Scath carefully crawls out of the tunnel, and goes to the work area where the Elodan's are working on things. He waits until he sees one put something down while working on it that is easily portable, but looks like it's part of what it's working on.
When he sees this, he leaps to the table top, picks up the item in his teeth, and then leaps off and runs 30 feet. He waits for the Elodan to start toward him, then moves 20 feet. He keeps this up until the Elodan follows him outside. If that doesn't work, he'll drop the item on the floor and repeat with a different Elodan until one follows him.
The very first Elodan actually follows him along curiously, as he rabbit-holes his way back outside via the beetle tunnels, following him all the way out to the surface. The sounds it makes start off as playful and friendly, until he starts heading outside with it, then they become more 'worried' sounding, and a state of panic adds its tinniness to its music.
Scath stops as soon as there is dirt under his paws.
Golem panicking over outside. What symbols make in ground?"
Scath then begins to scratch symbols into the dirt while the golem stays inside the metal hallway.
As Scath begins to scratch various symbols into the ground, the Elodan stops... and moves over to look. Then scratches a few symbols back in. To Scath's surprise, he both understands what he's writing, and what is being written to him. The basic conversation is very simple. 'This Hope. Cat like Body. Want new body.' then something that you don't have a concept for.
The response is also rather swift, but more eloquent. It seemed that Hope was going for the shortest terminology to relieve stress more quickly. 'No bodies available right now. The world has become more hazardous. Perhaps we will have a body for you tomorrow. If we do not, we will begin to make one for you. Do you want to return to your rest until then?'
'No.' came the response. 'I will stay with...'
And she finishes with the word 'body.'
Scath writes the word body twice, and then scratches a line under each.
Need 2 body, found other orb. Not able talk like Hope.
** spoiler omitted **
"Yes. There is magic for broken bones, but it is beyond me. My job does not entail things involving broken bones, however." Pierce gets the feeling that the lizardman is very much living in the past when it comes to 'his job'. "What is it that you do that makes humans so capable of spreading? And what in particular do you do with your skillset? It seems as though you are similar to me in occupation, but with more... weapons... and less magic."
"there are lots of things, mostly little things, if you want I'll write you out a list later, but I'd say the biggest thing about us is that humans are a stubborn race, but an adaptable one, the drive to survive and to excel is a strong one in our race, as a whole we don't quit, ever. "he pauses for to let his statement sink in, and to give himself time to think of a more subtle way to phrase his own profession, most people didn't like the term "spy" it had bad connotations, despite being something that helped advance the progress of civilization press forward "as to what I specifically do, my job has many titles, and I have to do many different carried things, where I come from we call it "wearing many hats". Most of the time I deal in conflict resolution, something of an ambassador, if you will, other times I act as a bodyguard, or a soldier, at still other times I play host and hold parties for important people, or helping to direct military intelligence, or simply translating with one of the handful of languages I know fluently I am lots of things to different people
Scath: 'Make that two.'
Pierce: "Until Military Intelligence, you had me believing the term you were looking for was Philanthropist." Pierce was able to catch that it was attempting humor, though it wasn't as good at mimicking that as it was casual conversation. "I will inform them that you are a soldier and a diplomat, and leave it at that. From some degree of observation, we have found that those that come and go in cycles. You may arrive one day and leave the next, or you may stay for weeks. Groups tend to come or go together. Curiously, no one remembers seeing anyone leave." it shrugs, "But they are there one moment, and gone the next. You likely have a few more hours before we discover if you stay or go."
"what and soldier didn't prevent you from guessing that? Most people would draw the line there"he says in a self deprecating but still jokeing manor there were a couple more members of our group earlier... Now that I think about it, it'a weird I haven't thought about that earlier...
"Strangely, I arrived alone. I have been the only one of my kind to come here." he acknowledges. "Perhaps you will meet them in later travels? Or would you even desire such a thing?" his tail swishes slightly as he continues the conversation. "As for me, I would rather like to return home. It was comfortable, and my life was rather... cushioned. Travel, companions, making a difference between my people and those in power. I wonder if my negotiations fell apart when I disappeared.."
"I'm rather indifferent to it really, I knew them for a rather short time, though I would like to be home, when I was there I always knew what to do, I had the freedom to make whatever choices I needed but there were always clear mission objectives and even they were weighted in terms of relative importance, now? Not a clue what to do next, and I can't just do nothing he pauses "though, after being here, being home would be different, I'd always wonder what's going on back there, I hope the talks with Russia's Lightning Empress are going well without me"
Once Scath finishes cratching out the remainder of the message, he returns inside with the golem person.
He finds Hecate, and when he does, he bats at the armored ankle until he is payed attention to. Then he stands up on his hind legs and bats at Hecate's pouch, where the orb is stored.
