((OH DEAR.))
Lars looks about the infirmary. He certainly couldn't help- it took him three tries to put on a band-aid once- so he just lets the children of Emar-i do their work. He closes his eyes and begins to pray.
Pray to Hal'el for self. Pray to Sa'las for Jim. Pray to various other gods for all the others because damned if I can keep track of the injury list at this point.
You pray to every god you know the name of, and a few you're pretty sure you might be making up. You hope they help.
"Okay, I have seen some pretty weird shit in my time, but this beats it all. That's it, I'm fucking done."
Take a few steps back.
((Noooooooooooooooooooooope.))
[con:4+1]
You put a rocket propelled gauss round straight into grate's chest. His body falls to the ground, tiny chest nearly blown in half. But he still stands as well; as though two possibilities existing at once, in the place. The standing grate walks forward.
"It is an echo of things set into motion long ago. The elixir of mankind's rise, the poison of our fall. But you can not hear it, though it echos all around you. But some have seen it's ripples. Do not mistake them."
[6]
Underneath the rock is a crushed, barely recognizable smear of a human body. And standing above it is grate, perfectly uninjured.
"Do you hear it?" The uninjured grate asks, looking up at the sky.
(( Uh oh. ))
Away teams, the blackship is covered in blood and ready to extract you. Radio back when you're done and I'll come pick you up.
Do a more thorough check of the contents of the blackship, specifically interested in a more precise layout and looking for equipment lockers and suspension units while waiting for the away teams to finish.
Head out to pick up the remnants of the Amp team. Land well away from the Grate doppelganger.
Blackship is fairly empty; no equipment around that you can find, least nothing that you can't get for free on the sword. There are stasis pods, five of them, but not much else. As per going to get that amp team...lets say you start towards them but don't reach them yet. Inventorying the ship takes a bit.
Xan senses quantum shenanigans from where he is somehow.
Nope. Fuck that, I'm not sticking around for universal deletion.
Scuttle back to the Sword as whatever form I'm in right now.
Go ask the AM if going in Tinker would let me experiment with shapeshifting and such.
You scuttle back to the ship but lack the correct organs to speak to the AM. Though you're fairly sure that no, the VR system is gonna have no fucking idea what to make of you.
Also be less dead.
You wake up with a great big hole in your chest and no small amount of wires and tubes coming out of it. You're laying in a bed in the infirmary, but there are no doctors around to talk to. Uh.
((Well, that isn't ominous at all.
Too bad we couldn't get the real Grate back, but at least that was a chance. Right now I would advise people to exercise extreme caution... insofar as IC knowledge allows. I know of at least two people who would, IC, be very susceptible to trusting this Grate, despite any and all reason. And a few who should have less inclination to feel less suspicious, Anton included - for all he knows, that rock could have missed Grate.))
Anton groggily looks over the medical supplies hooked up to, and into, him.
"...uuuugh. Somehow... not an improvement over electric sheep..."
Continue recovering. Try to reach the datapad and tap into the team's video feeds to see what all is going on elsewhere.
You manage to get hold of your datapad and search through the team's video feeds. You see Morul's.
You'd have preferred not to have.
"Uh oh. Ghosts!"
Vacate the premises post-haste! Let somebody else gawk and stare, I'm outta here! In addition, send message to Feyri.
Dear Feyri,
I am sending you this message to inform you that strange events appear to have transpired. They have much to do with the youth, Grate. I am unsure of the particular details, but it seems that, as I accidentally set certain manipulator specifics far too high in order to try and eliminate the amp specialist, mass destruction ensued, of which Grate was apparently an unfortunate casualty. He seems to have been caught under a giant piece of rock somehow - to be perfectly honest, I did not even know he was present with us until we found what appeared to be his remains underneath the giant piece of rubble. I am deeply saddened by his passing - or apparent passing, as the case may be - in a totally preventable, and thus all the more tragic accident.
