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Colonies in my mind (Quills!)

Started by Anonymous, March 08, 2010, 02:44:12 PM

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Anonymous

Sesselav was confused slightly by Hasea's strange movement. It almost seemed as if she had planned to move toward her...but had stopped herself. For the briefest of moments, Sesselav suspected an attack but...something was wrong. It was the pheremones perhaps, in the air, all around her, they weren't right. Hasea didn't seem or feel threatened, she didn't give off any marking of territorial nature, no threatening or scared smell. So it was something different.

However, she just clutched her hands in front of her and grinned. True to herself, Sesselav returned that grin as best she could, without looking too weird. People were often put off by her strange mouth, how it was vertical instead of horizontal, and she had mandibles on the outside.

"A sign is what I would call it, perhaps something weaved into the web of fate." Every race had a religion or a faith, a belief of some kind. As insects, the Skirr people believed in something as well. The web of fate, which was not all too uncommon to humans either. Of course, this web was more like the silk weave of a master spinner, and the being that spun it was a giant ant-like creature with thousands of arms and thousands of eyes, constantly weaving the web.

Still, not too different.

"I can tell. They are...intrigued." That is the word that Sesselav could put it. They had their own curiosities, their own natures and predetermined thoughts. However, whatever they had found, would be relevant to themselves. Perhaps a dead carcass, perhaps a stray bit of dung, or even, hopefully, some form of wild vegetable. An onion would be nice. However, Sesselav wasn't close enough to sense the air, to see what they might have found. It would be prudent to simply...go and observe what they had found.

Anonymous

"Web of fate... I like that... It's nice..." Hasea had always thought it was quite a pretty expression. People's lives coming together, interacting in unforeseen and complex ways, each new strand strengthening the others... It seemed to her to be quite a good description.

She thought Sesselav might be interested to see what the disturbance was, considering they had been discussing food just a little while ago. "If you want to... See... What they found..." She was curious too. Almost the whole swarm had gone, leaving only a few stragglers to defend her, so they had to have found something big. It was definitely worth a look.

"Let's follow..."

It probably wouldn't take long to see where the trail began. Drops of blood lay in the grass, not fresh, but still slightly sticky. Hasea's eyes weren't sharp enough to spot them where they started, but Sesselav might be able to smell them. Either way, they had both seen the direction the swarm had gone.

Anonymous

"A comforting thought, if you like webs...you humans have webs...You string them between trees and sleep on them." Hammocks, but she didn't know the actual word for it.  She did however think they looked kinda comfy, and she wished that she could have one. However, as an insect, she could just shut her body down wherever she was. Her joints could lock in place and if she chose, she could sleep standing up. That wasn't something she did very often of course. However out here there weren't a lot of places to sleep. She didn't travel like the humans did, with a large pack full of supplies, or in a wagon of some sort. She travelled with pretty much nothing.

Another reminder of her old days.

Sesselav nodded as she looked toward where the swarm had gone. Whatever they had found must have been something good, if almost all of them had gone that way. "Let us, yes." Once more she nodded as they started to head toward where the swarm had gone. Sesselav wouldn't lie, she was interested in knowing where the swarm had gone, why they had suddenly run off like this.

There was something odd in her sight. "Something may be wounded." The smell of blood was strange, it was thin, it was a coppery sort of look in her sight, amongst the greens and the blues, the different colours of the world around her. "There is blood in the air." Sesselav said quietly as she lifted a hand and waved it back and forth through the air, trying to clear the smell away.

Anonymous

Hasea was confused by Sesselav's wording, and spent a good couple of minutes trying to think what she could have meant. "Oh... Oooooooh..." she managed at last, when she made the connection. She'd never used one, though, so her opinion was limited. "Yes... They look... Fun... Although... I'm sure I would fall out..."

She giggled quietly at the thought.

But blood... Blood was no laughing matter. She blinked when Sesselav mentioned it, and peered at the ground. She still couldn't see the little drops, but further ahead was a larger splatter and the start of some drag marks. If she squinted, she could see where the trail lead. Up ahead loomed a large, solitary tree, gnarled and twisted. The swarm was there, clustered around something lodged up in the branches. They had obviously begun to feed, as the first few reappeared in the air around Hasea before flying off for another round.

"I can't... See it..." she admitted. "What... What do you think?"

