06-04-2018, 10:32 PM
IT stirred, remnant dream-thoughts scattering like a flock of frightened birds from the machinations of the cosmic devourer's waking brain. It was always like this after the creature's customary long rest— strange, that even the most monstrous of beings could do something so innocent as dream.
As Its eyes blinked open, however, the creature was baffled enough to consider that It might still be asleep, strange as Its surroundings were.
To Pennywise's growing consternation, It was not met with the dreary, homey sight of the Derry sewer system, nor was Its highly-evolved snout tickled by the myriad scents of decay and the sweaty, stupid humans that lived above ground. Instead, It was surrounded by an oppressive amount of weight. Stiff, unrelenting edges pressed into Its body in odd places, blunt objects of various shapes and sizes littered over Its form. They hardly budged as It carefully, caaaare-ful-ly shifted Its weight, luminous eyes flickering like candlelight in the close-quartered darkness.
The empty marble eyes of a doll glittered back at It, glossy and painted in shades of rich tortoiseshell umber— like the last star of morning, twinkling defiantly before the light of dawn swallows it whole. Other toys littered the space above It: tricycles with deflated tires and chipped paint; action figures with missing limbs; baseballs and Barbies and busted arcade games. It was buried beneath an avalanche of probably a few dozen antique childhood amusements, all of them so densely packed together that It couldn't even see a trickle of light through their collective mass.
But there was something else, too. Something else for Pennywise to latch onto and turn over inside Its brain, to keep at least one of Its senses occupied. Someone was speaking somewhere above the pile It had found Itself under and, judging by the volume of their words, they were standing nearby. Muffled by the clutter— quick, hushed and carrying the same hissing tone as whispers.
One voice stood out in particular; the speaker was obviously accustomed to giving orders of some kind. Their words were snappy, not a single syllable wasted. Harsh and possibly female. Upset about... something.
"Where the hell is it?!" Angry Voice demanded. Harsh stomps echoed beneath her words, like distant gunfire during a boots-on-the-ground skirmish. "The bounty board said this... this thing would be here, right here! Xanyen, you better have a damn good explanation for this!"
Head tilting as much as It was able to move it with a child's scooter digging into Its ear, Pennywise listened, yellow eyes staring unblinkingly in the dark.
A quieter voice answered, a hint of a lisp sticking their words to the roof of their mouth. "Uh. Well, it's a real mystery, boss. By all accounts, it doesn't make any sense."
"You better make those accounts have some sense to them then, snotblood. I ain't got all day to scrounge through this pile of junk for something that's not even here." Even without Its enhanced sense of smell to detect the tiniest of emotional fluctuations, Pennywise could tell this unknown personage was growing angrier by the minute. "I swear, if we don't get this bounty I'll rip your bloodpusher out and feed it to your own fucking lusus."
"First of all," hissed the quiet one- Xanyen, Pennywise guessed. Not that It really cared. "My lusus is dead, I've told you like a million times, so thanks for that you insensitive prick. Second of all, I've just checked the bounty board. It's been, uh, updated."
There was an irritated scoff. "And? Let me see that data padd, peon."
More rustling, then a heavy silence as the female considered whatever it was Xanyen had to show her.
"As you can see. Uhm. Someone else beat us to it- whatever IT is. So, uh, we're kind of out of luck in that department, I'm sorry to say..." Xanyen trailed off, apologetic.
There was a harsh metallic slide, like a knife being drawn. Xanyen stuttered, voice rising in pitch. "B-but that doesn't mean we can't still make a quick buck, Sarluu! Cool it!"
"I dunno, I'm thinking killing you would be more worth it." Sarluu grunted, sounding like she was really considering it. "What do you make of all this, Rasere?"
A third voice piped up that It had not heard before. "I think that this pile of junk is a fitting metaphor for my life. Disordered, broken, and filled with relics of happiness from long ago."
...What? Pennywise thought.
"... What?" Sarluu said. For once, she didn't sound angry. Just monumentally confused.
"Yeah. Come to think of it, this entire place could serve as a pretty accurate representation of my mental state. Maybe even yours. It's empty, like my heart. Barren, like my hopes and dreams."
"Don't those mean the same thing?" Pennywise heard Xanyen whisper to Sarluu.