"Oh, hello." Hecate said, scratching behind Scath's ears as he came up to her. She spent a few more moments doing that, even as he batted at her pouch, until finally she seemed to get the hint. ...Or maybe she'd understood right away and just wanted to play with the kitty for a bit. Once she was satisfied, she held out the item in question, keeping her palm open so it would be easy to retrieve.
"Ah, well. At least lightning-users are generally trustworthy and honorable. You disappearing will be questionable to them, but I doubt anything you've said will be backed out of. As for me, I was dealing with a black... which meant everything was sensitive, and very likely to change. I did not look forward to being eaten if something went wrong, but it is a very real risk when you wish to do something big." he shrugged.
The agent winces "honorable is not a word I would attribute to the empress, ruthless, or crazy maybe, I'm almost glad I was never framed important enough to talk to her directly, my coworkers would have set up a betting pool for how long it takes before she leaves me a charred corpse, though I do suppose I wouldn't have to worry about being eaten. So that's a plus
"Hm. Lightning users that are not honorable are exceedingly rare... perhaps cloud." he gives another shrug. "Being eaten has a large swath of negative connotations." he actually smiles this time. "As for eating, are you hungry? I have not eaten today. Also, if you'd like to speak with anyone else, I would be happy to translate for you!
Pierce's stomach growls as he chuckles yeah I could use some food about now
"Then right this way. Your choices are vine mash... which is certainly not my cup of worms, and not-bird flambe, a personal favorite. For sides, they offer mixed nuts and berries. They actually have several tasty and aromatic options for drinks, though." He leads the way over to the side of the 'counter' that makes up a corner of the room, that isn't laden with objects, then tells the Elodan waiting behind what he would like. "It is incredibly strange that creatures that do not eat are actually capable culinary artists." he shrugs slightly to Pierce while he waits to find out what he would like. Once he does, he passes it on.
[b]"what is different enough about the "not-birds" that you call them that as opposed to them just being birds you don't recogonize, if you pardon me I'm not exactly a student of ornithology, as to our cooks, they may just be prepairing the same recipe over and over again, easily within the capabilities of an intelegint construct race
Being feline, Scath accepts the praise and adoration of the simple minded two-legs, letting it bask in his sublime felinocity.
When he's done letting the two-legs show it's affection (after all, one can't treat them too nicely, they'll get swelled heads), he drops to all fours as the two-legs takes the hint and pulls out the orb as he wanted.
He tugs open the saddle bag on his side with a well placed bite and head jerk on a wooden ring attached to a bit of sinew, letting Hecate place the metal orb in the saddle bag next to the existing orb.
There, two orbs. Play nice, or I dump you in mud.
"As for the birds... they're not meat. They're like-meat. Thus, not-birds. They all belong to the plant, and thus all are -like- the plant." the lizard shakes his head. "And no. They seem to be experimenting with the recipe. They're definitely learning what we dislike. The first time, there was way too much... dirt-taste."
Not want you two arguing. Head crowded with two, three make Scath scratch out eyes.
Scath pulls the closure tight again, and then heads over to the crowd and finds a quiet place to cat nap under a table or something.
As Scath slips under the counter and falls asleep, people are able to note that his sleep is full of dreams, feet twitching asynchronously as he does so.
** spoiler omitted **
"As for the birds... they're not meat. They're like-meat. Thus, not-birds. They all belong to the plant, and thus all are -like- the plant." the lizard shakes his head. "And no. They seem to be experimenting with the recipe. They're definitely learning what we dislike. The first time, there was way too much... dirt-taste."
pierce groans and chuckles mirthlessly as he stares at the ceiling "but of course, one question is answered and countless more take it's place, not the least of them being both how and why such a thing come into place, and then there's the question of where the seads come from that the birds eat, I mean do they eat themselves? "
"How and why are you here?" the lizard turns its head to eye Pierce more directly, "Do you wish to rule? Be ruled? To eat? Do you want others to accept your ways? Perhaps you simply wish to be left alone. I do not know what it is or why." the lizard shakes its head, and watches the bots prepare the food. "Or was that rhetorical?" he paused, thoughtful, "As to the latter... the birds eat the plants, and the plants have seeds. I am no hunter, but I believe this is common. Perhaps they prefer seeds." he shrugs once more as their food (there's a constant amount being cooked, rotisserie-style) is delivered.
"no I mean how and why did the plants shape themselves into birds, and how is it energy for the birds to eat the seads if they are all part of the same plant, but your questions also have merit, I want to be be useful, I want to have a purpose, I want to constantly improving my lot in life and the lives of those around me."
