The announcement fades away and each of the people and things in Safe Zone Theta 23 looks warily at each other, each worried about whether or not someone else may be mutated. The worry is palpable, and just as the tension seems to be reaching the boiling point, a loud is heard and a large tray slides from the main area wall. "Food Dispensory Activated. Please step forward for scanning of species to retrieve appropriate food."
The enigmatic, cloaked individual is inexplicably amongst the first to end up at the dispensor, despite apparently not having made any particular efforts of haste nor having any interest in the foodstuffs provided. The Hollow's hooded void faces the tray for almost a minute before deciding to meander off.
It stops for just a moment to speak ominously,
The Hollow then stares at a nearby fluorescent light fixture for a while.
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The librarian drifts primly to the food tray and places a tentacle on the scanner. Hmmm, we are obviously lining up in order of permeability to information. This is good logic. I shall be next.
The hooded one clearly has access to new kinds of information. I must get under the hood at the soonest opportunity.
When several data crystals pop out of the dispenser, she places them in size order in her mouth. She hums and glows briefly. That was adequate if not innovative sustenance.
The disconcertingly large spider skitters up to the dispensary. The light from the scanning beam reflects in its numerous large eyes then abruptly ceases- several large buzzing things the size of a human hand zip away from the dispensary.
Flies?! Flies!!!
"Guys, this thing makes flies! You should totally have some flies, they're delicious!" The voice that emerges from the spider is comically high-pitched and absurdly enthusiastic. It proceeds to climb to the corners of the room and hastily set up a few webs as it stalks its dinner.
The large, reptilian organism casts a glance at the food dispenser, his eyes widening in response as he licks his lips.
The reptilian's voice is ridiculously loud and deep, ringing out through safety zone. As a wayward giant fly perches itself on one of his eyeballs, Ryxis enthusiastically slaps his tongue over it, pulling it into his maw.
Sir Jiminy saddles up to the chow line, oh please, oh please, let it be corn, mmmm, delicious corn.
He notices the The Hollow staring at a light fixture, well, that must be something interesting, why else would it stare at it?, Sir Jiminy stares at the same light fixture, sure to discover something fascinating.
His contemplation of the light fixture is interrupted by the Giant Friendly Talking Spider creature,
"Guys, this thing makes flies! You should totally have some flies, they're delicious!"
Eegads, talk about disgusting, those things totally puke every time they land, then lap it up like barn animals at the trough. I best keep my eye on this Pest Control Council 'fore I become the next delicious treat.
The young woman slinks over to the line, her eyes wide at the confluence of species; 'Wow, it's amazing such a group of different creatures. I haven't see such a menagrie since Binky's party.'
She bounces into the group "Hi, great to see you. Even in such circumstances. What food you got there?"
"Flies, is it?!! Interesting, do they taste crunchy with a gooey centre? ♥" she asks wide eyed, intrigued by idea of the new taste sensation.
"Flies? Disgusting." The creature waits it's turn in line, eyeing the others. "Hopefully there is better to be had."
"Flies, is it?!! Interesting, do they taste crunchy with a gooey centre? ♥"
"Oh yes! So much nicer than the rats or tribbles, flies are the best!" The spider skitters off to one of its impromptu webs and snatches out one of the struggling insects, then wraps it in silk and presents the struggling bundle to Sutra with its two front limbs. "Here! Try one!" The spider waits with its proffered gift, eager to share and make friends. "You look nice. My name is Tia, but everyone calls me Spider. What's your name?"
Thoen sits in a corner, either not noticing or not taking interest in the food. Instead he stares off into the space in front of him and it seems to others that he is thinking very hard about something or other.
Jin stares groggily at the chaos around him... Being woken from a deep, alcohol induced sleep doesn't do much for his looks. If possible he looks even more gruff.
"Food?!" It comes out more like a bark, than spoken words. "Youall are taking this too well" He grumbles and stares around in disbelief, almost pacing, "We've got problems and your talking about food... We're trapped in here! ...and I was scheduled to get off this flying rack." I may have drank too much last night -I think I'm going to be sick.
Jin stops turning for just a moment and tries not to let his stomach contents go. He's not happy with the current quarters and standing in line to be fed mush is the last thought on his mind.
"Friends, friends, stop everything. There's food in this shaker!"
Hamish begins sucking the salt out of a salt shaker, accidentally swallows it and sneezes mucus all over the place.
