Closed The Chimera Project III: Primal Fury

[Coloursfall]

ooc thread​

The cell was a large one, three grey walls stretching out about twenty feet wide, and a good ten upwards, the remaining wall made of thick, steely grey bars, with a door about large enough for a tall person to fit through built in. The door was chained shut, and no doubt the door itself locked as well. The hall beyond it was the same pale grey as the walls, and extended out both ways, the left stretch turning to lead away from the cell about twenty feet down, the right hall stopped abruptly with a massive steel door.

Back inside the cell, a stack of crates that went almost all the way up was in the back-right corner, with just enough room on top for a small person to lay on their belly. There were a few cracks in the ceiling, and one was dripping water; it must have rained recently, or there was a cracked pipe just behind the roof.

Just under the dripping, on the floor, a small blond teen was curled on his left side, the water droplets spattering on his cheek. He grunted, shifting a bit, his back twisting so he was away from the water, but looked to be in a rather strange position one would expect a sleeping cat to be in. A tail twitched behind him, a pale cream colour and ending in a curled tip, poking out of a rip in his pants. His automail right hand tapped against the cold floor, making soft clicking sounds.

On his head, a pair of black-furred ears stuck out of his gold hair, one of them twitching slightly. The boy let out a soft snore and rolled over so he was on his back, his black sleeveless shirt pushed up so his belly was showing.

 

[Sylph]

Shing.

A blade made of silver forms in the open hand of a young man, the blade passing the tip of his middle finger and the handle connected to the bracelet on his wrist. The dim light of the hall reflects off of the liquid blade.

Shing.

The blade melts back to the bracelet, releasing the light it captured from the hallway. The young man sighs and pushes a mop of black hair from his face, his deep green eyes scanning the cell before him. He counts the number of bodies before him and find that it was only seven lives, other than himself, were ruined by this experiment.

"Well...this all sucks."

He gets up from where he sat and wonders over to the cell bars, tapping the chains lightly.

"Thick metal...not going to be easy to cut with knives...might need acid or someone whose better at working with other metals..."

The man sighs and walks away from the doors, carefully not to wake the others from their sleep. He looks down at himself and studies the spikes on the back of his hands, wondering what form of beast he was spliced with. He sighs and looks over at the boy on the crates, seeing that a leak in the ceiling was dripping on the boy. He shakes his head and chuckles, walking closer to the boy.

"Hmm...now. How to fix this. I can't reach the roof and I don't have a umbrella. I could wake him, but he might get grumpy. I could move him...hmmm...actually. That could work."

He slips him arms under the boy and carefully lifts him, moving the boy away from the dripping water. He brushes the wet drops on the boy's face away before getting back to his feet.

"Hopefully...this will keep you less wet."

He then walks back to the bars and studies them more, mumbling under his breath about how they need a Alchemist that can transmute metals.

 

[Coloursfall]

Edward grunted when he was moved, his ear twitching again, and he shifted so he was on his belly, arms pressed under his chest. His gold eyes flickered open, and he stared down at the floor below him, that his nose was currently pressed against. The boy made a soft sound of confusion, and lifted his head.

"What the hell, why am I on the floor, Alph-"

He stopped mid-sentence when his eyes locked on the man whom had carried him, eyes widening. He shrunk back from him a bit, rolling onto his side and holding his arms as if he was ready to clap his hands together at a moment's notice. He let out a low hiss, and narrowed his eyes at the strange 'creature' before him.

"Where am I, and who are you?" The boy growled, his tail behind him thrashing; he had apparently not noticed it yet.

 

[allitersonance]

Edward would probably start noticing his tail when he felt something bat at it, or when he looked down and saw a strange chimera with massive claws apparently entranced by the movement. A chimera that, unlike the others, barely looked human; she was more doglike, really. Despite her apparently innocent demeanour, her claws looked like they could puncture his eyeballs and break through the other side without his nose touching her paw, and her fur appeared bloodstained.

When he finally noticed her, she'd notice his attention, and look up with a slow blink. This would be followed by her nose prodding his metal arm. Then she'd speak equally slowly, with a pause between each syllable. "Why do you have armour?"

 

[Zora of Termina]

A low moan escaped the lips of the girl curled up in the corner, awakened by the speaking of Edward and the talking chimera. Her fox-like ears pressed to her head, she sat up slowly, her dull red eyes staring at the people in the room. The last thing she remembered... her father. Beating her into submission before some strange men took her forcibly, mumbling something about an experiment and how he would be paid well for the specimen.

Gretchen sat up, growling, and mumbled something indiscernible. She couldn't even tell what time it was now... why did she care again? And why was she locked in a cell with all these freaks? She glanced downward as she felt an itch on her leg, and when she reached down to scratch it...

Her hand. Black as pitch, with short fur growing out of it. She did a double-take, to make sure she wasn't hallucinating... and she screamed when she found that it wasn't a dream.

