were beautiful... Yes... They were captivating.
He ambled closer to the tank, observing them up close. Bill noted they varied in size and in shape and number of tentacles, but all of them had translucid bodies, with dim blue spots in some cases.
Bill continued on to the next enclosure, where a blurry shape faded in and out of the space it occupied. He couldn't quite make out what being it was, but it was obvious it'd be pointless to try and keep this one on a closed tank. He was going to keep walking to the next one, but a deafening screech made him cover his ears and turn around. An eldritch was being ripped apart!
"Hey! Drop it!" He shouted at the teleporting being that he could now see was a liminal bane, a predator of interdimensional creatures. He vaulted over the warding seals that prevented it from interacting with their dimension and tried to pry the eldritch from its multiple jaws. "I said leave it!"
The eldritch kept shrieking, the liminal bane snarled and gnashed its teeth, and Bill continued pulling the tentacles from the bane's jaws and shouting. With one final yank, he was able to wrench it free at last. Bill wasted no time putting distance between him and the bane, but it teleported right in front of him.
"Shit."
What followed was a deadly game of tag between the bane and Bill, where he dodged left and right to avoid its mandibles while the bane would try to have a double snack, all set to the deafening screeches of the eldritch. The uncanny creature had clasped all of its limbs around Bill's shoulder and was clinging to it for dear life.
Bill soon realized the monumental mistake he had made - the liminal bane kept teleporting in front of him and at his back, keeping him on a swivel to anticipate its next assault. He was tiring, quickly. Meanwhile it showed no signs of slowing down.
The next couple of attacks swiped way too close to his head. He backed away, trying to keep the bane on his sight. The wards had to be near, they had to be, he had tried to dodge closer and closer to them...!
Unexpectedly, the arm-wrenching pressure on his shoulder lifted. Bill had only a second to register the dim blue blotch on the corner of his eye before something strong, long, fleshy tentacles clamped around Bill's face and forcibly opened his mouth.
"Mmngph-?"
Bill's cry of surprise was muffled when the tips of the appendages entered his mouth. At the same time, others were frantically feeling up his nose and around his eyes, and even more entered his ears. He couldn't breathe, couldn't see, couldn't even hear after a sharp pain in both his ears made him lose his balance. His lungs were burning, his face heavy and stretched to the limit - oh gods, he couldn't breathe, air, he couldn't breathe, he was going to die, no no, air, he needed air! Bill pulled at the tentacles, but if anything, that only made the eldritch hold tighter to his face. The appendages on his nose burrowed up further into him, and the ones in his mouth made him gag as they forced Bill to swallow them whole.
Everything went blurry, throbbing, painful. Bill passed out on the floor.
Someone was shaking them. They tried to curl away, to defend themselves, to put distance - but their limbs didn't obey them the way they were used to. They spiraled around rigid, warm things that were sturdier but much less flexible than the tentacles and feelers they were used to.
How curious. When they moved their tentacles, each rigid segment would move up and down or from one side to the other. Not all parts were big, however - they moved the eye membranes several times, adjusting to the brightness and vivid colours, then slowly wiggled the five tips of their new feelers.
There was another being of this dimension next to them, gesticulating wildly. Behind, the bane had stopped teleporting-instead the attention of its hundred eyes was fixated on them, and only a line of strange symbols on the ground prevented it from lunging and devouring them.
Bill smiled.
Dr. Mayer was the one in charge of showing the ropes to Bill today. She was the reason why Bill had decided to apply for a scholarship on the Center for the Study of Alien and Transdimensional Species, and so far his (nerdy!, very much platonic!) crush on her had only intensified with every interaction. Dr Mayer was not just a walking library of knowledge related to her field of study, she showed kindness and patience whenever Bill inevitably fumbled up, her style was quirky and fun, and she had let him pet a manticore on his first week there. What was not to like?
"And these are the eldritch. The specimens we have here are small, but the ones inhabiting the interstitial non-space between dimensions can reach gigantic sizes."
"They kind of resemble jellyfish or octopi..." Bill was fascinated by the ghostly beings that seemed to float in the air of the tank.
