Re: Nerzalil (Host)
(No real actions, again, so I haven't updated Neri. But I've got time to now, so she might be right by the time you get to this.)
Nerzalil approached the defeated natives with a fairly unreadable expression, despite the victory. Rather than getting into vengeance-sizing with the ornery hunter, Neri gave so little response that one could almost wonder if she had even heard. She did have orders for her comrades, though.
“Strip them. Make sure they don’t have anything dangerous or that you don’t recognise.” The female Shadow Demon would watch carefully, determining if they had anything worth keeping… while also being quite willing to violently pacify either of the women with harsh blows if they struggled too much.
The stag beetle, uncaring of the captives’ protests, began to glue each of the females’ limb’s together. “You should probably keep that mouth shut, if you don’t want to suffocate.” are the first words Nerzalil gives towards the pair, followed by the beetle covering their mouths with the lightly glowing, white fluid.
After a quite short interval, the fluid had hardened into a fairly powerful resin. She would have to question the two later, about their kind and anything that could be used to give her species an advantage… which would probably involve a good deal of torture. She could have killed the one who had spoken out, or at least pretended to be about to; that would have presumably given her a significant foothold towards cowing information out of at least one of them - but, of course, she also needed them alive and breeding; that they would be used for bearing larvae was non-negotiable. Harming the fragile things - hoping that they would have enough self-preservation to shy away from her blade, rather than jump on it and free themselves from the mortal realm (and her grasp)… was not a risk she was willing to take, not with such little knowledge of their culture.
There was another problem still; her mission had not been completed. She still had to try and find one of those plant beings, if at all possible. But she couldn’t just leave the human(oid)s here…
“Both of you, carry these two back to the hive. Put them to use… personally.”
That little reward to the two Spawn was said with a grimace. It was such an individualising thing to do, emphasising a difference between one Shadow Demon and any other – an act more suited to the typical demons than her kindred. But, though they were without the hive mind to share the victories and rewards of one to the many, each Shadow Demon still tended to expect some spoil of victory from their conquests. Not giving them some special treatment for their usefulness would just make them resentful, as Nerzalil had unfortunately already determined with a few Shadow Demons through trial and error.
Then there was the fact that she was effectively telling them to have sex with the females – a disgusting thought if there ever was one, but something her kind (, herself included,) now wanted to do nonetheless. She, along with the rest of her insectile breed, were of one mind on the matter (or, at least, she certainly hoped they were): they would not allow the demon curse - 'gender', and 'sex' -, to destroy their essence. The new malformation present in her kind had to be fought… in so far as it could be fought, anyway.
Neri was well aware already that her people’s new desires were inescapable. Getting singled out by demonkind, as the 'leader' of her rebelling kin, was not the most pleasant experience possible… or was, depending on how you wanted to look at it. Her body had been the one most centred on, the most freakishly misshapen; a beast reshaped into an icon of feminity, muscle compacted, bulk melted into curves, pointless and excessive mammaries on an insectile body, her guts turned out as a whole bodily system for the production of offspring formed... the almost-parasitic attachments her kin had gained between their legs were nothing in comparison. And that was before the bitch had disseminated the remaining Shadow Demon species as slaves to the highest bidders, the only requirement being that Nerzalil and her kin were suitably tortured for their transgressions...
At first, it was just senseless, usually quite violent rape, brutal and pleasurable… something easy both to hate and resist that would certainly give her release quickly enough. Then came magics, to drive her to impossible heights of lust, or pleasure, or to simply control her mind for a moment, forcing her to do demeaning things against her will. Sometimes her punishment was even more torturous, her hardy body’s regeneration stretched all too close to its limit. These were all things she expected; all things that could not break her impressive resolve.
But when a more cunning demon had briefly gotten his hands on Nerzalil, she was forced to admit some ugly truths. The raping and mutilating for the enjoyment of others stopped, all other influences stopped being used, and she was shut away, forced to be alone with her new body for all hours of the day. It itched. It ached. It begged… no, demanded. No brutality could tear at her mind as much as her own form, and while she resisted for a time, that ended when the demon owning her visited her while she fought with herself. He spoke to her, forcing her to notice some thoughts that were spinning through her head… by this point, she wanted[/I\] him to rape her, to release her from her own body’s need without needing to dirty herself – a way she could get off without needing to have given in to her own body’s desires. He gave his word that, if she was to tease him by playing with herself, he would take her violently. Still considering that to be rape inside her own head, Neri hesitantly did exactly as he asked – except the demon quite happily broke his word, telling the slave that he was not going to rape her one way or the other.
The Shadow Demon pleaded with him to take her, before her hands, unable to stop once they had started, drove her to orgasm… but he simply watched until she came, having lost to her own desires – and unable to deny that she had been forever changed by the demon queen’s curse. She had previously in her enslavement cried tears of pain, reflexive tears at demons that used her throat – but this marked the first time in her captivity that she had cried tears of shame.
Thankfully, he did not strike while the iron was hot, and her psyche recovered. Losing to the new desires inside her, Nerzalil learnt, was only a temporary thing; she was not lustful all the time, masturbation – as humiliated as she was to be giving in to her desires – would satisfy it (well, largely)… it could be worked around. So she had lost to her new addiction, so a part of herself was forever changed… so what? She had already allowed herself to be horribly humiliated and demeaned simply by surrendering her people to demonic rule, when she should have fought to the death. If she could cause herself to suffer through that for the survival of her species… spending eternity with this new desire, (and regularly ‘humiliating herself’,) was nothing.
…Back in the realms of the current day, Nerzalil was leaving herself without any backup bar the beetle, but it was not herself she was worried for – although perhaps it should have been. The first two females they had captured in a while, getting safely back to their burrows; that was what she deemed important, enough so that she almost considered postponing her mission immediately to instead escort the Shadow Demons back… or at least give them the beetle. But no, she would need the stag to bind any other natives, if she was to come across them before she found any of the plant women. Her mind made up, Neri sent the two spawn on their way… then set about modifying their scuffle a little. Remove the shards of shadow and cover the impacts in the ground they made after cutting past the native women, clear up her own blood from the fast-healing arrow wound she had taken, tearing some holes in the women’s clothes with her swords and leaving them in the humanoid’s bloodstains. She was making it seem as close as possible to an attack from the hostile plant creatures in the forest… or failing that, slavers trying to make it look like an attack from the plants; just as long as it didn’t point to her kind.
She wouldn’t be able to continue looking around here too much longer, that was certain. The pair she had captured would be missed, eventually – and then someone would come looking for them. Creatively re-imagining the fight had taken some of that time… she didn’t know exactly when the hunters would be expected to return – hunting was something that took a quite variable amount of time, after all – but she didn’t want to spend more than another hour searching for one of the plants (or more prey). This might give Nerzalil, and the more animalistic Shadow Demon form accompanying her, a slim chance of running into something useful... but she wasn’t willing to risk any longer than that. There were plenty of plants in the jungle; she could always hunt for one some other time.