Anonymous

"I agree that I would probably end up falling out as well. At least with a web they are sticky and you can't fall out of them." Sesselav said with a smile crossing her strange face. She would like to try one eventually, but where they were heading it might be a little difficult. Of course, maybe she could figure a way to rig it up inside a cavern or a tunnel that she built...or...she wasn't even sure that she could properly build a tunnel in the sand. That was more of the...drones and workers sort of thing.

She wasn't even sure what she'd be able to do at this point. She hoped that she'd be able to find...well...something...in the desert. There had to be caves of some sort in the desert, she knew it was possible, she really did want to live underground again, where she felt the safest. Many people would disagree about the safety one could find living underground, but as an insectoid race...no one could really argue.

"I think that...whatever it is...we should not disturb it." The fact it was up a tree...one of the very few trees...no, that didn't bode well whatsoever. "A tree...in the middle of a grassland...with a dead body in the branches. I do not want to know how...or what got it up there." Could have been the tree, could have been a creature, it could have gotten up there and died on it's own accord. "In my world...this would be given much care, and the drones would go around this tree...giving it wide distance." Sesselav told her companion as she began to walk again, keeping an eye on the tree, but she was not going to go near it.

"Does the swarm tell you anything, what they have found perhaps, or are they just focused on it being food?"

Anonymous

"Ummm..." Hasea stopped walking and squeezed her eyes tightly shut. She hadn't tried to establish a proper connection with the things – why would she want to? - but she could use them a little bit. She really didn't like to, but Sesselav was right that they would know more about the situation.

If she concentrated, she could get a rudimentary idea of what the swarm was doing. It was obvious to her that they were harvesting, since they were rushing back and forth between her and their find, but she'd have to listen in to work out anything more. She could sense that there was something else there, underneath the excitement of the gathering, and she focused a little harder. There she found... Something strange... Something oddly familiar...

Oh.

The few times she had done this, she had always found it disorienting to come back to her own senses and this time was no different. However, it was a little more urgent. She opened her eyes and stumbled forward, trying to get her legs to go in the same direction.

She looked at Sesselav, her expression saying everything that needed to be said. She put it into words anyway, when she could get her mouth to work right. "...Some of them... Are fighting..."

Anonymous

It wasn't something that someone should do, forming a tight connection with the creatures in your brain, but it could be helpful, if just a little bit. While they slowly poisoned her so to speak, she could still use them to her advantage, she could still find a way to harness them for her own good. Maybe if she got strong enough, she could overwhelm them and force them out. It was at least an idea to help Hasea.

The former Queen Skirr stopped as Hasea tried to figure out what the swarm was up to. She almost wanted to let her own defences down to try and listen to the swarm but...once more, she was worried they would go after her. She didn't want the swarm to start attacking her, or trying to turn her into a drone as well. It would be terrible to be subjugated into a swarm, to be a drone after being a Queen.

She much rather liked being a simple traveller than a drone in a swarm of vicious insects.

Sesselav kept her eyes on Hasea as she slowly came back to her senses. There was confusion on her face, well, what she could manage as confusion as she watched the woman stumble forward. It was apparent that whatever they had found was perhaps important. What they could deem important, and what could make Hasea move so quickly was beyond Sesselav, but avoiding the tree wasn't apparently not the best idea. "You must wonder if they fight each other, or if they fight whatever is in the tree." She commented as she started toward the tree with Hasea. This was rather...well, interesting to say the least.

Anonymous

When getting her legs moving, Hasea hadn't given a lot of thought to the direction they were moving in. She looked around at the landscape to work out just where she had started heading. Seeing the tree in front of her, she realised she was going exactly the way she shouldn't.

She knew the swarm liked to scavenge meat when they could, and assumed that was what they were doing now. She didn't know that they liked it enough to steal a carcass from the jaws of the thing that killed it, and she didn't know that at this moment an angry, hungry leopard was climbing further up the tree to get away from the horrible little things stinging it in the face. However, it was easy enough for her to guess that something of the sort was going on.

She didn't want to be around to find out.

She thrust her hand out and grabbed Sesselav's arm, trying to steady herself enough to coordinate her feet into turning her around. "Wrong... Wrong way..." she managed. "Leave them to it... If we're lucky... They'll all just die..."

Anonymous

Sesselav had misinterpreted what Hasea had wanted to do. She thought she was going to the tree, as if a person in the tree was in trouble, and maybe they could help. However, that didn't seem to be the case. In the tree, she could finally see that an animal was climbing away from the swarm, while they fed on whatever it had killed. It probably wasn't going to be a good day for the animal that was climbing the tree. It also wasn't going to be a good for Hasea and Sesselav if they stuck around, looking like food.

