you'll live forever tonight;; open

[PRÆY.]

★★★ A weapon. A weapon built for secret missions during the human super-war, disguised as nothing more than a lowly house cat. Though, the humans never could have imagined that their little device would escape out into the real world. But, after all, who would give a weapon such real animal needs and emotions? What programmer chose to even allow Prey to process thoughts?

An evil programmer, that's who. Tormented by his own programming, Prey had escaped his laboratory cage and set off, trying to run away from his own mind. But the outside world only proved to be more terrifying than he could have imagined, with hungry creatures around every corner and tree. Most recently was a painful encounter with a brown bear, which had caused the sparking wires currently jutting out from his synthetic fur. His movements were far from graceful as the old programming began to give way. Could he die? Prey knew he wasn't even alive, at least not by the conventional standard. Was there death for people like him?

As night descended, the crazed robot made his way down into a rather "pretty" valley. As with emotions, he also felt a deep hunger to eat once in a while. It manifested itself as a discomfort in his underbelly, which he knew meant it was time to get some food in his body.

Sneaking as carefully as he could through the night, he found a number of small dens throughout the valley and mountains. He knew from his trials in the outside world that these were where animals lived, and judging by the size, most of them didn't appear to be much larger than himself-- and with night descending, they'd likely be asleep...

Coming to grips with his own hunger, the monstrosity made his way into one of said dens, finding a small NPC feline curled up for the night. What ensued was a bloody display of robotic power. In a matter of moments, the feline was dead, bleeding in Prey's iron grip. Cannibalism? Well, not technically. He just didn't want to have to eat dirt again. Meat was much better for his insides. Should anybody enter to disturb Prey's feasting, they would find an injured robotic monster chowing down on a potential friend. Perhaps he felt a pang of guilt, but for all he knew the world was entirely against him anyways.

[sup]_____________________[/sup] [abbr=robotic body, injured, 1 year appearance, sparking wires, domestic feline]tags[/abbr]. template made by hootowls.

[nuclear repository;]

  [font=trebuchet ms]/tw: flashbacks, mentions of blood and gore in italicized sections

  For several months now, the idea of robots roaming the land had been among the least of her concerns. Largely, this was because she hadn’t seen any robots since over a year ago; fears tended to slip from a person’s mind the less often that fear had the ability to manifest. More importantly, though, considering that she had actual gods conspiring to take her down, robots had grown to seem... lesser, in comparison. They were just objects, and while they could be programmed with killing intent, they were not omnipotent.

  That said, there was one thing that automatons had to their name that even the gods did not; they were not held down by the slightest bit of sentimentality. If they were programmed to commit murder, they were going to commit murder, and the only way you could stop it was by dismantling them.

  Initially, Seija had assumed that this would be a typical night on the mountain; she would go patrolling all night and probably fall asleep by accident on at least one occasion, then try to pass it off as though nothing had happened. For now, with the destruction of everything she cared about trapped in the darkest depths of her mind, not appearing weak was the worst of her troubles. Even the reek of blood spilling into the air, while concerning enough to draw her towards the den, was not enough to incite panic in her.

  Then she stumbled into the den, and her eyes were assaulted with the gory scene within.

  In that moment, staring blankly at the ensnared, rotting mass, she could only hear the dripping of liquid onto the snow.

  She could only smell the distinctive tang of blood, tempered by the poisonous odor of rusted metal.

  She could only feel the panic, coiled around her neck, choking her, tying her to the floor, leaving her just as trapped, just as powerless as the disemboweled and gored corpse before her- this couldn’t be happening, how could this be happening, why would someone do this to Biyoka of all people?

  Why wasn’t she doing anything? Why couldn’t she do anything?

  Why would no sound escape her throat, even as she screamed her lungs out, begging for someone to come and help, to reassure her that this wasn’t real and it was all just a nightmare?

  Seija lunged for the mechanical monstrosity, a snarl escaping her throat as she aimed to ram horns-first into its side. In that moment, she neither realized nor cared that the robot in the room was not Terminal, or that the victim this time was not Biyoka, or that she no longer had a LithiumClan to defend. All that mattered was that the soulless husk before her was a threat, and she was done with letting the world get away with threatening her, done with letting her weakness paint a target on her back.

  The universe had already demolished LithiumClan; what did she have left to lose?

[PRÆY.]

★★★ Prey did not expect any other animal to come inside the den where he was eating, especially not attack him-- was that how animals worked? They attacked, what, if they felt there was a threatening presence afoot? Prey's eyes grew wide as the horned animal charged toward him almost instantly, leaving him with no time to react. The blow to his side wrenched his maw from his meal, pushing him hard against the side of the den. The pitiful being let out a splitting yelp.

"N-no, please! Stop!" He cried out, cowering back against the wall. More wires split out from his fur, sparking and causing malfunctions in his movement. He was a wreck. He never meant to kill another sentient being, he was simply hungry and needed an easy target. How could he have known there was something wrong with that? Surely he did not foresee an attack on his well-being.

