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
-
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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The grass, cool beneath his stomach, was a welcome relief from the hot afternoon sun, as was the shade that washed over him; that itself was provided by the sprawling boughs of the old, sturdy tree that he lay under. A thoughtful hum buzzed in his throat as he played with the latest necklace adorning his neck, that being a simple gold cross strung to a simple gold chain. He’d won it from Vince during a round of strip poker, and while it interested him, Py wasn’t particularly fond of its religious symbolism. It was merely a shiny object to provide him with amusement, now.
Rolling over onto his back with a self-satisfied groan, he flipped the cross around, peering at it more closely. Something caught his eye, just then, and he leaned his head forwards to study it further before reading out loud the words he’d just discovered. It was more for the benefit of his companion beside him, who hadn‘t been paying much attention to the object of Py‘s interest. “D. Williams,” he muttered, a frown touching his brow. The hunter shot a quick glance over at the blue-haired medic, then looked back at the cross, musing. “Hm. Poor sap, whoever he is. Hope he isn’t too religious. Either way, I don’t really think I fancy it much.”
He dropped it to let it rest back against his chest and eased himself down again, arms folded behind his head happily. “What do you think, Graywall? Do I make it look good, at least, or what?” he asked, voice teasing. The pair had decided to lounge for a bit, both having finished their respective morning work shifts earlier that day. There would be more to come in the evening, of course, but that was a ways off yet, and so he paid little heed to work-related matters at that particular moment.
ooc; This thread takes place BEFORE the thread ‘Superstition‘ and after the thread ‘Crouching Tain, Hidden Py‘. They‘re in a forest, and it‘s in the noon, yes.
He sat cross-legged in the sun a few feet away from Py, savoring the heat seeping into his back through the worn fabric of his shirt. Unlike his furnace of a companion who somehow kept delightfully warm even in the dead of winter, Tain's body often neglected to remember that he needed to be able to feel his fingers to be useful. His present situation was, understandably, heavenly. He wasn't all that confidant as to why he was hanging out with the hunter in the first place, but as he braided together daises in a hilariously feminine fit of wayward creativity he suspected it was because he might, maybe, be a friend.
He cast Py an oblique look as he toyed with his latest treasure, and worked his jaw slightly like an impatient horse. Friend might be putting it a bit too strongly, every time he was on the verge of actually liking the man he was jerked rudely back to reality by his memories, by the savage scars down his chest. Tain dropped the daisy chain onto his lap, mood dampened. Then he heard Py mumble a familiar name, and his head snapped around, pale eyes wide. For a short, borderline hysterical moment he thought he'd misheard. But then Py dropped it back against his chest and showed it off, and his mind brought up a starkly detailed memory of Dalton, leaning over his bed and shaking him awake with a grin, gold chain swinging from his neck.
Tain had no idea how Py's friend had come to get it, but seeing him there wearing what was very likely his friends most precious possession... he saw red. A low, guttural sound ripped from his chest as he lunged forward onto the hunter, seizing the crucifix and only just stopping himself from snapping it straight off his neck. "This is not yours!" he snarled, "How did your friend get Dalton's crucifix?! HOW?!" The Coyoteboy would never part with it willingly, and the thought of him dead at the hands of Carna dropped in his stomach like fire-hot lead.
Py, of course, hadn’t been expecting his companion to react in such a manner. He’d been relaxing back, enjoying the tease of sunlight against his eyelids, when the sudden pressure against his chest forced a startled choking yelp, and his eyes snapped open. He narrowed them at once, peering into the lighter eyes of the whelp, who was apparently inexplicably angry. Go figure. Couldn't they go one day without fighting? It grated on his nerves remarkably. The hunter gritted his teeth together as he suffered a brief spell of irritation, and then he arched an eyebrow arrogantly. As he was about to ask him what he was on about now, he saw his hand come towards him, and he lifted his own hand to bat his aside with a snarl. The flood of words made him blink in confusion for a moment as his brain tried to catch up - it had been dozing in another world, far from reality - to what was currently happening. When it did, though, he growled right back, a low thunderous rumble that started in his chest and crept into his throat.