Apparently, Rasere heard. "No. Empty implies merely an absence. My heart has nothing within it to love, but there once was something there. But like all things, that too is gone. Barren, on the other hand, can be understood to mean that there appears to have never been anything present in the first place. Like my hopes and dreams. Both can apply to this place."
".... You're really bumming me out, man." Xanyen complained.
"Oh." Rasere replied simply. Then, "Were you not already?"
Before Xanyen could respond, Sarluu made a disgusted sound in the back of her throat, followed by what sounded like her blade returning to its sheath. "Whatever. You were saying something about a quick buck?"
"Yeah." Xanyen breathed, sounding extremely relieved to still be alive. "You know how Primes reappear at the Fountain after dying, right?"
Sarluu snorted. "Of course. I'm not stupid."
"Yeah! Of course," Xanyen readily agreed, trying to smooth over any ruffled feathers. "Well, there's that Dante's Abyss thing coming up, and they're always looking for live bodies to participate. What if, bear with me here, what if we catch this Prime and sell it to Syntech! Like, as an attraction."
From Its prone position underneath a pile of trash, It scowled. These worms were welcome to try, but their efforts would do nothing but guarantee a full stomach for the sewer-inhabiting clown. It was certain of that.
"That... sounds really fucking stupid." Sarluu said after a really long moment of silence.
"Yeah, but. It's almost stupid enough to work, right? That's like, a saying humans use. People fricking love clowns, Sarluu."
It was around this time that Pennywise lost patience with the whole eavesdropping thing. It would ascertain just what kind of enemies It would be facing, and then slaughter them all for good measure. Whatever this Dante's Abyss was, It wouldn't be brought there outside of Its own will. That had already happened too much in the past... day? Week? Month? Whatever the passage of time was since It had lost to the icy biomech and the fiery sorceress, It refused to be cowed once again.
A quick snrrffing of the air did nothing but fill Its nostrils with cloyingly irritating dust, the disturbed particles tickling at Its sinuses. The clown's painted visage twisted into a grotesque sneer, spiny teeth prickling along the edges of Its red lips. Its eyes narrowed, maintaining perfect eye contact with a baby doll mere inches from Its face, and then... It sneezed.
The sound was loud as a gunshot in a concrete gymnasium. It erupted from the pile of junk in a riot of violent sneezing and frilly costume ruffles, a cloud of grey dust flying around. All the while the sneezing continued, the clownish monster's eyes ringed with an ugly, bloody red, nostrils and mouth flinging spittle and snot in every direction.
"Holy fuck!" One of the worms, It wasn't sure which, shrieked. Through Its tragically blurred vision It could see three figures, tall and grey-skinned with bright orange... horns?
Pah! Unimportant details. Pennywise would go ahead and consume the horns, too— anything to thoroughly destroy these feeble, irritating mites. The creature's glistening red mouth stretched wide, teeth churning out from Its gums in horrible, serrated rows. Wickedly long claws ripped free from the creature's goofy Mickey Mouse gloves, spindly fingers twitching with ravenous intent.
It lunged for the nearest blurry half-image that It could see, every deadly asset that It possessed roaring to the surface, chomping at the bit to tear them apart. Unfortunately, a blinding, lightning-hot pain seared through Its chest, thoroughly winding It and knocking the creature off to the side.
The creature hit the Nexus ground with a heavy thump. It laid there, twitching faintly as vibrant blue electricity sizzled along Its limbs.
"Huh," said Sarluu Murtis, hefting her shock-grip club and grinning a wide, fanged grin. "That was easy."
Two hours later, and Sarluu was about done with these Syntech people. Here she was, a perfectly noble cerulean-blooded Alternian troll, and these asshats had the fuckin' gall to act anything less than grateful for her generous donation.
Said donation growled menacingly from where Rasere and Xanyen had the thing wrapped up in all kinds of knotted steel rope. Sturdy stuff, and yet the ugly beast kept on struggling. She probably could've shocked it more with her club, but she was a little worried about damaging the merchandise. Even if the hissing, spitting thing already clearly had plenty of damage. In the head.
Seriously. It had waxed poetic about stripping the flesh from her bones all the way across the Nexus to the Pale Moors gate. Two solid hours of threatening. That took dedication; she was almost worried that she might start catching some black feelings for that ugly painted mug.
