Who makes your heart beat faster?
Ägir
21.7%
5
Blood Golem
26.1%
6
Lorelei
8.7%
2
Melusine
34.8%
8
Symbiote
8.7%
2
23 votes
| Also don't forget to vote in the other voting brackets! Bracket 2: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=2104984 Bracket 3: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=2104994 Bracket 4: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=2105002 ÄGIR BLOOD GOLEM LORELEI MELUSINE SYMBIOTE |
MetallumOperaturJul 16, 2023 2:18 AM
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
| Never before had I thought I would be interested in having a relationship with a sentient pile of blood lol Thanks man, your posts are really interesting to read |
| pain |
| My compliments to all the authors. You're making it really hard for me to decide who to vote for. |
| HMG X Bracket 1 H-off: Symbiote Another day another coin, as the old saying goes. I was working my usual job as a shopkeep for one of the wealthy kitsune in town, a Miss… Faye or something, the details didn't really matter. She wasn’t really around all that much anyways. I saw her daughters far more, and they were charming. Kelcie and Havana, those two were a sight to see when they waltzed through the doors. I had to admit they were cute, and it was painfully obvious that they were vying for attention, but I knew I couldn’t get involved with them. It would be one thing to sleep with the employer’s daughter if this were back on Earth, but these two would nearly come to blows. I knew Miss Faye just wanted to flaunt her wealth -- to show that she could snag a human tender for one of her many shops -- and, while a little demeaning, it afforded me many liberties when it came to my movements around town. Being “owned” by a powerful kitsune meant no one wanted to mess with me… and those who did were quickly scooped up by local authorities. The pay was good, several silver coins a week, and the ability to walk free was a godsend after my arrival in Kaori. I shook my head at the thought of that bastard of a location, and returned my attention to the shop. It was located in a coastal city in Elizabeth, so it was a little colder than my hometown in Texas, but I’d grown used to it over my six-month stint here. The shop itself was quiet today. A surprise rainstorm had driven people indoors with their significant others to hide from the thunder. Luckily for me, that meant I had time to restock the shelves. My back was to the main door, and I had a wooden crate of the cosmetics that the store sold. All of them had such interesting names and origins like this set here; “Vampyr Rejuvenation.” Such an odd name for what the substance was. It was just a skin conditioner, not that many of the races here needed it, though it was aimed at humans for the most part. The red substance seemed a little off for what it would have been back home, but that was fine. They didn't have modern manufacturing. Most of it was still on the medieval level as it were, so the fact that they even had this kind of thing was strange. Suddenly the front bell rang, and I snapped my gaze up. There was a mamono in a long purple cloak, dripping wet with the cowl pulled up over her head. I couldn’t discern any features, but judging by her humanoid form and the way she came into a cosmetic store in the middle of a thunderstorm, I was thinking undead. Most undead (at least, those smart enough to pose as humans) saw cosmetics as life or death, as it would make them seem more palatable to prospective husbands. She wrung out the base of her cloak with black-gloved hands, and I couldn’t see her eyes as her head tilted up to look at me, just a shadow from the cloak and the candles around me. “Evening ma’am, how can I help you?” I asked, looking over at her curiously as I placed another clay jar on the shelf. “Are you looking for something specific, or just browsing?” I asked, turning to face her entirely as I picked up my box of goods. The woman looked a little nervous, her head looking off to the side and then back at me, before she began to walk towards me. “Yes, I’m looking for anything made by…” She paused and turned her head as if listening to someone. “... Vampyr?” she asked, looking back at me with a curiosity that I could just sense somehow. “Vampyr… yes that would be this entire section,” I said, stepping back with my box of goods. I found it weird that she still had her cowl on, but every mamono had their own quirks. Perhaps it was just that she feared my gaze without any product on. I stepped back and let her look, watching her curiously as I held my goods in my off hand. She put a gloved hand to her chin beneath her hood and began browsing the section. I saw a flash of something out of the corner of my eyes, and I glanced over to see nothing there. I shrugged it off, until I caught it again, but when I looked, there was still nothing. So I waited until it happened again, diverting my gaze the other way down the aisle