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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[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.