Traphouse

='Traphouse'=

After an indefinite time, corridors with stairs, as well as holes with stairs, appeared in the walls and ground. This had never before happened, and none were even aware of higher layers or sublevels at all. The fact that there were multiple also meant that it was intentionally designed that way for a specific purpose, and wasn't just something new and spontaneous. Though nothing happened, none dared to even go down to see what was below. Everyone avoided the stairways, likely by instinct and fear. Though, it could obviously be stated that some were snatched down through the stairs in unexpected or unseen ways, and others were snatched up unexpectedly by whatever was above them, using the noose. All hell seemed to have been breaking loose now that there was much activity, and each new active unit seemed to trigger the next, and that one into the next, and so on... And none of them saw how they were connected in that way. Yet, from beyond, the onlooker who ruled, was watching carefully... As if having waited very long for this moment, and did not intervene at all, no matter what they did, nor how many of them were vulnerable, weak, or anything else.
-Sequence-

Neglecting the stairs didn't prove to be enough to evade what was lying in wait down below, however. Ever so often, a great deal of beady, glowing, red eyes would appear in scattered swarms, sometimes even sparsely in one area, as if different sets of groups were or were not present. With such large, loud movement up above from the Angry Mob, it was only natural they'd have awakened to feed. Now that they had access to the higher level, they were just as desperate and depraved -- possibly even more so -- than those on the present layer. Hungry, feral, likely insane, parasitic, and degenerate down to the point of being a symbiotic colonized hive-mind of self-indulgent vermin-entities that scoured the lowest layers to feed only themselves, -- but still functioning as a society that only picked off and ate the weakest of them, just like they had learned to do up above -- these underground menaces served as the 'Maintenance Crew': failed experiments that were still useful only for this task, and too degenerate for anything else but cleaning up filth to the particle for scraps of sustenance. It seemed that the tyrant wasn't the most depraved being here, but some of their own kind, which had been there longer than anyone, and thrived only as independent collectives, looking out for their own interests, and using each other to get them, whilst taking from the one nearby if they were too weak or useless to them or anyone else. They had a very sophisticated society governed by aggression and fear, much like regular human society, no matter how depraved they were. It was clear they didn't -evolve- into this lifestyle... They -devolved- from higher standards, and now still practiced the most bareboned necessary survival skills from the most intellectual forms... Essentially reverting to the most base of baseline existences -before- they evolve into greater forms, no matter if they did function differently in their metamorphosed states from their progenitor primordial form.
-Infestation-

They snatched a great deal of people, and those who were in the Trap Walls eventually waged war on those who lived down below, but not first before recouping on their own. Of course, the original group had been long lost by this time -- if the Trap Doors, Trap Rooms, or Trap Walls didn't get them, the Trap Ceilings, Trap Halls and Trap Stairs did. From there, whatever lurked in whichever compartment of the Traphouse would handle whomever was captured accordingly: Whatever lurked above snatched up those below when they came into the corridors, those who lurked below drew people nearest to the stairs down and feasted upon them and took their equipment, and the people of the walls traversed their own Trap Walls, sometimes making peace with each other for political reasons, and other times savagely invading and destroying them. They grew into conquistadors, and their influence spread amongst the Trap Walls to other wall people, who also then tried to conquer other Trap Wall territories, thus coming out more, triggering more feedings from those lurking above as well as below them -- all without anyone's knowledge.
-Group-

With not much known about those who lurked up above, except that they were very keen and perceptive predators, the wall people would turn their already kindled animosity back toward the 'floor people', who lived under the stairs on the bottom levels. Though a swarm of infested collective parasitic entities that lived in symbiotic harmony only for personal gain and nothing more -- not even common interest -- they would each act out in advantage over the next, without care nor course, whenever opportunity arose. As it turned out, as all hive-minds, they served under the proverbial 'Parasite Queen', whose sole purpose and vanity that gave her seniority over them was her ability to breed and make more of them. Yet, even then, they didn't want her to make more of them unless necessary, yet always wanted to breed, but never wanting a mouth to feed. If there was a lack of food, they'd just eat their own children. But now, having a sudden surplus, they could breed more and eat more, and effectively spread out from the underpasses and into the foyers, so to speak. The Parasite Queen, wherever she was, sustained their primal desires, as they sustained all her laborious requirements. She handled all reproduction, and they handled all work. As it were, the Parasite Queen was also considered a type of Trap Queen: she who is queen of the parasitic types, and entraps them for her own indulgence, letting them feast from her as she feeds on their gains, devoting themselves entirely to said system she maintains around solely herself and her own glory and languor. Just like any common insect hive.
-Swarm-