"Damn these hooves, I miss having hands!"
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Ocid begins thinking out loud, speaking to no one in particular. Mutants isn't it? Some of those I am trapped with may actually be mutants. This will not do at all. Most bio-forms are disorganized enough without added mutation. Since the food dispenser can identify life forms, it may malfunction if a being has mutated. I shall have to give those who have not been scanned by the dispenser my full attention. Let's see, so far the spider and myself (of course, I know I'm not a mutant) are the only ones to actually be scanned.
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The Hollow remains motionless save for vague wafting of its cloak, and after nearly an hour of watching that tube of illuminating plasma, states,
"Oh, I would like to have some mouses!" emits Meowselsworth's helmet, approaching the Food Dispensory with her helmet wobbling back and forth with her feline steps, receiving precisely what was expected. Don't worry everyone, we will have a dance to improve morale once the pest problem has been resolved. Also, Tia and I are good at pest control!
Twitching slightly at the mention of dance, Ryxis speaks.
Having spoken his piece, he snatches another giant fly out of the air with his tongue, chewing on it thoughtfully as he recalls good times.
Her face lights up as she responds to the giant spider; "A present ♥ for me. Wrapped in silk is my favourite." she gently takes the fly from the proffered claw.
"Thank you Tia, my name is Sutra." she brings the cocooned insect to her mouth and bites down hard. A piece of gooey entrails spurts down her chin, as Sutra tastes the sharp and disgusting insect she tries to keep any revoltion off her visage. "Well, that's different. I can safely say I haven't had anything like that before." she smiles at Tia hoping she hasn't offended after such a kind gift.
Sutra sees that Hamish the goat sneezes, she produces a large vividly coloured scarf, "Here you go Sir. Blow. There all better." She wipes the fellows face.
At Jin's outburst, Sutra looks shocked but slightly mischevious. "Of course Sir we are horrified at this turn of events, but a new experience should be very interesting. This area is not as cramped as possible, I have seen station plans there is a large living area. Although if we had to snuggle up that would not be to bad."
An incredibly bored look on his face, Wowbagger steps forward, "Just what I lived forever for, to eat processed food at a station sabotaged by mutants."
"Hey, Mr Hollow, I know how you feel every Saturday morning of my life."
Amazed Sutra raises an eyebrow; "There's a morning on Saturday?.... oh yeah that's where the cartoons come from."
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Again Ocid narrates her thoughts without speaking to anyone in particular. And now, the cat has been scanned. So far the dispenser has only recognized the cat, the spider, and myself as verified members of our species. Although... the cat and the spider have released only vermin. Disgusting. And Snuggling? Disgusting. Snuggling with those who eat vermin? There are no words for how disgusting that would be.
Sutra smiles "Oh lighten up, Ma'am. Snuggling's fun you should try it sometime." she gives a quick wink.
"Blue Cheese? Is it good? Cause the dispenser will only give me bland gruel if I get scanned by it. That's no fun." she pouts. "Unless someone wants to swap? Or has some Orwellian spice, to give it some pep?"
Sutra sees that Hamish the goat sneezes, she produces a large vividly coloured scarf, "Here you go Sir. Blow. There all better." She wipes the fellows face.
Thank you, I'm still having a little trouble adjusting to this new body. Try giving this blasted machine a fingerprint to scan. Apparently it wasn't built to serve hooved animals.
Hamish proceeds to repeatedly headbut the food dispenser in anger.
Giddilly she asks; "So what were you before, body swapping must be so much fun. Lots of different experiences."
"Not as much fun as one might think. I used to be a wealthy Aristocrat whose family lost everything due to bad investments. When my parents died a wealthy snob named Eichorn Von Ryuko offered land in exchange for attendance at his masquerade. He offered free passage aboard his private airship that was infiltrated by Assassins. Needless to say, they killed the lot of us."
"There was this one fellow in particular by the name of Sir James Durham-Fairfax. I put a lot of faith in him for our survival and in the end he turned out to be a bloody Assassin. He wasn't the one who murdered me, but he is the one sitting on my plot of land. If I escape this station the first thing im going to do is find my way hack home, kill him, and take what is rightfully mine! I still have a score to settle with him and I don't think he'll ever see it coming."
Sutra looks shocked; "Ooooh Revenge. Well I know you'll get your man, if we keep our heads then we will all survive this. And you can get your vengance upon that knave."