That bum. That dirty bastard. He would pay.

 

[Coloursfall]

Edward turned his head at the feeling of something touching... something attached to him. He let out a soft mewling sort of sound, but when he saw Nia, he froze. Despite the claws, she looked like...

Little big brother, come play with us!

Oh god not...

Wanna... Play?

"Nina." He muttered so quietly he would barely hear his own voice, sitting up fully and inching back about a foot. He kept staring at her, and she spoke.

"Why do you have armour?"

He stared at her for another few moments, then his mouth fell open; his throat felt dry, and his heart pumped a mile a minute. This had to be a dream, how else would he be faced with a near exact copy of Nina? This had to be a dream, it had to, had to be a dream oh god let it be a dream.

"It's...not armour. My arm is metal." he stated flatly, his tail twitching. He stared at the new appendage, and squeaked. "This is a dream, a dream, nothing else, just a dream..."

 

[allitersonance]

"A... dream...?" Nia blinked. "Why are you in my dream?" Then she paused for even longer than usual and tilted her head. "Nuh-unh, it can't be a dream. Mommy said that if you know it's a dream then it's not."

She bumped Edward's arm with her nose again. "Why do you have a metal arm?"

Then someone screamed, the sharp sound even louder with her newly-sensitive ears. Her ears twitched, and she lay down by Edward's side. "That... hurt," she said quietly as her hair fell over her eyes. "Don' like it. S'not nice."

 

[Sylph]

And the children do awake from their slumber.

He turns and looks back at the boy, opening his mouth to respond to his rushed question but was cut off by the dog looking one and the other one's scream. He shakes his head and leans against the bars, crossing his arms over his chest.

This should prove interesting.

"Morning, fellow victims. Welcome to the first day of the rest of your lives. Let me introduce myself. I'm Fang."

Fang then holds out a paw and motions to the cell around them.

"You may be wondering what has happened. Well. That should be simple. We have been merged with animals of sorts and become one. We are the marriage of two beings into one embodiment."

He then shrugs his shoulders.

"In short. We are chimera."

Fang then turns back to the bars and chains, studying them once more for any way to break them. One of his ears twitch he he loses himself in thought. His voice lowers and be begins to mutter under his breath.

"Now....how to transmute this..."

 

[FMC_x_ANS]

"Hmmph. I could care less about being a Chimera."

Eliana sat up from her darkened corner, brushing her hair absentmindedly. She was glad that he hair never seemed to tangle anymore. It was perhaps one of the few consolations of being a chimera.

"All I want to know is when we will be leaving from this place."

 

[Leviathan]

There is a particular aspect of meditation, one that not many people are able to manage correctly. It is one thing to "empty your mind" and find the peace lying within, but, in order to find true enlightenment, one must remove himself from his mortal awareness and join in the spiritual ether of the heavens. However, the stinging cold of the cell's stone floor seeping through his robes, as well as the painful strain of his new tail being pressed up against the wall, was making Rukh increasingly aware of the very real, very physical situation he was in.

His eyes opened - the pupils a deep crimson that pierced through the gloom - though only a little, as he glanced across the room; the population of the cell had risen, he noticed, in the time that he had been meditating. A couple were still asleep and lying at the fringes of the cell, whilst a small numbe of them were gathered near the pile of crates in the opposite corner. "...chimera," he heard the young man with the dreadlocks say (he's probably the oldest of them, Rukh thought, though likely still younger than I)...the horrid fusion of two or more creatures into one disfigured and unspeakable entity. Rukh was familiar with the word, but had never imagined that such a thing was possible, not in the beautiful world that Ishbal had created for them. And yet...they were all children (well, of course not really children; this was the adult use of the word, which refers to those less experienced and more innocent, and wasn't necessarily related to actual age). That the military would bring the younger generation into their plot...

They will not be forgiven.

Rukh already knew what was being discussed as he stood up: how to escape this jail. He had checked the door earlier, and found it to be as tightly sealed as he had expected, and though he might - and that's a very slim "might" - be able to break the chain, albeit only after breaking every form of structure in his hands from the exertion, he could do nothing about the lock. He had no idea what strength the chimera transformation might have given him, or any of the others, but the only possible option would be to use...alchemy. He shuddered inwardly, remembering the fearsome tales that the village elders used to tell him of the state alchemists employed to fight in the Ishbalan Extermination. Alchemy, a tool that normal citizens might use for aiding in everyday life, is used by the military as a means of mass destruction, to uphold their authority over the country.

They will not be forgiven.

 

[Zora of Termina]

"Ch-ch... ch..."

She couldn't sputter out the word. She couldn't say anything. Shaking, she raised her hands and held them in front of her eyes, their dull red shining in total horror. Gretchen could feel a tail – a fucking tail – swishing quickly on her behind.

