Log:Pick of the Litter

2019/11/26 Indira Breach Victory 1

Indira has escaped her security retinue again while Breach was away, seeking some time to explore unattended to seek out nature. While enjoying the nature near Hero Lane, a pungent odor assailed her senses. The unusual manner of it causes curiosity to get the better of her. Cats aren't the only things that are curious. Following the trial, Indira finds herself nearing the Industrial park, getting closer and closer to the source.

Rick Mason frowns as he searches Colonial Bay for Indira. It really shouldn't be this difficult to find her, she's a plant! And yet, here Rick is. Clad in his new Breach armor and jogging along at a brisk pace, his senses extended as far as he can manage. The sight of the industrial park brings a few unpleasant memories back to Breach, but he presses them down into the darkness while he continues searching for Indira.

The luring (as it can't exactly be called alluring) scent leads the Asrani ambassador deeper into the industrial park. Other scents quickly join it, especially as she approaches the recycling complex, which seems to be the source.

Where do plants hide? In a forest. And this park is far from it, so finding Indira shouldn't be much trouble. She halts just outside the recycling complex, looking at the structure with a perplexed expression. She draws up the hood of her borrowed hoodie and goes on the move again, trying to track down the nonterran smell that draws her to this place.

Rick has trouble believing that Indira would be in the Industrial Park at all, but there are lots of shrubs and manicured lawns. Maybe she wanted to get some fertilizer in a to-go bag? Or a mani-pedi?

Breach puts aside his reservations and goes jogging into the Industrial Park along one of the tertiary access routes. He idly wonders how long it'll take before someone reports the guy in armor with a carbine across his back jogging through the park? Rick keeps moving, trying to figure out where Indira may have gone. Naturally his winding path through the labyrinth of surface roads takes him ever closer to the recycling facility as well.

Scent leads plant through the, well, plant, to the most self-scentered area: the settling tanks. One of the first stops in the reclamation following simply large object filtering, these 20m diameter open tanks are... cesspools. A place for heavy items to settle out before various biological digestion processes.

Indira is drawn towards one, in particular, and once close enough.. can sense, physically, that a number of sizable objects have settled to the bottom of the tank. A half-dozen, all larger than a human and roughly ovoid. They don't appear mobile, but they also feel like they ...move. They are not intert.

Indira slows as she nears the one pool that she's drawn to. None of this place smells nice, but this is especially troubling. Sensing the odd moving yet immobile objects, she inches closer to the edge to see if she can look down into the cesspool to see visually what lies below.

Breach, mercifully, does not have the same history with not inert eggs that his player has. He pauses outside of the recycling plant and tilts his head one way and then the other for several moments. Settling on the logic of, "it's a plant, she's a plant," Breach advances into the facility proper. Fortunately there are no guards to harry him so far, which leaves Rick worried about just what he's going to find.

"Indira?" hisses Breach every few dozen meters as he creeps along.

Indira can make out a vague shape in the nearest that matches a presence she feels.

Indira is unacquainted with horror films or how recycling plants should be. Has something extraterrestrial become trapped below. Seeing the shape, she tries to reach out to it with her mind to see if there is a mind at all there. It may just be debris from the heavens.

Indira's telepathy connects. There is, in fact, a mind in it. It was dim and muted. Now it is less so. More ...conscious.

The surface of "water" ripples above the object, and it may be seen to wobble. Indira can certainly sense it. On the bright side, it could also be an approaching tyrranosaur.

You offer to meet Wade.

Indira tries to read the surface thoughts of the being she senses, while attempting to communicate telepathically. << Hello. I mean you no harm. How did you end up here? >> She peeks further into the cesspool as she stands at its edge.

Breach approaches the cesspools from a different angle entirely. He hisses for Indira again, but once again gets no response. Instead, Breach finds himself staring into the muck and mire filling the pool in front of him.

"Why... Is there a giant egg in the pool?"

It's not like Breach is talking to anyone in partcular. He's just having a dissociative episode. Were his helmet not in the way, you could probably tell he's purposefully staring into the documentary camera with the Dunder-Mifflin logo over his head in the background. Or, at least, that's what Breach is picturing in his head as he tries to understand his reality.

"You're not... Humpty Dumpty, are you?" inquires Breach of the mostly submerged ovoid. It's bigger than a man, so what does Breach know?

SG had gotten a report of Indira going missing, and Wade was assigned to try to track her down. Thankfully, access to the street cameras made that process easier than it might have been otherwise. He makes his way into the recycling center, looking around, trying to see if there's any particular sign of her anywhere. He only has a general idea of where she might be.

Indira finally notices the hissing after making some form of mental contact with the egg. She glances up, part surprised and part not that he has managed to find her. "I don't think it has a name," she answers matter-of-factly. "Not that I'm sensing, anyway." She doesn't think to whisper, making it easier for Victory to find the pair of them.

It does not have a name, but it appears to have life. The wobbling and ripples increase and then..

..the top of the thing opens, like flower blooming.

