//drums on the table @ awful writing and flow
her writing's gonna be choppy and gross until i figure out her character better

She had never asked to be born like this, during such an ironic stretch of time. Scorpio. That was her Zodiac sign. What a fucking joke. To top it off, her mother had named her Serket. She had never minded it, growing up as cheerfully as any other kitten despite her odd and extreme mutation. One day, her mother had told her why she had picked that name for her. Serket. The name now made her crawl in her skin. It was the name of an Egyptian goddess. A half-scorpion goddess. Her entire life was defined by her fucking tail. She hadn’t asked for it. Why was it her only defining feature? Why couldn’t they notice her new earrings? Or her soft, chocolate-brown fur? Or her hunting skills? Or her personality? Why couldn’t she have her own identity- not defined by anyone else?

It made her sick to her stomach.

Eventually she had just up and left, without so much as a goodbye. She had taken her anger out on a mouse, but as her teeth sank into it, something was different. There was a pinch near each side of her nose, bringing her to let it go. Serket swiped her tongue over her oddly long fangs. Before her the mouse had convulsed, seizing violently before falling still and dying. Tentatively, she sniffed it. It didn't smell any different. Blood seeped from its puncture wounds. It was the same feeling she got when she stung something with her barbed tail. Were her bites venomous too?

She bore her fangs in a snarl. If the world was determined to identify her this way, then she would let them. But when a year passed, she finally came to terms with her venom. In fact, it fascinated her. All poisons did. The way it worked so delicately yet destroyed life in such a barbaric way. She wanted to collect them. Not to use- just to have. Why go out of her way to use poison when she had venom?

---

As Seket approached the border, weighed down by the bags on her sides, glass could be heard clinking together beneath their flaps. The Ascendants. She didn't know much about the place- just that it was a group on the plains. She sat beneath the trees that marked the border, staring out at the gently rolling hills. There were flowers dotting the grasses, which she paused to admire before nudging her offering - a decently sized rabbit. It had been quick, but her tail was quicker. Watching it go had been pleasant. "Excuse me," she called out in a silky voice. "This is the Ascendants, yes?"