One Month into education.
Plant trouble.
If anybody had said to me that they were going to apply Discombobulated White Death on top of Laif-fabre, I was going to laugh at the mere suggestion. So, imagine my surprise when it turns out somebody now only did that, but gave it to his venus fly trap. Well, when I say surprise, I did mean more "outrage" and "undescribable gibberish" about how mindbogglingly dumb such an idea would be, especially if it came from somebody who even KNOWS those two ingredients. They're at the far end of the book, and don't have the spectacular names of the other ones, which implies nobody would skip to the end. So somebody not only studied to the end of the book about five months beforehand, but looked at the mix of those two ingredients and decided that would be the perfect pick me up for the surprisingly boring venus fly trap.
In short, I have absolutely no idea why they didn't expect a three story tall plant monster with hypnotic qualities to it. Nor did I expect it would succeed in enthralling an entire building to the point that they're a very capable defence force. Even the teachers aren't sure what to do, and the headmaster wants to PUNCH the thing. As amusing as that would be, I don't want that behemoth mind-controlled by some overgrown fauna that's growing increasingly protective of the surrounding neighborhood.
So, of course, people are asking around what the best solution would be. The people from the necromancy course are going to make a flesh golem (which would be fine if we had an entire day), the people from the destruction spells don't want to harm the students, and there's only a single person from the alchemy department that isn't currently DEFENDING the stubborn weed.
That person being me. Of course. I had the idea when my mother came up to me and told me that she felt unsafe. It took a little while, I admit, but it soon proved too good to be true that nobody was pestering me for an hour straight. That's when I woke up, and evacuated the building before the other alchemist caught me. It's a good thing that the discombobulation of white death made it a suggestion-type pheromone, rather than the usual addictive pheromones. The first one, I can deal with.
So while the whole town is discussing how they're going to take down the alchemy department, I'm already putting it into action. If I wait any longer, the crusaders are going to discover the pheromones are a mist, and eventually soak through their protective masks. And I really do not want to sneak past possessed soldiers.
And so, after an hour, I already have the materials needed to get the alchemy department down. It's a good thing I experimented against the giant spider queens, this should have about the same effect as last time...
Of course, that WAS about seven years ago, and a plant is a little different, but it should still work!
I put my own cloth around my muzzle, and apply my counter-agent. It won't help for long, but it should work out well enough. I wish Sydney was here, then getting to the base of the plant would be a synch! Instead, I have to go back to my old habits of sneaking around. I hate that I'm so good at it. It's degrading, and made me scared of far too many things. I can get a nervous breakdown from rustling leaves when it comes to sneaking! Deep breaths, in and out, trying to get used to the unique odeur of the counter-agent on my nose-rag. And I'm off.
The first part is easy, of course. The alchemy course is located around a single building, at the moment, although the plant will most surely start expanding it's base of operations soon. The alleyways are getting their first vines and flowers, and the pheromones are already rather thick. It makes my eyes water, but I need to keep on going. As long as I don't step on anything, Spinach won't notice me. I turn a corner, and see the first problem. Some of the alchemy students are already wandering about, mumbling to themselves as they see what they would really want to see. I even see that odd girl, who's mumbling to herself. I can hear something about "pray away the gay", so I decide against paying attention to any of these ramblings. Of course, now I need to get close enough. Perhaps the old trick would work, "pretend you belong here", but I fear that plant-monsters wouldn't be fooled. Not to mention my giant purple needle almost as big as I am on my back might just tip them off that something may be a little different about me. Damn it, Sydney would know what to do! Then again, she could have just charged through and jab the plant before anything could do something. Sadly, it's just me. I keep on thinking about what I could do, until I hear bell chime in the distance and see a beam of light shine upon one of the patrol-students, stunning them and keeping them in place.
The crusaders. Of course they wouldn't listen to the warnings... Well, I have a little bit of time and distractions, now. I rush out, hard as I can, and run towards the building. Contrary to my hopes, they DID notice me. The glass bottles explode against the floor, doing all sorts of strange reactions now that they had a final addition of gravity. Most of them don't do anything, some others create flowers, and a few of them explode. It's not hard to guess which one just happened to land near me.
Dazed, I can confirm I got into the building. The bad news is that I did it through a window, and that my arm looks a little mangled. Shock is preventing me from feeling anything for now, and I quickly use my emergency kit. I pull out the little brown box from my hip-bag, remove the needle with white liquid, and jam it into my shoulder while squeezing the plunger. All at once, I feel my heart going far too fast, making me feel like my veins are threatening to burst, but it soon begins to slacken. I take a look at my numbing arm, just in time too. I can still feel vague twinges of pain, even through the numbing agent. It's bending the wrong way, there's a nasty cut at the upper arm, which I start binding with one arm and some difficulty, and my fur looks scorched. All in all, not ideal. But at least I'm inside, and nothing is coming after me. The plant must think I'm dead.
Deep breaths, ignore the stinging. You can get that rib looked at later.
The journey through the building was easy after that. All of the defensive forces are upstairs, ready to throw their homework out the window at unsuspecting kobolts. I stumble through, and finally reach my goal. The main stem. It burrowed it's way through the building to find a fertile ground, and the damage is extreme. The plant may be the only thing holding this place up! I take the massive syringe off my back, though I need to basically throw it over my shoulder with my broken arm. I jab it in there, and push my whole weight against the plunger. It's just barely enough to squirt it in there.
The effects are immeadiate. The pheromones even change color, meaning the coloring agent was a success as well. That'll make it visible things are better. The pink is already changing to a more pleasant white. Before it's too late, I change the counter-agent on my rag. Wouldn't want to be affected by the new sleeping pheromones.
I probably should have told the crusaders that I was going to do that, but whatever. They're a bit high-strung anyhow.
Now comes the easy part. I go up the stairs, and eventually figure out which room the plant originates from. It was quite easy, considering it's the one that had it's door replaced by a massive vine. I climb over (tiny frame go!), and find the White death and Laif-fabre concoction. It's in a half-empty vial, as I expected. I spit in the vial, more as an insult than for anything useful, and put some fire-salts (from the student's own supply, sloppily put next to his bed in an unmarked pot. I'm not paying a single cent for this moron's mistakes) in his favorite new feed. And then, I pour it over him. It actually jiggles it's whole body, vaguely shaking the building. It's a slow death now, buddy. In about five days, this thing will have shriveled up and died. More than enough time to slowly extract the alchemy students. It'll take some shifts, and some counter to the sleeping mist, but they'll be out of here soon enough.
Now, you can head to the damned nurse and get half your body back into place. The anesthetic is wearing off...
Anyhow, that's how I became popular across MULTIPLE courses! Just because Sydney was off on a damned school trip with the rest of the year ones, I had to step up! And I thought people bothered me before...
If this keeps up, I'm going into the damn rainforest and making myself a hut, bugs and zaptigers be damned!
This is horse-shit. I don't WANT to be popular.
Boy, some hiatus. Ended up writing 1600 words. I guess I felt a little guilty about the cop-out updates I did earlier.
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Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 189995 times)