Calypso is currently a monster-human hybrid. She had fangs, dark yet glowing eyes, she had claws, she had spiked bones that would form into armor, had she been allowed to complete her transformation. And just moments before, she bullied a monster and proceeded to gut it for substance.
And yet, the sight of a blonde, pale-skinned girl wrapped up in a red scarf, was causing her to fidget and shiver in place.
The monster girl used the momentary peace, due to Cassie clapping still, to glance up at the skies. Not grey anymore, slowly growing into a blue-green tint.
But “slowly”. Meaning it’s still not night. Meaning still no full transformation.
Still stuck. Still stranded. And so, still dead.
“So! Let’s make this quick…” Cassie ceased clapping and rubbed her leather-gloved hands against each other, adding unnatural noise to this general unease.
“W-wait! Waitwaitwaitwaitwait!”
Gale carefully walked into the scene, between Cassie and Calypso, with the latter struggling not to scream at her to stop moving. Waving her hands that were embedded with vines and roots, and despite her eyes being dark as the void, her pupils glowed so brightly with violet light, so big and innocent. And more importantly, scared.
“Can we talk please—Can we just talk for a bit? Please?”
Cassie sharply inhaled through her gritted fangs, “Weeeeell, here’s the thing. This ain’t gonna be a talk, more me telling you the odds that you have here.”
“I’d advise that you listen--!”
Calypso cocked her head, back at the Fly girl that fluttered in the air above. The creepy little sneak that threw their entire plan in the garbage that Calypso hoped she ate.
“Ooooh… That is a stare, you got there,” the Fly girl mused out loud. She twitched her head to look at Cassie, “I’d be wary of this one! This isn’t just me being a bitch--!”
“Noooted~!” Cassie replied merrily, using her pinkie to scratch at the side of her chin. This was nothing but a casual meet-up for her.
Calypso was so tempted, just to grab Gale and just run for the hills. She got away from the vampire woman before, maybe she could again…
But the jovial nature. The immediate establishment of dominance. And the fact that this entire day could have been her wanting to draw Calypso out—and others like her. Sure, she was already marked for death by just standing here—but who knows what else she could issue out here. Calypso would not be surprised if this woman could create a fate worse than death for the two.
“But yeah, as you can see,” Cassie gestured to the Fly girl. “You have a choice, like she did. Be my monster women-servants, you do the job I’m gonna have you do, and maybe things would work out better than what’s going on now~”
“…Can… Can I ask a few questions, at least…?”
Cassie turned her gaze at Gale, who was fidgeting in place, to go along with Calypso’s shivering. The half-plant girl was looking downward, the lapse in response making her close her eyes.
But Cassie smiled, and despite it looking genuine, she still brandished her fangs in a crazed manner. “Aren’t you adorable. Hey, I suppose that people can’t get implications—I mean it’s the reason why I just use straight-up threats—but sure! I can spell it out any way you can~”
She then lifted three fingers up towards Gale, which made the latter look up in fright. “But ‘a few’ is three, and three only.”
“T-thank you! So much!”
Cassie formed a thumbs up with the same hand, “No prob, Bob!” Practically playing with her food.
“Did, uh… Was that you, who drank those Subsumed guys we’ve found?”
“Nope!” Cassie pointed at the Fly girl, “It was all her. Had her drink up those guys and made it look like I did it—because the people that would be and are after me are eggheads. I was gonna also have her keep chucking bodies at you—but noooo, ‘wouldn’t work after the first time, they could turn around and see me’--”
“And to be fair, they were looking around and was very close in spotting me—so hey,” the Fly girl chimed in, forcing Calypso to ball her claws up into a fist.
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“Down to two, girly~”
As Gale shifted, gestured, conveyed how confused and scared she was through incomplete movements that were cutting themselves off, the girl verbalized such too.
“I ju—I mea—But I—Why? Just… Why?”
“Pssf—That’s easy,” Cassie let her body shift towards her right, as if that release of air propelled it with little to no resistance.
Calypso tried to distract herself from how fast that response was, studying that. Since Cassie was a Subsumed, that means that the monster is wearing a human-made suit all but in name. In that sense, it’s not just that Cassie is relaxed… But the little resistance, how the body can move so quickly… In a sick way, it’s like wearing a jacket purely on one’s shoulders. You turn and the sleeves merely follow.
“I’m guessing your little friend told you our deal…? The whole bit and a caboodle about Consumed and Subsumed? And still no idea what we are, huh~?"
Cassie spread out her arms. As if she was a ring leader, presenter.
