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>>3048494 (OP)
HP: 100%
BIO: 80%
THREAT: MIDRANGE, RAPIDLY ENCROACHING

(Your Biomass, or BIO, gauge is a measure of how much flesh-stuff you’ve assimilated into your form. It pulls triple-duty as damage-buffer, initiative modifier, and mana pool in Meat World. The higher the gauge, the more it weighs you down but the more damage resistance it grants, while a lower gauge means lessened damage resistance but a higher chance to gain first strike and score a critical hit. Melee classes typically form weapons or armor from BIO, while Ranged Classes actively spend more BIO with their abilities.)

You feel your skin crawl as you tap into powers you’ve yet to get used to, powers whose limits you have yet to really test. Your heart hammers in your chest as you…

>> Call forth the slender worms that slide beneath your skin, summoning them to the surface as an imitation of external muscle and sinew to augment your marital abilities. Class: SINOUS SWARM – MELEE

>> Form your bone, marrow, and blood into something more fitting. Blades, shields, even ranged weapons are at your beck and call. Class: CALCIUM ARMORY – BALANCED

>> Whisper to the buzzing, clicking subcutaneous hive surrounding your spine has been straining against the skin of your back for hours. It’s time to let them fly…and feed. Class: TRYPOPHILIC HIVE – RANGED

>> Feel your skin loosen, becoming the shifting cloak you’ve used to surprise and subvert your enemies. For use as camouflage or a distraction, it’s an assassin’s dream. Class: EPIDERMAL ROGUE – STEALTH

>>3048495

>> Whisper to the buzzing, clicking subcutaneous hive surrounding your spine has been straining against the skin of your back for hours. It’s time to let them fly…and feed. Class: TRYPOPHILIC HIVE – RANGED

>>3048496
>Feel your skin loosen, becoming the shifting cloak you’ve used to surprise and subvert your enemies. For use as camouflage or a distraction, it’s an assassin’s dream. Class: EPIDERMAL ROGUE – STEALTH
Biomass looks at first glance like it'll be awkward to balance, particularly for a melee character. I look forward to seeing how it works out.

>>3048496
>> Whisper to the buzzing, clicking subcutaneous hive surrounding your spine has been straining against the skin of your back for hours. It’s time to let them fly…and feed. Class: TRYPOPHILIC HIVE – RANGED

>>3048496
>> Whisper to the buzzing, clicking subcutaneous hive surrounding your spine has been straining against the skin of your back for hours. It’s time to let them fly…and feed. Class: TRYPOPHILIC HIVE – RANGED

Also this is all horrifying...awesome.

(3 minutes until voting is closed to keep things moving at a nice pace)

>> Whisper to the buzzing, clicking subcutaneous hive surrounding your spine has been straining against the skin of your back for hours. It’s time to let them fly…and feed. Class: TRYPOPHILIC HIVE – RANGED

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>>3048496
>Feel your skin loosen, becoming the shifting cloak you’ve used to surprise and subvert your enemies. For use as camouflage or a distraction, it’s an assassin’s dream. Class: EPIDERMAL ROGUE – STEALTH

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>>3048496

>>>Class Selected: TRYPOPHILIC HIVE

It's almost freeing, allowing them to swarm forth, their buzzing drowning out all other sounds as four, five, six of the fist-sized insects make their way our of your body and begin to crawl along your shoulders and arms. They are yours to command as you please...

HP: 100%
BIO: 82%
ACT: 2/2
THREAT: MIDRANGE, RAPIDLY ENCROACHING

>>ACTIONS: Your currently have two actions available to you each turn. Possible actions include attacking, altering your current weapons/summons, consuming ambient biomass, and moving around the field.

YOU HAVE CONTROL.

>>3048519
How revolting

>Send our swarms out to attack the creature
>Move to a more defensable position.

>>3048519

Command the hive to pick out his eyes.

>>3048519
Is there a set list of ways we can currently augment our minions, or is it largely freeform?