"Ch..."

This had to be a dream. Had to be a dream. Chimeras... weren't real, were they? She had heard about the alchemist, Shou Tucker, and his talking chimeras before – The one nudging the catboy appeared to be one – from her father although not directly, but-

Her father. The one who had caused her to become this... this monstrosity. She felt her heart rate rise with sudden racing thoughts of murdering him for what he'd done to her. Unknowingly, she bared fangs and growled from her throat.

((Ohhh so much failpost. ><))

 

[Stormecho]

Karae heard water dripping. It was cold, too. Had she fallen asleep in a gutter or something? Surely she had more sense than that... No. There was something missing, something on the edge of her mind... Needles of pain, and heat and cold and not being able to move. Had she been sick? She felt... different, off balance. Yes, sick. That seemed to be the right answer.

She heard voices, but they were a droning noise until the piercing scream, and she flinched, eyes opening. Walls. Walls and bars and people. She was in a prison... full of monsters. Her eyes couldn't settle on one, glancing at twisted features and tails and claws that were so... inhuman. It was only when she was about to hold up her arms in a defensive gesture that she saw the blue tinge to her own skin, and noticed the tail draped across her left arm. It was a tail... her tail. She could feel it, like a part of her. Someone began talking, as if explaining the situation, and she shuddered at his words.

"You may be wondering what has happened. Well. That should be simple. We have been merged with animals of sorts and become one. We are the marriage of two beings into one embodiment. In short. We are chimera."

"You mean... we're experiments? How could they do this?" she whispered to herself, too afraid to examine her tail or the strange weight on her head. The others didn't look like they were from the streets, especially not the one with the metal arm. And the one who had been giving explanations was muttering something about transmutation. She froze. "You're - are all of you alchemists?" The word was hissed in fear - alchemists were wealthy, powerful people, with control over their lives. They did not care about the dregs of the streets. State alchemists could be worse, could be cruel to those that were so poor that they didn't exist...

She didn't exist. Especially not now, trapped somewhere with no hope of getting out, changed into a monster...

((Failpost))

 

[Kali the Flygon]

Uggh.. my head's spinning... What happened... was this just from the party? Something... feels different...
As he slowly came to, the first thing Gary could sense was the stench in the air. This was like nothing he had experienced before... it didn't smell... natural at all, some sort of mixture between humans and Pokemon. He could tell that there were others in the room, but he wasn't sure just who or what they were. Indistinguishable sounds seemed to fill his ears, as his brain just didn't seem to be able to comprehend them yet.

"Oh, what a hangover..." Gary muttered out loud. "I just don't feel right at all... where am I?" His voice sounded weird, a little scratchy and deeper than normal.

Then, Gary's vision slowly began to come into focus. He found himself staring straight up into the air, at a ceiling high up off the ground. But the odd thing was the incredible peripheral vision that he could see. It's like he could see everywhere at all times, but his binocular vision could only focus in front of him. But that led to a startling revelation. As, not only could he see others in the room... others that looked horribly mutated, unnatural colors, body parts everywhere... he began to take a look at himself as well. And... it wasn't what he was expecting at all...

"Whaa?" Gary spoke up, startled. He sat up, his abdomen resting on the floor in front of him, and his wings spreading out to his sides. And what was even harder to believe... was that he could feel that these pieces were part of him. He could move them independently, with his mind, and he could feel the touch signals from them.

"What the hell?!?" He shouted, jumping to his feet. He examined his... four... arms, then reached up and pulled down on one of his antennae. "What happened to me? I... I'm..." Before he even could finish, he started to stare around the room, looking at the other victims of some sort of definitely wicked malpractice. Gary marched over to the closest one to him, which happened to be some sort of blue lizard human. He knelt down near her and, in a kind of panic, seemed to interrogate her. "Do you know anything? What happened here... What happened to us?"

 

[Stormecho]

Karae looked blank as something with far too many limbs for her liking approached. It was hard to see everything in the dim lighting of the prison, but the sight of his eyes made her feel sick. Yet he seemed to have no more idea of what was going on than she had... "Um... I don't know." she stammered, eyeing the two giant spikes on his uppermost arms. "I can't remember much at all... I thought I fell asleep and got sick. It... happens a lot." The streets were not safe, nor clean. Illness was far more common than good health.

She tugged at her tail, and winced. It was attached, and pulling hard hurt. She reached up tentatively to to feel her forehead, and flinched as she felt a sharp spike protruding. It was small, but... Just what kind of animal had such a long tail and a spike on its head? "So you don't know either?" It was a stupid question - if he had known, he wouldn't have asked her. She couldn't help it - she was trapped in a place with monsters, and she wasn't human anymore either. "Did someone... do this to us?"

