when : friday, 2:33 pm
where : dell rapids
who : @divinefelt
In the beginning, there was nothing but darkness. Alanza was cradled by the gods, their hatred whispered into her unknowing ears. In the beginning, she enjoyed it. Gods, they called themselves, but the creatures they made were anything but heavenly or good. She wasn't there to see the beginning, but in hers, she could remember the Dragyn she was made from, Leviathan. The very first of their kind, all of her brethren had been descendants from them, and it was evident in the way they ached for chaos. Alanza felt especially connected to the beast, and when they spoke to her and the others when the war beast themselves told them to run, she obeyed. What else was she to do? There was no disobeying - they were beasts made and designed perfectly to win wars, and here was their ancestor, the monarch, telling them this was a battle they could not win. It was a terrifying thought for them, or so she liked to believe. Their whole existence had been carved around fighting, protecting Leviathan was something they should have been able to do. To know that the great beast themselves did not believe them capable of withstanding such a battle shook the core of Alanza's beliefs. Unstoppable, that was what she was in the beginning. The diety that took her for protection, the one that created her from Leviathan, told her so frequently. She was a beast amongst beast, they told her. She was coerced into believing she was undefeatable. For a time, that mindset had gotten her through thousands of fights. She delighted in the feeling of blood coating her scales, enjoyed it even. And perhaps, for a time, she relished in pleasing her diety. That all changed when Leviathan told them to flee.
At first, during the flight to earth, Alanza's body became heavy with grief and regret. She had Leviathan's blood running through her veins, she was a prized war beast, and she was running. Leviathan left by themselves to fight off the gods, and she had seen so many of her brethren falling from grace, being plucked out of the abyss and slaughtered as if they meant nothing. How her heart ached to save them, how she beat herself up for not turning around and spewing her fire until every last creature in existence knew not to dare lay a finger on her and her kind. But there were so many of them, so many dead, and Leviathan themselves was likely gone too; by the time she got back to them, it would be too late, and then their sacrifice would be for nothing. Oh, but the betrayal hurt also. Having her diety, who pampered her with praise daily, turn their back, and hiss violent threats made her feel as if she was a failure. Her whole life was to please and protect the realm, her diety. And yet they were throwing her to the curb - and for what reason? She had never bit the hand that fed her, never hissed and snapped at those in the realm who got too close. She was loyal, fiercely so. Maybe a part of her loved her diety, perhaps a part of her experienced heartbreak, but she would admit to none of it.
Her plan developed quickly. She would go to earth, as Leviathan demanded, and there she would be safe. She could conquer the land, she knew she was capable of it, but the attention would be too thick. She needed to lay low. The plan only began crumbling when she landed on the rock and began watching her brethren once more being plucked out of the skies. Their cries sent pain jolting through the hardened skin that had built over her heart, made her howl in sympathetic pain. Every one of their losses made her feel more and more enraged. She remembered having one thought when she learned to shed her scales for soft skin: one day, I'll destroy them all. And so she stayed in that form, kept her scales for when no one could see, and slowly climbed the ladder of social standing. Being around for decades meant that every time she supposedly 'started over' as a new person in a new part of the world, she started off with money and knowledge.
It was how she got her standing as a model. In the modern-day, it definitely did not take much; she'd always preferred being more beautiful upon first glance, and so her human form was the picture of what she thought was perfection, and she enjoyed showing it off. She could never let anyone get too close though, deep-rooted issues with abandonment and betrayal still sat within her. She never wanted to suffer the loss the way she did when Leviathan fell, and never did she want to experience the pain of betrayal the way she did when her diety turned on her. That ache was one she felt to the present day, swirling around her empty heart which she had tried to fill with pretty things, old things, but she could never dull the pain for long. It bounced around, echoed off the walls of her mind with every inhale, crippled her emotions with every exhale. Until the day she would come to her no doubt unruly end would this feeling haunt her bones.
Over the decades of being on earth, she'd seen thousands of other species she didn't know existed, creatures that bared similarity to her kind, ones that did not. She was especially fond of wytches and weyrcreatures, sought them out eagerly over the years in every spot she went to. It was other dragyns that she could never find, though her heart ached to find them. She had crossed paths with few brazen borns, and even fewer divinity born, seemed her brethren were good at hiding, the few left alive scattered across the globe. She wondered how many of them remained alive today, or if she was the only one left standing. She wouldn't be entirely shocked, many of those she descended with didn't know how to evolve. Many of them didn't want too, too prideful to dare try to pretend to be anything but the beast they were. She hoped that they were still out there, hoped they remembered, wished they were as angry as she was. Prayed they'd want revenge when the time came.
There was one thing she'd learned since they'd morphed into human shapes, it was that it was quite simple how to tell who was a dragyn and who wasn't. Angrier, they tended to be, more violent and most of them had an aura of being from another world, another lifetime. Many of them seemed like ancient spirits, which to dull eyes wasn't anything special or telling. But for her, it was; many of them had a fire burning in their eyes when they spoke, something the beasts couldn't hide. Something she looked for consistently.
In this new town, she'd discovered there was more supernatural than there seemed to be anywhere else. It was like this place was a beacon for those who didn't necessarily belong on earth. When she moved, she had the secret hopes of finding another Dragyn hidden amongst the people, but she wouldn't be disappointed if she didn't.
Walking the streets had become a habit. She explored freely, uncaring of the pictures snapped of her and posted online, the media outlets when crazy whenever they saw her interacting with anyone. Alanza had created a name for herself, a loner star who preferred her own company and no other. Many of her fans were eager for her to find someone to pose with; arm candy, she supposed. She had a few over her years as a star, but none of them stuck around. They'd been nothing but pretty faces she collected; true to the myth that dragyn's liked beautiful things, hoarded them. Though it was a lot harder to horde people than objects.
Her thoughts were only interrupted when she spotted a pretty woman who carried herself in a way that seemed wrong for this time. Something ancient hidden beneath the beautiful bronze skin. Heels clicking hard against the ground beneath her, Alanza quickly threw herself in the woman's direction. "Excuse me!" She called out, a wicked grin forming on her lips. Was this it? Was she about to find a long lost member of the horde? "I think we should talk."
