Look Out Below

[birthright_npc]

The night was clear and cold. A weather front had blown through the day prior and dropped the evening temps into the thirties. A pale sliver of last-quarter moon hung over the desert, its edges sharp, and only a few wisps of clouds obscured the stars. Into this stark landscape a meteor streaked just before midnight.

It landed on the outskirts of town at the end of a dirt path. The land was part of an old horse ranch, abandoned in the early 1970s, so no family emerged from the cabin to investigate the fiery hole in their property, and no animals paced nervously along the fences.

A cactus sizzled and popped as it caught fire near the crater.

[Thread: Open to Anyone]

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[daniel_stacy]

A car rambled down the path, jerking and swerving as its driver avoided ruts, most of them created by a flash flood washout the summer prior. Highlights still blazing, the driver cut the car engine and climbed out of his seat. He tucked his keys away and shut the door.

“What the f…..?”

The crater glowed like coals in a dying campfire. He climbed over the old wooden fence and hopped into the pasture. Nothing moved. There were no sounds except for hissing and sizzling, and he wasn’t sure if those came from the cactus or the pit. Heat warmed him as he approached the outer edge of the pit and circled. Was it dangerous to get this close? For instance, was there cosmic radiation to be concerned about? Cancer and his sperm count were two things the vampire didn't have to consider, but who knew what else was on the table?

Daniel looked up, realizing he might want to check the sky for any astronomical buddies before he got flattened.

[primordial_visitation]

While Sabra had mentioned the night being preferable to sunlight, it wasn't necessarily something which physically harmed her. Nor, however, was distance and the hosted demoness had been physically wandering the desert for perhaps no other reason than exploration. Perhaps... Or just as 'perhaps' because of what had just come screaming from the sky, fire trailing.

What mattered, regardless of her reasons for being there, was that it had caught her attention.

From behind Daniel the brunette trudged with a wary expression. Her body-language a little cat-like in that blend of caution and curiosity. A couple of audible sniffs being made, as she attempted to ascertain the impact crater's nature. Then, picking up on Daniel's scent, in turn, her head tilted and made a further, longer, third sniff in his direction. Eyes narrowing.

Interesting.

[cian_oneill]

He had been tempted to let Siofra cover the ground more quickly, but Cian had seen the bouncing, almost erratic flickers of a set of headlights on the path out to the source of the residual glow. If there were others already there it would be better to be able to hear them, perhaps even speak with them. That wasn't going to be too easy as either Siofra, or naked.

So turning the motor off and rolling his bike behind some scrubby bushes off the side of the dirt track he looked around, checked the air, then started to trek across the dark terrain, circling around the meteor crash site and approaching from the opposite direction, where the abandoned cabin struggled to remain whole against the vagaries of the desert air and random vandals. His boots were a frustration he tolerated as they guaranteed at least some protection from the bite of any disturbed rattlers, and he paused as he reached the cabin to check again on the direction of the night air. He could hear noises from the paddock, the odour of incinerated plant and debris wafting his way now, and making his nose twitch and wrinkle.

The gate that had formerly held back the stock was hanging derelict from its hinges and Cian crossed into the paddock, the faint glow from the pit not enough to illuminate the area, but enough for him to discern the shapes on the other side. He followed the glance cast upwards, wondering for a brief moment if in fact the cause of the crater was a natural cosmic phenomena, or something more deliberate.

[wolfs_daughter]

In the darker shadows cast by the abandoned house, something was moving. The short days of winter meant that cover of darkness wasn't in short supply, and not all the residents of Searchlight were tucked into their beds, even at midnight. There were some clothes piled together under the dilapidated porch awning. The shape in the shadows had already been out for a few hours.

When the streak of light tore down from the sky, Echo-Wolf was just returning to the minimal shelter of the deserted house. She streaked out of sight as the cactus caught fire. Canine ears flattened, and a growl issued from the darkness. The desert was so quiet at night that any disruption was a cause for alarm, and this close to town, anyone could have seen the bright light.

And the Wolf. That meant shifting back, and quick.

