Eating your way through a corpse is never easy, especially one hundreds of times bigger than one self. I’ve had an unfortunately similar experience myself, and speaking from experience it is easiest to go from the outside in. That was the mountain of a task that our aväk friend had embarked upon. One bite at a time the larva ate its way through poor Leon's brain. Every bite imparting knowledge on the little aväk.

For example, the center for motor control was tastiest while the portion that stored memories was disconcerting. Giving the larva weird flashes of memories. Bone and blood were okay on their own, but together… Well lets just say it was beyonds words, because for the larva it truly was. It ate bits of everything it could get near. It ate and ate and ate. Until the larva found itself in an empty cavern that was Leon's chest cavity. Empty is a bit of a lie because there was something already in there, just nothing that should have been there.

As I have mentioned, the Lost Woods is a peculiar place, my dear friends. It gathers oddities and things thought to be dead and gone like a magpie, be it forgotten relics or strange technology, it collects them all. Stay in the woods long enough and you will find something, something great or something terrible. OR maybe something terrible might find you instead. To sum it up in a rather impolite way the Lost Woods is a mystic space-time trash heap. While one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, the treasures in the Lost Woods are mostly death traps. The “treasure” our small mutual friend found is known as a Marg.

Looking like a pale rope with teeth, it is a living tool of old. Used by mages of a bygone era, the Marg would consume a willing mage’s limb. The Marg would then mimic the consumed limb to make the mages more physically adept. It was a shortcut to becoming a powerful spellsword and a quick way for them to expel their physical weakness. However, the replaced and augmented limbs quite literally had a mind of their own. Only those with a solid unshakable will would even attempt it. Failure to control such a parasite, could lead to corruption of the mind, possession, or worst of all execution. However, they were outlawed and hunted to near extinction after they failed to usurp a kingdom.

The Marg currently nestled in Leon's abdomen, was one of the very last of its species. had hollowed it out hoping to use this body like a meat puppet. Unfortunately its feast had made it rather sleepy so it was resting. Which is fortunate for our little aväk who was still starving. Unwittingly hitting the jackpot, the small black aväk sunk its four magic teeth into the sturdy flesh of its elder cousin. It was like watching a house cat eat a sleeping tiger. Almost exactly like that actually.

The only reason that the tiger in this scenario didn't wake up was because of the terrifyingly potent numbing toxin on the house cat’s fangs. Realizing with the first bite that this thing was much tastier than humans, the aväk began to devour the marg with gusto. Aväk usually try to avoid filling up on one part of the body in particular. It's in their instincts and their best interests to try and eat every part of the body, so they have a more well rounded form. I suppose now is a good time to mention the speciality of aväk, you see dear friends aväks are not mere corpse eaters. Aväk are an offshoot of a monster race. This has left them the ability to incorporate consumed genetics into themselves.

Warning. Three separate gene pools were detected. The variation of these pools may result in an undesirable outcome.

Progenitor

Consumed Genes

Aväk (Adult)

Human (Adolescent)

Marg (Time-Worn)

Being an aväk larva our worm-like friend didn't have the mental wherewithal to process this notification. So our little friend kept stuffing its maw happily. The tiny blue prompts didn't concern the aväk. After all, it did not know how to read, or for that matter understand even a notion of what communication might be. So after a while of seeing them our wriggly little friend tried to eat the boxes. Which effectively dismissed them, our small friend now proud in its victory continued on its tiny gluttony filled rampage. After two full days of slow eating the bloated black aväk made its way slowly back to the skull. The once small black larvae was now about the size and shape of a human eye, burrowed in for a long nap.However, in this case it was less good.

Aväk's are a highly adaptable race which can vary drastically from generation to generation depending upon their needs. This ability for easy mutation is a holdover from the days where aväk's were monsters. They were led out of their dark age and into the light of reason, but their monstrous side still remained. This was both their greatest strength and weakness, which is why most aväk's only consume the genes of their progenitors. To prevent disastrous mutations that could cripple them. So they cripple their potential instead. This was the part of their teaching that their glorious leader instilled in them. If one deviated from the normal path then they would become something twisted.

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Aväk’s are one of the more peculiar species that I have seen in my long life. The life cycle of the aväk usually begins with the death of their progenitors, and then the subsequent feast. Most would consider such a birth monstrous in nature and not part of a rational race. For the most part the young are treated as monsters, but the adolescent and adults are hailed as the swiftest merchants in all the land. Dealing in both actual goods and death. This is probably the sole reason that aväk’s are even tolerated. While a fairly docile species on the whole, nearly all who have met an aväk usually describe them as being pleasant enough, as long as you don't give them a chance to open their mouths.

*Crack*

You see my dear friends, aväk's have a disconcerting habit of chattering their jaws. Quite frequently. And loudly. That coupled with their boisterous bragging about their chitin, or heritage, makes them rather annoying. In fact, it has been the sole source for three separate wars on the aväk people. If it wasn't for their intimate knowledge of The Ways, a subterranean, and subspacial labyrinth, then they would surely have gone extinct. The Ways being a vast series of interconnected tunnels that span most of the five worlds, filled with all sorts of life from all five worlds makes it a good proving ground for their young. It also keeps them relatively safe from those who would wish harm on their whole race. Anything too large that tries to explore The Ways always gets eaten by something bigger. So all aväk grow up underground, in relative safety, due to their tiny insect bodies. All, except deviations of course.