where a small mirror was placed. They were my suggestion to install to help prevent shoplifting, and as the manager of the store my word had at least some sway over the happenings within it. Looking at the mirror I could see what it was; an inky black substance that slid from her leg, reaching out behind me for one of the bottles of red substance. I found myself seething that she would so brazenly steal from my store, and I surged up and snatched her arm. She gasped and dropped the bottle she was holding with a loud shatter as the contents went everywhere, her face jerking up to mine. “How, fucking dare you steal from my store, right in front of my face! I should have you thrown in the stockade for this brazen act of thievery!” I growled, pulling her close. She jerked away, but I just pulled her closer, my foot crunching on the broken glass. She jerked her head up at me, and I saw a glimpse of her eyes, fear and nervousness residing in those vibrant greens. “I… please,” she begged, looking down at the red mess on the floor. “I… she… needs it!” the woman said, those eyes full of fear. I rolled my own eyes as she played her crying wolf game, yanking her closer, not letting her get out of my grasp. “No one needs cosmetics that bad. Now you’re going to pay for the broken bottle and get out of my store!” I snapped, not having any of her plea. “But sir!” she pulled away from me, trying to slip free of my grasp as she put her whole body into it. Her cloak swayed and the cowl fell down to reveal a raven-haired beauty… a human woman. I was stunned for a moment, and that was enough for her to slip away, a few steps. The inky black substance from before pooled from her feet and leapt at the red mess on the floor… draining it of red until it was a sticky white mass of… something, taking the elements from… whatever had spilled. It took me a moment to process, but she was already running down the aisle. She tore open the door and it slammed behind her as I looked on in shock. Damnit. Now all I had was one big mess to clean up- it wouldn't even be salvageable… I sighed as I went to get a broom. A human woman, huh? Maybe partnered with a slime. I swept up the mess and went about my day as I should have, keeping an eye out for that purple cloak the entire time. She never did return. Eventually, I had to close down the shop for the night, turning the sign and sweeping up everything that remained. I restocked the small supplies that had been sold and began to put out the candles one by one. The room dimmed until I was left standing by the stairs. As I touched out the last candle I heard the front door open. There was no bell, just the subtle turn of the lock from the outside as the door was eased open. Something stopped the bell from ringing, and that put me on edge. I backed up the stairs. Damnit, I was alone; there wasn’t anyone here who could help if this got violent, but the supplies were all in the storefront. I heard the subtle sounds of foot falls and a goopy sound stepping over to the aisle where the incident had happened earlier that day. The hair on the back of my neck stood and I waited. There was the sound of clinking glass and I swore under my breath. There was the sound of something opening and that… sickly slurping noise I had heard when the slime-thing had eaten the other cosmetics. I reached for anything that could be used to protect myself, my hands closing around one of the mistress’s umbrellas next to the stairs. That should work fine. I crept up to the aisle, hearing muttering from the intruder all the while, keeping the umbrella close as I listened. “It’s not enough… it won’t be… we need him,” she muttered. “Mer, listen to me, you’re dying, and I’m… incomplete without you. I can’t let you leave, alright?” she said, sounding on the verge of tears. “T-this may sustain you for what, another day? Then what?” she asked her imaginary friend. I hissed and stepped back. So it seemed mental illness was in fact a thing here too. Great. Well, I couldn't in good conscience fight a mental patient. I reached for the candle at the end of the aisle, bringing it to the bottom where a flint lighter was. There was a click that made the woman jump as the aisle was lit up, and I glared at her again. She looked like she was about to bolt, but I held up my hand. “I’m not going to hurt you,” I sighed, no longer angry, just weirded out. “I just want you to stop stealing, alright?” I said, watching her fearful face deep underneath that hood, the candlelight cutting through her shadows. “Come with me. I’ll feed you some food upstairs. As long as you stop stealing from this store and tell me what’s going on,” I said, glaring at her through the light. “O-oh thank you sir, thank you so much you have no idea…!” she started, nearly crying. “Save it. I still have to decide whether or not to turn you over to the authorities,” I said sharply, cutting her off as she blubbered. “Come with me.” -- Once