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Well, Anock isn't a fan of being flanked. How dare these crabs? *Surely* there's enough other stuff to eat on this planet--Wilson was able to find plenty of edible animals, for crying out loud! She takes a step back, relying on Domehead's rump to protect her and hoping against all hope that nothing exits the orifices at that end while she's standing there. Perhaps this time she'll actually manage to shoot a crab?
"Right!" Anock steps back and manifests her nanites as a cloud, bemoaning the loss of the emergency beacon. Hopefully it'll be a short duration. With a mental nudge, she causes the nanites to surge, granting Wilson Fast Healing 1 . She then tries to figure out why these crabs keep changing colors.
It must be a threat display. She shows just what she thinks of their technicolor baloney by shooting the crab that had just scuttled up to her in the, uh, face? Sure, we'll call it a face. Wretched thing.
Maybe she should focus more on aiming than on criticizing the physical appearance of the locals.
"Oh my *word*! Those crabs are wearing pieces of *our ship*! For the love of--*rrrrrrgh*!!" Anock stomps the ground with indignant frustration. She whips out her pistol as she dashes around Domehead's tail to get a good shot at the closest crab.
And of *course* her shot is wildly wide. "What?! Is there a magnetic field that throws off our aim or something?!" Never mind that she's the only one who's consistently failed to hit her targets.
"Whewwwwww!" Anock exclaims. She makes sure her nanites have got the form of the emergency beacon just right so it operates properly. It would be a *travesty* if they missed us! "If there's only one shower, Wilson gets dibs!" She announces magnanimously. Honestly though, it's mostly because she thinks humans smell kinda weird, and unwashed male is too much for her. As long as she can wash her hands immediately, she can wait her turn. In fact, as she intends to take a very long time ensuring all the microbes from this hateful planet are removed from the exterior of her person, she's willing to allow all the others to go first. Hearing them complain through the door about how long I'm taking would be *so irritating*.
"Well, isn't that a kick in the unmentionable area! It's just *taunting* us. 'Oh, it could go straight home, but there's not enough power. Too *bad*.' Ugh! It might as well not even exist!" Anock grumbles and gripes as she struggles to help Nip secure the shelters.
The last several days, her morale is really starting to slip. She valiantly tries to put on a show of not being a complete and total grouch, but unfortunately that comes at the expense of any useful work.
"What?!" Anock gets excited. "You mean there's a chance--a *chance*--that we could get home ourselves? ... Well? Get crackin' team! Let's figure this out!" She immediately starts bossing everybody around in a most enthusiastic and unhelpful way. After several minutes she stops and slaps her forehead. "Why didn't I connect the dots sooner? The inubrix--we've gotta decompress that machinery somehow. What if it's a starship?!" With glorious visions of arriving back at Starfinder HQ in an advanced alien starship, Anock does some putzing and pondering herself for a change.
"Yes, Wilson, you and Domehead can go forage. At least the flora and fauna here are edible. I am capable of creating an emergency beacon with my nanites. Once the Society sends a rescue ship, they'll probably look here first. It would make sense for us to make for a landmark that they'd notice from space, and this is the one that'll scream the loudest. I'll get that set up right away. Fortunately I have an extra battery here to power it." This she does right away, setting up the emergency beacon right next to the probe. "Now for the shelter. Nip, why don't you start looking for supplies while I find the best nearby place to build it?" Of course Anock delegates the dirty work, but soon she realizes that choosing a site is the work of a few minutes. She'll have to actually get her hands dirty (Aack! Germs!) to avoid looking like a lazy, self-entitled leech on the party's resources. Sigh. Well, here goes. Good thing I still have soap in my pack. She soon realizes how hard it is to build a shelter.
It turns out that she's not much help. It's a good thing she can contribute the emergency beacon to their rescue efforts, or her poor ego would be absolutely crushed. Each morning she rises early to check the emergency beacon, ready to re-create it as needed. She looks up at the sky, willing the rescuers to arrive with all her being.
Despite her grumbling, Anock actually manages the extra marching rather well. She makes a point to look as exhausted as the worst of the team, though. No point in rubbing it in, after all. She mentally pats herself on the back for being such a considerate leader, conveniently not bothering to think about how she ought to be shouldering more of the burden to help them instead.
"Are you freaking kidding me?! It almost seems like this planet is sentient and actively trying to destroy us! Anock shouts at the sky, shaking her fist. Who knows; maybe that'll help? Of course, there's no reply. "*Fine!* Tomorrow let's get to the probe. Without the tent, I'm not inclined to sleep in, anyway," she grouses. Irritated beyond all get-out, she follows Wilson's advice about finding a place to hunker down during the fire storm.
