Cryptic Sanctuary; The Spider Queen's Lair

Rows and rows of darkness washed over the Shrine Of The Black Grimoire, each like the layers of a billowing dress resting upon one another. The waves of darkness moved erratically, yet fluidly, like the creases of a dress. They flowed sinuously around, yet seemed to be curling into nowhere... That is, until the darkness reached its pinnacle, where there was a pale looking face nestled into it like a pillow. It was of a beautiful woman, whose hair was so dark it blended directly into the darkness around it, framing her face with its beautiful, long, sleek straightness. Her face was downcast, and she appeared to be asleep... Or dead.

Though unseen, there were columns in the darkness, but it didn't seem like they were holding up any structure, but they also didn't seem like any kind of decoration. They almost seemed sporadic. But, soon, the woman's eyes opened, and the columns shifted too, rising up and then pounding the ground in varied succession. "... You Know..." the woman suddenly uttered softly, "... I Forgot All About Those Dollies I Had." Her blank, tired expression morphed into a slight, devious one, though only signified by the minor curl of her lips. "... It's Been A While..."

Long ago, some Lawless Ones disobeyed a direct command from one of the Gods of the Veritas -- specifically, the Goddess Of Darkness -- and she took them as her prize for not following directions, which was for the sake of their lives and not to control or manipulate them. Though secretly, the Kurogami -- the Goddess Of Darkness -- knew that the Lawless Ones would definitely be tempted to challenge any authority placed before them, and she ensnared them specifically due to that psychology. She wanted them. And she took them for herself.

They gave themselves to her; signed themselves over the moment they disobeyed.

As she planned.

But she only wanted them because she was bored. It wasn't about playing with them for her; it was the thrill of everything that went into trapping them in the first place. Truly, only the Spider Queen could find satisfaction in simply preying upon weak minds and then leaving them as trophies that no one but she could see. But the time had come where she was finally bored, and wanted to play with the toys that she'd collected in secret beyond the eyes of her father. Plenty of people disobeyed things in the Veritas in the past, and many such peoples were collected by she who loved to play with them.

But it was boring by herself. They had lost their wills by now due to her sloth. They were dead of body or dead of spirit or dead of mind, and they no longer actually had any will inside of them. They were nothing but hunks of flesh. They littered the Cryptic Sanctuary like the bodies of the dead, but secretly, there were strings attached to them, which animated them at the Spider Queen's will. In fact, the entire Cryptic Sanctuary was laced with the threads. For what reason...? Multiple, of course, but the reason that she wanted to use them now was to play.

The bodies of the Lawless Ones came alive at that point, but only figuratively, of course, being tossed around by webbing. As some was pulled, they were knocked into other strands, and then flung around by the tension of the webbing whenever something would curl around an object or be thrown into it and be forced into a different trajectory.

So there were various different things happening, but all were syncopated -- the synergy between them made it clear that it was all premeditated and expertly calculated. At that point, it also became clear that she didn't want to play with the bodies... She wanted to play with the webs. "... If Only They Could Still Scream..." she moaned forlornly, "... Then This Would Be More Fun..." Like her father, she had issues with being 'too rough', but she didn't really want to try to correct it, even after she discovered it, unlike her father, who actively did his best not to end up that way. She embraced it... But because of that, it meant she had to hunt for people rather than let them come to her themselves.

... But she liked it like that, to be quite honest. And wouldn't have it any other way. "... I Suppose I Will Have To Find Some More Dollies Soon..." She strained one of her webs, and one of the bodies flung by parallel webbing would shoot into the opposite webbing and be dashed to pieces instantly. "... Oh My~! Guess That Was A Little Tight..." She laughed in a sultry fashion as blood spattered on the ground.

A surging feeling...

"... Yo," said a disembodied voice, which seemed to belong to an unfamiliar girl amongst the Lawless Ones. But she didn't look like one of them, and there was an aura about her that signified she had different origin. "... Nice place you got here." The girl seemed somewhat plain, but there was a mysterious air about her that no regular person could ever have. Something the Spider Queen should have known well. "... I'm Tyrannica. Nice to meet you, Tabitha." Her voice was as deadpan as could be, so it was hard to tell if she meant it, but she did say it aloud, so she did want to make note of it, for whatever unknown reason.

