Ryla

Everyone needs somewhere to belong. Getting there, however, is harder for some than others.

Ryla's time on Earth was never easy. Her parents were well-meaning and genuinely loved their child, but when their 'little man' told them he wanted to be their little lady, they could certainly have handled the situation better than they did. Ultimately, it came to the point where she decided she would be better off sticking with her older sister when she moved out and sought her fortune.

For a while, things were happy, her first taste of the "real world" being cushioned by the experience and love of what little family she felt understood her. She got her first taste of employment, her first taste of higher education, and her first sense of well and truly being an adult. And then her sister up and vanished without a trace.


What semblance of stablity the two had built up came crashing down around Ryla as she realized how little control she ever had. Unable to even come close to paying their bills on her own, she quickly found herself homeless.
Life on the street was not pretty, but, with no other recourse, she rose to the challenge. She developed skills that made her a decent pickpocket, and when that couldn't cut it, she fell back on burglary. Everyone around her became either a potential mark or a potential enemy. The authorities soon became well-acquainted with her face.

With no hint of her sister's whereabouts, it became clear there was nowhere else for her to go now. One night, she gave in, leaving the mystery unsolved, and set off to return to her parents.
She doesn't remember the transition, or where she turned off. All she remembers is driving down the interstate at three AM one night, and waking up in the middle of the desert the next - A desert that was most definitely not on Earth!
The world of Fronterra, she would soon find, was a place of castaways, of misfits, and of mystery, where beings from countless timelines wound up when they had nowhere else to go. She was simply the latest in a long line of off-world arrivals, challenged to make her place amidst the rest.

So began a series of adventures of self-discovery, of new friends, of new enemies, and of folks who straddled the line.

Fronterra, as she would soon learn, had a way of changing people. Very few creatures who stepped onto its soil would remain the same as they came in, adapting as needed. Ryla soon found herself yet another recipient of the frontier's gifts, transforming her into something more than human. Whether this makes her one more yokel, or a full blown monster depends on who you ask.

***

Personality:
Ryla is a person who fights tooth and claw to hold onto her friendly, sunny disposition while life works night and day to wear it down. She is a creature of conflict, her desire to be a good person frequently at war with her powerful temper, her empathy conflicting with her sardonic sense of humor.

On the surface, Ryla seems snarky, intimidating and just plain rude, but she will gladly help those in need, with no fanfare or need to justify it. Though she may accidentally push people away, she craves company and will open up to complete strangers if asked.

Ryla enjoys exploring, learning new things, and creating. She dabbles in various art forms, including sketching, painting, sculpting, creative writing, and even a bit of theater, though she's yet to find a single one that quite calls to her. She actually sees her own transformations as an art form, and partly relies on them to express herself. Likewise, she has strong opinions on the sanctity of one's own body, and dislikes when other people try to tell her what to become.

Abilities:

Ryla is a shapeshifter, able to contort, warp, stretch and compress her body into any shape she desires. Though she has bones and organs, these can rapidly change form just as easily as the rest of her, allowing her to be mostly solid one moment, then nearly liquid the next. In addition, absorbing a tissue sample from living things allows her to take on that thing's form, replicating it down to a cellular level. Certain exotic or uncommon materials may actually require a sample before she can synthesize them.

Although she can shed or gain water to alter her mass, her weight always hovers in the vicinity of 600 lbs. She can compress her dimensions, but such shapes are always very dense.
Though she can rearrange her tissue to her heart's content, damaged cells are difficult to repair or replace. She can close up cuts and stab wounds easily enough, but wounds caused by heat, cold, acid and the like take days at a time to recover from.

Holding a form is somewhat like tensing a muscle, and she can't sustain a transformation indefinitely. The markings on her skin represent leylines that channel energy throughout her body, allowing her to maintain a shape for longer, but she must still return to her "true" form once a day, and remain as such for at least an hour.





***

Vore:


Ryla isn't some corrupted entity whose mind has left her or been replaced by something else. She's the same person she's always been, shapeshifting blob monster or not. It's just that that person was never really all that into the cannibalism taboo... Ryla doesn't fancy herself a murderer, and the concept of eating another person alive is exactly that in her eyes. And it's not as if her world is lacking in natural resources to keep up with her increased chemical needs. Even in poverty, there's plenty of wild fruits and game out there to ensure that, poor or not, she'll never go truly hungry. Sure, fellow humanoids are just walking masses of valuable nutrients, and sure they're perfectly abundant and easy to reach, and sure they're just the right size to sate her for a couple of days, but she's still got her morals, godammit!

No, she's not corrupted by the influence of some other conscious entity. But her biological needs are very different, and with that comes urges... She's usually able to control these just fine, provided she has steady snackables on hand, but life on Fronterra is unpredictable and a girl can end up going quite a while without easy access to food. Sometimes accidents happen...

Ryla doesn't fancy herself a murderer, but there are a lot of people who want her dead, and sometimes, when you're defending yourself, shit happens. It wouldn't just be a waste not to chew on corpses, it'd be downright dangerous!


Digestion:
It goes without saying that for a creature like Ryla, a conventional digestive system just wouldn't be sufficient.
Ryla's "stomach" is actually little more than a hollow within her torso where food is stored and converted into more of her own mass. A living victim crammed into this space can expect to be bathed not in acids and enzymes, but in more of the same matter that comprises her being. As they stew in the fluids, their bodies will be converted into this same matter from the outside-in. Once conversion is complete, the physical body is rapidly liquidated and absorbed directly into the stomach walls.

This process is completely painless, and most victims will be unaware it's even happening, even as their own bodies begin to pool around them. As the nerve-endings are liquidated, their senses go numb and most drift into a deep slumber before the process is complete.

Though their bodies are dismantled, one could argue that the victims never truly die, as the information for all of them is put "on file". Besides allowing her to replicate their forms nearly down to a molecular level, their minds, memories and identities also remain on file. Though unconscious, they can be awakened and spoken to at any time - a few have even learned to wake themselves up and speak with her directly at their leisure.

With all of this, it goes without saying that there's a way for Ryla, if she so chose, to restore any absorbed victim, body and mind.
She's... just trying to find it, still...



Likes:

Storylines
Building relationships
Hurt/comfort
Comedic cannibalism
Sibling dynamics
Stuffing and weight gain
Miscellaneous gluttony
Objectification
Reocurring predator/prey relationships
Bellies
Bare midriffs
Smooching
Vampirism
Bondage
Melty digestion
Absorbtion
Making trophies of victims
Gaining traits from prey
Groping
Facesitting
Domming
Vore as affection
Vore between friends
Naughty, semi-willing vore
Transformation
Costumes

Dislikes:

Bodily wastes
Macro/micro vore(non-vorish size play is, ironically, liked)
Draconic or lupine partners(Unless you're Ralmar)
People who cannot properly use the expression "I couldn't care less" when they mean to express apathy.