welcome to your new hell, Welcome to the Menagerie. Or as we like to call it, Dome Sweet Dome! We are an eight-year strong futuristic shapeshifter and sci-fi creature roleplay, dedicated to bringing you a world unlike any other; a world in which your character has become an experiment and must fight for survival in a domed city, cut off from the rest of the world. Choose to be any animal in your fight for survival in an artificial world built by the Keepers as they subject you to experiments beyond your control. Choose to wander the world inside the walls alone, as a Rogue, or find safety in numbers in one of the groups known as Rings. How will you survive?
60 - 65 ºF
blustery with scattered showers spotty sunshine
YEAR 2309
shift bans.
» Cougars (aka Puma, Mountain Lion, Panther)
» All Tiger Species
» All Lion Species
» All Wolf Species
» African Leopards
group bans.
none.
encouraged !
FEMALE CHARACTERS! create a RETRO or ANTHRO and get 250 CP + a free skill! read me for more info!
last updated: april 19th, 2016
Click on each Ring or Retro group image to view their ranks!
GROUP UPDATES
CARNARING
Jocelyn Edelwolfe is the new Alpha! Seija Mulviene is the new Beta, and Grey is the new Delta. Lead Hunter is now Boone Haywood, Head of Border Patrol is now Noelle Ndango!
FALLENRING
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FULSIRING
Fulsi has a standing treaty with the Nakoma, granting limited access to their fresh water.
NAKOMA TRIBE
-
ANALOYA PRIDE
a while back, the Analoya suffered a suspicious poisoning of their river, luckily with few casualties; the Bellator are suspected of having taken part in it, and there are whispers that Pride leader Wanderer is talking alliance with the Nilda for access to their clean water.
BELLATOR HERD
As new leader of the Bellator, Loril has instituted some rank changes. See this thread for more information!
LAWAII FLOCK
no updates!
NILDA PACK
no updates!
CARNARING QUICK STATS
ALPHA -- Jocelyn Edelwolfe, Clouded Leopard, played by IronChild
BETA -- Seija Mulviene, Spotted Hyena, played by Seija-chan
DELTA --Grey, Mackenzie Valley Wolf, played by Kriss
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Time meant nothing to Surma. Days came and went without his concern or notice; he was with Mistress and that was enough for him. It was not without an occasional retaliation, and it was not uncommon that he did not understand some of the things she tried to tell him. This was frustrating to him as well, but in time she had cobbled together a language of signs and words, touches and coaxes that he understood.
In those first few weeks he had quite adamantly stuck beside her, never allowing her to leave his sight. It seemed she was at the same time happy and frustrated about this, but a snuffle of hair or wrap of tail would settle her and she seemed for forgive him each time.
Eventually he came to realize she would not vanish, and when guards were scarce she sometimes sent him off to watch the territory. He found it was fun to chase off intruders … Mistress had said that he could handle them any way he saw fit. More often than not they were sent flying.
Today, they were out together (which Surma quite preferred), and they traveled along the warehouses for but a short time before Mistress had spoken to a Dog and she’d kneed him into a gallop headed for the border. It had taken some time and communication but eventually Surma had learned her cues for direction, and he favored her where he could protect her properly.
Reaching their destination he slowed to a halt. It was a humid day, and the sky and threatened rain all morning. For reasons Surma was unconcerned with, they waited. Drip…drip…drop… the few taps of rain were the only warning before the clouds darkened and water cascaded down . There was a flash in the dim landscape, followed by a crack of thunder and Mistress flinched.
Surma remained still as his pelt and scales darkened in moisture. The rain little mattered to him, but his tail lifted to curl around Mistress’s waist and carefully lift her from his back. She made noises about it but he set her on the ground and moved his large frame quite close, his chest pressing against her protectively. Her palm smacked him just as another more earnest crack of thunder rumbled and she ducked with a gasp of surprise.
The large stallion simply took a step forward and she wrapped her arms around one of his legs, her small fingers grasping one of his large, sharp claws. It was dryer there huddled between his forelegs than it was anywhere else, and if she was going to insist they wait for whatever it was they were waiting for, Surma would not have Mistress get sick.
