eumenis | PSL post (for datbackstory)

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.

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More and more, she's getting a clear idea of why Immortan Joe wanted to keep him. And, having known the Immortan all too well, she can imagine some of the uses his talents would have been put to. Best for all concerned that he resisted, and that Joe wanted him intact.

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?"

He ignored the stares and whispers, not letting on that he can definitely hear them not with as unsettled as they obviously were about him. And in all honesty he was more concerned with the creature that Furiosa was poking.

"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.

"A giant, man-eating bag of stinky goo," the girl with the leg brace says. "I'm liking this less and less, Furiosa."

"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."

"Well I've found us something like a brainstem here..." Nudging it out of the mess a bit more so Furiosa could take a look if she wanted.

"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."

Throttle mouths the word 'brainstem' and exchanges glances with another war boy, while Furiosa cranes her neck to peer at what he's pointing out. Yuck. She thinks she sees what he means, but her grasp of anatomy is fairly rudimentary.

"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."

"Krakens are similar enough to octopus yeah." Sure they were more like squid, but for the moment he'd save the specifics, as there was a very real problem that needed handling.

"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.

Furiosa rocks back on her heels and pulls out a rag to wipe her claws clean. "Well...the Wasteland is a big place. I wouldn't call it impossible that a creature like that could exist somewhere out there, and me never hearing about it. But this close to Gastown? Right on the Fury Road? No way. We'd have heard about it. I must have crossed this patch of sand a few thousand times."

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?"

When she was talking to the scavs, The Spine gave them all a wide berth to keep from making things any harder than they had to be as he was listening to the conversation. Doing a mental tally of the weight of the vehicle, the armaments, how fast they'd been going when it had been dragged under. It gave him an idea of the strength of what they were dealing with, which just made the idea of 'it's big' that much more likely.

"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.

Furiosa looks at the Spine, pleasantly surprised by how willing he is to volunteer. She has no idea he's made a vow of peace, and wouldn't know how to relate if she did, but it's impressively altruistic of him to put himself in danger at her side within a couple hours of knowing her. Her gaze on him is thoughtful, and she reaches up to give him a solid thump on the shoulder (luckily, with her right hand, since the left would make an impressive clang meeting metal skin). "Glad to have you."

"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."

It made sense to him; in the short time he'd known her, Furiosa had made a good impression, and going after an unknown creature? It made more sense for him to come, rather than someone else who could get more easily damaged. And besides, he was always trying to help others, the time locked up wasn't about to change that.

"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.

She doesn't take long, although Throttle loads up before she does. He braces himself actually on the back of the car, with an armful of incendiary lances tucked in a holder beside him. Leaning forward, he asks, "You need somethin' to shoot with? Or a lance?"

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.

"I'll be alright." He had his own weapons, though he hoped it didn't come to that. A last resort only if someone was in danger. He had no issue with Furiosa giving orders; she knew what was needed clearly, she had a plan, and she was the one driving. He nodded with a small noise of assent to let her know he'd heard, that he understood what they were doing but otherwise was quiet for the moment. Better to focus on the area around them, on any sign of creatures lurking under the sand.

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.

Furiosa is a skilled and confident driver. The Spine may also be impressed by Throttle, for that matter. He's a consummate Lancer, with years of experience. That's unusual for a war boy in itself; most of them die before they get to be old hands at anything. Or, at least, under the old regime they did. Regardless, Throttle holds on well and calls out what he sees over the wind. Not even Furiosa's most wild turns in the sand budge him.

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.

While he doesn't have the frame of reference to realize that such experience in a Lancer is unusual, The Spine knows confidence when he sees it, and the skill that both Furiosa and Throttle have is obvious. Which in turn just settles him some, focusing more on their surroundings while Furiosa worried about getting them where they were going.

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."

"Seismic activity?" Furiosa is intelligent, and far better educated than most of the Wasteland populace, but she's not sure what he means by that. 'Earthquake' she would understand, but not 'seismic'. He may have to boost her scientific knowledge.

Throttle doesn't know what that word means, either, but he doesn't care. 'Monster has moved on' is the part that matters to him, and with a nod for permission to Furiosa, he hops down and jogs across the sand, prodding at scattered car parts with the non-explosive end of his lance. "If there ain't no tunnels, and there ain't no tracks, how's this thing get around?"

"Don't go too far. Any other signs?" Furiosa calls over after Throttle. "Scat? Guess it must swim in the sand, like you said before..."

She half wants to get out and investigate, herself, but if there's danger around, her place is behind the wheel, ready to shoot, rescue, and run if there's trouble. "I wonder," she adds to the Spine, more quietly. "Does a creature like that have a den? Go to ground somewhere? You'd think after a meal it would rest..."

Not that she knows much about animals, but she does know the few that still live around the Wasteland tend to rest when the sun is high and move around at dawn or dusk.

"Basically earthquakes." He clarified easily, still frowning at the surrounding area thoughtfully. "Somethin' big enough to pull down cars and people would cause vibrations in the ground, picked up the same way earthquakes are."

Watching Throttle going to investigate, pushing his own door open. Not leaving, but if he had to jump to the warboy's aid it would be better to have less in his way, but also not wanting to be too far out in case they needed to make a quick getaway. Better safe then sorry after all.

"Maybe. It'd make sense, that it'd go somewhere to settle and digest. But then some animals don't keep dens like that, they just rest and move on, nomad style." Without much to go on he was leery to say for sure one way or the other. "Dependin' on how deep it can dig, might not have to rest midday either, it bein' cooler underground and all."

"Oh." Her eyebrows go up as she considers this. "I guess...I can see that. Thought earthquakes were bigger, somehow. But it takes a lot of force to pull a car into the sand."