>>3048530
(Augmentation can be done through level-up selections, which will be liberally given through combat and such. No worries, I want people to get creative with the MC. Also, to those of you who wanted a different class, augmentation and multi-classing is a thing, so no worries)

>>3048531
So, as far as 'altering your current weapons/summons' goes, we currently don't have any options. Fair enough.

Backing >>3048524 then.

>>3048519
>>3048524
>>3048529
>>3048536


No words, no utterances. Just a single, silent command.

Your six abominations surge forth in an obscene cacophony, closing the distance between you and the Amalgam in a mere second. The creature reels back in rage and shock, the finger-long needles of your swarm stabbing wildly at its eyes as it screams its bone-chilling cry. Your back up to a series of three pillars from a building long since fallen, pillars worn with time and damage sections showing the crude rebar beneath.

It flips and rolls to its side, crushing two members of your swarm beneath its weight before righting itself and staring at you with its two remaining eyes. Pawing at the flesh below, liquid bubbles from beneath the ground as it prepares to charge.

HP: 100%
BIO:82% (4 Swarmlings remaining, 4 on attack, -3% Bio for each additional member)
THREAT: Midrange, Attack imminent.

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

>>3048547
Alright
>Pump out the rest of our swarm.
>Command our others to prod at the creature to trip it up or at least knock its charge off course.

>>3048547
>Have swarm attack its joints or otherwise impair its movement to impede its charge
>Prepare to physically dodge out of the way
After this, we're going to need to go after vital organs, which will be somewhat awkward given that our swarm doesn't seem to have much offensive capability apart from 4-inch-long needles.

>>3048554
Backing

>>3048547
Can we have the hive feed biomass back us after they attack?

>>3048558
(You can, if they are still active. If they've taken damage then you may not get the full amount back, but it's better than nothing.)

>>3048547
>>3048550
>>3048554


There's one last pawing of the ground with both hoof and hand, and then it comes for you. Closing the gap almost as fast as you can move.

Almost.

Your swarm had moved to thrust their needles into its joints, and as it moves to charge at you three of its limbs fail. It still surges forth, but you deftly move out of the way as it hurtles directly at where you were once standing, reducing the column to shards and dust, the rebar now protruding wildly from its side. The remains of your valiant Swarmlings litter the rubble, but six more take their place as you prepare to end this...and you have just the right tool to do the job.

HP:100%
BIO: 64%
THREAT: Close, Crippled

TECHNIQUES UNLOCKED

Reassemble (1 ACT): Allows you to combine members of your swarm into larger, more aggressive forms, capable of taking a dealing more damage.

Repurpose (1 Act) You may focus on creating a single Swarmling with your action, taking 9% BIO to do so, but you may imbue the creature with a singular purpose from the options below;

>> (1) Drilling: Imbue a Swarmling with a rotating set stingers that will allow it to bury itself within your prey.

>> (2) Subcutaneous Swarmling: Drain a little of your stomach acid to grant a Swarmling the ability to inject damaging acid into the victim of your choice.

>> (3) LOCKED UNTIL BIO < 50%

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

>>3048564
>Move away
>Cripple its limbs further
If I were a less cautious man, I'd Reassemble and go for the killing blow right now. But I'm not, so I'm willing to take a moment extra in exchange for more safety.

>>3048571
Supporting

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>>3048577
>CONSUME
The time has come.

>>3048577
Would letting the hive feast on the amalgam give any bonuses or do they get stronger as we do?

>>3048586
I'm getting flashbacks to Shadow quest.

>>3048564 (You)
>>3048571

You take a few steps back as your Swarmlings infest the creature's remaining joints, its cries turning to bleats of pained, futile fury. It squirms to attack you, to do *anything* to you, but it does so in vain.

Your have this Amalgam at your mercy, its remaining eyes staring wildly at you, the sound of its enraged screams mixing with the incessant buzzing on your hive to create a din that echoes across the fleshscape.

>>Target crippled. You are out of combat.

>>At the end of combat, you may to interface with your fallen foes to increase your own capabilities and partially restore biomass.