[daniel_stacy]

Daniel wasn’t alone. He heard the woman before he smelled her, both footsteps and respiration, and once she had neared enough for the vampire’s eyes to make out her features, he gave her a quizzical look. “Where did you come from?” Her walk was a curiosity, as was her way of tilting head and sniffing at the air, at him, and it led Daniel to a tentative conclusion:

She was a space alien.

“Oh shit,” he muttered and staggered back from the crater. “Hey, listen, if that’s your luggage, you’re welcome to it. I’m… I’ll just be—”

Car. Get in it.

Just then, his nose ferreted out two other scents. Animals?

[primordial_visitation]

"Somewhere else," came Sabra's non-commital reply. She was good at those. Although, truthfully, there might not even be a word which would convey where she was from.

What he next said, however, caused her to frown in equal suspicion and confusion, repeatedly glancing between him and the impact crater, insect-quick, as if expecting a sudden clarification to appear. "My luggage?" She asked, deadpan.

Of course, the reality about her was that his guess wasn't too far off the mark... Just not in the way he was concluding.

"It is not-"

Her attention, too, was swayed by the arrival of others. Spine straightening as she caught wind of the new visitors.

Look Out Below

[cian_oneill]

Cian's attention was torn between the two across the other side of the crater, the glow from said crater, and the sound, of someone, or something, behind him. Being downwind from the crater meant whoever was behind him was downwind of him, so he couldn't pick up the scent, especially with the assailing of his nose by the burnt scrub and dirt. And the two others.

He thought for a moment, then with one hand shoved in the pocket of his jacket, he moved closer to the crater, eyes watching the other two, ears tuned to whoever or whatever it was behind him.

"Made a bit of a hole," he said, the heat still intense but not enough to stop him from trying to peer over the edge at the contents of the crater.

Re: Look Out Below

[wolfs_daughter]

The shift back from animal to human didn't hurt as much now, not since Echo had been getting in touch with the Wolf. She could smell the burning cactus as she got dressed in the dark. There were voices coming from near the crater, but she couldn't really pick out the words from where she was. She clumsily put her feet back into her shoes, feeling thankful that she hadn't bothered with socks.

The hybrid warily approached the meteor's crash site, picking out three figures in the glare of headlights. When she recognized the motorcycle, her posture relaxed a single notch. The lone cactus was still smoldering, but the flames had died down. Her shirt was on backwards and inside out. She wasn't aware of it.

"Think there's gonna be more?"

Re: Look Out Below

[daniel_stacy]

Daniel was on the verge of exclaiming, 'Fuck, I hope not', but he was still keyed into the possibility that the first woman was an alien, and she might take that poorly. The last thing he needed was to get accused of species insensitivity in Echo's presence.

He squeezed the back of his neck and looked at the sky, then at the brunette again.

"Alright, I'm just gonna ask, does anybody know what that is? Could just be a meteor, but in this town, it's better to assume the weirdest."

[primordial_visitation]

The three of them had reasons to hide their more unusual talents. Sabra, however, suffered from no such inhibitions and, once having prowled around the crater, saw no reason not to simply lean up a good deal closer, slowly tilting head in curiosity. No doubt, she would have been much more at home with a tree branch to perch upon.

"Yes," she volunteered, either oblivious to the fact that Echo had met her before or deliberately ignoring it. More likely the former. Her attention was fixed firmly on the extraterrestrial visitor. "It is something which hatches..."

Quite what was being hatched, was not yet clear. But sure enough, a segment of that intensely hot exterior was cracking, allowing some sort of viscous, glowing liquid to ooze out.

Maybe they'd get lucky. Maybe it was just perfectly natural.

Something harmless visiting Searchlight... Right.

Re: Look Out Below

[cian_oneill]

Hatching?

Cian's curiosity got the better of him and he leaned closer, an arm held up to shield his face from some of the heat. But he couldn't see much, his eyes squinting almost shut against the glow that was starting to reach out from the crack that was forming.

"Bloody hell, what is it?" he said, having to step back and look away, blinking to get his vision back.

Re: Look Out Below

[wolfs_daughter]

"Space rocks."

Echo's voice was thoughtful when she said it. She'd been braced for hostility from Daniel, but when it didn't come she relaxed another notch and crouched down near the blackened earth. It was much warmer there, like a banked campfire, and her angular features were thrown into sharp relief by the glow.