"It's always presented... Poor ol' humans, being eaten alive like a Sunday platter--the big bad Subsumed preying on them for a chance to finally live... They act like their poor little victims, but they're basically gone. Virtually gone, which is a pretty scary level of gone. Only a trance left for the scary monsters to study, be them... But what if What if the so-called victim was as fucked up as the monssster…?"
Calypso’s glowing eyes widened at the implication.
"Little Cassie hated how you humans are lying to yourselves. Acting like every single thing you guys put up with is remotely okay… Walking the dog, getting the mail, working the 9-to-5 and not once thinking about the utter insanity of getting there. The amount of people you had to fuck over to get where you are. Sometimes by just existing. She tried so hard, fitting in… Literally got herself killed over it, but hey, people moved on from that after a while.”
The other arm was raised, letting the head hang disturbingly limp. The pale girl’s face buried under the red scarf.
“And on the other hand…” Cassie’s voice still rung out, when it should’ve been muffled. “How the fuck could monsters of darkness be afraid of their own damn shadows? We could’ve dominated this shithole of a rock a loooong time ago. Had the power, had the lead, had the numbers—and what do we do? Do the same tired dance over and over again because of some ‘grudge’. It’s just that before, this little Vampire Subsumed couldn’t get anywhere… Destined to follow in the footsteps of the others and not one would’ve changed.”
A low chuckle built itself deep within the girl’s throat, before being belted out.
“Well, in the end, we came together purely because we fucking hate the status quo…Us finding one another was the worst, possible thing that could’ve happened for you all. Now? Now, man-man-oh man…”
Cassie lifted her head, as a rictus smile that pushed the cheeks upwards, making the eyes look shifty, desperate—but not in the sense of pity. The eyes told Calypso and Gale that there was simply nothing left to lose, for her.
“We’re fucking you all over, both of ya’~ Create such a problem that it forces the both of ya’ to get your shit together—or y’know, die horribly. It’s as simple as that~”
“W-what does that mean?!” Gale pleaded with the monster before them, out of impulse, out of survival.
Then her eyes practically sunk, along time with the realization.”
“OH SHOOT—I DIDN’T—I DIDN’T MEAN--!”
“Ah-ah-ah!” Cassie leaned in, wagging her finger. “That counted, bitch-!”
Calypso’s nostrils flared, as they tried to act as an exorcist to the shot of anger that brewed within the chest that happened in moments.
“Don’t you dare—”
Before the skeletal monster girl could take a step forward, a cluster of cells shot before her path. Causing Calypso to growl gutturally, shooting her glare up at that damn Fly girl.
Who had the gall to fucking wag her finger while crossing her arms.
“I’m telling you right now, that is a very bad idea,” she droned from afar. “Use the slim chances you have right now and take them. For your sake and her’s—”
“And if we’re done with this reenactment of a soap, we can move along and get this over with…” Cassie made her eye roll verbal through the tone, before immediately injecting herself with jubilant glee again. “Now then. What does it mean? It means what it means! Crazy, right?!”
Cassie shifted to her side again, now facing Calypso with a cocky expression, matched with an evil smile. “Pick and choose, we had a deal~!”
They had the advantage. Gale didn’t buy enough time for it to become night completely, and she’s in a state where all she has, really, is the ability to heal. Calypso in a state where she’s not sure that she has her strength all but in name. And a plan that seems to be in progress that could be triggered, being an unknown entity of an already unpredictable situation. On top of knowing that she’s so powerful.
Everything about this was a causal display of power and dominance. Cassie was practically loafing about in front of these two.
It took everything in Calypso’s being, not to show her realization from that. So in love with her own stony face for the first time she could remember.
Calypso lowered her head, her wild bangs dipping over her eyes slightly in the process. She mumbled, in response to Cassie’s so-called “choice”.
“What’s that~?” Cassie’s grin growing larger was somehow audible.
Calypso mumbled again, adjusting her volume. “…you…”
Cassie sighed, throwing her head up before proceeding to scroll closer to the skeletal monster girl with hands in her cloak. “Last chance. Now say it with your che—”
A quick, decisive slash at Cassie’s throat cut her off.
It was so striking—not Calypso’s actions but Cassie itself. A face that constantly morphed between the spectrums of confidence and malice, seeing Cassie express mortal terror as she quickly cupped her bleeding neck was so satisfying to Calypso. Also seeing the monster in stolen human flesh stumble backward, gargle in confusion, as the red substance was shooting out, now. As she forced her other hand on her gushing wound, Cassie’s shaking eyes looked up at Calypso.
“Fuck you,” Calypso revealed her intentions, barely above a whisper.