Speaking of ugly mugs, Xanyen kept prodding at the hog-tied clown. Each time he did, the creature's hissing rose in volume, venomous yellow eyes darting around.
Xanyen said the hissing reminded him of his lusus. Sarluu'd always thought olivebloods were total whackjobs, but comparing a murderous abomination to your equally murderous, mammalian custodian was... Well actually it was a pretty solid comparison, if Xanyen's lusus had been at all like hers.
Ah, poor Centipede-mom. You will be missed.
Anyway, Sarluu was having a hard time filling out the requisite entry forms that Syntech apparently really wanted. What Sarluu really wanted was her money, but that didn't seem likely anytime soon.
"Name of the contestant?" The bored-looking employee asked, already poised to enter the answer.
"Er..." Sarluu said, racking her brain for a suitable answer. Fuck. What had the bounty said? Something to do with insipid human currency and being intelligent. Nickelsmart? Dollarknowing? Hell, some stupid shit like that. She'd take a wild guess- "Pennywise."
Yeah. That sounded decent. The Syntech employee dutifully copied the info down as Sarluu rapped her claws on the desk and glared at the nearest wall, generally acting like she'd rather be anywhere else.
There were other questions. Basic information, most of which Sarluu made up. The Syntech employees were able to take Pennywise's vitals without incident, making a few appreciatory comments about those big as hell teeth. They even filmed a cute little video while Pennywise was angrily hissing up a storm at Xanyen, though Sarluu personally didn't think it was very flattering.
"Worthless, sweaty animal," the clown had snarled, straining against its bonds. "There will never come a day where you may sleep soundly, for Pennywise will be near, watching- waiting for a sliver of weakness. And then, oho! Then, you will experience the most excruciating flavors of fear."
They'd stopped recording after that particular brand of weirdness.
It wasn't long after that when the clown monster was half-dragged to a small attached room, presumably to be teleported to the island. Good riddance, Sarluu thought gleefully, snatching up her pay with gusto. Just one more brute out of her hair.
She kinda hoped they'd put a muzzle on that thing, though.
As Its eyes blinked open, however, the creature was baffled enough to consider that It might still be asleep, strange as Its surroundings were.
To Pennywise's growing consternation, It was not met with the dreary, homey sight of the Derry sewer system, nor was Its highly-evolved snout tickled by the myriad scents of decay and the sweaty, stupid humans that lived above ground. Instead, It was surrounded by an oppressive amount of weight. Stiff, unrelenting edges pressed into Its body in odd places, blunt objects of various shapes and sizes littered over Its form. They hardly budged as It carefully, caaaare-ful-ly shifted Its weight, luminous eyes flickering like candlelight in the close-quartered darkness.
The empty marble eyes of a doll glittered back at It, glossy and painted in shades of rich tortoiseshell umber— like the last star of morning, twinkling defiantly before the light of dawn swallows it whole. Other toys littered the space above It: tricycles with deflated tires and chipped paint; action figures with missing limbs; baseballs and Barbies and busted arcade games. It was buried beneath an avalanche of probably a few dozen antique childhood amusements, all of them so densely packed together that It couldn't even see a trickle of light through their collective mass.
But there was something else, too. Something else for Pennywise to latch onto and turn over inside Its brain, to keep at least one of Its senses occupied. Someone was speaking somewhere above the pile It had found Itself under and, judging by the volume of their words, they were standing nearby. Muffled by the clutter— quick, hushed and carrying the same hissing tone as whispers.
One voice stood out in particular; the speaker was obviously accustomed to giving orders of some kind. Their words were snappy, not a single syllable wasted. Harsh and possibly female. Upset about... something.
"Where the hell is it?!" Angry Voice demanded. Harsh stomps echoed beneath her words, like distant gunfire during a boots-on-the-ground skirmish. "The bounty board said this... this thing would be here, right here! Xanyen, you better have a damn good explanation for this!"
Head tilting as much as It was able to move it with a child's scooter digging into Its ear, Pennywise listened, yellow eyes staring unblinkingly in the dark.
A quieter voice answered, a hint of a lisp sticking their words to the roof of their mouth. "Uh. Well, it's a real mystery, boss. By all accounts, it doesn't make any sense."