“I take it Dalton’s the owner of this, then? What, is he a friend or something?” Py asked, then rolled his eyes as he poked at the offending object. “Vince won it from another guy who said he’d gotten it during the raid on the Fu…I mean, the one where I...” he trailed off for a moment, at a loss, then glared daggers at the other man, hands curling into fists for a few tense seconds before he relaxed them again, muttering, “Anyhow, c’mon, piss off with this. I’ll give it to you if that’s what you want. It’s of no worth to me anyways.” The muscles in his jaw tightened as he jutted his chin at him. “What’s it to you about the Fulsi, anyhow? I mean, they ditched you, forced you out, didn‘t they? So stop being so damn defensive about it all, Graywall. It‘s annoying as hell.” He sat up properly, reaching around behind his neck with both hands to unclasp the necklace, then snagged Tain’s hand and dumped it into his upturned palm with a careless air, blue eyes burning bright with barely contained fury. “Happy now?”
ooc; Short post is short, but it gets the point across xD
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Last Edit: Jun 30, 2011 18:14:35 GMT -5 by Py Ackerman
His temper cooled irrationally for a moment at the mention of the attack on the Gospel Complex, and thus managed to restrain himself from trying to choke the Hunter out of sheer indignant fury. Dalton had survived the massacre, meaning the necklace had been taken from him while he was alive. On some level he was aware that his anger was fueled by guilt, Dalton had never been anything but a friend before he'd gone 'traitor,' and had obviously still believed in him right up until Tain took his help, then stabbed him square in the metaphorical back.
As his hand closed around the warm metal of the surrendered necklace, he felt a burn of possession that was equal parts selfish and defensive. It wasn't as though he could hike over to Fulsi and give it back, but he couldn't just let it float around Carna being traded in poker games either. With care he fastened it around his own neck and dropped it inside his shirt, away from others eyes. He might have just let it go, let the tension simmer down between them like it always eventually did. But Py had struck a raw nerve, frayed by doubt and time. "Yeah, they did," he forced out through gritted teeth, pale eyes firmly on Py's blue. "Doesn't mean I don't still care about some of them." An ugly sneer lifted the corner of his lip, and before he could stop himself he continued. "...the ones you didn't manage to kill, anyways." He'd gone too far, he knew it the moment he said it, but all he felt was fierce satisfaction for finally crossing the line. Py had nearly killed him, had undoubtedly killed other Fulsi, and he was done sweeping it under the rug.
----- ooc; unusually short and combative u.u LIKE PY 8'3
Last Edit: Jul 1, 2011 17:10:22 GMT -5 by Tain Rosdahl
Py licked his lips warily as he watched Tain hook the necklace on, and he lifted a hand to rub absently at his own neck; a pang of something suspiciously like angst struck him, making his stomach sink even further down than it had been before. Next came frustration, of which there was always an ample supply when it came to this particular medic, and his upper lip raised in a half snarl of irritation. And then he looked away with a sigh, as if hoping this spat between them would simply die down if he ignored the other man long enough. It became apparent, however, that this was not the case, when Tain’s words reached his ears. They dug into him as sharp as any knife, and while he tried to pretend as though he couldn’t hear, his head whipped around at the sentence Tain tacked on at the end of his small rant. For a moment, Py was indignant, his expression one of surprise, and hurt. And then he grew angry again.
His fury at the accusation boiled in the pit of his stomach, making the blood pound in his ears and the heat rush to his face, and his hands tightened unconsciously into fits. The memories of what had happened during the raid were always fresh and raw in his mind, as his subconscious would never let him forget (the nightmares alone were testimony enough to that). Nor did he want to. But to hear it coming from another, especially one that he had nearly killed that very night, wounded him deeply, especially when he’d been trying so hard lately to get the medic to actually like him - more than anything, he wanted him to know that he wasn’t that guy. The one that had killed at least two people and maimed several others before the dawn had rose. The thought alone sickened him.
The scars the man bore were even worse; when the hunter’s mind wasn’t keeping up with the mental reminders, those scars picked up the slack, offering a physical representation of what he‘d done. It was all he could do not to retch whenever he looked upon them too long, not because they were terrible to look at, but because of what they represented to him; that he’d lost control.
Py closed his eyes briefly, swallowing heavily, then opened them again and fixed Tain with a hard glare, trying to resist the urge to strangle him. “The rest of the Carna are just as guilty as me, and you know it,” he snapped. “Yet you treat them all better. C’mon though, do you honestly think, Graywall, that I’m proud of what I did? I’m just as sick about it as you are! Every waking moment... Christ, if I could take it all back…you…you have no idea how sorry I am that I did what I did,” He paused, gathering his pride and beating it down, then said, “And I’m sorry for what I did to you, as well. I really, really am.”
ooc; As Tain starts singing 'IT'S TOO LATE TO APOLOGIZE, IT'S TOO LATE' xD
A rude, mocking snarl twisted his lips as Py spoke, disbelief clear upon his face. The throbbing pain of physical memory burned down his arm and chest where the hunter had savaged him, half-dead already on the sidewalk. What excuse could there be? Even Py seemed unable to come up with one, and could only offer a generic apology that left Tain oddly disappointed.
