#metilia

[onenicebugperday]

Leaf mantis, Metilia sp., Acanthopidae

Photographed in Ecuador by Andreas Kay

Incredibly effective camouflage!

[peachynaturalist]

They’re here!! I got 3 of these Metilia sp. (:

They are very sleek and very hyper

[dark-space-exotics]

Metilia sp. females.

[peachynaturalist]

[peachynaturalist]

Adult male Metilia sp.

[endless-whump]

@whumptober2021 Day 7: helplessness | numbness | blindness

Whumptober Masterlist

Kefi Masterlist

Continuation of Whumptober Day 1: “You have to let go”

---

Even in the cages they didn’t feel as cold as they did now.  Everything was coming in pieces: the screams, the spikes of pain radiating through their entire body, and most of all the cold.  Kefi couldn’t seem to move a thing, blinking lazily in a useless attempt to clear the blurry haze that filled their vision.  

Their fingers managed to twitch, numb with the snow that soaked through their wool gloves.  Their entire body felt heavy with it, breaths slow and unsteady against the pressure against their chest.  The pressure told Kefi they were lying face down, splayed at the bottom of the ravine.  Everything was just so cold.

Kefi could see blurry red blended with the snow underneath them, blinking dumbly at it with wonder of where it came from.

Flowers do not bloom this late…

Thinking hurt, so they discarded the confusion for the moment.

If the screams were real or just in their head Kefi would never know, the wind howling above them with enough force to drown out their own whimpers as consciousness slowly returned to them, bringing with it a terrifying awareness of their own body.  

Their wings, still bundled within their coat against their back, seemed the most unharmed part of their body for once.  Their legs, however, and ribs, weren’t so lucky.  Each breath made them see dark spots lining their vision, suffocating panic threatening to overtake them at the sheer pressure against their chest.  The lack of pain, or any feeling, really, in their legs was somehow more terrifying.

It felt like ages laying there, wrapped in chills and a drifting awareness of their own surroundings.  Quickly even the pain dulled to simply a concerning buzz in the back of their mind, and Kefi didn’t even realize they’d been flipped onto their back until they couldn’t see the red anymore.  

The change was dizzying.  Blue and white and dark figures swam in their vision, something solid framing the sides of their face.  They were hands, Kefi realized dully, a sad trill rising in the back of their throat at the realization that they couldn’t feel the warmth of them.  They couldn’t quite feel the cold either, anymore, which should have been concerning but the fae simply couldn’t find it in themself to care anymore.  They were just glad it didn’t hurt so much to breathe anymore.

It was dark now, instead of the blinding white, and it wasn’t until something jostled them to open their eyes that they realized they’d even closed them.  They couldn’t feel the arms around them, just the dizziness as they were hoisted in the air, the world spinning around them with a flurry of color before something heavy was wrapped around their body.

It was a little warmer, like this.  

[endless-whump]

Kefi: Favorites

Universe belongs to @wildfaewhump <3

CW: violence, implied nightmare, captivity, torture, fantasy racism, very brief implied/threatened mouth (tongue) whump, conditioning, self deprecation, creepy whumper, extremely panicked/frantic whumpee, references to fantasy trafficking/selling parts of a fae, referenced wing whump (specifically the breaking of wing bones)

Masterlist

believe it or not there’s fluff in this XD

---

“Get in.”

Kefi shrank back, chains scraping loudly against the floor.  They shook their head, chest heaving with the attempts to breathe.  They couldn’t go in there, they knew those bars would be iron and they couldn’t take any more burns and they just couldn’t.

“Was, was good- was good, I was, no no please-”

A sharp cry echoed in the room as the man grabbed Kefi by the hair, the fae kicking weakly as they were dragged across the floor.  Their head exploded in pain, sobs wracking their body as they pawed uselessly at the hands in their hair.

“None of that faespeak, else I’ll brand your tongue, too.”

The cage rattled violently as the fae’s small body was tossed in, a shrill scream tearing from them.  Everything burned,the bars on their legs and arms and feet and back impossible to escape from as they scrambled for relief.  The door slammed shut, the almost cage shaking with the force of the panicked fae’s struggling.  Their feet scraped against the bottom of the cage to try and scramble back, only hitting more bars, the bottoms of their feet burning on the metal.

“N,No no please, h,help help,”  They couldn’t breathe, no matter how much they moved something was touching the bars, something was burning and something was hurting and they couldn’t bear it.  

“I said stop!”

Kefi cried as the man hit the cage, scratching at their ringing ears.  

“You’ll stay like that until you can learn to shut up and let yourself be useful.”  A hand shot out to grab the collar of the fae’s tattered shirt, yanking them up against the iron bars.  They just kept crying, trying to pull away from the grip keeping them up against the cage.  “You stay still, you stay quiet, and you stay useful, and in return I’ll keep you alive enough to.”