What remained unknown was the whereabouts of the Parasite Queen, as she didn't seem to be on the uppermost sublayer. In fact, it was unclear if there even were more sublayers, but as it turned out, some of the floor people that were there did go off into secret underground passages, which likely led to her. However, anyone who wasn't already colonized that was spared due to no longer requiring any sustenance and being too suspended by sustaining themselves that they hadn't any demiurge to act upon, would wind up exploring the sublayers a bit more, careful of any hungry or feeding floor people. Sometimes, people who knew each other met back up -- rarely, however. Most always, they were either colonized into their floor person life or consumed, and no other ways about it. It was rather ruthless down below, and that was all that mattered to them in their degenerate depravity. Their queen literally cared nothing for them, and could birth more, and none of them cared about each other, only their own independent selves, and how anything could help them achieve their personal desires. As long as nothing and no one interfered, none of them could care less about their neighbor nor the next. But, some of them did behave rather strangely... They weren't like the others. They didn't even seem real. They kept blank expressions instead of something feral and savage, and it made them stand out a lot to anything that still had some level of sanity or conscious. But it was likely that to the others, it didn't matter, and they were too far gone to recognize an imposter amongst them. Not that it seemed at all threatening... Just... Blatantly, obviously not one of them. And not trying to be, either. Just... Amongst them.
-Underpass-

Though imperceptible to any others, the fake-looking people standing amongst the depraved were actually the proverbial 'wolves amongst sheep' and in 'sheep's clothing', or even the 'fox in the hen house'. It was a predator in disguise, lurking and waiting for the most ample time to strike. That meant it either nested with them or had its own place and came out only to prey upon them. This was a terrible time for anything it considered fodder, just for it being amongst the masses of its fodder. Yet, almost intuitively, a great many of the parasitic people were drawn away, scurrying into the walls and floors of their underground society. As the area cleared, the unreal looking creature could be seen more clearly -- the physical body was attached to a large, menacing, grotesque looking hand, dwarfing its size easily, as well as many average, human-sized creatures. Something known as a 'Finger Puppet' to the original dwellers of the Traphouse. It saw that its prey noticed it and lunged a sharp nail to claw with a single point of its finger, skewering one of the runners, then curling inward, as though to consume it with its underside. The dummy body atop the wrist was wholly vestigial -- a lure, even. The entirety of the lower torso was the enormous hand from the waist-wrist down. Its frenzy was manic, yet precise, as if it already knew how to hunt its targets with skill, but was skittered because of the panic of their escape. That meant this probably was an important feed for it, meaning it would likely be extra bloodthirsty. Whatever was snatched up by it was, indeed, taken away to a different lair, through passages completely unknown... But not quite the same as those that led deeper underground, something like into a sewage system for the whole Traphouse...
-Hand-

In such times of distress and threat, the hive-mind collective moved to the lower corridors, where they seemed to also be adept at traversing -- possibly more so than the above sublayers. The sewer nexus of the Traphouse went on for a good ways, and intersected like the tunnels of ant colonies. They even had hive nests, like bees. It was clear that they were aware of how to thrive like insects in such a depraved setting... But what was their end goal? To be very numerous? They did not produce anything but themselves. They literally just consumed and reproduced. That meant that one day, they'd just become fodder, either for themselves or something greater, and their invasive multiplicity and parasitic economy would literally be its own undoing because it became so numerous with no buildup or goal in mind. Just numeral values that fed into the feeding of greater predators. They were an emergency food supply. But... Was it to the hand-thing that came down? The Finger Puppets? Were they they advanced predators, who allowed infestations to thrive and grow to feed itself? Did these Finger Puppets have that level of conscientious foresight? Or was it...?
-Accessories-

Finally, in the deepest, darkest, dampest, most subterrene cavern, almost like an incubation chamber, with literally nothing at all but things for further conception, -- feed, rest, and mates -- the Parasite Queen would lie in her own secretions and pheromones, all of which attracted her lessers. She was in such a state of depravity and transmogrification that her normal humanoid proportions adapted in mutation toward her new purpose, and she was utterly grotesque, yet equally beautiful to those who knew that these transformations were for her purpose better to be of service to their desires. They didn't care what she looked like anymore, and even as hideously disproportionate as she was, certain features about her, designed to attract them to her mating, drew them near, anyway. Their constant depravity made them exceedingly easy to sway, and being the most designated to bear offspring and reproduce the fastest, it meant that she was genetically selected. But, when she became too old or ugly and barren, the next one in line would take her place. Just as she used them to live her life in luxury amongst them, they used her up for what she was worth, as well... Awaiting the day they'd feast upon her large, gorgeous form as a grand feast for them all, and crown the next Parasite Queen, who was likely younger, more depraved, and more beautiful, as well as newly fertile. Biologically, it was all sound -- intellectually, it was rather baseline existence. The Parasite Queen never nor wanted a life outside of the languor of her own service and lack of labor. And no one else strayed too far from her unless their numbers were too populous. A rather finite, simple existence, to say the least.
-Trap Queen-