"Maybe it's hollow," she suggested, speaking to the group in general. "Part of the tail end of a comet or something. Comets don't usually make stuff catch fire, though." The hybrid had the vague urge to poke it with a stick, but there were none nearby. She looked up at the sky. Stars twinkled down. They were a lot easier to look at than the glowing ball embedded in the bottom of the crater.

Re: Look Out Below

[daniel_stacy]

“Nnaaahh, I don’t think we’re that lucky,” he hedged. So far as he remembered from Astronomy 101, meteors didn’t drool gooey, irradiated fluid like a Cadbury egg. And god did it smell! He loosely tucked his nose into the crook of his arm. “Man, what is that stench?” Like fetid meat with a side of body odor. If anything crawled out of that mess, it wasn’t going to be attractive. That much Daniel had figured.

He looked around. He ought to grab a weapon in case things got hairy. He had no intention of using his fangs.

[primordial_visitation]

That was when Sabra turned to the other two, pointed down to the goop-covered rock and instructed them, "Taste it."

Totally matter-of-factly. Expectant, even, that at least one of them would see her command through. That one of the pair would actually go down into the crater, scoop some of the glowing, glue-like substance out with their hand, put it in their mouth and report back on the flavour in care-free manner.

"Taste it."

Because repeating the request clearly made it much more understandable, right?

Re: Look Out Below

[cian_oneill]

Cian lowered his arm, the contents of the pit clearly nothing to do with a simple meteorite, and tried to get a better look at it. He realised the female's instruction was meant for him, or Echo, and he just huffed a laugh.

"After you!" he replied to her, glancing at the the pit then the other two. Echo didn't seem to be affected by the rather bright glow, and the other one, the male who'd been with the female, was now looking around, seemed to be a little more perplexed. The female giving the orders was definitely not human. Her excursion around the pit had sent a very strong twitch across his shoulder blades when she'd passed them. He wasn't sure if the two of them had arrived together, so called out to the male, "she always this bossy?" with a dry laugh.

Re: Look Out Below

[wolfs_daughter]

Now that the woman had spoken, Echo recognized her too, and she ducked her head in second-hand embarrassment. But taste it? Seriously?

"I wouldn't want to eat anything that smells that bad," she said, straightening up. The heat was less intense once she stood up, but the thing really did reek. If it wasn't a rock, something might be in there. Several somethings, depending on size. Were there bugs in space?

The fissure was widening, either from the heat or because of the sudden change in atmosphere, and there was more of the viscous stuff puddling in front of the split. It looked like antifreeze. Radioactive antifreeze. The smell made her never want to look at food again.

"Maybe it's inter-galactic cockroaches."

Re: Look Out Below

[daniel_stacy]

Daniel was stuck on the other thing.

“What, me and her?” He pointed a finger at his chest, another at Sabra. “You’ve got to be joking.”

He abandoned the crater to rummage in his trunk and see what was available. As he surveyed its contents in the yellowish light, he frowned. Jeez, he really needed to take things up a notch. Any self-respecting vampire would have more dangerous items on hand than a bottle of engine oil, jumper cables, and a plastic ice scraper. He felt around under the upholstery and grabbed the tire iron.

Spinning it between his fingers, he closed the trunk and vaulted the fence again.

Just in time to witness a set of four fingers curling around the broken shell. They waggled and flexed in their cosmic goop, testing the air and finding it suitable for… whatever its purposes might be. Another husk of rock fell away and its face was visible.

The creature let out the most surprising sound: a coo, like a baby’s gurgling greeting to the world.

[primordial_visitation]

Oh, Cian might laugh, but Sabra wasn't... She totally expected her order to be carried out, not be excused from. That was how things worked where she was from - the food chain was a very real indication of hierarchy. This 'social boundaries' thing was still taking some getting used to. Something Valerie would, no doubt, have attested to, judging by their last conversation.

There was no telling how sabra might have reacted. There was every chance she might have promptly marched over to the two shape-shifters, grabbed one or both of them by their necks and hauled them over to the crater to carry out her command. All of that, however, evaporated, once that... Sound became known.

