The Grand OC SII: The Re-OCening: Week 29: UNINTELLIGIBLE!

Username: Stratocaster
Name: Dandizette and Quaintrelle
Species: Lesser Sphinxes
Gender: Gal pals
Color: Fops and Macaroni

Description: Large, serpentine creatures whose personalities and bodies can fill any space shy of a ballroom, The Sphinx Sisters are the life of any party, and were invariably the hosts of any party worth attending in Nikelean-era Lun Dune.

Charismatic, charming, and more or less inseparable, it's quite common for the two to be whispering and gossiping at each other - even mid-conversation with someone else. Each has four large soft paws, whiplike tails with a thick grasping tuft on the end, any odd number of birdlike wings, and long necks that end cylindrically with a white panel shaped like a human face. These panels are like marble to the touch, but flow smoothly into whatever expressions the sphinxes will 'em.

Dandizette is the more extroverted of the two. She ornaments herself with a great many ruby-red wings where wings should not be (including a great many small ones like a mane around her false face) theatrical gestures, and a morbid sense of humor. She knows everyone who's anyone and is happy to introduce you.

Quaintrelle is less likely to initiate conversations, though is quite happy to chatter with those who approach her first. She often crouches on her hind legs and keeps her forepaws free to play with whatever trinket's recently captured her imagination. Her matte sand-gold outfit is more subdued than her partner's in both hue and silhouette, though it's tastefully studded with red gems and glass.

The pair's throats are bedecked with dull white pearls embedded in their flesh. Dandizette's got an even sixty arranged in two tightly-packed rings, Quaintrelle's got a slightly-more spaced out twenty-three.

Items/Abilities: Dandizette and Quaintrelle trust each other utterly, mostly because they don't spend enough time apart to scheme. The possess a passive illusory magic which reinforces how normal it is to be talking with two twenty-foot-long socialites regardless of what actually passes for normal in a given person's experience. This power persists long after you've encountered them - this can make describing them to someone who's never met 'em a weird experience, but also encourages folks to bring their confused friend to meet them personally.

Being entities of Infernal Planar Energy mythical beings, they don't have to eat food, instead feeding off of attention. Their favorite is praise and adoration, so for most intents and purposes they'll be paragons of society and quite content doing so (as long as they've got each other). In a pinch though, they're happy to settle for notoriety if they know they've got a getaway prepared to haul them away from any consequences.

They're also very fond of puzzles and riddles, and any major favor they'll do for you is contingent on your either solving one of theirs, or in very rare cases teaching one they can't crack. Such exchanges are binding contracts, and the Sisters have every right to repossess your soul (and re-possess your vacant body with someone from their collection) if you can't find a solution. They'll release you as promised as soon as you provide them an answer, sure, but they'll feed off of your fear and frustration of them in the intervening years. Win-win!

Biography:

Velvet Wyrms are a nominally harmless variant of Infernal - a common sight in magic-infused urban spaces like Lun Dune and Steadfastipol. They coagulate into existence around Infernally-aligned magic, and make their group nests in tight, dark spaces. An infestation can be identified by the hollow praise they dole out to one another.

Largely unintelligent and exceptionally vain, their ability to grow and feed off of attention exacerbates the mischief they may make once men are aware they are the cause. Troublesome individuals are best removed by a trained demonologist, who will lure the Wyrm close with flattery before cutting its long neck off at the shoulder.

The creature's "false face" will form from its solidified innards at the site of decapitation. The now-neckless beast will have a healthy fear of humans and cease its mischief. In addition, when it returns to its nest its new appearance will be ridiculed and torn apart by its nestmates. The only substance capable of permanently harming or killing a Velvet Wyrm are its own teeth; these rapidly dissolve from the inside out when extracted so are largely useless as implements to fight them.

While mostly harmless, Velvet Wyrms like all Infernals grow larger and more intelligent the longer they survive. Inexpert decapitation may leave a Wyrm with enough neck to be immune to the criticisms of its pack, so pest removal is best left to expert hands.