((So much fail. >>))

 

[FMC_x_ANS]

Eliana began to grow tired of all the whining and fear that came from the other's in the prison. Instead of listening to it, she began to study her own changes.

"Hmm..."

Eliana held her hair out infront of her, feeling the way it naturally untangled in her hands. Her hair had never been this long, nor this soft. Yet now it was lush, soft, flowing.

"Other than being trapped in a cell, I am quite enjoying this whole Chimera thing..."

She looked at the girl next to her with the cute tail.

"Too bad I didn't get a nice tail, it'd have been an exotic touch..."

Eliana never really thought about chimera's being repulsive. After all, the body was just like clothing ever since alchemy had come about. No matter how one changed the body, the mind was the thing that pulled the strings.

So why do all these others feel like they have been destroyed? This seems like a wonderful change of pace. An opportunity...

"Eh, whatever."

Elaina puffed annoyedly at her company and walked towards the bars. The bars were spaced just short enough to prevent a child from eeking through. What and annoyance, she though as she turned to lean her back against the metal. Then she noticed that she felt the bars push into her slightly more than normal. Like, her body was made of plush or rubber.

 

[allitersonance]

"I like chimeras," Nia said, a little bit confused because everyone else was acting like this was a bad thing. Chimeras were cute. And cool. "Daddy let me see them before." She looked down at her claws. "Wanna be a bird-chimera. Then I can fly."

She looked at the funny-looking one with wings with interest, sitting up. Her ear twitched, and she shook her hair out of her face, causing more of it to cover her eyes. After a few tries of blowing it from her eyes, to no avail, she gave up and instead asked, "Can you fly?"

(( How the hell does one make decently-sized post without internal monologue aaaa ))

 

[Coloursfall]

"Chimera..." Ed mumbled, repeating what everyone already knew, eyes eyes wide.

He staggered to his feet, wobbled for a moment, then stood fast, holding his arms out for balance. He let out a hissed curse, rubbing his left hand over his face, across his cheek and mouth, letting the fingertips rest on the opposite cheek. His skin felt odd, like there was a very short covering of fur over it, and a glance down at his tail confirmed that he was probably right - fur. He clenched his automail hand into a fist, rage bubbling up in his veins.

'They will pay for doing this to us!' A voice hissed in his head, but another thought silenced it.

'No, revenge just begets more revenge. Do not actively seek it, or you will find yourself destroyed.'

He eased his hand open again and sighed. Well, they could at least find a way to get out of this place. He was cold.

The boy crept towards the bars, placing both hands on them and analyzing them. He tested the bars – they were pretty strong, so he probably couldn’t bend them. He studied them closely. Obviously metal, but what kind… After studying them, he came to a conclusion. Probably steel, high grade… around 2% carbon then? Not too hard.

He slapped his hands together, and placed them on the bars again. A flare of light and a crackling sound burst forth, and the bars twisted back in an impressive display of alchemy. Edward Elric stepped out of the brand new door, not looking back.

"Let's go."

 

[Kali the Flygon]

Gary cringed, sitting back down and groaning. He held his head in his hands, from his lower arms, and crossed his upper arms. "Why.... Why did they do this? My life is over now! I'm... I'm a monster! Whoever did this...." Venom seemed to ooze with each word, and he gritted his now-sharp teeth. "... They are so going to pay..."

I've never felt so furious before.. it's like something's... driving me toward anger... Whatever it is, it feels good.

Then, however, he noticed a flare of light. "Huh? Ooooh" Gary turned toward the bars, seeing an open door form. The light itself was tantalizingly pretty... but what he saw after made him grin. "Wow, great! Let's get out of here!" The wasp-man stood and walked toward the door, folding his wings behind him.

(failpost:()

 

[Sylph]

Fang slips through the bars, a low whistle escaping his lips as he follows the short boy into the hall. He slips his hands in the remains of his jeans and glances around silently, taking in what was around them.

Would be easier if I could see more.

Same here.

Fang glances around, trying to find the source of the voice, when he notices that the bodies of those around him were...glowing?

"...what is the shit...?"

 

[Stormecho]

Karae watched the other warily as she decided to swear revenge on those who had done this. She felt the same, but anger was an exhausting emotion, and she had no time to be furious. She needed to live, keep going. She had to find a way to get rid of what had turned her into a monster. She would have slipped back into her thoughts, but the flash of light forced her to shield her eyes, even as she turned to see what was going on.

...The bars. They were broken. That person, the alchemist... He had freed them. Did that mean he was on their side? Yet again, they would probably go their seperate ways soon. She didn't matter to them. She was streetdirt. One day she wouldn't be, but for now she was forced to stay out of their way.

"This... This place. We could escape so easily? Why would they put bars if they could be broken like this?" she murmured, more to herself than anyone else. She just sort of stumbled in the general direction of the door, and the alchemist who had broken them out.

((Failpost. Again.))