Something then crawls out of the opening, moving along the bottom and towards the wall of the tank where Indira stands. Indira can tell that it is legged, at least quadrupedal, though its dark form blends well into the murky sludge, little more than a stalking shadow.

Wade definitely heard voices, but can't make out the words. He continues onward, finally getting line of sight to the others. "Ah ha."

Breach watches a multi-legged silhouette emerge from the wobbly ovoid in the depths of the processing tank. He reaches up and back to grip the butt of the Impact Carbine, releasing it from its magnetic lock across his back. Pulling the hybrid mass driver over his shoulder, Breach quickly readies the weapon while he watches the shadow stalk toward Indira.

"And I thought the spacebugs were bad," mutters Breach to himself.

Indira purses her lips and frowns at Breach. "Just because a life form is not like you, you think it is bad? It's only just been born. Please, don't shoot it. I'm trying to communicate with it," she pleads with Breach. Her forgiving, pacifist nature might literally bite her this time.

Wade continues over toward the pair, still having no idea why they're here in this location of all places. He's not in any particular hurry, since it's not like they're running off.

"I'm being over-cautious," replies Breach, "It's not like I'm sighting in on it."

There's an unspoken 'yet' that punctuates that reassurance from Breach. He may also be purposefully lowering the Impact Carbine so that it looks less like he's about to try to kill something. Rick regrets this course of action, but that's only because he doesn't trust things that birth themselves in recycling plant cesspools.

Indira senses that it is aware of her presence in its mind. Awareness, perhaps even intelligence if not discernible sentience. She gets a sense of ...community. Togetherness. In an emotional sense as well as... it is reaching out. To others.

"I think...it is a hive-like being. It's sentient," Indira explains, oblivious to every horror movie trope as she crouches near the water's edge. << It's okay. We'll find your kind. Your community. I don't think you belong here >> she tries to communicate psychically with it.

The form in the water reaches the edge and begins moving up the wall of the tank. In short order, forelimbs breach the surface, followed by motive limbs that claw it up an over the edge. It is roughly the size of a large cat (tiger, not tabby), though its hide is thick, almost chitnous. It is quadrupedal, though also bears an articulated clawed limb sprouting from each of the "leg" foreshoulders. A pair of stubby, grasshopper-like wings sprout rearward from the hips. Amber eyes glow over a tooth-filled maw slightly shielded by low, forward-swept horns.

Ok, perhaps it's not a herbivore. That may bode well for Indira.

It then proceeds to rapidly shake, shedding lingering liquid cess from its frame.

Wade furrows his brow, and is finally in conversation distance. "Um...what the heck is that thing?" He rolls up his sleeve to expose the bracer on his arm, but he doesn't turn on the shield. Yet.

"Newborn," replies Breach to Wade. He tries not to chamber a round in the Impact Carbine. It takes a lot of willpower not to do what cultural and social knowledge tells him is in everyone's best interest. Even so, the Impact Carbine remains at the ready as Breach intently watches the Omega Locust.

Indira gasps and stares up at the large creature from her crouched position. "Aren't you just amazing," she croons to the insectoid with a warm smile. She reaches out her hand towards its sweeping horn, trying to pet it. << Hello, Little One. >> Real little. Yeah. "Is it not cute, Breach?"

The creature eyes the reaching hand, head and shoulders recoiling curtly from Indira, though not enough to step back. It then extends its maw towards her again, more tentatively. Sniffing. Inhaling.

After a long moment or three, it lurches forward to put the top of its head to her hand. There is a staccato, hollow, rumble-clicking sound that begins reverberating within it.

A purr?

Wade raises a brow and takes a photo of it with his PDA, "Do you know what it is?" He forwards the picture to Starguard to see if they can identify what it is they're looking at.

Wade gets a response back. "No matches in Starguard's database, I'm afraid."

"Cute, apparently," replies Rick to Indira(?) and(?) Wade(?) at the same time. On the plus side, Breach is unlikely to have to take it for walkies. Indira does enough escaping of containment that taking a monster insect for walkies is probably a less dangerous prospect than her just wandering off by herself.

Indira smiles at the strange reverberation and gives it more pets. She looks to Breach. "May we keep it in our care?" she asks with her sweetest of tones. She looks over to Wade. "It has some similarities to other species, but I don't recognize it."

There is a ripple, and than another, followed by some splashing. Another of the creatures emerges from the water. Then another. ...and another. Perhaps Indira may get her pick of the litter?

Indira senses vague impressions of the others, now, in the mind of the first. They are joined or joining, in a fashion.

Indira loks at all the other cute creatures emerging. She smiles and extends her neurochemical connection to them to try and communicate with them all. It takes a few seconds. << Hello, all of you. You are safe. >>

Indira can very much confirm, now, that the group is linked, as she touches all of them. They don't currently seem hostile. The one purring is quite content and friendly, and that (and Indira's pheromones) is in turn affecting the others. There is also some intelligence there, though alot of instinct. Somewhere between animal and sentient?

The one purring against Indira's hand continue to do so, as the others approach her. With another one or two coming out of the muck, there are now six in total. One from each of the objects Indira sensed, which now feel inert.