On a somewhat more disturbing note, Grate does not appear to be entirely dead - in fact, his totally unharmed shape is standing unrealistically under where the rock landed right next to a bloody smear of some sort - I can only assume that magic is at work, and thus am vacating the premises as I am writing this. He seems to be looking at the sky, which is an ill omen if I've ever seen one. As for what has become of the boy, I dare not guess or investigate, and doubt that my limited expertise will be of use in such a matter anyhow.
I will set aside any apologies or expressions of regret for now, as the fate of Grate is quite uncertain at this point, but rest assured that, should he prove dead, they will be forthcoming and of very great intensity. But for now, I must bid you farewell and hope that you are not driven mad by grief. If it makes you feel any better, I swear not to use a field manipulator again in my life.
Condolences,
Stacy Buttle.
"THE SKELETONS WERE INSIDE THEM ALL ALONG!"
You run back into the building and hide under a couch.
(Nice choice, PW. ^^^)
Jim looked over at Lars, then decided not to bother the praying man.
Unless someone wants Jim for something, he's just going to wait and think about things.
Null action begins.
"Hear what, small child?" STEPHEN HAWKING asks of the possible possessee.
((I am disappoint that the thread title isn't "Creamy Child Center" now ...BUT IT WILL BE FOR THIS POST!))
You hear what Morul hears.
Locate Jim
"mrow"
sit down in front of him and make eye contact.
((Well, lets see how Jim reacts to seeing Lyra's new appearance for the first time, or if he even recognizes her. Lyra is unsuited btw.))
You sit down with jim in a position that will no doubt not be used as inspiration for an image that some will find disturbing.
((I kinda hope we're overreacting here. I mean, a six is the lowest overshoot one can get, and overshooting means 'You do as intended, but too good, with unexpected consequences.' We tried to see if Grate survived that rock, so I'd imagine a six would be in the regions of 'Grate isn't dead, but he ain't really himself either'. Maybe PW will give him a crippling mental disorder, or have him do weird things at random times, but I don't think it'll be straight up daemonic possession. On a 1, sure, but a six doesn't seem bad enough to warrant impromptu possession by the Spirit of Timmy.
That said, I ain't taking risks at this point in the mission. I mean, Miya helped lift that big piece of rubble, he's done his part in this.
It just occurred to me that, on every single mission Miya has been on, something dangerous or horrible happens just before mission end. First the random abduction of Mesor, then that little low-orbit stunt with Gilgamesh, and finaly the base getting eaten on the planetoid mission. And now this, maybe. Seems the HMRC always needs to go out with a bang.))
Back away a good bit. Quite a good bit. If anything preternatural starts to happen, start running for the Sword or the dropship, whatever's fastest. Carry Pancaek if needed.
(@ Xan: you really should check if you can create other organisms first. I bet you'll have to ask the Doc or just ask PW OOC. For now, you could deal with the excess biomatter by metabolizing whatever you don't need into a solution of highly concentrated organic polymers (like the honeypot ant). Then you create a layer of shock-absorbent tissue around it, a layer of chitin for protection, then you sever that ball form you body. You know have a big ball of organic material for later use, you can store this in the ship then go eat all of the other sod bodies and keep doing this. This way, you'll have a sizable reserve to use for when you can start growing your minions.
Oh, and I've been thinking the last few days about what I'd do if I had access to that flesh converter amp, and I'm pretty sure I could create an ecosystem from scratch with the only goal of feeding the horde given some time to design.
One of these organisms would be a 'mobile recycling unit'. Think something like a largish multi-legged specimen who's only task is to devour and digest any organic matter you feed it, after which it metabolizes it into that high-energy soup I mentioned above, and any excess waste products are stored in a different bladder. It would have a hollow tail or tongue or whatever to give this food to you or one of your horde. This way you'll never run into the problem again of having too much stuff to eat and becoming too big to be practical. You could settle into the form you like and let this thing do the assimilating of screaming civilians available biomatter. Added bonus that no organism you create will need a digestive system, just a bladder to store this pre-digested slurry (thus more space for other fun organs, like toxin sacks). Couple this with a mobile hatchery of sorts to grow certain organisms and you could theoretically create a small army on the fly.