upstairs she meekly sat in my kitchenette. I made her a cup of tea and a sandwich to eat, placing my own across from her as she looked at me, then away. “So what’s this about, why do you need Vampyr so much?” I asked, looking at her as she meekly ate the sandwich. “Meryl,” she said softly, pausing in her eating to look up at me. “And who is Meryl?” I asked, blowing the steam off of my tea as I looked at her. She didn't look like she was going to run now that she was caught a second time, so that was good. “My… friend,” she said softly, her eyes boring into me. “She’s dying. She needs…. blood,” she muttered softly. My eyes widened at the realization that the mixture had blood in it, but that still didn't explain what had happened, unless… the red that had been seeped out was the blood. So, Meryl was the slime. But what kind of slime needed blood? “The slime?” I asked, pausing a moment to take a sip from my tea as she nodded. “A symbiote,” she said softly as she looked up at me with apologetic eyes. I couldn't understand the look on her face before I felt something wet and sticky worm its way up my pant leg, and I jolted back as it burrowed into my skin painlessly. I yelled and screamed for help, but the drowning rain wouldn't let anything be heard this late at night. “I’m sorry, I didn't want it to go this way,” the girl said, tears streaming down her face. That was the last thing I saw before I went under. The dreams themselves were… wild, to say the least. I was in bed alone in the room I’d come to know as home when I was jolted awake. I couldn't see out the windows; that blurry unclear blackness that came with all dreams shrouded the area… but at the table, there was a pale woman with ink for hair. She had red eyes, and it looked like she wasn’t quite right. It was like my thoughts were shaping her; I would think of a feature and it would appear, like her mouth -- she didn't have a mouth at first -- before it was replaced with ruby red lips and the perfect little cupid’s bow. I rubbed my eyes as I drew closer… and she was gone. I couldn't see her anywhere. I had to shrug it off because the dream collapsed in on me. I woke up again, and there she was a second time, but in finer detail, sitting with a cup of tea. I stood and stepped closer, seeing more this time. Her hair was long, and her body was still pale, the large swells of her bust contained in a very tight dress that stretched across her body so tight it looked like it was painted on. I got a step closer this time, but I blinked and she was gone. This went on for months, years, decades, centuries. I don't know how long I was in that loop of seeing her and trying to reach her, learning about her bit by bit, her every curve, her every breath, every little detail about her frame that just blew me away. Over time I felt better, stronger, faster, even in the dream… it was still a dream, right? Was any of my life even real? I didn't know, all I knew was that I needed to get to this woman… and today, I made it. I made it to the table, and she looked up at me. She smiled, and it practically floored me, but that was alright. I grabbed the chair and sat down with her, and her smile widened. What was this feeling? “I’m Meryl, and I have to thank you for saving my life,” she said calmly. Her voice was perfect, melodious, as if perfectly crafted to my tastes, and then I realized. Meryl was my dream woman. The thousands of iterations of slowly reading my thoughts to mold her into the perfect representation of what I wanted. My breath caught and I thought, I must be dead. “Not quite, but you are very sick,” she said, then sipped her tea. I recoiled as she read my mind, and that recoil shattered my dream. I shot up out of bed. The room was dark, unlit, and I felt like shit. Was that really all a dream? What the hell happened to me? I stumbled to the table, lighting the candle where it was… wait, how... What? The candle lit when I touched it. That couldn't have been right. “You forget you are not alone.” That perfect voice resounded in my head as I watched the candle burn. “I am with you, forever and always,” it said. I rushed over to the bathroom in an attempt to hide my panic, slamming the door behind me to get away from whoever was speaking. There shouldn't have been anyone here! It was just a dream! “It wasn’t just a dream, silly. You were just so compatible that it didn't hurt,” the voice purred, and I saw a pair of red eyes glowing at me from the mirror. That’s it, I was going crazy. “You’re not crazy, just listen to the voice in your head,” she giggled. I felt heat on my cheek, like the warmth of lips, leaving a faint mark of wetness as I cowered there. “Do not fear me… after all, your wife means you no harm, none at all.” |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