"I could tell you were a noble by the way you held your carriage." she bends down to speeak more privately. "I am too if you cannot tell. Don't you get board with all the prayers, fasting and calculus though. That's why I took to the stars, ∞ possibilites."
"Do you need help with the dispensor?" she puts her and out, so that she can place his hoof in the scanning recepticle.
♥"True, but mutants are also those that deviate from the path. That's what the Way teaches us." Sutra traces a line of her tattoo across her cheek. "Thank you for the education." she bows her head as she had been taught when she learnt something.
The Hollow breaks from its contemplation to address the others,
It turns and faces the lamp once more.
It seems like the enigmatic being suspects the fluorescent tube of being a mutant. It is a container of ionised gases, after all, making it more within the Hollow's context of 'life' than any of these wandering organic masses.
What mysteries unravel before the Hollow as it peers into the energised volume of plasma? Who is to say that inanimate objects have not have been turned hostile by the radiation?
Answering the Duke; "True, Cold Food!" she sticks out her tongue.
Sutra wanders over to the cloaked Hollow and stares at the light with him; "Interesting, such a light has a resonant frequency and wave-length such that it's energy states enable the creation of only a set output. That surely is not varying Mr Hollow?" she taps her head turning on the cerebral calibrator. "I would think that the ß-wave function is not a contiguous figure, thus the energy > 0 as the integral approaches ∞. You are correct this tube is defective, it will not last more than 3 cycles in it's present state." her voice has lost some of it's bubbliness in the analysis.
Bruce simply watches as the others eat. Having eaten a week before, his body would not require sustenance for another 6 cycles. Given our varied physical and physiological differences, it will indeed be difficult to determine who amongst us has been infected with a mutating strain of radiation. There is much to ponder before making a vote towards the determination of a suitable subject for isolation.
The constant conversation keeps Jin's head (and stomach) spinning. But one item does perk his interests: The tentacle-caped librarian lady(?).
If she's right that the food machine can pick up on mutants, we'd better all have a go at it... even though the thought of food right now is not sitting well. "Hey, let's keep this line moving. We all NEED to be scanned for food." Jin does his best to get the guy in front of him to move, and to get that goat to finish banging his head on the machine. Eventually when it's his turn he gets scanned and just hopes that the heap of mush that oozes out is close enough to oatmeal... oh gods, I hope that's *just* oatmeal. "Hmmm... all this talk of revenge. I think this is my revenge for drinking last night."
Jin makes his way to whatever spot he can crash on and collapses to try his new "food". But he's still not sure why people keep staring at the light. Break it or turn it off - at least that would help my tired eyes... but staring at it? Jin mutters to no one in particular,"*Hmph*, I met a chl'dathan on Vedis Prime that could glow like a lightbulb... but only when he was scared."
"Oh they are cool, I was at a party with one of them and we kept shocking him, so that he became a disco ball of colours, he was very accommodating. That's nice mush you have there, your not one of our people the Maveos?" she asks looking for the tell-tale tattoo's across his features.
"HAH! DISCO BALL, HAHA!" The laughter is genuine and loud... it hurts his morning hangover a bit, but it's a good pain -- the first honest laughter in the last few alarm-shreeking hours.
"Maveos? No. Most of my people call themselves Satedan, though with so few of us... I guess "Jin" is good enough. I mean how many names does one actually need?" He motions to a space near him, "Miss, you are welcome to try some of this if you wish... though, I can't promise much - it's not how my mother made it, haha." Jin lets out another chuckle and an actual smile. If she's talking this much, I doubt she's a mutant... don't they just growl and eat you?
Looking around with an annoyed expression at the announcement they would not be allowed to leave, Taraz announces to any listening (which he assumes is everyone since why wouldn't they be listening to him?), "Would the mutants please be polite enough to come forward now and expose yourselves, so that I may be allowed to embark on my G217 Galaxy Class pleasure yacht? You mutants are being most rude."
She sits down next to the imposing man, gently their hips meet. "Satedan, that's sounds solid." she says keeping her voice low, recognising his hung-over condition. "I'm Sutra, by the by. That gruel looks nice." she takes a spoon from the nearby dispenser and takes a small mouthful, savouring every taste. After carefully analyising it; "Lovely, slightly bland but with a slight carub flavour and granulated texture. Certainly better than my homeworld."