It was never good to look like food.

Sesselav stopped moving as Hasea grabbed her arm. It was an odd experience, and Sesselav was not at all used to being touched so suddenly. People didn't touch queens, at least not in this manner. However, Sesselav was more adjusted to the whole situation that she was in, and said nothing, though her body tensed slightly. It was just weird being touched, but this was probably for her own good.

"Oh...yes...I thought something else." She could understand if Hasea did not want to see or view the ants at work. It probably wasn't pleasant, and if they did all die...well, it wouldn't be too bad now would it? Except she hadn't seen any sort of queen leave with the swarm...and it was probably inside Hasea anyway. It would just make more...or...punish Hasea in some way. "Let us get back to our original route then. Away from...this...and back toward the desert." It wasn't hard for Sesselav to remember which way they were supposed to go. She had a pretty clear idea, with certain reminders, like where the sun had been facing, and what the horizon had looked like. They were soon back on their way toward the desert.

"It must be nice to not have them around now..." Sesselav was actually able to get a really good look at her companion. The poor woman looked so slender...she looked so pale...she looked so starved. It was difficult to see but...there was always hope that soon they would be gone forever. "Things are far more quieter...enjoyable."

Anonymous

"Yes... It is..." agreed Hasea. "But it would be nicer... If they didn't come back..." She was having to blink a lot, as she wasn't used to so much sunlight reaching her eyes. The world sounded weird, too, without the constant buzzing. But it was nice to remember, just for a little while, what it was like before them. What it would be like after them.

She should enjoy it while it lasted. The carcass was large, so it would take them some time to dismantle it and turn it into whatever it was they stored... In her mind... Ugh, she really didn't want to think about the logistics of just what they did with the meat when they got it back. They'd probably have to hollow out some more storage space for it, which was just wonderful. At least if she forgot her own name overnight, Sesselav could tell her what it was.

She now realised she was still holding onto the ant woman's arm. That was... Awkward. If she let go now, it would be really obvious... But it was pretty obvious anyway.

She released Sesselav's arm with an apologetic smile. "Sorry... It was... It was hard... To walk... Um..." She clutched her hands together and looked down, deeply embarrassed.

Anonymous

"I will agree with you on that." Sesselav nodded, a slight nervous smile on her face. Her nervous smile was just...more of a forced looking smile, if that was possible. Her mandibles angled a bit more and her mouth didn't open as much. It was just hard to use facial expressions when you had an exoskeleton. She would manage however. Sesselav would find it odd if just after meeting this girl, her affliction was suddenly gone, in a moment of fate. That would be...wonderful really. Then Hasea would be free to wander around with Sesselav without the fear of dying or being attacked by the swarm.

Still...she could only imagine what would happen when the bugs returned. They would return, there were so many of them...and usually large predatory animals weren't meant to handle swarms of things. She had seen large bears run off by bees before. As humorous as it was to see, it also showed the true power of something so small and what some might call insignificant. It was a true testament to the power of nature and adapting to one's situation.

Just like she would have to do.

Sesselav visibly relaxed when Hasea let go of her arm. If she had been a cat, or an animal with spines, they probably would have been standing straight up and down. However, she had none of these, but she definitely looked less tense than before. "It's...do not worry. I am just not used to contact. Queens don't get...touched much in my world. I am sure the same is said for yours. However, I am not a queen here...so I should get used to contact." Gingerly Sesselav reached out and patted the woman on the shoulder. It wasn't as awkward as it could have been, and Sesselav was quite welcoming of that. "We both are very odd."

Anonymous

Hasea knew the swarm would come back. They'd done something like this a few times; each time she had prayed that they wouldn't return, and every time they did. It was just wishful thinking on her part. After so long with them, she was still allowed to hope, wasn't she?

A smile twitched across her face when Sesselav patted her shoulder, and she looked back up at her companion. She wasn't so good with being touched herself, being quite out of practice with it, but it seemed that out of the two of them she was the most comfortable with it. "Oh? That's... That's good... Then? It's OK?" She breathed out in relief. "I'm sorry... I just... Really... Don't want to... To mess things up..."

She laughed quietly. "I suppose... We are... Aren't we? A little bit... Odd... Even if... Even if we were normal... We wouldn't be... Normal..." She giggled again at this. She thought she had made quite a clever observation.

Anonymous

Maybe some stroke of luck could befall the two. Maybe there would be enough power in the air for lightning to suddenly materialize out of no where and strike the tree, lighting it on fire and killing the swarm. She didn't exactly know how lightning worked really, but she had seen and heard lightning on clear sunny days before, which had been incredibly odd at times...but she didn't question it. She didn't know how it worked, but she hoped it worked the same way here, and was possible.