Oh, and since every ecosystem needs a way of inputting energy and matter, I'm been thinking on how to design an organism to best capture available energy (e.g. solar through photosynthesis). This way the waste products in that bladder in the recycler/digester unit can be reused. Not to the extent of how the Tyranids apparently do that stuff, but still. In a system where the predators don't have to eat the herbivores, but instead are directly fed by the primary producers, a great loss of energy can be avoided (see 10% rule.))
Well, considering He seems to be exhibiting some sort of quantum immortality...Yep. RUNNING RUNNING RUNNING!
Pan stood there, baffled. One moment he was dead, now he was standing there, being all creepy-like. Pan was glad that he was back of course, but...
"But Pan is a big fat lying piece of shit who doesn't even know who 'he' is"
"Of course I do, I'm just shocked he's alive, is all"
"So, what's his name?"
"I know his name, I don't have to prove anything to you"
"We have no recollection of this child"
"Lying. piece. of. shit"
"All right, fine. I just thought it would have been nice to have some flavor text without you guys spewing your bullshit for once."
"No dice, compadre. Like it or not, you're stuck with us"
"It has come to our attention that small humans saying creepy, cryptic things while staring into nothing is a sign of imminent danger."
"fine."
Go stand back, way back. If Miya starts running, follow his example and follow him as fast as I can
You also do the running thing.
Hm. Guess the missions over.
Head back to the sword.
If you're not there already, you are now.
((The current lot of us are from 200 years ago so you could have applied then or am I missing the point))
"Is there anything do be done?, also I must know what ship is this?"
perform assigned tasks
You help move a few people to the infirmary and then mop up the blood they so thoughtlessly left behind.
Assist the wounded, utilize medical equipment.
"Sorry I didn't come with you guys but...I got scared. Sorry."
The nurses are busy, but not so busy that they don't stop you from running in and attempting amateur surgery on people.
Maurice is standing over you when you wake up. He's wearing scrubs and is pretty much covered in blood.
"I'll be honest with you..." He looks at his data pad "Teal. Sorry, lot of new faces. Most of then in pieces. Um. Well most of your organs are damaged to some degree. Burnt or burst. extensive skin burns, muscle damage...We can fix you up and keep you organic but it will take a bit. And you'll be pretty scarred up. Or we can go for the robot body. Opinions?"
Having gone from standing in front of a hatch to lying under a nonplussed doctor, Teal instantly goes into fight-flight mode and begins thrashing...
Well... twitching slightly.
He glares a single eye up at Maurice and gives a series of twitches that could only be interpreted as a shrug, or any other gesture which required the use of his gelatinised and ruptured musculature...
But it was a shrug.
Never want to be hurt by fire again...
Await response or Let the doctor do his job.
"Don't wanna be hurt by fire eh? Well, we can't give you complete immunity to heat, but a robot body would make you more resistant to it. Sound good?"
Charles detatches his rifle from its stand. ((Presumably, only the actual turret component is mounted, not the actual gun, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to rotate it.)) He then walks over to a vantage point where he can see the newly 'revived' Grate. Activate dynamic bonus.
Grate? No... it can't be... his corpse is there... what is that phantasm plaguing my eyes?
Actually, the ship with the rifle took off already...but it will have a view of grate in a second, so thats good! You don't even have to move!
((The idea I had was someone interested in joining the revolution.))
(( It would have to be someone on Heaphestus, I would imagine. The sword won't have *been* anywhere else to pick people up when you join (assuming this quantum Grate thing goes south), but I quite like the idea of someone that *wasn't* imprisoned to get here ))
((Well, duh.))
((Just experimenting with drawing on my new tablet PC. Relearning quite a few things.))
((Why are they not wearing clothing?))
No one wears clothing in the HMRC! We're just a bunch of naked people with an obscene amount of fire power. Like a deep south survivalist nudist colony.