And, characteristically for a creature which thrived on hatred and darkened loathings, the apparent innocence of that noise brought an expression of distaste to Sabra's face; eyes narrowing and upper lip curling back in displeasure.

"Oh," she observed, like someone who had just found excrement on the sole of their shoe. "It seems... Pleasant."

Ugh!

Re: Look Out Below

[cian_oneill]

"Don't know about pleasant, but it's bloody well alive," Cian said, aware he was stating the obvious, but then sometimes the obvious needed to be said out loud to try and become believable.

He wasn't certain that had actually worked this time.

The heat had apparently dissipated rapidly, and he approached the edge, crouching down, still wary, but now curiosity starting to creep past that. He peered down at the 'egg', which was not so much an egg but more like a cocoon upon closer study. "Don't look like no cockroach," he said, squinting a little in the growing darkness, the light from the goop having started to lose its intensity as it seeped away from the cocoon.

Re: Look Out Below

[wolfs_daughter]

Echo stepped back when the fingers grasped the sharp edge of the 'egg', and a second hand joined the first as half of the shell fell away, leaving the creature exposed. Of the four people present, she was the most likely candidate to have seen a home birth. Cian might have, depending on how long he'd been around, but even if he had the baby wouldn't have come from an egg.

The cactus was no longer smoldering, and the headlights of Daniel's car cast different shadows. The creature was bluish, contrasting with the bright green liquid that had flowed from the pod. Both hands had four fingers, but the thumbs were disproportionate in size to the other digits. It was trying to get up, but the shell kept crumbling and it couldn't maintain a good grip.

It made another gurgling noise, and only Echo's innate caution kept her from trying to assist the thing in being born. Or whatever was happening. Its face was vaguely porcine, but the body was humanoid. A hesitant smile touched her mouth, but she didn't make an attempt to approach.

"It's kinda cute."

Re: Look Out Below

[daniel_stacy]

“Whoa-whoa, wait. What?” Daniel cut incredulous eyes at the werewolf. Alright, that one needed her head examined. “There is nothing remotely cute about an alien writhing in its own birth soup.”

Regardless, he let the tire iron hang loose at his side. So long as the creature’s mother didn’t creep out of the shadows, they seemed safe for the time being. “So now what? What do we do with it?”

[primordial_visitation]

"It may need to suckle. Throw a breast-creature to it," Sabra helpfully suggested. "Then we can kill the beast, lest it generate..." Ew. "Compassion."

There next came a narrow-eyed renewed glance at Echo and Sabra took a few steps her way. A loud sniff of nose being directed her way as head tilted.

She was recognising her... Something about a pain to her shins. Why was that, again?

"Have you mated with her?" She asked Cian in accusatory fashion.

[cian_oneill]

Cian had backed away as the woman had come closer, then bristled at the inquiry.

"What's it t' do wi' you?" he returned, not bothering to give her question credibility by answering it. "Y' really are clueless, aren't y'?" he added, frowning and shaking his head. He'd silently begun to question her understanding, her contact with reality, and this was the icing to the questioning cake.

He looked down at the creature in the pit, still unsure how Echo had been able to find anything that 'cute', but not about to question the young hybrid's tastes. He looked around at the other three.

"Any of y' ever seen anythin' like it before?"

"

[wolfs_daughter]

Christ, what was it with people asking if she and Cian had had sex? Just because they were both weres, that didn't mean they were going to breed. It would be too weird.

"I read a book about the existence of alien life, but I never actually knew it was possible," Echo said, returning Daniel's incredulous look with an expression of stoic acceptance. Of course he'd think it was ugly. But whatever it was, it was just an infant. The hybrid looked up at the night sky again.

"Depending on what you believe about the government, they could be monitoring stuff like this," she said, still looking up. Papa had certainly told her enough times that if she wasn't careful, she'd end up in a lab being experimented on. Echo looked back towards Searchlight, then down at the crater.

The alien had struggled free of its pod. She couldn't tell if it was male or female because of the gloom. Could it survive in Earth's atmosphere? The pig-like snout was pointed in the direction of the spectators. The hybrid's compassionate nature was fighting it out with her uncertainty. The female with Daniel had said it might need to suckle, but she wasn't sure picking it up would be the best plan. Sure, it looked cute, but what if it was born with teeth or something?

