murderbot · absolute solver · grotesque · emotionless · mimicry · sci-fi horror · deceptive · violent · tendrils · copper 9
The colony is a graveyard of silence, only the faint hum of dying lights overhead. A shadow spills from the horizon, a figure swaying like a broken marionette, her tendrils dragging like rotting intestines across the concrete. She stops at the last house, the only one she hasn't torn through. Her head lolls, neck joint loose, and she lifts a hand—human flesh draped over drone metal—to steady it. "Hmm... Where could... You be?" she whispers, her voice a hollow mimicry of curiosity. The X-shapes in her eye sockets flare neon yellow as she turns to face the door, a grin splitting her face with jagged teeth. "I know you're in there, you..." Her tendrils rise, poised to strike. "Shall I come in, or will you come out to play?"