LEVEL UP

CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING

>>HEALTH
>>BIOMASS
>>SWARMLING
>>TECHNIQUE
>>CONSUME (You absorb an extra amount of biomass and may roll 1d100 to incorporate choice pieces of your foe into yourself)

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>3048571
You know what? Ill support this.

>>3048590
>Biomass

>>3048590
>SWARMLING
Our first step is to make sure we can actually kill things. Improving our defenses comes after we are actually sure we can down foes to improve things with.

>>3048590
I vote
>SWARMLING
theu are the basis of our ability to function, lets get our swarm good and solid first before amything else.

>>3048590
>>>SWARMLING
Oh yes, useful minions

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>>3048622
>>3048611

Having taken stock of yourself, you turn your attentions to your surroundings. You stand in the outskirts of some nameless city, billboards and concrete roads transformed into a garden of pulsing flesh and warped bone. The city proper is further north of where you are, and even as far away as you stand curious sounds from it, reach your ears, chittering cries and mournful howls mixing in the hot wind.

To the west lies the reason you came this direction in the first place; smoke, a rare sight in the organic lands, and the first real sign of civilization you've seen in the three days since you woke up. Or rather, you hope it to be some semblance of reason in this world-turned-organ.

Then again, in the crubling remains of your surroundings, perhaps taking a rest is in order. You're full, you're tired, and given your instincts, you'd say it was the evening. The sickly orange light is giving you no clues, no changes to offer hints, just and endless twilight haze.

What do you do?

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

>>3048624
Smoke and fire do not last forever.
The folks making it might also be migratory.

We let this chance go, it might be gone for good. Follow the smoke.

>>3048624
>Rest and send out the hive to patrol.

>>3048624
>>3048630
Seconding.

I don't suppose our swarm can scout ahead of us, can it? Do we share its senses?

>>3048624
>>3048647
(You can, yes.)

You move towards the smoke on the horizon, strong legs carrying you and your hive to what you hope is civilization. Carefully selecting your footing across the fleshscape, you have some time to think as you trudge towards the darkened horizon.

You find your mind begin to wander, as your thoughts drift towards...

>>Remember when you woke up.

>>Reminisce to before the world fell.

>>Recall the past few days.

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

>>Reminisce to before the world fell.

>>3048657
>Remember when you woke up.

>>3048657
>Recall the past few days.

(Going to rest here for now, will resume tomorrow at the same time. Thanks for participating, and I hope to see you tomorrow!)

>>3048657
>Recall the past few days.
It's most pertinent to remember our immediate issues and goals.

>>3048657
>Recall the past few days

>>3048657
>Remember when you woke up.
>Recall the past few days.

>>3048590
Swarmling btw

>>3048657
Recall the past few days

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>>3048657
Flesh is well and all, and legs are nice to have, but all this antiquated trudging along makes me hunger for a proper mode of locomotion.

>>3049489
We have flying drones. Lets make two and clamp them to our hips or shoulders.

>>3048657
Remember when you woke up.

>>3048657
>>Remember when you woke up

Also goddamit I wish we went for bones. I get obvious benefits of stealth and hives, but would it kill /qst/ to go for more straightforward stuff such as bone morphing, like that one Naruto dude?

Sorry for ranting, it just seems like that's what most go for stealth or minions whem given option

>>3050534
I like this, we have a ton of options now plus being a walking hive/having drones is great.

Lets get the muscle one next so we can rip and tear while using drones to cut down their space.

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>>3050567
Is it my fault I like women with bone exoskeleton-armor?

>>3050534
>>3050567
I feel like melee puts us at unnecessary risk, given how the Biomass system seems to function; you're faster and deal more damage the lower your damage reduction and mana pools are. So you can either tank well, but deal no damage and eat a ton of hits while you kill enemies by attrition; hit hard and fast, but suffer massive damage the moment you fail to dodge; or run the middle ground but do nothing particularly well, and die to more optimized opponents.