[daniel_stacy]

A breast creature? Daniel ran a hand into his moussed hair and tugged a bit. The baby alien was officially the second weirdest life form at the meteor site. “So one of us drives back to town, puts a quarter in a pay phone, and drops an anonymous tip. We let them handle it. If they’re coming to ask questions, I don’t want to be here. I’m dead.”

He waved at the new faces.

“Eh, but don’t worry, I’m harmless.”

Daniel reached up to scratch his ear. He did not notice that a remarkable amount of cellular growth was taking place in the crater as the extraterrestrial infant — no, toddler — watched them with interest.

[primordial_visitation]

Dissatisfied by the lack of slaughter-minded enthusiasm, Sabra made a fed up, "I'll kill it..." Stomping her way resolutely back to the crater with a scowl and now-characteristic new sniff to locate her prey. Something she had a mind to now rip apart with her bare-

Her...

And this was where that heightened sense of smell worked against her. The hosted demoness seeming to get a little woozy as she was hit by the increasingly potent fumes rising from the ooze.

"Humans are sssooooo..." The brunette lurched from one side to the other, appearing quite, well... Drunk. Or high. And a weird smile descended upon Sabra's features as she concluded, "Pretty..."

And started giggling.

[cian_oneill]

Cian stared at the woman, his attention torn now between the weirdness at the bottom of the crater, and the weirdness happening on their level. He wasn't sure which was top of the scale at that moment.

"Is she on something?" he asked, which was definitely posed as more of a rhetorical question, or statement, than a serious request for information. There was an odour rising from the goop at the bottom of the pit, but it wasn't as bad as it had been, or he was just getting used to it, being a little downwind of the pit still.

"Guessin' no-one's seen anythin' like it before," he added, another statement that expected no response. "What in bloody hell's name is it?"

[wolfs_daughter]

Echo was torn. She felt a strong protective instinct towards the now-upright alien, her affinity for babies and children the one thing that could make her painful shyness disappear, and she didn't want to see it killed. No matter what planet it came from. When you always felt like a mutant, consigning any life-form to death was anathema.

But like Daniel, she had reasons to stay hidden. Even anonymous tips might be traced, and she didn't want men in dark suits knocking at the trailer's door. If they knew what she was, they'd consider her a subject of interest. She didn't want to be a lab experiment.

When the unknown female started to giggle, the sound extremely unnatural coming from her, the hybrid inched towards the crater. The green goop from the pod was slowly seeping into the soil, but the smell remained. Echo covered her mouth and nose with her shirt, but that only helped a little. The night breeze freshened, wafting it more strongly in her direction. She swayed on her feet.

"It probably doesn't have a name, or at least nothing we could pronounce," she said, turning her head to direct the words towards Cian. Her voice was a little slurred, as if she'd been drinking. "It comes from..." Her hand waved upwards at the wispy clouds. "...Up there somewhere. Maybe it comes from the rings of Saturn."

And then she giggled.

[daniel_stacy]

“The rings of Saturn. The rings of Saturn!” Daniel shook his head and started to pace. He laughed, and then he pointed at Cian. “Hey, you might want to back up, because whatever gas they’re sucking in is making them high as kites.” For once, he was grateful he only had to breathe in enough oxygen to form words. The tire iron twirled in his hand.

“Listen, I’m about ten seconds away from bashing that thing’s skull in and calling the cops,” he said. “I may not be human anymore, but I like America alien-free. It’s your call, dude. What do you want me to do?”

[primordial_visitation]

"It's not a thing..." Sniiiiiff... Sabra's head tilting. "It's a food."

The logic seemed nonsensical and her reactions even more so. The demoness throwing back head and just flopping to the ground, making a sound of something which sounded, for all the world, like actual laughter. The woman, clearly, was high and her words didn't make any kind of sense.

Until, that was, the ooze, itself, began to move. The very substance which was giving off the vapours which were affecting her and Echo in that way, starting to writhe and shift. Pooling together and collecting as the infant creature started to squeal.