All the swarm dying in a fire wouldn't be too bad a thing.

Hasea seemed a lot more comfortable with it than Sesselav did. Granted, Sesselav couldn't really show emotions on her face, and she wouldn't degrade to failing her arms wildly and letting loose a string of curses...but she could show some agitation in some way or another. However, she didn't want to show agitation, she really did want to get better and to...relax a little. "Yes Hasea, it's quite okay. You won't mess things up." Another one of those insectoid smiles flashed on Sesselav's face, trying to calm the woman and relax her. She seemed very much alone, and it appeared to Sesselav that people left her quite a bit. She was obviously scared of losing her new friend, and Sesselav had no plans on leaving her. She'd just have to make sure Hasea knew that!

"That I agree with. If we were normal, we'd still be different." It was...a slightly difficult concept, but Sesselav basically understood what she meant. After all...if things were normal, Sesselav would be a Skirr Queen still. Hasea would be...well, Sesselav couldn't be sure what she would be...but no doubt it would be interesting and different. They'd consider themselves...normal in their own eyes, but everyone else would consider them...not so much. Funny how that was.

Anonymous

Sesselav's warm words made Hasea smile again. She nodded. "I... I'll try... Not to..." she replied, reaching out to return the shoulder-pat and getting as far as brushing her fingers on her friend's shell before deciding against it. Oh, but she'd said she wanted to try and get used to being touched, so maybe that was the right thing to do... This social interaction business was really very complicated, when you got down to it. Having not had to feel her way through that particular spiky, trap-filled maze for some time, it just made no sense at all.

"Um..." She went in for another attempt, this time resting her hand there for a few seconds. "Hee," she squeaked with a big grin, and then covered her mouth. "Was... Was that... Weird? It... It was..." She giggled. While she still didn't like being all awkward, it was slightly easier to laugh at it now. It wasn't all... Scary... Any more.

"But... Being different... That's... Not bad? Is it?" When she said it, she hadn't exactly been thinking about what 'normal' might mean to Sesselav. But whether that meant as a queen, or how she was now, or something else entirely, Hasea couldn't think of Sesselav as anything but Sesselav, and Sesselav was... Kind of odd, in a nice way. As for herself, while it might be nice to get rid of the swarm and go straight back to being an ordinary girl, she knew it probably wouldn't be that simple. She'd changed, in lots of ways, and that couldn't be fixed overnight.

If only anything was that simple...

Anonymous

Sesselav wasn't in any better condition when it came to social interaction. Though, the one thing that really kept her going was that she was able to learn. She could become used to it, she could conquer any preexisting conditions or feelings, and she could become more. It was a very comforting thought, it almost felt like she was breaking out of her shell. Hasea was even trying her best, and Sesselav waited for her friend to decide whether or not she was going to return the gesture. Sesselav wasn't going to be impatient about this, both of them had trouble after all, Hasea more so no doubt. She was afraid of doing anything to run Sesselav off, despite Sesselav's assurances it would never happen.

Sesselav had to admit, it wasn't that bad. Her exoskeleton didn't really let her feel anything after all, there was a sort of...pressure that she could feel where Hasea's hand was, but it wasn't like it was pain or anything. She had to admit that her reaction was cuter than mosts would have been. "No, that wasn't weird at all." She told her warmly, flashing that smile of hers. She wished she could make it seem more friendly but...difficult to do when your face couldn't change it's expression that much.

"Being different is not bad at all. It is quite good. People like to be unique don't they?" Sesselav asked. That's how she had seen it. People didn't want to be regular, they didn't seem to want to blend in, they wanted to be seen. So being different wasn't bad at all, being different was good then! Very good!

Anonymous

"Oh... OK then... Thank you..." Hasea smiled back. It was hard to tell from Sesselav's face exactly what she meant by things, but she was good at expressing herself through what she said and that was OK. Hasea knew her friend meant well, and at least understood the strange mandible-smile, and that was probably good enough to see them through.

'Differences are good' was a nice thought, especially for these two oddities, but it wasn't quite that easy. Hasea had noticed back before the swarm that some kinds of unique got taken better than others. People reacted more favourably to, say, a nice singing voice than to a habit of picking one's nose in public, for example. Then there were things that different people reacted differently to, which made things even more confusing.

And then she tried to explain it, which could never go well.

