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brooklynislandgirl · 4 years

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Darkness

Driftwood || Not Accepting

The storm moves over Lexington with the fury of angry gods. Heavy clouds breeds heavier rain the likes of which will drown the world in a second deluge, while purple veins of lightning crawl from west to east and all points between. For hours now as it pressed on from late evening to early night, she curled up under the covers and slept. Anakin, safe and comfortable in his crate does the same, having days ago to purposefully ignore the Marshal. Interest lost in the open hostility between them. Which means the hotel room is quiet, leaving Raylan to both his own devices and thoughts. She’d insisted on a nightcap of course; a single, slowly sipped nip of bourbon ~which she’s not a huge fan of, but tolerates it just the same~ which is also left out for him to indulge in if he wants to. She swears she’s not trying to get them drunk. And if he listens, she lets her be vulnerable enough to see the little anxieties that haunt her in the daylight, which become dark and twisted come nightfall. She tells him about the things that live in the shadows. About how she’s always had these night terrors, and that she’s absolutely certain that they are always worse when it’s time to sleep. Lurking and waiting. And how they are responsible for the sleep paralysis she suffers sometimes. How she’s convinced that if they can catch her while she’s asleep and hold her still long enough, the largest and darkest of the Shadow Things will devour her whole. Of course she laughs about it afterwards, tells him she knows it’s silly but that doesn’t quite abolish the uncertainty that lingers around the corners of her mouth, the little fear that makes her eyes dart into quiet corners before entering or leaving the room. It’s not so funny though that she insists on having nightlights in every room. Leaving the bedside lamp dimly lit through the night, though she has the good graces to apologise if it disturbs him.

She really doesn’t know if it bothers him one way or the other. If he has superstitions about the dark. He mentioned that he once dug coal. Acute horror rested on her expression for many reasons; the inability to understand how he could voluntarily go down into the small, cramped dark, {because she doesn’t know the dark that lived above ground in his father’s house.}, how he’s never seen the spirits that linger in it both of the earth and of miners past and the history of misery and discontent that follow them, and for the darkness that is stripping marrow from the earth’s bones. Doing so in the name of exploitative corporate greed. She doesn’t blame him completely, but it hurts her heart, it makes her sad for the young man he might have been otherwise, and how he’s invited his own discontent because of it. Yes, for a scientist, a doctor, she has a lot of belief in the Otherworldly.

A particularly strong gust rattles the windows and the whole frame of the hotel, which shudders in the aftermath and the lights flicker. Once. Twice. They go out.

A look out the window would show that a good part of the city has gone dark.

Seconds go buy, which become minutes. Which are clogged with even breath sputtering as the lights had, before there’s an audible gasp in the absence of everything. Timid, trembling her voice calls out from the nothingness. It’s terrified and soft and hits very specific instincts. “R-raylan? O-oh god, please be here.”

#Mahalo!Klutzy <333 #Grey Coated Morning|Raylan Givens #Badges and Wildflowers|Raylan and Beth #You'll Never Leave Harlan|Justified AU #Deep Dark Hills|Kentucky #goodlawman

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evolutionsvoid · 7 years

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The statement "dryads are plants" is both an obvious one, but a funny one. One would assume that everyone knows that Dryads are plants, and they do, but they do not fully think that concept through. I run into that a lot when people ask me about being a natural historian, and all the dangers such a profession can face. When I talk about studying manticores, wolves, bears and wendigos, people talk about how brave I must be to face such horrible creatures. They imagine me squaring off against these powerful predators, using all my knowledge to stay alive and further my efforts. In truth, I just plop myself down near their territory and just watch them. Because I am a plant. These fierce monsters people talk about eat meat, which plants do not have. We are not tasty to creatures with that type of diet. In some cases a dryad is practically invisible to carnivores, as they have nothing such a creature desires. This is why dryads that become natural historians tend to lean towards predators and carnivores. It is why some of the most successful monster hunters are dryads (which many might not know, but that is because someone keeps writing them out of the stinking books! The Beast of Lerdifil was slain by a dryad, not a "mysterious armor clad wanderer!" Unbelievable!) The slavering fanged beasts of lore don't really faze dryads that much, as they are not on the menu. On the other hand, dryads do have to worry about herbivores, which may sound silly to some. While a manticore is not a worry to a dryad, a hungry moose is something else entirely. Thankfully most herbivores are not used to their food running and screaming, so its not that big of a deal. It serves as a reminder, though, that there are things out there in the world that like the taste of dryads. Creatures that we put in our tales and legends . Monsters that haunt our nightmares and fill our horror stories. Humans have vampires. Demons have Desmodals. Dryads have Planggalans.