"A snack!"

Giggling as she clarified her meaning, Sabra pointed at the jelly-like liquid mass and laughed, finding it utterly hilarious.

But what she had said was true. The infant-like creature wasn't the real payload. It was the equivalent of an in-flight meal. Something the viscous, intelligent fluid might soon opt to chow down on - before starting on the rest of them!

[cian_oneill]

Even before the woman had landed on the ground and started laughing Cian had heeded the vampire's warning and started to back away, still not feeling any real humour at the situation, other than he was beginning to think that the green was pretty damned iridescent, and reminded him of paint that was used on safety signs, when... he stopped and shook his head, the fuzziness creeping in making him frown.

He started to move around the pit, to be upwind of it. That would have worked, except between the odours, looking at the bright green and then the dark, watching Echo, and the half-hysterical demoness he didn't notice the rock, and his boot caught on it. It was only his ability to remain on his feet that had come from his years of dribbling a football every waking minute of his youth that prevented him from sprawling across the ground. Instead he executed a rather strange but impressive pirouette that took him perilously close to the edge of the pit. He flung himself backwards, and managed to remain upright, just. And landed him finally at the other end of the crater.

At least at this end he was closer to where he'd hidden his bike.

[wolfs_daughter]

Food. Food. Jesus, no...

Echo's head was spinning, as if she'd slammed down two dozen shots of tequila in quick succession. Her laughter had increased in volume until it rivaled the unknown female's for noise pollution, but nothing was funny. Some tiny corner of her mind was horrified, but she couldn't stop laughing. The stuff at the bottom of the crater was moving, gathering like an obscene puddle around the alien's small feet. Out of the corner of her eye, the hybrid saw Cian nearly fall into the hole in the earth. She was getting a headache.

Dropping to her knees at the lip of the crater, still laughing, bordering on hysteria, Echo made a grab for the struggling alien. The sentient substance from the pod had started up its legs. Her woozy state made her miss, and her hands scraped across blackened soil. "Fuck. Goddamn..."

Her stomach was beginning to hurt from laughing. The bluish creature was making pained hooting noises. She wasn't tall enough to reach it. The crater was too deep, and her arms weren't long enough. If she went down there, she'd be next.

[daniel_stacy]

“Hey!” Daniel hurried around the edge of the crater to straddle Echo and grab her by the belt loops. He hauled the werewolf back a couple of inches in the dirt. “I’ll get it, alright! Just… wait a minute!” He extended the tire iron in the little alien’s direction and tapped it on the head. “Hey. Buddy. Grab on. You wanna live? That’s it. Grab the fucking stick! ”

He was incredibly aware of how ludicrous things were getting. But if the ooze was the real problem, then denying it a food source was a good idea.

The alien’s spindly fingers did fasten on, and Daniel hauled it out of the ooze and scuttled backwards. He tossed the creature on the ground nearest the werewolf and scrambled to his feet. Because he didn’t know what else to try, he began kicking loose sediment into the hole to cover the plasma. “Tell me that somebody out here is smarter than me!”

[primordial_visitation]

A couple of shape-shifters, a vampire and demoness walk into a crater... It was like the start of a bad joke - and the Strip of Vegas, coincidentally, was only a car ride away. The only one still laughing, though, was Sabra and, while due to chemical inebriation, her mind was finding the sight of a vampire actually helping another creature utterly hilarious. Mouth wide open in what passed for laughter, while one hand pointed at the sight and the rest of her body collapsed to the ground, too gripped by the illogical humour of hte situation to gather enough strength to remain standing up.

In truth, though, Daniel had an excellent idea. The problem was that Sabra was only able to make a token scrabble from the impact point. Loose soil being kicked over her in the process.

"Burn it! Burn it!"

But the suggestion was amidst happy mirth. Sabra laughing her head off, even as the hungering ooze tried to pool itself together behind her.

All things considered, this had to rate as one of the most bizarre life-or-death situations in Nevada's living memory.

[cian_oneill]

Burn it? Cian wasn't sure if he was more concerned about the demoness than he was about whatever it was in the pit. At least he was upwind of it now, but he still couldn't shake the fuzziness that was surrounding his head, like he was walking through cotton candy, without the sweetness.