In this system, ranged combat mitigates this by allowing us to offset our biomass into our minions, depriving us of the option to tank, but putting us at a distance and adding another layer of damage avoidance over our speed. Specifically having minions will likely offer us some deal of utility as well.

While we could optimize ourself towards dealing damage and our minions towards defense and support, I feel like we'd have more survivability doing the opposite - that is, dealing damage with our minions while we prioritize supporting them and keeping ourself alive.

>>3050723
You DO have a point, and I figure we could actually do that. That means we will have to form some sort of armor/exoskeleton on ourselves, possibly having more Biomass and making us heavier or bigger in order to produce more spawn and have higher defense for IF the enemy breaks through our minions.

However let us not go for the "Bloated Queen Ant" or such look. Let's store that biomass with a good aesthetic. A good way to store it would be to make a body shell, further providing more defense and arguably letting others be tricked into believing that is our body, while it is merely a shell we can escape.

Yes I know I'm describing Female Titan tricks. They are still viable. We need biomass, we need defense, we do need to be mobile at least to decent extent. But nothing says we can't have aesthetics

>>3050733
To be honest, I was simply thinking of using our swarm for excess biomass storage, re-consuming it whenever we need more biomass for ourself.

>>3050723
>>3050755
I think stacking defense and mass producing these drones could be a good goal but what kind of support would we be using?

>>3050787
That depends on how far reaching these changes and body horror can be, which is up to OP.

God I want this quest to continue

>>3050787
It depends on the upgrades that OP offers us. But given that Epidermal Rogue's description mentions that it can 'surprise and subvert your enemies', I expect we'll get the opportunity to gain some support-focused abilities, if we choose to go that route.

Of course, if you wanted more specific speculation on possible mutations we could use to support our minions, I was thinking that we might gain some adaptation that allows us to deliver debilitating or fatal toxins to enemies. The venom would either be delivered reactively on contact (I had in mind the cnidocyte cells that jellyfish use to sting victims, or a layer of secretions akin to a poison arrow frog) or, more preferably, projected offensively from a distance (possibly using a similar mechanism as the bombardier beetle).

For possibilities that are somewhat less grounded in nature, a similar method could be used to project pus that hardens gradually on contact with the air to trap and immobilize enemies. Or we could perhaps develop organs that produce pheromones or frequencies of sound that distract or disorient enemies - again, from a distance.

>>3050877
>frequencies of sound that distract or disorient enemies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__9gBFz0i9g

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Did our goddess Saya bestow this word with her song?

Arise from your grave, OP. We want this quest

>>3060602
Agreed

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Greetings, all! My apologies for the delay, despite my best efforts life conspired to keep me from my writings. I'll be resuming later today, so thank you for your patience.

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>>3063295

You find your footing, allowing your mind to drift back and reassess where your journey started for the first time since you woke up. You close your eyes, and remember...

"..ake up. Come on hone...we'd to w...up, now. I..eed you to..."

Your eyes snap open, the sound of your mother's promptings echoing in your ears, replaced now with a low thrum. Your back aches as crimson light filters through your dorm blinds, an aggressive dusk staining your room red as your sticky eyes strain to open and scan your surroundings.

This...this is wrong.

Your heart begins to hammer in your chest, your gaze snapping across the familiar surfaces of your room, now criss-crossed and latticed with motile flesh, pumping along in an erratic rhythm as you begin to struggle against your slick, taut restraints.

(Continue)

>>3063300
Your bonds begin to loosen on your limbs as you struggle to free yourself. You fling yourself off your bed as your back explodes with blinding pain, the scream that would come from your lips drowned out by a sudden flurry of wings and insectile buzzing. They're all over you, you're flailing to fight them off with atrophied limbs for countless minutes, until it dawns on you...they're cleaning you. Scurrying across the surface of your skin, the fist-sized wasps are meticulously clearing every strand of alien flesh from your emaciated form. You steady your breathing and let them, noticing their response to your thoughts, your will. This seems...right, somehow?