"They do, don't they? And just as jellyfish, they aren't really one single being, but several. The exact number is still a debate subject - the number of symbiotic beings forming a single unit has been found to be variable. Exciting stuff!"
Bill made a noise of agreement. Suddenly, something beeped in Dr. Mayer's pocket. She took out a gadget with a screen with a notification that flashed a single word, "Warning!"
"Huh, that's strange... Hey, Bill, are you alright with waiting here for a moment? I'm going to go ask Chris quickly about this. There seems to be something wrong with the alert system."
"Uh, yeah, sure," he said, stepping out of her way.
"I'll be back soon!" she said even as she was hurried away.
Suddenly alone in the interdimensional beings's zone, he put his hands on his pockets just to have something to do. The sinuous movement of the eldritch caught his eye. They were as eerie as they were beautiful... Yes... They were captivating.
He ambled closer to the tank, observing them up close. Bill noted they varied in size and in shape and number of tentacles, but all of them had translucid bodies, with dim blue spots in some cases.
Bill continued on to the next enclosure, where a blurry shape faded in and out of the space it occupied. He couldn't quite make out what being it was, but it was obvious it'd be pointless to try and keep this one on a closed tank. He was going to keep walking to the next one, but a deafening screech made him cover his ears and turn around. An eldritch was being ripped apart!
"Hey! Drop it!" He shouted at the teleporting being that he could now see was a liminal bane, a predator of interdimensional creatures. He vaulted over the warding seals that prevented it from interacting with their dimension and tried to pry the eldritch from its multiple jaws. "I said leave it!"
The eldritch kept shrieking, the liminal bane snarled and gnashed its teeth, and Bill continued pulling the tentacles from the bane's jaws and shouting. With one final yank, he was able to wrench it free at last. Bill wasted no time putting distance between him and the bane, but it teleported right in front of him.
"Shit."
What followed was a deadly game of tag between the bane and Bill, where he dodged left and right to avoid its mandibles while the bane would try to have a double snack, all set to the deafening screeches of the eldritch. The uncanny creature had clasped all of its limbs around Bill's shoulder and was clinging to it for dear life.
Bill soon realized the monumental mistake he had made - the liminal bane kept teleporting in front of him and at his back, keeping him on a swivel to anticipate its next assault. He was tiring, quickly. Meanwhile it showed no signs of slowing down.
The next couple of attacks swiped way too close to his head. He backed away, trying to keep the bane on his sight. The wards had to be near, they had to be, he had tried to dodge closer and closer to them...!
Unexpectedly, the arm-wrenching pressure on his shoulder lifted. Bill had only a second to register the dim blue blotch on the corner of his eye before something strong, long, fleshy tentacles clamped around Bill's face and forcibly opened his mouth.
"Mmngph-?"
Bill's cry of surprise was muffled when the tips of the appendages entered his mouth. At the same time, others were frantically feeling up his nose and around his eyes, and even more entered his ears. He couldn't breathe, couldn't see, couldn't even hear after a sharp pain in both his ears made him lose his balance. His lungs were burning, his face heavy and stretched to the limit - oh gods, he couldn't breathe, air, he couldn't breathe, he was going to die, no no, air, he needed air! Bill pulled at the tentacles, but if anything, that only made the eldritch hold tighter to his face. The appendages on his nose burrowed up further into him, and the ones in his mouth made him gag as they forced Bill to swallow them whole.
Everything went blurry, throbbing, painful. Bill passed out on the floor.
Someone was shaking them. They tried to curl away, to defend themselves, to put distance - but their limbs didn't obey them the way they were used to. They spiraled around rigid, warm things that were sturdier but much less flexible than the tentacles and feelers they were used to.
How curious. When they moved their tentacles, each rigid segment would move up and down or from one side to the other. Not all parts were big, however - they moved the eye membranes several times, adjusting to the brightness and vivid colours, then slowly wiggled the five tips of their new feelers.
There was another being of this dimension next to them, gesticulating wildly. Behind, the bane had stopped teleporting-instead the attention of its hundred eyes was fixated on them, and only a line of strange symbols on the ground prevented it from lunging and devouring them.
Bill smiled.