Sutra's eyes bulge; "♥You have a G217! Does that come with the side-hedonist pod with vomitorium? That's frelling awesome!♥" She claps her hands together like a school-girl.
"Do all of us have heads?" Sutra queries looking at the group.
Meowselsworth wakes up and stretches with a bit of a yawn. "Oh dear, it seems that I've fallen prey to a surprise nap! Is everything all better now? Can we go?" The small cat peers up at all the taller people who are around and says, "I think snuggling is a good idea, but I will settle for pets. We helmet cats run on pets, the helmets gather the static." For anyone who knows of the 'race' of helmet cats, that is just an oft told lie to sucker people into giving pets.
"Soon, I am sure that the doors will unlock." Sutra says optimistically. She moves over to the Helmet-cat; "You run on pets, your nap wasn't 'cause it was running low?" she strokes the cat, making sure it is fully 'recharged'.
As Meowselworth starts purring, Sutra smiles; "Is that the charger running? Your fur is so soft."
Amazed Sutra raises an eyebrow; "There's a morning on Saturday?.... oh yeah that's where the cartoons come from."
Wowbagger removes a handheld device and puts on some headphones.
"I have accessed the computer with all the genealogical records I used to insult every creature in the universe. It appears the fact that someone is or is not a mutant is not recorded. I shall have to report this to the Encyclopedia Galactica and the publishers of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy."
Link for those interested to the Encyclopedia Galactica.
"Now my friend Zapphod Beeblebrox is a mutant, I will speed dial him and ask how I can tell a mutant. I warn you all, I watched a human movie called the Thing, I may need a sample of your blood. By the way, I like the old one with Kurt Russel. Us immortals seem to like originals better than the remake."
"Of course Mr Mainwaring." she says referencing an obscure vidi she saw cycles ago, despite it being banned for it's comedic content on her home world. "Aren't the offices, far from here? Despite the situation it is good to see you Wowbagger, your insults are a breath of fresh air." she says still stroking Meowselsworth.
"Our helmet cat friend is running low on energy, aren't you."
"Oh, the emergency nap procedure was not for the helmet component, it was for the cat! But yes yes purrpurr that is just perfectly right, Ms. Sutra! I feel my energy levels rising!" says Meowselsworth, nuzzling the hand that strokes her. "If you require blood Mr... Mainwaring, is it? I can only offer a little. I am not a big cat, you see. I am, in fact, very small."
"And if I know cat's then they have an efficient way of extracting blood." Sutra looks down at the cat's claws and teeth. "especially from those stroking them." she says with a wink.
Finally seeming to notice that there is food, Thoen stands up and makes his way over to the dispenser. After filling his plate with enough to feed four ordinary humans he settles amongst the rest of the group and eats quickly and quietly, not making any attempt to start conversation.
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Speaking again as if making notes for a lecture, and not to any person present, Ocid continues:
The man-goat *is* a mutant, but a surgical one, not mutated by radiation that is the subject here. So, he is no more or less likely to be a murdering fiend than the others.
The large disorderly humanoid (Jin) ate from the dispenser without hesistation. I will categorize him with the cat and spider as unlikely to be mutants, but vermin-ridden, and needing to be returned to their place in the bilges and trash compactors at the soonest opportunity.
The one who talks ceaselessly without knowledge to share (Sutra), seems unlikely to be a mutant as she does not seem fixated on homocide. Yet I have not ruled her out, since she has never actually placed her own hand in the dispenser for food. And every time the subject of mutants is brought up, she changes the topic. That one bears watching.
The hairless humanoid (Theon) was my primary suspect for mutation, as he seems to possess the proper anti-social behavior. I now hesitate, since he has received food from the dispenser.
I may have to revise my original thesis, from those the dispenser is *unable* to scan, to those that the dispenser doesn't recognize (ergo mutants) are given non-descript congealed carbohydrate mush.
At the end of this recitation, Ocid's eyes whirl and click as she stores this hypothetical data for further analysis.
Hearing his name mentioned, Thoen looks up. His face scrunches up in confusion for a moment as he tries to make sense of the Librarian's words, but then he speaks.
"Thoen not know what ant-eye sochal is," he stumbles over the words he doesn't recognize, mispronouncing them, "But he's not a mutant. Mutants are bad. Thoen not bad; Thoen just works and does as he's told."