He stared at the much-larger animal, feeling as though he was in for it good this time. Was this it? Would he finally be freed from this metal prison? In a way, he almost hoped his mind would finally give in, stop working altogether. It was difficult living with a brain that claimed utmost authority over his body. Processing emotional responses is easy for living creatures, but inside a robotic mind dedicated to making efficient choices, emotions often tore the poor creature apart. "W-why? Why?" He repeated, pressing against the back of the den.

Prey looked down at his meal for a moment. He wasn't hungry anymore.

[sup]_____________________[/sup] [abbr=robotic body, injured, 12 months, sparking wires, domestic feline]tags[/abbr]. template made by hootowls.

[nuclear repository;]

  [font=trebuchet ms]/tw for the italicized portion, for the same reasons as last time

  The robot's cry briefly jolted Seija out of her haze, bringing the canine to a screeching halt a few feet away from the limping automaton. Her bloodshot eyes widened, taking in the sight of the broken machine before her. For a brief moment, she almost reveled in the situation; here she was, the area around her covered in blood spatters, and yet the enemy was the one begging her for mercy, as opposed to the other way around. It was a scenario she would never in a million years have anticipated.

  The sense of power, however, was quickly drowned out by a rush of thoughts, flooding her head with images and sounds on loop.

  The pooling liquid stained her once-white paws crimson, the dark veins gripping her legs and refusing to let go.

  Wrenching her eyes away, the child met the gaze of the individual beside her with a horrified stare.

  Michael's green eyes stared right back, a flicker of amusement playing on their hollow surfaces. She blinked, and the eyes shifted to ice blue, betrayal and rage lurking within their depths. Again, and the eyes were a softer blue, filled by their owner's self-loathing and shame. Again, and the eyes were whiskey-hued, reflecting the suffering and guilt right back at her.

  Again, and all she could see was a field of rotting corpses, with too many stenches to pick out just one- and it had all started with a mechanical spider.

  A mechanical spider that she had allowed to live. A broken seal point that she could have prevented from leaving. A night that she hadn't stayed awake, watching every border from atop the hospital roof. A wounded wolf that she had left to patrol alone. A fellow leader that she hadn't kept in her sights. The list went on and on and on and on, without end, and it always seemed to fall back on that same person-

  "STOP!" Seija screamed again, baring her teeth and charging at the robot again, attempting to pin it down. Its begging for sympathy meant nothing. Its palpable fear meant nothing. It was all lines of code intended to assist it in committing murder, intended to get her to let her guard down for long enough for it to slaughter everyone and everything in the vicinity. For all she knew, it was deliberately manipulating her brainwaves to trigger the agonizing thoughts that she had worked so hard to control up until now, trying to get her to freeze up, to allow herself a brief moment of weakness. Even just one moment would be enough, and as useless as she was, as weak as she was, she could not allow it to have that moment.

  /don't mind her, she just hates robots in general
  /she'll stop trying to kill him next post, if no one else intervenes

[PRÆY.]

★★★ Beaten and scorned, the beast took the hit once again as if he'd been dealing with the same thing all his life. Of course the pleading was something of a defence mechanism, considering Prey was incapable of actually fighting another with any meaningful impact. That was exactly why he came here at night and feasted on a sleeping victim-- if it were a fair fight, he would certainly be forced to eat dirt again. And yet, underneath the hooves of the assailant, his eyes showed nothing but pathetic fear. Though, his words painted a different picture.

"Okay, s-so what are you gonna do then, huh? K-kill me? Hurry up!" Wires continued sparking through his mass of now-tangled fur. He was pretty sure he couldn't die anyways, and meanwhile the concept of death seemed less scary and more beneficial by the day. When events like this happened weekly with his wired brain going wild and rogue without warning, living was nothing more than a chore.

The female's scream was certainly a surprise to Prey. Stop? He was supposed to stop? He was the pathetic machine without a will to live, being attacked yet again by a hostile menace. A monster, that was what she was. This hoofed dog was a monster. 'Tears' began to stream freely from his eyes-- tears that was actually just salty water programmed to flow whenever he felt extremely negative emotions. "I was just hungry... I hate eating dirt." He murmured, gazing back at the bloody carcass that remained only a quarter eaten. Prey turned away. He couldn't even bear to look at it anymore, after how much trouble it had gotten him in.

He struggled against the heavy dog's hooves, but it was futile. His mechanical wiring was failing, causing extreme weakness. He probably could hardly walk properly at this rate, let alone break free from a monstrous animal's disabling grasp.

((no prob this is exactly what i hoped would happen lmao))

[sup]_____________________[/sup] [abbr=robotic body, injured, 12 months, sparking wires, domestic feline]tags[/abbr]. template made by hootowls.

[merged stuff]

track until i have muse.

[ROSS H.]