The Planggalan is a creature biologically similar to a dryad. Their long serpent-like bodies are extremely pale and soft, lacking the tough bark or skin fibers that most dryads have. Their form is covered in roots and petals, which flow from its chest-like structure like a single tentacle. From its head extends two grabbing appendages and a single, tough tendril. The tendril is what the Planggalan relies on to get food. Planggalans, unlike dryads, cannot get energy from the sun, as their bodies lack the parts and fluids to make such a system work. They are so pale, Planggalans are actually burned by the sun, its harsh rays scalding its form. This forces the creature to move around at night, which is perfect hunting time for it. Planggalans need to get their sustenance from somewhere, and if they can't get it from the sun, then they will find someone who has already converted it. When night falls, the Planggalans slither from their hiding places and hunt for dryads. Their lightweight bodies are filled with pockets, which can be inflated to allow it to float or drift through the air. When on the ground, it can slither and crawl on almost any surface. The Planggalan will track down dryads for food, thirsting for the green sap that acts as our blood. They prefer to target lone victims, often sneaking into homes and dwellings while the occupants sleep. Their squishy bodies allow them to slip through small gaps, and their mode of travel gives little noise. Either awake or asleep, the Planggalan will spray a cloud of white pollen at the victim, which is used to immobilize its prey. This pollen is not like the stuff other plants or dryads use for breeding, it is instead used like a weapon. The pollen has a hypnotic effect on any plant-based creature that is exposed to it, with small doses of it calming victims to a point of obliviousness and larger doses sending them into a slumber. All it takes is one face full of the nasty stuff to leave a dryad slumped in a drooling heap. The effects of this pollen lasts for a few hours, but a Planggalan does not need that much time to feed. Unfurling their sharp proboscis, they will pierce the bark of a conked out dryad and suck away their sap. Most of the time, the Planggalan will not fully drain a victim, rather it will drink its fill and then slink off into the night, leaving the dryad to wake the following morning weary and weak. When a dryad is fed upon by a Planggalan, their bodies begin to lose color. The greens and browns will begin to dull and fade depending on the intensity of the feeding. A dryad that has been heavily fed upon will have white splotches form on their bodies, areas where the flesh becomes soft and spongy. The more and more that is drained from a dryad, the paler they will become, losing color as more sap is sucked from them. Fed upon dryads become weak and constantly tired, their actions very similar to one who has caught a nasty sickness. They are groggy and have a hard time focusing on things, their mind blanking out as their body tries to keep itself from falling asleep from exhaustion. Thankfully, a dryad that has been partially drained can still recover, with their body working to replace the lost fluids and sap. With the care of friends and family, a dryad can recover from the loss by getting plenty of nutrients, water and sunlight. The process will take a couple days, but eventually the colors and vitality will return to them. The more drained a dryad is, the longer the recovery process. Dryads who have been heavily fed upon can easily pick up other illnesses and diseases. Often, a dryad who has been fed on multiple times will die from a resulting infection or sickness that ravages their weakened body. As long as they have some sap left in their bodies, a dryad has the possibility to recover. A light feeding would be like catching the flu, a miserable time but not lethal. If a dryad is completely drained of its fluids, though, their bodies will undergo a metamorphosis. Their arms and legs will atrophy, and their minds will decay into a primal state. At that point the dryad inside is dead, and a new consciousness takes over. Eventually their head will rip free from their body, taking along with it a tail of roots and tendrils. The newly born Planggalan will return to the darkness, hungering for that green fluid. This is the only method that births new Planggalans. The pollen they carry is sterile and only used as a tool for feeding. Though this is how they multiply, Planggalans will actually restrain themselves when it comes to the creation of new ones. Since their diet relies on dryads, they will avoid birthing too many Planggalans as it would wipe out their food source. Most of the time they will drain the victim slightly and leave, so they can prolong the number feedings before the victim passes. Some Planggalans that have been driven from dryad populated areas will be forced to feed