Come to think of it, how much strength would it take? The sand around Gastown is fairly hard-packed, not like deeper into the badlands where you have to deflate your tires or risk being hopelessly bogged. The creature might have to dig the ground out from under its prey some.

"BOSS!" Throttle is crouching to look at something and yells out, waving them over. "You better look at this!!"

She starts, hand on her gun, but he doesn't seem to be under attack. She glances at the Spine, sets the kill-switch sequence quickly, then steps out and beckons him after her. "Stay close. In case we get jumped."

When she jogs over to Throttle, she's quick to notice what he's looking at. It's the front corner of a vehicle chassis. The rest must be buried in sand.

"They can be. Some can be so light you barely notice them too. As for the cars... yeah. That takes some doing."

Whatever else he might have to say was cut off by that yell, optics brightening as his gaze snapped towards Throttle, easing slightly once he saw that he wasn't in danger. Slipping out of the car easily to follow after Furiosa, keeping a careful lookout for any signs of trouble coming their way.

"...Looks like they weren't exaggerating about what it did." That was not comforting. Not in the least. He eased down into a crouch himself, searching for any clues about the creature aside from the simple position of the vehicle. "...Makes you wonder what drew it. A person sure I could see, smells like food. But a vehicle doesn't."

"Vehicles smell like guzz," Throttle says, scratching his head. He, too, crouches in the sand, scraping a little at the buried car as if to see if it can be unburied. "You think there's any chance of anyone alive in there, Boss?"

Furiosa shakes her head grimly. "The chassis is bent. Probably broke the windows, if there were any. Anyone that was in it would have been smothered, if they weren't eaten first."

She looks over and pats Throttle on the shoulder, though. Even now, not every war boy would think to ask that question. He deserves some credit for it, in her eyes. "Witness 'em; that's the best we can do."

To the Spine, she adds, "There's heat. It's always hot out here, but exhaust makes it hotter."

Just in case, the Spine took a moment to listen, but heard nothing from the buried car. "I'm not hearing anything. All we can hope is that it was quick."

Instead of suffocating, or worse.

"Could be. Plenty of reptiles sense heat, and whatever it is being at least semi-reptilian would make sense. Best equipped to handle this kind of place." Aside from insects, that is. But there was no way this was an insect, that was too gross to even consider. Ew, no thank you.

"Means they could hunt at night too. Even more effective then, body heat'd stand out more." Not to mention anyone lighting fires to cook by or for warmth on especially cold nights.

"If we--" Furiosa begins, then quiets as Throttle makes a V8 salute and ducks his head briefly. Whatever he's thinking or doing, she doesn't care to interrupt, but she resumes talking as soon as he's done.

"If we can learn more, we could set a trap," she says. "But we're going to have to find it first. If I were a big animal that had just eaten..."

She scans the horizon around them, trying to decide what direction to hunt in, but it's all pretty flat out here. One direction is the same as the others, except for the way they came. "Of course, if it's after heat, Gastown would be the place to go. They run the refineries at all hours, even now."

Gastown, or maybe the Citadel itself, but she doesn't want to think about that possibility. Throttle picks up a couple pieces of bent metal and begins to carry them back to the car as she trails off. Neither of them will notice, but the Spine may sense a distant quiver under the sand. Something is coming, whether it's the monster they're chasing or not.

The Spine nodded at that, optics dimmed as he thought.

"Some kind of bonfire? If this thing is after heat it'd probably try picking off stragglers first, so a small heat source near the larger one might attract it's interest... a good way to see if heat really is what draws it." More controlled han in Gastown, less people to get hurt. The bot eased back onto his feet, pausing with a deeper sort of frown as he felt that little movement, following after Furiosa and Throttle.

"Feeling some movement. Either off an earthquake somewhere, or..." Well.

"Guess we could do that...we don't have much fuel in the Septireme, though. Just a few emergency firebricks." She's wishing now that she'd brought a second escort. It might make hunting easier. One group could try to draw the creature in while the second circled to seek the monster.

She's heading after Throttle, frowning in thought, when the Spine makes his announcement. "Stop!" she calls to the war boy, and she freezes in place herself, too. Her gaze turns toward the Spine, a sharp question in her eyes. "Which direction?"

((Will have the attack begin next tag if that suits you! But feel free to NPC beaks and tentacles as you wish, too.))

[ ((Sounds good to me!)) ]

The Spine stopped moving when they did, optics dimming as he took a moment to focus on that vibration he felt. The expression that dawned as he realized what it meant? Wasn't reassuring at all as he pointed towards where he could feel the vibrations coming from.

"It's coming this way. Fast./i>"

It's coming from further out in the desert, and Furiosa will have to think on what that might mean later. She can see a plume of dust coming up where it approaches, smaller and less impressive than a Fury Storm, but still distinctly frightening simply because of the unknown it represents. Swearing under her breath, she makes a move as if to get between the oncoming creature and the car that represents their only escape route.

"Throttle! Start the engine, go! Spine, load up fast, I'll try and hold it off for a minute and catch up."

It's a foolhardy move, maybe; she's got her gun drawn and ready, and she knows she's a good shot, but since they have no clear idea what they're facing...

Well. It might take more than a bullet to kill this thing.

Nevertheless, Throttle is quick to obey, scrambling into the driver's seat. He is, in fact, a mediocre driver, half-trained, but he knows the kill switch sequence at least. Neither of them is looking to see whether the Spine is going to do what he's told. Throttle assumes everyone knows to obey Furiosa. Furiosa assumes Spine has the common sense to want to be out of danger ASAP.

The creature assumes they're all edible, but there are three different opportunities to feed here, so rather than surge up directly under one of them, it sends out questing tentacles, headed for Furiosa's boots, as she's the closest.

PSL post (for datbackstory)

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