Seija moved with Surma's great strides, enjoying the 'sight' his large hooves gave her as she had an extended vision far beyond what her own footsteps could create. She hardly needed a saddle, as she had begun to look for one before she had one of those odd occurrences where she slipped unconscious and came to within a few day span; waking up in No Man's Land. She had experimented greatly before she realized it was easy to climb things, especially her plated beast of a horse - and thus she stopped her search for a huge saddle.
The Scout that came to her was already on his way to Adi, though he stopped for a report as he came to her. She listened to his concern over a manifesting fog as unsettling as a moving wall. She didn't know what to think, but fog wasn't going to unsettle her - it was anyone that decided to use this to their advantage and try to claim her family's land. She wouldn't let this happen...
Reaching the border didn't take much time, as they were headed in that direction anyway, and she patted the base of his neck as they stopped. She looked around as thunder rolled, the earth seemed to tremor over something ominous as she looked around, not moving as he lifted her from her seat upon him.
She let herself settle as her feet made contact with the ground, her vision fading and coming as she shifted, as winds made grasses blow, and the gentle shifting of Surma's massive weight sent expanses of vision in front of her. She tensed as a boom of thunder shook her chest and rattled her heart into an increased tempo; a reminder of her past only - a brief flash of herself as a little girl crawling into bed with her parents as lightning flashed and thunder rolled. Storms still effected her mildly, though she fought them from her nerves best she could.
She found herself shielded by the rain then, and smiled when the large presence that was Surma came from behind her and settled against her back. She then backed up even a bit more, her hands going around one of his forelegs as she moved to a barely stooped position under the large horse. She stayed facing the border, a serene and yet thick presence seeming to radiate from there. Her other hand already loosened the strap of her sheath that held one of her three-bladed daggers at her hip.
She was getting faint outlines of them, figures in the distance, and for whatever reason she believed they were mot likely using this 'fog' as cover. She remembered her sisters long ago description of it, like the light and dark colored soft things that floated in the air called clouds, they came down to the ground and obscured the vision of many. 'So people can then know what it's like to be me?' she had asked, and her sister laughed and agreed. Her grip on Surma tightened a little, her breath slowing as she lifted her foot to send it into the ground with some force, sending out shock-waves stronger than normal to pick up a spread out group -- decently sized of a roughly counted six or seven -- she could only hope this was not the beginning of a wave of them. She could only guess Fulsi by the direction they were coming in, but the rain obscured her sense of smell. She moved out from under the massive Shire, the rain beginning to soak through her damp clothes once more, staring in the direction she felt the figures creeping along. They were as blind as her --- though she had the upper hand here.
It was not long before movement in the distant caught the large, horse-like shifter’s attention. His great head rose up, ears perking attention, and blue eyes fixing sharply on the immense ghostly crusade that crept toward them like a living creature. It moved in a massed paradox of speed and size until both Surma and Seija were encased in the damp, eerie fog.
Surma blew through his nostrils soundly, and lowered his head. It was like a blanket to the senses of both sight and smell. Luckily, his Mistress could still ‘see’, as he had learned she could do. Not to mention, Surma’s sense of hearing was radically keen in comparison to many. The rain continued to sleet down, discontent to let the opacity of the land grow without help.
Notions of attack, conspiracy, and what this meant for their Ring floated over Surma’s concern as the thick mist did the landscape. Surma was a creature of presence. What he knew was that he could not currently see well, that Mistress was safe, and that there were people out there in the fog.
It was then the small Hunter moved from beneath him, and stood – the rain soaking her as she gave her attention to the distance. Surma watched her a moment before shifting his mass over, his heated shoulder touching hers before lifting a giant hoof and slamming it to the ground.
It was a trick they had formed, allowing her a clearer and much further perception of their surroundings. Thud, thud, thud … went his hoof into the mud and his head bobbed as he shifted his weight to the other leg and repeated the movement. Splatterings of mud were thrown up from the soddin turf and after a few moments he stopped.
Again the giant head turned to spy the girl, and unceremoniously his soft muzzle lowered to scratch an itch on the side of his nose on her shoulder.