"Ugggh!" Anock bemoans the loss of the tent. "Looks like we jinked the tent by signing it too soon. Not that I believe in *actual* jinxing like that. Anyway, my arguments from yesterday also apply today, so don't expect me to hop out of bed on this little sleep unless we're actually pressed for time. ... Or it's a safety issue." She glares up at the sky, then rolls over and tries to go back to sleep.
Anock catches herself just before blurting out an indignant complaint. She struggles with it for nearly a full minute, desperately trying to come up with something uplifting to say to her ...Oh. That was awful. ... She has no idea how to spin her statement into something better, so she decides to bluff her way through it, trying for all the world to act like she's a kid watching fireflies flicker through the fabric of the tent with a sense of wonder.
"Ohhh thank goodness!" Anock sighs with relief, visibly sagging as the itchiness dispipates. "Yeah, sure, we'll sign the tent. Perhaps the next Starfinders to use it will be inspired when they see that." She's feeling rather magnanimous now that she's protected from all the pathogens on this unclean ball of unknowns.
"Indeed," Anock haughtily replies. "It is vital to remain well rested and keep up our strength so we can respond to threats to our existence without handicap. Who *knows* what the incubation time is on the pathogens we've no doubt been infected with. We'll fight off those infections better with sufficient rest." She nods curtly, as if she's just settled everything, and really you should just do as she says in the first place. It's for your own good, and definitely *not* because she wants to sleep more because then it's easier to pretend this isn't happening.
"You are entirely too--" Anock bites off her acerbic comment a bit too late, but better late than not at all. She takes a deep breath, swallowing her irritation at Poko's song. Okay, it takes multiple deep breaths, but hey: she's trying. Plastering a smile onto her face, she picks up a stick and begins whacking a rock to the rhythm of that song. "Go on. You can finish it." She braces herself for more, while mentally patting herself on the back for being such a good sport.
Once they're stationary enough, Anock allows each of her wounded allies to spend a minute breathing deeply of her nanites, repairing most of their wounds.
She deliberately does *not* talk about how she couldn't hit the broadside of a
Again adjusting the nanite cloud, Anock tsks. "Wilson, we're moving too fast for the cloud. It won't heal you much longer!" On the plus side, maybe the snake won't follow if it gets hurt badly enough. *Surely* it'll decide that there's less life-threatening food elsewhere, right? Speaking of which, hopefully she'll actually hit it this time.
Nope. How could she miss two point blank shots in a row? "Gol ding it! Is the barrel *bent*?!" Anock shrieks indignantly.
Anock sputters, grabbing a disinfectant wipe to clean up the water droplets that Nippostia splashed on her. Just then, a huge snake rears out of the water. "Relax?! *Relax?!* Oh, *sure*. I'll 'relax'," she retorts, her voice rising an octave as fear-induced adrenaline kicks in. She whips out her azimuth laser pistol and fires off a shot at the soggy serpent.
Unfortunately she doesn't have her sea legs yet; the rocking of the boat throws off her aim. "There! See what good relaxing did? Yeah! *I thought so!*"
"Excellent proposition." Anock agrees. She certainly doesn't want to share a boat with the dinosaur. Why, it may not even be smart enough to "go" over the side. Being in the front of her boat, she's in the perfect position to see exactly how that's handled. Unfortunately. "Don't relax too much, Nippostia. There could be jagged things under the water and we have no idea whether or not our boats will look like *food* to the denizens of the river. Though I'll not complain if you choose to be on storm watch. We'll need enough warning to find a safe place to beach the boats if one comes up on us."
This time, Anock tells Poko and Nippostia a story about a merfolk woman who was bullied because she had different-colored skin than everyone else and had tentacles instead of a fish tail. But she had powerful magic, so people would come and demand that she do things for them. Of course, they had no idea that all that practice helped her become powerful enough to single-handedly overthrow their government and rule with an iron fist. The people were too foolish to realize they could've prevented all that by simply not being jerks. Whenever the firestorm surges nearby, she glances worriedly in the direction of Wilson's improvised shelter. She's realized that he's the most likely to know how to manage in a situation like this, so his life is quite precious to her.
Whatever you guys decide, please drag Anock along with you/force her compliance. Otherwise she'll take the least inconvenient option for herself until it's no longer available. Appealing to her ego works. And if you're getting tired of how I'm RPing her, please let me know. I'll adjust so we can all have fun.
"Oh my *actual* *freaking* *gosh*! Well, I guess we set the tent back up again! Geez Lou-frickin-wheeze!" This time Anock actually helps. "Wilson, make sure you find a spot on high ground for this one so you don't end up marinating in a pool of acid. I don't think your hidey spot from last time will help with this storm." Aww. She's caring for her team. Pat her on the back, Universe--and stop sending storms!