| HMG X Bracket 1 H-off: Lorelei Curse these sailors, Sophia thought with frustrated rage as she swam through her once beautiful home. I'd drown them all and let their bodies get ripped apart by the carrion feeders of the sea if I could. The tropical seaside that she called home was once bustling with all manner of vibrant sea life, but had been subjected to a man who had recently arrived with dozens of ships at his command and who had ordered his men to catch every fish they could. The rampant overfishing had caused the delicate habitat she cared so deeply for to be pushed to the brink of collapse in a couple of weeks. Sophia had tried to reason with them, first approaching the men by floating above the water's surface beside their ships and calling to them, practically pleading with them to stop, but that had only resulted in lust-filled jeering from the crew and an attempt to catch her by casting down nets into the water. She didn't make the mistake of trying to speak with them again. The next time they had cast out their nets and tried to reel in the fish they caught Sophia cut the rope, letting all the fish in their nets slip free, but that had only resulted in them wrapping the rope they used in a metal wire to prevent her from doing so again. Next she observed the ships from below and noted the vertically protruding boards at the back of each ship. She endeavored to disable those next, which caused them to be cast adrift for a little while at least, but when they eventually returned to land they pulled the ships along with them, and the next time they were out at sea the protruding vertical boards were also reinforced and protected with metal. Her last attempt was to pry apart the wooden boards that made up the ship's bottom side in order to sink them, a drastic and desperate tactic to resort to -- one that she knew would probably end up killing some of them if she succeeded, but she had to do something to stop them. Her home and the sea life that depended on her were in danger of being taken away if she did nothing. But despite her best efforts Sophia only barely managed to force a little water into a few of the older ships, nowhere near enough to sink any of them, but enough to make them reinforce the keels of their ships with metal once more. Running short of time and options Sophia did the only thing she could. She came onto land and, in a desperate plea for the strength to save her home, started to sing to attract a potential contractor. Luckily it wasn't long before a man was drawn by her magically infused melodious singing. The man was a native to the island, dark of skin, hair and eyes. Young, tall and muscular, with a handsome face, the perfect match. "Please, stranger, I need your help," Sophia pleaded, looking up at the approaching man. "Those men on the ships... those invaders are killing the life in the sea, destroying my home." She continued, eyes filling up with tears. "I tried to stop them, but I can't do it alone. I need help. I'll do anything you want in return, just help me save my home... please," Sophia begged in a whimpering tone. "What do you want me to do?" He asked stoically. "I need someone to supply me with... with his seed," she answered with a blush. "I need you to form a pact with me, stay and live with me in the sea. I'll vow to do whatever your heart desires, promise to allow you take me however you wish, if you swear to permit me to take the fruits of my labours and use the strength I receive from it to protect and heal my home." The man hesitated, staring down at her as he contemplated her offer. Sophia stared back up at him with bated breath and pleading eyes. He was a perfect match, and Sophia doubted she would get another of his calibre if he refused. He was quite possibly the best chance she had at saving her home, and if he refused that could've meant the end of her home. The moment seemed to drag on for eternity for Sophia, until he eventually spoke, startling her with his voice. "Very well," he said with conviction. Sophia let out a sigh of pure relief and euphoria in response. "When do we start?" He pressed. Sophia's blush deepened but she wasn't deterred. "Thank you stranger, truly, we can begin right away... in fact I'll let you have me right here and now as soon as the contract is complete." Sophia finished as she began forming the magical pact. |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
| Well, well. This is a tough one. Between the two entries, I did prefer the lorelei over the symbiote. Between these two shorts, I think the symbiote beats out the Lorelei though. Gonna be a tough one for the judge, no doubt :) |
mugen91Jul 26, 2023 6:51 AM
| [grumble grumble] Just had to make this stuff hard to judge, didn't you. This is a tough race to call, as both stories make excellent use of their respective NTMs. In the end I decided in favor of the one that gives more insight into the character of the male lead. I call this one for... the symbiote! |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
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