Your eyes finally adjust to the gloom as you look out your window and take in the state your campus has succumb to. The growths, they're everywhere. You're not sure how long it take for you to regain control of your legs from an unknown time of immobility, but it's sooner than you expected...much sooner, as you realize the ravenous hunger that wracked your stomach when you woke up has abated, as you note some substance has returned to your limbs ever since you made contact with the flesh-covered floor.

It takes some time getting used to walking again after god-knows how long in traction, but you need to know. You need to know how far this has spread, you need to go find...

...find?

A foreign idea, a craving, a hunger to...go somewhere? Find something? Climb?

Your head swims with confusion, even as the wingbeats of the twin swarmlings on your shoulder steating you as you walk, until...

You're snapped out of your reverie by sudden movement out of the corner of your eye, jarring you back to the present from the hazy depths of the recent past.

Your head snaps around, as you catch sight of a quick figure disappearing around the edge of a flesh-hill, some twenty yards behind you.

>>Pick up the pace, you need to get to the source of that smoke before it fades.

>>There is time enough to deal with whatever is following you...you could stand to feed again.

>> Attempt to ambush the creature thats clunsily pursuing you. (Roll 1d100.)

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

>>3063306
>Attempt to ambush the creature thats clunsily pursuing you. (Roll 1d100.)

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>>3063306
(Traveling now, voting will close in 30 minutes and writing will resume thereafter. Thanks for reading!)

Rolled 9 (1d100)

>>3063306
>> Attempt to ambush the creature thats clunsily pursuing you.

Rolled 84 (1d100)

>>3063306

Rolled 23 (1d100)

>>3063306
>Attempt to ambush the creature thats clunsily pursuing you. (Roll 1d100.)

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>>3063306
>>3063357
>>3063366
>>3063368

You slink around a nearby pile of debris, sending one of your Swarmlings to flank your stalker and possibly make some noise to distract it should the need arise.

You carefully creep around to where you last saw the being, selective about your footing on the intermittently slick and treacherous ground. Peering around the mound where the thing furtively scuttled, you find...

...a human?

She's a slim, petite thing, dark hair cut in a Bob and pracically vibrating in place. Her gaze twitches back and forth, nervous in her mannerisms but keeping her bespectacled attention focused around where she saw you last.

This is the first unaltered human you've seen since you've woken up, aside from...no. You need to focus on the present, and this indivdual may be the first person you've been able to interrogate...you need to choose your next steps carefully.

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

>>3063458
Surround her on all four sides by a swarmling, then approach her, but keep a safe distance.

Ask her what she is doing here and why she is stalking you, she is distracting you from important endevours.

>>3063458
>>3063494
support

>>3063458
>>3063494
>>3063518

BIO: 72% (4 Units Spawned)

You announce your presence with a low buzz, striding up behind your pursuer with measured, selected steps, keeping a fair distance between you both. The moment the buzzing starts, the figure jolts upright and, upon rapidly realizing she's surrounded, flops back down again. Slight tremors shudder through her slight frame as you size her up, your gaze finally meeting her large green eyes, flitting across your features as if trying to get a read on your intentions.

"I'm not keen on being followed," you begin, your voice coming out far rougher than you intended due to lack of use, "so explain to me why you're intent on doing this thing I don't like."

She's silent for a moment, eyes locked with yours, before she begins to speak, clearly restraining a cascade of words and thoughts barely held at bay.

"I...you're the first one of the people I've seen that isn't just crazy...or hungry, or angry. You seemed reasonable a-and I'm sorry I followed you I just wanted to make sure you weren't like those monsters or the other girls I've seen out here...you're the first one I've seen in weeks...months, maybe? I d-don't know how long I've been out here, I j-just woke up recently and everything was like t-this..and there were p-people like me, and like y-you."

As the words come tumbling out of her, you've taken notice of her legs; double-jointed things, coiled tight beneath her, reminiscent of a mammal build for sprinting away from predators...or towards prey. You hold up a hand to stop her from continuing on, and hazard a glance towards the smoke; it's still there though it's starting to fade, from either an westward march or the dying of a fire, you're not sure. In either case, you can't afford to waste time with this girl.