“Will, I will, please, please-”

Their vision went white as their head was slammed against the cage, agony racing through their body as they were shaken.  It smelled like blood, small hands clawing at the collar too tight around their throat, pressed up against the bars.

“Shut up!”

Still

They tried to drop their hands, closing their eyes as they shivered violently, skin burning at the contact they tried not to cringe away from.  The harsh grip stayed, fingers moving with deceiving gentleness through the fae’s hair

“Good fae.”

Quiet

Pained trills died in their throat, breaths thin and ragged.  They tried to relax against the touch even as it burned.

Useful

--

A ragged gasp caught in their throat as Kefi jerked awake, scrabbling at the blankets wrapped around them.  There was iron, they couldn’t breathe, they were trapped and they needed to get out.

They were warm, which was strange.  It was always cold in the chains.  

“Kefi?”

A loud, scared trill tore from the fae’s throat as they buried themself against Metilia’s chest.  Warm arms wrapped around them, warm warm warm, it wasn’t cold anymore.  They never wanted to be cold again.

“Bad...bad memory,”  They whispered, voice breaking.  They felt safe under the weight of the blankets, the crackling fire behind them a comforting sound.  It felt like home here.  

“Kefi...did they use you?  Did they sell you? I know down north they have markets-”

“Yes,” They whispered, hiding against Metilia.  “They...they took my feathers, and, um, they’d break off parts of..of my wing.  T,The bone,”

The arms tightened, hands rubbing up and down their back soothingly.

“God..that should never have happened, Kef.”

“So..so much blood, they took.”  The fae kept going, voice shaking as they clung to her.  “They took it.  They, They just k,kept passing me around and so many cages, there were, and they all took it.”

Metilia didn’t say anything to that.

“Talking again, Metilia, was I? In sleep?”

“Yea.”

“I’m sorry.”

Kefi was pulled to a sitting position, trilling tiredly as the blankets slipped off their head, squinting against the sudden light.  Yellow eyes blinked to focus on Metilia’s brown ones, hands ruffling their hair.

“Don’t be silly, you have nothing to be sorry for.  You want some food?”

They perked up, letting their trills die in their throat, still eagerness slipping into their demeanor.  Their wings dropped, relaxed, behind them.  They looked meek. Compliant.

“Yes please, will be good, may I-”

Metilia pressed her finger to their lips, stopping them with a frown.  

“None of that,”  She murmured sadly, and pushed a bowl into their hands.  “Made this while you were asleep...you don’t have to ask for things like that anymore.”

Kefi looked down at the bowl, blinking dumbly.

“Chicken pot pie.”

Metilia tilted her head, watching them carefully.  They seemed cautious...sad, almost.  Did she get it wrong?  Did seeing it remind them of something, make them sad?  Did she just make things worse?

“I’m sorry, you always seemed to like it and I know you’ve been having trouble with food, I can make you something else if-”

“It’s my favorite.”

She closed her mouth, staring at the small fae in front of her.  She wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“Yea, I used to make it every week, Kef.”

Kefi took a bite, and she didn’t miss the way their hands trembled just slightly.  Small, bony wrists were visible from the cuffs of their large sweater as they fell down a bit.  They smiled, rocking side to side, taking another bite, closing their eyes.

“Have been gone for long time, did not expect you to remember.”

She put a hand over theirs, stopping them for a moment.  They refused to look up at her, but also didn’t draw away.  The firelight cast against their back shadowed their face.

“Kefi, why would I forget that.”

They paused, glancing up at her nervously.  “They told me you forgot.  That I was not remembered.”  They took another bite when Metilia removed her hand, smile faded a bit, now.  “That I became nothing.”

She let them eat in quiet.  As soon as the bowl was set aside she bundled them up in her arms, setting her chin on the top of their head as she stared into the fire.  They were so strong to even make it back here, to her, but she couldn’t help but see how they had broken.

“Kefi, you are everything.  I see the stars in you every time I lay eyes on you, even if you can’t see it in yourself anymore.  They will never take that away from you, not truly.”

She hoped they could heal, with time.  She hoped she could make up for how she’d let them be hurt, be torn apart, be manipulated into believing the piles of lies that made them seem to carry a disturbing indifference about themself.  She wished...god, she wished she could take it all away.

“Metilia?”

“Yea, Kef?”

“Forgot bread rolls, you did.”

---

taglist

@simplygrimly @cinnamonflavoredhugs @finder-of-rings @castielamigos-whump-side-blog @insanitywishes @just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi

[dark-space-exotics]

Introducing Metilia sp., very similiar to Pseudoacanthops and Acanthops species.