PSL post (for datbackstory)
Even after Immortan Joe is dead and the Citadel won, they all know Gastown will be a problem. The lack of leadership from the People Eater doesn't make much difference; he was never a war leader so much as a businessman. The ranks of Gastown boys, flamers and polecats, are decimated, but guzzoline draws all sorts of desperates. Where trained soldiers are lacking, mercenaries are easily obtainable. All it would take is one charismatic leader to fill the power vacuum, and they would have the might of a very large city coming at them.
Of course, Furiosa and the Sisters have faced terrible odds already and come out better than they had any right to. She dares to hope even if the worst happened, they could survive and win. But if they can head off trouble at the pass, they should make the attempt. As the only one of them that's ever actually been to Gastown before, Furiosa is the only sensible choice for diplomatic effort. She's not much of a diplomat when it comes down to it. She can talk down a frightened feral, evidently, but diplomacy requires more patience than that.
Still, after several days of meetings in the city--some of them more like physical sparring matches than discussions--she thinks things are going well, and feels like she can breathe again. She slips away from the half-dozen war boys she's brought along as an entourage, and goes walking in the quieter alleys, the hovels on the edge of the marl pits. Half of them are being swallowed by sinkholes, and the rest are foul, but she won't be attacked here. The population is too sparse this far out.
Of course, Furiosa and the Sisters have faced terrible odds already and come out better than they had any right to. She dares to hope even if the worst happened, they could survive and win. But if they can head off trouble at the pass, they should make the attempt. As the only one of them that's ever actually been to Gastown before, Furiosa is the only sensible choice for diplomatic effort. She's not much of a diplomat when it comes down to it. She can talk down a frightened feral, evidently, but diplomacy requires more patience than that.
Still, after several days of meetings in the city--some of them more like physical sparring matches than discussions--she thinks things are going well, and feels like she can breathe again. She slips away from the half-dozen war boys she's brought along as an entourage, and goes walking in the quieter alleys, the hovels on the edge of the marl pits. Half of them are being swallowed by sinkholes, and the rest are foul, but she won't be attacked here. The population is too sparse this far out.
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"No good having all this info if I don't share it." He replied helpfully, an assurance that he was happy to share what he knew. She'd saved him from languishing in that room to possibly die; while it had been chance and perhaps not hard for her, he certainly wanted to repay her in some way that was as close to as meaningful as he could manage.
Hearing the running approaching them though he straightened, not to be intimidating but simply to be alert, optics brightening as he focused on the figure running their way once the man was in view. Armed, but no weapons in hand, clearly alarmed by something, the guess confirmed by his exclamations when he came to a stop. For now? Spine would be quiet, let Furiosa deal with the situation without him butting in.
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"Throttle," she says, greeting the war boy, and braces him with a hand on either shoulder. "Easy, boy. Anyone hurt or dead?"
"None of ours," he huffs, looking sheepish and grateful for the support.
"Well, it can't be that dire, then. Breathe first."
"...yes, boss. It's just--glory me!" He breaks off, noticing the Spine at last, a glint of metal in the lamplight. His eyes get very round behind the white and black paint.
"This is the Spine," is all Furiosa says, as if she was introducing two war pups on their first day working in the garages. "Spine, this is Throttle, one of my Lancers."
"...um." Throttle says softly, and gives a V8 salute to no one in particular.
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When Throttle noticed him, he gave a wry, sheepish sort of smile.
"Good to meet you, Throttle." Offering a hand to shake, preferring that to the odd salute that he knew was some manner of religious gesture. Once that was taken care of, he'd just edge back again, both to give Throttle the reassurance of his personal space, as well as to let focus go back to Furiosa and whatever he had to tell the woman.
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Throttle looks dazed, not sure what to make of the silvery, 7-foot hallucination greeting him. He does clasp hands gingerly, makes a couple uncertain grunts or mumbles, then jumps as Furiosa elbows him in the ribs. "I know. Enough. Tell me what's happened." That's clearly an order.
The war boy glances from her to the Spine and back, then nods, snapping out of it. "A group of scavs just came in, said somethin' big attacked them on the road."
"Buzzards?"
"An animal," he clarifies. "They brought a piece of it. Said it tore up a car and all, and dragged three of their people under the sand."
Furiosa looks skeptical now, but she motions to him to lead the way back to their caravan. "I'll believe there are sand monsters when I see the teeth, but go on. I'll talk to them."
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"...I've heard of spiders like that before, they drag prey under through 'trapdoors'... with all the radiation out there now I can't see why it might be possible that caused some... growth." Though to attack a car like that and drag humans underground it would have to be a hell of a lot of growth, even his suggestion is uncertain as he mulls over the problem.
But still, more than willing to follow along, curious to see what they'd find at the scene.
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"Dunno, Boss," Throttle looks horrified by the thought, but he's seen the animal part. "It don't look hairy or hard. Kind of like a...fleshy snake thing?" Actually, what it looks like to him, he doesn't want to say. It's huge and pink and phallic and that kind of makes it worse than if it were a giant spider's leg.
