+1 Man Eating Monster.

[itsdark]

WHO | Ele [OPEN]
WHAT | Ele is hiding in her room in suite 05.
WHEN | After Arena 06.
WHERE | Suite 05.
WARNINGS / NOTES | Ele has not spent time among humans like Some has. She is terrified. Humans to her are A. Dangerous and B. Food. The door to her room is unlocked but... enter at your own risk.

It had taken them several hours to stop Ele from either attacking them, or attempting to hide under any available furniture (whether she fit or not). It took another several for them to explain why she was there in a way she could even begin to comprehend. She would kill humans. And other creatures, but mostly humans. Ele was wary of the idea. Humans were dangerous creatures. If not taken for a meal, they were best avoided.

Left to her room, she's wedged herself beneath the bed where it's dark and confined. Safe. Resting her head on all four arms, she tries to think of a way that she could get past all the humans and their Light.

Comments

[gruesome]

He looked up from fishing the controller out of a sofa, confused for a moment as to what she was asking him. But that cleared up quickly, and he remembered how much windows had once confused him too. He'd been so afraid of them.

"Glass," he supplied, rejoining her. He spread his hand on it beside hers. "It's a stone they make that lets light through... they like light everywhere. This is a window, and that... that is their city, out there."

[itsdark]

It takes her a moment to comprehend that she's seeing through it, as if there really were gaps in the wall. "You can see through like still Water but it is solid as stone is." She says, with a hint of question to her voice.

[gruesome]

"Yes, exactly. Glass. It is sometimes fragile, so do not hit it, or throw things at it. It breaks like crystal, sharp enough to cut."

[itsdark]

Her lower mouth works, trying to shape out the word 'glass'. "Where is this human storyteller you wanted to show me?"

[gruesome]

"Here... don't be startled." With a click, he turned on the screen, only hoping that it wasn't showing his own death. Fortunately, it was tuned to a feature on that week's fashions, showing a half-dozen strangely dressed humans walking up and down a runway. The sound was turned way down, just a murmur of voices.

[itsdark]

Ele is startled anyway, her crest rising slightly as she jerks back. She calms when she sees that Some isn't panicked. "There are tiny humans in there!" Snack size.

[gruesome]

Some had to press two hands over his mouths to keep from laughing. Because hadn't he reacted in exactly the same way, when Aimery had first showed him the televisions? He didn't let go until he thought he could control his voice.

"No, only images of them. Like... like reflections, that they can send to other places. Look." Some was clumsy with the controller, but he could stop, and rewind, and play the same bit again. "They use this to tell stories for them."

[itsdark]

Ele looks hopelessly lost. "...They can move their reflections?" Like a Some can move things? All eight of her eyes widen in amazement when Some stops, rewinds, and replays the same thing. "...Their stories have so many pictures!"

[gruesome]

"I still don't know how, but they can take the image of a thing, while it happens. Here, let me find some of me..." Not his death, he'd avoid that just a little bit longer. He suspected there might be some of the party he'd just come from, and so he clicked from channel to channel until he found it; himself, dressed in his stylist's loom-inspired piece, standing by the buffet, talking to a little human girl.

[itsdark]

Ele looks uneasy. "Why are you among so many of them?" They seemed so calm around him. None of them ran or screamed or attacked. And Some wore their garments.

[gruesome]

"This was a gathering. A party. They have them very often, here. And we're expected to go to them, to be seen and be friendly. That little girl is one of the other tributes." Some didn't even think about it, the way he used the same 'girl' to describe her as he would have one of his own sisters, not the more removed words usually given to humans.

[itsdark]

She doesn't recognize the word 'party' but she does recognize 'tribute'. They'd said it so many times while trying to explain things to her. Ele gives Some a very uncomfortable look. "...We should find a way back home soon."

[gruesome]

Some looked back at her, silhouetted against the big screen, just starting to realize how much there was to explain.

"Ele... I don't believe there is a way home."

[itsdark]

"T-there has to be!" She cries. "I was going to be married soon!" The thought of never seeing her family again, of being stuck here among the humans, was unbearable. "Why are you giving up?"

[gruesome]

Just two steps and he was at her side, wrapping his arms around her to hug her tight. "I am sorry, I'm so, so sorry, but even when I was free to move, I could not move back to All-Falls-In. If there is a way from here to there, I don't know it, and I don't know if they do either."

[itsdark]

She welcomes the embrace, wrapping her own arms around him and clinging, as if afraid to lose him. Her only remaining connection to her world. "We will find it." She says determinedly, though her voice betrays doubt. She rests her head on his shoulder. "I will eat all of the humans." She grumbles irritably.

[gruesome]

He put a staying hand on her shoulder, tilting his head to look into her face. "... Not in the City, though. You understand?"

[itsdark]

She scowls at him. "Why not?" They kidnapped them!

[gruesome]

"... They're willing to feed us," he said, catching his lip in his teeth. Not a grue gesture at all, and the plentiful little scars there showed why. "It isn't much, but they do. And there are many, many more of them than you can imagine. We are only two. I watched them kill one of their own, in front of everyone, for killing just one person. Do you see?"

[itsdark]

Ele touches his lip, feeling the scars there concernedly. "...I'm scared, Some." She leans against him for comfort, arms still entangled in his.

[gruesome]

He twitched his face sheepishly, and stroked the fur on her shoulders. Humans didn't have this, this casual touch between near-strangers, and he hadn't realized how much he'd missed it. He didn't want to let go.

"They aren't so scary. I- I've made friends here."

[itsdark]

She pulls back enough to look at him. "Friends? ...With the humans?" There's suddenly a pitying look in her eyes. Grues were such social creatures, after all. Some must have been desperate. "It's alright, you have your own kind now." She says with a smile.

[gruesome]

He frowned at that tone in her voice. "Meet them. You will see. They're more than we think they are."

[itsdark]

Ele looks uncomfortable and irritated. "I have met them! They are food, Some. They are also dangerous. You shouldn't trust them... just look at what they've done to us!"

[gruesome]

"They aren't just food!" he snapped back, startling himself. "... I am sorry. But- but they aren't. You'll see. The people who brought us here are- are dangerous, and frightening, but there are good humans."