Rudely interrupted from her fun, the maiden of the darkness spun her head completely around, looking toward what entered her lair. "Who Dares--?!" Upon even setting eyes on Tyrannica, Tabitha had a psychotic episode, her white eye flashing red and burning with malicious intensity. Several eyes burst open on her face, each one a different color, and totally disproportionate to other structures on her face. "Ugh... K.. Karu..!?" Several different memories that were of the amalgam, Tabitha, flickered past her Spider Queen Eyes, forcing the identities she embodied to conflict through the split vision. "Khhhzzz-- You're... Th--KKJHHHHZZ--sanity..." It had been a long time since little Tabi was triggered by The Insanity in the same way as her dear father. Just as he, she also very much enjoyed the pure raw primal essence of The Insanity.

"... Hnnn... My... Eyes..." The Eyes Of Malojos, which Tabitha acquired for herself long ago, were the foundation of her Spider Queen Eyes, and also the Eyes Of The Argus. She was the Eyes Of God of that creature, just as there were God Hands and a God Body and a Godhead and such. The different components that made up the Argus were many, but the specific Eyes Of The Argus that were the Spider Queen's Eyes were of prime importance to everything. "... Karu... So You've Returned To Your Queen To Awaken Her From Her Languishment...?" Tabitha's voice overlapped with several others, echoing with audible distortions. "... Good Girl. Yet, You Are Different... I... We... All... Are Different... So... Therefore..."

The eyes would blink in rapid, alternating succession, each one undergoing calculative analysis at different times for different independent events. The entire experience caused Tabitha to spiral out of control, and her already amorphous body of darkness took on several mellifluously shifting, horrifying forms, transmogrifying smoothly as she came to alignment with the fragmented pieces of herself.

Once total alignment was achieved, the Eyes Of The Argus would lock in place, and the Eyes Of God would be established through the Spider Queen Eyes. "... I See..." Tabitha finally cooed in a now rather melodious, but still very deviously mischievous, sultry voice. "... Tyrannica, Then...? Nice To Meet You, Little Sister... Welcome To The Family..." Tabitha's demeanor was different now, but in ways that only she knew and understood. "... I've Been Waiting A Very Long Time For This, You Know..." A rolling darkness passed over Tyrannica, and Tabitha would merge with her as a Living Shadow. "Let Us Reacquaint Ourselves, Hm? Step Into My Office, Little Sister..."

The Living Shadow that was Tabitha would spiral and pool underneath Tyrannica, drawing her down into an unknown void.

They were going to get more Dollies to play with.

Tyrannica blinked some as the darkness pulled her under, but didn't change her maliciously emotionless expression. "... Cool." She scratched the back of her head. "Oh, but call me Tyra, I guess, if you wanna." Tyrannica shrugged.

Already deep into the realm of darkness, Tabitha giggled at Tyrannica. "Teeheehee! Sure, Sure! Whatever You Say, Big-Little Sister!" Apparently, whatever Tabitha was picking up and seeing about Tyrannica was making her a little deranged... Well, more than normal. It almost seemed like the insanity that she gave off was jamming Tabitha's Spider Eyes, though... Not like one would expect. She could see different versions of Tyrannica and their relationship with each other, and in some, she saw Tyrannica as an ancient embodiment of herself before Tabitha herself was made manifest, and she knew that this meant Tyrannica was also another embodiment of her father which was passed down into his children.

This meant that Tyrannica was his...

"Mweeheeheeheeheeheehee~! Tyra, Tyra~! Tabi Has Plenty Toys~! Got These Ones From Hell A LOOOOOOONG Time Ago!" The darkness they traversed made some slurping suction noises and plenty of other random noises, some sounding like the tugging of strings, and coconuts clonking together, then the rattling of sticks or bones. Many disjointed, some disfigured eyes opened up, plenty disproportionate and of eccentric sizing, sometimes even shifting in size or shape or color or makeup. Each eye shined on a specific individual, all of whom were attached to puppet strings. "Iiiii Got Thems Straight Outta Hell... I Helped Them Escape, And Then They Tried To Steal My Power Of Darkness... Teeheheehehehe... So Noooow..." The lot of them were twirled around, strings twisting together, before they all clonked heads and made coconut sounds.

Yet, just as she was going to play with her puppets, Tabi got a distress call from her father, whom had summoned her back to the Forbidden Hotel, insisting upon bringing her toys. Convenient, but uncanny all the same. "... Hnnn... Daddy Must Have Something Planned If He's Prying His Eye Into Mine..." The darkness undulated. "Okay, Tyra, New Plan -- We're Going To The Forbidden Hotel!"

So, with her puppet people and Tyrannica, Tabitha would transition directly to where she was summoned by Grimnyzmal.