She felt him react, her Surma, and she let off an eerie smile that stretched across her face in old, familiar, Seija Mulviene fashion. She felt her pulse accelerate, both with anticipation and the thunder that was the shock-wave from Surmas hooves. She saw the waves, her brain sending her images of lines that came from the ground and moved outwards towards the unknown. Along the ground and up the legs of the ones that moved over the ground in silence.
"7..," she spoke as she moved her fingers, counting to seven with one hand holding up all of them then two. She flicked her eyes this way and that, as she took them in, a few that were closer to her stopping as they heard Surma's large gusts of air, she noted the stance change as she lost a few of them to her area of effect vision. As Surma rubbed his face on her, she shifted, pushing weight against him so he wouldn't knock her down, and lifting her free hand to slip between her and him to scratch along the side of his nose and face. She leaned in close to him, her lips brushing against his nose as she stroked under his large chin. "We must be calm, they cannot out match us. They are not Carna ..," she murmured this, her voice low but lilting as she breathed out the words. The lilting voice telling of her slipping into her 'fighting' mode ... the front that she put up in the face of most others -- though prominently the ones she did not find her family -- even though she used it when she was being intimidating to the lowers of the Carna as well.
A whistling of air, thrice fell upon her ears, she held to connect and ricochet off of Surma's back, hitting his plates. She twirled her blade and caught the other that was headed for her and possibly Surmas necks side that was low and next to her. As it went through the space between her blades she twirled it and grabbed the end with her other hand, bending and snapping the shaft in two pieces as she let out a laugh. She picked up a hushed murmur of worry, and she strode forward, shifting as she went into the grass. Though before she did she motioned to Surma to go to the right, there was more that needed to be stopped before they got around them.
As a canine her eyes were not covered, and the iridescent orbs looked haunting in the darkness of the tall grass. Her pads made no noise in the dirt and the grass only whispered around her frame. She froze as a four-legged being came closer through the grass, slinking through in a straight line. Feline in stature - oh they always had to slink. She grinned a canine teeth-shown grin, her fogged eyes glinting in the dark as she held her breath. She heard them stop before her, waiting on just the other side of a viel of grass, the tension high and air thick, she waited. She felt her head cock to one side as her ears strained and the silence became deafening.
Finally, she couldn't wait any longer. With a whisper of a breath, she had leaned forward, her nose almost touching the others in the pouring rain.
"Boo."
In an instant there was a snarl from both ends as they went tumbling into the grass. Soon following were high pitched yowls, a crack and a grated 'merow', before the sound of a muffled growl swinging something was all that you heard. Before it stopped and a soft thud hit the dirt.
A human voice then came, hauntingly female and laced with a bliss of a kill. "Who's next?" She laughed and unsheathed her left hunting knife, and clicked her chain whip open, letting it slink to the ground - all in one motion.
With her light push against his nose followed quickly by affectionate murmurs, the draft exhausted a calm breath through his nostrils; its warmth creating a cloud that melded with the surrounding fog. His large eyes fluttered sleepily against the rain as she spoke quietly to him, her tone and digits caressing almost possessively in nature. It changed however, and Surma did not miss the rising oath that caught in her words.
The whistle hit his ears when it did hers, and the clatter of broken arrow against hard plates caused Surma’s head to pop up with surprise. Mistress’s weapons whirred, blocking another arrow as his armored tail lashed in anger. His head tossed, blue eyes wide with fear before they narrowed keenly. Without warning Mistress moved forward into the miasma, her fingers signaling a clear order before dropped to all fours and vanishing. Taking heed, Surma’s heavy feet pummeled the rising mud in place as if bridled before his head tossed again in ardor and, ears pined against his skull, avalanched into the gloom.
Nothing could be seen, by anyone including Surma. However, his sensitive ears swiveled about his head and two of the trespassers let out a shriek before the likes of a Monster reared his weight back high, colossal hooves snuffing out their souls with a triumphant bugle.
It was quick, and it was quiet. Drip .... drip... the sounds of droplets hitting the puddles of mud were all that were heard aside from a human's labored breathing. Surma peered down at the dying girl that watched him in terror. Even now she struggled weakly through the mud in vain as her mouth gaped fish-like, spilling warm scarlet from her nose and mouth. His cold assessing eyes moved over her form, slowly, before resting on the crude bow that lay less than a foot from her shaking hand. Instantly he shot a hot breath through his nostrils in disgust, and with a grunt kicked in the head of the fool with a hollow and sickening crack; like a melon. The giant armored horse tossed his head, as if commenting on her use of arrows, before moving off into the chilled, ghostly grey world.