The lizardman nodded. "I do not know precisely how it all works. I know that it enslaves people and makes them into plants... but that is all that I know. It seems able to do the same with others as well." the lizard shrugs. "I do not know that everything is connected, or that everything shares energy, only that what goes to the city comes back a vegetable."
Pierce shrugs "either they share or they compete over it, that's pretty much biology 101, within a given system there's a limited amount of energy, and at each step up energy is lost, though given how this thing acts, describing it simply as a plant now seems counterproductive"
"I don't really have a better term for it, and know little about it to begin with. Would it be more accurate to call it an ecosystem? I do not know. I do not know how far it extends, what it is doing precisely, or why. I do know that I've less interest in speaking with it than a cloud, because I've seen what the Elodans become when they come from the city. I thought, upon arrival, that the Elodans didn't feel at all!" the Lizard explains, "Constructs that feel are... strange."
I've only ever even heard of one such example of such, supposedly they were made by dragons in ages past, the symbols used in describing them are "Keinheim" which are the same symbols used for their word for word for war and their word to craft or make, and so we call these things the warforged, though only a few bodies remain as far as I can tell, even the dragons just vanished suddenly from my world hundreds of years before I was born, I do notice some similarities between the warforged and the eldiloans, the warforged were solid constructs made of wood and some strange metal fuzed together, by some unknown presumably magical process,"
"These sound interesting. But do you know of what purpose the dragons of your world would create living creatures... when your world was already so readily populated? And if they have feelings, were they not the same as any other slaves or soldiers?"
A little later:
As the night begins to wind down, and Hecate announces that she would like to get started on her Mulan action sequence, and it cuts the talks with Pierce short. Whatever the Lizardfolk says to the Elodans draws a pretty solid crowd.
Whenever Hecate says something, it's like monkey-see monkey-do. If she can show them what she wants, they follow along with the best of their ability, and the lizardfolk translates any verbal suggestions or commands to the best of his ability.
While it's clear that soldiers the Elodans are not... they dive into it with gusto, doing their very best (which is significantly better than any of the humans that join in, save one!), they are going at it as if they'd gotten a free aerobics class, and were simply having fun with it.
At the end, a few of the golems offer Hecate small baubles that seem to be made very precisely, but with still 'human' touches, making choices that gave up efficiency for aesthetics.
"I'm not much of a historian, but 'because they could' seems to be all the reason they needed"
First he simply looks at as close as he can, then he begins poking and prodding, then he looks at it by poking his head into it. He then asks someone else else if it was safe to put on, given that he had only seen non organic life wear it.
Once he ascertains it's safety he puts it on overtop his existing clothes and armor.
Simply poking and prodding with curiosity directly results in the plant fibers reacting in much the same way, teasing and swirling around his fingers, before withdrawing, or trying to form into shapes... but it doesn't seem to be able to, due to... something. It can't really get a solid grip on Pierce.
Once he pokes his head through, it starts to form into a shirt-like shape, but when he stops, it stops.
"Where did you get it?" asked the lizard.
Trying to put it on over Pierce's armor(either the breastplate or Chain-shirt equivalent), results in the armor half-forming, and it just becoming a tangled mess. It is incredibly uncomfortable and seems to have no benefits at all, aside from giving you a huge sweater a size-too-small around your upper body, head and neck.
Hecate simply nodded as she accepted the trading goods. Valuable military lessons for a handful of beads. Yaaaaaaay. Ah, history. On the other hand, at least it had been informative, and she looked over at Pierce as he had an... intimate encounter... with the local plant life. "...Not reliable enough as it is right now. Take it off until any usefulness can be proven." she advised.
Scath watches the fighting with some interest, the noises having woke him up. After that, he goes to sleep again, awaiting morning and the promise of robot bodies.
Pierce does indeed tell him, and he takes it off along with his own Kevlar bullet proof vest, before saying to Hecate, "nothing ventured, nothing gained, and puts on the vine armor.
"That's usually what people say before they get their heads blown off by locals with hive-flay rifles." the soldier girl observed. "Contrary to popular belief, derring-do isn't what people should do if they want to stay alive. It's usually what happens when they've screwed up big-time and have to find a way to get out of it again." She glanced pointedly at the mess the plant had made of his armor... but seemed content to leave it at that.
...
Talking with people was not one of her strong suits.
As Pierce puts the armor on, it conforms to his basic shape, testing, and stretching... before getting 'comfortable' as it were. The armor is lighter than a typical chain shirt, and form-fitting. It's actually quite comfortable. Even better, it slides into place almost on its own, taking only thirty seconds to slide into place (if the chain shirt), or one minute (if the breastplate). Likewise, taking it off takes only thirty seconds for either armor. It fits well, is breathable, and moves easily. It's actually rather comfortable, especially compared to a bulletproof vest, which does not breathe well, and actually chafes quite a lot.