"You better make those accounts have some sense to them then, snotblood. I ain't got all day to scrounge through this pile of junk for something that's not even here." Even without Its enhanced sense of smell to detect the tiniest of emotional fluctuations, Pennywise could tell this unknown personage was growing angrier by the minute. "I swear, if we don't get this bounty I'll rip your bloodpusher out and feed it to your own fucking lusus."
"First of all," hissed the quiet one- Xanyen, Pennywise guessed. Not that It really cared. "My lusus is dead, I've told you like a million times, so thanks for that you insensitive prick. Second of all, I've just checked the bounty board. It's been, uh, updated."
There was an irritated scoff. "And? Let me see that data padd, peon."
More rustling, then a heavy silence as the female considered whatever it was Xanyen had to show her.
"As you can see. Uhm. Someone else beat us to it- whatever IT is. So, uh, we're kind of out of luck in that department, I'm sorry to say..." Xanyen trailed off, apologetic.
There was a harsh metallic slide, like a knife being drawn. Xanyen stuttered, voice rising in pitch. "B-but that doesn't mean we can't still make a quick buck, Sarluu! Cool it!"
"I dunno, I'm thinking killing you would be more worth it." Sarluu grunted, sounding like she was really considering it. "What do you make of all this, Rasere?"
A third voice piped up that It had not heard before. "I think that this pile of junk is a fitting metaphor for my life. Disordered, broken, and filled with relics of happiness from long ago."
...What? Pennywise thought.
"... What?" Sarluu said. For once, she didn't sound angry. Just monumentally confused.
"Yeah. Come to think of it, this entire place could serve as a pretty accurate representation of my mental state. Maybe even yours. It's empty, like my heart. Barren, like my hopes and dreams."
"Don't those mean the same thing?" Pennywise heard Xanyen whisper to Sarluu.
Apparently, Rasere heard. "No. Empty implies merely an absence. My heart has nothing within it to love, but there once was something there. But like all things, that too is gone. Barren, on the other hand, can be understood to mean that there appears to have never been anything present in the first place. Like my hopes and dreams. Both can apply to this place."
".... You're really bumming me out, man." Xanyen complained.
"Oh." Rasere replied simply. Then, "Were you not already?"
Before Xanyen could respond, Sarluu made a disgusted sound in the back of her throat, followed by what sounded like her blade returning to its sheath. "Whatever. You were saying something about a quick buck?"
"Yeah." Xanyen breathed, sounding extremely relieved to still be alive. "You know how Primes reappear at the Fountain after dying, right?"
Sarluu snorted. "Of course. I'm not stupid."
"Yeah! Of course," Xanyen readily agreed, trying to smooth over any ruffled feathers. "Well, there's that Dante's Abyss thing coming up, and they're always looking for live bodies to participate. What if, bear with me here, what if we catch this Prime and sell it to Syntech! Like, as an attraction."
From Its prone position underneath a pile of trash, It scowled. These worms were welcome to try, but their efforts would do nothing but guarantee a full stomach for the sewer-inhabiting clown. It was certain of that.
"That... sounds really fucking stupid." Sarluu said after a really long moment of silence.
"Yeah, but. It's almost stupid enough to work, right? That's like, a saying humans use. People fricking love clowns, Sarluu."
It was around this time that Pennywise lost patience with the whole eavesdropping thing. It would ascertain just what kind of enemies It would be facing, and then slaughter them all for good measure. Whatever this Dante's Abyss was, It wouldn't be brought there outside of Its own will. That had already happened too much in the past... day? Week? Month? Whatever the passage of time was since It had lost to the icy biomech and the fiery sorceress, It refused to be cowed once again.
A quick snrrffing of the air did nothing but fill Its nostrils with cloyingly irritating dust, the disturbed particles tickling at Its sinuses. The clown's painted visage twisted into a grotesque sneer, spiny teeth prickling along the edges of Its red lips. Its eyes narrowed, maintaining perfect eye contact with a baby doll mere inches from Its face, and then... It sneezed.
The sound was loud as a gunshot in a concrete gymnasium. It erupted from the pile of junk in a riot of violent sneezing and frilly costume ruffles, a cloud of grey dust flying around. All the while the sneezing continued, the clownish monster's eyes ringed with an ugly, bloody red, nostrils and mouth flinging spittle and snot in every direction.