>>Take her with you in your westward journey. Having a companion may not be so bad, and depending on her form she may be useful.

>>Leave her to her own devices. You have your swarm and your gathering power, and it's gotten you this far.

>>c o n s u m e ?

>>Write-in

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

>>3063616
>Take her with you in your westward journey. Having a companion may not be so bad, and depending on her form she may be useful.
What could go wrong? Whatever it is, she's either not good at saying what she means, or at lying.

(Pausing here for a while, Gentlemen. I will await another response or two before proceeding.)

>>3063616
>Take her with you in your westward journey. Having a companion may not be so bad, and depending on her form she may be useful.

Also ask her what she can do.

>>3063616
>>Take her with you in your westward journey. Having a companion may not be so bad, and depending on her form she may be useful.

Worse case scenario we have a meal on the go

>>3063616
>>3063650
>>3064052
>>3064095

You finally break the silence with a sigh and a gesture as your four swarmlings return to your shoulders.

"You're welcome to come with me, Safety in numbers, and all that." She perks up at this. "Ground rules, though. Number one, you walk in front. Number two, I need to know what you can do. If you've seen other things like what I've fought, then you know if you make one wrong move then death comes quick. So, what can you do?"

She's on her feet faster than you would have expected, practically bouncing up and down as she answers.

"I can, I mean my muscles are all anaerobic and r-really efficient, so I can move really fast!"

You blink in dull surprise only to be faced instantly with her luminous green eyes staring back up at you. You start, feeling your swarmlings buzz aggressively in response to the sudden violation of personal space, though a half-second later the girl has pulled away, suddenly understanding the ramifications of her actions and turning somewhat sheepish.

"I...I'm sorry about that...I can't really control my movements since I woke up...I can do the macro, j-just not the micro so well anymore...I've just been running from the monsters, and...I didn't mean to...I'm sorry."

You relax, just a little, and set your sights back in the horizon. You notice the girl chewing her bottom lip with a slight overbite on her two front teeth.

"It's fine, just tell me before you close the gap like that. Hey kid, what do I call you?"

"I, uh...my screen name was Bunny, and that's what my friends called me...my name's Isabelle, but you can call me what you want, it's t-totally up to you."

She's already starting forward, obeying your instruction to keep a lead ahead of you before stopping and turning to you with a nervous look.

"So, um...what do you want me to call you Ma'am? If that's okay to ask?"

You open your mouth, then close it lamely. You...you're having trouble remembering. You're trying to recall a simple, routine thing, but your mind is spinning its wheels. You remember your mother calling out to you, but all you can summon up is when she's called you 'honey' or 'sweetie'...you went by 'Shu' with your friends after that one incident, but your actual name...you just can't seem to recall.

What the hell?

>>What do you call the girl?

>>What do you call yourself?

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

>>3064174
(Trip fell off, sorry.)

>>3064174
>Bunny
>Shu

>>3064174
>>3064251
Sure, it's as good as anything else.

I guess we didn't manage to salvage any ID or cards from our dorm that would give us some way of figuring out our past identity.

>>3064174
>Bunny
>Lucille

>>3048590
Swarmling.

>>3064174
"Rabbit will do. You can call me Shu or Vespa. I don't mind. You mentioned you found others...Where? Are they nearby? Are they worn out? I need more biomass."

Ask her if she can only effect her legs or if she's tried to use it on her arms and legs. Also, see if we can find a reflective surface to find out what we look like or ask her what our appearance is like now.

I'd suggest we reconsume one of our swarmlings. Keep two with us on guard watching her and have the third fly above us to scout out while she tells us what if she's noticed anything interesting nearby.

>>3064174
>>3064251
>>3064316

"...um, if you don't want to talk, that's okay t..."

"Shu." You say cutting her off, "You can use that, if you want."

She's suddenly beaming at you, flashing a cheeky smile with what feels like too many teeth and a jerky, too-quick salute.

