THE SWARM: STAY
PRELUDE.
Five days have passed since you, The First, woke on the strange and barren planet of Kharas. Four days since the pods housing you exploded when tampered with, and Three since the strange Trilobite-like sand crabs began hesitantly crawling their way into and around the boneyard. At first there was only a few brave specimens to be found, keeping mostly to the shadows and scuttling this way and that. Now, however, at least a hundred of them can be found in and around the boneyard in various placed, commonly grouped together in batches of two or three, sometimes even four.
Notably they do not interact much with one another despite their groups and are much more interested in scouting out their surroundings for fibrous materials. On the odd chance that they manage to obtain any scraps they will begin to wander back towards the tracks your
counterparts began following earlier. Odd, isn't it?
As the softer morning sun overhead slowly begins to heat up with the encroaching afternoon more of the Trilobites begin to fill the area. Only unlike their predecessors these ones do not wander around aimlessly, and instead beeline their way to any Coral stalks that remain in the area. They bury into the sand beneath them to avoid their harsh shells and attack the roots until they topple and collapse under their own weight. Once this happens they practically swarm, working to segment it into pieces with their mandibles. When the Coral's shell cracks the Trilobites pry all vegetable matter from within and begin dragging it into the desert.
And that's not all: these new Trilobites seem
much braver and more interested in you than their predecessors. They will openly wander up to characters and gnaw uselessly at their ankles or feet, chittering and chattering. If enough of them happen to get together around an individual they will form a tiny ankle-gnawing mob intent on clambering all over you.
As the daily eclipse nears their numbers will begin to grow even further. Odd tremors can be felt beneath the ground, even in spite of all the sand, but characters won't get much of a chance to look into the matter before their wrist communicators begin to emit that same strange static from the mist.
...Only there's none to be seen in
any direction whatsoever.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
Then try. It will show the best in you.
no subject
I dunno. [ His nose wrinkles. He doesn't look at Clark when he speaks. ] I'm just some kid who wanted to fly, you know?
[ Clark's the kid that actually could. ]
no subject
Not everyone wants to fly. Or tries to. No one knows what they're capable of until they walk into the sun. It's something we all have to do. Even me.
no subject
Everyone should want to fly. Flying's awesome. [ He smiles, even though it's shaky. He's recovering from all the emotion. ] But...I get it.
no subject
[ Clark remembers his first flight, even when it involved crashing into mountains. But once he got the momentum right - everything was perfect. The howl of the wind in his ears, the freedom to speed through the world and think, this is what I can do and it was beautiful. ]
no subject
Yeah.
[ He disengages, feeling much better for the memory, grinning outright up at Clark. ]
You're pretty good at this, you know?
no subject
I'm working on it. Like you are.
no subject
Quiznak! Before I forget—did you get one of those strange messages, too?
no subject
I did. My suit translates parts of it for me.
no subject
[ If he can even get his communicator to work. ]
no subject
no subject
[ He lifts his wrist between them, and with some fiddling, manages to play back his two communications. ]
no subject
Atlas detected. And something about a Kharas section.
no subject
[ Not. Still. ]
'Atlas detected', huh? Maybe we're not on such a wild goose chase, after all.
no subject
[ On a whim, he looks at the symbol on their suits. ] I wonder if we're a part of Atlas.
no subject
[ He frowns, tilting his head. ]
What do you think Atlas is?
no subject
[ Idly, he traces the symbol. The House of El, the S echoes in his mind. He found himself missing his suit, one of the few remnants of his heritage. ]
Like a corporation. Or something on a galactic scale.
ok to wrap up?
Well—whatever it is, I guess we really are in this together.
[ All of them. ]
sure
[ It's still difficult to process, to believe but Clark will put his faith in these people once more. ]