A tense moment ticks by before Anock inhales sharply, as if that's the only way to prevent herself from huffing. Suddenly she realizes that, as the obvious leader of this expedition, team morale is one of her responsibilities. Delegation is often essential, but the peons need to know that she's willing and able to pull her own weight. And honestly, this is a safe and sanitary way to help. Of course she can tell stories. "Yes. Yes I am. Come inside, and I'll tell you the tale of an old witch that lived in a *very* unsanitary house, made entirely of gingerbread, sugar, and candy. Can you *imagine* the infestations?! Don't worry, that's not a spoiler. You'll find out why in a bit."
"Yes, yes. But if the snow is acidic, we're going to *despise* being caught out in any precipitation. I *sincerely* hope you're wrong and the tents were just defective." Anock continues grumbling as she releases her nanites into a cloud around Domehead, allowing the dinosaur to breathe them in so they can repair its internal systems. As always, she runs them through her special sanitizing protocol before pulling them back into herself. There's no need to spread pathogens between individuals, after all. "Poko, did you make coffee? I thought you mentioned something about lattes last night." She holds out her hand, expecting a coffee to be placed in it.
Anock assumes Wilson knows what he's talking about, and she'd *much* rather ride out the storm in a tent than out in the elements, even with environmental protections. She "helps" set up the tents by reading the instructions *at* everyone else doing the work, and is the first to head inside to claim her territory.
After spending a minute each allowing the injured to breathe in her nanite cloud, Anock announces that she is ready for whatever's next. One can almost forgive the smug expression on her face. She's not much help with setting up camp, but she does volunteer to take a watch in the middle of the night. "If it gets too dark to see, my blindsense will come in handy, and I can wake all of you telepathically if it seems that making noise or moving around would be unwise." As they're discussing their plans, she states her obviously-superior opinion: "I'd much rather not bushwhack my way through an alien jungle. The pathogens we'd encounter--just *think*! At least on the river we ought to be able to bypass most of them, assuming we keep our boats righted. But if we hear a distant roar, like rapids or a waterfall, we should pull over to the bank as soon as possible. Going underwater in this place will probably be even *more* dangerous than going overland. And no one wants to die of illnesses that have been eradicated in settled worlds, like dysentery." She subconsciously adds a haughty sniff at the end. "And we shouldn't strain ourselves too hard, at least at first. Exhaustion leads to mistakes, and we can't afford those out here."
If shirrens could blush, Anock would be as bright as a strawberry right now. Fortunately for her enormous and fragile ego, they cannot. She waves her hand dismissively as she replies: "Oh, fine. Take it. I have enough to keep me busy, anyway. Now, how badly did those crabs get you? Any lacerations? Assuming we're safe enough here, we should fully heal ourselves before moving out."
Anock can't cast spells, but I forgot that she wouldn't be able to activate it via the datapad. Let's just say Anock is getting far too cocky about her abilities, per usual. Feel free to put her in her place. She'll get snippy, but will comply. It would damage her precious ego to fail if she tries it, so it's better to act like a martyr now and give it up.
"It takes Anock several moments to pull herself out of shock, then to prevent herself from panicking at being exposed to so many alien pathogens all at once. I am going to get sick with heretofore unknown microbes!!! Wilson's practical assessment and no-nonsense demeanor help ground her, though. It isn't too long before she is able to speak again. She compensates for her lack of composure by sounding extra bossy. [b]"Right. I was going to say the same thing. But *first*, we should take stock of what we salvaged and divvy it up appropriately. *And* someone should keep watch while we do. I nominate Nip to watch for incoming threats. Now, everyone lay out your goods so I can take stock." She begins setting down the stuff she was able to grab. She has:
"Hmm. The chemalyzer and basic medkit are redundant. I can create those with my nanites, as well as an emergency beacon, which will come in more handy than I anticipated. As the medic, I should take the datapad, and I'll carry the other medical supplies if no one else is trained in how to use them. That aeon stone looks like a good fit for me too. Who wants the rest of it?"
"Quickly! Quickly!" Anock doesn't realize she's giving annoyingly obvious and superfluous orders; it appears her mouth is running without checking in with the brain first. She grabs and nabs anything in the engine room that's not bolted down, then bolts out of the ship without even thinking about whether or not there are more threats out there. She can feel the ship sinking, like a too-slow elevator, but she swears it's picking up speed.
"Are you flipping *kidding me*?! Go away!" Anock yells at the crabs, despite knowing full well that there's no way they'd understand Common speech. As she charges down the hallway past yet *another* crab, she shouts back over her shoulder: "Nip! Get a move on! The ship's sinking and we're leaving, with or without you!" Well, they probably won't leave her behind, but maybe if she thinks it's likely she'll get some hustle going. Bursting into the Engineering room, she takes note of everyone else in her way. "Well, don't just stand there! Grab and go! Grab and go!" She shoulders past Domehead, without even noticing whether or not she's soiled the floor.
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