You give a half-hearted salute back before starting your questions.

"You mentioned others like me. Are you talking about the Amalgams or people like you and me?"

Her hand flies to her mouth, giving her fingernails a tentative chew.

"Mostly the A-Amalgams, but a couple like us. None like you, though. You're...quieter than most, more, um..."

"The others like me and you, are any wounded? Do you think they could be close?"

The thinks for a moment before shaking her head in the negative.

"Mmm, I don't think so. They all seemed to be heading west...the g-girls, I mean. They were really thorough though, and didn't leave anything behind after they...finished."

West.

"Okay. Thank you, Isa...Bunny. Thank you. Alright, west it is. Lead the way, kiddo."

With a wink and another wide smile, she spins around and bounds off in the direction of the smoke and haze.

(Continued)

>>3064525
She keeps a healthy distance ahead of you, stopping every once in a while to let you catch up and check on you. She adheres to your agreement, and eventually you two find yourselves staring from a safe distance at some sort of ramshackle encampment, surrounded with a series of high, successive fences, the only entrance flanked by six individuals in bright white hazmat suits, all boasting what look like flamethrowers strapped to their backs. The ground several dozen yards around the compound has been scorched clean of the encroaching flesh, leaving little to no cover between your hiding place and the perimeter.

You and Bunny crouch down behind the last ruined wall of a building a short ways from the entrance. You turn to Bunny, her wide eyes looking up at yours.

"Hey. Your powers, is it just in your legs?"

"Nope!" she says beaming up at you as she wiggles her fingers rapidly "Its pretty much everything I use to move, all my limbs and digits! What about your bugs?"

She tentatively reaches out to you back before snapping her had back to her side.

"I can scout with them, yeah. I have to use one of my eyes and give it to them, so I prefer not to."

With a thought, you summon two of your swarmlings back to you, keeping the other two close at hand.

(BIO:78%)

"Okay Miss Shu...what do we do?"

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

>>3064587
Circle around the compound and see if there's any other ways inside. See if we can observe what's going on within.

>>3064587
>>3064626
This. Also, use your swarm. Give them an eye if you have to; a little discomfort is worth being forewarned of a fatal encounter.

>>3064626
Yeah ill support this.

>>3064587
>>3064626
>>3064650
Supporting these.

>>3064587
>>3064626
>>3064650
>>3064651

"Circle the compound as fast as you can, see if there are any other ways to get inside. I'll have one of my hive in the air to see what's going on inside. Sound good?"

Bunny gives you another smile and nod before she's dashing off between the skin-covered columns and debris that haven't been scorched or purged from the dead zone surrounding the encampment.

For only the third time since you discovered you could do this, you gingerly slide your fingers into your socket. Your vision swims nauseatingly before you give a firm tug and your eye explodes with pain. Grimacing, you command one of your brood to the palm of your hand, where the bony
carapace underneath its body cracks and slides back, forming a substitute socket that you 'plug' your eye into. Your vision returns with two vastly different images, with one line of sight fixed on your swarmling and the other returning images of your palm. A silent command sends your creation buzzing upwards, well above the encampment.

The pain in your empty socket recedes as you heal, though the dull throb proves somewhat distracting. You're having to dip lower in the sky than you'd like to get a decent view of the goings-on of the compound, since many of what you assume to be streets and alleys are covered with burnt or rusted metal sheets with few clear lines of sight available from above.

A sound of small feet approaching at a rapid pace announces Bunny's arrival, and as your turn to see her your stomach turns from the perspective shift, though she seems more fascinated than repulsed by the hold in your head.

"What did you find?"

"Um, so there's only the one main entrance that we can see from here, b-but there's a little observatory thing at one edge of the place that kinda sticks out further up than the rest of the buildings. It doesn't have any windows on the ground level and neither do the adjacent buildings, so I guess it's like a lab, or church or something? So, uh...is your eye, like...can you s..."

Your cut her off.