It was not hard for him to find her, even the the murk and rain. He trotted through the puddles pleased with himself, belly caked with mud and white legs splashed in red, and lowered his head to sniff her over with care. Satisfied no harm had come to her, his large warm maw fussed at the hair covering her eyes as his tail curled around her ankle.
She had quickly other descend upon her, and it helped they knew not of what she could do nor who she was. She grinned, letting loose her whip to wrap around a young males neck, pulling him forcefully forward and to his knees as she then used the taught line to acrobatics over to the other, flipping to land practically on top of her.
The growling Fulsi was all human, and yet lept at her still. She sidestepped and avoided attack, using the chain as a blocking device the girl practically flipped over it and onto her back on the ground. She giggled and started on her, finishing her off quickly with a precise slice to the gut area, twisting and turning her inside out as she gasped for life. She then turned her attention to the male, pulling him over to her. Unfortunately, she didn't realize he had already suffocated from the pressure on his neck. Frowning at the lack of people to question; she lookied up as the thunderous steps of Surma brought her attention to him.
She paused as she looked up at him, hand reaching up to pet his soft fur at his jaw and neck sides that she could reach, a pondering look crossing her features as she took both hands to the side of his face and stepped back a little.
"Did you bring back one of them?" she asked him and used a hand to flash a finger to show '1'. She counted in her head, Surma would've had to take care of four of them -- not that he couldn't help it at all -- though she hoped he did this favor. They apparently didn't make Fulsi's as sturdy as they used to. Hardy-harhar-har.
She bopped her head on the front of his though, leaning back once more to look back at him as she shifted in the wet grass. Only to look up as the heavens opened up even more and let loose a fury of pelting rain. "Oh great...," she said as she pouted; the strands of her bangs pushed back to the sides as they plastered to her face.
Last Edit: Nov 4, 2013 6:12:56 GMT -5 by SEIJA-CHAN
The mammoth creature’s thick neck shook, shedding sheets of water to the ground. No, no he had not brought one back. However, there were more out there and his head bowed low – his nose almost touching the wet grass as his hoof scraped through the mud twice with deliberacy before slamming the thick trunk of a leg back to the ground. Two dead, was the intent of the message and his crown rose to level his eyes with her own.
The night cracked open suddenly, seeming determined to recreate the passage of flooding the world. He rose to his height then, neck craning to the distance as if he could see farther than the few feet the fog would allow. For several moments he was still, listening, listening before turning back to Mistress whos look spoke of an identical thought. She could feel them … the last two and they were not far off.
In unison Surma balanced low into a crouched as Mistress sprung like a nymph from the ground to his outstretched foreleg and settled herself on his back. Without hesitation he turned the general direction of their quarry, and were off. He could feel her signals in legs and hands, guiding him through the haze … his ears and eyes exceptionally focused ahead so as not to trip or slip through the slick turf. His head bobbed now and again as he leapt or dodged rocks or bushes and soon with the work, steam rose from the few exposed parts where plates did not shield him.
It was not but a mile or more before Mistress seemed to sense something and Surma tail lashed gamely, ready to take their captive.
She moved with Surma, loving the feel of the power beneath her as she sheathed one of her two three-bladed knifes and steadied her forward motions with her hand upon her horses large neck. In an odd way she felt at one with him, feeling the tremors through his body as his hooves hit the ground, the thudding of his heart out-matching her own small pulse easily; it drowned out the pounding in her chest and made it feel as if they had become one. She hummed in the back of her throat a pleasant noise, her grip on the chain assured by her fingertips hooking within the centers of the connections.
She saw them then, the pair running quickly over land that was quickly to turn into enemy territory. She let the metal snake loose, whipping it around and then forward to send it straight through the abdomen of one of the two, sending him to the ground as Surma came to a halt. She slid from him before he even fully stopped, calling him to circle back to her as she felt the other cross the border. 'Tsk ... tsk ... tsk,' she clicked her tongue as she slowly walked forward towards the gasping individual, her head tilting slowly as she stopped along-side him. He breathing was ragged and the smell of fresh blood came in wafts of coughing fits and groans. Her booted foot sent him onto his back with a scream. His scream was mildly cut short with a punch to the face, the yell dissolving into a mix between a groan and a whimper.