"Oh, and it smells! Like a thousand-day-old latrine." He adds, with a grimace.
"Guess no one's going to be stealing it to eat, then." She smirks a little, but that's a very real possibility in Gastown. Even if it does stink. "Maybe we'll have time to look it over, at least."
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"Times like these I'm glad I don't smell things like you humans do." Sure he could take a whiff of something and know what bacteria or chemicals were airborne, a useful thing for a bot versed in search and rescue when chemical weapon use was at it's peak. That might not be as common now, but the upgrade had never been reversed, and in fact had been offered to the other bots as well; being able to 'smell' smoke or burning rubber or overheated parts was a good diagnostic tool after all.
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Throttle breaks into a dazzling grin. He's missing several teeth. "A little bit musty, but he don't smell too bad to me!" If it were an earlier, less apocalyptic time, there might be a cymbal crash after that joke, and Furiosa drops her head into her right hand with a little groan.
She's half amused, in fact, but she kicks sand at the war boy anyway. "Sending you home in the cargo hold for that."
They're close enough to the lot that they can see the Rig now, though, and the dozen war boys and assorted others gathered around in a knot. Whatever fleshy piece they've gotten out of the desert, it's on the ground, and the smallest war boy--probably a war girl, judging from the androgynous build and long braids--is poking at it with a spanner.
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"Throttle that one was pretty pun-gent." He couldn't help it, and he wasn't sorry, not if that little smirk was any hint.
"As far as the details go, the way it was explained to me is there's a sensor that lets me know what chemicals or bacteria are in the air- basically anything other than normal breathable air gets flagged and I get an alert. Was pretty useful for picking up on odorless things that might not do good things to you humans."
Seeing they were drawing closer, he fell quiet again, letting Furiosa and Throttle take the lead on interacting with the others, not wanting to start a panic when obviously tensions were already a little raised from the unknown find they were currently gathered around.
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Furiosa snorts softly, smiling, but she's back to business quickly. "You could sense bad air, then, without it hurting you? What about radiation?"
Not that she has any plans to ask him to be their canary-in-a-mineshaft, but that is one useful talent he's got there.
The group gathered around looks unsettled despite the Spine's best intentions, and two of the scavs scatter to watch from an alleyway, but Furiosa's crew stands firm, watching her body language, and Throttle's. That they're both relaxed in the presence of the shiny metal giant says enough. The girl with the spanner straightens with a nod. She's got some kind of brace on one leg, and she's missing an eye on the same side. "Hey, Boss," she greets Furiosa. "This is our day for discovering things, I guess. Who...?"
"This is the Spine. He's a friend." Furiosa gestures at the robot casually, crouching to study the monster bits. Evidently she doesn't plan on addressing the fact that her new friend is made of metal. At least not yet. She's more interested in the thing on the ground right now. It is, as they were warned, extremely smelly, but not in a dead way. She prods cautiously with her metal hand, then picks it up by what might be the throat, eyeing the maw and the surrounding structures.
"This is not a snake. No scales, no eyes...more like a huge worm. Ugh."
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He can't help the slight wince that flits across his expression at the way the two scavs flee when he comes close, feeling a bit comforted that the crew that's plainly there with Furiosa doesn't seem nearly so skittish. Just giving a small nod at the introduction before leaning slightly over the shorter woman's shoulder as she crouched, grimacing at the ugly thing she was picking up.
"I was really hoping it wasn't this gross."
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A couple of the crew whisper to one another, staring at the Spine and at Furiosa as if trying to sort out where she got him from and what good he'll be--or what danger. Throttle's the only one who seems inclined to speak to him directly, though. "Slimy," he tells him, nodding earnestly. "Even after being dragged in the dust. They said it must've held their truck so they thought they was bogged in the sand. When they got here, they found it wrapped around the back axle."
Furiosa grimaces with mild disgust and drops the thing, only to pick up and inspect the ripped-off end. Some of the people around make little gagging sounds and back up; she just seems to be very determinedly regulating her breath. "It's torn, all right. Nasty thing. Did you say it killed some of theirs?"
The younger woman points to the scavs who've gone to hide in the alley. "They had a caravan, they say. Lost a car, a bike, and three people."
"...well, then, there must have been more than one." She drops the creature and rises to glance at the Spine. "Any theories, other than giant spiders?"
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"It not getting dried out is weird. It's not acidic I can tell that much, so it's not just cutting through the grit that way." Frowning, he leaned over Furiosa's shoulder with a murmured 'excuse me' to carefully nudge it with a finger himself, making a disgruntled noise at the unpleasant feel of it. As she was looking at the torn end, he noted something that he really didn't like the implications of, and as she was moving to stand, he shifted to one knee to pluck the thing up by the damaged end, nudging aside the shredded hide.
"Starting to get an idea here, but I don't think you're going to like it." Because that sure was what looked like the torn end of a rudimentary brainstem that he'd discovered.