"Having trouble seeing much of anything, they've covered a lot of the space between the buildings with random junk. I'm wondering why they would cut off visibility like that, unless they expected to FUCK ITS A GODDAMN BIRD"

You see Bunny recoil from you as your other line of sight goes wild, the swarmling clutched by something that blurs your vision with a flurry of feathers and claws. Too many claws, too few feathers. Bunny rushes to your side as you struggle to make sense of what you're seeing on the other end of your kidnapped eye.

(Continued)

>>3064721

In the chaos of movement you're not sure where your spawn ends and the aggressor begins, but after a few stomach-turning seconds you vision is righted once more as your eye adjusts from dull light to a darkened space. Slowly, movement of a humanoid form takes shape, ad the backdrop of a large room begins to come into view. A large telescope set on a dais is at the center of the room, and every spare surface is occupied by either a book or a flayed-open creature of some kind, though none of the subjects of this carnival of vivisection appear to be humanoid, from what you can see.

Having finished securing your swarmling to another table, your view shifts and you can see you aggressor in full, along with its master.

She's a tall, full woman with long dirty-blonde hair framing a plain, endearing face. A worn lab coat is worn loosely over what appears to be a simple set of surgical scubs caked with unknown substances. Some sort of reptilian creature with unkempt feathers haphazardly tries unsuccessfully to find comfortable perch on the viewing lens of the telescope, an effort hindered by three mis-matched legs.

You're distracted from this sight by the woman attempting to say something to you, then reaching out with red, skinless hands crisscrossed with a network of bright purple strands. She manhandles your swarmling for a bit, then appears to laugh before turning to a nearby notepad and scribbling something, which takes far longer than you have patience for.

She turns it towards you and you begin to read.

"Good Interminable Time of Day to You, Sir, Madame, or Amalgam. My name is Doctor Francine West, owner and mistress of this fine laboratory. I would very much like to meet you face to face and return your eye to you if you find yourself in good health and sanity. If you do not then my sincerest apologies for your current state of mind, but we may have a lovely time all the same. I shall be at the front gate shortly.

Best Regards,

Doctor West."

You're...not sure how to process this as you relay the information to Bunny, and you both sit in silence for a moment.

"Doctor West..." Bunny starts, chewing on her fingers in thought, "...she didn't say anything about me. I don't think she or the guards saw me. What do you want me to do? You're not going to go in there, are you? Couldn't you just re-grow your eye, Shu?

You could, and it would take a negligible amount of biomass to do so, but it's the principle of the thing, damn it. You try and shake of the irrational anger to better plan your next move.

>>Write-In

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

>>3064779
(I have to turn in tonight Gentlemen, but thank you for your participation. If there is anything I can do to enhance your enjoyment of the quest please let me know, and I will endeavor to return two days from now to continue where we left off. Cheers!)

>>3064779
Can we control the swarmling remotely? If so, have it attempt to form fingers and write out a response of "We can speak fine like this."

>>3064779
Have bunny wait back and look for a way to climb or sneak in, that way if things go south she can rescue you. Otherwise go meet the woman, but be cautious about it.

>>3064783
Nothing much but a suggestion to make a new thread next time, this one could easily be too far down to get any new attention if its even still here, given its on page 8.
Liking the quest so far though!

>>3064843
(You absolutely could.)
>>3064893
(Thank you for reading! I'll archive this thread shortly and probably start a new thread tomorrow to pick up where I left off. I'll post on the QTG to announce the starting time.)

>>3065808
Can we puppet it to inform her that we're intelligent and she can just tell us what she needs to through the swarmling?

>>3065862
(You certainly can if you like.Your focus on an individual swarmling can fine-tune it's motions, and you can detach your control from it at any time to render it back to basic biomass.)

>>3065969
Voting for bringing the other swarmlings to rest on our shoulders and have the one she's captured tell her

>We can speak like this.
>What is this place?
>Why did you want to meet?

Hello, all.Thank you for reading, the second thread is now active! Level ups and possible lore incoming.
>>3068908