"Who ... the hell ... do you think I am?" The only response she got was a sputtering and then a spit to her face. She sighed in an annoyed fashion, her stance dropping to a squat on the side of him, her arms dangling over her knees in a lazy fashion as she lifted one hand to wipe at her face, sticking her finger in her mouth before she pulled it out with a resounding 'pop' and satisfied 'mmm'. Much like a child sucking something like candy off their fingers. Her tongue dipped out, tasting the trace blood and water that continued to pour from the sky and drench them. "Let me ask you again..." she said as she reached forward and gripped the back of the young boys neck, her thumb shoving his jawline up as she easily lifted his upper body from the mud, bringing him closer to her so as she could smell him, a deep inhale through her nose as she brushed her face over his in a odd-like caress. A small giggle escaping her lips as the tone of her voice turned dark ... child-like and amused ...
"Why do you Fulsi always think you can use sneaky tactics to win what you want?" she whispered, her fingers of her other hand gently coming up to touch his face, her head tilting back the other way as he sightless eyes bored into his. He didn't move, his pulse was severely out of control and his breathed became more labored with each passing moment. He was bleeding out and loosing the battle with life. "Do you want to know why ...?" she managed to whisper even softer, her lips practically brushing against his own as she breathed in the scent around her, imagined the sweet look of terror on his face, devoid of color as he gripped himself at his stomach, where her spike at the end of her chain protruded from.
He convulsed, the death rattle beginning as he gripped at her arm, somehow finding the strength to reach up and do so, as he said goodbye to this world. Her pleasant face twisted into one of annoyance as she exhaled heavily through her nostrils, much like her companion usually did, before standing. There was only a pause before she kicked the male over to support her boot against his body and ripping her weapon out from it's hold on the dead Fulsi before shaking it a little, as if the mere action would clean it of the blood that caked it's length, before wrapping it back around her body.
"Lets go home Surma. I have to report this ...," she said as she looked up to her beast who stood beside her, hand grabbing the plate at his shoulders before pulling herself up. She trusted him to know the way back by now even though she guided him anyway.
It was often that Mistress hummed, but it was always so soft that very few ever heard her. Nevertheless, it soothed Surma, relaxing the tension in his shoulders and causing his tail to uncurl as they continued the rolling three-beat gait through the unrelenting weather after the intruders.
When they were in sight, his concentration redoubled as the snake of her whip split the air and he slid through the mud as his Mistress dismounted swiftly. Assuming he was to go after the loose Fulsi he was surprised when she called him back. As soon as his slide permitted, he turned with a shake of his head and blew through his nostrils – slowing to a trot and halting by his Carna Mistress of such petite stature. In truth, his head was as large as she was knee to head, and his standing next to her was indeed revealing of both his size and her lack of it.
As Seija questioned and tortured the Fulsi, Surma only looked on without effect – the rain had soaked everyone thoroughly by now and the heat from the massive creature’s body rose in ghostly tendrils. The lashing of the whip around his Mistress’s form signaled a close to the event, and Surma kneeled slightly in reflex as she climbed aboard.
Let’s go home, she said though before her words were completed his legs carried them in that direction. Almost unconsciously she guided him back to the Carna camp, though she little needed to. She seemed distracted, enough so that if he had been a less faithful mount and not taken the route she assumed they might have ended up elsewhere. However, Surma’s sense of direction was uncanny – even in the fog and it was not long before the outlines of camp could be seen.
By then Surma had been cooled out, and he predicted she was as ready for a respite as he was. They’d done well this night, but any relaxation would have to wait until after reporting. Though she might command him otherwise, Surma always hung outside until she was done and ready for bed herself. He was not ready to settle until his Mistress was. A deep sigh escaped him – it would be a long night, he could tell, but he waited patiently. When all was done, he would be ready to take her home to get some real rest. It was only then that he himself would be able to sleep.