"But... I guess... Um... There's good different... And bad different... And sometimes... They're... They're the same..." She shook her head and laughed quietly. "Oh, I don't... I don't know..."

Anonymous

"Of course, my friend." Poor Hasea seemed so worried about it, Sesselav was going to reassure the woman that they were indeed friends. It was funny to think that she had a friend here, and it hadn't taken her very long in this world to make one. It was an excellent sign to Sesselav. Granted, it was probably because they were both alone int he world, and they both had some things in common but still...Sesselav couldn't have asked for a better travelling companion and friend.

Sesselav would admit that some differences weren't that good, but in this case the differences were fine really. In her culture, the drones and workers didn't look too different from each other. Unless you looked very closely at each one carefully. The differences could be very minute, more spines, perhaps a slightly different colour, maybe their eyes were brighter...but they all had something...you just had to look closely sometimes! In the case of Sesselav and Hasea though, you really didn't have to look that close to see their differences.

She gave a small giggle as Hasea laughed as well. "I may not understand the last bit...but I understand the first, and agree with you. Good different and bad different." Good different was always the best of course, while bad different was...well. Bad.

Oh wait strange people they were.

Anonymous

"You're... Good different... Of course..." smiled Hasea. Truthfully, Sesselav was more the odd sort of different that could be taken many ways. A lot of people would react badly to meeting someone that was basically a giant bug, and that was something she would have known without having experienced it first-hand. But to Hasea, Sesselav was wonderful and that was all there was to it. She had to be, after all! They were friends!

They probably hadn't been walking for very long, but the open grasslands and even more open sky made it feel like forever. Hasea looked around the landscape and shivered despite the heat. While it was nice to have a bit of time away from the swarm, she felt somewhat... Exposed... Without all of them there. It wouldn't be so bad if she was in a forest, where she'd still have some cover, but the plains were so open and empty. She could be seen from so far away and she didn't really like it. It made her nervous... Well, more nervous than usual, anyway.

"I wonder..." she mused, "If anything... Is looking at... At us..."

Anonymous

"I should hope so. You are also the good different." Sesselav knew that to some people she might seem like the bad different. Bugs weren't very respected on this planet from what she had seen, and as such, giant bugs were also probably not very high on the list. At least no one had tried to swat her, stomp on her, or some other nasty thing. Of course, they looked at her like she was the bad kind of different. Not that she minded, because they were just ignorant. They didn't know her at all, and if they didn't want to know her, that was alright too.

People had the right to choose their friends after all!

If Sesselav wasn't inside a building, or cave, or something along those lines, she felt exposed. The grassland however didn't...disturb her as much as it could have. It was so flat, it was so open, it was so...open. It didn't make her afraid because they would be able to see everything for quite a while. No matter the direction, you could see anything out of the ordinary for a while coming.

It was...pleasant really.

"We would be able to see something looking at us...unless..." Sesselav tilted her head upward to look up at the sky. "There is a bird." She leaned her head to the left slightly and pointed. It was a speck...or maybe...not? It was hard to say. "It could be a bird. Or remnants of a cloud. I hope it is a bird. Clouds could mean rain." She didn't want anything to rain on her parade. One little bitty cloud could easily become more clouds. These grasslands were nice and lush, which meant they did receive a decent amount of rain here.

Hopefully not while Hasea and Sesselav were walking of course.

Anonymous

Hasea squinted up toward where Sesselav was pointing and spotted the little shape. It wasn't really moving like a bird, it was just hanging there, but it seemed too small and solid to be a cloud. It was quite curious. "Could... Could be either..." she agreed.

She scanned the sky quickly to see what the weather would be like. Sesselav seemed like she really didn't enjoy rain, so Hasea wanted to be able to tell her if there would be any. She was quite good at that. The finer details escaped her, but she still remembered most of her learnings.

The first clue was indeed the ground and the grass covering it; the soil wasn't hard nor too squishy underfoot, just pleasantly springy, which had made for very nice walking. That meant it had probably rained here two or three days ago. The grass looked like it got water at least once a week, so unless they had just arrived at the start of the dry season, it was likely it would rain within the next few days.

In the sky, she could see a cloud bank coming over the horizon on their right. Licking her finger and holding it in the air, there was a slight breeze from the same direction, which would be driving the clouds towards them. However, they were the fluffy sort of clouds that, back home, had passed by and rained on the next village over instead. "Let's see..."

She smiled at Sesselav. Hopefully this was good enough news. "It won't... Won't rain today... But it... It might... Tomorrow..."