And while he loathed to admit it, Py was right about one thing at least. The vast majority of Carna members were downright sociable with him now, and he might even call several of them friends under different circumstances. If he did, it would have been more than he'd ever had in the lonely hallways of Fulsi. Py, however, had gotten nothing but outright hostility that was eventually tempered by short bouts of coexistence. Recently the pair of them hadn't gone more than a day without spending some amount of temper-free spare time together, not counting at night when they slept. The idea of sleeping next to the hunter had made his skin crawl, but after the first night of dead-to-the-world sleep he'd had in a month, Tain had reluctantly surrendered the argument.
"You're sorry?" he purred, tone trembling dangerously in his throat. "I'm sorry I didn't have the guts to cut your throat when I had you down!" His voice rose to near a shout before his forced it back down under control, hands tightened into bloodless fists. "How many more did you get after me, Pythagoras? How sorry are you for them?! Are you really telling me that if they called right now for another attack, that you wouldn't go do it all over again? You're SICK!"
Py’s hope that his apology would quell at least some of the medic’s anger was quickly dashed when he was subjected to another round of his seething hot temper, his words cutting into him deeply. He knew the man was justified in what he was saying, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt any less, and he wished that he could think of something, any sort of explanation for his participation in the raid that would help make more sense of things. There were a few factors, after all, that had triggered him that night, thrown him into a deeper state of elation and anger. They weren’t an excuse, since there was no excuse for his actions, but he wholeheartedly believed that they had contributed to what he’d done, influenced his behaviour. Py wasn’t a killer, not really. Sure, he hunted animals, but that was only for food to help his ring. He’d never killed anyone before the raid, and he hadn’t after, either, since the thought made him physically nauseous.
His jaw worked quietly, arms wrapping around himself as if the air’s temperature had suddenly dropped several degrees. It was a protective gesture, although the words were invasive enough to get past his defenses, circulating in his mind like bitter poison. A strangled noise rose in his throat as he started to speak, and paused for a moment to clear it, then tried again, voice quiet in comparison to Tain’s rising tone. “I wish that you had, too. Maybe you would have been a lot happier, and the world would have been a better place with one less sick freak occupying it. Right?” It might have come across as mocking at any other time, but at the moment it was a deadpan, rhetorical statement. There was something in his expression, perhaps in his eyes, that hinted that he wasn’t spewing nonsense for the sake of it; he truly believed in what he’d just said. He loathed himself, and for good reason.
“Look, you’re right,” he muttered, bowing his head humbly, “sorry isn’t good enough, I know that. I was just…” He paused. “You really don’t believe me, do you? No, I wouldn’t do it again. I don’t care if there’s another raid, I won’t. I’ll stay behind. I am sickened at myself for ever doing it! And I know I don’t have an excuse for what I did, I’m not looking for one, but if you’ll just listen…” Py peered at him beneath his fringe with a slightly hopeful look, then winced at the look he received in turn, dropping his eyes to the ground again and swallowing a lump in his throat.
“There were…things, before and during the raid. Triggers, I guess you could call them?” His voice faltered a little and he scrubbed at his nose absently with an arm. “Anyways. I…I think they might have…affected my behavior a little. Influenced how I acted. And like I said, they aren’t an excuse, just…well, alcohol, for one. Had some whiskey beforehand,” his mouth twisted into a grimace. “So, I was drunk. And then there was the fire…” Py’s eyes glazed for a moment, but then he shook his head. “Pair fire with my pyromania, and, well. Bad combination. I was distracted, elated, maddened. The blood and other stuff…well…I don’t know. It just confused me, I guess…lots of stimuli…I swear, though, I wasn’t in my right frame of mind! I would never do something like that if I was,” He pleaded, voice trembling with the effort to keep composed. It had started to crack, though, and the tears welling in his eyes were a testament to his belief in his words. “Haven’t you ever had a moment where you’re overwhelmed so much you can’t think clearly? Where you know you’ve done something wrong only after you’ve did it? Please, Tain. I’m not asking you to forgive me. I just want you to try and understand why it happened, and how much I regret it.”
