(Being able to fly and bypass all the normal checkpoints is really useful. It'll be a sad day when we won't be able to squeeze through windows anymore.)
((Silly humans and their bipedal bias. You'd think that with so many flying machines they'd be more careful about flying things.))
If we get too big for the window we can just make the window bigger.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThereWasADoorThat was... perfect, actually. Perhaps I shouldn't bother with exact wording in my future suggestions.
((You can word things a certain way, I like it when I have concrete suggestions like that, just know that I might not always follow your wording to the letter. Might be due to vocabulary, might be because I'll blend it with other suggestions, might be simply because of what I think works best for the story. But I'll try to follow what I think is the intention behind the suggestion.))
Also, show Eiwhyl our trophies: namely, the blaster pistols and knife-with-button. Also also, explain that we have wreaked bloody vengeance upon the previous bearers of said trophies.
"Friend?"
Express interest in knowing what happened. Express interest in food. Express interest in being checked out. In that order.
"Friend?""Ugh, don't be stupid."She turns around and walks out of the refresher. You're not sure what you should do.
"Now come on, I'm in the middle of lunch."Any uncertainty immediately evaporates in the presence of the promise of food.
...
While you and Eiwhyl have lunch (to be precise Eiwhyl finishes what's left of her lunch and you make your portion disappear a few seconds after she prepares it for you) she explains what went on with the security force.
From what she learned from one of the officers, someone saw all the blood and heard some strange noises coming from the elevator. They used a public communication console to contact the security force and report this. The security force officers were looking for the caller, they don't know who placed the call, they don't even know how the caller looked like since it was an audio-only call, just that it was a Gran (one of those three-eyed humanoids). They also deployed a number of seeker remotes (tiny droids that scan their surroundings and report back to their controller) to try and find whoever caused this. They've also made several announcements over the PA system asking for missing people to be reported and advising people to stay indoors. She believes they're still searching the lower floors and that they have no idea what's going on, as usual.
While Eiwhyl prepares a second serving for you, you try to explain what happened to her but she says very firmly that she doesn't want to know. Instead you show her what you looted from their corpses.
The datapad was an inferior model that wasn't waterproof, so it was damaged when it came into contact with water. She says she's willing to give you an old basic datapad of hers and transfer this one's datacard to it for 75 credits.
You show her the blaster pistols, boxy black things with silver barrels. She says the blaster pistols are single-setting holdout blasters, nothing special, model HSB-200 with extended gas cells, probably good for 20 shots each. Poor optics means the bolt has lost most of its energy after 20 metres, good for defending yourself or giving someone a scare but not that good in a fight against a properly armed opponent. She shows you how to remove and replace the gas cell after you ask her but she won't tell you where you can find more gas cells.
She says the knife is a vibroknife, some sort of illegal modification, probably has limited battery life, plus the battery's shielding looks shoddy. When you ask what a vibroknife is, she unsheathes the knife and slashes the empty food container in front of her, pressing the button partway through the motion. There's a high pitched whine. The knife slashes through the plastic container with ease, sending the two halves clattering to the floor. She sheathes the knife while you inspect the box. It doesn't look like it's been cut, it looks more as if a line was melted or exploded on it. It's both scary and awe-inspiring to see the power their weapons.
You ask how it works and Eiwhyl explains the blade vibrates so quickly its cutting power is amplified. This one's erratic vibration makes it form large gaping wounds, as if exploding the flesh around it, however a properly focused vibroblade can cut through flesh and metal so quickly and cleanly that the one being cut might not even notice it. They're very helpful surgical tools, but it's damn hard to get the license required to legally own one and the high quality ones are extremely expensive.
She has no intention of keeping either weapon and demands that you don't bring them in here again or at least keep them hidden while in her clinic.
She says the smoke sticks could be usable once they dry, but also comments that smoking is bad for you and recommends you just throw them in the trash. She then has to explain what smoking is (burning things and inhaling the smoke) and why people smoke ("they're stupid", though you're not sure if it's as simple as that).
She has no idea what the keycard is for, but comments that the symbol on it (two parallel dotted lines joined at the top by a bold bar) probably matches whatever it is used to unlock.
Finally, after you eat your third serving, it is time for you to ask about what happened to you. You describe how you lost control while eating, how you ate more than you possibly could have given your size, the fire you felt burning inside you and spreading throughout your body after you came to your senses, how hard it was to control your body, the exhaustion that led you to fall unconscious, the strangely vivid dreams you had and the constant hunger you've been feeling ever since you woke up.