Pierce nods conceding the point, and takes off the armor and shares these details to the others, and sets the armor and his own vest to the side of his sleeping area, before reconsidering, given the possibility of going home, he lays the vest overtop of himself.
"Are ya sure you should take that? Maybe it fell through here like we did and that's why this place is in the shape it is. New plants can take over an area and kill all the others. I always have bear burn off any if that green vine with the leaves that shows up."
"If it comes with us, I'll take a small snippet for the researchers to look at and burn the rest with a charge of napalm"
"Oak trees only spread when lit. Never know. I wouldn't want ta have the doom of a whole earth on muh shoulders if I was ya. Do what ya like, though. We could wake up in two different places anyways... Might be back home like a dream. Wouldn't put it past the little folk to have made me dream this whole thing... Anyway. What's yer home like?"
Pierce looks surprised, as he's not very well schooled in various natural processes "really? That seems a rather counterproductive way to reproduce, wouldn't the seeds burn up too?
He pauses remembering his world and how to describe it to someone not from there big, if you were in space, or could otherwise see all of it, it looks like a great big ball with patches of green and brown, with big swathes of blue, and covered in twinkling lights, there are big cities, and bustling commerce. Most of the world seems like everyone is in a big hurry to do something or be somewhere, and everyone thinks that their lives are so inexorably important, but there are quiet places too, where everyone is content and happy, and the land is beautiful, and then there other places where the land is barren and covered in ice or sand, there are many mountains, Canyons, rivers, lakes, a variety of plants and animals, sentient life is limited to humans, but there is evidence that dragons once flew the skies, anything else you want to know?
"No, what's your home like. Do you have a family? A horse?"
When everyone awakens (or was already awake, or is woken up by the person already awake!), you're... no longer in a bunker anymore. Or a vault. Or whatever you want to call it. As a point of fact, there's a sky above you. Nice and... completely devoid of stars. It's actually a sort of yellow-orange. Despite this, it's still rather dark where you're at. As you look around, there are trees everywhere. The grass is cut short, and the deciduous trees are all manners of color, ranging from red to yellow to orange down to brown. Despite this, the leaves either haven't fallen, or have been meticulously upkept. Off to the side is a small lake, with pristine, clear waters, not that you could see that without using some method of light, and you can see lights off in the distance, illuminating a bench, and a bit of path.
You also happen to be surrounded by a circle of mushrooms.
There is also a wolf sleeping comfortably beside you, on his back, paws scritching at the air. A -barded- wolf, wearing a bag that obviously needs hands, but worn like a harness, rather than with shoulder straps.
It's chilly, but not frigid, so there's no worries about finding someplace safe and warm unless the weather suddenly shifts.
As for sounds, there are sounds everywhere. Wind whips through the trees sending a hissing noise through the branches and leaves as a leaf flutters to the ground beside you. Whatever animals are nearby seem to be mostly snug in their beds, but crickets aren't letting the night die, just yet, playing up their big band.
As for scents, it smells of autumn and fresh water. And people, for those of you with scent. Lots, and lots of people. People every where, with a mix of birds and vermin and squirrels. But predominantly people. Human people. And something acrid off in the distance and on the grass.
Off in the distance, though, you can make out stars, regularly aligned in the sky, like slits into other worlds.
"And that's why I didn't start anything." Hecate said, quietly retrieving her weapon and slowly, carefully making a survey of the surrounding area to check for threats and other warning signs. At some point in the night, she'd ended up using Scath as a pillow - warm, fuzzy things were amazing that way - but most of her attention was on the area around them. She was rather cautious of the wolf, too, but at least it looked trained... though she wouldn't hesitate to shoot if it acted hostile.
Satisfied that they were in no immediate danger, Hecate turned to the tall buildings in the distance, focusing on her accumulated knowledge and trying to figure out the most important details.
The russet wolfs nose twitches and his ears flick back and forth, he stretches both his front and back legs and flashes large white fangs as he yawns. The wolf wiggles and then attempts to roll on to his side... and fails. The wolfs eyes blink open, iris' a vivid blood red, he looks around at the upside down world curiously, wiggles some more and then throws his self over finally managing to right himself. Now fully awake, he blinks and takes in his new surroundings. The wolfs nostrils flare as he scents the cats and the multitudes of people near and far. Blinking at the woman he stood and casually shook off grass and leaves, before lying back down and watching everyone around him.
At the moment, Hecate can't get a good view... but basic mathematical principles say that they're at least a few stories tall, even at the distance they are from them. Probably more than five. So at least twentieth-century, by earth standards, but she'd have to get closer to be sure. The lamp lighting the bench, though, tells her a bit more. It's using a bulb, so at least -mid- twentieth century Earth.