His emotions fluctuated wildly as Py spoke, and more than once Tain had to force himself to bite his tongue. It was difficult to be furious when the man dropped his eyes, ashamed or a very good actor. He wanted, so badly, to believe him. But mistrust simmered sickly in the pit of his stomach, poisoning his thoughts with cruel skepticism. Sure Py claimed he wouldn't go on a raid, that was easy to say without Manic or Crash calling him. When pressured, would the Hunter be able to hold onto his morals? Tain had seen the violent mob mentality sweep up the Fulsi as well as the masked Carna in the attack on his city, and time and time again the Hunter had seemed entranced by fire; lanterns, campfires, even matches. At first Tain just chalked it up to another sociopathic tendency among the many he'd angrily assigned the man, but as it happened again and again it became impossible to dismiss or ignore.
His expression remained hard, unyielding, though the corners of his eyes softened a fraction. "Not like that," he muttered, the raw pain on Ackerman's face washing the bite from his words. He should go after him while he was emotionally vulnerable, the words to cut the other man to the core flitted through the back of his mind. But Tain couldn't, not while looking him in the eye. His hands tightened in the fabric of his pants, thinking not of the rough, worn fabric, but rather the smooth hilt of a knife he'd held a lifetime ago. "What you did was monstrous," he said bluntly, "and I can't understand it. I never could. But..." Tain searched his face, brows drawing together, then dropped his eyes. "I might be able to forgive it. I have to. The only other choice is more of this stupid hatred. I'm.. I'm so SICK of it! Carna, Fulsi, they're the bloody same!"
----- ooc; hurr, flailed together a post before the hurricane eats my internet like I bet it will u.u; HIGHER PATH, PYYYY
Worry plagued his mind like a virus, thoughts running rampant. He wouldn’t believe him. Why would he, when Py had tried to kill him not once but twice? Granted, he hadn’t initiated the fight the second time around, but it didn’t matter. Ever since that, it seemed like every time they met up an argument was always looming on the horizon, fraying at their uneasy alliance. And now it had all come boiling up, justifications and valid, cutting remarks that were more truth than not. He’d only ever wanted to be understood, and, as Tain clarified that he never would be able to fathom what Py had done, the hunter’s head sunk lower, shoulders slumping down in shame. He lifted it a fraction again, however, when he said that he would forgive him. A mixture of something like surprise, and maybe relief, crossed into Py’s expression, the corners of his mouth twitching in a small, grim smile before it faltered and then faded away completely, the next words weighing heavily in his mind.
“I…well, yes. Hating someone is such a tiresome thing. There are better things to focus your energy on,” he murmured, propping his cheek against his palm. “I don’t hate you either, by the way. I haven’t for a long time.” Eyes downcast, he fiddled with his shirt, plucking at the hem ponderously. “I know. I wish everyone else felt the same way. Then we wouldn’t have all these damnable raids, and people wouldn’t keep dying. Christ, Tain…” Py’s mouth turned down in a frown, fixing his attention on a particularly interesting looking blade of grass instead, and then muttered, choking slightly, “They killed Keelan in the last one, y’know…was just a kid, almost like a little brother to me. Not a day goes by…” Biting his lip, he blinked back up at him, shaken out of his verbalized reverie. “I’m sick of it all, too. But I’m not sure where to go from here on. If you’ll forgive me for it, and we put everything behind us, can we go back to being what we were before?” He hesitated, searching for the right word, then settled on one that he wasn’t sure was entirely accurate but seemed to describe it well enough. “…friends?” The man winced, half expecting to get it thrown back in his face.
ooc; Is rough, but meh. Can't sleep xD After this I nearly killed myself trying to update drivers, and since I finally solved that, I think imma just go read now >> /trotsoff ...also, next time I owe you a post over a month-long, curbstomp me D8 fff
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Last Edit: Oct 1, 2011 0:59:07 GMT -5 by Py Ackerman
Py's agreement very nearly tipped Tain from anger to tears, mind screaming justification. They weren't the only ones, they couldn't be! But mob mentality swallowed them all up, driven by fear. Driven by anger. Revenge. Pale eyes on blue, he wondered bitterly if Py would avenge Keelan if he knew. Fulsi had used him, to what? To kill that child? For weapons? For a moment he wanted nothing more than to tell Py everything, to beg forgiveness as he just had. Fear kept his mouth shut, and a coward's shame burned through him. Besides, there was nothing he could say that would help.
And then Py asked for a simple gift, and Tain wanted to deck him. How thick was he to think Tain had been putting up with him, sleeping next to him without considering him at least something like a friend? He open his mouth to snap at him for it, then scowled, huffed, and reached out and touched his shoulder lightly instead. "Pythagoras," he growled, eyes softening. "We never stopped. "
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