[align=center]

Ross loved any form of technology, he probably shouldn't have pitied a robotic creature that had taken the time to devour one of their clanmates but, he didn't think that just standing there and letting a different clanmate kill the robot was a good idea either. Did robots have feelings to begin with? He wasn't certain but his brain screamed at him about all the damaged Seija was doing to a perfectly good piece of machinery, well, he could definitely do a few repairs if it wasn't completely demolished by the time he decided to go over there. "Stop! S-stop." He finally said running over with both ears angled forward as the ragdoll let out a soft huff trying to figure out what to say in defense for the robot's own sake "There's no point in killing one another especially in these hard times. . ." He took a few steps closer feeling his fur starting to prickle a bit, he felt like an idiot for defending someone who had just killed and had began to eat said carcass, Ross couldn't even bring himself to look at the corpse knowing that he would begin to feel sick to his stomach if he did so. Would Fayina approve of him defending someone who killed a clanmate? No, absolutely not yet Ross was doing this on his own accord and on the robotic feline's behalf as he let out a shaky breath "We need to give the fallen, a proper burial and then we can question him. . ." He could feel a nagging feeling inside of him but he wasn't about to let his ground down. What if the robot knew things that would be useful to them? Maybe he had a point but, half of himself doubted it.

#pyresfancy

[nuclear repository;]

  The automaton was putting up remarkably little resistance, considering that it was programmed to kill; as Seija stood over it, her hooves firmly holding down its metal frame, she briefly contemplated asking it who its programmer was. If its programmer was anywhere nearby, the group needed to dispatch them as soon as possible, lest they create any more robots. After a moment, however, she shook her head and raised a hoof, preparing to crush the bot's neck; they couldn't afford to leave it functioning any longer, not when it could kill someone else at any moment.

  The sight of actual tears flowing from its eyes, however, gave the canine a moment of pause- long enough for someone else to come onto the scene, ordering her to stop. Placing both front hooves back on the metallic husk's chest to hold it still, the canine turned her head to stare at Ross, her eyes still wild with panic. "This thing could kill us at any moment," she snarled, though her tone carried more fear than rage. The instinct to stifle her emotions as much as she could had kicked back in, though she was struggling to do so. "For all we know, it could be recording us, or sending our location to its creator, or preparing to self-destruct, or gods know what else. I have to dismantle it." Even as she spoke, the words rang hollow in her ears; was she truly doing the right thing? Did it matter what she did here, or were they all going to die no matter what?

  Gritting her teeth, she continued as evenly as she could, "I can't just let it get away with murder. If I do, it'll send a signal to everyone else that we're easy targets. We'll all be dead by morning." Surely he could understand that, at the very least. The canine glanced back down at the robot, closing her eyes in an attempt to steel herself, to prevent her emotions from overflowing and revealing themselves to everyone. "If you want to ask questions, ask them now. Otherwise, I'm dismantling it."

  /not really sure where I was going with this

[merged stuff]

[justify]"selja, i suggest you leave  before i drag you away." growled the large norwegian, knowing that he would be able to if he used super strength. hewould look over the scene and then at ross, sighing softly as he stepped closer to the smaller male. he let his gaze fall onto the odd newcomer, scowling. "you best start explaining before i drop a boulder in your head."

/i'm sorry i'm like really museless but needed to post with rev weeps

[QUIETUS]

[align=center][div style=" background-color: transparent; border: 0px solid black; width: 500px; min-height: 9px; font-family:georgia; line-height: 110%; text-align: justify; color: black; padding: 20px"]The sound of commotion was enough to draw Quietus in like a magnet - wherever he needed to be, he was there. Always willing to lend a helping paw, to accept someone in, anything; it mattered naught to him. This, however... "This thing killed an innocent." his voice was a guttural thing, deep and profoundly damaged, and the mutated canine could not help but feel less disgusted in himself for a moment just to recoil from the site of the machine, made by humans and here wrecking havoc. He didn't like powers. Didn't like the unnatural scales that hardened and replaced the fur and skin that had been on his chest, his back, and his belly - this was a next level monstrosity, and it had been created by the people who had made these animals around him suffer. His demeanor shifted from apathetic to a muted defensiveness, his instincts vying for him to draw back his lips and bare his teeth, but his composure returned, and he squared his shoulders to address everything accordingly. Like an adult. As he stalked forward, the ebony dog would send Revolutionarywar and Ross a quick, narrowed glare of orange-and-purple eyes. And then, "Shut up and stop threatening Seija unless you intend to live up to your threat. If you're not going to help besides insulting others like a child, leave, too. We don't need you here." he said to Rev. He'd sparred with Lucifer, and was quickly living up to Qu's expectations of him being a petulant child.

"We're not going to... dismantle him. We should make him issue a formal apology for doing what he did, and then we can keep him under guard until we can be sure he isn't going to whatever his kind does to people that they want to eat." it confused him - why was this metal thing even eating like they did, anyways? Wasn't it created by the humans? It couldn't be an actual animal. "But there won't be anymore death here, not today, or tomorrow, for that matter. We have better things to do, like feed and heal ourselves. And if you disagree, then we can work something different out. But for now, we'll keep him as a captive. Killing won't teach any lessons, and letting him go won't, either. It's a medium."