Status lost: hungryEiwhyl seems concerned but doesn't say anything. Instead she decides to examine you with her machines so that she has all the information she can have before coming to any conclusions. The examination reveals several discrepancies when compared with your previous scans. According to her, your body has gone through a sudden alteration, focused mostly on your muscles and bones though other parts of your body like your brain, claws and scales have also been affected to a lesser extent. There's also an organ she can't identify that has increased in size, it's closely connected to the heart and stomach but doesn't seem to be actually doing anything, at least not right now.
After looking at the results, Eiwhyl theorizes that something in what you ate or perhaps the quantity of food you consumed itself (perhaps combined with the... "other stimuli" your were experiencing at the time) acted as a stimulant of sorts, causing your body to go into overdrive. Or maybe they caused that unknown organ to emit some sort of stimulant.
She's not sure about what the reason for your body being so hard to control at the time was, it's possible the stimulant was affecting your brain or it might have just been because you weren't used to it.
Your loss of control might have been a feeding frenzy of sorts, your body overriding your thoughts to make sure it gets what it wants. There are certain predatory animals whose behavior changes significantly when exposed to the scent of blood, so this might be something similar.
As for why you fell unconscious and what happened during that time, she has no explanation. Maybe it's natural, a chance for your body to focus on growth. Maybe your body can't handle working so hard for so long and so it just shut down to protect itself. Without more information, she really can't tell.
You don't think her explanation is entirely correct, something about it feels wrong, but lacking any better ideas it's probably the best explanation you're going to get. Perhaps you could had gotten a better explanation if you had come to Eiwhyl right away instead of hiding, but if you had done so you'd very likely had been caught by the security force, so this is probably for the best.
Age: a few months (hatchling)
Size: about the size of a large dog
Status: fine
Health: fine
Weapons: claws and teeth
Armor: soft scales
Abilities:
- Short Flight: You can glide in order to survive falls and quickly move great distances. You can even fly upwards for short distances. You can use favorable winds and updrafts to increase your glide time.
- Basic Human Language: You are able to understand many of the most common words of the human language, including some that express more abstract things, though there are still a great many words and expressions that you have yet to learn. You can also read, though it takes you some time to understand the words. You can also speak, though it's sometimes hard for others to understand you.
- Communication: You have a knack for understanding other beings, even those whose language you don't know.
- Basic Nursing: You know the basics of caring for patients and preparing and maintaining equipment used in their care. You can also administer certain simple treatments. However you still lack much of the knowledge necessary for you to be able to determine what said treatment should be.
- Large Sonic Rifle covered by old torn clothes (in Maintenance Tunnels, behind a pipe)
- Pack with plastoid tape modifications (equipped on left side)
- Half-used medpac
- 677 credits (8 orange, 8 blue, 1 red, 3 cyan, 1 pink)
- half-used roll of plastoid tape
- flashlight
- small can of droid oil
- small metal toolbox
- 2 blaster pistols
- 1 vibroknife
- 1 datapad (broken)
- 2 packs of smoke sticks
- keycard with symbol
- Ali's Apartment: A tiny 2 bedroom apartment. The little human Ali lives there with Dad/Jobal and Mom/Ania. Room 327.
- Ali's Apartment Tower: Apartments arranged in a circle. Clean, bright, mostly locked doors, few hiding places. Little traffic during the night.
- Eiwhyl's Clinic: Sells medpacs and other healing items and provides treatment. Warning: stabby. Room 509.
- Streets: Dirty streets, parked hovercars, shops, building entrances, street vendors, little traffic during the night.
- Maintenance Tunnels: Interconnected tunnels, small and large, going low and high. Connect various streets and buildings. Wires and pipes. Dark, dirty, with old machines constantly rumbling. Scavenger-vermin and hunters-of-vermin.
- Garbage Pit: A large room with mountains of garbage half-submerged in a sea of sludge. More garbage frequently arrives from holes in the ceiling. A monster lurks here, may pull prey underwater.
- Hydroponic Pool: A room with a large pool filled with plants. A ceiling full of bright lamps. A spherical gardener-droid takes care of the plants. Patrolled by hostile gunmen. A corridor leads to other rooms. Storage room. Processing room. Other rooms are unexplored.
- Iyran Grower Shop: A store located deeper into the tower's streets. Operated by a cephalopoid. The grower sells cheap synthetic meat, amongst other things.
((A bit of an infodump this one, with all those items being identified.))
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Topic: Surviving in an Alien World [Suggestion Game] (Read 106938 times)