He blinked, trying to make out what was happening with Echo and the vampire, and whatever it was that had been 'rescued' from the pit. All he could see was the vampire now pushing dirt into the pit, Echo
seeming to be looking at the creature which was now out of the pit.

Dirt. Back in the pit. That seemed like a pretty damned good idea. Cian started to shove dirt in too, the tide of it that had been pushed up by the meteor's arrival easily returned. He was on his knees, pushing the dirt in, still trying to blink away the haziness that was starting to blur his vision again as he worked his way around the pit.

[wolfs_daughter]

Echo growled when Daniel seized her, but the spins slowed down when he dragged her away from the crater. She gulped in oxygen as she lay on her stomach in the dirt, then shook her head to clear it. The alien's small form was a few feet away. She couldn't tell if it was still alive or not.

She scrambled up on her hands and knees and darted back towards the hole, then grabbed the demonness by her shirt and hauled her backwards. They had to bury that stuff and quick, before it escaped from the pit and tried to make a meal out of them next. she didn't know if the unknown female was in any shape to help, but she was going to make her best effort.

Dirt flew into the pit as Echo used both hands to cover the sentient goo. She was back to giggling. The world was spinning in a slow circle, making it hard to focus. But the hybrid's hands continued to work mechanically, trying to bury whatever that stuff was. To bury it deep.

[daniel_stacy]

Giggling he could deal with, so long as they kept shoveling. The loose dirt began to weigh down the gelatinous creature and impede its sinuous movements. After a couple more moments, it looked more like a puddle of antifreeze with cat litter thrown on top than an alien life form. The more they kicked, the less fumes rose from it, which allowed the wind to clear out the cloud that hung over the area.

Daniel gave one final, aggravated shove of his foot. Then he turned around to point at Echo and said, “Congratulations. That little guy is your— your— Oh man.“

The tiny alien was gone. A row of itty, bitty footprints led into the darkness.

"Y'know what, forget it. I'm no Captain Kirk. That guy is someone else's problem."

[primordial_visitation]

Sabra, for her part, looked like a dirt-covered junky. When you hadn't laughed in an age - or possibly even ever - and were assaulted by the world's biggest giggling fit, it was difficult to control your limbs. In fact, she still hadn't been able to properly stand after collapsing in drunken laughter and was only just crawling out of where they were throwing as much dusty soil into as was physically possible.

Well, at least the ooze was no longer seeming to be a problem. Might even starve to nothingness now.

Sabra, though? As weird as her behaviour was before, she was still only just about able to drag herself to feet, dazed with a smile - and burst out in laughter, yet again. "You...! It...! We...!" And then more giggles, trying to walk off in a straight line and... More or less... Failing. The woman was high as a kite and slurring something about wanting to mate with a car. "A really fast one..."

[cian_oneill]

Cian stood, brushing his hands against the seat of his jeans as he stared first at the crater, then at the giggling woman. He shook his head, thinking Daniel had a fairly good idea.

"Echo, we should probably get out of here. Do you need a ride?" he asked the hybrid. He hadn't noticed her vehicle when he'd scouted around the area after tucking his bike behind the rocks earlier.

[wolfs_daughter]

When Daniel pointed at her, Echo hunched her shoulders defensively. The burial seemed to be complete, and she wobbled to her feet and kicked more dirt in the direction of the filled crater. The giggling had stopped, but she had the grandmother of all headaches.

She squinted into the darkness, picked out the little footprints. She didn't know if she felt relieved or sad that it had gotten away. But Cian was right, it was time to get the hell out of there. Being on a run, she'd walked from town, so her van was back at the trailer. Could the pounding in her head take a ride on the back of a motorcycle?

She was willing to risk it.

"If you wouldn't mind, I'd like a lift. I need to sleep. For days."

[daniel_stacy]

Daniel grabbed the tire iron and got the keys out of his pocket. “Yeah. Heh. You’re welcome, by the way!” he called as he walked to his car. Never before had he conducted quite so thorough a search of his backseat and trunk before getting into the vehicle. The car kicked up dust as it made a U-turn and picked its way back to the highway.