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*Craaack*

Deviations are not born from their progenitor and start life in some other living thing. Aväk being as prideful as they are, call such aberrations deväks. The reason they are so despised is because aväks take on characteristics of the body they feast on as larvae. Meaning the larva that worked its way through Leon's brainstem and had cocooned itself in the jelly of his eye was quite the rarity. Then again it was also rare for deviations to be born alone, but with a cracked crystalisk it was lucky that there was even one hatchling.

*CRACK*

As the larva feasts, its small body is analyzing the makeup of the food and preparing to metamorphose into something else. Aväks were once the most adaptable and diverse species, but they slowly became obsessed with unity and then tradition. Leading to the aväks hiding away in their city afraid of the other rational races branding those different as outsiders, and as a new species entirely. The offshoots were oftentimes rebellious and many wished for the demise of pure aväk's. Which was fair, no one liked to be looked down upon for having a different birth, but the issue was only exacerbated by the fact that the deväk's were treated little better than animals.

*CRACK-CRACK*

The newest deväk was finally breaking out of its cocoon. After feasting for two days on blood, bone, and brain it spent nearly a week inside its cocoon.

*CRAAAAAAACK*

With a final kick the hatchling deväk was free. Standing at just over 4 centimeters tall, it was smaller than it was as a larva, but much of the mass was used to fuel the metamorphosis. The deväk wasn't much to look at; with a rounded back reminiscent of a beetle, four arms, and two legs. The legs looked like three entwined segments of rope. Of the two sets of arms there was a main pair and an auxiliary pair. The main pair had six digits on each hand, including two thumbs one on each side of the hands. The second set of hands was smaller and they were tucked in as though hugging its chest. These each had 3 digit hands, but claws instead of normal fingers. Its eyes were a radiant blue, but other than that it really didn't look like anything special, the inside however, was a different story. Normally aväks only had an exoskeleton, but our little deviation had both the internal framing of a human and the plating of its species. Yet its third "parent" made the most surprising change.

Aväk's are usually lightweight and hatchlings will almost always have the ability to fly. Unless said aväk, is bigger and bulky than any normal hatchling. Where the wings would normally fold up in the back shell were two separate limbs that looked like miniature black margs. Each one had a maw filled with needle shaped teeth, which would explain why our deväk hatchling had no mouth on its head. Unlike the real things these were not independent, but rather mutated limbs. It also had one other advantage over the deväk's other mutations, a linked Ability.

Malleable Tendrils

Margs are minor shapeshifters, and inheriting their genes allows for your tendrils with the same grace as real Marg. This also allows you to shapeshift your tendrils, albeit slightly. Grants the skill Minor Shapeshift as well as an increased ability with tendrils.

Our bug didn’t need to pull up the ability prompt to know about the properties of its tendrils. It knew from the instinctual memories of the marg what it should be capable of. However our bug found that it fell short of its own estimations, it could only slightly change the shape of the tendrils. It was then that it noticed that its chitin was weaker and less shiny than it should. Our bug had a variety of memories that didn’t seem to quite add up.

Our deväk was an unbalanced mashup of three different races, which meant that it was both weaker and stronger. Granted both its skeleton and chitin carapace were considerably weakering then normal. However, the real benefits of the union of Human and aväk brain structures. In its current state the deväk's brain was a mess, but It allowed the small deväk to think and be aware of itself. The mere fact that it could self analyze was remarkable. Admittedly this was at the level of a child who had a severe concussion, but it allowed it to process information that might save its life one day.

Warning. Instability with genetic code will cause rapid death if not remedied in; 323:59:52.

That day came much sooner than expected. Unfortunately for the insect imbecile, reading was still way beyond it. Considering its first reaction was to try and run away from the floating screen. It spent the next while running, climbing, and jumping. Not in a desperate attempt to escape the semi-transparent monster that was definitely going to eat it, but to test out its own limits. Obviously.

Not knowing what else to do, the young deväk curled up into the fetal position and buried its face into the corpse of the once Leon. Hoping that the screen would lose interest and go away. However, even closing its eyes was no escape from the evil box. Trying its best to ignore the evil thing the box suddenly seemed to swell in the deväk's mind's eye and then it popped. Information flooded the idiotic insectoids mind and it understood a few things. Firstly the box wasn’t evil, it was a fundamental property of the universe to better understand oneself and therefore better understand the universe. Or as the bug understood it, ‘All know you, all tell you, so you know some and know some of all.’ While the message of the prompt was more like, 'Danger! Bad things happening and bad things will get badder in small while. Fix if living is to continuing.'

Like I said, dear friends, it was not the brightest knife in the shoe box.

Name

Physical Modifier

Attributes

(Blank)

Strength: +1.7%

Str: 2

Age

Agility: +1.5%

Agi: 1

2 weeks

Dexterity: +2.0%

Dex: 2

Species

Mentality: +0.1%

Mnt: 1

Deväk (Hatchling)

Perception: -0.5%

Per: 1

Endurance: -0.1%

End: 1

Constitution: -0.0%

Con: 1

Abilities

Skills

Malleable Tendrils

Minor Shapeshift

Parasitical Growth

Combat Level 1