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.

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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?