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"Sure, but it's nowhere near the weirdest Wasteland story I've heard," Furiosa says, and glances back at the Spine as he moves politely into her personal space. Even now, she doesn't feel particularly intimidated, and lets him look over her shoulder, perfectly sanguine about it. The crew whispers trail off, though the stares don't. Evidently if the Boss is okay with the shiny man, he's okay.
"Tell me anyway," she says with an expression between a smile and a wince. "Because I've never seen anything like this before."
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"Unfortunately it doesn't look nearly complex enough to belong to a smart enough brain to drag down that many cars and people. More like... it's a secondary neural mass like octopus have." Setting the thing down, he drags a finger through the sand that had been flattened by passing tires and feet, sketching out the squiggles of tentacles and then the basic body of an octopus. "These are ocean-dwelling, the tentacles can act independently of the brain in the main body in reaction to things like food or threats. If this thing helped drag down as much as we're hearing about, it stands to reason it might be a similar idea." He shook his head with an almost apologetic look. "Can't say I've ever seen anything quite like this though, so this is a whole lotta reaching and guessing."
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"Octopus?" The other girl slides into an awkward crouch to look, and Furiosa puts out her metal arm for her to use as a rail, without thinking about it.
"Remember the story Ma'at told us, about the Kraken? I think they were like that. Smaller, I guess." She explains mildly. "I've seen pictures, in some of the Sisters' books. I didn't know they had brains in their arms, though."
"Well...okay, then, but if it was an octa...whatever," Another war boy pipes up, "There'd be seven more of those worm things, right? And then a head?"
"Glory, imagine that. Swimming under the sand!" Throttle looks both excited and apprehensive, like a kid telling a ghost story. "Grabbing up passing cars from under trapdoors..."
"Enough of that," Furiosa scolds, seeing the other men looking worried. "It's a theory. If we want the truth, we better go have a look."
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"Not full brains... they still need the main body and brain, but enough to sense things like shifts in temperature or water currents that would let them react to things within range." Huffing a plume of steam and making sure that the others weren't close enough to bowl anyone over when he carefully pulled from his crouch, hiding the wince that the slight creaking of some joints earned.
"But just a theory, yeah. Pretty far-fetched too... need to see a whole one of these things to see what we're really dealing with. Might just have one of these things or a couple instead of eight. Might just be one lone creature, or I'm betting you'd have heard a lot more stories like this, right?" Unknowns were frightening to be sure, but he was hoping that the idea of a lone creature was less so than the potential of more.
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She straightens and beckons the scavs back over. They're clearly reluctant, intimidated, but offering them water and hardtack seems to convince them to settle long enough to relay their story in more detail, and sell her the torn carcass. She asks about the vehicle that was dragged down, looking for specifics as far as weight and how it was armed, and when the conversation is done, she hops up into the cab of her own rig and fishes out a rifle, extra ammo, and a crossbow with a packet of incendiary bolts.
"All right. I'm taking the Septireme," she says, and jerks her head toward a long, silver vehicle parked alongside the rig. It's one of her escort cars, not quite as rare and precious as the new rig itself, but fast and in good repair. "Who's coming hunting with me?"
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"I'll come." He might not be willing to fight people, sentient beings, but if there was a predator out there that was a risk to them? Well, his Vow of Peace had enough wiggle room to allow him to give it a punch or two if needed.
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"Count me in, Boss," Throttle says, a little less enthusiastically. "I'll get a couple lances."
"Good; Throttle, you're in back, Spine, you get shotgun. Twisty," she nods to the girl with the leg brace. "Consider yourself in charge until we get back. Circle up, don't give any answers if the ex-imperators ask, but you can talk to Crispy if he sends envoys."
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"Sounds fine to me." Giving a small nod at the instructions, headed over to the car while Furiosa was busy making sure everyone knew what to do while she was gone. Not sure what they'd find, but hoping that it would go well.
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Furiosa joins them a moment later, sliding into the driver's seat and flipping the kill switch sequence to get the car to start. "Eyes on," she tells them, evidently comfortable giving the Spine orders as long as he's riding with her in this capacity. "We'll go a few miles out, circle the city, and come back in if we don't see anything."
If they do see something...they'll have to cross that bridge when they come to it.
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Hoping they'd be lucky and that the damage of having a piece ripped off was enough trauma to kill the creature, but knowing it was highly unlikely.
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And Throttle is the one that spots the tracks from the scav party, a half mile out and to the west of town. Furiosa calls out her thanks as he points them out and swerves to drive alongside them. It takes them several minutes from there to find the disturbed earth and sand where the scavs were attacked. Furiosa slows and stops the car close by, draws her pistol and checks the safety. She's not about to shoot wildly at nothing but it seems wise to be ready.
"Sense anything we can't?" she asks the Spine quietly.
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At the scene of the attack, he frowns a bit, taking a long look at the area before answering the soft question.
"Not seeing anything that hints at tunnels underneath. Ground's as solid as it's going to get. No seismic activity either. Can only guess the creature, if it's as big as we're probably thinking, has moved on."
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