The approaching creatures are not outwardly aggressive, and appear more curious or cautious.

Indira smiles and keeps petting the first one. The next closest one approaching gets her hand extended out towards it in a peaceful offering of shared pets. << It's alright. >> She says softly to the others, "They're all connected. Like a...hm...hive mind. There's an intelligence behind the animal instincts."

"That's reassuring," replies Breach. He frowns slightly at the data streaming in from StarGuard via Wade. It sets him back on edge, as though he ever eased off of the edge, and his fingers tighten on the grip of his Impact Carbine as Indira is surrounded. Breach, however, knows the rules of engagement. There will be no shooting until Indira gives him the okay or he believes her life to be in immediate jeopardy.

The one offered another hand takes it, nudging against Indira's palm with its muzzle. The reverberating purr gets louder as it joins in. The others sniff at her and approach from different angles. One, perhaps wearied by its birthing ordeal, curls up at her feet.

Indira is finding these creatures adorable and innocent, especially the tired one curling up at her feet. She shares pets all around, giving each a turn. "Ohhh, look at all you cute little cree-naqs..." she says sweetly with a soft laugh.

At Indira's sweet words, Breach huffs. He may even bristle. Breach tightens his grip, but does not yet lift the Impact Carbine. All he needs is a reason to kill them all.

And another lies down, though less to rest and more to attend to personal grooming. Cleanliness is next to ...somethingness. The purring ones sit, one lowering down to lie. All seem quite comfortable.

Save, perhaps, for Rick.

Not surprising for newborns, the deepening connection doesn't reveal much in the way of memories. Mostly a sense of 'us,' and comfort in that family and company. Though, despite that, there is also a vague yearning, a sense that something in that community is lacking or absent.

"See how sweet they are?" Indira asks with a warm smile, communing with these creatures while giving head scritches and thorax rubs. She mentally listens to them while being affectionate. "Hmmm. I think there's something they need. Perhaps the adult creature that laid those eggs is around somewhere to care for them." These big things are the babies. Newborns.

"Is the momma monster going to be upset that you're playing with her babies?" inquires Breach. He may be regretting not just shooting the first one. This sounds dangerously like imminent, inescapable danger. On the other hand, he's immortal and Indira will probably get mistaken for a baby monster.

"Cloverfield," mutters Breach under his breath.

As if on cue, all of the creatures suddenly lift their heads at something, turning them towards something currently unseen. They are promptly less lethargic, but still not aggressive. Attentive, perhaps?

"I swear to god, if I turn around and there is kaiju monster looming over me, I'm going to be pissed," is Breach's flat statement.

Indira looks in the direction of the creatures are looking, searching visually as she tries to feel through the earth to sense what they're looking for.

After a moment, Indira can sense another presence. One that appears to fill the void in their psyche as if keyed to it. It is an indirect contact, but she can sense intelligence. Far more than the newborns. <> The sensation becomes somewhat more distinct, and you can sense the focus on your presence within them.

Nothing is seen nor unusual sensed on the ground.

All of the creatures turn their heads again. All to look to Indira.

Breach does not, in fact, turn around. He closes his eyes and regulates his breathing, counting to ten in his head a few times while he focuses on his other senses.

Indira rises ever so slowly to her feet as they all look to her.

Aside from the visible buildings and creatures that surround, and possibly the color of his pants, Breach detects nothing amiss.

Indira tries to connect through the creatures to the intelligence. << I was just looking after them. I thought they were left behind and needed care. >>

There is a surge of ...presence in the presence. More clarity to it, though it remains strangely indistinct. Numerous emotions accompany it: concern, anger, love... they seem contradictory and yet all present without quite intermingling? Even filtered through the creatures, it is strange. As if reading a group, like those around you, but the presence is generally singular. <>

The creatures continue to watch her, circled around her. Those lying down sit up to rest on their haunches, while others sit. Their wings waggle some as the look on attentively.

Indira remains calm even with the combination of emotions--especially anger--swirling about. << Of course. Then we will leave your children to you now that they're safe in your care. >>

There is a swelling of warmth and pleasantness in the response. <> With the last two statements, there is a sharp flash of anger and loss that rapidly fades back to warmth. <>

The creatures rises in unison and turn from Indira to begin loping from her. One does give her a final nuzzle and purr in passing.

Indira gives one last pet to the one that nuzzles and purrs. "Be safe, Cree-naqs. Be good." Once the creatures lope away, Indira watches with an expression of loss. And something else.

Indira braces against the flash of anger and loss. << I'm sorry for your loss.>>

Their loping pauses, briefly, after a dozen meters, as all begin clawing at the ground. They cast off chunks of pavement and dirt before disappearing into the ground.

<< It is done. He is gone. She is gone. We endure.>> The presence then fades as it no longers focuses on her, and perhaps less on the children, which also physically and quickly grow more distant, vanishing at the end of her physcial sense of the ground and fade from mental contact.

Indira stares at where the the creatures disappear. When the voice of their mother leaves her mind, she looks haunted and sad at its last words. After a few long moments, she looks over to Breach with those sad, pink eyes of hers.