>>5305831>>RATH - BAD TO THE BONE; HYBRIDIZED>>DORIAN - TRICKSTER’S STEP; HYBRIDIZEDThe biomass merges with your form, becoming as much a part of you as any of the Daughters or Amalgams that’ve succumbed in your journey to the west. You can feel the ravenous mouth shifting in your torso, its teeth sharpening, tongue tensing with newfound strength as you flex your hand, after-images of their doppelgangers flickering in the spaces of your fingers, the tell-tale sign of Hundred-Handed’s powers growing more complex. A ripple of power runs through both heart and mind as Spiritus ex Testa’s well of power deepens, and you feel a flash of emotion as B’ni, Uzu, Holly, and Johanna’s strength grows at the Dragon’s Roost…but that’s not the only change you feel from those close to you.
Dorian’s the boldest change, the young man rising to his feet as his dapper coat and trim suit pants go rigid, their gentle lines hardening into something fiercer, though no less striking. His collar warps to cover his face with a grilled helm while his sleeves extend to form the ruby-red gauntlets of a suit of sleek, reflective armor. Rath bounds over to marvel at her friend’s garnet plate mail, and compare notes with her own—the Sui Tormentis’ armor has been bolstered by your brawler’s meal, a series of severe-looking pipes flaring out from her shoulders and hips, their burnished calcite scorched black from the heat that ripples around their exhaust ports.
To your right, Gina experimentally taps the single calcite gauntlet she’s manifested on her right hand against Amara’s shining blade, your little one grinning from ear to ear alongside a trio of Joyous, whose smiles somehow look more natural—less a rictus baring of teeth, and closer to something that skirts the edges of their creator’s own adorableness. A flash of chill air billows from Julia as she strides around you and over to Francine, the young woman kneeling next to the good doctor as the latter experimentally unfurls her left hand into a complex matrix of threads, the fractal patterns that swirl within them far more complex than anything you’ve seen before.
And, just beyond them—almost a hundred Daughters, many of them marveling over a new blade, or an extra set of limbs as their first signs of the Crucible’s corruption…’corruption’, as if it’s something that’s meant to drive you apart. The young women that form the crowd before you are comparing physical quirks like trading cards, with a few even modeling for their allies as though they were showing off the latest trends. You don’t think you could’ve imagined a scene like this, in the shadow of the Cord...certainly not when you started.
God, these weeks have stretched into years.
(Continued)