"Holy fuck!" One of the worms, It wasn't sure which, shrieked. Through Its tragically blurred vision It could see three figures, tall and grey-skinned with bright orange... horns?
Pah! Unimportant details. Pennywise would go ahead and consume the horns, too— anything to thoroughly destroy these feeble, irritating mites. The creature's glistening red mouth stretched wide, teeth churning out from Its gums in horrible, serrated rows. Wickedly long claws ripped free from the creature's goofy Mickey Mouse gloves, spindly fingers twitching with ravenous intent.
It lunged for the nearest blurry half-image that It could see, every deadly asset that It possessed roaring to the surface, chomping at the bit to tear them apart. Unfortunately, a blinding, lightning-hot pain seared through Its chest, thoroughly winding It and knocking the creature off to the side.
The creature hit the Nexus ground with a heavy thump. It laid there, twitching faintly as vibrant blue electricity sizzled along Its limbs.
"Huh," said Sarluu Murtis, hefting her shock-grip club and grinning a wide, fanged grin. "That was easy."
Two hours later, and Sarluu was about done with these Syntech people. Here she was, a perfectly noble cerulean-blooded Alternian troll, and these asshats had the fuckin' gall to act anything less than grateful for her generous donation.
Said donation growled menacingly from where Rasere and Xanyen had the thing wrapped up in all kinds of knotted steel rope. Sturdy stuff, and yet the ugly beast kept on struggling. She probably could've shocked it more with her club, but she was a little worried about damaging the merchandise. Even if the hissing, spitting thing already clearly had plenty of damage. In the head.
Seriously. It had waxed poetic about stripping the flesh from her bones all the way across the Nexus to the Pale Moors gate. Two solid hours of threatening. That took dedication; she was almost worried that she might start catching some black feelings for that ugly painted mug.
Speaking of ugly mugs, Xanyen kept prodding at the hog-tied clown. Each time he did, the creature's hissing rose in volume, venomous yellow eyes darting around.
Xanyen said the hissing reminded him of his lusus. Sarluu'd always thought olivebloods were total whackjobs, but comparing a murderous abomination to your equally murderous, mammalian custodian was... Well actually it was a pretty solid comparison, if Xanyen's lusus had been at all like hers.
Ah, poor Centipede-mom. You will be missed.
Anyway, Sarluu was having a hard time filling out the requisite entry forms that Syntech apparently really wanted. What Sarluu really wanted was her money, but that didn't seem likely anytime soon.
"Name of the contestant?" The bored-looking employee asked, already poised to enter the answer.
"Er..." Sarluu said, racking her brain for a suitable answer. Fuck. What had the bounty said? Something to do with insipid human currency and being intelligent. Nickelsmart? Dollarknowing? Hell, some stupid shit like that. She'd take a wild guess- "Pennywise."
Yeah. That sounded decent. The Syntech employee dutifully copied the info down as Sarluu rapped her claws on the desk and glared at the nearest wall, generally acting like she'd rather be anywhere else.
There were other questions. Basic information, most of which Sarluu made up. The Syntech employees were able to take Pennywise's vitals without incident, making a few appreciatory comments about those big as hell teeth. They even filmed a cute little video while Pennywise was angrily hissing up a storm at Xanyen, though Sarluu personally didn't think it was very flattering.
"Worthless, sweaty animal," the clown had snarled, straining against its bonds. "There will never come a day where you may sleep soundly, for Pennywise will be near, watching- waiting for a sliver of weakness. And then, oho! Then, you will experience the most excruciating flavors of fear."
They'd stopped recording after that particular brand of weirdness.
It wasn't long after that when the clown monster was half-dragged to a small attached room, presumably to be teleported to the island. Good riddance, Sarluu thought gleefully, snatching up her pay with gusto. Just one more brute out of her hair.
She kinda hoped they'd put a muzzle on that thing, though.
![[Image: tumblr_inline_ox9oq2UNpf1v9qbbn_540.gif]](https://68.media.tumblr.com/0f940b744e47adff247fbd62ee924a4c/tumblr_inline_ox9oq2UNpf1v9qbbn_540.gif)