on simple plants, which do little to end their hunger. If you ever wake up in the morning and find your garden white and withered, then that is a sign that a starved Planggalan passed by. If these Planggalans have the luck to stumble upon a single dryad, they will be cautious in their feedings. This single victim will often be incapacitated and carried off to a safe lair so that it cannot lose its one food source. They will trap their prey so it cannot escape, either binding them or frequently dosing their victim with pollen so that they stay in a constant hypnotic trance. They will space out their feedings to try to get the most out of them, like sipping on one's drink. When they eventually fully drain the dryad, these Planggalans will actually kill the resulting Planggalan before it is birthed. They do not want competition when resources are already so low. Planggalans are essentially our version of vampires. They feed on our "blood," fly through the night and have hypnotic powers. With that, they are widely feared by our kind. When signs of Planggalan activity are spotted around a town, half of the inhabitants will barricade themselves in their homes, while the others do everything to hunt down the creature. Guards that run the night watch are not just there to spot thieves. They are armed with long range weaponry and fire arrows in case such a creature is spotted. When a town runs into a Planggalan problem, its citizens will congregate together at night, with multiple families staying under one roof. With so many dryads in one area, a Planggalan is hesitant to strike if it knows it can't subdue all threats. Planggalans are one of the reasons the color white is synonymous with death for dryads. Their pale petals and the white splotches they leave on victims are enough to make a frightful dryad superstitious, and that has unfortunately worked its spell on too many. Long ago, in a more ignorant time, dryads that were born with white on their bodies were seen as spawns of Planggalans. These "bearers of the mark" were believed to either attract Planggalans or eventually become one. In certain villages and towns, such a mark was a mark of death, and they had done everything to purge the color from their society. They believed if they eliminated these "spawn" then the Planggalans would be no more. Sadly, this crazed thinking led to hunts and executions. All dryads that could bear the color white were purged from their ranks, and now spotting a Common or Floral dryad with such a color is rare. Even worse, Bloody dryads and Amanita dryads are always white, which has led to those subspecies being persecuted and vilified. Hundreds were slaughtered over these horrible years, but eventually smarter minds put a stop to these barbaric acts. The two subspecies are no longer hunted for their color, but their populations are still working on bouncing back from such a cruel betrayal. Regardless of ones belief, the color white is the one we dryads associate with death, and it is because of these foul creatures. Though they are menaces of the night, Planggalans have their batch of weaknesses. Their soft, spongy flesh offers zero resistance to weapons, and their reaction to sunlight makes it difficult to flee or fight during the day. Like dryads, they are vulnerable to fire, and their thin bodies can easily go up in flames from the slightest touch of a torch. With this, Planggalans rely on ambush and infiltration to take down prey. But if they are caught in the act, they are still capable of fighting back. Their bodies allow them to move at amazing speeds and their thin bodies are difficult to strike. Their tails can wrap around foes and deliver a crushing squeeze, while their hard proboscis can pierce exposed flesh. If dealing with a plant-based foe, their pollen breath can knock them out, giving them time to escape. The preferred method of killing a Planggalan is filling them full of fire arrows from a distance and letting them burn. Long, pronged spears are often pulled out to fight Planggalans, so that the user to stab from a distance and pin down the foe. Once a Planggalan is pinned, they can be torched. Everyone knows that dryads are not big fans of fire, but when it comes to eliminating these beasts, it is well worth the risk. Despite our best efforts, Planggalans continue to plague our kind. Though many are caught and killed, there always seems to be another. It can be years between Planggalan sightings, but they always seem to come back. Some think that there is another part of their life cycle that we do not know. Many, though, see it as one of the curses we must bear for our sins. The weight our kind must carry for our past actions. Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian

#plant monster #plant creature #plant #monster #creature #vampire #indian pipe plant #parasite #art #drawing #dryad

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